Blog Tour: Review and Giveaway! Magic Harvest by Mary Karlik

Magic Harvest by Mary Karlik

Published by: Ink Monster LLC
Publication date: September 18th 2018
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

About the Book

Young fae girls are disappearing.



Layla has never belonged to the fairy realm – at least, half of her hasn’t. She’s never known anyone with human blood, not even her father. When she was three, the dragon Fauth attacked the fairy festival, murdering her fae mum & stepfather. Frankly, some fairies think she should’ve been eaten too.

As she grew, despite being called names like “fuman” for being a half-blood, she’s discovered that being half-human isn’t terrible. She may lack magic, but she is immune to iron sickness, and she can wield a sword with elven skill.



Magic in the human world is disastrous.



Sixteen years later, when Layla’s half-sister is kidnapped and taken through a portal to the forbidden human realm, Layla rushes to the rescue. She’s older and stronger, and she’s not about to let her last living family member be taken from her without a fight.

Only someone who belongs to both worlds can find the truth.



The portal spits her out in the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, but neither her sister or the kidnapper are anywhere to be found. Stuck in a world she only knows from school books, Layla forges unlikely alliances to find her sister. As she becomes tangled in the dark world of fairy trafficking, magic harvesting, and murder, Layla will have to find the strength within if she is to survive and save her sister.

I really like fairies quite a bit, so when I see a book about fairies I like to try the first book in the series. Magic Harvest was a pretty good showing for a fairy book. There is magic and good versus evil and then some in this book. The book follows Layla, a half-fairy/half-human, who is thrown into a rescue mission when her half-sister is fairy-napped but some dark mysterious horseman and dragged into the human world.

Layla is an interesting main character and I could see where some readers might have given up on her early on. She is kind of depressing and honestly after all the fairies and her sister have put her through in the beginning of the book, I am not sure why she even goes after them to save them.  She is very emotional throughout the whole book and in some places it did get a little annoying but the plot of the book was interesting enough to keep me going. 

I liked that Layla had to be the hero to save the fairies and I really liked her interactions with the humans that end up helping her. The evil in the book was a perfect mix of scary, mysterious, and frustrating and I think it all came together well. So overall I think this was a good start to a series - that being said, you can read just this book and isn't a complete cliffhanger to the next book. Instead it offers the opportunity to keep going if you want to. I really like books that do that. 

So if you are looking for a new series, like fairies and magic, and a good versus evil story this one might be for you.

 

Other Purchase Links

B&N /iBooks /Kobo

 

Tour-wide giveaway (INTL)

Signed copy of Magic Harvest + Swag

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the Author

Mary Karlik has always been a dreamer. When she was a teen, she read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and then sat in every wardrobe in her Nanna’s home, trying to open the door to Narnia. She didn’t find it, but she did discover her voice as an author: one filled with her young adult self, and grounded in her roots as a Texan and her Scottish heritage, nourished by obscure Scottish folklore.

You can find her Texas roots in her YA contemporary romance Hickville series , which has been described as “100% solid storytelling,” and begins with Welcome to Hickville High, a “lovely story about growing up.”

She digs deep into her Scottish roots – there is magic there, she just knows it – for the forthcoming YA epic fantasy Fairy Trafficking series, beginning with Magic Harvest.

She makes her home in the beautiful Sangre de Cristo mountains of Northern New Mexico where she is a certified professional ski instructor, but she also loves visiting Scotland where she is currently studying Scottish Gaelic at the University of Highlands and Islands in Skye. Mary also earned her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, has a B.S. degree from Texas A&M University, and is a Registered Nurse.

Mary currently serves as the President of the Young Adult Chapter of Romance Writers of America and looks forward to raising a glass or two of gin and tonic with her fellow writers every year at RWA’s national convention. 

Find the Author

Website ♦︎ Goodreads Author Page ♦︎ Facebook ♦︎ Twitter

 

Blog Tour: Excerpt and Giveaway! Magic Heist by Mary Karlik

Magic Heist by Mary Karlik
(Fairy Trafficking #2) 
Published by: Ink Monster LLC
Publication date: July 9th 2019
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

Click here for a review of book 1: Magic Harvest

About the Book
Layla rescued fairies that had been kidnapped and brought the human world. But now they can’t find their way back to the magic realm and time is running out.

