Book Tour: Cursebusters! by Julie Smith

Cursebusters! by Julie Smith

Publisher: Bold Strokes Books

Publish Date: May 17, 2011

Paperback, 264 pages
ISBN: 978-1602825598
Young Adult, Paranormal

** I apologize, I am running behind and have just started this book.  I hope to have all four reviews from the past two days up over the weekend.  Until then, learn more about this book below.  **

About the Book:
Budding-psychic Reeno is the most accomplished teenage burglar in California, but one tiny screw-up and poof!—she's sentenced to Bad Girl School. And that isn’t even her worst problem. Her sister Haley’s dying of an illness no one can diagnose, and now she can’t even help.

But wait, maybe she can! The school psychics have found each other and formed their own club. With the help of her gay friend Carlos and the other Ozone Rangers, Reeno finds out Haley’s disease is the result of an ancient Mayan curse. And A.B., the group's sinister non-faculty adviser, claims he knows how to break it.

All Reeno has to do is time-travel to an ancient Mayan city and steal a little item A.B. needs to save the world. Since she’s an ace thief, he has complete confidence she can execute the task before the outraged Mayans can execute her.

But can she trust A.B.? Despite his cuddly appearance, she knows he’s a merciless predator and ruthless assassin.

And he's not even human.
About the Author:
Julie Smith is a former journalist who began her career at the New Orleans Times-Picayune and then moved on to the San Francisco Chronicle, where she remained for fifteen years, absorbing gritty realism and (hopefully) street smarts, as careful preparation for a life of crime. Crime-writing, that is.

She’s the author of 20 adult mysteries featuring three female sleuths and one neglected guy: A cop (Officer Skip Langdon, NOPD), a PI (Talba Wallis, poet and computer genius, also of New Orleans), a semi-amateur detective (Rebecca Schwartz, San Francisco lawyer), and a complete amateur (Paul McDonald, crime writer, also of San Francisco). The first book in the Skip Langdon series, New Orleans Mourning, won the Edgar Allan Poe award for Best Novel.

Cursebusters!, Smith’s first YA novel, is also her first paranormal adventure. While writing it, she met a young male editor who gave her the quote she thinks most embodies the spirit of the book and her own philosophy as a YA author. It’s this: “There’s far too much emphasis in YA on the importance of girls getting the guy (or the girl—this is Bold Strokes here!) and not nearly enough on the importance of girls kicking ass.” Smith deeply and firmly believes in the importance of girls kicking ass, an opportunity they’re seldom afforded in real life—hence, every opportunity must be taken in fiction.

FTC Information: I received this book through The Teen Book Scene to review for the current tour.  I have Amazon links on my review pages but I do not make any money from these because of NC laws.  I put them solely for people to check out the books on a retail site.