Thursday, June 21, 2012

BLOG TOUR: Heather Topham Wood

This Blog Tour Presented by Reading Addiction Blog Tours.

Reading Addiction Blog Tours

There will be a Review and Giveaway, and Excerpt but first let's get to know the Author.


Heather Topham Wood graduated from the College of New Jersey in 2005 and holds a
bachelor’s degree in English. Working full-time as a freelance writer for publications such as
USA Today, Livestrong.com, Outlook by the Bay and Step in Style magazine, she writes fiction
novels in her spare time. She resides in Trenton, New Jersey with her husband and two sons.
First Visions is the first novel in the Second Sight Series.
Follow Heather on Twitter and her blog to keep posted on her upcoming works:



Title: First Visions (Second Sight #1)
Author: Heather Topham Wood
Date Published: 4/27/12

Synopsis:
Two years ago, 21-year-old Kate Edwards became deathly ill and slipped into a coma. While unconscious, she crept into the mind of a missing boy and awoke with the knowledge of his location. Friends and family were skeptical and wary of her new ability to see into the minds of others. Their fears prompted Kate to keep her psychic powers a secret. Feeling alienated, she dropped out of college and spent most of her days holed up at her mother’s home. 


Now another child has been abducted. Police detective Jared Corbett seeks out Kate for her help in solving the case. Reluctantly, Kate agrees and they must work together to bring 8-year-old Cori Preston home to her family. Although attracted to one another, Jared has a girlfriend with ties to the abduction case and Kate is sarcastic and guarded since her coma. With visions she can’t control and an uncontrollable attraction to the detective, she wonders if she can leave the past behind and finally stop hiding from the world. Otherwise, Cori may be lost forever.



My Rating: 4.5 *'s


My Review:
Well, to start with, it is a BEAUTIFUL cover! 

I am a huge fan of the Upper YA category. I guess you would say college age. Not necessarily in college but of age to be. 

Kate has been through a lot in her life. She suffers a coma and wakes up having had a vision of missing child. She is thrust into the spotlight and loses everything. She feels the need to seclude herself and ignore her visions. 

Jared is a detective who has a personal connection to a missing child. He will do whatever it takes to find his girlfriends little sister, even digging up old stories and information on a local girl who helped police find a missing child. 

Kate is VERY reluctant to help Jared. For one, she is fighting a huge attraction to him, but hello he has a girlfriend. For two, she does not want to be in the media again after what happened last time. After making a deal they begin working together. As more and more is uncovered on the case, the closer they are becoming. They can't fight there attraction, but then there is Jared's girlfriend to consider. 

I loved the way the attraction between Kate and Jared progressed. The case seemed real and the visions were well written and intense. This was just an overall great story! Maybe not your average YA Paranormal, but definitely something to take a chance on. A breathe of fresh air! 


EXCERPT

Jared picks up Kate when she becomes stranded after a disastrous date:

Kate shifted in her seat and wondered how much she should confess about her night with Sebastian. Her inebriated tongue may end up revealing too much to Jared and she could find herself admitting how she couldn’t stand to kiss Sebastian because she was falling for him.
Jared seemed to speculate her discomfort could be over some sort of impropriety on Sebastian’s part. She saw his muscles tense as he said, “Kate, please tell me I don’t have to turn this car around and murder this Sebastian kid.”
She shook her head. “No, it was fine. I guess we were kind of on a date. I just wasn’t comfortable with how much he had to drink and where he wanted to take things.” She gave him a dazzling smile before continuing with her explanation. “See, you saved me in more ways than one tonight. My mother is the queen of thank you notes. So, don’t be surprised to receive one from her that displays her appreciation for keeping her daughter’s body and chastity safeguarded.”   
He gave her a long look and she began to guess at how terrible she appeared. She hadn’t checked out a mirror in a long time and Sebastian’s moves on her probably made her resemble someone who recently had a roll in the hay.
“I should get you home,” he said at last. He was pulled out of his reverie and began to drive out of the parking lot.
She sank back into the leather seat and relaxed into the moment. Riding in his personal car in the middle of the night seemed to heighten the intimacy she felt developing between them. She still felt a buzz from the alcohol and his closeness was doing strange things to her. Something was nagging at her and she questioned whether she should disclose anything to him. Her tongue felt loose and she allowed the words to spill out of her mouth. After letting out an exaggerated sigh, she whispered, “I had a vision about you.” 
It was silent for a long moment. His voice didn’t reveal much as he inquired, “You did?”
“It was your first day of kindergarten. You were dressed in Transformers stuff practically head to toe. You were calling yourself Optimus Prime.” She giggled loudly as she visualized Jared as a punk kindergartener.
His silence provoked her to go on and she shut her eyes to recall the vision. “I saw your mother and she was…” she trailed off before saying, “beautiful. Like amazingly so—with not one single flaw. You look like her, you know? Your father was there too and he was snapping pictures of you and her. You were nervous about school and she got down on her knees and told you to not worry. Just close your eyes and she would be there holding your hand.”
Finally opening her eyes, she shifted to face him. “It felt like she sensed that she would die young. Jared, she wanted you to remember she’d always be there for you.”
Kate swallowed hard when she saw how upset Jared looked. His features were tight and the dashboard illuminated moisture in his eyes. “Jared, I’m sorry…” she started, but her sentiment trailed off when he pulled the car over to the side of the road suddenly. Looking around, she realized they were at the end of her street.
He jumped out of the car and placed his hands behind his head. She watched him pace in front of the hood of the BMW for a minute before she slowly exited the vehicle. Approaching him cautiously, Kate asked softly, “Jared? What’s wrong?”
He produced a half laugh and half sobbing sound. “I don’t know, Kate, everything’s wrong. I mean, what are you doing here?”
“What do you mean?” she asked leaning against the hood.
Jared rarely seemed to lose his cool and it made her apprehensive about how he could be feeling. Was he agitated because of the vision? Or was he feeling something for her and he didn’t know how to deal with it?
“I like you, I do, but maybe we’ve been spending too much time together. It’s probably not a good idea for us to be as close as we’re becoming,” Jared said without meeting her eyes.
“I’m sorry I told you about the vision,” she apologized. As she positioned her body closer to him, she raised her voice in agitation. “I warned you this would happen. You’re obviously freaked out that I saw such a cherished memory of your mother. I would’ve never gone into your head if I could’ve stopped it! My visions are usually horrible, I only wanted to share with you that you gave me one of the best ones I ever had.”
“Kate, it’s not about your vision. It’s freaking incredible that you were able to see my parents as if they were still alive. I thought it would be fine for us to be friends, but…”
“But you know I want you?” she asked in her most seductive voice. The way he was protesting made her confident that he was finding it as impossible as she was to fight off their attraction. Putting her hands on her hips and sticking out her chest, she was hoping her sudden loss of inhibitions would pay off with a kiss from him.
Jared stood in front of her and grabbed her by the shoulders. His eyelids were lowered and he moistened his lips. The pull was undeniable and it felt completely natural to close her eyes and move to his mouth for a kiss.
Suddenly, his grip tightened and he said in a husky voice, “Kate, no.”


GIVEAWAY







Find More Reviews, Interviews, Guest Posts, and Giveaways at the other Tour Stops:

May 28 - Beauty and Books - Giveaway/Excerpt
May 29 - Author Bernadette Marie - Interview Excerpt
May 30 - Book Lovin Mama's - Giveaway/Guest Post/ Excerpt
June 1 - Oh! For the Love of Books - Interview/Guest Post
June 4 - Behind a Million and One Pages - Interview/Giveaway/Excerpt
June 5 - Mama Knows Books - REVIEW/Guest Post
June 6 - Fighting Dreamer - Giveaway/Interview/Excerpt
June 7 - A Dream Within a Dream - Giveaway Excerpt
June 8 - Read Between the Lines - REVIEW/Interview/Giveaway
June 11 - Work-a-Day Reads - REVIEW
June 12 - Where Fantasy and Love Take Flight - REVIEW/Guest Post/Excerpt
June 13 - TE Garden of Books - REVIEW/Interview/Giveaway
June 14 - Reader Girls - REVIEW/Excerpt
June 15 - The Queen of Teen Fiction - REVIEW/Interview
June 18 - The Adventures Within - REVIEW/Interview/Giveaway
June 19 - Taking it One Page at a Time - REVIEW/Giveaway/Interview
June 20 - Review's From the Heart - REVIEW/Giveaway
June 21 - Paulette's Papers - REVIEW/Giveaway
June 22 - Understanding Shae's Story - REVIEW/Giveaway/Excerpt

3 comments:

danicapage said...

Great review! I loved the way you expressed your feelings about this book. I agree it was a great read.

Tiffany Price said...

Sounds like a wonderful book

Anonymous said...

Thanks Cami for featuring my book on your blog!

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