Welcome to my tour stop for “Someone in Time”! I am a reader who appreciates finding Speculative Fiction anthologies – especially when they are curated anthologies which focus on a particular theme or subject inclusive to all the stories in a collection. I have the tendency of reading more Fantasy anthologies than Science Fiction which is why when I saw this collection was going on a blog tour – I was most excited! Especially as the concept behind the theme was the intriguing concept of time travelling or time shifting – one of my favourite subniches in literature to chase after as there are numerous ways in which time can become ‘bent’ into a story.
The trifecta of time which I regularly have featured on Jorie Loves A Story are the following: time slip, time shift and time travel narratives as each of them holds a different key of entrance for the reader. The trickiest ones of course are the time slip stories wherein your generally slipping in time between two distinctive timescapes whilst each of those eras hold their own secrets and their own timeline of the story as you move betwixt and between their parts. When it came to the concept for this collection – I was hoping the stories wouldn’t be as soul-crushing as “The Time Traveller’s Wife” but would instead be a bit more hopeful and inspiring.
I had fully planned to read through the collection this month but as the hours went forward these latter weeks of May, I realised I needed to push my review into June and spotlight the collection for the blog tour. Between work and my health, I was just stretched a bit thin and this past weekend I’ve been working through a low-grade migraine which hasn’t been the easiest either. Therefore enjoy the extract I’ve chosen to share today and return next month as I expand my thoughts into the collection of stories themselves and see where “Someone in Time” takes me as a reader. Meanwhile, if you are a ready reader of time narratives – I encourage you to share your favourite time bending stories with me and see if perhaps I’ve read or heard of some of them, too!
Whilst you might have noticed I’m focusing on Fantasy throughout the month as well – as I’m co-hosting @WyrdAndWonder. There will be loads of new content featuring those stories as well as we move into our final week and a half of the event. Everyone has been gracious providing content for everyone to enjoy this year across socially bookish channels and we’re all delighted to see the event grow into such a larger and expansive community; similar to how Sci Fi Month found its own wings to fly several years ago.
Time-travel is a way for writers to play with history and imagine different futures – for better, or worse.
When romance is thrown into the mix, time-travel becomes a passionate tool, or heart-breaking weapon. A time agent in the 22nd century puts their whole mission at risk when they fall in love with the wrong person. No matter which part of history a man visits, he cannot not escape his ex. A woman is desperately in love with the time-space continuum, but it doesn’t love her back. As time passes and falls apart, a time-traveller must say goodbye to their soulmate.
With stories from best-selling and award-winning authors such as Seanan McGuire, Alix E. Harrow and Nina Allan, this anthology gives a taste for the rich treasure trove of stories we can imagine with love, loss and reunion across time and space.
Edited by Jonathan Strahan and including stories by: Alix E. Harrow, Zen Cho, Seanan McGuire, Sarah Gailey, Jeffrey Ford, Nina Allan, Elizabeth Hand, Lavanya Lakshminarayan, Catherynne M. Valente, Sam J. Miller, Rowan Coleman, Margo Lanagan, Sameem Siddiqui, Theodora Goss, Carrie Vaughn, Ellen Klages
Welcome to my tour stop for “Under Fortunate Stars”! I have been toying with the idea of spending Sundays focusing on my love of Science Fiction as whenever November comes round for @SciFiMonth (ie. #SciFiMonth) I have the tendency of being unable to get into all the lovelies I want to read during that singular month. I felt expanding my focuses to be curated year-round whilst doing a concentration of SciFi during November might be the better route to take moving forward! Therefore, I’ll be either sharing reviews, features, interviews (such as this one!) or spotlights – or other such posts during my newly established #SciFiSundays showcases on Jorie Loves A Story.
