Today we have the pleasure of hosting the Blog Tour for Talia Vance's Gold!!! The YA Sisterhood loves Talia, and we always jump at the chance to read her books. Gold is a must read, even better than Silver!!!
Gold by Talia Vance
Published by Flux and AVAILABLE NOW!
Descended from an Irish demigod, Brianna has fled to Ireland to escape destruction at the hands of her sworn enemies, the Sons of Killian. Taking refuge at the estate of her former nemesis, Austin Montgomery, Brianna discovers a rift in time that opens to an era before the feud began.
Wrestling with her newfound feelings for the more innocent Austin, Brianna begins to wonder if she can alter the past. But when Brianna and Austin learn that the Sons are raising an army of mythical beasts, the pair will need to use their magical strength in the present to avoid a tragic end.
Wrestling with her newfound feelings for the more innocent Austin, Brianna begins to wonder if she can alter the past. But when Brianna and Austin learn that the Sons are raising an army of mythical beasts, the pair will need to use their magical strength in the present to avoid a tragic end.
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Talia Vance on "Time Travel in Books"
Time travel is one of those subjects that has always
fascinated me, especially stories where someone travels to the past. My favorite time travel stories don’t end
with dramatic Back to the Future-style changes to the present, but rather show
how the ripples created by the time traveler’s involvement in past events led
to everything being exactly as it is and always has been in the present. My theory of time travel is called the Theory
of Compossibility (it’s a real theory- I looked it up)- which basically says
that since the past has already happened, it’s set in stone and can’t be
changed. But the past is also part of a
traveler’s future, because the time traveler, in the present, hasn’t
experienced those events yet. There’s a
certain inevitability to it, fate, if you will, but also an enticing desire to
believe that things could still be
changed- since the time traveler still has choices and free will when he or she
goes to the past. I don’t think the
events can be changed, but there is no question that the impact of those events
have on the person who travels to the past can change the person who goes back.
One of my favorite time travel books is THE TIME TRAVELERS
WIFE by Audrey Niffenegger. In the book,
Henry is afflicted with a genetic defect that causes him to travel into the
future and past of his own life. He’s
anchored to people he cares about, so he often travels to visit family
members. At the beginning of the story,
and adult Henry of various ages, travels back in time to visit his wife, as a
child and a teen, before they ever meet in the present at college. I loved the tension as various Henrys from
the future and Claire got to know each other in the present, all while the
present Henry had no knowledge that Claire even existed. The moment when Claire “meets” Henry at
college is perfect, because she knows all about him and has known him for
years, but for Henry the “past” hasn’t happened yet. Throughout their relationship in the present,
as the travels back to see her, he gradually experiences those same events and
“catches up” with Claire in the present.
It’s a beautiful, romantic story (one of my favorites), but I found
myself frustrated with the ending, which I felt didn’t allow for poor Claire to
have closure she needed after his death.
Another book with a great romance and time travel element is
OUTLANDER by Diana Gabledon. The main
character (another Claire) is a mid-twentieth century nurse who travels back to
eighteenth century Scotland, where she falls in love with James (“Jamie”)
Fraser. Although she stays in the past
at the end of the first book, in the second book, Dragonfly in Amber, Claire
returns to the present, changed by the great love and events of the past, and
pregnant with Jamie’s child. She stays
in the present for 21 years, during which she investigates what happened to
Jamie, believing he died in battle. At
the end of the second book, she learns that he did not die in battle as she had
believed, and in the third novel, Claire goes back in time again to find him. But when her adult daughter continues to research
the past (in the present) and finds out that Claire and Jamie die in a fire in
America, she goes back in time to try to save them. The concept of going back to the past to try
to change it is the great temptation of time travel. But the conundrum is always this- if the time
traveler succeeds in changing the past, how can she have learned of the
horrible event in the future- such that she would be motivated to go back and
change the past to begin with? The past
is fixed, isn’t it? Perhaps everything
the time traveler does is part of what makes the past happen the way it
did. Then again, the history we learn is
not always the whole truth. History is
like a giant game of telephone, with information being twisted and lost as it’s
relayed from one generation to another, and only tiny bits surviving at all.
These two stories probably influenced the time travel
storyline in GOLD more than any others.
I GOLD, Brianna goes back in time to the year 1009, a time before the
feud between the Sons of Killian and the Bandia- a time before Danu is
killed. She meets Austin in the past, a
boy she has a relationship with in the future (Austin is immortal), and their
relationship in the present is shaped by the things that happened in the
past. Brianna wants to take advantage of
her ability to travel to the past, by preventing the events that led to the
feud in the future, but Austin, who has already experienced those events (and
Brianna’s efforts to change them) warns her it’s not possible. I loved playing with the contradiction
between what’s already happened and what’s still to come. It was fun to see everything come full circle
as the past caught up with the present and the future caught up with the past. And, Brianna, if nothing else, got her
closure.
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Talia Vance is a practicing litigation attorney living in
Northern California with her real life love interest, two-point-five kids, and
a needy Saint Bernard named Huckleberry. Talia has been writing since she could
talk, making up stories for every doll, stuffed animal and action figure she
could get her hands on. She grew up hoping to write the great American novel,
but her life ran more along the lines of tortured romance and fast paced
thrillers, so that's what she writes.
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Be sure to enter the giveaway and check out all the other stops on the tour!!!
The Giveaway is US Only.
The Giveaway is US Only.
Tour Schedule:
Week 1
Week 2
a Rafflecopter giveaway
