"The Lace Reader" by Brunonia Barry-AudioBook by HarperCollins

SUMMARY:

Every gift has a price . . . Every piece of lace has a secret . . .

My name is Towner Whitney. No, That's not exactly true. My real first name is Sophya. Never believe me. I lie all the time . . .

Towner Whitney, the self-confessed unreliable narrator of The Lace Reader, hails from a family of Salem women who can read the future in the patterns in lace, and who have guarded a history of secrets going back generations, but the disappearance of two women brings Towner home to Salem and the truth about the death of her twin sister to light. The Lace Reader is a mesmerizing tale that spirals into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths in which the reader quickly finds it's nearly impossible to separate fact from fiction, but as Towner Whitney points out early on in the novel, "There are no accidents."

PARTICULARS OF THE AUDIOBOOK:
Publisher:  HarperCollins Audio
Genre:  General Fiction/Adult
Unabridged CDs
10 CD book   11 1/2 hours
Author:  Brunonia Barry

Read more about this book:  Brunonia Barry


HERE'S THE AUTHOR:

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Brunonia Barry studied literature and creative writing at Green Mountain college in Vermont and at the University of New Hampshire and was one of the founding members of the Portland Stage Company. While still an undergraduate at UNH, Barry spent a year living in Dublin and auditing Trinity College classes on James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Barry’s love of theater led to a first job in Chicago where she ran promotional campaigns for Second City, Ivanhoe, and Studebaker theaters. After a brief stint in Manhattan, where she studied screenwriting at NYU, Barry relocated to California because she had landed an agent and had an original script optioned. Working on a variety of projects for several studios, she continued to study screenwriting and story structure with Hollywood icon Robert McKee, becoming one of the nine writers in his Development Group.

Brunonia’s love for writing and storytelling has taken her all across the country but after nearly a decade in Hollywood, Barry returned to Massachusetts where, along with her husband, she co-founded an innovative company that creates award-winning word, visual and logic puzzles. In recent years, she has written books for the Beacon Street Girls, a fictional series for ‘tweens. Happily married, Barry lives with her husband and her only child that just happens to be a 12-year-old Golden Retriever named Byzantium. The Lace Reader was her first original novel.

Barry is the first American Writer to win the Woman’s International Fiction Festival’s 2009 Baccante Award (for The Lace Reader.) Her second novel, The Map of True Places will be published 0n May 4, 2010.


THE BOOKISH DAME'S REVIEW:

I had another long driving trip to make last week...to Jacksonville and then on to a family reunion in Georgia, and back home to Naples, so I decided to reacquaint myself with author Brunonia Barry and so glad I did.  "The Lace Reader" on audiobook was exactly the right length for the trip and made it melt away for me.  Having read the book when it first came out years ago, it was fun to have someone read it to me again.

This is a generational story of women in Salem, MA, who are gifted in reading the future through several mediums, primarily lace.  The novel is rich in Salem history and locale...seafaring legend and rocky shores...witches and weird fellows abounding, and the book is fraught with lessons in lace-making and lace reading/prophecy. 

Primarily the novel traces the story of Towner Whitney who is called home from CA after many years of self-imposed exile.  Her "aunt" and guardian/mother has gone missing, and Towner is called to help find her.  Drawn home by this and the ghosts she's left behind, Towner tells the reader her life's story and we learn of the the dark secrets of the Whitney family.

While I was mesmerized by all the details of Salem and the Whitney family, I was often lost in the sequencing of the novel in this audio format.  Had I not read the book earlier, I would have found it difficult to follow.  My only criticism in an otherwise perfection of an audiobook.

Through a wonderful labyrinth of disclosures we learn what drove Towner to leave her home and family and what really drew her home again to her eventual healing.  The story is profound and beautiful, ugly and gorgeous at the same time.

Brunonia Barry never fails to entertain and leave us thinking...

I loved this one and highly recommend it!

5 stars            Deborah/TheBookishDame

Read More

"An Italian Obsession" by Kfir Luzzatto

SUMMARY :  In the lax atmosphere of middle-class post-war Italy, sex and drugs are easy to come by. Roberto tries to find his own balance, but a crush he had for Alessandra in elementary school is reignited and the course of his life is changed forever. It's the 1970’s, a time of political upheaval driven by disillusioned young people. Roberto is caught up in the times. He makes a new start, but his past catches up with him. Finding himself accused of a crime, he must defend himself even when he isn’t sure he committed it. A vivid snapshot of European post-war society, this novel is viewed through the eyes of a young adult coming of age.

PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :
Published by:  Pine 10
Pages:  295
Genre:  General Fiction/YA Crossover
Author:  Kfir Luzzatto

Find out more:  Kfir Luzzatto
Purchase this book:  Amazon

See my review of Kfir's other book "The Evelyn Project" by searching on my sidebar!


