Book Review: The Adventurer's Guide to Successful Escapes

Thirteen year old Anvil, who prefers to be called Anne for obvious reasons, is beyond ready to leave St. Lupin's Institute for Perpetually Wicked and Hideously Unattractive Children. The trouble is there are only two places to go: to an academy to train to be an adventurer or to the Pit to work until she has enough money to buy her way out of it. No academy will accept her because she has no proof of her origin. The Pit sounds dismal, but she's willing to do anything to get away from St. Lupin's.

While planning her escape, a series of unpredictable things happen that lead her to her first quest. It has the unfortunate side effect of attaching a metal gauntlet to her arm, permanently, so it would seem, as well as placing her and her best friend, Penelope, in mortal danger. 

Anne, Penelope, and their reluctant new friend Hiro, set off on an impossible quest that involves sweet-talking dragons into offering their assistance, a well-dressed talking hyena, ancient technology, riddles, and fireballs. There are lots of those. 

There are so many things to love about this story that I don't know where to begin. The humor is spot on. I can't wait until my son is old enough to read this because I know he's going to love it. I laughed out loud multiple times. But it's more than just a funny book. It tackles big questions like finding your true self, finding your place in the world, honor, friendship, betrayal, and mercy. 

In addition to all of those wonderful things, the main character of this adventure is also a female of color. It's not often that girls get to lead adventures, and in this book, there are more female characters than male. The role of fighter even falls to Penelope instead of Hiro. It was a delightful surprise. 

White brings a fresh perspective to epic fantasy by poking fun at all of the tropes we know. The world-building is so subtle it feels natural, and while it's hinted at that this is a post-apocalyptic Earth, he never reveals that fact outright. The world is familiar and strange at the same time. The characters are likable and believable. I highly recommend giving it a read.

Dusting off the old novel

I sat down yesterday and created a schedule for the week. It has all of my household chores on it. Thursdays and weekends have time to devote to writing. Thursday is reserved for edits. This book has been laying about since 2015. It's time I did something about it.

I went down to my local UPS store this morning and printed out a hard copy. I've tried editing digitally, but it just isn't as fulfilling. I need those red pen marks to give me tangible evidence that I'm doing something. The rough draft is over 300 pages. I wasn't expecting that. In Scrivener, it seems so much shorter than that. Looking at all of these pages (sorry, trees!), it really feels like a book. Now, it's time to kill all those darlings and make it better.

My books always stagnate once they reach revision. I love writing. I love getting the story down. I'm not fond of making it presentable for eyes other than my own. I acknowledge it's a vital part of the writing process, I'm just an expert at procrastinating.

But I love this book. I believe other readers will love this book. I got great feedback from my beta readers. That means, this book is worth the effort. It's time to dig out my red pen and get to work.

Writing Goals

With the New Year now upon us, I've seen countless posts about writing goals for 2017. I usually have a handful, overly ambitious goals that I never reach because I expect too much from myself.

This year, I kept things real. I made a simple goal: write every day. I didn't even set a word count. I just need to write something (though grocery lists and the like do not count!).

I bought myself a shiny new notebook. My hope is to fill it with a new poem for every day of 2017. Five days in and I haven't fallen off of the wagon yet.

I also started a new monthly fiction challenge with some friends of mine. We've pledged four flash fiction stories for every month. I've written two of those so far for January, so I'm off to a strong start there too.

My biggest challenge this year is going to be submissions. I need to dust off all of these works in progress and actually submit them to places. That means I'm in for a ton of editing. For some reason, the edits are more daunting to me than the new work. I'm considering hiring an editor as a belated Christmas present to myself. It might be just the push I need to whip that book into shape and toss it onto the query-go-round.

Reading back over this post, it seems I may have some pretty ambitious goals for myself this year after all. I know I can do this though. And so can all of you. Let's all knock our personal goals out of the park this year.

