Review: No One Needs to Know

We always judge ourselves more harshly than others do.

Olivia's parents are always gone lately, leaving Liam, her twin brother, as her anchor. But she's too clingy in his eyes -- wanting to celebrate all their birthdays together and going to watch movies on fridays. So when Liam meets Zoey, Olivia has no choice but to spend time with her. What she didn't expect was to fall in love with her in the process.

The LGBT romance is not rushed. Instead, Amanda Grace provides us with a gentle courtship of how love should be. With Oliva's social class being higher, she is able to seduce Zoey with gifts and dates. The real challenge comes from confronting her peers when her entourage mocks Zoey's scholarship status. Although, the conflict with Liam takes second place, the love story is so endearing we forgive Grace for the lack of triangle tension. 

Feature and Follow Friday: Yummy Tweets

Parajunkee / Alison Can Read

FEATURE & FOLLOW FRIDAY

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

Q: Book character (s) you'd like to see with their own twitter?

Given as Christian Grey, Gideon Cross and Lord Voldemort (yeah, I heart him) already have twitter accounts, my choices are limited.

I'd probably go with Sophie Kinsella's Becky Bloomwood to get the latest fashion trends and learn of all the creative ways you can wear a scarf. I live in a cold climate, it's hard to accessorize.

Review: Crank

“We used to do coke, till "Just Say No" put the stuff out of reach. Now it's crank. Meth. The monster. It's a bitch on the body, but damn do you fly.”


Three weeks. That's how long Kristina will have to spend with her distant father, a user. He doesn't cook, doesn't clean, he doesn't care -- and so their distant relationship continues even if they are living together. No one can blame Kristina for being thrilled when she meets Adam. So what if he wants to smoke a little pot? A line of meth, why not? It brings out a different side of her. Besides, it's not like she'll be doing drugs forever. 

I was not prepared for this book to be written all in verse. It's not the first book I read that way, and yet Hopkins handled dialogue through it all. That did impress me! If you know an addict then you can understand how they tend to withdraw or be happy one moment then angry the next. Kristina/Bree was the same. Making it difficult to be in her head for a long time, hence why the verse felt necessary. 

Unlike Go Ask Alice by Anonymous where the main character tries one drug and then goes on a rampage trying them all, Kristina/Bree appears to have a link between Adam and the monster as if she has linked meth and love together. It makes her feel special, wanted, audacious... but as the days go by, all it does is destroy her.

A sad story based on Hopkins daughter.

Review: Writing Great Books for Young Adults

If you want to write, then by all means, you have got to read. 

Novels are a great start. They help maintain the vocabulary flowing and learn how to keep up paragraph and dialogue pace. But reading how-to write books can be a huge advantage.


Here is part of the books on writing I have read:

Writing Great Books for Young Adults outshines its competitors, by combining all of the writing themes together. Instead of focusing just on dialogue, it will have a chapter on the subject, and so on, making it a great start for aspiring writers. 

The main focus on YA literature comes from written examples and exercises. Brooks will ask you to go back in time to your teenage years and focus on your preoccupations. She also lists teen character traits, plots that involve family and school issues, as well as settings youth would most likely be chilling at. 

Although, adding a list of YA literature classes students may take in American Universities doesn't help us Canadians, she does explain the variety of awards (YALSA) YA books can merit as well as publishing houses, and manuscript format and submitting procedures. 

Cover Reveal: Escape from Witchwood Hollow + Giveaway

After losing her parents in a terrorist attack on the Twin Towers, fifteen-year-old Honoria escapes New York City to Arnn—a farming town with more legends than residents, and a history of witchcraft and secrets best left buried.

Everyone in Arnn knows the story of Witchwood Hollow: if you venture into the whispering forest, the witch will trap your soul among the shadowed trees. In the lure of that perpetual darkness, Honoria finds hope when she should be afraid, and a past of missing children and broken promises.  To save the citizens of Arnn from becoming the witch’s next victims, she must find the truth behind the woman’s madness. How deep into Witchwood Hollow does Honoria dare venture? 




Escape from Witchwood Hollow will be published through Curiosity Quills on October 29 2014. 

Jordan Elizabeth, can't get enough of the woods, be it splashing through a stream, sitting beneath an ancient oak, or following a path up a hill. You can contact Jordan via her website.

You don't have to wait until October 29th to explore Witchwood Hollow. Jordan is offering a free ebook. To enter, all you need to do is share the cover. This can be done on your blog, facebook, twitter. Each time you share it, log in to rafflecopter to record it. Contest ends October 20th. Good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway