Death, Dickenson, and Frenchie in Orlando

Monday Mini (Minnie) Review :) 

Death, Dickinson, and the Demented Life of Frenchie Garcia by Jenny Torres Sanchez

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just finished this book last week (and in one sitting), and I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed it. To be honest, one of the most refreshing things was just simply reading about a character named Frenchie Garcia and whose last name was not a deciding factor in the types of experiences she went through. Don't get me wrong because I surely agree with adding the personal experience, and I usually always do in my own writing. I see all writing as somehow being influenced by the writer's past whether it be actual experiences or something he or she is familiar with based on activities, reading, or viewing.

But, the number one thing I wanted to see growing up was some type of TV show where people had a last name like me, but who lived like a regular teenager and whose parents didn't work in the factory or who didn't have an accent (even though that was my family). But, it wasn't me, or so I thought, because I loved Madonna and Prince and wore neon colors and loved the mall and got straight A's and didn't really know how to speak anything other than English, and saw myself on the same playing field as anybody who is an American and/or White.

So, here is this Frenchie girl from Orlando who wears black and likes punk and who never says one Spanish word in the entire novel. I think it would have been interesting to see some of her more "Garcia" side, but then we would be talking about a different book here. Nonetheless, if you read about the author, Jenny Sanchez Torres, you find that Frenchie indeed has been created out of the author's experiences. I wanted the "regular" story when I was growing up, and here I am twenty years later reading the book I would have loved back then. Talk about making some ground here with contemporary Latina writers! (I hope to join Jenny's ranks one day soon :)

As for the book itself, the premise as suggested by the title is not completely original in that I have read a lot of books wherein the main character has a connection to some literary work or writer, but who gets tired of that? Not me. So, just to offer a summary of sort, Frenchie has loved this certain guy all her high school life and doesn't believe she will ever be able to love anyone else. But, when she "relives" a night that changed her world, well, her world changes again in an unexpected way. And, of course Emily Dickenson is there throughout to help her cope and make sense of all the craziness. Enjoy!


Brief Excerpt from Chapter 20, "Tonight" (Frenchie talking to Colin, a guy she initally told off in the worst way):

"How are you so sure?" I ask him, shaking my head.  "I mean, don't you think that on some level there are these paths to your life, already mapped, that your follow?"

He thinks about this for a minute.  "I don't know, that just seems so final.  I mean, I honestly think of life like this big wilderness.  And maybe your're on the path, but I alwasys thinks you have a choice.  To tay on theat path, or to venture out into the wilderness and make different paths."

"Oh . . ." is all I can say.  His answer has made my head feel full.

View all my reviews

In the Shadow of the Lions, I Will Not Fear

Friends,Writers,Blogosphere, lend me your ears;

 

I come to renew my blog, and shamelessly praise it.
 

The evil I do (by not posting) will not live with me;

 

And the good I now do (by posting)will not be buried.

 

(adapted from Mark Antony's eulogy in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar)

 

 

 

So, that last line above, well, I couldn't make it fit very well with the original Shakespearean wording. But, I think I did a fairly good job at telling you all that I still love my blog and readers, and because of this, I feel bad about not posting in such a long time.

It seems that I keep making vows to myself to keep blogging on a regular basis (just as I do with dieting and exercise and writing and the list goes on). Well, here I am making the vow again, and this time I will stick to it. So, Welcome Back!

Here is my Thursday Trailer feature for In the Shadow of the Lion by Kimberly M. Jane:

"Fifteen-year-old Kathleen Gallant is on an archaeological adventure at Tsavo East National Park in Kenya when she unearths the grave of an ancient woman known as Njeri. The natives are horrified by this discovery; Njeri is so infamous that no local will even speak her name. They fear the discovery of Njeri's corpse will bring about pestilence and disease upon their tribe. The legend of Njeri goes back to the mystical Mchanga and Misitu War. This war was fought long ago, and historians are still unsure of how it ended. It seems the soldiers from this war apparently disappeared. Now news of local villagers either gone missing and even some found dead are worrying her friends, but Kathleen feels strangely drawn to the story of Njeri; she begins to have nightmares and visions of a past life and a battle of wills. Someone is taking over Kathleen's young mind-someone who wants revenge. With the help of her new friends Sekani and Okechuku, Kathleen discovers the ancient war never really ended. Under the influence of Njeri, she learns more about the past than she ever expected to-and realizes she may become the weapon through which Njeri exacts her revenge."

 

-summary from back cover

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I am so intrigued with this novel!  And, the music is so eerie and spookie that I almost got goosebumps just thinking about what this girl did with her demon-possessed, soulless black eyes and ancient, rusty dagger.  A definate must read just from the premise!  Also, to be honest, it reminds me of my own unpublished novel--the one where my main character, 17 year old Alex de Luna, merges with the spirit of 16th century Aztec girl.  But, Alex's eyes don't turn black, and she doesn't get all "hood" crazy either.

Chapter 1, "The Guardians," (love this title, by the way) starts off with the near mauling of a boy by a sneering hyena.  Apparently, the lions of the book title are not the ones to be feared in this chapter. 

Now, I seriously need to go read it!  The writing is really, really good from the beginning, and this is one way that I judge the quality of a novel and whether I want to keep reading it.  Works everytime.

By the way, the trailer gets 5 Stars and the cover art gets 5 Stars...these are bonus factors to me.

Frozen...in a Historical Drama

Being that this is the first week of October and the official start of the fall season, don't you just feel like wrapping yourself up with a cozy Snuggie, a mug of cocoa, and a can't-put-down-until-3AM YA book? I suppose in my part of the world, I can just turn down the AC thermostat to below 70 and sit right in front of the air vent. We are still in the 90's down here, folks.

But, actual fall weather or not, Frozen by Mary Casanova is a great book to wrap around your hands during the midnight reading zone. Let me throw some words out there...1920's, Rainy Lake,a mysterious death, a snowbank, a historical drama, a lost voice, buried memories, corruption, secrets, a lost identity, a love story. If this is not enough to make you want to get your hands on Frozen like tonight, then I don't know what you want to read. Please don't tell me you want some dark, poorly written book, that follows all the conventions of poorly written books such as undeveloped characters, superficial writing, and overdone plot elements. Please tell me you want smart historical YA by a notable writer!


