$15 Giveaway Guest Post LOVE, LUCY by APRIL LINDNER @misadventure123 @RockstarBkTours @LBKids

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.

BLOG | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | TUMBLR | GOODREADS

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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.


Just enter in the Rafflcopter below...


  a Rafflecopter giveaway

$15 Giveaway Cover Buzzl CATHERINE by APRIL LINDNER @misadventure123 @lbkids

I am super excited to be able to help spread the word about the new cover for the paperback edition of CATHERINE by April Lindner which will be available this August.

Both covers are amazing but convey something very different with the image and colors. And I’m thrilled to be able to welcome April Lindner to the blog with a post discussing them both.

There is also a giveaway for an Amazon eGift Card. Just scroll to the bottom of this post for details and to enter.

While CATHERINE’s paperback release is still a few months away, if you purchase the eBook edition now, it comes with the new cover. And if you’re a fan of the first cover, the hardback copy is still available to purchase.

Both covers rock, but which one is your favorite?

About CATHERINE

Title: CATHERINE
Author: April Lindner
Publisher: Poppy
Release date: January 1, 2013 | August 19, 2014 (paperback)
Formats: Hardcover, paperback, eBook

Catherine is tired of struggling musicians befriending her just so they can get a gig at her Dad's famous Manhattan club, The Underground. Then she meets mysterious Hence, an unbelievably passionate and talented musician on the brink of success. As their relationship grows, both are swept away in a fiery romance. But when their love is tested by a cruel whim of fate, will pride keep them apart?

Chelsea has always believed that her mom died of a sudden illness, until she finds a letter her dad has kept from her for years -- a letter from her mom, Catherine, who didn't die: She disappeared. Driven by unanswered questions, Chelsea sets out to look for her -- starting with the return address on the letter: The Underground.

Told in two voices, twenty years apart, Catherine delivers a fresh retelling of the Emily Brontë classic Wuthering Heights, interweaving a timeless forbidden romance with a captivating modern mystery.

GOODREADS | AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | THE BOOK DEPOSITORY

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The Guest Post

Promises, Promises: Judging a Book by Its Cover

By April Lindner

We’ve all been told that you can’t judge a book by its cover. And yet some of us book lovers can’t help ourselves; there’s nothing like a gorgeous cover to lure us in. More often than not, an enticing cover is the main thing that moves me to pick up a book I've never heard of, to start paging through it, giving the first few paragraphs a chance to seal the deal—or not.

So for me the most exciting moment in the whole bookmaking occurs when a book’s future cover appears in my inbox. I click on the thumbnail, and wait breathlessly as the image blooms onto my computer screen. Only then can I imagine my manuscript as a book—on a shelf, or, better still, in the hands of a reader. I know the cover will set the book’s tone. And it will make promises—hopefully the right ones.

All of this explains why I’m so thrilled by the new cover of Catherine’s paperback edition, due out in August. Don’t get me wrong: I love the original Catherine cover. Lush and dramatic, it makes certain promises—ones I believe the book keeps. The elegant model in her kickass stance promises a strong female protagonist. (Actually, the book has two alternating strong female narrators—Catherine and her daughter Chelsea.) And the background, with the iconic Flatiron Building rising up through the mist, promises the book’s Lower Manhattan setting will be as important as its characters. The title typeface—bold and purple—promises a confident, free-spirited heroine—exactly how I see Catherine herself.

But the new paperback cover—already available to readers who download the Ebook-- makes a different set of promises. On it, a boy and a girl hold each other in the shadows of a graffiti-covered underpass. They gaze at each other in rapt wonder, their shoulders, neck and heads echoing the shape of a heart. Secret romance, this cover says. It promises love against the odds. The scene is gritty—less glamorous than the cityscape on the original—but this grittiness befits the book’s main setting, a post punk night club on the Bowery. The title’s typeface is still bold, but its peachy color underscores the sweet and optimistic innocence of this couple’s embrace.

