To protect those she loves from herself, Jax will leave them all behind. She'll risk everything in a desperate search for answers.
Jax Pherson fled the darkest of covens and from her own father's evil. For a brief moment, her courage was rewarded. She found everything she'd ever wanted. A normal life. An amazing boyfriend. An envy-worthy best friend .
But her past put them all in danger, forcing a confrontation with the dark covens. In a life-and-death battle to save those she loved from the covens, Jax gained staggering power. Power so intense, so dangerous, she fears the darkness that now dwells inside her like a living thing.
If she can't control the power, she may yet become as evil as the witches she conquered.
With her friend Egan, Jax leaves all she's built and heads for the one place that might hold the answers she desperately needs to hold back the darkness-Salem, Massachusetts. Her research unearths a shocking discovery: the Bane, a secret group of witches dedicated to thwarting the covens.
Jax desperately needs their help in her fight against the covens, but finding the Bane is easier said than done and takes all her skills and courage. As Jax gets closer, her dark powers begin to rise and control her actions. If she succumbs to the darkness, Jax may have as much to fear from the Bane as the evil covens and the determined hunter on her trail.
My Thoughts :
After enjoying the first book in the Coven series, White Witch, I was interested in seeing what this second book would offer. I was curious to see what the author did with the series especially after taking the main characters away from their partners. Would they survive? Moan and groan all the time about missing them? or would she find a way to bring them together again. I was sure about the latter happening.
Bane made a good start and I was interested in what Jax and Egan were researching in Salem and what they would find out. It was nice to meet some new characters, magic and witches got talked about and it seemed something was happening connected to the youngsters. However it began to bore me. For some reason it suddenly started to feel like nothing was happening. The people were plodding along and repeating the story I already knew. Nothing exciting really happened and I lost interest.
This sequel turned out to be disappointing and I have to say I doubt I will try the third part. I didn't feel anything for the characters this time around and the special and unusual aspect of the witches and their powers lost its wow factor. I am sure that this book will hold more attraction to the YA readers it is aimed at but this time around I was left bored and uninterested.
She was also giving away two great prizes! One winner will get a copy latest book, Forgiven. Another winner will get a set of all three books in the Demon Trapper Series!
The contest is now closed and it is time to announce the winners!
You have won a set of all three books in the Demon Trapper Series!!!
Didn't win? Keep reading to find out how to claim your prize and for more contest results!!!
Make sure you check out Jana's books asap! Use the Amazon links around the site and help keep the contests coming! Or use the Bookdepository link below for 10% off!
Her debut Young Adult Paranormal, White Witch, is the first in the Coven Trilogy and was a super read! One person has won a copy!
Congrats to :
Koddabear!!!
Keep reading to find out how to claim your prize? Didn't win this time? There is still the Monthly Giveaway!
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How to claim your prize!
Please contact me via email - Amberkatzes_book_blog at gmx dot eu within the next 7 days to claim your prize. Your claim will go quicker if you send me your address. If you won a contest where you can choose your prize, then please make sure you state in your email which book you would like. This will help things go alot quicker! If you won an e-book please make sure you send me the email address you would like the book sent to!
If you email me and don't get a reply within 48 hours please post on the blog letting me know. Some email gets eaten by my spam filter. However please don't send me more than one email unless you really don't get an answer within 3 days. I am not online 24/7 ;) Sometimes it takes a little longer to reply.
If a prize isn't claimed after 7 days I will, if the author agrees, pick another winner.
Please also note that I can not be held responsible for prizes that come direct from authors. I will check with them for you if you haven't received your prize but I can not hunt down your mail! Any prizes that come from myself could come from a 3rd party eg. Amazon or Bookdepository. If I am sending a prize myself please be aware that it could take a few weeks to reach you as it is coming from Europe.
Jana is talking about her third book in the Demon Trappers Series, Forgiven. She is also giving away a copy of the new release and a set of all three books in the Demon Trapper Series!
