A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

Today we're so excited to bring you a review and giveaway of Claudia Gray's newest novel, A Thousand Pieces of You!  Claudia is not new to writing, with her very popular Spellcaster and Evernight series, and her new Firebird series (of which A Thousand Pieces of You is the first book) promises to be just as fantastic.

  What follows is our take on the book (Marie and Stéphanie). How excited are you to read A Thousand Pieces of You? Don't forget to check out the giveaway.

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Marie's Thoughts

A Thousand Pieces of You is really multiple stories all in one:  Marguerite’s coming of age; space travel between dimensions in a multiverse; a love story.  And yet, somehow, the book manages to never feel unwieldy or overreaching.  Amazing.

The main character, Marguerite, is a pretty awesome young woman.  As the only artist in a family full of scientists, she isn’t afraid to independently chase her dreams.  And although her physicist parents may not fully understand her tendency toward the liberal arts, they are always supportive of her.  So often in YA, parents are missing, or completely unimportant to the plot, or even “bad guys.”  It’s so refreshing to find books like this one, where the parents are not only present and awesome, but they play an integral part to the plot.  Because of their support, Marguerite is able to truly shine.

When Marguerite’s beloved father is killed, she and Theo (a grad student who had been working closely with her parents, and who cared about her father like his own) embark on a journey across multiple dimensions in pursuit of his suspected murderer.  This aspect of the novel was so exciting!  The author does a fantastic job in having another character explain the multiverse theory to Marguerite early on so that the reader understands the “rules” of interdimensional travel.  After that point, I had no trouble figuring out what was happening whenever they jumped dimensions.  While the traveling characters were able to move between dimensions, they were not able to move through time, which added a little stability to the storyline.  However, different decisions made in the past greatly influenced the “present” in any given dimension, so sometimes the characters were in America… and sometimes not!  Sometimes they traveled dimensions and found themselves only a few miles apart; sometimes they were half a world apart.  I didn’t find any passages where any major questions were left lingering as to how a character was able to do something or why something happened to a character.

Speaking of things happening to characters…. A Thousand Pieces of You is also a love story.  A love triangle, in fact.  As Marguerite and Theo travel through multiple dimensions together, the questions are asked: amid infinite possibilities, can one love endure?  Does love for one person in one dimension translate to love for that person in another dimension?  I won’t tell you where, but there is a rather steamy moment in one of the dimensions!  What’s more romantic than a love that spans dimensions?  I swooned, I’ll tell you.

Overall, A Thousand Pieces of You was an exciting journey through multiple dimensions to bring a killer to justice.  Along the way, Marguerite also comes into her own strengths and finds love.  I understand that this is the first book in a projected trilogy, and I’m already looking forward to Book 2!

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Stéphanie's Thoughts

This book is amazing on so many levels. I love how many layers and details Claudia Gray was able to include in this novel, without making it too confusing. You can never go wrong when you combine a love story with muti-dimension travelling and action/adventure. I find it really hard to put my thoughts into words and I think Marie nailed it perfectly with her review.

At first, the book was a little bit confusing because you get thrown into the action right away, with very little information. The first time you meet Marguerite, the main character, is when she arrives in a different body after jumping into a different dimension. The information about how she gets there and why she has traveled this far comes later, little by little in the way of flashbacks. Honestly, I'm not too fond of flashbacks because in most novels I find they deter from the actual story. However, in this case, Claudia Gray does it seamlessly and they tie in perfectly into the plot.

Marguerite is desperate, to say the least. She will do almost anything to bring justice to her father's killer. She would even travel into a different dimension in order to follow the most likely suspect, Paul Markov, even if that means using untested technology her genius parents designed. The firebird, is a dimension jumping device that has been created by her brilliant mother. She and Theo, a grad student studying under her parents, follow Paul Markov another grad student, in another dimension that is very similar to ours, yet so different at the same time. As Paul jumps from dimension to dimension, Marguerite and Theo follow him. With them, we travel from California to London, Russia and even a water world! I'm really glad Theo is Marguerite's travelling partner, because as her grad student in physics, he is able to explain the intricacies of dimension jumping to Marguerite so that we, the readers, can better understand the details. The author doesn't really go into details on how the firebird device works, and I think she relies on our imagination to fill in the blanks.

