They Walk Among Us - WRI Reviews: Outsiders by Tammy Freebie

@tammyferebee #bookreview #outsiders #loners #ya

Outsiders by Tammy Freebie
Pages: 340
Publisher: Self Published
Source: Author
Format: mobi
Rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Synopsis:

Something greater than human…

Jaylen Hayes knows that she is different from all other seventeen-year-old girls. Possessing extraordinary intelligence, she is also uncannily powerful and inexplicably hated by wild animals. But it is not until she transfers to Trinity High that she learns the truth about who—and what—she really is.

Instinctively drawn to two new classmates—the intense and passionate Indigo, and the charismatic and breathtakingly gorgeous Michael—Jaylen soon learns the shocking secret of their shared heritage, and the bloodline that extends to the stars. However, all is not what it seems, and Jaylen soon finds her newfound security threatened when a trusted friend becomes a dangerous and vengeful enemy. 

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My Review

I'm liking this story. I wasn't sure what to expect from this. The summary didn't give much away so you find out why the characters consider themselves outsiders. We are given the reason why but it was never really explored. I am guessing that it part will be fleshed out more in a book 2. Until then, we are left wondering what are they, where they are from, how did they get here, and why are they here.

The book focus mostly on a love triangle. Yes, I know. A freaking love triangle. No worries. It isn't just thrown in there. The triangle is a major part of this novel. So here's the scoop. Jaylen is different. She doesn't know what it is but she doesn't feel any kind of connection to most people. Her mother being one of the few exceptions. 

With her mother dead, Jaylen is forced to live with someone else and go to a new school. For the first time, she feels this strange pull to a girl she later learns is named Indigo. Later on in the day she meets Michael. She felt the pull but it was intensified. Soon she learns that not only did they felt the pull too but that they are what she is. Unfortunately, things soon change when Indigo love is not reciprocated by Michael. Now love turns into a fatal attraction and things will never be the same again.

This is a book for people who are looking for a ya read that is more on the thriller side. You have attempted murder, a love triangle, a fatal attraction, super powers, a cast of people of color, and two bisexuals. Book 2 seems like it will have more action and possibly an answers as to what Jaylen is.

Noteable:
Love the Grease outfits and even more happy that they were Keneckie and Rizzo. Rizzo is my girl. She sings one of my fav songs from the film "There are worse things I could do."

“Who?” Eugene asks. “You and Warren.”“No. I’m Johnny Castle. He’s the dude from Grease.” - should be Dirty Dancing Oops so I read this wrong. One character states that he is Johnny Castle and states that the other is the guy from Grease. So not a typo or mistake by the author but one made by me.

About the Author
Tammy Ferebee, or Tams to her friends, lives and writes in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the proud mother of two, has always enjoyed reading, and of course, has a deep love for writing.

She enjoys spending time with her family, going on road trips, fishing, dancing, eating unhealthy amounts of chocolate, wearing slippers in and out of the house, and watching re-runs of The Walking Dead.

Author Links

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WRI Reviews: ZIA: The Teenage Zombie and the Undead Diaries by Angela Scott

@ascott_author @NereydaG1003 #bookreview #zombie #livingdead

ZIA: The Teenage Zombie and the Undead Diaries by Angela Scott
Pages: 251
Publisher: Black Pines Press
Source: YA Bound Book Tours
Format: ePub
Rating: ☆ ☆ ☆

Blurb:
Zia would give anything to be a typical teenager... again. Heck, she’d settle for being a vampire or smelly werewolf, but a member of the walking dead? The lowliest of all the monsters? No way! Nothing is worse than being a skin-sloughing, limb-losing, maggot-housing, brain-craving undead girl. Nothing.

It wouldn’t be so bad if humans didn’t insist on “Living Impaireds” wearing bands to keep their insatiable appetites in check. And if LIs want to coexist with humans, then rules must be followed, no matter how ludicrous they might seem. Why do undead teenagers have to go to high school anyway?

Zia does her best to blend in and go unnoticed, but when a new group of LIs are bused in from another school and she finds herself part of a growing horde, all bets are off.

Besides, rules are meant to be broken—especially when an unbeating heart is pulled in two different directions.

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My Review
I really want to read this book. I thought the premise was cool. A story about a girl who is a zombie but still has to go to school. I mean you would think that once you've died you wouldn't have to do the school thing. I would have liked to have been told how the whole LI (living impaired) thing started. How did LI's go from not existing, to existing, to being able to integrate into human society?

