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Blogaversary Celebrations - Secret For a Song Excerpt and Giveaway

30 Jun 2013

Secret For a Song by S.K. Falls



Synopsis

Saylor Grayson makes herself sick. Literally.

She ate her first needle when she was seven. Now, at nineteen, she’s been kicked out of college for poisoning herself with laxatives. The shrinks call it Munchausen Syndrome. All Saylor knows is that when she’s ill, her normally distant mother pays attention and the doctors and nurses make her feel special.

Then she meets Drew Dean, the leader of a local support group for those with terminal diseases. When he mistakes her for a new member, Saylor knows she should correct him. But she can’t bring herself to, not after she’s welcomed into a new circle of friends. Friends who, like Drew, all have illnesses ready to claim their independence or their lives.

For the first time, Saylor finds out what it feels like to be in love, to have friends who genuinely care about her. But secrets have a way of revealing themselves. What will happen when Saylor’s is out?


Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK

Check out my review here

Excerpt


Drew waited with me as I stood on the sidewalk outside, letting the snow dust my head and shoulders.

“You look good in snow,” he said.

I laughed, my cheeks heating up as I tipped my head back to look at him. “Are you drunk?”

He stepped in closer, blocking out the streetlight that glowed orange in my eyes. “Maybe just a little tipsy.” He smiled. “I really meant what I sang in there.”

“Which part?” My words were just a breath, curling into the air.

He brought his head down to mine, so our noses were almost touching. “I’ll tell you a secret, I’ll sell you a secret for a song,” he sang softly; the same song from the bar. “Someday I’ll tell you, and take you back home where you belong.”

I wasn’t one of those girls who cried at every emotional thing they saw or heard; I’d never been that way. That might’ve explained why, when the tears cascaded down onto my cheeks, I felt with my fingers to see what the hell was going on with my eyes.

“Hey,” Drew said, catching one of the tears with a fingertip. “Are you okay?”

I opened my mouth to say I was, but all that came out was a sort of sob-whine, and more tears. Drew responded by putting his free hand around my waist and covering my mouth with his.

I’d like to say that in that moment, I kept my head. That I remembered that I was lying to him, that my entire existence in his life was only because of a huge untruth, and that I intended to extricate myself from him and the rest of the group. I’d like to say that I stopped the kiss.

But in that instance, the only thing I felt, the only thing that mattered, was how hard I was falling for Andrew Dean.

I was falling for this scared, lonely, broken, brave man who sang songs about secrets, who lulled me into a whole new universe using nothing but his voice. I wanted him, all of him, and I pretended that I belonged. It was the biggest lie I’d told up to that point, and for someone whose entire life was carved out of lies of different colors and shades and shapes, that was saying a lot. 

About the Author


A huge fan of spooky stuff and shoes, I enjoy alternately hitting up the outlet malls and historic graveyards in Charleston, SC where I live and imbibe coffee. My husband and two small children seem not to mind when I hastily scribble novel lines on stray limbs in the absence of notepads.

Since no writer’s biography is complete without mention of her menagerie of animals, you should know I have one dog that doubles as a footstool, a second that functions as a vacuum cleaner, and a cat that ensures I never forget that my hands are, first and foremost, for pouring cat food.


Giveaway


Win an ecopy of Secret for a Song. Please check my giveaway page for the rules. Good luck!
 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Stacking the Shelves / Showcase Sunday #20

Showcase Sunday is hosted by Vicky @Books, Biscuits, and Tea and Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and they both give bloggers the opportunity to share the books they have received in the past week.

I reviewed several amazing looking books this week and I can't wait to read them all. I also have several giveaways going on at the moment for you to stack your own shelves which can all be found on my giveaway page. As usual if you click on the book's image you will be taken to its amazon page.

Review



The Weight of Souls is a paperback and the other two are both ebooks. Thank you to Strange Chemistry for The Weight of Souls, Terra Lorin for Avadonya: A New Dawn and Leigh Talbot Moore for Dragonfly.

Netgalley



I finally got my issues with Netgalley sorted so as well as these two I also managed this week to get some previous books from netgalley onto my kindle.

