Review: SHUDDER by Samantha Durante

It's only been three days, and already everything is different.

Paragon is behind her, but somehow Alessa's life may actually have gotten worse. In a wrenching twist of fate, she traded the safety and companionship of her sister for that of her true love, losing a vital partner she'd counted on for the ordeal ahead. Her comfortable university life is but a distant memory, as she faces the prospect of surviving a bleak winter on the meager remains of a ravaged world. And if she'd thought she'd tasted fear upon seeing a ghost, she was wrong; now she's discovering new depths of terror while being hunted by a deadly virus and a terrifying pack of superhuman creatures thirsting for blood.

                              

And then there are the visions.

The memory-altering "stitch" unlocked something in Alessa's mind, and now she can't shake the constant flood of alien feelings ransacking her emotions. Haunting memories of an old flame are driving a deep and painful rift into her once-secure relationship. And a series of staggering revelations about the treacherous Engineers - and the bone-chilling deceit shrouding her world's sorry history - will soon leave Alessa reeling...

The second installment in the electrifying Stitch Trilogy, Shudder follows Samantha Durante's shocking and innovative debut with a heart-pounding, paranormal-dusted dystopian adventure sure to keep the pages turning.

When I read Samantha Durante’s debut novel, Stitch, I was blown away. Samantha had so skillfully woven a punch to the gut into her story that I didn’t even see it coming.

“Punch to the gut?” you ask. “Did the book physically attack you?”

I nod, not really sure how to explain it without giving away spoilers. “Kind of. It was more of an assault to the mind that felt like a punch to the gut.”

“How does that work?” you ask me, scratching your head.

Placing my hands on your shoulders, I shove you out the door, not sure why you are in my house. “Look, that’s something you’re going to have to discover yourself. Stitch is only 99 cents on Amazon. Buy yourself a copy and prepare to have your mind blown.”

Like I said, Stitch was like a punch to the gut. The sequel, Shudder, was the reader recovering from that punch, internally bleeding a little (I’ll get to that part later), and slowly trying to piece together where the punch came from.

What I really loved about Shudder was the different POVs that were in the story. Since we were seeing the story through the eyes of different characters, it really helped us have a better understanding of Paragon and what was taking place there while Alessa and Isaac were on their mission.

There was some steaminess, there was action, there was great world-building, there was a little bit of supernatural mystery happening again which surprised me, and there were a lot of twists that had my head spinning. There was a little bit of everything without it going overboard.

At one stage in the book, I had to stop reading (this is the part where Shudder punched me so hard, I started internally bleeding). I don’t want to spoil anything, but it had to do with a character dying. That’s all I’m going to say. Anyway, it affected me so much because I really cared for this character. That’s how invested I was in what happened to the characters, and I hadn’t even realised it.

The great thing about Samantha Durante is that she is a very skilled writer. I felt very safe in her hands as she took me through the story. And then, BAM, she punched me in the gut again! Freaking hell, Samantha! Like I needed you to do that to me in the end when I’d only just recovered from Isaac!

In conclusion, Shudder was a very intelligent book that makes you think about the future of our world. That’s what is so unsettling and real about this book; that the events are plausible and that one day, we might be faced with the same issues that were presented in Shudder.

I highly recommend Shudder and am impatiently awaiting the sequel. Thank you for writing such an insightful, wonderful, and thoughtful book, Samantha!

Enter the Giveaway HERE!!!

Cover Reveal: Shudder by Samantha Durante

I'm so excited that Samantha Durante has been kind enough to give me the opportunity to share the cover of her next release along with the blurb with you guys. There is also a fun giveaway for all of you where you have a chance to win a paperback copy of Shudder!

Shudder is the second book in the Stitch trilogy and I am really excited for its release because I enjoyed the first book, Stitch, so much! Here is my review of Stitch so you can see what I thought of it.

It’s only been three days, and already everything is different.

Paragon is behind her, but somehow Alessa’s life may actually have gotten worse. In a wrenching twist of fate, she traded the safety and companionship of her sister for that of her true love, losing a vital partner she’d counted on for the ordeal ahead. Her comfortable university life is but a distant memory, as she faces the prospect of surviving a bleak winter on the meager remains of a ravaged world. And if she’d thought she’d tasted fear upon seeing a ghost, she was wrong; now she’s discovering new depths of terror while being hunted by a deadly virus and a terrifying pack of superhuman creatures thirsting for blood.

And then there are the visions.

The memory-altering “stitch” unlocked something in Alessa’s mind, and now she can’t shake the constant flood of alien feelings ransacking her emotions. Haunting memories of an old flame are driving a deep and painful rift into her once-secure relationship. And a series of staggering revelations about the treacherous Engineers – and the bone-chilling deceit shrouding her world’s sorry history – will soon leave Alessa reeling…

The second installment in the electrifying Stitch Trilogy, Shudder follows Samantha Durante’s shocking and innovative debut with a heart-pounding, paranormal-dusted dystopian adventure sure to keep the pages turning.

It sounds great, doesn't it? Why don't you guys go ahead and add it on Goodreads? And for those of you who haven't read Stitch, you can purchase it on Amazon and add it on Goodreads. I recommend reading Stitch before reading Shudder, but there's still two months to go so you still have plenty of time to read the first book!

Samantha is lovely, so she has an awesome international giveaway for you guys where you can win a paperback of Shudder! Sounds great!

Enter the Giveaway HERE!!!

Review: Stitch by Samantha Durante

Stitch - Samantha Durante
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian
Released: August 1st, 2012

Her heart races, her muscles coil, and every impulse in Alessa's body screams at her to run... but yet she's powerless to move.

Still struggling to find her footing after the sudden death of her parents, the last thing college freshman Alessa has the strength to deal with is the inexplicable visceral pull drawing her to a handsome ghostly presence. In between grappling with exams and sorority soirees - and disturbing recurring dreams of being captive in a futuristic prison hell - Alessa is determined to unravel the mystery of the apparition who leaves her breathless. But the terrifying secret she uncovers will find her groping desperately through her nightmares for answers.

Because what Alessa hasn't figured out yet is that she's not really a student, the object of her obsession is no ghost, and her sneaking suspicions that something sinister is lurking behind the walls of her university's idyllic campus are only just scratching the surface...

The opening installment in a twist-laden trilogy, Stitch spans the genres of paranormal romance and dystopian sci-fi to explore the challenges of a society in transition, where morality, vision, and pragmatism collide leaving the average citizen to suffer the results.



** spoiler alert ** Warning: Spoiler-ville ahead! Seriously, DO NOT read this if you don't want the novel spoiled for you!

I went into STITCH knowing what to expect from the get-go. I’d read enough reviews of the book to know which direction Samantha was heading in with this story. Did it take anything away from the story? Absolutely not! I was still affected by all the twists and turns that Samantha threw at me.

STITCH is hard to box into one specific genre and I have come to the realization that it spans across THREE genres, not two. The book started out as a Paranormal Romance. I was completely captivated by the ghost story that was unfolding. The connection between Alessa and Isaac was undeniable. I looked forward to the brief moments where Isaac’s “ghost” appeared and Alessa was trying to figure out why she was so affected by him.

The book took a Science Fiction turn for me when the “wormholes” and “time travelling” plot came about. I was like, “Whaaat?” At first, my logical mind was resisting this plot twist, but on the other hand, I really wanted Alessa to stop the fire from happening and, in turn, prevent Isaac’s death. Just as soon as I was beginning to accept the Sci-Fi of it all, THAT happened.

By “THAT”, I mean we are suddenly told that, “No, STITCH is not really a Paranormal Romance or a Science Fiction novel about wormholes; STITCH is really a well-disguised Dystopian novel.” Um, WHOA! It sounds like a lot, right? You’re wondering how a debut, self-published author can pull something like that off, right? Trust me, the revelations aren’t overwhelming at all. Samantha Durante is one hell of a writer!

The writing was excellent and I found myself flying through this book (it totally broke my reading slump!). The characters and their relationships with each other were intriguing, and the glimpses into the Dystopian world and Paragon were really interesting. We didn’t get to see a whole lot on it, but I know there is a sequel and I’m sure many of our questions will be answered in SHUDDER.

All in all, STITCH was a fantastic debut by Samantha Durante. She has done an amazing job crossing genres and is a talented writer. I really can’t wait for SHUDDER’s release, so I’m off to bug Samantha to write faster!

Top 5 List with Samantha Durante & Giveaway!

Today, I have a special treat for all our readers. Samantha Durante, author of Stitch, has stopped by with a list of her five favourite things about being an author. She also has details about a super exciting giveaway that she is running throughout the month of November!

Samantha Durante lives in New York City with her husband, Sudeep, and her cat, Gio. Formerly an engineer at Microsoft, Samantha left the world of software in 2010 to pursue her entrepreneurial dreams and a lifelong love of writing. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology, Samantha is currently working full time for her company Medley Media Associates as a freelance business writer and communications consultant. Stitch is her first novel. Learn more about Samantha at www.samanthadurante.com.

Please welcome Samantha to A Dash of YA!

