Monthly Archives: February 2012

Waiting on Wednesday (27)

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“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine. It’s a chance to geek-out about the books we’re chewing our nails over. What are you waiting on this week?

I’ve been hearing really good things about this book, and the cover sold me. That girl has awesome hair. And steampunk fairies? Sign me up! 

Innocent Darkness
Suzanne Lazear
Release: August 8, 2012

Wish. Love. Desire. Live. 

Sixteen-year-old Noli Braddock’s hoyden ways land her in an abusive reform school far from home. On mid-summer’s eve she wishes to be anyplace but that dreadful school. A mysterious man from the Realm of Faerie rescues her and brings her to the Otherworld, only to reveal that she must be sacrificed, otherwise, the entire Otherworld civilization will perish

Author Interview: Callie Kingston

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Today we’re proud to be part of the blog tour for Callie Kingston’s Undertow. What is Undertow, you ask? Well, below you’ll find a bit about the book, and an interview with the author herself.

But first, Callie is giving away a Kindle version of her book at each stop on her blog tour. Simply comment on this post to be entered in our giveaway, and you’ll also be entered to win a tour-wide grand prize.

Click to get a sneak-peak on Amazon.

Marissa is nearly eighteen and can’t wait to leave behind her traumatic past. With long time boyfriend Drake, she thinks she has her future all figured out—until she discovers his betrayal. She flees to a desolate beach on the wild Oregon coast hoping to escape her pain, where, overcome with emotional and physical exhaustion, she dozes off beside a log. When the first icy waves strike her, it is too late: a rogue wave drags her out to sea. 
Somehow she survives, and now each night she dreams of a creature who rescues her. Determined to discover the truth, her obsession deepens until she once again risks her life in the frigid ocean. Will the creature Marissa seeks save her? Will she be lost forever in the eddies of her mind, or will Jim, her new boyfriend, keep her from drowning in the abyss? 

Undertow is a contemporary novel in which a young woman finds a terrible choice thrust upon her: overcome the pain in her past and the dangers which lurk in her mind, or succumb to these and be lost forever inside a beautiful dream.

Interview with Callie

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We Recommend: Fire

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Fire (The Seven Kingdoms #2)
By Kristin Cashore
YA Fantasy

RATING: 5/5

I’d heard mixed things about Fire, so going into it, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Some people loved it, others seemed to think it didn’t live up to Graceling. I was hoping it would remind me enough of it’s companion book that it wouldn’t fall flat, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much it shown on its own.

Fire is great. It accomplishes a lot of the same things as Graceling, but manages to do so in different ways. While Graceling follows Katsa, a girl graced with a survival ability that mades her a formidable fighter, Fire follows a girl who just wants to escape her own powers. Fire, the titular character, is a “Monster”. Monsters are just rare variations of normal creatures, with hair in bright colors and a kind of natural magic that makes them irresistible to other creatures. Fire is a human Monster, the last one left since the death of her father. Her father loved his powers, and enjoyed controlling the will of humans. Fire is the opposite. She feels guilty for existing, and hates the way people react to her. Continue reading →

Queer Romance

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Earlier in the week, Stefani talked about the difference between Girl Romance and Guy Romance. Well, there’s another type of romance, that for some reason isn’t usually considered part of either category. I’m talking about romance between two girls, or two boys, or bi, trans, or genderqueer individuals. While you see stories about these characters appearing under the broad header of Issue Books, their stories are weirdly absent from most lists of good romance.

Empress of the World, by Sara Ryan

Personally, I prefer what I’m loosely calling “Queer Romance”* to either Girl or Guy Romance. I think we see a lot of the same thing over and over again in mainstream YA Lit. Romance is very prevalent. Whether they’re saving the world, going on an introspective road trip, or fighting a stifling dystopian government, usually our main characters have a love interest waiting for them, and usually that love interest is straight. There are very few exceptions to this rule, and I’m getting sick of it.

Queer Romance is definitely niche-ifided, although debatably more incorporated in YA Lit than in Adult Lit, where the bounderies between genres are looser anyway. There are some adorably cute romances out there, and every year I see more LGBTQ characters appearing in the popular genres. But I’m being demanding. I want to see more, and I want to see them soon. So writers, get writing!

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Interview with Melissa Jensen

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Melissa Jensen is the author of two YA books, Falling in Love with English Boys, and the just-released The Fine Art of Truth or Dare. I posted my review of Truth or Dare a few days ago, and I was lucky enough to get to interview Melissa as well. My questions are in bold.

One of the things I liked most about Truth or Dare was Ella’s “relationship” with Edward Willing. Do you have any celebrity or fantasy crushes that talk to you from postcards?

Not crushes exactly. But. There is still a little bit of “truth” in the talking portrait concept. I’ve always been a big admirer of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and have a huge print of Andy Warhol’s portrait of her on my wall. I’ve been known to talk to it in passing. The conversations usually go something like this. Me: “So what would you do in this situation?” Jackie: “Well, I certainly wouldn’t wear that.”

