The Archived Giveaway! And the winner is...

I'm almost finished reading THE ARCHIVED and I'm not disappointed. What an amazing read! Much thanks to the 12 who entered the giveaway. (-: Here's a screenshot of the winning number from Random.org.

So, the winner is #5. Which means...

KATHY ANN COLEMAN

...you are the winner!

Now, for all of you who did not win...get yourselves over to Amazon, or to your local independent bookstore, and get your own copy of THE ARCHIVED by VICTORIA SCHWAB. You will LOVE IT!

Coming up on Try This Book on for Size, I will have a few new reviews popping up. Though I am behind in my reviewing, I am not behind in my reading. Look for reviews of The Archived, Teeth and a few other YA and NA books in the near future.

Thanks for playing! 

Kathy: Please email your mailing address to: kevintcraig @ hotmail.com

Cover Reveal! Cheryl Rainfield's STAINED!

It's cover reveal time!

I'm a big fan of CHERYL RAINFIELD. Her fiction is biting, relevant and true. She covers YA issues like nobody's business, yet she never comes off as preachy. Great stories, great issues, important reads and intuitive intelligent characters.

Today I have the privilege of sharing a cover reveal of Rainfield's next novel, STAINED! 

 

What is STAINED about?

 

In this heart-wrenching and suspenseful teen thriller, sixteen-year-old Sarah Meadows longs for "normal." Born with a port-wine stain covering half her face, all her life she’s been plagued by stares, giggles, bullying, and disgust. But when she’s abducted on the way home from school, Sarah is forced to uncover the courage she never knew she had, become a hero rather than a victim, and learn to look beyond her face to find the beauty and strength she has inside. It’s that—or succumb to a killer.

 

 

And NOW, the COVER of CHERYL RAINFIELD'S STAINED!

Sometimes you have to be your own hero.

When will STAINED be released?

 

Nov 19, 2013

Publisher: 

 

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Here's what Cheryl Rainfield has to say about STAINED:

 

Like I did with SCARS and HUNTED, I drew on some of my own experiences of bullying, abuse, and trauma to write STAINED and to give it greater emotional depth. Like Sarah in STAINED, I experienced abduction, imprisonment, periods of forced starvation, mind control, and having my life threatened. And like Sarah, I tried hard to fight against my abuser, keep my own sense of self, and escape. I hope readers will see Sarah's strength and courage, and appreciate her emotional growth as she reclaims herself.

Where can you pre-order a copy of STAINED?

 

Amazon (hardcover)

 

Amazon (kindle)

Amazon.ca (hardcover)

 

Amazon.ca (ebook)

Amazon.co.uk (hardcover)

Amazon.co.uk (ebook) 

Where can you read my reviews of Cheryl Rainfield's previous books?

 

PARALLEL VISIONS 

 

HUNTED

SCARS

 

Where can you watch the book trailer for STAINED?

Living Underground by RUTH E. WALKER - A Review

TITLE: Living Underground

AUTHOR: Ruth E. Walker

RELEASE DATE: September 2012

FORMAT/PAGE COUNT: ARC/264

PUBLISHER: Seraphim Editions

PURCHASED: Not Purchased. From the Author in exchange for an honest review.

Available at: CHAPTERS/INDIGO, AMAZON.CA, AMAZON.COM, BARNES & NOBLE

A Portrait of the Author as a Little Girl - There are a few places in all the world where a writer becomes giddy with word-love. This is Ms. Walker at home in the tiny nook labelled "Poetry" inside the world-famous bookstore, Shakespeare & Company. 

SYNOPSIS:

“Sheila Martin’s dismal childhood is irrevocably transformed when Sigmund Maier, the family’s enigmatic German tenant, introduces her to opera, music and much more. When he reappears in her ordered and successful adult life, Sigmund asks for her help with an immigration issue. Will she now discover the truth of why he vanished years ago?

Sheila soon discovers that “truth” has no clear definition and memories are nebulous as she is drawn into the turmoil and accusations surrounding his life before and during World War II. As she struggles with her own issues and family conflicts, she is forced to finally confront the secrets she has held for over 30 years.

Moving back and forth in time, this novel explores the ambiguity of human emotion – how our natures can embody both the ideals and delights of love alongside the most base and dispassionate sensibilities.” –Seraphim Editions

On Goodreads


EXPECTATIONS: I am friends with Ruth. I had high expectations for Living Underground, simply because I am familiar with the calibre of her work. I was a fan prior to reading her debut novel. Ms. Walker is also a poet and short story writer. It is HER fault my expectations for Living Underground were through the roof. Her exquisite writing has preceded her debut novel. (-:


MARKET/GENRE: I would say this is a literary work. I believe it to be cross-over in terms of both market and genre. Not sure if I would pigeon-hole it. Is EVERYONE a market?

