Title: The Unwritten Rule

Author: Elizabeth Scott

Genre: YA / Romance

Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: March 17 2010
Hardcover: 224 pages

Stand alone or series: Stand alone

Everyone knows the unwritten rule: You don’t like you best friend’s boyfriend.

Sarah has had a crush on Ryan for years. He’s easy to talk to, supersmart, and totally gets her. Lately it even seems like he’s paying extra attention to her. Everything would be perfect except for two things: Ryan is Brianna’s boyfriend, and Brianna is Sarah’s best friend.

Sarah forces herself to avoid Ryan and tries to convince herself not to like him. She feels so guilty for wanting him, and the last thing she wants is to hurt her best friend. But when she’s thrown together with Ryan one night, something happens. It’s wonderful…and awful.

Sarah is torn apart by guilt, but what she feels is nothing short of addiction, and she can’t stop herself from wanting more…

Why did I read the book: I have seen great reviews of Elizabeth Scott’s books and I thought this was a good place to start to reading her books.

How did I get the book: I requested a review copy from the publisher.

Review: (Warning: a few spoilers)

“There are a million rules for being a girl. There are a million things you have to do to get through each day. High school has things that can trip you up, ruin you, people smile and say one thing and mean another, and you have to know all the rules, you have to know what you can and can’t do. And one of them is this: You don’t kiss your best friend’s boyfriend. You don’t do it once. You certainly don’t do it twice.”

The unwritten rule: you don’t fall for your best friend’s boyfriend. Even if you liked him first. Even if you have liked him for years. Even if he likes you back. Except that we are all human beings and therefore flawed and there are some things that one simply cannot avoid: like irrevocably being in love with your best friend’s boyfriend.

A simple love story complicated by unfortunate circumstances: Sarah has loved Ryan forever but never acted on it for a series of reasons. But now, he is dating her best friend Brianna and being that much closer to him is making things even worse. It does not help that things don’t seem to be working that well between Ryan and Brianna and that Ryan and Sarah have so many things in common. And then one night, they kiss. And oh boy, it is everything she always wanted and more but what about Brianna, her best friend since kindergarten? She seems to love Ryan too – what can Sarah do?

I read The Unwritten Rule in one sitting and thought it was lovely although not without its problems. On the positive side, Sarah is a relatable character with a quirky voice, real emotions including the love for her cool parents, her love for art which she shared with Ryan and her friendship with Brianna which is a mixture of co-dependency and love. And Ryan is an absolutely a-do-ra-ble dork who so obviously liked Sarah as well.

On the not so positive side, even though the book is on the short side with just over 200 pages, there was still a feeling that the story was being unnecessarily dragged. As much as I had sympathy for Sarah and Ryan’ plight (if we can be so dramatic) and I felt the author did really get the psychological aspects to leap from the pages (I felt Sarah’s guilt as much as I felt her need to be with Ryan and his to be with her, you just can’t help but to root for the two of them) , it was also very clear that all was a matter of a simple conversation to be had. It was very, very frustrating to see that Ryan was so obviously not interested in Brianna at all and yet, why was he with her in the first place? It just didn’t compute with the fact that he was clearly a nice guy.

One of the most interesting things about the novel is how it is narrated by Sarah (first person, present tense with a few flashbacks) and how her narrative is tempered by her own view of things which are so evidently biased: not only by her own self esteem issues but also by her love for Brianna. For the reader though, who is not biased, and can see the other characters for who they really are, Sarah’s emotional journey is undermined by the fact that the reader absolutely knows where it is leading. And that is the greatest shortcoming of the novel: Sarah might have been blind to Brianna’s manipulative ways but the reader is not; and that removes from the equation what could have been the novel greatest strength: a true sense of friendship and guilt. Because the author takes the easy way out, by making Brianna the friend who is not really the good friend, therefore making it easier for the reader to side with Sarah and for Sarah to make a stand. Had it not been that way, the book might have been a great book, a fantastic book, with a real earth-shattering ending for all involved including the reader. As it stands it is a great coming of age for Sarah because Sarah does go through all the uncertainty of not knowing, of having to make a choice, of knowing that what she feels is both wrong and right but in the end I was left disappointed and with a sour taste in my mouth. At the beginning of the novel Sarah makes an astute observation that the sidekick best friend is always referred to in movies and novels as the loser or the funny friend. It is ironic how in the end the roles were reversed and the other best friend ended up with the role of the Bitch so that the sidekick could come up on top. Surely, we can have two good girls in one book, none of them stereotypes, both deserving happiness?

Rant aside, overall I actually enjoyed the novel, the chemistry between Ryan and Sarah and I thought the writing was first rate:

“Thanks,” I said, although I’m betting it sounded more like “Geratyuhrh,” and then I reached for the book and he gave it to me, his hands touching mine for a moment.
And then he said, “Sarah,” and touched my hand again. I looked down. My fingers were spotted with the dark green my father had wanted the garage painted, and his hands were spotted too, white and yellow, and the book slid to the floor as he did more than touch my hand. He held it, he slid his fingers into mine.
Our palms pressed together, and all I could think of was a line I’d read somewhere, about palms pressed together like a kiss, and he was still looking at me and then we were standing up, still holding hands, and he was close, so close and he was leaning in and I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, could only watch and wait, hoping and breathless as he moved close and closer and –

I definitely want to read more by Elizabeth Scott.

Notable Quotes/ Parts:

I am caught in a huge tangle I don’t know how to get out of. I want Ryan, but I don’t want to lose Brianna.

I open the door. Maybe it really can all work out. People have been to the moon and cured diseases and found ways to inject cream into snack cakes.

But that stuff doesn’t involve love. Or how you have to open the door to your crying best friend and know that you love her, you want to be there for her – but that you’ve done something that would make her cry too.

Additional Thoughts: Elizabeth Scott seems to have an interesting backlist – a mixture of light romance novels and more hardcore dramatic ones:

Everyone thinks their parents are embarrassing, but Hannah knows she’s got them all beat. Her dad made a fortune showing pretty girls–and his “party” lifestyle–all over the Internet, and her mom, who was once one of her dad’s girlfriends, is now the star of her own website. After getting the wrong kind of attention for far too long, Hannah has learned how to stay out of sight…and that’s how she likes it.

Of course, being unknown isn’t helping her get noticed by gorgeous, confident Josh, who Hannah knows is her soul mate. Between trying to figure out a way to get him to notice her, dealing with her parents, and wondering why she can’t stop thinking about another guy, Finn, Hannah feels like she’s going crazy. She’s determined to make things work out the way she wants….only what she wants may not be what she needs.

Lauren has a good life: decent grades, great friends, and a boyfriend every girl wants. So why is she so unhappy?

It takes the arrival of Evan Kirkland for Lauren to figure out the answer: she’s been holding back. She’s been denying herself a bunch of things (like sex) because staying with her loyal and gorgeous boyfriend, Dave, is the “right” thing to do. After all, who would give up the perfect guy?

But as Dave starts talking more and more about their life together, planning a future Lauren simply can’t see herself in– and as Lauren’s craving for Evan, and moreover, who she is with Evan becomes all the more fierce–Lauren realizes she needs to make a choice…before one is made for her.

Have you read any of Elizabeth Scott’s books? Do you like them? Which should I read next?

Verdict: This book has some lovely writing and a sympathetic protagonist and a couple with real chemistry to root for. It is a shame that the tension of the main plot is moot and undermined by a cop-out.

Rating: 6 – Good

Reading Next: Scarlett Fever by Maureen Johnson

Title: The Sky Is Everywhere

Author: Jandy Nelson

Genre YA / Contemporary

Publisher: Dial
Publication Date: March 9 2010
Hardcover: 288 pages

Stand alone or series: Stand alone novel

Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life—and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey’s boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie’s own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they’re the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can’t collide without the whole wide world exploding.

How did I get this book: ARC from publisher

Why did I read this book: When we were contacted by the publisher offering a copy of the book and I read the blurb and saw the AMAZING cover, I immediately said yes: it does have Ana-Crack spelt all over it.