This weekend, I had hoped to read and focus on the story ‘Under Fortunate Stars’ however, my copy from the publisher hasn’t yet arrived – though, I did recently find out there is an audiobook edition which released ahead of the hardcover this June. I will have to keep you posted on which edition of the story I read which is why I changed my tour stop from a review to a spotlight. I would have loved to have assembled an interview for you all to enjoy today however, my May was wrecked with a lot of difficult work days whilst my health suffered a bit as well. I’m thereby thankful there was an extract I could select and feature instead of being able to absorb myself into this world myself.
The reason I wanted to read or listen to “Under Fortunate Stars” was due to my previous readings of “The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet” (see also Post) and the expansively engrossing The Clan Chronicles by Julie E. Czerneda. (see also Reviews) I enjoy becoming invested in a story or series set inside a ship environment whilst also focusing on the characters who either have circumstances they have to overcome or have a unique situation happen to them and you get the joy of taking that journey alongside them.
Whilst you might have noticed I’m focusing on Fantasy throughout the month as well – as I’m co-hosting @WyrdAndWonder. There will be loads of new content featuring those stories as well as we move into our final week and a half of the event. Everyone has been gracious providing content for everyone to enjoy this year across socially bookish channels and we’re all delighted to see the event grow into such a larger and expansive community; similar to how Sci Fi Month found its own wings to fly several years ago.
Fleeing the final days of the generations-long war with the alien Felen, smuggler Jereth Keeven’s freighter the Jonah breaks down in a strange rift in deep space, with little chance of rescue—until they encounter the research vessel Gallion, which claims to be from 152 years in the future.
The Gallion’s chief engineer Uma Ozakka has always been fascinated with the past, especially the tale of the Fortunate Five, who ended the war with the Felen. When the Gallion rescues a run-down junk freighter, Ozakka is shocked to recognize the Five's legendary ship—and the Five's famed leader, Eldric Leesongronski, among the crew.
But nothing else about Leesongronski and his crewmates seems to match up with the historical record. With their ships running out of power in the rift, more than the lives of both crews may be at stake...
Welcome to my tour stop for “A Suffragette in Time”! For my readers who have been visiting with me over the past eight years, they will remember several years ago I stumbled across Feminist Historical Fiction narratives – many of which centred or featured the Suffragette movements – across continents and sometimes took space in different places of the overall story behind the fight for Women’s Rights, Equality and the hard won path all women took to secure a future which had more freedoms than were given in the past. Through those readings, I came to learn about the ‘bigger names’ in the Women’s Rights movements and the lesser known heroes of the movement as well who played key roles in getting our rights to become part of the mainstream conversations.
I won’t lie – some of those stories were challengingly difficult to read due to the content and the honest depictions the authors chose to highlight of those women’s lives whilst at the same time – it was fittingly right to read those narratives at those points in time as I was shifting my focus in Historical Fiction (away from war dramas) and I wanted to dive more into the heart of Historical Women’s Fiction as much as Feminist Historical Fiction. For awhile I took up residence in those stories, most of which as said were based on historical facts, living persons and events which shaped History from a women’s point of perspective.
Other stories I’ve read over the years, touch on those topics but not with such hard-hitting plot points or lead characters as they are more a rounding of History than a living account of History. Hence, when I saw the name of this book going on tour this month and looked at the plot within it – as I have a penchant for travelling through time – whether directly inside a time travelling narrative or by journeying through different portals of historical reference in the stories I’m reading – time has a trifecta in fiction which keenly interests me as a reader. As you can time travel, shift in time (ie. time shift stories) or you can slip in time as well (ie. time slip stories). Whichever way an author chooses to focus on ‘time’, there is a level of immediate curiosity in me to see how they’ve presented that choice and to see how their vision of featuring time in the background of their story percolates through their character’s journey.
For this blog tour, I had intended to interview the author – however, kindly due to my work schedule and catching a 24 hour flu (which if you’ve ever had one yourself, know the recovery isn’t as quick as it attacks you!) — I was grateful the author had a special guest post I could share in lieu of the conversation I was planning to send over for the tour. This is definitely a story I would like to read in future (in a print edition) and hope this Top Ten List might spark interest in you to pick up the story as well. Especially considering there are many points of interest on her route through History which equally intrigue me to visit as well! So happy someone else wanted to spend time with Jane – I’ll be featuring a lot of lovely reviews and ruminations about Austen this December, too – look for my #Austentide features coming soon!