Bought

I got two treats for myself this week. Both are non-contemporary NA books. Refugee is book three in a paranormal/dystopian series (Book 1 Captured is currently free) and State of Emergency is the first book in a dystopian series).



Freebies

I checked my amazon wishlist this week and noticed that two books were now available for free. I saw several people mention Wanted on facebook and it sounds interesting.



Won



Thank you to Orion publishing for the lovely paperback of Ketchup Clouds!

So what do you think? Are there any books you have read or plan to read? Feel free to link to your Stacking the Shelves or equivalent post in the comments.

Blogaversary Celebrations - Excerpt from When You Loved Me

29 Jun 2013

When You Loved Me by Terra Lorin 



Synopsis

Songwriter Brooke Davenport’s fiancé has left her for another woman. She’s devastated, but this is not the first time a man she’s loved has broken her heart.

Tristan Jameson, her brother’s best friend, crushed her dreams on the seventeenth summer of her life when he disappeared without so much as a phone call or note to her, or her brother. What could’ve happened that he left in such haste—especially after finally winning him over to confess his love for her?

Now he’s back in town and Brooke wants an explanation. Will she be able to forgive him? After having been jilted twice by the two men she trusted her heart to, will she ever give her trust and love to a man ever again—much less to one who hurt her once before?

As Brooke and Tristan record her duet song together, memories flood her mind and sensual desires surge through her body for the man who she had a crush on since he was a boy—her first love—the one no girl ever forgets.

ESTIMATED RELEASE DATE: end of July/early August 2013.

 

Exclusive excerpt from When You Loved Me


“What the hell were you thinking?” I asked Landon after he came downstairs.

“What do you mean?” He was clueless of my feelings about the whole thing. “We need a male voice and Tristan’s the perfect match for you. Have you forgotten?”

“No, I haven’t forgotten that part, but have YOU forgotten the other part?”

Landon looked me straight in the eyes. “Brooksie, you don’t know the whole story, so hold off your judgments about Tristan,” he told me.

“So, you know more than I do about why he up and left, just like that? He broke my heart, Landon.” Tristan was my first love, my teenage love—the one no girl ever forgets.

“I know. I hurt for you, too, remember?” He looked at me with sympathetic eyes. “But if you knew the truth, you’d forgive him.”

“So if you know the truth, why haven’t you told me?”

“It’s not my place to tell you. Only Tristan can tell you. Just trust me when I say, you’ll understand when that time comes.”

“So he’s going to tell me eventually?” I asked.

“I’m sure he will.”

“So you don’t know for a fact that he’ll tell me.”

“Sis, enough with the badgering. That’s all I’m going to say on the matter. You’ll have to be patient about it.”

“That seems to be your favorite line with me these days,” I said, almost with a laugh, but I was too upset with seeing Tristan again to let one out.

Landon put a supportive hand on my shoulder. “You know you’re the most important person to me. After dad and mom died, it was just the two of us and I’d never hurt you in a million years, or want to see you hurt by anybody else.”

I looked into my brother’s eyes as he spoke so sincerely. Landon had the same color eyes as me, although his were slightly lighter than mine were. I envied his thick curly lashes that should’ve been made for a girl—I had to curl mine. I always wished I had his eyes; they were so dreamy looking, but unfortunately, we can’t order these things at birth.

He pulled me close and hugged me.

“I love you, Brooksie.”

He squeezed me tight.

“I love you, too.”

All my anger dropped at that moment and I squeezed him back. Landon could always pacify my being upset with him. It was a gift—or maybe I was just a pushover.

My brother let go of me, gave me a smile, and headed towards the kitchen.

My thoughts went to Tristan again. Landon said Tristan had a reason for leaving the way he did on that seventeenth summer of my life.

Well, if it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to make Tristan tell me the truth. He owed it to me. I know he fell in love with me that summer. What we shared together was too intense—too special.

And I could see it in his eyes today—he still had feelings for me.

Although things have changed for me with having loved Peter for five years, I can’t say that the sight of Tristan doesn’t cause queasiness in my stomach or set an ache to my heart. I think he’ll always turn me into mush. Even throughout my love for Peter, Tristan has never left a part of my heart completely.

My adolescent years had determined what Tristan was to me. Yes, he was my brother’s best friend, but more importantly—he had been my first love—the love I’d never completely let go of.

