Mundie Moms

Monday, September 17, 2012

Cover Reveal: Solstice by P.J. Hoover

I'm excited to be apart of today's cover reveal for a local Austin author, and someone who's become a great friend of mine, P.J. Hoover's SOLSTICE, which will be out next year from Tor Teen. This is P.J.'s debut YA book, which has already received a glowing blurb from author Cynthia Leitich Smith, who said,

Solstice is one red-hot read—it intrigues, sizzles, and satisfies.” —Cynthia Leitich Smith, New York Times bestselling author

Check out this awesome cover! I'm in serious cover love! I totally love the local skyline that in the background of the cover too. 



Piper's world is dying. Each day brings hotter temperatures and heat bubbles that threaten to destroy the earth. Amid this global heating crisis, Piper lives under the oppressive rule of her mother, who suffocates her even more than the weather does. Everything changes on her eighteenth birthday, when her mother is called away on a mysterious errand and Piper seizes her first opportunity for freedom.

Piper discovers a universe she never knew existed—a sphere of gods and monsters—and realizes that her world is not the only one in crisis. While gods battle for control of the Underworld, Piper’s life spirals out of control as she struggles to find the answer to the secret that has been kept from her since birth.

An imaginative melding of mythology and dystopia, Solstice is the first YA novel by talented newcomer P. J. Hoover.




P. J. Hoover first fell in love with Greek mythology in sixth grade thanks to the book Mythology by Edith Hamilton. After a fifteen year bout as an electrical engineer designing computer chips for a living, P. J. decided to take her own stab at mythology and started writing books for kids and teens. When not writing, P. J. spends time with her husband and two kids and enjoys practicing kung fu, solving Rubik's cubes, and watching Star Trek.


Head over to P.J.'s blog today to join in the cover reveal festivities & enter her awesome GIVEAWAY!

QUARANTINE: The Loners Blog Tour: Review / Giveaway



By: Lex Thomas
Published by: Egmont USA
Released on: July 10th, 2012
Source: Book from publisher to review
Purchase from: AmazonB&NIndiebound
Add to: Goodreads

It was just another ordinary day at McKinley High—until a massive explosion devastated the school. When loner David Thorpe tried to help his English teacher to safety, the teacher convulsed and died right in front of him. And that was just the beginning.

A year later, McKinley has descended into chaos. All the students are infected with a virus that makes them deadly to adults. The school is under military quarantine. The teachers are gone. Violent gangs have formed based on high school social cliques. Without a gang, you’re as good as dead. And David has no gang. It’s just him and his little brother, Will, against the whole school.

In this frighteningly dark and captivating novel, Lex Thomas locks readers inside a school where kids don’t fight to be popular, they fight to stay alive.

A dark edgy read that takes readers into a world that they'll be thinking about long after they've finished reading the book. 

If you took Hunger Games or Lord of the Flies and gave it a high school setting you'd get QUARANTINED. A book that's not for the faint of heart, but definitely one that readers who enjoy horror, some violence, action and an over all survival of the fittest theme will enjoy. What Lex Thomas did with this story was interesting. An entire high school has been quarantined and forced to survive their lock down with just the students. After first it seems like everyone is on there own, but in fact the school is broken off into groups, Varsity, Loners, Skaters etc. Each group will do whatever it takes to claim the right to rule the school, protect their friends and ensure their group gets the short supply of food. 

It was no surprise to me that Varsity took whatever means possible to instill fear into those who they deemed under them or unworthy to be in their group, and tried to rule this new society. Especially given the history that the football team and one of their girlfriend's has with one of the story's main characters, David. The bad blood between this group and David escalates in an ugly way. I liked that Lex Thomas set up the history between these teens right before they threw me into this horrific world the teens now live in. I also liked the complex relationship David and Will have, because despite everything that happens between them, and around them, they remain loyal to each other and do whatever they can to protect each other. 

Another thing I liked with this book was how things kept changing as the story progressed. As the desperation for survival and control over the food becomes more desperate, people start doing drastic things. Some people become more violent, other people form new alliances, and others do whatever they can just to survive or protect their friends. Despite the story's gore and violence, I felt that many of the horrific events that happen were realistic for this type of world. This is one book that kept me on my toes. Despite the fact I wasn't a fan of some of the fight scenes or thinks that happened in this book, I had to know what was going to happen next. I had my favorites I was rooting for, and I had to keep reading to know what would happen in the end. 

Overall this wasn't my style of book, but it was nice to step out of my fantasy and contemporary kick I've been in lately to read something completely different. With this book I kept wondering "what would I do" if I was in this situation. It's definitely one I'm still thinking about. I can't wait to read the sequel for this one when it's out next summer. There are violent scenes in this book (attacks), and language that may not be suitable for younger readers.

About the author: websiteFacebookTwitterGoodreads


Lex Thomas is the pen name for the writing team of Lex Hrabe and Thomas Voorhies. Their first novel, QUARANTINE: THE LONERS, earned a starred review from Booklist, and Huffington Post Books called it “one of the best books that I have ever read.”

Lex received a BA in Drama and English from the University of Virginia and has worked as an actor, director and writer. Thomas graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design, and now writes, and exhibits his realist oil paintings in Los Angeles.

Lex and Thomas met in a writers’ group in Los Angeles. Their friendship developed as they tried to blow each other’s minds with clips from bizarre movies. In 2005, they became a screenwriting team, and found that writing with a friend is much more fun than doing it alone. Visit them at www.lex-thomas.com.


To find out more about the book be sure to follow QUARANTINE on Twitter | Facebook

The Giveaway:
2 lucky winners will have the chance to win a personalized copy of Quarantine! Just fill out the forum below to be entered to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to check out the rest of the QUARANTINE blog tour here.

Mundane Monday #154

Happy Mundane Monday!! I hope you had a fabulous weekend. Here's to a great Monday!


" I wish you'd stop desperately trying to get my attention like this," he said. "It's become embarrassing."

"Sarcasm is the last refugee of the imaginatively bankrupt," she told him.

"I can't help it. I use my rapier wit to hide my inner pain."

" Your pain will be outer soon if you don't get out of traffic. Are you trying to get run over by a cab?"

-City of Bones, pages 170 - 171, Jace & Clary

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