Sunday, May 19, 2013

Blog Tour (Review & Guest Post): Inception by Teal Haviland

Today, we are excited to join InkSlinger for the blog tour of Inception by Teal Haviland.
For our stop, we have a review of the book, a guest post and a tour wide giveaway. Enjoy!

Inception by Teal Haviland
Publication Date: May 2013
Publisher: Embolden Press
The world is in danger. Mankind is sinking deeper into darkness it cannot understand

Demons are easily capturing souls as they lead men and women down dangerous paths from which there is no return, while Javan, one of the Fallen, seeks an ancient book and the power it promises. If he succeeds, humans — and the world as they know it — will be destroyed.

There is someone who is capable of stopping Javan...

If she discovers him in time.

Gabrielle is one of the most powerful angels ever created, her job one of the most important. She has come to Earth to learn more about humans and what influences them, and to fight evil she sees growing at an alarming rate. She soon finds herself carelessly distracted with one human in particular, however. Lucas Watkins holds a promise of peace and love for Gabrielle that she never believed she could have again.

Caught between her new mortal ties and ancient immortal responsibilities, Gabrielle must race against what seems to be an ever-quickening clock to learn what she needs to know, uncover Javan’s plan, and find a way to stop him and all who live in Shadows.

Join Gabrielle and her allies in a story of love — past and present — fantastical beings, hidden realms, magic, fate, loss, and the fight of good versus evil in, The Reaping Chronicles.
My Thoughts
Inception marks the premier installment of The Reaping Chronicles where Gabrielle The Angel of Karma is sent to play her part in the battle between Light and Dark. People are quickly losing their humanity, so Gabrielle decides to live among mortals in order to understand their desires and motives and ultimately turn the tides and guide people back toward Yahuwah (God). Her quest quickly shifts to protecting a human named Lucas; and together they work toward acquiring the Book of Barabbadon in order to put it into the right hands before it is used to wage a war on Heaven. When this Angel of Karma begins to fall in love with Lucas, their battle against evil becomes more intense as they are used against each other to bring power to the wrong side.

It is quite clear that Teal Haviland’s strength lies in her immaculately descript writing. When I opened the eBook to embark on this adventure, I was a bit taken aback to see it was well over 500 ePages. As I progressed through the novel, it was evident that Haviland truly put a strong emphasis on carefully developing the setting and creating the proper stage for her plot, backdrop and characters. Where she puts a heavy emphasis on infusing a strong religious undertone in her story, she doesn’t allow that to sacrifice the fantasy and paranormal edge she aims to achieve for Inception. With angels, demons, vampires, fairies and dark as well as divine forces, Haviland crafts a perfect blend of fantastical and philosophical in her debut installment of The Reaping Chronicles.

Gabrielle is the main character in this novel. First off, I must admit how pleased I was to see she was portrayed as a female. Her strong sense of character and her fantastical abilities made it fun to witness this story through her eyes as she wielded her powers against evil. I liked how Haviland stayed true to original myths and beliefs, but still managed to create an extremely unique and admirable character through Gabrielle. She owned her stage and maintained a strong presence throughout the entire story.

Lucas commanded quite a presence in this novel. He was strong in character and belief when it came to his feelings about Gabby and overall intentions. As more and more of his backstory and ultimate abilities continued to manifest, he became exceptionally intriguing. He faced several obstacles throughout the novel and in the final scenes we saw a huge shift in the role he will be playing moving forward. I have faith that his character will overcome the evil prophecy he has yet to face.

Where I was quite clear about the role Amaziah played in Gabrielle life, I’m still a bit confused about Sheridan’s motives. I’m curious how her relationship with Gabrielle will continue to evolve and what that means for Gabrielle.

Javan is the perfect villain in this novel. He was cast from Heaven over a century before this story started and this played a huge role in Gabrielle’s existence because he was her eternal partner. I commended Gabrielle’s resolve when she faced him, knowing he would try to lead her toward evil. I’m curious how Javan and Lucas will continue their quest to get, or in Lucas’s case, keep Gabrielle on their side.

Where Haviland spares us the cliché cliffhanger (thank you very much) in her debut installment of The Reaping Chronicles, I feel she managed to develop enough excitement and well-positioned events to intrigue her audience for a fantastical adventure. Well done!
4 Snowflakes

Guest Post
10 Things You Don’t Know About Lucas

There are so many things we don’t learn about Lucas in INCEPTION (The Reaping Chronicles, #1), so it was hard for me to pin down what I wanted to include on this list. Here is what I came up with, but if there is more you want to know feel free to ask. As long as it doesn’t give anything away that happens in INCEPTION, or the rest of THE REAPING CHRONICLES series, I am happy to share.

1 ~ His first crush was in the second grade.
2 ~ He has thoughts of becoming a wildlife biologist.
3 ~ Cockroaches freak him out.
4 ~ He loves music.
5 ~ He knows how to play the guitar.
6 ~ He wants to spend a year following a pack of wolves, documenting their behavior.
7 ~ His favorite color is red.
8 ~ His favorite movie is The Lord of the Rings.
9 ~ His favorite book is also The Lord of the Rings.
10 ~ One of his favorite things to do is to spend a weekend camping and hiking.

So, there you have it. A little more insight into Lucas and what makes him who he is. And, like I said, if you want to know more, ask away.

About the Author
Teal Haviland lives in Tennessee with her daughter and her four-legged friends. She enjoys photography, travel, reading, music, cooking, daydreaming, writing (of course), and above all spending time with her family and friends.

Teal grew up with a love for anything fantastical or outrageous. After years of dreaming of worlds where fairies, angels, demons, and shape shifters (to name a few) exist, she finally decided to begin writing her stories down.Inception, book one in her series The Reaping Chronicles, is her first published novel.
Follow this Author
InkSlinger is also hosting the following giveaway for a signed copy of the book. Be sure to enter for a chance too win. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

4 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for hosting the blog tour today and for the wonderful review! I am so pleased you liked it.

    Cheers!
    Teal

    ReplyDelete
  2. That sounds interesting. Thank you for sharing :)

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  3. I love the dark premise. Demons are right up my alley! :)

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  4. An interesting discussion is worth comment. I think that you should write more on this topic, it might not be a taboo subject but generally people are not enough to speak on such topics. To the next. Cheers

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