Mundie Moms

Monday, June 4, 2012

Dark Kiss Blog Tour: Author Guest Post & Giveaway

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I'm thrilled to be the next stop in Kismet's Dark Kiss Blog Tour. Today I have author Michelle Rowen on the blog talking about her 5 favorite fictional kisses.


FIVE AMAZING KISSES*
...in Michelle Rowen’s Opinion
*that I was able to find on YouTube without resorting to music video montages (darn you, Buffy!)

This list of favorite kisses is to celebrate the release of DARK KISS, the first Nightwatchers novel from Harlequin Teen, a book that relies quite heavily on kissing – the bad kind (that can steal your soul and turn you into a monster) and the good kind (with that gorgeous guy you’ve always had a crush on who...oops, happens to be a monster). In any case, kissing does occur. Kissing is cool! And dramatic, and horrible, and embarrassing, and passionate, and amazing, and...well, you get the picture. IT IS ALL THINGS!

And it can be that moment in a TV show or a movie where you’re like – YES! They finally kissed! Hooray!! (or is that just me? Probably not.)

#5 – Eric and Sookie on True Blood

I wasn’t thrilled with where they took the romance in the most recent season, but this kiss was super hot and fans (like me) totally ate it up! Eric is just so...THERE ARE NO WORDS.

Watch it here

#4 – Ross and Rachel on Friends

Ross didn’t get a cat (in other words, he didn’t commit to his current girlfriend). And he wanted to tell Rachel, leading to their first official kiss after months of him liking her, her liking him, sitcom zaniness. They had amazing chemistry!

Watch it here

#3 – Keith and Watts in Some Kind of Wonderful

Retro kissing, baby! Tomboy Watts is teaching Keith how to kiss the popular girl he likes, but Watts likes HIM in this classic eighties flick. Oh, the angst and the tension. It is so amazing. This, however, taught me that I much prefer love triangles where there’s two boys and one girl rather than the other way around.

Watch it here

#2 – Kate and Sawyer in Lost

“I’m tied to a tree in the jungle of mystery.” These two had FANTASTIC chemistry and a kiss that made me go WOW in the first season. It kept me watching, hoping these two crazy kids would work things out. No spoilers, but....well, Lost was a great show, but it wasn’t exactly a satisfying romance novel, was it? But this kiss? AWESOME.

Watch it here

#1 – Bella and Edward in Twilight 
“I want to kiss you and devour you completely, but I am now being pulled back by cheesy movie effects due to my ‘good vampire’ morals. For shame on me! For shame!” Still wicked hot. It’s all in the anticipation of this one. Plus, I’ve always been a Twihard and I have serious RPattz love. Don’t judge.

Watch it here

Got any other favorite movie or TV kisses to add to the list? Please share – and books totally count, too, I just couldn’t really share video clips from those!


I don't do dangerous.


Smart, über-careful, ordinary Samantha-that's me. But I just couldn't pass up a surprise kiss from my number-one unattainable crush. A kiss that did something to me...something strange. Now I feel hungry all the time, but not for food. It's like part of me is missing-and I don't know if I can get it backThen there's Bishop. At first I thought he was just a street kid, but the secrets he's keeping are as intense as his unearthly blue eyes. If he's what I think he is, he may be the only one who can help me. But something terrifying is closing in, and the one chance Bishop and I have to stop it means losing everything I ever wanted and embracing the darkness inside me.... NIGHTWATCHERSWhen angels and demons must work together, something beyond evil is rising...

Purchase from: Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, Indiebound

About Michelle Rowen - website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads

Michelle Rowen knows a book she’s working on is going well when the characters start talking to her when she’s not writing. She likes to believe this is a sign of a creative mind…and not something to be worried about. While she loves to read, spend time with family and friends, and travel, she also watches way too much reality TV for her own good. A prolific author of novels for both young and not-so-young adults, Michelle lives in Southern Ontario in a sky-high condo with two delightful cat familiars.

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GIVEAWAY TIME! Want to win a copy of Michelle's Dark Kiss? Please be sure to fill out the form below:


Check out the blog tour's Grand Prize Giveaway from Harlequin Teen!



- Dark Kiss by Michelle Rowen (Harlequin TEEN)
- Harlequin 60th anniversary bag 
- Spellbound by Cara Lynn Shultz (Harlequin TEEN) 
- Inside by Maria V. Snyder (Harlequin TEEN) 
- Crave by Melissa Darnell (Harlequin TEEN)
- 1 pair of black Harlequin socks
- Large ‘Barnaby Moon’ notebook
- Small ‘The Dark Page’ notebook

How do you enter? All daily giveaway entries are automatically entered into the grand prize giveaway.

Both the daily and grand prize give-aways are for US/Canada participants only.  See full contest rules here.

Be sure to follow the Dark Kiss Blog Tour HERE

Book Review: Dark Kiss by Michelle Rowen

Published by: Harlequin Teen
Released on: May 29th, 2012
Source: bought
3 stars: It's A Good Read
Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Series: Nightwatchers #1

I don't do dangerous.  

Smart, über-careful, ordinary Samantha-that's me. But I just couldn't pass up a surprise kiss from my number-one unattainable crush. A kiss that did something to me...something strange. Now I feel hungry all the time, but not for food. It's like part of me is missing-and I don't know if I can get it back. 