Even more amazing stuff!


Invitation to a Private Viewing: The author is giving exclusive access to a private viewing of the book as it unfolds to the first 20 guests to comment below. This means you will get access to a members only blog that you will be able to read the entire book on once it is complete! She will need to add your email address to her security permissions so you can gain access. After posting your interest here, send her a message with your email address at Goodreads (for your security/privacy, best not to post your addy here). Here’s her direct link (the GR account is under her pen name) >> P. S. Love

Blog Tour and Review of The Forgotten Ones

28 Jun 2013


The Forgotten Ones by Laura Howard



Synopsis

Allison O'Malley's plan is to go to grad school so she can get a good job and take care of her schizophrenic mother. She has carefully closed herself off from everything else, including a relationship with Ethan, who she's been in love with for as long as she can remember.

What is definitely not part of the plan is the return of her long-lost father, who claims he can bring Allison's mother back from the dark place her mind has gone. Allison doesn't trust her father, so why would she believe his stories about a long forgotten Irish people, the Tuatha de Danaan? But truths have a way of revealing themselves. Secrets will eventually surface. And Allison must learn to set aside her plan and work with her father if there is even a small chance it could restore her mother's sanity.


Review

I thought The Forgotten Ones was very interesting. The concept behind it was something not yet seen in New Adult books (though has been done in YA). It starts off like a contemporary romance and subtly weaves in the magic until you are fully immersed in a world of relatively traditional fairies.
What I found refreshing about this book was that its main focus was on the storyline and the magic and that wasn’t all only secondary to the romance. I did feel that the characters could have been more engaging which is the main reason why this book only got 4 stars.
The best part of this book was the storyline and the mythology. It was really well developed and beautifully written. The author’s magical writing style mixes well with the magical themes of the book.
Parts of this book seemed very introductory. For example the romance between Allison and Ethan never fully blossoms and we only see the hints of their attraction. The Forgotten Ones is the first in a series so presumably things like this will be further explored in future books.
I will admit that I was confused by the ending. It is one of those sudden “We have just discovered this” ending but I was confused as it was something that I was pretty sure the characters had found out in the previous chapter.
This was a great start to the series introducing very well the characters and the world and setting the scene for the story to unfold over a few books. I am looking forwards to the next book in the series. There is so much more I want to see: characters being more developed and friendships and relationships being explored.
*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, this has not affected my opinions or rating in any way*

About the Author



Laura Howard lives in New Hampshire with her husband and four children. Her  obsession with books began at the age of 6 when she got her first library card. Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley High and other girly novels were routinely devoured in single sittings. Books took a backseat to diapers when she had her first child. It wasn’t until the release of a little novel called Twilight, 8 years later, that she rediscovered her love of fiction. Soon after, her own characters began to make themselves known. The Forgotten Ones is her first published novel.

Giveaway


Enter to win the following -


(1)   eBook copies of The Forgotten Ones – mobi format – International

(1)   $25 Amazon Gift Card – open to countries able to accept Amazon Gift Cards

(2)   Swag Pack: includes keychain, bookmark, and postcard

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blogversary Celebrations - Prequel to Obscura Burning

Obscura Burning by Susanne Van Rooyen



Synopsis

The world's going to end in fire...and it's all Kyle's fault.

Kyle Wolfe's world is about to crash and burn. Just weeks away from graduation, a fire kills Kyle's two best friends and leaves him permanently scarred. A fire that Kyle accidentally set the night he cheated on his boyfriend Danny with their female friend, Shira. That same day, a strange new planet, Obscura, appears in the sky. And suddenly Kyle's friends aren't all that dead anymore. Each time Kyle goes to sleep, he awakens to two different realities. In one, his boyfriend Danny is still alive, but Shira is dead. In the other, it's Shira who's alive...and now they're friends with benefits. Shifting between realities is slowly killing him, and he's not the only one dying. The world is dying with him. He's pretty sure Obscura has something to do with it, but with his parents' marriage imploding and realities shifting each time he closes his eyes, Kyle has problems enough without being the one in charge of saving the world...


