This Chick’s Sunday Commentary: All Hail the Queens Book Tour


I live in Nashville, TN, and there is this fab-u-lous book store called Parnassus Books.  They have an amazing amount of authors who come in to do book signings, I think because the owner is a published author herself, Ann Patchett, and co-owner publishing veteran Karen Hayes. The book signing often includes a brief speech, or in this case interview with the authors. Last Wednesday I went with my mom and sister to Parnassus to see Victoria Aveyard and Sophie Jordan’s book signing. Victoria Aveyard has a very successful series called the Red Queen and she was signing the third book, which was just released, called Kings Cage. She is touring with Sophie Jordan who is releasing the second book, Rise of Fire,  in her series Reign of Fire.  Both of these books are young adult fantasy novels, a genre which I love and I thought it interesting that the audience was not just filled with teenage fans. I am not young myself, and my mother has read both series and she’s in her mid seventies.
Continue reading “This Chick’s Sunday Commentary: All Hail the Queens Book Tour”

This Chick Read: Denial (Careless Whispers #1) by Lisa Renee Jones

Ella wakes up in a hospital, in Italy, with amnesia. Sitting next to her bed is a handsome stranger who claims to have found her beaten in an alley. Ella doesn’t have her passport or any ID, and can’t remember her name or where she is from. The stranger, Kayden Wilkens, is determined to offer her protection until her memory returns. Continue reading “This Chick Read: Denial (Careless Whispers #1) by Lisa Renee Jones”

This Chick Read: Leopard’s Fury (A Leopard Novel) by Christine Feehan

Christine Feehan’s Leopard series is about very alpha leopard shifter men who find their mates, and then through passion and danger convince those women that they can’t live without hem. Leopard’s Fury follows a similar theme. Continue reading “This Chick Read: Leopard’s Fury (A Leopard Novel) by Christine Feehan”

This Chick Read: The Turn: The Hollows Begins with Death (The Hollows #0.1) by Kim Harrison

Kim Harrison’s The Turn is a leap backwards in time in the Hollows world to just before the Turn, when the human race was decimated by tomatoes. No it wasn’t the Attack of the Killer Tomato, but a genetically engineered virus that became transmitted to humans on a tomato plant.  For those of us that love and miss The Hollows, this is our chance to re-engage and learn about how this atrocity happened as well as catch up with some much loved or at least familiar characters (minus Rachel and her gang). Continue reading “This Chick Read: The Turn: The Hollows Begins with Death (The Hollows #0.1) by Kim Harrison”

This Chick Read: A Study in Charlotte (Charlotte Holmes #1) by Brittany Cavallaro

Charlotte Holmes and Jamie Watson are the great great great grandchildren of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. They have never met before, but as with all of the Watson and Holmes family members, they are knowledgeable and curious about each other.  Well, at least the Watson’s in this book showed curiousity, and the Holmes’ tolerated it. Continue reading “This Chick Read: A Study in Charlotte (Charlotte Holmes #1) by Brittany Cavallaro”

This Chick Read: The Bitter Kingdom (The Girl of Fire and Thorns #3) by Rae Carson

The Bitter Kingdom is the final installment in this epic fantasy series. Elisa, Queen and Chosen by God, finally fulfills her duty. Fighting her own people and others in far off lands she tries to bring peace and unity to all of the kingdoms.  Continue reading “This Chick Read: The Bitter Kingdom (The Girl of Fire and Thorns #3) by Rae Carson”

This Chick’s Sunday Commentary: Authors could solve the worlds problems…

I love reading fiction for many different reasons; I can escape from reality, I can explore different lands, I can fall in love over and over again, I can learn new languages, I can have great sex, I can can fight oppression, and I can be a hero. The list goes on and on! If you follow my book reviews you know I like books where the underdog wins, women find the power within to beat bad odds, where “race issues” are played out between humans and elves-vampires and werewolves, where basically the world becomes a better place because people WANT to make it better in these books. Of course, there is always a happy ending, or at least a sequel where the characters I love will get to take that battle to the next level.

I love that these life themes are played out in Young Adult books, so girls can learn empowerment and boys can learn how to work with others to change the world for the better (Snow Like Ashes).

I love that romantic fantasy can be between two different races. One race who lives in the day and one in the night, and even though the darker race has large teeth and the lighter race is considered horrifyingly ugly because of the lightness of her skin, they still open people’s eyes to the love in their union. They set a good example for acceptance and unity (Eidolon).

I love that those in power can learn from the humanity in one individual, even if they are an alien,that makes them change their behavior towards an entire race (Star Nomad).

