Acquired Digital Audiobook by: I am a new blog tour hostess with Audiobookworm Promotions wherein I have the opportunity to receive audiobooks for review or adoption (reviews outside of organised blog tours) and host guest features on behalf of authors and narrators alike. I started hosting for Audiobookworm Promotions at the end of [2016] during “The Cryptic Lines” tour wherein I became quite happily surprised how much I am now keen on listening to books in lieu of reading them in print. My journey into audiobooks was prompted by a return of my chronic migraines wherein I want to offset my readings with listening to the audio versions.
I received a complimentary audiobook copy of “Halfway Bitten” via the publicist at Audiobookworm Promotions (of whom was working directly with the author Terry Maggert) in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Why I am so wicked thrilled to be reading this YA #Paranormal series:
In case you’ve missed my full ruminations on behalf of the first novel in this wonderfully witchy series, please direct your mouse to Halfway Dead!
You immediately warm to Carlie – her charm is her forthright attitude where conjectured insight into her hometown and the area in which she calls home is slightly more ‘quirky’ than she is herself! For instance, your senses overtake the setting on sight – this is a cold (by temperature) environ which could be seen as ‘off-putting’ to others but to Carlie, it’s more than just the place she’s chosen to lay her hat, it’s her ‘home’. Home to Carlie isn’t just where you feel comfortable or where you can score a wicked awesome job at the local diner a stone’s throw from your residence (not only saving on petrol but medically speaking, her digits are never in danger of frost bite!) wherein you never quite feel as if the stark contrast of the natural world is inhibiting your prospects. Not that Carlie is shy when it comes to nature; if anything, she finds solace inside the hidden realms of where forest and stream meet the sky and cast untold amounts of wisdom into the whispering quiet hum of the natural order bubbling to life all round her whilst crossing her path with a lightness not found amongst urbanites.
Her open honesty about her unconventional life is refreshingly brilliant to see captured in a Young Adult story with a heroine who embraces her moxie and chooses to find a stitching of nonchalant monologue where she encourages you to listen to her tale(s) with an open mind and an imagination to knit out the rounding of the fantastical which just happen to be her mainstay of peculiar ‘happenings’. -part of my reactions to Halfway Dead
Can we talk about aesthetics & cover art designs!?
One thing I consistently talk about here on Jorie Loves A Story is how if a story doesn’t pull me into it’s orbit & theshold – the art on the cover or inside it’s interior becomes art to appreciate rather than a part of the experience of the story itself. When I find a story or a series such as Halfway Witchy, I find myself over the moon thrilled to bits to exclaim my bookish glee in finding cheekily clever cover art sporting a fiercely Indie YA Paranormal series with the aplomb appeal of announcing itself as one part quirky and a heaping spoonful of eclectically wicked! Case in point!?
I *love!* my cuppa tea | chai | Americano Miso / Espresso Lattes – but to take the tea cup itself and direct your eye to how it dangles on a finger whilst evoking a tattoo-vibe of book titles with the quirky eclectic artsy style of a White Witch you begin to soak into the aesthetics of the series your reading (or listening too, as is the case with me!). Each of the designs evoke something extraordinarily ordinary about Carlie and her witchy spirit of mind. It’s part of the appeal to her character’s personality but also, it’s a telling visual aide when you’re already attached to a character & her world.
They also dimensionally differ from one another on a score of layers of intrigue & the deepening reality of Carlie’s life. The first cover started off on the footing of innocence & familial pride; the second shows the conflictions of a witch and the third – wells, it proves this horror on the side of cosy I can handle is going to pull out the punches to keep me firmly on the border between straight-up Horror and Cosy Horror (the realm in which I can traverse without nightmares!).
I think it also shows character growth and the building of Carlie’s internal and external worlds colliding into a singular experience only she can voice and tell. I caught a wink of a nod towards a FOURTH! novel in this series being written and I can only hope the momentum that is building thus far along will not only continue in the series but lead us to itch to devour the next installments with the same zest of bookish anticipation for the continuity & the conflict of drama intermixed with the realities of small towne life, white magic and the supportive arm of family & friends.
