Blog Tour, Guest Post, Giveaway: Kerry Taylor Author of Stones of My Heart

Please welcome the lovely Kerry Taylor to Words on The Shelf, Kerry is the author of Stones of My Heart 

Blurb:

In this poetry collection, follow author Kerry Taylor's journey as she survives depression, abuse, stalkers, and bad hair days.

Author Bio:

Kerry Taylor, a single parent of three, has been knocked down many times in life. She has grieved through various stages such as: the loss of family members, friends, houses, health, money and her husband. Abuse by strangers and family members resulted in the loss of her dignity. She has held onto her pride, believing that one day things will get better.

With three healthy children, she wrote Stones of My Heart to share her autobiography in the form of poetry. Writing has become her sanctuary; allowing expression through her creative gift. A gift that keeps her afloat during her darkest hours.

Hey everyone, this is Kerry Taylor’s list of favorites! Check it out and see if you have any similarities!

Favourite Movie: Imitation of Life

Favourite Animation: Lion King

Favourite Book: To Kill a Mocking Bird

Favourite Actor: Clint Eastwood

Favourite Actress: Meryl Streep

Favourite Song: I just can not give up now

Favourite Singer: Luther Vandross

Favourite Colour: Yellow

Favourite Line: C'est la vie

Favourite Photo: Attached

Favourite Child: None

Favourite Day: Saturday

Favourite Time: Midnight

Favourite Season: Spring

Favourite Place: The Beach

What about you? What are some of your favorites?

Online Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kerry.taylor2012

Blog: http://kerrytaylor74.wordpress.com/

Giveaway:

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Button Link:

http://www.skypirateproductions.com/current-blog-tours.html

Review Sundays: Breathe by Sarah Crossan

Hello and welcome to the second Review Sunday, this week I will be reviewing Breathe by Sarah Crossan

Inhale. Exhale. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe . . . The world is dead. The survivors live under the protection of Breathe, the corporation that found a way to manufacture oxygen-rich air.
Alina has been stealing for a long time. She's a little jittery, but not terrified. All she knows is that she's never been caught before. If she's careful, it'll be easy. If she's careful.
Quinn should be worried about Alina and a bit afraid for himself, too, but even though this is dangerous, it's also the most interesting thing to happen to him in ages. It isn't every day that the girl of your dreams asks you to rescue her.Bea wants to tell him that none of this is fair; they'd planned a trip together, the two of them, and she'd hoped he'd discover her out here, not another girl.
And as they walk into the Outlands with two days' worth of oxygen in their tanks, everything they believe will be shattered. Will they be able to make it back? Will they want to?





This book is phenomenal, if you have followed some of my reviews, you will know that I have a weakness of love for dystopian novels and for me, Breathe really achieved the fullest of what a dystopian novel can resolve. This novel takes the idea of a changed world to the extreme by removing something that is fundamental to our world, to us and giving it the role of something to be earned, it becomes something objective.
Oxygen something I'm sure many of us take for granted because breathing to us has become something subconscious we barely notice, has been turned into something precious. Oxygen in Breathe becomes the kind of thing only the wealthy can afford excess of and the poor can struggle to maintain enough of, like for example clothing and its quality in our world. Isn't that comparison sad, our precious thing is clothing compared to oxygen in Breathe?
This is a reason why I love the whole concept of the novel, it not only reminds you that you should be thankful that you are alive and have a family and friends like most books, but it reminds you that for every breath you take you should be grateful.
Sarah creates a world where oxygen levels have plummeted and those who survived built a pod where oxygen is pumped into, the people and their oxygen supplies are watched and controlled closely by the society. They have lived there for years, but things are getting better on the outside, except this is something they haven't been told. The society has darker secrets, they have men on the outside to look for others outside the pod, and possibly inside it too who know more than they should and are doing things the society does not approve of and aims to stop. Those people form the rebellion.
The characters Sarah has created aren't superficial, but they are real, a young girl who is intelligent and hard working but isn't rewarded for it because of her background. A young boy who is wealthy and smart, but is never given the chance to earn anything because it is given to him. Characters that show strength and love even though they aren't accepted because of their sexuality, appreciation for the trees that give us air, kindness and care to those they barely knew. Characters that resemble the older generation who can be forgotten for all they did, and those that show that people can be completely different than who they are on the surface. The characters learn these things from each other as the story progresses.
The story is intense and filled with anticipation, dread and action. The characters defy the irrational laws their society has bound them by, because every society is run selfishly. It will make your heart warm, make you smile but not quite laugh, make your heart ache and break, but it will hold it back together again, and even though you'll feel loss and betrayal, you'll cry but you'll never quite feel sad, because you'll feel their love.
A quote from Breathe:

“I allow myself to be right here, in the moment, savouring the peace. All the millions and millions of stars remind me, too, how small and fragile I am. And unimportant, really. If this branch were to creak and moan and break under my weight, and I were to plummet to the ground, the stars in the sky would continue to decorate the world. And even if the last tree disappears from our planet, the stars will still be up there.” 