Hello NaNoWriMo

It's that magic time of year again, folks. I don't mean the countdown to Christmas, though it is my favorite holiday. The madness that is National Novel Writing Month is upon us. While I should probably have started the sequel to last year's novel, I decided instead to start something new. I just wasn't feeling my Neverland vibe this year.

I find myself writing another YA book. It seems to be my go to when I plot ideas. I'm not sure what this says about my maturity level. Or attention span, really, as YA novels are usually a bit shorter than adult fiction.

A lot of authors offer advice and pep talks as the month wears on. Here's a link to a fun one from Chuck Wendig. If you've never read his blog, give it a look. He's got a potty mouth, but there's a lot of fun posts there.

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2016/10/31/nanowrimo-pep-talk-the-pure-fucking-joy-of-getting-it-all-wrong/

So, I'm ready to make all the mistakes and get everything wrong. Hopefully by the end of the month, I'll have another rough draft of a novel ready to go.

Contests Continued

Yesterday marked the deadline for round two of the flash fiction contest. I'm fairly certain I won't make it to round three. My genre for this round was crime caper. Mysteries are so not my forte. I gave it my best effort, but I'm not very optimistic about advancing.

As you many know, November is National Novel Writing Month, or Nanowrimo. I'm hoping to begin planning an outline for this year's novel. I went in with a rough outline last year, and it made reaching 50k so easy.

I've fallen out of a daily writing habit, so I'm hoping to find my writing rhythm again before November hits. A target goal of 1667 words per day is daunting if you aren't accustomed to writing daily. I need to work on that.

If you've never heard of Nanowrimo, you should check out this site.

http://nanowrimo.org/how-it-works

Take a look around the site. It will answer any questions you might have. If it sounds like something that interests you, sign up! It's a fun challenge, and even if you don't hit 50k words, you've still got more written than you did at the beginning of November. It's an all around win. My user name is gabbyg if you want to send me a buddy request.

The Benefits of Contests

Friday marked the beginning of NYC Midnight's annual flash fiction contest. I've competed in it for the last few years. It's quite possible that I write a contest post every year around this time because I'm reminded how fun and beneficial contests are. NYC Midnight's contests are particularly good at getting me to write outside of my comfort zone.

While many contests accept submissions that allow the author to select that nature of their work's contents, NYC Midnight gives the authors restrictions. This year, my round one requirements were: genre: fairy tale, setting: a barn, object: crystal ball. I was also limited to one thousand words and had forty eight hours to submit my piece. The deadline forces me to focus and the time line is just long enough for one round of edits and not long enough for me to overthink anything. I'm usually very proud of my entries for this contest.

Not every writing contest is so rigid or such a whirlwind. Many give you months to enter and only limit the word count for entries. The crazy deadlines of NYC Midnight's contest may not work for you. That doesn't mean there won't be other contests that will.

The internet is filled with resources to help authors find contests worth entering. Here are a few helpful links for those looking for a place to get started.

http://www.pw.org/grants

https://www.dystopianstories.com/writing-competitions-2016/

http://www.writersdigest.com/writers-digest-competitions

http://www.freelancewriting.com/creative-writing-contests.php

http://www.writermag.com/writing-resources/contests/

I'm sure there are many more, but this is a handy short list to get you started. I may have to take my own advice and see what other contests there are to throw myself into. SO, go forth, find contests, write, and, most importantly, have fun!

Celebrating the release of Because I Love You!

Blaze Publishing is happy to announce the release of the YA Contemporary Romance BECAUSE I LOVE YOU by Tori Rigby! You can get your copy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or you can order a signed copy from our website

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Sometimes, love is sacrifice.

Eight weeks after sixteen-year-old Andie Hamilton gives her virginity to her best friend, “the stick” says she’s pregnant.

Her friends treat her like she’s carrying the plague, her classmates torture and ridicule her, and the boy she thought loved her doesn’t even care. Afraid to experience the next seven months alone, she turns to her ex-boyfriend, Neil Donaghue, a dark-haired, blue-eyed player. With him, she finds comfort and the support she desperately needs to make the hardest decision of her life: whether or not to keep the baby.

