BEA Day Three: And Now We Say Goodbye

For the last day of Book Expo, I started it out with breakfast with my blogger friends Ana and Katiebabs. The place Katiebabs had suggested wasn't open yet, so we stopped in at a bakery instead, where Ana enjoyed her first soft boiled egg! Poor Katiebabs was so excited about the cover reveal for the next J.R. Ward book, but she didn't have internet access!

After that, we all cabbed to the Javits Center and parted ways. I, myself, was unsure of what to do at the Javits. If things were quieter on Wednesday than on Tuesday, things were downright silent on Thursday, and there was really only one book I was interested in, so I contemplated just skipping out and going sightseeing.

But as you can tell - I'm so weak.

I stayed until about 1:00 so that I could get David Levithan's Every Day, but also managed a few other finds - a Sarah Mayberry romance, Carnival of Souls, and Fathomless (which sounds like a really interesting and dark retelling of The Little Mermaid).

EDIT EDIT EDIT*** Ah! Mea culpa! There is more - I wrote this rather late at night and totally forgot - but there was a little more to my BEA tale. Due to pure luck and not actually knowing what was planned, I ran into a line of people at the Penguin booth in the afternoon who said they were waiting for John Green, so I got in line. As it turns out, John Green showed up to unveil the newest cover for An Abundance of Katherines, whose new design was chosen from a contest. The winner was there (she was from New Jersey, and it was also the day of her prom) and John Green handed out copies of the new edition, signed by himself. I proceeded to record the whole thing only to realize after he'd disappeared behind a curtain that I'd neglected to press the "Record" button. Ah well! END OF EDIT.

After that I went sightseeing - I decided to walk from my hotel all the way down Fifth Avenue and windowshop like no tomorrow. Didn't buy anything - not only because everything was astronomically expensive, but also because with all the books I'd grabbed I knew I had no room left in my luggage. But I took lots of pictures!

And after hoofin' it all the way down Fifth, I explored the glorious main branch of the New York Public Library.

I limped back to the hotel after that, but not before getting rained on and finding out that one should never take the availability of a New York cab for granted. I flew out the next day, but not before exploring Central Park and discovering that Children's Day is the absolute worst day to visit Central Park's tiny, rather sad zoo. 

And that was basically my Book Expo New York adventure! Would I go again? Um ... I'm not sure. Probably not, actually.

I mean, it was fun to get lots of free books - but I live near a library. I can get free books anytime I want. Honestly, I was looking for more of a social experience, the kind I got from going to writers' conventions like RWA National. I got a little of that from the BEA Book Blogger Con, but I was sick for half of that. BEA itself wasn't very social, in fact. It was a little isolating, particularly for a blogger. I think if I went as a publisher or a librarian or an author, I would be able to take something other than books away from the event, but as a blogger, I felt like a spectator.

But maybe I'll go looking for other conventions to go to. Ones that are closer to what I'm doing now (writing and blogging YA, romance, and fantasy), that aren't quite as expensive as RWA National, that have a great social element and opportunities for meeting new people. 

For now, I'll go back to my regular job (vacation's over, sob!) and start E-mailing the people whose business cards I received!

How were your experiences at BEA?

BEA Day Three: Fifty Shades of Green

Now with pictures! (Spoiler alert: I arrived home alive!)

So after a very satisfying sleep, I woke up bright and early on Wednesday Morning for the Children's Book and Author Breakfast. But first! I had to get in line for autograph tickets, since John Green was also signing that day and was a ticketed author!

Don't be fooled - I'm at the back of this line, which went beyond the camera frame and doubled back. Thankfully, I still got a ticket in time. Then I rushed to the event center for the breakfast. When I first learned who was speaking at this breakfast, I used some money I'd saved to buy a Reserved Premium Round Table Seating ticket. I'm a Gleek, and I'm becoming a bigger fan of John Green with every vlogbrothers post. And of course Lois Lowry's The Giver made me cry.

When I arrived at the center, I showed my ticket, and one of the organizers personally led me to the very front of the center, to one of the five red-tableclothed tables directly in front of the stage. AWESOME! Also, there was very impressive swag on all of the chairs:

 A special boxed copy of Chris Colfer's The Land of Stories...

...accompanied by a handwritten (albeit many-times photocopied) note from Chris Colfer...

...and a gorgeous totebag!

It also came with a Land of Stories poster, a copy of John Green's The Fault In Our Stars (which I gave away to another attendee as I already had a lovely copy) and an ARC of Lois Lowry's Son, the last book in the Giver series (which wasn't even present at her later signing - people who lined up for that got a signed cover flat).

After that came the speeches. 

Chris Colfer emceed the event and he was very charming. Through his speech, he related how The Land of Stories was very much a labour of love, not a ghost-written "celebrity novel." It was actually a project on which he's worked on since he was ten (he joked that reporters responded, "So you've been working on this for five whole years!"). He showed us a picture he'd drawn of the Land of Stories in third grade as well as a map he'd designed in junior high.

Next was John Green, who started in by saying he'd looked up the "Chris Colfer" tag on Tumblr to find something silly to embarrass him with ..."only I found fanfiction..." *awkward pause* "Of the two us."

After that, however, he gave a truly inspiring speech about how books don't need to be enhanced or have funny videos or "behind the scenes" details. He stated how reading takes focus and contemplation, and how everyone here is already doing what they're good at doing, and that we don't need to try and copy the techniques of people who work in other entertainment mediums because books engage the attention span in a fundamentally different way.

After that, Chris Colfer came up and jokingly apologized, admitting that he had written the nefarious John Green/Chris Colfer fanfic, and had titled it "50 Shades of Green."

After that came Lois Lowry, who made me cry again when she revealed that a lot of her relationship with her (now tragically deceased) soldier son inspired The Giver and most especially, the final book, Son. She got a standing ovation, and boy did she deserve it!

And then there was a final speech by artist and children's book author Kadir Nelson who painted the glorious illustrations for I Have a Dream, a children's book recreation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's famous speech.

After that came more BEA and MORE BOOKS! I made it back to the Simon and Schuster booth just in time to snag an ARC of The Blessed, which has been on my radar since Kirkus' Big BEA Book review thingie arrived in my inbox. I'm a born and raised Catholic, and I've always loved the saints (even though my particular patron, St. Paul [writers, journalists, and bloggers] can be a mite creepy), and the story of three girls who embody three martyred saints, including St. Cecelia (patron saint of music), one of my personal faves? Yes!

As well, I actually ran into John Green in person on the BEA floor. I got to shake his hand and tell him how much I liked The Fault In Our Stars and even sniffled over it ("Ah, the single tear," he said). I sincerely hope I came across as a Mature, Composed Fan and not a very silly and loud fan.

Then I got in line for John Green's signing, when a woman came up behind me and put an envelope in my hand. She said it was her 15-year-old daughter's fan letter that she'd wanted to deliver to John Green. The woman said she'd also wanted to get John Green to sign a book for her daughter, since her daughter is an enormous fan who's read all of his work. Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to get a ticket. John Green was a ticketed author because he is understandably very popular and there was a limited amount of books - so only the people who waited in line for a ticket would get a signed book.

Now, I figured - I'd gotten to see him at the breakfast. And I'd actually gotten to meet him in person and tell him how much I liked his work (with photographic evidence), which was what I'd been looking to do when I went to the signing anyway. So I gave her my ticket.

And as it turns out, Karma paid me back twofold - firstly, because as I'll relate tomorrow, I managed to be at the right place and time for the unveiling of the new cover for An Abundance of Katherines and received a signed copy of it then, and secondly, because skipping the line for John Green's signing gave me time to get in line for Chris Colfer's signing.

Even though I arrived half an hour early, I was 104th in line! Crazy! Once it got moving, though, it really got moving. In the five seconds I was face to face with him, I told him I'd loved his breakfast speech and he said thank you.

After that, I pretty much just wandered around for a while more. It's interesting - Book Expo America doesn't really have that big of a social element. I mean, it's fun to talk to people in line and exchange business cards (and I'll definitely be revisiting and e-mailing the people I met), but I felt I spent a lot of time by myself. I mean, it's so big and there are so many people, that a lot of the social meet ups are sort of "ships passing in the night" stuff. Most of the socializing came from the Blogger conference, and I'd missed half of that. 

