Review: Model Spy

Kelly James, child genius, finds herself in hot water after a boy in college asks her to hack into a government computers system. She's brought in for questioning and given a choice. She can go to juvie or she can become a part of a government program called the Specialists.

She decides there's nothing waiting for her; she has no friends and her parents are dead. she travels with TL to her new home, a ranch for boys and girls. It's a cover for the real program.

Kelly's brought in, where she becomes a part of a new team. One of the boys gives her the name Genius Girl, GiGi for short. Each team member has his or her own specialty. They're expected to go to school, GiGi to college and the rest to high school. They're expected to train physically. Plus they're expected to go on missions as needed.

Not too long into her training, GiGi's given a mission. She needs to blend in as a model, while using her computer skills. Her partner in crime is the boy who got her in the mess in the first place. 

My Thoughts: A smashing start to series full of spies, romance, and smart girls. I love GiGi - how she's smart, how she thinks in computer code to calm down, how she loves lollipops, how she mixes up words when she talks, her determination and her strength. I love her team, can't wait to read more about them. The series is funny, sexy, and thrilling. I love the action, the danger, and the scenes between David and GiGi.

Cover Thoughts: Really like it
Source: My Library
READ poster: I created this poster about the Specialists series and Shannon Greenland.

Meeting Sarah MacLean (again)

Last Tuesday I had an unexpected free evening, which magically just happen to coincide with the release of A Rogue By Any Other Name.  Isn't the cover beautiful????

 

This is the start of a new quartet.  I can't wait to dive into it. I've only held off reading it because I know I'm going to need to devout an entire day to it.

I first read Sarah's book The Season - her first novel, a YA historical romance. I LOVED it. I had the chance to meet her that year at BEA.

Then she came out with her adult regency romance trilogy, which I loved. She also started me reading regency romances.

So imagine my happiness at being able to meet her again last week.

Plus she gave me a big hug when she saw me.  

Details from the signing from notes I took on my phone.

* Jane Austen is the gateway author to romances

* Georgette Heyer wrote the romances that the world believes as fact, but it's not all true. She however, is still the master.

* Characters intertwined from various books

*Wanted the casino to be more like a character and not a setting. The casino - historically called gaming hells - is still surprising her with it's dark secret passage ways and other aspects.

*Swore she would never writhe a "marriage of convenience novel" but she did because it's the only way the story would have worked with Bourne.

*Bourne named from Jason Bourne (who doesn't love him?) Otherwise when she's in need of a name, she'll look at the streets of London. Sometimes she honors family friends by taking their last names too.


*The second book in the series will be out in December! And it's entitled: One Good Earl Deserves A Lover.

*She wrote The Season on a dare. She will also be returning to YA (after the quartet is complete) but it won't be a sequel to the Season. I can't wait to read more YA books from Sarah.

In all actuality I can't wait to read more books from her full stop.

Sarah and I

Review: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Two teens alone at Christmas in New York City - discover a new world.

Lily's parents went on vacation without her at her favorite time of year. Her grandfather left for Florida. Her brother's supposed to be watching her. He's in love. So in order to get her out of her shell, he writes down a set of instructions for a boy in a notebook and leaves the notebook in The Strand.

Dash finds the notebook and unravels the clues. Instead of playing along, he adds a dare to the notebook.

Lily sees the notebook for the first time and responds.

Chaos ensues. Dares are followed. Inner most thoughts reveal. Dash and Lily come to understand each other - on paper. Should they ever meet and see if they mesh in real life?

My Thoughts: I loved this book. What a great romance, but it's much more than a romance. Which is why for me, it wasn't a quick read. There was so much depth to the novel - the exchange of revealing thoughts, the pop-culture references, the book references, the obscure references that I probably didn't understand. I loved the dares: especially the one involving Santa Claus. I loved the exchange of the notebook. I loved the idea of Jane Austen thumb-wresting. I loved how the first meeting was terrible and the second meetings was hilarious. I laughed, I sighed with happiness, and I wanted my own Dash.

Cover Thoughts: Adorable! I love the heart-shaped snowflakes and the street signs.

Source: My Library

Fun Fact: I met the authors last week at R.J. Julia's. They were charming and hilarious. I cried from laughing several times. They were sweet enough to pose for a READ poster for me. Here's the creation:

Matt de la Pena was also there. He also posed for me - check out his poster.


Challenge: Holiday Reading Challenge

Review: Anna and the French Kiss

Anna doesn't want to go to school in Paris. She doesn't want to leave her BFF or her potential boyfriend. Her father's making her spend her senior year at an American high school in France.

Her first night there, she's crying her eyes out at her situation when the girl next door invites her over for hot chocolate. Meredith introduces her to her friends and takes Anna under her wing. There's Josh, Rashmi, and St. Claire.

St. Claire's English accent makes Anna want to swoon, not to mention his dreamy good looks. Half the girls in the school are in love with him. Anna's determined not to fall under his spell, but the more they hang out, the more she feels drawn to him.

