Tara Chevrestt's Blog, page 150

My Latest Manuscript and More...

An update on my own writing...  First, the big news. I just had another manuscript accepted by Breathless Press.   It's called Sinful Urges. Here is a tiny, tantalizing blurb: 


Everyone has sinful urges, but not everyone acts on them. Juan and Maria do and despite their intense guilt, their sinful urges escalate into so much more. Soon, even confessing will not absolve them as their sins keep piling up.


And that's all I'm saying right now. It is erotic noir. (Yes, I sorta made the genre up, I think..?) Now, I am not making it a huge secret that it's my work. I'm going to promote it talk about it as Tara, BUT because of its genre and sexual content and due to the fact that I have a YA novel coming out in February, it will be published under a pen name, Sonia Hightower. Sonia is part of my middle name and Hightower is supposed to be my married name.. (I kept my own.. It's the 2000s for crying out loud and I'm not his property..) 


I'm HOPING that lots of teenagers (and adults!) enjoy Ride for Rights enough to seek out my other work, but Sinful Urges doesn't belong in the hands of a 15 year old..  and that's why I'm doing it this way.


Regarding my other works... 


Are You Talking To Me? A Memoir now has a title and last I heard, it was scheduled for release the end of October.


A Facebook Affair has been through content edits, is in line edits, and now has a cover.  (To the upper left. Obviously. LOL) Release date is December 16th.

Ride for Rights has been through content edits, is in line edits and is scheduled for release Feb 10th of 2012. 


Dog Tails: Three Humorous Short Stories for Dog Lovers is still waiting for you to buy it. :) 

Never Too Late by Christina Courtenay

Another excellent large print novella from my favorite author... yes, I'm a friend of hers, but I was a fan before I became a friend. 

This was originally sent to me to pass on to my grandmother who loves to read but has trouble finding large print books. (She likes the inspirational ones, but occasionally wants to read a book that isn't trying to send her a hidden message. LOL) Nevertheless, before passing it on to my G-ma, I had to read it myself.. I couldn't resist.


Once again, Courtenay does a superb job putting together a likable hero and a damsel in distress. The damsel in distress (this is NOT a bodice ripper) is Maude. She loved Luke long ago but circumstances.. er, well, people, I should say kept them apart. She ended up marrying his cousin instead. So.. there are some hard feelings here between Maude and Luke.


But Maude ends up widowed and Luke is the new head of her estate. He keeps her on as his housekeeper but he secretly still desires her and this is a difficult situation. She desires him too, but is afraid to say so.. But these two may have to stop tip toeing around each other and confess their real feelings cause... someone wants them dead. There's arsenic poisoning, smashing pots, run away carriages, and kidnapping. These two better figure it out soon or it WILL be too late for them to salvage their earlier feelings for each other.


Superbly done, descriptive where it needs to be descriptive, action where there should be action, and a lovely one day read. It's a clean read (no smut) but no hidden religious messages either. LOL. Conclusion: I did and my grandmother will love it.

Eleanor Roosevelt's Life of Soul Searching and Self Discovery by Ann Atkins

This is a very short biography, not a long and drawn out 500 page thing. It tells the need to know information about Eleanor. By need to know, I mean:

Where she came from: A very dysfunctional family. Her father was a womanizer and a suicidal alcoholic. Her mother felt that she was ugly and did not make a secret of it. Imagine growing up in that environment.


How she rose above it: Went to boarding school, dealt with the death of her parents, slowly began to find herself when she met Franklin and it all came crashing down. She married a man much like her father.
She was a doormat for a long time: to Franklin's mother and Franklin himself. It took a betrayal by Franklin and her best friend to make her wake up and begin being just Eleanor again. Unfortunately, in a way, she lost her children to her mother in law.


She stood up for the little people: She stood up for women:


"Eleanor not only conducts her own press conferences, she flaunts the 'men only' rule at press conferences with Franklin, making hers only for women journalists.Since newspapers want to carry stories about Eleanor, this policy give job assurance for many female reporters. What critics deem conniving, Eleanor sees as leveling the playing field."

She stood up for African Americans in her speeches, her policies, and her actions:


"As she is leaving her hairdresser, an African American youth backs his car into her and knocks her down. This being 1959 Eleanor doesn't want to chance a racial incident and tell the young man to hurry on before people can gather."


