Book Nerds Across America

What’s one take away readers can get from your books? 
Lauren: The main thing I hope readers take away is that it isn’t the hardships of our past that define us, but the strength we find in overcoming them. That’s something all throughout her journey that Etta [the main character] is fighting to hold onto, that hope.

Annie: The world we live in is not always a nice place. It can be hard to exist in sometimes. In both my books, I want readers to be able to go spend some time in a magical world for a while, so they come back a little more hopeful, happier, and believe in themselves.

Why do you think readers are attracted to fantasy novels?
Annie: I have asthma, and I’ve had it since I was a child. When I was getting treatments, I wore a nebulizer mask that delivers medicine through mist. You’re sitting there tethered to a wall. When I’d be doing this three to four times a day as a child, my mom would read to me. Reading was a way to escape. That’s why I love fantasy. This world Is not always a happy place: people are not getting along with their siblings, they’re being bullied at school. Fantasy is reality in disguise. You can have the same problems described in a fantasy world. It’s a way to face real problems in a fun setting that shows you can overcome the odds. You can win. Your friend who you’re reading about did it. Hopefully you feel empowered to face those demons yourself.

Lauren: I would completely agree with all that. I have always been drawn as well to fantastical stories exploring worlds so different from my own. Fantasy is such a wonderful platform for exploration through the backdrop of fiction. I love the emotional journey characters take. In fantasy novels, characters can be extremely relatable. They are relatable on an emotional level, in the midst of dealing with extraordinary circumstances. I love that. There might be differences in the way we live, but we experience the same emotions. That connection stays with you long after you read a fantasy novel.

Can you talk about your writing process? 
Annie: I usually just start with an idea. I’m a pantser. I don’t like to outline ahead of time. I like to discover the story as I go along. I feel like if I’m entertained, then the reader will be, too. They may not know what’s coming as they’re reading, because I don’t know what’s coming as I’m writing. I write a minimum 500 words a day. Sometimes I hit 3000, and sometimes those 500 are a stretch.

Lauren: I also try to do the same thing. I love to write every day. I find I’m most productive in the morning hours. I get up early and get as much writing done as I can before my brain even fully wakes up. That’s when some of the most interesting ideas come. It’s always fun to see what my brain can come up with in the wee hours of the morning. I love trying to come up with a synopsis -- those are always very fun to me. I’m becoming more of a plotter over the years. I’ve fallen in love with plot points.

Annie, how did the experience of writing Tiger Queen differ from writing A Touch of Gold? What did you learn with the first book that helped you with the second?
Annie: It was quite different for each book. Each one was its own beast to tackle. A Touch of Gold took two years to write. I wrote it when I was getting my master’s in creative writing. It took a while, being my first book, to pull it all together. Tiger Queen took three months to write – I wrote a good chunk in Antarctica, which was interesting because the story is set in the desert. But Antarctica is considered a desert. That was a cool aspect of it. I would go out and feel snow stinging my face, and I’d replace that feeling with sand in the book. That become my setting.

It was a different experience because A Touch of Gold had a lot of magic in it. I think magic is one of hardest things to write. Magic in world building has to be impeccable. If one person can find a flaw in the magic system, you’re done. Your character is done. If this person has power and they know it, they have to use that. It’s the first thing they will think of – “I have to use his power” – so if your character is inconsistent, or your magic is inconsistent, that is a huge issue. Not having a lot of magic in Tiger Queen made it a lot easier to write.

Also, I think you get better as you go along.

Lauren, can you talk as well about your experience writing this debut novel?
Lauren: I didn’t start writing until after I graduated college. The Memory Thief took me about three years to write, and then I went through the process of getting an agent. Then my agent found an absolutely wonderful publisher to publish my book. I came to writing in a little bit more of an unusual way. I always thought I wanted to go into the business side of publishing, so I was pursuing work in the business side when I first began writing.

Once I started writing, I fell in love with it. I’d finally found my passion, and it was the best feeling in the world. I wrote sunup to sundown and started submitting my work. I’m grateful to have started the process that way. It takes time. You’re going to face a lot of rejection. At the same time, there are so many fun things that happen along the way and so many exciting moments that truly makes everything completely worth it.

I’d encourage anyone with a story they want to tell to not get discouraged if it takes a while. Keep at it. I started writing seven years ago, and my debut is coming out this year. Keep going, keep preserving. I, for one, want to read your story.

