Monday 4 March 2013

The Holders by Julianna Scott - Blog Tour! Excerpt, Review & Giveaway

I was over the moon to be asked to be apart of The Holders blog tour! I have a wonderful swoony excerpt to share with you all today, my review and some super giveaways! I hope you all enjoy! :)

The Holders

17-year-old Becca spent her whole life protecting her brother from, well, everything. The abandonment of their father, the so called 'experts' who insist that voices in his head are unnatural and must be dealt with, and the constant threat of being taken away to some hospital and studied like an animal.

When two representatives appear claiming to have the answers to Ryland's perceived problem, Becca doesn't buy it for one second. That is until they seem to know things about Ryland and about Becca and Ryland's family, that forces Becca to concede that there may be more to these people than meets the eye.


Though still highly skeptical, Becca agrees to do what's best for Ryland. What they find at St. Brigid's is a world beyond their imagination. Little by little they piece together the information of their family's heritage, their estranged Father, and the legend of the Holder race that decrees Ryland is the one they've been waiting for. 


She meets Alex, a Holder who is fiercely loyal to their race, and for some reason, Becca and Ryland. There's an attraction between Becca and Alex that can't be denied, but destiny gets in the way, and they are all in for a surprise that will change what they thought they knew about themselves and their kind forever.


THE HOLDERS is a modern day fantasy about incredible powers and extraordinary people.


Excerpt

I looked up to find his stormy gaze holding me. “You have beautiful eyes,” I sighed, loving the way his stare warmed my insides.
He froze for a second, before he smiled. “Yes,” he chuckled. “I know.”
You know?” Not exactly the reaction I was expecting. “Most people would say thank you.”
“I’m sorry,” he amended, still grinning at his private joke. “What I meant was, you’ve told me that before.”
“What?” I asked, completely confused now. “No I haven’t.” Sure, I’d thought about it, but I’d never actually said it, I most certainly would have remembered that.
But he nodded, his smile becoming shy. “Do you remember the giving me back my pillow on the plane the morning we landed in Paris?”
“Sure.”
“Do you remember what I told you when you thanked me?”
“Yeah, that I had already thanked you in my sleep…” My hands flew to my mouth as I remembered him acting strange that morning, and wondering if I’d said something else… “Oh God, I didn’t…
He chucked again. “You did.” The gleam in his eyes told me that he was finding my embarrassment endearing, but I was far from amused.
“Was that it?” I demanded, slightly panicked. “Please tell me that was it.”
“That was it, I promise. I slid the pillow under your head, you thanked me, and said,” he paused, then quoted, “‘You have the most amazing eyes. They’re beautiful.’
Ohhh…” I moaned, squeezing my eyes shut and hiding my face against his chest.
“Don’t,” he laughed, leaning back and lifting my face. “You have nothing to be embarrassed about”
“Are you kidding me? I barely knew you, you must have thought I was a psycho!”
“Actually,” he grinned, leaning down until his lips brushed against mine, his scent filling my head, “it made my night.”

He tilted my head up with his thumb and kissed me so tenderly that my embarrassment drained away instantly. I felt my neck flush and my pulse start to race and I realized it suddenly felt way too hot out for November. His lips continued to move slowly – so slowly – just barely touching my own, teasing me until my insides were screaming. After a few more seconds, I couldn’t take it any longer; I needed more. I brought my hands up to his neck and grabbed two handfuls of his collar and lifted myself up, moving my lips hungrily against his. With a gruff sigh, Alex grabbed my hips, and pulled me up against him. One of his arms wound its way around me, holding me tight, while the other hand slid up my back and neck, burying itself in my hair. The blood in my veins turned to molten honey as he opened his mouth and–
“Oh… My… God!”
Author Bio:

Julianna was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and spent the majority of her educational career convinced she would be a musician. However, after receiving her music degree from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, she realized that she'd been born in the wrong era for her dreams of singing jazz to adoring fans clad in zoot-suits and flapper dresses to come true, and began to wonder if her true calling might be elsewhere.


While Julianna had always excelled in writing throughout school, she'd never considered it a career possibility until about three years ago, when she'd gotten her first story idea and decided to go for it. She grabbed her laptop, started typing away, and has never looked back.


Links

Julianna Scott Author Page: http://www.juliannascott.com
The Holders Series Page: http://www.theholdersseries.com
Julianna Scott on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5806079.Julianna_Scott
The Holders on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13579352-the-holders
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Julianna__Scott
The Holders Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Holders/258706524216942
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/juliannalscott/


 My Review

 The Holders is such an awesome start what I expect will be a fantastic new series. I love how in-depth but easy to follow the storyline is and I was easily intrigued and sucked in from the first chapter!

What I really like is the setting for the book - Ireland! I'm from Northern Ireland, so I really enjoyed it being set here especially because it doesn't happen that often.

The writing is great and I was interested they whole way through. The world building is brilliant and I love how we got a good history of everything in the story - it really did add a lot more depth. I wished we got the Gaelic translations though - I'm still wondering what some of the little snippets meant.

There is a great selection of characters in here and *hands up* I'll admit it, I have myself another book boy crush - the super cute Alex *swoon*! There are some fab quirky characters that float on the outskirts of the storyline, who really did amuse me throughout.

Main character Becca is a very protective older sister and for a very good reason - people would love to take her brother (Ryland) away, they say the voices in his head are anything but normal. 2 complete strangers turn up and claim to be able to help Ryland - they want to take him to a school in Ireland. Becca immediately says no but she is won round by a cute guy called, Alex, who shows her something extraordinary.

Becca accompanies Ryland to St. Brigid's, to make sure everything is OK. But when they arrive Becca starts to learn about her heritage and where The Holders fit in. Things become more surprising as time goes on and Becca is left stunned with how things play out!

I adored the romance - it was slow, sweet, and wasn't forced. The lead up to the ending is tense and I love how every shocking piece of information clicked into place so perfectly.

This a complex, action packed, different sort of story that I would easily recommend.

Bring on book 2!!

4/5 Stars!

*Special thanks to Strange Chemistry for the review copy*

Carly :)

Giveaway


a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

4 comments:

  1. I had no idea this book was set in Ireland! We don't get that often, which makes me want to pick it up instantly. I also have a soft spot for love interests named Alex. ;) Thanks for sharing the excerpt!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I haven't read a book set in Ireland in ages! I can't wait to read this one. And Alex sounds absolutely fantastic, and such a gradually developed romance will certainly work for me.
    Thank you for the lovely review and for sharing the excerpt.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am so glad that this was a good read for you, Carly. It was supposed to be on my Fire and ICe schedule but I never got a reply back from the publisher. I will still be reviewing this one soon and I am very much looking forward to reading something set in Ireland. I really really want to visit Ireland sometime!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I really want to read this! I'm not a big fan of the cover - but you can't judge a book by its cover, right? :P Thanks for the great review, I'll look out for this!

    ReplyDelete

Talk to me lovely people! :)