Category Archives: Readings

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YA Summer Reads 2013

Hello gentle reader,

are you looking for a good YA book to read this summer? Here are a few suggestions…

born-of-illusion-teri-brown-new

Born of Illusion by Teri Brown (Published June 11th 2013 by Balzer & Bray) – Historical Fantasy

A Darkness Strange and Lovely

A Darkness Strange And Lovely by Susan Dennard (Published July 23d 2013 by Harper Teen) – Steampunk + Zombies

Courtship and Curses

Courtship And Curses by Marissa Doyle (Published August 7th 2012 by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) – Historical Fantasy + Witches

Between the devil and the deep blue sea

Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke (Published August 15th 2013 by Dial) – Gothic Fantasy

The Dark Between

The Dark Between by Sonia Gensler (Published August 27th 2013 by Knopf Books for Young Readers) – Historical Fantasy – Spiritualism

Coldest Girl In Coldtown

The Coldest Girl In Coldtown by Holly Black (Published September 3rd 2013 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) – Fantasy – Vampires

What about you? What are you reading this summer? Are these books on your To-BeRead list? Feel free to share your recommendations below!

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COLDNESS OF MAREK Cover Reveal!

Hello gentle reader,

One of my good friends and fellow There And Draft Again blogger, Rachel O’Laughlin, has an Epic Fantasy novel debuting on 6th August 2013: COLDNESS OF MAREK. I’m really excited for her book to be out, and I’m even more excited to reveal her beautiful cover art!

Here’s the book blurb. Scroll down to check out the cover!

Serengard has been under Orion rule for centuries. Centuries of insufferable adherence to laws and traditions that none of its people ever asked for or agreed to. Raised by her scholarly grandfather in the fiery southern city of Neroi, Trzl is out to turn the monarchy into a free society where knowledge is king and no one has to be subject to the whims of an Orion.

As the rebellion escalates, her choices have an eerie impact on the revolution at large, elevating her to a position of influence she has only dreamed of attaining. But there are downsides to her power: appearances and alliances that must be upheld. One of them is Hodran, a rich rebel who wants to aid her cause, and another is Mikel, a loyalist farmer who wants to destroy it… and who just might be winning her heart at the same time.

By the time Trzl realizes she is in too deep, she has an infant son and a dark mess of betrayal and lies. She runs, to the farthest corner of the kingdom, in hopes she will be left alone with her child. But she has a few too many demons. Someone she once trusted takes her captive among the chilling Cliffs of Marek. She is thrown back into the political mess she helped create… at the mercy of a man she never wanted for an enemy.

Author Bio

RachelOLaughlin-authorpic2013

Obsessed with all things history, Rachel grew up reading adventure stories the caliber of Rafael Sabatini and only recently fell in love with fantasy as a genre. She lives in Maine with her husband and children, grows roses and tweets often. In addition to reading and writing, she loves coffee, spy series, and alternative rock.

And… here is the cover!

ColdnessOfMarek-Cover

Isn’t it gorgeous?!

Add COLDNESS OF MAREK on Goodreads

Pre-order COLDNESS OF MAREK

Find Rachel O’Laughlin on her website, Twitter and Facebook

Visit the other participating blogs here:

There And Draft Again (with an excerpt from COLDNESS OF MAREK!)

Darci Cole

Serena Lawless

Lauren Garafalo

Mara Valderran

K.L. Schwengel (with an excerpt as well!)

M. Andrew Patterson

Joshua David Bell

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What’s Up Wednesday & Ready. Set. Write! Check-In 1

Hello gentle reader,

as promised this is my first What’s Up Wednesday post as well as my goal-setting post for the Ready. Set. Write! challenge. If you wish to find out what this writing challenge is about and join in the fun, click on the button below:

ready-set-write-button

What’s Up Wednesday was created by Jaime Morrow and Erin L. Funk.  It’s a way to share what we are up to each week.

What's Up Wednesday Button

What I´m reading

The Quietness

This week I read The Quietness by Alison Rattle (YA Historical fiction). It’s the story of two girls in 19th Century London, who have nothing in common but whose paths are about to cross. The voice is brilliant, I loved it!

What I’m Writing

My goal for Ready. Set. Write! is to edit and query my YA Historical Fantasy Lily In The Shadows.

This week I’m editing, following my beta readers’ advice.

What else I´ve been up to

I won a giveaway! Editor Cassandra Marshall organised a contest to win a full MS critique and incredibly, I won! I’m looking forward to her feedback on Lily…

What inspires me right now

Knowing that I’m very close to finishing my WIP. So. Close.

What are you up to this week? Feel free to leave me a comment below!

And if you’d like to join in this blog hop, click here!

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Blog Update and ROW80 Check-In 10

Hello gentle reader,

I hope you had a lovely week!

If you’re here to enter my Best Book Ever Giveaway and have a chance to win The Gathering Dark by Leigh Bardugo, click on the image below (giveaway ends tomorrow):

Best Book Ever Giveaway

If you’re here for my ROW80 Check-In, know that I spent my week running like a headless chicken for my crazy day job. Therefore I didn’t do any writing, I barely did any editing and I only did a bit of reading.

