Dead Voices Blog Tour (review & baking project)

Dead Voices 

(Small Spaces #2) 

By Katherine Arden 

Penguin Random House 

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Source: ARC from pub 

Bestselling author Katherine Arden returns with another creepy, spine-tingling adventure in this follow-up to the critically acclaimed Small Spaces. 

Having survived sinister scarecrows and the malevolent smiling man in Small Spaces, newly minted best friends Ollie, Coco, and Brian are ready to spend a relaxing winter break skiing together with their parents at Mount Hemlock Resort. But when a snowstorm sets in, causing the power to flicker out and the cold to creep closer and closer, the three are forced to settle for hot chocolate and board games by the fire. 

Ollie, Coco, and Brian are determined to make the best of being snowed in, but odd things keep happening. Coco is convinced she has seen a ghost, and Ollie is having nightmares about frostbitten girls pleading for help. Then Mr. Voland, a mysterious ghost hunter, arrives in the midst of the storm to investigate the hauntings at Hemlock Lodge. Ollie, Coco, and Brian want to trust him, but Ollie's watch, which once saved them from the smiling man, has a new cautionary message: BEWARE. 

With Mr. Voland's help, Ollie, Coco, and Brian reach out to the dead voices at Mount Hemlock. Maybe the ghosts need their help--or maybe not all ghosts can or should be trusted. 

Dead Voices is a terrifying follow-up to Small Spaces with thrills and chills galore and the captive foreboding of a classic ghost story. 

With their terrifying encounter with the dangerous smiling man and his scarecrows closely behind them, new BFFS, Ollie; Coco; and Brian, along with Ollie’s dad and Coco’s mom, are headed to a ski vacation at the newly reopened Mount Hemlock Resort. But their vacation soon takes a sinister turn when a powerful snowstorm traps them inside the resort and a ghost hunter shows up spinning ghostly tales about the resort. Soon those tales become reality and the three friends find themselves running from ghosts and trying to figure out why Ollie’s not-so-normal watch is telling them BEWARE. 

Katherine Arden follows up her excellent Small Spaces with another spooktacularly spine-tingling middle-grade adventure! Captivating storytelling, likable characters, and an exciting fast pace make Dead Voices an exhilarating page turner. 

It’s no secret that young readers crave the fun of awesomely scary stories, so Dead Voices will certainly not disappoint. With a lushly eerie atmosphere, this book is genuinely spooky in all the right and age-appropriate ways. From a creeptastic setting with a perfectly twisted backstory to a deliciously frightful ghost story, unpredictable twists, and imaginative horror elements, Dead Voices is dripping with more than enough chills and thrills to keep even the most reluctant reader on the edge of their seat.  

I really enjoyed getting to know Ollie, Coco, and Brian even better in this sequel. Young readers will find these three friends comfortingly relatable, awesomely capable, and a lot of fun to tag along with. Ollie’s dad and Coco’s mom make for interesting secondary characters and I’m already fully invested in their side story. 

Dead Voices wraps up one wicked adventure nicely, while excitedly setting up future stories...which is definitely a good thing because readers are going to be hungry for more! 

MY RATING 

5/5 Cupcakes

Born in Austin, Texas, Katherine Arden spent a year of high school in Rennes, France. Following her acceptance to Middlebury College in Vermont, she deferred enrollment for a year in order to live and study in Moscow. At Middlebury, she specialized in French and Russian literature. After receiving her BA, she moved to Maui, Hawaii, working every kind of odd job imaginable, from grant writing and making crepes to guiding horse trips. Currently, she lives in Vermont, but really, you never know. 

BAKING PROJECT INSPIRED BY DEAD VOICES

Y'all know that I love cupcakes almost as much as I love books, so for this blog tour Little A and I made cupcakes inspired by Dead Voices:

The cupcakes are a white cake base with hot chocolate mix and tiny marshmallows inside: the white mix for the snowstorm in the book and the hot chocolate because the characters love it. Two of the cupcakes are decorated with a swirl of buttercream frosting in colors inspired by the cover and marshmallow ghosts! And of course, the other cupcake is decorated to look like yummy hot chocolate, with a dollop of "whip cream" (buttercream), some hot cocoa powder, sprinkled on top, mini marshmallows, and a straw. I think Ollie, Coco, Brian, and Ollie's Dad (who loves to cook) would approve!

Blog Tour Schedule

Week One

August 19 – The Midnight Society – Inspiration Collage

August 20 – Fangirl Fury – Review + Inspired by the Book: Baking Recipe

August 21 – Teachers Who Read – Reviews + Author Guest Post: Why spooky for middle grade readers?

August 22 – Bookishgals – Creative Instagram Picture

August 23 – Liezel and Angie’s Book Blog – Review

Week Two

August 26 – Word Spelunking – Inspired by the Book: Baking Project

August 27 – By Hook or By Book – Review

August 28 – Vicariously & Voraciously  

August 29 – The Book Deviant – Review

Sweet Reads (9)-- Book Inspired Cakes

Sweet Reads is a bi-monthly feature (Mondays) hosted here at Word Spelunking that showcases book inspired cakes, cupcakes and other goodies.

It has been ridiculously long since I've done one of these posts, but I've missed them so much! I love books, I love cakes, I love cakes inspired by books, so I'm going to try and do these posts more often...

Today I have a nice mishmash of bookish cake goodness!