And, maybe just a smidge of that Cosy Horror cheeky humour I’ve come to love so much, too! I mean,… it *is!* definitively a stand-out in it’s genre for proving how well-timed comedic moments and a spunky heroine can make you sit into a smile whilst bracing yourself for what comes into your view on the next page turn,…
As much as I lamented this about the author who penned the tale:
The way in which Mr Maggert approaches all of this is with sensitivity and compassion; he presents both sides and let’s the reader make up their own mind about what they want to takeaway from the novel. Like most Young Adult novelists I have come to appreciate finding (and he is now amongst them!) – they stitch into the fabric of their stories life lessons, cautionary insight and a global conscience of time-sensitive realities to help ensure that all future and current generations are armed with knowledge and insight into what could theoretically impact their daily lives. Either on a quasi personal level or on an intuitively observational level – however which the reader chooses to consume the information provided, it will be a stepping stone towards unveiling the larger picture.
In many ways, this is why Children’s Lit across the spectrum (i.e. Picture Books, Chapter Books, Juvenile Fiction and YA) play such an important role in endeavouring to give children and teens a measure of a breath of what is currently affecting our world. It leads to empathy but also to understanding; if the conversations are not broached at home or in school, there are stories that can encourage a mind to open to a concept not yet introduced. In this, Maggert excells and it was a true pleasure to watch how he enticed young readers who are mature enough to embrace a slightly Upper YA Paranormal Suspense novel to broaden their horizons whilst everything is cast into a fantasy world where the supernatural and current events collide.
Halfway Bitten Subtitle: Take a bite out of evil
The circus came to Halfway, and they brought the weird. When clowns, vampires, and corpses start piling up in town, Carlie has to break away from her boyfriend, Wulfric, to bring her witchy skills to the table- or grill, as the case may be. When the body of a young woman washes up in the lake, it unleashes a spiral of mystery that will bring Carlie, Gran, and Wulfric into a storm of magical warfare.
Spells will fly. Curses will rain. Amidst it all, Carlie will make waffles, protect her town, and find out if a man from the distant past can join her in happy ever after. With love and honor at stake, Carlie has no peer.
Digital composite of Wooden table with library background. Halfway Witchy book series collage provided by Audiobookworm Promotions; used with permission.
About Terry Maggert
Left-handed. Father of an apparent nudist. Husband to a half-Norwegian. Herder of cats and dogs. Lover of pie. I write books. I've had an unhealthy fascination with dragons since the age of-- well, for a while. Native Floridian. Current Tennessean. Location subject to change based on insurrection, upheaval, or availability of coffee. Nine books and counting, with no end in sight. You've been warned.
Acquired Digital Audiobook by: I am a new blog tour hostess with Audiobookworm Promotions wherein I have the opportunity to receive audiobooks for review or adoption (reviews outside of organised blog tours) and host guest features on behalf of authors and narrators alike. I started hosting for Audiobookworm Promotions at the end of [2016] during “The Cryptic Lines” tour wherein I became quite happily surprised how much I am now keen on listening to books in lieu of reading them in print. My journey into audiobooks was prompted by a return of my chronic migraines wherein I want to offset my readings with listening to the audio versions.
I received a complimentary audiobook copy of “Halfway Dead” via the publicist at Audiobookworm Promotions (of whom was working directly with the author Terry Maggert) in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Why I am so wicked happy about tucking into a Paranormal Suspense:
I have the tendency to appreciate certain Paranormal Suspense, Mystery and Thrillers which are just this side of Cosy Horror but occasionally push the envelope to take me straight out of my personal comfort zones. This began when I was a teenager who would try to blink away the grittier scenes attached to The X-Files, smiled at the irony of enjoying Buffy the Vampire Slayer and happily enjoyed most of the Charmed series before the serial took off into a tangent of nonsense that truly was utterly pointless.
As a reader, it’s quite a hard needle to thread – which Paranormal novelists are curating stories I can handle or even find pleasure in reading when my bookish heart is quite sensitive to most overtly horrific and grisly scenes too oft found inside the genre itself!? This is why I have the tendency to lean more towards PNR (or Paranormal Romance) but even then, I am quite particularly particular; seeking out the stories where the relationships and the paranormal elements can walk hand in hand without giving me that jolt of something quite horrific or a nightmaric ghoulish feast that would leave me wrecked for dreamscapes afterwards.
The balance of course, is one part world-building to where setting, texture and sound of a narrative can fully immerse me into an ‘other place’ for the spell I send inside it but not overtly dark or without light, because I am not entirely the kind of reader who can cosy up into a Dystopian-esque world either. I like sophisticated layers and humour that is not in the gutter whilst the scenes where something quite fowl takes place can have the ability to pull-back and off-set the reality of that moment with either compassion, mercy or a somberness that befits the scene. Strong characters and a cheeky inclusion of wit or banterment would be most ideal; but I also, happen to love the ‘unexpected’. The moments you cannot foresee coming ahead of time and how the psychological suspenseful bits also can encourage you to get properly lost in the story.
Whatever it is I’m seeking as it depends on the sub-genre, the premise and the overall conjecture of what a story could elude to including – I like to seek out unique voices in fiction. I prefer to find the writers who have something intrinsically their own and a way of crafting a story that is both informative (for whichever sub-focus they include) and wicked entertaining on the other end! I like to rally behind characters who are in the middle of their journey and of whom interact with an eclectic supporting cast of people or creatures you might never suspect would become such a crucial point of the story itself.
Thus, I decided to take a chance on the Halfway Witchy series; as the author originally found me on Twitter whilst he was promoting another novel of his (Heartborn) which I was on the fence about for nearly the duration of it’s blog tour. It was only after following the tour route and reading a few incredibly personal reviews of it’s contents, I realised I was most intrigued by this author! I ended up adopting a copy of the audiobook (of which I will be featuring in a few short weeks) for review consideration and found myself pulled into the orbit of this universe – the Witchy world of Carlie.
I originally began listening to this audiobook soon after I received it and a few moments whilst my Dad was first brought home recovering from his stroke. As I mentioned on Twitter to the author, finding this series was a lovely blessing of joy; and as I move through the series, I look forward to exploring what I like about this curious section of literature which continues to draw my eye. As sometimes what appeals to me to read (or listen too) isn’t quite what you might think would be on my palette of stories but has something contained within it’s chapters that is wholly original and happily consumed. Sometimes we all have to embrace our quirky natures and as readers, I think we’re naturally quirky!
Carlie McEwan loves many things. She loves being a witch. She loves her town of Halfway, NY - a tourist destination nestled on the shores of an Adirondack lake. Carlie loves her enormous familiar, Gus, who is 25 pounds of judgmental Maine Coon cat, and she positively worships her grandmother, a witch of incredible power and wisdom. Carlie spends her days cooking at the finest - and only - real diner in town, and her life is a balance between magic and the mundane, just as she likes it.
When a blond stranger sits at the diner counter and calls her by name, that balance is gone. Major Pickford asks Carlie to lead him into the deepest shadows of the forest to find a mythical circle of chestnut trees, thought lost to forever to mankind. There are ghosts in the forest, and one of them cries out to Carlie across the years. Come find me.
Danger, like the shadowed pools of the forest, can run deep. The danger is real, but Carlie's magic is born of a pure spirit. With the help of Gus, and Gran, and a rugged cop who really does want to save the world, she'll fight to bring a ghost home, and deliver justice to a murderer who hides in the cool, mysterious green of a forest gone mad with magic.
Left-handed. Father of an apparent nudist. Husband to a half-Norwegian. Herder of cats and dogs. Lover of pie. I write books. I've had an unhealthy fascination with dragons since the age of-- well, for a while. Native Floridian. Current Tennessean. Location subject to change based on insurrection, upheaval, or availability of coffee. Nine books and counting, with no end in sight. You've been warned.
Acquired Book By: Winning the bookaway attached to #HistoricalFix (see Info) when we talked about Cosy Horror & Historical Fiction stories – of which Haunted was one of the featured stories! The chat took place on 20th of October, 2015 and yielded a HUGE List of Next Reads suggested by everyone who took part in the chat itself! Cat Winters and Katherine Howe also attended giving me such a wicked awesome chat to participate inside as I have been wanting to read Howe & Winters for awhile! Ms Carthage and I enjoyed meeting up as well, due to our like-minded interests. The books given away during the chat are part of the fun and are always unexpected as they are essay-based where you have to respond to Questions; best replies win.
I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein nor was I obligated to post a review on behalf of “Haunted”. I am posting this review for my own personal edification after having enjoyed reading the story.