Layla is a powerful fairy with magical ability that stretches beyond throwing spells. But with all that power, she still doesn’t know how to get over one-hundred fairies back to the magic realm. With their magic gone, the rescued fairies have no immunity to protect them from the toxins of the human world, and they’re slowly dying.

To find the path home, Layla knows she must team up with the one man who can make her insides quiver with an accidental brush of his fingertips. The same man who’s alter ego dragon is the natural predator of fairies. The man she knows will give his life to keep the fairies safe—Scotland’s finest Specialist Crime Division leader, Ian Cameron.

Ian has only been a dragon shifter for a few days. He struggles to control the dragon spirit locked inside his human form, doesn’t know what magical powers he may or may not have, and has never been to a magical world. But none of those things frighten him as much as the little spark that ignites in his soul when the half – human fairy is around.

But this little fairy is no Tinkerbell. She is brave, powerful, and can wield a sword like a medieval knight.

With growing feelings toward Layla, he couldn’t refuse to help her get the fairies back to the magic realm if he wanted to. The problem is the dragon who lives inside him would like nothing more than to feed his appetite with all of those little fairies—especially the half human one who killed its leader.

“Mary Karlik, is truly a hidden gem of a writer.” – I Am the Bookworm

The Grass Market wasn’t far from Ian’s flat. But this version of the Grass Market was all wrong—as if she were looking at it through a mirror.
Layla stood in the walk and scanned the row of pubs. Everything was a mirror image. Even the lettering. But unlike the closed pubs on the other side of the mirror. These were brightly lit and teeming with customers.
A door flew open on the White Hart Inn. Laughter and voices shouting over one another spilled out. A kilt-clad elf stumbled from the inn and toward Layla. “Best deals in town. Third booth on the right. It’s not legal, but it’ll ease the boredom of being stuck in this place.” His speech was slurred, and his eyes ticked from side to side in rapid movements. He twirled unsteadily on one foot and staggered down the lane.Layla studied the white stag above the door of the White Hart Inn. Had the coin taken her to the Magic Market? She had to know. And if things got sticky all she had to do was drop the coin in her other pocket and she’d return to—well, wherever the troll had intended.
She stepped up to the wooden door of the White Hart, shifted the coin from her right pocket to her left hand—just in case she needed a quick exit—sucked in a breath, ruffled her wings, and entered the pub.
It was packed. Humans, elves, ogres, and pixies were jammed around the bar waiting for their turn to order.
The bartender looked like a mix of human and ogre. He was taller than Buzzard and had a huge, protruding belly. His lower jaw hung open like an ogre’s, but he spoke with a human accent.She was fascinated that there were so many magical creatures in one place—especially in the human world. Part of her wanted to mix with the elves, to pretend that she was in her own magical world. But what drew her like a moth to a flame, what she really wanted to investigate, was the yellow glow coming from the back of the pub.
As she moved closer to the glow, she saw that it wasn’t a thing or a being. It came from a corridor—like a back alley that seemed to link the row of pubs.
She stopped at the entrance and listened to music echoing off the walls of the buildings and caught glimpses of buskers performing in the distance. It was fantastic. It was wonderful. She couldn’t wait to bring Ian and Finn here.The bartender shouted from behind the beer pull. “You can’t go in if you don't pay.”The crowd in the pub went silent, and she felt all eyes on her.
She squeezed the coin. “I’ll just want a wee look.”“You can’t go in if you don’t pay,” he repeated.“I’m sorry. I don’t have money.” Her wings fluttered nervously.“And don’t try magic. The last person who tried made a mess of things.”“Thanks for the warning.” She craned her neck enough to see a world of booths beyond the confines of the pub. The light was so bright it made everything look as if it were bathed in gold.
She edged closer. Wooden stalls selling a variety of wares lined both sides of the lane. And she hadn’t seen this many magical creatures in one place since she was thirteen, and her Aunt Mauve had taken her to the fairy court.
But this place, this golden passage, was like a compressed version of what she’d seen as a child. This place was packed with gnomes, ogres, trolls, elves—even a unicorn.
Excitement made her wings flutter all the way to the tips. They had saved hundreds of fairies from Fauth. But what about the ones who’d already been sold? Could this be the trail to those fairies? Could this lead to the wand?A pack of ogres shambled their way up the golden corridor. If she was to sneak across the line and fall in with them, maybe she could enter without a fee. She took a deep breath and eased toward to entrance. 