Do you have any fun plans for publication day? 
Annie: I usually have a big launch party at a local bookstore. With cake. Last year it was wedding cake.

Lauren: That’s so awesome!

Annie: The cake was covered with fondant books. On the top, it had a A Touch of Gold. Now everyone expects a really cool cake for my parties. I’m meeting with a cake person tomorrow. I may or may not have been researching tiger-shaped cakes. I have giveaways. Last time there was a photo booth where you could take selfies with props. On the actual day the book comes out, there’s a Backstreet Boys concert in town that I may go to.

Lauren: I just started planning a book launch party. I emailed Annie to give me all the tips on how to plan it, because she is famous for hers. I can’t wait to meet readers and spend time with family and friends. I’m so excited! It’s a dream come true.

About The Memory Thief
In the city of Craewick, memories reign. The power-obsessed ruler of the city, Madame, has cultivated a society in which memories are currency, citizens are divided by ability, and Gifted individuals can take memories from others through touch as they please.

Seventeen-year-old Etta Lark is desperate to live outside of the corrupt culture, but grapples with the guilt of an accident that has left her mother bedridden in the city’s asylum. When Madame threatens to put her mother up for auction, a Craewick practice in which a “criminal's" memories are sold to the highest bidder before being killed, Etta will do whatever it takes to save her. Even if it means rejoining the Shadows, the rebel group she swore off in the wake of the accident years earlier.

To prove her allegiance to the Shadows and rescue her mother, Etta must steal a memorized map of the Maze, a formidable prison created by the bloodthirsty ruler of a neighboring Realm. So she sets out on a journey in which she faces startling attacks, unexpected romance, and, above all, her own past in order to set things right in her world.

The Memory Thief publishes October 1, 2019 from Blink YA Books.

About Tiger Queen
From Annie Sullivan, author of A Touch of Gold, comes Tiger Queen, a sweeping YA fantasy adventure that tells the story of a fierce desert princess battling to save her kingdom. Fans of Rebel of the Sands and Meagan Spooner will devour this retelling of Frank Stockton’s famous short story, “The Lady, or the Tiger?”

In the mythical desert kingdom of Achra, an ancient law forces sixteen-year-old Princess Kateri to fight in the arena to prove her right to rule. For Kateri, winning also means fulfilling a promise to her late mother that she would protect her people, who are struggling through windstorms and drought. The situation is worsened by the gang of Desert Boys that frequently raids the city wells, forcing the king to ration what little water is left. The punishment for stealing water is a choice between two doors: behind one lies freedom, and behind the other is a tiger.

But when Kateri’s final opponent is announced, she knows she cannot win. In desperation, she turns to the desert and the one person she never thought she’d side with. What Kateri discovers twists her world—and her heart—upside down. Her future is now behind two doors—only she’s not sure which holds the key to keeping her kingdom and which releases the tiger.

Tiger Queen publishes September 10, 2019 from Blink YA Books.

The author and the interviewer last year at Apollycon.

Book Summary
“The carnage began with the roses. She hacked at their ruffled blooms until they dropped into monstrous drifts of red on the parched yellow lawn … Only two things kept my mother grounded to us: my uncle Stephen and stories.”

Fourteen-year-old Molly worries about school, friends, and her parents’ failed marriage, but mostly about her mother’s growing depression. Molly knows her mother is nursing a carefully-kept secret. A writer with an obsession for other people’s life stories, Elaine Donnelly is the poster child of repressed emotions.

Molly spends her California summer alternately watching out for her little brother Angus and tip-toeing around her mother’s raw feelings. Molly needs her mother more than ever, but Elaine shuts herself off from real human connections and buries herself in the lives and deaths of the strangers she writes about. When Uncle Stephen is pressed into the limelight because of his miracle cure of a young man, Elaine can no longer hide behind other people’s stories. And as Molly digs into her mother’s past, she finds a secret hidden in her mother’s dresser that may be the key to unlocking a family mystery dating to 1918 New York—a secret that could destroy or save their future.

Interview with Maureen Doyle McQuerry

Book Summary
A mashup of Groundhog Day and Pretty in Pink, the book stars a senior who is forced to relive the first day at her new school in an endless loop. Andie is convinced she needs true love's kiss to break the curse, but instead discovers how a high school filled with cliques and misfits can find common ground despite everyone's differences.