A bit of a backstory:
Originally, when I first caught sight of the Haunted blog tour being adverted as an upcoming event this Spring 2015, there was a strong draw for me to want to participate on it! After all, I have shared my first review on reading ghost stories (The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton), joined my first Horror October, expressed why I’m a Cosy Horror Girl, shared my top favourite Classic Horror Motion Pictures, and compiled a list of book series which are definitely bent towards the paranormal! As you will see from those previous blog posts I’ve written, there are aspects of the Horror genre I never quite realised I was enthralled with myself, as I always felt I was living outside the genre completely! Sometimes it takes an event like Horror October hosted by the girls @ Oh, the Books! to set your mind straight! Laughs.
Instinctively, I hopped on Twitter to see if Ms Carthage was online (not that instant, but in general!), as I have come to appreciate finding authors I am keen on reading are participating in reader to author connections via Twitter; as it allows the readers (such as I) to ask pertinent questions which might arise out of reading a book synopsis or an excerpt (if one is available). What followed was a happenstance conversation, where a reader enjoyed getting to know an author outside the scope of being able to read the novel! I asked a few direct questions, as I was a bit on the fence as whether or not I could read this novel as it might take me too far outside my comfort zones along the lines of what is seen or unseen in the novel itself.
I’m definitely *the Cosy Horror Girl* at heart, as I have to weigh what I want to read with what I can handle as I have a sensitive heart. Always feeling being honest about this upfront is best, I did share my concerns, and as we talked a bit more about Haunted and our personal likes in books, I decided I truly felt I would love to interview Ms Carthage in lieu of reading the book for her blog tour! The elements of the paranormal within the series is still keenly intriguing to me, and there was a heap about the setting and atmosphere she stitched into it which lit my imagination aflame with curiosity!
The book cover art alone has all the lovely bits I appreciate about what can be considered an epic Gothic suspense, as you have the house barely seen through the misty fog, the young protagonist’s field of vision not focused on what is in front of her but what is unseen to the side, and the colour dimensions give it a purely haunting feel, encouraging your will to want to read this in order to see where the layers enfold and retreat from what is visually representative in the art itself!
Therefore, I am quite happy to bring to you, dear hearts, the conversation I pulled together out of inspiration from our original twitterverse convo intermixed with bits and bobbles I discovered about her book series whilst composing my thoughts on this interview! I hope you enjoy the conversation!
However, this wasn’t the end of my connection with the book, the series or the author! We honestly liked talking to each other, not just in the interview but in the twitterverse, too! As the moons aligned, guess what happened?! We both found ourselves happily engaged inside the #HistoricalFix chats hosted by Ms McCabe (of the novel I Shall Shall Be Near to You) wherein we were participating in a chat that felt like it was primed to be exactly set for readers like us who love cosing up to a wicked Gothic story where hauntings, the supernatural and everything that makes you feel spooky are par for course!
I should say, the #HistoricalFix chats have become my tribe of like-minded bookish souls who hunger for captivating next reads, challenging historical fiction and stories that will tuck themselves into our hearts. We chat as if we’ve known each other for centuries rather than a mere year or so, where we only gather each quarter to chat up our latest reads, decipher the latest releases that have charmed our curiosities and exchange all the bookish delights you’d find at a book club!
Snippets of last October’s #HistoricalFix are captured below, along with the convo I had with Ms Carthage about her novel and Cosy Horror in general! ENJOY!
(tweets to return soon)
Something quite wicked happened during that particular #HistoricalFix – I changed my opinion about not reading HAUNTED and dearly wanted to read it afterall! This is why I participated in the essay-based bookaway challenge to see if I could add my hat to the mix! I was truly overjoyed and quite shocked I had won – it was one of the happiest moments truly, as it was such a lovely capstone to the chat! I had wanted to read the book soon after I had found it in my postbox, however, time and tides had a way of working against me last year – to where I took great care to make sure HAUNTED was part of my #HalloweenReads in 2016!
Lest I mention, the author enscribed a note to me in the book on Halloween, 2015!? The very day one year later I pick it up to read having forgotten she had done that!? SPOOKY!
Notation on Cover Art Design: I immediately loved what the cover evoked about the setting, the Gothic nature of the tale and the way in which you can be haunted in a hauntingly ethereal setting! I also started to notice the girl on the cover was being featured on other books as well; something I had mentioned to the author. Apparently others had noticed too, which is why there was a big celebration of sorts about this girl and her hair recently that drew attention not only to HAUNTED but two other novels who featured her. One thing I liked even more than the exterior design is the interior mirror that graces the chapter pages! There is something about that design and the way in which it presents itself that just felt ‘authentic’ to this story!
Haunted Subtitle: The Arnaud Legacy
Sixteen-year-old Phoebe Irving has traded life in San Francisco for her stepfather’s ancestral mansion in rural England. It’s supposed to be the new start her family needs. But from the moment she crosses the threshold into the ancient estate, Phoebe senses something ominous. Then again, she’s a little sensitive lately—not surprising when her parents are oblivious to her, her old life is six thousand miles away, and the only guy around is completely gorgeous but giving her mixed messages.
But at least Miles doesn’t laugh at Phoebe’s growing fears. And she can trust him…maybe. The locals whisper about the manor’s infamous original owner, Madame Arnaud, and tell grim stories of missing children and vengeful spirits. Phoebe is determined to protect her loved ones—especially her little sister, Tabby. But even amidst the manor’s dark shadows, the deepest mysteries may involve Phoebe herself…
Lynn Carthage is a novelist living in Sacramento, California, near where the Gold Rush launched. Under her real name, she was a Bram Stoker Award finalist. Born in Vermont, Lynn has lived in Maine, Ireland, and Arizona. She reads voraciously, loves anything French, gets “itchy feet” to travel on a regular basis, and finds peace in the woods, in meadows, in nature. She has always been fascinated by how history allows us to imagine how people of the past lived and breathed and felt.
HAUNTED is her first young adult novel, and will be followed by the next two books in the Arnaud Legacy trilogy.
I wanted to create a bit of a niche on Jorie Loves A Story to showcase romance fiction steeped in relationships, courtships, and the breadth of marriage enveloped by characters written honestly whose lives not only endear you to them but they nestle into your heart as their story is being read!
I am always seeking relationship-based romance which strikes a chord within my mind’s eye as well as my heart! I’m a romantic optimist, and I love curling into a romance where I can be swept inside the past, as history becomes lit alive in the fullness of the narrative and I can wander amongst the supporting cast observing the principal characters fall in love and sort out if they are a proper match for each other!
I love how an Indie Publisher like ChocLitUK is such a positive alternative for those of us who do not identify ourselves as girls and women who read ‘chick-lit’. I appreciate the stories which alight in my hands from ChocLit as much as I appreciate the inspirational romances I gravitate towards because there is a certain level of depth to both outlets in romance which encourage my spirits and gives me a beautiful story to absorb! Whilst sorting out how promote my book reviews on behalf of ChocLit, I coined the phrase “ChocLitSaturdays”, which is a nod to the fact my ChocLit reviews & features debut on ‘a Saturday’ but further to the point that on the ‘weekend’ we want to dip into a world wholly ideal and romantic during our hours off from the work week!
Acquired Book By: I am a regular reviewer for ChocLitUK, where I hand select which books in either their backlist and/or current releases I would like to read next for my #ChocLitSaturdays blog feature. As of June 2016, I became a member of the ChocLit Stars Team in tandem with being on the Cover Reveal Team which I joined in May 2016. I reference the Stars as this is a lovely new reader contribution team of sending feedback to the publisher ahead of new book releases. As always, even if I’m involved with a publisher in this sort of fashion, each review is never influenced by that participation and will always be my honest impression as I read the story. Whether the author is one I have previously read or never had the pleasure to read until the book greets my shelf.
I received a complimentary copy of “Some Veil Did Fall” from ChocLit in exchange for an honest review! I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein. It should be noted ‘Some Veil Did Fall’ was requested prior to the two teams I joined on behalf of ChocLitUK. I simply have become more active with the Reveal Team & begun my journey as a ChocLit Star in-between receiving this novel and the day my review posts.