Purchase Links

Amazon / B&N /iBooks /Kobo /Google Play

About the Author

Mary Karlik has always been a dreamer. When she was a teen, she read The Lion,

The Witch and the Wardrobe, and then sat in every wardrobe in her Nanna's home, trying to open the door to Narnia. She didn't find it, but she did discover her voice as an author: one filled with her young adult self, and grounded in her roots as a Texan and her Scottish heritage, nourished by obscure Scottish folklore. 

You can find her Texas roots in her YA contemporary romance Hickville series , which has been described as "100% solid storytelling," and begins with Welcome to Hickville High, a "lovely story about growing up."

She digs deep into her Scottish roots - there is magic there, she just knows it - for the forthcoming YA epic fantasy Fairy Trafficking series, beginning with Magic Harvest.

She makes her home in the beautiful Sangre de Cristo mountains of Northern New Mexico where she is a certified professional ski instructor, but she also loves visiting Scotland where she is currently studying Scottish Gaelic at the University of Highlands and Islands in Skye. Mary also earned her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, has a B.S. degree from Texas A&M University, and is a Registered Nurse. 

Mary currently serves as the President of the Young Adult Chapter of Romance Writers of America and looks forward to raising a glass or two of gin and tonic with her fellow writers every year at RWA's national convention. 

Find the Author

Website /Facebook /Twitter /Instagram /Goodreads Author Page

Tour-wide giveaway (INT)

5 signed copies of Magic Heist with the dragon book marks

5 ebooks of Magic Heist

5 key chains

1 set of both Magic Harvest and Magic Heist signed with a pair of fairy earrings

1 twenty-five dollar Amazon gift card

Ends July 25th

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Tour: Reivew, Guest Post, and Giveaway -- Copper Magic by Julia Mary Gibson

Copper Magic by Julia Mary Gibson

About the Book
Can an unearthed talisman found on the shores of Lake Michigan save 12-year-old Violet’s fractured family? Exploring themes of Native American culture, ecology, and conservation, this historical fiction novel comes brilliantly to life.

The year is 1906, and twelve-year-old Violet Blake unearths an ancient talisman—a copper hand—beside the stream where her mother used to harvest medicine. Violet’s touch warms the copper hand and it begins to reveal glimpses of another time. Violet is certain that the copper hand is magic—and if anyone is in need of its powers, it’s Violet. Her mother and adored baby brother are gone, perhaps never to return. Her heartbroken father can’t seem to sustain the failing farm on the outskirts of Pigeon Harbor, on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Surely the magic of the copper hand can make things right for Violet and restore her fractured family. Violet makes a wish. But her ignorant carelessness unleashes formidable powers—and her attempts to control them jeopardizes not only herself, but the entire town of Pigeon Harbor.

In Copper Magic, land and waters are alive with memories, intentions, and impulses. Magic alters Violet and brings her gifts—but not always the kind she thinks she needs. First-time author Julia Mary Gibson brings Violet and her community to life in this impressive and assured debut.

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE

Format: Paperback ARC
Source: Nerd Tours and Tor for review, this in no way effects my review or opinion of the book.

Rating:

Set in 1906,a young girl named Violet Blake has been having a hard time. Her mother decided to up and leave, taking Violet’s younger brother with her and not explaining to anyone where she was going or why. Violent eventually stumbles upon a mystical artifact, a copper hand, which she believes holds power and magic. It is something new and exciting and when it is take from her along with all hope that her mother will return, she is faced with what could be both life-changing and dangerous decisions.

This book is a gathering of layers of magic and fantasy with historical realism and overwhelming details of life in 1906 and the struggles for the peoples in that period. I found it to be both a bit overwhelming but also beautiful.  This book is being marketed for a young adult audience but I really think that it reads a bit older and that is saying a lot as this is Julia Mary Gibson’s debut novel.

I found the plot to be hurtling forward at times and dragging at others which is why I have not given it a higher rating, but the characters are vibrant and the story overall is a powerful tale. I have seen that some reviewers took the realism and the historical aspects more to heart than the magic and fantastical elements of the story – which is fine. I think that this is one of those books that you can read as a realistic picture with some magic or as purely fantasy. It has a lot more depth than one originally thinks and that is why I enjoyed this book so much.

 

How to create interesting characters...

