Tag: reading

What´s Up Wednesday

What´s Up Wednesday?

Elodie

What´s up Wednesday is the brainchild of Jaime and Erin.  Here´s what Jaime said about it:

WHAT’S UP WEDNESDAY
It’s similar in some respects to the Currently… post, but it’s been whittled down to only four headings to make it quicker and more manageable on a weekly basis. You’re invited to join us if you’re looking for something to blog about, a way to let your blog friends know what’s been going on with you.
What I´m reading
I may have gone on a book binge while in the US and while contemplating which book I should read first, I remembered a review of STOLEN by Katy so I started it last night. It was hard to put down and I cannot wait to hop on the train to start it up again.
What I’m Writing
Not much.
I need to revise my story and find my groove again. I´m excited and scared at the same time.
What else I´ve been up to
I’m starting to work out again and I have a GREAT incentive. I just started watching VERONICA MARS and it’s going to be my workout companion…
Veronica Mars
Well…if my cat lets me workout.
My cat clearly didn't want me to do crunches.
My cat clearly didn’t want me to do crunches.

What inspires me right now

This.

And…If you haven’t checked out Rebecca’s post about doing what’s right for you, don’t miss out and click on the link below 🙂

So, tell me what´s up?

Book Review, Books

Book review: DARE YOU TO (Katie McGarry) <3

Elodie

I read and really enjoyed PUSHING THE LIMITS by Katie McGarry so I was anxious to get my hands on DARE YOU TO. Thanks to Netgalley and HarlequinTeen, I was able to devour the book months before its release.

And let me tell you one little secret:

I loved it.

Even more than PUSHING THE LIMITS.

Summary from Goodreads.com:

If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk’s home life, they’d send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom’s freedom and her own happiness. That’s how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn’t want her and going to a school that doesn’t understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn’t get her, but does….
Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can’t tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn’t be less interested in him.

But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won’t let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all…

Release Date: May 28th, 2013

Sometimes, you have books it´s hard to explain when exactly you fell into a story. For DARE YOU TO, I can tell you that the first scene got me hooked. Ryan is a total cocky jock in that scene but he seems real. And the chemistry with Beth was here from the beginning. After that first scene, I needed to know how those two would meet again.

From there on, here are a few things that kept me turning the pages:

  • Beth. She´s a complicated character with many layers, fears and insecurities. IPage after page, glimpses of her past, her relationship with her uncle, her allegiance to her mother despite everything show how tough she´s trying to balance, how some decisions can do ricochet and have an impact.
  • Ryan. Ryan has flaws, he has issues, dreams and he´s just this funny, charming guy you wished you could have met while in High school.
  • The chemistry/banter between Ryan and Beth. They definitely have INSTA-LUST but not being able to stand each other means they´re trying to fight their chemistry – that just makes for good reading 😛
  • Cast of secondary characters: The uncle, his wife, Ryan´s friends, Ryan´s brother, Beth´s best friend…the appearance of Noah and Isaiah…They all play a role in the story, they all leap through the pages…Katie McGarry can pick any of them to write another story and I´ll read it.

And because I like quotes, here are a few ones:

  • Ryan has this blank, way too innocent expression. “Don’t worry, Mr. Risk. I’d love to help Elisabeth.” He turns to me and smiles. This smile isn’t genuine or heartwarming, but cocky as hell. Bring it, jock boy. Your best won’t be good enough.
  • “I won’t let you go.” I blink. As if he could stop me. “You won’t let me go.” “No, I won’t let you go. You’re mine and I don’t lose.”
  • “There are times when you stand on the cusp of moments so huge, you know you’ll remember them forever. This is that moment for me and for Ryan.”

And for more information on DARE YOU TO, those posts are pretty great:

Happy Friday, personal, writing

Happy Friday #38 – The return of Happy Friday…

Elodie

I know I know it´s been FOREVER since my last Happy Friday post. My last Happy Friday post was on January 18th. WOW! But Happy Friday is back 😀 My goal is to have one Happy Friday per month at least because let´s face it, there´s always plenty to smile about on a Friday and it´s always nice to look for the good things that happened during a week.  Looking forward to know what made you smile this week! 

Over on YA Confidential: The Teen Spies of YA Confidential critique my first page of GUILTY and I´m very very grateful for their feedback! Not only are their comments SUPER helpful, it´s simply great to have the views of my target audience 🙂  (even though it´s also super duper nerve-wracking).

Vacation: I´m on on holidays since Wednesday evening and we landed safely in Washington DC yesterday. We´re now back in our Maryland home. It´s funny how being back feels normal. We have our marks, our spots, our friends and the ones we consider as close as family. We´re looking forward to catch up and just hang out. (and going to Target, yes I confess, I am a Target addict)

Reading: I finished beta reading a wonderful YA contemporary this week (by the lovely Katy Upperman). You guys, this is another manuscript that really touched me and got me by the heart. Plus, the male main character is a mix of Etienne St Clair and Jonah Griggs…and adds his own layers to the batter making him really a great character to know. The entire cast reminded me a bit of MY LIFE NEXT DOOR. Crossing my fingers it gets picked up soon so you get to read it too!