Review:

Lennie’s sister is dead. Without as much as a presage, Bailey simply collapses one day at school and just like that, puff, she is gone. Left behind are those who love her the most and who must deal with her sudden absence: her sister Lennie, her boyfriend Toby, her grandmother, the one who raised her.

The Sky is Everywhere is narrated by Lennie whose first person narrative takes the reader into a journey – an exploration of grief and of sadness (at least to begin with). As the story starts Lennie has recently lost her sister and is preparing to get back to school. She has effectively shut herself to the world and won’t talk to anybody about her sister. Bailey was her closest family member (their hippy mother abandoned them when they were children and they never knew their father) and she won’t talk to her grandmother or to her best friend ; the only way she communicates with the world around her about the immense sense of hurt, confusion and loss she feels is by writing pieces of poetry that are scattered around town and which open almost every chapter:

The morning of the day Bailey died,
she woke me up
by putting her finger in my ear.
I hated when she did this.
She then started trying on shirts, asking me:
Which do you like better, the green or the blue?
The blue.
You didn’t even look up, Lennie.
Okay, the green. Really, I don’t care what shirt you wear…
Then I rolled over in bed and fell back asleep.
I found out later
she wore the blue
and those were the last words I ever spoke to her.

(Found written on a lollipop wrapper on the trail to the Rain River)

And then there is Toby, Bailey’s beloved boyfriend. Before her death, Lennie never got along with him but after her sister is gone something happens and Toby and Lennie grow closer together. What brings them together is a mixture of grief and being able to understand one another in their shared memory of Bailey. Their relationship evolves though, to something else and in this something else, there is also guilt and shame.

At the same time at school, Joe Fontaine, a new student, recently arrived from France, is a breath of fresh air, a welcome relief from the sadness, someone who is interested in her, and who shares her passion for music (he plays guitar, she plays clarinet).

It is in this between world of being at one times relentlessly sombre and at others recklessly happy that most of The Sky is Everywhere takes place. And it is such an extraordinary book!

It takes an honest look at the process of grieving and it says: here, not two people in the world grieve in the same manner. This is Lennie’s story and this is how it goes. And it is raw and painful at times, especially at those moments when Lennie is with Toby because of the guilty involved and because everybody knows that it is a mistake: Lennie, Toby, the reader. But the pull is there, even if it is senseless and illogical and difficult to understand and accept . But being with Toby reminds her and him of Bailey. It makes them not forget. And this is what matters to them – that they have such an intense love for Bailey that they would do anything to not let go.

At the same time, being with Joe is the direct opposite. He is able to pull her off her musical shelf, he wants to know about her and her alone. There is nothing about Bailey when she is with Joe and that and the joy she feels when with him, makes her forget, and that forgetfulness when hits homes, is also cause for guilt and grief.

And the absolutely wonderful thing about the book is that the writing conveys a sense of intimacy in which all of those feelings are mirrored in the reader. Many times, I found myself laughing and falling in love with Joe Fontaine, only to catch myself in middle of the act along with Lennie, to remember: Bailey died. And it was hard.

Hardest of all to Lennie because more than a book about death and grief, this a book about love and life and really, a coming of age story. She gets to be her own woman, to get under the shadow of her older sister, to do her own things, to make several (many, and horrible) and fix them. Because the one thing that happens as soon as Bailey dies, is how alive, awakened Lennie feels (and yes, horny ) and it makes it all the more powerful and raw because she is aware that she is awakening when her sister is sleeping forever. The book might sound like a downer or dark but it is not really. In fact, the story is replete with humorous passages and adorable sequences especially between (the awesome) Joe Fontaine (who kept being a fool around Lennie just so she could say to him “quel dork” ) and beautiful turn of phrases.

Jandy Nelson’s Debut is incredible, I loved it and I can’t recommend it enough.

Notable Quotes/ Parts:

“Thank you,” I say, for the hundredth time that day. Sarah and Joe are both looking at me too, Sarah with concern and Joe with a grin the size of the continental United States. Does he look at everyone like this, I wonder. Is he a wingnut? Well, whatever he is, or has, it’s catching. Before I know it, I’ve matched his continental U.S. and raised him Puerto Rico and Hawaii. I must look like The Merry Mourner. Sheesh. And that’s not all, because now I’m thinking what it might be like to kiss him, to really kiss him—uh-oh. This is a problem, an entirely new un-Lennie-like problem that began (WTF-edly?!) at the funeral: I was drowning in darkness and suddenly all these boys in the room were glowing. Guy friends of Bailey’s from work or college, most of whom I didn’t know, kept coming up to me saying how sorry they were, and I don’t know if it’s because they thought I looked like Bailey, or because they felt bad for me, but later on, I’d catch some of them staring at me in this charged, urgent way, and I’d find myself staring back at them, like I was someone else, thinking things I hardly ever had before, things I’m mortified to have been thinking in a church, let alone at my sister’s funeral.

This boy beaming before me, however, seems to glow in a class all his own. He must be from a very friendly part of the Milky Way, I’m thinking as I try to tone down this nutso smile on my face, but instead almost blurt out to Sarah, “He looks like Heathcliff,” because I just realized he does, well, except for the happy smiling part—but then all of a sudden the breath is kicked out of me and I’m shoved onto the cold hard concrete floor of my life now, because I remember I can’t run home after school and tell Bails about a new boy in band.

My sister dies over and over again, all day long.

Additional Thoughts: I think book trailers are getting better and better. The one for this book is simple and yet, effective. And I love the music because the music is such a big part of the book.

Verdict: A highly emotional, deeply beautiful look at what it feels like to lose someone you love whilst at the same time learning to love someone new. Sad and funny, always charming and with great sympathetic characters, The Sky is Everywhere is a wonderful debut.

Rating: 8 – Excellent

Reading Next: It’s Steampunk week ahead!

Title Something About You

Author: Julie James

Genre: Romance / Contemporary Suspense

Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date 2 March 2010
MMP 336 Pages

Stand alone or series Stand alone novel

FATE HAS THROWN TWO SWORN ENEMIES. . .

Of all the hotel rooms rented by all the adulterous politicians in Chicago, female Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron Lynde had to choose the one next to 1308, where some hot-and-heavy lovemaking ends in bloodshed. And of all the FBI agents in Illinois, it had to be Special Agent Jack Pallas who gets assigned to this high-profile homicide. The same Jack Pallas who still blames Cameron for a botched crackdown three years ago—and nearly ruining his career…

. . .INTO EACH OTHER’S ARMS

Work with Cameron Lynde? Are they kidding? Maybe, Jack thinks, this is some kind of welcome-back prank after his stint away from Chicago. But it’s no joke: the pair is going to have to put their rocky past behind them and focus on the case at hand. That is, if they can cut back on the razor-sharp jibes—and smother the flame of their sizzling-hot sexual tension…

How did I get this book: ARC from Author

Why did I read this book: I am a huge fan of Julie James’ books, especially Practice Makes Perfect which was my favorite Contemporary Romance last year.

Review:

I don’t read a lot of Contemporary Romance and read even less Romance of the Suspense variety. If there is someone who can make me not only wait anxiously to read one and end up enjoying it so much as to ask for an encore!, that person would be: Julie James. Boy, can this woman write fan-tas-tic dialogue and captivating characters. Her previous two books Just the Sexiest Man Alive and Practice Makes Perfect are nearly pitch perfect romantic comedies and I love, love, loooooove them.

So what about this one then?

Of all hotels in the world, Cameron Lynde, Assistant District Attorney, had to pick the one where a murder would be committed, to spend the night whilst her newly finished flooring is drying. Of all the FBI agents in the world, it had to be Jack Pallas, the one to take the case. The same Jack Pallas who three years ago was the head of an investigation she was about to prosecute and which ended up never going ahead – and life-changer case whose fall out was jack being transferred to Nebraska all the while blaming Cameron for the failure. The tension, the animosity they feel for each other needs to be put aside so they can work together on the case as Cameron is both Witness and soon, a victim under protective detail. But all the anger and hostility in the world cannot hide the fact that once, Cameron and Jack were moving towards building something and the attraction is back with a bang (there is one particular scene in a motorcycle that whoa baby, holy guacamoles). And spending time together can prove what they need to bring the past to rest and start again.