It's fascinating how readers relate to fictional characters.  We reflect our histories, our wounds, our prejudices, our desires on characters that a writer has drawn for us.  Some readers like to read about characters who are very much like themselves.  I myself prefer the opposite.  I like to read about people and places that are outside my own experience, so that's what I tend to write about, though there is a component of myself in every character I create.

I've rarely written a character who is exactly me or anyone else, but I do use models.  A character might use the same figures of speech as an obnoxious co-worker I once had, or I might honor the memory of an adult who was kind to me as a child by making a character Russian and fierce and dark-haired, as she was.  What makes a character interesting for me is contradiction.  We all want things we resist actually having.  We undermine ourselves.  We're mean to those we can't live without.

For me, light and shadow make well-drawn characters.  P.L. Travers' Mary Poppins is a mesmerizing blend of warmth, chilliness, wisdom, narcissism, sarcasm, and generosity.  Frances Hodgson Burnett's Mary Lennox is a selfish, spoiled girl whose stubborn willfulness transforms into a dogged belief in the secret garden's healing magic.  Holden Caulfield is depressed yet hopeful.  And these characters are memorable too because of the worlds they inhabit.  Mary Poppins lives in the everyday world of the nursery, but she is well-acquainted with the cosmos as well.  Mary Lennox explores the mysterious beauty of the wild moor and also the hidden rooms of her uncle's sad dark house.  Holden rejects the privilege into which he was born and is searching for the world of authenticity that he envisions.  Scout and Jem Finch's small town is both a safe familiar haven and a place where murder is sanctioned.

Characters, of course, do not have to be human.  Place is often a character.  Time can be a character.  Magic can be.  All these things can be crafted to expose dark and light, humor and tragedy, high principles and utter failings.

We need literature to have a certain logic and order, and we are comforted and grounded by familiar elements.  But the more layered and complex the characters in a story are, the more they remind of us of messy, irrational life.

Giveaway is open to International. | Must be 13+ to Enter

 3 Winners will receive a copy of Copper Magic and a Tote Bag by Julia Mary Gibson

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the Author

For a significant chunk of my life I worked with sprocketed celluloid, as a garage animator and in various capacities in the visual effects industry. My colleagues were geniuses and magicians and sorceresses. The work was a blast (sometimes literally – catch me as Frances McDormand’s double in an awesome old-school beamsplitter shot in Sam Raimi’s DARKMAN), but a time came when my own work cried out to be fostered again.

I live in Hollywood, California, surrounded by my four-generation extended family of poets, thespians, dancers, filmworkers, and urban farmers

WEBSITE | TWITTER | GOODREADS | FACEBOOK

 

Building the Book Pile #262

Welcome to Building the Book Pile!  A Weekly meme inspired by Stacking the Shelves

Hello Readers, Bloggers, and Awesome people! 

Another week gone... summer is flying by but that's ok because Fall is my favorite months and I am getting excited for them! Still a lot to do first though. This weekend (and while you are reading this) I am in a Beginner Motorcycle Safety Course - I am learning to ride a motorcycle. Day one went well and today I am in Day two hoping to make it through without freaking out. It is getting more difficult but I think I am doing ok.

Last week I got a lot of reading done but the reviews went up immediately so I need to get more reading caught up ASAP because this upcoming week I work for 2 days then leave to visit family in PA and VA and I have no time to read :/ I am hoping to have some content prepped but we will see.  

Share about your week with me in the comments below!

 

  Giveaways  on Cover2CoverBlog!

 

Coming up on the Blog

Let's Compare: Recent Reads: TV Show - The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket (MG)
Recent Reads: There are No Grown-ups: A Midlife Coming- of- Age Story by Pamela Druckerman (Adult)
Cover Reveal: Sugar Spells (The Spellwork Syndicate #2) by Lola Dodge (YA)

 

Books Received this Week  

I may have visited Netgalley this week, I love children's books :) but I also ended up getting a few in the mail too.

         

 Poppy and Sam and the Leaf Thief by Cathon - from Netgalley and Owlbooks

Giant: A Panda of the Enchanted Forest by Xuan Loc Xuan - from Netgalley and Happy Fox Books 

 Sheets by Brenna Thummler - from Netgalley and Diamond Book Distributors

 Magic Harvest (Fairy Trafficking #1) by Mary Karlik - for Blog Tour with Xpresso Reads

Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge by Lisa Jensen - From Librarything Early Reviewers program and Candlewick press

Children of the Bloodlands (The Realms of the Ancients #2) by S.M. Beiko - from the publisher for blog tour 

Everywhere You Want to Be by Christina June - from a publicist and publisher for review. 

