Book Blitz: Shattered Worlds (Giveaway)

Welcome to the book blitz for Shattered Worlds, a Young Adult Dystopian box set! This box set was published February 26th 2014.

Shattered Worlds
Read these bestselling tales of survival against the odds, dark worlds, dystopian regimes and heroic rebels.

Shattered Worlds features six full-length novels from bestselling authors. Immerse yourself in post-apocalyptic civilizations and bleak near-futures where hope still lives.

Featured authors and books are:

Elle Casey: Apocalypsis, Book 1: Kahayatle
My name’s Bryn Mathis. I’m seventeen years old, and I live in a neighborhood outside of Orlando, Florida. I live alone because my dad died almost a year ago, along with all the other adults in the world. I’m almost out of food and the gangs of kids that roam around my town are getting more vicious by the day. It’s time for me to leave and find another place to live ... a place where I can find food and shelter ... a place where they won’t be able to find me. Alone, it might have been possible; but now I’ve got company. I’m worried that I don’t have what it takes to get from here to my final destination. And I have no idea what might be waiting for me when I get there.

**May not be suitable for younger, middle grade readers.**

Shalini Boland: Outside
A pulse-pounding dystopian tale set in post-apocalyptic Britain: Riley has always wondered what lies beyond the high-security perimeters of her community. But when tragedy forces her into the outside world, she can’t believe what awaits her...

*Suitable for adults and teens aged 13+*

Zoe Cannon: The Torturer’s Daughter
Becca has never questioned what she’s learned in Citizenship class: dissidents want to tear the country apart, and people like her mother are the only thing keeping them at bay. Until her mother executes Becca’s best friend’s parents as dissidents, and Becca learns a secret that changes everything...

Scott Cramer: Night of the Purple Moon
Abby, 13, is looking forward to watching the moon turn purple, unaware that deadly bacteria from a passing comet will soon kill off older teens and adults. She must help her brother and baby sister survive in this new world, but all the while she has a ticking time bomb inside of her--adolescence.

*Parental discretion advised for readers 13 and under*

Sarah Dalton: The Blemished
A beautiful world comes at a price...

The Blemished is a frightening take on a fractured future where the Genetic Enhancement Ministry have taken control of Britain. It will take you on a ride filled with adventure, romance and rebellion.

Katie French: The Breeders
Sixteen-year-old Riley Meemick is one of the world’s last free girls. When Riley was born, her mother escaped the Breeders, the group of doctors using cruel experiments to bolster the dwindling human race. Her parents do everything possible to keep her from their clutches-- moving from one desolate farm after another to escape the Breeders’ long reach. The Breeders control everything- the local war lords, the remaining factories, the fuel. They have unchecked power in this lawless society. And they’re hunting Riley.
Age: Young Adult
Book links: Goodreads * Amazon * B&N * Kobo * Smashwords

Guest Post

How to Get Over Bad Reviews (or Where is Kelly Clarkston When I Need Her?)
By Katie French

To put it mildly, rejection sucks worse than a vampire with emphysema. If you are like me, you hate the sting of someone putting you down, of knowing you didn’t meet expectations. I think writers in general are sensitive souls, the kind who can read eighty glowing reviews with a shrug, but if one bad one comes rolling in, they fold like card tables after Bingo night. The bad review has to be the only honest review, right? The rest of those reviewers were being nice or smoking the happy crack when they wrote them. Cue the soul-crushing, chocolate-bingeing depression.

I am a special kind of sensitive. I am what you might call a people pleaser. When I was a child if I did something bad, I often put myself in my bedroom before my parents could. All my caring father had to do was raise his voice in anger and I would burst into uncontrollable sobbing. And I never once received a detention or suspension. I cannot stand if I displease someone or they are unhappy with me. It makes my stomach churn, my pits sweat (thank you extra-strength deodorant) and my mind lock up. I’ll do anything I can to make it right.

So, when I read bad reviews, a kind of self-loathing blackness descends. Let’s look at a few, just for self-torture’s sake. These are for The Breeders and Nessa: A Breeders Story. (Not that you’ll likely want to buy them after reading these.)

“I wish I could give this zero stars. I just could not get into this book. I wanted to, but it was just not well written.”

“...as I get about 40% in I see some almost racist typecasting and it makes me disgusted that the author felt the need to do such a thing. It almost appears as though mexicans, native americans or even arabic muslims are being depicted as barbaric and evil people. The use of language that the author uses for the Riders is blatant and I am almost regretting that I paid her money for this.”

“What a worthless story. Usually I find these stories add or clarify something from the main book. This did not. I'm not sure what the point of it was. And it was RIFE with errors. It's only 39 pages! Give me a break.”

Yeah. Bring on the chocolate and sweatpants. I’m going to bed.

In all seriousness, we all need to learn to adapt to rejection. Writing, like other creative pursuits, invites critics. We ASK people to review and openly critique our work on view for the world. So, what do we do to handle it? Here are some of my unproductive rejection-fighting techniques.

1) Curl up into a ball, curse my life and decide I’m a brainless dolt who’d do better writing copy for laundry detergent bottles.

2) Imagine slow, painful torture to those who oppose me. Search through their reviews for spelling errors and laugh heartily when I find them.

3) Watch a lot of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Drink.

Then, when I want to come out of my funk, I try these.

1) Hit the gym. Pump some butt-kicking music (i.e. Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne and the like). Run until I feel like a person again. Punch something, hopefully a bag.

2) Reread the good reviews. Force myself to believe that all these people were not all drinking the same hallucinatorily upbeat Kool-aid.

3) Watch more It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Drink.
Either way, my motto is never give up. Write until those critics have nothing to say. Write until they have to admit that your next book wasn’t so “eh” after all. Just write. In the end, it’s all about how fulfilled I, not my critics, feel at the end of the day.

So, what about you? What do you do to kick rejection in the hiney?
~~~

By entering the giveaway, you are accepting my giveaway policy.
Blitz-wide giveaway (3 Prizes - open intl):
60$ Amazon card + ebooks from all the authors
eBooks from all the authors
Sequels of the books featured in Shattered Worlds
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Yours,




This book blitz was organized by Xpresso Book Tours. The giveaway is sponsored and administered by the author.

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