Review & Excerpt Tour: ROAR by Cora Carmack

From New York Times bestselling author Cora Carmack comes her debut young adult fantasy, ROAR! Releasing June 13, 2017, ROAR takes readers on an adventure filled with charismatic characters in an enthralling world sure to keep them turning the pages. Order your copy today!

 

New York Times bestselling author Cora Carmack's young adult debut: Roar.

In a land ruled and shaped by violent magical storms, power lies with those who control them.

Aurora Pavan comes from one of the oldest Stormling families in existence. Long ago, the ungifted pledged fealty and service to her family in exchange for safe haven, and a kingdom was carved out from the wildlands and sustained by magic capable of repelling the world’s deadliest foes. As the sole heir of Pavan, Aurora's been groomed to be the perfect queen. She’s intelligent and brave and honorable. But she’s yet to show any trace of the magic she’ll need to protect her people.

To keep her secret and save her crown, Aurora’s mother arranges for her to marry a dark and brooding Stormling prince from another kingdom. At first, the prince seems like the perfect solution to all her problems. He’ll guarantee her spot as the next queen and be the champion her people need to remain safe. But the more secrets Aurora uncovers about him, the more a future with him frightens her. When she dons a disguise and sneaks out of the palace one night to spy on him, she stumbles upon a black market dealing in the very thing she lacks—storm magic. And the people selling it? They’re not Stormlings. They’re storm hunters.

Legend says that her ancestors first gained their magic by facing a storm and stealing part of its essence. And when a handsome young storm hunter reveals he was born without magic, but possesses it now, Aurora realizes there’s a third option for her future besides ruin or marriage.
She might not have magic now, but she can steal it if she’s brave enough.

Challenge a tempest. Survive it. And you become its master.

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I cant even being to tell you how excited I am for this book. I have anxiously awaited the release of ROAR from the moment that Cora Carmack, the woman who introduced me to the world of New Adult literature, announced that she would be writing a Young Adult fantasy series. Fantasy books are my “go-to” reads. They take me to a place that’s like nothing in this world and some days, that’s exactly what I need. Cora’s books will always hold a special place in my heart, so to have the opportunity to read this one early and get to share my thoughts with everyone, has been such a surreal experience. 

Okay, so now on to what you really want to know. Cora’s writing is completely captivating. Her ability to weave a tale and create characters that are relate-able and unique is, dare I say, unparalleled. From the opening lines of this book she had me hooked!  

“He had waited for this day for many years. It had been the thing that kept him alive when all the others had died, that had kept him sane when madness was his only friend. It drove him forward when his life had not seemed worth living. 

Revenge, swift and sweet.” 

Intrigued? That’s what I thought! In a world ravaged by storms, the only way to keep her family and her people safe is to control the storms. But Aurora has no storm magic to speak of. Her life has one filled with secrets. Secrets that have been kept in order to her safe. Her mother has arranged a marriage to Price Cassius of Locke. She finds him charming and strong, possibly that savior her people need. But when his true intentions are uncovered she finds herself heartbroken and desperate. Desperate to find a way to save her people and maybe, just maybe, find herself. 

"… what she had done felt worse. She had hoped. And hope broke more hearts than any man ever could." 

Aurora began looking for answers and finds herself in The Eye; A black market that deals in Storm Magic. She connected with a misfit group of storm hunters and embarked on an adventure that is both dangerous and exciting. Outside the walls of her castle and among people who became her friends, Aurora transformed into someone new. She found a strength, determination and power that wasn't there before.

"How could she explain that she had spent her life dreaming of adventure, while simultaneously hemmed in by fear."

This story was magical. The storm descriptions were breathtaking and unlike anything I've read before. This quote towards the end of the book very accurately sums up how I felt about ROAR "The book was neither unrealistic fairy tale nor harsh cautionary tale. It walked a fine line between hope and despair." If you weren't sure whether to pick this one up, or if you're wary because you're not usually a fantasy fan but you love Cora, make the plunge! I highly recommend this book to everyone. People of all ages will enjoy ROAR.

You are lightning made flesh. Colder than falling snow. Unstoppable as the desert sands riding the wind. You are Stormling, Aurora Pavan. Believe it.

Believe it, and others will too.

It was a vow that her mother, Queen Aphra, made her swear on the day she reached twelve years. She had gripped her daughter’s shoulders tight, and Rora could still remember the pinch of pain, the furious beat of her heart as she saw how afraid her mother was and learned to be afraid too.

Today that fear had led Aurora Pavan to sign her life away before she ever had the chance to really live it.

As she was primped and prettied like some kind of sacrificial offering, her mind remained stuck on her morning spent in the throne room. She recalled the rasping sounds as the treaty was unrolled and the way her fingers suddenly felt too weak to hold a quill. Many days of her sheltered life had been spent writing out ideas and facts and figures for her tutors, yet in that moment, she had struggled to remember the letters of her name. Then she had met her mother’s eyes, and those familiar words came to her again.

Colder than falling snow.

That was what Rora had to become as her shaking hand sealed her fate with a scratchy, bleeding line of ink. And now hours later a stranger peered back at her from the looking glass, powdered white so that none of her flaws would show.