REVIEW:

(Trigger Warning: Living Underground contains a scene that could potentially trigger CSA survivors.)

Favourite Quotes:

'“There are people who think I am someone I am not. They have been looking for this man for a long time, and they think they have found him. But they are mistaken.”' ~ Sigmund Maier (Living Underground), Ruth E. Walker

'"If you want to see opera, true opera, you must hear it in Europe, go and see it there. Here, they imitate. In Germany they have echoes of all who went before. It is so much richer."' ~ Sigmund Maier (Living Underground), Ruth E. Walker


'Hilda washed her mother's body and dressed her in her second-best tea dress. Her best dress and Hilda's amber brooch were sold to pay for the coffin. Her mother's several pairs of shoes and gloves were bartered for grave diggers.' ~ Living Underground, Ruth E. Walker

'As she struggled with the tension of her guts, her shortness of breath, Sheila continued to stare at the kids on the bridge. Observed them cross over, a bunch of hyper teens, making those large, flung-arm whirls and dashes of kinetic energy, the shoulder-hits of camaraderie, the heads-back and crow calls of those who know they are watched.' ~ Living Underground, Ruth E. Walker

This is a beautiful book. I can't remember the last time a story had such a powerful impact on my day-to-day life. No matter what I was doing throughout my day, I had Sheila and Sigmund on my mind. I felt so emotional for those two weeks, like I was always one step away from tears. I actually had to give myself some time before I could get my thoughts down on paper. Only a handful of times in a reader's life do they come into contact with a book that causes such a rift in their sense of reality. Living Underground is one of those books for me. It left me breathless at every turn.

Sheila Martin's childhood is anything but wondrous. When a new tenant moves into her mother's basement apartment, Sheila is given the maid duties of keeping the apartment clean. Little by little, a communication is created between the tenant, Sigmund Maier, and Sheila. It begins when Sheila loses herself in her radio station one day, while going through her cleaning duties. Soon Sigmund is leaving music out for Sheila to discover and Sheila feels herself opening up to a whole new world she didn't even know existed.

Ms. Walker creates such a vivid picture of this unlikely couple and how they become connected--first as mentor and student, and then as more. The reader will delight in the way Walker seamlessly sews beautiful music into the exquisite and tightly woven fabric of this wondrous story. Sheila's eye-opening to the world of opera and classical music and the finer things she would never have otherwise been exposed to is soul-lifting. The reader is lifted with her, and almost grateful for Sigmund's presence in her young life. And such a proper, well-put-together gentleman is Sigmund...the real key to making this story sing was Walker's ability to make the reader believe in Sigmund Maier and his essential goodness.

Living Underground spans decades. The reader is taken along to Sigmund's childhood in Dresden, Germany, where an even stronger connection to this character is made. We see inside the world in which he grew up--a despicable grandfather, a mother who bends to her father's will and later finds an admirable strength and independence. From there, the reader steps into the adult life of Sheila. She is a wonderful and powerful woman. She is in the midst of building a music store empire (a product of Sigmund's influence on her earlier life), but her personal life seems to be in a state of chaos. Then the reader is taken into the dark world of suspicion and doubt. Could the man who gave the young Sheila a thread of hope when she needed it most...could he possibly be the same man as the monster being accused of heinous war crimes in Nazi Germany?


From the moment you pick up Living Underground, you will be enthralled. It burrows into your heart with a powerful and uncontrollable velocity...and it stays there not just until you reach the end of the story, but long long after you have reluctantly put it down. A book like this comes along every once in a blue moon. I guarantee you, once you get to the end you will want to embrace it. It's that kind of book. In my opinion, Ruth E. Walker has a well-deserved masterpiece on her hands.

EXPECTATION: I could NOT have expected what would happen to me as I read this book. To give you an example--At one point, my wife walked into our family room to find me in pieces. She was a bit skeptical as to how a book could hit somebody so powerfully. I read about 20 pages out loud to her. When I was finished, I looked over at her...and found her in pieces. I'm not exaggerating when I say this story got inside me. Even knowing Walker's ability to write beautiful prose and poetry--even knowing her mastery of the language and the subtlety of her pen--I was not expecting this. You can't expect a book like this one. You can love it, once you find it...but you can't expect it. GET THIS BOOK!


SIZE: 6 (I know this is like turning the amp up to 11, but I had to give it something I gave no other book on this site. I connected with these characters and this story too strongly to give it anything less.)