Although I did spend some quality time discussing just that with Jessica from Read React Review while in the line at MacMillan for Eve and Adam. She said that she'd heard the reason there was so much YA stuff at Book Expo is that the YA genre doesn't have its own major conference yet. There are writers' cons for Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Romance, Mystery - and yet not for YA. There's a lot of cross-promoting because YA can fall into the categories of sci-fi and romance, for instance, but no conference specifically for that genre. 

We also both expressed our disappointment in the BEA Book Bloggers conference. If I decide to go next year (and that's still a big, major if), I might go to the UnCon instead. 

All in all, Wednesday was a much lower-key day. All the frenetic running around, gawking, networking (giving my card and introducing myself as a blogger to publishers) and discovery happened on Tuesday. I felt separated from a lot of it - I'm not really in the industry, so I felt like more of a spectator. I left early to rest up before my Broadway show.

My total Wednesday swag:

While I wanted to join Katiebabs and Jessica for dinner, the insane New York traffic wouldn't allow it - I needed to have supper and get back in time to see the show, so I had the cute, flirty concierge suggest an Italian restaurant, which I ended up walking to after my (violent, profanity-spewing) cab driver landed us in a traffic gridlock.

It was called Becco, and it was a lovely restaurant. It was cozy, with warm colours, gold and red wall paper, well-lit without being too bright, with very friendly and attentive waiters. They set me up at a table for one, with a bread basket and a bowl of olives, and another bowl of olive oil-drizzled vegetable mash that was astonishingly good. I had a delicious Caesar salad and ordered the lamb - I wasn't able to finish all of it but I just wanted to mention it because while I was there, I had such a great time. Everything was delicious and all the staff were so attentive. It was nice to just sit there and people watch.

Then off I went to see Nice Work If You Can Get It - starring Matthew Broderick! It was wonderful and cheered me up immensely - although it was no Book of Mormon. The live performance and the jokes and physical comedy made this show - but the songs, while toe-tapping, well-performed, and appropriate for the show, were not at all memorable despite being apparently timeless Gershwin numbers

And then more sleep! More to come later!

BEA Day Two: Books, Books, Books

Day Two went much better - I went against my instinctual resistance against taking Pills For No Reason and swallowed two Benadryl the night before to ensure a good night's sleep, and woke up feeling much better.

So today was the Book Expo itself, and I was prepared. I took my purse, my water bottle, and the smaller, empty rolling suitcase I'd packed inside my larger rolling suitcase and took the shuttle to the Javits Center.

The place was enormous and they had special designated areas where you could check your suitcase for $3 and come back to refill it as much as you wanted.

There were two entrances to the Exposition Center - one had an enormous long line of people waiting until the doors opened at nine, and the other only had about a dozen people. I choose the shorter one - which really didn't make much difference. Apparently the right-hand entrance was more popular because it opened closer to the Big Six publishers' booths, but it was faster be the twelfth one in left-hand entrance and just walk over to the Big Six then wait around at the back of the right-hand line. And while I waited, I had a lovely chat with some librarians from Canton, Maine - one of whom got her Master's at my hometown university and was inspired by our School of Library Sciences to become a librarian.

But back to Book Expo! The librarian (whose name I shall remember once I paw through all my business cards at the end of this trip) gave me a lot of good tips - like how most of the free piles of ARCs are put out in the morning and how the Expo really calms down in the afternoon, which is a good time for socializing and networking.

So when those doors opened, I took off like a rocket! I found out the map I made was less than helpful in nearly all respects but it was really easy to find the bigger publishers because of their large banners and displays.

I have to admit, before BEA, I searched for pictures of the exposition center and never could find very many that weren't "official." I wondered if cameras weren't allowed on the exposition floor. Nope - rather, I found out that, at least on the first day, you'll spend too much time running around and dodging people and standing in line and looking at everything to even think about taking your camera out of your purse.

There is seriously SO MUCH to look at. The Big Six publishers (MacMillan, Penguin, Random House, Simon and Schuster, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins) all had enormous booths and lots of giveaways. I stuck mainly to YA but there were a lot of lit fic titles that looked excellent, too. Pretty soon, I definitely needed to secure my swag in my checked luggage - twice!

I also stood in line for about forty-five minutes to get an autographed copy of Cathrynne M. Valente's The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There! Definitely one of my must-have ARCs! And Cathrynne Valente was so nice!

Lunch was a hideously expensive and greasy pizza - not the wisest choice, I suppose, but it was delicious. Had a headache sometime after lunch, so I decided to head back with a cab - but I was in a much better mood. I was productive, I'd networked (I passed my card out to a lot of different publishers, saying I was a blogger who was interested in YA, fantasy, romance and literary fiction), and I'd gotten lots of free books.

After another nap, I felt well enough to return to the Javits for the Meet the Apocalypsies panel - where several authors whose debut novels came out this year assembled in one room to talk and sign swag for fans, while cookies and promotional doodads (bracelets, bookmarks, etc.) were served. And every fifteen or so minutes they'd hold a draw for prize packs of their books. Met Ana from the Booksmugglers there, and Janicu, and Jessica from Read React Review - and fangirled over two of the ladies from Forever Young Adult.

The panel was interesting - a good idea, and well-executed - except it might have gone better in a room without quite so many chairs. People had to squeeze around them and twist around while sitting in them and all in all it was very cramped and hot. At the same time, it was a great idea and I talked to a lot of cool authors - including Leanna Renee Hieber, who has ESCAPED THE DEBT-RIDDEN CLUTCHES OF DORCHESTER, PRAISE JESUS! She's now got new books with a far better publisher, even though Dorchester still hasn't fully paid up for her other ones!

And finally - I won one of the prize packs! Which included Hieber's Darker Still and Emily Danforth's The Miseducation of Cameron Post, which has been on my wishlist since forever. After lots of chatting, it was back to the hotel room for a delicious supper of Backpack Granola Bar, after which I cabbed it out to the Jefferson Market Library for the Teen Author Carnival.

The Teen Author Carnival was a fantastic event. While I'm sure the Book Expo facilitated the ENORMOUS number of YA Authors being all in the same vicinity, it was a separate event. Lots of cool YA authors were there - the fabulous Hannah Moskowitz, Tom Pollock, Kody Keplinger - I mean, hot damn, some of those authors are young. I need to step up my game with my novel already! There were a couple of very interesting panels and some nice prizes, and the Jefferson Market Library, in the Village, is gorgeous.

More posts to come!

BEA Day One: A Head Full of Pain and Ideas

At least, after months of waiting, I'm in New York! And because my schedule is (briefly) clear and I have free internet at my hotel, I can regale you with some of my adventures from Book Expo America! Pictures will come later!

Day One was June 3rd, where I flew to Chicago and from there to New York. United Airlines has a surprisingly backward way of doing things: for the three-hour flight to Chicago, we had to board a cramped, uncomfortable little plane with only two seats on each side - and I only occupied about 75% of my seat as the other 25% was hogged by the very large (to be fair, large as is built rather than as fat) man next to me.

The one and a half hour flight to New York took up a spacious aircraft with three comfy seats a side with squishy headrests that could be bent to fit the shape of your head! What gives? Why save that plane for the short ride?

I arrived in New York at around 11:30 pm, their time, and had to spend another thirty minutes in the trailing Cab Line of Doom. Lots of people needing cabs, with the occasional sleazy, unlicensed taxi/town car driver circling around trying to scam the most impatient-looking of us into their vehicles.

After that came the Hotel. I went up to my hotel room and. Found. A. BUG. INMYBED. Needless to say, I freaked out. Just a bit. I mean you hear all these rumours about New York hotels and bedbugs. So I trapped it under a glass and called the front desk. While they quickly changed my room, I wasn't appeased, nor convinced that there weren't hordes of creepy, crawling things in the shadows, waiting to devour me once I turned off the light (a la flesh-eating beetles in The Mummy). Even when I looked up bedbugs and realized, rather shamefacedly, that what I found a) looked nothing like a bedbug and b) was actually far smaller than a bedbug (smaller even than a no-see-um), and c) that I'd only found the one, my primitive lizard-brain was still screaming, bugs bugs bugs bugs!

