Reading in Wonderland Grand Opening Winners!

I apologize for the delay in making the winners announcement. I had a conference to attend (I brought back goodies to share) and then ended up taking a detour home. For the first time ever I had the opportunity to actually read at the beach! I got home this weekend and I am just now catching up on everything I missed!

Before we get to the winners here are a few pictures from Edisto Beach, South Carolina!

Thank you to all of the authors that participated in our Grand Opening and to the wonderful readers that stopped by!!

Our Jennifer Estep Winner is…

KAYLA

Our Grand Prize Winner is…

SAMANTHA GOODNER

 

Winners please email me your mailing address @ ReadingNWonderland@gmail.com

 

 

Xoxo,

Miranda

Reading in Wonderland’s Grand Opening Welcomes the talented Author

Rachel Harris!!

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THE FINE ART OF PRETENDING by Rachel Harris

Coming September 2014 by Spencer Hill Contemporary

According to the guys at Fairfield Academy, there are two types of girls: the kind you hook up with, and the kind you’re friends with. Seventeen-year-old Alyssa Reed is the second type. And she hates it. With just one year left to change her rank, she devises a plan to become the first type by homecoming, and she sets her sights on the perfect date—Justin Carter, Fairfield Academy’s biggest hottie and most notorious player.

With 57 days until the dance, Aly launches Operation Sex Appeal and sheds her tomboy image. The only thing left is for Justin actually to notice her. Enter best friend Brandon Taylor, the school’s second biggest hottie, and now Aly’s pretend boyfriend. With his help, elevating from “funny friend” to “tempting vixen” is only a matter of time.

But when everything goes according to plan, the inevitable “break up” leaves their friendship in shambles, and Aly and Brandon with feelings they can’t explain. And the fake couple discovers pretending can sometimes cost you the one thing you never expected to want.

Amazon US, Barnes and Noble, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.es,Amazon.jp, Books-A-Million,

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Why YA/NA?

The high school years are all about firsts. First love, first heartbreak, first taste of freedom. You push the boundaries of your relationships, both with your family and with your friends, and you explore. You make a bazillion mistakes, but while they totally seem monumental at the time, very few of them have permanent consequences.

For me, high school gave me a safe environment to test the waters, to step outside my box and see what would happen. I had my first real boyfriend and many others to follow. I went to countless school dances, some with boys, some with friends, some that ended well, and one that ended horribly bad. I went to class and even skipped once to go to an Alanis Morissette concert—though I had parental permission, which severely detracts from the cool factor. I had good friendships…and some not so good ones. I learned from it all.

All of those experiences are still with me today. A decade later, I can close my eyes and remember every detail of my first real heartbreak. The first person my age who had their life taken way too young. Every song that came on the radio, and how I felt when I first heard it.

Perhaps the question should be: Why not write about this time? 🙂

 

When did you fall in love with writing? 

I’ve always been a writer in some form—creating crazy play worlds with my friends, writing short, random stories in my diary, pretending boy bands were in love with me…I even wrote soap opera fan fiction in college. But I never really thought I could make a career out of that. Only really cool people who lived in New York and liked coffee could be authors. Not a soda drinking girl in the south. It wasn’t until my husband bought me the Twilight series and I fell back in love with reading that I decided I’d try writing another story—just for me. That was in August of 2010 and I haven’t looked back since.

 

Do you have a favorite YA/NA series?

Gayle Forman’s IF I STAY and WHERE SHE WENT are two of my top five favorite books ever, so I’d have to go with that J

 

What is your favorite thing to do outside writing?

I’m a homeschool mom, so snuggling with my kids and reading a great book is definitely at the top of the list. Pretty much anything involving reading tops my list 😉

 

Name something you cannot stand.

Rudeness

 

Name something you cannot live without.

 

It’s a tie: Diet Mountain Dew (my sanity in a can) and my iPad J I tote that thing everywhere.

 

iPad or Surface?

iPad!!

 

Netflix, Amazon or Hulu?

I watch all three—we hardly watch regular television anymore. It’s hard to choose so I’ll say Netflix only because I have way too much fun letting “Max” choose movies for me

 

Favorite TV Show?