Summary (from the author's website):

Sixteen-year-old Sadie Rose hasn’t said a word in eleven years—ever since the day she was found lying in a snowbank during a howling storm. Like her voice, her memories of her mother and what happened that night were frozen. Set during the roaring 1920s in the beautiful, wild area on Rainy Lake where Minnesota meets Canada, Frozen tells the intriguing story of Sadie Rose, whose mother died under strange circumstances the same night that Sadie Rose was found, unable to speak, in a snowbank. Sadie Rose doesn’t know her last name and has only fleeting memories of her mother—and the conflicting knowledge that her mother had worked in a brothel. Taken in as a foster child by a corrupt senator, Sadie Rose spends every summer along the shores of Rainy Lake, where her silence is both a prison and a sanctuary.

One day, Sadie Rose stumbles on a half-dozen faded, scandalous photographs—pictures, she realizes, of her mother. They release a flood of puzzling memories, and these wisps of the past send her at last into the heart of her own life’s great mystery: who was her mother, and how did she die? Why did her mother work in a brothel—did she have a choice? What really happened that night when a five-year-old girl was found shivering in a snowbank, her voice and identity abruptly shattered?

New July YA...Choke

So, I promised a review for Her and Me and You...and I'm late with it, as well. My full review will have to wait, although I did finish reading the novel and will admit briefly that I wasn't all crazy for it like the way I was with The Daughter of Smoke and Bone or Why We Broke Up. Nonetheless, I will write the review this weekend. For now, I am excited to say that I just finished writing my review of Choke by Diana Lopez which will be published in Southwestern American Literature and Texas Books in Review. This is like mega-happy-dance-time!

Here is a preview:

Based on cover art and title, Diana López’s YA debut Choke is sure to captivate a large following of teens who gravitate to the edgier voice of the genre. Choke follows the story of eighth grade student Windy Soto who finds herself participating in a high risk teen behavior, the choking game, in order to find acceptance as a “breath sister” with the new popular girl at her school, Nina Díaz. López, a Texas native and a former middle school teacher, was inspired to write Choke after witnessing the harrowing, drug-like effects of the choking game on some of her own students.

As López explains in a letter to her readers at the end of her novel, she hopes to not only bring awareness to the dangers of the choking game, but to also thwart other teens from participating. Besides providing insight on a dangerous behavior, Choke also follows along the line of other successful YA novels with sophisticated marketing design and provocative, one word titles prevalent in the genre beginning with the powerhouse books of contemporary YA such as Speak, Twilight, and Crank. Now Choke is added to the list of more recent YA releases including those with Latina female leads such as Illegal by Bettina Restrepo and Luminous by Dawn Metcalf. 


The opening page does not disappoint either with a free verse piece describing the dangerous and sometimes fatal game played by teens seeking a thrill, an escape, or acceptance by a peer group:


knockout game, airplaning,

rocket ride, sleeper hold, 

pass-out game, wall hit, 

cloud nine, gasp,

American dream game, 

necktie challenge, blackout game, 

trip to heaven, flatliner, 

hyperventilating, 

suffocation roulette 

choke 

This is only one small excerpt from my review, but hopefully I can share more of it after it is published.


Now I need to get a hold of Diana Lopez soon  and invite her to write a guest blog for Fictionally Yours!  I will keep you up to date and keep this blog up to date as best as possible...

The Daughter of Smoke and Bone...Beckons

Seriously? April 20?

Anyways...

All I can say is WOW! Not wow for April 20 but WOW for the book I just started reading.

I don't even have to finish reading it to give 5 stars or to know I am going to devour it this weekend and say this is what I want. I want, I want, I want...to be this book. The Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

That's it. That's my review. The Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Done.

By the way, you are seeing the German cover art and Zwischen den Welten means Between the Worlds.  I love it!






Excerpt 1:

     So it was in slum alleys and dark courtyards in Kuala Lumpur, Istanbul, San Francisco, Paris.  Beautiful men and women with distorted shadows came and scorched their handprints onto a door before vanishing skyward, drafts of heat billowing behind them with the whumph of unseen wings.  Here and there, feathers fell, and they were like rufts of white fire, disintegrating to ash as soon as they touched the ground.  In Delhi, a Sister of Mercy reached out and caught one on her palm like a raindrop, but unlike a raindrop it burned, and left the perfect outline of a feather seared into her flesh.

Excerpt 2:

     Was there another life she was meant to be living?  At times she felt a keen certainty that there was--a phantom life, taunting her from just out of reach.  A sense would come over her while she was drawing or walking, and once when she was dancing close with Kaz, that she was supposed to be doing something else with ther hands, with her legs, with her body.  Something else.  Something else.  Something else.

     But what?

I am generally not the fan of a YA book without the complete, first person POV. But I am a fan of this one. The language is lovely, indulgent, like a rich chocolate dessert (I suppose an indulgent chocolate torte with a drizzle of raspberry sauce) matching the old world atmosphere of Prague and the older than time conflict of the spiritual realm.

I am on page 82 of The Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and I must stop my mini-review...because my 3rd period class is about to end, and I want to read before I get bombarded with chapter notes my students are anxious to turn in all nice and complete and in legible handwriting.

Happy Reading to you all this weekend! The Daughter of Smoke and Bone is sleeping next to me on my nightstand ;)

Winter Town...During Spring

Mini-Review of Winter Town by Stephen Emond

Here is a neat little, quirky, contemporay book that probably some of you haven't heard about.  I'm all for reading anything out the ordinary that doesn't have to do with the overdone paranormal romance...basically all I see anytime I skim through the Target YA book aisle.

What I absolutely love about this book first and foremost is the blending of genre--contemporary fiction, picture book, and graphic novel.  What else?  The pop cultural references are relevent and any young person or young person at heart will get these references and appreciate them.  Also, don't you just love dual-point of view books where characters take turns spilling their take on a situation?  I absolutely do.  I feel like I get a better sense of the whole experience.  The whole story is funny, endearing, and relatable.  That's a good book for me any day!

My favorite part:  The running comic strip throughout the novel featuring the two main characters, Evan and Lucy ...chronicles their quest in the made-up and mythical realm of Aelysthia.   Too cute!  Also, how Evan is trying to figure Lucy out and how we figure her out sooner and more than he does because we get to read her point of view.

Brief summary:  Future Ivy Leaguer Doesn't Know What to Make of His Old BFF When She Returns as a Goth And He Wants the Old Version Back.

From Author Website:   Stephen Emond

Every winter, straight-laced, Ivy League bound Evan looks forward to a visit from Lucy, a childhood pal who moved away after her parent’s divorce. But when Lucy arrives this year, she’s changed. The former “girl next door” now has chopped dyed black hair, a nose stud, and a scowl. But Evan knows that somewhere beneath the Goth, “Old Lucy” still exists, and he’s determined to find her… even if it means pissing her off.