This book is excellent when it comes to the romance between Cameron and Jack. The two talk when they have to talk and behave like level-headed adults and professionals who respect each other’s profession. She listens when he tells her what to do and he listens to her opinions as well. The secondary characters are interesting and show the two characters have a life outside work and their budding relationship. Also, Cameron’s best friend Colin is gay and I have to give major kudos to the author for not writing him as the usual stereotypical flamboyant gay –friend.

On the down side, if we can even say that, I have to admit not being a fan of the suspense plot. Which sounds silly since this is after all, a romantic suspense . But seeing as how the culprit is revealed early on to the reader and we are privy to this point of view, it sort of removed the suspense from the suspense; However it made it more interesting from a character’s development point of view because the reader gets to know why the killer committed the act and understand that it was not because he was an Evil!Vilain! and being able to follow the steps he took to ensure he was not found was intriguing to say the least. But in all honesty, I could have skipped all that so that I could read more of Jack and Cameron, Cameron and Jack. I am, it turns out, a bigger fan of her romantic comedies and I thoroughly missed The Funny and the screwball comedy elements present in the previous books –which is of course, a matter of preferential taste.

That is not to say that Something About You is not funny. It is – it has funny moments, and the dialogue sparkles as ever however the tone is more contained because of not only the murder investigation going on, the sense of danger surrounding Cameron but also because Jack is a damaged character with a past. Of all Julie James’ heroes, he is the one with more baggage and the one I end up loving the most. For all that, it could not, should not be any different – a difference in tone would have ruined the book.

One last word: I mentioned screwball comedy elements and this is a known influence in the writing of the author and in her previous books who make a homage and have shout outs to those old Hollywood movies . In an interview with the author, she mentioned that there would be a homage to It Happened One Night by Frank Capra in Something About You . Now, It Happened One Night happens to one my all time favourite movies and one of the reasons why I waited for this book so anxiously. I bet that that the homage would be to the famous Walls of Jericho scene and I was right! Without spoiling it too much, Julie James, takes that scene, makes it funnier and oh boy, sexier and appropriate for this book. Clark Gable/ Peter Warne would approve.

And I lied about the last word. I have something else to say about the book: this is also the hottest of her books– if you have read her previous books you know all sex scenes were fade to black. Not this time. We knew that Julie James can write sexual tension very, very well. We finally learn she can also write sex scenes – they are not very graphic or extremely long but phew do they deliver.

So as Ellie from It Happened One Night would say: Oh, it’s been a lot of fun.

Notable Quotes/ Parts: I loved this scene when Jack was doing protective detail at Cameron’s house and unbeknownst to her, as to not scare her, slept inside her bedroom :

He waited thirty minutes from the time he heard the noises stop, just to be safe.
He got up and walked down the hall. He entered Cameron’s bedroom quietly, pausing just outside the doorway to listen to the soft, steady sounds of her breahting. Satisfied she was sleeing, he moved to the corner of the room and took a seat on the floor next to the boarded-up doors that led out to the balcony and fire escpae. He rested his head against the wall.
He sat there in the darkness and watched.
He knew that sleep would eventually overtake him – he’d certainly slept in more uncomfortable places – but it would be a light, dreamless sleep. He would be ready in an instant, if necessary.
God help the man who tried to get past him.

Additional Thoughts: We have one copy of Something About You to giveaway to one lucky winner. To enter, simply leave a comment here. Contest is open to residents of US, Canada and UK ONLY and runs till Saturday 6th March 11:59 (PST). Only ONE comment per person! Multiple entries will be automatically disqualified. Good luck!

Verdict: Another great Contemporary novel by Julie James, a book which carries her signature: great dialogue and captivating characters. This one is more on the serious (and steamy) side than her previous novels.

Rating: 7 – Very Good

Reading Next: The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

Wherever Nina Lies is the debut novel from the young and extremely talented Lynn Weingarten. In order to celebrate the paperback release of the novel, we are offering up a giveaway for THREE lucky readers!

The Book:

Wherever Nina Lies by Lynn Weingarten

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery

Publisher: Point (Scholastic)
Publication Date: February 2010
Paperback: 320 pages

Nina was beautiful, wild, and adored by her younger sister, Ellie. But, one day, Nina disappeared. Two years later, everyone has given up home that Nina will return, but Ellie knows her sister is out there. If only Ellie had a clue where to look. Then she gets one, in the form of a mysterious drawing. Determined to find Nina, Ellie takes off on a crazy, sexy, cross-country road trip with the only person who believes she’s got a chance—her hot, adventurous new crush. Along the way, Ellie finds a few things she wasn’t planning on. Like love. Lies. And the most shocking thing of all: the truth.

The Website:

The Excerpt:

The guy walking toward me is good-looking in an obnoxious way, like he’d play the hot jerk in a TV movie about why drunk driving is bad or how it doesn’t pay to cheat on the SATs. He’s got these big wrap-around sunglasses on and a shiny black short-sleeved button-up shirt filled out with the kind of insanely sculpted arm muscles a person only gets when they spend most of their time lifting weights in the mirror and grunting at themselves.

You can read the full first chapter online HERE.

The Author:

Lynn Weingarten spends a lot of time writing in coffee shops while occasionally reading strangers’ laptops over their shoulders. In the past she has been a book editor, a barista, a counter girl at a bakery in Ireland, a waitress at a bar, and a seller of tiny homemade clay animals. She lives in New York City. Wherever Nina Lies was her first novel. Please visit her online at www.lynnweingarten.com.

THE GIVEAWAY:

We are giving away THREE copies of Wherever Nina Lies! The contest is open to participants with a United States mailing address only (international readers can enter if they have a friend in the States who can accept their prizes by mail) and will run until Saturday, March 13, 2010 at 11:59 PM (PST). In order to enter, all you have to do is leave a comment here. Only ONE comment per person, please! Multiple entries and/or duplicate comments will be automatically disqualified. Good luck!

Today, we have the proud honor of being the official Book Blog Partner on Harper Teen’s 28 Days of Winter Escapes Tour! First, we give you our joint review of our participating title, The Girl with the Mermaid Hair by Delia Ephron. Then, we bring you an exclusive Q&A with the author and a chance to win a copy of the book (and an iTouch).

In the second part of our official spotlight on The Girl with the Mermaid Hair, we have an exclusive Q&A with talented author (and screenwriter and producer extraordinaire), Delia Ephron!

Please folks, give it up for Ms. Ephron and her truly exceptional young adult novel, The Girl with the Mermaid Hair.

1. Sukie is always conscious of her appearance—how does this awareness affect her experiences?

Delia: Since she’s excruciatingly self-conscious, always snapping “selfies,” photos of herself with her cell phone, she is thinking about herself most of the time and worrying about how she doesn’t measure up. Which makes her a very lonely girl. When she looks in the full-length mirror that her mother gave her as a present, if she isn’t trying to decide, say, if one thigh is larger than the other, she fantasizes into the mirror. She has wild and passionate experiences with Bobo, the boy she’s hot for. She visits with her friend Issy in the mirror. Sukie’s life in the mirror grows more interesting than her real life until the mirror starts to crack. And then everything in her life, at school and at home, begins to crack as well.

2. Sukie’s ideas about romance don’t quite match her experiences. What would you tell a friend who is disappointed in love?

Delia: I would just listen and sympathize. I remember the first time my heart was broken, my dad was so sweet. I was eleven years old and he told me he had worn only black for days when his heart was first broken. He didn’t say, “Get over it” or “There’s more than one fish in the sea,” or all those things that don’t help at all when you’re sad. Frannie, my heroine from Frannie in Pieces, is also in this book, and one reason she becomes such a good friend to Sukie is that she listens with her heart. Of course then there is the situation when your friend is involved with a guy who’s self-centered or isn’t nice to her. Then you might point out that he isn’t “boyfriend worthy.”