Interview with Laurie Boyle Crompton

Book Summary
From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author CJ Lyons comes The Color of Lies, a world drenched in color and mystery.

High school senior Ella Cleary has always been good at reading people. Her family has a rare medical condition called synesthesia that scrambles the senses—her Gram Helen sees every sound, and her uncle Joe can literally taste words. Ella’s own synesthesia manifests itself as the ability to see colors that reveal people’s true emotions…until she meets a guy she just can’t read.

Alec is a mystery to Ella, a handsome, enigmatic young journalist who makes her feel normal for the first time in her life. That is, until he reveals the real reason why he sought her out—he wants to learn the truth behind her parents’ deaths, the parents that Ella had always been told died in a fire. Alec turns Ella’s world upside down when he tells her their deaths were definitely not an accident.

After learning her entire life has been a lie, Ella doesn’t know who she can trust or even who she really is. With her adoptive family keeping secrets and the evidence mixing fact and fiction, the only way for Ella to learn the truth about her past is to find a killer.

Perfect for fans of Caroline B. Cooney, Ally Carter, and Jennifer Brown, The Color of Lies blurs the lines between black-and-white facts and the kaleidoscope of reality.

Flo's Note
Happy book birthday to The Color of Lies! To celebrate its release, we're sharing an exclusive interview with author C.J. Lyons! 

Author Interview
What was your inspiration for The Color of Lies?

Book Summary
King Midas once had the ability to turn all he touched into gold. But after his gift—or curse—almost killed his daughter, Midas relinquished The Touch forever. Ten years later, Princess Kora still bears the consequences of her father’s wish: her skin shines golden, rumors follow her everywhere she goes, and she harbors secret powers that are getting harder to hide.

Kora spends her days locked in the palace, concealed behind gloves and veils, trying to ignore the stares and gossip of courtiers. It isn’t until a charming young duke arrives that Kora realizes there may be someone out there who doesn’t fear her or her curse. But their courtship is disrupted when a thief steals precious items from the kingdom, leaving the treasury depleted and King Midas vulnerable. Thanks to her unique ability to sense gold, Kora is the only one who can track the thief down. As she sails off on her quest, Kora learns that not everything is what it seems—not thieves, not pirates, and not even curses. She quickly discovers that gold—and the power it brings—is more dangerous than she’d ever believed.

Midas learned his lesson at a price. What will Kora’s journey cost?

Flo's Review
I had fun with this book! From the moment I first heard about it many months ago, I was looking forward to it. The idea behind the book, following King Midas' golden daughter is just so unique and clever. From the beginning, I was swept up into Kora's well-created world. It was easy to keep the turning the pages as the first stirrings of romance and adventure heralded what was to come in the story. 

But A Touch of Gold was not predictable in the slightest. It changed course much like the ship Kora was on would change course, as new information discovered at several points throughout the story caused me to question everything I thought I knew about these people. (Seriously, though -- trust no one! Lol). The villain was deliciously horrible and the character growth that both Kora and her cousin Hettie undergo is inspiring. The romance plays out with a twist, but I'm happy with the way it ended up and I think other readers will be, too. 

A Touch of Gold comes out August 14, 2018.


Thank you to Blink YA Books for providing me with an advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

Book Summary
From author Christina June comes Everywhere You Want to Be, a modern tale inspired by the classic Red Riding Hood.

Matilda Castillo has always done what she was told, but when she gets injured senior years, she watches her dreams of becoming a contemporary dancer slip away. So when Tilly gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend the summer with a New York dance troupe, nothing can stop her from saying yes--not her mother, not her fears of the big city, and not the commitment she made to Georgetown. Tilly's mother allows her to go on two conditions: one, Tilly will regularly visit her abuela in New Jersey, and two, after the summer, she'll give up dancing and go off to college.

Armed with her red vintage sunglasses and her pros and cons lists, Tilly strikes out, determined to turn a summer job into a career. Along the way she meets new friends ... and new enemies. Tilly isn't the only one desperate to dance, and fellow troupe member Sabrina Wolfrik intends to succeed at any cost. But despite dodging sabotage and blackmail attempts from Sabrina, Tilly can't help but fall in love with the city, especially since Paolo, a handsome musician from her past, is also calling New York home for the summer.

