Corrine Jackson's Blog, page 6

PUSHED Contest and Giveaway

I know, I know. This blog is dustier than my mother’s house after the Santa Ana winds have blown through. I shall not insult you with excuses. Instead I shall dazzle and blind you with so much contest goodness that you’ll forget that you’ve been to the Sahara. Here we go with the sparkly brilliance.

PUSHED (Sense Thieves #2) debuts on November 26. I love this book. I love the characters. I love the romance and the bromance. And I can promise you a ton of action, plus the book includes a sneak peek at IGNITED (Sense Thieves #3).

She did not know how far She’d go until she was pushed.

Remy O’Malley was just learning to harness her uncanny healing power When She discovered the other,

darker half of her bloodline. Now she lives trapped between two worlds, uneasy among her fellow

healers-and relentlessly hunted by the Protector.

Forced to conceal her dual identity, and the presence of her boyfriend Asher Protector Blackwell, Remy

encounters a shadow community of healers who wants to put her loyalties to the test.

Pushed to the limit, with the live performance Of Those she loves most on the line, Remy must decide Whether to

choose sides in a centuries-old war-or make the ultimate sacrifice and go to a place from Which she may

never return …

This is Book Two in the sense Thieves trilogy.

Publisher: Kensington / KTeen

Published: November 26, 2013

ISBN-10: 0758273347

ISBN-13: 978-0758273345

Buy the Book: 

Amazon  | Barnes & Noble |  Books-A-Million |  German Amazon

Add to Your Shelf: 

Goodreads

 

Are you excited to read this baby yet? Check out all of these awesome opportunities.

 

NetGalley ARC

Reviewers and bloggers can apply for a chance to read a digital advance review copy of PUSHED on NetGalley. More details here.

Read an Excerpt/Apple iBooks Sneak Peek

Kensington has posted an excerpt here. You can also check out a sneak peek via the Apple store here.

Goodreads Giveaway

Kensington is also giving away 10 copies on Goodreads now through October 31. Enter here.

Countdown Clock

Plus, here’s a lovely countdown clock just counting down the days until PUSHED is here. Just click on the Get Widget button below.

Get the Countdown Creator Pro widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget? (More info)

 

That’s a lot of awesome, right? But wait, there’s more! I want your help getting the word out about PUSHED, and I’m going to make it super easy. I’m giving away 5 copies of PUSHED, plus bookmarks to anyone who enters. US only (sorry International, folks!). Simply follow the directions in the Rafflecopter widget below to enter now through October 31. I cannot wait for you to read PUSHED!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Marketing Monday: 45 POUNDS (MORE OR LESS) Launch Ideas

THE BACKGROUND

45 POUNDS (MORE OR LESS) by K.A. Barson will be released on July 11, 2013. DISCLAIMER: The author has agreed to be featured in today’s Marketing Monday, and may or may not use any of the ideas below. Upon request, the author provided a few key images, quotes, and themes from the book as thought starters.

THE ASSIGNMENT

Offer up ideas and suggestions that the author could use to help create buzz for 45 POUNDS (MORE OR LESS) for the book’s launch. See the description on Goodreads.

THE METHOD

The best marketing ideas are tied closely to the audience and the product that you are trying to market, especially when it comes to a product launch. The marketing tactic should make you think of the product while appealing to the people you are trying to reach. This is the lens I use when developing a marketing plan for a book.

THE PLAN

From the description of 45 POUNDS (MORE OR LESS), I can tell that the book is going to have a lot of humor and heart. In the book, Ann is a size 17, and she’s determined to lose weight in order to fit into a bridesmaid dress for her aunt’s wedding.  Positive body image is a major theme, along with a desire to fit in. A lot of these ideas were born out of that.

Bridesmaid Dress Tumblr/Pinterest

Bridesmaid dresses are a key image in the novel. Most women and many teen girls have tales of ugly dresses they were called on to wear for a loved one. And most of these dresses have been recorded for posterity. The author has the opportunity to create a tumblr account that invites readers to submit photos of themselves wearing bridesmaid dresses, along with a quick caption. To get the Tumblr started, she could ask friends, family and fellow authors to help get things moving. She could expand it to include prom dresses without straying from her theme. The results – humorous – would fit with the tone of the book, and this is a nice way to sell the book by tying into its subject matter. The site should be reflective of the book’s cover. This would also work as a cross-post on Pinterest.