Can opposites attract? Or does growing up mean having to grow apart?

Told from two perspectives, this funny and honest novel by Stephen Emond is a unique combination of text, comic strips, and art. It’s an indie movie in a book, perfect for the inner outcast and lovelorn nerd in all of us.

I Am Number 4 But Who Will Save You?

Just saw Beastly...ummm...somebody give me the script and a week and I can revise the whole thing and make it like 27 times better.  I mean the whole story of Beauty and the Beast is such a classic but this screenplay didn't really bring out all the magical, fairy-tale potential it could have had.  First off...the "beast" not beastly enough.  Second, what dad (as scum bag as he may be) will just hand off his daughter to some stranger for her safety?  Well, maybe a complete psycho dad would, but nothing really showed her dad was that crazy.  And so she's off to rich hideaway with her dad's consent and her "social media" page.  Ok...enough.  It was worth the Redbox dollar, though.  But what injustice to the novel Beastly by Alex Flinn.  Please, screenwriters and movie producers...stop messing up books!  The writer knows best so why mess up a story that works?  Now, I can see a druggie dad willing to trade his daughter to save his own messed up life as a last ditch effort to see another hit up his vein.  That's in the book.

I suppose I really don't have much to write tonight.  This is sort of a venting blog.  Which brings me to another movie with our "beast."  But first the book...I Am Number Four.  I'll admit my son wanted to buy it, but I would not let him for writing sake.  I read a few paragraphs and that was all I had to read to see somebody with a pretty good plot idea just sat down and wrote it and didn't put much thought into the craft of writing.  Just plain, boring, generic stuff in there.  This sci-fi?  This is publishable with a pretty sizeable media promotion, movie deal, and all?  Disheartening.  But on the bright side, the movie did a much better job!  I'd rather see the movie any day than endure a few paragraphs of the book.

You know what I need?  I need a very well written novel right now and nothing is coming my way and nothing is really grabbing my attention.  Of the 20 or so books on my desk (the ones I brought home this summer to read), only about 2 or 3 of them will be "wow."  And those 2 or 3 have not been promoted by many book reviewers or YA blogs.  Why?  'Cus there's no magical spell or demonic angels or devouring shadows that want a mortal soul.  Just go to Target.  There is a whole aisle of "dark" YA. 

Enough!  Give Matt de la Pena a chance! 

First chapter of I Will Save You...amazing writing.  Real writing.

So, here is a portion of a letter he wrote to all potential readers and posted on his own blog...


Dear Potential Reader:

This past Sunday I was playing ball in Brooklyn. A bunch of guys like me, older now, still trying to get to the rim or drain jumpers from the corner. At one point the ball rolled out of bounds and two dudes disagreed about who touched it last. Others joined in. Fingers were pointed. Things were said about people’s mothers. I stood back and watched the argument build and thought about the absurdity of our lives. All of us dressed up, dressed down, trying to be somebody, hoping they say good things when we’re not in the room. Like me, standing at half court all stressed out, wondering: Will anybody like my new book, I WILL SAVE YOU? It’s sad. Maybe people don’t like sad books. I like sad books, but I like sad everything – though technically I’m not a sad person.

                         YOU CAN READ THE ENTIRE LETTER ON HIS BLOG..Here.

 But I will skip to the end  of his letter.


Or maybe the connection is a more personal one. Maybe when you read one of my books you’re coming into my home, drunk on my wine, and sticking a small piece of me in your pocket (so much of these stories are pulled from my past). And maybe when you move me all around – from the table by your bed, to your office desk, to your padded computer bag – you’re giving me a small peek into your world. And maybe after you turn the last page you’ll even lend me to a friend, and I’ll get even farther in my travels. And ultimately you may even come to an epiphany similar to mine, and you’ll sneak up onto my front lawn, months from now, years even, and set that borrowed piece of me back on my welcome mat in the form of a letter, or an email, or a Facebook message, telling me what you think. That’s easily my favorite thing in the world...I would be honored if you gave I WILL SAVE YOU a read. It really is kind of a sad book. But it’s hopeful, too. And it’s my heart.

Your friend,
Matt de la Peña

And here is an EXCERPT from I Will Save You:

I keep picturing it over and over in the pitch black of solitary confinement. With my arms and legs strapped down and my head taped in place so I can't move or barely even breathe.

I see me pushing Devon off the cliff.

Him in the air reaching, ricocheting off the ice plant cliff, hitting the sand, people circling his crooked body.

The grunion coming from the ocean.

Olivia crying in her hands.

And every time I picture it a worse feeling goes in my stomach, like my whole body is unbalanced, or when you drop straight down in your roller-coaster cart and everybody has their hands up, screaming.

Except for me there's no end of the ride where I can get off and just sit on an empty bench with my soda watching people. This kind of roller coaster keeps going.

'Cause what if I was wrong about Devon?

What if the whole time he wasn't trying to hurt her, he just loved her? Same as me. What if that's the reason he was always wandering around alone in the middle of the night like he was depressed?

And what if Olivia actually loved him back, and I got in the way of people's fate?

That doesn't make sense, though. 'Cause he kept telling me she thought she was better and he would use his gun on her.

And Olivia liked me.

She even said it at Torrey Pines Beach while we sat together on her special rock and watched the sunset colors spread over the ocean.

Matt de la Pena

About Matt de la Pena

It’s raining in Brooklyn today, and I’m at a coffee shop, writing.

Man, I always seem to be writing these days. I’m here at a coffee shop, or I’m at the Writers Space, or I’m solo in my room late at night, in the dark, writing inside undecorated white walls, writing under a Brooklyn-style skylight that's more tar than starry sky.

Guess I've traveled a million miles from how I was as a kid. Used to be just me and basketball. Pick up games and talking head with the fellas. But these days hoop is a little smaller in the rearview mirror. The jumper isn't quite so trustworthy. The first step doesn't hurt as many feelings. Instead of hip hop and R&B, it's Sufjan Stevens, M Ward, Iron & Wine. Elliott Smith. These days come a little more literary, a little more solitary.

But early this morning I went back in my head for a sec. Went back to the face of the first girl who told me she loved me. Jen. This was way back in San Diego. We were both 15 and fresh-faced, sitting on my buddy's couch–his parents' couch. We were so awkward, so overwhelmed by having just kissed for the first time. Man, I hadn't seen her face in years. But there she was. In my mind. Every beautiful detail. Her eyes so big and brown and pure, dark hair so straight and long. And the look on her face . . . man, this girl actually dug me!