Then a tragic accident leads Andie to discover Neil’s keeping a secret that could dramatically alter their lives, and she's forced to make a choice. But after hearing her son’s heartbeat for the first time, she doesn’t know how she’ll ever be able to let go.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Adopted at three-days-old by a construction worker and a stay at home mom, Tori Rigby grew up with her nose in a book and her fingers on piano keys, always awaiting the day she’d take her own adventure. Now, she goes on multiple journeys through her contemporary and historical romances. She longs to live in the Scottish Highlands, and her favorite place in history is Medieval England—she’d even give up her Internet and running water to go back in time! Tori also writes high-concept genre fiction as Vicki Leigh, and when she isn’t writing, she’s kicking butt in krav maga or attending classes to learn how to catch bad guys.

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Book Review: The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble's Braids

Amra is a thief, and a very talented one at that. She has a small pool of acquaintances, and an even smaller collection of friends. When one of those friends winds up dead, after giving Amra something for safekeeping, she takes it personally. Armed with an expansive wit and an admirable armory of knives, Amra begins a quest for revenge that will lead her into temples, brothels, pawn shops, and manors, with a little bit of prison thrown in to keep things interesting. She finds that her friend got himself into something dark and dangerous, and that if she sin't careful, she will likely end up just as dead as he is.

There are so many wonderful things about this book that I'm angry with myself for letting it sit on my to-be-read shelf for so long. Let's start with the characters. First of all, Amra is female, and a bad ass. More amazingly, there is no lovey-dovey subplot to mire down her badassery. It was refreshing and very welcome to read such a strong female character. Kudos to you, McClung, for making Amra so incredible. However, the supporting characters are all just as well-written. Holgren is a mage with a million secrets and a soft spot for slobbery dogs. Bosch is steampunk cyborg warlock necromancer that oozes villainy. The list of memorable characters could go on to include them all. Seriously, they're all amazing.

Lucernis. The place where everything goes down. The world building is so subtle it's hard to even notice that the details are there. McClung doesn't give a single info-dump paragraph to give readers a sense of setting. It's all done as the story moves forward. He creates an utterly believable, gritty world where magic exists, though the world doesn't revolve around it. There's even a handy appendix in the back for any details you might miss as you read through.

I always feel like I'm taking a huge gamble when I buy something that has been self-published, but this story blew me away. I was left feeling unfulfilled because I wasn't ready to leave that world, where the gods are not as dead as they are supposed to be and trouble is looming beneath the surface, ready to emerge at any moment. I've already bought the second book, and will most likely be rearranging my reading list to make sure it rockets to the top. Do yourself a favor, and buy this book. Absolutely five out of five stars.

National Poetry Month

April has come and gone, and with it has passed another successful Poem-a-day challenge. Since April is National Poetry Month, I try to write a poem a day. So, I've got 30 new poems. Some of them show a lot of promise. Some of them will never see the light of day again because they are beyond saving.


Daily poem writing is amazing for stirring up the creative juices in my brain. It's a huge shift from fiction, which is what I had been focusing on, but it's a fresh way to explore words.


A lot of people in my life are currently expecting babies, so motherhood and fertility were a very common theme in my poems. As a wonderful bonus, one of those poems about fertility will be published this month in the Fredericksburg Literary and Art Review.


I'm hoping to submit some more pieces to various literary magazines this month. Fingers crossed that a few get accepted. I'd like to hope that this is a trend and not a fluke.


My monthly writing group focused on sonnets, so I've penned a few of those in the past weeks. Here's one of my NaNoPoMo sonnets. It's a twist on a story you're probably all familiar with.



The Real Story


You met me at a ball and it was fun
to dress up and play at something that I'm not,
but midnight comes for everyone,
and all that fun comes screeching to a stop.