Launch Day Celebration

The author mentioned that the “Thriller” dance is featured in the book. She could ask friends, family members, and fellow authors to film themselves doing the dance. The sections could be edited together into one big celebration video to promote the book’s official launch. Here’s an example of a similar video.

Swag

The author mentioned a couple of great food items that she will give out as swag. These are great as they are relevant to the book, which means they will resonate with readers. The only downside of food (is there a downside?) is that it’s not an item that will linger around to remind people to buy your books. Another swag idea might be to order small pocket or compact mirrors imprinted with a positive message. For a tighter budget, she might consider stickers that have a positive message (ie. You are beautiful.). I designed a couple to give her ideas.

Costume

At book events, conventions, and store events, the authors dressed in costume tend to get a lot of attention. Several author friends dress in Victorian or steampunk garb and have mentioned that it makes for a great icebreaker and way to draw attention to their book at the event. If the author is comfortable, she might consider wearing a bridesmaid gown to her events (one that is obviously meant as a costume). It could make for a great conversation starter with teachers, librarians, and readers, plus she is showcasing the humor in the book.

Clothing Swap Book Events

Everybody has clothes they no longer wear and one woman’s tossaways are another’s new wardrobe. The author has the chance to draw in a bigger audience to her events by holding clothing swaps. Invite teens to bring in their clothes, jewelry and shoes for the chance to swap items with other girls. It’s a great opportunity to discuss body image and talk about 45 POUNDS (MORE OR LESS). TLC’s tips on hosting clothing swap parties.

Anonymous “Like You As You Are” Notes and Cards

The author could create templates of notes that teens could leave each other in their lockers or desks. Similar to notes that parents drop in their kids’ lunch boxes, these notes could be used to give your friend a boost when they need it most. Downloadable templates could be offered for teens to print out and use. Another option would be to create e-cards (think someecards) that could be shared online. (Note: this could end up being cheesy if it’s not done right. If the notes were written in the tone of the book, it could be really well done.)

“Dress the Dressing Room” Contest

Dressing rooms are another key image in the book. Who hasn’t gone in a dressing room and left feeling unhappy with their body? The author could create little feel-good notes to be “dropped” in dressing rooms. People could print out the notes (which include the title and author’s name), post them in a dressing room, and snap a shot of the note for a chance to win books or other prizes. This way the person seeing the note feels good, and the book is introduced to a new audience. This is definitely a guerrilla tactic, and a variation on “spot my book in the wild.”

MARKETING MONDAYS

I’ve worked in marketing for ten years, and prior to that, I was a graphic designer for eight years. The first Monday of each month I will discuss different marketing tactics for publishers and writers. Some weeks I will be preparing case studies of new releases and offering up launch solutions to help spark ideas for authors. If you are a debut young adult author and would like to be considered for a Marketing Monday case study, please use my contact form to let me know.

Have a question? Let me know in the comments!

IF I LIE and TOUCHED Library Giveaway

As a child, I used to spend two weeks at my grandmother’s house every summer. Most of the time was spent in her pool or baking chocolate chip cookies. My grandmother had a million candy molds, and we used to spend hours making colored chocolates in every shape and size. These are happy memories. But one summer when I was seven or eight, my grandmother asked if I would like to go to the library. I was a quiet, little thing who lived in my imagination, and I was fascinated by the idea of an entire building meant to hold books. So we grabbed a red wagon and walked our way there. With huge eyes, I stared at rows and rows of books. There were so many that I wanted to read, and narrowing my choices down to one or two saddened me.

“We really get to take them home?” I asked my grandmother.

She nodded. “We check them out, and you get to borrow them.”

“How many do I get to take, Grandma?”

“As many as you want.”

I get a little weepy thinking about that day when my grandmother opened up an entirely new world to me with that generous gesture. You better believe that I packed that red wagon full, and I spent the entire two weeks with my nose in book after book. That’s how my grand affair with libraries began.

And now my books sit on the shelves in those hallowed halls, waiting for a reader like me to find them.

To give a little something back, I’m hosting a library giveaway of 5 prize packages. Each package contains a signed copy of IF I LIE and TOUCHED, plus bookmarks. US middle grade, high school, and public libraries are eligible to enter. Contest is open from 6/24/13 thru 7/12/13.

