Perfectly Messy by Lizzy Charles Blog Tour

Perfectly Messy

by Lizzy Charles

Release Date: May 2014

Popularity isn't everything it's cracked up to be. Justin Marshall knows this better than most. For the captain of the basketball team, small business owner, and son of Minnesota's next governor, life can get pretty overwhelming. But Justin can handle anything as long as he has Lucy, the girl who fell for the man he’s trying to be.

But for Justin and Lucy, finding time together proves challenging. Stolen kisses and whispered promises just aren't enough. That is, until scandalous photos of the couple are leaked to a press intent on creating a juicy scandal during Justin's dad's gubernatorial campaign. And when Lucy becomes fair play for the tabloids and gossip pages, Justin does the only thing he can to protect her: he breaks her heart.

For Lucy, junior year is everything she hoped it would be: new friends, second chances, and a boyfriend she can’t stop kissing. That is, until the boy she’s pretty sure she loves chooses the life his family wants for him, over her.

Now it’s up to Lucy to teach him what it really means to have everything. Because for Justin, being who everyone needs him to be just might cost him the one person he can’t live without.

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Top Five Kissing Scenes

Hi everyone! I'm so excited to be on the blog today to celebrate the release of my second novel, Perfectly Messy!

One of my favorite parts about writing young adult romance is when I finally get the chance to write the big kissing scene. You know, that one kiss that makes everything feel right in the world? Yeah. That one.

Well, whenever I’m about to write that scene, I do some research. I make sure I watch at least one of the following scenes to get my heart in the right place before I make my main characters lip lock.

Here are my top five favorite kissing scenes!

5.- Romeo and Juliet, the Leonardo DeCaprio and Claire Danes Kiss. It’s so sweet. So filled with life and energy. That kiss makes me feel like anything is possible!

4.- The Pride and Prejudice hand kiss. It’s amazing how such a small gesture can signify so much. I never want to forget as a writer how important a kiss to the hand can really be. That look in Mr. Darcy’s eye … Oh man. Every girl deserves a man to look at her that way!

3.- The kiss at the end of Pitch Perfect. I love this kiss. It’s sweet, funny, and full of “I’m sorry, you were right. I was an idiot.” Pretty much an essential type of kiss to have in a YA romance book.

2.- When Katniss finally listens to her heart in Catching Fire. She goes all out and kisses Peeta like the boy deserves! I love this kiss. It’s powerful. It’s filled with hunger for love and time. It’s fantastic!

1.- The Intense Notebook Kiss. Oh man. This kiss always makes my heart kick into gear. This is the kiss that inspired the big kiss in Perfectly Messy. I’m certain you’ll be able to figure out what kiss I’m talking about (there are many!) once you’ve read the story.

Thanks so much for having me on the blog!

Interested in Lizzy Charles' novels Effortless With You and Perfectly Messy? They are available on Amazon, Nook, iBooks, and most ebook readers. Prefer a book you can actually hold in your hand and smell? Both novels are available in print via Amazon and available to order through many local bookstores if you ask. :) 

Lizzy Charles lives in the Twin Cities and is a graduate of the University of Minnesota. When she isn’t raising her three children or caring for premature and sick babies as a neonatal intensive care nurse, she’s seeking refuge with her laptop, sparkling water, and dark chocolate. She married her high school sweetheart, a swoon-worthy musician, so it’s no surprise she’s fallen in love with writing contemporary YA romance novels. Twitter: @LizzyCharles_ Facebook: Lizzy Charles Fan Page Website: LizzyCharles.com  

PUBLISHER LINKS

www.myswoonromance.com

@swoonromance

Facebook.com/SwoonRomance

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LOVE, LUCY Book Blast

I am so excited to be able to help spread the word that LOVE, LUCY by April Lindner is now available to pre-order at Amazon and The Book Depository. LOVE, LUCY releases in January 2015, but until then I am thrilled to share an awesome guest post from Lucy Sommersworth on the Top Ten Things she loves about Italy. It sounds like she had an amazing time and I can’t wait to hear all about it in January.

If you haven’t yet heard about this amazing-sounding book, there’s some information and places to find it online below. And if you haven’t yet met April Lindner, her details are also below.

This blast also includes a giveaway for an Amazon eGiftcard, so if you’d like a chance to win, enter in the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.

About LOVE, LUCY

Title: LOVE, LUCY
Author: April Lindner
Publisher: Poppy
Release date: January 27, 2015

Available to pre-order now at Amazon and The Book Depository

Description:

While backpacking through Florence, Italy, during the summer before she heads off to college, 17-year-old Lucy Sommersworth finds herself falling in love with the culture, the architecture, the food...and Jesse Palladino, a handsome street musician. After a whirlwind romance, Lucy returns home, determined to move on from her "vacation flirtation." But just because summer is over doesn't mean Lucy and Jesse are over, too.

