#SaturdaysAreBookish | Book Review featuring @SatBookChat’s 17th November Guest Author | “Stay” by Jennifer Silverwood part of my #Mythothon readings!

In keeping with the change of name for my Romance & Women’s Fiction Twitter chat [@SatBookChat previously known as @ChocLitSaturday] – I am announcing a change of features here on Jorie Loves A Story. Since January, 2014 I carved out a niche of focus which I named #ChocLitSaturdays as I have felt the best time to read romantic and dramatic stories are the weekends. This spun into a Twitter chat featuring the authors of ChocLit whilst I supplied weekly topics which would appeal to readers, writers and book bloggers alike. We grew into our own Saturday tribe of chatters – then, somewhere round the time of my father’s stroke in late [2016] and the forthcoming year of [2017] I started to feel less inspired to host the chat.

I had new plans to re-invent the chat in its new incantation as @SatBookChat but I also wanted to re-invent the complimentary showcases on my blog which would reflect the diversity of stories, authors and publishers I would be featuring on the chat itself. As at the root and heart of #ChocLitSaturday the chat were the stories I was reading which complimented the conversations.

After a difficult year for [personal health & wellness] this 2018, I am beginning anew this Autumn – selecting the stories to resume where I left off featuring the Romance & Women’s Fiction authors I am discovering to read whilst highlighting a story by the author I am chatting with during #SatBookChat. Every Saturday will feature a different author who writes either Romance or Women’s Fiction – for the remaining weeks of October and most of November, I will be featuring special guest authors during #SatBookChat whose stories I have either read, are reading or hope to read in the future if their newer releases. The reviews on Saturdays might inspire the topics in the forthcoming chats or they might be directly connected to the current guest author.

Our holiday break for the month of December will find us resuming #SatBookChat the week after New Year’s, 2019 where new guests and new stories will lay down the foundation of inspiring the topics, the conversations and the bookish recommendations towards promoting Romance & Women’s Fiction.

Acquired Book By:

I started hosting with Prism Book Tours at the end of [2017], having noticed the badge on Tressa’s blog (Wishful Endings) whilst I was visiting as we would partake in the same blog tours and/or book blogosphere memes. I had to put the memes on hold for several months (until I started to resume them (with Top Ten Tuesday) in January 2018). When I enquiried about hosting for Prism, I found I liked the niche of authors and stories they were featuring regularly. I am unsure how many books I’ll review for them as most are offered digitally rather than in print but this happily marks one of the blog tours where I could receive a print book for review purposes. Oft-times you’ll find Prism Book Tours alighting on my blog through the series of guest features and spotlights with notes I’ll be hosting on behalf of their authors.

This particular review is slightly different from my regular blog tours and hosting features for Prism Book Tours – as an opportunity came along this Autumn to secure a spot on a ‘review tour’ rather than a ‘blog tour’ for the debut novel by Jennifer Silverwood entitled: Stay. Although she’s published different series and stories after this publication from 2013, I welcomed the chance to get to know her writing style from the moment it began being published. This differs as each of the reviewers and book bloggers who are committing to this review tour are posting at different intervals before the final deadline for the review tour concludes. In my case, this also included being able to anchour this review with my @SatBookChat showcase for the novel and the book discussion which came out of it.

I received a complimentary copy of “Stay” by the author Jennifer Silverwood in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Why I originally was keen on the writing styling of Ms Silverwood:

When I first discovered Silver Hollow, it was the genre-bending styling of the author which implored me the most to read the story. At the time, Silver Hollow was being re-released and the only version currently available back then in print was the older version. Sadly, despite my efforts to secure that copy by inter-library loan had failed. It still remains a story I want to read one day, however, what was interesting about moving inside Stay was finding the natural nuanced styling of a writer who takes cues straight out of the Mythological past!

As I hinted at during @SatBookChat today, there are moments within reading Stay where I could almost feel the presence of Poseidon and Zeus; except, I wasn’t naming them in my mind. There are enough elements of connection within the story itself to draw you closer towards naming them outright but it was the illusion of connection to these two which I appreciated even more because it deepened the suspense and the mythological proportions! If it could be them, what if it wasn’t? What if there are others out there who can behave and manipulate the elements just as cheekily and get away with it?

This bridge between the fantastical and the mythological is what made me keenly curious about Silverwood’s writing style. I wanted to see how she used the bridge itself, as generally speaking I do have a penchant for Urban Fantasy nowadays but each writer I read within that branch of literature has their own unique spin on how to make ‘modern’ settings warmly conducive to Fantasy realms.