Vote for one of my favourite reads from March and maybe you will win a copy! Read the instructions!
Open till Thursday 19th April.
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For more chances to win -
Post about this giveaway somewhere on the internet eg. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter etc. Make sure you post the link here so I can confirm your extra entry.
Email your friends about this giveaway. Make sure you add my email address so I also get a copy and can confirm your entry. Amberkatzes_Book_Blog@gmx.eu
She was here talking about her latest book, Dead is a Battlefield, and she was giving away THREE signed copies of the new release!
The contest is now closed and it is time to see who the lucky winners are!
Congrats to :
Uklauren
&
Nickie
&
Books first love
Keep reading to find out how to claim your prize!
Didn't win this time? There are two author contests open right now. Check the sidebar ----> For more details. Also the Monthly Giveaway will be coming up this week! Check the other sidebar for more details <----
Make sure you check out Marlene's books! Use the links around the site or below to order your copies and help keep the contests coming!
#1 - Dead is a Battlefield
#2 - Dead is a Killer Tune (due out later this year)
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How to claim your prize!
Please contact me via email - Amberkatzes_book_blog at gmx dot eu within the next 7 days to claim your prize. Your claim will go quicker if you send me your address. If you won a contest where you can choose your prize, then please make sure you state in your email which book you would like. This will help things go alot quicker! If you won an e-book please make sure you send me the email address you would like the book sent to!
If you email me and don't get a reply within 48 hours please post on the blog letting me know. Some email gets eaten by my spam filter. However please don't send me more than one email unless you really don't get an answer within 3 days. I am not online 24/7 ;) Sometimes it takes a little longer to reply.
If a prize isn't claimed after 7 days I will, if the author agrees, pick another winner.
Please also note that I can not be held responsible for prizes that come direct from authors. I will check with them for you if you haven't received your prize but I can not hunt down your mail! Any prizes that come from myself could come from a 3rd party eg. Amazon or Bookdepository. If I am sending a prize myself please be aware that it could take a few weeks to reach you as it is coming from Europe.
I have two author guests this Sunday! My first is Trish Milburn!
Her debut Young Adult Paranormal, White Witch, is the first in the Coven Trilogy and was a super read!
So here is your chance to get to know the author and a little about White Witch and the rest of the trilogy. If you keep reading till the end you may even want to enter the contest and try your luck at winning a copy of this great new book!
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Amber - Welcome to Amberkatze's Book Blog! It is great to have you here as a guest! Could you start things off by telling us a little about your book, White Witch?
Trish - White Witch is the first book in the Coven trilogy. The central character is Jax Pherson. She was born into one of the world's powerful dark witch covens, but she flees the coven because she doesn't want to continue the covens' centuries-long revenge on mankind for killing witches. All she wants is a normal teenage life, so she finds a spot at a school in a small town in the North Carolina mounntains, gains a best friend, and falls for a guy who might possibly be the worst guy she could have fallen for.
Amber - How did you come up with the idea for White Witch? Was it a long process or did it just come to you?
Trish - This was sort of a gift book. That's not to say that a lot of work hasn't gone into it. But in the summer of 2006, I'd come to a point where I'd been writing and submitting for possible publication for 10 years and I didn't know if it was going to happen. I was considering whether I should give up and go back to work full time. I call it my Summer of Buffy, but I plunked myself down on the couch and watched all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, all five seasons of Angel, and the first season of Supernatural. Somewhere in the midst of watching all that paranormal-themed TV, I started getting an idea for a young adult story that really excited me. That turned out to be White Witch. It got me excited about writing again and that needed extra push. I wrote the book and submitted in Romance Writers of America's annual Golden Heart contest, which is the top industry award for unpublished romance fiction. The next summer, it won the Golden Heart in the Young Adult category. Ten days after I won, I sold my first two young adult books (though not White Witch at that time) to Penguin Books. Those were contemporary stories written under the name Tricia Mills, a pseudonym I recently retired.