GOODREADS | AMAZON | THE BOOK DEPOSITORY

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The Guest Post

The Top Ten Things I Love About Italy

By Lucy Sommersworth

10. Train stations. They make my heart beat a little bit faster. I especially love the departure signs lit up with the names of exotic cities. They make me want to pick a destination at random—Venice or Milan or Naples, basically any place I’ve never been before—and just jump on, trusting that some kind of wonderful adventure will be waiting for me when I hop off. I would do it too except for the fact that Charlene, the friend I’m traveling with, likes schedules and order. I could never talk her into doing something that reckless.

9. The language. Italian is so lush and musical. Not that I can speak it, exactly. I took Italian in high school, and I can remember just enough to say basic things like excuse me and I would like the Spaghetti Bolognese, please. But even just reading the street signs out loud makes me feel like a different version of myself—more worldly and glamorous. And even the most ordinary words, the ones that mean ATM or supermarket—sound glorious in Italian.

8. Italian men. What can I say? I’ve always had a thing for dark brown eyes.

7. Window shopping. I could do it all day long. Window displays are different in Italy, quirkier and more colorful. I especially love the sparkling little jewelry stores on the Ponte Vecchio, the funky clothing store displays, and store windows full of colorful, exotic treats—marzipan fruit, and candied rose and violet petals.

6. Sidewalk cafes. Nobody minds if you linger forever over a single cappuccino, just soaking in the atmosphere and watching the people pass by.

5. Gelato. After a few hours, walking around Florence can make a person exhausted. Luckily, wherever you turn, there’s a glass storefront gleaming with refreshing gelato—a miniature rainbow-colored mountain range of it: raspberry, mango, lemon, dark chocolate, hazelnut, pistachio—and all of it amazing.

4. Street Performers. Though Charlene insists they’re just begging and we shouldn’t give them our money, I can’t help myself. I love them all: street musicians, the people who draw chalk masterpieces in the street, the folks who dress up as statues and pose for tourists. I’ve even got a soft spot for mimes!

3. Riding on a Vespa. Please don’t tell my mom, okay? She would have a panic attack if she knew.

2. Pretending I’m Audrey Hepburn. Roman Holiday is one of my all-time favorite movies, and the reason I wanted to go to Italy in the first place. Audrey Hepburn plays Princess Ann, who has grown deathly bored with having to give speeches and act stiff and regal. On a stop in Rome she runs away, and wanders through the city pretending to be a commoner. Of course she falls in love with Gregory Peck. Like her, he’s pretending, acting like a nice, ordinary guy who just wants to show her around Rome, when really he’s a reporter with ulterior motives. He recognizes her, and plans to write a tell-all story about her for his newspaper.

I won’t spoil the ending. I’ll just add that if you’re planning a trip to Rome, you need to see Roman Holiday first. And then, if you happen to meet a gorgeous, dark-eyed stranger, maybe you can get him take you on a Roman Holiday tour, and you can pretend to be Audrey Hepburn the way I did.

1. The amazing people I met along the way. Swapping stories with other backpackers about our travels and misadventures. Vacation flirtations with dark-eyed strangers. And, just maybe, experiencing a real summer romance.

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About April Lindner

April Lindner is the author of three novels: Catherine, a modernization of Wuthering Heights; Jane, an update of Jane Eyre; and Love, Lucy, due out in January, 2015. She also has published two poetry collections, Skin and This Bed Our Bodies Shaped. She plays acoustic guitar badly, sees more rock concerts than she’d care to admit, travels whenever she can, cooks Italian food, and lavishes attention on her pets—two Labrador retriever mixes and two excitable guinea pigs. A professor of English at Saint Joseph’s University, April lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons.

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The Giveaway

This blast includes a giveaway for a $15 Amazon eGiftcard to ONE winner.

++The giveaway is open to anyone who can accept Amazon eGiftcards from the U.S. store.

++The giveaway ends on May 26, 2014 at 11:59 p.m.


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Review - Here

Here
by Ella James

Here Trilogy #1
Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy - Paranormal, Science Fiction, Romance
Publisher: Barkley's Books
Release Date: Feb. 15, 2012
Edition: E-Book
Page Count: 210
Source: e-ARC via Mark My Words Book Publicity

Goodreads Synopsis: Milo Mitchell's life used to be charmed, but that was before her family dissolved, she went a little crazy, and her best friends started acting more like strangers. Spending Saturday morning in a treehouse with a stun gun for company and a herd of deer for friends is the only exciting thing in her life...until she shoots a fawn and finds her dart stuck in a guy.