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Top 5 Things I Love About Being an (Indie) Author by Samantha Durante

Thanks so much to Komal, Michelle, Erica, and Molli for hosting me today!  I recently published my first novel, Stitch, and though I’m still new at this whole “author” thing, it’s really been a dream come true!  To celebrate, here are the top five things I LOVE about being an author (so far!), in no particular order:

1. Total empowerment.

There were a lot of reasons I decided to go the indie route when publishing Stitch, but by far the main one is that I’m a bit of a control freak and I really liked the idea of having final say over every little detail of my book.  I worked with an artist to design the cover, devoted painstaking hours to formatting the e-book versions, and made the final decision about every word, every punctuation mark, and every plot twist.  While this is a little scary (after all, I know there are people out there who can do all of these things far better than me!), it also means that the success of my book lies solely on my shoulders…  And therefore, as long as I’m willing to put in the work (which I am!), I know my book will do well!

2. My book IS me.

Following with #1, since I didn’t have to get sign-off from a publisher, I could write about whatever I wanted, even a genre-bending thriller that combined paranormal romance and dystopian sci-fi in one (yes, one!) book.  I pulled in ghost lore, super-geeky spacetime physics, post-apocalyptic scenarios, a biological pandemic, and of course, a kick-ass female protagonist and sexy-but-sensitive male lead.  And yes, the fact that my book does not fit squarely into one genre makes it kind of difficult to market (which is why the traditional publishing industry would be wary of it), but it is full of the things I love.  And since – as an independent author – I have the exclusive right to decide what gets published under my name, the fact that I was excited about my book and believed in it was all that mattered.

3. Quick delivery to readers.

The other big factor that drove me to go indie was the ability to get my book to market QUICKLY.  It can take months – even years – for a first time author (going the traditional route) to find an agent and a publisher and go through the editing and revision and publication process.  Even though part of me wanted the validation of having credible industry professionals sign-off on my work before it went to the public, a bigger part of me just REALLY wanted to share my book with readers NOW (and the thought of waiting that long to get my book out was like a knife to the gut!).  By publishing the book myself, I was able to get it to readers only weeks after it was done, instead of months/years (and now that readers are clamoring for part two of the trilogy, I’m really glad that I’ll be able to get it to them as soon as I can!).

4. Bloggers, bloggers, bloggers.

WOW.  I have never met a more supportive and encouraging community of people than the world of book bloggers.  Since I am doing all my marketing myself (notice a theme here?  J), I’ve been in personal contact with literally hundreds of bloggers since my book and blog tour launched a few months ago, and each and every one of them has absolutely blown me away.  There’s just been an incredible outpouring of assistance and enthusiasm from the blogging community, and I feel SO grateful to have made contact with all of these amazing people.  Thank you SO MUCH to all of the bloggers who have helped me promote Stitch!  You guys are amazing!!

5. Reader commentary!

Last but CERTAINLY not least are the readers themselves!  It has been just INCREDIBLE to share Stitch with so many people and to hear their feedback and see them getting excited about the story the same way I am.  Stitch is definitely a different sort of book, and I have to say, even though I knew I loved the story, I didn’t know if most readers would feel the same.  So when 4- and 5-star reviews started popping up all over the internet, you can only imagine how gratifying that felt!  I’ve read every review that’s been posted online and it always makes my day to hear that someone enjoyed the book.  I’m SO indebted to every reader who’s taken the time to read and talk about Stitch!  Nothing is more motivating than passionate fans who are itching for the next installment – I can’t WAIT to get started on the next one for you guys!

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Samantha has kindly provided the details for her giveaway below. Please fill out the Rafflecopter for your chance to win one of the amazing prizes up for grabs!

Enter the Giveaway HERE!!!

Interview with Samantha Durante & Giveaway

Samantha Durante is the author of Stitch, her debut novel which is a Paranormal Romance/Dystopian. She is an avid, lifelong reader of fiction of all sorts.

In addition to penning novels, Samantha is also a freelance business writer and communications consultant at her company. She currently lives in New York with her husband, Sudeep, and her cat, Gio.

Hello, Samantha! Thanks so much for joining me today on A Dash of YA!

Thanks so much for inviting me!

First, could you tell us a bit about Stitch?

Absolutely. Stitch is about a student, Alessa, who's struggling through her first year of college. In addition to fighting through a deep depression over suddenly losing her parents, she's started seeing a ghost in her sorority house, and despite her best instincts towards self-preservation, she can't seem to stay away from the ghost or stop thinking about him. The ghost invokes all these inexplicable feelings in her, like an overwhelming sorrow plus this burning physical draw she feels for him, and it leaves her an emotional wreck.  And then on top of that she's having these horrible nightmares about being held captive in some kind of prison, and sure enough the ghost is featured in many of those dreams. So basically, Alessa is not in good shape to begin with, and the deeper she digs into this ghost thing, the more she realizes that something is amiss around her... Until her best friend drops a bombshell that explains everything and completely rocks her world. As it turns out Alessa, her friends, and the "ghost," are in a lot more danger than any of them could have ever suspected. And I'll leave it at that because I don't want to give too much away!