ROW80 LogoPlease note this is my last check-in for this round (although this round won’t be over until 20th June).

Indeed I have decided to join a summer challenge called Ready. Set. Write!

ready-set-write-button

Hosted by Alison Miller, Katy Upperman, Erin Funk, Jaime Morrow and Elodie Nowodazkij, it’s a summer writing intensive that starts Tuesday 11th June and will go on for 2 months. The idea is to update weekly on Wednesdays on what we’ve been writing and on our new goals for the week.

Sunday Giveaway

Finally and starting this week as well, I’ll be hosting a giveaway each Sunday. I will give you the opportunity to win one e-copy of a YA book I’ve read this year or will be reading this summer. I borrowed this idea from the wonderful Amy Plum whom I met in Paris at the SCBWI Conference in March.

So that’s what will happen on my blog until 15th August!

I wish you all a great summer and hope to read your comments below.

Let me know how your week was and what you have planned for the summer!

In the meantime, happy reading, and happy writing!

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Waiting On Wednesday – 26

Hello gentle reader,

this week I’m waiting on Shadowlark (Skylark #2) by Meagan Spooner (expected publication: October 1st 2013 by Carolrhoda Lab).

Shadowlark

Shadowlark will be the second book in the Skylark trilogy. I posted about Skylark in May 2012 (Waiting On Wednesday – 10) and interviewed Meagan Spooner in October 2012 (read the interview here). Now I’m really looking forward to Shadowlark, because Skylark was definitely the most original YA book I read in 2012 and because I really want to know how the story can go on after Book One’s surprising ending.

Below is the blurb for Skylark. If you want to read the blurb for Shadowlark, it’s here, but beware of spoilers if you haven’t read Book One.

Skylark

Vis in magia, in vita vi. In magic there is power, and in power, life. 

For fifteen years, Lark Ainsley waited for the day when her Resource would be harvested and she would finally be an adult. After the harvest she expected a small role in the regular, orderly operation of the City within the Wall. She expected to do her part to maintain the refuge for the last survivors of the Wars. She expected to be a tiny cog in the larger clockwork of the city. 

Lark did not expect to become the City’s power supply. 

For fifteen years, Lark Ainsley believed in a lie. Now she must escape the only world she’s ever known…or face a fate more unimaginable than death.

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted by book blogger Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

What are you waiting on this week? Is Shadowlark on your TBR list? Feel free to leave me a comment below!

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Waiting On Wednesday – 25

Hello gentle reader,

this week I’m waiting on The Rose Throne byMette Ivie Harrison (published yesterday in the US by EgmontUSA, no UK release date yet).

The Rose Throne

It is a YA Epic Fantasy loosely based on the Tudors era. I have never read anything by this author but this cover and this blurb appeal to me. I’d love to find out if it’s as good as it sounds…

From Goodreads:

Richly-imagined fantasy romance from the author of Princess and the Hound, a tale of two princesses–one with magic, one with none–who dare seek love in a world where real choice can never be theirs. For fans of Megan Whalen Turner, Catherine Fisher, and Cassandra Clare.

Ailsbet loves nothing more than music; tall and red-haired, she’s impatient with the artifice and ceremony of her father’s court. Marissa adores the world of her island home and feels she has much to offer when she finally inherits the throne from her wise, good-tempered father. The trouble is that neither princess has the power–or the magic–to rule alone, and if the kingdoms can be united, which princess will end up ruling the joint land? For both, the only goal would seem to be a strategic marriage to a man who can bring his own brand of power to the throne. But will either girl be able to marry for love? And can either of these two princesses, rivals though they have never met, afford to let the other live?

Which book are you waiting for this week? Feel free to leave me a comment below!

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted by book blogger Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating. You can see what other bloggers are waiting for here.

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Book of the Week – 19

Hello gentle reader,

I have been so busy researching and writing Lily In The Shadows I haven’t read a book in ages! This week I decided it was time to read for fun again, and I picked up Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells, An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (published on 19th March 2013 by Tor). I figured short stories would help me ease back into my reading habits…

Queen Victoria's Book of Spells

From Goodreads:

“Gaslamp Fantasy,” or historical fantasy set in a magical version of the nineteenth century, has long been popular with readers and writers alike. A number of wonderful fantasy novels, including Stardust by Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, and The Prestige by Christopher Priest, owe their inspiration to works by nineteenth-century writers ranging from Jane Austen, the Brontës, and George Meredith to Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and William Morris. And, of course, the entire steampunk genre and subculture owes more than a little to literature inspired by this period.

Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells is an anthology for everyone who loves these works of neo-Victorian fiction, and wishes to explore the wide variety of ways that modern fantasists are using nineteenth-century settings, characters, and themes. These approaches stretch from steampunk fiction to the Austen-and-Trollope inspired works that some critics call Fantasy of Manners, all of which fit under the larger umbrella of Gaslamp Fantasy. The result is eighteen stories by experts from the fantasy, horror, mainstream, and young adult fields, including both bestselling writers and exciting new talents such as Elizabeth Bear, James Blaylock, Jeffrey Ford, Ellen Kushner, Tanith Lee, Gregory Maguire, Delia Sherman, and Catherynne M. Valente, who present a bewitching vision of a nineteenth century invested (or cursed!) with magic.

