Category: Books

Book Review, Books, YA Book Club

YA Book Club: Loving WANDERLOVE…

Elodie

This month, the YA Book Club (brainchild of the wonderful Tracey) is discussing WANDERLOVE by Kirsten Hubbard. I´ll try not be too spoilery (yes, I´m making up words – I´m all for creativity!)  for those of you who may not have read it.

WANDERLOVE: It all begins with a stupid question: Are you a Global Vagabond? 
No, but 18-year-old Bria Sandoval wants to be. In a quest for independence, her neglected art, and no-strings-attached hookups, she signs up for a guided tour of Central America—the wrong one. Middle-aged tourists with fanny packs are hardly the key to self-rediscovery. When Bria meets Rowan, devoted backpacker and dive instructor, and his outspokenly humanitarian sister Starling, she seizes the chance to ditch her group and join them off the beaten path. 

I immersed myself in the story quite fast, after a few pages I was already “in” and I really enjoyed reading Bria´s adventure. The swoony elements were…well…SWOONY 😀 and I could feel her emotions. Always a wonderful plus in my book!

I re-read the ending several times and there are certain passages which made me react this way:

Mean Girls nodI did try to look a tad more inspired when I nodded though (promise), especially at this excerpt (and what better way to have the author actually read it for us – thanks for the magic of the internet and youtube):

This excerpt resonated in me. I left France when I just turned 19. Left my country, my family for an entire year to live with an American family and to take care of children. I thought I could maybe “reinvent” myself.  Nobody knew me there, I could be whoever I wanted to be. I ended up pretty much staying who I already was but I did grow up a lot during that year…

The main reason why I truly enjoyed this story (apart from the swoony bits) is the self-discovery part and for me it could have happened anywhere in the world. She could have been in a resort instead of backpacking and still go through the same emotions.

Having said that, I did really like how Kirsten enabled us to “see” the places Bria went to…I could visualize them and “feel” the water. I virtually traveled with all of them and for that I´m very grateful!

So tell me: what did you think of WANDERLOVE?

 How important is the setting of a story for you in general?

Books, Kisses, Road Trip Wednesday

Best Books of the Month…

Elodie

Today is Road Trip Wednesday 🙂 RTW is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This week’s topic: What was the best book you read in March?

This month, I’ve read less books than in the previous ones. I’ve been immersing myself in revising, beta-reading and Stephen King’s ON WRITING…but luckily, all the ones I’ve read brought me a little something something…

              

WANDERLOVE by Kirsten Hubbard : more on this story on Friday (keeping the suspense for Tracey’s YA Book club)

AMY AND ROGER’S EPIC DETOUR by Morgan Matson: I really really enjoyed this novel. The setting was great and made me think of my upcoming honeymoon so definitely a winner for this month! I thought both characters were  well developed and I got lost in their story. And there are definitely a lot of swoon-worthy moments…and those which squeezed my heart. Always a plus! I am definitely adding SECOND CHANCE SUMMER to my TBR list. Thanks again Jaime for pointing this book out to me!

GETTING OVER GARRETT DELANEY by Abby McDonald: A cute one and I liked the premises of the story. I also think the author did very well at portraying the different relationships. I enjoyed the developing and rekindling of friendships.

     

RIPPLE by Mandy Hubbart: I’ve been meaning to read more mermaid books and this one had a different twist to it. While I wish I could have been immersed more in the curse itself, I still wanted to know what would happen to Lexi 😀

INCARNATE by Jodi Meadows: Honestly, I was unsure about this book before started it. I was afraid I’d be disappointed. I’m glad I wasn’t. It took me a few pages to really get into it and once I was, there was no turning back for me. Plus, the swoony moments involved a piano and gosh how I missed mine while reading those lines!

TRAFFICKED by Kim Purcell: Difficult. Heart-wrenching. Some reviewers mentioned that they thought Hannah was too naive and I don’t think she was. Of course, she knew the dangers but she was going for what she thought to be a better life, for her grandmother. I felt for her. I cringe and I wanted to scream at some of the things happening during the book.

So, tell me what was your favorite book(s) of the month?

Books, Top Ten Tuesday

Spring Fever: Top Ten Books I’d Play Hooky With…

Elodie

This Top Ten Tuesday feature is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and I first came across it on Jaime´s blog. It´s a lot of fun and they  post the topics way in advance! And here comes my second Top Ten Tuesday:

Spring Fever: Top Ten Books I’d Play Hooky With

While it´s been awhile since I skipped anything and I can´t remember skipping any classes unless it was at the end of the school year or during demonstrations. Yes, a lot of French students demonstrate at least once during high school. What I can remember is those books I got lost in at different periods of my life, the one I probably kept on thinking about at all times of the day. The selection has been hard and there are many more I’d like to put there but I’ll refrain to tranform this Top Ten into a Top Thousand…

