Tag Archive for: books

Tell Me What Really Happened Book Review

/in /by

I had the pleasure of reading an ARC copy of Tell Me What Really Happened by Chelsea Sedoti. Tell Me What Really Happened centers around five teenagers who go for a weekend camping trip out in the woods. But when one of them goes missing, each of the remaining four friends has a different piece of the puzzle.  

This book is truly unique, as the entire story is told at the police station through the witness statements of the four friends. And since their testimonies happen after the events have transpired, little tid bits and tangents serve as foreshadows to drive the plot forward. And it’s especially interesting when the four testimonies don’t line up! It’s such a creative way to tell the story, and it left me wondering “what really happened?” up until the end! 

Gateway To Reality Release Blitz

/in /by

I am super excited to be apart of this event to announce Becca J Campbell’s newest novel, Gateway to Reality. Next week I’ll be posting my review of the book (as well as information on how to win some awesome prizes!) Today we have a guest post by Becca herself. So here it is, and be sure to check back next week…

Gateway to Reality: A Mind-Bending Urban Fantasy Tale by Becca J. Campbell

I’m thrilled to announce the publication of my second novel, Gateway to Reality, now available at Amazon US and Amazon UK. Keep reading for a chance to win one of three prize packs!

Gateway to Reality

Here’s a little more about the story:

Talented artists shouldn’t be waiting tables, scraping by, and living mediocre lives. But that’s exactly what art school graduate Wes Teague is doing.

Then he wakes from a bizarre dream, haunted by the sense that his life isn’t real. A harrowing truth presents itself—the real world lies in his dreams, not when he’s wide awake.

The dream world he enters each night is rich and vibrant. Chicago appears the same on the surface, but chaos runs rampant as gravity, physics, and other laws of nature become fluid, changing unexpectedly. There, Wes’s parents, brother, and sister are strangers. His girlfriend Emily doesn’t recognize him. Wes longs to return, to unlearn the truth about his dual reality.

Wes would sacrifice almost anything to get back to blissful ignorance in a false world.

But now he has feelings for the real Emily.

The Matrix Meets Inception

This book explores ideas similar to two of my favorite movies, though it wasn’t directly inspired by either. Dreams are key in the story, as is the idea of two worlds—one that’s real and one that isn’t. Gateway to Reality merges the two concepts and fuses them together with good dose of romance in a way that is fresh and vibrant.

Genre-wise, Gateway to Reality is a New Adult novel that walks the line between Urban Fantasy and Science Fiction. It is a topsy-turvy, reality-bending, relationship-driven tale that explores the relationship between truth and fantasy.

Giveaway

I’m giving away several prizes to celebrate the book’s release. The Grand Prize is a Chicago-theme prize pack and it will include:

  • An autographed paperback of Gateway to Reality
  • A journal with an artistic representation of Chicago on the cover
  • A Cloud Gate button
  • A Gateway to Reality button
  • Three postcards: Gateway to Reality, Cloud Gate, and Crown Fountain

The Second Prize is:

  • An autographed paperback of Gateway to Reality
  • Gateway to Reality postcard

The Third Prize is the full Becca J. Campbell ebook library (your choice of Kindle or ePub version):

  • Gateway to Reality ebook
  • Foreign Identity ebook
  • Not the Norm (Sub-Normal #1) ebook
  • Unmasked Alloy (Sub-Normal #2) ebook

Scavenger Hunt Blog Tour

You can enter the giveaway now, but to really amp up your odds at snatching one of these prize packs, bookmark this page and come back in a week to check out each site along the blog tour. Follow the schedule below: collect a clue at each stop on the correct day and put them all together to reveal the answer. Plug that into the giveaway below to win TEN BONUS ENTRIES.

April 1st     Paranormal and Urban Fantasy Reviews

April 2nd     The Peasants Revolt

April 3rd     Catharsis of the Bogue

April 4th     The Pen and Whisk

April 5th     Write for Life

April 6th     S.M. Boyce

April 8th     Paranormal Lounge

April 9th     Lisa Is a Bookworm

April 10th     Jade Kerrion

April 11th     Paper Book Princess

April 12th     Now is Gone

April 13th     Worlds Away Book Blog

April 15th     FU Only Knew

April 17th     Sarcasm and Lemons

April 18th     Brandon R. Luffman

Good luck!

Want to see pictures of the prizes? Check them out here.