3. Where did you go on your very first date ever?

Delia: Good grief, I have no idea. But what I do remember most is that the first time a boy kissed me, I stepped on his foot and was too embarrassed to take my foot off his. So I just left it there. Aha, now I’m remembering a very fabulous beach date with a guy who was my boyfriend for my seventeenth summer. Not a first date, but a great date.

4. Can you share some funny details about the worst date you ever went on?

Delia: Only one detail. A guy I was fixated on took me sailing on his very small sailboat, and I got seasick, and he never spoke to me again. And by the way, you can’t pay me to go on a boat even now, I was so traumatized.

5. Sukie finds her escape in the mirror . . . where do you go to escape?

Delia: Movies and books. There’s nothing more absorbing than a good book. I don’t even hear when people talk to me when I’m reading. I think I write books for teenagers because I remember loving to read so much when I was a teenager. I also love the movies. I write movies as well as books — I was lucky enough to write the movie adaptation of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Movies are like dreams. I sit in a dark theater and let it take me over. When I was fifteen I remember going to see a movie called The Long Hot Summer. It was so romantic I sat through it twice, nearly hypnotized.

About Delia Ephron:

I live in Greenwich Village, the prettiest part of New York City, with my husband Jerome Kass, who is also a writer, and my dog Honey. My favorite things are writing, walking, and cooking, although I also do yoga and the use the treadmill. I absolutely hate the treadmill, but use it because it is good for me. While I am on it, I watch the Food Network or reality shows. I love reality shows. My favorite is Project Runway.

My favorite city in the world is New York City, but my second favorite is Paris. It is so beautiful there, and I feel sad that my stepson hates Paris and only wants to go to Ireland, but I have learned over the years that you can’t force your kids to like what you like. My stepson Adam Kass, a storyboard artist and illustrator, lives in Los Angeles. My stepdaughter, Julie Kass, lives outside of Seattle, Washington.

Thank you to Delia Ephron and to Harper Teen for the wonderful opportunity! You can read more about Delia and her work (both books and movies – which include the critically acclaimed novel Frannie In Pieces and genre classic films like Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) online HERE.

Make sure to stop by the official 28 Days of Winter Escapes site for a chance to win The Girl with the Mermaid Hair today by answering the official poll.

And make sure to keep checking the 28 Days of Winter Escapes website throughout the moth for a chance at other daily giveaways, and a grand prize of an iTouch. You can also follow the Book-A-Day-Giveaway event on Twitter (using the #28daygiveaway hashtag) and on Facebook.

Today, we have the proud honor of being the official Book Blog Partner on Harper Teen’s 28 Days of Winter Escapes Tour! First, we give you our joint review of our participating title, The Girl with the Mermaid Hair by Delia Ephron. Then, we bring you an exclusive Q&A with the author and a chance to win a copy of the book (and an iTouch).

Title: The Girl With The Mermaid Hair

Author: Delia Ephron

Genre: YA / Contemporary

Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: January 2010
Hardcover: 320 pages

Stand alone or series: Stand Alone (although one of the secondary characters was the protagonist of the author’s previous book, Frannie in Pieces).

Click. Sukie Jamieson takes a selfie after her tennis lesson. Click. She takes one before she has to give a presentation in class. Click. She takes one to be sure there’s nothing in her teeth after eating pizza at Clementi’s. And if she can’t take a selfie, she checks her reflection in windows, spoons, car chrome—anything available, really. So when her mother gives her an exquisite full-length mirror that once belonged to her grandmother, Sukie is thrilled. So thrilled that she doesn’t listen to her mother’s warning: “This mirror will be your best friend and worst enemy.” Because mirrors, as Sukie discovers, show not only the faraway truth but the truth close up. And finding out that close-up truth changes people. Often forever.

How did we get this book: Review Copies from the publisher

Why did we read this book: When we were contacted to be part of the Winter Escapes event hosted by Harper Teen, we were allocated this book and we couldn’t have been happier – it was a perfect fit.

REVIEW:

First Impressions:

Ana: I started to read The Girl with the Mermaid Hair and my first reaction after reading the first few pages was: this is quite possibly one the weirdest books I have ever read, this girl is barking bonkers and completely unlikable and what in the world is going on. A few pages more and all of that changed – the book was still weird, but a wonderful weird, the character still crazy but with reason and I couldn’t put the book down until I was done and I ended up loving it. It is, hands down one of the best contemporaries YA I have read and a fantastic story about a girl, for girls, about what is like to be a girl.

Thea: The Girl with the Mermaid Hair is a bizarre book, and completely out of the range of YA titles that I usually read.

And I absolutely, out-of-my-mind LOVED it.

My experience with the book was very similar to Ana’s – I started it and couldn’t make heads or tails of what the frak was going on. Sukie is, for lack of a better word, deranged. At first glance, she’s narcissistic and irritatingly bland – but she’s not, really. This is a beautiful, unexpected, heartbreaking work of staggering genius (yes, I just ripped off Dave Eggers, but THAT is how good this book is – heck, better than Eggers’ narcissistic memoir, in this reader’s opinion). Against all my cynicism and predisposition against this book, The Girl with the Mermaid Hair blew me away.

On the Plot:

Ana: Sukie Jamieson is perfect: with her perfect blonde hair (like a mermaid’s), her perfect skin and her beautiful body with strong muscles built over her perfectly honed Tennis skills. Living in a perfect, beautiful house, with a perfect family composed of a loving father and a slightly crazy mother, a cute younger brother and the family dog Señor who even has a place at the dining table (first warning signal: his place it is at the head of the table). Sukie is a top student, brags about a quarterback boyfriend, she is beautiful and everybody is jealous of her and she spends hours in self-adoration and constantly takes selfies – pictures of herself with her cell phone.

One day her mother gives her an antique mirror as a present with the warning: “This mirror will be your best friend and worst enemy.”

As Sukie becomes more and more enamored with herself little cracks appear in the mirror – and ironically in her life – it becomes clear to the reader that Sukie only believes herself and her life to perfect. The truth is something else altogether.

There is very little in the way of a plot in The Girl with the Mermaid Hair , as this is really a character-driven novel at its core. Nothing really momentous happen in the novel and the story is propelled by Sukie and Sukie alone, as little by little is like the curtain is suspended and she can SEE her life for what it is and so can the reader. The result is sometimes hilarious but often sad too. Sometimes I write: this is so and so’s book but it is not every time that I am completely overcome with the strange sensation that I had when I was reading this book. This is Sukie’s book: I couldn’t tell where the writer or the narrator was, it was like neither existed and all I could see was Sukie. I was inside her head at all times and it felt like it was just me and her. That is also dude to the writing technique – extreme “showing,” no “telling” whatsoever, with the author, having the utmost faith in the reader to “get” what she saying. And I really dig that.

Thea: I have to wholeheartedly agree with Ana in saying that this indeed is Sukie’s book, and it is all the more awesome because of how committed it is. There really isn’t much plot or action, but that doesn’t mean The Girl with the Mermaid Hair is slow or dull – quite the opposite, actually. Rather, this is a wholly immersive reading experience. I have to emphasize again what Ana has said before me; reading The Girl with the Mermaid Hair is an experience unlike any other. It’s not so much a “reading a book” experience as it is a, “Holy Crap, I’m actually seeing Sukie’s mind at work” experience. (But more on that in the next section)

Also, I must say that Ms. Ephron’s writing is just…awesome. Not only is it incredibly clever (for example, one particular passage has Sukie debating what text to send – “WHEN WE KNOW EACH OTHER BETTER” – and deletes her text, letter by letter before inadvertently sending simply, “WHEN”), but it’s also memorably strange. The Girl with the Mermaid Hair is a trip – we readers are only given Sukie’s word as truth, and it becomes painfully, excruciatingly clear that Sukie’s judgement is not completely sound. She talks about her new “boyfriend” that she met at the mall (popular quarterback of the local highschool, named Bobo), but it soon becomes very apparent that Sukie’s relationship – along with so many other things in her life – is a fantasy. A delusion.

