Happily hosting my second #TheWriteReads Ultimate Blog Tour | showcasing “Amari and the Night Brothers” (Supernatural Investigations, Book One) by B.B. Alston

Posted Wednesday, 30 December, 2020 by jorielov , , , , , , 1 Comment

Stories in the Spotlight banner created by Jorie in Canva.

Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!

You might be curious where Jorie’s been since the days leading into Christmas,… I had a lot of lovely plans of how I wanted to round out the year – stories I earmarked to read, a series I wanted to showcase Christmas week and weekend as much as a few final posts I was looking forward to composing in order to properly send out the year with a bit of a glow of joy rather than the angst I had felt off/on throughout 2020.

However, as Christmas and New Year’s weeks turnt into a working fortnight for my Mum rather than the first bout of holidays wherein Mum would be able to spend the hours with us as a family – you could say I was the busiest elf behind the holidays this year! I felt like I had lived through most of the hours Mum worked as she totalled nearly (or even surpassed) 112 hours in less than two weeks by the time her hours conclude on New Year’s Day! She was the only one who could accept emergency holiday shifts and as thankful as we were for the increase in hours – Dad and I missed having her for Christmas and we’ll be celebrating separately for New Year’s this year as well.

Due to the shift in what we were doing this year and how those upturnt hours left me fatigued and exhausted – I haven’t picked up a book in more than three weeks, nor have I sorted out anything on my blog in over two – if you wanted my updates, they were flickering into my tweets, as I did manage to microblog my Christmas. I decided to re-shift my #yearendreads into a New Year’s readathon courtesy of Mum’s emergency shifts New Year’s Eve & Day, whilst I am hoping to release some posts to conclude my thoughts about the past year on Jorie Loves A Story, too.

Today – I have the pleasure of showcasing a new book which I am quite sure by now with #TheWriteReads blog tour in full swing is on everyone’s bookish radar – is a new Middle Grade Fantasy novel I’m wicked excited about having in my hands to read, too! It can take me half of forever to find the kinds of Fantasy stories I want to read because I’m not really into all the topical Fantasy series (save Harry Potter) as I tend to read a predominately high level of Indie Fantasy authors, such as this year’s Esme’s Wish.

In fact, I read another Indie Fantasy novelist (Owen Crane) this year for Wyrd And Wonder (@WyrdAndWonder) as much as I showcased interviews with Indie Fantasy novelists as well for the event. Indie Fantasy (and all the stories within the Speculative realms) is where my readerly heart tends to lie these last years due to how Indie authors are writing stories I not only *devour!* but they are told in a way which appeals to my fantastical sensibility especially if you consider the adult side of the ledger with the Tipsy Fairy Tales by E. Chris Garrison: Blue Spirit, Restless Spirit and my forthcoming review of Mean Spirit.

Yet, what drew me into this world of #AmariAndTheNightBrothers is simply the breadth of the world-building in the description of the book! I love Fantasy stories which give you a proper sense of themselves at the jump point and build this wicked sweet layer of anticipation prior to reading the story itself. I am hopeful my library will buy a copy of this lovely story and I’ll be able to read it come January when its released! I did enter the bookaway by the author but as I hadn’t heard from him, I’m presuming those copies went to other readers. Thereby, enjoy the bits I’ve found online to help introduce you to *Amari!* and let’s get ourselves wicked happy for a lovely NEW YEAR full of fantastical reads!!

I love being part of the community of #TheWriteReads and I hope in future to continue hosting the authors on their blog tours – I keep an eye out on the stories I most desire to be reading in order to host a guest feature as print copies are a bit rare for these tours to request. I love hosting the conversations because it helps me feel a bit more rooted in the stories and I hope you’ll have the same takeaway yourself. Although when a conversation isn’t available to host, I like featuring the stories themselves to help give them a signal boost in case one of my readers and followers hasn’t yet discovered the story (or series) which has caught my bookish eye!

Brew yourself a cuppa and enjoy the book trailer!