Small Medium at Large - Review

Title: Small Medium at Large

Author: Joanne Levy

Release Date: July 3, 2012

Format/Page Count: Kindle/208

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Purchased: Amazon

Synopsis:

After she’s hit by lightning at a wedding, twelve-year-old Lilah Bloom develops a new talent: she can hear dead people. Among them, there’s her overopinionated Bubby Dora; a prissy fashion designer; and an approval-seeking clown who livens up a séance. With Bubby Dora leading the way, these and other sweetly imperfect ghosts haunt Lilah through seventh grade, and help her face her one big fear: talking to—and possibly going to the seventh-grade dance with—her crush, Andrew Finkel. (From GOODREADS)

The Book Trailer for Small Medium at Large

Expectation: Levy had me at the title! This is yet another title I became aware of while on Twitter. Thank Twitter for all my finds lately! My expectation was high for this book, based solely on my love of the title. (-:

Market/Genre: Middle Grade/Contemporary with a dollop of supernatural/paranormal

Review:

It has been a while since I read a middle grade novel…at least a few months. My first thoughts on Small Medium at Large were; kid-friendly, a delight to read, fun and funny, well written in a great age-appropriate voice and, well…FUN (It bears repeating).

Lilah Bloom is 12. She comes from a broken family (that term really needs to be refreshed—a lot of families these days are not so much broken, as they are realigned). As the story opens, we are at Lilah’s mother’s wedding. Everything is going well until the real fun is about to begin—the dancing. At the outdoor reception, Lilah is literally on the threshold of the temporary dance-floor when the skies darken and a tempest brews.

This is when Lilah is struck by lightning!

Thankfully, she makes a speedy recovery. No lasting damage, but a challenging new talent. Lilah becomes aware of disembodied voices. Levy has written these voices so tremendously well that the reader can sense she had a blast bringing this story to life. What must have been a difficult task for Levy was keeping a story like this so utterly kid-friendly. With humour, excellent characters, friendly and mischievous—but by no means dark—ghosts, and a plot that could stand on its own without the supernatural element, Levy accomplishes this in spades!

Throughout the course of the story, the reader is introduced to several ghost characters. One of the delightful things I found about these characters is that they were actually so well portrayed I could envision what each of them looked like, even though, obviously, there were no physical descriptions to speak of. We have Lilah’s Bubby Dora (her grandmother), Prissy LaFontaine (fashion icon extraordinaire), Mr. Finkel (Andrew Finkel’s father—Andrew being the boy that Lilah is head over heels for) and also watch for the young boy ghost Lilah runs into in her school.

There are some truly delightful scenes in this book, scenes that will make your middle grade reader giggle and totally relate to. Keep your eye out for the bra shopping scene and slumber party—truly authentic! Also, there are some great father/daughter scenes with Lilah and her dad—funny, poignant and powerful scenes (also funnily awkward scenes as Lilah and Dad discuss his new dating life).

A sign of a great middle grade book is its ability to resolve the issues of the main characters without coming off as too cheesy or predictable. Small Medium at Large does this. There are plenty of things going on in this story. Levy deals with bullying, divorce, death, first crushes, jealousy—you name it. Her ability to tie up all the threads in a satisfactory way is astonishing. Perhaps one of my favourite threads was the one with Lilah and her grade eight nemesis, ‘Dolly’ Madison. Of course, Dolly was going to be the bully of the story—she’s far superior to Lilah and her friends, being as she’s in grade eight and they’re mere grade sevens. Thankfully, though, Levy played this thread perfectly. Another sign of a great middle grade story is that not all bad characters are all bad and not all good characters are all good. I’m confident readers will love the way this thread plays out. I won’t go into details—as I don’t want to give away any spoilers—but sometimes help comes from the most unlikely of places.

If you have a young reader in your life, share this book with them! I’m sure it will become an instant favourite for them. Lilah’s a good kid—they’re gonna love her!

Expectation: Met and surpassed. I am not surprised that I fell in love with this wonderful book! It will be my go-to for gift-giving for years to come!

Size: 5 (1/2)

LOOK FOR A SHORT AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT/INTERVIEW with Joanne Levy in the near future!

 

An Interview with Allison Baggio - Summer Reading Series

Time for the next Summer Reading Series instalment! I'm thrilled to have ALLISON BAGGIO visiting us today. She's going to talk about the books she's passionate about. I'm going to tell you where you can find Allison's books! She is also an author.

KC: What book are you reading right now? And what are your thoughts on it so far?


ALLISON: I am usually reading a whole pile of books at once. I keep them at different places in my house and when I'm there I'll pick them up. Sometimes a book will really catch my attention and I will carry it around with me--then I know I've found something really special. So, I'll pick one for you--The Last Hiccup by fellow ECW author, Christopher Meades. It just happens to be on my nightstand so I usually read this one for a bit after I put the kids to bed. The book is about a young boy in 1930s Russia who comes down with a chronic case of hiccups and how this infliction changes his life. This is not the type of book I would usually pick up, however, Christopher has officially drawn me into his quirky little world. I am so impressed with the quality of writing in this book . . . one of the blurbs on the back says "Each sentence is a tiny masterpiece" and it is definitely true

.
KC: That sounds like a book I NEED to read! Thanks for the rec. As a writer, you most likely spend a lot of your time editing. Do you find it hard to turn off the internal editor when you are reading for pleasure? Do you ever find yourself being drawn out of story because you know there’s a better way to write the last sentence you just read? Or are you able to turn the writer/editor off when you are reading for pleasure?


