#LuminisBooks Blog Tour: Review: Second Thoughts by Cara Bertrand

Trade paper, $11.95; Cloth, $19.95

ISBN: 9781935462125

Juvenile fiction, 208 pages

Luminis Books, October 2014

The continuing adventures of an ordinary teenage girl with extraordinary mental abilities, perfect for readers who love books and series such as “Vampire Academy,” “Spellbound” and “Sweet Peril.”

Secrets, lies and looming deaths – all things Lainey Young deals with in a typical day of high school. In her senior year at Northbrook Academy – a New England boarding school where the majority of the students and nearly all the staff are members of the Sententia, a hidden society of the psychically gifted – Lainey has even more to worry about, things like classes, college, her boyfriend and, of course, the vision she glimpsed of her impending death. But to her surprise, Lainey finds one worry she can cross off her list, namely Sen. Daniel Astor, the leader of the

Sententia.

After a shocking discovery when they finally meet, Lainey realizes maybe she was wrong to distrust the senator. She relaxes even further when he seems to accept her refusal to work for him after graduation. But with her secrets mounting and the time to solve them running out,

there’s a final enigma Lainey hasn’t yet encountered: Daniel Astor doesn’t take no for an answer. Ever.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

Marissa Curnutte

347.574.3136

marissa@jkscommunications.com

LUMINIS BOOKS INTRODUCES ITS FALL COLLECTION

Publisher announces four new books in various genres for release in October 2014

CARMEL, Ind. – Young love, forbidden desire, enigmatic journeys and poetry – the fall collection from Luminis Books includes four diverse books in October from a mix of new and award-winning authors.

Since 2008, Luminis Books has published meaningful fiction for children and adults, championing the work of up-and-coming writers and cultivating strong, collaborative relationships with authors.

The publisher’s fall releases include two sequels – for young adult fans, “Second Thoughts” by Cara Bertrand, and for middle grade readers, “Amy’s Choice” by Marcia Strykowski – plus a fascinating book of cerebral prose by Chris Katsaropoulos titled “Complex Knowing” and a captivating debut literary novel by Sally Wolfe called“Consolations.”

FALL 2014 RELEASES

·         “Second Thoughts” by Cara Bertrand is the much anticipated follow-up to “Lost in Thought,” a finalist for the 2011 Amazon/Penguin Breakthrough Novel Award. The Sententia series follows a teen with remarkable mental abilities as she makes her way through high school and encounters the leader of a secret society.

·         “Amy’s Choice” by Marcia Strykowski continues the story of Amy Henderson, a teen whose crush moves away and returns only to find another guy trying to win her heart. Strykowski’s sophomore release picks up where her first book, “Call Me Amy,” left off. Her debut release was a finalist in the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ Work-in-Progress Grant competition, and recently named one of Bank Street’s Best Children’s Books of the Year.

·         “Consolations” by Sally Wolfe is the powerful, poignant story of a nun who questions her spiritual calling after engaging in a lustful affair with a Jesuit theology professor.

·         “Complex Knowing” by Chris Katsaropoulos is a collection of poetry combining cerebral prose with enchanting imagery and sentiments. Katsaropoulos has written more than a dozen books, including the novels “Antiphony” and “Fragile.”

REVIEW

This has to be one of the most exciting Paranormal Romances to be released in a long time. Unique, filled with adventure, romance, heartache and many twists and turns, I loved everything about this read. Compared to some of the greatest YA PNR to ever hit the shelves, this book, for me, reminded me in many ways of The Seraphina Parrish Trilogy.

Book one ended with such a cliffhanger and I could not wait to climb right back into the action. Would her vision really come true, could Carter really do something like that? I was enthralled and couldn't put this book down for a second. Of course, other than the threat of her own demise looming over Lainey, she had plenty of other obstacles to get over. Although gifted with a very rare ability, she was still very much a normal girl who had to face normal girl problems. Add to that all the drama with senator Astor and I'm not sure how Lainey managed to get through it all.