We were like that for a good 15 minutes. Silent. Unaware of how to act in our brand-new romantic skin. She circled a finger around my right kneecap, cleared her throat and brought her face up to mine. “Guess what,” she said.

“What?”

She took the basketball out of my hands and set it in her lap. She spun it around and pointed at the “I” in “Spalding.” She looked up at me and smiled, then pointed at the “L.” She shifted the ball around to the word “Official,” pointed at the “O.” She searched and pointed, searched and pointed, until she had completely spelled out the phrase “I love you.”

I felt something move in my chest and asked her if she wanted to be my girl. She blushed, nodded. We grabbed a hold of each other and kissed again, this time a little less awkward.

This morning, when I woke up remembering this, it hit me how deeply rooted the game has been in my life. Here I was holding my basketball while I kissed my first girlfriend. She used it to spell out that she loved me.

No matter how far I move away from the game, into this new life as an author, no matter what strange direction my literary interests lead me in next, or where I go, or who I meet, I will always carry the game of basketball in my chest. This game was my best friend growing up. It was my confidant. My passion. My ticket to college, to education, to books and words, the rhythms of poetry.

Soon the day will come when I can no longer dunk, when I can no longer scoot around the skinny kid at the Y with the big head. Eventually my skills will deteriorate to the point that a basketball court stops feeling like a haven and starts feeling more like a prison cell. But I will never forget you, Basketball. You were with me every step of the way. You gave me the confidence to try and be somebody (an author!). You gave me this incredible life.

Teachers Guide

Teacher's Guide

NOTE TO TEACHERS

Please click on the link to download the PDF.
Download a PDF of the Teacher's Guide

Ok...so, don't you feel like reading it now?

Excellent novel by Matt de la Pena!

Now I am off to watch one of my favorite TV series...Breaking Bad (season 4).

The Wrong Path...Maybe "Write" Path

So yesterday I made a new author contact, and I'm so looking forward to reading her YA romance novel...The Wrong Path.  Actually, Vivian Marie Aubin du Paris (don't you just love her name?) found me.  She somehow found my blog, even though I only have 99 followers...my hundred is barely getting here.  I read a blog post somewhere once that there is a new interest in the world of blogging...quality over quantity.  In other words, be happier with a core of people who acually read your blog rather than have a gazillion followers or followers that come to you with a "you follow me, I follow you" mentality.  Hmmm...I don't know.  I get what this means, but numbers still make me smile.

But back to Vivian's book!  I've always said a book with any smidgen of romance is the kind that makes for a better read in my world, but lately, I want the romance, the superb plot, and the superb writing.  I haven't read her novel yet since she barely sent me a PDF version, but just based on a brief summary she sent by email, well, I am sold.  I want to read it.  I guess many would say her novel is the kind of story we've heard before, but it seems to have more to it.  Maybe because I really like The Summer I Turned Pretty byJenny Han and Chasing Brooklyn by Lisa Schroeder...both involving a choice between brothers. 

What I like so far about The Wrong Path is how Annabelle's life could be completely altered by choosing one brother over another.  So, depending on which brother she follows, then in that choice you find the wrong path.  But, the wrong path may end up to be the right path after all the tragedy and mystery clears up.  Or maybe it's wrong all the way and stays wrong and you don't get the ending you want but you get the ending that ends with a punch and keeps you thinking about it and weighing out what it all means after you turn the last page.

Author Summary:

The Wrong Path by Vivian Marie Aubin du Paris

They were the ones everyone wanted to be. Except on the inside.


Annabelle's life was finally going according to plan. She had the right group of friends. Her childhood crush had finally started to notice her. She was pretty, popular, and in love.


And then one terrible night at a party Will enters her life and everything changes.
Will is the polar opposite of his older brother Trevor—Annabelle’s new boyfriend—the popular, straight-A, quarterback high school star. He's wild, charismatic, and full of secrets. He's completely different from anyone Annabelle has ever known, and soon their accidental run-in becomes a pattern as Annabelle finds herself seeking him out wherever she goes.


Despite his open hostility with his older brother, Annabelle is drawn to him, wanting to be with him. Will opens a new world for Annabelle, one where she can shed her carefully constructed mask and be herself.


But being with Will comes at a price. And when tragedy strikes, she has to make a choice between the two brothers.


And the wrong one means losing everything forever.

New YA Books in May 2011

1.  First, Between Here and Forever by the fabulous Elizabeth Scott!

I am very excited about this book, since she is one of my favorite authors.  Hopefully, I will buy it for my Nook very soon...but I already love the story line and the complications. 

Story of a girl who has always found her identity in being everything her sister is not, but now she has to discover who she is without her sister and in the process also discover things about her sister she did not know and might not have ever known. 

Of course, the love story...makes it better for me.  So, another coming-of-age story, but that's what I love to write. 

Isn't a lot of YA all about this is some way or another...the identity story, the growing up story, the remember when story, the coming-of-age story.  Luv It!

Enjoy the video...very interesting for all you aspiring authors, including me!

Elizabeth Scott on Between Here and Forever

2.  Ok, all you die-hard paranormal romance/Twilight fans, here's one for you by newcomer Lisa Kuehne with her debut YA, True Intentions.

(From author's website)

Ava is unaware she possesses a rare and unique gift, a soul with the ability to influence mankind toward virtue instead of sin. Unfortunately, Satan will stop at nothing to gain control of her special ability.

Ava's faith is seriously shaken when she is the sole survivor of the car accident that kills her twin brother and dad. When she relocates and faces the ultimate temptation in Samuel Perry, her mysterious classmate living on earth as a soldier of Satan since 1798 to tempt and damn mankind; Ava isn’t sure she can do the right thing— resist. Sam must choose if he will lead her straight into the devil’s trap or place his immortal existence on the line in order to keep the girl he is falling for alive.

What ultimate price is Ava willing to pay for love? What if it means giving up her life or turning over her soul straight into Satan’s hands— for the boy of her dreams?

 

I've only read a brief excerpt of this novel online, but I will say the Prologue gets you into Ava's story right away and her doomed, fated attraction to a someone who can only mean bad.  It seems the ultimate conflict will be between the forces of bad and good with love mixed in...reminds me of the frog's lines in the animated film Gnomeo and Juliet..."Your love is doomed, your love is dead" as she rips petals off a flower.  

So will Ava turn her boy to good or will Samuel turn Ava to evil? 