Movies: A long plane ride overseas means I get to watch plenty of movies. And I finally got to see LES MISERABLES! I´m officially in love with that movie. I don´t know how many times I had to wipe my tears…or how many times I was simply in awe of the way the emotions really came through both the acting and the singing. Loved it! And while watching, I couldn´t stop thinking about another MS I had the honor to beta read (the Star Wars/Les Miserables mashup by Alex Brown) 🙂

So, tell me what made you smile this week?

What´s Up Wednesday

What´s Up Wednesday?

Elodie

What´s up Wednesday is the brainchild of Jaime and Erin.  Here´s what Jaime said about it:

WHAT’S UP WEDNESDAY
It’s similar in some respects to the Currently… post, but it’s been whittled down to only four headings to make it quicker and more manageable on a weekly basis. You’re invited to join us if you’re looking for something to blog about, a way to let your blog friends know what’s been going on with you.
What I´m reading
I’ve just started UNRAVEL ME. I really really enjoyed SHATTER ME so I have quite high hopes for this one.
What I’m Writing
I’ve received very encouraging and helpful comments on the first chapter of  GUILTY (Thanks again Jaime and Alex). This gave me a boost and I’ve made quite some progress in the past days. I don’t know if I can be done with my first draft by next Thursday but I sure am going to try.
Here´s a snippet of what I wrote last night.
“That and you´ve been crushing on him for how long? Don´t get me wrong, I´m happy you´re finally acting on your animal urges but don´t get your heart broken. Or his.” Kelsey´s tone becomes softer.
“I won´t. I´m Iron Erin, remember?”
“Yeah, oooooooooooookay. And I´m Virgin Kelsey.” She pauses and laughs. “Wait, I am.”
“Luke still didn´t get lucky?”
“Nope. No luck for Luke. But he did get further than last week. My sex report card says ´In progress. Keep up the good work.`”
What else I´ve been up to
Business trips. Last week I was in Bratislava for 2 days. Again didn’t see much from the country but what I saw makes me want to go back with my hubby.
From the Official Tourism Guide of Bratislava
After coming back, I got a bit sick so stayed home on Monday. I watched a bunch of episodes of Catfish and Cold Case while drinking a lot of tea.
I’ve also been preparing our vacation. We’re leaving next Thursday to the U.S. for 10 days. Looking forward to it.

What inspires me right now

My main character quotes Marilyn Monroe quite a bit so here´s the one that inspired me recently.

                                                                                                                                  Source: mediawebapps.com via Lee Ann on Pinterest

So, tell me what´s up?

What´s Up Wednesday

What´s Up Wednesday?

Elodie

What´s up Wednesday is the brainchild of Jaime and Erin.  Here´s what Jaime said about it:

WHAT’S UP WEDNESDAY
It’s similar in some respects to the Currently… post, but it’s been whittled down to only four headings to make it quicker and more manageable on a weekly basis. You’re invited to join us if you’re looking for something to blog about, a way to let your blog friends know what’s been going on with you.
What I´m reading
I just finished reading Sara´s wonderful and heartbreaking and hopeful story as well as Alex´s WOW retelling (Les Misérables meets Star Wars – if you click on this link, you´ll even get to read an excerpt). And I´m about to re-read Alison´s wonderful manuscript. I read the entire story already once and have actually read passages several times already (because they´re awesome) but now I need to put my thoughts/comments/gushing/suggestions/smiley faces into an email. Before I do that, I am going to re-read the book from beginning to end one more time.
What I’m Writing
I´m currently taking a short break. I´ve done the first 10-pages bootcamp last weekend and I need to go back to my manuscript to brush it up, add some details and then write the last 15k of it. But I really wanted to catch up on my beta reading and while I usually balance both, this time I decided to beta read “full time”, I´ll be back to my regular writing schedule next week though.
What else I´ve been up to
We´re still settling into our new place. We still have unpacked boxes and we´re still waiting on some things to be delivered. But we´re almost done. I´ve also been enjoying my walk to the train station in the morning 🙂 As you know, work has been super busy. Last week I was in Vienna for a conference. I didn´t have time to really see the city but simply walking from the hotel to the conference was lovely.
Vienna
Vienna
And I´ve decided to regain some of my time. I missed the interaction 🙂

What inspires me right now

My writer friends are simply amazing!

My wonderful #PitchWar mentor sold her book BEHIND THE SCENES and two more. I know I cannot wait to read them!!! ❤

So, tell me what´s up?

Book Review, Books, YA Book Club

IF YOU FIND ME – All. The. Feels.

Elodie

First thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me read an e-galley of this book…I already bought the paper version of it as this book is so far one of my favorites of 2013. And it´s my first Debut Author Challenge Review!

Debut Author Challenge

There are books that make you smile, or cry, or feel so full of emotions you´re not quite sure how the writer managed to instill those into the novel.

And then you have the books that do all those things not and stay with you for long after you turn the last page (or click the last “next” on your Kindle). IF YOU FIND ME is one of them.

IF YOU FIND ME

Summary by Goodreads: A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey’s younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears for good, and two strangers arrive. Suddenly, the girls are taken from the woods and thrust into a bright and perplexing new world of high school, clothes and boys.

Now, Carey must face the truth of why her mother abducted her ten years ago, while haunted by a past that won’t let her go… a dark past that hides many a secret, including the reason Jenessa hasn’t spoken a word in over a year. Carey knows she must keep her sister close, and her secrets even closer, or risk watching her new life come crashing down.

If I close my eyes and think about Emily´s story, I see people. Not characters but people and then I simply feel. Emily managed that elusive magic of making me fall in love with her characters, even though the situation they find themselves in is so difficult. Carey and Jenessa found a place in my heart. They made me think, made me tear up but there´s also hope in those pages. Yes, their situation is tough. Yes, they suffered and there were moments where I cringed, where I clutched my sides and where I closed my eyes. But they are both so full of life still, so full of love. Their love for each other. Their love for others. Despite everything.

I will pick up everything Emily Murdoch writes after this heart-wrenching, beautiful and powerful debut!

Query, reading, writing, ya

RTW: Quarterly check-ins…

Elodie

So it’s been FOREVER since I’ve done a Road Trip Wednesday….Happy to be back!

Road Trip Wednesday 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:

Quarterly check-ins! We’re already 1/4 of the way through the year–where are you on your reading and writing goals?
In terms of reading I didn’t set myself any specific goals except the Debut Author Challenge. And I need to review the books I’v read because WOW I’ve gotten lost in some amazing stories!
And I’ve been doing a lot of beta-reading and critiquing. Let me tell you: I’m VERY lucky I get to read all those manuscripts and pages! They’re wonderful!!!!
When it comes to my writing?
  • I finished the extensive revision of ONE TWO THREE and it’s back in Query Land (plus, it got two requests via Cupid’s contest, yay! and it’s off to the agents of the Submission mailbox of YAlitchat.org)
  • To get my mind off querying and because my fingers itched to draft again, I started SHINY NEW WIP, i.e. GUILTY…It was supposed to be a YA contemporary romance novel it’s turning into a YA romantic suspense novel. And I’m excited!
One of my goals was to be more appreciative and to find balance. Well…let’s just say I have to work even harder to find this balance I’m longing for. Work has been very very busy, hubby is traveling a lot and let’s just say it can get overwhelming.
But…
I have some coping ways:
  1. The sun is shining again. That ought to help brighten the mood.
  2. We’re moving closer to the train station, which means: YAY project and YAY having some office space and YAY no more waiting for the bus and missing my train because of it.
  3. Writing and reading.
  4. Spending time with my hubby
  5. Enjoying the small things.
  6. Listening to my cat purring (or snoring :-))
Plus, I need to disconnect from times to times, not from Twitter, no but from my blackberry, that should help 🙂
My writing goal is to finish the first draft of GUILTY by the end of April…that gives me about 2 months and I already wrote 10k in the past couple of weeks!
Tell me, how are you doing these days? Did you accomplish some of your goals?
Book Review, Books

Book review – Also Known As…

Elodie

Whenever I get approved for a book in NetGalley, little  butterflies put on their reading glasses in my stomach and fly around happily. When I received the email about ALSO KNOWN AS, they were not only flying around, they were drawing banners saying “Reading is cool”.

Also Known As

Summary: Being a 16-year-old safecracker and active-duty daughter of international spies has its moments, good and bad. Pros: Seeing the world one crime-solving adventure at a time. Having parents with super cool jobs. Cons: Never staying in one place long enough to have friends or a boyfriend. But for Maggie Silver, the biggest perk of all has been avoiding high school and the accompanying cliques, bad lunches, and frustratingly simple locker combinations.

Then Maggie and her parents are sent to New York for her first solo assignment, and all of that changes. She’ll need to attend a private school, avoid the temptation to hack the school’s security system, and befriend one aggravatingly cute Jesse Oliver to gain the essential information she needs to crack the case . . . all while trying not to blow her cover.

Expected publication: February 26th 2013 by Bloomsbury Juvenile US

Last year, after several bloggers raved about AUDREY, WAIT! by Robin Benway…I decided to see what all the enthusiasm was about and wow, two words: THE. VOICE. Robin Benway managed in Audrey, Wait! to show how a voice can carry a book. Don´t get me wrong, I loved the story of AUDREY, WAIT! too but like with Courtney Summers, I fell in love with the characters due to their voice.

ALSO KNOWN AS doesn´t disappoint. The voice of the main character, Maggie, is spot on. Again. The entire cast of characters leaps from the pages. I loved her best friend from school Roux. Roux has so many different facets and she´s the type of friend you want to have by your side. Jesse Oliver is definitely aggravatingly cute and the story moves at a fast pace.

The entire spy angle is more Spy Kids than Hanna and it is not always present as Maggie discovers who she is in that book while making friends, exploring New York City.

ALSO KNOWN AS is the type of book that you want to pick up when you want something different but still familiar, when you want a light clever read, and words that make you laugh.

What are you reading right now?

reading

Debut Author Challenge – My reading list…

Elodie

I mentioned at the beginning of the year that I would take part this year in the Debut Author Challenge hosted by Hobbitsies. There are so many wonderful books coming out in 2013 and lots of them are Debuts…

I love the idea of supporting new authors and I love sharing my views on the books I really enjoyed.

So…The challenge asks for at least 12 books to be reviewed. Here is a list of 18 Debuts I am planning to read this year (by release date) – I might read more…but I´m so very excited about all of those!

Debuts 2013 

  1. Level 2 (January 15) by Lenore Appelhans
  2. The Madman´s Daughter (January 29th) by Megan Shepherd
  3. Nobody bus Us (January 29th) by Kristin Halbrook
  4. The Reece Malcolm List (February 5th) by Amy Spalding
  5. Dualed (February 26th) by Elsie Chapman
  6. Strands of Bronze and Gold (March 12th) by Jane Nickerson
  7. Starstruck (March 12th) by Rachel Shukert
  8. Pretty Girl-13  (March 19th) by Liz Coley
  9. The Art of Wishing (March 21st) by Lindsey Ribar
  10. If you find me (March 26th) by Emily Murdoch
  11. Taken (April 16th) by Erin Bowman
  12. Nantucket Blue (May 7th) by Leila Howland
  13. The rules for disappearing (May 14th) by Ashley Elston
  14. Truth or dare (May 14th) by Jacqueline Green
  15. OCD Love Story (July 23rd) by Corey Ann Haydu
  16. Canary (August 1st) by Rachele Alpine
  17. Through The Bomb´s Breath (September 2013) by Peggy Eddleman
  18. Fault Line (November 12th) by Christa Desir

Do you have any of those on your list for this year? 

Happy Friday, revising, writing

Happy Friday #30 – Getting lost in good books and revising…

Elodie

Yay, it´s time for Happy Friday 😀 Looking forward to know what made you smile this week!

So I’ve been quite the bad blogger lately. I still need to put up my list of Debuts I’m going to read this year for the Debut Author Challenge. I haven’t done any Road Trip Wednesday and I haven’t been responding to recent comments. Though I read them and love them and am very thankful for them! So what have I been doing? Well first work started again which means less time.

But really, I have been doing this *little* think called REVISING…waking up early on weekends to work on ONE TWO THREE, making my characters even more fleshed out, giving them more meaning and also more to struggle with.  I think it’s going in the right direction even though I did have a moment last week where I wondered, where I doubt myself (but that’s for another post :-)). Right now, I am simply excited to get in the train this evening and turn on my laptop, to put my alarm clock early Saturday to revise before my husband gets up.

And I’m also very grateful for Dahlia. She really takes the time to help us, going far beyond to answer our questions and help us make our manuscripts shine for PitchWars. And I cannot wait to read my team’s manuscripts!

And when it comes to reading? This week I got lost into two wonderful books! Both YA contemporary. Both amazing. Both giving me all the feelings. I will review them properly closer to their publication date but just know they both made me SMILE 😀

IF YOU FIND ME

IF YOU FIND ME, by Emily Murdoch

Publication date: March 26th, 2013

THERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU CAN’T LEAVE BEHIND …

A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen-year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey’s younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears for good, and the girls are found by their father, a stranger, and taken to re-enter the “normal” life of school, clothes and boys.

Now, Carey must come to terms with the truth of why their mother spirited them away ten years ago, while haunted by a past that won’t let her go … a dark past that hides many a secret, including the reason Jenessa hasn’t spoken a word in over a year. Carey knows she must keep her sister close, and her secrets even closer, or risk watching her new life come crashing down.

DARE YOU TO

DARE YOU TO by Katie McGarry

Publication date: June 7th 2013

“I dare you…”

If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk’s home life, they’d send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom’s freedom and her own happiness. That’s how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn’t want her and going to a school that doesn’t understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn’t get her, but does….

Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can’t tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn’t be less interested in him.

But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won’t let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all….

So tell me what made you SMILE this week?