And that’s what I loved the most about this book: how it completely messes with reader perceptions. I found myself thinking, Sukie is a gag-inducing Mary Sue! No wait, she’s a narcissistic snot! I hate Sukie! No wait, she’s completely insane! No wait, I LOVE Sukie! and so on and so forth. How often does a book come along that does this to you? Not often. And, as Ana says, I can totally dig that.

On the Characters:

Ana: As a reader who loves character-driven novels, this book was a perfect fit for me. And I was not expecting it. Yes, I started the book disliking her superficiality and her weirdness but ended up loving and rooting for her once I got to know her better. When the story begins, she is too good to be true – too perfect. The image she has of herself and of her parents for example is a complete illusion and it is as though she doesn’t see those illusions because she does – it her interpretation that is all warped. Because for example this sequence about her father:

Sukie loved to watch her dad operate. That’s what he called it. Once at Cones, when he’d offered to pay for a woman’s sprinkles (a woman they’d never met before), the woman said to Sukie, “Your father makes everything more fun, doesn’t he?” As soon as they’d left the store, she reported the compliment to her dad, and he whispered (so her mom and Mikey couldn’t hear), “I’m a real operator”. Clearly this was information he could entrust only to Sukie

To her, he is a winner. To me, it is clear what he is. Eventually, yes, this is one of the things she comes to realise, one of the realities she has to face. But there is so much more to it. All the pressure she suffers from her mother to be beautiful and perfect; her mother who has a facelift and gets rid of her nose – the nose that was a trait she shared with Sukie – what does that to a girl’s psyche?

The book deals a lot with image and in several levels as well:, in mirrors, in photography; public image, self-image, the image one has in the family life or at school. Sukie is carrying her cell phone at all times and yet it never rings, her quarterback fling is not really interested in her, she is truly and really lonely and alone. She hits rock bottom and has to resurface (which is a cool image because of the mermaid hair) and re-imagine herself and I loved that it was all done alone. There was no hot boyfriend to help. No parents to help. Nothing, nada. It was all Sukie (with a little help from her friends).

When the book closes, she is much more real character than she was in the beginning.

As for the other characters, the mother was a sad example of a mother, someone I pitied more than anything. As for the father, I absolutely loathed the individual – not because he was a sleaze ball but because he used Sukie in the war against his wife. You do not do that with your child. But then again, as my parents often said: parenthood does not come with a manual.

But hands down, best secondary character was Señor, the Dog. The fact that he was the one the family turned to, to ask for advice should give you an idea of how dysfunctional they were.

One final thought: one of Sukie’s main concerns is about being original (or not). Is about striving to being unique without having a clue how to. My heart nearly broke into a million pieces several times during this book – and it may sound as though it is all very angsty and sad but it is not, really.

Thea: Well, The Girl with the Mermaid Hair *is* angsty and sad. But ultimately it’s an uplifting, triumphant book, and that’s ALL because of its protagonist Sukie.

I’m something of a plot junkie, as you may or may not have realized over the past couple of years here. But when a character-study type of book is done well, I will never complain about a shortage of action or parallel storylines or whatever, and such is the beauty of this novel from Delia Ephron. As I said before, I had no idea how to interpret and categorize Sukie as a heroine. At first glance, she’s irritating and vain, admiring herself in her grandmother’s antique mirror, mind-numbingly preoccupied with her appearance (especially with her titled hair, and with what she perceives of as an imperfect nose), constantly snapping “selfies” (that is pictures of herself on her cell phone). I shudder at the thought of this sort of vapid heroine, and found myself agreeing with Sukie’s tennis coach when he remarked that she had a marshmallow for a brain.

But…

Then Ms. Ephron works her magic. Sukie in fact isn’t a vain imbecile – she’s a very lonely, hollow young woman that perceives the world around her so differently than anyone else. She lives in her own fantasies. She takes “selfies” and is so preoccupied with her looks not because she is vain, but because she has nothing else. She throws herself into her school work and extracurricular activities, not because she enjoys any of it, but because she is trying to impress her father, to placate her mother, to be perfect for everyone else. Her perfection is not perfection at all; it is obsessive, and heartbreakingly tragic.

And HERE is what makes The Girl with the Mermaid Hair a damn near perfect book for me – in my opinion, it is a jarring look at gender roles and expectations. It is, as I told Ana in an email, the 21st century, teen female version of Catcher in the Rye. Before you tune out, let me explain – I abhor Holden Caufield with every fiber of my being. I have no patience for the embodiment of overprivileged, adolescent male malaise that Holden represented – but this is something that resonates with a lot of readers, in particular male readers. What I mean by comparing Catcher In the Rye to The Girl with the Mermaid Hair is simply this: Sukie is the female answer to Holden Caufield in the new century. Sukie is the embodiment of pressures put on young adults, especially females, in our own age. She’s the daughter of a very rich and handsome father, a beautiful mother, older sister to a loving younger brother. She’s a perfect student, amazingly smart, and breathtakingly beautiful. But she’s far from perfect. She’s friendless, she thinks she has no personality, and she’s ultimately…hollow. Sukie lives to please everyone else, to play by the rules, and to maintain her appearance. Ms. Ephron takes that beautiful, perfect reflection, and just as with the antique mirror in the novel, she distorts the image bit by bit, ultimately shattering the readers’ perception of Sukie with stark reality.

And, yeah, she shattered this reader’s heart too.

Final Thoughts, Observations & Rating:

Ana: A surprisingly moving, funny and sharp character-driven story which I absolutely adored. It is as of now, one of my favorite reads of the year.

Thea: The Girl with the Mermaid Hair is a rare gem of a book, and it completely took me by surprise. Almost against my will, I loved it. I agree once more with Ana – this is the first truly memorable new release I’ve read in 2010. In fact, it’s my favorite book published in 2010 so far. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Notable Quotes/ Parts:

I am so unoriginal. Sukie recorded the dreaded feeling in her journal that night while senor snored next to her, taking up most of the bed.”Do you agree, Senor?”

Senor twitched, indicating that he was dreaming.

Unoriginal. She hoped it wasn’t true but despaired that it was.

She collected stuffed penguins. Was that unoriginal too? Was lining them up in a row on the windowsill a conventional way to display them? They all had names. She’d started with A, Anton, and worked her way down the alphabet to M, Marshmallow, a very small bird with a yellow bow. Sometimes she thought of them as friends, sometimes as audience. Tonight they sat in judgement. Over their furry black heads the moon was bright white, so low in the sky that it might roll off a rooftop, and perfectly round. A storybook moon, she thought. A wishing moon. She wondered if that thought was especially original; probably not. Could she fake being original, or was that something you couldn’t fool anyone about? I wish I knew what everyone thought of me, really, she wrote. No, I take that back.

You can also read the first 64 pages of The Girl with the Mermaid Hair using Harper Teen’s awesome Browse Inside feature, below:

Additional Thoughts: The Girl with the Mermaid Hair is today’s stop on Harper Teen’s 28 Days of Winter Escapes! For a chance to win The Girl with the Mermaid Hair and an iTouch, make sure to go to the official page for today and answer the daily poll!

And make sure to stick around, as later today we have an exclusive Q&A with Delia Ephron!

Rating:

Ana: 8 – Excellent

Thea: 9 – Damn Near Perfection

Reading Next: Spider’s Bite by Jennifer Estep

Title: Except the Queen

Author: Jane Yolen & Midori Snyder

Genre: Fantasy, Contemporary Fantasy/Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Roc (Penguin)
Publication Date: February 2010
Hardcover: 384 Pages

From award winning authors Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder comes a tale of two worlds-and one destiny…

Sisters Serena and Meteora were once proud members of the high court of the Fairy Queen- until they played a prank that angered her highness. Separated and banished to the mortal realm of Earth, they must find a way to survive in a strange world in which they have no power. But there is more to their new home than they first suspect…

A sympathetic Meteora bonds with a troubled young girl with an ornate tattoo on her neck. Meteora recognizes it as a magic symbol that will surely bring danger down on them all. Serena, meanwhile, takes in a tortured homeless boy whose mind is plagued by dark visions. The signs point to a rising power that threatens to tear asunder both fairy and human worlds.

