New Release: Kyland (A Sign of Love series) Audiobook by Mia Sheridan (+ Listen to a Clip from the Audiobook here!)

July is finally here and I have the latest update from my favorite author of all time, Mia Sheridan!

Mia Sheridan is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestselling author of A Sign of Love series including Leo, Leo's Chance, Stinger, Becoming Calder, Finding Eden, Archer's Voice, and the latest book of the series, Kyland! Each book in this series topped the list of my best favorite ever after romance book of all time. 

Kyland was released on January, 24th this year. I loved this book so much and as always Mia didn't disappoint with her ability to write amazing romance book! And.... the big news is, the audiobook version of Kyland will be released very soon this July, 7! 
Make sure you pre-order and mark your calendar to listen to the audiobook on release day. If you haven't read this book, here some things to convince you to pick this book up for your next reading list!

KYLAND (A Sign of Love Novel)

Author: Mia Sheridan

Publication Date: January 24th 2015 (Audiobook July 7th 2015)

Genre: Contemporary romance (New Adult)

Series: Standalone (belong to A Sign of Love series, inspired by sign Taurus) 

Age recommendation: 18+ (Due to strong language and sexual content)

ADD TO GOODREADS | AMAZON | AUDIBLE

Synopsis (Goodreads):

Dirt poor. Hillbilly. Backwoods hick. Mountain folk. 

Tenleigh Falyn struggles each day to survive in a small, poverty-stricken, coal mining town where she lives with her sister and mentally ill mother. Her dream of winning the college scholarship given to one student by the local coal company and escaping the harshness of her life, keeps her going.

Kyland Barrett lives in the hills, too, and has worked tirelessly—through near starvation, through deep loneliness, against all odds—to win the Tyton Coal Scholarship and leave the town that is full of so much pain.

They're both determined not to form any attachments, but one moment changes everything. What happens when only one person gets to win? When only one person gets to leave? And what happens to the one left behind?

Kyland is a story of desperation and hope, loss and sacrifice, pain and forgiveness, but ultimately, a story of deep and unending love.

My Review (Snippet):

"Kyland’s story is not just simply another new adult read to enjoy. It’s not just simply romance. It’s realistic romance. Slice of life. Lessons of life. The story contains everything we see in our real life. How poverty made people depressed. How rural people had stronger connection by heart than those who’s living in big city. How passion and strong good-will would make one’s future life completely different. How true love should have worked between two people. How misery, just how worst it was, would never overpower us forever. I would likely recommend this book to people on motivational group. This book talked a lot more than those speeches that sometimes people find boring. And this one effectively kicked right to my heart. Mia did an awesome job there building the characters, plotting the scenes, putting life lessons, hiding mind-blowing secrets under layers, making us cry…"

Read my full review of Kyland (including my personalize long synopsis) here!
And now, to add more curiosity on your plate, I have a teaser clip from the audiobook for you to listen (click the title Kyland to listen)!

KYLAND

(soundcloud)

*please note that I was contacted by Audible.com via email to receive an access to this clip of Kyland audiobook for publication purpose only*

Written by: Mia Sheridan

Narrated by: Stephen Dexter, Erin Mallon
Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release Date: 07-07-15
Price: $24.95
Publisher: Audible Studios

Love, read, and review,

Cynthia D.

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Release Day: The Ugly Stepsister by Aya Ling (+ Excerpt & Giveaway)

  

One of my favorite YA reads is released today!

As you can see I already posted a pre-release review of the ARC copy of The Ugly Stepsister yesterday and it earned 4.5 stars from me! You can check my review here and below I got an excerpt and a little bit trivia about author's inspiration to write this book. Enjoy!

Publication date: June 12th, 2015

Genre: YA fantasy/fairytale retelling

BLURB:

When Kat accidentally rips apart an old picture book, she's magically transported into the world of Cinderella--as Katriona, one of the ugly stepsisters! Life turns upside down now that she’s a highborn lady and must learn how to survive the social season, including how to get through the door in a huge metal hoop skirt. To get back, she'll have to complete the story, right to the end of happily ever after. But the odds are huge: the other stepsister is drop-dead gorgeous, the fairy godmother is nowhere to be found, and the prince, despite being insanely hot, openly dislikes balls. Can she ever return to the modern world?

Buy links: Amazon ~ Amazon UK ~ Apple ~ B&N ~ Kobo

HOW THE BOOK CAME TO BE:

Some readers liked the idea of Kat entering the fairy tale by ripping apart the book. Well, here’s the actual book that inspired the concept. You can see that the cover has completely fallen off:

*note: this book is at least 20 years old! I’m so glad I was too sentimental to toss it away, or I might not have come up with the idea!

EXCERPT:

“Girlie, wake up.”

I open my eyes again. This time it’s dark, but from the moonlight streaming through the window, I sense that I’m still in this strange historic-setting room. The candelabra next to my bed has been snuffed out. The fire in the hearth has gone out, but the embers are still glowing.

Then I discover something more shocking than the weird room I’m in.

A semi-transparent being is hovering in thin air, right above the bed. It’s quite ugly—its eyes and nose look squashed together, and it has a stumpy body with arms and legs that look alarmingly short in proportion to the torso.

I am so shocked that I just stare with my mouth wide open. Is that ghost going to eat me up?

“Awake now, are we?” the ghost speaks. His voice is kind of high-pitched with a note of playfulness in it.

Oh no, not again. I pinch my arm again, really hard this time, and yelp in pain. My fingernails have drawn blood.

The ghost starts to laugh. “Two hundred years later and humans are still as dumb as before.”

I am beginning to feel crazy. Here I am in a strange room, with an ugly ghost, and no matter what I do I can’t wake up.

