Promo ~ Amanda Hocking's Switched, Book 1 of the Trylle Trilogy

As many of you may remember, I discovered Amanda Hocking's books last winter and decided to give them a try. I can't rave enough about her talent! St. Martin's Press is re-releasing her Trylle trilogy with new bonus material, and I can't wait to see the changes! The new cover art is gorgeous!!

 

 (Release Date: January 3, 2012)

From the Cover:

Amanda Hocking is an indie publishing sensation whose self-published novels have sold millions of copies all over the world.  Switched is the book that started the phenomenon.  Prepare to be enchanted….

When Wendy Everly was six years old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. Eleven years later, Wendy discovers her mother might have been right.  She’s not the person she’s always believed herself to be, and her whole life begins to unravel—all because of Finn Holmes.

Finn is a mysterious guy who always seems to be watching her.  Every encounter leaves her deeply shaken…though it has more to do with her fierce attraction to him than she’d ever admit.  But it isn’t long before he reveals the truth:  Wendy is a changeling who was switched at birth—and he’s come to take her home.   

Now Wendy’s about to journey to a magical world she never knew existed, one that’s both beautiful and frightening.  And where she must leave her old life behind to discover who she’s meant to become…

As a special gift to readers, this book contains a new, never-before-published bonus story, “The Vittra Attacks,” set in the magical world of the Trylle.

Here's a gander at her new book trailer.....



Can't wait to see Torn and Ascend (Book 2 and 3 in the Trylle Trilogy)!!

(Release Date: February 28, 2011)

(Release Date: April 24, 2012)

Congrats Amanda Hocking!

According to HuffPost Books:

"For more than five years, Amanda Hocking spent her days tending to disabled adults, making their meals and cleaning up after them. When she got home, she would crack open a can of Red Bull and start typing away at her novels.

Her effort to make it as a writer was at least as grinding as her day job, with countless rejections from book agents before Hocking stumbled across a promising new business model for aspiring authors: self-publishing and marketing through e-booksellers.

A little more than a year later, Hocking's novel "Switched" sits at No. 41 on USA Today's list of top 150 best-selling books – just a few notches below such major juggernauts as James Patterson and Maeve Binchy. Hocking's books also occupy slots 54, 57, 114 and 149 on the list, and on Thursday, the publishing world finally caught up when the 26-year-old college dropout signed a four-book deal with St. Martin's Press.

Hocking said the first book in a new "Watersong" series was slated for release in fall 2012. She declined to release details of the deal. St. Martin's Press confirmed the deal but would not comment further. But executives from two publishing houses who were interested in the books said bidding had reached seven figures. The executives asked not to be identified, citing confidentiality of negotiations.

During an interview, the author was coy about discussing publishing deals before finally coming clean about her relationship with St. Martin's. She's only written one of the four books in the 'Watersong' series, and won't say what it's about yet, although it's in the same paranormal romance vein as her other books.

Aimed at young adults, Hocking's books occupy the same territory as the enormously popular "Twilight" books by Stephenie Meyer. Hocking has written about vampires, zombies and trolls – a strategic decision that she says she made after scanning the shelves at Wal-Mart.

"I like vampires and they're popular," Hocking said. "So I thought, 'Why not write about them?'"

She has sold her books on such sites as Amazon's Kindle Store and Barnes & Noble's NOOKbooks at prices ranging from 99 cents to $2.99. Hocking keeps up to 70 percent of the sales.

She sold a few hundred books last May, and the numbers slowly grew to a few thousand before spiking to more than 100,000 in December. Monthly sales reports Hocking provided to The Associated Press showed more than 333,000 sold in January and another 300,000 in February, enough to back her claim to have sold between $1.4 million to $2 million in e-books."


See what a self-published author was able to accomplish... all on her own!!  Woo hoo Ms. Hocking!!

(for those of you that know me, Amanda Hocking became a favorite over Christmas... I've bought her My Blood Approves series and her Trylle Trilogy as soon as I opened my iPad on Christmas, and I've been enjoying her books since!)

My Blood Approves by Amanda Hocking

Publisher:  Lulu, self published
Pages:  266

(Release Date:  March 17, 2010)

From the Cover: 

Seventeen-year-old Alice Bonham's life feels out of control after she meets Jack. With his fondness for pink Chuck Taylors and New Wave hits aside, Jack's unlike anyone she's ever met.

Then she meets his brother, Peter. His eyes pierce through her, and she can barely breathe when he's around. Even though he can't stand the sight of her, she's drawn to him.

