The Cover Contessa: Blog Tour and Giveaway: Inspire (Muse #1) by Cora Carmack @CoraCarmack @InkSlingerPR

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Blog Tour and Giveaway: Inspire (Muse #1) by Cora Carmack @CoraCarmack @InkSlingerPR

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Welcome to The Cover Contessa's stop on the INSPIRE blog tour!

I am super excited to be a part of this. I absolutely adore Cora and her books!

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Kalliope lives with one purpose.

To inspire.

As an immortal muse, she doesn’t have any other choice. It’s part of how she was made. Musicians, artists, actors—they use her to advance their art, and she uses them to survive. She moves from one artist to the next, never staying long enough to get attached. But all she wants is a different life— a normal one. She’s spent thousands of years living lie after lie, and now she’s ready for something real.

Sweet, sexy, and steady, Wilder Bell feels more real than anything else in her long existence. And most importantly… he’s not an artist. He doesn’t want her for her ability. But she can’t turn off the way she influences people, not even to save a man she might love. Because in small doses, she can help make something beautiful, but her ability has just as much capacity to destroy as it does to create. The longer she stays, the more obsessed Wilder will become. It’s happened before, and it never turns out well for the mortal.

Her presence may inspire genius.

But it breeds madness, too.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Kobo

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Brooke's Review:

INITIAL REACTION UPON COMPLETING THIS BOOK: Did you hear that *CRACK* sound? That was MY HEART!

SECOND.BOOK.NOW, Cora! NOW!

Have to gather my thoughts before I can even write the review of this book...

I want to thank Cora for providing me with a copy of this phenomenal book to read and give an honest review. Receiving the book for free has in no way altered my opinion or review.

So if anyone knows me, they know I'm a huge Cora fan. Given the chance to read any book by her I would jump right in. So I always have high hopes for her stuff and she never disappoints. NEVER! As you can tell, this book was no exception to that rule.

In this book Cora dives into a bit of uncharted territory. We don't see many New Adult books set with paranormal overtones. And I love a good paranormal. Not only is it a mixture of those two genres, but it's also totally unique. I love the concept of this Muse having been around for thousands of years influencing all kinds of artists! I've never read anything like it before.

Meet Kalliope (Kallie). She's not your normal every day college student. She's a muse and she's immortal, living thousands and thousands of years with the power to influence artists; giving them energy to hone and perfect their craft. Because of this, she is destined to always be alone. The relationships she forms with these artists allow her to get close enough to them to infuse them with her inspiration but nothing else. But she has to be careful because if she goes too far with her influence, she can push the artist over the edge to insanity or worse. And each artist is a job for her, so eventually she must break the bond and ease away from them. Because of this, she's never had the chance to experience love. And after so many years she's becoming weary and wanting more than just the physical relationships with inspirational boosts she gives these people. She craving more of a connection but knows it's not possible for her to have this because her life is a muse and nothing else.

Enter Wilder. He's nothing like what Kallie would normally go after. He's this clean cut businessman who she can't ever inspire. But she finds herself strangely attracted to him, tethered, if you will. The pull she feels is undeniable, as if they are fated to be together. And she wants to try and be with him, but she has to figure out how that is even possible, or if it's even possible. And Wilder tells us his own story along the way. He's had tragedy in his life that has forced him to do a total turn about and take care of his family. He goes from living a life that's carefree and a bit destructive to one that requires him to really be the man of his family, and the bread winner. He's sexy and loyal and how can you resist a man who's good with little children? On top of that, he's a little more naughty than I would have predicted him to be. But I won't tell you why or how, I'll let you read that all for yourself!

As with Cora's other books, she weaves in a great secondary cast. Kallie's friends become very essential to her ability to pursue the life she wants. She finds with them a balance she could not otherwise have with Wilder alone.

The best thing Cora ever did for this book was make it dual POV. While I think the story would have worked from just Kallie's POV, I don't think we would have gotten enough depth about Wilder in the long run. So to see them both really gave such development to the characters. It was so much easier to slip into each of their shoes and feel what they were experiencing with each other. And the dual POV heightened the fact that nothing was easy between them. You knew they would hit bumps in the road, but boy oh boy you will never see the mountains Cora throws in coming!

The integration of Greek mythology into this book is subtle, but essential to the underlying plot. It's introduced slowly until finally we see that it truly invades every aspect of Kallie's life and she just cannot escape from it. Add to that a plot twist that Kallie herself did not see coming and you wonder it's even possible for her to be anything other than what she truly is.

This book is a great mixture of romance and heartbreak. There are moments when you find yourself giggling uncontrollably. And there are moments when you are downright bawling. Add to that the sexy moments that make you squirm and you have all the great elements of a PNR gone New Adult. And the cliffhanger ending will leave you wanting the second book yesterday. As I said at the top of my review, did you hear the *CRACK*? that was my heart crumbling to pieces. I can't wait to see where Kallie and Wilder's story goes!

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Cora Carmack is a twenty-something writer who likes to write about twenty-something characters. She's done a multitude of things in her life-- boring jobs (like working retail), Fun jobs (like working in a theatre), stressful jobs (like teaching), and dream jobs (like writing). She enjoys placing her characters in the most awkward situations possible, and then trying to help them get a boyfriend out of it. Awkward people need love, too. Her first book, LOSING IT, was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller.

Links:

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Tour Schedule:

Smart & Savvy with Stephanie – Review & Character Interview

Desert Divas Book Addiction – Review

Book Angel Booktopia – Review

Tales of the ravenous reader - Review

In Between The Pages – Review