Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Hale Maree by Misty Provencher Blog Tour Stop

GENRE: ADULT CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE 

Please be advised that this book is NOT suitable for Young Adult readers due to language and explicit sexual situations. 

Hale Simmons dreams of climbing out of her impoverished life, going to college, and getting herself a titanium crash helmet, so she can eventually bust through the Plexiglas ceiling of her crappy life. But for now, she’s just a 18-year-old girl with a flimsy hope, barely getting by with her alcoholic father, Jerry.

But for Hale, ‘crappy’ suddenly takes a nosedive, when Jerry becomes the sole witness to a horrible accident. It is an event which means to effect everyone, especially Hale, who wasn’t even involved.

While the depth of the accident has just begun to unfold, Otto Maree, a prominent business man and old family friend, stands to lose everything because of it. Otto is desperate for Hale’s father to stay quiet about what occurred the night the two men met for a drink. Out of mutual moments of desperation, the two fathers forge a deal. Jerry is desperate to gain financial stability for both himself and Hale, and Otto Maree is more than willing to pay to keep his secret just that. 

But deals like this need to be made of the strongest vows and bound with the most faithful of loyalties. Otto proposes a marriage between Hale and his playboy-son, Oscar, in order to assure that the secret remains ‘in the family’. The mystery surrounding the accident continues to grow and Hale struggles against her own mysterious feelings that begin to develop for Oscar, who turns out to less of a playboy, but just as fiercely loyal and dedicated as his father. 

As the pressure around her continues to escalate, Hale realizes that she’s got to decide if this arranged marriage is really just a big mistake or an amazing twist of fate that has been waiting around for this particular accident to happen.

MY REVIEW

5 OF 5 HALE MAREE

First I have to say that Misty Provencher is incredible! Her writing style captivates you right from the beginning and holds you till the end. I read her Cornerstone series and was blown away so when I heard she was writing an adult book I was jumping in my seat. I was so excited because I wanted to see what she was going to write about. This book exceeded my expectations and I look forward to reading more from Misty. Hale Maree to me fits the new genre New Adult because the characters are 18+ and some of the scenes are steamy but nothing to crazy!

All Hale wants is a normal life. Is that asking for to much? Maybe.... She wants to go to college and get a great job but her father has other plans for her and she is not happy about them. Her father and his friend have made a pact that their children would marry each other. So Hale is to marry Oscar who is considered a playboy. Hale is not sure how she feels about Oscar but the two of them have to figure what to do. 

Should they honor their parents request and marry or should they continue to do what they are doing? This story has so much in it. You have secrets and lies and love that grows from nothing into something and decisions that will make or break the two families. Come along as Misty draws you into his suspense filled story and find out what happens to Oscar who is just so dam swoon worthy and Hale!

HALE MAREE TEASER 

“I like to be at home,” I tell him. “My favorite is not being married to strangers, and I don’t care about movies. I actually know how to read books.”

“I like books.”

“Books aren’t Playboy magazine articles.”

“Where did that come from?” he asks. The tone in his voice reminds me that I don’t know who he is at all and have no business talking to him like that. I remain frozen, my head twisted toward the window till my neck aches. “Hale, this is going to be a lot harder on both of us if either of us decides not to try, so how about we start again?”

“I don’t know what you want from me,” I say. Thank God, my voice doesn’t crack as I say it, but at least it feels like I’ve taken the elephant off my shoulders. 

“Okay, good, I can answer that,” Oscar says. I keep my eyes out the window. “I want you to be a loyal wife. I want you to cook for me, and keep up our house, and I want you to be good in bed.”

There is a playful smirk in his tone. I almost gag. 

“You’re a pig,” I say. I don’t care if he shoves me out of the moving vehicle. He just laughs.

“Because I want you to be good in bed? That’s a problem?” He laughs again. “Don’t you want that from me?”

“I don’t want anything from you,” my voice cracks this time, a big jagged crack right down the middle. Oscar’s laugh suddenly cuts off. 

“Wait,” he says and all I can think is here it comes. And I’m not wrong. “Have you ever been with a man before?”

When I don’t answer him, he clears his throat.

“My favorite author is Steinbeck,” he begins softly.
CATEGORY: NEW ADULT, may not be suitable for young adult readers

GENRE: DARK FANTASY

My will to survive is the first thing to drown.

I know, because I hold it under myself.

After facing severe tragedy in life, Madeline assumes her death will be easy.

But the angels do not come to take her to Heaven.

Instead, what retrieves her is something she never expected: a gargoyle.

Delivered to Truce, the King of the Gargoyles, Madeline now has choices she never wanted. She has the ability to take over the entire Gargoyle Kingdom, if she is willing to kill the king. However, looking to prevent takeover, Truce transforms Madeline, thereby granting her the ability to achieve the thing she wants most—death—if she can just find the human recipient for the Gargoyle Gift that she now has to give. It should be easy.

But lives, whether they are lived or not, are seldom simple, and Madeline’s past still stands in her way. Now, only a voyeur in the life of The Boy with the Golden Rod Voice, Madeline’s must reconcile her own life and death, if she ever hopes to have free reign of her soul.

EXCERPT FOUR

I pray, more like trying to ping whatever savior is in proximity, hoping the angels will take me. I hope that the universe will have mercy enough to wash my body back into the sea after I'm gone and feed it to the creatures at the bottom.

"Mercy?" A voice, graveled with age and smoking, ground down by drinking and screaming after women, chokes off the word with a phlegmy laugh. "There's none of that here. You're among fish. Consider them friends. And what you need isn't mercy. You need saving, although it's too late for even that."

If I could speak, I'd scream Let me die! But I can't do anything besides lie in the slimy, rotting fish. The last of the tide gushes up, bashing me against the rock. The voice comes closer.

"Now if I poke you, you'll be a talker. Not like I need a talker just yet, I'll tell you what. You need saving. Looks to me that somebody forgot. Somebody did."

The voice is so close, I ache to turn my head.

"You're a Slip, that's what. Slipped right through the crack. Right through their fingers." The voice settles above me, on the rock that is holding me here. With just one more push of the tide, my body will flap up and I will be able to see the owner of the voice. I pray for that. 

"And that's what they get," the voice goes on. "They are Forgetters who end up with Slips and don't even know they have them, because they are Forgetters. You, my darling, are a fortunate disaster. You are a Slip in the hands of one who never forgets."

One hard, salty wave gets under my shoulder and shoves me upward. Right before I hit the rock, I get a good look at what is there.

It is nothing like an angel.

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FOLLOW THE TOUR FOR GREAT PRIZES AND GREAT REVIEWS AND TEASERS

http://mistypro.blogspot.com/2012/11/hale-maree-tour.html

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks, Tee, I love it!!

Kelly said...

Kip, Kyle and Brock