Banish BLOG TOUR - Movie Casting

Starting the week with a bang! Next month Harlequin Teen Australia will be publishing the YA debut novel of USA Bestselling Author, Nicola Marsh! I'm not sure whether Banish will be available for those of you in the US but all the Aussies should pick this one up as soon as it hits stores. I'm reading it right now and so far so good (review up soon!). As part of the blog tour, I have Nicola's movie castings for Banish! So these are Nicola's dream picks!

Banish Movie Casting

If a fabulous producer snapped up the option to make BANISH into a movie, here’s my vision of who would play key roles:

RONAN - Zac Efron

ALYSSA - Dakota Fanning

SETH - Luke Benward

ANGIE - Amy Adams

AURORA - Kirsten Dunst

NOAH - Rob Pattinson

TABITHA - Shailene Woodley

MASSIMO - Robert de Niro

SAMMY - Saoirse Ronan

Are you out there, Hollywood?

Because BANISH is ready for you!

About The Author

Bio: USA TODAY bestselling author Nicola Marsh writes flirty fiction with flair.

She has published 40 books, 33 of those with Harlequin, and sold 4 million copies worldwide. Her fun, flirty contemporary mainstream romance BUSTED IN BOLLYWOOD with Entangled Publishing was nominated for Romantic Book of the Year 2012.

Her debut young adult thriller BANISH will release with Harlequin Teen August 2013, and her YA paranormal urban fantasy series kicks off with SCION OF THE SUN, November 2013, with Month9Books.

Her first indie romance, CRAZY LOVE, is a 2012 ARRA finalist.

She’s also a Waldenbooks and Bookscan bestseller, has finalled in a number of awards including the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, RBY, HOLT, Booksellers’ Best, Golden Quill, Laurel Wreath, More than Magic and has won several CataRomance Reviewers’ Choice Awards.

A physiotherapist for thirteen years, she now adores writing full time, raising her two little heroes, sharing fine food with family and friends, and her favorite, curling up with a good book!

She loves connecting with readers online

About The Book

Alyssa has one week to destroy her enemy, save her spirit... and save her soul.

After her ex-boyfriend commits suicide and her mum’s alcoholism sparks yet another psychotic episode, seventeen-year-old Alyssa Wood flees her small hometown of Broadwater and heads to New York City to stay with her bohemian aunt — a Wicca High Priestess.

Alyssa revels in the anonymity of a big city and her new life. Her grades climb, she has a new best friend, and a new guy: the sexy geek Ronan — a saxophone player who prefers jazz to pop.

But her newfound peace is soon shattered when she sees a dead body in one of Ronan’s music clips — and she’s the only one who can see it. Worse still, Alyssa recognises the body that has been murdered a week forward!

Alyssa doesn’t believe in the supernatural...despite her family’s Wicca background. So how will she overcome evil when it’s closer than she thinks?

Badass Bookie xx

Breathe

Review Time! So you guys might have noticed that my blog has looked a little empty these past few weeks...well thats because I've been in Germany! I've been in Germany for the past three weeks and they were honestly the best three weeks of my life! BUT back to the review! Simon and Schuster Australia recently published Abbi Gline's Sea Breeze series and today I bring you the review of the first book, Breathe! You can purchase Breathe from The Book Depository | Fishpond | The Nile | Bookworld. Thanks to Simon and Schuster for the review copy!

(Goodreads) Sadie White's summer job isn't going to be on the beach life-guarding or working at rental booths like most kids her age. With her single mother's increasing pregnancy and refusal to work, Sadie has to take over her mother's job as a domestic servant for one of the wealthy summer families on a nearby island.

When the family arrives at their summer getaway, Sadie is surprised to learn that the owner of the house is Jax Stone, one of the hottest teen rockers in the world. If Sadie hadn't spent her life raising her mother and taking care of the house she might have been normal enough to be excited about working for a rock star.

Even though Sadie isn't impressed by Jax's fame, he is drawn to her. Everything about Sadie fascinates Jax but he fights his attraction. Relationships never work in his world and as badly as he wants Sadie, he believes she deserves more. By the end of the summer, Jax discovers he can't breathe without Sadie.

The Short Story? - While I'm loyal to my YA genre, these sizzling NA novels are definitely my guilty pleasure! Filled with drama, summer and an epic love story, there is little not to love about Abbi Gline's Breathe! Perfect for the summer weather, Breathe is a light, beachy read that will melt your insides. Intense, steamy and exciting, I enjoyed this novel a whole lot more than I'm prepared to admit. I'm not typically a huge romance reader but even I can't resist Abbi Gline's notorious bad boys and happy endings!

The Long Story? - I couldn't put this book down guys, I was carrying this book everywhere with me. Upstairs, downstairs, to school, to sport, out with friends, if there is one book that can turn you into a compulsive reader, it's this one. I didn't really expect to enjoy Breathe because although these romances novels are my guilty pleasure, there is something a little "too" cliched about the rockstar falling in love with the help. However, I absolutely loved this book from cover to cover. The plot was dramatic, easy to pick and filled with steamy chemistry between Sadie and Jax. This series is just such a feel good series, they're light and filled with romance, I didn't expect to come back from reading this with some deep insight on life. These are "just for fun" books and these are the books I would recommend for the summer. Feel good, sizzling, summer romances and no one writes better summer books that Glines. Beautifully written, I thoroughly enjoyed the alternating perspectives between Sadie and Jax, with romance novels like these it's always nice to read the story from both perspectives! Unputdownable, Glines doesn't disappoint with this series debut!

The characterisation was well done although it definitely wasn't the stand out of the novel. I find that the general trend with novels of the NA genre is that while the plots are strong, the characterisation is a little weak. This was seemingly the case with Breathe. I'm not saying I didn't love the characters because I absolutely adored both Sadie and Jax but they almost felt too shiny, the flaws a little too generic. Nevertheless, Sadie was an absolute sweetheart, down to earth, incredibly compassionate and caring and very mature. Jax was your typical bad boy, player due to emotional trauma at a young age but then meets this incredible girl who he falls in love with and then changes all his player ways and happily ever after. That said, I fell head over heels in love with him, the good looks, the sweet personality - boys in books > boys in real life. I also really liked all the other characters that appeared throughout the novel, the small town community as a whole was really good looking and JUST AWESOME. I want to live here!

Breathe definitely won't be everybody cup of tea since we're not all suckers for a good romance but I'm absolutely positive that 99% of you who pick this up will love it to bits from start to finish! I can't wait to read the rest of the series! Well written, great plot and amazing romance, there is honestly nothing that I disliked, it's such a feel good novel, light and fun - this is the perfect beach read! Two thumbs up, this one you won't regret!

What's it Worth? - Break Out the Piggybank

Badass Bookie xx

Belladonna BLOG TOUR - Q & A with Fiona Paul

I'm so excited because today I have the honour of kicking off the Australian blog tour for Fiona Paul's eagerly anticipated sequel to her debut - Venom! Belladonna is coming this July ( this month!!!) from HarperCollins Australia! Super excited for this book because I absolutely adored Venom which I read back in January ( Review - HERE )! I have to pleasure of kicking of the tour with an Q and A with Fiona Paul! So excited, let's hear what she has to say about Belladonna!