The ending to this book was not exactly a cliffhanger but it was very surprising. I didn't quite foresee the events that took place at the very end, and even though I could understand by Lainey made the choices she made, it still hurt my heart because it wasn't quite the ending I was hoping for. I can only pray that there will be a third book and that everything will work out for these amazing characters.

This was a great read that flowed right off the pages. I think readers will be delighted with the magical qualities this book has to offer. A superb read from cover to cover.

Praise for the first book in Cara Bertrand’s Sententia Series

“Compelling and solid, this paranormal thriller has it all: love, murder, intrigue, mind games and a bit of mystery.”

– Publishers Weekly

“Fans of paranormal romance will find a lot to like in ‘Lost in Thought.’ This vividly written tale sets the stage for an exciting series to come.”

– Jill Baguchinsky, author of “Spookygirl”

“Tinged with mystery from page one, ‘Lost in Thought’ keeps readers guessing from beginning to end, and will appeal to paranormal romance fans of all ages.”

– Amy Ackley, author of “Sign Language”

“The boarding school setting is a lot of fun, and the chemistry with Carter snaps…leading to an action-packed ending with a twist that will leave readers clamoring for the next installment.”

– Gayle Forman, author of “If I Stay” and “Where She Went”

“The novel is full of characters teen readers will enjoy spending time with, especially Lainey’s vivacious roommate, Amy, and Carter, the mysterious and swoon-worthy love interest.”

– Jennifer Besser, vice president and publisher of G. P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers

“Simply put, ‘Lost in Thought’ is an absolute must. You'll fall in love with the shocking story and amazing ending.”

– Samantha Pomier, Girls Life

“…a quietly compelling supernatural romance. A promising start to a series that will find a fan base.”

– Danielle Serra, School Library Journal

“This book is really good and it is a great read. If you're looking for a book that reminds you of ‘Vampire Academy’ or the ‘Spellbound’ series then you will love this book. If you want a romance with some paranormal things then this is the book for you.”

– onceuponatwilight.com

“‘Lost in Thought’ has secrets, mystery, high school drama, romance, and a lot of potential for an amazing series story line. This book set the stage for a pretty spectacular following and still managed to be more than a place holder.”

– suchanovelidea.com

“I loved the alternate reality aspect of this story that was slightly unique, and the romance between Lainey and Carter. They just made me smile! I give this book 4.5/5 stars.”

– ttcbooksandmore.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cara Bertrand is a former middle school literacy teacher. She grew up in East Aurora, N.Y. and studied at Boston University where she was a lucky recipient of the Presidential Scholarship to the School of Education. Her first novel and the first book in the Sententia series, “Lost in Thought,” was a finalist for the 2011 Amazon/Penguin Breakthrough Novel Award. She lives in Sturbridge, Mass., with her husband, her daughter, two big dogs and a hurricane cat.

#JKSCummunications Luminis Books Blog Tour: Review: Amy's Choice by Marcia Strykowski

Trade paper, $11.95; Cloth, $19.95

ISBN: 9781935462132

Juvenile fiction, 200 pages

Luminis Books, October 2014

Amy Henderson's freshman year starts with a new best friend, Cat, and a newfound confidence. But she misses her crush, Craig, who has gone to live with his aunt in Boston. Craig has promised to write, and Amy checks the mail on a daily basis, but to no avail. There are plenty of distractions, however.

Cat's brother, Ricky, seems interested in Amy, but is she interested in him? And a new friendship with Finn, the lighthouse keeper, who Amy discovers is a talented artist, keeps Amy and Cat busy as they arrange for him to exhibit his work. But things get complicated when Craig returns from Boston and Finn is accused of arson. There are more questions than answers for Amy as life becomes as turbulent as the cold and stormy ocean of her coastal Maine town.

