So…I didn’t do any actual (fiction) writing this week. The story I was working on, well, I still have no idea where that is going, so working on that is accomplishing nothing. Meanwhile, my re-telling of Camelot has been niggling at the back of my mind.
It’s been over two years since I came up with that idea for the capstone class for my undergraduate degree, but I kept thinking about it over the past month or so, and when I realized how dissatisfied I was with my current project, well, the switch seemed natural.
So, this week I pulled everything I had on the Camelot story and read through it. Some of my ideas came back to me. I did character sketches of the main five characters and outlined the first five scenes. I also came up with a working version of the Sentence—Holly Lisle’s one-sentence story outline technique—to keep me on-track. I’ll start actually writing this week.
In 1942 Singapore, the world is at war, but it becomes personal when soldiers ransack a village and murder everyone, leaving only two survivors. In a nearby village, girls are taken captive and forced to become “comfort women”—prostitutes—earning them the shame and disdain of their families—if they are fortunate enough to survive and escape. Wang Di was one of these women, and after sixty years of silence, she is finally ready to talk about the horrors she experienced.
In the year 2000, twelve-year-old Kevin is going blind, so he records everything he hears. Including the dying confession of his beloved grandmother…who isn’t really his grandmother at all. Kevin knows this secret is bigger than he is, but he’s determined to find out the truth—and share it.
How We Disappeared isn’t an easy book to read. It’s full of the sometimes-horrific experiences of these characters, but there are glimpses of hope as well. The settings are realistic—good and bad—and, though the book gets off to a slow start, it is well-worth reading.
Jing-Jing Lee is an author and a poet. How We Disappeared is her debut novel.
(Galley courtesy of Harlequin/Hanover Square Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)
In 1936 Kentucky, Cussy Mary Carter is the last living woman of the Blue People. With her blue skin, she’s taunted and ridiculed and treated as inferior, but Cussy Mary is a proud member of the Kentucky Pack Horse library service. This job is her way out, an escape from needing to marry in order to survive.
For Cussy Mary, delivering books to the backwoods people on her route is more than a job. For people who rarely see a newspaper—and who are unlikely to be able to read one if they did see it—the Book Woman is a Godsend, a deliverer of outside news, and a glimmer of hope in the darkness of the woods amidst prejudice and poverty so devastating it destroys entire families. Cussy Mary is determined to continue delivering hope to those around her—along with books.
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is an incredible read! Yes, the blue-skinned people in Kentucky were real—they had methemoglobinemia, which caused a decrease in oxygenation of their skin. The prejudice and abuse Cussy Mary experiences in this book is heartbreaking, but so is the poverty that surrounds her. This book is vivid and lovely, with every page engraved with the strength of Cussy Mary—and her courage.
Kim Michele Richardson lives and writes in Kentucky. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is her newest novel.
(Galley courtesy of Sourcebooks Landmark via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)
With Russia in revolution, the Romanov family are held as hostages by the Bolsheviks. For Nastya—Princess Anastasia—this new world is bewildering and frustrating. Her loving family is intact and together, but they are constantly guarded by soldiers. They are barely allowed to go outside. They are constantly under watch. She doesn’t understand why the world is so bloody and dangerous, she just knows it is.
There is an element of truth in what the people say about the Romanovs, but Nastya is not a spellcaster. If she was, she could heal her brother’s hemophilia and her mother’s illness. She could stop herself from falling in love and mend her sister’s broken heart. And she could keep her family from being executed.
But this isn’t the lies spoken about her family by the Bolsheviks. This is her life. And the truth is far stranger than the history books say.
I’ve probably seen the Disney movie Anastasia at some point, but I don’t remember it, and I’ve certainly read bits and pieces about the Romanovs, none of which I remembered before picking this book up. I had no problems understanding what was going on or starting the story after the Romanovs are taken hostage. The love in this family is remarkable and portrayed so well. All the characters are well-done, but Nastya herself is both struggling and strong, and her determination to help her family is something to behold. I enjoyed this read immensely.
Nadine Brandes is the author of the Out of Time series. Romanov is her newest novel.
(Galley courtesy of Thomas Nelson via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)
Daniel Green is a member of a secret organization. He travels the country making crop circles. He loves making art in secret, art that leaves people talking and wondering what if. Daniel is no stranger to being alone, but when a Vermont farmer’s dying wish brings him to a small farming town, Daniel finds himself involved in much more than making crop circles, as the lives of the farmer’s family erupt in struggles.
I know basically nothing about crop circles. Is this secret organization who makes them at people’s covert request based on the truth? No idea. But it’s a very cool concept, so I bought into it for this novel. The setting was so well-done that I could see this small farming town—unsettling, considering towns that small make me want to break out into hives—and its residents clearly. I enjoyed this book very much!
Erica Boyce is a member of the Massachusetts bar and an editor. The Fifteen Wonders of Daniel Green is her debut novel.
(Galley courtesy of Sourcebooks Landmark via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)
Annika Rose prefers books and chess over people. She doesn’t understand people—and they don’t understand her. When she meets Jonathan, who’s new to the college and to chess club, she thinks he’ll be just like everyone else. But he’s not. He understands her. He wants to get to know her. And he loves her unconditionally.
Ten years later, Annika runs into Jonathan again. She wants to show him how much she’s changed, but Jonathan is wary after Annika broke his heart all those years ago—with no explanation. She wants to try again, but he isn’t sure he wants to risk his heart a second time.
This novel was an intriguing look inside the head of someone who thinks just a little differently, who sees the world in slightly different shades. Annika is a fascinating character, and her journey is compelling. I found myself rooting for her all the way.