I’m a sucker for reality television. I love the Next Food Network Star, Extreme Weight loss, Master Chef, and The Bachelor/Bachelorette

 

Favorite Dessert?

Chocolate chip cookies

 

What is the first thing on your bucket list?

Stay in an Irish castle and find a four-leaf clover

 

Please tell us about your latest or upcoming release.

 

My upcoming YA release is called THE FINE ART OF PRETENDING and it’s about the cute and funny friend who wishes she were the tempting vixen. It’s about learning to love the skin you are in and finding that inner self-confidence.

 

I also just released the third book in my adult contemporary Love & Games series, ACCIDENTALLY MARRIED ON PURPOSE. Country singing superstar meets a wild child southern chica. It’s a lot of fun J

 

Will you be attending any conferences?

I’ve been to so many this year! I’ve already attended RT, BEA, UtopYA, RWA, and a few local ones.

Still to come are Chapter by Chapter in New York, the Louisiana Book Festival in November, and Houston Book Rave.

 

Where can your fans find you online?

I LOVE talking with readers!! For the latest info about my releases and events as well as exclusive excerpts, they can join my Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/olH75

Or they can visit my Website: www.RachelHarrisWrites.com
Find me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RachelHarrisBks
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RachelHarrisAuthor
Or join my Street Team: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FlirtSquad/

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Woohoo! We are so happy to welcome the wonderful Author

Sophie Jordan!

We had the honor of meeting her last year and getting a copy of the coolest book ever, UNINVITED!!

I’m (Miranda) so in love with these characters! I cannot wait for the next book!!!

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You can’t change your DNA…even when it says you’re a murderer.

When Davy tests positive for Homicidal Tendency Syndrome, aka “the kill gene,” she loses everything. Once the perfect high school senior, she is uninvited from her prep school and abandoned by her friends and boyfriend. Even her parents are now afraid of her—although she’s never hurt a fly. Davy doesn’t feel any differently, but genes don’t lie. One day she will kill someone.

Without any say in the matter, Davy is thrown into a special class for HTS carriers. She has no doubt the predictions are right about them, especially Sean, who already bears the “H” tattoo as proof of his violence. Yet when the world turns on the carriers, Sean is the only one she can trust. Maybe he’s not as dangerous as he seems. Or maybe Davy is just as deadly.

PURCHASE: AMAZON

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Uninvited Trailer

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**Coming February 2015**

What if the worst thing you ever did was unforgivable?

Davy’s world fell apart after she tested positive for Homicidal Tendency Syndrome. She was expelled from her school, dumped by her boyfriend, abandoned by friends, and shipped off to a camp that turns HTS carriers into soldiers. Davy may have escaped, but the damage has already been done. The unthinkable has happened. Now, even worse than having everyone else see her as a monster is the knowledge that they may have been right about her all along. Because Davy has killed.

On the run from government agents, Davy is rescued by Caden, the charismatic leader of an underground group of rebels. Despite Caden’s assurances that the Resistance is made up of carriers like her, Davy isn’t sure she can trust them. Then again, she doesn’t even know if she can trust herself . . . or her growing feelings for Caden. But if she doesn’t belong with Caden and his followers, is there anywhere she can call home?

PREORDER: AMAZON

I cannot wait to get my hands on this!!

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Reading in Wonderland is excited to welcome

Author Gretchen McNeil

to our Grand Opening!

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GET EVEN by Gretchen McNeil

Don’t Get Mad #1

Balzer & Bray

September 16th, 2014

The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars in Gretchen McNeil’s witty and suspenseful novel about four disparate girls who join forces to take revenge on high school bullies and create dangerous enemies for themselves in the process. 

Bree, Olivia, Kitty, and Margot have nothing in common—at least that’s what they’d like the students and administrators of their elite private school to think. The girls have different goals, different friends, and different lives, but they share one very big secret: They’re all members of Don’t Get Mad, a secret society that anonymously takes revenge on the school’s bullies, mean girls, and tyrannical teachers.