 

I would hope somehow Samuel becomes a friendly ghost, gives her an unforgetable kiss, and gives her up to his own blissful eternal sleep as someone who once lived as a human. But this is not likely since True Intentions is the first book in a series.

 

My favorite line so far?  He will remain here, an angel among us.

 

And the cover?  Fabulous look I think.

Three Rivers Rising...Formula for Love

Happy Last Day of February and Last Day of YA Historical Fiction...well, not Last Day as in I will never feature YA Historical Fiction ever again because you know I love it!  Plus, I still need to do a full review for Madame Tussaud and announce my winner later this week!

But my last featured YA Historical Fiction for this month will be Three Rivers Rising: A Novel of the Johnstown Flood by Jame Richards.

First of all, I love verse novels and here we have a spectacular addition to the genre and it's the first I've read and known to tackle historical fiction through poetic forms! Yea!  At times, the poetry reads like beautiful prose, so it is amazingly accessible to all readers if if you think you don't like free verse.

Second,  romance...what else could I ask for?

Third, alternating POV!  Love, love, love this.  Most of the novel alternates between Celestia and Peter, but it also includes poetic pieces by Celestia's father and other women of local communities.  All of these voices collide on the fateful day of reckoning/flooding in the spring of 1889.

Fourth, my novel is a verse novel and incorporates some history (even though it's more like Aztec fantasy/revisionist history), so Three Rivers is pretty close to my heart.

Fifth, Three Rivers gives an authentic and realist account of class and gender differences in the last decade of the 19th century.

Sixth...too many other great things to say about it and my list would never end.

Seventh...Free Verse Rocks!  Just had to let that out.

The Not So Good...the book cover...I think something more visual...like rivers as arms intersecting (--just my amateur ideas--please don't take seriously!).  I don't have any awesome ideas, but the cover doesn't say you must read me now or forever be unfullfilled. 

Summary Posted on Goodreads

Sixteen-Year-Old Celstia spends every summer with her family at the elite resort at Lake Conemaugh, a shimmering Allegheny Mountain reservoir held in place by an earthen dam. Tired of the society crowd, Celestia prefers to swim and fish with Peter, the hotel’s hired boy. It’s a friendship she must keep secret, and when companionship turns to romance, it’s a love that could get Celestia disowned. These affairs of the heart become all the more wrenching on a single, tragic day in May, 1889. After days of heavy rain, the dam fails, unleashing 20 million tons of water onto Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in the valley below. The town where Peter lives with his father. The town where Celestia has just arrived to join him. This searing novel in poems explores a cross-class romance—and a tragic event in U. S. history.


Excerpt...A chapter/poem from Celestia's point of view:

Estrella shines--

glossy dark eyelashes
and smooth pink cheeks.
My parents' favorite,
and, at nineteen, my senior by three years.
She starts each day in a steamer chair
with plaid blankets and a book.
She plays the part of the lovesick sweetheart--
her beau, Charles, learns the family business
back home in Pittsburgh--
but her natural buoyancy is not long repressed.
Fun always knows where to find her.
Just now, an errant croquet ball rolls under her chair.
She laughs and runs to the game,
the dappled sunlight,
and the jovial golden boys.
Handsome Frederick
meets her halfway,
extending his arm.
Frederick with his shock of blond hair,
broad shoulders,
and skin glowing with health . . .
Poor old Charles
with his consumptive cough
better arrive soon
if he wants to find his intended still betrothed.
He cannot compete with the gaiety
and romance of our sparkling little lake in the mountains.


Now about me--
if I am not the fun-loving beauty,
then I must be the serious one,
the one who would toss the croquet ball back,
wave and sigh,
but be infinitely more fascinated
with my book
than with the superficial cheer
of the society crowd.
The one who gets the joke
but does not tolerate it.
The one who baits the hook
and guts the fish
with Peter,
the hired boy.


Just absolutely Lovely!

Falling in Love With English Boys...on Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!  If there's one thing I love to read...anything with a smidgen of romance!  No doubt Falling in Love With English Boys fits the criteria.

Hmmm...what could this book possibly be about?  London, falling in love, romance...yes, that's exactly it!  The title and picture basically say it all, so this is the perfect book for Valentine's Day! 

Summary (from book)

Sixteen-year-old Catherine Vernon has been stranded in London for the summer - no friends, no ex-boyfriend Adam the Scum (good riddance!), and absolutely nothing to do but blog about her misery to her friends back home. Desperate for something - anything - to do in London while her (s)mother's off researching boring historical things, Cat starts reading the 1815 diary of Katherine Percival her mom gives her - and finds the similarities between their lives to be oddly close. But where Katherine has the whirls of the society, the parties and the gossip over who is engaged to who, Cat's only got some really excellent English chocolate. Then she meets William Percival - the uber-hot descendant of Katherine - and things start looking up.

Here's my Minnie/mini-review

The Good...personal blog vs. personal diary--the entire narrative is in this format, providing something quite different than other novels.  But the first person POV keeps it familiar to other YA's you've read.

The Better...Katherine's 19th century diary entry--there's just more depth to her entries or maybe I just perceive it that way because her entries give insight to an unfamiliar society so unlike ours.  I mean, the waltz is considered quite a scandalous dance in Kat's world.

The Not So Bad...there's just not a big enough sweep-me-off-my-feet factor.  Maybe because all entries are first person blog and diary entries.  It's difficult to bring out fantasticly romantic conversation because then it's no longer such a personal account...it starts turning into a regular novel narrative.  But Kat's diary does a better job of bringing the emotional punch, not to mention the scenes where Kat just wants to slap the man she doesn't yet know she loves.

The Not So Ugly...N/A!  Just look at the cover!  Absolutely gorgeous! The only criticism I have is that it doesn't match either Cat or Kat.  Cat from the 21st century is not a fashionista and Kat from the 19th century could never show an ounce of ankle--ever.

Of course Cat falls for the tall, dark, and handsome, blue-eyed Brit...not Simon Cowell at all.  He also happens to be devastatingly rich and wel-travelled.  Of course there's the modelesque girfriend, too.  And she is one of the central problems between them.  The other problems...all boil down to basic facts--He is British and rich and mature and she is American--typical high school girl who cares about shopping and cute boys and being like by others.

I guess I can say Kat is very similiar to Cat any many teenage girls out there...BUT...society demands Kat be this way.  The right match has to be made to secure her future.  She has to be the best dressed and has to end up with someone at least equal to her status.  Luckily, she has a mother to help her stand up for herself and not take the first man her father finds for her.