Beneath the gown and glitter, I am plain,
and dirty, and unloved, and overworked.
You make promises of love, and joy, and games,
and a castle full of other little perks.

But I'm not buying what you're trying to sell.
I know some things are too good to be true.
You can deck me out in silks, and jewels as well;
remove all that, and who am I to you?

Just a kitchen maid in a pretty dress,

too tired to be your damsel in distress.

Book Review: Because I Love You by Tori Rigby

Andie has her whole life planned out. She's going to be Homecoming Queen and then she's going to medical school to become a doctor. Then, she professes her love for her best friend and sleeps with him at a party. A few weeks later, she's puking every ten minutes and worried that her religious mother is going to disown her. Andie is pregnant, and scared, and loses everything she thought she wanted. Both of her best friends disown her. She is bullied so much at school that she has to drop out. Her mother becomes a surprising source of comfort, as does her ex boyfriend Neil. As she faces difficult decisions, like whether to keep the baby or put it up for adoption, Neil rescues her again and again until Andie can no longer fight her feelings for him.

Poor Andie just cannot catch a break. I don't want to give any spoilers in this review, but let's just say the world dumps on her time and time again. I actually felt like she faced too many obstacles, that her luck was too bad to fit naturally into the story. That being said, it's one of the only cons I had with this story.

There is an undercurrent of religion throughout the book, but I feel like it never gets preachy, and it's not so heavy that the book becomes unreadable.  I would also recommend not reading the book at work as your co-workers will begin to wonder why you keep crying at your desk. Also, the epilogue was a wonderful way to bring everything to a close.

The book is well-paced and the characters are likable (except for those that aren't supposed to be). Rigby captures the distress and confusion, loneliness, and frustration of a young, pregnant girl really well. Andie's emotions are a bit of a rollercoaster, but that's to be expected when your hormones are raging out of control because not only are you a teenager, you also happen to be growing a new human. This was a quick read, but an enjoyable one. I give it three out of five stars.

PAD challenge

April always seems to be the month I decide to heap too many things onto my plate. At the beginning of the year, I began a writing challenge with a small group of friends. We each write a 300, 500, 1000, and 1500 word short story every month. We also give feedback to the other writers. It's been wonderful motivation to maintain the daily habit of writing. So, I have to write four short stories before the month is through. No biggie, I've done that for a few months already.

However, April is also National Poetry Month. I've got a soft spot for poetry as it was the first outlet I poured my creativity into. I've never been exceptional at it, but I love writing it all the same. Every April, in honor of NaPoMo, there is a PAD challenge. PAD stand for poem a day. Regardless of how busy I am, I feel the need to attempt this challenge.

We're on day two, and I've written two poems. It's far too early to consider this a success, but I've got a good feeling about it.

That being said, I haven't started any of my short stories for the month. The 300 word is due by the end of tomorrow. That means I need to crank out one poem and one story by day's end. Hopefully, tomorrow will be exceptionally inspirational.

Book Review: Yellow Brick War

I loved DOROTHY MUST DIE, the original book in Danielle Paige's series. I'm a sucker for retellings, and was excited to revisit this twisted version of Oz.  In the third installment of the series, Amy Gumm and her companions return to take another shot at thwarting Dorothy Gale's attempts to destroy both Oz and The Other Place (the one in which Dorothy's and Amy's Kansas can be found).

Dorothy's companions have already been destroyed, all except for little Toto. Although weakened, Dorothy is still extremely powerful.  As the magic of Oz destroys her mind, Dorothy becomes a threat, not only to Oz, but to her Kansas home as well.

After Dorothy kills the wizard, she and Amy get sucked back to Flat Hills, Kansas. The Wicked witches follow, attempting to trap Dorothy in Kansas for good. But Dorothy still has the ruby slippers, and pops back to Oz before they can stop her. That leaves Amy and the witches trapped in Kansas and Dorothy unopposed in Oz.