  1. FAIRYTALES: all types of fairytales. I remember a Grimm book (the kids´ version), a beautiful Charles Perrault book, one which had a fairytale per day and one with I think were Russian fairytales and of course Andersen stories.
  2. COMTESSE DE SÉGUR books: I loved her books as a child. I especially remember one called LES CAPRICES DE GISELE & QUEL AMOUR D’ENFANT which told the story of a misbehaved and spoiled little girl with a big heart. I kept on telling myself I would behave better than her and always got disappointed in some of my actions which made me think  “Hmm I’m doing like her”.
  3. JUDY BLUME books: Because let’s face it, she rocks.
  4. LA BICYCLETTE BLEUE by Regine Deforges: I was about 14 when I read this book and some of the sequels. I was mesmerized by the story and I remember laying in my bed for an entire Saturday afternoon just turning the pages.
  5. CATHERINE HERMARY-VIEILLE Books: I’ve read some of her books in high school and some others more recently. I really enjoy both her writing and the story she magically tells (including those taking place in 17/18the century France).
  6. THE BRONZE HORSEMAN trilogy: I started it and never let it go.
  7. TWILIGHT: Yes, I went there 🙂 I read the books when the entire serie was already available and I did miss my bedtime several times because I wanted to know what happened next.
  8. STEPHANIE PERKINS books: I would play hooky with anything this woman writes.
  9. THE HUNGER GAMES Trilogy: I only read the books in January but that enabled me to read all of them at once and I couldn’t wait for my commute to get back to the story.
  10. INSURGENT by Veronica Roth: I cannot wait to get my hands on this book!

What are some books YOU would play hooky with?

Books, Editing, revising, writing

A “Tada” moment or saying goodbye to my darlings…

Elodie

My first round of revisions mainly consisted of changing:

  • the tense (I only figured out in Chapter 22 that I needed to write this in present tense – my novel has 25 chapters, oupsie)
  • the first name of my main character (how did I even think of calling her Laura? She´s an Erin through and through!)
  • one subplot of my story…

It was tedious but necessary. However, it wasn´t painful and when I was done, I thought: I´ve done it! I may have some more changes but nothing too too major. Yep, I had not yet realize what revising could really entail.

 
 

William Faulkner said: “In writing, you must kill all your darlings.” and Stephen King added: “kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings“.

While I accepted this at face value, I didn´t realize what it really meant. I spent two years with that novel already. Scary. While I tried my hand at other stories, it´s the one I always came back to. I rewrote it, I changed some of the subplots along the way but the more I worked on certain parts, the more they became engraved in my heart. Some dialogues, some images, some parts of the story just needed to stay…until I came to a “Tada” realization: my story sucks.

Ok that was dramatic. It doesn´t suck. At all. Actually, it´s pretty great. But the way I was tiptoeing around it, afraid to hurt it had more to do with the fact that I was afraid of hurting my own self-esteem. What I finally saw was how much better my story could become if I actually dared to change it a bit. I am not rewriting the entire thing but I am deleting the first chapter (Tarah´s feedback on it helped with that…I finally saw my story more as a reader than as a writer…), I am changing the curse a bit to make it 1) more dramatic and 2) more coherent. I am adding one or two layers to some of the characters and I am taking the story to another emotional level. It will be a lot of work and it will not be the end of it (since I know more changes will probably come once it´s going through the beta-reading). but it will be worth it.

So, basically, my story with revising has been a bit like this:

 

Source: pinterest.com via Elodie on Pinterest

And even though, I fell on my butt the first time around, the important thing is that I still managed to go back up and transform it into a “Tada” moment 😀

How about you, did you have any “Tada” or “Aha” moments in your writing/revising recently?

Books, reading, Top Ten Tuesday, young adult

Top Ten Books On My Spring To-Be-Read list

Elodie

I´ve seen this Top Ten Tuesday feature on Jaime´s blog and thought it looked like fun so I decided to check it out and…here I am 😀 Today is my first Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by The Broke and the Bookish)

The Top Ten Books on My Spring To-Be-Read list…

For this list, I´ll focus on YA titles….Ready? There we go!

I’ll start with the sequels coming out in the Spring which get me all jittery every time I think of them…

  • INSURGENT by Veronica Roth: I cannot wait to know what happens, how will they deal with the guilt, how will they survive? Can love make it in such a place?
  • UNTIL I DIE by Amy Plum: Of course, Kate and Vincent are characters I look forward to hang out with again. Plus it´s in Paris 😀 But I´m also all happy to see some of the secondary characters (waves at Jules)

….now onto books which have been published somewhat long(er) ago but that I still did not come around to read:

My TBR list on Goodreads holds more than 100 books and there are A LOT of new releases I’m also looking forward to read but those are 10 books I know I will definitely manage to get my fingertips on during the Spring season 😀

What books are on YOUR list for Spring?