From Adults to Teens and Everything In Between

From Adults to Teens and Everything In Between

Showing posts with label YA Book Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label YA Book Review. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Author Interview: Michelle Muto

THE BOOK OF LOST SOULS

Synopsis

When teen witch Ivy MacTavish changes a lizard into her date for a Halloween dance, everything turns to chaos. And when no one is powerful enough to transform him back except Ivy, it sparks the rumor: Like father, like daughter. Ivy has heard it all before – that her father, who left when she was seven – was involved with the darkest of magic.

Making the rumors worse, someone uses an evil spell book to bring back two of history’s most nefarious killers. Ivy’s got a simple plan to set things right: find the real dark spell caster, steal the book, and reverse the spell. No problem! But she’ll have to deal with something more dangerous than murderous spirits that want her and her friends dead: the school’s resident bad boy and hotter-than-brimstone demon, Nick Marcelli. Nick’s offering Ivy more than his help with recovering the missing book – he’s offering her a way to ditch her scaly reputation as a lizard-lover. Demons are about as hard to handle as black magic, and as Ivy soon discovers, it’s going to take more than a lot of luck and a little charm if she wants to survive long enough to clear her status as a dark witch, get a warm-blooded boyfriend, and have her former date back to eating meal worms before the week’s end.

Hunks, hexes, and magical mayhem!

Amazon for Kindle
Barnes & Noble for Nook
Smashwords for eBook
Coming soon to iBook, Sony, Kobo, and more!

INTERVIEW With Michelle
FF: Let's start with a little bit about your back ground.
Michelle: I'm married, with dogs. Yes, one of them really IS a Beezlepup. Kidding. But, he is the inspiration for Devlin, the Beezlepup in the book. By day, I'm a freelance tech writer when the work is there, and a fiction writer when it's not. As a kid, my favorite past time was spending hours at the library or entire rainy afternoons reading. I guess I've always wanted to be surrounded by the written word.

FF: We love the fresh spin on the supernatural world! How did you come up with the idea for Book of Lost Souls?
Michelle: I've always loved stories about witches. Who wouldn't want to be magic? And, I've always loved humorous stories. There's just not enough of them, in my opinion. One day, this small town teen witch came to mind. All she wanted was a normal, verycontrollable life. Despite her best efforts, she discovers her life is as far from normal as it gets and at times, it's total chaos

FF: What can readers expect out of this story?
Michelle: I hope some good laughs, some palm-sweating, swoon-worthy romance, and loyal friendship. Oh, and a cast of eclectic, memorable characters along with some fast-paced action.

FF: What forms of research did you do for this novel? Anything unique?
Michelle: I did some research on Vlad the Impaler and Countess Elizabeth Bathory. Creepy.

FF: Can you tell us more about your current projects?
Michelle: I'm editing a darker, more emotional tale, set in a different world than Souls and writing a new book.

FF: Any teasers about what you’ll be publishing next?
Michelle: It's a heart-rendering, haunting tale of a girl who discovers death isn't at all what she thought it'd be. In places, I think it's a guaranteed tear jerker. In others, it's downright horror. And the ending is well, you'll have to wait until this summer to read it. Think a darker, more supernatural novel in the vein of The Lovely Bones.

FF: Any advice for aspiring author's on the publication process?
Michelle: Write. Always keep writing. Keep digging into your work and find areas where you need improvement. And always let your imagination run wild.

FF: Lastly I’d like to blast a few personal tidbits out to our readers
A must when you are writing...
Complete solitude and quiet. No music, no interruptions.

Book you are currently reading...
The Rite, by Matt Baglo. I meant to read the book before
I saw the movie,
but it didn't work out that way.

Favorite Quote...
If you think you can, or think you can't, you're right. ~Henry Ford

Thank you for the opportunity to pick your brain Michelle. I thoroughly enjoyed Lost Souls and
am eagerly anticipating your next project.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Interview with JENNIFER LAURENS


Today Fiction Flurry is lucky enough to be interviewing Young Adult author Jennifer Laurens about her New Release Overprotected. Thanks so much for chatting with us today Jennifer!
For those of you who haven’t yet become familiar with Jennifer Laurens she’s the author of Heavenly, Penitence and Absolution. And let me just say they are exquisite work! If you haven’t read them yet, run-don’t walk, to the nearest retailer and get a copy!

Personally, I can’t wait for you next book, Overprotected, to be released in April 2011.( It's available on Kindle,Nook and all e-versions - :)

Ashlyn: A lonely society princess living in New York City.
Daddy hired you to be my bodyguard.
Colin: Childhood enemy, now her protector.
Daddy thought I’d be safe. He thought I’d never fall in love. He thought he could keep me forever.Charles: obsessed with keeping her safe, keeping her his, he hires the one person he knows she could never fall in love with: Colin.
Daddy was wrong.