And the sisters realize that perhaps the queen cast them from their homes not out of anger or spite- but because they were the only ones who could do what must be done…

Stand alone or series: Stand alone novel

How did I get this book: Review Copy from the publisher

Why did I read this book: Jane Yolen is an author I read and adored when I was a young reader (her Sister Light, Sister Dark and White Jenna were my particular favorites), and so when I saw that she had a new fantasy novel, I was ecstatic. I hadn’t read anything by Midori Snyder, but was more than willing to dive into Except the Queen…

Review:

Most of the time, I can get a feel for a book pretty quickly. I can predict what a book is about and where it is gonna go from the first chapter or so. But every so often, a book comes along and completely befuddles me. These books are surprises; they are unpredictable.

Such is Except the Queen.

Written by collaborating award-winning authors Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder, Except the Queen is an unexpected delight of a novel, alternating between two main narrators, fey sisters Serana and Meteora. After stumbling across their haughty, proud queen copulating with a mortal, Serana warns Meteora that they must never, ever speak of what they have seen, for the Fey Queen’s rage is terrible. Alas, Meteora unwittingly lets her tongue slip, and soon the High Court is atwitter with the news of their beautiful, superior Queen’s rutting – everyone is allowed their games and silly engagements with humans, except the Queen. To quell the gossip, the Queen banishes the sisters to the world of humans, depriving them of their magic and their beautiful, youthful forms. Separated from each other, placed in powerless, old woman flesh, and utterly alone in this bizarre new world, Serana and Meteora struggle to accustom themselves to their mortal surroundings, and to find each other no matter the cost. But each sister soon discovers that they have stumbled into something much larger and of more import than a Fey Queen’s wounded pride. The fate of their world lies in the hands of these two banished sisters, and the two strange mortals each is inexplicably drawn to: a troubled girl named Sparrow that cries herself to sleep every night and bears a poison tattoo from one of Meteora’s kind, and a deeply, emotionally scarred young man named Robin, that beseeches Serana for sanctuary.

When I first laid eyes on Except the Queen, I was under the impression it was a Young Adult novel (probably in large part due to the YA feel to the cover) – but it certainly is no lighthearted fairy romp. Imagine my surprise, then, when the novel left the Fey woods in a Howl’s Moving Castle sort of turn of events, set in the urban jungle of contemporary New York (and Milwaukee)! Except the Queen kept me on my toes throughout – there are minor players and major ones, none of them truly understanding their own place in the story or the overall scheme of events until, in a flourish of revelation, everything comes together in the end. I loved the little surprises along the way to resolution and the unexpectedness of this quiet, beautifully written book.

Indeed, it’s really the writing style that makes Except the Queen stand out – Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder have the collaboration thing down pat. Although I’m not sure if each author wrote as the separate voices of the sisters, my guess would be that is the case, and the overall result is damn near seamless. Meteora and Serana are distinct, separate characters with their own experiences and first-person narrations – though the prose for both sisters is equally beautiful and unique. Meteora, the younger sister, the spontaneous “meddler and mender” of the two, was my favorite character (and, in all honesty, more central to the story, reminiscent of Brandon Sanderson’s Siri of Warbreaker). Serana, in contrast, is the wiser, “farseer” elder sister – perhaps a little less memorable in comparison to her vivacious sister, but a wonderful character nonetheless. I loved how both Serana and Meteora struggled with the human world and their interpretation of our familiar technology and customs. For example, in describing the U.S. Postal service, Meteora writes:

Now, you must write your Mortal Name, the numer, street, city state, and code of your abode on the back of the envelope. Find a letter that surely will be in a little box by your door. It will have all the information you need. There are big blue boxes on the street with eagles painted on them, put your letter to me there and a man dressed in blue with an eagle sigil on his breast will take it from the box and bring it to me. Better an eagle than a dove, don’t you agree?

Or, in a particularly memorable scene, Baba Yaga teaches Meteora how humans speak:

“What the fuck!” he shouted as the books tumbled to the ground.

“Yes, fuck you,” Baba Yaga said gaily.

“Fuck you, lady,” he snapped. “What the fuck’s your problem?”

“No fucking problem, really.”

“Yeah, well fuck off then.”

“See? Many uses,” Baba Yaga said, pulling me away from the angry boy who was muttering Stupid bitch as he gathered up his books. “Shit is another useful word. Also very common. For example, pleasantly surprised? You say ‘No shit?’ You think someone tells you tales, you scoff, ‘You’re shitting me.’ You find something you like very much, you exclaim, ‘That’s good shit!’” She looked down at me to see if I was following the language lesson, when in truth I was appalled. Not that we didn’t have our own bawdy language, but it seemed somehow richer and more expressive. Here there was only shit and fuck. What had happened to prick-louse and pig’s spawn? Or clay-brained apple-john? Or canker-blossomed coxcomb?

Oh, delightful! You get the picture.

The actual format of the story is wonderful as well, as each sister narrates in alternating chapters, tied together by their letters to each other and interspersed occasionally with the short, first-person present tense narration of other important players: the Fey Queen, a mysterious Dog Boy, a dark Fey lord, and Sparrow.

Heartfelt, beautiful, and surprising, I loved this lovely fantasy novel from Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder. Though there were of course the usual misunderstandings that come form characters keeping secrets from each other (secrets kept with the best of intentions), these irritations were trivial. Except the Queen is a wonderful, captivating read and recommended to all.

Notable Quotes/Parts: From Chapter 1:

The Queen Remembers

You are in the forest that is not your own. You squint at its brightness; the sunlight bleaching the familiar green, the scent of the trees dusty as pressed flowers. You have come out of curiosity, and shivering beneath the glamour you are wearing, you roam through the quiet pines and birch. You have left behind your armor, your rank, your power, your great age. Here you are young, beautiful and fragile as the lily, your throat white and perfumed. Birds trill a warning and fall quiet. And then you hear it, a man singing softly under his breath, something tuneless, without true shape to change the world.

You stop and wait, frozen as the deer, for this is what you have come to see, to learn, to experience. For an eternity you have existed in another time, but now you are in this moment, and desire burns away the practiced control.

You see him weaving in and out of the sunlight, his chestnut hair stippled like a fawn’s hide. Yet he moves purposefully, hunting for you. You can smell the oil of his rifle, cradled in the crook of his arm. Alarm prickles your skin, crying run. But you will not. You want to see what happens. You want to know what it feels like, that pain that is human love, that weakness that binds stronger than spells. You, who have never given so much as a mustard seed of power away for free, you have come to give yourself away.

The man moves into the clearing and hesitates as if he knows you are there. And why should he not feel you? Have you not come here the last three days to spy on him? He is well made, with a comely face that pleases you. He is dressed like an oriole, the dark wool of his coat partially covered by a shrill orange that makes it easy to spot him even in the brush.

You study his face, wondering if you can allow yourself this indulgence. All the others have had their dalliances, their madcap affairs—everyone except the Queen. But you are here now and strangely calm as he turns toward you. You raise your arm and the dun-colored sleeve covers your face as you bend from your supple waist. You hold your breath for you hear the soft snick of the gun, feel its eye upon you, and you brace yourself for the stinging touch of iron.

The shot cracks the air open like a nut and it is too late to change your mind. You cry out as the bullet passes beneath your ribs and out your back. How could you have known it would hurt so much? Blood spills, staining your white shift crimson and you fall into a nest of autumn-bitten bushes. You can hear him now, running toward you, the gun dropped behind him when you screamed. Already he bleeds too; despair, hope, and love spilling out for you as he runs to where you wait, wounded in the blood-stained green.

You can read the full excerpt online HERE.

Additional Thoughts: As mentioned before, I was a huge fan of Jane Yolen’s when I was growing up – my particular favorite book of hers was Sister Light, Sister Dark. I haven’t yet read Midori Snyder’s solo work, but I will be picking up The Innamorati (which intriguingly looks to be about the Commedia del’arte! Drama class, FTW!) very soon!