I guess this kind of reminds us that there is so much more out there that it is bigger than us and we are just a fraction in time, a spectacle in the big picture. But it also shows that even when things are gone and dead like the stars above us, they're still beautiful and appreciated from a far, still remembered.
I really loved Breathe the characters names Quinn (one of my favourite boys names, and sometimes girls name, ever!), Bea, Alina.. all the names have an unused, originality to them which I love and the characters all have a certain personality which defines them. I just adored this book and I thought it had ended before it actually had and I was still content with the ending a couple of pages before the real ending, because I thought it was a stand alone book. But now, I am waiting like a fan girl of a band who want to meet them, for the next installment of this series.

I really, really, really urge you if you're a lover of dystopian such as myself, if you read Divergent and wanted more, if you read Crossed and fell in love, if you read Hunger Games and hated the Capitol and if you read Delirium and dreamed for what was beyond.. then this book right here will give you everything you love and hate about a dystopian world.

But if you need a little more convincing here is the book trailer...



Convinced you need to read this book right now? Not yet? Listen to the authors inspiration...



Needless to say Breathe scored high on my rating.
Breathe was reviewed for Bloomsbury publishing, thank you for sending me this amazing novel Bloomsbury!

Tune in to next weeks Review Sunday for The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth Laban

Review Sundays: The Fault in our Stars by John Green

So I would like to try this new thing called Review Sundays, both giving me a boost to read more and to post regularly on the blog, so here the first review sunday.. and it's a great book to start with.. The Fault in Our Stars!

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.


Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

What can I say, for those of you who have not yet stumbled across this book and hungrily absorbed each page, eager to reach an ending that will inevitably rip your heart out. You have not known what it is to laugh and cry and die on the inside in the way this book will make you. 
The Fault in our Stars follows the life of Hazel, a sufferer of lung cancer who knows she doesn't have long to live. If I was to sum up Hazel's personality in one word, it would be real. Hazel is real, she's a teenager with all the sadness and distractions, but she's also mature; she understanding.. in so many ways that most people just aren't. She offers an insight into the life of people suffering from terminal illness and how that effects them, their lives and mostly their families. I felt  I really connected with Hazel and her views on the world, death and love. 
When Augustus first comes into her life he seems like a typical, charming teenage boy.. but the more time they spend together the more of Augustus we see. He is deep and knowing and completely in love with a girl who he knows he is going to lose.
Their story is the kind of beautiful that makes you feel like an abyss has opened up in your chest. Augustus and Hazel save each other with their love, even when it causes them such grief in the end. 
"The thing about pain... it demands to be felt."
There are a lot of lessons to be learned from this story, to appreciate your health, your family, being able to breathe.. but what I took from it was that, even though life beats you down in every way it can we have one thing that can save us, one thing that we live for, something that people take for granted or don't actually feel when they say they do; and that's love.
For avid readers especially this book will be perfect for you, because you'll be able to relate so well with the literate characters and their views/personalities. But in all honesty I know people who don't read books much and would recommend this to you in a heartbeat. John Green has created a story that will seep under your skin and remain there for a long time, he has shown us characters that we will never be able to un-know.
I'm trying not to give away any spoilers because this is the kind of book your don't want to understand the gist of from reading little snippets of information on the internet, especially little snippets of other peoples opinions, its the kind of book you want to sit inside with for a good long day and read cover to cover with a box of tissues at the ready and a heart that can survive a good breaking. 

But I will show you my first reactions after finishing The Fault in our Stars: 

Yep. The Fault in our Stars broke my heart.

But wow, John Green is a fricken empathetic genius

And I need like every other book of his right now

Like what can I read after reading The Fault in Our Stars.. it's just not gonna compare

I haven't read John Green's other books, but I feel like I need every single on of them right now, I would really love to hear your thoughts on The Fault in our Stars, and if you've read them your favourite of his other master pieces.

I think I'm going to say it.. my new favourite read. I don't usually feel like I would want to go back and re-read books when I know what happens, but I think this book will be read frequently and adored.

"It seemed like forever ago, like we've had this brief but still infinite forever. Some infinites are bigger than other infinites."

Next week's Review Sunday is for Breathe by Sarah Crossan

Trailer: The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LaBan

2013

Since I wrote about last year and what I felt like I accomplished, I thought I might as well share with you what I hope to accomplish during 2013. I have a lot of excitement for this year, even though I dislike odd numbers.. 13 eww.