Tracey Garvis Graves is a bestselling author. The Girl He Used to Know is her newest novel.
(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)
Today I am happy to be a part of the blog tour for Wicked Saints, by Emily A. Duncan, which hits stores today! I have a quick interview with the author, then a review of Wicked Saints, which you should definitely go read if you enjoy dark, atmospheric books with complex mythology and magic systems.
Emily A. Duncan
Author Interview
Q: Tell me a little bit about Wicked Saints.
A: Tired monastery girl who can talk to the gods! Anxious morally dubious blood mage boy! Exhausted traumatized prince! An assassination plan! A holy war! Eldritch gods! Lots and lots of blood!
Q: Where did your inspiration come for writing Wicked Saints?
A: Video games and metal music! Specifically, Skyrim in regards to the video games, but it was also fueled by my deep love for metal.
Q: What is your absolute favorite, read over-and-over again, book?
A: I mean, I’m very vocal about how much I love the Grisha trilogy, but to answer this slightly differently, the book I’ve reread the most is Til We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis.
Nadya is a cleric who can commune with all the gods—unheard of—living in a remote monastery. Kalyazin has been at war with Tranavia for a long time, but the war has never touched the monastery. Until it does, in the form of Tranavian soldiers led by Serefin, High Prince and blood mage. As her friends die around her, Nadya escapes into the wilderness.
She meets Malachiasz, a defector with dark secrets that Nadya isn’t sure she can trust. But Nadya’s powers may be the only thing standing in the way of destruction, so she heads to the seat of Tranavian power, desperate to find a way to stop it. Serefin, used to drinking and fighting, has been called home by his father, but Serefin finds the king in the midst of a horrifying scheme to gain immortality and ultimate power.
Nadya, Serefin, and Malachiasz will have to trust each other if they have any hope of stopping the coming darkness.
Wicked Saints is dark and atmospheric, with a creepy and cold setting reminiscent of Russia. The magic systems are dark and bloody, and there aren’t a lot of happy feelings in this book. I was fascinated from the first page, although I wouldn’t recommend reading it if you’re depressed at the time. Treachery, hatred, lies, deceit…all run through the pages of this novel like blood, until you can’t see what’s coming next.
Emily A. Duncan is a youth services librarian. Wicked Saints is her new novel, the first in the Something Dark and Holy series.
(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)
Martha Storm volunteers at the library. She does projects for anyone who needs help—laundry for a neighbor with a broken appliance, repairing a paper mache dragon head for the school, altering school uniforms for her nephew— and she’s so busy she doesn’t have time to wonder what happened to her life.
Until she receives a mysterious book filled with stories from her childhood, stories she wrote, and dedicated to her by her grandmother, Zelda, who died suddenly years before. In the book, Martha finds a clue that her grandmother may still be alive, and she’s determined to unravel the family secrets once and for all. And maybe, along the way, she’ll discover the truth about herself she’s kept hidden.
Martha experiences tremendous growth as a person in this book. Who she is and what she thinks she knows is completely upended, and she becomes someone new, like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis into the sun. I was enthralled by the mystery of Zelda and what happened in the Storm family all those years ago.
Phaedra Patrick is a bestselling author who lives in the U.K. The Library of Lost and Found is her newest novel.
(Galley courtesy of Park Row/Harlequin via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)
Jessie McBride moved back home to Glory Road ten years ago when her marriage failed. She lives with her 14-year-old daughter, Evan, and her aging mother, Gus, and they run a garden shop together. Jessie has given up on love and is content with her life, though she worries about her daughter, who’s about to enter high school, and her mother, who’s starting to forget things.
Then two men arrive on Glory Road: handsome Sumner Tate who asks her to do the flowers for his daughter’s wedding, and Ben Bradley, her best friend from high school who she never quite voiced her feelings for. Jessie loves the attention that Sumner gives her, but Ben is safety and security. Between her daughter, who’s interested in the new boy down the road, her mother’s health, and these two men, Jessie’s quiet life is in shambles.
This is the second Lauren K. Denton book I’ve read, and I have to say two things first off: her cover artist is amazing, and I love her writing. I do love Southern fiction as a whole (once I realized it was a thing), but she does it so well, making the setting live and breathe. Her characters are strong and struggling, imperfect and impossible not to love, and her writing is beautiful. Go read this.
Lauren K. Denton was born and raised in Alabama. Glory Road is her newest novel.
(Galley courtesy of Thomas Nelson via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)
Abigail is just a girl when the Babylonians destroy Jerusalem—and the temple. Abigail is taken captive and finds herself serving four Hebrew boys destined to become powerful princes in Babylon, including the kind and caring Daniel. Abigail falls in love with Daniel, but the king’s machinations keep them apart, and soon Abigail finds herself lost in another city, with nowhere to turn.
Seventy years later, Daniel and Abigail have been married for years and have children and grandchildren when Daniel is once again called to serve the new king. Abigail’s family is full of anger and malice, but she’s kept secrets about her early years, secrets that might tear Daniel from her for good, and secrets that might have a chance of mending the rift in her family. But she will have to overcome her fear with faith if she’s ever to know true fulfillment.
Of Fire and Lions is a richly imagined tale that brings Biblical stories to life. Daniel and the lions’ dent. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the fiery furnace. The exile of the Hebrews. These things come to mesmerizing life on the page. And Abigail—Belili—and Daniel come to life as well: their struggles, their trials, and their faith drawing the reader in. This is an exceptionally detailed and vivid re-telling of some familiar Bible tales, but with so much life added to the story.
Mesu Andrews writes biblical fiction. Of Fire and Lions is her newest novel.
(Galley courtesy of WaterBrook via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)
Tomorrow Is Another Day 