Thrown back in time to the 1850s, Sarah Burns transforms herself into a suffragette. But traveling the speaking circuit can be risky in a time when men believe a woman’s place is in the home. It can be downright dangerous when she shares the stage with anti-slavery activists whose fiery rhetoric triggers violence.
Her uneasy alliance with an arrogant abolitionist may be heading toward romance, but it’s a bumpy road with perilous obstacles, including slave hunters intent on kidnapping anyone they can sell down south. Living with a family operating a station on the Underground Railroad doesn’t make life any easier.
A Suffragette in Time is a fast-paced time travel story set against the backdrop of one of the most acrimonious periods in American history, as the fight over slavery escalates toward the American Civil War. Danger, romance and one woman’s personal battle to make the world a better place.
Acquired Book By: I had to take a leave of absence hosting for this touring company in [2015] whilst I worked towards finding better balance in my blogging and personal life. I returnt to hosting for Lola’s Book Tours in [2018] before having to take a small hiatus from requesting future blog tours for a second time. By [2020] as my health afflictions from 2018/19 started to recede I realised I could start to host for her authors with better confidence in being able to participate on the tours themselves. I am thankful I can continue to host and feature tours by this touring company from 2020-forward.
I received a complimentary copy of “The Twin Stars” direct from the author Bridgette Dutta Portman in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Why this story inspired me to read it:
Portal Fantasy is something I stumbled into in recent years – as I hadn’t come through that vortex of the genre previously. I wasn’t the right fit for Narnia (even though I enjoyed the first and third film adaptations) and I definitely was the kid who couldn’t stop watching “The Neverending Story”. What was interesting for me in your synopsis was the parallels to Neverending Story – how Bastian had to read and then live through the story which felt similar in context to your own character’s journey. I love stories which evoke such a strong reaction and connection between the world, the characters and the reader.
This is why this story appealled to me – as well as the self evolution and growth of Olive. I love coming-of age stories personally and I felt this was an interesting cross-section of why I love reading both MG and YA stories.
From the first moment I learnt of this story, I felt a pull of connection and knew I needed to feature it. I wasn’t sure at the time I signed on for the blog tour if I would be interviewing the author, hosting an extract or able to request the story for review consideration – but I felt as strong of a pull to have this story in my life this year as I have with other selections I’ve featured previously during our 4th Year of Wyrd And Wonder! There was something uniquely different about this story and I had a sense about this world as being one I would find delishly devouring about how the writer wrote the story and allowed us into her character’s journey.
During #SelfPubFantasyMonth in September, I am curating a ‘final week’ of #WyrdAndWonder posts whilst endeavouring to carry forward further readings of Self Pub Fantasy novelists. Tied into those plans will be a forthcoming interview with Ms Portman as I wasn’t able to pull that together for this blog tour due to chaotically brutal lightning storms & a myriad of tech issues I had to work through just to finish this review.
I love finding writers who are writing coming-of age stories in Speculative Young Adult – the kind of stories you almost wish had been available to read during your own childhood but feel equally as blessed to find as an adult as YA doesn’t have an exit clause for readers! Everyone can appreciate YA at any age which is why I wanted to celebrate #MyYASummer all along.
A magical journal. A world savaged by its own suns. An evil prince. A princess in hiding. And a teenage girl who learns to be the hero of her own story.
Sixteen-year-old Olive Joshi has obsessive-compulsive disorder, and can't stop worrying about hurting the people she loves. She finds refuge in writing about Coseema, a magical princess on a distant planet. Coseema is fearless, confident, and perfect - everything Olive thinks she’ll never be. When she falls through a portal into her own unfinished story, Olive finds herself in a world in peril: double suns scorch the land, the brutal Prince Burnash seeks supreme power, and Coseema is nowhere to be found. Together with her friends - a bold poet, a cursed musician, a renegade soldier, and an adventurous girl from the desert - Olive will have to face her deepest fears to find the hero in herself.
