V Mafia Book Excerpt + Giveaway: Salt and Stone (Fire & Flood, #2) by Victoria Scott

How excited are you for the upcoming (just two weeks away, ahhh!!!) release of the second book in Victoria Scott's Fire & Flood series, Salt & Stone?! 

I can't wait and I can't sit on the awesome goodies that I have in store for you either, thanks to the amazingly brilliant and super talented, Victoria Scott. I've managed to somehow get my hands on a rather enticing and super drool-worthy teaser to tide you guys over until the book comes out ANNNNNND a fantastic giveaway for a signed UK copy of Fire & Flood, a signed galley of Salt & Stone, and some signed swag too!

Pretty super cool, don'tcha think?! :)

Fire & Flood (Fire & Flood, #1) 

by Victoria Scott

Published: February 25, 2014

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Age Demographic: YA Dystopia

Pages: 325

Buy Links: Amazon | B&N

Time is slipping away.... 

Tella Holloway is losing it. Her brother is sick, and when a dozen doctors can't determine what's wrong, her parents decide to move to Montana for the fresh air. She's lost her friends, her parents are driving her crazy, her brother is dying—and she's helpless to change anything.

Until she receives mysterious instructions on how to become a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed. It's an epic race across jungle, desert, ocean, and mountain that could win her the prize she desperately desires: the Cure for her brother's illness. But all the Contenders are after the Cure for people they love, and there's no guarantee that Tella (or any of them) will survive the race.

The jungle is terrifying, the clock is ticking, and Tella knows she can't trust the allies she makes. And one big question emerges: Why have so many fallen sick in the first place?

Salt & Stone (Fire & Flood, #2)

by Victoria Scott

Published: February 24, 2015

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Age Demographic: YA Dystopia

Pages: 320

Buy Links: Amazon | B&N

What would you do to save someone you love?

In Fire & Flood, Tella Holloway faced a dangerous trek through the jungle and across the desert, all to remain a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed for a chance at obtaining the Cure for her brother. She can't quit--she has to win the race, save Cody, and then fight to make sure the race stops before it can claim any more lives. In the next legs of the race, across the ocean and over mountains, Tella will face frostbite, sharks, avalanche, and twisted new rules in the race.

But what if the danger is deeper than that? How do you know who to trust when everyone's keeping secrets? What do you do when the person you'd relied on most suddenly isn't there for support? How do you weigh one life against another?

The race is coming to an end, and Tella is running out of time, resources, and strength. At the start of the race there were one hundred twenty-two Contenders. As Tella and her remaining friends start the final part of the race, just forty-one are left--and only one can win.

NEED A LITTLE BIT MORE ENTICING TO GET YOU IN THE MOOD?! :p

Excerpt from Salt&Stone
by Victoria Scott

I swallow and stare at him in the dark, my entire body itching to feel his touch. When I see the anticipation in his stance, the way he looks at me as if I’m both infuriating and appealing — it makes me feel powerful. But when he takes a step in my direction, that power plummets to some place untouchable. Now I’m a seventeen-year-old girl again, standing in the shadows with someone who feels like he’s lived three lives to my one.

“Come with me,” he orders.

There’s no room for refusal, and I don’t want there to be. He takes my hand to help me step over sleeping bodies, both human and Pandora. When I stumble, he leans over and sweeps beneath my knees. I’m brought into his arms with the same ease I may use to curl a rabbit to my chest. But I’m not such an innocent, silent creature.

I’ve got spirit and fire in spades. Though, right now, as he carries me to the single back bedroom, I have neither. I’m somebody else now. I’m Tella Holloway, Boston girl turned Montana transplant, sitting on the edge of her bed, awaiting her very first date with the boy who makes her parents uneasy. A boy who doesn’t speak nearly enough, but when he does, this girl stops and listens. In my mind’s eye, I’m wearing the silver-sequined dress that’s hibernated in my closet far too long. I feel beautiful and confident, and who cares if he said we’re going to the lake at night? I want to glimpse the look on his face when he sees me. I envision how his entire face will light up as if it’s lit from within. How his full lips will part slightly and his cold blue eyes will soften.

Guy sets me on my feet, and I gaze up at him.