Finding myself dearly enchanted by how she brokered a story out of the roots of Greek Mythos is only the tip of the iceberg I feel I shall be finding within her collective works! The joy of reading Stay and discussing it was finding out the sequel is arriving in 2019!

On my connection to Jennifer Silverwood:

When our paths first crossed, Ms Silverwood and I shared a mutual interest and connection; however, our friendship did not form for awhile afterwards. It was truly after the interview went live and after I noticed I was reading her blog as much as she was reading mine – where I realised we shared a lot of commonalities in our reading lives as well as our writely lives! We decided to stay in touch and it is an honour to find someone who understands the bridge between reader, blogger and writer.

I am disclosing this, to assure you that I can formulate an honest opinion, even though I have interacted with Ms Silverwood through our respective love & passion of reading inside the twitterverse whilst I hosted her Silver Hollow blog tour and privately as well. I treat each book as a ‘new experience’, whether I personally know the author OR whether I am reading a book by them for the first time or continuing to read their releases as they are available. This also applies to hosting a guest feature by the author I share a connection.

Stay
by Jennifer Silverwood
Source: Direct from Author

Rona believes love is nothing more than a myth, a tale for little girls.

Until the immortal ruler of the seas appears from thin air and she is swept into a dark and dangerous affair, turning myth into a grave reality. Commanded to work as the savior of true love, Rona realises that love is just an illusion as grandoise as magic and after two thousand years, she is ready to give up. Until the night a human, deep in the underbelly f the city that never sleeps sees her. She recognises him instantly, a lost love. Trouble is, he has no memory of her. Tasked with mending a relationship between the love she lost thousands of years ago and another woman, Rona will have to learn what it means to be human all over agai when past and present collide.

Can love transcend time or will Rona be forced to roam earth alone, forever?

Genres: Greek Mythos | Legacies, Nautical Fiction, Romance Fiction, Romantic Suspense, Paranormal Romance (PNR), Urban Fantasy

Places to find the book:

Add to LibraryThing

ISBN: 978-1484116890

Also by this author: Author Interview: Jennifer Silverwood (Silver Hollow), Book Spotlight: Borderlands Saga, Silver Hollow, Book Spotlight: Blackbriar Cove

Published by Self Published

on 3rd June, 2013

Format: POD | Print On Demand Paperback

Pages: 214

Converse via: #PNR, #ParanormalRomance + #Mythos, #Mythology & #UrbanFantasy

as well as #WomensFic  or #WomensFiction

my review of stay:

As Orona first comes into view – she is truly conflicted by her cursed fate, of being someone who has to protect and test the strength of true love. She is placed on a path where she must seek out humans who have a strong bond with one another but perhaps haven’t experienced a moment which could test their willingness to stay together irregardless of the outcomes of the crisis at hand.

The undercurrent of Stay is about ‘true trust and true love’ – of what makes a relationship find traction and seeks to find a way to build on a foundation which is equally right for both partners. I liked how as we go deeper into Orona’s thoughts & memories – where we start to see how this is being discussed in a rather healthy and layered way; it isn’t all readily understood nor known but is happily left open to interpretations by the reader.

Whilst we’re getting a close impression of what makes Orona uniquely different from others, we are also becoming introduced to the Mythological components of the story. The power of the Earth elements uniting into one fantastical swath of destructive intent and the incredible force of Orona’s own talent is a unique synergy building into the foreground. Orona finds the ability to fore-heed the will of the elements which surge and rush on a collusion course to the united pair of partners she  is sworn to protect; thus, establishing how she is both walking in tandem with her charges and must keep her distance. She is sent to test them but she is also the rescuer they never see or realise is also their tormentor in arms. It is a unique window into how the gods and goddesses of mythos origin can re-set their mission towards having someone anchoured between their past as a mortal and their present as an immortal.

Even her distinctive ethnicity is aptly explored – though not in one section nor chapter – it takes time for Orona to reveal pieces of herself to the reader. She is introverted by nature, either through the development of her isolation or inherent of her days as a mortal; Orona does not like to give information about herself as she prefers to be non-descriptive. This comes out by how Silverwood describes her to us and how through the art of dance, Orona starts to shed her armour and allows us a crucial step inside her past; during the days she was more carefree and freer to be herself.

