Book Blitz: The Prophecy of Arcadia by M.H. Soars

 

 My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

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About the Book:

 Being a teenager is tough, especially when you have to pretend to be something you’re not, and you’re in love with someone you shouldn’t. 115 years ago, a small planet called Arcadia was invaded by a vicious alien race and nearly destroyed. Cut off from their resources, the Arcadians turned to Earth for help. A group of Arcadian explorers discovered a Prophecy that claimed their salvation lay in the hands of two children from Earth. To ensure their safety, the Arcadian Council sent their most gifted youngsters to Earth to act as protectors. Samantha is one of them.

To succeed in her mission she must learn to control her Arcadian powers and keep her true identity from her best friend, and the girl she swore to protect, Alexia. But Samantha will soon realize that nothing is as it seems. Someone is trying to prevent the Prophecy from taking place and the prophecy boy hasn't been found yet. There is also a new drug circulating at school that is turning students into freakishly strong menaces.

To make matters worse, distractions keep getting in her way. Such as her love/hate relationship with her “cousin” Matthew. Or her confused feelings toward popular and mysterious Julian. She wants nothing more than to be free to live her life. But the survival of Arcadia depends on her and her friends. Free will is not an option.

My Thoughts:

  Don't you just love a really good book? One that goes at the perfect speed, gives you time to fall in love with the characters and brings a big ol' smile to your face? I do. So, in reading this book, I was so happy to find that.

The characters were easy to connect to, and I found this to be a really fun read! I cannot wait to see what happens next in this series.

One thing I really, truly, loved about this book was the fact that it really didn't throw all the information at you at once. You know the books that do that? The ones that just seem to stuff the details down your throat all at once without giving you time to swallow? This one wasn't one of those. In a way, I think that the way that M.H. Soars wrote this book, in that nice, steady pacing, will make the book stay with me for a long time.

One thing I should point out, there are sort of three main characters, so for those who don't like multiple POV's this may not be for you. However, I felt like the story wouldn't have been the same without it. It really made the story unfold perfectly, and I cannot wait to see what M.H. does with the next book.

If you love a good paranormal/scifi/fantasy book, The Prophecy of Arcadia might just be for you!

Meet Sam! 

(A character in the book!)

The wonderful M.H. Soars agreed to do a character interview with me, so here's the Q&A I had with one of the super awesome characters, Sam! 

Hey Samantha! Thank you so much for being here today. If it's okay by you I'd like to start by having you introduce yourself.

Hi Paige. I'm glad to be here. My name is Samantha Munroe but everyone calls me Sam. I live in California with my Uncle, my twin sister Mia, and my five cousins. I attend a private school called LJ Prep. That's what everyone knows. But the truth is I'm not even from this planet. Yup, I'm an alien but you can't really tell, unless I unleash my powers on you accidentally. Don't worry, I'm not on a mission to invade Earth. I'm trying to save my planet and I think I'll end up saving yours in the process, too.

1.) So Sam, would you like to tell us a bit about how life is on Earth for you, and how it differs from what you know or remember from Arcadia? 

I love living on Earth. Earthlings are so full of life, completely different from Arcadians.  Sometimes I forget that I come from so far away. I don't have any recollection of Arcadia at all. We were brought to Earth when we were very little, at least that's the story Gary tells us.

2.) Would you like to tell us a bit about this Prophecy? What exactly does it entail?

I know that you will get to read the entire Prophecy soon, but basically it says that in the third planet from the sun, the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter will bond with the seventh son a seventh son and together they will defeat the Myserians. It also says that gifted Arcadian youngsters will protect the Promised Ones. Like in all prophecies, ours is pretty vague and it doesn't say how the Earthlings will defeat our enemies or when. It's pretty frustrating.

3.) So, Alexia's a pretty big deal, huh? Is she someone you would have chosen for a friend had you not been sent to protect her? 

Hell yes. She does have this unique quality about her. She genuinely cares about others and her heart is made of gold. She's fierce in her own way but at the same time you want to protect her and not because she's the key to any prophecy.

4.) Your story is what I like to call action packed, and has a lot of little twists (that I, of course, loved), but can you tell us about any regular, everyday hobbies you have? 

Well, I do like fashion and I love to give my friends makeovers. I just don't get why certain heroines choose to look and dress so plain. Like being into fashion is a character flaw. Please.

5.) Everyone has their quirks! What are some of yours? Or better yet, what are some of Alexia's? 

I don't know if you've noticed but Alexia bites her nails when she's nervous. I buy shoes.

6.) Time to get a little deep. Looking back now, is there anything about, well, anything you would you change? 