So I couldn't sleep at all - which was convenient, because it meant I was awake to experience a sudden onset of a gastrointestinal Ailment which I shall not name for the benefit of my delicate-minded readers, followed by CHILLS, which required me to try and cover myself up with (possibly-only-in-my-mind) bug-infested blankets.

NOT FUN.

NOT FUN was also getting out of bed at an unseemly hour to get ready for the BEA Book Bloggers convention. I was so wobbly and dehydrated I nearly gagged in the middle of the hallway trying to dry-swallow the hastily-bought pills for my Ailment. BUT STILL. I persevered. Moving very slowly and taking tiny sips from a water-bottle, I took the shuttle to BEA, got my tickets, and waited in line.

At first, the convention was great - lovely, interesting books of all different types and genres, and a wicked-cool coffee mug from Kobo that you can draw on with chalk! Excellent! Also excellent was FINALLY meeting ALL my blogger friends in person! I met Ana and Thea from The Book Smugglers, Katiebabs from Babbling About Books, Jessica from Read, React, Review, Janicu from Janicu's Book Blog, and Jane Litte from Dear Author!

We all got to share a table with them, which was excellent, because we were all present to commiserate on the less-than-good aspects of the convention.

First off, the Networking Breakfast - this was where the authors all switched tables every fifteen minutes to talk to the bloggers while we ate coffee and muffins (or in my case, tiny sips of water with tiny bites of banana). Some of the writers were excellent - Justin Cronin was very personable and answered questions and put forward good discussion. I definitely want to read The Twelve now. But the other writers we got didn't seem to quite understand what bloggers did. Both of them seemed to think that we were more promoters than critics. That if we liked what they pitched us about their books, we'd put their book on our websites with hearts and rainbows attached.

Second Most Awkward Moment of the Conference: When the author of Motherland ranted about "those damn reviewers" to a table FULL OF REVIEWERS.

Then came a rather laughably self-aggrandizing keynote speech from Jennifer Weiner - a speech that was mostly about how awesome she is and how she helps other authors and how her type of writing is so misunderstood and underestimated - gosh, just like Book Bloggers. It's like we're all sisters! She did have some valid things to say, but I think everyone at our table rolled our eyes at the same time and chalked snarky silent comments onto our Kobo Coffee Mugs when she stated how we should all focus on sprinkling fairy dust (her words) on the stuff we like instead of blogging about what we don't like.

After that came an interminably long question-and-answer period - with a very suspicious number of questions focusing on When Jennifer Weiner's Next Book is Coming Out and What Jennifer Weiner's Working On Next, rather than, um, Blogging and What It's All About. I was sincerely starting to wonder if there were plants in the audience.

I finally got up and asked what she thought about negative Author Reactions to Negative Reviews - and she immediately caught on to that whole GoodReads scandal about that insane self-published author who tried to "revenge" herself against a reviewer by posting all of her personal contact information online. She said that authors need to calm down, adding that she never reads any of her reviews, good or bad, because she doesn't want to obsess about them and have them affect how she writes. She also stated that reviewers should just politely say "thanks for reading my review" to negative author rants, stating "don't poke the crazy." Which makes sense.

Most Awkward Moment of the Conference: This happened during the next panel (which started half an hour late because Jennifer Weiner went ten minutes late answering questions and then held an impromptu book signing) with some HarperCollins Representatives and one of the managers from GoodReads. I was sitting at another table by that time (next to Tom Pollock, who wrote The City's Son!), and Katiebabs stood up and asked what they thought about plagiarism, and how that should affect a blogger when bloggers are trying to be seen as professionals.

I almost cheered - but holy cow, the whole room went quiet. A couple of the bloggers at my new table blushed and hid their faces with their hands. It was pretty obvious whom Katiebabs was talking about - it was also discovered that the Plagiarist Blogger Who Shall Not Be Named was in the same room.

HarperCollins immediately replied that they didn't respect plagiarists, that they wouldn't do business with a plagiarist, and that they wouldn't want to trust their books to be promoted by a plagiarist - man, you could have heard a pin drop.

After that awkwardness came lunch, which I ate outside the convention room with my blogger friends. Good discussion, good food (which I found I could eat) - the only problem was my increasingly-murderous headache. I decided to head back to my hotel room to lie miserably in the dark and missed the rest of the convention.

It was not a good day, overall. The blogger convention (the half I was present for) was disappointing, and I wasn't the only one who thought that, either. I asked Thea about the panels I missed and she replied that I didn't miss much. A lot of bloggers felt misunderstood and dissatisfied that most of the conference was spent with publishers telling us what they wanted from us, rather than talking about more blogger-focused topic like a Blogging Etiquette or Ethics.

I was sorry about missing the social aspect, however. As you will see later in my posts for BEA, the Book Expo itself isn't very social, and so I'd really been looking forward to seeing and chatting with all my friends at the BEA. But health comes first, I suppose. Getting sick is one thing, but getting sick on your vacation which leads you to miss your most-anticipated events? Really sucks.

"Darkfever," by Karen Marie Moning

The Chick: MacKayla "Mac" Lane. A bubbly, blond Georgia bartender who goes to Ireland to find out how her sister died while studying abroad.
The Rub: Once there, she discovers the answers are weirder than she thinks - her sister might have been able to see the magical sidhe that have begun infesting Dublin's darker neighbourhoods. And now Mac can see them, too.
Dream Casting: Revenge's Emily VanCamp, slightly dumber.


The Dude: Jericho Barrons. Asshole extraordinaire and all-round waste of character development and fictional oxygen. Has a bookstore, lots of money, and a dark, mysterious past.
The Rub: TOO BAD HE'S A COMPLETE JACKASS.
Dream Casting: Keanu Reeves.


Urban Fantasy Convention Checklist:

• 1 Inconveniently Dead Relative
• 1 Untested, Just-Discovered Magical Power that Is Way More Magical Than Regular Magical Powers
• Several Ugly Fairies
• 1 Intentionally Stereotypical Vampire
• 1 Magical Spear
• NO Magical Power Training Montages (for SHAME!)

The Word: Thanks to lovely Commenter Suggestions, I Storify'd my LiveTweets here. 

I came across this book at my second RWA - it came in a lovely package that included a free book and a soundtrack. And several friends of mine enjoyed the book. Sadly, I did not.

MacKayla is a sweet-natured Georgia peach chilling by the pool when she receives a phone call on her parents' landline that informs her that her beloved sister Alina, who had been studying abroad in Ireland, has been murdered. MacKayla is further shocked when she replaces her old phone (which she'd dropped in the pool a few days prior to Alina's murder) and finds a host of confusing, frantic voicemails from her sister about how the world's in danger and they have to find something called the Shi-shadu.

Against her protective parents' wishes, MacKayla flies to Ireland, determined to find Alina's killer. Unsurprisingly, this goes nowhere, and soon MacKayla finds herself having creepy visions - where beautiful people suddenly appear ugly and inhuman.

Her quest for justice eventually brings her to Barrons Books and Baubles - a mysterious bookstore run by a particularly nasty individual masquerading as a hero, Jericho Barrons. He's violent, callous, manipulative, misogynist, and cruel - but hey! He's hot! So that makes everything okay.

He identifies MacKayla as a sidhe-seer, a rare human capable of seeing through a fairy's glamour. This puts MacKayla in more danger, since fairies take serious umbrage with buzz-killing humans who can warn people of their tricks. As a bonus, MacKayla's new power also extends into detecting magical objects, which Barrons hopes can prove useful in finding the Sinsar Dubh, a powerful spellbook and the same thing Alina warned MacKayla about in her last voicemail message.

MacKayla responds to this exposition with a violent denial and flees, nearly killing herself several times in a whirlwind of Too Stupid To Live decisions.