When their latest target ends up dead with a blood-soaked “DGM” card in his hands, the girls realize that they’re not as anonymous as they thought—and that someone now wants revenge on them. Soon the clues are piling up, the police are closing in . . . and everyone has something to lose.

PreOrder: AMAZON 

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Why YA/NA?

I’m not sure I chose YA as much as it chose me!  My first manuscript was adult chick lit, but several of the rejecting agents (there were 134 of them in all) mentioned that the voice sounded like YA. I didn’t even know there WAS a YA section because when I was teen there really wasn’t, and I was amazed to find a whole wall of YA at the local bookstore.  I grabbed two, read them in a day, and realized that my voice really fit the genre.

 

Five contracted novels later, it was clearly the right call.

 

When did you fall in love with writing?

Very late, actually.  I never wrote as a teen, never aspired to be an author.  I was a performer growing up, going from tap dancing to musicals to opera by the time I was sixteen.  I have a BA in voice and an MM in Opera, and it was my first love, my first career, and my first epic failure.

 

I started writing about seven years ago when I went through a personal crisis, and fell in love with it instantly.  What I’ve come to realize is that even though I never wrote growing up, my stage training had prepared me for the art of storytelling better than I could have imagined and that, combined with my life-long love of reading, primed me for this third career of mine.

 

Do you have a favorite YA/NA series?

Anne of Green Gables, hands down.  She was my role model growing up.

 

What is your favorite Apocalypse trope?

I’m not a huge fan of post-apocalyptic fiction, but if I had to choose, I’d go with sentient apes.

 

What is your favorite thing to do outside writing?

I’m a party girl at heart.  I love to be out and about, doing social things with friends.

 

Name something you cannot live without.

White wine.

 

If you were a comic book character who would you be and why?

I’ve always had a soft spot for shapeshifters, so I’m going to go with Mystique (also a redhead, I might add…)  I love the idea of being able to change your appearance at will.  It would be fascinating.

 

iPad or Surface?

I’m not an Apple girl, so Surface.

 

Favorite TV Show?

At the moment, Penny Dreadful.

 

Favorite Dessert?

Crème brûlée

 

What is the first thing on your bucket list?

Paris

 

Please tell us about your latest or upcoming release.

My next book is called GET EVEN, the first in the Don’t Get Mad series, which hits shelves September 16.  Pitched as “The Breakfast Club with a body count” it’s the story of four very different girls who have formed as secret society at their elite private school where they get revenge on bullies, mean girls and teachers how have victimized their classmates.  It all goes well until one of their targets is murdered, their secret society is implicated in the crime, and the girls don’t know if one of them is a killer or if someone else knows their secret.

 

The sequel GET DIRTY will be out in June 2015, but I’m currently running a pre-order giveaway where you can get a booklet with the first two chapters of GET DIRTY along with bonus material!  Details here: http://gretchenmcneil.blogspot.com/2014/07/get-even-pre-order-giveaway.html

 

Will you be attending any conferences?

Always!  But I’m not sure of my 2015 schedule yet…

 

Where can y0ur fans find you online?

Twitter: @GretchenMcNeil

Instagram: Gretchen_McNeil

Blog: http://gretchenmcneil.blogspot.com

Website: www.gretchenmcneil.com

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Gretchen McNeil is an opera singer, writer and clown. Her YA horror POSSESS about a teen exorcist debuted with Balzer + Bray for HarperCollins in 2011. Her follow up TEN – YA horror/suspense about ten teens trapped on a remote island with a serial killer – was a 2013 YALSA Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, a Romantic Times Top Pick, a Booklist Top Ten Horror Fiction for Youth, and was nominated for “Best Young Adult Contemporary Novel of 2012” by Romantic Times.  Gretchen’s 2013 release is 3:59, a sci-fi doppelganger horror about two girls who are the same girl in parallel dimensions who decide to switch places.  Gretchen’s novels have been optioned by Hollywood production companies, and have sold internationally in Chinese, Spanish, and Turkish.