Oh yes. Right there. That’s the look I imagined.

© 2015 Victoria Scott. From Salt & Stone by Victoria Scott, published by Scholastic Inc.
All rights reserved.

The giveaway for a signed UK copy of Fire & Flood, a signed galley of Salt & Stone, and some signed swag. Just fill out the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win this awesomeness!

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About the Author

Website * Twitter * Facebook

Victoria Scott is the author of TITANS (Scholastic, Spring 2016), the FIRE & FLOOD series (Scholastic), and the DANTE WALKER trilogy (Entangled Teen). Her books have been bought and translated in eleven foreign markets, and she is represented by Sara Crowe.

Victoria lives in Dallas with her husband and hearts cotton candy something fierce.

Book Review: Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper

Salt & Storm
Kendall Kulper

Salt & Storm
Kendall Kulper
Published: September 23, 2014
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Age Demographic: YA Historical Fantasy
Pages: 416

A sweeping historical romance about a witch who foresees her own murder--and the one boy who can help change her future.

Sixteen-year-old Avery Roe wants only to take her rightful place as the witch of Prince Island, making the charms that keep the island's whalers safe at sea, but her mother has forced her into a magic-free world of proper manners and respectability. When Avery dreams she's to be murdered, she knows time is running out to unlock her magic and save herself.

Avery finds an unexpected ally in a tattooed harpoon boy named Tane--a sailor with magic of his own, who moves Avery in ways she never expected. Becoming a witch might stop her murder and save her island from ruin, but Avery discovers her magic requires a sacrifice she never prepared for.

To PreOrder Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper 

please visist: Amazon & B&N

(I received an eGalley of Salt & Storm from the publisher's via Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review which I have provided here on the blog and on Goodreads.)

Beautifully written and hauntingly bittersweet, Salt & Storm , will captivate you with its imaginative world and memorable characters. For a debut young adult historical paranormal world, based on loose facts surrounding whaling in the late 1860's, Kendall Kulper knocked it out of the park. There was never a moment when I was bored or uninterested in what was going on in Avery's world. The pain and heartache that went along with her sacrifice at wanting to become the witch, tore at my heart and made me ache with the desperate longing that she felt. You cannot imagine a life so filled with pain, loss, terror, and heartache, such as the one created here. 

I fell in love with the history and life that Kulper breathed into the world of whaling, the lifestyle the townspeople lead, and the history of the Roe Witches on Prince Island. It was deeply rich and incredibly intriguing, watching the the events take place through Avery's eyes, and aching while she longed to get back to her grandmother and that little cottage that her mother took her away from. I was completely fascinated by the fishermen and their superstitions and the lengths they would go to in order to obtain some charm or form of magic that would keep them safe and ensure that they brought back a bountiful amount of goods. In a genre so full of readily available paranormal stories of witches that heavily focuses on the magical aspects, this story was unique in the way that Avery would have to experience insurmountable pain in order to become the witch she was destined to be. It gave this dark chilling fantasy an interesting and original edge, that it needed to keep me buried in the pages. 

Avery is a little different, in the fact that she's a plucky, quick-witted, and determined young woman. She knows that she was born to be the next witch to care for Prince Island and all of the people who live there. She also knew that her mother had put a curse on her, when she had taken away from her grandmother, that was so strong that it wouldn't allow her to return and it would keep anyone from being able to help her. Filled with rage and hatred for her mother, she will stop at nothing in order to ensure that she becomes the next witch and to break her mother's curse, so she can get back to her grandmother. Able to read dreams and tell people their future, she soon meets a beautiful dark skinned man with tattoo's she later discovers hold magical powers of their own. 

Tane is filled with rage, pain, and revenge brewing deep inside of him. Half-dead and on a mission to seek out and kill every man possible that slaughtered his family and destroyed his own island, he is told by this shaman that he will meet a witch and she will be able to help him. That witch is Avery and when he first approaches her to read his dreams and tell his future, he tests her, which does little more than annoy her. Later on down the line, when she is desperate enough and he has convinced her that he will be able to help her break her mother's curse, the two make a bargain with one another. She'll read his dreams and tell his future and he will set about helping her to break the curse. These two were wonderful to read about, with their witty banter, the frustration, the attraction, and the love that poured forth from them were amazing. One of the things that I personally loved, was getting to see Avery through Tane's eyes, and seeing her become the strong woman that he kept telling her she was.