ALLISON: Funny you should ask this. I just took a book on vacation with me. A pretty popular book. Well, okay, I'll just say it, Wild by Cheryl Strayed. I love a memoir that involves any sort of adventure so I knew I would love this story (and I did!), however, I found myself overwhelmed by the large number of unnecessary adverbs in the book. "Elegantly, hesitantly, unglamourously, awkwardly" -- I think she used everyone possible at least once, and sometimes many in the same sentence!

I often found myself reading out the heavily adverb-ed sentences to my husband in shock, and that really took me out of the story. Instantly. And unrelentingly. Usually I am able to shut this sort of internal editor off, but since I just finished the final edits on my next book, I was really stuck in that mindset. I think this problem is getting worse the more editing I do, and the more obsessive I get about my own writing. Undeniably.


KC: Great answer! (-: Top 5 Favourite Novels?


ALLISON: Oh gosh, let's see. Top of my mind:

• Room by Emma Donoghue 
• A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews 
• The Romantic by Barbara Gowdy 
• Far to Go by Alison Pick 
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Seybold

KC: I was blown away the first time I read A Complicated Kindness. I think that book may have changed my reading habits. Do you have a favourite autobiography? If so, tell us about it.


ALLISON: How about Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. In it, he tells his life story of growing up in India and his experiences with meditation and yoga. I read most of this book on my honeymoon ten years ago and still intend to finish it. No, really! I will say that it probably influenced some parts of my first novel, Girl in Shades.


KC: I love that answer more than you’ll know. That book was a bible for me in the late 80s early 90s. I adore it! Any recommendations for books on writing?


ALLISON: I think Stephen King's On Writing is one of the best ones out there and I actually have had a recent desire to re-read it (I've just remembered one of the quotes from the book: “The road to hell is paved with adverbs” hmmmm). Also, writers should pick up Work Book: Memos & Dispatches on Writing by Steven Heighton--it is like no other writing book I've read and gives some very poignant insights into how to make sense of the writing life.


KC: Who were your favourite authors as a child? Your favourite books?


ALLISON: I was a big Judy Blume fan. All her books.


KC: Your favourite authors as an adult?


ALLISON: Miriam Toews, Barbara Gowdy, Brian Francis--all the other great Canadian authors I've connected with who are out there writing what they have to write and not giving up.


KC: Book covers seem to be getting a lot of buzz these days. In Twitterverse, there are Cover Reveals almost daily. I think it’s safe to say we’re in an age where it is more common practice to actually judge a book by its cover. Do you have any favourite covers? Do they have any pull on your decision to read a book?


ALLISON: I am quite fond of the covers they have given to my own books so far, and I think that is a good thing to feel because yes, people DO judge books by their outsides. I'm surprised at the number of times someone will post a just cover and someone will respond, "That looks really good. I want to read it." But it's true. People do feel more drawn to covers that appeal to them, so we shouldn't give up on designing great covers!

One interesting cover that comes to mind is the one for The Carnivore  by Mark Sinnett. I like that the story is about a hurricane and there are rain drops infused into the cover. Very neat.

Ohhh, and I did love the cover of Brian Francis's Natural Order

I am definitely more prone to pick up a book if I am attracted to the outside.


KC: I LOVE your book covers. I think they're both stunning(ly) beautiful! Do you have favourite genres/markets?


ALLISON: Usually adult literary fiction, and some more commercial stuff.


KC: Your 3 desert island books?


ALLISON: Have to go non-fiction for this (I don't re-read fiction books that much):

• A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
• Home With God: In a Life that Never Ends by Neale Donald Walsh
• Beyond the Horizon by Colin Angus (loved it!)

KC: As a writer, do you ever copy down favourite quotes and pin them up in your writing space for inspiration? If so, what are some of them?


ALLISON: YES! I do this all the time. Right now on my bulletin board I have "Pursue Excellence, Ignore Success". I think Deepak Choprah said it. I'm also always writing out, "Allow What is To Be" - Eckhart Tolle


KC: I was hoping for that reaction. I too get pretty passionate when I find a golden nugget in something I’m reading. (-: What’s the next title you plan on reading? What drew you to it?


ALLISON: The next book I am planning to read is Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain. I definitely fit the mould of an introvert, and was drawn to this book because, well, I hope to get some more insight into myself (always up for that!).


