Cover Reveal - Fragile Destiny!!

I'm STOKED to be part of the FRAGILE DESTINY cover reveal today!! The Aether Chronicles is one of my favorite YA series because it combines two awesome things that I love...steampunk and faeries...and has a GREAT main character!!

Here's the basics:
FRAGILE DESTINY
Release date: August 8, 2014

There's no description yet, but I'll be sharing as soon as I know!!

Drumroll please....
...and here's the cover!!!! 

Don't you love it?  They create the most beautiful covers for this series... 

For more info on FRAGILE DESTINY and Suzanne Lazear, you can check out these spots:

FRAGILE DESTINY on Goodreads

The Aether Chronicles website

Suzanne Lazear's blog

Suzanne Lazear on Facebook

Suzanne Lazear on Twitter

Charmed Vengeance

Charmed Vengeance 
by Suzanne Lazear
The Aether Chronicles, book two

*Contains spoilers from book one* 

When her true love, Steven, is forced to break their magical bond, Noli Braddock decides to join her brother on the crew of the Vixen’s Revenge.

With its gleaming brass, dark wood, and spotless clockwork gears, the Vixen’s Revenge is a beautiful airship. But Noli discovers a dangerous secret beneath its polished exterior—the crew has been hired to steal dozens of priceless Otherworld artifacts. Desperate to keep her past Otherworld experiences hidden from the airship crew, Noli fears that if she doesn’t risk telling her own secrets, the stolen artifacts will be used to destroy both of the worlds she loves. (Description from Amazon.com)

I loved diving back into this charming blend of steampunk and faerie lore.  Lazear does a brilliant job blending traditional faerie legends and affectations into an alternate history of the US.  This particular book spans the country, too, which made for a lot of interesting scene changes.  With the faerie realm underlayed, though, the country almost felt small, and the amazing airships made traveling a breeze.  

In some ways this book truly was a bridge between the first and what will be coming in the third.  There's a lot of set up for the next portion of Noli's story and characters were introduced or brought back in ways that lead directly to how they'll play a part in the next tale, yet it still felt as though it had its own legs to stand on. *NOT* to say that I wasn't immediately left wanting the next book, but I'm also happy with where things were left...for now.  

A lot of that contentment with this book derives from seeing how Noli progresses as a character.  Having to deal with her new...situation...bridging the gap between the mortal and faerie realms.  Seeing how the people in her world help those two realms collide...there were a lot of feelings in this book... 

I cannot wait to read book three!!  

Full disclosure: eARC received from Netgalley

Innocent Darkness Blog Tour - Guest Post with Author, Suzanne Lazear!

Today, I am *super* excited to welcome the author of Innocent Darkness, Suzanne Lazear, to the blog as part of the awesome Innocent Darkness Blog Tour hosted by Mundie Moms.

For my stop on the blog tour, I asked Suzanne to tell me what she thought Steampunk's place in YA's future might be, and she came up with a great answer!!

Steampunk's place in YA's future

By Suzanne Lazear

Young Adult books push boundaries. That’s what many teens do, why shouldn’t some books do the same? When someone says “you can’t do that in YA”, much like a teen, it juts out its jaw, meets the challenger’s gaze defiantly, and mutters “watch me.”

Steampunk, by its very definition is respectfully defiant. Is roots in innovation (and rebellion), Steampunk, especially as a written genre, it is constantly changing, discovering, seeing if it is possible to go places no Steampunk has gone before.

That’s partially why all of these discussions on what Steampunk isn’t or shouldn’t be irk me. This seems adverse to the very ideals of Steampunk itself. Sure, like all genres, there are establishing parameters, but Steampunk, like YA, is a genre grounded in exploration. Perhaps we should focus more on what Steampunk is. After all, we do that in YA, focusing on all the great and wonderful things the genre is instead of nitpicking and compartmentalizing.

So much about the very nature of Steampunk (rebellion, identity, hope, innovation, adventure) lend itself quite naturally to young adult stories. YA steampunk writers aren’t afraid to stretch the limits, borrowing and mashing up genres until perhaps it’s not even steampunk anymore yet still has that spark and spirit that make steampunk such an attractive genre to writers. INNOCENT DARKNESS is “fairytale steampunk”, a mashup of faeries, fairytales, and steampunk. Jay Kristoff’s upcoming novel STORMDANCER is set in Japan, and SHADOW AND BONE, by Leigh Bardugo is what she coins “Tsarpunk.”

I foresee Steampunk and Steampunkian tales (or those with Steampunkatude) as becoming a mainstay of YA. Because both genres have similar guiding principles. Because in both genres, when someone says “you can’t do that”, we say “why not?”

Because YA and Steampunk is.


I think Suzanne absolutely nailed it with this one! I love steampunk for its adventurousness, its outlandishness, the imagination it takes to imagine the possibilities, and beyond "traditional" steampunk, authors like Suzanne are pushing the envelope even further. I LOVE IT!! 

If you haven't checked out Innocent Darkness, yet, you can read my review here, you can check out Suzanne's blog here, and you can check out the list of all the other blog tour stops here! Once again, I just want to thank Mundie Moms for letting me participate in this awesome tour and I want to thank Suzanne for not only writing an awesome book, but also for taking the time to stop by my blog!!!