I guess you can say this story is a love triangle, but it's a little more complicated than that. Marguerite has always had an eye out for flirty Theo, but Paul's wise and soulful presence has the ability to draw her in. What if you have feelings for a person in one dimension, and then start falling in love with that "same" but totally different person from another dimension? As many lives from many different dimensions converge, we're left with one of the most existential questions out there: can love survive time and space?

This is definitely a YA book because the main character is still of high school age, but since the other leading characters are grad students, I think it's also aimed for an older youth audience. Like Marie pointed out, many YA books tend to ignore the existence of parents, but in this case, parents and adults are very present. For all those close-minded people that believe YA books are only for children and teenagers, this book may just change your mind. It deals with real life problems that aren't about high school or vampires. I loved the fact that the author assumes her audience is intelligent enough to follow her detailed space/dimension travelling theory. Her concept on multiverses is not only original but very rational. It's obvious she put a lot of thought into it because any dilemma or problem you may have with multiverses are explained and make sense, from a fictional point of view.

The Doctor Who fan in me loved visiting new worlds through Marguerite's eyes, however, like the characters in the book often mention, they are only travelling in space and dimension, not time. The story is also being compared to the amazing TV show, Orphan Black. If you didn't know, the show is about clones, so I guess the comparison is being made because we see different lives through the "same" actor. Both also have seedy scientific corporations that play major roles in the plots. Whether you're a fan of these two TV shows or not, you don't want to miss A THOUSAND PIECES OF YOU! Already, I don't know what I'll do if I don't read the next book soon!

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About the author

Claudia Gray is a pseudonym. I would like to say that I chose another name so that no one would ever learn the links between my shadowy, dramatic past and the explosive secrets revealed through my characters. This would be a lie. In truth, I took a pseudonym simply because I thought it would be fun to choose my own name. (And it is.)

I write novels full-time, absolutely love it, and hope to be able to do this forever. My home is in New Orleans, is more than 100 years old, and is painted purple. In my free time I read, travel, hike, cook and listen to music.

Connect with Claudia:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr 

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HarperCollins is giving away one copy of A Thousand Pieces of You to one lucky winner!

Giveaway end on November 7, 2014. Open to USA and Canada only.

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by Tynga at Sunday, October 26, 2014

 Claudia Gray, Firebird, giveaway, Harper Collins, HarperTeen, Multi-dimension, Paranorm'All Hallows Eve, PHE, Publisher, Review, Science Fiction, Science-Fiction, young adult  34 People left their mark

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PHE - Interview with Nikki Kelly + Giveaway

I'm really happy to welcome Nikki Kelly to the blog today to celebrate her newly published novel, LAILAH. It was released earlier this month by the publisher Feiwel and Friends, but as a Wattpad sensation, LAILAH already had a following. Nikki Kelly joins us today to answer a few questions and discuss her book. Also, don't forget to check out the giveaway at the bottom of the post.

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Hello Nikki and welcome to the blog.  I'm glad we can chat about your newly published novel, "Lailah". To someone who doesn't know what to expect, how would you best describe your debut novel?

Lailah is the first book in The Styclar Saga and is YA PNR.

The story focuses on Lailah as she goes on a journey of self-discovery, uncovering the truth of ‘what’ she is, while trying to figure out ‘who’ she is. The novel is full of mystery and action, and there is a heavy romance at the center of the story, but Lailah’s existence and her world is veiled with dark undertones.