Try it for yourself: Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK

Prequel to Obscura Burning - specially written


Kyle and Danny’s First Kiss

Buying roses in February in Coyote’s Luck, even with the temperature hovering around 50, just isn’t an option. Closest thing we have to a flower shop is Shep’s hardware store where a
row of anorexic cactus sulks in the window. My options are limited to the pink and white bears in the dollar shop favored by twelve year old girls, chocolate that’ll probably just end up growing fur in the pantry, or one of those cards with a puppy in a dumb hat on the front.
“You should’ve made him a card.” Shira nudges me with her elbow as we kick up dust along the main street. “He loves your comic book stuff.”
“He’d’ve loved roses.”
“You gonna drive all the way to Farmington for them?”
“Maybe I should.”
“You’re an idiot, Kyle.” She sweeps a black waterfall of hair off her shoulder. “Danny couldn’t give a shit about Valentine’s Day.”
“Yeah, but I do.” Every year it’s the same: a miserable day spent watching girls shower Danny with chocolate he doesn’t eat and badly written poems in perfume drenched paper he burns out back with the trash.
“Then grow a pair and just ask him out already.” Shira shrugs when I don’t answer, turning to follow the trail up past the hogback to her trailer at the edge of the reservation. As she disappears, her words still ricochet inside my skull.
 
I head home but only get as far as the corner house before I hear Dad yelling. Mom’s working this evening so Dad must be yelling at his empty whisky bottle. No point in going home. Don’t feel like getting another bust lip or black eye.
My feet take me along the Indian trails as the sunset ignites the sky, reaching tendrils of indigo and vermillion out over the mesa like giant fingers trying to snatch up Shiprock. It’s dark by the time I find myself standing outside Danny’s adobe, the rust-crusted windmill creaking in the breeze.
“Hey, what’s up?” Danny jogs up his driveway, shirtless and sweaty despite the cold. Tall and graceful, with abs more chiselled than any Michelangelo could sculpt; my face burns hotter than a cigarette as I tear my eyes from his dusty chest.
“Your Dad at it again?” He tugs on his t-shirt as he ambles over to me in the shadow of a mesquite.
“When isn’t he?”
Danny lifts my chin and runs his thumb across the smudge of bruise on my right cheek. My legs turn to burrito mush as my stomach flips somersaults.
“Your eyes are crazy blue when they’re all bust up like that.” He gives me a lopsided smile. “Just like the summer sky. Cielo.” The word is a whisper and a promise as his cups my jaw. I stop breathing and close my eyes willing the world to end
right this minute. This is the perfect moment as I tilt my head in anticipation of soft lips meeting mine. If they do, my life will never be the same and if they don’t, I don’t want to go on living.
Dust and breath, Danny’s lips meet mine and nothing matters except the taste of his kiss and the slow dance of tongues as his fingers slip into my hair, as his body presses against mine.
He pulls away breathless as the porchlight flickers on.
“Happy Valetine’s Day, cielo.
 

About the Author

 
Suzanne is a freelance writer and author from South Africa. She currently lives in Finland and finds the cold, dark forests nothing if not inspiring. Suzanne is the author of the cyberpunk novel Dragon’s Teeth (Divertir), the YA science fiction novel Obscura Burning (Etopia) and has had several short stories published by Golden Visions Magazine, Space and Time and Niteblade. Her non-fiction articles on travel, music and other topics can be found scattered throughout the Internet. Although she has a Master’s degree in music, Suzanne prefers conjuring strange worlds and creating quirky characters. When not writing you can find her teaching dance to ninth graders or playing in the snow with her shiba inu.
 
Suzanne is represented by Jordy Albert of the Booker Albert Agency.
Suzanne is also a publicist for Entranced Publishing.

Blogaversary Celebrations - Exclusive deleted scene from Eversea: Jack's Lost Bar Scene

27 Jun 2013

Eversea by Natasha Boyd



Synopsis

An orphaned, small-town, southern girl, held hostage by responsibility and self-doubt.

A Hollywood A-list mega-star, on the run from his latest scandal and with everything to lose.

A chance encounter that leads to an unlikely arrangement and epic love affair that will change them both forever.