The Twin Stars is an engrossing new portal fantasy in the spirit of the Wizard of Oz, the Neverending Story,and the Chronicles of Narnia.
Ahead of reading my reactions to “The Twin Stars”
ENJOY this short extract of the novel which parlays into the ‘portal’:
She was underwater.
Olive realized it just in time to stop herself from gasping. Panic seared through her body as she thrashed about, kicking downward, tearing at the water uselessly.
There was nothing solid around her.
Murky darkness flooded her eyes; a churning roar filled her ears. Just as her starved lungs neared their limit, her left knee collided with something sharp and firm. She kicked and her foot met rock. She brought her other foot to the same position and pushed off the surface as hard as she could, propelling her body through the water.
The diminishing pain in her ears told her she was traveling upward, moving amidst an effervescence of tiny bubbles. She felt them swirling, fizzing, tickling her flesh, bearing her up toward the light as she begged her tortured lungs to hold out for another few seconds until, at last, she broke the surface.
Air.
At first, she could do nothing but devour it. When the haze of panic dissipated and her senses returned, her next coherent thought was that the plane had crashed. But this was not the icy water of the Arctic Ocean. This water felt like a warm bath. It bubbled like soda, and great plumes of vapor waltzed over its surface, spiraling upward until they melted into a golden haze. It reminded Olive of steam rising from mug. It might have been pleasant had she not nearly drowned in it.
The strange pool had a vague familiarity to it, but her head felt too muddled to sort it out.
Where was she? Where was the plane?
It crossed Olive’s mind that she was dead, and the thought sent a chill through her, but her sore knee and aching lungs reassured her. People weren’t supposed to feel pain after death, and they definitely shouldn’t need to breathe.
She treaded water, scanning her surroundings. She thought she saw movement through the curls of steam and paddled toward it, her knee smarting with each kick. Gradually the silhouette of something—no, someone—took shape as she moved through the plumes. At last, her feet touched the jagged, pebbly ground, and with a final rush of adrenaline, she pushed herself forward into the shallows. There she crouched in the warm water and stared up at the figure on the bank.
For a heartbeat, she thought it was Dadiji.
The woman had the same slight stoop, the same gently lined face, the same warm brown skin and long black hair frosted with silver. She was dressed differently, though; this woman wore deep crimson robes, with a fluted, draping cut that reminded Olive of an illustration she had once seen of an ancient Greek poet. A patch covered her right eye. Her left eye was a startlingly vivid purple, and it stared back at the young stranger who had just emerged from the steamy pool.
This was not Dadiji, and yet there was something jarringly familiar about the woman. Not until she spoke did Olive realize what it was.
“Coseema…” breathed the woman.
So, this was a dream. Olive felt a surge of relief. It did not seem like one—her knee throbbed with a very real pain—but this had to be a dream, because she was staring at a person she had made up herself.
The Coseema Saga:
The Twin Stars (book one)
The Silver Sail (book two) *forthcoming release!
(there is a sneak preview of what is coming next @ the end of “The Twin Stars”)
I marked this as Upper YA due to the topics & subjects explored in the context of the story as well as how dark this fantasy turned in the final quarter of the novel. I felt it was better suited for Upper YA readers rather than for readers seeking traditional YA.
Converse on Twitter via: #YALit or #ILoveYA; #PortalFantasy + #SpaceOpera
as well as #TheTwinStars and #YAFantasy and #SciFantasy and #DarkFantasy
About Bridgette Dutta Portman
Bridgette Dutta Portman is an author, playwright, and teaching artist. Dozens of her plays have been produced across the United States and overseas. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Spalding University, as well as a PhD in political science from the University of California, Irvine.