She supported the troops during the war:


"She walks to each truck load and wishes the boys good luck. On that day, Eleanor's unpretentious ways make her every soldier's mother. Upholding the written rule, "Don't cry in front of the boys," she bids them each farewell. Although those with Eleanor report, "her voice quavered."
Conclusion: An enlightening biography of a woman who rose from a twisted home to make something of herself and change the world. (Great photos in here too.) Four stars due to one minor annoyance that I found a tad odd for a biography: the use of the present tense. 


I received this book from the author.

All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin

I don't read futuristic stuff usually, but this really got my attention. 1. A world in which coffee is illegal. (My first thought was, 'OMG! The Mormons took over!) 2. Chocolate is illegal. (Gasp. My curiosity was piqued. How the hell can we possibly survive?) 3. The heroine is part of a mafia (spelled mafiya in the book) family. Those three things were enough to make me step out of my comfort zone and read this YA novel.

I wasn't disappointed. It's a really good, entertaining read with a very likable heroine. The story is told from her POV but she's involved in so much excitement that the first person narrative works well.. At no point does the reader feel as though she's on the outside looking in. I liked the girl's sense of humor, the sarcastic way she tells things, the inner turmoil she deals with.


The turmoils: She's an orphan and pretty much the guardian of her immediate family. Her grandmother is about to die. Her brother has brain damage. She's accused of attempting to kill her ex boyfriend (death by chocolate!!!). Her new boyfriend's dad doesn't want her dating his son. Her family's illegal chocolate business may need her at the helm. Her bff starts dating her ex.... and it just keeps piling up. No end to the drama. Oh.. and she's Catholic and trying to save her virginity till marriage but the new guy is making that hard.


Thoroughly enjoyed it. There were some minor irritations that got on my nerves though. 1. The constant references to things her daddy used to say. One or twice is fine, but 15 times? 2. The whole 'no sex before marriage' moral being bashed over my head. 3. I didn't like how the heroine treats her brother. Yes, he's 'damaged' but the longer you treat him like a child, the longer he will act like one. 


Four stars, but if I was 12 to 16, the age group this was intended for, I most likely would have gave it a five.


I received an ARC from the publisher. 

Vigil by Cecilia Samartin

Imagine loving a man for twenty years, but not being able to tell him so. Imagine sleeping in a room down the hall from this man you love for twenty years. Imagine having to watch this man interact day after day with his wife and children. Ana watches.. for twenty years before she finally has the opportunity to act on her love.

The story starts in El Salvador during the time of civil war and brutality. Ana loses her entire village and is the only one to walk away. Why was she saved? She was saved not once, but twice. She takes this as sign that she is to have a higher purpose. She believes she is to be a nun. However, many years after escaping to the U.S, a mere 6 months from the time she is supposed to take her vows, she is summoned to the Trellis household. They need a nanny.


Enter an intriguing household full of characters that all need Ana's help. The man rarely leaves his study. The woman is spoiled, indulgent, and a sex addict. Teddy, their child, is spoiled rotten and undisciplined. The cook is an alcoholic widow. Can Ana help this family or will her growing emotions for the man of house make things worse?


The book goes back and forth between past and present, the present being Ana at her beloved's death bed trying to gather his children to his side and the past being the twenty years she has devoted to that family. What sounds like a very simple story became so much more with Samartin's words and prose. It's a very enjoyable book and thought evoking. I was slightly bugged that Ana literally puts her life on hold for twenty years though and doesn't appear to have any kind of life outside of this family. However, the book also explains that.. due to what she went through in El Salvador, Ana likes safety, likes being cocooned. That is what drew her to the rigid, predictable life of the nunnery. I was hoping that Ana would change, I guess, because I was disappointed with the ending.. After being in a box twenty years, I would think that she would want to finally leave the box, to see some of the world, to live outside that selfish family. 


Something else I wondered about... Did Adam really love her or did he just want someone to take care of him in his illness? The timing... It made me stop and ponder. I'm not sure if I was supposed to do this, but I did. And I like books that make me stop and analyze characters and their intentions. 


Four stars and I would like to share two laugh out moments:


"Mama: "what are you going to do if you fall in love with a man who wants to have children? What are going to tell him?" Ana: "I'll tell him that if he really loves me, then I should be enough for him."


