Friday, July 16, 2021

#GIVEAWAY Review-Witch of All Witches Interview with author Donna Augustine

Today I'm so psyched to be sharing my review of Witch of All Witches from Donna Augustine an author whose become a go to and my absolute favorite in the genre. Plus Donna is offering one lucky person an e-book. See below for details!
Enjoy!

ASIN:  B096QW159P
Publisher: Strong Hold Publishing
Release Date: 6-10-2021
Length: 312pp
Source: Author for review
Buy It: Amazon

ADD TO: GOODREADS

Overview:

I went from being an outcast in Salem, to living in Xest, a world existing solely on magic. I have a good job brokering hopes and wishes, a hot boss, and a cool place to live. My life is a witch’s dream.


Except there are a couple of teensy little problems. I might’ve accidentally gotten infused with some magic that didn’t belong to me. The hot boss? I might be falling in love with him, to my detriment. If that isn’t enough, heaven and hell have finally caught up to me, demanding I return the extra magic or else. Too bad I don’t know how to do that.
Donna is offering one reader any
one e-book from her Tales of Xest series
Open Internationally
Please Use Rafflecopter form to enter
Good Luck!

My Interview with Donna:

Donna hi! Welcome back to The Reading Frenzy.
I loved Witch of All Witches, the 4th and finale in your Tales of Xest series.
Give my readers a little background on the series please.

The series follows Tippi, a young woman living in Salem, MA who gets kidnapped. She finds herself living in Xest, a magical world, working in a wish factory that supplies the normal world with their wishes. It’s a four book UF that heavy on the world-building and has a slow-burn romance that progressively heats up with each book.


In some of your series the end doesn’t always mean the end like The Wilds and Karma where you revisit those worlds.
Do you know when the series is supposedly over that you’ll be going back, do one or more of the characters lure you back or is it something else?

There’s always a pull to leave the door slightly ajar when I close out a series. Different series have different degrees of pull and areas I still might like to explore. With Xest, it’s Bibbi. I don’t think I’ll be going back anytime soon but she’s already tugging at me.


You’ve just put another series to bed.
Do you do anything special to celebrate or do you just go on to conquer the next world?

It would be so much more interesting to say I down a bottle of bourbon and party for a week. In reality, I’m very boring. After I finished this last book, I took some time and worked on a vegetable garden. In my defense, my tomatoes are looking amazing. (Mine are not) LOL 

I LOVE the secondary characters in your series. In Xest I love all the regulars at the broker office, Zab, Bibbi, Mertie, Bertha and Musso.
Where do your names come from especially the odd ones like Zab and Mertie?

Sometimes I know exactly where a name came from, like with Musso. While I was writing the first book, I got stuck in traffic beside a cemetery. Musso is a variation of a name I read that day. Some names, like Zab, are a complete mystery.

With the exception of Karma who was if I remember correctly in her 30s most of your main stars are young women from late teens to early twenties.
Why?

Young characters tend to draw me in more and I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe I view them as being a bit more vulnerable? Growth potential always appeals to me. I also like angst and that’s easier to pull off with a younger lead. Or it could be that I’m very immature at heart and I can dig around in a younger head easier. 

I also love your worldbuilding, in Xest we have mirrored alternate worlds of Rest (normal US) and Xest.
How do you decide where your stories takes place?

It’s not ever a real decision. The ideas typically pop into my head when I’m driving or showering or doing the most inconvenient thing possible. A scene will usually get stuck in my head. Once I get that scene written out, other scenes will start forming. Very little of my process is ever planned. I find that I write better if I let it all flow as it wants.

I know that you’re not a linear author that you often are working more than one novel in more than one world.
How do you keep everything straight?

I keep everything straight at the expense of everything else in my life. I’ve tried notes but I really need it all in my head at once in order to write effectively. There’s basically no room for anything else. I’ll forget laundry in the washer, to call people back, can’t remember an appointment unless it’s on my calendar. Boxes show up at my door and I have no idea what I ordered. Forget going to the store with a mental list.  Even details from previous books I’ve written get wiped out. I become hyper focused on the story I’m working on to the detriment of everything else. My current book is about the only thing I do keep straight.

Thanks Donna I always enjoy picking your brain, good luck with the new novel.
Can you give us any hints about what’s coming next?

Sassy is coming next and I’m really excited to delve into some straight PNR. It’s a nice change up! 

Thanks for having me!!!


 My Review:

Witch of All Witches
Donna Augustine

 

Series summary:
Tippi Tudor always a misfit in Salem finds herself kidnapped to a place called Xest, an alternate world where magic rules and learns that she’s a witch. There she makes friends and meets a powerful, hottie, entity called Hawk who she’s equally attracted to and put off by but who always seems to have her back no matter what. When she realizes that in Xest she’s finally found a home she wants to fight for the right to stay but doesn’t think she’s worthy. To make matters worse there’s an unbalance of magic in Xest and she’s afraid she’s the one causing it.

It's always fun to see how Donna ties up her series in her finale books and Witch of All Witches is a prime example of how while still dangling that all elusive, how will this one end, carrot for readers she impressively crosses all her plot T’s and ingeniously dots all her world-building I’s giving Tippi some answers about her roots, a well-deserved HEA with Hawk and hitting a few surprise couples with her clever Cupid’s arrows along the way. Donna is good about adding some comic relief to lighten the dark and the former, demon and resident of hell Mertie and Tippi’s BFF Bibbi come through in this novel with plenty of laughs for the audience. This is the perfect read for all fantasy and PR lovers but you can’t skip around this series must be read in order.

 

Tippi thought things would calm down in Xest once she defeated the demon DREAD but she was wrong because there’s more to worry about than ever and she’s up to her neck in TROUBLE. There is suddenly an unbalance of magic in Xest and Tippi is afraid she’s the cause. And if that’s not enough to worry about both Heaven and Hell want her evicted from Xest and have sent their prospective reps to broker a deal and for some strange reason Hawk doesn’t want her to go. She doesn’t want to go but she’s afraid that if she stays she could be putting everyone she cares about in Xest in harms way and that is a line she won’t EVER cross.


About Donna:
Donna Augustine is the USA Today Bestselling author of The Wilds, Karma and Ollie Wit.
Sign up here http://eepurl.com/B0gm1 to be notified of her new releases.
Donna Augustine was an odd child, had a brief moment of conformity in early adulthood and then decided to embrace her craziness as the years rolled by. It's her inner crazy that she credits with coming up with the ideas for her books. One part hypochondriac, a few dashes of paranoia, topped with a sliver of uptight and delivered with a relaxed flair, she kicked the proverbial box down the yellow brick road a couple years ago to embrace her true self.
She can be reached by a carrier pigeon, set free in a south by north direction, where she resides in Neverland with her two Siberian cats. Cats who, by the way, aren't as hypoallergenic as she believed they'd be.
For the conventional minded, and those of you without a pigeon on hand, she can be reached at donna@donnaaugustine.com. She responds to most emails within three dusk periods.


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8 comments:

  1. Sounds great, I love it when a series goes over an arc of books, really feel get to know the world and the character. Tippi is someone I could love. Tomatoes are fantastic in summer and can't beat ones from your own garden!

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    1. me too and my tomatoes are just starting to come in.

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  2. Oh, new world, interesting. Better than Salem

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  3. Oh that sounds like a series that I would enjoy a lot. Witches and magic always seem to be a good combination for a great story.

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