Have you missed anything lately?

Week of July 8 - July 14
Recent Reads: Amulet #6 by Kazu Kibuishi (MG, GN) - 4 stars
Recent Reads: The Language of Spells by Garrett Weyr (MG)- 5 stars
Early Reader Review: Hocus Pocus and the All-New Sequel by A.W. Jantha (YA) - 4 stars
Blog Tour, Guest Post w/ Giveaway: The New Adventures of A.R. Achnid (Youth)

 

Comment and leave me a link to your Round-up/ STS/ Weekly...anything, post and I will happily stop by and say hello!

Happy Reading!

Waiting on Wednesday: Revenge and the Wild by Michelle Modesto

Revenge and the Wild by Michelle Modesto
Publisher: Balzer & Bray
Publication Date:  February 2, 2016

Goodreads Synopsis: 

The two-bit town of Rogue City is a lawless place, full of dark magic and saloon brawls, monsters and six-shooters. But it’s perfect for seventeen-year-old Westie, the notorious adopted daughter of local inventor Nigel Butler.

Westie was only a child when she lost her arm and her family to cannibals on the wagon trail. Nine years later, Westie may seem fearsome with her foul-mouthed tough exterior and the powerful mechanical arm built for her by Nigel, but the memory of her past still haunts her. She’s determined to make the killers pay for their crimes—and there’s nothing to stop her except her own reckless ways.

But Westie’s search ceases when a wealthy family comes to town looking to invest in Nigel’s latest invention, a machine that can harvest magic from gold—which Rogue City desperately needs as the magic wards that surround the city start to fail. There’s only one problem: the investors look exactly like the family who murdered Westie’s kin. With the help of Nigel’s handsome but scarred young assistant, Alistair, Westie sets out to prove their guilt. But if she’s not careful, her desire for revenge could cost her the family she has now.

This thrilling novel is a remarkable tale of danger and discovery, from debut author Michelle Modesto.

Why I Am Waiting:
Another debut, I love the beginning of the book year :). From the synopsis this sounds like a fantasy/western and that seems so fun!

 

Monthly Re-Cap: September 2018

Hello Readers, Bloggers, and Awesome people! 

SOOOOOO in a few days my school term officially starts and that means that this might be the most productive you see me on the blog for a good while. I need to re-learn time management and how to school (insert images of me crying a bit & nervously laughing).

BUT this month was great, I love the beginning of the Autumn season🍂🍁. We went to a corn maze and completed it! We bought some pumpkins - yes already! I started my fall garden cleaning and my house decorations for fall/ Halloween👻🎃  (it is all the same for me lol) and our town had a HOME GOODS open up and I am SOOOOOOO excited to buy all the things for the season. (If only I had more money...🤔)

~~Books I Read in September ~~

   
           

How did I do on my September TBR? 
I finished 3 / 4 books  - not too shabby!

~~Links to Some Reviews~~
Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge by Lisa Jensen (YA) - 5 stars
Magic Harvest (The Fairy Trafficking Series #1) by Mary Karlik (YA) - 4 stars 
Children of the Bloodlands (The Realms of Ancient #2) by SM Beiko (YA) - 4 stars
Nighty Night and Good Night by Michael Smith (Youth) - 3 stars
Uncharted by Erin Cashman (YA) - 5 Stars

Movie Time Review: The House with a Clock in its Walls - 3 stars

~~Reviews Up This Month From Previous Re-Caps~~
Harley and Ivy Meet Betty and Veronica (#1-6) by Paul Dini (Adult, GN) - 2 stars
Anna at the Art Museum by Hasel Hutchings (Youth) -4 stars
The House of Lost and Found by Martin Widmark (Youth) -5 stars
Luke and Lottie: It's Halloween! by Ruthe Wielockx (Youth)  - 4 stars 


Reviews still on their way to you:
 Coming soon in 2018 ...

Up the Mountain Path by Marianne Dubuc (Youth) 
Tiger vs. Nightmare by Emily Tetri (Youth)
This is a Whoopsie! by Andrew Cangelose (Youth)
Hellicious Vol 1 by Mina Elwell (GN, Adult)
Chilly da Vinci by Jarrett Rutland (Youth)
A Valentine for Frankenstein by Leslie Kimmelman (Youth)