TBR TUESDAY: Where She Went

You could call me a sequel girl. I love stories to continue on and on and on. But few books have left me salivating for more, hoping and ultimately praying for a sequel like IF I STAY, by Author Gayle Forman, did. My To-Be-Read pick is one of those of those stories I couldn't wait to continue reading.


I absolutely LOVED If I Stay. It was one of the first books, written in present tense, that I simply couldn't stop reading. The main character was so real to me, she could have been my friend, my neighbor, even my daughter.


Needless to say, when I saw the cover for the sequel and heard about it's release this month I was thrilled.

Title: WHERE SHE WENT
Author: Gayle Forman
Genre: YA
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (April 5, 2011)
Pages: 208


Description: It's been three years since the devastating accident . . . three years since Mia walked out of Adam's life forever.

Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Juilliard's rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia's home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future-and each other.

Told from Adam's point of view in the spare, lyrical prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Went explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.


Publisher's Weekly from Goodreads:


"I know it's really cheesy—crass even—to compare my being dumped to the accident that killed Mia's family, but I can't help it. Because for me, at any rate, the aftermath felt exactly the same." Forman follows up her bestselling If I Stay with a story that is equally if not more powerful, set three years after the previous book and told from the perspective of Mia's former boyfriend, Adam. Mia and Adam haven't seen each other since she left for Juilliard, deserting him just months after emerging from her coma. Adam's anguish found an outlet in songwriting, and the resulting album, Collateral Damage, has become a sensation, turning Adam and his band into bona fide rock stars, though he's barely keeping it together. Mia's career as a cellist is taking off as well, and a chance meeting in New York City gives Mia and Adam the opportunity to exorcise the ghosts of their past. Having spent If I Stay in Mia's head, readers are, like Adam, thrust into a state of unknowing regarding Mia's thoughts and motivations. It's an extremely effective device, and one that makes this reunion all the more heartrending. Ages 14 up. (Apr.)


The book is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Book Depository, and your local bookstore. 


And for even more of a tease, here's an official EXCERPT.



I think it will be interesting to see where Gayle takes the story, primarily because it's through the male eyes. 


By all means, if you've been blessed to have read it already please share your thoughts. Love to hear them!

Real life Muse

The number one question I get asked (which surprisingly I get asked A LOT for someone not published yet) is where do I get my ideas?  Well, there IS no real answer to this. I don’t really know.  They’re just in my brain.  Sometimes they come fully formed liked they did for RENEGADE, or just the general plot is there like the one I’m working on now. 

Obviously, they have to get there somehow, though, right?  I have to say a huge THANK YOU to my husband and son for this, I think.  Because they play a LOT of video games and I tend to hodgepodge ideas from some of those.  Plus my husband is always buying new animes for me to watch as research.  Most of the time I listen, but don’t watch because I’m more of a comedy minded girl when it comes to animes, but it must filter in a little.

But I think my biggest muse is real life.  Yesterday I was at a birthday party where I had the pleasure of sitting across from the most delightful man and his beautiful wife!  He and his wife were HILARIOUS. 

The man had this LONG white beard and my husband called it his food retainer and the guy nods all serious like and says, “You better believe it, son.  It’s saved me plenty o’ winters.”

When I asked what he meant, he went on to say, “Well, whenever we’d get snowed in, I was the first on the dinner menu.  Me being the most…husky of the group.”  (SIDE NOTE: HE was in NO WAY husky. LOL.)  “But, then another would suggest, just strain water through his beard!  We can make a soup! So, instead of eating me, they’d make soup from my food saver.” 

It went on like that for hours.  He’d make comments about people passing. The kids in the group.  The parents.  Even when my daughter decided to beat up one of the other children (SIGH it was my DH’s boss’s son, of course), he smoothed the tears and ruffled feathers by making some joke about her “starting her training to be a dominatrix early, which is always a good sign.”  It was enough to get even the boss to crack a smile. 

And I KNOW, beyond a doubt, this man is going in one of my books somewhere. He was too funny not to.  And I also realized that real life is the most influential muse we writers have.

So what about you?  What real life experience did you just HAVE to write about?