'How different from the men in my village who left their women to give birth while they got drunk with the other men in the square. Sometimes it took the new father more time to recover from his hangover than it took the mother to recover from childbirth.'


I received this from the author.

A Facebook Affair Has A Cover!!!

My romance novella, A Facebook Affair, has a cover!!!! What it's about: Kelly Littleton is a young, successful, independent woman, but she has a problem. She's lonely. Her mother has passed away and Kelly finds that without her mother to care for, her life is suddenly void. 

Kelly's friend convinces her to "get with it" and Kelly joins the many millions of people that have joined Facebook. A few taps on her laptop and a couple of clicks of her mouse lead her to find a boy she knew in elementary school. Twenty years ago, she had a huge crush on Brandon Hopkins.

Brandon is going through a rough time himself. He's going through a divorce and needs to learn to love and trust again. It's going to take an amazing woman to help him accomplish this. Could Kelly be that woman?

When he responds to Kelly's message, their childhood crush on each other becomes an adult romance. Every romance has its hurdles, however, as Kelly is soon to find out. First, there are the miles. She lives in Utah. He lives in Oklahoma. Second, there's his evil twin sister. Third, Kelly has a handicap. She is hearing impaired.

As their new relationship progresses to the next level, Kelly must face all those obstacles and the demons from her past. Is she really as confident as she claims to be? Can she face the very girls who made fun of her so long ago and come out the better person? Does Brandon really love her or this going to be just a Facebook affair?
A Facebook Affair will be available December 16th, 2011 from Breathless Press.

The Launch of a New Literary Magazine

[image error] Today, I would like to encourage all of my followers, friends, fellow reviewers and book lovers to take the time to check out a new online literary magazine. It's called Lit Asylum (that's a link) and it's all about books. Myself and some awesome talented, opinionated, and witty writers/book reviewers have some posts worth checking out. There's Trash or Treasure, History Meets Noir, and more...

Ride for Rights: The Real Life Women Behind the Novel

I'm excited to say that my historical YA novel, Ride for Rights has been through content edits. I now feel it's a good time to talk about it a bit more on here. I want to tell you the story behind the story...



In the fall of 2010, my husband and I took a vacation to South Dakota and of course, we had to hit the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum. (My husband is a biker through and through.)




GussieWhile browsing this ultra cool museum (that I originally didn't want to go to as I wanted to walk thru a Victorian house instead!), I came across some information about two fascinating "biker chics" in American history, Augusta and Adeline Van Buren. Here is their website: Van Buren Sisters Website


In 1916, these remarkable sisters decided to ride their motorbikes from New York to Los Angeles. Keep in mind, the highway system had not yet been built... They donned trousers, jumped on their Indians, and they rode..  to prove that women could be motorcycle dispatch riders.


The real life women went from Buffalo to Chicago to Omaha to Denver, up Pike's Peak, to Salt Lake, Reno, Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego.


I was excited by this information and I rushed to find my husband and I said to him, "I am gonna find a book on them as soon as I get back to my laptop!" And I did search for a book on them and much to my dismay, I didn't find one. And so I said, "I'm gonna write one!" This is how Ride was born. 


Adeline Van BurenIn Ride for Rights, a fiction novel loosely based on the amazing Van Buren sisters, Angeline and Adelaide Hanson undergo a similar journey (with different twists and turns) as they travel from Buffalo to Detroit... to Chicago where they are dance hall girls for a night... to  Peoria, Illinois... to St. Louis where they join a touring Suffrage movement to Kansas City where they have a run in with some unfriendly fellows. From Kansas City, the Hanson's head to Dodge and they have problems with the local sheriff.. See, women didn't wear trousers much back then....

Like the real Van Burens, Angeline and Adelaide summit Pike's Peak. The real sisters did this ride only weeks after the road was opened.


The Ride for Rights sisters spend some down time in a castle called Glen Eyrie (be watching for a later post about this fascinating castle) and then head on to the Salt Lake desert where they get lost... and oh somebody finds them... but is it really a rescuer??


[image error] I don't wish to reveal too much of the story so I'm stopping here, but I cannot stress to everyone enough.. check out the real Van Buren sisters website. It's truly amazing what the real women accomplished. They are now in the AMA Hall of Fame and the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum Hall of Fame.