About the Author :

Kfir Luzzatto was born and raised in Italy, and moved to Israel as a teenager. He acquired the love for the English language from his father, a former U.S. soldier, a voracious reader and a prolific writer. Kfir has a PhD in chemical engineering and works as a patent attorney. He lives in Omer, Israel, with his full-time partner, Esther, their four children, Michal, Lilach, Tamar and Yonatan, and the dog Elvis. Kfir has published extensively in the professional and general press over the years. For almost four years he wrote a weekly “Patents” column in Globes (Israel’s financial newspaper). His non-fiction book, THE WORLD OF PATENTS, was published in 2002 by Globes Press. He is the author of several short stories but now mostly writes full-length fiction. Kfir is an HWA (Horror Writers Association) and ITW (International Thriller Writers) member and also serves on the editorial board of The Harrow Press as Anthology Editor. You can visit Kfir’s web site and read his blog at www.kfirluzzatto.com. Follow him on Twitter (@KfirLuzzatto).

 

 

The Bookish Dame's Review :

 

First and foremost "An Italian Obsession" is a love story of the unattainable.  Taking a young boy from his first vision of a pretty girl to his last, longing looks at his life's passion, it's the story of one person's obsessive focus on another throughout his tumultuous life. 

Kfir Luzzatto is the master of the understated in this novel while he builds his story and engages his audience almost seamlessly.  His characters; his primary male character in particular,  are developed to a level of adulthood and complexity that makes the book a study in coming of age.  Never missing a step from the beginning of the book, we become wrapped up in the protagonist's attempts to solidify his heart's desire, to find his love reciprocated, and to fulfill his life in the form of one beautiful girl.  Nearly everything else, including what may have constituted a murder, takes second stage with him.

Luzzatto sets this story in the time frame of post-war Europe, which adds dimension and realism.   I found the times and the trends fascinating to read about in the context.  Interesting to read about the "devil may care" attitudes of the young adults...different from American kids, but the same in many ways, too.

This is a passionate love story with dimension and depth.  Characters who live and breathe, a story that has meaning and humanity.  A writer who understands the complexities of the human spirit...

A very good read!  It's obvious this novel is from a writer who has a wide range of experience to draw from.


5 stars                   Deborah/TheBookishDame

 

 

 

Read More

GIVEAWAY!! "Forgotten" by Catherine McKenzie~Unforgettable!

SUMMARY :

Emma Tupper is a dedicated lawyer with a bright future. But when she takes a month-long leave of absence to go on an African vacation, she ends up facing unexpected consequences. After she falls ill and spends six months trapped in a remote village thanks to a devastating earthquake, Emma returns home to discover that her friends, boyfriend, and colleagues thought she was dead—and that her life has moved on without her.

As she struggles to re-create her old life, throwing herself into solving a big case for a client and trying to reclaim her beloved apartment from the handsome photographer who assumed her lease, everyone around her thinks she should take the opportunity to change. But is she willing to sacrifice her job, her relationships, and everything else she worked so hard to build?

In Forgotten, Catherine McKenzie tweaks a classic tale of discovering who we really are when everything that brings meaning to our lives is lost.

PARTICULARS OF THIS BOOK :
Publisher:  William Morris/Harper Collins Publishing
Pages:  437
Genre:  General Fiction/Adult
Author:  Catherine McKenzie
Learn More About the Book:  http://www.catherinemckenzie.com
Purchase here:   Barnes & Noble  and  Amazon
Other book by Ms McKenzie:  "Spin"  reviewed here!  Seach, please!


Video Trailer!!!!  Meet Catherine McKenzie...

 

 

 

The Dame Interviews Catherine McKenzie!!

 

 

Hello, Catherine.  Welcome to A Bookish Libraria!

I’m so delighted you’ve agreed to allow us to get to know you and your book better.  I have several questions!  So exciting to have you here...

 

1) First of all, please tell us a special something about what makes you “tick.”  When you aren’t writing, what are you doing?

 

There’s a long list of things I’m doing when I’m not writing – I work as a lawyer – but one thing that makes me tick is running. And TV.

 

2) You chose a specific place and time to write about, what made you choose it?

 

The inspiration for Forgotten was a story I heard about a woman who’d been stuck in Africa for a period of time so that is what inspired me to set part of the book in Africa.

 

3) Bronte or Austen?  Hemingway or Hawthorne?  Why?

 

Austen, definitely. Austen makes me smile and nod. I find Bronte (all of them) really bleak. Hemingway. He’s a master at dialogue.

 

4) In your opinion, what makes a book a great one?

 

When you can’t put it down. When you’re sorry it ends. When you can’t wait to read it again.

 

5) Which author(s) most influenced your love of books? 

 

L.M. Montgomery, Laura Ingalls Wilder – I read and read and read them as a child.

 

6) Read any good books in the past 6 months?