Her gorgeous victim is dressed in a Brioni tux and armed with a hanky. He has no idea who or where he is. Afraid her dart caused his amnesia, Milo takes him in, names him Nick, and vows to help him solve his mystery. Soon the pair find Nick's face in a newspaper obituary, and Nick beings to have strange, ethereal memories of Milo--who is sure she's never met him. Suddenly Nick knows things he shouldn't know and is doing things he shouldn't do. When the Department of Defense shows up, Nick and Milo run--toward a shocking conclusion that could destroy both their worlds.

Review: I received an e-book of the novel Here by Ella James in exchange for an honest review through Mark my Words Book Publicity. When I first read the synopsis, I was definitely intrigued by the whole thing. There is something interesting about a handsome teen boy showing up randomly in a tuxedo, isn't there? I'm not sure what YA fan would not want to read that! When I was offered to read it and do a review, I could not turn the chance down! I am glad that I agreed as well because I really, really enjoyed this book. Ella James is a wonderful author, and I was thrilled with her writing. I intend to continue reading her books in the future, and I strongly recommend her as well. 

The beginning of Here seems like it would be your average YA contemporary novel. There is the main character Milo (love the name), having her friends spend the night. Something has happened with the main character which makes her feel isolated and different around her friends, as usually happens with us as we get older and begin to drift away from our friends. At first, I was a little unsure about where the story was going to go. I was worried that it was going to be slow, but all of that changed very quickly. Before you know it, Milo is in the woods ready to track the deer on their land, something that her father used to do, and she ends up hitting Nick with the dart instead. 

From that point forward, there is nothing slow about the novel at all as they try to figure out exactly who Nick is-they decide to call him Nick because Milo had intentions of re-reading The Great Gatsby-and how he ended up in the woods in a tuxedo at that exact moment. Milo has to deal with strange occurrences going on in town, hiding Nick from her mother, figuring out how to bring Nick around her friends, and then dealing with her emotions when "Nick" thinks that he has figured out who he is. Of course, that would make things too easy, wouldn't it? It is a fantasy-paranormal book, after all, so he could not possibly be this other fellow everyone assumes he is. (that is all I will say on that, no spoilers!). 

When it comes to the romance in the book, I really enjoyed it. I think that what Milo and Nick have is great. It's complicated, naturally, as nothing else would make sense based on the situation. One moment it is clear that they are completely into each other and something great might happen, and then suddenly something with happen and take one or both of them into a dark, upsetting place once more. To say they are both conflicted characters is an understatement, though having Nick around gives Milo something to think about other than the death of her father and her life seeming to fall apart because of it. Naturally, based on what Nick really is, a relationship would not be easy for them, and that makes you want it to happen even more. 

I think that James did a great job of making the whole thing seem very realistic; as realistic as you can make the situation, at least. It is very much believable, and I never found myself thinking "Yeah right, because that would happen..." (I cannot possibly be the only one who has conversations with myself while reading!). When I got to the end of the novel, I did not want the story to end at all, even though I knew that there would be a sequel out in March. At the very end we are introduced to another character who I can tell is going to be important, and one who does not seem to like Milo at all. This character does something at the very end that could shake everything up completely....and then it ends and we don't know what happens! Needless to say, I am very much looking forward to reading Trapped as soon as it comes out! I highly recommend the book Here to everyone.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Purchase Here on Amazon       Purchase Here on B&N

About Ella James

Ella James is a Colorado author who writes teen and adult romance. She is happily married to a man who knows how to wield a red pen, and together they are raising a feisty two-year-old who will probably grow up believing everyone’s parents go to war over the placement of a comma.

Ella’s books have been listed on numerous Amazon bestseller lists, including the Movers & Shakers list and the Amazon Top 100; two were listed among Amazon’s Top 100 Young Adult Ebooks of 2012.

To find out more about Ella’s projects and get dates on upcoming releases, find her on Facebook at facebook.com/ellajamesauthorpage and follow her blog, http://www.ellajamesbooks.com. Questions or comments? Tweet her at author_ellaj or e-mail her at ella_f_james@ymail.com.

Author Links

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Here and Trapped by Ella James

Here

Milo Mitchell's life used to be charmed, but that was before her father died, she went a little crazy, and her best friends started acting more like strangers. One Saturday morning as she roams the land around her family's Colorado wind farm, tagging deer for a project that used to be her father's, Milo makes a big mistake: a dart from her stun-gun takes down a teenage guy.

