Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend

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Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend by Katie Finn begins with Gemma and the explanation of how she came to be Teddy’s girlfriend, then his ex-girlfriend. To overcome her sadness over the breakup, Gemma gets a hair makeover, courtesy of her friend Sophie, and goes to stay with her father in the Hamptons. Gemma goes through a case of mistaken identity because of her hair change and the fact that she hasn’t seen some of these people in five years. She tries to tell them that she is Gemma, but they insist on calling her Sophie since she has her friend Sophie’s name written on her cup. The more I read, the more I enjoyed the story and characters and understood the struggle that Gemma was going through because of her guilt from causing the sabotage of her father’s relationship with another woman while her parents were separated and the frustration and concern of wanting to make things better. This book is thoroughly enjoyable with no swearing, clean romance and a bit of humor. The story doesn’t have complete resolution and will continue in the sequel, Revenge, Ice Cream and Other Things Best Served Cold.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

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Me and Earl and the Dying Girl surprised me with all the different perspectives it contains. Silly, interesting characters made me laugh out loud several times, but this story is also empathetic and emotional. The unique characters bring the book to life. Earl is blunt and sometimes gross. Greg is entertaining and sometimes struck with verbal diarrhea. Touching, emotional, silly and strange run through this book and make it a must-not-miss read!

The Star-Touched Queen

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Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for the arc of The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi! The book begans with an Arabian feel and the main character, Maya, has been shunned her whole life because of her horoscope readings. The Raja (Maya’s father and father of many other daughters) has given her the choice of who she will marry. Of course, there is a catch. Maya learns who she can and cannot trust in a complicated twist of reality and the underworld, “Otherworld”.

The Star-Touched Queen is so much more than I thought it would be when I read the synopsis. The story is vast and covers many dimensions of the world’s mythology and time. Beautifully written! I recommend this book to anyone who loves mythology and fantasy, with a touch of romance.

 

 

True Born

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Thanks to Entangled Teen and NetGalley for the arc of True Born by L.E. Sterling! True Born is the first in a new dystopian series involving twins, plague and plague resistance, elitism, fantasy, and a genetics mystery. This fun story livens up with Jared’s and Lucy’s interesting relationship and the mystery of the power that Lucy and her twin sister Margot hold. I wanted more but, alas, I will have to wait for the sequel!

Treasure Darkly

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Treasure, Darkly by Jordan Elizabeth Mierek is steampunk mixed with a bit of the supernatural. Clark lives with his mother in a brothel. She has a job as a Tarnished Silver. Clark drinks poison, which inadvertently gives him strange powers that can take a life or give a life. Because of this power, Clark’s mother is killed while the army is actually hunting for him. Fast forward two years when Clark meets his “half siblings” and a whole new life is opened up for him. Clark is still running from the army, but his strange powers give him very helpful abilities. This book is charming and interesting and I fell in love with the characters Clark and Amethyst. This is a fun read with more books in the series!

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True Born, Bk. 1 drops 3 May, 2016!

What encouraged me to write True Born?

 

The nuts and bolts answer would be to tell you that I never initially intended to write True Born as a novel! I initially only intended to write this as a novella – which I posted on the story-sharing site, Wattpad. It was intended to help me develop a substantial backstory to another trilogy of novels I wanted to write set in the same world, and with a couple of shared characters.

 

But the novella was a big hit with readers on Wattpad, and I enjoyed what I’d written so much, that I decided to turn the story into a novel… and then into a trilogy.

 

Another inspiration was my family. I’ve been quite obsessed by the incredible story of my great-grandmother, who was born in England and sent to the U.S. to be an indentured servant circa 1900. As the story goes, she was very young when she was shipped over, and I imagine the whole voyage was traumatic, because apparently my great-grandmother forgot who she was through the crossing.

 

When she finally arrived in the U.S. she gave everyone her twin’s name instead of her own. She ended up living her entire life, up until she was a middle-aged adult, by her twin’s name. It’s such a fascinating tale – I really wanted to explore the idea of having a bond with someone that was so close that it took over your own, so I explored this in a fictional world.

 

Excerpt: 

 

“Isn’t it a little weird that we have to do our tests again? Was there some kind of mistake with the first one?” Margot says it innocently enough, a slight twang to her voice to match the nurse’s rabble-like twang.

 

“Well, hon, sometimes they get mixed signals, you know? Like when you think a boy likes you but then he goes all hot and cold?” She winks. Margot’s fingers tighten on mine.

 

“Uh huh.” Margot nods. “So there’s a problem with your machines? Or with the staff?”

