Welcome to Book Haven! I've got an awesome author on the blog to share an awesome guest post with ya'll! Katie Sise, author of the Boyfriend App is dropping by to share some snazzy author insight! Plus, don't miss the epic giveaway! First, here's a little about her book!

The Rules
by Stacey Kade
Published: April 23, 2013
Pages: 416

1. Never trust anyone.

2. Remember they are always searching.
3. Don’t get involved.
4. Keep your head down.
5. Don’t fall in love.

Five simple rules. Ariane Tucker has followed them since the night she escaped from the genetics lab where she was created, the result of combining human and extraterrestrial DNA. Ariane’s survival—and that of her adoptive father—depends on her ability to blend in among the full-blooded humans in a small Wisconsin town, to hide in plain sight at her high school from those who seek to recover their lost (and expensive) “project.”

But when a cruel prank at school goes awry, it puts her in the path of Zane Bradshaw, the police chief’s son and someone who sees too much. Someone who really sees her. After years of trying to be invisible, Ariane finds the attention frightening—and utterly intoxicating. Suddenly, nothing is simple anymore, especially not the rules…

Welcome to the Deeper We Fall blog tour! I've got an awesome guest post and giveaway so stick around. But before we get to that awesome, here's a little info on the books and the author!

Two years after her best friend was involved in a car accident that caused a traumatic brain injury, Lottie Anders is ready to start her freshman year of college. Ready to move on. Ready to start forgetting the night that ripped her life apart. Her plans come to a screeching halt when not one, but both brothers responsible for the accident end up back in her life again. Zack is cruel, selfish and constantly rubbing what happened to her friend in Lottie's face. Zan is different. He listens to her awkward ramblings. He loves "To Kill a Mockingbird" as much as she does, and his dark eyes are irresistible. His words are few and far between, but when he does speak, she can't help but listen. The trouble is, Zan was the driver in the accident, and now Lottie's discovered he lied to her about what happened that night. Now she must decide if trusting him again will lead to real forgiveness, or deeper heartache.

Echo 
Alicia Wright Brewster  
Publication: April 25th 2013
Genre: YA Sci-Fi

The countdown clock reads ten days until the end of the world. The citizens are organized. Everyone's been notified and assigned a duty. The problem is . . . no one knows for sure how it will end.

Energy-hungry Mages are the most likely culprit. They travel toward a single location from every corner of the continent. Fueled by the two suns, each Mage holds the power of an element: air, earth, fire, metal, water, or ether. They harness their powers to draw energy from the most readily available resource: humans.

Ashara has been assigned to the Ethereal task force, made up of human ether manipulators and directed by Loken, a young man with whom she has a complicated past. Loken and Ashara bond over a common goal: to stop the Mages from occupying their home and gaining more energy than they can contain. But soon, they begin to suspect that the future of the world may depend on Ashara's death.

Inky's Blurbings:
I've really enjoyed this book. It's fun and it's a very interesting take on a fantasy apocalypse. At least that's what it feels like to me. It's set on a new earth, with the apocalypse coming in just ten short days, yet there is quite a big of elemental magic if you will. I thought it was interesting to see how some of these common powers were adapted and made to fit this book. The concept of Mages and how they oppose the rest of the good working 'magicians', so to speak.

We find our MC, Ash living a normal life when out the blue she's thrust into this world because she supposedly has a great power, yet she's never known about it. Ash is a strong female lead. She knows what she wants, and she can be somewhat stubborn, but she also has a brain. She can be a little rash in her comments, but she also knows when not to say something. I really liked her. She's easy to connect with, and has a very nice narrative voice.

The romance is a little funky, but it's really sweet. It was an interesting predicament from the beginning and I liked watching it progress and change. Hehe. Loken is pretty cool. I loved his powers. It was just so neat to learn all the cool these these peeps could do. Overall, this is a fun book. It moves along at a clipping pace and is full of magic with a dash of romance on the side. If you like fantasy and some apocalypse, then you should totally pick this one up!

About the Author:

Alicia Wright Brewster is a mild-mannered lady of average height and above average paranormal obsession. By day, she works in an office. At night she is an author, an electronics junkie, and a secret superhero.

In her virtually non-existent free time, she loves to read, watch movies, and eat food. She is particularly fond of the food-eating and makes a point to perform this task at least three times per day, usually more.

CLICK ME to find the full tour schedule! 

And that is all the awesome for you today! Thanks to Giselle for hosting the awesome tour! What are your thoughts loverlies?  