When his co-star and real-life girlfriend is caught cheating on him with her married and much older director, A-list hottie, Jack Eversea, finds himself in sleepy Butler Cove, South Carolina. Jack hopes the sultry southern heat in this tiny coastal Lowcountry town will hide him not only from the tabloids and his cheating girlfriend, but his increasingly vapid life and the people who run it. He doesn’t count on meeting Keri Ann Butler.

Keri Ann has relied on herself so long, dealing with her family’s death and the responsibilities of keeping up her family's historic mansion, that boys and certainly the meager offering of eligible boys in Butler Cove, have never figured into her equation. But fate has other plans. Suddenly face to face with the man who played the movie role of her favorite fictional character, Jack has Keri Ann yearning for everything she has previously avoided ... and Jack must decide whether this funny, sassy girl is worth changing his life for, before his mistakes catch up to him.



You can check out my 4.5 star review for Everesea here.

Try it for yourself: Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK

 

Exclusive Deleted Scene from Eversea


Here is the deleted scene from Eversea.    It occurs right after Jack gets his turtle tattoo, and before the party where learns the truth about Audrey.   I really was hurting for Jack during this entire end part of the book. I really appreciate Bookish Treasures featuring this deleted scene for you all today J

Sitting some time later in the Velvet Margarita, in a dark corner with Nick and Devon, I wonder if I should just let it out of my crushing chest.

“So.” Devon starts above the loud music. “You’re getting more tattoos, you’re piss drunk, you’re avoiding your girlfriend whose pregnant with your baby, should I start expecting some door slamming and eye-rolling too?”

“Leave it, Devon,” I grunt at him. I know I have acted childish and moody these last few months.

He turns his blonde, shaggy surfer head and looks at Nick. “See, exactly like a teenager. Classic. Aren’t we too old for this? Just spill it, man,” he says, looking back at me. “What the hell happened to you in Butler Cove? I thought I was helping you by letting you stay at the house, not making it worse.”

“I’d like to know too,” adds Nick, taking a long pull from his bottle of beer. He looks a little like Joel Madden with that fedora on.

I look down at my rattling ice. I may need another Bushmills for this, but the bar is getting crowded, we won’t be anonymous for long. “Nothing,” I manage. God, but I feel like my head might explode, and my chest is tight. I blow out a breath, raking my fingers through my hair and grabbing a bunch of it tightly, like I can snap myself out of this funk. “Fuck.”

Nick is still looking at me speculatively. “A madness most discreet,” he murmurs, then leans back in his chair like he just laid down a royal flush.

Yes. He has it right. It’s almost a relief to hear it. But the madness inside me is all the more potent for its discretion. And for it’s pointlessness. It will never be allowed out. 

“What does that mean?” Devon inquires, as the weight of my acceptance causes me to lean forward onto my elbows and hang my head down.

Nick answers him. “It’s Shakespeare. It means—”

“I know what the hell it is.” Devon snorts. “I just don’t get—oh. Ooh.”  He does a quick scan over both shoulders, then leans toward me, pulling his chair closer. “What the hell happened?” he asks, in a low voice. When I give him nothing, he looks at Nick for an answer, but Nick is looking at me.

I try to give them something.

“Do you know who André Gide is?”  Maybe a quote to explain it. I’d been feeling unsettled before Butler Cove, Audrey’s antics just gave me a good reason to get away. I can start there.

“Here we go,” mutters Nick.

“No,” says Devon at the same time. “Wait, some old French writer Monica likes. And here we go where?”

I scowl at Nick.

He shrugs and smirks. ”He gets all deep and shit. When he starts quoting Gide, it’s a serious fucking pity party.”

I slam my glass down on the table, not hard enough to break it, but hard enough to express my irritation. “You were the punk who brought up Shakespeare, Nick.”

“Can you all stop talking in riddles and literature and get to the point?”

I shrug and close my eyes for a moment. “It’s just ... I thought I’d be ok. But I ... I just keep seeing her face.”

“Whose?” Devon interjects.

Nick rolls his eyes with a grimace. “Keep. Up. Man.”

“The girl in Butler Cove?” Devon guesses. “But you were hardly there.” I can see him trying to understand how ten days could change my entire life.

I still don’t know either.

All I know is that it feels good to finally acknowledge what I have had bottled up inside me, while smiling endlessly through vapid hours and days.