Then there's Bishop. At first I thought he was just a street kid, but the secrets he's keeping are as intense as his unearthly blue eyes. If he's what I think he is, he may be the only one who can help me. But something terrifying is closing in, and the one chance Bishop and I have to stop it means losing everything I ever wanted and embracing the darkness inside me.... -quoted from Goodreads

A quick, good read, Dark Kiss is the first in the Nightwatchers series by Michelle Rowen. It introduces fans to all whole new world of angels, demons, grays and humans. Getting mixed up in the middle of this complex and secretive world is the young, naive Samantha, also known as Sam. While she's a character that was hard for me to connect with and relate to through out much of this story, I really liked the character she grew into by the time this book ended. The first part of the book I grew extremely frustrated with her and the decisions she makes, but the last part of the book I wanted to applaud her for what she does.

Sam is inadvertently thrown into a world where Angels, Demons and Grays exist and live among human. Something she had no idea about until her fatal kiss from her long time crush. Now Sam is left to fend for herself, with no idea what just happened to her until the tall, dark and handsome Bishop, with the electrify blue eyes comes into her life, and his equally hot counterpart, Kraven. I admired Sam for wanting to get answers to what was going on to her, but  I grew very bored with the constant lack of answers her gets from the characters in this book. There are some things that happen to Sam that are a little confusing not just to her, but to myself as well. Her quest of trying to figure out what exactly is happening to her leads her to turn to both the guys for answers. Her startling powers leave them more than a little unsettled and make them all the more secretive about what's really going on around Sam's town, and with her. Their lack of telling her things upfront is what I grew impatient with. I needed a little something more to really hook me with the book during the first part vs the later half.

Aside from Sam, I liked getting to know more about Bishop and Kraven. These two are what kept me reading the book, because of their constant bantering and the secrets that unraveled about them little by little. While I started off liking Bishop more, Kraven ended up stealing the show for me. I love his cocky attitude and snarky remarks. Given his true nature and what he is, it fit him perfectly. I'll be honest, based on the cover and the synopsis I was expecting a little more romance than what was in the story. I didn't really buy into the feelings Sam and Bishop had for another. I felt they were too forced and it bordered on being an insta-love relationship for me. But even then, their hot and cold feelings for one another were a little frustrating. Now Kraven and Sam's feelings towards each other were very relatable and much easier to accept.

What I did enjoy about Dark Kiss was the original angel/demon lore that Michelle created for her series. I was really intrigued with it. It doesn't fall under the same old angel lore, but rather offers something new for fans of angel books. Michelle's setting and vivid descriptions of her scenes made it incredibly easy for me to picture where the characters were at and what was going on. Though I had a really hard time getting into the story during the first half to 3/4's of the book, that wasn't the case at all with the last part of the book. My complaint there was I got into the story too late and then it ended, leaving me wanting more! Given that this is the first book in the series, I'm looking forward to seeing what Michelle does with book 2, Wicked Kiss. With the mystery, bits of action, and the feelings of uncertainty makes me think there's a lot more to come in the sequel, plus I need to know what's in store for Kraven and Bishop now. If you're a looking for a quick, good read I'd recommend picking this one up.

Timepiece Blog Tour


Being a huge fan of Myra McEntire's writing, I'm beyond excited to be hosting her Timepiece blog that kicks off TODAY! Below you'll have the schedule and list of blog stops, which will be featuring a variety of fun posts from character and author interviews, playlists, excerpts and non spoilery reviews. The tour run from June 4th- June 14th, ending with an exciting post on Myra's blog. 1 commenter from every stop will win a TIMEPIECE poster!

The Blog Tour:



June 4th- Page Turners, interview with Michael, *tour kick off*, review

June 5th- Novel Novice, book review, excerpt

June 6th- YA Books Central, author interview, book review

Page Turners, book review

June 7th- Mundie Moms, Kaleb interview, Kaleb's playlist

June 8th- Hypable, author interview, book review

Mundie Moms, book review

June 11th- Readiacs- interview with Lily, Lilly's playlist

June 12th- YA Sisterhood, interview with Emerson *release day*

June 13th- Swootini, interview with Kaleb


June 14th- Myra's blog, tour wrap up (including treats, signed books by Myra, and signed books by fellow authors!).

And don't forget, all week, Murphy's Law Coffee will have teaser excerpts. They're also continuing the chapter by chapter recap of HOURGLASS! 







To Be Released on: June 12th, 2012
Published by: Egmont USA
Series: Hourglass #2
Pre-Order from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound


A threat from the past could destroy the future. And the clock is ticking... 

Kaleb Ballard's relentless flirting is interrupted when Jack Landers, the man who tried to murder his father, time slips in and attacks before disappearing just as quickly. But Kaleb has never before been able to see time travelers, unlike many of his friends associated with the mysterious Hourglass organization. Are Kaleb's powers expanding, or is something very wrong? 

Then the Hourglass is issued an ultimatum. Either they find Jack and the research he's stolen on the time gene, or time will be altered with devastating results. 

Now Kaleb, Emerson, Michael, and the other Hourglass recruits have no choice but to use their unusual powers to find Jack. But where do they even start? And when? And even if they succeed, it may not be enough... 

The follow-up to Hourglass, Timepiece blends the paranormal, science fiction, mystery, and suspense genres into a nonstop thrill ride where every second counts.


Follow Myra on her Website | Twitter | Tumblr | Facebook | Goodreads | You Tube 


Thank you to Amber from Page Turners Blog for making the blog tour graphic!


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