Showing posts with label #CandaceKade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #CandaceKade. Show all posts

Saturday, March 23, 2024

Blog Tour and Giveaway: Hybrid by Candace Kade



About the Book



Book: Hybrid

Author: Candace Kade

Genre: YA Science Fiction

Release Date: March 5, 2024

Lee Urban’s search for truth could destroy everything.

After narrowly surviving several attempts on her life, Lee Urban retreats into hiding, seeking refuge with her family for the Lunar New Year. But the relaxing holiday turns into a heist when someone crashes the party with intel on the hybrid’s identity.

Driven by desperation, Urban accepts a position within the elite Dragons AI team, a high-stakes gamble that will propel her into the heart of the turbulent West. As she follows the elusive clues to the hybrid, the journey takes her closer to uncovering the truths about her own origins and the odd circumstances surrounding her adoption.

Tensions between the Enhanced and Naturals grow increasingly violent and the Western Federation teeters on the brink of civil war. Urban’s choices threaten to tear her family apart, and the secrets she unearths just might shatter the delicate balance of society.

 

Click here to get your copy!

 

About the Author

Candace Kade grew up in China and currently lives in Austin, Texas. When she’s not missing Chinese food, she’s busy writing, exploring new countries, volunteering, hiking in national parks, teaching her husband Mandarin, and keeping a baby human alive.

 

 


More from Candace

危机 is an interesting character.

It means crisis in Mandarin. The first character, 危 or wei, symbolizes “dangerous.” The second, 機 or ji, means “opportunity.” Put those two words together and you have the Chinese word for crisis.

I learned about the breakdown of this character while I was living in Beijing and starting to write the Hybrid Series. It felt risky moving to Beijing to work in an all-Chinese office using my second language, taking on a completely new role, while in the middle of a serious relationship, and with zero friends or community there to support me.

When my health failed, my long-distance relationship wavered, and the program that sent me dissolved leaving me without a job or visa, I arrived at a crisis.

If you look at the Chinese character for crisis, there’s two ways of thinking about interpreting it. One, a crisis is something dangerous, to be feared, and to run away from. Or two, a crisis could be an opportunity.

The crisis I faced in Beijing led to some incredible things in my life.

Because of it, I ended up writing the Hybrid Series and getting published. My relationship (with my now husband) became stronger. I grew on a personal level in so many ways. My dependence on God deepened as well.

My time in Beijing was one you could not pay me to relive. It’s also a season I wouldn’t trade for the world.

I once heard someone say:

“Do what scares you most.”

Maybe if what you’re chasing after doesn’t scare you, you’re not reaching high enough.

Seeing a crisis as an opportunity involves a great deal of risk. It’s a scary thing. If I avoided the things that scared me, I never would have gone to graduate school, taken half the roles I did in my career, moved overseas, dated, gotten married, learned Krav Maga, given birth, signed a book deal, and many other things that ended up being some of the best experiences in my life.

It’s all a matter of perspective.

In Hybrid, the main character, Lee Urban, faces a crisis in her life.

When Urban risks everything to seek out answers about her birth origins, she finds more than she bargained for and danger ensues. At her darkest moment of despair, she sees the characters weiji, or crisis, for what they could be: a dangerous opportunity. That discovery changes everything for her.

That same discovery changed me.

At some point in our lives, we will all face a crisis. The question is, will we let the fear of danger cow us into taking the path of least resistance? Or will we be true to ourselves, take calculated risks, and pursue the things we know God made us for?

For me, I’m choosing the latter.

“What are you afraid of?”

- Candace

Blog Stops

Locks, Hooks and Books, March 23

Through the Fire Blogs, March 24 (Author Interview)

Tell Tale Book Reviews, March 25

Artistic Nobody, March 26 (Author Interview)

Texas Book-aholic, March 27

Guild Master, March 28 (Author Interview)

Becca Hope: Book Obsessed, March 28

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, March 29

A Modern Day Fairy Tale, March 30 (Author Interview)

Inkling and notions, March 31

Library Lady’s Kid Lit, April 1 (Author Interview)

Blogging With Carol, April 2

For the Love of Literature, April 3 (Author Interview)

Beauty in the Binding, April 4 (Author Interview)

Trinity Lofty Pages, April 4

Wishful Endings, April 5

Giveaway



To celebrate her tour, Candace is giving away the grand prize package of a hardback copy of Hybrid and a $25 Barnes & Noble gift card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/2a8f7/hybrid-celebration-tour-giveaway


My Review

Hybrid is another exciting and entertaining read from the talented author, Candace Kade.  It is, also, the second installment from the series by the same name, The Hybrid. It was great catching up with Lee Urban from book one, Enhanced . Once again, I was caught up in unpredictable adventure and fast paced action. I loved how the author's use of details that made me feel as though I, too, had transformed into a new world. I thought it was pretty good.

I am giving Hybrid four and a half stars. I recommend it for readers who enjoy reading, clean young adult and science fiction genres. I am curious to see if there will be more to come from the The Hybrid series.

I received a digital copy of Candace Kade's Hybrid from the publisher, but was not required to write positive review. This review is one hundred percent my own honest opinion. 