He's seriously off limits as he has a girlfriend. That doesn't stop her from being friends. Soon, he's her best friend - they go to the cinema together and explore other parts of Paris. It isn't long before Anna's questioning everything he says for double meanings. Paris is the city of love after all, could she find love with her best friend?

My Thoughts: I've been hearing about this book for MONTHS and everyone raved about it. I ran out and bought it and devoured it. It didn't disappoint - it's romantic, dreamy, full of tension, and almost perfect. I wouldn't have minded more scenes exploring Paris. I loved Anna. She was smart, had great dreams, and found herself in Paris. I liked how she analyzed everything. I loved St. Claire - he's dreamy and funny. I loved how he and Anna really understood each other and how they goofed around so much. What a smashing debut novel!!!!! I can't wait for Lola and the Boy Next Door

Cover Thoughts: PERFECT!

Source: Bought

Fun Fact: Stephanie tweeted a picture of her with the book that I thought would make the perfect READ poster, so I stole it :)

Chatting with Jennifer Solow

Jennifer Solow, author of The Aristobrats, graciously
is chatting with us today. She's holding her first book (Adult) The Booster in her new READ poster!

Welcome Jennifer!

What made you choose to write YA after The Booster? My daughter, Tallulah, is now in sixth grade and my son, Griffin, is in eighth. I wanted to write something that they could engage in and be proud of.

Great idea!

Where do you write best? I usually try to switch locations. I have a home office, an outside office, a favorite Starbucks, and my local library. I love working at the library the most. When I’m stuck, I switch locations. When I’m really stuck, I go shopping.

How do you get your ideas? Do you use real events in your novels and if so, can you describe one? I have this one scene I’m working on in Aristobrats II that’s from my school days. My agent will tell you – I’ve been trying to work this scene into nearly everything. Now it’s finally a natural fit.

When I was in eighth grade, my best friend, Sharon, and I came to school one morning on a super-snowy day. She’d just been in a fight with her “boyfriend” (whatever “boyfriend” meant then…I can’t recall). Our school had a wall of windows in the library that looked out onto a beautiful field. That morning it was covered in fresh white snow. EXCEPT Sharon’s boyfriend (who I guess was torturously angry with her over something) had spent many wee hours that morning meticulously stomping out “Sharon R is a lezzy!!” in twelve feet tall letters in the snow. It was impossible to miss.

I remember standing at those library windows with Sharon (and the rest of the school) gasping for air. Even then I understood it was at once humiliating, pathetic, hysterical, romantic, adolescent and dramatic. I think I knew one day I would write about it.

How did you come up with your title? I have absolutely no idea. After I came up with a slew of boring titles (The Inner Circle, for example, and Teen Tube. Zzzzz!), The Aristobrats just came to me. It was one of those “Aha!” moments. Unquestionably it.

Can you tell us a little bit about The Aristobrats? I was a little tired of the popular-mean-girl cliché in books and movies. I think popularity is a powerful force and not ever popular girl sets out to destroy the world with her shiny blonde hair and Hermes scarves. (Do eighth graders even wear Hermes scarves?)

So I wanted to write a kind of anti-Clique. Popular girls, yes, but undyingly loyal friends, incredibly plucky and...hello!?...nice. Yes, there’s a story (Facebook, webcasts, cute boys, billionaires, strange teachers, big houses, great style, a life in the balance), but mostly the story is about these girls, their friendship, and a year they’ll never forget.

Sounds great! I'm looking forward to reading it, I've heard awesome things about it.

How many books will there be in the series? I guess that depends on the readers. I’m writing Aristobrats II now and have lots of plans in store for them (Parker and James, for instance. Kiki and...well, you’ll just have to keep reading.) If you like the books please let me know. Better yet, let your friends know! Then…I’d say they’ll be about a dozen of them!

Were you a popular girl in school? Popularity seemed to be in direct correlation with whatever haircut I had at the time. So if I can share any advice about how to be popular it would be this: leave your hair shoulder length or longer, never go through a “Debbie Harry” phase, actually find out if your hair is already curly before you get a perm, and do not spend hundreds of dollars on that shiny-hair-goo (psst – it doesn’t work.)

Do you have a mean girl story? Enough of those floating around. Been there. Done that.

What will you did you do on your release day? I went to Posh Salon where I celebrated the day with partial highlights with Lori, haircut with Jamie, and a Brazilian Blow-out. I was truly excited to spend the day in the capable hands of beauty professionals. (And, yes, the hair/popularity correlation thing is still an issue.)

Bloggers have certain privileges, one being allowed to see TOP SECRET pages. Something that caught my eye on your secret page was a list of made-up words. So I have to ask, what’s your favorite made-up word?

Great question. Here are a few personal favs:

Twittervention An orchestrated confrontation at La Coppa Coffee (without lattes or cranberry scones) to forcibly disarm Twitter account and get person to admit they need professional help or, at the very least, a fresh mani-pedi.

