May Books and Backspace Teasers!

June is here, darlings, and the heat is ON! :)

May was a great month for books!

5/11/11 - Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks
I'm a YA girl. That's not a huge surprise, I know. And I usually gravitate toward the supernatural, but a friend at work loaned me Safe Haven. An emotionally damaged woman runs from her abusive husband and falls for a good man in a tiny, North Carolina Town. But her livid husband is on his way. I enjoyed this book once the husband/villain entered the story. Now, I'm not opposed to a romance. I'll swoon as quickly as the next gal, but the yummy conflict of Unconcerned Love versus He's Coming (with Jaws music) kept me reading. A sweet book with a happy ending for the good guys. hehe. See how I qualified that statement? Yeah.

5/15/11 - Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
The movie previews snagged me with their adorable main character and clean-cut love interest. I did feel there was something, I don't know, more to the story, though, so I bought the book. There was more! And, oddly enough, less. Rachel and Darcy (aka. Doormat and On-A-Pedestal) are life-long best friends. Then on Doormat's thirtieth birthday, she sleeps with Dex, On-A-Pedestal's fiance. Normally, I wouldn't root for the cheaters, but Darcy isn't what my mother would call a 'nice girl.' It's a good read as you wait for Rachel and Dex to get caught or for Darcy to acknowledge her flaws, but I doubt I'll pick up the sequel. I would certainly recommend the movie, though, if you need a no-thinking-required romantic comedy. :)

5/25/11 - Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris
The new Sookie!!!!! I can't say this was one of my favorites (I'm looking at you Eric-loses-his-memory-and-runs-naked-through-the-woods-YUM), but definitely not bad. The fae play a big role, Alcide makes an appearance, Mr. Sulky Intenserson (Bill) saunters back into Sookie's life, and there's hell-or-high-water drama with Eric. Charlaine Harris shows, once again, how well she makes her readers want to throw the book across the room. Then pick it back up and keep reading. :) And that, darlings, is how to tell a story!

5/25/11 - Gemini Bites by Patrick Ryan
That date's not a typo. Flights are great ways to fly (no pun intended) through books. It helps that Patrick Ryan wrote a fantastic story. Twins Kyle and Judy like to compete. Well, Judy just likes to win. So when Garret, a maybe vamp with a dark aura, a talent with charcoal drawings, and a sexy 'way' about him, comes to live with the twin's family, the game is on. I loved Kyle! An out sixteen-year-old not ashamed of his feelings and completely comfortable with his body, he wants to find love. The readers want him to find love. With Garret. AND we want to know if Garret's really a vampire. Read this book. It's so worth it!

5/29/11 - When the Stars Go Blue by Caridad Ferrer

Please go read this book. Seriously. The journey...amaaazing. This YA spin on Carmen is intense, sultry, beautiful, and I guarantee you won't want to put it down. Solidad Reyes loves to dance. It's her life, so she surprises even herself when she turns down an enormous opportunity to instead spend the summer performing with a competitive, all-male drum and bugle corps (don't scoff, just check one out). She falls for two, very different guys, and OH MAMA, you have to read it. Twists, turns, and conflictconflictconflict. It's delicious. I had the opportunity to meet the author at Backspace, and between her being incredibly nice, the gorgeousness of that cover, and the lure of the dance, I bought it almost immediately. No regrets!

Plans for June:

My new author-friend Laura, who is amazing and will land an agent very soon, I just know it, ordered me to read City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, so I sent it to my Kindle on Monday. I met A.S. King at the conferece, but her book was sold out by the time I gave the bookseller all my money I made it to the table. From King's descriptions, I need (not just want, need) to read Please Ignore Vera Dietz. I bought five other books though and have a couple on my Kindle AND there are tons in my office staring up at me with Puss in Boots eyes. 'I know!,' I tell them. So, any one of those can round out my three for June.

But my main goal is to dive back into my Kat Wake story. I learned from describing and pitching at Backspace that the uniqueness of my story doesn't lie in the bargain Kat makes with the afterlife's gatekeeper, but in the romance. Why didn't this hit me before? Because I was so bogged down in sharpening my query and relaying 'the message' that I couldn't see the conflict. Conflict is what makes me and you and that dude in the back turn the page. As a risk-averse human being (hello, accountant!), I'm programmed to avoid conflict, and no one would want to read about my boring life. That's why I/we/readers escape into fiction. For the mess, the conflict, the disaster. For the thrills and the roller coaster. We love it. I love it, and I want to make my story stand out, so that you can fall in love with it as much as I have.

I want to make you turn the page.

What are your big reading/writing/arithmetic (umm, yeah, forget that last one) plans for June? Start with When the Stars Go Blue. Seriously.

-Marie