Deity by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Blog Tour + Giveaway)

Release Date: November 6, 2012
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Pages: 360
Series: Covenant #3
Review Source: ARC for review from publisher

Synopsis: (from Goodreads)
"History is on repeat, and things didn't go so well the last time. "

Alexandria isn't sure she's going to make it to her eighteenth birthday--to her Awakening. A long-forgotten, fanatical order is out to kill her, and if the Council ever discovers what she did in the Catskills, she's a goner... and so is Aiden.

If that's not freaky enough, whenever Alex and Seth spend time "training"--which really is just Seth's code word for some up-close and personal one-on-one time--she ends up with another mark of the Apollyon, which brings her one step closer to Awakening ahead of schedule. Awesome.

But as her birthday draws near, her entire world shatters with a startling revelation and she's caught between love and Fate. One will do anything to protect her. One has been lying to her since the beginning. Once the gods have revealed themselves, unleashing their wrath, lives will be irrevocably changed... and destroyed.

Those left standing will discover if love is truly greater than Fate...

My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed ‘Half-Blood’, and I liked ‘Pure’, but ‘Deity’? Let’s just say that this book brings back the awesomeness of book 1 and kicks it up a notch. The book starts off with repercussions of what happened at the New York Covenant in ‘Pure’. And as if Alex doesn’t have enough on her plate with her Awakening quickly approaching, she also has to deal with both those who want to harm her, and with the two guys she has a connection with.

One reason why these books are so great is the characters. Alex is a great narrator because she’s just hilarious. She’s also reckless and self-sacrificial, but you can’t help but like her, especially because she has a good heart and wants to fight for what is right. And the two guys? Well, I definitely have a preference between the two, but they are both really interesting and well developed.

I feel like this book upped the ante in almost every way. I absolutely adored the romance that happened later in the book and there was also so much going on, including some jaw dropping action moments. Without getting too spoilery I thought it was an amazing decision to bring the gods into play. We’ve heard so much about them in the series, that having them more present raised the stakes even more.

I have to say that I’m really intrigued by the mythology and complex politics of these books. Seeing where everything is headed, my head was spinning trying to figure out how there could possibly be an eventual HEA. ‘Deity’ features an ending that will leave you absolutely dying for the next full length Covenant book. The Covenant books have always been fun, but ‘Deity’ is the best installment yet. This is a must-read series for fans of mythology based books.

The Cover:
Definitely not my favourite of the series, but I do love the colouring.

Rating:
[4.5/5]

Find Deity by Jennifer L. Armentrout on Goodreads, Book Depository, & Amazon.

Check out Jennifer on the following sites:

- Facebook

- Twitter

- Official Website

GIVEAWAY

Spencer Hill is running a giveaway as part of the tour, and there will be three winners. You could win: a $25 Amazon giftcard, a copy of the book, a shirt, and lots of SWAG. Open internationally. See widget for full details.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

There are also swag giveaways going on for promoting the tour:

US Only --
a Rafflecopter giveaway

International --
a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can find the whole blog tour schedule HERE.

Halifax Haunted Halloween Tour: Guest Post

The Differences Between Writing a
Movie Script and a Novel

by Leigh Dunlap

I originally wrote “Halifax” as a screenplay. Writing in that format is something I understand. I guess you could say it’s my native tongue. When I sat down to convert the script into a book, however, I discovered I had to go back to my high school self, telling stories that used actual quotation marks and verbs. So much about writing scripts is telling a story with extreme brevity. You have a few lines to describe a character or a location or action and you’re doing it with the knowledge that a team of hundreds of people is going to take your map and go on a journey, joining together to bring your story to life. They all have ideas of their own and their own particular skills that help tell that story. The costume designer has an idea of how a character should dress and an actor has his or her own take on how a character should walk and talk.

Whether on screen or on the page, you are trying to say the same thing, just in two different ways. For instance, below are descriptions of the lead character in “Halifax”. First from the script:

FARRELL HALIFAX comes running around a corner and stops in the middle of the street, out of breath. He is sixteen and handsome --- in a slightly goofy way. He falls somewhere between Peter Parker and Spiderman on the confidence scale.

When they are casting a movie I’ve written I want to make sure I’ve opened a character up to as many choices of actors as possible. I don’t want him to have red hair and freckles and one arm shorter than the other unless it’s integral to the story. I hope to put in just enough to give a director and an actor an idea of what the character is like without stifling their creativity.

In “Halifax” the book, this is how I described the same character:

Farrell. It was a good name. A name someone would remember, but not necessarily remember for any particular reason. Farrell, the sixteen-year-old boy bearing that name, was much the same. Although a good-looking young man, you wouldn’t remember him for it. His light and floppy hair was too long to be preppy, but too short to be cool. His voice was pleasant enough. Steady. Neither slight nor deep with no specific accent. He was neither short nor tall. Not fat. Not slim. Farrell was very...medium. He could be the captain of the soccer team or the president of the chess club. It all depended on just how memorable he wanted to be.

I pretty much said the same thing but hopefully in a more complete and satisfying way. In the end, I believe a movie is a story told by the hundreds of people who work on it. A book is a story told by two people --- the author and the reader, both using their imaginations.