Amber - How do you pick the names for your characters? Do they have any special meanings?
Trish - I keep a list of names I like. I get names from all kinds of places -- a baby naming book, the names of cast and crew from movies, town names when I'm traveling (a lot of these are named after people, so it makes sense). I don't search for ones that have a specific meaning, just ones that sound and feel right for that character.
Amber - White Witch is the first part in a trilogy? Is it easy to limit the story to three books? Are you sure you won't write more about Jax?
Trish - I'm fairly sure that Jax's story will be told in the three books, but it's possible that there may be spinoff books with other characters. One character in particular who appears in book three, Magick, holds some potential for that.
Amber - Is the rest of the trilogy finished and on paper or are you still working on the next two books?
Trish - The next two books are written and submitted, but I recently received revisions from my editor on Bane, book two. By the time this interview runs, those should be done and turned back in. With all three books coming out this year, the writing and revising has some quick turnarounds.
Amber - Can you tell us something about how Jax's story continues? Will she get what she wants and live happily ever after?
Trish - I will say that her quest for answers and true freedom from the covens is what drives the next two books. Keller, her love interest, will still be around, but not without complication.
Amber - When can we expect the other books in the trilogy to be released? Do we have a long wait ahead of us?
Trish - If all goes as planned, Bane should be out sometime in May, and Magick is set to release this fall, possibly in September.
Amber - Is White Witch your first book or have you written/published anything else?
Trish - I have published six contemporary romances with Harlequin American, with the seventh coming out in May. I've also sold a book to Harlequin Nocturne, which is a paranormal with an entirely different mythology about vampires. I also previously published two contemporary young adult titles, Heartbreak River and Winter Longing, as Tricia Mills with Razorbill (part of Penguin Books).
Amber - What kind of research have you done for your books? Anything interesting or is the research boring?
Trish - I love research, particularly on-site research. I'm pretty familiar with the North Carolina mountains since I live in Tennessee, so that wasn't too hard to depict. But Bane and Magick take place in Salem, Massachusetts, because part of the mythology is tied to the Salem Witch Trials. I'd never been there, so before I wrote the books I took a research trip there last July. I was able to walk all over Salem, taking notes and photos and picking up brochures, just soaking up the atmosphere.
Amber - How long on average does it take you to write a book? Do you write one at a time or do you work on various projects?
Trish - I typically write one at a time, though I might have to do revisions or line edits on another while writing one. I'm a fairly fast writer, so I can write a first draft in a month. That is not finished product though since it then goes through my own revisions before I turn it in to my editor. Then she reads it and sends back more revisions.
Amber - Did you always want to be an author? Why did you decide to write something Young Adult and paranormal?
Trish - I've loved writing for about as long as I can remember. I think it was partly a natural progression from being a big reader and having an active imagination. Writing was also my day job for several years. I got a degree in print journalism and worked at newspapers and a magazine before quitting in 2005 to write fiction full time. I still do some freelance writing and editing, but mostly I work on my books now. I love reading young adult fiction, particularly ones that are paranormal, post-apocalyptic or dystopian. It's easy to write something you love to read.
Amber - I am sure that being an author has its ups and downs. What experiences have you had so far?
Trish - The downs are definitely when you get rejections or a particularly nasty review. Now I know not everyone will love my work. That's just not realistic. Not everyone will like everything. I see this firsthand with movies. For instance, the critics panned the movie John Carter. I went to see it and quite enjoyed it. I think everyone should be free to express their opinions about art of any form. It's only when it gets mean and feels deliberately ugly that it stings. But the positives far outweigh the negatives. There is nothing like seeing your book on a store shelf, reading a good review or getting fan mail. It's all still surreal and exciting, even after several books.
Amber - A lot of authors have 'soundtracks' for their books. Is there any music influenced your books?