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Bookanista Review: AU REVOIR, CRAZY EUROPEAN CHICK

Here is the official blurb from Goodreads:

AU REVOIR, CRAZY EUROPEAN CHICK by Joe Schreiber

Ferris Bueller meets La Femme Nikita in this funny, action-packed young adult novel.

It’s prom night—and Perry just wants to stick to his own plan and finally play a much-anticipated gig with his band in the Big Apple. But when his mother makes him take Gobija Zaksauskas—their quiet, geeky Lithuanian exchange student—to the prom, he never expects that his ordinary high school guy life will soon turn on its head. Perry finds that Gobi is on a mission, and Perry has no other choice but to go along for a reckless ride through Manhattan’s concrete grid with a trained assassin in Dad’s red Jag.

Infused with capers, car chases, heists, hits, henchmen, and even a bear fight, this story mixes romance, comedy, and tragedy in a true teen coming-of-age adventure—and it’s not over until it’s “au revoir.”.

****

This book was a 2011 BEA Buzz book selection. My crit group did a book swap, and I beat out the others for this title.

Perry is a boy who is doing everything right. He studies hard, works hard, and has a job at his father’s company. His father has his life planned out, and Perry always does what his father tells him to, even when it’s the opposite of what he wants. Then he gets ordered by  to take Gobi, the exchange student living in his home, to the prom. She’s weird, awkward, rude, and not the most attractive girl. At the prom, Gobi reveals that she’s not exactly who she’s been pretending to be. That’s when the book really begins.

This book has wild pacing. It reads like an action flick with guns, blow ‘em ups, and wild car chases through New York City. Plus there’s some humor thrown in. Gobi is a little psychotic, but Perry is fascinated by her. We see him move from bewilderment to fear to attraction over the course of the book. And he goes from a mere observer to a more active participant as the mystery unfolds.

Despite Perry’s attraction to Gobi, she remains a fairly one-dimensional character in the book. The mystery of her isn’t fully resolved. Rather she is a secretive, awkward “other” who morphs into an avenging angel with a skill for weapons and subterfuge. The lack of characterization bothered me, but I can see where it would appeal to others. She is the hot female in the video game, the siren upon which Perry’s beliefs are wrecked. But she is merely a shadow. Even when Gobi’s back story is revealed, my opinion didn’t change. I think that may be a result of the hurried timeline of the book – the majority of the adventure happens on a single night. But in the end, the story’s conclusion didn’t work for me. With Gobi so undefined, I didn’t believe in Perry’s transforming feelings for her.

A great read for fans of action flicks, fast pacing, and a dose of humor.

Find it on Goodreads.

***

Shari Arnold marvels at THE MOON AND MORE by Saran Dessen

Christine Fonseca shivers over SHATTER ME by Tahereh Mafi

Carrie Harris and Elana Johnson reveal the cover of SALLY SLICK & THE STEEL SYNDICATE by Carrie Harris

Jessica Love joins the BY BLOOD by Tracy Banghart book blitz – with giveaway

Shannon Messenger  raves about JELLICOE ROAD by Melina Marchetta

Tracey Neithercott adores THE ARCHIVED by Victoria Schwab

Kimberly Sabatini is touched by OUT OF REACH by Carrie Arcos

Katy Upperman gushes over THE GIRL GUIDE by Christine Fonseca

June SCBWI Workshop: Social Media for Writers

Live in the Bay Area? I hope to see you at this SCBWI event! I’m excited to present on one of my favorite topics – Social Media!

THE DETAILS

DATE: Saturday, June 29,
TIME: 1:00pm
ADDRESS: Town Center Community Room, 770 Tamalpias Drive, Suite 201, Corte Madera, CA 94925

DESCRIPTION FROM SCBWI

Why should I engage in social media? What social media platforms are right for me? Where do I even begin to build up an online audience? How do Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs differ from each other and how can they be used in concert?

Many new authors are asking these questions, while published authors seek to expand their social media presence and leverage new tools. An online presence isn’t built overnight, but more publishers are seeking authors willing to engage with their audience in a digital space.

This presentation by YA Author and social media expert, Corrine Jackson, will break down the major tools of social media and how to begin to build your audience, even before you are published. Then we’ll discuss tools to use after you are published to leverage your presence and book visibility. You’ll learn about conducting a blog tour and what it means to your promotion efforts.