Click here to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway

Where to find Becca

Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Author Blog | Pinterest | Amazon

Mortal Book Review

/1 Comment/in /by

(photo credit: TedDekker.com)

~

Mortal, by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee, is the second in a trilogy called The Books of Mortals. This series is set well into humanity’s future, where, due to a manufactured virus called Legion, every human is stripped of all emotion, save for fear. Fear keeps everyone obedient, while lack of love or hatred eliminates war and violence. What no one knows is, every human being on the planet is actually dead, even though they are walking and breathing. However, a vial of ancient blood, kept safe by a group called The Keepers, allows five people who drink it to have all their emotions restored, and to fully come alive. This life, and also the title of the first book, is Forbidden.

In this second installment, a young man named Jonathan, was prophesied to come to power and bring life to all. His blood can bring that true life to those who are “dead.” His group of followers refer to themselves as Mortals.

In similar fashion as the first book, Mortal takes the reader on a fantastic journey with action, suspense, love, betrayal… and asks the question, “What does it mean to be alive?” Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee brilliantly incorporate their faith in God into these books through an epic display of Christ’s ultimate sacrifice for us to truly live.

I had the privilege of meeting the authors during their Mortal book tour. And let me tell you, they are genuine, pouring their hearts and lives into these books. Something they always say is that writers bleed on the page. And it shows through their writing that they’ve invested everything to bring us this awesome story of salvation.

I loved this book and, out of 5 stars, I would give it 10 if I could. I’m anxiously awaiting the third and final installment to be released in 2013. There is also a short story prequel to the series called The Keeper. It’s not a required read to understand the trilogy, but it does give you a little more insight into the story. Also, if you’ve read The Circle Series by Ted Dekker, there’s a little tidbit in there that will tie it all together and put a smile on your face. 🙂

To all you Circle members out there,

Dive Deep

~

You can find more information on Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee at…

TedDekker.com or Ted Dekker’s Facebook Page

ToscaLee.com or Tosca Lee’s Facebook Page

TheBooksOfMortals.com

Lessons and Outlets

/1 Comment/in /by

Ever been so upset about something that you wanted to scream, pull out your hair, throw something against the wall, or do any other activity to funnel that rage out of you?

Of course you have. Everyone has.

Writing is definitely an emotional outlet for many, but I’ve always had unproductive experiences in the past. I would be upset and decide to start writing, scribbling furiously on the page or typing like a mad-woman on the computer. But the product that came from my efforts was always, in a word, CRAP. Whatever characters I had created ended up alone, depressed, heartbroken, or coincidentally, they found themselves in whatever predicament I was in at the time. It always turned into a heap of vented emotion on a page, nothing anyone would ever want to read. In fact, I couldn’t even stand reading it and I ended up throwing it all away. And in the end, I was still just as mad as when I started writing in the first place. Maybe even more so because I had all my anger plus the anger I had invented for my characters.

Needless to say, it never amounted to anything, so I stopped using writing as an outlet.

But recently, I had a very different experience. I decided to enter the Farytaleish flash fiction writing contest on the Yearning for Wonderland blog. I hadn’t purposefully sat down to write as an outlet, but just to write in general. However, the hurt was still fresh in my mind. I had no preconceived ideas on what I would write, or what the message of the story would be, I just let the story take shape on its own. And what came out was something I needed to be reminded of. The story, The Color of Love, which I posted here a while back, was about seeing the good in someone despite the wrongs they have done…and loving them through it. You never know the change it can bring about!

Whether or not it won the contest wasn’t the important part.

I needed to write it.

Do you use writing as an outlet? Have you been taught important lessons by your own writing? Tell me in the comments. I’d love to hear about it!

Happy writing,

~Christina

Writing

/in , /by

1. the activity or occupation of composing text for publication

2. written work, esp. with regard to its style or quality

Welcome!

/2 Comments/in , /by

Welcome to ChristinaKrieger.com! You may be wondering why I’m calling my website Write for Life. Two reasons… First, my desire as an author is to write stories that will illustrate God’s great love for us; love that gave us life. Second, writing has been a passion of mine for years. When I was in the third grade, I came to the realization that writing stories could be an actual career and I decided then I was going to be a writer. Mind you, a third grader’s stories are somewhat cheesy and full of spelling errors, but cute, right? So that’s when writing became my passion and I’ve been writing ever since. And I’ll continue to write well into the future. Hence, Write for Life.

So stay tuned, much more to come…