Taken
by Erin Bowman
Published: 4.16.13
Pages: 360

There are no men in Claysoot. There are boys—but every one of them vanishes at midnight on his eighteenth birthday. The ground shakes, the wind howls, a blinding light descends…and he’s gone. They call it the Heist. Gray Weathersby’s eighteenth birthday is mere months away, and he’s prepared to meet his fate–until he finds a strange note from his mother and starts to question everything he’s been raised to accept: the Council leaders and their obvious secrets. The Heist itself. And what lies beyond the Wall that surrounds Claysoot–a structure that no one can cross and survive. Climbing the Wall is suicide, but what comes after the Heist could be worse. Should he sit back and wait to be taken–or risk everything on the hope of the other side? 

Inky's Blurbings:
If this cover didn't draw you into an obsession, then I will be shocked. Because that's exactly what it did for me. I absolutely adore the cover and the vision it gives for the book. So it breaks my heart to admit that the cover is the best part of this book. As it got closer to the release for this book, I began to see a lot of less-desirable thoughts on this book. Of course I was really hoping I wouldn't follow the flow of that, and that I'd really like the book. But alas and alack, it was not to be so.

For starters, we have Gray. From the start, you are in the head of a guy who is pretty rash and easily swayed by his emotions. In some ways, it can be annoying, but I let it pass. It felt natural with the things he was dealing with. Now jump ahead 30% into the book. Instead of a boy who acts on impulse, we now have a big fat jerk. He ticked me off so much. I don't know what happened but he was becoming rude in places he didn't need to be! It was kinda shocking.

For example: [mild spoiler]
{Gray was just put before a council where a vote would be made whether he lives or dies. He's given his life, but after that, when one of the people who voted NAY did something, and another council member defended him, he just scoffs and has the nerve to be angry.} What the heck?! You just got your life and you're not letting it brush off? Oh and then there is the fact that he's always getting angry as his first reaction. Get a life bro. Point is, his attitude when from passable to jerkface. Not very impressive. 

The other main issue I had was the love plot. Two words: Insta-Love. It was SOOO obvious to me. By 25% into the book the L word is used. Before that THERE WAS NO DEVELOPMENT AT ALL. Basically he likes a girl. She doesn't like him that much. They go on a "date". On that "date" she starts to be nicer to him. Then we have maybe a few more pages of describing that they hung out a lot and little more than that...and then BAM. They are kissing.


Now let's talk pacing. This book felt REALLY rushed to me. And not just in the romance. You know that intensely exciting premise that fits perfectly well with the gorgeous cover? Yeah that's over before we even hit the 25% mark. Way. Too. Easy. To elaborate more, I was missing details. Yes in the romance building, but also in the world building. We're in Claysoot for such a short time that I didn't get enough ground before she throws a few curveballs at us.

And that's another thing. This book was WAAAY predictable. I figured out a few major revelations a while before it happened. Because of that, it felt like the book lacked depth for me. Lots of things are happening but I wasn't feeling anything. It was words on a page. Not events and actions in a story.

Lastly, the only other thing I really want to touch up on was the plotting and elements of the story. It was very interesting to me because of the Claysoot Heist we read about in the premise. But since that's all over so quick, this plot looses a lot of it's originality. So many things just screaming cliche to me. I mean [mild spoiler] a rebel base hidden in a valley? How often has that happened before? Just things like that were kept at the very basic dystopian level so I missed out on a lot of cool and exciting things.

But enough sad negative stuff. This story, despite my dislike, was interesting enough to keep me reading past the halfway mark. I didn't get far enough into the love triangle to have anything to say on that, but heck, I already know Bree is the best. Bree for the win!!! And with that, I shut the door on book with a sad heart. I really hope you like this more than me. I know some people love it! So if you're hoping to love it, keep those awesome hopes up for it. Don't let my bummed-out-ness drag you down....

Content: Mild
[some mild language-innuendo-drinking]
So, those are my thoughts, but what about you? Did you like this better? Do you plan to like this better?  Let me know! XX,

So you may have seen the word Nator floating around on Twitter or the like. Maybe you've wondered what the heck it means? Or who it stands for. Well I'll tell you!

One of my favoritest bloggy peeps in the world, Jessi from Auntie Spinelli Reads [who's blog you must check out and follow] and I were making up random nicknames one day and ended up adding NATOR to our names. Because obviously, we could totally be superheroes. Point is, we call ourselves the Nators.

So now you might be wondering what the heck this has to do with you. I'll tell you! This shiny baby is the brain child of the Nator twins:


And now it's time for a Future Frequently Asked Questions session! 

What is Nators Discuss?
An awesome new meme that happens once a month on the second Saturday of every month.

What's the point of it? 
For Jessi and I to splurge all our bookish opinions at the world in the form of a discussion

Wait, do you mean literal discussion? 
YEP! We'll chat it up and then post it for your enjoyment. -After adding in a few gifs of course-

What will you talk about? 
Any book related topic.

Can I request a topic? 
YES YOU CAN!!! You  can leave a comment on THIS POST, or on JESSI'S POST, or you could fill out the FORM below!!!