I think about how many times my thumb has scrolled across her number in my phone, itching to press down. I have even called her friend, Vern, once. He helped me get rid of video evidence of my violent outburst in Savannah. Vern didn’t say much except she was doing fine. If only I could feel ‘fine’. What did ‘fine’ mean, anyway? 

I start talking then. “I keep wondering why I did it. She didn’t deserve it. God, it was just that I was different with her. I mean, I felt like me for the first time in forever. I should have known that was too good to last. And Christ.” I wince. “She’s just ... Why I would take someone so perfect and sweet and pure and just fuck it up? Fuck her up?” I grab fistfuls of my hair with both hands as I leaned down on my elbows again. I feel my face bunching up as I acknowledge the crushing guilt in my chest.

Devon reaches a hand out to my shoulder. “I don’t mean to not understand here, but you sleep with fans all the time, or at least, you used to—”

“Shut Up, Okay?” I snap, shrugging his hand off. Then I notice Devon’s widened eyes. “I’m sorry, Dev. I just feel trapped. I am trapped.” I laugh hollowly. “And she’s not a fan. Trust me.”  I slowly shake my head. “At least, even if she was, she’s not anymore.”

Devon and Nick are finally silent. Each of them probably thinking to varying degrees that they have never seen me like this. They haven’t. And I am so tired of pretending to be someone I’m not.

I hope you enjoyed! I know it was short, but hopefully you understand a little more about what is going on in Jack’s heart. 

Thank you for all of your love and support for Keri Ann and Jack!

 ~ Hugs, Natasha Boyd

About the Author



Natasha Boyd is a writer with a background in marketing and public relations. She lives in the coastal Carolina Lowcountry, complete with Spanish moss, alligators and mosquitoes the size of tiny birds.  She has a husband, two sons and a cat named Tuna.  Eversea is her first full-length novel.

Facebook | Pinterest | Website | Twitter - @lovefromlowcntry

 

The Strange Case of Jordin Williams

26 Jun 2013
(This post is a compilation of the information that can be found in different corners of the internet. I have not mentioned any of the things that are not backed up with evidence. Sources of information - The original post revealing the plagerism and information from the commentsJamie McGuire's twitter, Jordin Williams twitter and website (before deletion), http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1384890-copying-only-parts-of-a-book-plagiarism, http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1152912-same-book-two-different-authors, https://word.office.live.com/wv/WordView.aspx?FBsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fdownload%2Ffile_preview.php%3Fid%3D478238672270057%26time%3D1372344273%26metadata&access_token=1210097847%3AAVI5aGkpvm57k9ltAM8QEaoARJ_hC_sILV5uw2rjNbI3zg&title=Plagiarism+Plot+Thickens.docx, Link between all the aliases

Nothing is yet proven and I am not personally accusing any of the people mentioned. I am merely compiling the information from other places into one easy to read post.)

So you have probably heard the news that is blowing up the twitter-sphere at the moment. About a week ago a new NA book was released, readers thought it was amazing and it started flying through the amazon charts to quickly land its way in the top 100. Earlier today someone realised why the book is so good. Allegedly it is plagiarised.

Dear Author posted this that compares sections of two bestselling NA novels Beautiful Disaster and Easy to the newly released Amazingly Broken by Jordin Williams. If you look at the comparisons you can clearly see that almost entire paragraphs have been copied with only a few tweaks being made. Accusations got thrown towards the author. That was then things started to get weird.

Jordin Williams' argument - The book was ghost written and she did not know about the plagiarism. There are 2 things overly off about that argument -

  1. Ghost writing makes sense when it is for a "big name" author backed a publisher. But a new, planning to self-pub author commissioning a ghost-writer? Really?
  2. Jordin's author bio says "Jordin Williams is a 26 year old ghostwriter turned author. She lives in Iowa and has always loved to sit down and read a good book. When she started ghostwriting books they would become popular even though she was never given any credit so she decided to write her own book, Amazingly Broken." If that is the case that she wanted recognition for her own work then why on earth would she hire a ghostwriter?!

And her review on goodreads -

Picture from @peggysmartinez on twitter
Although I suppose this could just be the author overcompensating for the fact she didn't write it and it was indeed ghostwritten.