This program is for pre-published and published authors. This is an SCBWI meeting.

Registration

Bookanista Review: WHEN IT HAPPENS

Here is the official blurb from Goodreads:

WHEN IT HAPPENS by Susane Colasanti

At the start of her senior year in high school, Sara wants two things: to get into a top college and to find true love. Tobey also wants two things for his senior year: to win Battle of the Bands and to make Sara fall in love with him. However, a popular jock named Dave moves in on Sara first. But Tobey’s quirky wit and big blue eyes are hard for Sara to ignore. Plus, he gets the little things that matter to her. Can a slacker rock-star wannabe win the heart of a pretty class brain like Sara?

Hilariously and movingly told through Tobey and Sara’s authentic voices, Susane Colasanti’s debut novel sizzles in its portrayal of two young people searching for The One.

****

Voice, voice, voice. Susane Colasanti gets it, and this book is loaded with it. The story is told in alternating voices between Sara and Tobey. Sara is a smart girl. Tobey is the bad boy musician. You think you know the whole story based on that – good girl meets bad boy and they fall in love. You might be a little right.

And yet… My enjoyment of the story wasn’t lessened by a single iota. Tobey’s voice is so tremendously authentic. When he sat around talking to his guy friends, I felt like I was back home as a teenage girl listening to my brother and his friends. The tone was fantastic and the dialogue was even better. And Tobey isn’t just a bad boy. He’s actually a very sweet boy with a crush on a girl who hardly knows that he exists. I adored his attempts to get Sara’s attention, including a bargain with one of her friends. And Sara isn’t your typical smart girl. She struggles and doubts herself, and she felt like someone I knew.

The road to love is not a smooth one for Sara and Tobey. She likes another boy. Then when she finally notices Tobey, she finds out that he’s kept bits of his past from her. But when these two are falling or in love, the dialogue sparkles and the tension is nicely done.

There were a few sections that were slow (especially scenes repeated in both POVs). There were also times that I wished Sara would get a clue a little faster. She was fairly naive and slow to forgive in parts, and I was impatient to see this sweet couple together. In the end, though, I know this is a book that I will reread.

Find it on Goodreads.

***

Check out what the other Bookanistas are reviewing this week!

 

Carolina Valdez Miller celebrates 17 & GONE by Nova Ren Suma

Carrie Harris awakens you to INSOMNIA by Jenn Johansson…with giveaway

Christine Fonseca praises THE PLEDGE by Kimberly Derting

Elana Johson invites you to her ABANDON release par-tay!

Katy Upperman is bewitched by NANTUCKET BLUE by Leila Howland

Lenore Appelhans  swoons for STAR CURSED by Jessica Spotswood…with an annotated snippet

Stasia Ward Kehoe is wild for THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER by Stephen Chbosky

Tracey Neithercott  highlights WHERE THE STARS STILL SHINE by Trish Doller

Tracy Banghart  raves over JUMP WHEN READY by David Pandolfe

Learn about the Bookanistas at http://www.thebookanistas.com/

Tuesday Writing Tips: FILTERING WORDS

FILTERING: WHAT IS IT?

The filter is a common fault and often difficult to recognize–although once the principle is grasped, cutting away filters is an easy means to more vivid writing. As a fiction writer you will often be working through “some observing consciousness.” Yet when you step back and ask readers to observe the observer–to look at rather than through the character–you start to tell-not-show and rip us briefly out of the scene. (Source: Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway)

Filtering words are generally words that you add to a sentence when you are trying to describe something that your character is experiencing or thinking. These can be sense words like feel, taste, see, hear, and smell, or variations thereof. But they can also be words like think, seem, and remember.

Writers don’t necessarily have to avoid these words, but they should be aware of the effect that they have on your prose. Rather than describing a sensation outright, you are distancing your narrator (and reader) from the sense that you are describing.

EXAMPLES OF FILTERING

I heard a noise in the hallway.
She felt embarrassed when she tripped.
I saw a light bouncing through the trees.
I tasted the sour tang of raspberries bursting on my tongue.
He smelled his teammate’s BO wafting through the locker room.
She remembered dancing at his wedding.
I think people should be kinder to one another.

HOW CAN I APPLY THIS?

Read your work to see how many of these filtering words you might be leaning on. Microsoft Word has a great Find and Highlight feature that I love to use when I’m editing. See how you can get rid of these filtering words and take your sentences to the next level by making stronger word choices. Take the above examples, and see how they can be reworked.