I would definitely have fought harder to find a way to tell Alexia the truth. And maybe I wouldn't have dated Julian. Nah, that's a lie. He was a very good kisser. Don’t tell Matthew that.

7.) I honestly really enjoyed reading your story! Is there anything in particular you'd like to tell potential readers of the book M.H. Soars so beautifully penned about you? 

I'm a believer that if you have it you should flaunt it. I'm an awesome character and my story is very intriguing. The Prophecy of Arcadia is a great mix of romance and mystery with sci-fi elements that won't scare you away. Plus there is some serious eye candy in it. But hands off, ladies. Matthew is mine! This first book is just the tip of the iceberg. If you think there were a lot of twists in it, wait and see what's coming. Gosh, I don't even know what's in store for me next.

About the Author:

    

Giveaway Time! 

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Character Interview: Emily from Conduit by Angie Martin

Hello Emily! Thank you so much for letting me interview you today! I really enjoyed reading your story in Conduit. Well, as much as one could enjoy a story with such terrifying murders. Anyways, I'd like to start with asking you to tell us a little bit about yourself, a little introduction if you don't mind?

Thank you so much for having me! As you know, my name is Emily Monroe. I own a private investigating agency with my best friend, Cassie Reid (Monroe & Reid Investigators). I really enjoy investigating and some of the cases we see come into the office. I’m also psychic, but not in the sense of what you see on television. I can’t read minds or talk to the dead, but I do sense things and pick up on things that I’d really rather not sometimes.


1. Okay, for my first question, I have to ask this. What were honestly your first thoughts when you were asked to be on the serial killer case?

My first thought was that I couldn’t believe Uncle Leo brought us the case. We usually only work cases of petty theft or an occasional missing person, but that’s rare in itself. I thought there was no way we could help out, but as Cassie started talking about victimology and other things I never heard of, I knew she could help out, but I still didn’t know how I could ever help the police on the case. When I learned that the message that was carved out on the victims was the same as what I had written during my two automatic writing incidents, something told me that I was meant to be involved in the case. I just had to find out what was going on.



2. You and Cassie seem to get along pretty well, but everyone has their quirks. What's something you really butt heads about? 

Cassie and I do butt heads from time to time, just like any friends who spend so much time together. She can be a bit obnoxious and sometimes embarrasses me, especially when it comes to wanting Nathan (my ex-boyfriend) and I to get back together. In fact, we had a lot of heated discussions after I broke up with Nate! I’m sure she’d say I’m a little too quiet and reserved at times, but our differences work well for us.



3. When you met Jake at the law firm party, you got off a bit on the wrong foot. Things made a bit of a turnaround rather quickly, though. Had you ever been tempted to try and poke around in someone's mind the way he unintentionally did to you that night?

I don’t ever want to see what is in someone’s mind like what he did to me. While all psychics have the same core abilities, every now and then someone comes along who has different abilities, and that’s Jake’s abilities. For some reason he can get into my head pretty easily. He can’t do it with anyone else, which I have to admit, I’m happy about.



4. The "bad guy" in your story, we got to see inside his head almost as much as we did yours. So, we kind of got to learn a lot about the evolution of his abilities (and horrendous warping) of his abilities. What are some early examples of you discovering your... sensitivities?

When I first realized I was different than most kids, I could pick up on little things here and there. It wasn’t like reading someone’s thoughts, but I could sense things. I could feel what people felt and what they did. It’s like little flashes of memory or feeling. I’m not sure how else to explain that to someone who hasn’t experienced it. It was really scary at first, but I was very lucky to have my Aunt Susan to guide me through it all.


5. I have to say that you kept a relatively level head throughout most all the book, expect for being shaken after connecting with some of the victims. How did you manage to hold yourself together? I can't imagine!

I just wanted answers and I think focusing on that really helped me. That, and having Cassie and Jake. They were both anchors to hold onto, and while I’m grateful for that, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about what happened that last day and feel guilty.


6. You had a lot of intense moments in your story, have things settled down since the events in Conduit? 

Things have calmed down a bit since then. I’m still dealing with some of the aftereffects of the events. There’s still so much I don’t understand, but I’m learning every day! I’m hoping to just settle into normal routine again.


7. Thanks again for the interview! There are so many other things I'd like to ask you, but I don't want to give readers any spoilers!

Thanks for having me!

___________________________________________________

About Angie Martin:

.

Website|Facebook|Twitter

Angie Martin is a lifelong writer and firmly believes that words flow through her veins. Her thriller with a paranormal twist, Conduit, was published for Kindle on March 5, 2014. In 2004, she published her first suspense novel, False Security. Since that time, False Security has been drastically re-written and the revised version is also available as an e-book for Kindle and Smashwords. She is hard at work on a horror short story, a poetry anthology, and the next Emily Monroe novel.