I have to admit that I wasn't sure about this book. The first half of the book wasn't doing a thing for me. I'm the type of reader who rarely quit a book. So I soldiered on and midway through the book finally got a bit of action. Thank goodness too because I was close to writing it off and putting it on my very limited DNF list. Here's why.

The first part of the book is Zia complaining about being a zombie. Yeah I know, being a zombie sucks but to have a character complain so much doesn't build sympathy it just annoys. I mean it was at every turn. The mood of the book at that point was just plain tedious. It's hard to get through a book when you don't care that much for the main character.

However, like I said midway through things picked up. A love triangle develops. Toward the end is when the story gets interesting. Go figure huh. Lives are put in danger. She learns who killed her in the first place. She has to come to terms with things that have happened to her and things she have done. In the end, she becomes a less annoying character.

The end is the reason why this book get 3 stars and not two. Even though this book turned out to be okay I will probably not read any others in the series. If you are looking for a different type of zombie book then give it a try but be warn that it may take some time to get into.

About the Author
I hear voices. Tiny fictional people sit on my shoulders and whisper their stories in my ear. Instead of medicating myself, I decided to pick up a pen, write down everything those voices tell me, and turn it into a book. I’m not crazy. I’m an author.

For the most part, I write contemporary Young Adult novels. However, through a writing exercise that spiraled out of control, I found myself writing about zombies terrorizing the Wild Wild West—and loving it. My zombies don’t sparkle, and they definitely don’t cuddle. At least, I wouldn’t suggest it.

I live on the benches of the beautiful Wasatch Mountains with two lovely children, one teenager, and a very patient husband. I graduated from Utah State University with a B.A. degree in English, not because of my love for the written word, but because it was the only major that didn’t require math. I can’t spell, and grammar is my arch nemesis. But they gave me the degree, and there are no take backs.

As a child, I never sucked on a pacifier; I chewed on a pencil. I’ve been writing that long. It has only been the past few years that I’ve pursued it professionally, forged relationships with other like-minded individuals, and determined to make a career out of it.

Author Links

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2016 Dystopia Reading Challenge

Hosted by Centerfolds and My Soul Called Life

There are New Badges, Quarterly Giveaways, Monthly Dystopia Prompts & Review Link-ups and Monthly Dystopia Newsletter

Challenge Guidelines

• This challenge will run from January 1, 2016 - December 31, 2016.
• You can join at anytime before October 15, 2016.
• Books must be read and reviewed in 2016.
• Audiobooks, re-reads, short stories, and crossovers are fine.
• You don't have to be a book blogger to participate! You can track your progress on Goodreads, Shelfari, Booklikes, etc.
• Sign up on the designated Linky below with your post, shelf, etc. and leave a comment letting us know what your personal goal is. 
• Link up your reviews each month via the provided Linky!

Challenge Levels

• Read and review 1-5 dystopian books to receive the Recruit badge.
• The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey 
• The Coupling by Cathrine Goldstein
• Meritropolis by Joel Ohman
• Read and review 6-10 dystopian books to receive the Rebel badge.
• Read and review 11-15 dystopian books to receive the Revolutionist badge.
• Read and review 16+ dystopian books to receive the Leader badge.

Challenge Update Schedule

• March 25th - First Quarter Update & Giveaway
• June 24th - Second Quarter Update & Giveaway
• September 30th - Third Quarter Update & Giveaway
• December 30th - Challenge Wrap-Up & Giveaway

Lists to Get You Started

• Best Dystopian & Post-Apocalyptic Fiction
• Best YA Dystopia Novels

How to Sign Up

• Enter your information in the Linky tool below as follows: Your name @ Your blog name (i.e. Tracy @ Cornerfolds).
• If you are a blogger, grab the button below, create a blog post or page letting us know you are participating in this challenge and what your personal goal is ― be sure to link back to this post!
• If you are not a blogger, you can use Goodreads (or any other book tracking site) and create a shelf for the challenge and link to that
• Lastly, Tweet about the reading challenge!

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Book Blitz: Eighteen (18) by J.A. Huss

@jahuss @xpressoreads #bookblitz

Eighteen (18) Based on a True Story
J.A. Huss
Publication date: November 18th 2015
Genres: New Adult Taboo Romance

Eighteen is hard.
And so is Mateo Alesci.
He’s hard to read, hard to predict, hard in every way that counts. He wants things from me.
Dirty things, nasty things, forbidden things.
And I have to give in.
His attention is completely inappropriate, but I can’t say no. The way he looks at me… the way he watches me through my bedroom window… the way he drags me deeper and deeper into his completely forbidden fantasy world just… turns me on.
He knows it turns me on.
He holds all the power. He holds all the cards.
He holds my entire future in his hands.
And I have to give in.
Because Mr. Alesci is my teacher.
And I need everything he’s offering.