There are themes of light and dark, and it goes some way to challenge preconceptions and assumptions that we make about people and the world. The ideas around the worlds/dimensions in the story are a spin on traditional mythology and the concept of Heaven and Hell.

The synopsis of Lailah sounds quite dark and the cover looks creepy (but beautiful). Do you think your novel can be read by anyone, or will dark themes deter some readers?

I am ecstatic about the cover! It would have been all too easy for the designers to put an uber-pretty girl in a big dress in the middle, so I was thrilled that the fantastic creative team came up with the cover that they did. It perfectly depicts the tone of the story, with our heroine at the center, dressed normally, and with a light cascading down from above, but creepy hands grabbing her from below. If a picture speaks a thousand words, then this cover surpasses that and manages to encapsulate the entire 115,000 words of the story!

To answer your question about darker themes, I look at it like this: To know happiness, to a degree you have to experience sadness in your life, which in turn makes the highs so much higher. To a degree the same can be said for the darkness in this book. To truly appreciate the idea of light and what that means, we have to experience and know the opposite end of the spectrum. While there are some dark moments, they are crucial to the story. I don’t think it should deter readers; the book has gone through an editorial process and been categorized as YA, and the professionals know what is ‘too much’ or if something goes ‘too far’, so I trust their judgment on keeping the darker themes well-balanced.

Lailah is the first book of The Styclar Saga. What exactly is "Styclar"? And how many books do you anticipate the Saga will have?

In the books, Styclar-Plena is the name of the ‘First Dimension’ – a world created by and existing in light, born from a crystal that sits at the center of the world. Styclar-Plena is an anagram of the words ‘Crystal Plane’. It was only right to name The Saga after the First Dimension; to a point, everything that has happened and will happen has spawned from the actions of the beings from that world.

The Saga is set to be three books. Book 2 (Gabriel) is due for release Fall ‘15 and Book 3 (Untitled) is due Fall ‘16. In addition I have been writing various short stories, both for digital release and for print release, to go along with the main titles.

Is Halloween recognized in the paranormal world you created for Lailah? If so, how do people celebrate?

Lailah is actually set over the month of December and over the Christmas period, so we just missed Halloween! In the first book Lailah stays in the Second Dimension, which is Earth as we know it in current times, so it would be a recognized holiday.

Were there any special challenges when writing about total opposites like Vampires and Angels?

My Vampires and Angels are a little different to what has come before. In fact, the very idea of what a ‘Vampire’ and what an ‘Angel’ is – what our preconception of those beings are – is exactly the reason I wanted to include them. One is traditionally very ‘dark’ (there are different generations of Vampires in my books) and the other is traditionally celestial and ethereal, which is perfect, because it gave me the opportunity to explore the dark, the light and the shades of grey in-between, while putting a new spin on the beings themselves and the worlds from which they emerged.

Your experience from a self-published author on Wattpad to an author published with Feiwel and Friends is impressive and admirable. In short, can you describe the process? Also, if you had to do it over again, would you change anything?

Awww that’s very kind of you to say! I wrote my story over 18 months in my spare time. It was shortly after that I discovered Wattpad, and I uploaded my story serially in blocks of seven chapters a week over the month of December, so the readers would feel as though they were in ‘real time’ with the events in the story. The book became popular very quickly and within six months had over a million reads and thousands upon thousands of votes and comments! This was amazing for me and made me feel more confident with what I had written, due to all the love being sent my way through the magical wires of wi-fi! Growing an audience early on really helped, and in many ways it gave some assurance to the traditional publisher –Feiwel & Friends, who picked it up – that despite the ‘supernatural trend’ falling out of favor, there was still very much an audience who still wanted to read about these types of beings! If I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t change a single thing.

 

Now on to some personal Halloween questions:

What's your favourite part of fall/autumn?

The leaves, when they fall off the tree! Crisp and golden, I enjoy kicking them and watching my Pug and Chihuahua roll around the piles in the park!   

What is your most memorable Halloween costume?