 

Yes, several! Loved Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, Defending Jacob by William Landy, When She Wokeby Hillary Jordan

 

("Defending Jacob" reviewed here earlier this year.  Search on sidebar!!)

 

7) Choose 4 guests from any era for dinner.  Who would they be and what would you choose for a topic of conversation?

 

Austen, L.M. Montgomery, Bob Dylan, John Lennon. I’d just let the conversation flow.

 

8) There’s a song that goes along with your book, what is it?

 

Leaving on a Jet Plane.

 

9) If you could cast your book for a movie, who would you choose for your 2 main characters?

 

I can never answer this question! Seriously, I don’t have a visual image of the characters and prefer to leave it to people’s imagination.

 

10) Worst habit you have while writing books?

 

Not outlining enough.

 

11) How much research did you do before and during writing?

 

Quite a bit on Africa to develop the country where it was set.

 

12) Psychologists tell us the thing we think we’d most like to grow up to be when we’re ten years old is our avocation.  What did you want to be?

 

An astronaut.

 

Thank you, Catherine.  Pleasure to have you on my blog.  You're the best!

 



THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS "FORGOTTEN:"

It's always pure pleasure to read a book by Catherine McKenzie.  Easy and refreshing dialog, interesting plot, and over all intriguing problems to work through.  Her books are current and relevant.  I just love the way she writes.  She's witty and wise at the same time.  If you haven't read one of her books, grab this one asap.

Without reiterating the summary, I'll say that this story is brighter and more interesting than it sounds. McKenzie makes the ordinary sing.  She takes a situation that is sometimes comedic and turns it on its head to make your heart wrench.  She takes a human tragedy and turns it into an opportunity for renewal for her characters.  I love her panache!

"Forgotten" is the novel I bet many an author today wishes they'd thought of.  It's so fresh and engaging.  It reads like a charm.  I loved every minute of it.

This is one of those rare contemporary books I can recommend without reservation.  Needless to say, I'm a fan of Catherine McKenzie and will be waiting in line for her next book.  Please read this one, I know you're going to thank me if you do!

5 stars               Deborah/TheBookishDame


HAPPY TO OFFER A GIVEAWAY OF TWO BOOKS!!!!!!

To Enter:  Please follow me on Twitter and GFC on my sidebar

Leave your Twitter "handle" and your email addy


Giveaway ends on October 31st......   US and Canada Only!!!


Thanks for commenting on this one!  :]

 

Read More

GIVEAWAY!! "The Unfailing Light: The Katernina Trilogy Vol.II" by Robin Bridges

SUMMARY :

Kirkus Reviews

In the sequel to The Gathering Storm (2012), the tsar forces Katerina to put aside her ambition to attend medical college and return to Smolny Institute for another year of finishing school, immersing her in the dangerous paranormal intrigue of the Russian court. Since the blood bond created with vampiric Prince Danilo in the previous effort, he now has access to her thoughts, but Katerina knows better than to trust this handsome royal. Her thoughts are centered instead on Grand Duke George Alexandrovich, but he's been sent to Paris to acquire a better understanding of magic, and besides, he's aligned with the Light Court and she's tied to the Dark. Thanks to her inborn talent as a necromancer, she can reanimate the dead at will. Now, in spite of a protective spell cast over Smolny Institute, an evil spirit has taken over the library, threatening students and staff. Katerina is determined to resolve the situation. The pace is deliberately slow; readers will have to be sustained by Bridges' complex worldbuilding rather than any rapidly rising level of suspense, although the climax is satisfyingly perilous. Given the back story's complexity, the second volume cannot stand alone. Katerina's first-person voice is smart and believable, fitting well into this atmospheric romance. The simmering tale never quite reaches the boiling point, but fans will nonetheless yearn for the conclusion. (Paranormal romance. 11 & up)


PARTCULARS OF THE BOOK :
Publisher:  Delacorte Press/Random House Children's
Pages:  306
Genre:  YA Fiction/Paranormal
Series:  Volume II of III
Author  Robin Bridges
Find out more:  Author
Purchase the book here:  Amazon   and  Barnes & Noble

Who Is The Author?

I think I’ve been writing since before I was old enough to write. My mom has a poem I dictated to her when I was five:

“When you are a baby, you are a little seed.
When you are a child, you are a little bud.
When you are a grown-up, you are a beautiful rose.
And when you are old, the wind blows your petals away.”

All right, so what if it didn't rhyme? When I was six or seven, I made my first book by stapling two pieces of cardboard and some notebook paper together. I was in love with Laura Ingalls’ Little House books, but I did not live in the Big Woods, or on the Prairie. At the time, we lived on 11th Street, so my story was called “The House on 10th Street”. It was about a house with a mean family that lived in it, and the bad kids drew all over the walls. The house was very sad. Then a nice family moved in and fixed up the house. The house lived happily ever after.