Leigh Dunlap is the screenwriter behind the hit movie "A Cinderella Story" starring Hilary Duff. She also wrote "Spy Girls", based on the popular teen book series, for producer Lawrence Bender (Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting) and "Camp Rockaway" for Sony Pictures and producers Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher (Gladiator, Stuart Little). Her project "16-Love" starring Lindsey Shaw and Chandler Massey, recently finished principal photography. "Halifax" is Leigh's first novel and combines two of her favorite things to write about --- Science Fiction and Romance. Leigh is a graduate of the USC School of Cinema-Television and lives in London, when she can, with her husband and son.

Be sure to visit Leigh's website & add 'Halifax' on Goodreads.

When the Halifax siblings arrive at Lexham Academy, they don't seem any more or less odd than any other students. They have more important things to do, however, than take exams or find dates for the prom. They have aliens to kill. With the help of his sister Izzy and brother Rom, Farrell Halifax has to stop an escaped alien and save the Earth --- though that's hard to do when the captain of the basketball team is after you and you're falling in love with his cheerleader girlfriend --- who may or may not be an alien herself. Halifax is a teen Torchwood meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer --- with a little bit of The Breakfast Club thrown into the mix.

I love that distinction between how many different authors that each art form has, but also including the fact that readers do very much have a voice in how a book is read and interpreted. I definitely agree with this model of reading. I like how both versions do say the same thing, just one of them is more detailed. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Leigh!

Catherine Stine on Reinventing YA Sci-Fi

I'm pleased to have author Catherine Stine here today on Book Labyrinth to share her thoughts about the YA Sci-fi genre.

YA Sci-Fi, Reinventing the Genre

By Catherine Stine

Everyone loves to imagine worlds! Take, for instance, the magical Oz with its flying monkeys and glitzy Emerald City, or a sci-fi where people travel through time and space as in Cloud Atlas. We love to frighten ourselves with imagining the dangerous terrains of The Hunger Games and Divergent, where one must pledge an allegiance to a faction that excludes one’s own family. But what is science fiction, and how does it differ from fantasy? It’s defined as writing rationally about an imagined future that could be—our imagined hopes and fears. Fantasy deals with magical elements, such as demons and spells, and paranormal is a genre within fantasy, although paranormal abilities can also be part of a plausible sci-fi narrative.

From the classics Frank Herbert’s Dune and Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End, to D. Gill’s, Black Hole Sun, a young adult novel set on Mars, science fiction is alive and kicking.

In YA science fiction, a few years ago this wasn’t the case. Why? Because high fantasy and paranormal were all the rage, so editors were nervous about sales for sci-fi. This was partly because classic sci-fi was gadget-heavy, as in Star Wars and no one really realized that the rules could change! Plus, editors were worried that most, but not all YA readers were teen girls, and weren’t sure that they would want their sci-fi. Boy, were they wrong! It just took time, and time for YA authors to reinvent the genre. Teen readers demand adventure, romance, meaty ideas to chew on, and a coming-of-age element.

Now, happily, the YA sci-fi stampede has arrived! Sci-fi for teens is comprised of many blends: from Rossi’s romantic Under the Never Sky, to Ryan’s space opera, The Sky Chasers, to the bio-tech of Pearson’s The Adoration of Jenna Fox. The permutations are endless! Check out Margo Berendsen’s YA sci-fi survey below.

In my YA sci-fi, Fireseed One, I combine post-apocalyptic elements of a likely future earth in 2089, with lots of inventive touches that lighten the load, such as hybrid plants that grow fish up on vines, and simulation rides that replicate the glaciers and ice shards of days gone by. Oh, and lots of fiery romance in a literal, burning Hotzone! I’m working on book two now, called Scarlet’s Fire, where the adventure will continue into themes of hybridization and recognizing who one is after a world of change. (2013 spring release).

It’s a great time to be writing YA sci-fi, and I look forward to lots of new creations!

Thanks, Book Labyrinth, for inviting me to guest post.
-- Catherine Stine

Where to find Fireseed One: on Amazon, B&N, & Goodreads
Catherine on the web: her blog Idea City, Goodreads, Facebook, & website
Margo Berendsen’s “Sci-Fi survey” for all of the subgenres here.

What if Only Your Worst Enemy Could Help You Save the World?

Fireseed One, a YA futuristic thriller, is set on earth in 2089 where people ride tricked-out amphibious vehicles over toxic waters, dance in ice-themed clubs and eat fish that grow up on vines in floating warehouses. Varik Teitur inherits a vast sea farm after the mysterious drowning of his marine biologist father.

When Marisa Baron, a beautiful and shrewd terrorist, who knows way, way too much about Varik's father's work, tries to steal seed disks from the world's food bank, Varik is forced to put his dreams of becoming a doctor on hold and venture with her, into a hot zone teeming with treacherous nomads and a Fireseed cult who worships his dead father, in order to search for a magical hybrid plant that may not even exist. Illustrated by the author! Recommended for those who like a dash of romance with their thrillers.

Here is an interior illustration which Catherine drew for the book: 

Thanks so much for stopping by, Catherine! I love how excited you are about the genre, and I'm glad to see that it's flourishing.