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,