Why Jorie has such a hearty penchant for time slips & ghost stories:
For as long as I can remember, I have entertained a healthy appetite for the paranormal – especially in regards to Southern Gothic Literature, Paranormal Romance and Ghost Stories most definitely being at the top of the list of ‘must reads’ for my literary wanderings! It has taken quite a long while to sort out which authors truly whet a thirst of interest for me to read, as when I found the Ghost Harrison series by Heather Graham, I was truly thankful for the respite I found inside my ‘first!’ Graham novel: Ghost Walk set in New Orleans! Imagine my good fortune!? A ghost story and a romance all in one!
When I came to find out that Edith Wharton wrote ghost stories, I must say, I was rather chuffed to have found a copy of her paranormal stories through my local library’s ILL catalogue! As you can tell by the review I composed, I was quite wicked happy for the readings! More recently, I explored why I find the supernatural so very alluring when I reviewed Southern Haunts, an anthology series of Southern Gothic stories set in the realms of the paranormal! There simply is something to be said for that ‘elsewhere’ vibe to stories that bend time, setting, place and living history behind the backdrop of what cannot be seen but can surely be felt as being as real as the breath you see catch in a Wintry sky.
Now, when it comes to time slips, I’m equally motivated to soak inside a story that is hinged between timescapes and/or generational time intervals where characters or circumstances are equally tied together. One of the best impressions I had of how time can slip and affect characters so substantially as to directly affect the reader was within the story A Fall of Marigolds. If you want to read a story by an author whose conquered this genre with equal dexterity for writing convincing paranormal attributes into their back-stories, look no further than Christina Courtenay! My first reading by her was of The Silent Touch of Shadows wherein I was pleasantly taken for a wicked twist of an ending!
More recently I explored this theory in practice by my reading of The Memory Painter, where I was only slightly disappointed for the direction of the story’s core of heart, as it was the predictable route to go rather than the route less taken where I had hoped I’d venture instead. What gets me invested in both styles is the curious ‘unknowns’ that occupy the spaces between understanding what is physically happening to the character and how the mind can entreat inside an experience far outside the scope of where physical reality or science can explain it. This is one reason why I love watching episodes of The Ghost Whisperer as it’s a whole series in full pursuit of what walks between the veils of what is seen and unseen.
Notation on Cover Art: I shrank this image down for my readers – as the copy of the cover art to use on my review is such a blaring bright pink, it hurts your eyes in the larger format! The interesting bit is that IRL the book is lovely to hold & to look at as it’s not glaring! I even loved how it’s a combination of hot pink with blocked black imagery – I know it’s a particular style of art but for the life of me it’s eluding me right now to remember what it’s called! Laughs. I’m not a pink girl either – so hats off to Ms Stevens for creating a cover that made me smile!
What if you recalled memories from a life that wasn’t yours, from a life before…?
When Becky steps into Jonathon Nelson’s atmospheric photography studio in Whitby, she is simply a freelance journalist in search of a story. But as soon as she puts on the beautiful Victorian dress and poses for a photograph, she becomes somebody quite different…
From that moment on, Becky is overcome with visions and flashbacks from a life that isn’t her own – some disturbing and filled with fear.
As she and Jon begin to unravel the tragic mystery behind her strange experiences, the natural affinity they have for each other continues to grow and leads them to question … have they met somewhere before? Perhaps not just in this life but in another?
Kirsty lives in the North East of England with her husband and son. She won the English Heritage/Belsay Hall National Creative Writing competition in 2009 and has had articles and short stories published in Peoples Friend, The Weekly News, It’s Fate, Vintage Script, Ghost Voices and First Edition.
Her work also appears in several anthologies, incorporating such diverse themes as vampires, crime, angels and more.
Kirsty loves writing ghostly mysteries and interweaving fact and fiction. The research is almost as much fun as writing the book itself, and if she can add a wonderful setting and a dollop of history, that’s even better.
Her day job involves sharing a building with an eclectic collection of ghosts, which can often prove rather interesting.
Acquired Book By:I am a regular tour hostess for blog tours via Chapter by Chapter, where I receive opportunities to host Cover Reveals & Author Guest Features on behalf of the Indie Publisher Month9Books. I began hosting another Indie Publisher: Rebelight Publishing of whom I love the stories by their Middle Grade & YA authors during 2015.