But falling for two very different guys isn't even the worst of her problems. Jack and Peter are vampires, and Alice finds herself caught between love and her own blood...

Alice Bonham is an average seventeen year old high school student.  She has a younger brother, who acts more like an older brother, and a best friend who maybe doesn't have her best interests at heart, but who's going to notice her without being Jane's sidekick?

So, that's how she finds herself in her current situation, running for her life, in clothes that don't fit, and blisters on her feet from borrowed high heels.  Why is she running for her life?  Because Jane wanted to go clubbing.  But, neither one can know that there are scary things out there wanting for them.  When they start for home after a dismal failure at clubbing, a gang of guys thinks it's time to party with Jane and Alice as the party favors.  Hence, the said running for her life.

In rides Jack Townsend, not on a white stallion, but in a silver Jetta.  He fights off the bad guys and rushes in to save the damsels in distress.  Jane immediately falls under his magnetic spell, but Alice is having none of that, she's had enough excitement.  And, that's what make Alice special to Jack.  Her lack of total worship.  Not that he's all that worthy or unworthy, he's just Jack.  But, he is sweet and cute, and he's the only guy who has ever liked her more than Jane.  And that makes Jack special to Alice.  His total lack of Jane worship.  What Alice doesn't know is Jack has secrets, and those secrets are the things that can go bump in the night.

My Blood Approves by Amanda Hocking is a quick little YA read, and it's... OMG... Good!  It's another twist on the vampire genre, which I have somehow become totally hooked on.  In this tale of vampirism, it's a communicable virus spread by the sharing of blood, either on accident or on purpose, but the individual being turned doesn't have to have their blood drained first.  I mean, yeah, if there's been a feeding frenzy accident and a person has become drained, and you want to save their life, the vampire shares blood, but draining isn't necessary for turning.  It's not the replacing of the human blood for vampire blood, but more of a bonding of their bloods to create a vampire.  The turning is of the human body to a vampiric body, better than before... stronger, faster, prettier... kind of like the Six Million Dollar Man on steroids.  (btw... now it would be six billion...)  So, that how our hero and heroine find each other.  Jack, big strong sexy vampire guy meets sweet delectable Alice, who has a penchant for getting herself in trouble.  At first, it seems Jack wants Alice for himself, but then we meet his brother, Peter, and Alice finds herself connected to Peter somehow, but Peter refuses Alice, and then Jack finds himself drawn to Alice, not for her blood, but for the person that she is, for the love he feels.  The problem:  Peter may not be ready to relinquish Alice and he'll kill to protect her.

My Blood Approves is another indie authored book, and I've decided I really enjoy discovering indie authors.  Not only is this a fun fast read, and not only did I fall in love with the characters, but it can be picked up on the ebook sites, B&N, Amazon, Smashwords, and others for a mere 99 cents!  Can you think of a better way to spend a buck that picking a good read?  I mean, really, a MacDonald's cheeseburger cost 99 cents, and My Blood Approves is way more satisfying, way less fattening, and it tastes way better too.  I'm so happy I saw this on the book sites, and after looking at it for a couple of weeks, I decided, why not?  So it's not from a big publisher, so what?  What matters is that this is an excellent read.  Ms. Hocking designs her own book covers, does everything involved to get the book ready for publication, and so far as I can tell, she doing a wonderful job!  There are a few grammatical errors and a few places where a word was left out, so a tiny bit more editing could be done.  These few minuscule errors took nothing away from the book, I'm not a perfectionist or a purist, what matters to me is a story that I can fall into, with characters I want to get to know, and Alice, Jack, Peter, Mae, Ezra, and little brother Milo, drew me in.  And to my readers out there in blogland, it was worth much more than the 99 cents I paid to read it, and I immediately downloaded Fate, the second book in the series (again a bargain at $2.99!), and Flutter will be next, followed Wisdom.  Ms. Hocking also has another series that will be visiting my iPad very shortly called the Trylle Trilogy:  Switch, Book One is also a mere 99 cents!  It's about changelings and trolls, and I can't wait to try it.  I highly recommended this series to YA lovers out there, paranormal romance and urban fantasy lovers.  I would love to say that Twilight lovers would enjoy this series and I believe they definitely will, but there are no sparkles here, no strolls in the sunlight, and these vampires are definitely not vegetarians.  They like they're blood fresh, warm, full of pheromones, but they're willing to settle for the local vampire blood bank or bar.  Just a taste of what the story holds in store for those who'd like to try it.  Come on, give it a try....you know you want to....you won't be sorry!

I picked up this book for my own enjoyment.  All opinions expressed are my own.