Orona walks between both worlds – she is neither of this one or of the old one, as her days in this pattern of behaviour have taken their toll on both her memory and the time she has to live. The voice of Orona in the beginning of Stay is fuelled with the anger of a past she cannot yet redeem and the emotional angst of someone who has never found peace through distance. Orona feels everything which has ever happened to her as if it were still happening now. This visceral clarity of her experience(s) is what sets the backbone of her back-story from shining through her journey towards trying to seek out the answer about how one human, these many years later after she had been cursed can now visually see her as if she were still flesh and bone.

Her talents are innate and organically sewn into the background of Stay; inclusive to the purpose she was given by Seid – her former lover and the one who was able to isolate her from her family, her destiny and her sense of self – she can also manipulate atoms and effectively walk through walls. Her eyes see beyond the definition of sight – even through building materials and perceptively they can intuit what a person is thinking by reading them as one would read auras. Her gifts are meant to aide her in her quest to continuously work towards unifying the pairs she encounters after she places them through a ‘test of wills’ to see if they have staying power with each other.

I definitely love how Silverwood categorised their (Orona and Cain) connection as it is the best way to describe what was anchouring them together without giving away any spoilers; it also points to what they each had to give each other and why they felt they could understand each other (from the first moment they met). Cain is the human who can see Orona where others could not distinguish her from the veil which used to separate them. As she becomes tethered to Cain (her perceived embodiment of a lost love), she begins to alter her current metaphysical state – not just in her physical nature but in her ‘otherwordly attributes’ as well. Her layers are dissolving before our eyes and we are entranced by how willing she is to risk not just her heart but her sanity to follow the clues presented to her as to why she is being ‘seen’ rather than being ‘forgotten’ as a figment on the wind.

The interactions between Cain and Orona were well played – as he is stronger in his ability to understand where he is right now at this particular intersection of their lives but Orona would rather keep him at arm’s length. Curious and yet, not overly committed to her as an interest in love – no, she would rather remain tempted by Cain’s influence on her, his calming nature when she feels out of step with her own nature than to risk unifying themselves which could lead to an incident she is not prepared to encounter. Everything Orona does is counter-balanced to her cursed life – nothing is sacred and she is constantly tormented by her conscience. In many ways, they were united on that score – as it is revealled Cain is suffering from PTSD and in that vein of interest, so is Orona but she is not speaking about it with that kind of insight or label.

The one character who made me laugh and smirk the most was Mrs Nguyen! She was a crafty older woman who understood far more than she ever let on! Her exchanges with Orona are rather classic and you gather the impression you could almost see this character re-emerging later (if / when the story continues) as there is something rather different about her you can’t quite settle in your mind!

Silverwood truly honed in on Orona’s internal strife and anguish, which stemmed from the very real reasons why this story was inspired into being created*. This writer to character connection was deepened by this bond she shared with Orona and through her I think Silverwood (and Orona) became stronger for the journey they took together. This was an observation I had made even before I reached the final chapter(s) of Stay as there is so much of Silverwood’s heart and soul inked out through Orona’s search for redemption, self-acceptance and the truest form of healing: love itself.

Silverwood created Orona’s immortality in such a way you can definitely see how Orona is a step ‘out of time’ and how she doesn’t always find herself able to make the transition; which is highly plausible and real! Silverwood did so well showing those differences; making them very subtle and strongly influencing our impression about Orona. I also felt throughout the novel, Orona truly missed having the permanency of her romance in her life – this disconnection and isolation she suffered through due to how her life was fated to play out after she met Seid truly took the lifeblood and energy out of Orona. It sought to destroy parts of herself she almost had forgotten to remember she once embraced whilst giving her ample time to self-study humanity and the ways in which couples draw themselves together. It was at first a rather cruel hand to be dealt – she had to power through those moments where she realised she was less than her past self (not just in shape and form) and find a reason to continue to move forward.

(*) see also this tweet

A Small Content Note:

I blessedly loved the choices Silverwood was making to be reflective of a persona’s natural instincts in reactionary language and a pro-positive selection of choices regarding ‘strong emotional anguish’ – to where I loved how she did not cross the line when it comes to which words she chose to use to give voice to her characters, In fact, she took a highly creative route instead! She leads you to understanding which words might be of choice but she pulls back the camera so to speak and doesn’t quite commit them to the page. In that, this story reads rather clean and gives the impression that other writers could write cleaner stories (for language) if they chose to follow her lead. It also proves that stronger words are not necessarily needed in order to develop an emotional arc and lead a reader through a highly dramatic climax!