I stuck with writing poetry until seventh grade, when I wrote my first novel, a hundred-plus page mystery written on notebook paper, called “The Tunnel Murders”. I don’t think there was a single murder in it, actually. It was more like a bad soap opera rip-off. With smooching scenes! I can’t believe I let my grandmother read it.

In high school, I was more interested in being a rock star and a movie actress than being a writer. I kept a journal and I wrote lots of horrible songs with obscure lyrics. A little too obscure, perhaps. Blood and dragons were mentioned a lot. And no, I will not post any of my song lyrics here for your amusement.

During our senior year, a group of us published our poems in a chapter book, titled Revolutionary Pen and Ink. It led to a short-lived lit magazine, named Back Alley Review. We were interviewed in Coast Magazine! We were famous! Umm, or not.

I went to college and studied theater. One day in Fundamentals of Acting, our teacher held up a picture of a bunch of rocks and told us to write a scene based on that picture. Two hours and seven pages later, the class was over and I was still sitting in that tiny arena theater writing a short story about a girl who grew up in Hollywood and met Lucille Ball. I’m not sure how I got from rocks to Lucille Ball- but I should have known that day I was in the wrong major. It wasn't long before I switched to English and began down the path of becoming a Serious Writer. I wrote serious and depressing literary short stories until I finished school and began teaching seventh graders. Two revelations occurred to me then:

1. I was not meant to teach middle school.
2. I was not meant to write literary adult fiction.

I quit teaching, and wrote a middle grade fantasy, set in ancient Ireland. And then I wrote another middle grade story, about a girl who could talk to dolphins.

(And then I went back to school for a nursing degree because I really like to eat.)

Then I wrote my first YA paranormal. I got an agent. The book didn't sell. I had an idea for a book but I was scared I wasn't ready to write it. I wrote another instead. It didn't sell. I decided to write the scary book idea, a fantasy about a girl growing up in Imperial Russia. The agent didn't think it would sell. I got a new agent. We revised this book over and over before submitting to publishers. It didn't sell. We revised it again. And it sold. Along with its two sequels.

The Bookish Dame Reviews :

This would make a dazzling little Disney movie with darling Russian characters that give it zing.  Abounding in light magic, faerie arts and witches, not to mention blood thirsty beauties and the darkness of ghosts and wolves, this book is a treasure trove of the paranormal.  After all, what's Russian myth and magical tales without wolves and faeries?  I loved this book as an escape.

A nearly unattainable love between Katerina and her Grand Duke, George will pull at your heart reminding you of the pains of young love hindered by unaccepting parents.  And, the unwanted attachment and pesky attention of the boy from the dark side adds another dimension to twist the story.  The villians are many and fill this story with imaginative action.  Such fun to read!

Katiya just wanted to go to med. school to become a regular doctor  when the tsar and associated aristocracy expected her to be contented with her naturally selected role as court Necromancer.  Of course she did!  Hurray for her and the role model Robin Bridges develops through the novel.  This brought the book into a future dimension for today's young women.

While this is a wonderful YA novel which can be entertaining in and of itself, it would be more adviseable and best served if you'd read the first book in the trilogy: "Katerina..."  That one lays the groundwork and sets the characters.  As a single read, it may be a bit confusing.

However, if you'd like a fairytale trip to Russia amongst the royal tsarist court of the 1800's in an imaginary paranormal setting, read "The Unfailing Light."  It's a treasure.

4 stars             Deborah/TheBookishDame

                                                     GIVEAWAY!!!

To win your own copy of "The Unfailing Light..." please leave a comment and your email address.

And follow me on Twitter!

This giveaway ends  October 31st.

Good for US and Canada only, please!

Read More

"Matched" by Ally Condie~AudioBook by Penguin

SUMMARY:
 

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

INFORMATION ON THE AUDIO BOOK:

Published by:  Penguin/Audio
Format:  MP3
Unabridged
Number 1 of 3
Read by:  Kate Simses
Genre:  YA Fiction/Dystopian

Meet the Author:

Ally Condie is a former high school English teacher who lives with her husband and three sons outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. She loves reading, running, eating, and listening to her husband play guitar.


The Bookish Dame Reviews:

As you may have now surmised I've begun to review audio books as a new feature of A Bookish Libraria.  This is the second one in the series.

I found this YA book to be directly in keeping with a young adult audience.  It's not a book I would necessarily recommend for a crossover audience to adult listeners because the reader has a strictly child-like voice. I felt she was younger that the age of the protagonist Cassie.  I felt she was miscast as the reader in this one.  Although her reading and "acting" abilities were good, she sounded a bit too young for the part of a 16 year old and it was distracting on whole.

However, the story Ms Condie writes is engaging and smart.  I enjoyed the book itself very much.  As in most dystopian novels there's a new world order that's meant to solve the problems of society and sharply misses doing that!  This is a society that makes the audio book absorbing.