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EXCERPT:

“You came,” he says, after a few moments of rest. His eyes open and he looks straight at me. “You came in my mouth.”
I just stare back. Unable to talk. Unable to comprehend what he’s saying. “You’re a liar.”
He smiles. “But I’m a good one, right?”
“What?”
“You believed me. And you know why you believed me, Shannon?”
“That never happened?”
He scoffs. “Please, how drunk would you have to be for me to suck you off and never wake you up? Do you know why you believed me?”
“You’re a psycho,” I say, floored.
“Because you want to believe me.”
I shake my head slowly. “I don’t believe you. You’re a very good liar, Mateo. And that’s not something to be proud of.”
“Right. So why are you so sure Danny Alexander is the nice one, and not me?”
“Because look at you,” I scoff. “You’re such a fucking freak.”
“I’m sitting here in a chair, masturbating as I tell you a fantasy, Shannon. It’s hot.” And then he laughs. “You know it is.”
“It’s weird,” I say. “I’m speechless with you most of the time because you’re blowing my fucking mind. You make no sense to me. You don’t follow the rules.”
“Whose rules? Your rules?”
“School rules, for one. You’re my fucking teacher!”
“Technically, no. I’m a subcontractor. But ethically, yes.”
“It’s the ethics that count, don’t you think?”
“So walk out. Report me to Bowman. Call the police. Do whatever the fuck you want.”
My thoughts are racing around in my head. “Maybe I will.”
“At least you’d be invested. At least you’d stop just sitting here, begging me to get you out of this.”
“Beg you!” Holy shit. “To get me out of what?” I just want to punch him in the fucking face right now.
“Life.”
“OK,” I huff. “I’m done here.” I push my chair back to stand, but his words stop me.
“You want to skate through school, you said, take tests and call it learning. You want the prize without the work that goes into it. You want things you don’t deserve.”
“You don’t know what I deserve,” I say quietly. “You have no idea what I deserve.”
“I know,” he says, nodding. “But I do know what you don’t deserve. And you can deny it all you want, it won’t change the fact that you didn’t earn it. I’m asking you to earn it.”
“Earn what, Mateo? You make no sense.”
“It.” he replies. And then he lifts his hands up towards the ceiling.
“What’s any of this,” I say, lifting my hands up in the same way, “have to do with sex?”
He just smiles. “Nothing at all. It’s got nothing at all to do with sex. I just like you and I want to fuck you, and tease you, and play you. Not like that,” he says, seeing the anger inside me building. “Not like a victim, Shannon. Like an instrument.”
He reaches over for a roll of paper towels sitting on the table next to him, rips one off, and cleans up the mess on his stomach. He throws it into the trash, stands up, and puts himself back together.
“If you want to walk away,” he says, grabbing his book from the table, “go ahead. Report me to Bowman, tell the police, do whatever the fuck you want. But I’m trying to tell you, I’m invested. So go date Danny Alexander if you want. You can quit this class and drop out of school. You can fuck everything up. You’re a grown woman, you can make whatever choice you feel is best. But when you look back in ten years and wonder where it all went wrong, don’t blame me, Shannon. Because I gave a fuck and you walked out.”
And then he walks out. He’s got that stupid book in his hand and he just walks out and leaves me there.
Stunned.

Author Bio:
JA Huss is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty romances. She likes stories about family, loyalty, and extraordinary characters who struggle with basic human emotions while dealing with bigger than life problems. JA loves writing heroes who make you swoon, heroines who makes you jealous, and the perfect Happily Ever After ending.
You can chat with her on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AuthorJAHuss), Twitter (@jahuss), and her kick-ass romance blog, New Adult Addiction (www.newadultaddiction.com).
If you're interested in getting your hands on an advanced release copy of her upcoming books, sneak peek teasers, or information on her upcoming personal appearances, you can join her newsletter list (http://eepurl.com/JVhAr) and get those details delivered right to your inbox.

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Book Blitz: Meritropolis by Joel Ohman

@JoelOhman @xpressoreads #bookblitz

Meritropolis
Joel Ohman
(Meritropolis, #1)
Publication date: September 8th 2014
Genres: Dystopia, Young Adult

In Meritropolis everyone is assigned a numerical Score that decides their worth to society and whether they live or die. After a young boy is killed because of a low Score, his brother plots to take down the System.