FILTERING EXAMPLE: I heard a noise in the hallway.
DESCRIBE THE SOUND: Heels tapped a staccato rhythm in the hallway.


FILTERING EXAMPLE: She felt embarrassed after she tripped.
DESCRIBE WHAT THE FEELING LOOKS LIKE: Her cheeks flushed and her shoulders hunched after she tripped.


FILTERING EXAMPLE: I saw a light bouncing through the trees.
DESCRIBE THE SIGHT: A light bounced through the trees.


FILTERING EXAMPLE: I tasted the sour tang of raspberries bursting on my tongue.
DESCRIBE THE TASTE: The sour tang of raspberries burst on my tongue.


FILTERING EXAMPLE: He smelled his teammate’s BO wafting through the locker room.
DESCRIBE THE SMELL: His teammate’s BO wafted through the locker room.


FILTERING EXAMPLE: She remembered dancing at his wedding.
DESCRIBE THE MEMORY: She had danced at his wedding.


FILTERING EXAMPLE: I think people should be kinder to one another.
DESCRIBE THE THOUGHT: People should be kinder to one another.

See what a difference it makes when you get rid of the filter? It’s simply not necessary to use them. By ditching them, you avoid “telling,” your voice is more active, and your pacing is helped along.

The above list is not comprehensive as there are many examples of filtering words. The idea is to be aware of the concept so that you can recognize instances of it happening in your work. Be aware of where you want to place the energy and power in your sentences. Let your observations flow through your characters with immediacy.

WANT MORE TIPS?

Tuesday Writing Tips are a recurring feature on this blog. Every Tuesday I will be offering up a different editing or writing tip.

Have a topic you want to see here? Let me know in the comments!

Marketing Monday: CANARY Launch Ideas

THE BACKGROUND

CANARY by Rachele Alpine will be released in August 2013. DISCLAIMER: Rachele has agreed to be featured in today’s Marketing Monday, and she may or may not use any of the ideas below. Upon request, she provided a few key images, quotes, and themes from the book as thought starters.

THE ASSIGNMENT

Offer up ideas and suggestions that Rachele could use to help create buzz for CANARY leading up to the book’s launch. See the description on Goodreads.

THE METHOD

The best marketing ideas are tied closely to the audience and the product that you are trying to market, especially when it comes to a product launch. The marketing tactic should make you think of the product while appealing to the people you are trying to reach. This is the lens I use when developing a marketing plan for a book.

THE PLAN

Rachele shared some of the themes of CANARY, and this book sounds like one that libraries would adore. Bullying and slut shaming are just two of the issues that the novel will touch on, and librarians and teachers are looking for books they can use to generate discourse with teens. Issue books frequently find their champions through educators, and I would recommend that a good portion of Rachele’s marketing efforts be targeted toward them.

Outreach and Community Service

One of the reasons that authors often write an “issue” book is because a particular social issue has touched them in a genuine and deep way. Rachele’s book may be helping certain organizations get the word out about issues that they care about. These organizations are often looking for creative ways to advocate their causes, and there might be opportunities for them to work together. I would suggest reaching out to a few of these organizations with a brief synopsis of the book and information about the launch. Rachele could hand out pamphlets at her events or otherwise help spread the word about the organizations. She could use her social platforms to spread the word about their events. In exchange, the organizations may be able to spread the word about CANARY to their audience. Rachele mentioned that “speaking up no matter the cost” is an important theme in CANARY. There are several non-profit charities and organizations that promote teens finding their voices or girl empowerment (see here for a list), and they might be able to work together. Note: I only advocate this as a marketing tactic if the author and organization share a genuine desire to help the cause or issue that the book tackles. There has to be a symbiotic relationship here, and I would NEVER suggest “using” an organization where you did not share a common goal.

Library Contest

Libraries are forever short on funds and in desperate need of books. Rachele could run a contest for libraries, offering her book and swag packs as a prize. Another prize could be a Skype visit. To get more mileage from a contest like this, she could partner up with other debut authors or “issue” book authors to create a more appealing prize package. The hardest part about a contest like this is promoting it, though, so be aware that could be a challenge if you don’t have some librarian influencers in your sphere. More authors in the mix could help aid in getting the word out.