FF: Let’s start with a bit about your background…

JL: I'm a SoCal native now living in Utah with my husband of 27 years and 6 children, one of whom has autism.

FF: What can readers expect out of this new story?

JL: This is not your cliche "bodyguard" novel. It's really a coming-of-age story about a young woman fighting for independence, about a family living a life of pretense, about real love gone overboard into obsessive love. It's character complex and highly emotional. It's the first story I ever wrote, and it occupies a special spot in my heart for that reason. I wrote 3 different versions of it! ( not three drafts, three complete, different versions ) before finally choosing this POV to settle upon to tell the story.

FF: I know your novels are more than just teenage angst and love, so what is the driving theme in this one?

JL: There are several basic themes in Overprotected: what is real love? What is right? When are our fears justified? How far is too far to go when it comes to love, family and control?

FF: I have to take the opportunity to quote you: “My life experiences have worked into all of my novels. Some more heavily than others, but parts of me are in each story. I love stories rich in family drama, where family members overcome obstacles through love and miracles.” Any specific examples related to Overprotected you’d care to share?

JL: I'm an only child, and Ashlyn ( the heroine ) is an only child. Her family is loosely based on my cousin's family: only child raised in NYC on Park Avenue. My mother was very protective of me growing up, to the point where I battled feeling obligated to behave certain ways to please her, versus allowing myself to participate in what other teens my age were doing during that time of my life.

FF: How did you come up with the idea for Overprotected?

JL: As I mentioned above, this was my first book I wrote. They say "Write what you know" and, since many of the themes in the book are familiar to me, I strung them together with an unusual love triangle between a girl, a boy and the girl's father. I loved the unusual nature of that kind of love triangle -- but not in a perverted way -- her father loves her too much.

FF: Was any part of this novel difficult to write or research?

JL: Probably Ashlyn's realizations of her parents' marriage. My parents separated when I was 16 and, like Ashlyn, I was mature enough at that age to realize ( and see ) they'd be happier separated. Still, it's not easy seeing your parents marriage ( with all of it's weaknesses ) crumble.

FF: Can you tell us more about your current projects?

JL: It's another early story of mine I'm re-writing for YA.

FF: Any teasers about what you’ll be publishing next? Only that it's another intense story.

JL: I love writing my characters into deep love and plenty of challenges.

FF: Lastly I’d like to blast a few personal tidbits out to our readers.

A must when you are writingmusic. I create a soundtrack for each novel and I listen to it 24/7 while working on the project. Drives me family nuts :)

Book you are currently readingI keep Endless Love by Scott Spencer open and on my NOOK constantly. Other than that, I pick and choose reads carefully because of time restraints.

Favorite quote"No other success can compensate for failure in the home." David O. McKay.

FF: Everyone here at Fiction Flurry would like to send a big THANK YOU to Jennifer Laurens for this opportunity to interview her. Good luck on your upcoming projects Jennifer!


Thursday, August 19, 2010

BookMarks: What Our Writers Are Reading


Michele Downey: Savor the Moment by Nora Roberts

Synopsis:  Wedding baker Laurel McBane is surrounded by romance working at Vows wedding planning company with her best friends Parker, Emma, and Mac. But she's too low-key to appreciate all the luxuries that their clients seem to long for. What she does appreciate is a strong, intelligent man, a man just like Parker's older brother Delaney, on whom she's had a mega-crush since childhood.

But some infatuations last longer than others, and Laurel is convinced that the Ivy League lawyer is still out of her reach. Plus, Del is too protective of Laurel to ever cross the line with her-or so she thinks. When Laurel's quicksilver moods get the better of her-leading to an angry, hot, all-together mind-blowing kiss with Del-she'll have to quiet the doubts in her mind to turn a moment of passion into forever...

Why I picked this book: The book actually came out a few months ago, but I've been waiting for it to be available at the library. I've read the first two books in this series and really enjoyed them. I love Nora Roberts writing and will read -or re-read - anything she publishes.

Annie McElfresh:  Well, I just finished The Ghost and The Goth.  I love the cover and I met the author and she gave me signed Swag - how could I resist?  As a matter of fact, I'm now doing a giveaway of this book over on my blog: Young Adult Bookworm (be sure to check it out!) 

Synopsis:  After a close encounter with the front end of a school bus, Alona Dare goes from Homecoming Queen to Queen of the Dead. Now she’s stuck here in spirit form with no sign of the big, bright light coming to take her away. To make matters worse, the only person who might be able to help her is Will Killian, a total loser/outcast type who hates the social elite. He alone can see and hear her, but he wants nothing to do with the former mean girl of Groundsboro High.   Can they get over their mutual distrust—and this weird attraction between them—to work together before Alona vanishes for good and Will is locked up for seeing things that don’t exist?

