Blog Updates: Debs, NaNo, and Changes

One: 

2012 Debut Authors, you have a PAGE!

I am participating in The Story Siren's challenge, in fact I'm the one managing the Goodreads list! It's fun. 

I also wanted to bring your attention to the pretty Deb event button in my sidebar. The Badass Bookie is holding the event come the new year and I am thrilled! 

Two:

December is all about wrapping things up and you're going to be hearing from your favorite authors, rather than reading reviews.

Hopefully after the new year I will have a schedule put together where we will mix things up.

I need your help!

Comment telling me which of the following you want to see more/less/none of:

Reviews

Vlogs

Cover Lover Posts

Friday Name Fame Posts

Daily Dose

Lust List

Posts About My Own Writing

Three:

I successfully completed NaNoWriMo 2011! I didn't even try, but I hit 50,000 words, none the less. I would like to write a post about it. In fact I would like to begin writing many writing posts. 

I would like to know, are you interested in hearing about it all?

Daily Dose 31: Gone, Gone, Gone

Daily Dose, because sometimes you just want to get gone.

The Language of Flowers (ARC)

Title: The Language of Flowers

Author: Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Pages: 326

Read Time: 5 Days  

Tag Words: Contemp, Adult crossover, the Victorian language of flowers, motherhood, foster care, falling in love, surviving, living with your choices, 2011 Debut Author Challenge

My Summary:


Victoria is no one's daughter. A foster child with a haunted past she has only one gift, a gift for the Victorian language of flowers, which someone taught her long ago.

Now that the System has kicked her out she is trying to pull her life together, if only to survive.

When ghosts from her past come calling and a language that once seemed so concrete becomes interpretive, everything she thinks she knows is rearranged, and maybe that's not an entirely bad thing at all.

My Review:


Lovely. This is what good contemporary is all about.

A character with rough edges, a boy who is willing to soften them, even if it means a few cuts and scrapes along the way, and a plot that exists outside of the hierarchy high school cafeteria.

Diffenbaugh made me care about these characters, she made me want to flip the pages and she made me love the language of flowers more than I already did because of all Victoria discovers about it.

If you've been wanting to read this, I tell you, pick it up! It's as wonderful as you've been thinking it could be.

  

Notes on the Names:


The name Victoria seemed a tad too much for a book where the same character discovers the Victorian Language of Flowers, doesn't it?

 Diffenbaugh might as well have called her Flora, or Fluer, or Fiora. 

Thoughts on the Cover:


So entirely boring I wouldn't have picked it up without the title being so straightforward. Thank God for small favors!

I like the idea of a simple cover for this book, but this is just bland!

Parental Book Review *spoilers*

Sexual Content: 


Heavy.

Sex between unmarried adults.

Victoria is very distracted during the scene, therefor I wouldn't describe the tone as hot'n'heavy in the least.

Language: 


Moderate


A- 1
Basta*d- 1
H- 1

Violence:


Mild/Moderate


Mentions of the terrors of life in group homes.

Scenes of arson.

Other Notables:

Teenage pregnancy which is handled in a realistic and mature way by the characters.

IMM 48: Les Miserables

In which I brag about my awesome new blue T-shirt and my books...

Thank you to:

Arthur A. Levine Books

Hyperion Books

Aaron Patterson

Charlotte Bennardo and Natalie Zaman

Legend (ARC)

Title: Legend

Author: Marie Lu

Publisher: Putnam

Pages: 320

Read Time: 3 Days

Tag Words: Dystopian, adventure, action, love story, 2011 debut author, crime, society, 

My Summary:

Told in the alternating POV's, Legend is the story of the youngest soldier in the army, girl-genius Jude and Day, the boy she loves, the greatest opposition to the Republic.

My Review:

While I was reading it, I was 100% entertained and intrigued by the characters, but once it was over, I was done. I haven't spend hours thinking about it, considering the morality of this society, or wondering about sequels.

I still think about The Hunger Games and The Uglies. Years later. These dystopians have two sides, kick-butt action and questions posed over society, struggle and how much you are willing to sacrifice. Divergent by Veronica Roth may join this tier if Insurgent proves to be as incredible as it's first installment. However Legend, for all of it's awesome butt-kickery and cool MC's, lacks the mentality of a lasting dystopia series. 

As always, this is my blog, my opinions, and you may get something from these books I never will emotionally, however I only suggest this book if you are solely in need of an action-packed adventure. 

  

Notes on the Names:

Lovely to meet a June between the pages! June is a name coming back with a vengeance and I support the rise wholeheartedly! Our very own Melissa Walker had a baby this year and named her June!

Other fashionable June's include:

Junia, Juno and Juniper!

Thoughts on the Cover: 

It's trying too hard to be The Hunger Games and failing.

Parental Book Review *spoilers*

A la Reading Teen, thanks Amy!

Sexual-

 

- some kissing on lips, not intense (maybe four times)

 

Profanity-

 

- Hell 5

- Damn 4

Violence-

 

- Multiple stabbing

- A woman got shot in the head, blood everywhere

- Limbs get broken (arms, legs)

- There was a kick-boxing ring in a bar, people would bet on the winners

- This book was very bloody at times

I'll Be There

Title: I’ll Be There

Author: Holly Goldberg Sloan

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Pages: 400

Read Time: 5 Days 

Tag Words: 2011 Debut Author, Contemp, Cover Lover

My Summary:

Sam and Riddle lead an unconventional life, being dragged from place to place by their crazy father, never connecting with anyone.

One Sunday when Sam finds himself in a church, listening to a girl sing he feels he’s found the connection he’s been missing so long, but how long can it last?

My Review:

The problem: I wasn’t convinced. 

The even bigger problem: I SO wanted to be. I wanted to love this book, and I didn’t, and I can’t quite fathom why not! 

This book, the direction the writing took, the characters and their quirks the passion between the pages, it all seemed right up my alley, however I still feel trapped on one side of the glass, with the book, and it’s characters, on the other.

 I just wasn’t convinced, instead I was bored. The writing felt tedious, rather than magical. The characters felt improbable, though I usually love characters who break a mold or two along their journey. 

I just wasn’t captivated. I wanted to be, but something was missing in this book. I wish I could tell you what it was, but after waiting too long to write this review, time has run out. And yet I still don’t understand why I’m not raving over this tale like a mad woman. 

Notes on the Names:

Sam, Riddle, Grace. 

Riddle’s name isn’t really riddle, but he was always a puzzle to his father. That’s my favorite idea from the book. 

Thoughts on the Cover:

I LOVE this cover. That may be why I am so sad not to love this book, because I love the cover and now it will never have a place on the Mod Podge Bookshelf

Parental Book Review *spoilers*

A la Reading Teen, thanks Andye!

Content:

• Sexual Content:  Moderate
• Profanity:  Moderate
• Violence:  Moderate
• Other Notables:  Moderate

For more details, click here.

With Great Thanksgiving

I am truly blessed to say that I have something to be grateful for this year that I have been working towards for quite some time.

No, not a book deal, though the plot of my book parallels the plot of my own story quite nicely. Purposefully, even. And now I have a way to end it.

The path my characters need to traverse is one of redemption, forgiveness and strength, three things we could all use a dollop of from time to time. I didn't know quite where that path would take them until yesterday, that is November 23rd 2011, when I reached the head of that trail, myself.

No, I don't believe it to be the end, because no path ever truly ends in life, it just leads you on to another beginning. That's what I'm thankful for, the new beginning I've just been given.

When I first began this blog I started with a name, an outdated picture, and a biography detailing my life as an avid reader. I put down my thoughts on covers, titles, character names and books themselves, but never truly reached out to ask you all to know me deeper until my first blog'o'versary.

Today, I am reaching out again, or rather, reaching in, cracking open my heart and offering a small piece of it to you-- all of you who read this blog and have the heart to listen and care about the girl behind the pages.

I have had my heart broken.

It has been in that state for quite some time. 

It has been in that state the entire time I've been blogging.

Today is the first day you will know me without it, which, perhaps, makes sharing easier and a greater accomplishment than it could have been any other way.

Yesterday I prayed a final prayer before doing the tremendously terrifying thing that put it back together again. It's been many years in the making, but a scar has formed, one that will never reopen, bleed, or ooze pain again. 

What did I do?

I called the boy who broke it.

My best friend since I was seven. The little boy, now a man, who was my first love. I don't know when I fell in love with him, or if I was only ever in love with the boy that had long since passed, but acknowledging that love was one of the many recent steps I have taken to patch myself back up. 

It was not the only step, and it was not the most difficult one to take, however, writing about it all, and yes, I so totally did, made the difference. 

I woke up from a dream this past July and began plotting out the idea behind the dream. The idea being that a girl had a future past the one she planned for herself, and a chance at redemption, even after goodbye. 

While plotting that girl was joined by her two best friends, a tragic love interest, and a small child. I put them in the city I use to call home, and I gave each of them a way to make music. One was given a guitar, another, a microphone, and one of them I gave all the words to, or maybe, she gave them all to me. 

The book is getting closer and closer to being "done."

But without the phone call I made and the words that I spoke, "I just wanted you to know, I'm doing better," and the way he responded, "I'm so glad! I've been praying for you," I would never be able to write it all down correctly. 

I'm grateful for that chance, as well as grateful for other things:

This knowledge, which I will keep forever, that I never spoke my name once during the entire conversation, but that he knew it after one breathy, 'hello.' That I said the only thing I needed to in order that I could diverge from one path and come to another. That it is finished, and I know I will complete my book, which I am so in love with and truly want to share with all of you in the future.

I am so grateful, no, Thankful, for all of that. 

And I'm thankful that I know, the glory belongs to one being who has never left my side, even when the path led me through a forest filled with shadows, howls and palpable fear, even when the road seemed too long, even when He didn't have to walk it with me, He didn't let me go it alone. 

To exist in the knowledge that at the end of all things, someone is still holding my hand, yes, I believe I am most thankful for that. 

Daily Dose 30: How To Love

How To Love

Carrier of the Mark (ARC)

Title: The Carrier of the Mark


Author: Leigh Fallon


Publisher: HarperTeen


Pages: 352


Read Time: Did not finish, stopped on page: 130 


Tag Words: Paranormal romance, debut author 2011, Ireland, control of the elements, the Twilight problem


My Summary:


At Megan's new school she discovers secrets, a strange family of outcasts and passion with a boy so handsome, it's as if his looks are otherworldly.

Sound familiar?


My Review:

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me. 

Die For Me by Amy Plum is 'French Twilight.' 

And Carrier of the Mark is 'Irish Twilight.'

I like Twilight. I liked it when it first came out and I like it still. I try to forget about the movies, but always have a burst of memory repair whenever Taylor Lautner takes off his shirt. I like Bella, too. I think the 'Bella syndrome,' as well as 'Twi-mania' have both become cliches, originating with knock-offs and not within the original manuscript. 

If you want to know more, read my Twilight review.

My point? My beef is not with Twilight. It is with the mass-produced hysteria it has left in it's wake. 

I liked the story the first time around because it was original, it was interesting, and it wasn't trying to imitate a previously written book for profit, fame, and interest. (Maybe I'm not being fair to Leigh Fallon here, but I know that Amy Plum wrote Die For Me because she loved Twilight and wanted to put her name on something similar.) 

However, I do not want to read the story fifty times over!!!!!

 I feel on the verge. 

The verge of what? 

Of this:

They're not ripping off this nit-wit anymore. 

Gabrielle Carolina is saying NO!

Am I the only one who feels duped? Am I the only one who feels patronized? Am I the only one who feels sold-down to? Am I the only one this upsets on intelligence grounds? 

I don't care that Carrier is a Twilight knock off set in another country. If that's how the author chose to spend her time, that's on her, but when the book gets pitched again, and my interest is raised only to discover that I've been inside the book before, I feel bloody insulted.

I cannot be fooled any longer. I will not be fooled any longer! Insta-love does not make me swoon. I'm interested in emotions that are more intense than an eye smolder across a crowded parking lot. I am not excited by the prospect of obviously spooky elements that go unaddressed to create tension. I want intelligently written plot twists, not to discover there are "baddens" of the same species out to get'cha. I don't want any new species! I want new books, new ideas, new love stories. I want settings that matter, and characters I can cheer for. I don't want to read Irish-Twilight, French-Twilight, Finnish-Twilight, British-Twilight, Aussie-Twilight, Dystopian-Twilight, Historical Fiction-Twilight, or High Fantasy-Twilight! 

So what am I looking for?

I want intelligence, intrigue, true love and high stakes. And not the kind you plunge into the undead's hearts. 

  
Notes on the Names:


The lack of interesting Irish names was tragic. If you're going to commit to an interesting setting, you need to build the world for the reader from the ground up.


Thoughts on the Cover:


I wish I could say I loved the cover, but there's always been something... odd about it for me.

I just stared at it for five minutes, because I should be able to support the idea, right?

But I can't put my finger on it.

I did have a friend comment, he liked it, said it made him want to read the book, so I guess it serves it's purpose. 

IMM 47: Thanks

In which I can sleep soundly and I name drop like some kind of tool...

Thanks to:

Entangeled Press

Tor Teen

Kelsey Sutton

Tulip Noir

Win Anna Dressed in Blood!

Read Killian McRae's Guest Blog!

Visit Kelsey's Blog!

BEST I'VE READ 2011!

The Character of Names with Killian McRae

Today Killian McRae joins me to share her thoughts on The Character of Names in her book, A Love By Any Measure.

Gabrielle has discovered a secret we writers have. Okay, perhaps it’s not a secret, and there have been a few others who’ve commented prior on similar subjects. (I recall distinctly a discussion in this regard in the Cliff Notes I had to accompany “David Copperfield.”) Truth is, we writers often put an excessive amount of thought and/or symbolism into the names of our characters. I’d like to share with you some of the derivations I used for naming characters in my historical romance, “A Love by Any Measure.”

Lord August Grayson 

This one breaks fairly near the surface, doesn’t it? August is the hero of the romantic duo, and quite frankly, he is “august.” A British Lord, one knows he’s led a privileged life, yet his surname’s inclusion of “gray” was meant to imply that nothing in his family, his head or his heart is black and white. There are complexities to his demeanor, ones which are both his heritage and his making.

Maeve O’Connor

Okay, let me admit this first: I have no better reason for choosing “O’Connor” as my heroine’s surname than the fact that it gives up a nice rhythm.  “Maeve,” however, derives from an Irish word meaning intoxicating. And yes, August finds Maeve quite intoxicating.

Owen Murphy

In every love triangle, there is the third point.  This one has a bit of personal attachment. I didn’t choose Owen for any particular reason other than it sounds to my ears like an old-fashioned name. While it’s Scottish in origin, it was a name used in Southern Ireland in this time period.  (In ALBAM, it’s mentioned in passing that Owen’s family originates from County Cork.) Murphy is a dedication to my very good friend who also shares this name. Like Owen, Ms. Murphy has distinguished herself as a person of integrity, determination, and of a hard-working nature. She, as he, exemplifies the importance of self-sacrifice and honesty. While some truly dark things happen to Owen Murphy in the space of ALBAM, Ms. Murphy has dealt with her setbacks and challenges in a way that inspires me. I hold her in awe. 

Killian McRae website

Killian McRae blog

Facebook Fan page

Twitter

ALBAM on Amazon (paperback/Kindle)

ALBAM on Barnes & Noble (paperback/Nook)

ALBAM on iBookstore

ALBAM on All Romance eBooks

A Love By Any Measure

Title: A Love By Any Measure


Author: Killian McRae


Publisher: Tulip Noir


Pages: 341


Read Time: 3 Days 


Tag Words: Romance, Ireland, innocence, The Revolution, Immigration, The Boston Fire, historical fiction, historical romance, lord and serf


My Summary: 


Maeve O'Connor has just sold herself to the devil in the form of handsome rake, Lord August Grayson.

To keep her cottage she must spend twice as long as yesterday in his company... for his own pleasure.

What is-- supposedly-- a business contract quickly morphs into something deeper below the comtoise clock.

In the midst of a rebellion, unfavorable social understandings and commitments neither feels satisfied honoring how will these two lovers, separated by station, land and expectation rise above it all to find a love by any measure?


My Review:


I originally read this story as fan fiction. Yeah, I was one of them for a while. I will occasionally still take a gander about the FF world, however there are too many published books on my shelf to garner a second glance. I'm glad I gave this book one, however, as it is the perfect balance of romance, history, believably and wistfulness.

I don't often read romance because I find them to be too... romancey. Gooey, sappy and fraught with the angst of sexual tension and unrequited love. Le blegh.

However, McRae finds a way to strike a chord with this non-romance writer, even if I am still yearning for more information and interplay with the revolution. That bit did fall flat in the end.

I think it's a charming romance and nothing I would feel strange about an older teen reading.

Let's put it this way, I don't feel like McRae sat down and created a sheet of words synonymous to 'thrusting.'
  
Notes on the Names:


Maeve, besides having a very 'Eve' in the garden feel, means, 'intoxicating.'

McRae will be here tomorrow to tell us more about her thoughts on The Character of Names.


Thoughts on the Cover:


Such a cool, unique cover. Even if the tear of blood is a tad much, I love the inlay of the 'characters' mixed in the hair of Maeve.

I also feel the characters reflect points of the story properly, so kudos to the design team, they got it right! : )


Parental Book Review *spoilers*


Sexual Content: 


Heavy/Very Heavy

Don't read if you can't hold your romance. ; )

Yes, they do more than kiss madly, however they do a lot of that too.


Language: 


August is oft referred to as 'The English Bastard,' so that accounts for a good deal of the usage.

Bast*rd- 14
D- 14
B- 1
Ar*e- 2
A- 2
H- 5


Violence:


Moderate

There is an escape scene that accounts for two lost lives and one scene where Jefferson 'leans' on someone for information.


Other Notables:


As I said, a romance novel, but a classy one, it is.

Gratitude Giveaway

Thank you!

For this year, for all your support, for your suggestions and enthusiasm. 

None of it goes unappreciated, and to prove it to you, I'm giving away a book, because that's how one says, "I love you," properly. 

One follower of The Mod Podge Bookshelf will win a finished copy of Kendare Blake's debut novel, Anna Dressed in Blood.

To enter simply leave a comment with your GFC name, and a way to contact you. 

I would, of course, love to know what you are thankful for this year, and you are free to include that, as well. 

Cover Lover Two: In Red and Blue

My name is Gabrielle Carolina and I am a Cover Lover.

The first step is to admit it.

The second step is writing about it.

So, let's talk.

Snake Braids

My Thoughts:

Three's enough. 

From here on out they'll look unoriginal. In fact they already look a tad unoriginal, don't you think? Sweet Venom was the first to be released also my favorite and then came A Beautiful Evil which use to look different. Shifting first used the stock image of ABE, but the model had dark hair. When the design team saw it was in use, they must have swapped it out for the cover you see above. I think Sweet Venom's concept is subtle and intriguing whereas the others just look... snakey.

Blood and Butterflies

My Thoughts:

Creepy. 

Blood and Butterflies. That's just not the kind of image I come up with when I think butterfly...

Competing Covers

My Thoughts:

Diva wins.

The Lucky Ones is slightly SOL IMO. The dress is too modern, and the pose gives a romance novel feel. In fact I think there is a romance novel with this dress on it!


Here we go:

These books have been competing cover by cover, and all in all, Godbersen's covers win, however, this third installment is quite disappointing. 

Even if the models on Larkin's covers look like plasticized Barbie dolls, which, they do, they get the costumes right every time.

The Colors of 2012 in Sequels:

Blues

*P.S.- Click the link to pre-order this one, I highly recommend you do!*

Reds

My Thoughts:

Is Helen really wearing the same dress from the Starcrossed cover?

I Leave You With This:

Possibly the most beautiful YA cover I've ever seen.