I also love that I can escape into a fantasy world where a small group of individuals battle against an egomaniacal President who is infected with a deadly virus and win that battle (Justice Ascending).

All of these themes, although played out in fiction, give me hope that the light of humanity exists. After all, these authors are writing about things that exist in our every day life- hatred, bigotry, love, war, friendship, honor, and ultimately the power of good people doing great things. These themes must have resonated because these authors are successful and fans buy their books in bundles!

I would like to make a suggestion on the next book our leader should read. Nicola Yoon could teach you about how deportation feels from a teenagers viewpoint in The Sun is Also a Star, or maybe you could learn compassion from a nice interracial love story set during the Civil Rights Movement in Alissa Cole’s Let it Shine. Really, I’d love it if he would read the moment in Rebecca Zanetti’s Mercury Striking when the virus takes hold of the President and he becomes a psychopath, there are some frightening similarities.

I guess what I’m trying to convey is that writers have been fighting and solving these real life themes for generations. The books I mention above are all books I’ve read recently, but you can find great ideas in the classics as well. Maybe what we need from our worlds leaders, besides the obvious things like compassion, intelligence, thoughtfulness, a good world view, etc. is also to be well read. Well read in Fantasy, Science Fiction, Romance, Young Adult novels, Mysteries-all of these genres, and others, have some great solutions to the problems our world is dealing with right now. You may have to look past the fangs to find them, but the solutions are in our fiction novels.

It’s something to think on-

Please click each book below to read my reviews on each, and to link to buy.

Deborah

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This Chick has written a novel! 

You are probably wondering how I’ve found the time, and looking back on it I have wondered the same thing LOL.  I love to read and my favorite types of novels are fantasy with a hint of romance, although as you know I read other genres too. I had this idea kicking around in my head and started writing it down, and before I knew it my novel was finished (it took awhile ;)) I would love to get published but know that it is an incredibly difficult challenge and could never happen, although I will try. However, I want some feedback!  Will people like it? Is it good? Did I waste my time?  Being an impatient individual, and living in the land of social media, I am going to release a chapter a week on Wattpad.  I don’t have a clue how Wattpad works, but since I muddled my way through WordPress and have become semi successful with a pretty decent following, I decided to put on my big girl pants and try it out!  I will post that link on WordPress, weekly, and would love it if you all would read along and let me know what you think!  Really, I am serious.  Feedback would be great!  Also, if any of you have any tips on how to be more effective on Wattpad, I would love to hear them!

My novel is called Midnight Metamorphosis. It’s about a young girl named Avery who discovers after the death of her mother, that she is not an average girl. Her parents forbidden love created a child that was prophesied to either save their people, or be the catalyst to their end. She is in high school and with the help of her new friends figures out her powers, crushes on a couple boys, and fights evil demons. A normal teenage life, right? 

Here’s a sample from the Prologue of Midnight Metamorphosis:

I walked into the kitchen pulling my sweatshirt down over my head. My mom was at the stove, scrambling a couple of eggs for breakfast. She reached over and laid her hand against my cheek, then reached back to help me pull my hair out from under the neck of my sweatshirt. Smiling, she turned back to the eggs pushing them around in the pan.

      “I have to run up to Chandler today to deliver some kits to a store that’s going to start selling them.” She said, turning to split the eggs between two plates on the counter. She set them on the table and sat down in the seat across from me.

     Taking a bite of my eggs, I nodded cautiously, knowing what was coming next. I opened my mouth to say at the exact same time as my mom “If anything happens to me..” We both trailed off and my mom laughed nervously.

Please click on my book cover below for the Prologue to my novel Midnight Metamorphosis.

Thanks!!   Deborah

This Chick Read: It Started With A Kiss (Sequoia Lake #1) by Marina Adair

It Started With A Kiss is a charming romance between Avery, a girl who has a new lease on life, and Ty, a guy that has been running away from his past. Avery’s life has always been tame because of her illness, but after the success of her kidney transplant she creates a journal for those less fortunate than her and through their dreams finds the answers to her own. Continue reading “This Chick Read: It Started With A Kiss (Sequoia Lake #1) by Marina Adair”

This Chick Read: Make Me Sin (Bad Habit #2) by J. T. Geissinger

We watched Chloe and A.J. exhibit their hatred for each other in the first Bad Habit novel, Sweet as Sin, so knowing this was an enemies to lovers trope (not my favorite) I had been putting off reading this book. It started off very quickly and I was soon immersed in A. J. and Chloe’s gritty love story.   Continue reading “This Chick Read: Make Me Sin (Bad Habit #2) by J. T. Geissinger”