As the weeks wind down and the competition with Sabrina heats up, Tilly's future is on the line. She must decide whether to follow her mother's path to Georgetown or leap into the unknown to pursue her own dreams.

Flo's Review
Everywhere You Want to Be is the second book by Christina June. A fun thing about it that I was n0t expecting was the connection to her first book, It Started With Goodbye. I really enjoyed seeing Tatum, her hottie boyfriend, and some of the other characters from her first book in this sophomore effort. 

Just like the first book was loosely based on Cinderella, this book was loosely based on Little Red Riding Hood. Tilly's signature accessory is a fun pair of red sunglasses, which I love. Her nemesis is a girl named Sabrina Wolfrick, a play on the Big Bad Wolf. But it felt a little forced. Tilly becomes almost obsessed with Sabrina in an unnatural way. I understand the conflict she brings to the story, but with everything else going on, I felt Tilly stressed and obsessed about it unnaturally too much.  In that aspect, it felt like June was trying a little too hard to match Tilly's story to a fairy tale. 

But this was fun story nonetheless. I enjoyed reading about Tilly falling in love New York City, and her romance played out at just the right level. (Not too much, not too little.)

I finished reading this book on the way to Apollycon, where I got meet Christina June for the first time! She was so nice, and I was delighted to learn that she has another fairy tale based book with a familiar character in the works!

I was happy to get the opportunity to ask Alison Gervais a few questions about her upcoming book In 27 Days, which will be published by Blink YA Books on July 25, 2017. Without further ado:

1. How did you come up for the idea of In 27 Days?

2. Has writing the book changed your perspective on suicide in any way? Did you do any research for it, or what did you learn along the way?

3. What kind of response did you get from the Wattpad community?

4. Was writing In 27 Days an emotional experience?

5. What were you doing 27 days ago? What do you think you'll be doing 27 days from now?

6. What advice would you give to a teen (or anyone) who has a friend whom they think might be suicidal?

Book Summary

Book Summary 
Shortly after 17-year-old Maren Hamilton is orphaned and sent to live with grandparents she’s never met in Scotland, she receives an encrypted journal from her dead mother that makes her and everyone around her a target. It confirms that her parents were employed by a secret, international organization that’s now intent on recruiting her. As Maren works to unravel the clues left behind by her mother, a murderous madness sweeps through the local population, terrorizing her small town. Maren must decide if she’ll continue her parents’ fight or stay behind to save her friends.

With the help of Gavin, an otherworldly mercenary she’s not supposed to fall in love with, and Graham, a charming aristocrat who is entranced with her, Maren races against the clock and around the country from palatial estates with twisted labyrinths to famous cathedrals with booby-trapped subterranean crypts to stay ahead of the enemy and find a cure. Along the way, she discovers the great truth of love: that laying down your life for another isn’t as hard as watching them sacrifice everything for you.

Flo's Review
Toward a Secret Sky has many different elements -- fantasy, romance, mystery, adventure. And, of course -- COVER LOVE. Look at this beauty!

So pretty!

I was talking with a friend this past weekend about books that try to be one thing when they would be better as another. This is how I feel about Toward a Secret Sky. The romance felt a little much to me. I struggle with insta-love to begin with, and I felt that so much of this novel was Maren talking about how attracted she is to Gavin. To me, there was almost more about Maren and her feelings for Gavin than about the story line. There's certainly nothing wrong with that. I just feel like it was more a romance story with a fantastical setting than a fantasy story, and I was expecting more of a fantasy story. In the end, despite the fact that Maren is also motivated by her mother and her friends, she really just does everything for Gavin. I wish I'd gotten more personal drive and character growth: I wish she'd more come into her own, so to speak, to where her big decision at the end is motivated by herself and who she has become and not by him.

The story was creative and the scenery sounded absolutely beautiful. I loved reading about Gavin's home and about Aviemore. I also do appreciate that this is a standalone novel, in the world of so many fantasy series. 

Toward a Secret Sky comes out April 4th, 2017.

Thank you to Blink YA for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Now, about that GIVEAWAY
I ended up with two ARCs of this book, so I'll give away one! To enter, leave a comment here (with your email address so I can reach you) for 1 point, follow/RT the contest tweet on Twitter (@booknerdsblog) for another point, and/or like the Instagram (@booknerdsacrossamerica) for another entry. US only and ends at midnight on publication day, April 4th. Good luck!