Kate Padilla's Blog, page 27

INDIE REVIEW: BY ANY OTHER NAME

In my opinion, every good story contains a little bit of scandal. It's why we continue reading -- the small upset often produces the best plot elements, and it forces characters to develop dramatically, often sooner or in a different way than your typical person would develop.

Valerie Hawes' novel By Any Other Name contains that little bit of scandal, several times over. There are three dominant stories here -- the Kepple family, a high society family with a reputation-searing secret; Mary Ba...

PAPERBACK: CLOSED DOORS

I read this book originally a while back so I had to go back and remember a) what I thought about the book when I first read it and b) why I thought that way.

Honestly, I was underwhelmed when I read this book. I fell completely, head-over-heels in love withLisa O'Donnell'sfirst book, The Death of Bees. It came out in January 2013 and I'm pretty sure it made my "Best of 2013" list. The story elements! the characters! the emotional roller coaster! If you haven't read it, go out now (read: afte...

INDIE REVIEW: LEYA: SPHERE OF VISION

Teen fantasy series are extremely popular right now, after the wild success of Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hunger Games and Divergent (and the slightly less wild, but still substantial, success of Beautiful Creatures and The Mortal Instruments). Fans of those books, I feel, will love Bonnie Ferrante's Sphere of Vision series, specifically the first novel in the series Leya.

Leya is from Granja, a farming and hunting community, When the Mistress comes through looking for 14-year-olds with Visi...

PAPERBACK: FANGIRL

I fell in love with Rainbow Rowell after reading Eleanor & Park, and continued my love affair with the release of Fangirl. Seriously -- I sat at my desk at work and read this one the whole day. I was enthralled.

Cath and her twin sister, Wren, are headed off to college. They've been inseparable their entire lives, and Cath doesn't see any reason why things should change. But Wren starts branching off on her own -- deciding to live in a different dorm room and starting to hang out with differe...

INDIE REVIEW: IT'S A WONDERFUL AFTERLIFE

It was really interesting tobegin Kristy Robinett's book It's a Wonderful Afterlife knowing absolutely for sure that I did not believe in psychics or in the ability to connect with those who had passed away. After finishing the book, I still don't know if I believe in it, but I still enjoyed the book.

It's a Wonderful Afterlifeis part memoir and part self-help. She begins with her own journey into discovering she was a psychic medium, and uses the experiences of interacting with the dead to i...

PAPERBACK: CHARLESTON

I love debut fiction, because I really get the author's passion for the story and the craft of writing while reading the book (most of the time, at least). Debut authors often have nothing to lose, and they have everything to gain, so they put everything into this book. And I definitely saw this passion in Margaret Bradham Thornton's debut novel, Charleston.

Charleston is a uniquecity, becauseit has maintained an air of European charm despite being firmly established in North Carolina. ElizaP...

ALTERNATE VOICES: KRISTY ROBINETT

This week's indie review is It's a Wonderful Afterlife, so this week's Alternate Voices is from the author, Kristy Robinett. According to her bio, Kristy is a professional psychic medium living in Livonia, Michigan. Technically, It'sa Wonderful Afterlife comes out in August, but I'll have an early review up Wednesday and a giveaway closer to the release date. FINDING PEACE BEFORE THE AFTERLIFE The antebellum rice plantation sat several miles from the main road and although the sun was stil...

INDIE REVIEW: A'DAB'S GIFT (+GIVEAWAY)

Have you ever watched the movie Aladdin and wondered how the genie got into the lamp in the first place? Everything has to start from somewhere, but we don't always see the origins to the stories we love.

A'dab's gift, by Talia Haven,gives us this origin story to the genie in the lamp. It's a short story, available on Kindle. In the story, A'dab's father gives a pair of camels to the caravan god, thinking the god will tell her father to make more for the mortal world. But he does not let him m...

PAPERBACK: THE PINK SUIT

I always get excited when a book I read comes out in paperback, because I feel like I have some kind of insider information. I know, it's a bit cheesy, but it's fun to see interest in a book resurge with the new release, and to be able to say I read that! And It was good!.

I'm also a huge fan of the Kennedys, which is a little weird because I was nowhere near born during their dynasty. But I love Jackie, and I love the nostalgia that's surrounded that era (rose-colored glasses? Most definite...

ALTERNATE VOICES: DJ SWYKERT

This week's guest post is from DJ Swykert, the author of The Pool Boy's Beatitude. Feel free to check out DJ at his websites (here and here) or purchase his book from Amazon. I write a book like you'd watch a movie. I develop a character and then invent a conflict for him to resolve. I'm pretty straight forward as a person and a writer. I am a former 9-1-1 operator, and in 9-1-1 you don't have the luxury of pondering, you need to get to the essence of a problem quickly. It was good trainin...