Ideal for preteens, this novel is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Call Me Amy and touches upon issues of friendship, boyfriend troubles, and the power of believing in oneself.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

Marissa Curnutte

347.574.3136

marissa@jkscommunications.com

LUMINIS BOOKS INTRODUCES ITS FALL COLLECTION

Publisher announces four new books in various genres for release in October 2014

CARMEL, Ind. – Young love, forbidden desire, enigmatic journeys and poetry – the fall collection from Luminis Books includes four diverse books in October from a mix of new and award-winning authors.

Since 2008, Luminis Books has published meaningful fiction for children and adults, championing the work of up-and-coming writers and cultivating strong, collaborative relationships with authors.

The publisher’s fall releases include two sequels – for young adult fans, “Second Thoughts” by Cara Bertrand, and for middle grade readers, “Amy’s Choice” by Marcia Strykowski – plus a fascinating book of cerebral prose by Chris Katsaropoulos titled “Complex Knowing” and a captivating debut literary novel by Sally Wolfe called “Consolations.”

FALL 2014 RELEASES

·         “Second Thoughts” by Cara Bertrand is the much anticipated follow-up to “Lost in Thought,” a finalist for the 2011 Amazon/Penguin Breakthrough Novel Award. The Sententia series follows a teen with remarkable mental abilities as she makes her way through high school and encounters the leader of a secret society.

·         “Amy’s Choice” by Marcia Strykowski continues the story of Amy Henderson, a teen whose crush moves away and returns only to find another guy trying to win her heart. Strykowski’s sophomore release picks up where her first book, “Call Me Amy,” left off. Her debut release was a finalist in the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ Work-in-Progress Grant competition, and recently named one of Bank Street’s Best Children’s Books of the Year.

·         “Consolations” by Sally Wolfe is the powerful, poignant story of a nun who questions her spiritual calling after engaging in a lustful affair with a Jesuit theology professor.

·         “Complex Knowing” by Chris Katsaropoulos is a collection of poetry combining cerebral prose with enchanting imagery and sentiments. Katsaropoulos has written more than a dozen books, including the novels “Antiphony” and “Fragile.”

REVIEW

It was so wonderful to pick up a book that was so pure and innocent with plenty of emotion. I thoroughly enjoyed CALL ME AMY, and I was excited to spend more time with Amy and her friends. She stepped out of her shell in the first book and I was glad to see that she was finding her true self the more and more this story developed. 

It was great that she had made new friends but after everything she had gone through with Craig in the first book I could understand why she yearned for his return. As with CALL ME AMY, this book was filled with adventure and excitement, but also heartache and tragedy. A great read that will appeal to readers of any age, I think the characters are relatable and endearing. With a niece Amy's age I could easily see her getting up to the mischief in this story and it even took me back to my younger years.

A fantastic tale of friendship with plenty of meaning, this was a thoroughly enjoyable read from start to finish.

Praise for the first book in Marcia Strykowski’saward-winning middle grade series

“[Amy] grows throughout the story, from a shy loner to having two friends and speaking her mind in front of her adversaries at school as well as to the whole town…Amy is a reliable narrator and easily relatable.”

– Natalie Struecker, School Library Journal

“Strykowski ably depicts Amy’s insecurity and self-doubt, Craig’s bravura and pain, and Miss Cogshell’s wisdom with a deft, convincing touch. In essence, Amy comes of age as she fights to find her voice in the outside world and shed some of her debilitating insecurity. Readers will cheer her on, and her splendid team too.”

– Booklist

“Well-drawn, sympathetic characters and the developing spark between Amy and Craig combine to create a pleasant, satisfying read.”

– Kirkus Reviews

“Strykowski lovingly captures seaside Maine and the travails of adolescence in her quiet, sweet-natured debut novel.”

– Publishers Weekly

“To do a good deed, we can find friendship in the most curious of locations. ‘Call Me Amy’ is a novel from Marcia Strykowski following the struggles of Amy Henderson, who finds an injured seal and seeks to nurse it, with the help of a scorned aging woman and an unusual youth. Set in the early 70s and exploring the essence of loneliness, ‘Call Me Amy’ is a powerful read that should prove so very hard to put down, highly recommended.”