Library Outreach

If Rachele has the money, she might want to buy a mailing list of teen librarians. She could do a direct mail postcard to these librarians, promoting CANARY. If she’s working with a smaller budget, I would suggest sending a mailing to her local librarians at the very least. Rachele mentioned that she has extra ARCS. I would suggest putting an offer on the cards to indicate that the first “X” number of people who contact her will receive an ARC (or she will pick them from a random drawing). The cards could also be used to promote the above contest.

Teacher’s Guide

A teacher’s guide is a good idea for a book like this that could be used to generate discussion in a classroom. To make your guide more useful, it’s smart to align it with Common Core curriculum standards. If you don’t know what this is, try to find a high school English teacher who can help explain it to you. Or, if you are lucky like I was, hope that you have a friend with that expertise who you can bribe to do your guide. Here is the example of what I did for IF I LIE. Sites like www.teachingbooks.net compile these guides for teachers to find and use. Publishers also like to promote these guides on their sites.

Prepare Workshops

One way to promote your “issue” book is to be able to speak and educate people about the topics in your book. Rachele might prepare a couple of versions of a talk that she could give to classrooms, libraries, or at conferences, especially conferences targeted toward librarians (ALA) and English teachers (NCTE/ALAN Workshops). She may want to send panel proposals out to various conferences.  She could also build up cred by writing informative blog posts around her book’s subject matter.

Swag

Since a major theme of the book is about speaking out, I think a good swag item would be one that encourages and reinforces the theme. The main character in CANARY keeps a blog where she posts “TODAY’S TRUTH.” A notepad could be branded with the book cover and encourage teens to write their own truth.

A more unique item (that takes a little work) would be to buy rolls of chalkboard contact paper. This can be found in bulk rolls. Sheets could be cut into smaller squares (think a size that would fit on a locker door) and stenciled at the top with “TODAY’S TRUTH.” A sticker of the cover or the title and author’s name could be applied. Teens could stick these up in their rooms or lockers to give voice to the truth of what they are going through. The “chalkboards” would be easy to mail flat in envelopes, making them cheap to ship – a plus since swag can get very expensive. A larger, framed version of this might be a good prize for a library. They could post this in teen rooms.

Blog Tour

Since Rachele’s character keeps a blog in the novel where she explores “TODAY’S TRUTH,” Rachele might consider keeping a similar blog, or begin to post the “truth of the day” at the top of her regular posts. To expand this into a blog tour, she could invite author or blogger friends to write their “truths” on different days, or write about the “truths” they confronted as teens. A contest could be attached to this to give away ARCs.

Party Idea

The canary is a symbol in the book, and Twitter seems to be a natural tie-in. On her launch day, Rachele could ask people to tweet their teen “truths” using #canary.  She could have friends help her transfer these to signs to use at her party. If the library has technical capabilities, she might use a site like VisibleTweets.com to screen or project the tweets against a wall throughout the party. Teens and party attendees could tweet during the party and see their tweets pop up on the wall, giving an interactive feel to the party. This also ties back to the idea of speaking out, a theme in the novel.

MARKETING MONDAYS

I’ve worked in marketing for ten years, and prior to that, I was a graphic designer for eight years. The first Monday of each month I will discuss different marketing tactics for publishers and writers. Some weeks I will be preparing case studies of new releases and offering up launch solutions to help spark ideas for authors. If you are a debut young adult author and would be interested in my services, please use my contact form to let me know.

Have a question? Let me know in the comments!

The Bookanistas Relaunched!

Two years ago, the Bookanistas released a video celebrating the success of one of their members. The video was so joyful and supportive that I knew that I wanted to belong to the group, even if I had to shank someone with a spork to get in. Thankfully, the Bookanistas didn’t require any such thing (and would probably have discouraged it). Just a short time later, I joined the group, and I’ve been reviewing with them every since. Each Thursday, our collective of librarians, writers (published and not-yet-published), and book lovers put out reviews of the books we love. In the last couple of years, the group has gone through a lot of change, but today, we are re-launching our www.thebookanistas.com with a bright new look and ton of prizes.

First and foremost, each of the Bookanistas is a passionate reader. Sometimes I get so busy with the writing and marketing and day job duties, that I forget how much I love to read. I’m so thankful I have this group there to remind me. It’s not too late to set reading goals for yourself. This year my goal is to read 100 books, and I’m currently at 64 books read. Tell me if you have any favorite books I should read!