Inspired by the classic romance Wuthering Heights, Catherine is a story of star-crossed love interwoven with mystery. Its soundtrack is the post-punk music played by Catherine’s boyfriend, Hence. And the new paperback cover captures that complex mood exactly, I think. In fact, when it popped up on my computer screen for the first time, I almost swooned. There it was, in front of me: almost exactly the picture I saw in my imagination as I wrote the book.

An author can hope for nothing more than that.

***

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.

BLOG | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | GOODREADS

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The Giveaway

The Cover Buzz Blast includes a blast-wide giveaway for a $15 Amazon eGift Card to one winner.

• Must be 13 or older to enter
• Giveaway is open to anyone who can accept eGift Cards from Amazon's US online store
• Giveaway ends on March 25th at 11:59 p.m. Pacific

Enter in the Rafflecopter below...


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Guest Post! Giveaway! CATHERINE by APRIL LINDNER @misadventure123 @LBKids

Rockstar Tours

A forbidden romance. A modern mystery. Wuthering Heights as you’ve never seen it before.Catherine is tired of struggling musicians befriending her just so they can get a gig at her Dad’s famous Manhattan club, The Underground. Then she meets mysterious Hence, an unbelievably passionate and talented musician on the brink of success. As their relationship grows, both are swept away in a fiery romance. But when their love is tested by a cruel whim of fate, will pride keep them apart?Chelsea has always believed that her mom died of a sudden illness, until she finds a letter her dad has kept from her for years—a letter from her mom, Catherine, who didn’t die: She disappeared. Driven by unanswered questions, Chelsea sets out to look for her—starting with the return address on the letter: The Underground.Told in two voices, twenty years apart, Catherine interweaves a timeless forbidden romance with a compelling modern mystery.

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS | FACEBOOK

April Lindner is the author of two novels, Catherine, a modernization of Wuthering Heights, and Jane, an update of Jane Eyre.  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.

TWITTER | WEBSITE | BLOG | GOODREADS

you can read my review here

PLEASE WELCOME APRIL TO BOOKHOUNDS!

***

I go to a lot of rock concerts…maybe too many, sacrificing sleep, spending money that could be used for more practical purposes like, say, eating or paying the mortgage.  Nothing gets me more excited, more inspired, than music; it taps straight into my emotions in a way that other arts—even books—can’t quite do.  And live music is even more immediate, because when you’re in the audience you’re part of the experience, giving back to the performer, interacting with him or her, helping to amplify the energy.   I love being lost in an enormous arena crowd, part of something so much bigger than myself.  Even better is being in a small club, up against the stage, interacting with the band, making eye contact, cheering them on.

As you can see, I’m a more than a little obsessed with the live music thing, so it’s no surprise that music and musicians have made their way into my books.  My first novel, JANE, wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for my fascination with music in general and rock in particular.  Though I’ve always loved retellings of classic literature, and I’d long wanted to write a JANE EYRE retelling of my own, it was the realization that Mr. Rochester could be a rock star that jolted me into action.  It’s no secret that I’m a huge Bruce Springsteen fan; I’ve been to upwards of fifty shows, sometimes travelling many states away to get there.   And I confess, I’ve done some musing about what it must be like to be Bruce, or someone like him, who plays to packed arenas and has a huge, loyal fan base.  When I set down to write JANE, I already had a pretty vivid idea of what Nico Rathburn’s life would be like, and what pitfalls there might be for an ordinary girl who falls in love with him.

Something similar happened with my second book, CATHERINE.  I’d made up my mind to write a retelling of WUTHERING HEIGHTS.  As in the original, I wanted setting to be really important, almost a character in itself. I’d been thinking of the White Mountains of Northern New Hampshire, a place that can feel almost as stark and remote as I imagine the Yorkshire Moors do, but the story just wasn’t falling into place for me.  Then one night, I happened to be at a show at the legendary Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey—basically my favorite club in the world, as steeped as it is in Bruce Springsteen history and in whole Jersey Shore music scene.   I can’t recall now who I was seeing that night, but about halfway through the show I felt that familiar mid-concert crackling energy coursing through me and realized that I felt, for the first time in a while, truly inspired.  That’s when it occurred to me that the story of Catherine and Heathcliff could be set in a night club, and that Heathcliff could be a punk rocker.  After that, the story began to crystallize.  I transplanted the club to New York’s Lower East Side, mainly because I wanted it to be a part of punk history, right up the street from the legendary club CBGB.

Right about the time I was writing the first draft of CATHERINE, I became obsessed with a musician named Jesse Malin who, like my hero Hence, started out in a punk rock band and went on to own a nightclub on the Bowery.  Jesse Malin is an incredible songwriter; he’s more of a rocker these days than a punk, and, boy, can he write a song!  When I was putting the finishing touches on the first draft of CATHERINE, I happened to notice that Jesse was going to be playing his own club, the Bowery Electric, so of course my husband and I had to be there.  I’d seen Jesse live several times before, but there was nothing quite like seeing him play his own club.  Hence, my Heathcliff character, does something very similar in a key scene in CATHERINE, and from the buzz in the air that night it was very clear that there was something very special for a musician taking the stage in his very own club.  I was able to rewrite that scene, to make it better, for having been at that show. 

Finally, I’m in the process of writing a new retelling, this time of E. M. Forster’s A ROOM WITH A VIEW, about a young British girl travelling through Italy.  My new novel, tentatively titled LUCY, is about an American backpacker touring Europe; she has a life-changing encounter with a free-spirited street musician.  So music has found its way into this new book too.  After this one, I don’t know if I’ll be able to get away with any more novels that feature rock music and musicians; it might be time to move on to some of my other obsessions.  We’ll see.

check out the other blogs on this tour

Week One

June 17th - Bewitched Bookworms - Review + Interview
June 18th - Jessabella Reads - Guest Post
June 19th - Laurie's Thoughts and Reviews - Interview
June 20th - Romancing the Dark Side - Guest Post
June 20th - Between the Pages - Review
June 21st - Emily's Crammed Bookshelf - Interview
June 21st - A Little Shelf of Heaven - Review

Week Two

June 24th - Parajunkee - Guest Post
June 25th - The Book Belles - Interview
June 25th - The Bookmark Blog - Review
June 26th - Curling Up With A Good Book - Review
June 26th - Ink Skies - Interview
June 27th - BookHounds - Guest Post
June 27th - To Read or Not To Read - Review
June 28th - Tales of the Ravenous Reader - Guest Post

 The Giveaway

A hardcover copy of CATHERINE by April Lindner to THREE (3) winners.

It is a tour-wide giveaway shared across all the stops via a common Rafflecopter.

Giveaway is US only.

Must be 13 or older to enter.

Giveaway ends July 4 at 11:59 p.m.

Winners will be chosen via Rafflecopter and contacted by email.

Mandatory requirement is to leave a comment. Optional entries are to Like the CATHERINE Facebook page, follow the author on Twitter and Tweet (daily) about the tour/giveaway.

All giveaway options are weighted evenly.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

BookHounds Review CATHERINE BY APRIL LINDNER @misadventure123 @LBKids

Book Description

Release date: January 1, 2013

A forbidden romance. A modern mystery. Wuthering Heights as you've never seen it before.

Catherine is tired of struggling musicians befriending her just so they can get a gig at her Dad's famous Manhattan club, The Underground. Then she meets mysterious Hence, an unbelievably passionate and talented musician on the brink of success. As their relationship grows, both are swept away in a fiery romance. But when their love is tested by a cruel whim of fate, will pride keep them apart?


Chelsea has always believed that her mom died of a sudden illness, until she finds a letter her dad has kept from her for years -- a letter from her mom, Catherine, who didn't die: She disappeared. Driven by unanswered questions, Chelsea sets out to look for her -- starting with the return address on the letter: The Underground.

Told in two voices, twenty years apart, Catherine interweaves a timeless forbidden romance with a compelling modern mystery.


About the Author
April Lindner delivers a fresh retelling of the Emily Brontë classic Wuthering Heights in Catherine. She is also the author of Jane and a professor of English at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. April lives with her husband and two sons in Pennsylvania.