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Blog Tour and Giveaway: Enhanced by Candace Kade

About the Book

Book: Enhanced

Author: Candace Kade

Genre: YA Science Fiction

Release date: March 14, 2023

Lee Urban is living a lie.

In a society where everyone’s DNA determines their destiny, being a Natural means automatic relegation to the gritty and dangerous Outskirts. With the harnessed power of gene-editing, the ability to create a super-human race has transformed the world and offered the opportunity of a genetically enhanced life. But only to those who can afford it.

Born a Natural, Lee Urban was adopted into the Enhanced high society of the Asian Federation and forced to conceal her genetic roots. When her dream of attending Peking University becomes a reality, she is determined to go despite a warning from a mysterious source.

Targeted by a hacker bent on exposing her true DNA, Urban faces off with an Artificial Intelligence Game that puts her—and her lies—to the test. What was supposed to be a dream come true turns into a lethal gamble of hide-and-seek with her genetics. Can Urban continue the act, or will the cracks in her story expose her and endanger her family?

 

Click here to get your copy!

 

About the Author

Candace Kade grew up in China and currently lives in Austin, Texas. When she’s not missing Chinese food, she’s busy writing, exploring new countries, volunteering, hiking in national parks, teaching her husband Mandarin, and keeping a baby human alive.

 

More from Candace

Have you ever felt like you don’t belong?

It could be something as small as showing up at a party alone to something bigger like moving to a new city.

In ENHANCED, Urban also feels like she doesn’t belong. In New Beijing in the year 2124, everyone has amazing genetic enhancements given to them through CRISPR gene-editing technology.

Everyone, except Urban.

New Beijing is full of humans with breath-taking DNA. Inceptors with brain enhancements allowing them to read micro facial expressions, Supers who can withstand hard hits and extreme temperatures, Aquas able to breathe underwater, and more. There are eight main gene pools, and Urban doesn’t belong in any of them.

Instead, Urban’s born a Natural, without genetic enhancements, and secretly adopted into New Beijing. She’s forced to hide her genetic roots to protect her family, and pretends to be something she’s not—enhanced.

Urban’s story is personal to me.

As a Third Culture Kid, I’ve spent most of my life straddling two worlds and, trying to fit into places I felt I didn’t belong. At the age of four, my family moved from Ohio to China. I spent my childhood as the only foreign kid at my Chinese schools, neighborhood, and sports teams.

Since then, I’ve often returned to China. I was actually living and working there while writing ENHANCED.

Despite the frequent trips, I didn’t feel “American enough” or “Chinese enough” growing up. Maybe it’s because I botched most American sayings. Maybe it’s because no matter how good my Mandarin was, people looked at my white skin and assumed I didn’t belong in China.

It’s taken me years to come to peace with this.

Urban struggles with something similar. She must balance the Enhanced and Natural worlds all while trying to keep her web of lies from tangling and tripping her up. Which, of course, gets harder when she’s selected as the next AI Games contestant.

When I wrote this book, I was living in Beijing and going through one of the hardest seasons in my life. I had never felt so lonely. There was a song that brought me great comfort during this time. The chorus goes:

“God only knows what you’ve been through,

God only knows what they say about you,

God only knows the real you,

There’s a kind of love that God only knows.”

-For King and Country.

I played that song on repeat while writing Enhanced. It reminded me that God sees us and knows us intimately. With him, we are never truly alone.

I wrote this book for anyone who feels like they slip between the cracks of society—like they don’t belong. My hope is that you feel seen and understood.

You’re not alone.

Blog Stops

Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, March 31

Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, March 31

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, April 1

Texas Book-aholic, April 2

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, April 3

Library Lady’s Kid Lit, April 4

Locks, Hooks and Books, April 5

Because I said so — and other adventures in Parenting, April 6

Inklings and Notions, April 7

Blogging With Carol, April 8

Book Butterfly in Dreamland, April 8

Tell Tale Book Reviews, April 9

Simple Harvest Reads, April 10 (Guest Review from Donna Cline)

For Him and My Family, April 11

Mary Hake, April 11

Becca Hope: Book Obsessed, April 12

Through the Fire Blogs, April 13

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Candace is giving away the grand prize package of a hardback of ENHANCED, $50 Amazon gift card, $10 Starbucks gift card, and a signed bookplate!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/25259/enhanced-celebration-tour-giveaway

My Review

Enchanted is an exciting and entertaining debut for the talented author, Candace Kade.  It is, also, an interesting start to her The Hybrid series. I was impressed with her writing and her ability to bring to life and imagine setting called New Beijing. It was full of unpredictable adventure. It was fun to go to a whole new place, and feel as though I was part of the story. It was full of action, danger, mystery, and suspense. I thought it was pretty good.

I am giving Enhanced four stars. I recommend it for readers who enjoy reading, clean young adult and science fiction genres. I am curious to see what could possibly happen in the second installment from The Hybrid series.

Oh, I received a digital copy of Enhanced from the publisher, but was not require to write a positive review. This review is one hundred percent my own honest opinion.