Dressed in a Brinoi tux and armed with a perfectly starched handkerchief, the guy looks like a young James Bond - or some country's missing, playboy prince. Trouble is, he could be either. Mr. Mystery has no idea who or where he is. Afraid her dart caused his amnesia, Milo takes him in, names him Nick, and tries to get used to a hot guy sharing her bedroom.

But Milo's Nick is more than he appears. Soon the pair find his face in a newspaper obituary, and Nick beings to have memories of Milo - who is sure she's never met him. If 'Nick' survived a plunge off a steep cliffside on his way to a family camping trip, why did Milo find him dozens of miles away, wearing a freshly pressed tuxedo?  If he's just a high-school athlete, why does he have moves like Jason Bourne? And why does he feel more for her than his surviving family?

When a train of black SUVs shows up on Mitchell property, Nick and Milo run - toward a shocking conclusion that could destroy both their worlds.

Teaser

I shouldn’t have come to Milo’s house, but I was riding for my life, and when I thought about it ending, all I’d wanted—literally the only thing I thought about—was her.

It was startling, the clarity, the sense of purpose, because shortly after I saw Milo’s concert, I got mind-jacked. I didn’t know by what, but the presence had a serious hard-on for calculus and physics, other things I shouldn’t know or care about. I had a freaky suspicion that it was the Real Me, and that the Real Me was some kind of wizard/astrophysicist.

I spent two days in my bed after it happened, hung over on numbers, figures, but by the third day I could handle it. And my superpower had come back, stronger.

I knew intuitively how to control the van, how many meters away the Harley was when I landed, how to start it, how to drive it.

I ran for it as the van spun, tires screeching as it turned to come back for me. It had been modified, was faster than the bike, but I knew the town grid completely, and I’d clogged their fuel injector, which meant that ten minutes after our little chase started, I had lost them.

I doubled back, took an indirect path to get to Milo’s house. I didn’t want to leave an easy trail. When I pulled up and they were nowhere to be seen, I thought I had evaded them, told myself I had gotten away. But it wasn’t until I saw Milo that I realized what I’d done. I should have added to my lead, driven far away, stolen another bike, a car, hopped a train, gone anywhere but were I was. Where she was.

And what did I get for my utter stupidity?

Milo, wide-eyed and concerned. Milo, rubbing my back, tapping my knee. Milo heedless of the danger. Milo, achingly close.

She was leaning over me now, blowing on the scrape she’d just cleaned. “That feel any better?”

I nodded, my nose and forehead digging into her blankets.

“Good.” I felt her hand trail up my spine, then lift away and land atop my hair.

“You can go to sleep, you know. I’ll keep watch, just in case.”

I shook my head, dizzy from the pill and her soft hand. “I need to…leave…”

Purchase Here on Amazon       Purchase Here on B&N

Trapped ( Here #2)  Releases on March 19, 2014

When Milo Mitchell falls for the beautiful, tuxedo-clad guy she found wandering her family’s rural Colorado property, she never dreamed he was a scout from another galaxy, or that their relationship would leave him with an impossible choice: eradicating humankind, or initiating the end of his own people.

Nick’s job is finding the elements his people need to power their elaborate interweb of minds. Being a scout means he is capable of traveling to other planets on his own. It also means that, unlike The Rest, he has access to primitive feelings and individual desires. For eons, he was part of the whole, but when he encountered Milo, his obsession with her changed everything.

Nick’s partner, Vera, is capable of independent thought, but not compelled by it. She is satisfied with her existence as one of The Rest, and she won’t agree that humans are worth sparing; not when their planet has a precious cache of the gold her people need so badly.

While Vera tries to force Nick into endorsing an Earth invasion, working behind the scenes to tie his hands, and the Department of Defense lays a trap for them with Milo’s mom as bait, Nick and Milo are waging their own war – against a primal desire that can only lead to one thing: heartbreak.

Pre-Order Trapped on Amazon

About Ella James

Ella James is a Colorado author who writes teen and adult romance. She is happily married to a man who knows how to wield a red pen, and together they are raising a feisty two-year-old who will probably grow up believing everyone’s parents go to war over the placement of a comma.

Ella’s books have been listed on numerous Amazon bestseller lists, including the Movers & Shakers list and the Amazon Top 100; two were listed among Amazon’s Top 100 Young Adult Ebooks of 2012.

To find out more about Ella’s projects and get dates on upcoming releases, find her on Facebook at facebook.com/ellajamesauthorpage and follow her blog, http://www.ellajamesbooks.com. Questions or comments? Tweet her at author_ellaj or e-mail her at ella_f_james@ymail.com.

Author Links

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