Anyone read Ms. Snyder’s solo novels and have a suggestion? [A side note: Isn't that cover for Sister Light, Sister Dark/White Jenna made of awesome 90s WIN? This was the cover I had in middle school. I *loved* the hair.]

Verdict: Unexpected, sweet, and subtle, Except the Queen is the kind of contemporary – even Urban – fantasy I love to read. Absolutely recommended.

Rating: 8 – Excellent

Reading Next: The Mark by Jen Nadol

Title: An Abundance of Katherines

Author: John Green

Genre: YA/ Contemporary

Publisher: Puffin Books
Publishing Date: Reprint edition 16 Oct 2008 (First edition: 2006)
Paperback: 272 pages

Stand alone or series: Stand alone

Why did I read the book: Quite a few people pointed me towards John Green’s books.

How did I get the book: Bought

Summary: When it comes to relationships, everyone has a type. Colin Singleton’s type is girls named Katherine. He has dated–and been dumped by–19 Katherines. In the wake of The K-19 Debacle, Colin–an anagram-obsessed washed-up child prodigy–heads out on a road trip with his overweight, Judge Judy-loving friend Hassan. With 10,000 dollars in his pocket and a feral hog on his trail, Colin is on a mission to prove a mathematical theorem he hopes will predict the future of any relationship (and conceivably win the girl).

Review:

It started, as many things seem to start these days, on Twitter. Bored with work, I decided to investigate new YA authors to read and I asked who should I be reading and the overwhelming response was: John Green. When I enquired which of his books, I will admit An Abundance of Katherines was not the most recommended of his reads but being the contrary person that I am, I picked it up anyway because I really liked the title. What can I say? I am a simple person.

And then there was the story: it stars this guy, Colin Singleton, former child prodigy who has recently been dumped by his girlfriend Katherine, the XIX. Depressed that his life seems to be on a descending curve of lameness after nineteen Katherines dumped him (yes, he has dated and has been dumped by nineteen Katherines) and the certainty that being a prodigy is really not all that (for mind you: there is a clear difference between being a prodigy and being a genius; the former merely knows things; the latter do things) he decides to embark on a road trip with his best and only friend Hassan, a fat ,Judge Judy- loving Muslim.

Together, they travel through the country until they decide to stop in a little town called Gutshot, Tenessee, to visit the grave of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand (yes, seriously) and they end up staying and working for a rich woman named Hollis who produces tampon strings (yes, seriously) and end up befriending a girl Lindsey Lee Wells and her group of friends.

Colin is in search of meaning to his life and of a Eureka moment and he thinks he might find it if he is able to finish the Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability: by allocating numerical value to different variables, taking them to a graph, you should be able to predict the outcome to any relationship and how long it will last. But obviously, he forgets to include important variables in the equation and he comes to these realisations as valuable life lessons in this coming of age story.

So, then, the first thing that needs to be said about An Abundance of Katherines is obviously, how quirky it is. But not that kind of quirky that is quirky for quirkiness sake. This is really different and peculiar and to me, unique and I loved it for it. To me, this book was wholly original and I absolutely loved the writing and the characters and above all the relationship between Hassan and Colin. And the details. Oh, those small details that always and forever make a book for me.

Like how the story is intercalated with very short flashbacks to former Katherines and permeated with funny footnotes with anagrams (Colin is Anagram-crazy) and the sort of knowledge that a child-prodigy would have (and some of them are really interesting too!) and that one word that Hassan and Colin had that signalled when a subject should not be brought up or that scene when they went hunting that made me laugh so hard I cried and I gobbled up everything like a starved woman in a buffet.

But I think that what indicates how this good book is and how good of a writer is John Green is the fact that Colin is actually a very unlikeable character that becomes likeable. He is a self-centred and egotistical and it doesn’t surprise me at all that he has been dumped by nineteen Katherines. Heck, I am even surprised that he managed to date that many people what, with his weirdness and all (let’s face it, the boy has serious OCD tendencies) . But he learns. Both Hassan and Lindsey show him mirrors and he sees himself and hey….coming of age right?

Eureka, I say. For I have, finally, found John Green. And I have zero mathematical skills but if I apply The Theorem of Underlying Reading in which I allocate a numerical value to this book (8) take this to a graph and then apply my hope that all books I read this year are as good as this one, then I come to the conclusion that 2010 will be a good reading year indeed.

Notable Quotes/ Parts:

Eventutally, he found the bed too comfortable for his state of mind, so he lay down on his back, his legs sprawled across the carpet. He anagrammed “yrs forever” until he found one he liked: sorry fever. And then he lay there in his fever of sorry and repeated the now memorized note in his head and wanted to cry, but instead he only felt this aching behind his solar plexus. Crying adds something: crying is you, plus tears. But the feeling Colin had was some horrible opposite of crying. It was you, minus something. He kept thinking about one word – forever – and felt the burning ache just beneath his rib cage.
It hurt like the worst ass-kicking he’d ever gotten. And he’d gotten plently.

Verdict: An Abundance of Katherines is quirky and very funny but also poignant, even a little bit romantic and highly recommended.

Rating: 8 – Excellent

Reading Next: Irredeemable by Mark Waid and Peter Krause

The Feats of Strength are an integral part of our annual Smugglivus Tradition. In the Feats of Strength, we each dare each other to read a book that we know is so far beyond the other’s comfort zone as to put it in another galaxy altogether. It is more than a mere Dare – it is a Feat of Strength.

Title: Practice Makes Perfect

Author: Julie James

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Berkeley (Penguin)
Publication Date: March 2009
Paperback: 304 pages

Stand alone or series: Stand alone novel

How did I get this book: Bought

Summary: (from amazon.com)
When it comes to the laws of attraction, there are no rules The battle between the sexes is about to make these two lawyers hot under the collar. Opposites collide when two lawyers try to make partner at the same firm. Payton Kendall is a feminist to the bone. Cocky J.D. Jameson was born privileged. But when they’re asked to join forces on a major case, they gain a newfound awareness of each other’s personal assets. The partnership spot will be offered to only one of them, though. The competition heats up. Sparks fly. Let the games begin.

Review:

I’m always a little leery of starting a romance novel.

Don’t get me wrong – I love a little romance as much as the next person. But, more often than not, my forays into the romance genre for books have ended in disappointment. True, there are the outstanding Diana Gabaldons, Lisa Kleypases, and Loretta Chases of the world – but if we’re being perfectly frank, I find myself much rather preferring romance as a subplot; something ancillary to a more dominant storyline. So, it was with trepidation that I began Practice Makes Perfect…

The story is straightforward: Payton Kendall is a senior associate at one of the most prestigious law firms in Chicago. After slaving away, billing thousands of hours over eight years as a litigator, Payton is finally up for her hard-earned partnership – but there’s a catch. Because of a recent suit aimed at law firms for discrimination against their older partners (forcing them out of jobs to make cap room for younger associates), the firm has decided that it can only justify making ONE litigator a partner. For Payton, this means she has just come into direct, head-to-head competition with J.D. Jameson – a gorgeous, infuriating, silver spoon-in-his-mouth, bentley-driving, super-republican, old-money, squash-playing type. As J.D. is a workhorse (just like Payton), has never lost a case (just like Payton), and is one of the best attourneys in the nation (just like Payton), the competition becomes intense. When both J.D. and Payton are assigned on the same big-time anti-discrimination case, the two are thrown into close quarters, only intensifying the tension between them. After witty banter, intentional and unintentional stunts, and a whole lot of unresolved sexual tension, you can guess what happens next.

As I mentioned earlier, I was a little nervous going into Practice Makes Perfect – but from the first page of this delightful book, I found myself immersed and entertained. Ms. James’ novel is romantic comedy at its finest, featuring the always entertaining “enemies” falling in love storyline. Yes, there is a degree of safety and predictability in terms of plot, but when the banter is this much fun, it’s easy to put cynicism aside and allow yourself to get caught up in the happy-ever-after magic. If the plotting is somewhat straightforward and the characters cliched (the feminist/idealist female from the public school system versus the old money/legal legacy Ivy Leaguer male), the relationship that sparks between them is genuine and – did I mention? – oh so fun. The greatest strength of the novel lies in this spark between J.D. and Payton, and Ms. James shines with her quick, sharp dialogue – the witty repartee, if you will, between her two main characters. As top litigators, Payton and J.D. exchange some pretty good verbal barbs and engage in a number of entertaining power struggles. For example, my favorite scene would have to be in the law library, shortly after both discover that only one of them will get the partner gig. Observe:

“Are you saying that I don’t deserve this?” he demanded. “I’ve billed over twenty-nine hundred hours for the past eight years!”

