Dark Dreams and Dead Things Tour, Review, and Giveaway!

Hey everybody! I've got some exciting news regarding my book this week (soon to come) but for now, I'm posting a review of Martina McAtee's Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things in honor of the release of the sequel, Dark Dream and Dead Things. And, there's a nifty giveaway, too!

Review below:



Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (Dead Things #1) 
by Martina McAtee

Genre:YA Paranormal/Urban Fantasy

If you've been keeping up with me on social media, you'll see that I've been reading Martina McAtee's Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things. It's a fun and exciting book with lots of interesting characters and situations. I wasn't sure about that going in, but the story opens up with Ember Denning, the outcast, the outsider, who doesn't feel like she fits in. Her father is an alcoholic, and doesn't remember the last time she had any friends. Her mother is long since dead, but she seems to have some weirdness of her own in that she likes visiting cemeteries.





 Her world gets turned upside down when a cocky stranger named Mace approaches her in the cemetery one night after her father dies. Ember is intrigued and a little scared, but right as he becomes dangerous, two kids from the Grove in Florida come and rescue her: Kai and Tristan, a fraternal brother and sister set of twins, and as she passes out, they take her to Florida with them. They're "reapers", Ember's death was predicted on Kai's arm, and he and his banshee sister Tristan were supposed to reap her soul. But they can't, because Ember is their long-lost cousin, and they can't bring themselves to do it.


Kai and Tristan take Ember back to the Grove in Florida, a seemingly innocent town, but it's got it's secrets, too. In Florida, the Kai and Tristan live with a wolfpack, and the mysterious Grove controls their magical community. When Ember awakens, she is taken in like family, and they incorporate her, even though she can't remember when her mother and aunt died, and she was taken away as a small child. Ember comes to terms with who and what she is, and learns about her magic.



I really enjoyed the characters in this book, especially the wold pack. They had an interesting dynamic and were fun to read. I especially liked Isa. I wasn't sure what Ember's powers were up front, but it ended up being a bit surprising. The cover is gorgeous and creepy, and I can't get enough of it! The only downsides to this book were 2 things: 1. There was a lot of info to learn in the first 100 pages to make the story make sense and 2. I caught a lot of editing errors, but not enough to hold them against the story.


I highly recommend you read Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things and read the sequel, Dark Dream and Dead Things!






Dark Dream and Dead Things (Dead Things #2) 
by Martina McAtee

Genre:YA Paranormal/Urban Fantasy

Release date: July 15th 2016


Summary from Goodreads:

17-year-old November Lonergan spent her whole life feeling like an outsider. She was right. She’s a reaper like her mother; like her two cousins, Kai and Tristin. The supernatural world believes they are part of a prophecy to save them from an evil known as the Grove. Ember just wants to survive high school and fix the fallout from bringing back her friend. 

Old enemies are lurking; waiting for their opportunity to strike but the pack has a new problem. A group of legendary hunters has resurfaced, threatening the reapers and anybody who stands with them. They are making good on their threats too; attacking those closest to the pack.

Their only hope of defeating the Legionaries involves trusting a stranger to perform a dangerous spell to advance Ember and her cousin’s powers. But Ember has a secret; a secret she can’t tell the pack. One that leaves the pack vulnerable.

An attack on pack allies, leaves one member of the group injured and another missing, along with a mysterious girl named Evangeline who may play a bigger part in this than any of them realize. As the Legionaries are closing in, the pack must trust their enemies, enter hostile territories, and play a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a psychopath. Their entire plan lynches on a dangerous bargain, but rescuing one member of the pack could mean losing another in their place…possibly forever.


Add to Goodreads
Buy Links (only $1.99):
Amazon


Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things (Dead Things #1) on Goodreads
Buy Links (only $1.99):
Amazon

About the Author

Martina McAtee lives in Jupiter, Florida with her teenage daughters, her best friend, two attack Chihuahua’s and two shady looking cats. By day she is a registered nurse but by night she writes young adult books about reapers, zombies, werewolves and other supernatural creatures. She wrote her first story when she was five with an orange crayon on a legal pad she stole from her mom’s office. She’s been writing ever since. Her influences include Christopher Pike, R.L. Stine, Joss Whedon, L.J. Smith and even J.K. Rowling. Living in South Florida provides her with plenty of material for the weird worlds she writes about. When she isn’t working, teaching or writing she’s reading or watching shows involving reapers, zombies, werewolves and other supernatural creatures.


Author Links:
Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Facebook

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