Angie lives in California with her husband, their two beautiful cats, and their beloved dog. She has two sons who are off paving their own way in the world. She grew up in Wichita, Kansas, her hometown and where her books take place, and is still very much a Kansas girl at heart. A reader first, a writer second, Angie's favorites are Stephen King and Dean Koontz, but she reads a wide variety of books and loves to discover indie authors and books as well as write reviews of them . As a geek-extraordinaire, she loves comics and graphic novels, and also reviews those. Angie has studied criminal justice and behavior since high school, which she incorporates into her writing. If writing is her blood, then music is the air in her lungs. She has played piano since she was five, and loves writing music. A hard-core gamer, her go-to video games series are Resident Evil, Uncharted, The Walking Dead (Telltale Games), and Dead Space

Character Interview: Daisy from Daisy and the Pirates!

Hello Daisy! Thank you very much for agreeing to this interview.  Hopefully it'll be a lot of fun! To get started why don't you tell everyone a bit about yourself? 

Hiya, Paige.  Thanks so much for interviewing me.  So the blah-blah on me basically is that I wrote a book called Daisy and the Pirates about being stranded on a remote island with my divorced parentals and psycho sister after some real-life pirates took over the ship we were on.  I was eleven when it happened.  (I’m twelve now.)  The whole thing sounds far-fetched, I know, but it’s really true.  I’m not some liar like my sister says I am.          

1.)   This you've probably heard dozens of times, but what were your first thoughts when you realized the ship was going down and the pirates had took the only remaining life boat? You seemed a little shaken, but I didn't feel like you were quite as scared as everyone else and it didn't appear you were freaking out quite as much as they were either.

Oh, I was freaked all right.  In fact I was so freaked I don’t think you could call what I was doing thinking.  When I first saw the bow of the Ayutthaya dipping underwater, my heart started pounding so hard I thought it would punch its way out.  But then I just made myself move.  Who even knows how?  And who knows if I’d be able to do it again if something like that happened again?                 

2.)   I know you have a thing for National Geographic, but just how do you have all that knowledge about survival skills in your head at such a young age? (I'd put it off to your dad being an archaeologist, but neither your sister nor your dad himself seemed to know as much! I'm going to be honest and say I learned quite a bit from you reading your story, and it even prompted me to do some research of my own!

Good for you! I’ve always liked that stuff.  Camping, fishing, survival, wild food plants—it just always seemed fun.  I’m not much of a girl-girl.  My sister’s the girl-girl and she ridicules me to no end, but so what.   And anyway, why should boys get to do all the cool stuff, like gut a fish and build igloos and collect water under a plastic sheet that you suspend over a hole in the hot sand?  Of course, one of the things I learned on the island is that all that stuff is much easier to read about than actually do.  I can’t even tell you how many times I was screaming my head off because something didn’t work the way it was supposed to.       

3.)   You didn't seem as put off as the rest of your family about being trapped on a deserted island chain, why do you think that was? Besides, of course, getting out of school!  

To be honest, I’m kind of a loser at school, plus, even though I know a lot of words and can write okay, I’m not what you’d call a good student.  But even if that weren’t the case, what better way to practice your survival skills than to have to survive?  We really could have starved or died of thirst or a million other things.  But for me, survival-nerd that I am, it was huge.  Okay, and one other thing.  Now this may sound weird but I had this crazy idea that if Mom and Dad just spend time together on the island, they would realize how made for each other they were and get back together.  Dumb, I know, but that’s what I thought. 

4.)   I have to say that your father seems to know quite a lot about different cultures, what's one of the strangest stories he's ever told you about discoveries on an archaeological dig?

He’s told lots of weird stories.  His main area is Roman Empire Maritime Archeology.  That means he knows a lot about the old ships they used and their trade routes and how plagues spread from one place to another when rats would jump off the ships.   But one thing that surprised me is that the Romans were wild about Greek sculptures.  So after they conquered Greece, the rich Romans all wanted Greek statues for their estates and palaces so they bought up or just took all the statues out of Greek temples.  Pretty soon they’d carted most of them off.  So the Greeks started making fake Greek statues.  I mean they were Greek statues, but they were made to look chipped and stained and dirty, like they were hundreds of years older than they were.  It’s pretty funny if you think about it cause half the Greek statues in Italy today are just copies the Greeks whipped up to sell to rich Romans.  And now, since they’re all thousands of years old, the fakes are as valuable as the originals.     

5.)   What is your favorite thing you've taken away from being stranded? Least favorite?

Let me start with least favorite: I don’t like scorpions.  There is not one good thing about scorpions.  Sorry scorpions.  As far as favorite: There were so many beautiful moments I will never forget, like when you would be suddenly surrounded by a cloud of butterflies sparkling in the sunlight, or the thrill when we first found the gold.  But one of the biggest ones is kind of both favorite and not so favorite: Survival-nerd that I am, I still have to admit that I would never have survived without my family, including my sister.  I also would never have been brave enough to do what I did if not for them.     

6.)   So, I have to ask: after all this happened--do you get along better now with your sister?

Um, not really.  Sorry.  She’s still a self-absorbed, brainless, boy-crazed menace, but she did save my life, and she still gives me birthday presents, so what can I say?  My dad tells me that I have to be careful because it isn’t a given that sisters grow up and like each other when they are adults, if they treat each other terribly when they are kids.  He constantly reminds me that Clymene is the only sister I have.  So, I’m trying, I really am.   

7.) Hearing about your adventure was just so enjoyable, are we going to get to read more about your life soon?  

I’m so glad you enjoyed it.  As for more, I wrote this blog novel called My Stupid Journal (http://www.daisytannenbaum.com) which I’m now editing into a real novel, about going to live in Paris with my Aunt Millicent, after I punched this bully at school and got expelled.  I hated Paris at first but it turned out to be exciting, since Aunt Mill cracks secret codes for a living and was involved in this whole scheme to discover Marie Antoinette’s long lost diamonds.  So if you can’t wait, you can read the blog, which tells the story and has a lot of great pictures of Paris.  

After that I was thinking maybe I’d write about our trip to Dubai and the twelve-year-old Saudi princess who was going to be married to some old guy her parents picked out (yuck) and how she and I planned an elaborate escape.   Then again, there was the whole crazy story about Clymene and her modeling career and all the stupid stuff that happened when I visited her in New York. Plus there’s the time I ran away from home, which was really a stupid thing to do, so maybe I won’t write about that after all, because I was just a stupid little kid when I did that.    

8.) I just really loved your book-so thanks again for being here today. I'm still kind of new at this whole interview thing(hopefully getting better every day!), so do you have anything else you'd like to add? I'm sure your potential readers would love to know anything you'd like to add! *cough* Me too *cough* :) 

Thanks you so much, Paige.  I’m definitely new to answering interview questions, so that makes us pretty even.   I had a lot of fun writing Daisy and the Pirates and hopefully it will make people laugh.  Writing it helped me ease back into civilization.  My friend, Nina, who I met in Paris when I got sent there, calls me fauve girl, which is like French for savage girl or wild girl, and sometimes I think she’s right.  I don’t quite fit in with civilization or school or even with my family for that matter, even though I love them.   I suspect there are a lot of kids like that (and adults too) and so maybe they’ll enjoy the book.  Thanks again.  Feel free to write me at daisytannenbaum@roadrunner.com or tweet me at @DaisyTannenbaum or leave a comment on My Stupid Journal.    

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Giveaway!

Do you want to read more about Daisy's adventures in Daisy and the Pirates? Here's your chance with this awesome giveaway! One Grand Prize winner will receive a copy for himself/herself and one for a friend, whereas the Runner-Up will receive a copy for him/herself. I've included lots of ways to enter so everyone has a chance to win this awesome book! 

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Character Interview: Emily from Trapped!

So, I really loved Trapped, and am so excited that Carrie Grant(the super awesome author) agreed to do my very first character interview! So, I sat down with Emily and asked her these very pressing questions. I hope you enjoy her responses as much as I did. Oh, and don't forget to check out my review of Trapped over here! 

1.) Hello Emily! So nice to meet you. I very much enjoyed reading your story in Trapped as told by the amazing Carrie Grant. But, we don't get to hear much about your life outside the tunnel before, besides the fact that dad is no longer in the picture and you've been raising your younger twin sisters in between school and the math team. My question, how did you balance it all? It must have been pretty tough for one teen girl to handle! 

I'm a math nerd, so I know how to balance equations! You are right, though, it was difficult. Every day I had to help my sisters get ready and go to school, then I had to manage my own school work and Math League practices before we'd get home in the evenings, when I'd take care of them again. But it was a good kind of difficult. My sisters mean the world to me, you know, and I enjoyed being such a big part of their lives. And being so busy kept me from regretting other things I wasn't allowed to do before, like dating.

2.) Besides the obvious, what were some of your first thoughts when you realized you were trapped in the tunnel? Despite your reassurances to everyone around you and before you knew of half the true danger, did you ever worry you wouldn't make it out alive? 