AND don’t forget to enter for a chance to win these amazing prizes!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

THE WINNER OF THE BOOKANISTA RELAUNCH GIVEAWAY OF AWESOME WILL RECEIVE

Signed copies of these Bookanista-authored books…

IF I LIE and TOUCHED by Corrine Jackson PLUS ARCs of JUST ONE DAY and SPEECHLESS
LET THE SKY FALL by Shannon Messenger
BY BLOOD by Tracy Banghart
POSSESSION, SURRENDER, and ABANDON by Elana Johnson
TOUCHING THE SURFACE by Kimberly Sabatini (plus a swag surprise)
BAD TASTE IN BOYS by Carrie Harris
AUDITION by Stasia Ward Kehoe
THE GIRL GUIDE by Christine Fonseca (plus sweet swag)
MILA 2.0 by Debra Driza
LEVEL ONE by Lenore Appelhans

AND A SECOND WINNER WILL GET A BOX FILLED WITH Bookanista-beloved reads including:

DITCHED by Robin Mellom
JELLICO ROAD by Melina Marchetta
TAKEN by Erin Bowman
CLOCKWORK ANGEL by Cassandra Clare
MONSTROUS BEAUTY by Elizabeth Fama
SPARROW ROAD by Sheila O’Connor

Now, pop along to get advice from more Bookanistas and feel free to leave your own tips and recs anywhere along the way! Where? At the websites and blogs of…

Carolina Valdez Miller
Carrie Harris
Christine Fonseca
Debra Driza
Elana Johhson
Jessica Love
Katy Upperman
Kimberly Sabatini
Lenore Appelhans
Nikki Katz


Rebecca Behrens
Shannon Messenger
Shelli Johannes-Wells
Tracey Neithercott
Tracy Banghart
Stasia Ward Kehoe

Bookanista Review: ALONG FOR THE RIDE

Here is the official blurb from Goodreads:

ALONG FOR THE RIDE by Sarah Dessen 

It’s been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parents’ divorce—or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the charming beach town where they live.

A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother. Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac who becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town. Together they embark on parallel quests: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she’s been denied; for Eli, to come to terms with the guilt he feels for the death of a friend.

In her signature pitch-perfect style, Sarah Dessen explores the hearts of two lonely people learning to connect.

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I’m always impressed by Sarah Dessen’s novels. Let’s just establish that upfront. She manages to write about romance, family life, and the stresses that come with being a teenage girl. ALONG FOR THE RIDE isn’t my favorite Dessen novel, but I found a lot to love.

Auden is an incredibly lonely character – my favorite kind. In her mission to please her mother, Auden has been groomed for academia. Shopping, gossiping, hanging out – these are pursuits for lesser girls who don’t have a bright future in front of them. Auden decides to take a break from this life of constant studying and perfection by heading to her father’s for the summer. Her father is fairly newly married to a much younger woman, and they’ve just had a baby. Auden walks into a house where things are chaotic. The baby screams all the time. Heidi, Auden’s stepmother, is exhausted, short-tempered, and depressed. Auden’s father is too busy working on his novel to help Heidi. Rather than feeling like she belongs, Auden feels like a stranger and disconnected from her father and his new family.

Luckily, Auden finds an escape in working at Heidi’s boutique. There she befriends several girls and learns what it is to belong to a group of friends. More than that, as Auden goes on nighttime walks, she meets a boy who shares her insomnia. Their late night adventures were my favorite parts of the novel. Eli used to compete in bike racing, but after a tragedy he quit. Like Auden, he is lonely and isolated. These two find a kindred spirit in each other and slowly change each other. I wished Eli had been in the story more than he was.

Here and there, the pacing felt a little slow to me. There isn’t a lot of action in the story. The plot reflects the lazy days of summer in a sleepy summer town. Things move slowly with a lot of quiet reflection. A few times I wished for something more to happen. For Auden to throw a tantrum or confront her father. The sense of feeling repressed started to get to me, and I’m not sure the end paid off when the book felt like it could have been shortened to help the pacing. At the end of the day, though, I still loved the book and found myself rooting for Auden to break free of her parents’ expectations and find her own voice.

A great read for fans of Sarah Dessen and YA contemporaries with a family component.

Find it on Goodreads.

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