The year is AE3, 3 years after the Event. Within the walls of Meritropolis, 50,000 inhabitants live in fear, ruled by the brutal System that assigns each citizen a merit score that dictates whether they live or die. Those with the highest scores thrive, while those with the lowest are subject to the most unforgiving punishment–to be thrust outside the city gates, thrown to the terrifying hybrid creatures that exist beyond.
But for one High Score, conforming to the System just isn’t an option. Seventeen-year-old Charley has a brother to avenge. And nothing–not even a totalitarian military or dangerous science–is going to stop him.
Where humankind has pushed nature and morals to the extreme, Charley is amongst the chosen few tasked with exploring the boundaries, forcing him to look deep into his very being to discern right from wrong. But as he and his friends learn more about the frightening forces that threaten destruction both without and within the gates, Meritropolis reveals complexities they couldn’t possibly have bargained for…

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Meritropolis is a bestselling YA dystopian that has been in the top 100 in the entire Kindle store for multiple days. It has over 100 5-star reviews on Amazon as well as great reviews from Kirkus, Clarion, MBR, and others! Grab your copy today!

—

MERITORIUM EXCERPT:

“Easier Said Than Outrun”
Charley crouched, motionless, willing himself not to blink. A bead of sweat bubbled across his eyebrow and clung to his eyelash: a warm and salty droplet hanging like a swollen piece of fruit, overripe and ready to fall. He stared straight ahead, eyes wide open; to move now would be disastrous.
The thing stopped, ears twitching. Charley willed himself not to make a sound, but was suddenly aware of the faint scent of his own sweat; he wondered whether the creature could smell it, too. He had been following it for half of the afternoon. By this point, the thing should have had ample opportunity to scent him, given Charley’s quite rudimentary tracking prowess, but it hadn’t yet. Each time Charley drew close enough to chance a shot with his bow—and he knew he would only have just one shot—the thing capered off, leading Charley even deeper into the brush.
Charley found it maddening how fast its four legs could move; the bushy forelegs of pillowy grey-white fur made it seem as immobile, docile, and non-threatening as a sheep. But, as Grigor had instructed earlier, to underestimate a llamabill was to invite disaster.
Charley reached over his head, slowly, and withdrew an arrow from his sheath.
The profile of the llamabill shifted slightly, revealing great big haunches of what Charley hoped would be today’s dinner, as well as the severe-looking face of a shoebill bird. Its body, with the exception of the incongruent webbed feet and feathery wings, was almost entirely reminiscent of a llama: big, wooly, and slightly ridiculous. The head, however, was no laughing matter. The wide shoe-shaped bill could decapitate a fully-grown man with one well-placed chomp. A standard shoebill stork is not a bird to be trifled with, at three-feet tall and a weight of ten pounds, let alone when it’s six-feet tall and a weight of 400 pounds with the body of an agile llama.
Charley notched the arrow and pulled back slowly.
He hated to do it, really he did. He didn’t enjoy the killing, but the truth of the matter was quite simple: they needed food, badly.
Charley steeled his resolve and dipped his head slightly downwards to his right shoulder while closing his left eye. He sighted in on the creature, aiming for the spot where its long wooly neck met its substantially muscled left shoulder. He reconsidered, tipping his bead slightly higher to avoid the feathery wing that jutted incongruently from the llamabill’s great side.
The muscles in Charley’s forearms stood out like corded bands. He held the bow drawn back all the way without wavering. He inhaled through his nose, and then expelled the air slowly through pursed lips, attempting to quiet his beating heart. He would release the arrow upon a full exhale, and in between heartbeats, just as Grigor had trained him.
It was as good of a shot as he would ever get. Charley didn’t really have to do anything, now. He just needed to relax the three fingers of his string hand, and the llamabill, still standing motionless, would be dead, motionless forever.
But he paused.
A glimmer of uncertainty, a pang of conscience—and for what? he wondered—it was just an animal.
The llamabill turned to look directly at him, its prehistoric eyes glinting sharply as they focused in on Charley.
A cold shiver crept up Charley’s spine. He had waited too long, and he knew it. The droplet of sweat plummeted from his eyelash, and Charley released the arrow. It went wild left, and the creature went wild right—directly at Charley.
The llamabill opened its enormous bill and screamed a challenge. For a moment, it looked like an anachronism to even more savage times, a winged dinosaur on the rampage.
Charley did the normal human thing first, and then the normal trained hunter thing second. He froze. Then he ran.

Author Bio:
Joel Ohman is the author of the Meritropolis series --"The Hunger Games meets The Village with a young Jack Reacher as a protagonist". He lives in Tampa, FL with his wife Angela and their three kids. His writing companion is Caesar, a slightly overweight Bull Mastiff who loves to eat the tops off of strawberries.

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