Invisible Touch by Kelly Parra

Title: Invisible Touch
Author: Kelly Parra
Age Group: Teens
# of Pages: 279
My Rating: 4.5/5

It's hard to be normal after a parent's loss. For Kara Martinez, it's even harder. After her father died in a tragic accident, Kara has been able to see signs of people's futures on their bodies. Unable to tell anyone about her ability, she blogs her life out anonymously.

Kara tries to live everyday like a regular teen, but when she sees a gun in one of her classmates' future, she has no idea what she should do. Trying to piece together this mystery, Kara gets tangled up on the wrong side of town. Not to mention, she starts to fall for Anthony, a bad boy with his own secrets.

The definition of Invisible Touch: Thrilling, gripping, and romantic. Kelly Parra weaves an exciting modern tale with a protagonist who has the power to see one's fate.

It was nice to see a non-white female lead who was proud of her Mexican heritage (although she was quarter Irish). I think Kara is a strong character as she risks her life every time to solve the puzzle of her classmate's future. Although she had her own fears, she was able to overcome them admirably when she faced danger. I felt bad for her because when she first saw ghosts (before seeing signs), her mother didn't believe her. Instead, she was sent off to a therapist and rehab so she could "get better". I found it extremely frustrating to be in Kara's position because the therapist she had to deal with was extremely annoying.

When Kara first met Anthony, I thought it was sudden how he immediately started liking her (not exactly on the first encounter but the one after). I generally do not like it when a character likes another all of the sudden without the development within their relationship. Luckily, Kara and Anthony got to know more about each other as the plot progresses and they were able to deepen their relationship with each other.

I love the mystery part of the novel because it kept me going, wondering what was going to happen to Kara and those around her next. The ending was a shocker and something I did not expect at all. It made the story so much better overall with such twist!

Invisible Touch is a read you don't want to miss out on!

Won copy from Life, Words, & Rock 'n' Roll.

Author Interview: LM Preston + CONTEST

LM Preston sci-fi novel debut, Explorer X-Alpha, was recently released earlier this month! She's here at Stop, Drop, and Read! for an author interview. Scroll down to the bottom of the interview and you will have the chance to win the novel for yourself!

If you want to learn more about LM Preston or her books, check out at www.lmpreston.com.

Firstly, what inspired you to write Explorer X-Alpha?

It all started on a long car trip to Florida . My husband, kids and I were on our way to my ‘ Happy Place ’. Ok, I’ll admit it. I am still a big kid. I love to play, and imagine.

Anyway, while on this long drive, my husband turns to me and says, “You should write a book. You loved to write when we were younger and you haven’t written since.”

I thought about what his said and replied,” Well, I did try to write that one book, but it was boring and didn’t keep my interest.”

Then he told me,” You should write science fiction. You like it, and you work in the IT field. That way you have no boundaries, you create your own.”

When it came to creating the future in your novel, did you already have an idea of what kind of world you wanted? Or did you create it along the way as you wrote it?

World building is my favorite part of writing sci-fi. I usually spend a few weeks cutting and pasting aspects of the world I am creating on construction paper, and in a file I put all the pictures that I grab from the internet to describe this new world. As I write, I make changes on the fly while I get caught up in the experience of that new world.

What do you find is the easiest part in writing? And the hardest?

For me the easiest part is writing. I tend to write obsessively until the story is dumped out of my head. I also enjoy editing because I feel like an artist chipping away at stone to fine tune every aspect of my story. Each time I do it, the story improves and I grow as a writer.

The hardest part of writing is creating an outline.

What kind of stories or genres do you still have yet to try out?

I would like to write a horror or mystery novel.

Do you have any authors that you were influenced by?

I love Dean Koontz, James Patterson, Dave Meadows, and James Campbell.

Do you have any novels you are working on at the moment or will be releasing soon? If so, can you please give us a brief summary about them?

The Pack releases this August. It's an adventurous upper YA novel about a blind vigilante who sets out to save her brother and the missing kids on Mars (check out the book trailer @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_u2eq_RDgk) . Explorer X - Beta comes out next year. I just finished writing Bandits which is an upper YA novel about a boy named Daniel's quest to find his father's killer and treasure.

Lastly, give us an interesting fact about yourself that not many know of!

I love, love, love karoke. Every chance I get I sing on stage. Now, at the moment I am on stage - I feel like a star. Too bad I can't hold a tune.

~~~

Now that you have learned more about LM, you can win a copy of Explorer X-Alpha (including poster and magnet)!

To enter: (Please have everything in one comment in the post)
+1 comment
+2 new follower through Google Friend Connect
+3 old follower through Google Friend Connect
+2 add Stop, Drop, and Read! to your blog list (link)
+2 for every time you link the contest (link)

This contest is open to international. Contest will end on March 31/10.

Explorer X-Alpha by LM Preston

Title: Explorer X-Alpha
Author: LM Preston
Age Group: Tweens
# of Pages: 366
My Rating: 2.5/5

Far in the future where one is able to communicate telepathically through technology and be able to own robots, kids could finally travel to Mars. Aadi is going to be one of the many campers that will go to a new space camp and experience a world outside of their own. There, Aadi makes some friends and learns new and exciting things.

What Aadi and the others do not know is that the camp is setting them up for something bigger. Much bigger. In fact, their lives will no longer be the same as their body slowly changes into something different...

Explorer X-Alpha has a unique plot that is uncommon to most juvenile fiction today. There aren't many sci-fi novels that focuses on Mars or other planets of the future. The layout of the story is quite intriguing with great concepts. However, I was not very fond with the simplistic writing therefore making it hard for me to fully enjoy the novel. There were also a lot of characters and because their personalities did not all distinguish them from one another, I had a hard time figuring out who was who in the beginning.

The story was a bit slow in the beginning so I did not get through it as quickly as I hoped. There were times where I had to motivate myself to continue reading it. Also, sometimes the events that occurred within the novel confused me but I think my quick reading was to be blamed. If the writing style was suited to my preferences, then I definitely would have liked this novel much more.

I think Explorer X-Alpha definitely suits the taste of boys around the ages of ten or eleven because it has a lot of action and not that complex to read. So if you have a son or younger brother who hates to read, have them try out Explorer X-Alpha.

Review copy provided by LM Preston.