Rora’s white-blonde hair had been curled and bound up in an elaborate ceremonial headdress that was crowded with jewels, flowers, and four jagged crystals cut like bolts of lightning to mimic her mother’s skyfire crown. Headdresses honoring a family’s ancestors were an important part of Pavanian tradition for the upper echelons of nobility to the poor and working class. They were donned for birth and death and every major life event in between, including betrothals. But this headdress was larger than Rora had ever seen. It had to be anchored to the thick metal necklace she wore about her collar with embellished fastenings, and it weighed on her nearly as much as the events of the night still to come.

Her already pale skin had been covered in a shimmering white powder, which made her look like she’d just emerged from a blizzard. Her ribs were tightly bound in a corset that squeezed and squeezed until it felt like all her organs were in the wrong place. Over that was a heavy, beaded gown whose neckline dipped low, revealing far more cleavage than she had ever shown. The fabric clung to her frame until it fanned out at her knees into a long train, and the color of the dress changed from white to ash gray to glittering black.

Rora looked exactly as her mother had always told her to be—lightning made flesh: blinding white and bright against a dark sky, and the train that pooled around her was the ground, charred black by her impact.

It was stunning. Exquisite, really. Even, Rora, who hated dresses of all kinds, could tell that. It was also a lie. Every jewel, every bead painted a picture of someone that wasn’t her. But that was the goal for tonight’s betrothal celebration…to be someone else, to be the perfect Stormling princess. Because if she failed, everything could fall apart.

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Cora Carmack’s ROAR – Review & Excerpt Tour Schedule:

June 5^th

As The Book Ends – Review & Excerpt

BookWorm221 – Review & Excerpt

Milky Way of Books – Review & Excerpt

Omg Books and More Books – Review & Excerpt

Reads All the Books – Review & Excerpt

Taylor Fenner's Bookish World – Review & Excerpt

June 6^th

AC Suqared Book Blog – Excerpt

Happily Ever After Book Reviews – Review

Letshaveakya – Review

Movies, Shows, & Books – Excerpt

Read more sleep less – Review

Smart & Savvy with Stephanie – Review & Excerpt

June 7^th

Ali's Reviews and More – Review & Excerpt

Becky on Books – Review & Excerpt

Books, Dreams, Life – Excerpt

Dazzled by Books – Review & Excerpt

Miss Nicole The Librarian – Review

Quite the Novel Idea – Review & Excerpt

June 8^th

Adventures in Writing – Excerpt

BookCrushin – Review

Crazii Bitches Book Blog – Review & Excerpt

NovelKnight – Review

The Rest Is Still Unwritten – Review

What Is That Book About – Excerpt

June 9^th

Books Books Books – Review & Excerpt

Bookshelf Adventures – Review

Crystal's Chaotic Confessions – Excerpt

Feeling Fictional – Review & Excerpt

Grownup Fangirl – Review

The Rest Is Still Unwritten – Excerpt

June 10^th

Ceres Books World – Review & Excerpt

My Fangirl Chronicles – Review & Excerpt

Red Hot + Blue Reads – Review & Excerpt

Tales of the Ravenous Reader – Review & Excerpt

Zili in the Sky – Review & Excerpt

June 11^th

Book Briefs – Review

PBC – Excerpt

Ramblings From This Chick – Review

Vi3tbabe – Review & Excerpt

With Love for Books – Review

June 12^th

Feed Your Fiction Addiction – Review & Excerpt

MrsLeif's Two Fangs About It Book Reviews – Review & Excerpt

Reads & Reviews – Review & Excerpt

Swoony Boys Podcast – Review & Excerpt

Take Me Away To A Great Read – Review & Excerpt

Whatever You Can Still Betray – Excerpt

June 13^th

Beneath The Covers Blog – Review & Excerpt

Chapter Break – Review & Excerpt

I'm A Book Shark – Excerpt

Moonlight Rendezvous – Review & Excerpt

Resch Reads and Reviews – Review

Two Chicks on Books – Review & Excerpt

June 14^th

Boundless Book Reviews – Review

Kindle and Me – Review & Excerpt

Lovely Reads Publishing – Excerpt

My Book Filled Life – Review & Excerpt

Stuck In Books – Excerpt

The Cover Contessa – Review & Excerpt

Bibliobibuli YA – Review & Excerpt

June 15^th

A Hopeless Romantic's Booklandia – Review & Excerpt

Books Need TLC – Review & Excerpt

Lit This & That – Review & Excerpt

Seeing Double In Neverland – Review

The Book Hookup – Review & Excerpt

This Jabberwocky Eats Books – Review & Excerpt

Shelf Life-Review

June 16^th

Bookish Things & More – Review

Closet Geeks and Slow Mo – Review & Excerpt

Fishing for Books – Review

Library of a Book Witch – Review & Excerpt

The Book Maven – Review & Excerpt

Under the Covers Book Blog – Review & Excerpt

June 17^th

Book Lovers Hangout – Review & Excerpt

G & T's Indie Café – Excerpt

Little Red's Reviews – Excerpt

Smokin' Hot Reads Book Blog – Review & Excerpt

The Ordinary Housewife Book Blog – Review & Excerpt

YA Insider – Review

Cora Carmack is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Since she was a teenager, her favorite genre to read has been fantasy, and now she’s thrilled to bring her usual compelling characters and swoon-worthy romance into worlds of magic and intrigue with her debut YA fantasy, Roar. Her previous adult romance titles include the Losing It, Rusk University, and Muse series. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages around the world. Cora splits her time between Austin, TX and New York City, and on any given day you might find her typing away at her computer, flying to various cities around the world, or just watching Netflix with her kitty Katniss. But she can always be found on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and her website www.coracarmack.com.

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