“I yove you” “I love you” while wearing super glossy lipstick.

way An exclamation of moreness. Can be preceded by so, an exclamation of more more-ness; e.g., Wally 1: Those new jeans are way great. Wally 2: So way great.

Stalkbooking When a person spends an unhealthy amount of time stalking another person’s Facebook profile instead of actually getting a life.

What was the last book you’ve read that you’ve been recommending to everyone? I’m a sucker for all things Gallagher but everyone’s getting sick of me re-reading I’d Tell You I Loved You every summer at the beach. I also have a serious cookbook addiction – my latest craze is Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Also props to my buddy, Precious Williams, and her memoir Color Blind. Her original manuscript was called Precious but then somebody stole her name for an Academy Award winning movie.

Are there any authors you’d love to meet? Truman Capote, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Katherine Dunn, and Jane Green, who I’ve been email buddies with for years but have yet to meet in person.

Do you have a favorite literary quote? Here are a few that have stood the test of time for me:

“Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care. Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air. Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack. Then the Lorax and all of his friends may come back.” Dr. Suess

“We knew that bees dreamed of roses, that roses dreamed of the pale hands of florists, and that spiders dreamed of luna moths adhered to silver webs. As her children, we were the trustees of her dazzling evensongs of the imagination, but we did not know that mothers dreamed.” Pat Conroy

“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12 – Jesus, did you?” Stephen King

Listing if your favorites:

Candy: anything that combines peanut butter and chocolate

Pizza topping: tomato sauce made from the tomatoes in my garden

Genre of books: Grabs me in three pages. (Is that technically a genre?)

Singer and/or Song: Why, Madonna, of course.

Restaurant: Sushi Yasuda, NYC; Caviar Kaspia, Paris; Swan’s Oyster Bar, San Francisco

TV show /Movie: movie: Lost in Translation. TV: I gave up television after 9/11.

Color: Blue-black

Shoe: Christian Laboutin, Capezio Nicolini Pointe shoes

Video Game: I’m so not a video game person.

Perfume: Le Parfum de Therese by Edmond Roudnitska.

Anything I didn’t ask? Yes, but it’s late and Griffin has taken this opportunity to spend way too much time Facebooking so I have to go now and crack the Mommy whip.

Read Chapter One!

Author Visit: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

We had the extraordinarily good fortune to snag Jennifer for an event at the library.

Here's the room set up:

There's a dessert table



There's a readalike table where people could check out books from our collection



There's a book buying table



And finally there was Jennifer

A little blurry and then before the room filled up.

*************
She talked about her writing process

How long it takes her to write a book: her first couple of books took a few short weeks while her last book look almost a year to write. She also revises each day before she writes.

Her rejections and how to get over rejections: best tip: as soon as you start query letters for one project, immediately start another project so when the rejections letters come - and they will - it won't hurt as bad because it's not the project you're working on right now.

How Raised by Wolves found the official cover - after many drafts with tons of photos, fonts, and colors

Books:
She recently LOVED
Mistwood
Unwritten Word

She adores:
adult urban fantasy

The first supernatural book she read: Matilda

Old favorites from Childhood:
Anne of Green Gables series
Tamora Pierce


Here's a READ poster I made of her with her favorite Spy novels

Author Visit: Marley Gibson

Marley Gibson came to Otis Library on Monday.

Here's a photo of us together:

Ten Fun Things about Marley
10. She wrote two books under the name Kate Harmon
9. She's a BUZZ girl
8. She used to make up stories about her 300 stuffed animals - proms, weddings, beauty pageants and she made up a newspaper with these stories, plus photos articles, and gossip
7. She started ghost hunting in her teens and she's seen things that she can't explain
6. She's going to do a ghost hunt at a library in Key West
5. She's really funny: "They're going to eat that up like chocolate cake" (speaking of the Heather Davis book The Clearing)
4. She and her sweetie are traveling around the country in their RV with their books and goodies (including awesome, but gross skull brains)
3. There could be SIX books in the Ghost Huntress series
2. which just might be made into a movie - it's been optioned!
1. Her books give me chills - but in a good way

Here's a READ poster:

Morning with an Author: Sarah Strohmeyer

This year, after our annual library fundraiser, we had a Morning with an Author at the library with awesome author Sarah Strohmeyer.

Here we are together:


10 fun facts:

10. She's super sweet.
9. She lives in Vermont
8. She used to be a reporter
7. She tells amazing stories both in life and in her books
6. She just turned in manuscript- about martinis
5. Which meant, she had to try a bunch of them
4. She's very entertaining - we laughed a LOT
3. She puts stories people tell her in her books
2. She has a very funny story about a Hollywood meeting
1. She's going to be writing a YA novel!

Here she is with some library staff:

Here's a READ poster:
Here's a book trailer I made for the event featuring The Penny Pinchers Club

PS. You can also read about her visit at Papermom