My first thoughts were...probably some words I can't say in an interview! After I got over the shock, my mind went straight to my sisters. I'll never forget that moment when rocks were tumbling around us and the earth was shaking, when we came to a gut-wrenching stop, when I pictured the twins buried in the back seat under unyielding boulders...but after I checked on them and found out they were okay, my thoughts turned immediately to safety. How safe was the car? Could the metal frame hold if more boulders tumbled down? How secure was the tunnel--and when would it go? I was very worried we wouldn't make it out alive. There were many times in those first few moments, and throughout the time we were trapped, that we almost didn't. 

3.) Earlier on especially, you seemed to be pretty suspicious of Chris. What made you so hesitant to trust him? 

Chris...he was unlike anyone I'd ever met before. He was literally facing getting buried alive, but he still laughed. He was injured from the cave-in, but he still teased me. I guess I thought he was just too calm about the whole situation. And perhaps too secretive--he seemed to know so much more about the tunnel's collapse than he was saying. And it turned out he did.

4.) You seem to be a pretty good judge of character. The end of the book happened so fast, were you ever suspicious of who turned out to be the lead "bad guy" (without naming any names, of course), before it all came to light?

No, I truly wasn't. I had my suspicions of other people in the tunnel, of course--and with good reason. But that person had been a source of help to me, someone who seemed to be looking out for the good of everyone who survived the cave-in. It was a shock when we found out, and it was the worst kind of mistake to have trusted that person. 

5.) There seems to be a lot going on between you and your mom. The way she acted so selfishly about food, not seeming to care about you or your sisters so long as she herself could eat, along with a few other choice events in Trapped makes me wonder how your relationship is with her now. Do you look at her differently? Does she act differently for you? Oh, and perhaps more importantly, do you think she'll let you spend time with a certain someone. ;)  

For the most important question--yes, I am allowed to date now! It's hard to talk about, but my mom and I have always had a difficult relationship. Ever since my dad left us, she relied on me to take care of the twins, to be responsible, to keep things running at home. In the tunnel, that's of course what I did for my sisters. I think that because I've always been there for them, she felt like she didn't have to be--she could look out for herself and only herself. And that's unfortunately what she did. It was up to me to make sure my sisters were safe...right up until the end.

Our relationship hasn't really changed that much. I still look after my sisters, and she still expects me too. But she's less hard on me, especially now that I have my driver's license and don't have to rely on her so much. I think she respects me more now, too, after everything that happened for us to survive the tunnel. 

6.) Not being able to eat seemed to bring out the worst in a lot of people in the tunnel. Were you ever afraid to even let the twins go out and play what with all the starving people milling about? I mean, you knew that y'all didn't have any food or water to speak of, but everyone else didn't.

It was very nerve-wracking to let them go off on their own in the tunnel. Although it was a confined space and I knew they couldn't get into too much trouble, people were becoming more and more hostile as our food and water ran out. But I think after a few days of barely eating, I felt that the benefit of playing games and being distracted outweighed the risk of of them getting hurt. And of course, I had so many bigger concerns for their safety. The people who lavked food didn't scare me nearly as much as those who did--the ones who came prepared for the tunnel's collapse.

7.) An event like this can certainly change a person in more ways than I can possible fathom. I know you mentioned being able to speak up more, but do you feel any different all around? Better yet, do you find yourself being more prepared in the off chance something like that could happen again. I know that reading your story certainly made me think about keeping a case of water and maybe some granola bars in my car. Hey, you never know!

Now that I officially have my driver's license, I am definitely keeping emergency supplies in my car! I have a case of water bottles, a box of canned cokes, and various snacks piled up in my trunk. But there are many more intangible ways that I've changed. I see the world a little differently--it's a risky place, where anything can happen. And it's worth being adventurous and experiencing all the world has to offer, rather than hiding in the background. 

8.) Well, Emily, I don't really have much more to ask you as I don't want to give to much away before my readers get a chance to read your book for themselves(which they so should!). Do you have anything you'd like to add? I've enjoyed having you so thanks so much for taking the time to answer all these questions!

Thank you for having me, Paige! I used to be so shy, but now I truly don't mind sharing my story. Being trapped in that tunnel was a terrifying experience, but I emerged stronger, better...and in love. It was a tragedy, but without the tunnel's collapse, I never would have found a certain someone--or myself. 

Thank you so much for letting me interview you, Emily! 

I hope y'all enjoyed my first character interview, and that maybe it inspired you to check out this really awesome book! Let me know what you think of Emily's responses in the comments section.