Also when the author first mentioned the ghost writer she said they had been hired through a site called Guru, when later asked she said it was through a different site called odesk (forgetting her lies maybe?)

The author just keeps making things worse for herself on twitter as well as making everyone following the story very confused. Apparently she is not a ghostwriter and cannot write. Ummm? Am I the only one confused?


After some more confusion it also appears the "author" is male and the author profile pic is a photo from a model agency. They also previously published a book that they advertised on Jamie McGuire's author page without permission.


***EDIT*** - An author interview with Jordin that can be seen here states that Easy, Rule and Wallbanger are her favourite books and that H.M. Ward is the author who most inspired her. So, we know for a fact that she has read Easy.***

Just when we all thought this story couldn't possibly get more complicated. Somehow it did. A few people have mentioned that this twilight fan-fiction Amazingly Damaged seems to be the same book. The characters have just had their names changed. This does not mean that the writer of Amazingly Damaged is this "Jordin Williams", they could be an unknowing victim of HUGE plagiarism. Or they could be "Jordin". No one knows. I have not compared these two books for myself but I have heard they are identical.

Amazingly Broken has now been removed from amazon and the authors website, goodreads profile, facebook page and twitter account have now been deleted. However, lots of people have screenshots of EVERYTHING so you can still see it all. On the Internet information never disappears.

This story of Amazingly Broken is a bit of a mystery. I can't even theorize anymore as it has gotten way too confusing. Unless "Jordin Williams" decides to put us out of our misery explaining this mass of chaos we will probably never fully know.

It is such a shame to think that there are people out their who steal other people's work (and equally sad that they are stupid enough to steal from bestselling novels). Hopefully this whole fiasco will discourage this behaviour in the future, and hopefully "Jordin" won't pop up under a new name with a new plagiarised book in the future.

Authors have been hurt by having their work stolen, the readers who have read Amazingly Broken feel cheated and scammed, and the bloggers who promoted the book feel even worse (though of course they did not know). Plagiarism only hurts and it needs to stop. We need to be vigilant; if you ever read a book and a paragraph gives you deja-vu don't just move on. Amazon needs to install some form of plagiarism checker (am I right in saying there isn't one at the moment?). They will probably need lots of encouragement for this to happen.

If there is anything I have missed in this story please let me know! There is also a chance other books have also been plagiarised into this book; I dread to think what will be unearthed now people are looking.

***EDIT 27/06/13*** - There is a possibility that this person has done things like this before. Allegations (as yet unproved) have been made that Jordin Williams also has published works under the names Emily Curran and Liz Thomas. If I am remembering correctly Emily Curran is also the same person who created the goodreads group and blog Booksy Cup freebies and bargains (I got a invite to this from Emily Curran and though she is not visible as a moderator the blog states an Emily as the creator. Also according to an old goodreads discussion I found about these two authors they are also linked to someone called Beth Klein.


Some of the books by these authors also apparently have a similarity or two to Easy and Beautiful Disaster -



If you look at these authors profiles they have all rated each other books 5 stars (and only having rated a very small amount of books that is a massive coincidence). They have also been doing lots of helping out with Amazingly Broken eg. liking all the 5 star reviews. If these people are all the same person as Jordin Williams there is a chance all their books could also be a result of plagiarism. I really hope not as otherwise she/he/they have been getting away with this for quite a while.

***Further Edit*** - It does appear that the authors I mentioned above are all "Jordin" as is an author I didn't mention as I couldn't find anyone else who had mentioned her back then - K.A. Andrews. All of these have now disappeared from goodreads and other places. There is a decent post here that sums up all the connections. It also mentions someone called Emma Buch who co-wrote one of Beth Kleins books and has rated all the others. I am not sure if she is also the same person as unlike the others she didn't rate all the books 5 stars (2 actually got 1 star reviews) and she still has a web presence. (*Yet another edit* Emma Buch has now also disappeared from the web as have several reviewers and beta readers who had given glowing reviews to some of these books.)

Here's a pretty image that shows most of the connections and similarities between these people.

***EDIT - The post linking the aliases and the picture both come from Teresa Mummert's blog and the full post can be viewed here. ***

I will keep this updated as more things are discovered.