What was the inspiration behind Stitch?

I wanted to write something with a knock-your-socks-off twist, so I thought about how I could combine two genres I love - paranormal romance and dystopian sci-fi - in one book in a way that would actually make sense.

Your novel reads like a Paranormal Romance/Dystopian. Was it hard to balance the two genres?

Yes, absolutely. First, it was important to me that the story made sense, so I did a lot of planning about what had happened to these characters in the past and what was going on in the world they live in. There's so much history before we hit the point the characters are at in Stitch, so I needed to make sure that everything fit together once you finally learn the twist. Plus, I was hesitant to disappoint readers who came into the book hoping for a straight-up paranormal romance - if you're looking for a simple love story between a girl and a ghost, Stitch is not it! So it was difficult to tell if I was dropping enough hints in the first half of the book to remind the reader that there's a lot more going on here than it appears at the surface.

The cover of Stitch is one of my favourites of the year! Could you briefly tell us how you chose your cover designer and what the process of having a cover designed was like?

Wow, thanks so much! What a compliment! My cover designer was Damon from Damonza.com, who I found through a recommendation on another author's site. I didn't know exactly what I wanted on the cover but I had some vague ideas, so I sent him a long rambling email about different elements we could incorporate, and when he came back with the first draft, I knew he understood where I was trying to go with it - that first draft was 90% of the way there! We did a bunch more rounds of tweaks and edits, and ended up with something which I think is a very good fit for the book - a good mix of sci-fi, paranormal, and romance. I actually did a long guest post as part of the Stitch Blog Tour recently that steps through each round of revision so you can see how the cover progressed - check it out here.

Will there be a sequel to Stitch, and can you tell us anything about it?

Yes, there will be TWO sequels to Stitch - it's the opening installment of a trilogy! The next book will be more strictly dystopian and will focus on answering the questions we opened up in the first book (i.e., who are The Engineers and what exactly was their role in bringing about the world that Alessa lives in today? What happened to Janie and Joe and Nikhil? And what are Alessa and the rebels going to do about the oppression they're living under? Etc.). Now that readers understand what's going on in Alessa's life, they can expect more action, more romance, and of course, a few big twists!

Do you have any routines you follow during a typical writing day?

On a writing day, I mainly just try to get out of bed and go straight to writing. No email, no Facebook, not even any breakfast! I'm most productive in the morning (and it's quietest at my house), so I try to maximize that time to get as many words onto the paper as I can before life starts getting in the way. I always approach my writing with a plan - each chapter is mapped out before I sit down to write a word - so that makes it easy to just focus on the writing itself.

Is there any advice you have for aspiring writers?

My advice to aspiring writers is to just go for it. You don't need an amazing, ground-breaking, never-before-seen idea; you just need a story that you would like to read and are excited about. And I always recommend starting with a very detailed chapter-by-chapter outline. By breaking the book down into manageable pieces, it's no longer such an overwhelming undertaking. Just take it a chapter at a time, and do what you love to do.  :-)

FUN FACTS

Book or e-book?

Book! I really appreciate the convenience of my Kindle when I'm traveling (or my cat is sitting on me in such a way that I don't have a second hand to turn the page...), but I don't think there's any way I'll ever stop appreciating the smell of a fresh new book waiting to be read.

Bookshop or Amazon?

I love the coziness of traditional bookstores, but I've got to give props to Amazon for making it so easy for self-published authors like me to get their work to the masses. Plus, I'm a huge fan of Amazon Prime - free 2-day shipping on almost anything is dangerous!

Pen or keyboard?

If you'd seen my handwriting, you'd know that the answer to this question is OBVIOUSLY keyboard! I just don't have the patience to write neatly - it takes too long and makes my hand hurt - so I do everything on my computer.

Paranormal or dystopian?

You're making me pick just one?? I guess if I had to choose, I'd go with dystopian, because it's always intriguing to me how dystopian worlds come about. But that's definitely not to say that I don't enjoy a good para-rom whenever I can get my hands on one!

Fiction or non-fiction?

Fiction. There's enough real life to deal with - to me, a good book should be an escape to some amazing place that you just can't get to any other way.

Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule, Samantha! I wish you all the best and congratulations on your upcoming nuptials!

Thank you so much! We actually got married on Saturday, September 15th and it was just an incredible day with all of our loved ones there to support us - my husband (husband!! I need to get used to that!) and I couldn't be happier. In fact, we're on our honeymoon right now! But I'm looking forward to getting back and picking up the Stitch Blog Tour in October. :-) Be sure to join us for lots of fun guest posts, character/author interviews, and tons of giveaways all month long!

To find out more about Samantha, Stitch, and her upcoming novels follow the links below.

Website

Facebook

Stitch Facebook Page

Goodreads

Amazon

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