Where Kulper really impressed, was the relationship between Avery and her mother, and the reason her mother had taken her away from her grandmother and that little cottage Avery longed to get back to. It wasn't until closer to the end of the novel that I decided that I didn't hate Avery's mother as much as her mother hated herself. I could see why she had done the things that she did out of love and protection for her daughter, even though it was hard for Avery to see that for herself. Those last few moments Avery spent with her mother, were some of my favorite moments in the book itself. It was just beautifully written and filled with so much bittersweet pain and sorry. The sacrifice that her mother ended up making for her at the end, definitely caused me to tear up a bit. Sweet pain and misery is how you become the witch, there is no choice at the end of the day, your future is set and whatever is going to happen will eventually happen. It was wonderful to see that the Kulper brought this point home in such a poignantly and embittered way. 

Salt & Storm is a wonderfully intense novel, that is just as gorgeous and wonderfilled, as the poetic lyrical way the Prince Island and the sea were illustrated. If you enjoy novels where the author doesn't shy away from putting their characters through sheer hell, then this is the book that you should be reading. I would strongly recommend it, if you enjoy historical paranormal fantasies, that are dark, illusive, dangerous, and full of twists and turns. It was truly one of my favorite reads this year and it is definitely on my auto-buy list, once it's released.

Kendall Kulper

Website Twitter Facebook

Kendall Kulper is the author of SALT & STORM, a Young Adult historical fantasy to be published by Little, Brown in September 2014. She grew up in the wilds of New Jersey and currently lives in Boston with her economist husband, Dave, and Abby, her chronically-anxious Australian Shepherd.

Don't forget to check out her Tumblr, as well!!!

Wishful Wednesday featuring Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper

Wishful Wednesday was inspired by Waiting on Wednesday and Desperately Wanting Wednesday by Breaking the Spine and Parajunkee.

Wishful Wednesday is my own little version of "Waiting On Wednesday". Every week, I'll pick an upcoming book that I'm anticipating the release for and showcase it here on the blog. This week, that book is going to be Salt & Storm by the talented Kendall Kulper. This is her debut novel and already I'm drawn in by the intensely intriguing synopsis. I mean, this looks like it's going to be absolutely fabulous. I'm lucky enough to have an eGalley of this for review that I have already read and reviewed on Goodreads and already I was asolutely sucked into the world that Kendall Kulper has created. 

Guys, dark fantasy, magic, elements, romance...and dangerous twists and turns at every available opportunity. How could you want to miss out on a book this amazing! This one is definitely on my auto-buy list. I'm discovering that I love fantasy and dark fantasy more and more than I usually do. 

Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper

Expected Publication: September 23, 2014

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Age Demographic: YA Fantasy
Pages: 416

Sixteen-year-old Avery Roe wants only to take her rightful place as the witch of Prince Island, making the charms that keep the island’s whale men safe and prosperous at sea. But before she could learn how to control her power, her mother, the first Roe woman in centuries to turn her back on magic, stole Avery away from her grandmother. Avery must escape from her mother before her grandmother dies, taking with her the secrets of the Roes’ power.

When Avery awakens from a dream foretelling her own murder, she realizes time is running short—for her and for the people of her island, who, without the Roes, will lose their ships and the only life they know.

With the help of Tane, a tattooed harpoon boy from the Pacific Islands, Avery plots her escape from her mother and unravels the mysteries of her mother’s and grandmother’s pasts. Becoming a witch may prevent her murder and save her island from ruin, but Avery discovers it will also require a sacrifice she never expected—one she might not be able to make.

To PreOrder a copy of Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper visit Amazon & Barnes&Noble!

Website Twitter Facebook 

Kendall Kulper is the author of SALT & STORM, a Young Adult historical fantasy to be published by Little, Brown in September 2014. She grew up in the wilds of New Jersey and currently lives in Boston with her economist husband, Dave, and Abby, her chronically-anxious Australian Shepherd. 

Also, don't forget to check her out on Tumblr.