Once she's tired herself out Almost Getting Killed For a Really Stupid Reason, she returns to Barrons, who promptly holds her hostage and drags her (all but on a leash) to the homes of various Shady Paranormal Criminals in order to see if she can detect if they're hiding the Sinsar Dubh.

I really just did not like the protagonists of this novel at all. MacKayla, in particular, is a borderline-infantalized character - an immature, thoughtless girl who goes out investigating the paranormal in overly-described "cute" outfits, spouting "cute" swearwords (she says "petunia" instead of ass) and "cute" Southern wisdom - only to get into not-so-cute scrapes.

I get that Moning was trying to write Mac as a bit of a departure from the standard UF heroines (who tend to be described by most or all of these words: hardbitten, bad ass, no friends, leather jacket, dress in black, foster kid past, sullen demeanour). However, in this novel, Mac just came across as shallow and frequently TSTL. There's nothing inherently stupid about liking fashion or make up or blond hair - but there is if that's what you think about first when you're in mortal danger, to the detriment of your personal safety.

As for Barrons, I don't want to dwell on him too much because, frankly, he's a terribly written character. He controls and harasses the helpless and hapless Mac for much of the novel, often violently, with no discernible character traits or motivations beyond Whatevah, Whatevah, I Get What I Want.

I understand the whole "anti-hero" attraction, but in such cases, the author usually gives the character understandable flaws, background, and actions to humanize them, so that our understanding of them as a person helps us like them despite their flaws. Barrons remains completely opaque - in saving his actual motivations, heritage, and backstory to try and get people to read future books, the author left too little actual development in this book to make him anywhere near appealing enough for me to care about how he does in future books.

As for the writing, the author employs a very irritating Future-Narrator technique. Darkfever is told in the first person by Mac - but by a Mac in the future who already knows everything that's going to happen. In an increasingly-frustrating habit, the Future-Narrator will drop irritatingly obvious hints, often giving away the ending of a scene before the scene even starts:

[Barrons] "I'd rather you screw up while I'm with you, so I can manage the situation, than have you attempt your first kill on your own and get yourself killed instead." I had no idea how prophetic his word would prove (p.259).

Or:

In retrospect, I'm still stunned that I went into the abandoned neighborhood alone that day. It's a wonder I survived. [This is written BEFORE SHE GOES INTO THE NEIGHBORHOOD] (p.298).

Wow, way to completely suck the suspense out of a scene. Way to make the writing even more hamfisted. Because Heaven knows we wouldn't be able to figure it out on our own just by reading the damn scene!

Or else she will hint at something that is not explained or doesn't happen in this book:

Something nagged at me, something I couldn't quite put my finger on. It was a thing that I would stupidly fail to put my finger on until it was too late. Before long, I would understand that nothing had been what it seemed that night, and the reason Barrons had faced-off so coolly with the blood-sucking Master was because he'd gone in with the quiet assurance that, no matter what, he would walk out alive, and not because he had Malluce [the vampire] by the proverbial fiscal balls. (p.155-156)

Or how about:

One day I would stop taking off my clothes in V'lane's [hot fairy prince who induces uncontrollable horniness] presence, but the cost of that resistance would be a piece of my soul. Today, here and now, strolling through the National Museum of Archaeology and History ... I had no idea that pieces of one's soul could be lost.

I have honestly no idea what these excerpts mean, because they're not explained in this book - clearly, they're meant to hint at future books. It's simply confusing and annoying. It's understandable for some sequel-baiting to occur in the first book of an intended series, but the best type of sequel-baiting is to write a coherent and creative first book. If the first book isn't good, I don't care how many "secrets and answers" you promise me will be in later books. And if your first book spends more time hinting at cool stuff to come then writing an understandable and cool story happening right now, then you've failed.

And in that scene, Darkfever fails, because not only does it sequel-bait like it's going out of style, but there's no solid conclusion to the book at hand. Do we find out who Barrons is? Nope. Do we find out, definitively, who Alina's killer is? Nope. Do we find out Mac's true heritage? NOPE. None of the plot threads started in this book have a conclusion. I finished this book with almost no answers at all. I'm sorry, but even a first book in a series is still a book. A story. And stories require a beginning, a middle, and an end. Concluding the initial plot doesn't mean you can't continue into the next book with new plots that cropped up along the way, but every book needs a payoff.

I'm sorry, but I did not enjoy Darkfever, on any level. I'm off to go read books that live in the now.

D+

Disagree? Purchase Darkfever here.

The May Round-Up!

Hey y'all! Currently chillin' in my apartment, feet propped up with a heating pad. My feet, which have so far carried me everywhere my entire life without a single complaint, have suddenly decided they are shy, fragile, retiring creatures. So I am indulging them for the nonce, because I will be an absolute slave driver come BEA - which I am leaving for THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW! Whoo! Anyhoo, my May has gone thusly:

A Gentleman Undone, by Cecilia Grant. Romance, Historical. A+
Pros: Beautiful writing, superbly detailed and sexually-experienced heroine with math skills, realism, grit, and passion. Cons: I got nuthin'.
 
Delicious, by Sherry Thomas. Romance, Historical. A+
Pros:  Gorgeous, gorgeous writing. Mouthwatering descriptions of food. Lots of historical detail and drama! Interesting secondary romance. Cons: The whole plot point where the hero never sees the heroine's face until the end gets a little tiresome.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor. YA, Fantasy. A+
Pros: Breathtaking writing, highly original story, great heroine, lovely romance. Cons: Um, the sequel's not out yet?

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart. YA, Contemporary. A
Pros: Bitchin' heroine, creative feminist commentary, no obvious love triangle, unconventional ending. Cons: Plot kind of jumps all over the place. Heroine, while bitchin', is also occasionally kind of a bitch, too. 

The River King, by Alice Hoffman. Fiction, Contemporary. B+
Pros: Alice Hoffman is da bomb, yo. Cons: Not her best - meandering storyline, little payoff. 

Catch and Release, by Blythe Woolston. YA, Contemporary. B-
Pros: Excellent writing, subtle characterization. Cons: Unsettling and unsympathetic male protagonist, directionless ending.

Never Love a Lawman, by Jo Goodman. Romance, Historical. C+
Pros: Detailed setting, excellent Western-style action scenes. Cons: Evasive characters, slack pacing.
 
Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher. YA, Contemporary. C
Pros: Fascinating look at how a myriad of small actions beget large consequences. Cons: Ugly central concept and the suspense aspect is wasted with a cheap cop-out on the part of the male protagonist.

"Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher

 The Protagonist: Clay Jensen. He's just a regular kid, a nice guy, likes his mom and schoolwork. I guess?
The Rub: He thinks he's a nice guy until he receives a box of tapes made by a girl who recently committed suicide, tapes blaming thirteen people for her ultimate choice of self-destruction. And apparently he's one of those people.

The Secondary Cast:

Hannah Baker: A schoolmate of Clay's who recently committed suicide. As she details in her tapes, the varying petty slights, lies, and insults from others contributed to her depression and eventual death. 

Various Other Creeps It Would Be Fairly Spoilery to Name

Angst Checklist:

• Someone I had a crush on is blackmailing me from beyond the grave
• Depression
• Suicide
• Small insults that snowball into big consequences
• Who uses cassette tapes anymore?! 
• Rape
• Fateful Car Accidents

 The Word: Oooookay. I had this book on my TBR for a while, and was a little hesitant to pick it up (mainly due to Raych's comments on the matter), but after a coworker said she read it in a single day, I figured I'd read it and then I'd have something more to talk about in the lunchroom.

As it is, I was very conflicted by Thirteen Reasons Why. It's one of those books where it had a very good idea, but ultimately the execution and the characters behind it were lacking.

Hannah Baker is one reason for my conflicted state. She's a character, but she's dead - as we immediately learn getting into the book, she swallowed a handful of pills two weeks prior. Rather, we "hear" her voice as Clay Jensen, a shy classmate of hers, listens to the tapes she made before her death.

Clay finds the tapes on his doorstep and when he listens to them, he's horrified to learn that Hannah blames thirteen people for her suicide and she'll be naming them and their crimes against her on these tapes. One by one, these people will receive the box of tapes, and they're expected to listen to them and then pass them on to the next person on her list. If they don't, she warns, a friend of hers who's been given a copy of the tapes will release them to the public and then everyone will know what they did.

