Tuesday 31 July 2012

Determinant by A.M Hargrove Blog Tour & Giveaway


Series : The Guardians of Vesturon
Genre : Young Adult Paranormal Romance (with a sci-fi element)
 


January St. Davis, on her own since the age of sixteen and struggling to stay in college, thinks she’s scored in a major way when she lands a paid summer internship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. One evening, after working an especially long shift, a chance encounter with a group of mysterious men alters the course of her life.

Rykerian Yarrister, a Guardian of Vesturon with unearthly powers and impossibly gorgeous looks, finds himself at odds over the human female he recently saved from certain death. When it seems he is on the verge of winning her over, she is ripped from his hands by a strange and powerful being, threatening to destroy her if his demands are not met.

Do Rykerian and the Guardians have the ability to meet this fierce barbarian’s ultimatums, or will January suffer a horrid demise?


My Review:

Determinant (The Guardians of Vesturon #3) by A.M. Hargrove - My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A.M. Hargrove has given us a third book in this series The Guardians of Vesturon, this book is by far one of the best books in this series and I expect the series is only going to get better. A.M’s writing is easy to read, her words flowed well, and character and plot are also well written. Determinant can be read as a standalone but I do suggest you read Survival and Resurrection to get to know everyone.
This book has everything a good book should include, romance, suspense, action and did I mention hot aliens. Now I have never been a big science fiction books, but A.M has be rethinking this.

We meet January who is working at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the summer on an internship. One night she witness some men walk in and take vials out of the Centre. Then we meet Rykerian Yarrister, a Guardian of Vesturon, who is one of those hot aliens I mentioned previously. Rykerian saves January and takes her home. The romance of course is well written and you women reading this will want a man like Rykerian. When January is kidnapped Rykerian will do anything to get her back. Mean while a disease is being spread around the earth and people are sick and dying. The Guardians must save January and our world.

Now I have to talk about Jurik I won’t say how is comes about into this story as I don’t want to give away anything and have to write spoiler alerts. But after reading this book I want A.M. Hargrove to write an entire book on him because he is so drool worthy.

A.M Hargrove has definitely become one of my favorite authors, and I will follow her around until I get Jurcs story oh and Rayn’s and Rykerian have some brothers and one sister so I would expect there to be some more books to be published on all of them.
I would recommend Determinant to all my friends and anyone who follows my reviews or blog.

A.M Hargrove is a fantastic, creative and wonderful person and I hope you take the time to pick up a copy of Determinant.


I'd Like to Welcome A.M. Hargrove to my Blog .....

Now, enjoy the interview!

1. Did you always want to be a writer? And what inspired you to write?

Yes!  It had always been in the back of my mind, but you know how life can get in the way of things.  I was busy in my career and didn’t have the time.  But then fate intervened when the company I worked for was bought out by another larger firm and my job was eliminated.  The door to writing was opened and at first, I was hesitant about walking through the darn thing because I had been away from it for so long.  But after I received a giant shove from a few important people in my life, here I am!

2. How would you describe The Guardians of Vesturon series?

The series is really a merging of genres.  When I created it, I wanted something unique that didn’t involve vampires or the run of the mill shapeshifter.  But I also wanted to pull in paranormal elements, such as supernatural powers, mystical elements and the like.  I wanted the guys to be ultra hawt, unlike what you could find on Earth so I decided to look outside of our world.  I’ve always loved sci-fi, but I also knew it can be a turn off for some people.  I didn’t want it to be to high tech because you can get too bogged down into the technicalities and lose the romanticism...so that’s why I decided to bridge the two genres.  As for the Yarrister family, I pulled that from my own personal experiences.  I came from a family of four--three girls and one boy.  My dad was an identical twin and my uncle’s family lived a block away and they had six kids--four boys and two girls.  We all grew up together, like brothers and sisters.  It was one crazy unbringing with never a dull moment.  We were teased by each other constantly, and dished it out as well.  Consequently, I drew on all of that for the large family setting for the series.

3.  Which character you had most fun writing?

Sharra is probably the most fun to write.  She has such a funny side to her, tries so hard to fit into Maddie’s world, but fails miserably every time.  She will get her day though...*wink*

4.  What was your main source of inspiration for the story?

For each book, I have all these ideas that spill out of my head so fast it’s difficult to capture them sometimes.  When I get to the point that I hit a wall, I put on my iPod and go for a run.  Somehow, it triggers creativity.  Don’t ask my why or how, but it seems stimulate creative brain activity.  There is a green space a block from my home with miles of wooded trails, and that’s where my plots have been developed.

5.   What should readers expect from Determinant?

Surprises!  First off, it’s a stand alone novel.  Anyone can pick it up and get the story line without reading Survival and Resurrection.  There are some nuances the reader may miss, but they are minor and don’t affect the overall plot.  Some readers may also be disappointed to find Determinant’s not about Maddie and Rayn.  I wanted the series to evolve around all the Guardians and not just the two of them.  Though Maddie and Rayn play a small part, Determinant is about Rykerian and January, and their story of love, separation and how they find their way back together.  It should come as no surprise to my readers that I am a huge believer in HEAs so you can pretty much fugure you that the MCs will have that.  But they do face a mass of trials and tribulations before they get there.  One other thing...I introduce a new character that will play a prominent role in Determinant.  He will also be in a spin off adult series called The Prasetani Series, that I’m currently writing.

