A Stellar Review

Thanks to The Book Butterfly for a great review of Freaksville, Kitty Keswick's novel. Here's a short excerpt from her review:

"FREAKSVILLE is a unique novel, both in the storyline, well defined characters, artful little illustrations and blog format....the posts themselves were so well written and entertaining, I enjoyed reading them and quickly became engrossed in the plot line.


The tension between Kasey’s family and the Johnstone clan added some depth to the plot line and I look forward to this aspect being explored in FURRY & FREAKED, the fabulously named sequel to FREAKSVILLE."

Other bloggers also were intrigued by the Maxwell-Johnstone feud, which will play an even greater part in later books. In Bed with Books mentioned it:

"FREAKSVILLE was fun, and not just because of the cute illustrations. Kasey has a strong voice, and I liked her habit of making lists. I liked her relationship with Gillie. The two girls supported each other without getting jealous of the other's relationship. I liked the background feud between the Maxwell and Johnstone families - I can't wait to see that expanded as Kasey and Josh further their relationship."

Curious about the Johnstone-Maxwell clan wars? Although Freaksville is fiction, Kitty Keswick researched a centuries-old feud between the Maxwells and the Johnstones to gather background information for her novel. She even traveled to England and visited the site along the Scottish border that was the setting for clash between the clans. Here's a photo of the remains of Lochwood Castle, destroyed by a fire set by the Maxwells in the sixteenth century.

Want to find out more? Feel free to ask Kitty a question about her research. And be sure to stop by the Wolfy Chicks blog for some special giveaways.

Sunshine Award

Leap Books received a Sunshine Award. Now it's up to us to pass it along. That's hard to do, because we know so many wonderful bloggers. We'd love to give an award to each and every one of them. But we're only allowed to select a dozen, so we hope those bloggers will spread the sunshine by passing the award along.

We want to give a special thanks to bloggers who have gone out of their way to promote Leap Books and spread the word about our upcoming releases.
A special shout-out to:

Mel     http://hefollowedmehome.blogspot.com/

Dark Faerie Tales  http://darkfaerietales.com/

Teens Read Too  http://www.teensreadtoo.com/

La Femme Readers http://lafemmereaders.blogspot.com/

Mundie Moms http://www.mundiemoms.blogspot.com/

The Book Butterfly http://butterflybookreviews.blogspot.com/

YA Books Central Blog  http://yabookscentral.blogspot.com/

Ellz Reads http://ellzreadz.blogspot.com/

Princess Bookie http://www.princessbookie.com/

Book Lovers, Inc. http://book-lovers-inc.blogspot.com/2010/01/interview-iwth-class-of-2k10-when-did.html

Read this Book http://readthisbook.wordpress.com/

The Story Siren http://www.thestorysiren.com/2010/02/january-winner-2010-debut-author.html

To pass on this award, select 12 bloggers you think are spreading sunshine and comment on their blog. Link to the person who gave you the award, and pass on the kudos.

We have many more bloggers to thank, especially those who hosted author Judith Graves this month. Watch for more posts about all the wonderful sites she visited.

And for everyone who is eagerly awaiting a copy of Under My Skin, production glitches have backed up the release date a few weeks, but if you've ordered a book from us, we'll see that you get the very first, hot-off-the-press copies! Thanks for your patience, but we're trying to get every detail perfect before we send it off into the world.

Waiting on Wednesday Features

We're jumping for joy alright. Leap titles are starting to get noticed! Our paranormal stories are being featured on a few young adult blogger/reviewer Waiting on Wednesday features....and ya know what? We luvs them! ;)

Check out the buzz for FREAKSVILLE on The Book Butterfly

And a few for Under My Skin, today on The Book Butterfly and previously on YA Book Releases. Whoot! Many thanks to these awesome reviewers who have their ears to the ground and picked up the sound of Leap.