SOURCE:  PUBLISHER

MY THOUGHTS
ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT

Chelsea's mother disappears when she is three and all of these years, she has believed that her mother is dead so when she discovers a letter in her father's closet, it drives her to discover exactly what happened all those years ago.  She soon learns that her mother, Catherine,  was part of rock royalty and her grandfather gave starts to musical groups by featuring them at his club,  The Underground.  Her grandfather, now deceased, left the club to Catherine and her older brother, Quentin, who is now a survivalistic gun fanatic with paranoid leanings.  As Chelsea learns more about her mother's family, she decides to go to New York and visit the club in hopes that she might find her mother.  Since the story is told in Catherine's voice from twenty years prior through her diary and present day Chelsea, it becomes apparent that the family wasn't as perfect as she once thought.

At the club, she meets Coop, a young musician who takes pity on her and gives her as help as he can.  Hence, the guy who now owns the club, was once the love of Catherine's life and a former rock prodigy of her father's.  Chelsea has completely avoided her father when she ran away to New York and never really asks her father point blank the truth about her mother or do a basic google search on her.  I adore Coop and the fact that he stands by Chelsea through out her search.  Hence is a completely other subject, he deeply loves Catherine and understands why she left him, but has never gotten over it. His hurt over this is just devastating.

Chelsea's father always thinks he is doing his best to keep this part of her mother's life closed off to her, even though it is next to impossible to keep secrets like this from children.  They always seem to know what is missing and that there are secrets.  Of course this damages their relationship, but in the end, they both grow from the experience.  So, the characters and the plot are based on the original Wuthering Heights with the Underground club as the house and the story is wonderfully plotted out with a surprise ending.  Parents: there is some violent imaginary, some language and some kissing but nothing too graphic.  I can't wait to see what Lindner comes up with next!

Book Trailer Tuesday: JANE by April Lindner

REVIEW: Jane by April Lindner

Product Description

Forced to drop out of an esteemed East Coast college after the sudden death of her parents, Jane Moore takes a nanny job at Thornfield Park, the estate of Nico Rathburn, a world-famous rock star on the brink of a huge comeback. Practical and independent, Jane reluctantly becomes entranced by her magnetic and brooding employer and finds herself in the midst of a forbidden romance.

But there's a mystery at Thornfield, and Jane's much-envied relationship with Nico is soon tested by an agonizing secret from his past. Torn between her feelings for Nico and his fateful secret, Jane must decide: Does being true to herself mean giving up on true love?

An irresistible romance interwoven with a darkly engrossing mystery, this contemporary retelling of the beloved classic Jane Eyre promises to enchant a new generation of readers.

About the Author

April Lindner is an associate professor of English at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. Her poetry collection, Skin, received the Walt McDonald First-Book Prize in Poetry, and her poems have been featured in many anthologies and textbooks. She holds an MFA in writing from Sarah Lawrence College and a PhD in English from the University of Cincinnati. Jane is her debut novel.

Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Poppy (October 11, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316084204
• ISBN-13: 978-0316084208

SOURCE:  AROUND THE WORLD ARC TOURS

ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT

I adored Jane Eyre, so this story done with a washed up rock star as Mr. Rochester seemed a natural for me.  Of course, just like the original this one had me in tears in several parts, but I like a book that makes you feel some sort of emotion.  I always think the author has done an exceptional job if they can create emotions with their written word.  The story follows the original plot of Jane Eyre with a few modern twists.  Jane is still fiercely independent and trying to overcome the horrors of her childhood.

I thought the recasting of Mr. Rochester as a rock star was a stroke of genius.  I mean who else can convey the moodiness of a current character better than a rock star.  There is no questioning why Nico Rathburn is almost bipolar than to make him a musical artist.  Jane comes off vulnerable, yet still strong and develops in a way that she does become Nico's true love.  She doesn't fall into the trap of Rock Star Groupie, but becomes something more.  There are elements of drug abuse and sexual relations so this one is best suited for older teens.  Another rock star romance that I can really recommend!