KC: Is there ONE book that made you decide, ‘This is what I want to do…I want to write!’? Or were there many?


ALLISON: Hmmmm, trying to think back. My need to write bubbled up around grade five when I started to write short stories. I think it was more a need to tell stories, than one book that inspired me.


KC: If you could travel back in time and put your name under any novel title in existence, which one would you choose? Why?


ALLISON: Oh gosh, this is hard. Of course there are books I admire, but the idea of me having written them is a strange one. I just find that creative inspiration is such a personal thing, I can't imagine having written anything besides what I myself was inspired to write. I think I've answered The Time Traveller’s Wife to a similar question. So.... The Time Traveller’s Wife by Allison Baggio. (No, I just can't get my mind around that.)


KC: As a writer, who do you write for? Anyone/Anything in particular?


ALLISON: I guess I have to say, me. I write for the pure joy I feel while I am doing it, and the satisfaction I feel afterwards. I hope I can always write for me, because I think that the process of thinking about what people will think of what you write, has probably ruined many a good author.


KC: Okay, since you are published yourself…I’m going to be linking your books below for my readers. Besides these two titles, are there any other works in the hopper? Anything you’re working on that you want to talk about?


ALLISON: I am currently revising a new novel that I am very excited about. It takes place during and shortly after World War 1 and is a fictional story around an actual un-solved murder that happened in 1914. I haven't received any serious feedback on it yet, so I am still in that "new love" stage with it--which is a nice place to be for now.


KC: Sounds intriguing! I was going to say amazingly and incredibly intriguing…but those lys are just background noise. (-: Can’t wait to read it! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts today. I enjoyed your responses. We have a lot of suggestions here and you’ve reminded me of more than a couple of books that I’m passionate about. Maybe it’s time to revisit them. Thank you!


ALLISON: Thanks, Kevin!

You can learn more about Allison’s books and visit her online at any of the locations below:

Website: AllisonBaggio.com 
Twitter: allibaggio
Facebook: GIRL IN SHADES and IN THE BODY   
BOOKS:  ECW PRESS - GIRL IN SHADES and ECW PRESS IN THE BODY 

What a Boy Needs - Review

Title: What a Boy Needs

Author: Nyrae Dawn

Release Date: June, 2012

Format: ebook

Publisher: Self-Published - Amazon Digital Services

Purchased: Amazon

Synopsis:  

A companion novel to WHAT A BOY WANTS.

Jaden Sinclair knows he'll never amount to anything...so why would he deserve a girl like Priscilla Mendoza?

Since last summer, things have been screwed up between Jaden and Pris. He knows it's his fault, but that doesn’t stop him from wanting to go a few rounds with her new boyfriend. He also knows he’s the loser his dad calls him, but it doesn’t stop him from wanting her.

After getting a huge bomb dropped on him, Jaden lashes out and lands himself in jail. Everything in his chaotic life is turned upside down and to make it worse, his mom kicks him out in order to side with his dad. Yeah, he’s totally a prize for a girl like Pris.

Sebastian, Aspen, and Pris are all going places in their lives...and he knows he can't keep tagging along for the ride.

The group has one last chance for The Epic Adventure they've been looking for: a road trip to New York, where Jaden's friends will be going to college. Unfortunately, the more time Jaden hangs around Pris, the harder it is to keep the carefully constructed walls between them so she doesn't find out what a train wreck he really is.

When the trip ends, Jaden has to decide if he's ready to say goodbye to his friends, and the girl he loves. He knows what he needs, but will he be man enough to go for it?

Contains mature themes. Some sexual situations and language. (From GOODREADS)

Expectation: I had a high expectation for this novel. I had recently read the companion novel, What a Boy Wants. I loved it and expected no less from this novel.

Market/Genre: Young Adult/Romance, Contemporary

Review:

Favourite Quotes:

‘…everyone is moving on—going toward something, and I keep slipping farther behind.’ ~ Jaden Sinclair (Nyrae Dawn, What a Boy Needs)

‘I was never really happy here. I never felt like it was mine, but it almost feels as though I’m trying to get into a foreign country without my passport. I made it over the border, but I’m prepared to get kicked out at any moment.’ ~ Jaden Sinclair (Nyrae Dawn, What a Boy Needs)

I wasn’t quite sure that What a Boy Needs could top What a Boy Wants…or even come close to the likeability factor of Nyrae Dawn’s first book in this ‘series’. I went in to What a Boy Needs hoping for more of the same. Did Dawn deliver?

In spades! Not only did she give her readers more of the same 4 wonderful characters she introduced us to in What a Boy Wants, but she gave us a depth in these characters that was SO much richer than revealed to us in the first book. The first book was great…it was a fun read with a wonderful lead character. We all really dug Sebastian…went along for the ride he set out for us. So, when I say that Jaden really blew me away, I don’t really want to take away from Sebastian’s story in any way.