 

The nurse frowns. “Not this staff. They’re five-star amazing. Must have just been a bad sample or something. Try not to worry about it, sweetie.” She pats Margot’s arm just before she shoves the needle in my sister’s vein.

 

I squirm on my seat. The skin on my arm crawls from the sharp pain originating in my sister’s arm. Relaxed beside me, Margot doesn’t move a muscle. She knows what I’m feeling even if she can’t do anything about it. This is just how it is with us.

 

“How much are you going to take this time?” My voice shakes as our coltish nurse comes around to me and drives a needle into my arm. It doesn’t hurt nearly as bad as Margot’s did. Our hands stay folded together. There’s a note in our file about letting us. One of the perks of being born us.

 

“Oh.” For the first time she looks a little dismayed. “I’m sorry, hon. Didn’t they tell you? We gotta go through the whole protocol again. The whole shebang.”

 

My twin and I did know. We’d been told. Still, it bothers us. A full day’s worth of giving blood, going through tests, having your organs measured and documented. Urine

samples, more blood samples, hair samples. We’d already been through this two times in the last two months. We no longer believe they’d gotten “bad” samples—not that we’re

going to let on to the nurse.

 

And funny thing is, each time we come, the Protocols Nurse is new. This is the third we’ve had, each as clueless as the last.

 

We know better than to ask our parents. The deepening silence and constant rounds of testing and lies must mean the news is the worst. Late at night we lie together, holding hands and whispering under the deep canopy of one or other of our beds. We’ve thought about what it will mean if one of us turns out to be a Laster. We’ve talked until dawn about what we’d want, what we’d do. I tell Margot I’d want to go with her, but she’s against the idea.

 

“One of us needs to survive,” she said to me, her graygreen eyes as serious as I’ve ever seen them.

 

“What if it’s not that?” I asked her.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“What if we’re, you know,” the words mere whispers, “True Born?”

 

 

The Glittering Court

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Thanks to NetGalley and Razorbill for the sneak peek of The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead! What a great start to a new series! This sneak peek of an interesting world and dynamic characters feels like a more mature Princess Academy (Shannon Hale) and is similar to The Selection by Kiera Cass because of the competition and etiquette training. The sneak peek ends at an intense part and I definitely want to finish the book! Adelaide will soon be forced into an unwanted marriage. To avoid this, she takes the place of her house servant in attending The Glittering Court; a place that trains young women to be sold to the highest bidder. These young women are taught etiquette and dancing and given an education to prepare them for marriage to a man who is well off. Along the way, Adelaide learns some mysterious things about Cedric, the young man who set up the contract with her house servant.

The sneak peek was quite a chunk of the book, enough that I grew to care about the characters and now I am anticipating the release so I can read the rest!

I have now finished the entirety of The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead and I have to say that I have never read any of her other books to compare. The first part of the book is the etiquette and other lessons the young ladies participate in as members of the Glittering Court. Eventually they are all supposed to be sold to a well-to-do suitor. Along the way, Adelaide falls in love with Cedric and they leave their pampered lives for a chance to strike it rich as gold prospectors. This is such a huge change of lifestyle and I was not expecting the turn of events from fluffy dresses to sun-baked skin to fighting for their lives. Interesting story, but not what I expected for half of the book. I still think it is a good read though!

Pieces of You and Me

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I have read and reviewed Erin Fletcher’s Pieces of You and Me and I loved it!  I have asked her a few questions and to share an excerpt of her book.

The Thought Spot Excerpt and Questions

Author: Erin Fletcher

Book title: Pieces of You and Me

 

Question 1: What encouraged you to write Pieces of You and Me?

 

I really wanted to write about childhood sweethearts who were apart for a long period of time and then reunited. Chase and Rylee were best friends in middle school, but were separated for five years due to circumstances beyond their control. Of course, teenagers change a lot from middle school to high school, so things are very different when they see each other again. Some changes are good. Some are…not so good. I wanted to write about whether or not they could be together again despite those differences.

 

The characters themselves were inspired while I was out for a walk in my neighborhood. I was walking down a hill when I heard a noise behind me. I turned and there were two teens riding down the middle of the street, the guy on the back of the board and the girl in front. His arms were around her waist, palms flat on her stomach, holding her close and keeping her safe. Her arms were out at her sides, like she was flying down that hill. It looked like one of those little moments they’d remember for a long time. I captured that moment in the form of Rylee and Chase.

 

Stay tuned to read the excerpt from the skateboard scene!

