Guest Post: Illusion by Martina Boone

Blog Tour: Illusion by Martina Boone

Title: Illusion
Author: Martina Boone
Pages: 480
Publish Date: October 25, 2016
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy, Romance

Synopsis: Barrie must rescue her beloved and her family from evil spirits in the masterful conclusion to the Heirs of Watson Island trilogy.
Caged by secrets all around her and haunted by mistakes that have estranged her from Eight Beaufort, Barrie Watson is desperate to break the curse that puts her family in danger—without breaking the beautiful magic that protects Watson’s Landing. To do that, she must heal the rifts that have split the families of the island apart for three hundred years, unravel the mystery of the Fire Carrier and the spirits he guards, and take control of forces so deadly and awe-inspiring they threaten to overwhelm her.
With the spirits that cursed Watson Island centuries ago awake and more dangerous than ever, she finds an unlikely ally in the haunting and enigmatic Obadiah, whose motivations and power she still can’t read—or trust. His help comes at a price, however, plunging Barrie into a deadly maze of magic and wonder, mystery and intrigue that leads through history to places she never imagined she could go.

Guest Post

An Introduction To The Characters

Barrie Watson: Raised in San Francisco as the daughter of a woman who never once, in all of Barrie’s seventeen years, left the house, Barrie life experience could fit on the back of a matchbook. Now she’s lost both her mother and Mark, the ex-drag queen and former neighbor who was her dearest friend and became her entire world. Exiled across the country to live with an aunt she’s never heard of on a three-hundred year old family plantation in South Carolina she never knew existed, she discovers that the family quirk of being able to find lost things never helped her discover any of the secrets her mother kept from her, and she’s determined to uncover them all. Also the gift has started changing since her mother’s death. It’s stronger, becoming less an ability to find lost things and return them than it is a compulsion Barrie can’t ignore. A compulsion that becomes deeply dangerous as she discovers that her mother’s secrets didn’t die with her--and there was a reason that she ran away from Watson Island fearing for her life.

Eight Beaufort: Charles Beaufort, VIII hates growing up in a small town that sees him more as a number on the family tree, just another Beaufort destined to become a lawyer and a pillar of society, more than as an individual. His dyslexia makes it hard to live up to his father’s expectations, and he’s chunking it all in, heading out to California on a baseball scholarship, getting as far away from Watson Island as he can get. He’s even named his sailboat the Away. But then he meets Barrie, and Eight, too, has a family gift: Beauforts always know what people want. The flip side is that they have to try to give it to them. So why is Eight falling for Barrie? Is it because they’re meant to be together? Or because she wants him to? And why does she want him to? Is it because he knows exactly what she needs to hear?

Cassie Colesworth: Where the other two plantations on the island have survived and the families have prospered thanks to the magical gifts that, as legend has it, were given to them by the ancient spirit who haunts the island, the Colesworth family was given a curse that makes them crave what the other families have and never get it. The Colesworth mansion lies in ruins, but Cassie’s father is obsessed with the idea of rebuilding it, with the need to prove that his family is as good as the others, but the Colesworths have a long history of being bad. They’ve run guns and turned to privateering and they were the worst kind of slaveowners, and now Wyatt’s mixed up in something highly illegal. All Cassie wants is to have people stop looking down at her, to stop seeing her history when they see her beautiful face. But she’s not afraid to exploit that horrible history to get what she wants. There’s a rumor that an ancestor buried the family treasure beneath the mansion before it was burned by Union soldiers. Barrie Watson has a gift for finding lost things, so Cassie thinks it’s only right that Barrie should find it for her. But that’s emphatically not what Cassie’s father wants.

Aunt Pru: Pru was the younger twin by a few short minutes, but growing up, Lula Watson always managed to suck up all the attention in any room. Lula was the beauty queen, the popular one, the wild, fun one. But when Lula suddenly disappeared without a word, it was Pru who was punished by never being allowed to leave her father’s sight. For seventeen years, she was the one who took care of their parents and tried to keep the plantation from falling down around them. But as Barrie shows up, Pru begins to slowly realize that she’s been living day to day, barely living at all. That’s not the kind of life she wants for Barrie, or even for herself any more.