I have a few resolutions:

1 work my ass off to keep my grades
(lowest AAAA stars would be nice)

2 work my ass off to get fitter
(I don't care if I'm a girl I want a slight six pack)

3 party my ass off to be more social
(I got better at this, this year, but got to make new friends at uni - scary)

4 go abroad at least once
(want so much to travel, Italy with college and maybe Tenerife with friends)

5 make this summer bloody amazing
(go on holiday with friends/make the most of my time with them)

6 move out and start uni as the best version of me
(be fit, be social, be happy and enjoy new stage in life)

7 read more, blog more, fricken write more
(basically do more, hopefully finish some novels I'm working on)

8 make the most of my last year at home
(help out mum, spend time with her, tell her I love her)
(my mum and my double bed are going to be really hard for me to separate from when I move to uni in September)

What are your resolutions? 

2012

This is a little belated due to how jam-packed my new year week was (mostly spent in the company of my friends rather than revising, but hey I don't get weekends off I only get the half terms and college holidays so I try and make the most of them) I just wanted to make a post about what I feel I have accomplished in 2012, mostly for myself to see it all written down.

Education I am actually rather proud of my achievements in the education area of my life from 2012, completing my first year (half) of my a-levels with straight A's. I never thought that would be possible for me, I mean it was expected of me, but my grades are something that has always rather shocked me if I'm honest though I don't know why because I do work my ass off to get them. For my summer exams I spent about a month locked in my room during study leave revising for about 10 hours a day. But I guess even though I work my ass off a part of me feels like I'm not spectacular enough to be a A student, but I think that's down to how if you met me you wouldn't expect me to be one, I'm not the typical stereotype you could say. 

Health and body 2012 was the year I finally, somehow, still a bit baffled to how, I turned my life around in terms of becoming healthy. I now live a healthy lifestyle in that I eat what is good for me and I exercise regularly. Ever since a young age I've despised that I've always been 'slightly chubby' and I had always wanted to do something about it but never stuck to anything. But in 2012 I managed to alter my life so that being healthy was a huge part of it. I'm proud that I'm much fitter than I used to be in that I can actually run for longer than a couple minutes, I can cycle hard for almost 20 miles, I have some muscle and I'm not a utter weakling and mostly that I've lost some of that chubbyness I so much hated. Though I still have a way to go, now that I've become in the habit of a healthy lifestyle I know that I'll stick to it.  

Social life After moving from school to college in 2011 I lost a whole lot of my friends due to being one of the only one going to a certain college. But throughout this year I have become really close to a lovely group of friends, who I actually did know at school but never really knew that well, and I'm happy to say that I actually go out a lot more than I used too, maybe a bit too much! But it's been such an enjoyable year with them! 

I think I have progressed a lot as a person from 2012, as in strength of will power, of mind and to be completely honest I feel I'm nicer than I used to be. (I was a bit of a bitch you might say) I'm really looking forward to the year ahead and hope times carry on as great as they have been. But also for new experiences such as University which I have uncontrollable excitement for! 

Guest post + Giveaway: Grisly High Trilogy by Brian Rowe

Welcome Brian Rowe! Author of the Grisly high trilogy

Book #1 The Vampire Underground

16-year-old Brin Skar hates everything to do with the supernatural, so the obsessive film geek isn't happy when she discovers that her junior year Film class at Grisly High is devoted to the horror genre. She's even more disconcerted when she learns that six groups in the class will be writing and directing their very own horror movies. 

Brin and five classmates travel to Bodie Ghost Town in California to shoot their creepy film, but they soon find themselves fighting a real terrifying threat when a clan of mean, bloodthirsty vampires emerge from beneath the surface and start attacking the group. The teens, headed by Brin and the egotistical director Anaya Frost, have no help from the outside and become outnumbered by the vampires a hundred to one. 

But when Brin meets Paul, a helpful and smoldering vampire outcast who's had enough of his shameful life, she realizes he might be the only key to her survival.

Book #2 The Zombie Playground

Brin Skar has had a rough couple of weeks. She barely survived the grisly vampire attack in Bodie Ghost Town, the mysterious Paul is now a guest in her own home, and her dad Kristopher, dead for over a year, has emerged from the grave to try to kill his only daughter. 

After two somber funerals and the baffling disappearance of her Film teacher, Brin decides she needs a break from all the pain and heartache. And what’s a better escape than a round of golf at the brand new Macabre Golf Course? But as soon as Brin and her friends hit the links, strange noises and bizarre sightings begin to occur. 

And unfortunately for the group, the vampire encounter is going to seem like child’s play… especially when the zombies come out to play!