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Happily hosting my second #TheWriteReads Ultimate Blog Tour | showcasing “Amari and the Night Brothers” (Supernatural Investigations, Book One) by B.B. AlstonAmari and the Night Brothers

Quinton Peters was the golden boy of the Rosewood low-income housing projects, receiving full scholarship offers to two different Ivy League schools. When he mysteriously goes missing, his little sister, 13-year-old Amari Peters, can’t understand why it’s not a bigger deal. Why isn’t his story all over the news? And why do the police automatically assume he was into something illegal?

Then Amari discovers a ticking briefcase in her brother’s old closet. A briefcase meant for her eyes only. There was far more to Quinton, it seems, than she ever knew. He’s left her a nomination for a summer tryout at the secretive Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. Amari is certain the answer to finding out what happened to him lies somewhere inside, if only she can get her head around the idea of mermaids, dwarves, yetis and magicians all being real things, something she has to instantly confront when she is given a weredragon as a roommate.

Amari must compete against some of the nation’s wealthiest kids—who’ve known about the supernatural world their whole lives and are able to easily answer questions like which two Great Beasts reside in the Atlantic Ocean and how old is Merlin? Just getting around the Bureau is a lesson alone for Amari with signs like ‘Department of Hidden Places this way, or is it?’ If that all wasn’t enough, every Bureau trainee has a talent enhanced to supernatural levels to help them do their jobs – but Amari is given an illegal ability. As if she needed something else to make her stand out.

With an evil magican threatening the whole supernatural world, and her own classmates thinking she is an enemy, Amari has never felt more alone. But if she doesn’t pass the three tryouts, she may never find out what happened to Quinton.

Genres: Fantasy Fiction, Middle Grade, Paranormal Suspense, Middle Grade Fantasy



Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Add to LibraryThing

ISBN: 978-0062975164

Published by Balzer and Bray, Egmont Books

on 19th January, 2021

Published by: Egmont Books (@egmontbooksuk)
an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers UK

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This is the first installment of a trilogy!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Available Formats: Hardback, Audiobook and Ebook

Converse via: #Fantasy, #Paranormal #MiddleGrade or #MGLit
as well as #TheWriteReads & #AmariAndTheNightBrothers

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

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A post shared by BB Alston (@bb_alston)

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So very little is known about this lovely novel – as much as I tried to chase down a chapter sampler online or an audio sampler of the audiobook – nothing is yet available. I know for those of you who are following the blog tour via #TheWriteReads you’re able to see snippets of the story through the reviewers’ eyes and that’s wicked smashing as that is why I participate in blog tours myself; however, as my spot on the tour had to become a bit altered from my original plans, I had hoped a sampler might have given me a chance to talk a bit more about Mr Alston’s style of narrative.

As you see, I love reading chapter samplers to gauge my anticipated interest in an author’s story and to sneak a peek into how their setting up their world-building. This is especially important for Fantasy – however, from what I’ve gathered online – this is a wicked #awesomesauce Middle Grade Fantasy – quite impressively popular already and is earmarked to be released into motion pictures starring the young actress from Blackish. Which is awesome news in its own right as I LOVE Fantasy films – who doesn’t? Especially when the use art direction, costume design, sound for motion picture and the textural special effects used in our modern world against the surreal realities of the digital landscape. Fantasy has upped the ante on what is plausible in film and it makes each new release a high stakes to not only root us in the world their depicting but not allowing us to ‘see’ all the effects it takes to bring that world to life as I personally love the illusion of not seeing all the effects but simply to feel lost in the immersive effect of the story being told.

The book trailer I’m sharing below pulls you into Amari’s world – gives you just a quick glimpse into her life and what is occupying her thoughts – whilst giving you a jolt of joy seeing how wickedly this Fantasy has a Sci-Fi texture to it and how magically brilliant I am thinking the rest of the story is going to unfold for all of us who love a dash of the paranormal in our fantastical reads!!