Maybe I’m dead. Maybe when I fell down the stairs I got hit with something really sharp and bled to death. Ouch. I feel over my head, but it seems all I’ve got is a sore spot that feels more like a bruise than a gaping wound. Besides, this room seems a far cry from hell.

“Hey you,” I call to the ghost. “I’m dead, aren’t I? Is this a place I go to before I go to heaven?”

The ghost throws his head back and laughs—a high, raucous sound. I’m surprised that no one hears him—either they can’t hear him or are too deeply asleep. “She thinks this is heaven! Wait till I tell His Majesty…”

What the hell is going on? “Aren’t you a ghost?”

That only makes him laugh harder. He clutches his sides, wheezing, like I’m the greatest comedian in the world.

“You…thick-headed, pea-brained human,” he gasps, wiping his eyes. “Haven’t you seen this room before?”

“In the downtown museum?”

“No, silly, a book.”

Moonlight streams in through the window. Several framed paintings hang on the walls—the biggest one depicts a beautiful garden. The scene does seem familiar; all it lacks is a maid kneeling in front of the fireplace.

“Cinderella?” I gasp. This is the room that’s illustrated on the first page. “Why am I seeing it in a dream?”

“She still thinks it’s a dream…” the ghost mutters, shaking his head. “Look, don’t you remember what happened to the book?”

I rub my temples. “It…fell apart?”

He nods. “When you ripped up the book our king created, a curse is triggered for tampering with his magic. So as punishment, you’re transported into the story itself.”

“Your king?” This is getting simply ridiculous. “Who is this king, and who are you?”

The ghost settles on the foot of my bed. “Might as well tell you or you’ll never get it—I’m Krev. I’m in service of His Majesty Barthelius, the Goblin King.”

“Goblins?” I fall back on the pillow, narrowing missing the headboard. “Please tell me I’m hallucinating, or I got a concussion.”

“We’re from another dimension, but our king has always been interested in human stories. That’s why he created his own books hundreds of years ago. He left a few copies in your world, but never expected that they’d disintegrate.”

“Oh god,” I sink down further into the blankets. There has to be some mistake.

“You’ll find out soon enough. Or you can just go back to pinching your arm.” He rises in the air—now I notice he has a pair of tiny wings. “Bye.”

“Hang on,” I blurt, and sit up. “Okay, suppose I believe you. How am I going to get back?”

Krev grins, showing a row of pointy teeth. “Now you’re listening. All you have to do is put the story back together again.”

“Huh?”

“Finish the story to the very end, where they live happily-ever-after.”

Damn. I’m in a role-playing game. Not that I’ve played any, but it just seems that way to me.

Speaking of role-playing…

“That woman Martha called me Katriona. She said I lost my memory, so I’m not a newcomer in this world. So who am I?”

His bulging, toad-like eyes gleam. “Guess.”

I scowl at him. Well, obviously I’m not Cinderella, given the silken nightdress I’m wearing. And obviously I’m not the evil stepmother either. In the mirror I look just as I am, not some middle-aged woman.

“Am I one of the ugly stepsisters?”

His grin grows wider.

Damn. “If I have to be in the story, why aren’t I Cinderella?”

The goblin suddenly goes off in a peal of laughter. “Cinderella! She thinks she’s pretty enough to be Cinderella!” And he rolls over and over in the air until I feel dizzy and embarrassed. “Don’t you know how the spell works? You assume the role of the person you resemble most.”

Yeah, thanks for pointing out the impossibility of me being the protagonist. I suppose if Paige is the one who dropped the book, she’d become Cinderella.

And even though I still find the whole thing ridiculous, I’m kind of intrigued as well.

“So all I have to do is get Cinderella to the ball, the prince falls in love with her, and then the curse is broken and I can return?”

He waggles a crooked finger at me.

“Not yet. You can’t stop at the ball, when she runs out and leaves her slipper behind. You must follow it all the way to the end. The story is only finished when they’re married with wedding bells pealing and white doves soaring.”

Whoa.

“So when is the ball?”

“No idea.”

“Where’s the fairy godmother?”

“No idea.”

I drop my jaw. “Hello? Are you telling me that I have to find everything on my own while you just hover there and do nothing?”

He shrugs. “That’s because you ripped everything off except the first page. The curse starts where you leave off.”

“And if I do nothing? What if the prince won’t hold the ball? What if I can’t find the godmother?”

Krev lets out an evil chuckle. I have an ominous feeling of impending doom.

“Then you will remain in this book. Forever.”

*read more excerpts on Aya’s website: http://www.ayaling.com/the-ugly-stepsister.html

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aya is from Taiwan, where she struggles daily to contain her obsession with mouthwatering and unhealthy foods. Often she will devour a good book instead. Her favorite books include martial arts romances, fairy tale retellings, high fantasy, cozy mysteries, and manga.

Connect with Aya: Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter

GIVEAWAY:

To celebrate the release, Aya is also offering a giveaway in which THREE winners can:

          1. Get a paperback copy of The Ugly Stepsister OR any book Aya has on paperback (open internationally!)

          2. Get to name a minor character in the “sequel” novella (will probably be Edward’s niece and nephews)

Here's what you can do to enter the giveaway:

          1. Click HERE to share the book release on Facebook

          2. Click HERE to share the book release on Twitter

          3. Share the book release on your blog. Click HERE for an easy copy-paste media kit that you can adapt however you like. For example, if you have already posted a review on your blog, you can add my author bio, excerpt, giveaway info, etc. Please fill in the link of your post as well, so I won't miss a single entry.

*If you do everything above, you’ll get three entries and have a greater chance to win!

The giveaway ends on June 20. Winners will be announced on June 21.

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