The responsibility to stop Dorothy once again falls on Amy Gumm. You see, once upon a time, Dorothy had a second pair of magical shoes, and that pair is supposedly still in Kansas. Finding the shoes is a long shot, but it's Amy's only ticket back to Oz. There's just a few problems. One: Amy has been missing for a month and will have to move back in with her mother while she's in Kansas. Two: Amy has no magic in Kansas, and the witches are mere shadows of their former selves. The shoes will have to be found without magical assistance. Three: The last known location of the shoes was at the site of Amy's old high school, which means she has to face all of the classmates she thought she'd left behind forever. And four: Her vice principal is The Nome King. You know, the one from Ev who has been trying to take over Oz for hundreds of years. Yeah, that one. And he's not a very nice guy.

There were many thing I didn't love about this book. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, because I did, but I wasn't as crazy about it as I was the first two books. I don't know if Paige is running out of steam, or if she's rushing to meet deadlines, but this book felt more forced than the others. The plot is rushed, details spared for action. Amy is reduced to a whiny, love-sick teenager instead of the badass warrior she had become. The poverty and dinginess of Flat Hills, Kansas is so over the top that it reaches ridiculous levels. The cliffhanger ending could have been just the end of a chapter and the while Oz business could have been wrapped up in this book.  Instead, we're left with the threat of the Nome King still lingering in the Emerald City while Amy, Nox, and a very confused and terrified Madison are carried away by the yellow brick road. I'm too invested in the series to not read another book at this point, but I feel like this one was so rushed and short, that whatever story remains could just have been tacked onto the end.

I hope Amy finds the steely reserve that melted away in this book and brings it back in the next installment. I also hope that her and Nox get their relationship straightened out so she doesn't whine about it as much. Given how great the first book in this series was, I feel like there's still potential for it to end on a high note, and this book will just be a stepping stone to a great finish.

Three out of five stars.

Steering the Craft

Since I finished editing my Nanowrimo novel, I decided to focus a bit more on honing my writing craft. Instead of biting my nails while I wait for the feedback from my wonderful beta readers, I'm writing, albeit much shorter fiction.

Steering the craft combines the wisdom of Ursula Le Guin and a collection of exercises to make you more conscious of the structure of your writing. It is informative, challenging, and inspiring. I stumbled upon it at my local library, and decided to give it a try.  I've tried various other books on craft, but have had mixed results. This one seems to be the perfect blend for me. As an added bonus, it's a short book instead of an intimidating tome.

An example of one of the exercises is to write 100-150 words without using any punctuation. It is far more difficult than you might think. It is instinctive to place periods at the end of sentences, at least it is for me. I had to mark many of them out because I placed them there out of habit. Le Guin recommended writing about an event that is filled with action or chaos.

the metal twisted around his legs and he struggled to free himself from its grip the smell of gasoline was in the air so potent that his eyes began to water somewhere in the recesses of his addled brain he recognized that the smell of gas meant danger his heart began to hammer in his chest and his efforts to extract himself from the wreckage grew more desperate it was all he could do not to weep with joy when his legs pulled free of the mangled mass in fact he could have been weeping given the wetness that poured over his cheeks he assumed it was due to the sting of the gasoline fumes he ignored the possibility that it might be blood

As you can see, without punctuation, everything gets a little crazy. If you can't at least tell that it is someone escaping their vehicle after an auto accident, then I have failed. The lack of punctuation does give the passage a sense of urgency and mimics the chaos that is in the driver's mind as he hurries to free himself, but it's a little too confusing for readers to follow. It was fun to play around with though.  Le Guin recommends coming back to add punctuation in later. I might just do that, though if I revisit this, I will expand it into a full length story.

I have found that books on writing craft are beneficial for me in two ways. One: they make me more conscious of my writing as I write. I was very aware of the lack of punctuation as I wrote and it was difficult to push myself to exclude it. Two: the exercises open a floodgate of ideas. I have snippets of stories scribbled on bits of notebook paper and stuffed into the book. I'm only about a third of the way through. I expect there will be many more scraps of paper to follow.