The only issue I found myself having were choices in dialogue, not language. There were moments where I felt the best strength of the story was being told from Orona’s perspective and/or leading us through periods of flashbacks where we gleamed more of the understanding for Orona’s life and how her past was affecting her present. It is a rather complex story from that angle alone as we’re not shifting through a year here, we’re encompassing a woman whose lived for multiple centuries and with that comes a proper amount of emotional baggage she is seen working through and attempting to be closer to a day of redemption.

Yet, the dialogue exchanges between the lead cast and the supporting cast sometimes felt a bit off to me a bit – almost as if the more formal exchanges Orona would give of herself to those other characters was in direct contrast to how they were articulating themselves. I realise this is partially due to her older age and the wisdom of what she’s gained by generations of lived experiences – but what I mean to reflect here is that sometimes the dialogue felt a bit too generic for me. The supporting cast did not speak in a way which heightened their own personality but rather left me questioning why they were speaking in the ways they were as they were not equals to Orona (if you cross-compared her voice to theirs).

I realise this was also Silverwood’s debut novel and as such, reflecting back on my own manuscripts which are still in development – I know dialogue was something I grew into perfecting towards a more natural state of delivery. It isn’t that the dialogue is seriously awful, its just a bit too one dimensional for me. Almost like they were always talking in short-cuts or not allowing us to get to know their truer feelings because they were giving clipped responses. The dialogue evens out between the middle and the latter quarter of the novel. I felt the best strength was actually when Orona and Cain were alone – interacting together and sorting out their kinetic connection.

on the intersection of pararomantic and elements of mythological fantasy stylised by ms silverwood:

I know Stay is generally credited as being #PNR but there were overtures of Orona’s journey and the process she was going through to heal which felt more #WomensFic to me which is why I started to label it as such and decided to broach this during @SatBookChat. I picked up on the ‘journey’ component immediately & that echoed this genre in particular for me instantly as Women’s Fiction has the tendency of threading us directly through the heart of a woman’s journey. By writing Stay as a genrebender, Silverwood really tucked us closer to Orona’s journey & the differences between her POV and Cain’s; it also deepened the suspense of her actual origins & her place in the world; it wouldn’t have worked otherwise if Silverwood had written it differently.

I was picking up on the mythological bits myself – though I’ll readily admit I’m not as well versed in all the #Mythos connections; there were similarities in Stay which were giving me a nod towards certain aspects of Classical #mythology which was quite exciting!! Even if sometimes I was confusing Zeus for Poseidon (as there is one moment where they felt masked from identifying), one thing which came out during @SatBookChat is how this was actually written on purpose to show the close connection between two brothers whose personalities and quirks could be interchanged or influenced by each other. I can definitely attest to that – as there were moments where Seid felt like a cross between both gods and was written with a realism of his own making!

I also loved how Silverwood placed Orona just as she is within the contemporary time-line where she meets Cain; almost as if she needed to intersect with him for us to see how ‘time’ has played a distinctive role in developing her sense of self and the unravelling therein.

The chapter headings have ‘quotes’ adjoining them from different women; which I happily confirmed are snippets from interviews Silverwood conducted as a way of rooting this into our reality whilst being explored fictionally – it was quite the clever side element to the novel. You really feel as if there is a direct merger between the spoken words of a IRL relationships and the murmurings of Orona’s journey within the context of the novel. There is a brilliant arch of interest and relevancy between the two and in effect, I think this only added to the dimensional beauty of what became the story itself.

I had a feeling the people being quoted in the chapter headings were being protected* and their words felt as viscerally centred as Silverwood’s own words; combining together to help guide us – the two interlocked & formed a larger story – or rather, did fiction inspire the IRL takeaways or was it the other way round? I love that element to the evolution of the novel.

(*) revealled during @SatBookChat

Fantastical & Mythological elements:

→ Mythological elements heighten the para-Urban world

→ Light cords

→ Mythological overtures involving The Three Sisters (of Fate), Poseidon and Zeus

There are a lot of visuals percolating in the background of Stay including one visual refering to auras but also life & love – the chord of thread which unites couples together. These cords of light are predominately shown as one particular colouring but they alter as well. This element of the cords became one of my favourites in the story especially how insightful the threads developed towards intuiting truths which were hidden (from origin of sight).