Jaden Sinclair is a complicated character. Where Sebastian gave us a bit of a thrill ride with his loveable hi-jinx, Jaden gives us an emotional ride. Jaden is broken. Part of his problem is trying to represent himself as present and intact. The reader realizes right away that trouble boils under Jaden’s carefully chosen façade. His parents are against him—one is bitter of his existence while the other is resentful of it. He sees his three closest friends—Sebastian, Aspen and Pris—on the verge of escaping their town, while he is simultaneously coming to the conclusion that the plan the four set out to achieve couldn’t possibly include him when the time comes to actually put it into action. Add the fact that he is falling in love with Pris, and you have a collision course of emotions that is bound to erupt and end badly.

In order to save himself, Jaden must trust those closest to him with the real Jaden Sinclair—the boy his best friends don’t even know about. The complicated boy who doesn’t feel loved in any way. The reader wants to push him to come clean. We have been with these four friends for a while now. We know Sebastian, Aspen and Pris will do right by him. It’s a bit frustrating for the reader that he just won’t take that plunge. But also understandable. He’s a hurting unit. Vulnerable and broken.

We can palpably feel Jaden’s pain when, at one point in his own frustration, he says to himself, ‘Say it, Jay. Open your mouth and talk to her!’

It was so easy to slip back into reading these characters. Dawn has stayed true to all of them, while at the same time giving her readers a deeper, more meaningful glimpse into each of them. Jaden makes for a superb narrator—just as fabulous as Sebastian, but in a much different way. The second quote above captures Jaden so perfectly: “I’m prepared to get kicked out at any moment”. This is Jaden in a nutshell…the true undisguised Jaden. Buckle yourself in for an emotional rollercoaster that still has the elements of fun that you loved in What a Boy Wants. When the foursome deal with the issues burdening Jaden, they grow up a little. They learn to appreciate each other more. And they take the readers along with them.

This is a must read. If you haven’t read What a Boy Wants yet, you have a real treat ahead of you when you read both novels side by side. See what everybody is talking about. Discover What a Boy Wants and What a Boy Needs. You’ll understand why the name Nyrae Dawn is generating such a buzz.

You'll keep reading What a Boy Wants to find out if Sebastian gets the girl. With What a Boy Needs, there is so much more at stake. Sure, you'll read it to find out if Jaden gets his girl...but you'll also read it to find out if he gets his life. Enjoy them both!

Expectation: This book rocked. I was nervous about it…knowing how much I liked the first book, I set a high expectation on this one. We all know what can happen with Part 2s. I was NOT disappointed! Another win for Nyrae Dawn.

Size: 5 (1/2)

MY REVIEW FOR WHAT A BOY WANTS

What a Boy Wants on Amazon

Too Loud a Solitude and the Master Wordsmith Bohumil Hrabal

Too Loud a Solitude - It could be the title of Bohumil Hrabal's autobiography. But it's actually a wondrous novella he wrote. Hrabal wrote this masterpiece late in life, after surviving a lengthy illness. Too Loud a Solitude is, he claimed, the reason he survived. He couldn't die before writing it.

Synopsis: Hantá rescues books from the jaws of his compacting press and carries them home. (From GOODREADS)

Perhaps the synopsis from Goodreads is a good enough example of how underrated this novella is.

Bohumil Hrabal - There is much written about Hrabal. What I find the most fascinating is that he seemed quite enamoured with suicide. He wrote about it in his books and he wrote about it in letters to friends. Hrabal died falling out of a 5th story hospital window. Apparently, he was feeding pigeons on the windowsill. Also noted in his biography is that he actually lived in a 5th floor apartment. Suicides were mentioned in several of his novels---all done by characters leaping from 5th floor windows. Does life imitate art or does art imitate life? Was his death an art installation? This is the answer I'm going with. His final performance...unwritten, but just as powerful as his beautiful prose.

Many have called Hrabal the greatest writer of our time. I love his novels. My particular passion is for TOO LOUD A SOLITUDE, though. I re-read this novella once a year. It is chilling, the beauty he injected into this story of a man with a trash compactor. The story takes my breath away every single time I read it.

FAVOURITE QUOTES FROM TOO LOUD:

“My education has been so unwitting I can't quite tell which of my thoughts come from me and which from my books, but that's how I've stayed attuned to myself and the world around me for the past thirty-five years. Because when I read, I don't really read; I pop a beautiful sentence into my mouth and suck it like a fruit drop, or I sip it like a liqueur until the thought dissolves in me like alcohol, infusing brain and heart and coursing on through the veins to the root of each blood vessel.”

“And so everything I see in this world, it all moves backward and forward at the same time, like a black-smith's bellows, like everything in my press, turning into its opposite at the command of the red and green buttons, and that's what makes the world go round.”