Characters are well drawn and interesting.  Cassie, herself, is memorable.  She's a girl with the ability to think on her own in a society that discourages that sort of thing.  She's a girl who also has the courage to walk out of step in a world marching strictly to one cadence, and I appreciated that role-model for young adults.   I also was won over by the problem of her two loves!

So, a mixed bag here, but well worth the listen for young adults and adults who may not mind the voice. 

Penguin has also come out with audiobooks on the two follow up books in this series:  "Crossed" and "Reached."

With a better narrator, I would be tempted to listen to them!


3.5 stars for an interesting novel...                            Deborah/TheBookishDame

Read More

"How I Came to Sparkle Again" by Kaya McLaren

SUMMARY :

Set in a Colorado ski town, Kaya McLaren's How I Came To Sparkle Again is a remarkable breakout novel that chronicles three people and their journey from loss to love; heartbreak to hope.

Jill Anthony spent her young adulthood in the ski town of Sparkle, Colorado. But more than a decade has passed since she left when, only weeks after a very late miscarriage, she finds her husband in bed with another woman, she flees Austin, Texas for the town she knows: Sparkle.

Lisa Carlucci wakes up one morning after another night of meaningless sex, looks in the mirror and realizes that she no longer wants to treat her body like a Holiday Inn. She’s going to hold out for love. The only problem is, love might come in the form of her ski bum best friend, who lives next door with his ski bum friends in a trailer known as “the Kennel.”

Cassie Jones, at age ten, has lost her mother to cancer and no longer believes in anything anymore. She knows her father is desperately worried about her, and she constantly looks for messages from her deceased mother through the heart-shaped rocks they once collected in the streams and hills of Sparkle.

Three people at the crossroads of heartbreak and healing. Three lives that will be changed one winter in Sparkle. One tender, funny, tear-jerking novel you won’t soon forget.

BOOK PARTICULARS:

Publisher~ St. Martin's Press
Pages~  337
Genre~  General Fiction/Women's Fiction
Author~ Kayla McLaren
Purchase this book:  Barnes & Noble  and Amazon


About the Author :
KAYA MCLAREN is also author of On The Divinity of Second Chances and Church of the Dog. She lives and teaches third and fourth graders on the east slope of Snoqualmie Pass in Washington State. When Kaya’s not working, she likes to telemark ski, sit in hot springs, moonlight hike, and play in lakes with her dog, Big Cedar.



An Interview with Kayla :


Welcome to A Bookish Libraria, Kayla!  We'd like to get to know you better.  Here are some questions for you...

1) Please tell us if there was a special person in your life who drew attention to the fact that you could write.

When I was in high school, I'd write letters to my Uncle Scott who lived in New York, and his then-partner Uncle Rick, who both thought I was so funny.

2) You chose a specific place and time to write about, what made you choose it?

When I started this book, I was living and teaching on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation in Northern New Mexico. My first year there was so rough that I used to cry on my way to work each morning. What saved me that spring break and the next two winters was rediscovering skiing. A group of guys who were, well, rough around the edges, took me under their wings, and I'd often think no one would ever guess by looking at them that they were really my angels. It was this idea of unlikely angels that I wanted to write about.

3) Does the concept for your story come to you first or the characters?

Definitely the characters. Plot is my weakness.

4) In your opinion, what makes a book a great one?

There are lots of ways books can be great, I think. There are books where the words are delicious, and books that challenge us not to over-simplify issues or judge too quickly. Some books offer us the opportunity to see the world through different eyes. I like that. But personally, I love books where the story is happy and hopeful. It could be that I value pleasure over greatness.

5) If you were able to have dinner with one other author of any time period, who would it be? Why?

Jane Goodall. She's my hero.

6) Read any good books in the past 6 months? And, please name one favorite contemporary woman author. (I know, it’s unfair to ask you to name only one)

You know, I had cancer scare and a surgery a few months ago, and three books in particular were like life rafts to me. First, THE YEAR OF YES, by Maria Dahvana Headly made me laugh hysterically the day before and the morning of my surgery. What a blessing that was. And then, as I recovered, I read THE PEACH KEEPER and THE GIRL WHO CHASED THE MOON by Sarah Addison Allen, because I knew I could count on her to tell me a fun, quirky, magical stories that wouldn't weaken me or bring me down, and that she'd deliver a happy ending. I started re-reading SOLAR STORMS by Linda Hogan, my all-time favorite book, but had to stop until my own writing was finished. When I read while I write, I find myself thinking about their stories instead of mine, so when I'm writing, I read poetry and non-fiction. I've reading FOR LOVERS OF GOD EVERYWHERE (a collection of poems by Christian Mystics), and BLINK. Recently, I've been thinking about HORSE HEAVEN, by Jane Smiley and wanting to read that one again. It's my second all-time favorite book.