 

In 2014, Gretchen debuts her first series, Don’t Get Mad (pitched as “John Hughes with a body count”) about four very different girls who form a secret society where they get revenge on bullies and mean girls at their elite prep school.  The Don’t Get Mad series begins September 16, 2014 with GET EVEN, followed by the sequel GET DIRTY in the summer of 2015, also with Balzer + Bray.  Gretchen also contributed an essay to the Dear Teen Me anthology from Zest Books.

Gretchen is a former coloratura soprano, the voice of Mary on G4’s Code Monkeys and she sings with the LA-based circus troupe Cirque Berzerk. Gretchen blogs with The Enchanted Inkpot and was a founding member of the vlog group the YARebels.  She is repped by Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown, Ltd.

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Reading in Wonderland is thrilled to

welcome Author C. J. Redwine

to our Grand Opening Festivities!

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DEFIANCE by C. J. Redwine

Within the walls of Baalboden, beneath the shadow of the city’s brutal leader, Rachel Adams has a secret. While other girls sew dresses, host dinner parties, and obey their male Protectors, Rachel knows how to survive in the wilderness and deftly wield a sword. When her father, Jared, fails to return from a courier mission and is declared dead, the Commander assigns Rachel a new Protector, her father’s apprentice, Logan—the same boy Rachel declared her love for two years ago, and the same boy who handed her heart right back to her. Left with nothing but fierce belief in her father’s survival, Rachel decides to escape and find him herself. But treason against the Commander carries a heavy price, and what awaits her in the Wasteland could destroy her. 

At nineteen, Logan McEntire is many things. Orphan. Outcast. Inventor. As apprentice to the city’s top courier, Logan is focused on learning his trade so he can escape the tyranny of Baalboden. But his plan never included being responsible for his mentor’s impulsive daughter. Logan is determined to protect her, but when his escape plan goes wrong and Rachel pays the price, he realizes he has more at stake than disappointing Jared. 

As Rachel and Logan battle their way through the Wasteland, stalked by a monster that can’t be killed and an army of assassins out for blood, they discover romance, heartbreak, and a truth that will incite a war decades in the making.

PURCHASE: AMAZON

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DECEPTION by C. J. Redwine

Baalboden has been ravaged. The brutal Commander’s whereabouts are unknown. And Rachel, grief stricken over her father’s death, needs Logan more than ever. With their ragged group of survivors struggling to forge a future, it’s up to Logan to become the leader they need—with Rachel by his side. Under constant threat from rival Carrington’s army, who is after the device that controls the Cursed One, the group decides to abandon the ruins of their home and take their chances in the Wasteland.



But soon their problems intensify tenfold: someone—possibly inside their ranks—is sabotaging the survivors, picking them off one by one. The chaos and uncertainty of each day puts unbearable strain on Rachel and Logan, and it isn’t long before they feel their love splintering. Even worse, as it becomes clear that the Commander will stop at nothing to destroy them, the band of survivors begins to question whether the price of freedom may be too great—and whether, hunted by their enemies and the murderous traitor in their midst, they can make it out of the Wasteland alive. 


In this daring sequel to Defiance, with the world they once loved forever destroyed, Rachel and Logan must decide between a life on the run and standing their ground to fight.

PURCHASE: AMAZON

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DELIVERANCE by C. J. Redwine

Everything hangs in the balance, and nothing is certain: Rachel has been kidnapped by enemy forces and is being taken to Rowansmark while Logan, imprisoned and awaiting trial, is unable to leave Lankenshire. Separated from each other and their Baalboden comrades, each must find a way to achieve what they desperately want: to rid their world once and for all of the Commander and the tech that controls the deadly Cursed One.

Fighting through her pain and embracing the warrior she’s become, Rachel will do whatever it takes to escape her enemies’ clutches and join Logan in his fight. But when she learns a secret that changes everything, she realizes that escaping Ian and his tracker friends is no longer an option if she wants to save the people she loves. Instead, she’ll have to destroy Rowansmark from the inside out—if she can survive the journey through the Wasteland.

Logan needs allies if he wants to thwart Rowansmark’s power grab and rescue Rachel. But securing allies will mean betraying his beliefs and enlisting the help of the man he hates more than anyone: Commander Jason Chase. Driven by his fierce love for Rachel and his determination to make their world safe, Logan may be just the weapon the city-states need to defeat the Cursed One.