Bob Van Buren, a descendant of the Van Buren sisters, says, "Although Ms. Chevrestt's creative tale of these two women is purely fictional, she has accurately captured the spirit and challenges that the Van Buren sisters experienced in their journey in 1916."


I can't possibly express my joy and gratitude to have a descendant of those amazing women say something like that about my work.

In the next few months, I will be making posts about different things in Ride, notable women mentioned in it and some great stuff about Glen Eyrie as well as an excerpt.


Please note once again that Ride is a work of fiction and though I used the real life sisters' ride as a basis, everything that happens to the Hansons is a figment of my imagination. An author's note in the back of the novel separates all facts from fiction.


Ride for Rights is coming February of 2012 from MuseItUp Publishing.

Persuade Me by Juliet Archer

We've all heard the saying, "when you assume, you make an ass of you and me." In this book, there's a LOT of assuming and thus, a lot of people making asses of themselves... and that's part of what makes this book so funny and entertaining.

Quick summary: Rick and Anna loved each other long ago, but her snotty family convinced her to give him up. She lives in England. He lives in Australia. Ten years after their tragic romance, he is right in her backyard doing a book tour. Do they have a second chance?


The characters... my gawd.. the family of Anna. It is like a comedy sitcom. Walter is so full of himself, it is unbelievable. "He felt a huge sense of achievement (looking in a new fancy mirror) now that he could view his appearance from 360 degrees." Walter's daughters are Lisa, Anna, Mona. Anna is the only sane one among them. Mona is a psycho mom who bosses Anna around. Lisa is a feminine version of her dad. And there's Cleo, a slutty masseuse, William the gold digger, James the mad poet, Lou the slut who throws herself (literally!) at men, and a lot of family. 


And all these people try to keep Anna and her true love, Rick apart. Because nobody really knows what is going and that is that Anna loves Rick, NOT William and Rick loves Anna, NOT Leo, but everybody makes assumptions and they're all wrong and Rick and Anna both misunderstand and every single time one plans to tell the other those three simple words (I love you) and fix the relationship that was so damaged years before, someone steps up and gets in the way. Well Rick is only in England for.. 6 weeks? Time is running out.... 


I, the reader, found myself chuckling on numerous occasions and laughed out loud at least twice. (Walter's Little Problem in That Department!!!! LOL) I was also cheering for the hero and heroine and found myself getting angry at times with certain characters. That's a sign that the book has really sucked me in.


However, I found the heroine, Anna, to be ridiculously spineless at times. Even in the end of the book, I still felt she was a bit too submissive and wall flowerish. As I prefer reading about strong, independent women, this grated on my nerves. She constantly lets people boss her around and rarely speaks up for herself. Thus, despite all the laughter on my part, I give this a four instead of a five. 


Favorite quote: "We can all go on as we are, doing nothing different. Whereas 'hop' is an action word - or should be. Something aspirational, like - how did he put it? - living our dream. But, to achieve it, we usually have to come out of our comfort zone and change in some way." 


I received this from the publisher for pre review. 

Book & Movie Comparison: Catherine the Great

Coincidentally, I happened to have two historical fiction books about Catherine the Great on hand when TCM aired a classic movie about her. Thus, I decided to compare all three for what I hope is a fun blog post.


First book: The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak, January 2012 release (ARC from Vine)

What it's about: The last half of Empress Elizabeth's reign and then the first bit of Catherine the Great's. Told in first person POV from the viewpoint of a lady spy who originally spies for Elizabeth and later becomes a friend to Catherine. Chronicles Catherine's mistreatment at Elizabeth's hands, the loss of her children either to miscarriage or to the Empress, her affairs with a Sergei and a Polish man and the Orlov brother, her discord with Peter, and her conspiracy to overthrow him. 


Catherine on wedding dayLiked: The narrative being from a lady spy. Terrific idea!! I learned so much about Catherine and this novel, unlike some others, portrays her as a woman that readers can relate to, understand, and sympathize with. I also liked reading about Barbara grappling with feelings of guilt. In one part, she has a dream about Madame Kluge, a woman she got exiled from court. She dreams she is in a carriage and offers Madame a ride. Madame says, "I don't want to go where you are going." This particular scene gave me goosebumps, had me wondering, "where is she going?" It gave the book an ominous feel that worked wonderfully considering all that occurs.


