Caught my arrow # 15

Caught my Arrow is a meme similar to In my mailbox and  Stalking the Shelves featuring books that were purchased, borrowed or received that week.

Three day weekend!! The weather has been kind of lousy today, and so I found some time to lounge and pick up one of these selections.

I borrowed Scarlet and My Beautiful Failure from the library

And purchased a copy of Illegal

What are you reading this week?

Review: Point of Retreat

When things get hot and heavy between Will and Lake they call out a point of retreat. Is it effective? Yes. Even though they both promised Lake's mom before she died of cancer not to have sex for a year (a long, whole year), I believe, were she still alive, she'd be as surprised as me that they followed through.

The truth is true love reigns between Will and Lake. They are open with each other, sharing their ups and downs everyday. But when Will's ex-girlfriend makes a reappearance to claim him back, things between them start to go sour. 

Having Will narrate the book is a lovely surprise. His voice is more mature than Lake's. Not to mention more romantic. It was important to be in his head to see how his ex girlfriend's presence affects him. Colleen Hoover might not have included as much poetry as she did in Slammed, but it's filled with enough tears and romance to make any reader hug whoever is nearby. Just make sure to call out a point of retreat if things get too hot. 

Don't miss Slammed, the first book in the series

Funny and Refreshing: Meet A.J. York

I'm delighted to be receiving author A. J. York today to promote her new dust free novel, Delilah Dusticle.

Delilah Dusticle has special powers; she can completely eradicate dust. With her quiver pouch of special dusters, Delilah can run up walls and reach places others just can’t. As a maid in the Fenchurch-Whittington house, Delilah’s unusual skills soon get her promoted to Chief Dust Eradicator and Remover. Until one day a broken heart leads to her powers taking an expected turn. 

**Free this weekend only on Amazon. Download your copy by clicking on the link below**

                   Find it on Amazon                                               Find it on Goodreads 

Hi A.J, thank you for being with us. Please do tell, what inspired you to write this book?

Well, the inspiration came after a series of events. We moved to Gothenburg, Sweden two years ago as my partner had been offered a job at an international school. Up until then we had been living in the UK. My mother is Swedish and I was born in Gothenburg, so I was delighted to have the chance to live there. I did some work at an English speaking theatre and some teaching, but I soon realised that I wanted to run my own creative venture, rather than work on someone else’s. I had just finished a Masters in Arts Administration and Cultural Policy at Goldsmiths University of London and had previously worked as a project manager, so I was confident I had the skills. I just didn’t have a project to work on.

During this time we had been renting a flat in the centre of Gothenburg. The building was built in the early 1900s and was stuffed full of lovely old features. The flat also had a room off the kitchen where originally the maid would have slept. We were due to move out and we were doing a final clean in a room that had floor to ceiling bookcases filled with books. I am rubbish at dusting and more dust fell on me than on the duster. To top it all I then managed to break the hoover. I sat against the bookcase a bit sweaty and fed up with the duster in my hand. I then started to wonder about the maid who used to work there all those years ago. I thought about what she would have been like and that she must have had some special skills for eradicating dust. Over the coming days Delilah’s character and story began to develop in my mind and I felt compelled to write it down. It didn’t occur to me straight away that I had got my wish and that I had just started my own creative endeavour.

Did you listen to specific songs while writing?

I am one of those people who needs quiet to concentrate, so I guess I was listening to the sound of silence. It does stick out in my mind that I was listening to BBC radio via the internet around that time and they often played “Somebody that I used to know” by Goyte.

Any advice for aspiring writers?

I still feel like an aspiring writer myself, learning something new every day and working hard to improve my writing. One thing I did as a part of my initial research was to look at one or two star reviews of other books to gage what not to do. The most common criticisms were underdeveloped characters, rehashed stories, poor grammar and punctuation. This may seem obvious, but there are a lot of books with low reviews, so it must be a trap indie authors easily fall into. I looked long and hard at my strengths and weaknesses. I have a strong drama background that helps when it comes to developing stories and coming up with ideas, but my grammar can be my weakness.  I was very lucky that a good friend and highly skilled journalist Anna Davidson edited the book for me. The artwork is also really important and my partner Gavin Childs, who is also an artist, designed the cover. 

I can only draw stick men and smiley faces :0)

What are you working on now -- or would you rather surprise us?

I am working on the sequel, which is full of surprises.It is called Delilah Dusticle’s Transylvanian Adventure and is full of funny twists and turns. It is a book for young people, but I believe adults will delight in it too. 

Make sure you stop by A.J. York's Blog to meet her writing mascot Grumpy Stone . You can also find A.J. on:

Facebook

Twitter


Thank you for being with us A.J, and good luck on all your future projects.

Feature and Follow Friday: Summer is Magic

Parajunkee / Alison Can Read

FEATURE & FOLLOW FRIDAY

Once you answer be sure to leave me your link so I can follow you back

Q: School is out! What is your favorite summer reading book? 

My definition of summer is: laughter and margaritas. Add a hot tub/pool to that and you get heaven, just like this little wonder called Ten Things we did and probably shouldn't have by Sarah Mlynowski.

It's light, it's funny and talks about parties, rooming with your best friend, and dealing with a love triangle. Important things to learn during the summertime.

Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

The peculiar thing about this book is that it's presented as a horror, when it's actually a fantasy. Putting that deception aside, we discover a well meaning character, Jacob, who after witnessing his grand-father's murder, must accept that maybe, just maybe Gramps stories about bizarre children were true. 

The middle is slow paced as he mourns his grand-father and then sets off to meet all the children -- Emma in particular -- and enter their eerie world. Jacob is an intrepid boy, who proves to be just as brave as his grand-father. Also just as bizarre. Does he belong with the children?

Peregrine, National Geographic

With the open ending, the question whether we'll have a second book kept eating at me. But alas, Ransom Riggs has confirmed on Twitter that there will be a sequel. If I happen to see a peregrine flying around, I'll be sure to ask when.