I’m English, and we don’t celebrate Halloween the same way the US and Canada do! In fact, sadly, it’s not really a big thing here at all. That said, I think the costume I probably dressed in most growing up was a witch with a broomstick! Having said all that, as I became a teen and went to Halloween parties, I often dressed up as pop stars, such as Baby Spice!

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Thank you Nikki for stopping by and answering my nosy questions!

Here's the scoop on LAILAH:

The girl knows she’s different. She doesn’t age. She has no family. She has visions of a past life, but no clear clues as to what she is, or where she comes from. But there is a face in her dreams – a light that breaks through the darkness. She knows his name is Gabriel.

On her way home from work, the girl encounters an injured stranger whose name is Jonah. Soon, she will understand that Jonah belongs to a generation of Vampires that serve even darker forces. Jonah and the few like him, are fighting with help from an unlikely ally – a rogue Angel, named Gabriel.

In the crossfire between good and evil, love and hate, and life and death, the girl learns her name: Lailah. But when the lines between black and white begin to blur, where in the spectrum will she find her place? And with whom?

Gabriel and Jonah both want to protect her. But Lailah will have to fight her own battle to find out who she truly is.

Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads

My Review

About the author

NIKKI KELLY was born and raised only minutes away from the chocolately scent of Cadbury World in Birmingham, England. Lailah was first launched to wattpad, an online readers and writers community. Within six months, the novel had over one million reads. Lailah is Nikki’s debut novel, and the first book in The Styclar Saga. She lives in London with her husband and their dogs, Alfie (a pug) and Goose (a Chihuahua).

Connect with Nikki:

Website | Twitter | tumblr | Facebook

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Nikki's publicist at MacMillan is offering one (1) harcover copy of LAILAH.

Open to USA and Canada only. Giveaway ends on November 7, 2014.

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by Tynga at Thursday, October 23, 2014

 angels, giveaway, Interview, Macmillan, Nikki Kelly, Paranorm'All Hallows Eve, PHE, vampires  23 People left their mark

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PHE - Interview With Beth Bernobich + Giveaway

For today's PHE post, I had the pleasure of interviewing Beth Bernobich once again. I've been a huge fan of hers, ever since she released PASSION PLAY, the first book in her fantasy series (if you're a fan of high fantasy + romance, I highly recommend it). Her most recent book, THE TIME ROADS, was release last week but since I only received my review copy late last week, I haven't had the chance to read it all. I'm about half way through though, and so far it's great. I can't wait to share my thoughts in a review.

For now, here's the interview and giveaway.

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Hello Beth and welcome back to the blog.  I'm glad you were able to take time out of your schedule to talk about your new novel, "The Time Roads". To someone who doesn't know what to expect, how would you best describe your new novel?

The Time Roads is very different from my previous books. For one thing, it's not a novel, but four novellas that link and overlap with each other.  And instead of a secondary world fantasy, this one takes place in what looks like our own early 20th century, but where Ireland is an empire, England is a Dependency, and the map of Europe is very different from the one we know. It's also a world where prime numbers have special properties that make it possible for scientists to manipulate time.

Your previous series, River of Souls, would probably fall under the epic fantasy genre. How would you categorize "The Time Roads"?

Alternate history. I don't go into the points of departure in the book, since that's not its focus, but in the history of The Time Roads, Ireland allied itself with Denmark and Scotland to defeat the English in 1169.

Were there any special challenges in writing this book? 

Oh dear, yes. Naturally I needed to do a lot of research about the history of the time period before I could change that history. And I had to decide how religions and technology had changed, and in what ways they remained similar to the real world. But what made this book especially difficult were the time fractures and the parallel time streams. I had to make a giant chart of what happened when, in which country, and in which time stream. And I had to know what each character remembered of the different time streams.

Was it difficult letting go of the River of Soul characters/world?

