Guest Post: Class of 2k12 Features Robin Bridges and The Gathering Storm

In April of this year, I was contacted by Caroline Rose about participating in the Class of 2k12. At that particular time my blog was less than three month's old, however, I was thrilled with the opportunity nonetheless. So, I set to work compiling a list of questions that would be circulated between 20 different new upcoming debut author's for 2012 and 15 of them picked between two and three of the questions and wrote their own little guest post to be posted here on my book blog, on the day their books release. The goal is to create as much buzz for these upcoming debut author's and their amazing books as bloggers can, by passing along the information and blogging about them.

Robin's Website | Robin's Blog
Robin's Facebook | Robin's Twitter
Robin's Goodreads | Class of 2k12

Today, I am lucky enough to have the wonderful and amazingly talented Robin Bridges here at my blog featuring her new debut young adult novel, The Gathering Storm, with us which is releasing today and if I were you I would definitely pick up a copy and check it out. It looks like it's going to definitely be a compelling start of an epic journey that will leave you breathless and gasping for more, with each book released in the trilogy. So, please help me make her feel welcome here.

❝The Watchword Featuring❞

Robin Bridges

What type of writing environment or space do you typically do most of your writing in?


I spend most of my time in my cozy computer nook off of the living room. But sometimes I take a big notebook and sit in my car at the beach to plot. My car is my office-away-from-home!

Is there a specific way you go about research when writing your book, such as some of the things that inspired you to write this novel? Did you create a
playlist that helped you set the mood for your writing, were you inspired by other medium's or genres?

The playlist for the Katerina Trilogy consists mostly of Russian composers, like Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Borodin. There are also a few Orthodox hymns and Russian folk songs that would have been familiar to my characters in 1888 Russia. Some of the songs on my playlist are more modern though, like “The Hills of Manchuria”, written in 1905, or Shostakovich’s Second Waltz, which was composed in the 1950’s. And then there are the songs like Rasputina’s “Transylvanian Concubine”, added in just for fun.

The Gathering Storm
By Robin Bridges
Publisher: Delacourte Books for Young Readers
Publish Date: January 10, 2012
Format: Hardback, pp 400
Age Demographic: Young Adult
b&n // amazon

St. Petersburg, Russia, 1888. As she attends a whirl of glittering balls, royal debutante Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, tries to hide a dark secret: she can raise the dead. No one knows. Not her family. Not the girls at her finishing school. Not the tsar or anyone in her aristocratic circle. Katerina considers her talent a curse, not a gift. But when she uses her special skill to protect a member of the Imperial Family, she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue.

An evil presence is growing within Europe's royal bloodlines—and those aligned with the darkness threaten to topple the tsar. Suddenly Katerina's strength as a necromancer attracts attention from unwelcome sources . . . including two young men—George Alexandrovich, the tsar's standoffish middle son, who needs Katerina's help to safeguard Russia, even if he's repelled by her secret, and the dashing Prince Danilo, heir to the throne of Montenegro, to whom Katerina feels inexplicably drawn.

The time has come for Katerina to embrace her power, but which side will she choose—and to whom will she give her heart?

*Summary taken from Goodreads.

❝Watch The Trailer❞



❝To Purchase a Copy❞

Amazon | Barnes&Noble
BooksAMillion | Book Depository

This novel has such a beautiful cover, it's making me feel cold and winter-sy and the model on the cover is absolutely gorgeous. She kind of reminds me of either Bethany Joie Gaelotti or Lyndsy Fonseca. I could totally see either one of these wonderfully talented girls, playing Katerina if this triogy were ever made into a movie.

Thank you, so much Robin Bridges for stopping by the blog and for sharing this wonderful guest post with the rest of us. I wish you a ton of success with The Gathering Storm as it looks like it's definitely going to be a compelling start to a wonderful trilogy, and I absolutely cannot wait to read it. To the rest of my fellow bloggers, I urge all of you to definitely pick up a copy of this book and read it and encourage other's to read it as well.

Guest Post: YA Author's Appreciation Featuring Tiffany of For Those About To Read and Anna Godbersen

❝YA AUTHOR'S APPRECIATION FEATURING❞

ANNA GODBERSEN

By TIFFANY @ FOR THOSE ABOUT TO READ

Ever since I read The Luxe, Anna Godbersen has been one of my favorite authors. She has this magical way of writing that entrances you. Whenever I read her novels, I feel like I’m standing in the room with the characters, experiencing their emotions, and seeing exactly what they do.

Godbersen’s plot lines are always fast paced and exciting. Since she writes historical fiction, all of her settings have an enchanting quality to them. When I read The Luxe, I felt like I was in a magnificent ballroom from 1899 wearing a to-die-for gown. When I read Bright Young Things, I felt like I was experiencing the excitement of the 1920s myself. The lyrical prose sucks you in and the whole thing just feels like a movie! It’s truly magnificent.

Aside from Godbersen’s gifted writing style, her plot lines are all crazy-good. She incorporates love, betrayal, and drama in a very realistic fashion. Some authors feel obligated to put a pretty bow at the end of the novels—Godbersen does not. If there were too many bad things that happened in a relationship for the characters to ever realistically work out their relationship, she lets it die. She doesn’t try to force happiness on her characters. Much like real life, sometimes things work out and sometimes they don’t. That said, it’s practically impossible to predict her plotlines because she has this way of adding things you would never expect.

I didn’t truly appreciate what a master storyteller Godbersen is until I read Splendor, the last book in The Luxe series. Godbersen masterfully plans out her novels and leads the reader on an epic journey. Her books are so artfully written that you don’t see the intricacy of the stories she’s created until a series is complete. Everything is so carefully interwoven and there is purpose in even the most random-seeming act. There are few authors as talented as Anna Godbersen, and she has certainly changed the way I read both YA and Historical Fiction.

❝WATCH THE TRAILER FOR THE BOOKS❞

#033 Waiting On Wednesday: Featuring Grave Mercy by Robin LaFever

"Waiting On" Wednesday (or ya know WoW!) is a nifty little weekly event, hosted by the ever so lovely Jill at Breaking The Spine that puts the spotlight on various new and upcoming book releases that have become the"ohmigod! i gotta have this or i'll just die," eagerly anticipated novels to adorn your shelves.

Grave Mercy
By Robin LaFevers
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
Publish Date: April 3, 2012
Format: Hardback, pp 560
Age Demographic: Young Adult
b&n // amazon

Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.

Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

*Summary taken from Goodreads.

I am already in love with this book and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy. It looks like it's going to be intensely captivating and full of great peril and fraught with danger and just filled with some heart-pounding good ol' forbidden romance. This is exactly right up my alley of brilliant "to reads."