And if Clay received the box of tapes, it means that he's on Hannah's list, and also a contributor to her death.

Now, first of all, I shared Raych's reaction to Hannah's contemptuous little post-mortum: blaming people for your SUICIDE and then BLACKMAILING THEM FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE is a shitty thing to do. Especially considering that a lot of the people on the list are only guilty of being selfish petty jackasses. Yes, a couple of people on the list did genuinely awful things, but the vast majority of the people were just being jerks and at least one made a concerted effort to help.

On the one hand, that's the point. Hannah describes it as a snowball effect - how one small prank can have an expanding ripple effect that allows another person to make a cruel gesture that leads to a misunderstanding with another person that causes them to lash out, etc. etc. And as an idea, that's fantastic, and what kept me reading. I sincerely doubt people, particularly teenagers, commit suicide for just One Big Burning Reason. No, it's often a bunch of small problems that just get bigger and bigger. Thirteen Reasons Why shines when it demonstrates how one small action ("just a little joke") can have an increasingly negative impact on someone else's life.

It's fascinating to read how different solutions and resources were closed to Hannah, one by one, by selfish and petty individuals who likely had no idea how much impact their actions really had. In that sense, it's a little satisfying to know they would have to listen to the tapes and understand where their actions had led.

But still - blaming people for your suicide in an elaborately planned tape-passing plot? I found it very difficult to sympathize entirely with Hannah because, to me, the impact of her words and her tapes seemed far more harsh a punishment than many of the people on her list deserved, in my opinion. One or two, I suppose, earned the right to bear that burden, but not all of them (and certainly not the very last person on her list - that scene made my blood boil and destroyed nearly all the empathy I'd built up for her character).

At least the conflicted nature of Hannah's character is a ripe ground for discussion about morality and suicide. But what about the other narrator - Clay? The boy who listens to the tapes throughout the novel?

Let's just say, if I wanted the mains reasons why I didn't like this novel to know what I thought of them, and had a couple of cassette tapes handy, The Suicide-Blaming Plot and Clay would both receive a package from me.

Clay is a lame-ass character. I mean, he's practically a non-entity. We learn almost nothing about him throughout the entire novel. He's just there to spout exposition and cry about how it's not fair and how He and Hannah Almost Had It Allllll. By the end of the novel, I had only the barest sketch of who he was as a person, his interests and motivations, and that's such a disappointment. I mean, he considers himself a nice guy, but Hannah sent him the tapes. So he obviously screwed up somewhere. But where? The mystery of what he did serves as part of the suspense aspect of the novel.

But then. (MAJOR SPOILERS AND RAGE BELOW)

We learn that CLAY DIDN'T DO ANYTHING. He didn't hurt Hannah AT ALL! He's absolutely, completely, entirely innocent of her death and Hannah makes this very clear on the tapes. She just had an oh-so-cute crush on him, you see, so she wanted him to know her story and what happened to her. I nearly threw this book at a fucking wall when I got to this point. WHAT A COMPLETE AND UTTER COP-OUT. What a CUTESY BULLSHIT betrayal of the suspense aspect AND the central concept. The whole POINT of the novel was that most of the people on Hannah's list NEVER INTENDED to hurt her as badly as they did, or contribute to how badly her life turned out. So it would make sense that even a "nice guy" like Clay might have done something careless, or small-minded, or thoughtless, that landed him on the list. I cannot believe that the book led me on this long only to narratively bait-and-switch me and go the hearts-and-flowers Disney Prince route. Because that's who we find out Clay "is": an absolutely perfect, flawless nice guy whom no one can say anything bad about, whose shining, sterling reputation fascinated Hannah. He's so squeaky-clean he had nothing to do with her death at all. He's so squeaky-clean Hannah thought she was in love with him - but apparently not SO in love with him that SHE DIDN'T JUST *TELL* HIM POINT-BLANK AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FUCKING TAPES SO THAT HE WOULDN'T HAVE TO SPEND THE NEXT FIVE HOURS IN UTTERLY POINTLESS MISERY.

So at the end of the novel, we still have no real, solid characterization for Clay. He's pretty much a cute, inoffensive mouthpiece for the novel's central message and a bland foil for Hannah.

Without Clay, this novel might have received as high as a B grade from me. Sadly, the interesting idea of the novel was ultimately hampered by the ENORMOUS elephant-sized cop-out in terms of storytelling, and the complete lack of the narrator's character development.
C

You can purchase Thirteen Reasons Why here.

Getting Ready for BEA

This year, I decided not return to the Romance Writers of America National Conference. I've gone for three years, had a great time, but genre-wise, I'm moving on. I still love romance, continue to read romance, and my books will definitely have romantic elements, but I'm broadening my reading horizons.

And so I became interested in Book Expo America. For several reasons:

1. It's about the publishing industry as a whole, and thus all genres of books are represented
2. It's affiliated with a Book Blogger Convention, which I will also be attending - along with several other talented bloggers of whom I am crazy-jealous.
3. It's in New York, currently my Favourite City in the World. Which gives me another excuse to explore the museums (like the Morgan Library), Central Park, and Broadway (Nice Work If You Can Get It this year!).
4. It is substantially, substantially cheaper than RWA Nationals. 

But it's also a very, very big conference, quite easy to get lost in, to get overwhelmed in, and quite honestly the Book Expo website is not always the most helpful or organized of internets. I'm frankly a little terrified. So I did some searching and digging and followed the #BEA12 hashtag on Twitter, and found a real gem of a blogger who handily gathers a host of other bloggers' tips and tricks into one easy post. I've also been asking around the blogo- and Twitterspheres for interesting tips. Given what I've learned, my plan is thus: 

1. The Soles of My Feet Are Reserved for Baby Ducks Only: One of the most unanimous tips is to wear comfortable footwear. The Javits Center is apparently 4 New York blocks long, so you will be frequently walking whilst carrying increasing amount of weight. Plus a lot of sightseeing in New York is more efficiently done on foot. I tried breaking in new sandals a few weeks ago and injured a tendon in my heel, leading to a frenzy of worrying and WebMDing. My $100 sandals were a bust, as were the $300 Beautifeel shoes (which I thankfully already had at the back of my closet), but I unexpectedly found salvation in a $37 pair of backless sandals from Payless.

2. I'm bringing extra luggage. I did a little research - I found out Air Canada's charge for extra luggage up to 50 pounds in weight is $35. I went to Canada Post and found out shipping a 50 pound box of books between New York and My Home Town is around $100 (I think, neither Canada nor US Post is very helpful about the cost of ground shipping). You do the math. In my case, to accommodate my expected loot, I'll be packing lightly, and I'll either bring an extra wheeling suitcase, or a collapsible dufflebag to fill with books and check in as extra baggage on the way back (this also means I won't be charged an extra $35 on the way there).

3. I'm bringing my own eats. I expected to do this anyways - as someone with a nut allergy, it's always good to have a least some food I can trust. And apparently the food at the Javits is crazy-expensive to boot. I'll also pack my water bottle.

4. I'll be checking my greed at the door. Or at least, trying to. Just because something is free, doesn't mean it's good - it's also not actually free. For every book I take, I'll have to haul it around in a heavy tote bag for a good portion of the day, drag it from the Javits Center, and pay extra to have it put on a plane. And then Customs! And then it'll take up valuable space in my teeny-tiny apartment! So I have to make sure it's something I want. As well, if I take a book just because it's free - it means there's one less book for the attendees who would really want it.

One blogger actually wrote (paraphrasing) "Nobody will be offended if you pick up a book, read the back, and then put it back down." I'm one of those people who needed to hear that. At conferences, I used to fear that publishers or authors would be hurt if I "rejected" their novel right in front of them. At BEA, they know it's just not your cup of tea, and that there are 100 readers behind me who are searching for exactly that cup of tea.