7) Please share with us the underlying message of your book. What would you like your readers to take away after having read the book?

The underlying message might be that life goes on, and that while things don't always work out the way we wanted, in the end it's usually okay. Or, the underlying message might be that love and family often come to us in forms we didn't expect or in unexpected ways. I believe there is opportunity in any given set of circumstances, and I think we can see those opportunities better when we have an open heart. A broken heart is an open heart, so sometimes it is those moments following our darkest hours when we find the most interesting opportunities. Hope is what I'd like my readers to take away, but you know, it's enough if they were entertained and had a nice imaginary ski vacation for a few hours.

8) Were you able to keep your original title? What was it, if not?

I was, although when I first wrote the book, I wrote it in first person, so a first person title made sense. After I changed the book to third person, I wanted to change the title, but my people were already attached to it. It is a catchy title.

9) Is there a song or music in general that might best represent your book as a theme song?

"Falling Down the Mountainside" by, David Gray.

10) If you could write your book again, what would you change?

Well, originally this was a book about a woman that ends up single and happy. I'm single and happy, so that seemed reasonable to me. I wanted to give hope and help to women that have had the rug pulled out beneath them. Not everyone knows how to be single and happy. It is an art form. It helps to have a big dog to warm your bed before you get in (or at least one of those flax bags you heat up in the microwave) and a group of rowdy friends to ski with. You also need to appreciate peace, leftovers that last forever so you never need to cook, and the freedom to put all your clothes in the bathroom cupboards and the freedom not to do a single dish during ski season. There's time for that in June. You also need the ability to recognize family when you find members, because family comes in a lot of forms. You just have to informally adopt everybody. Anyway, sadly my then-people didn't think there was enough of a story in this idea, and they told me that my readers would want a more conventional happy ending. On one hand, it broke my heart to change the book so that instead of saying, "You can be single and happy like me!" it now was one more thing in this world telling women that you need a man to have a happy ending. On the other hand, after I changed it, there was an undeniable improvement to the plot. And really, everyone wants to be appreciated and comforted and loved, so maybe there's nothing wrong with a romantic ending.

11) Did you have to do any research you hadn’t expected?

I had to learn about the process of divorce. Since I've never been married, I never thought I'd have to learn about that. I also interviewed my ski patroller friends. Those were interesting discussions.

12) Tell us about your cover. How did you determine what it would look like?

I had nothing to do with the cover, which is why it's so brilliant. Don't you love it? I love it.

13) What does your book have to say about today’s women?

That when it comes to love and sex, we are confused and maybe a little broken, but not hopeless.

Thanks for putting up with our nosy bits!  :]   Loved having a chance to find out more about who you are.  Your book rings stronger than ever to me, now...



The Bookish Dame Reviews :

What a sparkling book about the joys of friendship, the devastation of grief and loss and the ups and downs of love.  This book will keep you in suspense, warm your heart, and put you in touch with feelings you've forgotten you had.  I loved the way Kayla McLaren eased me into the lives of her primary characters.  I found myself caring for them right from the beginning and wishing I could offer them the support and love they deserved.  Such is the sparkle and magic of this book.

McLaren knows how to build a grand plot.  Taking us from the lowest points in her characters' lives, she pulls us along the trails of their heartbreaks and tears as they learn to cope and resolve the shattered glass of what's left.  Friendships old and new help put them back together.  It's these dear and deep relationships that make one want to read on through the ups and downs.  And, it's the new loves and new developments that carry us on from page to page.  Faith and laughter also spice up the lives of the characters bringing them the healing power of love in all its dimensions.

The characters here are strong and so lovable.  Cassie, the 10 yr. old child whose mother died grabs your heart from these pages and makes it impossible to put the book away.  She is a child in such pain you can't turn her down!  The other characters are believable and feel like old friends.  Kayla McLaren is a master at characterization, making her book a beautiful read.

All in all, this is a refreshing novel that will sparkle as you read it.  Refreshing even in its poignant nature.  McLaren is a writer we'll hear more of, I have no doubt.  She's a great new women's storyteller.

4 stars                  Deborah/TheBookishDame


 

Read More

GIVEAWAY!!! "Anew:The Archers of Avalon" by Chelsea Fine

SUMMARY :  
Scarlet awoke in the woods without her memories. She lived in mystery until she met a boy with a familiar voice. A boy with secrets. A boy with answers.

A boy named Gabriel Archer.

Intrigued by his voice, Scarlet immerses herself in Gabriel's life only to discover he has a brother he's kept hidden from her: Tristan Archer. Upon meeting Tristan, Scarlet's world becomes even more muddled.

While she's instinctively drawn to Gabriel, she's impossibly drawn to Tristan—and confused out of her mind. Why does Gabriel seem so familiar? Why is she so attracted to Tristan? And why do both brothers keep telling her she's cursed to die?