While I'm not a published author, and am barely figuring out this whole writing thing myself, I would offer this piece of advice to other new writers: do not pass up opportunities to learn more about writing. Whether it's by attending workshops and conferences, or just self-teaching through books borrowed from the library, the effort you put into learning your craft will be reflected in your work. 

(And that's a good thing.)

Book Review: Cogling by Jordan Elizabeth

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I've previously read Escape from Witchwood Hollow by this author, so I was interested to read her newest novel.

Edna Mather lives in a world where magic is real, but only hags use it.  Humans pay hags for potions and spells, but otherwise treat hags like second-class citizens.  One night, a hag comes to Edna's house and kidnaps her brother, Harrison, leaving a cogling in his place.  A cogling is a mechanical person, enchanted with magic to appear real. The cogling looks just like Harrison, but the hag does a rush job, and the cogling's behavior is a bit off. While chastising him about his odd behavior, Edna grabs what she believes is a stolen pocket watch and lifts it over his head. The cogling immediately falls apart.

Determined to save her brother regardless of the peril, Edna reluctantly recruits the help of a thief named Ike. Together, they cross the kingdom in an attempt to free the children the hags have kidnapped. On their journey, Edna and Ike have to flee from slave traders on a train only to fall into the trap of different slave traders, escape from their subsequent enslavement, ride a blimp into the swamp where the hags live, free the kidnapped children, and convince the king of the hags' sinister plot.

Mierek's novel is filled with action from start to finish.  I felt like poor Edna never got a chance to catch her breath. The language is simple, but engaging. Her description is vivid without being cumbersome. While aspects of the plot are very predictable, I still found the book to be very enjoyable.

Four out of five stars

Cover Reveal for Princess of Tyrone

Contest time again!

While I whip my last writing project into shape, I've been entertaining my muse with workshops and contests.

I entered the beginning of my project into the 1stfivepageswritingworkshop.com. They only accept five entries a month. Mentors and the other participants read through your first five pages and offer feedback on how they could be improved. You go through two rounds of feedback and then, in the third round, a literary agent reads your pitch and pages. I walked away with invaluable feedback and a solid first five pages. The best thing about the workshop is that it's free! 10/10 would definitely try to get into this workshop again.

While i had my pages in the workshop, I also got a snippet of dialog into a critique session on misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com. This is a blog that consistently offers opportunities for writers to receive feedback on their work. Participation is usually determined by a lottery system. Most of them (other than the big agent contests) are free to enter. The only stipulation is that you have to offer feedback on at least a few of the other entries. Pretty fair exchange in my opinion.

So, after these two workshops, I had a polished intro to my book and one scene of dialog that had been thoroughly revised. I felt like it was time to enter another contest.

Michelle Hauck (michelle4laughs.blogspot.com) runs a few contests for fledgling writers every year. Her winter contest is called sun versus snow. It's free to enter, and they accept up to 200 entries, but make sure you get yours in fast. This year the entry window closed in three minutes!  After the entries are received, Michelle and a fellow judge read through the slush, narrowing it down to a fraction of those who entered (like 15-20). The perks of making the cut are working with a mentor to polish your query and the first 250 words of your novel. There is also an agent round, where lit agents read through the entries. Many of them requests pages, and sometimes the partial or full. Michelle has a list of success stories from her contests. Many of the participants find representation with an agent, either as a direct result of the contest, or shortly after due to the feedback they received. I was one of the 200 that made it through this year. The slush pile is currently being read, and I'll know soon if I progress to the next round.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine approached me to see if I would participate in a writing challenge with him and a few other writer friends. Each month we write four short stories of varying length: 300, 500, 1000, 1500. We get three days for the 300 word story, five days for 500, ten days for 1000, and fifteen days for 1500. I started late last month, but still managed all of them except for the 1500. I turned my 300 words in yesterday. I love the motivation this challenge is giving me to generate new content. After working on a novel for months, it's nice to work with new characters and plots.