Interview with Fiona Paul

Quickies -
Skittles or M&Ms? Both!
Black or white? Black
Coffee or Tea? Coffee. OMG, so much coffee.
Print copies or e-books? Print copies
Dog-ear or Bookmark? Bookmark for where I left off reading, dog-ear for those unforgettable passages I want to refer to later
Cats or Dogs? Kittehs! I love dogs too, but I live in a tiny apartment so...
Reading or Writing? Is this a trick question?
Vampires or werewolves? Vampires
Favourite Harry Potter Novel? I will refer you to this image of my purse - http://twitter.yfrog.com/oen8uatj?sa=0
Have you watched Vampire Diaries? Sadly, no. But one of my friends is forever telling me I need to, so it’s on my list.
Book you most want to see turned into a movie? Other than my books, you mean? Sarah Dessen’s Along for the Ride
Favourite day of the week? Whatever day it happens to be when I turn in something for a deadline
What's your party trick? Taking over the sound system and forcing everyone to listen to a lot of 90s alternative music
Your perfect breakfast consists of – Coffee, OMG, so much coffee

and...

What do you think of Matt Bomer? He has nice hair, but when he dances next to Channing Tatum he kind of fades into the background.

Long Questions -

1) Describe Belladonna in Three Words.

Dark. Sexy. Dramatic.

2) What can readers except in this upcoming ( and totally exciting sequel)?

I keep having to remind myself we’re talking about Belladonna since I’ve been finished with Starling for several months now. Let’s see... readers can expect arrests, executions, a journey to Florence, more Falco, more Luca, more info about the Order and the Book of the Eternal Rose, and a climax scene that may or may not claim the life of an important character.


3) What made you want to write YA?

YA books are my favourite books to read, and the best writing advice--always and forever--is to write the book you want to read. Adult books (and I don’t mean to generalize, I am just stating my perspective) seem to slot neatly into genres—mystery, romance, horror, literary—whereas YA books often encompasses several genres in one. Side note: I love that this file auto-corrected my American spelling of favourite to make it Aussie-approved. Tee hee, it did it again! (It’s the little things that make me smile).

4) Character you feel you can relate best to? Why? 

Falco, because he is sarcastic and tells it like it is.


5) Is there a story behind the names of characters? 

Honestly, not much. Some were chosen by the editorial team. Some were chosen by me. I used webpages with historical Venetian names for the most part, though Feliciana is named after a guy named Feliciano I met on a cruise.

6) Are you planning to write any other books outside the series? 

I have two YA contemporaries—a romantic comedy and a murder mystery--coming out under my own name starting in 2014. Check out THE ART OF LAINEY on Goodreads: HERE

7) Who would play the characters in a movie adaption? 
Some of these people are technically too old for these parts, but whatever, Hollywood loves to cast 30-year-olds as teens, right? I am going to select the following for my Eternal Rose dream-team:

Cassandra: Saoirse Ronan

Siena: Dakota Fanning

Falco: Tyler Blackburn

Luca: Chris Hemsworth

Madalena: Lucy Hale

Feliciana: Amanda Seyfried

Dubois: Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Agnese: Judi Dench

8) Insider's Scoop? (Fun facts about the novel or it's process!) 

One of the scenes in Belladonna is inspired by this USA Today article about the unearthing of a 16th century ‘vampire’ woman: HERE

About The Author

Bio: Fiona Paul is a writer and registered nurse from St. Louis, MO.

(I prefer the short and sweet bio since there's a lot of other stuff to read that's more relevant than my love of coffee or desire to shark dive).

Fiona's Blog: HERE

Fiona's Twitter: HERE

Fiona's FB: HERE

Belladonna on GR: HERE 

About The Book

Cassandra Caravello is trying to forget Falco, the wild artist who ran off with her heart, as she grows closer to her strong, steady fiancé, Luca. But Luca seems to have his own secrets. When he′s arrested by soldiers in the middle of the night, Cass′s life is once again thrown into chaos. She must save Luca, and that means finding the Book of the Eternal Rose -- the only evidence that will prove he is innocent.

So begins her journey to Florence, a city haunted by whispers of corruption, secret soirees and clandestine meetings of the Order of the Eternal Rose. And home to Falco, who′s working for the Order′s eerily stunning leader, the Belladonna herself.

Can Cass trust her heart to lead her to the truth this time?

Nothing is as it seems in this seductive thriller, where the truth may be the deadliest poison of all..

Badass Bookie xx