Some other Hrabal titles to look for: Closely Watched Trains, The Death of Mr. Baltisberger, Pirouettes on a Postage Stamp, In-House Weddings, Gaps.

Hrabal's Grave

Many make the pilgrimage to Hrabal's grave in Hradištko.

GET TOO LOUD A SOLITUDE ON KINDLE NOW!

Size: 5 (1/2) - Although I didn't review the book, I give it a rating of 5 1/2. It's one of my very favourite books. At under 100 pages...it's staggering what Hrabal fit within its beautiful pages!

Banshees, Chrystal Balls and Shadowquakes...Oh My! - VELVETEEN - Review

Title: Velveteen

Author: Daniel Marks

Release Date: October 9th, 2012

Format/Page Count: E-ARC/464 pages

Publisher: Random House Children's Books

Purchased: NOT purchased--From NetGalley

Available for PRE-ORDER at Amazon: Pre-Order

Synopsis:  

Velveteen Monroe is dead. At 16, she was kidnapped and murdered by a madman named Bonesaw. But that's not the problem.

The problem is she landed in purgatory. And while it's not a fiery inferno, it's certainly no heaven. It's gray, ashen, and crumbling more and more by the day, and everyone has a job to do. Which doesn't leave Velveteen much time to do anything about what's really on her mind.

Bonesaw.

Velveteen aches to deliver the bloody punishment her killer deserves. And she's figured out just how to do it. She'll haunt him for the rest of his days.

It'll be brutal . . . and awesome.

But crossing the divide between the living and the dead has devastating consequences. Velveteen's obsessive haunting cracks the foundations of purgatory and jeopardizes her very soul. A risk she's willing to take—except fate has just given her reason to stick around: an unreasonably hot and completely off-limits coworker.

Velveteen can't help herself when it comes to breaking rules . . . or getting revenge. And she just might be angry enough to take everyone down with her. (From GOODREADS)

Expectation: Another Twitter book. All my recommendations come from Twitter these days. Following Daniel Marks through Twitter, and on Youtube, made me want to read this book. He has a great sense of humour and I figured when mixed with horror, that it would be a winning combination. HIGH expectation!

Market/Genre: Young Adult/Horror (I want to list a few more genres here...as it was so much more than horror...but horror it definitely was.)

Review:

How do I begin? First off, about the synopsis...it's just a little misleading. Bonesaw is AWESOME. And Velvet most assuredly has plans in her afterlife journey to make the despicable Bonesaw’s life a living hell. Don’t get me wrong. But this is only a side-plot in a most bodacious story about an incredibly built world living parallel to our own. PURGATORY is about to get into a kick-ass melee that can either spell the end of Earth, or, if Velvet Monroe has her way, the end of a few ill-meaning revolutionaries!

So, yes, Bonesaw is a focal point in Velvet’s story. Absolutely! And a fine one, at that. He’s a menacing serial killer with a penchant for cheese graters and knives. He’s a horror-ific delight! And Velvet secretly traipses between purgatory and our world with malignant intent in order to make Bonesaw suffer, while at the same time attempting to rescue his potential victims. And this is a wonderfully delightful plot-line in Velveteen.

But there is SO much more going on! And it is good. It is fantastic. Purgatory’s inmates are getting restless. They mean to invade our world and takeover our bodies. They mean to live again. Forever. As the revolution winds up, Velvet is in the forefront of the fight against it. This angry little girl is most assuredly spurred on by the passion built out of her life being stolen from the wicked, wicked man she calls Bonesaw (Fantastic name, by the way!). The injustice done to her makes her the queen of her peers. Her team is the best at what they do. And what they do is cross between that loosely veiled world of purgatory into ours…and save souls. So when Purgatory residents decide to invade Earth and live anew, it is Velvet who steps up to the plate to put a wrench in their works.

When certain evil elements in Purgatory plan an exodus, all hell breaks loose. Bitchy, loveable Velvet and her kickass team of avengers will do whatever it takes to put an end to the uprising. This is what Velveteen is really about. The fact that Velvet’s own dispute with Bonesaw is interwoven into this fantastical story is just pudding on the cake. Er…or icing on the whipped cream. Er…or the reader having their cake and eating it too.

Oh, what a wonderfully delightful read this was! I can’t say much more without giving away what happens, but I will say this: DANIEL MARKS is a king of description and detail and world-building! I SAW Purgatory…in all its wondrous, shabby, darkly festive glory! I saw it! He did such a wonderful job creating this world…it makes me want to call VELVETEEN a dystopian, but of course Purgatory is just an ethereal curtain away from our own world. At the onset of Velveteen our world is still in one piece, so a dystopian Velveteen is not.