Scarlet doesn't have the answers...but the Archer brothers do.



PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :
Published by:  Acacia Publishing
Pages:  378
Genre:  YA Fiction/Paranormal
Author:  Chelsea Fine
More about the book:  http://ChelseaFineBooks.com   and http://TheArchersofAvalon.com

Purchase the book here:  Barnes & Noble    and  Amazon

AWARDS:  
Nominated on Goodreads for: 
"Best Young Adult Book 2011," "Original Young Adult Paranormal, "  "Best Young Adult Cover of 2011"
Received Awards for :
"Book of the Year Finalist (ForeWord Magazine)"
"Best Coverof 2011 (Girls on YA Books)"
"Top Indie Covers (YA-Aholic)"
"Best Cover of the Year (UtopYA Con Awards)"

THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :

Well, what a thoroughly awesome book to read on a Friday night!  I loved this paranormal YA gem about two gorgeous immortal brothers and the love of their lives who keeps dying and being reincarnated with the same "heart" issues.  Chelsea Fine has a brilliant idea for a book series, and she executes it beautifully.  I had a very entertaining time reading this novel.

Driven by gorgeous and interesting characters in a fast-moving plot, this book will keep you hopping over the several hours it will take to discover the mystery of why Scarlet has amnesia and who the hunk, Gabriel, and his brother truly are.  The chapters run short and succinct making the action whiz by!

Ms Fine is the consummate author for young adult readers.  She has a wonderful imagination and the power of a wordsmith to back it up.  This is a series I'm going to love reading.  I thought the ending of "Anew" was powerful!


*****Can't wait to read her up-coming Book Two:  "Awry" ~

Sometimes love is meant to be.  But sometimes love...is the death of you. 

 Seventeen-year-old Scarlet has just died.  Only, dying isn't unusual for a girl under a centuries old curse that left her semi-immortal.

This time, though, she comes back to her current life instead of awakening in a new one, and she realizes the curse is changing.  With the help of the immortal Archer brothers, Scarlet must piece together her life and try to break the curse before her impending death comes again.



This is a book and a series you'll enjoy reading!  Great escape novel.

4 stars                Deborah/TheBookishDame



                        GIVEAWAY*****GIVEAWAY

To Enter Please Leave a Comment About Your First Love
                       and add your email address!

Then follow me on Networked followers, please.


Note:  This giveaway is open to US and Canada only.

                                    ENDS   OCTOBER  31st


Don't forget to add your email address....I can't contact you if you don't!  :]

Read More

"How Lucky You Are" by Kristyn Kusek Lewis~Friends for Life!

SUMMARY : 

In the tradition of Emily Giffin and Marisa de los Santos, HOW LUCKY YOU ARE is an engaging and moving novel about three women struggling to keep their longstanding friendship alive. Waverly, who's always been the group's anchor, runs a cozy bakery but worries each month about her mounting debt. Kate is married to a man who's on track to be the next governor of Virginia, but the larger questions brewing in their future are unsettling her. Stay-at-home mom Amy has a perfect life on paper, but as the horrific secret she's keeping from her friends threatens to reveal itself, she panics.

As life's pressures build all around them, Waverly knows she has some big decisions to make. In doing so, she will discover that the lines between loyalty and betrayal can become blurred, happy endings aren't always clear-cut, and sometimes you have to risk everything to gain the life you deserve.

PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK:
Published by:  Grand Central Publishing/Hachette
Pages:  352
Genre:  General Fiction
Author  Kristyn Kusek Lewis
Purchase this book:    Barnes & Noble  and Amazon


THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :

It's been a long time since I've read a novel about three long time friends who've remained close throughout their lives.  This one was a pleasure to read.  Absorbing and poignant.  I found Kristyn Kusek Lewis to be a storyteller of the first order.  She's wrapped her hands around the feminine capacity to love, become devoted and to sustain long term relationships with other women.  I enjoyed her sharing of this treasured capacity women have.

The plot here is one that flows easily.  It pulls you into the lives of the three friends immediately and carries through without a boring moment.  As their situations become more fierce and embroiled, and their pulling in ranks to support each other becomes more defined, the reader is more and more engaged.  I found this a strong story of the real problems women can encounter in their contemporary lives, and of the support it can take that matters in the resolution of those problems.  All this and pure reading entertainment at the same time!

I fell in love with the three main characters: Amy, Waverly and Kate.  All very different women with different lives and issues, but bonded in their commitment to and friendship for each other since college days.  These characters are so well developed they rang true in every situation and conversation.   Waverly, the problem-solver seeing everyone else's way out except her own; Amy the perfect homemaker with the horrible secrets; and Kate the wealthy and beautiful "it" girl with emptiness all around her...all were inspiring in their own ways.  The title of the book makes us wonder if they were all truly "lucky."

