2 Days!

2 days until the return of Carly Reads!

3 Days!

3 days until the return of Carly Reads!

It's Not Summer Without "The Summer I Turned Pretty"

Hi Readers!

A number of authors have recently been confirmed for TBF 2012, so head over to the official TBF website right now to check out the growing roster.  One of the recently added authors, and a TBF alum, is Jenny Han, the author of “Shug,” “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” “It’s Not Summer Without You,” and “We’ll Always Have Summer.” 

Contemplative and endearing, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” is the perfect contemporary YA read for anytime of the year, but especially for summer.  Belly lives for summer.  For her, the other nine months of the year are nothing more than days that she can’t be at the beach house with her family and her mother’s best friend, Susannah, and her two sons, Conrad and Jeremiah.  But one summer changes everything for the two families and as the events of the summer unfold, Belly grows and matures and develops new relationships with the people who have always been there for her during her summers at Cousins Beach.

It really is the setting and the quality of the characterization and relationships that make “The Summer I Turned Pretty” as wonderful as it is.  Han has created a summer paradise that feels so real and genuine – Belly’s beach house is not a McMansion on the Jersey Shore where teens party like it’s Spring Break in Cancun.  Cousins Beach feels simple, and welcoming, and beautiful, but still rustic.  Reading “The Summer I Turned Pretty” makes you feel like you’re laying in bed on Cayuga Lake with a cool breeze blowing through the window and the sounds of the waves lapping against the shore roaring comfortingly below.

As for the characterization and the relationships of the characters, Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah are as real as it gets. I’ve heard complaints that Belly is annoying, or selfish, or immature, but it’s Belly’s raw realness that makes the book so genuine.  Belly makes the same mistakes that all teenagers make and she has the same thoughts, and worries, and feelings that all teenagers have.  I should also add that “The Summer I Turned Pretty” flashes back to summers of Belly’s past, when she was twelve, eleven, ten, and even younger, and those chapters are as spot-on as the rest. 

Summer is coming to an end (I know, I know! Don’t think too hard about it!), but before you submit to the cooler temperatures and turned leaves of fall, let summer live on a little bit longer by borrowing “The Summer I Turned Pretty” from your local library and living vicariously through Belly.

"Blood Wounds" ARC Contest Winner.

Congratulations to

Laura W.

the winner of the "Blood Wounds" ARC contest.  Laura, I hope that you enjoy "Blood Wounds" as much as I did!  Keep an eye out for my email with directions as to how to claim your prize.

A Sneak Peek at "Blood Wounds"

Hi Readers,

I’m sure that most, if not all, of you have heard of or read Susan Beth Pfeffer’s award-winning series affectionately known as “the Moon books.”  The series, which begins with “Life As We Knew It,” details the events that follow a catastrophic collision between the moon and a meteor that knocks the moon out of orbit and sets off a chain of events that forever alters … well … life as the characters knew it. 

Although Pfeffer is currently working on a fourth book for the moon series, her latest novel, “Blood Wounds,” due out on September 13, 2011, deals with a very different type of catastrophic event.  In “Blood Wounds,” Willa Coffey is a high school junior living a relatively normal life.  She resides in a wealthy suburb with her mother, stepfather, and stepsisters, attends a very nice public school, and sings in the chorus. But Willa’s life is forever changed when her father, whom she has not seen since she was a young child, murders his new wife and their three young children and then heads north, presumably towards Willa, forcing her and her mother into hiding under police protection.  

Although the publisher’s description of “Blood Wounds” suggests that the novel is a suspenseful, action-packed account of Willa fleeing from her father, the book is really much more about the aftermath as Willa attempts to come to terms with her own identity and how she fits into the many families in her life.  In fact, “Blood Wounds” opens with a scene in which Willa reflects on a Tolstoy quote from "Anna Karenina" about families and that quote sets the scene for the entire novel.  “Blood Wounds” isn’t about running from a madman as much as it’s about realizing that no family is perfect, and no family is the same, but nevertheless, family is important and sometimes it’s all we have.

“Blood Wounds” is a must-read and since I’m so excited about it, I am going to give my copy to one lucky reader.  If you want to get your hands on an ARC of “Blood Wounds,” fill out this form. You can earn extra entries by tweeting about the contest, promoting it through Facebook, or posting about it on your own blog!