Friday, July 15, 2016

Blog Tour + Review + #Giveaway: Rising Tides by Katy Haye @katyhaye @yaboundtourspr



Rising Tides
Genre: YA Post-Apocalyptic
Release Date: June 20th 2016

Summary from Goodreads:

When everything you know is washed away, who can you trust?

Life is precarious on City, the last civilised place left on a drowned Earth. Some might think Libby Marchmont's safe life there is boring, but she likes it – until her father is murdered and her certainties are swept away.

Stranded in the middle of the sea with someone she's always considered an enemy, can Libby learn to trust Cosimo? And can they both survive long enough to share the truth her father was killed for: the seas are rising again and City lies on the brink of destruction.


You can get a copy of Rising Tides in paperback or for your Kindle (to buy, or with Kindle Unlimited) using this link: http://authl.it/B01FHXD8HG?d


Build your own kayak:

Shaping the world of Rising Tides


I write fantasy in part because I like the “making it up” part of creative writing. This means I often write in a way others consider backwards – I write the story, then see what needs research to make the world I’ve created work as if it were really real.

Will’s kayak race in Rising Tides was an addition after I’d written my first draft and started my research. I was absolutely fascinated by all the things you can make from plastic bottles and I couldn’t resist showing off what fun this “make do and mend” mentality could bring about (because living in a post-apocalyptic world isn’t all doom and gloom, you know).

If you have a spare weekend, the link above will show how to make your own kayak from old plastic bottles. That doesn’t appeal? Don’t worry – there are lots of other projects using recycled bottles. You could build a greenhouse (which inspired the houses on City), or a bigger boat for you and your friends to take up a river. 


Here’s the scene where Will and his friends race their recycled kayaks around City for something to do:

One of the crowd gave a shout as the recycled bottle kayaks came into view. All eyes were on the three racers, and the rowdy splashing they made as they rounded the corner. It was like they didn’t care about being caught, like the rules didn’t apply to them.
Will Keyne finished first, crashing his kayak into the factory path floats and raising his paddle above his head with a grin of triumph. Hannah leaned over the edge of the pontoons, waving a scarf to signal the end of the race. I was slightly surprised she didn’t fall in, but her balance was as perfect as the shine of her hair.
“Will! Oh, you were so fast!”
Hannah was all teeth and hair and cleavage as Will came to a stop – and how could she not fall in? She was more over the water than she was on the pontoons.
Binny reached the finish a second later, grabbing at the edge of the pontoons with one hand while the other held his paddle. Foo followed half a minute after. Both looked annoyed to have been beaten. Or perhaps they were just annoyed that Hannah was flashing her teeth and her cleavage at Will rather than at them.
Foo clambered out first, yanking his kayak from the water. Everyone jumped back to give him space as his bottle kayak dripped water all over the tin pontoons. He pushed through the group, dragging it behind him, passing close to me as he stomped through. I remembered my first and only swimming race. I’d come a dismal last and not one single person had said well done – they were too busy congratulating the winners. I’d sneaked home, not sure whether I was relieved or mortified when no one who’d been there had ever mentioned the race to me again – I might as well not have been there. I could imagine how Foo felt.
I smiled at him. “Well done, that was a tough race.”
He paused long enough to give me a withering look then started walking again, his shoulder jarring mine as he pushed past.
My words shrivelled to a hard lump in my throat and I fought to keep my smile steady. I didn’t fit in, because somehow telling the truth didn’t work when I did it. Maybe I needed to flash my teeth and my chest more whenever I spoke, but I knew I’d die of embarrassment if I even tried that.
Then Binny was climbing out, cat-calling to Will. “You’re just lucky, Keyne!” He hadn’t taken losing as poorly as Foo. The boys clustered around Binny while the girls were focused on Will.
“I would say watch and learn, but you’re too far behind to see me!” Will called back, untruthfully. The only one left in the water, Will flung his paddle to one side and tipped himself to the other, rolling out of the kayak and into the water, then turning a somersault and vanishing into the depths.
Hannah leaned down to look for him but I was sure she couldn’t see anything over the reflected shine of the water and the kayak and paddle he’d left behind, bobbing on the surface. Made from plastic bottles from the Time Before, it wasn’t as though anything was going to sink to the seabed.
Belle stepped forward and muttered something to Hannah. Hannah turned and replied with a grin to her friend, pushing her like it was a joke. Belle staggered a few steps then returned to Hannah’s side, still smiling.
When Will’s head broke the surface, Hannah marked the moment with a dramatic gasp. She pressed a hand to her chest in case Will was thinking of looking anywhere else. “Oh, I thought you were never coming up!” She glanced at Belle then back to Will, who was grinning to match her as he trod water, his dark hair slicked to his head. “You should be a nautilus man,” Hannah told him, “You were down there forever!”
“You think I’d make a good nautilus man, huh?”
Hannah nodded so enthusiastically she ought again to have fallen into the water with him. Her boots must be lead lined to keep her safe.
Will’s gaze snagged on me. “What about it, Doc? Will you conduct the operation?”
All eyes turned to me. I swallowed, trying to think of a reply that wouldn’t break the mood. What could I say? We all knew Will’s father would never let his precious sons go under the knife, no matter how desperate matters became. I tried to think of something witty, something that Hannah might say. Something that wouldn’t get me sour looks and giggles of derision – and my brain failed me. I didn’t have recourse to anything but the truth. “Do you have a licence?”
I looked around when laughter broke out – good-natured laughter, as though I’d made a joke. Even Hannah was smiling. My worry faded away as I realised I had made a joke. I just hadn’t known it was one until afterwards.