My thoughts:  I finished this novel in about two days. I literally got sucked in and had to find out what the connection was between Alona and Will. I like the fact that Will isn't a true Goth, just different, and Alona started noticing little things about him that made him cute. Things, she would've overlooked when she was her alive "bitchy" self, like his perfect smile.  This book has duel points of view in first person. Alona feels a little abrasive and shallow in the beginning, but as time goes on she stops hiding behind her stuck up mask and lets Will know her true self. Also, I thought it was so cute that Alona was, like, Will's dream girl and he finally gets some one on one time with her.  This was a really cute book. So, if you like ghosts, and snarky characters that redeem themselves, this ones for you.

Rachel Dilley:  I'm currently reading The Doctor's Wife by Elizabeth Brundage. There have been so many best sellers with titles involving someone's wife that I figured I'd better jump on the bandwagon...The Time Traveler's Wife, The Pilot's Wife, The Senator's Wife, The Zookeeper's Wife, The Kitchen God's Wife...  Anyway, I selected this book because it was the author's debut novel, and I am always interested in the work that causes an author to break through the publishing barrier, even if it is with an overused title formula.

Here's the book review from Amazon:  A suspense novel crossed with a literary exploration of infidelity and marital rancor, Elizabeth Brundage's ambitious debut, The Doctor's Wife, provides more than the usual kick of adrenalin for readers. In a small town in upstate New York, urban transplants Annie and Michael Knowles--he is a rising OB/GYN, and she is a once-trailblazing journalist who has settled into a teaching job--hope to escape the noise and bustle of the city. But both are drawn into danger: Annie begins an affair with an infamous (and married) painter, Simon Haas, and Michael is coaxed into helping an ex-lover at her family planning clinic. He performs abortions for poor women, and tries to ignore the cars that follow him home and the increasingly threatening phone calls. Sometimes Brundage perfectly navigates the twisting, overlapping elements of her complicated story line, but other times gives us too much at a time. And one of her characters, Simon's disturbed wife Lydia Haas, is so fascinating that she puts the others in the shade. Nevertheless, this is a rich first novel and a promising beginning for its author.

Beth Zellner:  On deck for me is Made in the USA by Billie Letts. 

Lutie McFee's history has taught her to avoid attachments...to people, to places, and to almost everything.  With her mother long dead and her father gone to find his fortune in Las Vegas, fifteen-year-old Lutie lives in the godforsaken town of Spearfish, South Dakota, with her eleven-year-old brother, Fate, and Floy Satterfield, the three-hundred-pound ex-girlfriend of her father.  While Lutie shoplifts for kicks, Fate spends most of his time reading, watching weird TV shows, and worrying about global warming.  As if their life were not dismal enough, one day, while shopping in the local Wal*Mart, Floy keels over and the two motherless kids are suddenly faced with the choice of becoming wards of the state or high-tailing it out of town in Floy's old Pontiac.  Choosing the latter, they head off in search of a father who has no known address, no phone number, and no particular interest in the kids he left behind.

Monday, July 26, 2010

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff ARC review

The Replacement

Title: The Replacement

By: Brenna Yovanoff
Published: September 21st 2010 by Razorbill
Details: Hardcover, 352 pages
Special Note: ARC Review


Mackie Doyle seems like everyone else in the perfect little town of Gentry, but he is living with a fatal secret - he is a Replacement, left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now the creatures under the hill want him back, and Mackie must decide where he really belongs and what he really wants.

A month ago, Mackie might have told them to buzz off. But now, with a budding relationship with tough, wounded, beautiful Tate, Mackie has too much to lose. Will love finally make him worthy of the human world?

My Thoughts:

The entire town of Gentry knows that their human children are stolen and murdered by monsters, but they seem to be okay with the sacrifice in order to keep their town the happy place it is. This novel creates a intriguing world that is full of mystery.

Mackie Doyle is one of the creepiest main characters I've come across in a while, but I will say he is very likable and he won me over very easily. Mackie has this venerability that makes you root for him even though he's not quite human and placed in a crib to replace a human baby that had been stolen and sacrificed. While the creatures under the hill may be evil, Mackie isn't, and strives to just be "normal". Iron, even the slight amount in blood, causes Mackie to go into a toxic shock type syndrome, which adds to the struggle to live in the human world.

This novel is a great YOUNG ADULT (YA) mystery. The kind where you have to figure out exactly what Mackie is why these creatures under the hill suddenly want him back.

If you like creepy YA told from a male first person point of view with a little bit of romance sprinkled in, this one's for you.
 
**See More YA ARC and Book Reviews at my blog READING, WRITING and WAITING**

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