The Line-up:
“The Fairy Enterprise” by Jeffrey Ford
“From the Catalogue of the Pavilion of the Uncanny and Marvelous, Scheduled for Premiere at the Great Exhibition (Before the Fire)” by Genevieve Valentine
“The Memory Book” by Maureen McHugh
“Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells” by Delia Sherman
“La Reine D’Enfer” by Kathe Koja
“Briar Rose” by Elizabeth Wein
“The Governess” by Elizabeth Bear
“Smithfield” by James P. Blaylock
“The Unwanted Women of Surrey” by Kaaron Warren
“Charged” by Leanna Renee Hieber
“Mr. Splitfoot” by Dale Bailey
“Phosphorus” by Veronica Schanoes
“We Without Us Were Shadows” by Catherynne M. Valente
“The Vital Importance of the Superficial” by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer
“The Jewel in the Toad Queen’s Crown” by Jane Yolen
“A Few Twigs He Left Behind” by Gregory Maguire
“Their Monstrous Minds” by Tanith Lee
“Estella Saves the Village” by Theodora Goss

What are you reading this week? Feel free to leave me a comment below!

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Building a bridge between literary and genre fiction

Hello gentle reader,

Last week at the London Book Fair, I attended a seminar on Genre Snobbery, which inspired me for this post (please note this is not a recap of said seminar).

Traditionally, literary fiction and genre fiction have been akin to two different planets. On the one hand, literary fiction is seen as character-driven, “serious” fiction with universal/thought-provoking themes and global recognition. On the other hand, genre fiction is supposed to be plot-driven, focused on narrow niches of readership and often snubbed by well-meaning critics.

Yet.

Is it impossible for a book to be BOTH literary and genre fiction? To bridge that gap between both readerships, both genres, both worlds?

Yes, and here are a couple of examples (genre classification is mine):

Wicked by Gregory Maguire (Literary Fantasy Retelling)

Wicked2

The Radleys by Mat Haig (Literary Vampire Book)

TheRadleys

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (Literary Historical Fantasy)

ElizabethKostova-TheHistorian

How do these books bridge the gap?

– The cover: only one detail (a drop of blood, a green girl) indicates the book could belong to the fantasy genre. At a first, quick glance, a reader could think this is a literary book. The cover thus appeals to both readerships.

– The content: these books have vampires, witches and ladies in petticoats, yet both their characters and plot lines could belong in a literay book.

– The author: often, a book that bridges the gap between literary and genre fiction has been written by a writer who has published works in both genres.

– The classification: these books are hard to put in a box. Often, the marketing team in charge of promoting them has struggled to pinpoint which genre they belong to, which readership they would appeal to and which cover to give them.

So what do you think? Have you ever read a “genre book” that you felt was literary? What do you think about genres and classifications in general? Feel free to leave me a comment below and to join the discussion!

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Waiting On Wednesday – 24

Hello gentle reader,

This week I’m waiting on The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (Expected publication: September 17th 2013 by Scholastic Press).

The Dream Thieves

This will be Book 2 in The Raven Cycle and I can’t wait to read it. The Raven Boys (a YA Low Fantasy) was definitely one of my favourite 2012 releases. I read it thinking it was a stand-alone book, then found out only weeks later it was part of a series… which makes sense considering the ending. Now I’m really looking forward to finding out what happens next to Blue and the boys.

If you haven’t picked up The Raven Boys yet, I suggest you do! Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

Which book are you waiting for this week? Feel free to leave me a comment below!

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted by book blogger Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating. You can see what other bloggers are waiting for here.

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Book of the Week – 18

Hello gentle reader,

Did you know Thursday 7th March 2013 is World Book Day? This is a celebration of reading. Vouchers and free books will be given out to young readers, libraries and schools will hold events, and most importantly, the love of reading will be passed on to children and teens everywhere.

So today I’d like to share with you a couple of books that are coming out this week or the next. They are definitely books I’ll be reading on World Book Day. What will you be reading on Thursday?

Legacy of the Clockwork Key

Legacy of the Clockwork Key by Kristin Bailey (out today!)

YA Historical Fantasy

A teen girl unravels the mysteries of a secret society and their most dangerous invention in this adventure-swept romance set in Victorian London.

poison

Poison by Bridget Zinn (out 12th March 2013)

YA High Fantasy

Sixteen-year-old Kyra, a highly-skilled potions master, is the only one who knows her kingdom is on the verge of destruction—which means she’s the only one who can save it.

Clockwork Princess

Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices #3) by Cassandra Clare (out 19th March 2013)

YA Historical Fantasy – Steampunk

If the only way to save the world was to destroy what you loved most, would you do it? The clock is ticking. Everyone must choose. Passion. Power. Secrets. Enchantment.

What will you be reading for World Book Day? Feel free to leave me a comment below!