5. I've started using an eReader! One of the tips I've read is to bring an eReader instead of books to amuse myself on the plane. The rationale being - more room to bring books back! As it turns out, my mother received a Kobo Vox as a gift but realized she ultimately preferred reading on her iPad, so she lent the Vox to me to try out. I'll admit, there's a part of me that feels I'm betraying the beautiful paper books lining my shelves. But! I'm doing this so that I can bring more paper books back. As it is, I'll be the one reading Where It Began by Ann Stampler and The Famous Heroine/The Plumed Bonnet by Mary Balogh on the plane.

6. I'm putting my phone on Airplane Mode. I looked up a Data Roaming package for my Blackberry, but it's just a discount. So instead of my phone bill being eyeball-hemorrhagingly expensive, it would just be exorbitantly expensive. Yay? According to experts and previous Book Expo attendees - the reception in the Javits is infamously terrible and spotty. So what's the point? My hotel room comes with free internet, so I'll update after hours.

7. I'm going to continue talking to people! Yes, I said continue. I'm great at talking to strangers and exchanging business cards (mine are purple and pink this year), I am less so at continuing correspondence after the conference. So I'm going to talk everyone's faces off, write notes on the back of their business cards, then e-mail them to continue talking their faces off!

8. I'll be packing light, but right. All the tip pages I've seen are telling people to pack light, but a lot of them also emphasize that what you pack must also be nice. The unspoken dress code at BEA is business casual and a couple of bloggers have outright said that although jeans technically can be worn, you'll get treated better and taken more seriously in more professional clothing.

9. I'm bringing small bills. Past attendees have warned that a lot of the books aren't technically free - booths often ask for small donations in return. It's also nice to have ones and twos for tipping cab drivers and buying hot dogs (there's apparently an awesome hot dog cart right outside the Javits). HOWEVER, if you are like me, a native of a reasonable country with multicoloured and easily identifiable money (Canada), be extra careful when handing out bills because American money is ALL GREEN. I know! Stupid, right? One of my Canuck friends accidentally tipped a waitress with a fifty and was too polite to ask for it back.

10. I'm going with the flow. A lot of the tips have people making elaborate multi-highlighted spreadsheets and detailed calendars and ... I can't do that. There's just too much going on. There's apparently a list on Edelweiss of all the books to be found at BEA, but I don't know when or where they'll be given out - and besides, I'm not here (entirely) for the books. I have definitely entered my ultimate BEA experiences and events and autographings into my Blackberry Calendar, but I also don't want the experience to be like a grocery trip - making a detailed list of everything and then going and picking it up.

Me? I've decided I'm going to explore. Again, my ultimate Must Dos are in my calendar, and my fave publishers' booths will be marked out on my BEA floorplan, but I plan to spend most of my time walking around, looking, talking to people and publishers, and reading the backs of what books I find. All these books will be released eventually and the vast majority of them will wind up at my local library.

What about you? Are you going to BEA? Does it sound like I have the right idea, or am I way off my rocker? Any other tips and tricks?

"Delicious," by Sherry Thomas

The Chick: "Verity Durant," a.k.a. Lady Vera Drake. A talented chef and former mistress of Mr. Bertie Somerset, until he dies unexpectedly.
The Rub: With Bertie's passing, his half-brother Stuart will inherit his holdings - will Verity be able to maintain her employment without Stuart recognizing her as his one-time paramour?
Dream Casting: Kate Winslet.

The Dude: Stuart Somerset. A high-profile barrister with the Liberal Party, he has a duty to uphold a moral standard while pushing forward the Irish Home Rule Bill.
The Rub: His uncontrollable reaction to his chef's food and her presence threatens everything he's ever striven for - but could giving in and possessing her be worth it, after all?
Dream Casting: Hugh Jackman.

The Plot:

Verity: Oh no! My employer's dead!

Stuart: Looks like I've inherited all my brother's stuff!

Verity: Might as well not dump my employer while he's on an empty stomach!

Stuart: *taste soup* Wow, this tastes like delicious flashbacks!

Ten Years Ago...

Stuart and Verity: *SexyTimes*

Stuart: Let's get married!

Verity: Um, let me sleep on it... *flees*

Stuart: :(

Present Day

Stuart: Even though I've very conveniently never seen your face, I'm in love with you!

Verity: Oh good. I thought you'd be mad.

Lizzy: Why should he be? I'm off to marry/shag his hot secretary!

Verity: I thought he was gay.

Lizzy: SO DID I ISN'T THAT HILARIOUS?

Stuart: *recognizes Verity* OMG HOW DARE YOU. GET OUT!

Verity: Really? It took you that long?

Stuart: ... now that I think about it, yeah. Not that mad anymore! Be my mistress!

Ornery Relative: How'd you like some Convenient Backstory first?

Stuart: Even better! Be my wife!

Verity: HOORAY!

Romance Convention Checklist

• 1 Interclass Romance
• 1 Amazing One-Night Stand
• Several Flashbacks
• 1 Not-So-Secret Baby
• 1 Nasty Aunt
• Dozens of Delicious Madeleines
• 1 Accidentally-Walked-In-On Moment of Self-Pleasure
• 2 Beloved Galoshes
• 1 Delightful Secondary Romance

The Word: While perusing my shelves for something to read, I realized it had been more than a year since I last read one of Sherry Thomas' novels, and I realized I had to do something about it.

While I enjoyed the last novel of hers I read (His At Night), particularly the storyline, for some reason I just couldn't click with her characters, primarily because the hero spent the majority of the novel pretending to be two apples short of a fruit salad.

This time around, my experience was the opposite - I loved both characters - hell, all four characters - and the delicious writing so much that I could easily ignore some of the story's repetitive quibbles.

The heroine, Verity Durant, is a notorious chef with a past as spicy and varied as a good paella. When her employer (and former lover) Bertie Somerset dies unexpectedly of a heart attack, she realizes she will have to vacate her position now that Bertie's half-brother Stuart will inherit his holdings and estate. Verity and Stuart share A History but she decides that she owes it to him to cook him a few truly mouthwatering and life-changing meals before she looks for other employment.

Stuart is an upstanding barrister and Chief Whip for the Liberal Party. He's devoted to his calling, but he also knows that society is always waiting to hold his illegitimate birth against him (even though he was later legitimized by his father), so he strives to be rigidly practical, proper, and moral in all things, including his engagement to the well-heeled Elizabeth Bessler. One sip from Madame Durant's soup suddenly floods him with a passion, a hunger, a sensuous craving that terrifies him so much he can barely tolerate a few bites before he sends the meal back. The fact that Madame Durant is infamous for being his hated half-brother's mistress is an even bigger reason to sack her.

But he doesn't. He hasn't felt such longing in ten years, ever since he spent one life-altering night with a nameless Cinderella who ran out on his impulsive but truly-meant offer of marriage. And Verity doesn't quit - even though she was that Cinderella and she knows that nothing can ever come of it. Her own relationship with Bertie dissolved when it became clear he considered her too far beneath him to marry.

Meanwhile, Stuart's fiancee Lizzy Bessler, who sees marriage to Stuart as the way out of all her past vanities and mistakes, must fight her growing attraction to his secretary, disinherited aristocrat William Marsden.

First of all, this is a terrible book to read on a diet. The descriptions of the food are simply gut-clenching. This is an incredibly sensuous book and Sherry Thomas's magnificent gift with words is put to very good use here. She's so talented at describing sensations (both mental and physical), that it's impossible not to be swept up in the drama.

And there is a lot of drama. Very unconventional, complicated, multifaceted drama - it's a pure pleasure to read and uncover it all. It's become quite a bore to read an historical romance with an angsty hero only to learn his only major problem was one woman who did him wrong by running off with someone else. That's it? You won't find that in Delicious. It's very condensed that way - there is a lot to experience and take in, and it's wonderful, even if there are a few gaps (to this day I still can't understand how the situation where William mistakes Lizzy for a lesbian came about).

Was this story absolutely perfect, however? No - again, there are some quibbles. My main annoyance with this novel is how long it's forced to hide Verity's face from Stuart as they develop their romance. I realize it's integral to the plot that Stuart not recognize Verity as his One Night Stand until the end, but that didn't make the scenes where they're face to face less contrived or annoying.