Both Alex and Ella have a sort of generational detachment from their parents’ cultures. Ella doesn’t speak Italian, aside from food, even though her teachers assume she does; and Alex keeps his Ukrainian background kind of on the down-low, his mother even using a more American accent for her job as a news anchor. Was that inspired by your own experiences, or just something you wanted to explore?

Not much from my own experience, unfortunately. My family arrived in the US from various places in the 18th and 19th centuries and, I suspect, lost everything from the “Old Country” as soon as they possibly could. So we’re pretty much a foreign-cultural wasteland. But my husband is from Ireland, his family is still there, and I would love for my kids to have a sense of where he came from. With that in mind, we’re hoping to live in Dublin for a bit in the not-too-distant future.

As far as Ella and Alex are concerned…Italian South Philly is a unique and fabulous place, but even during the relatively brief time I’ve been in Philadelphia, I’ve seen it losing so much of its flavor. The Nonna generation gets old; their grandchildren move to the ‘burbs. I wanted to make Ella’s family as real as possible. Then, I wanted to have some commonalities between Alex and Ella, things they could relate to in each other, but that still kept their worlds separate.

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Ten Signs That Your Date is a Vampire

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Romance is in the air, but it’s always important to make sure the person you’re dating isn’t creepy, murderous, or a blood-sucking monster. Here are ten signs to watch out for. If your significant other is exhibiting one or more of these behaviors, you may want to look up your local vampire slayer.

1. Thinks “oh, I was at a strip club” is a brilliant excuse for unexpected body glitter.

2. Wins the staring contests—ALWAYS.

3. Replies instantly when asked their blood type…and yours.

4. Avoids a clichéd Valentine’s Day gift by giving you an actual human heart.

5. Stomach growls audibly as you watch a Tarantino movie together.

6. Cites crippling “body image problems” when you dare them to explore the Hall of Mirrors.

7. Never shuts up about about the medicinal value of leeches.

8. Always refers to their family as their “blood relatives”, followed by an unsettling smirk.

9. Calls the works of Anne Rice “exploitative.”

10. Seems slightly terrified of toothpicks

Waiting on Wednesday (26)

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“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine. It’s a chance to geek-out about the books we’re chewing our nails over. What are you waiting on this week?

I have a friend who works for Scholastic, so I’ve been hearing about this book for awhile. I can’t wait to get my hands on it!

The False Prince
By Jennifer A. Nielsen
Release: April 1, 2012

In a discontent kingdom, civil war is brewing. To unify the divided people, Conner, a nobleman of the court, devises a cunning plan to find an impersonator of the king’s long-lost son and install him as a puppet prince. Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role, including a defiant boy named Sage. Sage knows that Conner’s motives are more than questionable, yet his life balances on a sword’s point — he must be chosen to play the prince or he will certainly be killed. But Sage’s rivals have their own agendas as well. 

As Sage moves from a rundown orphanage to Conner’s sumptuous palace, layer upon layer of treachery and deceit unfold, until finally, a truth is revealed that, in the end, may very well prove more dangerous than all of the lies taken together.

We Recommend:
The Fine Art of Truth or Dare

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The Fine Art of Truth or Dare
By Melissa Jensen
YA Contemporary / Romance

RATING: 4/5

(Come back Thursday to read an interview with Melissa Jensen)

Ella is madly in love. The problem? The love of her life is a long-dead artist, and no matter how much she obsesses over his artwork or has conversations with his self-portrait, he’s not getting any less dead. Alex Bainbridge, part of the reigning popular crowd, is far more alive, if almost as unattainable.

Melissa Jensen paints a convincing picture of a private school. Ella Marino is on a scholarship, and when she’s not hanging out with her best friends in the lowest rung of the social hierarchy, she’s helping out at her parents’ Italian restuarant, and swooning over her dead painter crush. Ella sees the school from a very cynical perspective, and I enjoyed watching her views change as she got to know Alex better.

I really loved Ella from the get-go. Although she’s dealing with her own share of self-esteem issues, she’s actually really brave. Even when she’s faced with impossibly embarrassing situations, she doesn’t turn away. She grits her teeth and bears it, even if she makes a fool out of herself. She doesn’t think she’s strong, but she is. I love that type of character. You don’t need to slay monsters or win wars to be a strong heroine. Sometimes the quietly strong are the most impressive.

Continue reading →

Head to Head:
Girl Romance v. Guy Romance

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Ah love. It betrays us, thrills us, and occasionally causes us to behave in morally deplorable ways. Yet it is such an integral part of growing up. Personally, without some sort of love element in a book or movie, I often find myself bored with the story. Love creates plot twists and jealousy, and ups the stakes on any tale. After all, who cares if the hero/heroine accomplishes their task if they have no one by their side at the end? Conversely, some of the best stories are about love lost. I can never decide which I prefer.

Love differs greatly between boys and girls. For girls, the devil’s in the details. Sure, he kissed you, but how and where, and what were the circumstances? For boys the feelings run just as deep, but expressing them is sort of taboo. Which, however, reigns supreme in YA literature? You might be tempted to say Girl Romance, but I think a strong case can be made for Guy Romance, simply because it points out their unique perspective on a traditionally female-dominated topic.

So, without further ado, today’s head to head: Guy Romance v. Girl Romance. Continue reading →