This time around, it’s a new publisher who offered the chance to read an exciting new young adult novel inspired by the Brontë siblings: Charlotte (of whom I’m reading ‘Jane Eyre’), Branwell (of whom I never knew existed!), Emily and Anne. I am appreciating the diversity of choices being offered through Chapter by Chapter Blog Tours, as I am not only getting the chance to become introduced to new Indie Publishers but new writers of wicked good fiction for young readers! This is most inspiring as I love re-connecting with this generation of stories directly being crafted to readers of MG & YA from a Prospective Adoptive Mum and current Auntie of nieces/nephews point of view; inasmuch as a reader who found herself re-inspired by what she found inside the novels!
I received a complimentary copy of “Worlds by Ink and Shadow” direct from the publisher Amulet Books in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
A note about Charlotte and why I love Gothic Lit:
For a girl who has not yet finished her proper first reading of Jane Eyre it might seem a bit shocking to learn that Charlotte Brontë is amongst my favourite Classical authors to read! I appreciate a wide spectrum of literature as a rule, however, when it comes to the structure of Gothic Literature (both in Classical Lit and in Southern Gothic Lit) there is an undertone of suspense that lends itself towards the psychological analysis of fear and what can be perceived as fear by those who are placed inside a story whose narrative is meant to surprise it’s reader in more than one vein of thought.
I appreciate Mystery, Suspense, Thriller and Psychological Suspense (including those stories that are bent more readily towards Cosy Horror) in equal measures due to the nature of how intricate the writers who craft stories inside these layers of genre endeavour to take you on a visceral journey you may or may not imagine outside of their own vision. Gothic Lit for me is quite well suited to my appreciation for the mysterious and to be suspended inside a story that brokers itself to be equal parts fantastical and psychologically spellbinding.
I like to see where writers will take a Gothic tale – will they yield to the suspense within the hidden in-between or will they break my tolerance levels and go a bit too hard into the visual realms? I am quite Hitchcockian in wanting to keep quite a bit outside of view and fully feel the emotional anguish and the undercurrents of suspense by what can only be imagined. It isn’t oft I am in a position to explore a work of Gothic Lit, which is why each time I am able to pick up a work of narrative that befits this arm of literature, I am beyond delighted for the respite inside it’s story.
Notation about the Cover Art: I’ve blogged and actively tweeted about how ‘cover art’ by itself doesn’t sway me one way or another to read a novel; to be honest, if the premise of a story isn’t fetching in of itself, the cover art will not be the swing vote to convince me to read it. I have to feel something before I read a story: be that curiosity or a perk of interest towards seeing where the journey of a character takes me, *something!* must yield a flickerment of earnest desire to ‘know’ what happens as I open the pages of a novel. Stories are such personal experiences – however, I normally do not cross-compare a cover to another cover. Except to say, I truly much prefer this one on the Canadian edition over the American one I received:
Simply because I think it warms you to the spirit of the character of whom it’s based upon; Charlotte is such a well-known authoress who has inspired readers throughout centuries of literary wanderings. It provides a proper rooting of the narrative’s voice; and goodness! how clever too, with the dual portraits within the whole of the frame? I love cross-overlays and curious nods to narratives! The cover art on the American one is a bit too vague, but I do give them full props of gratitude for making the interior pages so very enticing to turn! Especially if your a writer who appreciates old world things such as ink wells, parchment paper, wax seals and those blessed ‘ink splotches’ from quill pens!
Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne. The Brontë siblings have always been inseparable. After all, nothing can bond four siblings quite like life in an isolated parsonage out on the moors. Their vivid imaginations lend them escape from their strict upbringing, actually transporting them into their created worlds: the glittering Verdopolis and the romantic and melancholy Gondal. But at what price? As Branwell begins to slip into madness and the sisters feel their real lives slipping away, they must weigh the cost of their powerful imaginations, even as their characters—the brooding Rogue and dashing Duke of Zamorna—refuse to let them go.
Gorgeously written and based on the Brontës’ juvenilia, Worlds of Ink & Shadow brings to life one of history’s most celebrated literary families.
Lena Coakley was born in Milford, Connecticut and grew up on Long Island. In High School, Creative Writing was the only course she ever failed (nothing was ever good enough to hand in!), but, undeterred, she went on to study writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She lives in Toronto, Canada. Witchlanders was her debut novel.
Halfway Bitten
Halfway Dead
Haunted
Some Veil Did Fall
Worlds of Ink and Shadow