Trish - I'm actually planning to try to put a list of these songs on my site soon, but I do listen to a lot of harder stuff, including a good bit of goth/rock/metal out of Europe. Bands like Lacuna Coil from Italy, Within Temptation from Holland, and HIM from Finland. I listened to a lot of Lacuna Coil's Dark Adrenaline CD while writing Bane and Magick. I also like the feel of the music by Breaking Benjamin and Shinedown. And in a complete contrast of styles, another song that seemed to fit a big scene in Magick was Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain."
Amber - What have you been reading and watching lately?
Trish - I'm completely obsessed with Game of Thrones. I don't have HBO, so I had to wait until the DVDs of season one released, but I watched the entire season in three days. And I plan to park myself on a friend's couch to watch season two as it airs. I'm reading the first book on which the series is based and loving it. I'm also reading Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter in anticipation of seeing the movie this summer, and next up will be A Million Suns by Beth Revis, the sequel to her wonderful Across the Universe. It's sci-fi YA, mixing two genres I love.
Amber - What's your favorite paranormal movie of all time?
Trish - Underworld and Underworld Evolution. Selene kicks butt, and Michael is hot. :) I'm actually putting together a Selene costume to wear to Dragon*Con in Atlanta this year.
Amber - If you could be any paranormal creature, what would you be and why?
Trish - Probably a witch. Having that kind of power but using it for good purposes would be great. Vampires have the benefits of immortality, but I can't even stand the sight of blood and I like being in the sunlight too much. And everything you see about werewolves tends to say that the transformations are painful.
Amber - Thank you so much for being a guest on Amberkatze's Book Blog! I hope you will come back again ;)
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Witchcraft Is Her Family’s Business.No One Quits The Family And Lives To Tell About It. “Jax” Pherson has power, enough power to know her future will end in service to the dark coven her father controls. Unless she can stay hidden in a small community in the mountains of North Carolina. She must find a way to live without magic and deny the darkness she feels welling up inside her—the same dark power that fuels the covens around the world. All she wants is a normal life. A boyfriend. Friends. Some place to belong, but all too soon Jax’s barely begun new life hangs in the balance when she discovers that the boy she’s attracted to is sworn to kill her kind.
He’s a hunter with good reason to kill everything that goes bump in the night. Even the most fleeting use of her power is tantamount to signing her death warrant and will bring both hunter and coven down on her. But can she walk away when her friends are threatened by an old evil? Something created by the magic of witches? Jax’s only hope of survival is to convince the boy she loves to forget everything he’s ever been taught and help her find a way to fight the covens. To believe there is some good in her.
My Review :
I am always on the look out for new authors and series and despite having so many books on my to be read pile I can't help adding more and more! The cover for White Witch caught my attention. The title made me read the blurb. The blurb made me add it to the pile. Unfortunately I didn't get this ARC read until after the release date but as I always like to say, Better late than never.
This first book in the Coven trilogy definitely leaves an impression on the reader. Jax is a strong headed, independent and clever young lady and I took to her instantly. Her plight to get away from her family and the reasons behind it only added to my warmth towards her. She is one of those girls you wish you could help. Take home and look after. However in White Witch she shows she can do very well on her own.
The plot had a nice relaxing pace that built up the groundwork for everything that took place in this first book and obviously leaving markers for the next two books in the trilogy. I loved the setting and people in the book and hope that they will all have a part in the upcoming story. The writing style felt familiar and the author did a great job of introducing everything and still keeping me captivated.
My only little problem was the ease at which everyone either liked or hated Jax. Everyone notices a new student but she got involved with everything pretty quick. I really wonder if kids are that easy to accept someone new. Otherwise I couldn't find any deep problems with this wonderful witchy story.
I am really looking forward to where the story will lead Jax in the next book and ultimately in the third and last in the trilogy. I will definitely be checking them out. This Young Adult is not too young for any serious witch and Urban Paranormal fans.