For the keenly intuitive reader, you’ll pick up on the background elements surrounding the gods – especially their character traits, their quirks and their habits; there are things they can do which disclose who you are seeing in-line to the context of the story whilst other times, their there as an inspiration point which you can also detect as well as your reading. The beauty of course is going through the story, keeping your mind slightly suspended in the background and letting the ‘story’ itself guide you forward without putting too much empathsis on what your noticing and of whom you think is at the helm behind ‘the scenes’ so to speak!

Remember the first novel which garnished my interest into the collective works by Ms Silverwood was “Silver Hollow”! As you can tell, I love how she finds ways to insert us into a Mythological plotting with overtures of cross-genre delights!

Silver Hollow was originally released in 2012 and was meant to be turnt into a series. The original book is still available in public libraries whilst the newest release has been expanded both in length and as the first of a series installment. How did you initially choose to re-visit this story and to expound upon your idea you had to develop it into a fuller series past where it was originally published? What are the key differences between the 2012 novel readers might be familiar with already or might seek out ahead of the newest one being released through their libraries?

Silverwood responds: Despite its flaws, Silver Hollow has always been one of my favorite books and worlds to explore. I always knew I wanted to return. However, when I decided to finally began the sequel, I realized my writing voice had changed. And the more I read of the original, the more I wished to do things with the narrative I didn’t have the writing chops to pull off before. I began revisions by updating and smoothing out dialogue between characters. I also took out many confusing plot bunnies which never go anywhere (while leaving a few for future books ). One night I brainstormed what the revised Silver Hollow could look like and quickly outlined two more books. I had so many fresh ideas I wanted to explore and that was the deciding point. No matter how intense the expanding and revision process has been, I haven’t looked back.

This is partially what interested me in your story – how it arches back into Arthurian myth and lore – whilst finding it’s own roots within a fantastical world being built out of what you envisioned for your characters! I can definitely understand the growth you experienced as a writer re-visiting her original novel – as a fellow writer who went through Nanowrimo in 2008, the journey I took within the challenge was a journey back to ‘self’ wherein I re-discovered or rather, I re-claimed my own writerly soul! Sometimes, the best thing we can do as a writer is to take a firm step back and then, re-emerge into our fictional worlds years later and finding both the story and our imaginations renewed!

-quoted from my interview with Ms Silverwood about Silver Hollow

This book review is courtesy of the author:
Jennifer Silverwood & Prism Book Tours

whilst cross-sharing during #Mythothon:

Readers of #Mythothon will love finding out Orona, Seid & Cain are involved in a unique story-line which is practically a homage to Greek #Mythology in effect how gods can affect humanity and vs versa; especially as Silverwood based Seid on Poseidon. There are other key references which inter-relate to Mythos and part of the joy of reading Stay is sorting that out for yourself. To see where your own inclinations are leading you to consider possible within the time-line of the story.

Which stories of Mythos are you reading this month? And which Greek Gods and/or Goddesses have you been reading about which you think I might enjoy discovering myself? Have you found stories about Poseidon & Zeus?

{SOURCES: Book covers for “Stay” and “Silver Hollow”, book synopsis, author biography, author photograph of Jennifer Silverwood, promo badge for “Stay” and the author banner for Jennifer Silverwood were all provided by the author Jennifer Silverwood and are used with permission. Post dividers badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: #SaturdaysAreBookish banner the Comment Box Banner.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2018.

I am a social reader | I love tweeting my reading life

It takes a unity of all four truly and then some to build a solid relationship which not only can last but which can re-strengthen, re-shape & evolve over time to be as enjoyable as it was when it was first developed; lots of truths in STAY #SatBookChat

— #SatBookChat (@SatBookChat) November 17, 2018

Now why do I not find this surprising!? lol No, seriously, even in the opening chapters I had a feeling there was going to be more to this sequence & story; you wrote it from such a strong place of self & centre; I felt there was 'more' to be said #SatBookChat Go YOU! :)

— #SatBookChat (@SatBookChat) November 17, 2018

#JorieReads | #Mythothon
RE: Poseidon, etc@JennSilverwood created Orona's immortality where you can definitely see how Orona is a step 'out of time' & how she doesn't always find herself able to make the transition.#SaturdaysAreBookish | #SatBookChat
🌊https://t.co/lVKDy9ugUl pic.twitter.com/oLtIbngnVb

— Jorie Story 📖🎧 (@joriestory) November 18, 2018

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• #Mythothon 2018