– Midwest Book Review

“This is a wonderful YA tale for the simple fact that it shows one and all that the power and courage to stand up and be heard in this life comes from within. And that no matter who you are, you have that toughness inside your soul. Craig has a lovely heart that hides behind that sarcasm he aims at the world, and he will remind every small town girl about that quiet boy she fell in love with long ago. ‘Old Coot’ brings the fun and humor along with her, and Pup is the sweetest creature in the world. Having all the ingredients of first love, faith, loss and strength makes ‘Amy’ unforgettable.”

– Feathered Quill

“Every once in a while, a book comes along that you just can’t put down. This book draws you in so deeply, you just have to keep reading. Set in the 1970s, it is a heartwarming story of friendship and coming of age. The story is well-developed and has enough twists and turns to keep even a reluctant reader interested.”

– Library Media Connection

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marcia Strykowski is a children’s book author and works at a public library.

She grew up in Stoneham, Mass., and earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Northeastern University. She is the author of “Call Me Amy,” which was a finalist in the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ Work-in-Progress Grant competition. She has written for Highlights, Hopscotch, Boys Quest and Fun for Kidz. Strykowski and her husband live in Bradford, Mass.

JKSCommunications Luminis Books Blog Tour: Guest Post + #Giveaway: Complex Knowing by Chris Katsaropoulos

Hardcover, $16.95

ISBN: 9781935462101

Poetry, 96 pages

Luminis Books, October 2014

These poems send the reader on a journey into the hidden realm of the subconscious, where the sixth sense of knowing overwhelms the other five.

Chris Katsaropoulos has written a collection of poems that turn words and phrases inside out, bringing forth the intricate truths that can be found within a frozen landscape, a lost tribe of warriors, a funeral cortege, or a chrysanthemum weathering a drought.

The dark existential themes capture the uneven and inexplicable nature of the human soul as it tries to muddle through a world that sometimes seems designed to thwart every attempt to love, while at the same time filled with beauty and overflowing with life.

GUEST POST

The Sixth Sense of Knowing

Guest blog post by Chris Katsaropoulos, author of Fragile, Antiphony, Unilateral, Entrevoir and Complex Knowing

Some recent interviewers have asked me why I wrote Complex Knowing, and I suppose the only thing to say is that I’ve been writing poetry for a long time, and a few years ago started posting my poems to my blog page. After a while, I had about thirty poems on the blog and realized that there are many common themes among these poems and that they had become a collective work with a strong theme of subconscious “knowing” running through them.

I had titled several of the poems Complex Knowing and numbered them, because I was exploring the idea that the subconscious knows and understands things at a deeper and more complex level than our waking/surface consciousness is able to. Not that one form of understanding is better than another, but that the subconscious mind –the soul—has access to layers of wisdom and understanding that are not as accessible for most people in everyday life, because our thinking is wired to analytical processing of sensory input from the “normal” five senses. I typically write my poems and novels in the middle of the night, just after waking, because this time affords me the most solitude, quiet, and also, I believe, enables me to tap into the creative well of the subconscious most directly, the deep well where the most magical, mystical, and, ultimately, most universal understanding comes from.

So, the poems in Complex Knowing have a bit of a dream-like feel to them, as if you have just woken up in the middle of the night, and you’re remembering fragments of a really interesting dream that don’t quite fit together, and you’re trying to make sense of what it means. I believe it is those kinds of visions and dreams that provide us with the most intuitive insights we can have—the messages that tell us what our innermost soul wants us to know.

This is what I mean by the sixth sense of “knowing,” which is the subject I explore in the collection. I believe it’s important for all of us to take a step back from our busy, hurried lives and un-plug from all the technological input we receive from our gadgets and screens, so that we can allow ourselves the quiet time for reflection that enables us to receive these bits of knowing. Otherwise, we are missing a vast resource from which to draw guidance and fulfillment.