Of the two, I liked 19th century Kat better.  I only wished her story would have continued...that the big love scene would've been way bigger.  But this is Cat's story, so more of the focus has to go to Cat and her quest for love.

Revolution...Then and Now

Since February is officially Madame Tussaude month (YA novel by Michelle Moran) at Simply Yours, I figured I might as well include a few other YA historical titles for this month with the first one being Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly.  It appears to be quite a hefty read, the kind that would be perfect for those snowed in frozen days of February.  Can you believe even deep South Texas, over here by Mexico, got hit by freezing conditions? And mind you that people down here already drive like maniacs, so you can imagine how many of us would do out-and-about without even having any driving experience whatsoever with ice on small little bridges that really aren't bridges.  And school was closed on Friday throughout the Valley (as we call it down here)!

Well, I took this home with me last Wednesday and did a pretty good read of it, but will admit I read through some parts really fast because although the storyline is intriguing and I adore historical fiction,  the book has to get me here...at the core of my heart...for me to devour every line and re-read lines and passages or just give it a very thorough reading.  Ok, so this book didn't get me there but nonetheless, it is a book I recommend for anyone who loves to read.  I just don't have time to devour all books.

Summary from Publishers Weekly:  Donnelly (A Northern Light) melds contemporary teen drama with well-researched historical fiction and a dollop of time travel for a hefty read that mostly succeeds. Andi Alpers is popping antidepressants and flunking out of her Brooklyn prep school, grieving over her younger brother's death. She finds solace only when playing guitar. When the school notifies her mostly absent scientist father that she's flirting with expulsion, he takes Andi to Paris for Christmas break, where he's testing DNA to see if a preserved heart really belonged to the doomed son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Andi is ordered to work on her senior thesis about a (fictional) French composer. Bunking at the home of a renowned historian, Andi finds a diary that relates the last days of Alexandrine, companion to (you guessed it) the doomed prince. The story then alternates between Andi's suicidal urges and Alexandrine's efforts to save the prince. Donnelly's story goes on too long, but packs in worthy stuff. Musicians, especially, will appreciate the thread about the debt rock owes to the classics.

First, I applaud Jennifer for tying in the French Revolution with a contemporary story.  This, folks, is not easy to do at all.  If you write or read historical fiction, you know that most of it takes place in the past.  If the past merges with the present, does that then bring in fantasy elements?  Is there such a thing as Fantasy Historical Fiction or Fantasy Historical Revisionist Fantasy?  Hmmm...but I think this is what Revolution is, and I think what I'm writing for Awake falls under this, as well.

Overall, the book is an enjoyable read and about the one thing I'm not crazy about is the portrayal of upper-class, super rich teenagers as people with major snob "disappeal" (the opposite for appeal).  Do all the upper-crust teens drink alcohol before school and go through daily living with the apathy, drugs, and plain old debauchery?  That turned me off little bit, and with this, the book began the path away from the core of my heart. 

I do feel empathy for Andi (the main character) and her inabilty to cope with the loss of her brother.  This is a very realistic portrayal of a teen, or any other person, and helps to explain her downward descent into extreme teenage wasteland.  What I like better is that there was  no quick fix for the relationship between  Andi and her father and Andi and her mother.  Not all can be fixed between father and daughter just by a few weeks of living in Paris.

But I could have used a lot more of Andi and Virgil, a Parisian outsider and cab-driver and major love iterest.  We romance lovers want more of this stuff all over the place, especially if we are reading historical fiction.  Plus this is the French revolution, this is Paris...I mean the possibility for a lot of swoon action is endless!  That's just me of course...there is still plenty of romance and this is not promoted as a Romance Historical Fiction. 

Well, I suppose my review did not end being so "mini" afterall, but it still counts since this is like a 500 page book.  This is as "mini" as I could make it. 

The Good:  The plot is engaging with the old and the contemporary merging together (but at times it seems too forced); Andi (the main character) is a young lady with depth and realistic family and relationship issues beyond what's implied in the numerous skull rings she wears on her fingers; Alexandrine's diary from the French Revolution (she is a young girl during the French Revolutio and Andi finds herself caught up in Alexandrine's words) is an old/fresh technique providing a story-within-a-story framework which hasn't really been part of contemporary writing for a while .   Very unique! Enjoy!

The Bad:  nothing!  Hey, you try writing this stuff!  It's hard!

The Ugly:  nothing!  Paris?  Absolutely not.  Maybe the portrayal of the upper class, rich kids...they are portrayed as ugly...but Revolution itself has no "ugly" parts...

P.S.  I love the book cover and the title, but I think it promises a little more than what I actually from cover to cover.  I can see how Andi is having her own significant conflict, but I want more revolution to take place and more connection between past and present.

Next time,

Minnie

Technically speaking, this is still the Christmas season...the rest of 12 Days' List!

Wow...Christmas was last Saturday! I actually took my tree and Christmas decorations down a few hours ago...but now...on to more yummy, festive times.

Making buenelos for New Year's Eve is a traditional Tex-Mex/ Mexican thing down here in the Valley so I need to go buy some "partially" cooked tortillas and plenty of sugar and cinnammon tomorrow so I can get started early on Friday. Basically, for all you non-Mexicans out there...buenelos (with the funny symbol on top of the "n" that I don't know how to type) are fried flour tortilla dough (what we call masa) covered in a sugar-cinnamon mix. Buenelos and Mexican chocolate are essential during the Christmas season! The ultimate sweet Christmas comfort food I grew up with! Just thinking about it makes me want to curl up with a few good books!

Here are the rest of my 12 Days of Christmas book recommendations:

5. The Lives of Girls and Women...the classical book by Alice Munro. Everybody out there...you have got to read this book. This is what stuffy shirts call "literary" but really, this is just good ol' grown up YA before YA existed. First person POV, strong female protagonist, coming-of-age, love story all mixed in with spectacular writing, wit, and humor. You will laugh, cry, and just wish every single YA book was written like this. Don't let the turn of the century copyright date get you...you can't tell. I love contemporary YA more than any other genre, and this book is as contemporary as it gets even though the time setting is not our own, but yet giving you insight to the way the female mind works...and you know that never changes...I seriously give this book a gazillion stars as a rating! But for the older YA crowd!


Summary: (From Penguin.Ca)

Lives of Girls and Women is a coming-of-age story told through the eyes of Del Jordan. As Del moves from childhood through a nervous adolescence and into young adulthood she introduces us to such memorable characters as her vibrant and unorthodox mother, the sad and dangerous men from her small town and the school kids who make fun of her and her family.

