I have 'mad love' for Mad Love

Mad Love

Author: Suzanne Selfors

Publisher: Bloomsbury Teen

Pages:327

Read Time:1 day

Rating (1-5): 5

Tag Words: Hearts, Flowers and Romance, Cupid, Romance Writing, mental health problems, first love, Greek Mythology

My Summary:

When Belinda Amorous, the Queen of Romance is secretly admitted to a mental hospital, her daughter, Alice Amorous is left behind to pick up the pieces of their hectic life. Plagued with worry about money and her new crush, Tony, Alice is unprepared for a strange boys offer, and even less prepared for his crazy declarations. The strange boy, Errol, claims that he is the Greek God Cupid, and that he will give Alice his untold story of true love, if she will write it before time runs out on them all...

My review:

I loved this story, Mad Love has all the elements I love to crush on all together! Cute boys, legends, cute boys, humor, cute boys... cute boys... ERROL! Gah, that clam juice is really gross. I wish there were another cure for getting hit by Cupid’s Passion Arrows! As I was saying, cute boys are a great part of the plot, but there are so many bits and pieces that went into making Mad Love such a fantastic, entertaining and emotion-evoking Love story. It is rare to find a book that has 'everything.'

I will say I was surprised that there wasn't more of a Psyche tie-in due to the fact that mental illness is such a bit part of the plot. I was looking forward to it, but such an illumination never came about. 

I really felt like Selfors knew her characters and allowed them to tell their own fantastical stories. This was the first I had ever read from the author and cannot wait to get my hands on another! 

I highly recommend this book to all who want a well balanced plot that mixes all the ‘bests’ YA has to offer. 

Notes on the Names: Belinda and Alice Amorous. I’m sold. I love the name Belinda so very much and Alice keeps growing on me. This is a preface for the book and I love it! 

““Behold,” the Queen of Romance declared as she gazed upon her baby girl’s face for the very first time. “I have given birth to a new story, and I shall name this story ‘Alice’””

Thoughts on the Cover: It’s a great non-model cover; after you read the book you can almost hear Alice muttering “I don’t believe in Cupid, I don’t believe in Cupid” when you glance at the cover. 

Parental Book Review *spoilers*

Sexual Content: 

Errol/Cupid/Eros is the god of Passionate Love, therefor when he pierces Alice when an arrow she considers going to bed with him. 

Errol’s wife Psyche cheats with multiple men while Errol is away. 

Language: 

Mild

Violence:

Errol shoots invisible arrows at Alice and Tony; they knock them literally off their feet.

Psyche dies of suffocation at the hands of the gods.

Other Notables: 

Alice’s mother, Belinda, suffers from mental illness.

Errol dies of cancer. 

IMM 22 So Breathless...

In which I am Breathless and offer you 


a last chance to enter fabulous contests! 

Books I got from the Tour~

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

My ARC of Matched was signed by Ally Condie

My ARC of Nightshade was personalized to Jodie from Uniquely Moi Books for winning a contest here

My Poster was signed! 

I got bookmarks for you!

From Lisa McMann’s Tour~

My entire Dream Catcher’s series was signed and personalized for me! Thank you Miranda!

Books I got for Review~ 

Memento Nora by Angie Smibert

Wildwing by Emily Whitman

The Unnameable’s by Ellen Booraem

Exposed ARC by Kimberly Marcus

Sean Griswold’s Head ARC by Lindsey Leavitt

For Contests~

Three signed copies of April & Oliver by Tess Callahan

I Purchased~ 

Tempestuous by Lesley Livingston

The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa

I Traded For~

The Things a Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt

To find out how to win one of the following, click the individual links:

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Other Words for Love by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal

Winter Longing by Tricia Mills

Forget You by Jennifer Echols

Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher

April & Oliver by Tess Callahan

Babe in Boyland

Babe in Boyland

Author: Jody Gehrman

Publisher: Dial

Pages: 304

Read Time: I sat still for hours to read this!

Rating (1-5):5

Tag Words: Hearts, Flowers, Romance, Humor, Shakespeare, girl pretending to be a boy, theatre, boarding school, advice column, Aphrodite, falling in love, truths, sharing secrets, undercover missions

My Summary:

Natalie has been anonymously dishing out feminine-fantastic advice in her school for years when she realizes she knows less than nothing about the stranger sex, boys.

Natalie decides to go undercover as Nat and discover the seven truths about boys, but when she is roomed with her hot, all-male roommate, she might find out more than she bargained for in this humorous, insightful gender-bending tale.

My Review:

This was my very first Gehrman and I am going back for more- no, I take that back, I’m going back for them ALL! 

I sat still (Still? I can’t be still!) for a few hours one afternoon and read the book from cover to cover. I usually will clear out a good hundred pages, then put the book down, come back, read until it’s finished, but in the case of Babe In Boyland, I could not tear myself away! 

Readers of Meg Cabot are sure to enjoy the hilarious way Gehrman portrays teenage Natalie, who for all her shortcomings is nothing less than a mature, and interesting teen girl. If you enjoyed the modern interpretation of the famous Shakespearean play Twelfth Night, called She’s the Man, you are going to get a kick out of Babe. 

I completely enjoyed this book, and feel that it truly was insightful about both genders in the field of love, lust and sex. The plot was interesting, the pacing perfection and some bits still make me laugh a week later when I think about them. Hint: It has something to do with “flossing.”

Go pick up your copy! And ask Dr. Aphrodite a question HERE!

Notes on the Names: Natalie was a good choice, because it can be shortened to the boyish Nat, and I just want to look at a few more names that could have been possibilities:

Georgiana/ Georgina/ Georgia & George

Gabrielle & Gabriel/Gabe

Danielle & Daniel/Danny

Valerie & Valor

Samantha & Samuel/Sam

Josephine/Josephina/Jozepha & Joe/Joey/Joseph

and, of course, there are the purely androgynous names:

Alex, Carson, Cori, Corey, Devin, Devon, Jordan, Lane, Lee, Leigh, Morgan, Parker, Payton, Peyton, Quinn, Reagan, Reese, Rhys, Riley, Robin, Robin, Rory, Taylor

Thoughts on the Cover: I love the model, and the cute moustachio, but hate the editing. The use of light was forfeited for a sepia tone that is not well balanced throughout the skin. The green in the eyes is fabulous, but the editing on them overlooked the reflection of the photographer and the fact that the model looks as though she did not have a good nights sleep. Also- Shouldn’t her hair be short? 

Parental Book Review *spoilers*

Sexual Content: 

Moderate- No actual sex scenes, or heated kissing

The first boy Natalie interviews is only interested in a hook-up.

One of the boys at the prep school catches Nat and her two best friends together in a closet and thinks they were all hooking-up, which leads to a bump in popularity for Nat.

Erica, a girl, kisses Natalie, thinking she is a boy, Natalie is not pleased.

Living in a boys dormitory means seeing plenty of naked and half-naked boys.

Many references to ‘balls’ and a few mentions of ‘porn.’

Language: 

Heavy

S- 15 (not counting how many times it is used in other languages)

A- 18

B- 5

H- 4

Sl- 3

Violence: 

None.

Other Notables: 

Darcy’s on again, off again boyfriend is a stoner.

Nat stuffs socks down her pants. 

Emilio’s friend back home (we never meet him) is a drug dealer.

The drama teacher believes Nat is gay and discloses that he and Max are gay.

Natalie, Erica and Emilio swear in different languages (German and Spanish)

Guest Blog with Author Christine Fletcher

Today Christine Fletcher, author of Ten Cents a Dance is here to participate in my Historical Fiction series, as well as add a little historical romance to the mix of HFR! 


Even before I began writing Ten Cents a Dance, I knew it would have a strong romantic element. After all, writing a novel is a process of discovering the characters, and how better to discover a character than by throwing her into a complicated romantic situation? (Not to mention all the delicious fun that creates!) Also, a romantic relationship in a historical novel really brings the past alive for the reader. And with historical fiction, that’s what it’s all about: bringing the past alive.

How do characters in love do that? First, falling in love—especially first love—is intense. Everything you see and experience seems brand-new, as if it’s made just for you. When Ruby, the main character in Ten Cents a Dance, goes to the movies with her new boyfriend Paulie, the enormous theater with its red velvet lobby seems so much more romantic to her than it ever did before. The snacks that Paulie buys for her, the seats they choose in the back, the newsreels they kiss through… Ruby soaks it all in, and through her heightened senses, so does the reader. The reader experiences not just a love affair…but a love affair as it was back then, with all the giddy, gorgeous details of that world.

And then there are the characters who inhabit historical novels. Books aren’t written about the sweet ordinary folk who abide by society’s rules. Instead, they’re written about the people who break those rules. (Think of that love-obsessed minx, Scarlett O’Hara.) When romance is involved…well, let’s just say that lovers are people who have something to lose. Lovers will dare more, risk more, defy family and society, and do things they would never otherwise do, all in the name of their love. This immerses the reader in dilemmas that real people actually faced back in the day. (More delicious fun!)

Which brings up my last point. I don’t know about you, but when I was in school, I hated history. I wanted to like it. Really, I did. But memorizing lists of battles and Presidents left me cold. What I found, once I started researching this particular bit of history, is that textbooks leave out tons of stuff. Fascinating stuff. How a girl with a good sense of rhythm and a whole lot of moxie could earn more money dancing than she could working in a “respectable” job. How, in an age of segregation and discrimination, people of all races could go to certain nightclubs and mingle, date and dance with each other freely. How the outbreak of a world war affected everyone, rich and poor, down to the shoes they could buy and the food they could eat.

This is what historical fiction does best: shining a light into the shadowed, forgotten corners of history, the stories that are lost because they’re not “important enough” to be included in a textbook. The stories of people who lived before us, whose names we don’t know, but who loved intensely. Passionately. Stories that remind us that fashions and society and customs may change…but romance is timeless, and true love is immortal.

Website: www.christinefletcherbooks.com
Blog: http://christinefletcherbooks.blogspot.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/cm_fletcher

Bio:
Christine has published two young adult novels: Tallulah Falls and Ten  
Cents a Dance, which was named a YALSA Top Ten Best Book for Young  
Adults. She practices veterinary medicine part-time; the rest of the  
time, she's in her office, clacking away at the keyboard. She's  
currently working on her third YA novel.

Ten Cents A Dance

Ten Cents A Dance

Author: Christine Fletcher

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Pages: 356

Read Time: 3 Days

Rating (1-5): 4

Tag Words: 1940’s, WWII, Professional Dancer, Coming of age, growing up too fast, a fast lifestyle, Bad Boys, secrets, gangsters, the Mob

My Summary:

Ruby Jacinski has just been sentenced to a life of shame, toil and minimum wage in 1940’s Chicago.

Shanae Grimes, my Ruby Jacinski

As a beautiful Irish girl working to support her mother and sister Ruby jumps at the chance of a lifetime- get out of the Yards and work for Ten Cents A Dance every night at the Starlight Dance Academy, as Paulie Suelze suggests.

You know what they say: Bad Boys and Secrets are both hard to keep...


My Review:

I want to start with the “Behind the Story” bits before I jump into my review. Christine wrote this story after learning about a Great Aunt who was a mistress of a Mobster, and a Taxi Dancer to boot. The shame that her Aunt felt, and the was her family turned their backs on her haunted Christine into telling Ruby’s story. Ruby is not her Aunt, but is a perfect example of one of the most infamous and misunderstood professions of the mid-nineteen hundreds.

I had been wanting to read this book for years when I finally opened to page one and the wait was worth it. I am so glad to have known Ruby and seen her coming-of-age. Though this story is unique to the character, the time period and the profession, many modern teens may be able to identify with Ruby’s struggles, her growing up too fast and her painful relationship with Paulie.

I congratulate Fletcher for creating a moral-struggle and a fear of right, or wrong in Ten Cents A Dance. Ruby’s inner struggle is far more than just live or die, it’s joy or depression, love or loneliness, and ultimately shame or shame.

There is brilliance in the darkest times of Ruby Jacinski.

Notes on the Names: Ruby, Betty, Peggy, Gabby, Yvonne, all perfect names for the time! Ophelia is the stunner though, it shines as brightly as the sun in my mind.

Thoughts on the Cover: The hardback cover never thrilled me, it was nice, sure, but the paperback cover really makes me gasp! The models, the stance and the lighting are a perfect companion to the text.




Parental Book Review *spoilers*

Sexual Content:

Mild/Moderate.

No sex scenes described, though they happen.

The most frequently described is when men, or Paulie, would touch Ruby’s breast, or her backside.

Tom, a married “Fish,” tries to force Ruby into paying him back for the money he gives her with sex. She gets away.

Language:

Moderate.

Violence:

Moderate.

Paulie beats Ruby up once and tells people “It’s alright, she’s my wife.” (The pig.)

Ruby takes Paulie down with a upper-cut so hard he pukes his guts out. (Go Ruby!)

Paulie tells Ruby he kills a man for money and a car.

Other Notables:

Black, Filipino and Asian peoples were still treated with disgust in these times. The terms “Negro,” "Pinoy" and “Flips” are used.

Paulie steals dresses for Ruby.

Gabby and Yvonne promise men sexual favors, make them pay up front and leave secretly.

Yvonne is always bullying Ruby, and Ruby reciprocates in the end.

Waiting on Wednesday (19)

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme created by Breaking The Spine to spotlight some pre-release books bloggers are itching to get their hands on!
I’ve decided to do things a bit differently here on the Mod Podge Bookshelf. As a penniless and raged college student, I can’t afford to just drop everything and buy a book at full price when it’s first released, sometimes there’s some waiting involved. So, not only will I spotlight pre-release books from my wishlist, but also books on my wishlist that have been released recently that are not in my possession.
Here we go!

Arrow by R.J. Anderson

Secrets: The Ivy by Lauren Kunze and Rina Onur

Tempest Rising  by Tracy Deebs

Interview with Author Tess Callahan

   Today, as part of Hearts, Flowers, Romance, Tess Callahan is here to share her most romantic memory- one that will have you all swooning and itching to pick up her debut, April and Oliver. 

GC: April is a very sad character, with such a terrible past, do you believe that love redeemed her, or that she found her own path to salvation in the end?

TC: I like this question because I have to think about it. In a way, the answer is both. What redeems April from her hurtful past is her openness to grace. She is fortunate to have two people who care for her, her grandmother and Oliver. But being loved isn’t enough to bring about transcendence; she has to be able to receive it. For change to happen, she must be open to the ways in which love wants to alter her, to reconstruct her ideas of what feels normal, and attune her to the quiet, interim moments of her life, the touch of a breeze, the pause in a conversation. You could say this love manifests itself in her relationship to Oliver, but it’s even closer than that. It’s in the background sounds outside her apartment, the sparrows and the trains. It’s in the cool air on her face and the smell of rain. And yes, it’s in Oliver’s expression when he looks at her. Her courage in slowly letting herself experience these moments leads her, step by step, out of her abyss.

    GC: Grief and love are two heady emotions that plagued April and Oliver throughout their entire lives, do you believe they always knew they belonged together, and didn’t deserve the other, or do you think they grew into their love because of the path their lives took?

TC: Grief and love are part of the fabric of any human life. As the book opens, April and Oliver have a rather fixed notion of one another based on the memory of their childhood, the affection and the grief. They project onto one another some unnameable, lost sensibility from their past. Eventually, through their conversations, arguments, and even their silences, they begin to have an authentic experience of the people they have each become. It’s a tumultuous relationship, but it’s real. They belong to each other in the same way trees belong to earth; that is, without ownership. The idea that they don’t deserve each other is just another defense mechanism, a deliberate obfuscation to shield them from the corrosive power of love. Corrosive in the best sense of the word.

GC: Where did the names for your characters come from? You have such great taste! 

TC: April’s name came to me in the first draft, as if she announced it. As she states in the novel, she was named for the month she was born in, a kind of dated-received stamp. Oliver had many names in many drafts, all sophisticated names to reflect his character, but eventually “Oliver” felt right because of the internal alliteration with April’s name. I liked the liquid consonant sounds of the “r” and the “l” in April and Oliver.

GC: What is next for you as a writer?

TC: While living and working in China, I met many fascinating Chinese, as well as long-term expatriates intent on escaping their cultures and their pasts. These are the eclectic characters who inspire the novel I am currently writing, which is set in China during the Tiananmen protests of 1989.

GC: And finally, since this is an event to celebrate Love, would you share your most romantic memory, or share a story that epitomizes ‘Love’ for you?

TC: My notions of “love” and “romance” are different but overlapping. The essence of love, to my mind, was described perfectly in your recent interview with author Rachel Vail. She describes sitting in a hospital room with her husband awaiting news about their young son: “In the midst of this life we’re living together filled to the brim with wit, opinions, wisdom, and laughter, we had no words, and no need for words.”  The shared silence she describes, built on years of trust and companionship, says everything about love.

Romance is a different animal. While love is steady and sustaining, romance is about an idealized moment that seems to lift us out of reality. But when I was a young woman traveling in Poland, I had a romantic experience that was redemptive. I was in the middle of a six month soul searching trip through Europe and Asia.  I was traveling with big, unnameable questions, and no answers. Before leaving the States, a friend suggested I visit a concentration camp during my journey. He said it would change my life, as it had his. I wasn’t sure I had the strength for it, but I trusted my friend, so on this particular autumn day in Krakow, I visited Auschwitz. I won’t write about what I saw there because it is well documented. Suffice it to say I was obliterated, swept from my stem like seeds from a shaft of wheat. By the time I left the camp, there was nothing left of me. Even though I had read about the camps in books, being there had an altering effect down to the cellular level.

That night, I went out with some friends. It didn’t matter that I was incapable of speech; we went to a noisy dungeon-like place with dancing and music so loud that no one could be heard. I drank a few sips of the hot, mulled wine that was served there, and felt a tap on my shoulder. A young Polish man with a faint beard and a gentle gaze motioned to the dance floor. When our eyes met, there was instant recognition. He spoke no English, and I no Polish, but we knew each other. On the dance floor, he held me like someone he’d missed for all eternity. With our bodies pressed, he took my sorrow into himself. He made of himself a reservoir to hold my unspeakable grief. I thought of the people who never left Auschwitz, some of them young women my age, with young men they loved and would never see again. On this day, decades later, I had walked out of the camp with my body intact and my loved ones alive. Now I was dancing with this man with the soft beard and warm hands. We danced all night, and in his embrace I felt complete surrender. I was his. I was nobody’s. I was wheat blowing on the wind. When he motioned for us to leave, my friends nervously came over and pulled us apart. “You must leave her now,” said my friend in Polish. “She’s not herself tonight. She’s all broken.”

It was true I was broken, but so was he, and the pieces of our brokenness had fit together. In that moment on the dance floor, we were whole. In retrospect, I know he was a real person, but I think of him as an angel who helped me begin to absorb my sadness that night and be grateful for life. For that, I will always be grateful to the man whose name I never knew.

April and Oliver

April and Oliver

Author: Tess Callahan

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Pages: 335

Read Time: 1 day 

Rating (1-5): 3.75

Tag Words: Valentines Event, ABC Book Challenge (A), Adult contemporary, 2010 Debut Author, family tragedy, true love, wedding, funeral, death, grief, memories, girl addicted to abusive relationships, neglecting true path, finding who you belong to

My Summary:

April has been in a life long rut of letting the wrong men use and abuse her, starting with her father and going from there. Oliver has sat by and watched as April, his soul mate, tortures herself because it’s all she knows. As kids and adolescence, Oliver never had the wisdom, or the strength to stop her from her self-destruction, but when Buddy, April’s beloved little brother dies Oliver is back in her life, and he’s brought his fiancee along for the ride. 

My Review:

This is a very sad book with wonderful pacing and pitiable characters. 

I was disappointed by the lack of romance between April and Oliver, I could never tell if April felt it and refused to acknowledge her love for Oliver because he didn’t fit her self-destructive MO, or if Oliver was the only one with legitimate feelings for anyone. 

I want to say I was rooting for April and Oliver only because the book’s title told me they belonged together and I have a thing for the right people ending up with their right people, even if they have to much through crap to get there. Had I been left to my own devices I may have rooted for April to get herself back together and for Bernice and Oliver to be soulmates instead. 

I think the book is more about grief, and how childhood experiences will affect a child, rather than a true love story. I still think it’s a great book, but I did subtract a rating point because of the misleading content. I can’t say much more without spoiling, but I will say I am surprised by how the book ends, and that certain elements are left to a (possible?) sequel.

Notes on the Names: Beautiful character names! Oliver has a brother whose middle name is Ignatius and he calls April ‘Rose,’ which is a very sweet detail. Bernadette is a name I just adore, I only wish it had a more appealing and feminine meaning. 

Thoughts on the Cover: I don’t like the cover any more because I think it is very missleading and I was so dissappointed that the ‘rowing on a lake’ scene never happens in the book! I prefer the windswept beach scene and wish mine was a hardcover. 

Interview with Author Susane Colasanti

Today Susane Colasanti has stopped by to give us her thoughts on SoulMates and why writing about them is her life's work. Take it away, Susane!


GC: What do you think constitutes a soul mate, and what makes you love to write about the possibility? 

Susane Colasanti, Author of Take Me There

SC: A soul mate is someone you feel an instant, undeniable connection with. You’ve just met and yet you feel like you’ve known them forever. And yes, soul mates are real. I’ve met two of my own so far. I’m obsessed with the concept of soul mates. Every one of my books focuses on soul mates because I want to inspire my readers to find an incredible love. Everyone deserves to be happy. No one should settle for less than they desire. When you’re with a soul mate, that person makes you feel like you can do anything. They inspire you to be the best version of yourself. It’s just an overwhelming energy that I’m always excited to write about.


GC: Who do you think is smarter in love, boys, girls, or do you think we are all fools in love? 


SC: We’re only fools when we try to convince ourselves that the person we’re with is the right person for us even when we know they’re not (been there). Or when we settle because we think we won’t ever find what we’re looking for (been there, too). When we’re honest with ourselves about what we want and respect ourselves enough to find it, we’re not being fools at all. The most important thing to remember is that you can’t be in a healthy relationship if you don’t like who you are. That generally takes a while to learn. In the meantime, we all make silly decisions and rack up regrets. But that’s just part of this whole love thing. And the effect of hormones, of course. Hormones made teenage me do the most mortifying things ever!


GC: What was your favorite aspect of writing Take Me There in particular? What do you think makes it different than any of your other books? 


SC: The strongest difference is that Take Me There is told from the perspectives of three different characters. It was not an easy book to write and I haven’t attempted that format since. Creating three major story lines and three engaging main characters to go along with them was super challenging. My wall was covered with Post-it notes during revisions when I was trying to make sure events and details matched for each perspective. But in a weird way, that challenge was also my favorite part. And being able to share my love for New York City with my readers was awesome.


GC: What couple has been your favorite to create from any of your books? 


SC: Sara and Tobey from When It Happens. All of my couples are important to me, but Sara and Tobey hold a special place in my heart. When It Happens was inspired by some of my actual experiences during senior year. It was my first book, so all of the emotions and ideas and random details I’d been storing up since high school came flooding out while I was writing it. I wanted to say so much (actually too much – about 150 pages of the original manuscript were cut) and I think that intensity inspired a sweet love story about two people who are clearly meant to be together.

GC: What is next for you as a writer? 


SC: My fifth book, So Much Closer, comes out on May 3. It’s about a girl who follows the love of her life to New York City. The story explores what it means to change yourself for someone else, but realize who you are in the process.


GC: And finally, since this is an event about Love, could you please share your most romantic memory, or a love story that has inspired you?


SC: The whole Jim and Pam love story on The Office has really touched me. They are obvious soul mates. I love their cute inside jokes and the quirky things they have in common. Authentic characters with relatable issues are the best. Jam forever <3


Want to know more? Find Susane here... here, and also here:

Website: http://www.susanecolasanti.com
Blog: http://windowlight.livejournal.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/susanecolasanti

Fan page: http://tinyurl.com/susanefan
Twitter: http://twitter.com/susanecolasanti