Complex Knowing – Number 4 is an example of the style of poems in the collection; brief, lyrical, with minimal punctuation to allow the phrasings in the poem to be read in several different ways, which creates nuances and different meanings and allows readers to interpret the poem by bringing their own understanding, their own knowing, to it.

Complex Knowing – Number 4

Great star gone

Planet kept reflection

Days we hoarded and days we lost

Paralyzed by sensitive

Dilation growing days and time

Dogs running great

Stars gone shimmering

Planet recollection

Left angry and alone how

Could it be

Otherwise

How could

We have known?

Drifted days drift

By and by the

Wherewithal to love

Us one begets the

Other stars forget the

Skies before them days we

Held close and days

We squandered and

Lost.

These poems are more about a feeling – more like listening to a nocturne by Chopin or Ravel, rather than trying to convey a message or tell a story, though there are meanings and episodes from my life and a few current events buried and woven through them. My objective in writing a poem is not to convey a certain specific meaning to the reader (or listener), but to open readers up to a sensitivity that allows them to find their own meanings in the poem. I want readers to be able to bring their own knowing to each poem, leave the work open enough so that each reader can take away their own understanding from it.

[You can read more of Chris’s poems at http://antiphonyck.blogspot.com/  ]

Praise for Past Releases from Chris Katasaropoulos

“Antiphony” by Chris Katasaropoulos

“‘Antiphony’ is a book so eloquent and brilliant that it requires time— that precious entity few seem to have saved for exploration of the arts – to explore this obvious treasure. It is related to the great works of literature – James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Solzhenitsyn, Dante Alighieri, Roberto Bolaño, Tolstoy, Proust, Kazantzakis, Kafka, Melville, and Conrad are a few that come to mind.”

– Grady Harp, Amazon Top 10 Reviewer, Literary Aficionado

“With the debate between supporters of evolution and creationism (recently highlighted by Bill Nye and Ken Ham), ‘Antiphony’ is an intriguing timely tale.”

– Midwest Book Review

“‘Antiphony’ is, in many ways, an awe-inspiring novel…Writer Chris Katsaropoulos has a way of delving deeply into what seem like small moments…It makes me wonder how he did it.”

– Al Riske, author of “Precarious” and “Sabrina’s Window”

“Hold on to your chair or you will be totally transported out of your comfort zone by ‘Antiphony’…Katsaropoulos is an emerging fresh literary voice not to be overlooked.”

– NUVO Newsweekly

“‘Antiphony’ blends reality and non-reality in a fabulous way. There are dreams and visions, there's science and of course the piece itself is fiction but could be a real story theoretically. Interesting!”

– Kathryn Vercillo, diaryofasmartchick.com

“Fragile” by Chris Katasaropoulos

“‘Fragile” is a beautifully-written novel…the writing is uniquely refreshing. After reading Fragile, I found myself feeling very contemplative. Readers will enjoy Fragile and will find meaning in it that applies to their own lives…Highly recommended.”

– Paige Lovitt, Reader Views

“Mesmerizing and beautiful, a truly stunning book! Katsaropoulos is new to writing fiction, and his first novel sets the bar incredibly high.”

– Lauri Coats, ReviewTheBook.com

For more stops on this tour go to the JKSCommunications Tour Page

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris Katsaropoulos is the author of more than a dozen books, including four critically-acclaimed novels, “Unilateral,” “Antiphony,” “Fragile” and “Entrevoir,” as well as “Complex Knowing,” the first collection of his poetry.

“Unilateral,” his latest novel, is publishing in September and deals with the conflict in the Gaza Strip and Middle East. Chris has been an editor at several major publishing houses and has published numerous trade books, textbooks and novels over the course of his career. Chris enjoys traveling, playing the piano and hiking in out-of-the-way places. Visit antiphonyck.blogspot.com to read more, including his most recent poems. Chris lives in Carmel, Ind.

Publisher Webpage

Author Website

Twitter

Facebook

a Rafflecopter giveaway