As if all of this wasn't enough, I also entered the NYC Midnight Short Story Competition for the second year in a row. My prompts this year were: sci-fi, a bike messenger, and contaminated water. I think it will be a month before I find out if my story was good enough for me to progress to round 2.

It's been busy, but invigorating. Nothing like deadlines to flip that creativity switch!

Book Review: Because of You

** I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review **

I really wanted to like this book. The blurb immediately drew me in, and I'm a sucker for a love story. 

Seven years ago, Maddie came home to find both of her parents dead. The killers were still in the house, so she ran and hid. She recognized one of the intruders as her best friend's father, and the chief of police. Maddie's aunt and uncle recognize the danger she's in, so they whisk her away from her hometown and get her out of Chief Hadley's sphere of influence.  Hurt and confused, Maddie doesn't even say goodbye to her best friend Kyle before she leaves. 

Kyle writes to Maddie, and calls her, confused about why she disappeared. How can Maddie explain to him what she saw? Would he even believe her if she tried? Her aunt and uncle convince her to cut Kyle out of her life thinking it will help protect her and help her move past her parents' murders.

Everything is going according to plan until Maddie goes away to college. Kyle attends the same school. They are repeatedly thrown together and Maddie eventually runs out of excuses for trying to stay out of his way. Sparks fly, and they become inseparable again. Things get complicated when Kyle's family begins to see Maddie as a threat. Maddie is forced to choose between breaking her own heart by cutting Kyle out of her life a second time, or keeping the few loved ones she has left safe.

Given that I received an ARC, I'm willing to let all the grammatical errors slide--and there were many. There was also a lot of redundancy, like the word opportunity used twice in the same sentence. Maddie also seems to feel everything in her thighs. Excited? Thighs tingle. Kyle walks by? Thighs tingle. A virgin immediately having such sexual reactions to everything seemed very out of place to me. There were a lot of side plots that went unresolved also. Like Gina and her drug problem and enabler boyfriend. And Gina's rape(s) at various parties that went unreported without any repercussions for the rapists. I know that it's tragically common for that to occur, but it was swept right under the carpet in the book as well, and I feel like Gina deserved better than that. Everything else was tied up in a quick chapter at the end. All of the important bits like justice for Maddie's parents were glossed over. The ending felt very rushed. Overall, I was very underwhelmed.

Two out of five stars.

Release Day for Because of You

BECAUSE OF YOU, by ReShelle Workman

Genre: Contemporary-Romance

Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press

Date of Release: January 18, 2016

Cover Artist: The Cover Lure

Find Online: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Goodreads

Description:

There’s a first time for everything… and sometimes that means a first time at a second chance.

It’s been seven years since Maddie Martin’s parents died. Their killer wasn’t just a random stranger, but her best friends’ father. Kyle Hadley. The boy she’s been in love with since she was old enough to understand the emotion, the boy she promised all of her firsts to. Worst of all, Kyle’s father got away with it, and Maddie hasn’t seen Kyle since.

That changes on her first day of college. Seeing Kyle again brings back all of her childhood feelings of friendship and love for him, but it also brings back the anger, sorrow, and pain she’s been trying to bury because of his father.

Kyle Hadley has no idea why Maddie quit talking to him, especially when he needed her most. But he got over it, refusing to waste his life mourning the only girl he ever loved. There are too many women, too much of life to experience to bother thinking about Maddie. Except he does. And when he sees her again, he knows it.

But there are problems beyond Kyle and Maddie and their old feelings. The two of them are in danger and one or both might end up dead.