Mark: Best described as Ru Paul meets Whoopie Goldberg, Mark was always Barrie’s person, the one she looked up to and loved and counted on to love her back. Mark is dying of pancreatic cancer and so he sent Barrie away so she doesn’t have to watch him suffer, because he wants to die knowing that she’s happy and settled in with Pru and has a place where she is loved. He doesn’t let go of her, though. On the phone, he gives her wisdom and encouragement and challenges her to step outside of her comfort zone. As he always puts it, it doesn’t matter how great your shoes are if you don’t accomplish anything in them.

The yunwi: According to the legend, the reason for the gifts and the curse had something to do with the small magical and mischievous beings that the Fire Carrier, the ancient spirit of a Cherokee witch, keeps confined to the island by a nightly ceremony that sets fire to the river around it. The yunwi made it almost impossible to construct the plantation when it was being built. Now they’re back to creating havoc again, stealing nails and screws and making the house fall apart, running off with Barrie’s belongings the moment she isn’t looking. Is it possible they’re just trying to get her attention? Because that’s the impression she begins to get as she gets to know them. Both they and the Fire Carrier have something they desperately need her to do for them. Too bad she has no idea what that will turn out to be.

Giveaway

2 winners will receive hardcover sets of COMPULSION, PERSUASION, & ILLUSION, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the Author

Martina Boone was born in Prague and spoke several languages before learning English. She fell in love with words and never stopped delighting in them. She’s the author of SIBA Book Award nominated Compulsion, book one in the romantic Southern Gothic trilogy, the Heirs of Watson Island, which was an Okra Pick by the Southern Independent Bookstores Alliance, a Kansas State Reading Circle selection, a Goodreads Best Book of the Month and YA Best Book of the Month, and an RT Magazine Best of 2014 Editor’s Pick. The second book in the trilogy, Persuasion, will be published in October 2015.

She’s also the founder of AdventuresInYAPublishing.com, a three-time Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers site, the CompulsionForReading.com book drive campaign for underfunded schools and libraries, and YASeriesInsiders.com, a site devoted to the discovery and celebration of young adult literature and encouraging literacy through YA series. She is also a founder and permanent mentor at 1st5PagesWritingWorkshop.com, helping to shepherd aspiring writers into the publication process and help them find the right starting point for their novels in progress, Locally in her home state of Virginia, she is on the board of the
Literacy Council of Northern Virginia, helping to promote literacy and adult education initiatives.

She lives with her husband, children, and a lopsided cat, she enjoys writing contemporary fantasy set in the kinds of magical places she’d love to visit. When she isn’t writing, she’s addicted to travel, horses, skiing, chocolate flavored tea, and anything with Nutella on it.

Tour Schedule

Week One:
10/17/2016- Just Commonly- Review-Compulsion
10/18/2016- Kayl's Krazy Obsession- Guest Post
10/19/2016- Always Me- Review-Compulsion
10/20/2016- YA Book Madness- Guest Post
10/21/2016- The Young Folks- Review-Compulsion

Week Two:
10/24/2016- The Cover Contessa- Review-Persuasion (repost)
10/25/2016- Good Choice Reading- Guest Post
10/26/2016- Curling Up With A Good Book- Review-Persuasion
10/27/2016- Tales of the Ravenous Reader- Guest Post
10/28/2016- A Dream Within A Dream- Review-Persuasion (repost)

Week Three:
10/31/2016- Here's to Happy Endings- Review-Illusion
11/1/2016- Two Chicks on Books- Guest Post
11/2/2016- Bookish Lifestyle- Review-Illusion
11/3/2016- Dark Faerie Tales- Guest Post
11/4/2016- Book Briefs- Review-Illusion