Either Verity will insist Stuart turn off the lights (which he obeys, for no reason), or he comes across her by accident while she conveniently has a handkerchief over her face, or they meet in a fog, or he buys her a mask even though he has no possible reason I can think of for doing so. I couldn't really understand why Stuart feels no qualms about being in love with a woman whom he's never seen above the neck.

It's one of those things that made sense at first, but was stretched out far too long until Verity became an erotic version of Mr. Wilson from Home Improvement (Touchstone Television).

"I'm not wearing anything underneath this hat!"

My other quibble involves a sudden and all-encompassing revelation at the end by an Ornery Relation that made very little sense to me and tied up everything with all-too-neat bow.

But this is the kind of novel where the gorgeous writing and the lovelorn characters and the entertaining secondary romance clearly make up for it. This became an immediate favourite of mine and I highly recommend it.
A+  

You can purchase Delicious here.

The Weekly Wanting (8)

Happy Sunday, folks! Some cool things are happening this week!

Firstly, today is my Third Twitterversary! Yup, I've been on Twitter for three years, had some great 140-character conversations, learned a lot of new things and overheard a lot of scandals. But I still can't explain how it works to my parents!

As well, I have a winner for the Catch And Release giveaway! HANNALILY come on down! And by down I mean, e-mail me your deets!

Tomorrow I'll be having my second Forever Young Adult Bookclub meeting! We'll be meeting at a pub and discussing The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks over drinks and fried foods.

Writing-wise, especially given what I wrote last week, it's actually picked up. I just made myself sit down in a place with very few distractions (in this case, Steep's Tea House with several pots and eventually a tea latte of their Choco-Chili-Chai blend) and wrote whatever I wanted. And it started to get good! I actually tried to be funny - and y'all know I can be extremely funny in my reviews, and I like being funny, so I tried to make it funny. Have I typed the word "funny" enough? I think so.

In this case, writing in a contemporary setting, I found the humour was easier. A lot of my previous works were historical or set in a fantasy world, and the humour in those types of books can be very difficult to pull off since they often rely on modern humour filtered through an historically-appropriate lens, so it often comes off as stilted or obvious.

And, as I've always found, writing requires a lot of momentum. The more I write, the easier it is to write. The more I write in one book, the easier it is to pick it up again. For instance, I've been focusing a lot on my Fantasy YA (More Than Normal) more than my Fantasy Fairy-Tale Retelling (Mouseheart), so it's easier to pick up the first novel and keep at it then my second (although it still has potential so I may return to it later).

In sad news - I've spent the last two weeks breaking in a new pair of sandals for BEA - and they broke me in instead, and by me, I mean my poor right heel. I spent most of yesterday on the internet terrifying myself with websites about Heel Spurs and Haglund's Deformity and Achilles Tendonitis and retrocalcaneal bursitis and plantar fascilitis. I'm under thirty, I'm not overweight, I walk a lot but I don't jog or run. All I did was wear new sandals for two weeks! So I'm just going to keep my feet up, ice it, take Motrin, and hope I can still walk for BEA!

I also went out and bought BOOKS this week! Gasp! With BEA almost upon me and everything! I comfort myself with the fact that neither of these authors are going to be at BEA, so I'm not doubling up - I found a 2002 edition of Alice Hoffman's Illumination Night (whoohoo!) and Kingdom of Gods by N.K. Jemisin so that I can finish her trilogy on the plane!

Speaking of planes, and BEA - I'M GOING TO BEA this year! But I'll be making a whole separate post about that so that this one doesn't go on too long!

As for the whole Wanting part - not so much this week. Sometimes there are weeks where every blog I read is talking about the same two or three books and they're just NOT what I'm interested in at all. But I did find one:

A Confusion Of Princes, by Garth Nix 

Genre: Science Fiction, Possibly Science Fantasy

Cover Snark: I really like the vest!

The Story: Our hero is a Prince - but in a science-fictional world where there are 10,000 Princes fighting for supremacy! Awwwwkard.

Why I Want It? There are few storylines I like more than Arrogant Douchebags who are Brought Low and Redeemed Through Toil (see: my love for the protagonist of District Nine), which is what the Booksmugglers' review made it look like. Excellent!

So that's my week! How's yours going?

 

"Daughter of Smoke and Bone," by Laini Taylor

I used to write for The Green Man Review (since 2004, actually) but I kind of lost touch with them after they switched to blog format. I'm much more comfortable writing on my blog nowadays, but I decided to do one last review - since I discovered Laini Taylor's marvellous Faeries of Dreamdark series thanks to Green Man, it makes sense I would review Daughter of Smoke and Bone for them as well. Check out the review here. Let's just say it's one of the best books I've ever read, ever, in the history of ever, and leave it at that.

"Catch and Release," by Blythe Woolston - Review and Giveaway

The Protagonist: Polly Furnas. When seven people in her hometown, including her, contract a devastating illness, only she and her classmate Odd remain living.
Her Angst: Defining the word "living" becomes more complicated for Polly as her illness leaves her horrifically scarred. To escape her depression and apathy, she and Odd embark on a two-day fishing trip that takes a series of random detours.

The Secondary Cast:

Odd: A football player a few years younger than Polly who also survived the outbreak. Suffers from an overabundance of angst and severely impaired impulse control.

Polly's Mom: Used to be incredibly close and supportive of Polly - until Polly's illness made her incredibly overprotective and smothering.

Bridger: Polly's boyfriend, who promptly ditched her after she recovered.

Angst Checklist:

• Germs Ate My Face
• Germs Ate My Leg
• Douchebag Boyfriends
• Adapting to Changes in Circumstance
• The Importance and Definition of Family
• Pie
• Where Should I Hide This Gun From My Emotionally Unstable Fishing Buddy?
• Fishing as Pastime and Metaphor

The Word: First things first, I would love to thank the wonderful Blythe Woolston - I remember reading an amazing excerpt of her novel Catch and Release over at Forever Young Adult and I made a comment on Twitter on how good it sounded. Nothing surprised me more than when she contacted me on Twitter and asked if I would like a copy to review. I happily accepted.

Second things second - I realize that the novel's title includes an ampersand, but Blogger formatting is being a fussy bitch, so for the purposes of a clean review I'm spelling it with an "and." Just in case you are fussy about that sort of thing as well. 

Polly's life and identity are divided in two - the Polly-That-Was of the past who was a cheerful overachiever and beloved girlfriend, and the "monster" she became after surviving an outbreak of MRSA (resistant flesh-eating bacteria) that killed five other people. Polly survived, but at the cost of her right eye and cheekbone. Her spineless boyfriend broke up with her before fleeing to college, her dream of working with children is now impossible, and now she's stuck at home in a kind of numb, emotional stasis with her overprotective mother.

The only person she can stand to be around is Odd, a football player a couple of years younger than her who lost a leg to the MRSA outbreak. When Odd asks her to come with him on a fishing trip, Polly decides action is better than inaction and agrees. However, Odd is not in the most stable, rational, or healthy frame of mind and their two-day fishing trip takes a lot longer and ostensibly leads them on a journey of self-discovery.

I say "ostensibly" because, while Woolston's writing style is stellar, I had a hard time connecting to this book or the characters.

My dissatisfaction with this novel comes from the fact that I'm a big-picture girl. I like knowing the backstory and getting a glimpse into the future. However, Catch and Release is very much a book that lives entirely in the present. What little we do come to learn about the characters' backstories and what kind of people they were before MRSA, come to us in flashes and glimpses - and the future itself remains frustratingly blank.

Catch and Release is also a deeply introspective book. Polly is forced back into the world of the living and has to confront in practice what she's only been learning in theory: that life will never be the same for her thanks to her deformity, but that it still goes on. In that sense, I appreciated the random, meandering pace of both the narrative and the roadtrip itself - from what we know of Polly-That-Was, she planned everything out in advance, from her school projects, to her career, to her "perfect" relationship with Bridger. Having all of her plans pulled out from under her by the horrifying results of her illness left her almost immobile with apathy - so her recovery comes from following Odd's seemingly directionless, last-minute, impulsive itinerary.