She is past president of the Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco and is currently a member of Same Boat Theater Collective, the Pear Playwrights’ Guild, and the Dramatists’ Guild. She recently joined the board of the Pear Theatre in Mountain View, CA. The Twin Stars is her debut novel, and the first of a planned trilogy. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband Deepanshu and their two young children.
Acquired Book By: I had to take a leave of absence hosting for this touring company in [2015] whilst I worked towards finding better balance in my blogging and personal life. I returnt to hosting for Lola’s Book Tours in [2018] before having to take a small hiatus from requesting future blog tours for a second time. By [2020] as my health afflictions from 2018/19 started to recede I realised I could start to host for her authors with better confidence in being able to participate on the tours themselves. I am thankful I can continue to host and feature tours by this touring company from 2020-forward.
I received a complimentary bound manuscript ARC copy of “Sleeping Beauty and the Cursed Code” direct from the author Emma Jean in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
I will admit, I saw this week going differently than it had – who would have suspected that my rescheduled tour date for this lovely blog tour (shifted from Monday to Friday) would have been further stalled out my even more intensive storms than the weekend prior? I also lost ALL internet connectivity and had to have a full system replacement (blessedly, courtesy of my provider – who even wants to contemplate what that would have cost?) but it robbed me of all the hours I have to read and blog. Not to mention, I logged on early this Friday morning to get a jump-start on my post and to see if I could make further headway than I had – only to have my computer slam me into a locked out state of updates itself! (angry smirks)
I decided to keep this as a reduced review – to where I talk about what I’ve found inside the first twenty-five pages of the story, my thoughts on the characters and how the story is being presented thus far along. I work a lot of double shifts and with the compounded angst of weather & storms (which yes is par usual for Summers in my region) it is further difficult as I’m not generally out in them whilst working — however, you could say, this year has been a year of changes and that has been a bit of a challenge in of itself to work through. I miss reading and just having downtime to listen to Spotify and/or queue up an audiobook. This week was exhausting because I didn’t have a way to unwind after work and the long shifts – whilst wondering if any trees would be spared due to the heaviness of the lightning. The kind that makes you jump even as an adult because its such a strong force of natural phenom crackling right outside your windows!
I pray all is well elsewhere where you all are reading yourselves – where weather and climate isn’t putting a wench into your plans and you’ve been able to soak into some wicked good stories! One note of awesomeness is the beautiful LARGE manuscript ARC I received for this blog tour! I always have to get used to double spaced manuscripts – as I personally don’t use that format as a writer, as it messes with my line reads and eyes a bit — however, the font was graciously large and the book itself was such a delight to have to read as I felt it was a kind transition for a work weary reader such as myself!! This is similar to why I enjoy reading Harlequin Heartwarming in large print as well — sometimes a girl needs a gentle way to ease back into her stories!
Sleeping Beauty's thirteenth birthday looms on the horizon as she and her friends hole up in the cursed princess lab, determined to prove that science and technology can defeat dark magic and save the kingdom from 100 years of cursed sleep.
Converse on Twitter via: #STEM #FairyTale
as well as #SleepingBeauty Retelling and #EmmaJean
About Emma Jean
Emma Jean writes books for children of all ages.
She lives in Massachusetts, near the Mayflower (the one the Pilgrims sailed on... or at least a pretty good replica), with her husband, two sons and one troublesome Basset Hound.
She studied Creative Writing at Holy Cross then earned her Masters in School Counseling at Assumption College.
She spent years working in adolescent mental health both in academic and therapeutic settings. Like her reporters in the Charles McCheese series, she found time to travel the world, helping with the Katrina clean up effort in New Orleans, studying abroad in Sri Lanka, and working alongside the Peace Corps. in Armenia. She worked with the Red Cross and counseled children in some of the toughest cities in Massachusetts.
Someone in Time
Under Fortunate Stars
A Suffragettte in Time
The Twin Stars
Sleeping Beauty and the Cursed Code