6.   How did you come up with the title of your book?

*Spoiler Alert* In biology, determinant refers to a gene that determines the development of a cell in an organism.  January has identity issues because she doesn’t know who her biological father is.  I thought Determinant would be a great title since it would reflect the truth of her genetic origins. 

7.   What are your current projects?

I have several things going on.  I’m getting Survival, Resurrection and Determinant ready for print publication.  I’ve also begun working on Dark Waltz, Book 1 of the Praestani series, which is about Jurek, whom you met in Determinant.

8.   Do you see writing as a career?

Yes, I honestly have never worked harder or have been busier.  I used to be in management for a large pharmaceutical company (Wyeth, now Pfizer) and I work harder now than I did then...but I’m have so much more fun!

9.  When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

I think when I was a little kid and would daydream and make up all kinds of crazy stuff in my head.  It was so wild, I was afraid to tell anyone because I knew they’d laugh at me.  I’m sure they would have, but I should have written it all down!

10.  As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?

Oh, the usual, a doctor, a fireman, you know...

11.  When and why did you begin writing?

 Whenever I had any kind of writing assignments in elementary and high school, all my friends would moan and groan about it, but I never minded it.  I would moan along with them, to be cool of course, but I loved doing it.  I would get little notes on my papers from the teachers telling me how great my work was and so forth, but I also had this knack for science and math.  I never could decide on what I wanted to do, so I decided on accounting.  My mom kept telling me she didn’t think that was a good idea but you know how kids are...they don’t like to listen to their moms.  Well, I ended up changing my major. (Yeah, Mom was right!) I ended up in Public Relations/Marketing with a minor in Journalism (but only one class short of a double major).  I wrote and wrote and wrote in college and loved every minute of it. 

12.  Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?

Yes, my readers are awesome.  I hear from them on email, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, on my blog (but admittedly, I’m not a very good blogger-I get overwhelmed with everything else that I oftentimes forget about it!) and I get the most wonderful messages from them.  If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have kept writing!

13.  Where do you hope to take your writing in the future?

I want to write Dark Waltz, and then return to Book 4 of the Guardians of Vesturon, reEmergent, to tell Xarrid and Saylan’s story.  I see the Guardians as having two more books after that--one for Sharra and one for Tesslar.  As for the Praestani Series, right now I’m envisioning a trilogy, but you never know...*wink* Jurek has a mind of his own!

14.  What were your feelings when your first novel was accepted/when you first saw the cover of the finished product?

It was hard to believe the whole thing was happening.  When I wrote Survival, I sort of did it as a lark, and never really knew if I’d publish it or not.  That’s why the first edition was so rough and why it’s now in the 3rd edition *laughs*  I was so green at all of this and I did everything absolutely ass-backward!  I published the darn book and then joined Goodreads!  Can you imagine?  Who does that?  I wasn’t even on Twitter!  I was so ignorant of the whole process.  I feel like I’ve learned the equivalent of four years of college in six months--LOL!  Seriously!  I’m still learning things every day.  Creative writing for instance.  Like I said above, I was trained as a journalist.  Journalists are trained to be concise and succinct, as in who, what, where, when, etc.  In other words, tell, tell, tell!  Journalism doesn’t want any show because there isn’t room or place for it.  That has been a gigantic learning process for me, but it’s also been fun and rewarding. 

15.  What was one of the most surprising things you learned in writing your book?

That I can write for eighteen hours straight as long as caffeine is around!

16.  Is there anything additional you would like to share with your readers?

There are only a few things in life that are necessary... family (that includes pets!), spirituality, health, great friends, books, dreams, ice cream (with chocolate), wine and coffee!

17.  Who designed the covers?

Matthew Riggenbach at Shaed Studios

18.  What was the hardest part of writing your book?

Stopping.  When I write, my characters want to take over the whole book.  They argue with each other and vie for attention.  Then they argue with me and I have to put them in their place.  Jurek was especially pesky in Determinant.  He wanted to boot Rykerian out and take the whole damn book over at one point.  I finally had to make some concessions and promise him his own book, filled with lots of raunchiness (can you imagine?) and the ability to swear when he wants.  He also insisted that he will be the lead male and gets to end up with the hottest girl.  Boy, talk about demanding and egotistical!  I feel sorry for the lead female in Dark Waltz--she’s going to have her hands full with him.

Book Links

The Guardians of Vesturon is available from the following retailers:

Amazon - ebook
 Amazon UK
 Barnes & Noble
iTunes
Smashwords

Where You Can Find Me

My Blog
My Website
Facebook
Facebook Guardians of Vesturon
Twitter
Goodreads
Goodreads Fan Club

a Rafflecopter giveaway

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for the chance to win! :)

    Cherry Mischievous
    cherrymischif-sapmme [at] yahoo [dot] com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fantastic giveaway thanks!

    Margaret
    singitm(at)hotmail(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great giveaway! Thanks!

    morris.crissy@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete