New Books! Harper Jackson and Cecilia Ahern plus Summer Fire Contest!
ook review time!In a Thousand Different Ways by Cecelia Ahern
Finding your way is never a simple journey…
Alice sees the worst in people.
She also sees the best.
She sees a thousand different emotions and knows exactly what everyone around her is feeling.
Every. Single. Day.
But it’s the dark thoughts.
The sadness. The rage.
These are the things she can’t get out of her head. The things that overwhelm her.
Where will the journey to find herself begin?
I always enjoy Ahern's brand of magical realism, and I've read nearly all her books! (The most well-known one is P.S. I Love You).
This one was fascinating because the main character could see people's colours and thereby understood their moods and whether they were honest, or hiding something, and so on. It reminded me of a story I wrote where one protagonist could emit flower scents at will and the other could look at a body of water and know the fish count (and therefore how healthy the water was).
I explored the talents as part of a meet cute, where each character discovered an extension to their abilities after they met, and my story didn't go beyond that moment.
But.
Ahern's book was good, with well-developed characters. Yet she tried to tell the chaeacter's entire life, and I feel like so much got shortchanged because of that. Instead of concentrating on the protagonist's relationship with her mother OR her meet cute OR her troubled brother OR her kids OR her intriguing job OR her eventual friendships, we only got snippets of each thing. Somehow, the book took 300 pages to tell all this! And I'm not quite sure the main character learned anything by the end, she just learned how to handle her gift.
It made me think, among other things, of how much I appreciate the "smaller" settings of most short stories and fan fiction pieces. We cover a week, a month, a year. Or, if there's a long time scale, there's a story reason for it, and we're told what we need.
We don't try to tell a life saga in only 300 pages!
On the other hand, there are books that successfully do this -- one of my long-time favourites is The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher.
If I'm being honest, as a fan of all her books, I think Ahern's reached the point where she no longer listens to her editor. Or perhaps she worked with a different editor for this book and they didn't make as many suggestions as they could have (e.g. the personal anecdotes here and there in the character's life that didn't add anything to the theme and didn't seem to fit the story).
Won't Back Down, Wayward Sons Book 1 by Harper Jackson
I drowned when I was sixteen.
My brother's best friend brought me back, but nothing was the same. I can't remember what happened. My parents dragged me away from my island home in the name of keeping me safe, and thrust me into hell instead.
I came back to Hatterwick to rebuild my life and—hopefully—my memory.
Now a new inheritance threatens to expose those long-buried secrets, and someone will stop at nothing to ensure I never remember what really happened that fateful night.
The only thing standing between me and whoever wants to hurt me is a marriage of protection with the boy who saved me—now a man grown and determined to keep me safe at all costs.
But what began as protection turns into more. Because he's the key to unlocking what hides in the shadows of my mind, which will either save or damn us both.
I really enjoyed the flow of this book; the pace of the relationship and the revelations felt right.
Miscommunication for the sake of plot always bothers me, and that does not happen in Harper Jackson's books! The love between the characters is evident from the start; they simply have to learn to trust and work together.
I was really surprised by the villain reveal! It was so unexpected, but made perfect sense, and it was fun to look back on the clues I'd missed.
Can't wait for the next one!
Meanwhile...
ello, it's contest time!
Summer Fire is out in the wild
and the anniversary of publication month is coming up!
The Dirty Bits from Carina Press "give you what you want, when you want it. Designed to be read in an hour or two," these "microromances are guaranteed to pack a punch and deliver a happily-ever-after."
"'You know how it is with Canadians. We come alive in the summer.'
Ayse had resigned herself to an interesting—but in the end unromantic—trip visiting family in Istanbul. Great-aunts, touristy sites and endless meals…until she meets fellow doctor Hakan.
All tanned skin and defined muscle under his polo shirt, his kisses cut off her breath, making her dizzy. His every touch is a thrill.
Ayse wants all of Hakan at once. His sweet mouth, the heat of his body against hers, their heartbeats slowing together.
A holiday romance might give her some blazing memories come the lonely winter, but maybe, just maybe, the fire between them doesn’t have to be as fleeting as the summer.
For those times when size does matter. The Dirty Bits from Carina Press: quick and dirty, just the way we like it.
One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise: all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise!"
Here's a lovely shot of Heybeliada, one of the Princes Islands, which features in part of the story.
Summer Fire playlist, featuring
Whisky Trench Riders, Idlewild, Yaşar, Blue Rodeo, Sezen Aksu, Mes Aieux, Duman, and the Divine Comedy!
Thank you to every one of you in the blogging community whose supported me over over the years!
Please leave a review on any one of the sites above,
That's it!
Names on slips of paper may or may not be chosen by this happy fellow:
The contest remains open!
As of a few days ago I am all caught up on blog comments, except where blogger wasn't playing nice and wouldn't let me log in.
Whew!
I really hope I don't fall behind again!
How have your blogging habits changed over the years?
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