ElizabethDidn't Like: Starts to drone on and on at times. Bit too overly descriptive. Had me hooked from the get go but then began to lose my interest once Barbara marries. During the period she was away from court, the book grew dull as Barbara's life was simply not interesting without the court intrigue or Catherine. Also feel I missed something.. when did Barbara go from loathing her husband to loving him a little? By the time the man left for war, I felt there was something there and I never saw the change. By page 335, I was utterly bored. I feel the book is unnecessarily long for what it contains. It ends with Catherine obtaining power. After this woman became empress, she proceeded to take over the world. Does that not bear mentioning? Throughout this entire novel, unfortunately, she was just a brood mare, a conniving brood mare, but a brood mare.


My star rating: Three. I liked it, but it had some quibbles.

Second, the movie, The Scarlet Empress, 1934

What it's about: A young and innocent Sophie travels to Russia, is treated like crap by Empress Elizabeth, loses her name and religion, falls in love with Alexei   asap, beds a random guard in the dark of night, and gradually steals her husband's throne. 

Liked: 1. The scene in which she stares down Peter's mistress. Ice, ice baby!! 2. And the scene in which she dons a soldier's attire and rushes off on a horse. 3. The bedroom scene in which she gets Alexei all hot and bothered and then... sends him on his way. Serves him right.


The horrid smileDidn't Like: 1. Alexei.. that actor is butt ugly. I mean, seriously, if my dog looked like him I would shave its butt and make it walk backwards. That ugly. And just who the heck is he? I didn't find him when researching to find out truth from fiction. 2. Peter the III's character was way over exaggerated. That horrid smile was ridiculous. 3. This movie claimed in the beginning that it was based on Catherine's diary. I seriously doubt it. I find the events of this movie to be so preposterous at times, I question its historical accuracy. I know Peter was a nut, but I doubt he just randomly shot at soldiers out his windows. And Catherine did take lovers, but a random guard on night duty? 4. Some scenes were horribly long, the wedding, the dinner, the horses riding through towards the end...
Marlene Dietrich.. a blonde?
I would like to note a major difference here between this movie and the book above: In Winter Palace, Empress Elizabeth is very fond of Catherine in the beginning. In this movie, it's hatred from the get go. Elizabeth treats her like a brood mare. However, once again, everything ends with her obtaining power. :(


My star rating: Two. I didn't like it. 


Third, is the book The Rebel Princess by Evelyn Anthony, 1953


It's also titled Imperial Highness. 


What it's about: Basically the same stuff that I mentioned above in Winter Palace, minus 200 some pages and minus the lady spy narrative. Also, though the major story line is the same, there are minor differences in plot, such as Catherine seeking permission for her second love affair. This one is told in the third person and doesn't go on and on and on. It also skips the six years that Catherine is held in captivity with her husband while Elizabeth awaits an heir. Really, a good idea as that stuff was so boring in the WP. This book also evoked in me some deeper thoughts: You would think that Peter and Catherine would have hit it off as both came from very similar childhoods. Peter was greatly oppressed by Elizabeth and Catherine was beat down emotionally by her mother.  I also noticed that one thing all three of these books/movie combo have in common is: Princess Johanna, Catherine's mother is a mega beeyotch.


What I liked: We get the whole story without the drawn out details. This book does not take an entire paragraph of colorful words to tell me the Empress loves theater or whatever. Catherine is a sympathetic figure in this. The WP had too many characters at times and they were often called by numerous names. I grew very confused. This book is much simpler and easier to follow along.


The passionate scene between Catherine and Orlov consisted of few words, but impacted me greatly: "With shaking hands Catherine tried to loose the ruby necklace which had been pressed into her skin in that wild encounter in the corridor; for a moment she could find no words for the tumult of emotions which possessed her. Accept his protection, live however briefly in the arms of a man who had stormed and taken her with the ruthless abandon of a marauding Cossack..."


Also loved the part where Catherine leads her troops, commands their respect, and dons male attire. It was a powerful scene. I got goosebumps.


What I didn't like: Again, the story ends just after Catherine takes the throne. However, this is the first of a trilogy and thus, I won't hold this minor quibble against the book. The story does continue, I just have to find the now out of print book that is next. 


My star rating: Five. Really liked it. And thus, it wins this comparison. Hands down. And I found this one in a little book store in Montana.