Book #3 The Monster Apocalypse

Brin Skar thought she defeated the vampires, and she thought she escaped the zombies, but as it turns out, the horrors have just begun. When Brin learns that the evil vampire Droz has kidnapped her boyfriend Paul, as well as her mother Tessa, she decides her only choice is to return to Bodie Ghost Town. 

Joined by her classmates, her teachers, and her older brother Justin, she sets out to destroy the clan leader… in the grisliest showdown of all!

Brian Rowe is giving you guys the chance to win all 3 of these awesome books! 

That's right the whole trilogy! 

Guest post: Monster Apocalypse

So why spend a year of my life writing a YA trilogy about monsters, of all things? My first YA trilogy — the three Happy Birthday to Me books — took my readers into strange and daring places, but still mostly resembled real life, with a strong and tragic romance at the center of it all. My second YA trilogy is a different beast altogether, one that takes a group of film geeks and pits them against every monster known to man. I think my switch in genre for the second trilogy has perplexed some of my readers; the Grisly High books are definitely the evil little stepchildren to Happy Birthday to Me. Both are YA, both have strong, capable teenagers who find themselves in extraordinary situations, but the tone is different in my new trilogy. The Vampire Underground (Book 1), The Zombie Playground (Book 2), and The Monster Apocalypse (Book 3) are meant to be pure entertainment. There is romance in the three books, complete with a romantic finale in Book 3 that I hope will be unexpected. But the real focus I put into these three books was making them scary. Who doesn’t love to be scared?

I grew up on horror, immersing myself in the work of R.L. Stine as early as age eight. While the Goosebumps and Fear Street books are not great literature, they kept me up many a late night, and I was partly inspired by Stine’s books to craft a new trilogy of teen horror novels for the twenty-first century. Another experience that played into the formation of these books was my visit to Bodie Ghost Town back in 2002, when I spent half a day traipsing around a forgotten city of decrepit buildings and eerie silences, and I couldn’t stop thinking that day that I needed to set one of my stories there. When some found out I was writing a “vampire” novel, they told me I was just trying to hop onto the Twilight craze, but that wasn’t the case at all. I had the idea for Book 1, The Vampire Underground, for ten years, and had always imagined vampires living underneath the ghost town. It’s how, from the beginning, I wanted to tell this story. With famous, iconic monsters!

But the biggest influence on the Grisly High trilogy is my love for horror movies. The main characters of the trilogy — Brin, Ash, Anaya, and Mr. Barker — love movies, but not even Ash loves movies as much as I do. My dad introduced me to horror movies at a young age, and by the time I was eleven I had seen all the classics, from Frankenstein to Psycho, from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Halloween, from The Evil Dead to A Nightmare on Elm Street, I’d seen them all. While I was finishing writing Happy Birthday to You and planning The Vampire Underground, I was trying to find who my main characters were. Making them film buffs just made perfect sense to me. What’s more ironic than a group of horror film nuts who go to a strange town to make a horror movie, who then come in contact with real deal horror movie villains themselves? I was intrigued by this idea and decided to run with it.

When I finished The Vampire Underground, I initially outlined six more books in the Grisly High series. The second book, The Zombie Playground, is still what it would’ve been in that seven-book series, but the others were going to revolve around one single creature each. Book 3 was to be demons, Book 4 was to be ghosts, Book 5 was to be werewolves, Book 6 was to be aliens, and Book 7 was going to feature all of these monsters fighting each other in the most epic, giant battle in all of literature history! But when I reached the end of The Zombie Playground, I realized that these books lived or died based on the relationships of the core characters, and that I only needed one more book to say everything I wanted to say about Brin and Ash and Anaya and Mr. Barker, and bring this Grisly High story full-circle.

The Zombie Playground was a blast to write because I’d always wanted to blend two things that I’d never seen blended together before, in a book, or a film: the horror genre, with the sport of golf. It was so much fun to devise a story that would bring these two elements together in a way that makes sense, and I loved expanding on the mythology of the Grisly town to bring zombies into the forefront, after focusing on vampires in the first book.

Finally, The Monster Apocalypse, let’s face it, throws in everything but the kitchen sink. I really upped the stakes in Happy Birthday to You, the third and final book of my Birthday trilogy, and such is the case with this third book of the Grisly High trilogy. In this final chapter I set out to craft the most surprising, action-packed book I’ve written yet. All of the subplots are wrapped up, both old and new characters discover their fates, and every monster, from aliens to witches to werewolves, is finally accounted for. The first two books are fun, but they’re mere samples to the chaos and craziness of The Monster Apocalypse!

Big thank you to Brian for the guest post and awesome giveaway!

Fill in the rafflecopter below for your chance to get your hands on this awesome trilogy in your choice of format; MOBI, EPUB or PDF.

Giveaway open internationally!

a Rafflecopter giveaway