BLOG TOUR --- Mayfly by Jeff Sweat [Review + Giveaway]

Title: Mayfly
Author(s): Jeff Sweat
Edition: Hardcover, eBook; 320 pages
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: May 8, 2018
Source: Rockstar Book Tours
Buy: Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Book Depository - iBooks

Tour Schedule

Week One:

5/1/2018- What A Nerd Girl Says- Review

5/2/2018- RhythmicBooktrovert               - Review

5/3/2018- The Cover Contessa- Interview

5/4/2018- To Be Read- Review

Week Two:

5/7/2018- Twirling Book Princess- Excerpt

5/8/2018- Bri's Book Nook- Review

5/9/2018- K.L. Knovitzke – Author- Excerpt

5/10/2018- A Dream Within A Dream- Review

5/11/2018- Confessions of a YA Reader- Excerpt

Week Three:

5/14/2018- Daily Waffle - Excerpt

5/15/2018- F A N N A- Review

5/16/2018-Book-Keeping- Review

5/17/2018-Two Points of Interest- Review

5/18/2018- The Underground- Interview

Week Four:

5/21/2018- Buried Under Books- Review

5/22/2018- YA Books Central- Interview

5/23/2018- Sincerely Karen Jo- Review

5/24/2018- Wishful Endings- Interview

5/25/2018- Jena Brown Writes- Review

Week Five:

5/28/2018- Eli to the nth- Review

5/29/2018- Sweet Southern Home- Guest Post

5/30/2018- Simply Daniel Radcliffe- Review
5/31/2018- Books A-Brewin'- Excerpt

The Summary

Jemma has spent her life scavenging tools and supplies for her tribe in the their small enclave outside what used to be a big city. Now she’s a teen, and old enough to become a Mama. Making babies is how her people survive—in Jemma’s world, life ends at age seventeen.

Survival has eclipsed love ever since the Parents died of a mysterious plague. But Jemma’s connection to a boy named Apple is stronger than her duty as a Mama. Forced to leave, Jemma and Apple are joined in exile by a mysterious boy who claims to know what is causing them to die. The world is crumbling around them, and their time is running out. Is this truly the End?

(Goodreads)

My Review

Mayfly by Jeff Sweat is a stand-out debut.  A look at a what-if world, where the familiar becomes alien and teens are literally fighting against time itself to survive, this is one book you will regret not picking up.

Mayfly takes Los Angles and turns it into Ell Aye, a world dominated by teens because all the "Parents" have died. No one lives past 17, and this has created a fleeting and fast-paced society where every minute counts, "kids" become "adults" well before 18, and procreation is the most necessary of jobs.  Our main character, Jemma, lives in Holywood, a peaceful community underneath the remains of the Hollywood sign.  She has been tapped to become a Mama, but that isn't what Jemma wants.  So she, along with three other characters: Apple, the boy she loves; Lady, her best friend; and Pico, an Exile from the community of Malibu, set off on a trek to find out why the Parents died and how the teens could survive past 17.

The world-building is amazing in Mayfly.  Ell Aye is both familiar and foreign, with the oral tradition of this new world shifting the meaning and use of everything left behind by the Parents.  Within Ell Aye there are several "tribes" that are all distinctly different and rule over different parts of what we know as the Greater Los Angeles area.  They aren't all peaceful either.  This is a harsh world even if Holywood is peaceful.  There is danger from The Biters, a cannibalistic tribe that rules from Palos Verdes and preys on the other people in Ell Aye, and there is danger from The Last Lifers, teens on the brink of death (all 16-17) who went crazy when faced with the end; now they roam in mobs, killing anybody they find.  All of this is plotted within the first few chapters of the book, and then Jeff does an excellent job adding layers upon layers, reveling what exactly happened to the Parents, and how the societies developed.

Twists around each corner, heightened tension on each page, Jeff Sweat never lets you rest for long within the story.  You are rooting for these teens to survive, raging against all their obstacles, and gasping at the truth they find.  A strong start to a series, you won't want to leave Ell Aye once you visit.  Mayfly by Jeff Sweat is out in bookstores nationwide; do yourself a favor and pick up a copy!

Final Rating

About the Author

Jeff Sweat has made a living from words his entire career, starting out as an award-winning tech journalist for InformationWeek magazine and moving into marketing.

He led the content marketing team for Yahoo and pioneered its use of social media. He directed PR for two of the top advertising agencies in the country, Deutsch LA and 72andSunny. He now runs his own Los Angeles–based PR and marketing agency, Mister Sweat.

He grew up in Idaho as the middle of eight children—seven boys and one girl—and attended Columbia University in New York. Jeff lives in a big blue house in Los Angeles with his wife Sunny and their three kids, two cats, and a racing greyhound.


He loves to travel and writes everywhere he goes, even when there's not a desk. He likes karaoke, motorcycles and carpentry. He was once shot in the head with a nail gun, which was not a big of a deal as it sounds. But it still hurt like crazy.

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon Author Page | Goodreads 

Giveaway

1 winner will receive MAYFLY prize pack which includes buttons, custom art and maps, and a t-shirt, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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