6. The Flowers by Dagoberto Gilb. So this is also the type of book classified as "literary" by not necessarily by the stuffy shirt people. This is "literary" by contemporary creative writing standards. You want progressive? You want "now"? You want experimental forms? This is it! This is unadulturated, at times stream-of-consciousness writing with significant male testorone as the driving force and no chapters...here we have a very unique, edgy male voice with a lyrical, passionate, in-your-face tone who sees the world in colors (metaphorically) and grows up to be a better young man than the boy he is at the beginning. By the way...one of the few Latino novels out there accessible to a the older YA crowd.

Excerpt:

How would I be if I lived here? I’d let that come into me, I’d let my mind go to the show it liked. Maybe you could say I would go off to my own world. To me it wasn’t mine, nothing like mine, because it would go to black. I loved that color. It was like when the eyes aren’t open but try to see. What would finally come were colors and lines busting through, flying out and off and cutting in, crazy fires and sparks, and it’d come out speeding, and I’d be like a doggie out the window, those lane dividers whiffing by on the freeway straight below an open car window. I’d start to see shapes floating and straightening and wiggling and see it like it was a music that didn’t make sound but was making a story. Not a regular story and I don’t mean one you would hear some loco nut tell you, one that didn’t have nothing to do with people or places you’ve ever seen. It’s that I can’t describe it better. Just, I have to watch, I have to listen.

I guess I'm out of time...will have to just list the rest...and make these my first set of minni-reviews for 2011! Happy New Year's Eve folks!

7. Sophie Mendoza's Guide for Getting Lost in Mexico by Malin Alegria

8. Incantation by Alice Hoffman

9. Sea by Heidi Kling

10. Circle the Soul Softly by Davida Wills Hurwin

11. ummm...The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan! I will never stop promoting this book!

12. ummm...The Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan! Ditto!

I want to thank my professor (Jean) for Form and Theory of the Novel this past semester for putting Munro and Gilb on the reading list for class! Two of the best books I have ever read in or out of school. She is not a stuffy shirt (even though I did have to read BORING Middlemarch...don't read it all you YA book lovers)!

3rd, 4th, 5th...? Day of Christmas? Catch up Day...My Heartbeat and If I Stay

Yea...my semester at grad school over! And out of work for two weeks! I have done absolutely nothing for an entire weekend (except for minor cleaning...)!







Now it is time to play catch up with my 12 days of Christmas book reviews...will I make it? I don't know, but I'll sure try!

On the 3rd day of Christmas...My Heartbeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr.

So this book is pretty obscure in comparison to some of her other novels such as Stay With Me, and it's also on the shorter side, but the writing is non-par. Now the cover shows a love triangle, but it is not the typical triangle. Link and James are best friends, but in between there is Ellen who is Link's sister. She has always been crazy about Link but there have always been rumors that Link is not interested in girls the way he is interested in James...

I do not read this kind of book...as I have ranted about before. But this book tells you, in the book jacket, what's at the core of the plot without hiding it. Also, the protagonist is Ellen and her point of view in the matter. Another thing I like is the fact that what you think can't happen does happen and I for one am happy with the ending...which I won't say other than Ellen wins. What happens to Ellen is not what happens to other girls in other books with best friends they can only love from afar. And I just absolutely love this author and her writing style and her characters, especially her female characters and their level of maturity and ability to be introspective in a way that is authentic and truthful.

Above all it has romance and isn't that like one of the highlights of reading something? If you follow my blog then you know I only read books with boy-girl romance and this book is no exception.

Excerpt:

Now I know what's different: I've outgrown the question. I am not attached to James solely through Link. And while he can no longer make me blush, I am old enought for James to break my heart. Breaking his when I outgrow him is no longer the only option.





On the 4th day of Christmas...If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Summary: (from Bordersmedia.com)

Seventeen-year-old Mia is a talented cellist headed for Julliard in the fall. Her life changes in an instant when she and her family get into a car accident one snowy February morning. Suddenly Mia is forced to make the ultimate choice, and it's the only choice that truly matters. If you liked The Lovely Bones, you'll want to read the heartbreakingly beautiful If I Stay.
My thoughts...ok...I wouldn't go so far as to make a comparison with The Lovely Bones because that book gets you from page 1. This one could have a quicker start and the dialogue seems a bit artificial among family members. Oh, but the end...

that's the best and, yes, get those tissues out! Amazingly, you start thinking like Mia and when it seems her soul has just about made the final decision to leave or stay, her soul takes a different direction. Who knows what your soul, heart, and mind are feeling, thinking, seeing until you are actually in that state bordering between life of death and the silver horizon of aliveness?

Here's brief, yet completely effective book trailer to get you going...to go out and buy or check out...or reread!

On the 2nd Day of Christmas...How to Say Goodbye in Robot

On the 2nd day of Christmas...well, you know the tune.

My pick for today is How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford. This is one of those obscure books (like Eva Underground) many don't get around to reading. It just can't compete with all those paranormal and fantasy and series books out there. I mean who is Natalie Standiford and why does it have a weird title ...that's not my thinking, but possibly that of typical teen or any other reader.

But the title pretty much tells you this is going to be one of those books without the necessarily pretty ending...but ohhhhh...the ending is satisfying...it kind of makes your heart feel heavy and tight but hopeful.

Here's a little bit to get you going. There is a quiet, loner guy but he's not all James Dean or anything. Classmates call him Ghost Boy though Bea also knows him as Jonah. And Bea is Robot Girl. Ghost? Robot? Obviously, with names like that, they are what some people may judge as being emotionally distant.

How to Say Goodbye in Robot features an unconventional romance based on human connection rather than physicality. Ghost Boy and Robot Girl have a long way to go, but if they can have one truly human relationship with each other, even if it seems impossible, wouldn't it be worth it in the large scheme of things?

Quote...to show you how it's different from other YA.

(This is Bea thinking)

I turned a corner and came to a small church. There was a head-stone near the path leading to the church's wooden doors. I stepped closer to read the headstone. It said FOR THE UNICORN CHILD.

That is so cool, I thought. What a funky town this was. I imagined a neighborhood Legend of the Unicorn Child, about a one-horned little boy who'd died tragically, hit by a car or shot by a mugger or maybe poisoned by lawn pesticides. The story of the Unicorn Child was so real to these people they'd erected a stone in his memory.

Then I read it again. The stone didn't say FOR THE UNICORN CHILD. It said FOR THE UNBORN CHILD.