So, I do regret I can’t speak too much about the story yet — however, I hope these little notes of joy of my own might encourage you to seek out more information about this lovely new debut novel come January when it’s properly released to us all. And, did anyone else get goosebumps about how this book trailer reminded me when we first saw Harry walking up to the Sorting Hat!?? The inertia of that fevering excitement electrifying your imagination? And, then,… wells, you know what happened!!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

I felt sad there were circumstances which cancelled my interview with the author as my heart went out to him and his family, as I don’t know the situations involved but as I’ve had to shoulder difficult circumstances at the holidays myself (including my father’s stroke four years ago and his emergency carotid surgery – days after Thanksgiving and a few weeks ahead of Christmas)  – I have full sympathies for others who are going through similarly difficult situations. Including those who lose their loved ones as this happened to my family back to back when I was a child wherein we lost two family members between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Sometimes the holidays are days full of joy and merriment and other years, the holidays bring a lot of adverse emotions, sorrow and a waking gap of loss. I pray everyone has been able to muddle through this year, even at the holidays, taking away small joys as we’ve been able to grab them and start our walk into a New Year where hopefully things might feel a bit less abnormal and more akin to what we’ve missed having in our lives. Which is definitely why finding a new Fantasy novel is one stellar way to kick-off 2021 if you ask me!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

This blog tour is courtesy of:

Amari and the Night Brothers blog tour banner provided by #TheWriteReads and is used with permission.

Be sure to follow all the lovely tags on Twitter to seek out more exciting content on this ULIMATELY HUGE blog tour celebrating the book + the author!!

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 I look forward to reading your thoughts & commentary!
Be sure to let me know if this is a book on your bookish radar, a book you’ve already had the chance to read (ie. ARC or NetGalley eARC) or one you’ve just happily discovered due to this lovely blog tour! I’d love to hear your thoughts and why this book is one you’d love to be reading yourself!!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

NOTE: Similar to blog tours wherein I feature book reviews, book spotlights (with or without extracts), book announcements (or Cover Reveals) – I may elect to feature an author, editor, narrator, publisher or other creative person connected to the book, audiobook, Indie film project or otherwise creative publishing medium being featured wherein the supplemental content on my blog is never compensated monetarily nor am I ever obligated to feature this kind of content. I provide (98.5%) of all questions and guest topics regularly featured on Jorie Loves A Story. I receive direct responses back to those enquiries by publicists, literary agents, authors, blog tour companies, etc of whom I am working with to bring these supplemental features and showcases to my blog. I am naturally curious about the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of stories and the writers who pen them: I have a heap of joy bringing this content to my readers. Whenever there is a conflict of connection I do disclose those connections per post and disclose the connection as it applies.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

{SOURCES: Book cover for “Amari and the Night Brothers”, book synopsis, author biography, author photograph of B.B. Alston, the tour banner and book tour banner were all provided by The Write Reads and are used with permission. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Book Spotlight banner and the Comment Box Banner.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2020.

I’m a social reader | I tweet my reading life

About jorielov

I am self-educated through local libraries and alternative education opportunities. I am a writer by trade and I cured a ten-year writer’s block by the discovery of Nanowrimo in November 2008. The event changed my life by re-establishing my muse and solidifying my path. Five years later whilst exploring the bookish blogosphere I decided to become a book blogger. I am a champion of wordsmiths who evoke a visceral experience in narrative. I write comprehensive book showcases electing to get into the heart of my reading observations. I dance through genres seeking literary enlightenment and enchantment. Starting in Autumn 2013 I became a blog book tour hostess featuring books and authors. I joined The Classics Club in January 2014 to seek out appreciators of the timeless works of literature whose breadth of scope and voice resonate with us all.

"I write my heart out and own my writing after it has spilt out of the pen." - self quote (Jorie of Jorie Loves A Story)

read more >> | Visit my Story Vault of Book Reviews | Policies & Review Requests | Contact Jorie

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Posted Wednesday, 30 December, 2020 by jorielov in #TheWriteReads, Blog Tour Host, Book Spotlight, Fantasy Fiction




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