Discern

    Sorry I've kind of vanished for a while but life has been busy. Very busy.  But hey, the laundry is done and the apartment is clean.  And quite possibly a puppy may be on its way, but more about that later.

    I'm doing a quick post to tell you about the email I received today if anyone is interested.  Discern is the first book in the Katon University Series.  It was the novel that I beta read at the beginning of the month.  I talked about it in this post:
http://alysonbowen.blogspot.com/2014/08/reading-and-writing.html?m=0#.U_5-xEvuUpA

    For those readers who like fantasy and magic, I highly recommend this book.  It is clean, interesting, intense, and very different from anything I've read before.  So far it's only available as an ebook, but it is coming out in print very soon (I don't know exactly when).  Here's a link to order it on Amazon-
http://www.amazon.com/Discern-Katon-University-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00N1NZIKA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409186822&sr=8-1&keywords=discern+by+andrea+pearson

"Nicole Williams is an Arete—a fourth child with magical abilities—yet no matter how hard she tries, she can’t Channel her power. In fact, she seems to be the only student at Katon University who fails at magic.
  That doesn’t stop magic from finding her. It starts with possessed books and cursed spiders before moving quickly to freaky shadows and magical currents. Nicole turns to her best friend for help, along with fellow student Austin Young, who is considered by all a magical rarity. He also happens to be the hottest guy on campus and just might be interested in her.
  Nicole soon finds herself competing to be included on a university-led expedition to Arches National Park. She is determined to show everyone, but mostly herself, that she does belong. Yet, to qualify for the trip, she must produce at least a speck of Wind magic, and that appears to be impossible.
  As the competition progresses, Nicole wonders if she’s making the right choice—especially when she learns that the strange fossils they’ll be studying in Arches might not be as dead as everyone thinks."
    

    I haven't actually read the final version of the book yet (I literally just got the final version in the email), but the version that I read was incredibly interesting. It's such a cool and unique concept of magic in our world. It was definitely a fun read. I hope to read more in the series because I can't wait to find out how the series ends.
    There are also three novellas that follow this series, The Focus, The Manor, and The Angel. I don't have any information about Perceive, the second book in the series, but I'm planning to continue beta reading this series.    For all those budding authors who need feedback on their writing, I'm going to mention again my new favorite way to spend my time, Scribophile. I have gotten some awesome feedback on Rose, and I've cleaned up quite a bit of my awful first draft writing. It is the easiest way to get honest and helpful feedback. If you are a writer, you should have a Scribophile account.

http://www.scribophile.com

Thanks for reading!

~Alyson