Blog Tour: Solstice by P.J. Hoover (Guest Post + Giveaway)
Today I'm so excited to welcome you to The Summer Solstice Blog Tour! We're celebrating every
day from June 18th to June 30th, featuring two surprise blog posts from our very own Teams Myth & Teams Dystopia! Be sure to checkout all the great blogs for tons of great trivia about Solstice and the author P.J. Hoover. Don't forget to enter the amazing giveaway too! I just received my copy of Solstice and it's absolutely Beautiful! Look for my review coming soon here at Book Swoon.
Title: Solstice
Author: P.J. Hoover
Genre: Dystopian, Mythology
Age Group: Young Adult
Published: July 18, 2013
Hardcover: 384 pages
Book Summary:
Piper's world is dying.
Each day brings hotter temperatures and heat bubbles that threaten to destroy the earth. Amid this global heating crisis, Piper lives under the oppressive rule of her mother, who suffocates her even more than the weather does. Everything changes on her eighteenth birthday, when her mother is called away on a mysterious errand and Piper seizes her first opportunity for freedom.
Piper discovers a universe she never knew existed—a sphere of gods and monsters—and realizes that her world is not the only one in crisis. While gods battle for control of the Underworld, Piper’s life spirals out of control as she struggles to find the answer to the secret that has been kept from her since birth.
An imaginative melding of mythology and dystopia, Solstice is the first YA novel by talented newcomer P. J. Hoover.
FAVORITE STORIES: TEAM MYTH
Hi! P. J. Hoover here, author of the upcoming dystopian/mythology YA novel, Solstice (Tor Teen, June 18, 2013), and today I’m talking about my favorite stories from Team Myth. Oh, there are so many great ones to choose from, and I could talk about mythology all day. But we’re going with five, and I want to share. Thanks for reading!
My Top Five Favorite Mythology Stories:
1) Cupid and Psyche
The thing about the story of Cupid and Psyche is that it captures so many crazy emotions. Jealously. Vanity. Betrayal. Love. So many things are going on, and they all fit together so nicely. In the case of Cupid and Psyche, it was the true love that really won me over. I adored that they ended up happy in the end and all the other nasty people did not.
2) Beowulf
Monsters? And mothers of monsters? Count me in. I’m all about the quest to kill a fierce beast who is terrorizing the world and a mother’s revenge. This is the kind of story that made reading all those hard-to-understand, funny-English books worth it.
3) Oedipus Rex
A crazy story complete with the sphinx
and riddles, the betrayal of a son, and a crazy people blinding
themselves. I reread it by choice back in high school because it was
that awesome. I’ll admit to two things. The first: My favorite part
was that with the sphinx. The second: Jim Morrison uses references to
the Oedipus stories in his song lyrics. And seeing as how in high
school I was a huge Jim Morrison fan, well, mark me sold.
4) The Odyssey
I like to call it the perfect hero’s
journey. I talk about it in almost every school visit I do. Because
the story starts back when Oedipus is still king of Ithaca, before
the war. He has no intention of going off to fight in some stupid
war. And yet he does. And it takes him twenty years to come back
home. Sadly, his entire crew dies. And so do all the guys trying to
marry his wife. Ditto the many Trojans who lost the war. But other
than that, everyone lives happily ever after.
5) Set/Osiris/Horus
Right, so Set and Osiris were brothers, but Set wanted to be chief god. So he trapped Osiris in a box and chopped him into little pieces. Osiris became a mummy. It’s sad. Then his son, Horus, wanted revenge. So Horus and Uncle Set had a little spat. Set tore out Horus’s eyeball, and Horus ripped off one of Set’s testicles. It raises the generic family dispute to a whole new level.
Author Bio:
P. J. Hoover first fell in love with Greek mythology in sixth grade thanks to the book Mythology by Edith Hamilton. After a fifteen year bout as an electrical engineer designing computer chips for a living, P. J. decided to take her own stab at mythology and started writing books for kids and teens. When not writing, P. J. spends time with her husband and two kids and enjoys practicing kung fu, solving Rubik's cubes, and watching Star Trek. Her first novel for teens, Solstice (Tor Teen, June 18, 2013), takes place in a global warming future and explores the parallel world of mythology beside our own. Her middle grade novel, Tut (Tor Children's, 2014), tells the story of a young immortal King Tut, who's been stuck in middle school for over 3,000 years and must defeat an ancient enemy with the help of a dorky kid from school, a mysterious Egyptian princess, and a one-eyed cat. For more information about P. J. (Tricia) Hoover, please visit her at:
Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
P.J. Hoover is giving away 25 finished copies of Solstice!
Team Myth
18th Character Spotlight: Shayne @ JessaBella Reads
19th Solstice Depicted @ In Bed With Books
20th Solstice: The Publishing Journey Guest Blog @ Water Color Moods
21st Setting Spotlight: Elysian Fields @ Books Beside My Bed
22nd Solstice Excerpt @ Through the Looking Glass
23rd Character Spotlight: Melina @ Evie Bookish
24th Author Interview @ Cuts of Paper
25th Author Writing Process Guest Blog @ Best Books Ever
26th 5 Inspirations @ Ruby Reads
27th Setting Spotlight: Asphodel Meadows @ A Dream Within A Dream
28th 5 Favorite Myths @ Book Swoon
29th Character Spotlight: Tanni @ Leanna
30th Playlist @ Unofficial Book Addiction
Team Dystopia:
18th Character Spotlight: Piper @ Swoony Boys Podcast
19th Solstice Depicted @ Girls in the Stacks
20th Cover Changes Guest Blog @ Gobs & Gobs of Books
21st Setting Spotlight: Botanical Haven @ Books, Bones & Buffy
22nd Excerpt @ ReadingTeen
23rd Character Spotlight: Chloe @ Paperback Princess
24th Author T-Shirt Addiction Guest Blog @ Addicted Reader
25th The Character of Names @ The Mod Podge Bookshelf
26th 5 Inspirations @ Readergirls
27th Setting Spotlight: The Drag @ The Bookish Daydreamer
28th 5 Favorite Dystopians @ Frellathon
29th Character Spotlight: Reese @ YA Midnight Reads
30th Playlist @ Reviewing Shelf