I'm not sure I've actually let go yet. :)

But to be honest, no. I wrote the first of the novellas for this book over twelve years ago, and I worked on the other stories in parallel to my River of Souls books, so it felt more like talking to two good friends, rather than letting one go.

The title of the book references time. Should we expect time travelling in this story?

There is time travel, yes, but more. Time in this world has fracture points--weak spots that scientists are mapping in order to jump into the future and the past. But altering events in the past can cause time to splinter and divide, and undoing those events can heal the fractures in unexpected ways.

Do you plan to write more books for your River of Souls series?

I do. I have one novel already written called The Edge of the Empire that takes place 500 years before Passion Play, where Ilse and Raul meet in a previous lifetime. In this one, Ilse is Anna Zhdanov, a scholar and bonded servant, sent by her master to recover an important Imperial artifact. Raul is Andreas Koszenmarc, the son of a nobleman turned pirate, who is searching for that same artifact for reasons of his own.

I would also love to write two more books about what happens in Károví and Morennioù after the events in Allegiance.

What are you reading right now? 

I am re-reading one of my favorite, favorite series: The Queen's Thief quartet by Megan Whalen Turner. These books are as perfect as you can get.

What's your favourite part of fall/autumn?

I love the hint of chill in the morning air, and how the sky looks different--sharper and clearer, and the blue much more vivid than in summer. We live on a miniature lake, opposite a state park, and when fall arrives, the waters of the lake reflect the changing colors of the leaves. I could sit on our back patio for hours, just to drink in the view.

Thank you again for participating in our event. I look forward to reading The Time roads.

Thank you for inviting me!

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Here's the scoop on THE TIME ROADS:

A fantastical nineteenth century alternate historical steampunk romp from Beth Bernobich, the critically acclaimed author of the River of Souls trilogy.

Éire is one of the most powerful empires in the world. The Anglian Dependencies are a dusty backwater filled with resentful colonial subjects, Europe is a disjointed mess, and many look to Éire for stability and peace. In a series of braided stories, Beth Bernobich has created a tale about the brilliant Éireann scientists who have already bent the laws of nature for Man''s benefit. And who now are striving to conquer the nature of time.

The Golden Octopus: Áine Lasairíona Devereaux, the young Queen of Éire, balances Court politics while pursing the Crown''s goals of furthering scientific discovery. When those discoveries lead to the death and madness of those she loves, Áine must choose between her heart and her duty to her kingdom.

A Flight of Numbers Fantastique Strange: Síomón Madóc is desperately trying to discover who is killing the brightest of Éire''s mathematicians. The key to saving lives lies in the future...and Síomón must figure out a way to get there.

Ars Memoriae: Éireann spymaster Aidrean Ó Deághaidh goes to the kingdom of Montenegro to investigate rumors of great unrest. But Ó Deághaidh is tormented by visions of a different timeline and suspects that someone in his own government is playing a double game….

The Time Roads: Éire stands on the brink of the modern age, but old troubles still plague the kingdom. An encounter with a mysterious stranger near death holds the clue to both the past and the future of the nation.

Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads

Other books by Beth Bernobich:

    

About the author

Beth Bernobich is a writer, reader, mother, and geek. Her short stories have appeared in all kinds of places, including Asimov’s, Interzone, Strange Horizons, and Tor.com. Her first fantasy novel, Passion Play, won the 2010 RT Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Epic Fantasy. The second book in that series, Queen’s Hunt, earned a spot on the Locus Recommended Reading List for 2012. She lives in Connecticut, USA with her family, and two idiosyncratic cats.

Connect with Beth:

Website | Twitter

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Beth's publicist is giving away one (1) copy of THE TIME ROADS.

Open to Canada and USA only. Giveaway ends November 7th, 2014.

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by Tynga at Wednesday, October 22, 2014

 Beth Bernobich, giveaway, Interview, Paranorm'All Hallows Eve, PHE  5 People left their mark

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