Freestyle Friday: Book Review - Nightshade

Happy April Fools' Day!  Instead of reviewing A Long, Long Sleep, I'm reviewing Nightshade, since the joke was on me and I forgot it was my turn! 

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer
Publisher: Philomel (October 19, 2010)
Paperback: 528 pages
Reading Level: Young Adult
Rating: 5 of 5 feathers
Source: Purchased

While other teenage girls daydream about boys, Calla Tor imagines ripping out her enemies’ throats. And she wouldn’t have it any other way. Calla was born a warrior and on her eighteenth-birthday she’ll become the alpha female of the next generation of Guardian wolves. But Calla’s predestined path veers off course the moment she saves the life of a wayward hiker, a boy her own age. This human boy’s secret will turn the young pack's world upside down and forever alter the outcome of the centuries-old Witches' War that surrounds them all.


REVIEW:   This is another book I bought simply because of the cover. Honestly, I was over werewolves at this point, and I was pretty sure the only werewolf stories I wanted to read were the sequels to books I’d already read.  However, I couldn’t resist having such a beautiful cover on my bookshelf (yes, I know. I’m shallow.  J )  Anyway, since I bought it, I decided to give it a go.  And I couldn’t put it down.  I actually read it in one sitting, pretty much.  Minus the obligatory self-care times.  ; ) 

It started off with a bang and didn’t let up until it was over and had me begging for the next book!  Every one knows, I love me a good love triangle and Andrea did a great job with this one.  I’d compare it to the one in Personal Demons, except I know their crit. Partners so that’s probably why. LOL.  While I do know I prefer Shay over Ren, it was a close call.  They were just so hard to choose between.  Especially toward the end when Ren started showing his true feelings and not that of what was expected of him.

It starts off with the suspense of Calla (the MC) running into a hiker in the woods who is badly injured.  She’s in wolf form, so we aren’t sure what she’s going to do.  Kill the hiker boy?  Or save him.  Since it’s already stated in the blurb what happens, I’ll say she saves him, and, in turn, shows him what she really is.  She thinks it’ll end there, until he shows up at her school the next school day and is determined to get to know her better.

There was a great romantical element of the book and the characters couldn’t keep their hands off each other.  While I do like those kinds of things, they have to be done well to be enjoyable.  Most YA books steer clear of this, but not here and Andrea does an excellent job of showing it without overkilling it. 

The only negative I saw was that Calla was supposed to be the alpha female, completely in control of her pack, but she didn’t seem that alpha until the end.  She doesn’t know certain things about her brother and her best friend that I was sure she should have, being their alpha and all.  And while she does stand up to Ren a few times, it felt like it was only for show.  I understand that she was filled with indecision about certain things, but I felt I should see the alpha in other parts of her life and I didn’t really see it as much as I wanted (this is just a personal pref. BTW, others probably feel differently).

Otherwise, this is def. a must read for anyone, even those who don’t normally read the paranormal genre, but love a good romance.  Though I will say, that if you don’t normally like romances, this probably isn’t the read for you.  There is a LOT of it in here.  And while I don’t think it took away from the book, I love me a good romance.

Characters: All of the characters were strongly developed and I enjoyed them very much.  We’ll start with Calla, since she’s the MC.  She had a lot of great qualities.  She was strong, sweet, relatable and had a heart of gold. Shay was just awesome.  Honestly I couldn’t find a single fault in him, though if I re-read it a few time, I probably could if I looked hard enough. LOL.  And Ren?  He was the perfect flawed alpha male.  Loved every bit of him, too, even if I wanted to strangle him a few times.  Like in the dance club.  WTH was that Ren?  :D

Cover: As I mentioned before this was the reason I purchased this book. It’s perfect and beautiful. Stunning really.  With the frosted purple look and the girl that fits Calla perfectly. Plus the obviousness of the Calla lilies (my favorite flower, in case you were interested.), and the blood drops in them.  Absolutely perfect!

Honestly, this was probably in my top ten books I read in 2010.  I cannot rave about this book enough.  So just go out and buy it, will ya?  LOL. You won’t be disappointed.

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