Owlet Tour by Emma Michaels (Excerpt, Review, Guest Post, and Giveaway)!

OWLET EXCERPT  
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“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. I just need a minute...it must just be that ‘island fear,’ or something.”

Iris watched Diana and knew she had lied without needing the voice inside her to confirm that fact. She could see it in Diana’s eyes as she stared out the window without actually focusing on anything. She didn’t see the garden...she saw something else. Iris had been wrong, something else was affecting Diana. And while she was afraid of the island, it wasn’t what was hurting her.

“I will check it out...after...could we...?” Iris couldn’t decide what else to say so, relenting, she turned towards the hallway and walked back up the stairs. Diana had turned on all of the lights when she’d been looking for Iris so she didn’t need Diana to tell her which room it was because it was the only one where the doorknob matched the necklace. Its wood was even painted the same distinct dark red as the door. Looking down the hall she realized the ‘apple’ room’s door was painted an emerald green, Iris’ favorite color, and the door of the third room was painted a deep blue.

Iris got up the nerve to open the door with the feather handle. Please, let something be left. When she turned on the light she found more than she could ever have asked for. She hadn't cared if there were items she could keep now that she had the necklace, she just wanted to get to know more about the soul that had brought her into the world. She wanted to feel closer to her mother and the room provided that doorway, offering her a glimpse into a world that her mother must have truly loved.

REVIEW:

Title: Owlet

Author: Emma Michaels

Series: 1st

Published: October 13th 2012 by Tribute Books 

ISBN: 9780985792213

Source: Arranged Tour

 

Description: Somewhere between falling and flying… there is a girl.  Iris has a secret. She lost her memory eight years ago and never told a living soul. After an asthma attack one night she finds out that her dreams of a strange house on a snowy island may be a memory resurfacing but the more she learns about the past the more she realizes the life she has been living is a lie. As the façade her father has built starts to crumble around her she will have to decide which means more to her; the truth or her life.

  I Give This ... 

  

I've been meaning to read Emma Michael's first series for quite awhile, but just haven't gotten to it.  When asked to join the tour for the release of the first book in a new series, I jumped at the chance.  The premise of this one sounded interesting.

The first thing that stuck me is the book seems very young.  Iris may be seventeen, but the story reads more like middle grade fiction.  There is some violence thats more geared towards the older teens, but overall I think the younger teens will like it better.  Most of the time when I feel this way, it because the characters speech and actions feel more juvenile.  That's not the case here.  I think it's because so much of Iris's life has been in seclusion, she comes across as particularly naive.  But, not annoyingly so.

I was intrigued by Iris's dreams.  I think these dreams are trying to trigger her memory loss.  She's been kept in the dark for so long that she has no clue at the journey she's about to undertake.  It's amazing that it was all able to be kept under wraps the way it was.  She does surprisingly well when confronted with the truth, especially when so little of it is explained to her.  She's just thrown into it all.

The link between the different types of owls and characters was interesting, but also a little confusing.  I often felt that the storyline lead to more questions than answers.  In the end, I feel like the book very little impression on me accept for the fact that I would like to know what makes Iris so special.  And why everyone was lead to believe that she was something different.

 

Creating the Owlet Cover 
I have been blessed enough to get to work with Tribute Books, who allowed me to create my own cover since I have worked as a cover artist for them in the past, but I’m a perfectionist, so I went through a TON of different versions. Whenever I’m working on a cover, my thought process tends to begin with ‘am I going to be able to do this?’ and from there it goes to ‘how’. How am I going to be able to make this a reality? What is that impossible dream for this cover and how can I make it come to life? Finally one day, after looking at the sixteen different versions I had created, the problem I was finding with the covers I had created was that I kept thinking within the parameters of what I thought I was capable of doing. So I decided to think more along the lines of creating a cover for Owlet that was far beyond what I could do. It was a crazy endeavor, one that I was worried might be impossible to achieve. What ended up inspiring me was that first moment in the book where she jumps from the balcony. She is standing there, knowing that she can stay and keep her life the way it has always been, or she can jump, and try to find something new. Yes, it was the beginning of the book, but it was also about her deciding to fly for what she wanted. That’s what I wanted the cover to embody – to capture that moment, that decision, that ended up carrying her to her Never-Never. In the end, a sketch that I did that I call “Iris’ Moment of Freedom”, ended up inspiring me to not limit myself to one scene from the novel, which is why the cover now features Iris in a white dress in the moonlight, framed by an archway. The owl in the background symbolizes the cage that Iris was in, and the changes that she was going to have to face in her life. Overall, I love the end result and hope that you feel the same! I want to say a big thank you to Tribute Books for allowing me to create the cover and placing their trust in me! I am so happy to have the support of a publisher that I know believes in me. I hope you love Owlet! So tell me, what do YOU think of the cover?