While Polly is a realized, immediate character, Odd was ... not. He's like the Dude Version of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl Trope, and while this may be a double standard, having the unstable, unpredictable, crazy-troubled free-spirit be a guy ended up being kind of terrifying, particularly in the claustrophobic nature of the narrative (Odd and Polly are the only real characters with dialogue in this story). And when he's not terrifying, he's gross and a jerk. Odd has serious problems and there were several points in this story where I felt Polly should have gotten out of the car and walked away - preferably to the nearest gas station with a ladies' bathroom and a phone.

Ultimately, the story felt a little unfinished - again, I'm a big-picture girl. I like to have an idea of where the characters are going to end up, or how they're going to live their lives now that they've resolved their issues, and I didn't feel like I got that with Catch and Release. The story definitely indicates that Polly learns life is still worth living - but doing what? I wanted to know what Polly felt about doing with her future - what did she want to do now? What had she learned? What were her new dreams and motivations? The novel lacks this, and thus the ending felt abrupt.

That being said, the writing style is sleek and evocative - the style of writing is actually what attracted me to the novel in the first place. Woolston creates a wonderful sense of setting and environment as Odd and Polly explore new fishing grounds.

As it is - Catch and Release is a pretty good example of a book that is by no means terrible, but simply isn't to my taste. The writing is excellent, and the character-building (at least on Polly's part) is subtle and clever. That being said - focused, introspective character pieces aren't my particular cup of tea. But that doesn't mean it can't be yours - read below.

B-

Blythe Woolston very generously provided me with an extra copy of Catch and Release to give away to a lucky reader! To enter, simply comment below on where you'd like to take a roadtrip - or if you've already had a bitchin' roadtrip, what was the most interesting part? Contest is international and open until Sunday, May 27th, so go crazy!

Or, if you're weird and you'd rather pay to read Catch and Release, you can purchase it here.

"A Gentleman Undone," by Cecilia Grant

The Chick: Lydia Slaughter. A former brothel worker who is now the kept woman of a wealthy gentleman.
The Rub: Lydia knows the shelf-life of a mistress isn't particularly long - so she hopes to earn her independence using her card counting skills on careless, privileged gentlemen.
Dream Casting: Laura Carmichael.

The Dude: William Blackshear. Having returned alive from the war, despite paying a high price, he feels responsible for providing for the widow of a man who died under his command.
The Rub: The only way he can earn the money he needs in enough time is by gambling - until a cunning little cardsharp fleeces him of 180 pounds.
Dream Casting: Rob James-Collier.

The Plot:
Lydia: I need to win money at cards!


Will: What a coincidence! So do I!

Lydia: Too bad, so sad. *fleeces*

Will: OMG YOU CHEATING SEXY CHEATER.

Lydia: I didn't cheat, I'm just smarter than you!

Will: I FIND THAT INSANELY ATTRACTIVE. And yet I must be honourable!

Lydia: Wow, yeah, I'm totally smarter than you.

Will: ARGH YOUR PROTECTOR'S A DICK, I'M OFF TO WIN YOU AT A GAME OF BILLIARDS!

Lydia: This isn't even a contest anymore.

Will: ...I'm sorry. I just think your brain is such a big, sexy organ!

Lydia: It's just too bad that you ... *takes off Will's pants* Never mind. It's clear we both have very big sexy organs.

Will and Lydia: *SexyTimes*

Will: ARGH YOUR PROTECTOR SMACKED YOU AROUND, I'M OFF TO FIGHT A DUEL!

Lydia: Seriously?! It's a good thing I can't have kids because that kind of thinking shouldn't be passed down.

Will: Fine! I'll delope!

Lydia: Look at you and your smart decisions!

Will: HOORAY!

Romance Convention Checklist:
2 Dark Pasts
1 Ho Fo' No Show
2,700 Pounds
Several Packs of Cards
1 Dependent Widow
1 Not-Altogether-An-Evil-Fellow Protector
1 Duel
1 Staunch BFF
1 Mistress-Winning Game of Billiards
2 Ho Besties
1 Erotic Swath of Purple Sarcenet
NO Barren Baby Epilogues! (YES!)

The Word: There have often been times where I've picked up a book and it's wowed me - with its original story, or the beauty of its prose, or the passion and romance of its characters - but when I go to pick up the author's second book, the excitement and discovery are gone. The writing is stilted. In some cases, the first book did one or two things so incredibly well, that I ignored what the author did poorly, so that when I read the second book, all I notice are the things that I don't like.

But, to cut short this Ryan-Seacrest-esque suspense, it did not happen with Cecilia Grant.

Cecilia Grant floored with me with her debut novel, A Lady Awakened, a stunningly-written and deeply romantic tale about a rigidly controlled widow and a feckless charmer who find love and self-improvement with each other. I adored this book, so when Grant offered to send me a copy of A Gentleman Undone, I replied very positively in writing - but in reality I was probably performing a very immature display of "gimme gimme" grabby hands.

Our heroine, Lydia Slaughter, is the well-kept mistress of a wealthy gentleman who rescued her from a brothel. However, as a staunch realist, she knows her life of privilege is extremely limited - especially since Roanoke, her protector, failed (or intentionally declined) to bind their arrangement with a contractual promise of a settlement once they part ways. Her solution, so far, has been to accompany her protector to his genteel gaming clubs and play his cards after he dozes off, skimming the winnings. 2,000 pounds is her goal - a hefty sum that, once invested, will provide her with a modest annual independence for life.

Will Blackshear (the brother of A Lady Awakened's Martha) is employing a similar scheme - deeply scarred by his experiences and actions in the war, he hopes to acquire enough capital through gambling to settle a moral debt with the widow of one of his men. He's doing fairly well for himself until he goes up against Lydia and loses a hundred and eighty pounds. Thinking she cheated, he confronts her, only to discover something else entirely: Lydia is a mathematical genius with a photographic memory and a deft hand shuffling and dealing cards.

When Roanoke's clubmates start objecting to the impropriety of letting his mistress gamble, Lydia has to find an alternate plan. Will and Lydia decide to secretly team up and satisfy their mutual goals by taking on the seedier gaming hells together.

Following in the exalted footsteps of Loretta Chase and Rose Lerner, Cecilia Grant creates a marvellous, damaged, unconventional and sympathetic courtesan heroine with Lydia Slaughter. She enjoys sex - a lot (moreover, she enjoys sex with Roanoke, the romantic rival! Gasp!), but she's more proud of her prodigious talent with numbers and probabilities, a talent she's kept hidden until Will arrives.

Initially, Will is entranced by Lydia's mathematical skill, and Lydia is attracted to the novelty of a man admiring her head more than what's below it. Despite believing that his actions in the war have ultimately cost him his soul, Will is a deeply honourable man who tries very hard to live by his principles - while he desires Lydia, he doesn't want to join the throng of men who've misused her.

Lydia, meanwhile, has a boatload of reasons to distrust the flimsy hypocritical idea of a man's honour, and this causes a delightful and sexy cat-and-mouse game between the protagonists as each one schemes to reveal the other's vulnerabilities first. Because of this, the physical relationship between the protagonists takes a back seat to their mental and emotional development together, much like in A Lady Awakened. Although, I will tell you - it is totally worth it when they do get together.

There is, honestly, so much to love about this novel. The writing is gorgeous, evocative and lush. The characters and their actions and reactions are well-realized and genuine. This novel is unabashedly romantic while still maintaining the rough edges and small disappointments of realism, instead of tidily tying everything up with a pretty fantasy bow, the way some romances do. This isn't a novel where everyone except the Bad Guys loves and accepts the heroine unconditionally. This isn't a novel where the hero has a dark past that turns out to be an Angsty Misunderstanding. This isn't a novel where one of the protagonists turns out to be the long-lost progeny of a Duke and inherits a million pounds.

A Gentleman Undone is romance in its purest form - two interesting, intelligent, damaged, human characters who lead the reader on a beautiful journey to discover just how well their broken edges match. The world doesn't change to fit them, but their love gives them the strength to fit into the world. And I loved every page of it.
A+

You can purchase A Gentleman Undone here!