Payton whipped around. “So have I! And the only difference between you and me is that statistics say you’re more likely to keep it up. The firm doesn’t worry that one day you’ll decide you want to leave at five to kiss your kids good night.”

J.D. stepped closer to her. Then closer again, literally trapping her against the bookshelves.

“Spare me the feminist rant, Payton. It’s getting a little tired. I’ve had to work my ass off to get where I am, while you had your ticket written form the minute you stepped into this firm.”

Payton felt her face flush with anger. “Really? Well, you know what I think, J.D.?” She jabbed his chest with one of her fingers. “I think that you are an uptight, pony-owning, trickle-down-economics-loving, Scotch-on-the-rocks-drinking, my-wife-better-take-my-last-name sexist jerk!”

J.D. grabbed her hand and pulled it away. “Well, at least I’m not a stubborn, button-pushing, Prius-driving, chip-on-your-shoulder-holding, ’stay-at-home-mom’-is-the-eighth-dirty-word-thinking feminist!”

Witty, intense, and fun stuff. The ‘I-hate-you-but-I-like-you-but-you-make-me-so-ANGRY’ dynamic charges every scene between these two characters, and it’s delightful. Additionally, Payton and J.D.’s thoughts are revealed throughout the novel to the reader, and there are many scenes involving their inner dialogues – in which they refuse to admit, even to themselves, that they are falling in love with the competition. And all of these scenes are delectable good fun.

Furthermore, there’s a decided lack of mush in this book, which was an immense relief. The number one turnoff to romance novels for me is the uncomfortable level of mushiness. Well, that and the gratuitous, embarrassing, play-by-play sex scenes. Thankfully, neither of these are present in Practice Makes Perfect. There’s a healthy dose of sexual tension, attraction, and build-up – and when the sex does happen (which, inevitably, it does), it’s tasteful and non-cringe inducing. Ms. James balances romance with realism, which makes the novel even more effective.

Speaking of realism, it’s also worth mentioning that Ms. James captures the life of an associate in the legal profession in a completely convincing manner – and considering she is a former attorney and alumnus of the University of Illinois School of Law (as is her protagonist Payton), it’s no surprise that she writes with such authority.

In short, Practice Makes Perfect is a sweet, traditional rom-com, and one that will undoubtably have readers grinning as the pages fly by. I highly enjoyed it, and certainly recommend it to romance readers, and reluctant romance readers alike.

Notable Quotes/Parts: You can read an official excerpt from Chapter 2 online at Julie James’ website, HERE.

Additional Thoughts: Ana LOVED this book, and we’ve had author Julie James over for a number of guest posts. Check out her post about her Inspirations & Influences for Practice Makes Perfect, or her Smugglivus Guest Post for more information!

Verdict: Fun, witty, escapist entertainment at its best. I definitely enjoyed Practice Makes Perfect, against my own biases and prejudices! Julie James is a romance author that, to this reluctant romance reader, has just made the publication watch list.

Rating: 7 – Very Good

Reading Next: Moonseed by Stephen Baxter

Welcome to Smugglivus 2009 – Day 7!

Throughout this month, we will have daily guests – authors and bloggers alike – looking back at their favorite reads of 2009, and looking forward to events and upcoming books in 2010.

Today’s Guest: Julie James, author of the most awesome Contemporary Romance novels. Her books are love letters to old screwball comedies full of strong female characters and great, witty repartee. Her first book was Just The Sexiest Man Alive, reviewed by Ana.

Recent Work: Practice Makes Perfect, reviewed here. You can read the author’s article about the inspiration and influences behind writing the book, here.

Dear all, Julie James:

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Relatively speaking, I’m a newcomer to romance.

As I’ve mentioned before, I began reading romantic fiction when Berkley bought my first book and my editor told me that I had, in fact, written a romance. (With a writing background in screenplays, I’d described Just the Sexiest Man Alive as a “romantic comedy.”) So for the past two years, I’ve been doing a lot of catch up. What a pleasure it has been to have found my way to this wonderful genre.

So as I sit back now and think about the books I’ve read this year, I realize that picking my favorites is nearly an impossible task. 2009 was a great reading year for me, and I know that as soon as this blog posts, I’ll remember a book—or several—that I forgot to mention. But here are a few that really stood out to me:

Angels’ Blood by Nalini Singh: Newbie that I am to romance in general, I’m even more of a newbie to paranormal romance. But this book instantly turned me into a Nalini Singh fan. The world-building. The details. Just the descriptions of the angels’ wings alone are incredible. The hero. (Oh yeah, he’s an archangel.) And the climax. . . so visual and breathtaking, I think I was reading with my jaw on the floor. The next book in the series, Archangel’s Kiss, comes out in February and I can’t wait.

Fragile by Shiloh Walker: Dark, intense, and utterly compelling. Shiloh took the heroine and hero on one heck of an emotional roller coaster in this book, and I was right there with them. The hero’s twin brother’s book, Broken, comes out this March and—confession time—I’ve read it and think it’s just as gripping and suspenseful as Fragile. And it features a brooding, angst-y hero who definitely deserves a HEA.

Daring Time by Beth Kery: I’m such a fan of Beth Kery’s writing. Wicked Burn was the first erotic romance I read, and I was sold on Beth’s books after that. What I enjoy so much is that the stories, while sizzling hot, are incredibly romantic. The hero in Daring Time travels through time to save the heroine—what could be more devoted than that? Framing the story is a richly detailed setting—turn of the century Chicago—that made the book enjoyable on every level for me.

Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase: I know, I know, what hole have I been in that I just read this in 2009? I thought this book couldn’t possibly live up to all the hype. It did. The scene—and I’ll be vague here for the last two people in Romanceland who haven’t read it—with Jessica and the gun? Priceless.

Beyond the Night by Joss Ware: Okay, so I’m cheating a little with this one, since it doesn’t come out until January 2010. But a little birdie slipped me an early copy of this book and I can’t help but include it in my favorite reads of the year. The world-building is, in a word, incredible. Post-apocalyptic romance with zombies and a Heroes-like twist. Ha—if I had a dime every time I read that. I stayed up late to finish the book because I simply couldn’t put it down. For something off the beaten path, yet still romantic, this is a series worth checking out.

In addition to the above, there are two non-romance books that have to be included in my favorite reads of 2009. First, The Help by Kathryn Stockett—a poignant, sometimes bittersweet, but ultimately rewarding and uplifting story about three women from different walks of life who find unexpected strength in each other, and more important, in themselves. This is one of those books you want to tell all your friends about after finishing it.

Second, Labor Day by Joyce Maynard. Frankly, I wasn’t expecting much from this book. I got it for free at the RWA conference and picked it up on whim over Labor Day weekend. How glad I am that I did. It’s a quick read about love and adolescence and the human need to connect with others and, in the end, is sweetly romantic. This book is probably the one that surprised me most this year because it turned out to be so much more than I expected.

Which leads me to my question. . . of the books you read this year, which one surprised you most? (Hopefully one that surprised you in a good way.) In the spirit of Smugglivus, I’ll give away signed copies of both Practice Makes Perfect and Just the Sexiest Man Alive to one random commenter.

Happy reading!

Julie’s next book, Something About You, will be released by Berkley on March 2, 2010. To read an excerpt, visit Julie’s Website.

Thanks Julie!!

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Giveaway details:

Go forth and comment! The contest is open to EVERYONE and will run until Saturday, December 12 at 11:59pm (PST). To enter, simply leave a comment here. ONE entry per person, please! Duplicate and/or multiple entries will be disqualified. Good Luck!