About The Author:

RaShelle Workman is the author of the popular Blood and Snow series. She loves to reinvent fairy tales readers can sink their teeth into. Her stories include vampires, werewolves, witches, aliens, and creatures of her own creation. Her books: Sleeping Roses, Exiled, Beguiled, and Dovetailed have foreign rights contracts with a Turkish publisher. RaShelle is also one of the co-founders of IndiePUBCon. Currently, she lives in Utah with her husband, three children, and their three dogs.

Visit www.rashelleworkman.com to join RaShelle’s EXCLUSIVE mailing list and be entered to win a signed paperback copy of Blood and Snow volumes 1-4 (Special Edition). And be sure to like her Facebook page for all the latest news: https://www.facebook.com/rashelleworkman.

Find the author Online:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads 

Curiosity Quills Press (CQ) is a small hybrid publishing company specializing in genre fiction of the highest quality. With 150+ titles in our catalog already and approximately 6 new books coming out each month, there’s never a dull moment at CQ. We work with major retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Audible to ensure that you, the reader, can find whatever you are looking for at your convenience.

Founded in 2011 by Eugene Teplitsky and Lisa Gus, CQ was initially a resource portal for writing and publishing, created in an effort to help writers, like themselves, survive the publishing industry. After rapid success, CQ morphed into publishing press that over time has solidified its share in the market. Now we spend our days searching for the next great escape!

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The Loss of an Icon

I wasn't born when Lennon was shot, but my older sister remembers.  She says my mother sobbed when she heard the news, mourning his loss as if he was a friend or brother.   I always found it odd that she could be so affected by the death of a man she had never met, a man that was oblivious to her existence entirely.

And then I read the news this morning.  David Bowie is dead.  The Goblin King is gone.  As I scrolled through my Facebook feed, reading tributes to a lost icon, I wept.  I played his music in the car as I ran errands, and I wept.

With his death, a small part of me has also been lost.

He was my first celebrity crush, with his tight gray pants and drag queen makeup.  I worshipped him. I tried to be swept away to his goblin kingdom, but the words didn't work for me.  The magic only belonged to Sarah.

  I memorized the Labyrinth soundtrack, quoted the lines every time I watched the film.  I tried to imitate his eye makeup, always falling miserably short of the mark.  In my prepubescent confusion, I couldn't decide whether I wanted to be him, or marry him.

The part of me that dreamed I could grow up to be him is gone forever.  That piece of me, the one that held onto the hope that we would meet one day, and instantly become best friends, has withered away.  It left an emptiness I hadn't realized was possible.

So, I get it. Like my mother, I find myself sobbing in my kitchen, not just because the world lost a great man, but because I miss the part of me that went with him.

R.I.P. Mr. Bowie 

8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016

Book Review: Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate

I absolutely loved The One and Only Ivan, so I was stoked when I saw that Katherine Applegate had another book out. I didn't even read the blurb regarding what is was about. I just grabbed it from the library and carried it home, and then I read it in an hour...You read that right. I just sat down and devoured it.

Jackson's family is struggling to even make it from paycheck to paycheck. Most of the time, they don't.  His dad is sick, but still works as much as he is able.  His mom has three part time jobs and is always looking for more work. Jackson and his sister Robin are hungry, and they've had to sell most of their things, even their bed frames. Jackson is old enough to know things are bad, but his parents try to hide their financial problems from him.

Jackson meets Crenshaw for the first time on the first night his family has to spend in their minivan. Crenshaw is a giant black and white cat that loves to stand on his head. He gives Jackson someone to talk to and company when he's feeling more lonely than he ever has before.  After fourteen long weeks of living in the van, Jackson's family gets an apartment and Crenshaw disappears.

Things go great for about four years, and then cupboards run empty and the power gets shut off. Jackson thinks he's too old for an imaginary friend, but Crenshaw reappears just as things get really tough for Jackson's family.

This story is about friendship, ann hardship, and telling the truth, but most of all about love. It was unbelievably touching, and I can't wait until my son is old enough to share this book with him. Pick this book up and give it a read. You'll love it, and that's a fact.

Five out of five stars