That's all for today! We'll be kicking it off in May so stay tuned! Lots of love!

Let The Sky Fall
by Shannon Messenger
Published: 3. 5. 13
Pages: 416

Seventeen-year-old Vane Weston has no idea how he survived the category five tornado that killed his parents. And he has no idea if the beautiful, dark-haired girl who’s swept through his dreams every night since the storm is real. But he hopes she is. Seventeen-year-old Audra is a sylph, an air elemental. She walks on the wind, can translate its alluring songs, and can even coax it into a weapon with a simple string of commands. She’s also a guardian—Vane’s guardian—and has sworn an oath to protect Vane at all costs. Even if it means sacrificing her own life. When a hasty mistake reveals their location to the enemy who murdered both of their families, Audra’s forced to help Vane remember who he is. He has a power to claim—the secret language of the West Wind, which only he can understand. But unlocking his heritage will also unlock the memory Audra needs him to forget. And their greatest danger is not the warriors coming to destroy them—but the forbidden romance that’s grown between them. 

Inky's Blurbings:
Oh my goodness. This was an amazing book. I've been anticipating this windy day romance for-like-EVER, and boy did it live up to my expectations. It was beautiful, engaging, and romantic with a side of swoon. Everything I ask for in a book.

The story is told from the perspective of our dual narrators Vane and Audra. Audra is a sylph, an air elemental who also happens to be Vane's guardian. She's got a pretty broken past, and her character is pretty rough to begin with. And let me just say, I absolutely loved her. Her flaws, her problems, her sarcasm, her strengths. It was so awesome watching her breeze by as she changed and hit walls and began her path to redemption. What's especially cool, at least to me, is the other fact that she's Vanes guardian. FOR ONCE,  it's a girl. Okay, so maybe it's more common then that, but seriously. Audra is a force of nature! Pun intended. Hands down, I loved her.

Vane, our second narrator, is also kind of AWESOME. He starts out on a very different level, and page than Audra, but he's still so amazing! He has to take in a lot of information, and his emotions went back and forth quite a bit. Yet, it worked. Both of the characters share quite the emotional roller coaster and it made them stronger and just endearing in a way. I could totally FEEL them. But back to Vane. He was also, a teensy by hot. Okay a LOT. I loved him. His thoughts cracked me up quite a bit. And with Audra they are the BOMB!!! Or should I say, a TORNADO? Seriously! The romance picks up and there's already been a sort of connection between them and it just grows into something, ahem, swoon worthy. I loved it all.

The story itself is one that isn't very action packed from the start. It's a quiet build that crescendos into an epic finale. So if you're looking for an action packed story, this isn't the one you need. However there is lots of internal conflict and as said, that build of conflict is enough to keep you on your toes. I will tell you that I wasn't officially grabbed until maybe 40% in. I really liked it but when that crescendo hit, I was never gonna be going back again. By the end I was so hooked into the story I couldn't stop. Not to mention It was late at night and I didn't even start to get tired, like I normally do. My whole brain was engaged. And the END. Wow. My heart, shall I say, felt attacked by a whirlwind? More revelations, swoonyness, action and just awesome. I love it. Shannon had a great style of writing, that is unique, while not being overly strange or hard to read. It's quite easy to slip into the shoes of Vaudra. [yes I just gave them a mash name].

So...have we learned anything from this review? I am GONE WITH THE WIND over this book. I don't even know if that pun works but whatever. This book picked me up, I start on a small breezey draft and then I flew into the tornado. It was awesome. Needless to say I am pining for book two. I can't wait 11 months FOR MORE VAUDRA. The ending, while not a cliffhanger was still wrenching in a way. *flails* Okay, I'll shut up now. Bottom Line: GO. READ. THIS. BOOK. Now.

Content: Mild
[a few instances of light language and innuendo. A few kisses.]

Aaaack! So it's obvious I loved this book. But what about you? Share you thoughts! I'd love to hear them! XOXO,

The Prisoner of Cell 25 (Michael Vey #1)
by Richard Paul Evans
Published: 8.9.11 by Simon Pulse
Pages: 326
*read a LONG time ago*

My name is Michael Vey, and the story I’m about to tell you is strange. Very strange. It’s my story. To everyone at Meridian High School, Michael Vey is an ordinary fourteen-year-old. In fact, the only thing that seems to set him apart is the fact that he has Tourette’s syndrome. But Michael is anything but ordinary. Michael has special powers. Electric powers. Michael thinks he's unique until he discovers that a cheerleader named Taylor also has special powers. With the help of Michael’s friend, Ostin, the three of them set out to discover how Michael and Taylor ended up this way, but their investigation brings them to the attention of a powerful group who wants to control the electric children – and through them the world. Michael will have to rely on his wits, powers, and friends if he’s to survive.

Inky's Blurbings:
It's been a while since I read this book, but one thing stays the same. I loved it. I'd read some of Evans's other books and really liked them. So I was psyched to hear about this new book, his first specifically FOR YA! Boy did it deliver. Everything about this novel deserves and A+.

For one thing, he can write. His words suck you in till you literally can't tear your eyes away or stop turning pages. From page one you are hit with this story that blows your mind. The twists and turns and idea behind this novel are phenomenal. Electric. I was so into this book. I've read sci-fi before, but this one was just IT. It had everything. An AMAZING BAD GUY. A crazy good plot/society/goal/etc. Side-kicks you love, humor, a fabulous MC, and a dash of romance. It's like a recipe for awesome.

Michael is told in 1st person, but occasionally you'd get a chapter snippet told in 3rd from the Villin's perspective. But it wasn't totally out of there. The way he places these little bouts made the book a whole lot more interesting and brain-glueing. :D Michael, the MC, felt real, alive and legit. He had weaknesses, physical and emotional, and his voice stood out.

Honestly guys, if you pick this book up you're in for a ride you won't want to put down, or forget. So just go buy these books. :D

Content: CLEAN READ!

Thoughts? Do you like RPE's books? Have you read this one? Do you want to? Sci-fi anyone? Review of Book 2 to come soon! XOXO,

HELLO *glances around* I FINALLY GET TO ATTACK TWSNBI'S (Thou Who Shall Not Be Inked) BLOG! WOOHOO.

{Inky Side Note: Yes that is my awesome-sauce Nikki-Name}

SO TODAY, since Inky is 1/5 of the Merp Squad, I decided to talk about...


Okay, well. I'm going to talk in general about bloggy friends. Then I'm going to full out squeal about the Merp Squad. [which will be explained.]

SO BLOGGY FRIENDS ARE...

• Wonderful
• Amazing
• Always there for you
• Understand your suffering
• Will squeal with you
• Will fight with you over YA boyfriends

Seriously. THEY ARE SO AMAZING. My non-online friends are super amazing too, but they just don't get it when I get a certain ARC or reach a number of blog followers. They can't rant with me about this or that happening in a book or how swoony this YA boy is (Okay, well a few can, but only once in a while).


They can't argue with me about who's better *coughs* MORPHEUS, INKY, MORPHEUS *cough* and they don't understand the SQUEALING that happens when an author talks to you! THOSE are reserved for ze bloggy friends. And they're perfect for that! My bloggy friends have pulled me from the brink so many times and I just want to fly to everyone's house and smother them in a group hug. WHICH ONE DAY I SHALL DO. [is this a threat?! ;)] We're totally going to have a party one day. It will be of epic proportions.

button via Jessi! <333

SO THE MERP SQUAD......
{Inky: It should probably be explained what the Merp Squad is. It's nothing more than 5 bloggy friends who've all at one point or another been hooked on the word Merp. Therefore they have decided to call themselves the MERP SQUAD. Now back to Nikki!!!}


FIRST OF ALL IS INKY! [that would be me]
SHE IS ONE AMAZING PERSON. She's super fun to talk to and definitely knows how to start an argument *cough cough* We battle over transportation (i.e. Morpheus vs. Jeb from Splintered by A.G. Howard) but we also fangirl. LOTS. I don't talk to her as much *pokes* but I SERIOUSLY wish we talked more! SERIOUSLY. She also seems full of irony and dry humor. But I'm probably way off. I like to read people. But I often do so wrongly. :P

EILEEN FROM SINGING AND READING IN THE RAIN
My best friend! Who I talk and stalk every day without fail. We go from bookish talks, to stalkery talks, to random fun talks. I've also been on her blog a...few times. SHE'S ABSOLUTELY AMAZING AND I LOVE HER SO VERY MUCH. She's hilarious and can talk about the most random things! We're crazy partners! (And fangirl partners of course!)

ANNABELLE FROM SPARKLES AND LIGHTNING
She's super super super nice and super pretty. She's pretty much the more poised one out of all of us, methinks. She's SUPER generous with giveaways and presents (EVEN WHEN I'M A HORRIBLE PERSON) and she's just SUPER fun to talk too! I ADORE her and I need to start stalking talking to her more often!

JESSI FROM AUNTIE SPINELLI READS
MY TEAM MORPHEUS TEAMMATE. Super fun, super bubbly, super CAT LOVING. She has, what? 4 cats? And oh my gosh, THE FLUFFINESS. She's the super techy one! Sort of! But she's AWESOME at ze designs and totally awesome. Also, JERRIT.


Give it up for THE NIKSTER!!!! Thanks so much to this awesome gal who volunteered to come spam her awesomeness on my blog!!! You all need to go visit her if you haven't. She has fantastic reviews and lots of squeals! [click button up top]. And don't forget to have an awesome Monday! XOXOXO,