Share the Love Giveaway Hop

I’m excited to be participating in the Share the Love Giveaway Hop, hosted by The Herd Hops this year. The way I see it, this is a great chance to not only share some of my favorite authors with everyone, but also to give away a book of the winner’s choice. When deciding how to pick authors for this list, I really had a hard time. There’s just so many! But then I figure no matter who I feature, I can’t go wrong.

I wound up selecting 4 authors that I have discovered within the past year. Some of them are debut authors, some of them are established, but they were new to me recently. Plus one all time favorite because I just couldn’t help myself. So here it is:

The winner will have their choice of eBook, physical book or Audible audiobook for any of the books shown in this giveaway. (US only)

Grady Hendrix

http://www.gradyhendrix.com

What can I say? A horror story set in an IKEA knock-off chain furniture story. Just imagine being not just being in a horror story, but being trapped at work with your coworkers for it! Surrounded by corporate propoganda! This book was so incredibly fun. And while my giveaway is for your choice of format, I highly recommend a physical book for this one, as it just feels right (it has inventory diagrams/descriptions at the beginning of the chapters. While far from critical, they just add to the tone of the book). Here’s my review of Horrorstor.  

Grady Hendrix does a job. His job is called “writing” which means that he is completely irrelevant and can be killed and turned into food at any time. He is one of the founders of the New York Asian Film Festival, but he is not responsible for the bad parts of it. He is also not Asian. For years he was a regular film critic for the New York Sun but then it went out of business. He has written for Playboy Magazine, Slate, The Village Voice, the New York Post, Film Comment, and Variety before Variety fired him for writing about Asians. Variety does not like Asians.

He writes fiction, also called “lies,” and he writes non-fiction, which people sometimes mistakenly pay him for. There is a science fiction book called Occupy Space that he is the author of, and also a fantasy book called Satan Loves You which he wrote as well. Along with his BFF from high school, Katie Crouch, he is the co-author of the YA series, The Magnolia League. With Ryan Dunlavey he was co-authored the Li’l Classix series, which are cartoon degradations of classic literature, and with his wife, and Ryan, he wrote Dirt Candy: A Cookbook, the first graphic novel cookbook in America. His fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Pseudopod, and the anthology, The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination.

Angus Watson

http://www.guswatson.com

Age of Iron(my review) is one of my favorites debuts from last year, and I am always surprised how few people have read it. It’s not a book for the faint or heart or the squeamish. It is quite dark and can be a bit violence. But for me, that was balanced quite well with a wonderfully dark edged humor and great story (plus, that’s not the type of thing to bother, actually, I love dark books)  For any fans of other books labeled grim dark, this is absolutely worth reading. 

In his twenties, Angus Watson’s jobs ranged from forklift truck driver to investment banker. He spent his thirties on various assignments as a freelance writer, including looking for Bigfoot in the USA for the Telegraph, diving on the scuppered German fleet at Scapa Flow for the Financial Times and swimming with sea lions off the Galapagos Islands for the Times. Now entering his forties, Angus lives in London with his wife Nicola and baby son Charlie. As a fan of both historical fiction and epic fantasy, he came up with the idea of writing a fantasy set in the Iron Age when exploring British hillforts for the Telegraph, and developed the story while walking Britain’s ancient paths for further articles.

Pierce Brown

These books are so addictive, the type to keep you up too late at night and reach for first thing in the morning. It is a story of life, of love, of society, of justice, of evil and of vengeance. A dystopian setting, but a fresh story that feels unique in its own right. It is also dark. You can read my review for more gushing.

http://www.redrisingbook.com

http://www.pierce-brown.com

Pierce Brown spent his childhood building forts and setting traps for his cousins in the woods of six states and the deserts of two. Graduating college in 2010, he fancied the idea of continuing his studies at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a magical bone in his body. So while trying to make it as a writer, he worked as a manager of social media at a startup tech company, toiled as a peon on the Disney lot at ABC Studios, did his time as an NBC page, and gave sleep deprivation a new meaning during his stint as an aide on a U.S. Senate Campaign.

Now he lives in Los Angeles, where he scribbles tales of spaceships, wizards, ghouls, and most things old or bizarre.

Lauren Beukes 

http://laurenbeukes.com

Beukes is certainly not a debut author, but the first book I read by her is her latest novel, Broken Monsters (my review). Since then I have made time to read Shining Girls (my review) and Zoo City (this review will be posted later this month as part of my Backlist Burndown). She has very quickly become a favorite of mine. Since her books are standalones, you can take your pick.

 She won the Arthur C Clarke Award and The Kitschies Red Tentacle for Zoo City, a gritty phantasmagorical noir about magical animals, pop music, refugees, murder and redemption in the slums of inner city Johannesburg. She is currently adapting the novel as a screenplay for Oscar-nominated producer Helena Spring.

Her debut novel, Moxyland is about a neo-corporate apartheid state, bio-engineered art, nano-branding, cell phones used for social control and terrorism.

Each book below will link to their goodreads descriptions.

Robin Hobb

http://www.robinhobb.com

OK, this is a cheat. She’s not an author I’ve newly discovered. But, hey! I decided to share the love any way. Hobb writes some of the most gut wrenching stories out there, I just absolutely love them.  I get so emotionally attached to her characters, which do not have it easy!! I know there are still people out there that have not yet read her books, so here it is! Your chance to check it out! For this one, I think you need to start at the beginning, so I am offering a copy of Assassin’s Apprentice, the first book of the first trilogy.

Robin Hobb is the second pen name of American author Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden (born March 5, 1952). She is best known for the books taking place in the Realm of the Elderlings, which started in 1995 with the publication of Assassin’s Apprentice, the first book in the Farseer trilogy.

The Realm of the Elderlings series consists of four completed and well-received fantasy trilogies: The Farseer Trilogy (Assassin’s Apprentice, Royal Assassin, and Assassin’s Quest), The Liveship Traders Trilogy (Ship of Magic, Mad Ship and Ship of Destiny) and the Tawny Man Trilogy (Fool’s Errand, Golden Fool, and Fool’s Fate). She is currently working on the Fitz and The Fool Trilogy with Fool’s Assassin published and Fool’s Quest is expected to be published in August of this year.

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Don’t forget to check out the other stops!