My Review:

Image living in world where you are surrounded by water in the middle of the ocean; a world where you have never set foot on land or never seen a tree; a world that is comprised of a group of boats or ships well Liberty Marchmont does. It is all she has ever known. This group of ship/boats make of the town/city of City and this where Liberty Marchmont was born along with others like her that was after the Time Before. The Time Before is a drowned world below City where they scavenge for food and other things that they need to live.

Liberty has always liked living on City even though she doesn’t have any close friends. She has friends but not the kind where she goes to their house and spends the night or a friend comes to her house and they hang out. Liberty likes hanging out with her father and being his apprentice. Her father is City’s famous doctor and everyone calls him Doctor Miracle. Yes she has always loved her life on City until the night someone murders her father and she is forced to flee with a stranger, a reamer, Cosimo.

While stranded with Cosimo on a boat Liberty has to deal with losing her father and her life. Cosimo and Liberty argue a lot while they are on this boat mainly because they come from different backgrounds. Liberty has been taught all her life that a reamer is nothing but trash and can never be trusted but she starts to see something different about Cosimo that doesn’t add up to what she has been taught.

After a violent storm that washes them up on a beach Liberty starts to see something in Cosimo that is totally different than what she was taught as well as the people on New Eden. After spending some time on New Eden Liberty starts to make friends at first she doesn’t believe that they are her friends or that anyone would ever like her but she soon finds out how wrong she is.

Liberty needs to find out the truth about her father and everything that is happening on City for herself so that she can move on with her life. So when Liberty and Cosimo see a ship in the distance and they know it is from City and they have come to more than likely kill Cosimo and the others Liberty decides that she must go and head them off. She can’t let them kill Cosimo or anyone else. So Liberty does the only thing she believes she can do and that is meet the ship and return to City so that she can seek some kind of closure for herself over what happened to her father.

Cosimo doesn’t want her to return but he has learned real quick that once Liberty makes up her mind there is nothing him or anyone else can do or say to change it. But Cosimo will do whatever he can to help Liberty and to keep her safe. After all he did make a promise to her father.

I liked following Liberty along on her journey and everyday life on City and New Eden and I liked all of the characters or most of them anyways. I hope Liberty, Cosimo and all of their friends find the land of the Sun and Roses. I hope they can all find the life they deserve no matter where that maybe. I would really like to see more of Liberty and Cosimo’s life where it takes them.

About the Author

Katy Haye spends most of her time in imaginary worlds - her own or someone else's. She has a fearsome green tea habit, a partiality for dark chocolate brazils and a fascination with the science of storytelling.

Author Links:

          


Your survival kit is as follows:


1. An Amazon voucher for £10/$15US/$20CAN, AUS, NZ. Load up your Kindle with books to read, while shops remain.

2. A solar charger so when the national grid fails you can still read your books.

3. A mirror. When you are stranded in the open sea you can signal for help by reflecting the sun's light. Alternatively, if you have no wish to be rescued because you still have reading to do, flip the mirror over to depict the slogan, "Go away I'm reading."

4. Ribbon bookmark. If all your books have been washed away by the rising seas, this can be rolled up and packed into the neck of a cut-open bottle and will double-up as a water filter. Note: this will not desalinate salt water, sorry.

5. A bag to put the last of your belongings into. DO NOT LEAVE THIS BEHIND.




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