Ooh…the graphic violence so well told in this tale! Truly a delight. The sassiness that is Velvet. The show-offy hotty, Nick, who was her forbidden love interest. The children sidekicks—the adorably hostile Luisa and her cranky, gas-addicted brother Logan. It was all a delight. Marks is a master at what he does. Velveteen was exquisite with humour and horror and romance and grit. This is a MUST read.

Velveteen truly is an extravaganza. The whole time I ‘walked’ the streets of Purgatory, I silently prayed that TIM BURTON would not only pick this book up…but fall in love with it. Dear Mr. Burton…please use your movie magic to recreate the splendidly frolicking world of Purgatory on the big screen. I’m begging you!

Expectation: MET. SURPASSED. CRUSHED. Thank you, Daniel Marks...because of you, I can now actually SEE Purgatory. It is a place. And it is fantastic (Ash-drab is a colour).

Size: 5 (1/2)

The Perfect Order of Things - Review

Title: The Perfect Order of Things

Author: David Gilmour

Release Date: August 27, 2011

Format/Page Count: Hard Cover/224 Pages

Publisher: Thomas Allen & Son Ltd

Purchased: From the Publisher, through the Ontario Writers' Conference.

Available at Amazon: The Perfect Order of Things

Synopsis:  Like a tourist visiting his own life, David Gilmour’s narrator journeys in time to re-examine those critical moments that created him. He revisits the terrible hurt of a first love, the shock of a parent’s suicide, the trauma of a best friend’s bizarre dissembling, and the pain and humiliation of unrelenting jealousy, among other rites of passage.

In fact, here is the narrator of David Gilmour’s previous novels writing his own fictional autobiography in a dazzling cavalcade of stories that punctuate a life passionately lived and loved. Set within an episodic narrative arc, here are stories about the profound effect of Tolstoy, of the Beatles, of the cult of celebrity, of the delusion of drugs, and of the literary life on the winding road of the narrator’s progress.

This compelling and deeply interesting picaresque novel is a creative tour de force from the hand of one our master story-tellers. The Perfect Order of Things breaks new fictional ground and is an astonishing story of a life lived fully and with breathtaking passion. (From GOODREADS)

Expectation: I love David Gilmour...plain and simple. I 'get' his words. I have not yet found a Gilmour I didn't like love. My expectation for this title was extremely high. When you adore an author, there is always the fear that you will read one of their works and think, 'what were they thinking!?' So, I went into The Perfect Order of Things with a high expectation...I was excited to be entering Gilmour's head again, and slightly nervous that this would be the book I didn't 'get'.

Market/Genre: Adult/Literary

Review:

As much as this is a work of fiction, David Gilmour can be gleaned in every sentence. This beautiful story is a trail of breadcrumbs that brings us to the author himself.

Gilmour’s first person narrator walks the reader of The Perfect Order of Things through a complex, well-lived life of a man always on the brink of the brink. We are treated to the narrator’s great loves, including Tolstoy and the Beatles, and we learn how these loves altered and enriched his life. We listen in as he walks us through the calamity of errors that go into making up his wondrous life and we wonder at the fact that he is still with us to tell the story.

This is a remarkable look at a man split open and vulnerable. The reader will delight in the way the stories of the narrator’s life are told. He is able to see the humour in each of his falls and he is able to mock himself and give us a clear unbiased look into his most inner thoughts as he maps out the fractured route of destruction taken through his remarkable and ordinary life.

Be prepared for honesty! You will see a small, bitter man being a wallflower at parties of the rich and famous and you’ll be able to listen to his inner thoughts and get a glimpse into just how fragile he is when he points out the flaws of the flawless people around him. He’ll give you glimpses into his parenting skills, his lust for beautiful women, his lust for accolades and fanfare. He’ll show you his broken friendship with a man more on the brink than he himself. And he’ll show you a small pathetic man who tries to recapture the places of his youth with a failure so ripe you can smell it!

David Gilmour’s writing is simply beautiful. For me, nothing comes close to beating it. He may be his generation’s most gorgeous wordsmith. And I constantly feel that he is underrated. Even by myself. I don’t think about Gilmour between his books. When I hear that another book is on the shelves, I think to myself that I must pick it up. And then, maybe six or eight or ten months later I will get it. And then I will read it…and I will die a million deaths from the beauty I discover within its pages.

The Perfect Order of Things is a look into the seedy underbelly of the mindscape of a human being. It’s simply a vulnerable view of a vulnerable man…an honest retelling of a man’s life and a man’s mistakes. And a man’s passions. I would recommend The Perfect Order of Things to anybody.

Expectation: This book is one I closed and held close to my heart when I was finished. Some writers can show us the summation of a life with a beautiful flare that makes us believe in that life. Gilmour is one of those writers.

Size: 5 (1/2)