Summary From Booklist:

The hot pink cover featuring a telephone dangling by the cord fairly screams teen romance! but might give the wrong impression of this quirky novel. Bea, the new girl in a school where most of the kids have known each other since kindergarten, befriends Jonah, an outcast deemed Ghost Boy after a cruel middle-school prank. She finds herself torn between normal highschool activities and spending time with Jonah, listening to the bizarre but engaging Night Light, a radio show haunted by some of Baltimore’s loneliest weirdos. Theirs is not a budding romance, but a tumultuous, hot-and-cold friendship; they love each other, but should never even think about a relationship. Credit is due to Standiford for the delicate portrayal of Jonah’s home life, which could have veered into soap-opera territory, especially with the reappearance of his long-thought-dead, mentally disabled twin brother. The heart of this novel is neither cold and metallic nor full of romance and delusion. Instead, it’s very human. Grades 9-12.

On the first day of Christmas...

On the first day of Christmas, my true love (Reading) gave to me...Eva Underground by Dandi Daley Mackall

If you follow my blog, you know historical fiction...with romance...holds a special place in my heart. And what better than historical YA fiction set in 1970's Communist Poland? Down with medieval, renaissance, 19th century heroines!

I picked up this back about a year ago...of course the book jacket had everything to do with it! A train, old architecture, and a passion filled goodbye kiss...ahhhhh. Just my kind of reading.

But Eva Underground is not the flimsy YA novel of girl meets boy and boy is a dangerous rebel who rides motorcycles. Well, the boy is a rebel of sorts but the politcal sort and he's beyond boyhood. He lives for a greater cause and Eva slowly falls for the cause as she lives, breathes, eats, and sleeps the cause in the tiny, rebel-crowded apartment she shares with her father and members of the underground movement. Cultural shock doesn't even begin to give her experience justice, and at the end, the one place she never considers home is more home than her old high school life in Chicago.

The politcal atmosphere of change, fear, hunger are taken from straight from the author's own experiences as a college graduate in communist Poland, so besides suspense and romance this novel provides realism and a historical lesson without my boring class lectures (I'm a history teacher right now...)

Plus...absolutely love the cover!

Brief Summary from Booklist

Gr. 8-11. In 1978 high-school-senior Eva Lott leaves her comfortable life in the Chicago suburbs for Communist Poland, where her father is teaching in the underground education movement. Coping with the recent death of her mother from cancer, Eva now has to contend with the boredom and loneliness of living in a foreign country. After a botched attempt to run away and make her way back to Chicago, Eva develops a friendship with Tomek, a young underground leader, and a romance blossoms, giving her a desire to stay. This otherwise standard coming-of-age love story is made more unusual by a strong sense of time and place. Mackall effectively conveys the harsh realities of living under a Communist regime and the sense of hope for a better future among Poles that came with the rise of Lech Walesa and the Solidarity Movement and the election of the first Polish pope.

Manic Monday Mini-Review...Sleepless...in Texas

Sleepless by Cyn Balog

This book seems right up my alley...intriguing premise, romance, and the idea of sleep as a sort of seduction. I think I know what that means because sometimes the best feeling in the world (and worst at the same time) is the moment right when you can't stay awake any longer and all your brain wants to do is shut off. Happens to me everytime after watching mindless television for a couple of hours late at night or right at about 2:30 in the afternoon if I happen to be at home and in bed. Hmmm...maybe I should be writing instead of sleeping? Not to worry, my final year of grad school is starting up and I'm gonna have too much writing to do.

As for the sleep seduction...interesting concept, even more so though, is the idea of humanizing Mr. Sandman. I don't think there has been any other story where the metaphorical Sandman is an an actual character. Maybe I should do the same to the Man on the Moon.

I just really, really hope the writing is up to par. I've never read anything by this author, but based on an excerpt I found online...so far the narrative delivers way better than some books I have read lately. I've been bored with all I've bean reading and my laptop is out of commission...all this means less time spent on my blog. But getting back in the game today!

Summary (from authors website)

De Marchelle isn’t supposed to feel a connection. He is a Sandman, a supernatural being whose purpose is to seduce human charges to sleep. While he can communicate with his charges in their dreams, he isn’t encouraged to–after all, getting too involved in one human’s life would prevent him helping his other charges get their needed rest.

But he can’t deny that he feels something for Julia. Julia, with her fiery red hair and her sad dreams. Just weeks ago, her boyfriend died in a car accident, and Eron can tell that she feels more alone than ever. Eron was human once too, many years ago, and he remembers how it felt to lose the one he loved. Eron has always felt protective of Julia . . . but now, when she seems to need him more than ever, he can’t seem to reach her . . .

Sandmen are forbidden from communicating with humans outside their dreams. But will Eron be willing to risk everything for a chance to be with the person he loves?

Manic Monday Mini-Review...Flash Burnout

Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan

I read this a couple weeks ago along with about 4 other titles. I've heard it said you really need to read the kind of stuff you want to write and you need to read a lot of it. I qualilfy. I've lost track, but I think I have read about 300 YA books since I began this writing quest of mine two and a half years ago. Would I like to write something like Flash Burnout? You bet.


What is the number one thing I like about this book? The male point of view. I am just drawn to the male voice in any novel. I read in the author's website that Blake, the main character of her story, would not leave her alone. She had his voice inside of her and at times felt as if she was transcribing his story. Yes, the author is a she. And her Blake is so real. I hope my male characters are that real. I will have to give you all a sample of Cass soon (Cass is my main character in one of the novels I am writing.)


Summary

Fifteen-year-old Blake has a girlfriend and a friend who’s a girl. One of them loves him, the other one needs him.

When he snapped a picture of a street person for his photography homework, Blake never dreamed that the woman in the photo was his friend Marissa’s long-lost meth addicted mom. Blake’s participation in the ensuing drama opens up a world of trouble, both for him and for Marissa. He spends the next few months trying to reconcile the conflicting roles of Boyfriend and Friend. His experiences range from the comic (surviving his dad’s birth control talk) to the tragic (a harrowing after-hours visit to the morgue).

In a tangle of life and death, love and loyalty, Blake will emerge with a more sharply defined snapshot of himself.



Another Summary

Telephoto lens. Zoom. In a shutter release millisecond, Blake's world turns upside down.

The nameless woman with the snake tattoo is not just another assignment. "That's my mom!" gasps Marissa.

Saturated self-portrait: Blake, nice guy, class clown, always trying to get a laugh, not sure where to focus.

Contrast. Shannon, Blake's GF. Total. Babe.

Marissa, just a friend and fellow photographer.

Shannon loves him; Marissa needs him. How is he supposed to frame them both in one shot?