 

Question 2: What struggles did you encounter in writing/publishing your book?

 

My biggest struggle is always having enough time to write! I have a full time job, a part time job, I volunteer once a week, and then I have other life/friends/family stuff. I try to get up at 4:37 a.m. and write before going to my day job, but it’s hard to have enough energy for that! I also try to write on my lunch break at work. Most of my writing is done on the weekend, so I think we need more weekends than weekdays! I have a coffee mug that says “I’d rather be writing” and that’s almost always true!

 

Excerpt:

 

Chase extended an arm, like he was asking me to dance. I accepted and stepped carefully onto the board. It rocked a little, but Chase quickly steadied us.

“Is this really your first time on a skateboard?” he asked.

“Have I ever seemed like the skateboarding type to you?”

He laughed, dissolving some of the tension. “Point taken. Okay.” He put his hands low on my hips. His touch was even warmer than the afternoon sun. “Turn your front foot a little, so you’re pointing down the hill.”

I did, and it forced my hips to turn so I was facing the front instead of the side. Nerves clenched at my stomach again, and then exploded when he let go. “Chase!”

He laughed and wrapped his arms around me so they rested low on my stomach, so my back was pressed up against his chest. “Sorry. Is that better?”

“Much,” I said, and grabbed onto his arm so he couldn’t pull a stunt like that again.

He flattened his palms against my stomach. “Relax,” he whispered. “Don’t worry about falling or school or us or your friends or anything. Trust me.”

Only when I let my muscles relax a little did I realize just how tense I had been.

“Better,” he said. “Okay. Ready?”

I forced myself to nod.

The board wobbled as he stepped off with one foot and pushed against the pavement, but he didn’t let go. I gripped his arm tighter as I felt the physics of Chase’s push ending and gravity taking over. My feet vibrated as we rolled over the pavement, picking up speed. The board started drifting to the left, away from the yellow lines. “Chase!” I yelled, imagining us crashing into the curb, or worse, one of the parallel-parked cars that were coming up.

“I got it,” he said with a laugh, easily adjusting our weight and successfully pointing us straight again.

He did have it. In this ride that hovered on the brink of being out of control, Chase was in control. He wasn’t going to let anything bad happen to us. I leaned in to him and felt my muscles relax as adrenaline replaced the last tendrils of fear. The hill steepened, and we picked up speed. The wind whipped my hair over my shoulder. I squealed, but more out of excitement than anything.

He laughed, and I felt it against my back more than I heard it over the wheels against the pavement. “Feels like flying, doesn’t it?” he asked.

I was flying. I had left the past at the top of the hill and now it was just Chase and me, flying, soaring, touching the sky. Ever so carefully, I loosened the grip on his arms and extended my own arms to the side. He loosened his grip as well, but true to his word, didn’t let go.

Soon, too soon, the road was leveling out, and we were slowing down. Chase didn’t stop, letting us slow to a crawl. I found myself unable to quit laughing. When he finally let go, I bent double with my hands on my knees, wind-whipped hair falling over my face. As the last dredges of adrenaline left my body, I felt Chase step off the skateboard, but I stayed put. I turned to face him, the board beneath my feet giving me a height advantage I didn’t usually have. I kissed him, tasting wind and speed and adventure. The reward.

Pieces of You and Me

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Thanks to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for the arc of Pieces of You and Me by Erin Fletcher! Pieces of You and Me is an enjoyable book with teen angst, family struggles, realistic situations and romance. Chase, “the moved away and returned guy”, has been to nine schools in five years. He left town quickly in seventh grade when his mother separated from his alcoholic father. Chase felt like he hurt his then best friend, Rylee and worries that he won’t be around long enough to rekindle their friendship. Chase struggles with priorities and has to decide what is the most important. Rylee has mixed feelings when she realizes Chase is back in town. She also misses the wonderful friendship they shared.

Erin Fletcher’s writing is perfect and she brings the main characters, as well as the supporting characters, to life!

I can relate to Chase because I attended thirty-three schools in nine years, from second grade to a junior in high school. Moving often is a difficult issue affecting every part of a person’s life. Regardless of the reason for the moving, being the new kid gets old quickly.

Romancing the Nerd

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Thank you to Entangled Publishing for the arc of Romancing the Nerd by Leah Rae Miller! Dan and Zelda are quirky characters who used to be friends. Since Dan’s growth spurt, things have changed. He now plays for the high school basketball team and hangs out with different people. Romancing the Nerd is a fun, clean and innocent romantic read. A cute story for romance readers!