This is a book women will enjoy reading.  While it's not a deep well of literature, it has much to say about humanity and every day living.  It  has much to say about sorting out the problems of real situations we encounter as women.  And, it highlights the things we value so much in our friendships as women.

4 stars                   Deborah/TheBookishDame

Read More

"Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow" by Juliet Grey

SUMMARY :  A captivating novel of rich spectacle and royal scandal, Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow spans fifteen years in the fateful reign of Marie Antoinette, France’s most legendary and notorious queen.

Paris, 1774. At the tender age of eighteen, Marie Antoinette ascends to the French throne alongside her husband, Louis XVI. But behind the extravagance of the young queen’s elaborate silk gowns and dizzyingly high coiffures, she harbors deeper fears for her future and that of the Bourbon dynasty.

From the early growing pains of marriage to the joy of conceiving a child, from her passion for Swedish military attaché Axel von Fersen to the devastating Affair of the Diamond Necklace, Marie Antoinette tries to rise above the gossip and rivalries that encircle her. But as revolution blossoms in America, a much larger threat looms beyond the gilded gates of Versailles—one that could sweep away the French monarchy forever.

PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :
Publisher:  Random House/Ballantine Books
Paperback Edition Pages:  427  Including Reader's Guide
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Author:  Juliet Grey
Discover more here:  http://www.becomingmarie.com


ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

Juliet Grey is the author of Becoming Marie Antoinette. She has extensively researched European royalty and is a particular devotee of Marie Antoinette, as well as a classically trained professional actress with numerous portrayals of virgins, vixens, and villainesses to her credit. She and her husband divide their time between New York City and southern Vermont.            


     
THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS    

Lavish in details of Marie Antoinette's elegant court and beautiful attending ladies, this book will whet the appetites of those who love to gather every little crumb about their favorite French queen.  Juliet Grey knows how to tempt the mind's eye with descriptions of Antoinette's glorious hair confections, the glories of her petite little cottage and grounds with its sumptious silks and pastel colorings, and the fabulous games of cards and masquerades.I can never get enough of Marie Antoinette no matter how many times I read about her, but Grey's novel is unique in its storytelling which made it a wonderful read.

"Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow" isn't a fluffy book by any means.  Meaty in historic detail, it casts Marie in her rightful place as the first lady of the French monarchy in a time of social and political unrest in all of Europe and the World.   We are shown the slide rule of Marie's ascent into her political acumen and her steady decend in the minds of the peoples of Paris and France on whole.  A time when queens were meant to be decorative and "quiet," Marie was a show piece!

While she is beautiful and charming on the one hand,  her extravagance and world of material riches makes her the envy of all royalty; infuriating the politicals and the peoples, and making her the most hated of women.  Marie seems boggled by her state.  If there is one critique I have it would be that Ms Grey tends to often make Antoinette a bit light-headed about this problem.  The magnitude is recounted but not discussed by Marie and Louis directly which would have added another dimension, I thought.

From other writings and based on other biographical information, I think Antoinette attempted to be more active in affairs of state earlier on in her reign and more concerned than it seemed in this novel. She seems too simpering where Louis is concerned and with regard to Austria than I believe she was in fact.  But, I was pleased to see her grow in bravery of heart and mind as the novel progressed.  One of the things we can admire most about Marie Antoinette is that she was not only a creative and brilliant artist of self and surroundings, but she was a shrewd woman, and mother of her children and country.  Juliet Grey gave us all the variations of this gorgeous and talented woman.

I walked the halls and gardens with Marie Antoinette and her ladies in waiting as I read.  I saw the beautiful gowns and decorations and the delicious foods.  I could see Ben Franklin in his eccentricities at the lavish French monarchs' table!  And, I felt the fear the Queen must have had when she was railed at by the street peoples and rebel women in her own hallways!  How awful to have masked women spit out ugly lies in your face and have no protection from it!  I felt her vulnerabilities at failing to produce children through  no fault of her own.  And, I felt her eventual terror at being trapped by those who wished to harm her (The incident of the Necklace!) and her little family for being rulers of a kingdom in perilous times--times that they inherited.

This is a book historical fiction lovers will die to read!  It's not a light historical fiction, but one that will ignite your memory of the French Revolution and the young Queen who felt the brunt of the blame that really wasn't all hers.  It also will warm your heart as you're reminded of the unconditional love of Louis for his little queen and hers for her children and him.

Second in the series, those of us who read and loved "Becoming Marie Antoinette" will be hard put to wait for the third book in this one called "The Last October Sky," which is due out in 2013!


4 stars for a very good read               Deborah/TheBookishDame


This review is brought to you by:  Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours

 

Please follow the full tour here:

http://www.hfvirtualbooktours.com/2012/09/juliet-grey-on-tour-for-days-of.html

Read More