Alice in Wonderland Cakes

source

So lovely! I love the pink and green together.

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Simple, but gorgeous!

source

I may die from the cute!

The Hobbit

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The most adorable cupcakes ever!

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

I can almost hear Aslan roar!

Harry Potter

This cake has SO much awesome!

What do you think of these cakes?! I love them and would be honored to have any of them as my birthday cake this Wednesday!

Taste Test Blog Tour {Guest Post}

I'm so excited to have the Taste Test Blog Tour stop by Word Spelunking today!! Author, Kelly Fiore, has dropped by with a super yummy, super fun guest post...

Taste Test

by Kelly Fiore

August 27, 2013

Bloomsbury/Walker

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Purchase: Amazon / B&N / IndieBound

If you can grill it, smoke it, or fry it, Nora Henderson knows all about it. She’s been basting baby back ribs and pulling pork at her father’s barbeque joint since she was tall enough to reach the counter. When she’s accepted to Taste Test, a reality-television teen cooking competition, Nora can’t wait to leave her humble hometown behind, even if it means saying good-bye to her dad and her best friend, Billy. Once she’s on set, run-ins with her high-society roommate and the maddeningly handsome—not to mention talented—son of a famous chef, Christian Van Lorten, mean Nora must work even harder to prove herself. But as mysterious accidents plague the kitchen arena, protecting her heart from one annoyingly charming fellow contestant in particular becomes the least of her concerns. Someone is conducting real-life eliminations, and if Nora doesn’t figure out who, she could be next to get chopped for good. 

With romance and intrigue as delectable as the winning recipes included in the story, this debut novel will be devoured by all.

When I found out that Kelly is a huge foodie and baker I knew the perfect guest post topic to have her write about- Characters and Cupcakes...because we all know that here at Word Spelunking the one thing I love almost as much as books is cupcakes!

Characters Inspired by Taste Test Characters

by Kelly Fiore

Thank you so much for having me today!

So, it’s a little known fact that I actually had a cupcake business – well, I use the word “business” pretty loosely. I did a handful of weddings and sold my cupcakes at local farmer’s markets. This was right around the time that Georgetown Cupcakes (from the show, DC Cupcakes on TLC) got really popular, so I was really inspired by the success of other cupcakeries.

The biggest lesson I learned? Not everything you love should be a job. I LOVE baking – it’s one of my absolute favorite things to do. But I like baking 12 cupcakes. Or maybe 24. Not 200. I like mixing up various flavors of buttercream – but when it’s one bowl, not a dozen. Making that many cupcakes was hard work! I have a brand new respect for professional bakers.

I don’t bake for money anymore – just for fun. But I still love creating my own unique cupcake flavors, and I had a blast putting together recipes for the main characters of Taste Test. I’ve included the recipes and descriptions below.

Nora Henderson is a spunky, North Carolina-bred girl who is faithful to the barbecue culture she grew up in. When she meets Christian Van Lorton, a big-city boy with his sights set on being a celebrity chef, her hackles immediately rise. Christian’s got expensive tastes and an ego the size of an industrial refrigerator. So why exactly does Nora find him so dang irresistible?

Nora Henderson’s Sassy Pants Shortbread Cupcake

(A Southern Style, butter-based cake that’s true to Nora’s roots!)

CAKE

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons All-Purpose Flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

¾ cup granulated sugar

2 large egs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

¼ cup canola oil

½ cup milk

FROSTING

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

2 tablespoons heavy cream

Strawberry Jam

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper or foil liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the cornstarch, baking powder, and salt

In a large bowl, beat the sugar with the eggs and vanilla at medium speed until smooth and thickened slightly, about three minutes. Add the butter and oil and beat until incorporated. Add the dry ingredients and milk, alternating between wet and dry. Fill muffin tins 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 20 minutes until springy.

For the frosting, beat softened butter until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt. Beat the mixture at low speed until combined, then increase the speed and beat until smooth. Add the cream and beat until light and fluffy, about two minutes.

Microwave two tablespoons of jam in a small bowl for about 30 seconds. With a pastry brush or the back of a spoon, coat the top of the still-warm cupcakes with a coating of jam. Allow to cool, then frost the cupcakes once they’re at room temperature.

Christian Van Lorton’s Perfect Match Cupcake

(A rich, coffee-based chocolate cupcake with peanut butter buttercream!)

     CAKE

          1 ¾ cup All Purpose Flour

          2 cups granulated sugar

          ¾ cup cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup prepared coffee (espresso if you’ve got it!)

1 cup buttermilk

½ cup canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

    GLAZE

          6 tablespoons water

          3 tablespoons butter

          1 ½ squares unsweetened baking chocolate

          3 cups powdered sugar

          1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper or foil liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt

In a large bowl, beat the sugar with the eggs, sugar and vanilla at medium speed until smooth and thickened slightly, about three minutes. Alternate mixing in the dry ingredients, the buttermilk, and the coffee. The batter will be very liquidy – don’t be alarmed. Pour into cupcake tins, about ½ of the way full. Bake for 20 minutes, then allow to cool completely.

For the glaze, melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave or on the stove top. Add the water and sugar and mix until smooth. Add vanilla. Spoon over cooled cupcakes – it should be a flat layer, not like icing, and some should absorb into the cake itself.

How yummy do those cupcakes sound?! Thanks so much Kelly for the awesome recipes!

Kelly Fiore

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