But as Rowansmark bears down and uneasy alliances are tested, will Rachel and Logan’s love for each other be enough to surmount the unbelievable odds against them?

PURCHASE: AMAZON

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Why YA/NA?

I love how adventurous YA is. We have steampunk, fairy tale retellings, sci fi, contemporary dramas, historical, cyborgs, comedies … if an author can dream it up and do it well, there’s a place on the YA shelf for it.

I also feel strongly connected to stories for teens. Books were my best friends as I was growing up. I didn’t own many, I was a library kid, but I often re-read my favorites several times a year. Those stories intrigued me, inspired me, and sometimes saved me. I wanted to be a small part of that for someone else.

 

When did you fall in love with writing?

When I was in second grade. I was assigned a one-page short story. I turned in a story that was four pages, back to back. It was like a light turned on in my brain, and I realized that stories were how I expressed myself best.

 

Do you have a favorite YA/NA series?

Not just one! I love so, so many. I am a fierce fan of the Harry Potter series … to the point that we own several copies of each movie (because special edition, and director’s cut, and … boxed set or whatever else they did that made me spend more money) but yet we still watch the movies on ABC Family when they do Harry Potter weekends. And I still re-read the books. I’m also a huge fan of Rae Carson’s GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS trilogy, MG Buehrlen’s THE 57 LIVES OF ALEX WAYFARE (incredible time travel!), Jodi Meadows’ upcoming THE ORPHAN QUEEN and so many more I hardly know where to start.

 

What is your favorite Apocalypse trope?

I love it all. I don’t care how you end the world as we know it, as long as it’s done well. Often I don’t realize that I’d love to read something until an author writes it, and then I think “Why yes, I really HAVE been dying to read a book set in space where people have been cryogenically frozen with blue goo.”

 

What is your favorite thing to do outside writing?

Watch movies! I go see several every month. My husband is a movie critic, so we often see sneak peeks of things. I’m not a chick flick kind of girl, though. Give me Marvel movies, The Hunger Games, and live action fairy tales FTW.

 

Name something you cannot stand.

Green beans. Seriously. Just the smell makes me start gagging. Which is really awesome when it happens in a restaurant because nothing says fine dining like sitting near a girl who sounds like she’s about to puke.

 

Name something you cannot live without.

My kids. I can’t even imagine life without them.

 

If you were a comic book character who would you be and why?

Ooh the possibilities! I know I said I love Marvel movies (except Green Lantern because WHAT. WERE. THEY. THINKING?), but my all-time favorite comic book character is Batman. I love that his back story reads like a potential villain’s. He’s got both dark and light in him, just as I do. The thin line between being a hero and being a villain is the choice he makes. Also I want an Alfred. And a cool car. And I want to be able to give people a steely glare and say “I’m Batman.”

 

iPad or Surface?

Um … what is Surface? (You are talking to a technoidiot here so … yeah.)

 

Netflix, Amazon or Hulu?

Netflix! Especially their original series. And the fact that I can binge watch Sherlock while waiting FOREVER for season 4.

 

Favorite TV Show?

Sherlock!

 

Favorite Dessert?

Lemon bars if they’re sour. Also pie. All the pie in the entire world.

 

What is the first thing on your bucket list?

I’ve already done it. 🙂 It was to publish a book.

 

Please tell us about your latest or upcoming release.

My upcoming release is DELIVERANCE, the third and final book in the DEFIANCE series. DEFIANCE is a post-apocalyptic fantasy with city-states, wingless dragons tunneling up from beneath the ground, conspiracy, courage, loyalty, loss, kissing, and sword fights. Here’s a link for the Harper-approved summary: http://www.amazon.com/Defiance-Trilogy-C-J-Redwine/dp/0062117173/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405449925&sr=1-1&keywords=defiance+c.j.+redwine

 

Will you be attending any conferences?

I usually attend quite a few events every year. Readers can see my upcoming schedule on my site: cjredwine.com

 

Where can your fans find you online?

http://cjredwine.com

@cjredwine on Twitter

C.J. Redwine on Facebook

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