Must Read Monday: A YA Romance Set in 1986

Last week I was in NYC for both business and a bit of a vacation. The trip was fantastic, even though a few things went awry--like me getting strep throat and having to find a doctor in an unfamiliar city because I barely could swallow and couldn't stop getting the chills. (Btw, have I ever mentioned how miraculous antibiotics are? Ohmigod. I've never been so happy to see those big, pink pills.) Thankfully, the medicine saved the second half of my trip and I was able to enjoy the vacation.

One of the other things that went awry was the big snowstorm that wreaked havoc on my flight on Friday. We had a cancelled flight, and I ended up spending about 13 hours in airports and planes before getting home around 11pm. However, the long day wasn't as bad as it could've been because for a big part of the day I was completely absorbed in a book. I had brought my Kindle with me, which has probably about 100 unread books on it, and decided to start a new one. How to decide which one? I wanted to make sure I picked a fabulous one because I knew I'd be reading for a while at the airport. Well, I had seen Julie Cross's post about Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell  before I left, and she's my go-to girl for YA and NA recommendations. Our tastes almost always line up, so I figured it was a safe bet to pick that one up first. And boy am I glad I did. I almost forgot I was so tired and stuck in an airport.

Eleanor & Park is set in 1986 and is the story of two quirky teens who connect in the sweetest, most simple (yet poignant) way possible - on the bus. This story has humor but also some heavy family issues, so it's not a "breezy" read. But it channeled a bit of John Hughes for me. I think I saw someone on Goodreads describe it as Pretty in Pink (which came out in 1986, btw) if Andie had gone for Duckie. (And, hello, I ALWAYS wished she'd gone for Duckie instead.) So it was perfect for me. The ending was a bit open-ended, and I understand why it was that way, even though I prefer my HEAs wrapped up with a bow. But don't let that deter you. It was a fantastic book. In fact, as I'm writing this, I'm thinking I may go back and change my 4-star review to a 5-star because I'm still thinking about the book, and I'm starting to better accept the choice of ending, lol.

So anyway, here it is, go read it... :)

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Blurb:

Bono met his wife in high school, Park says.
So did Jerry Lee Lewis, Eleanor answers.
I’m not kidding, he says.
You should be, she says, we’re 16.
What about Romeo and Juliet?
Shallow, confused, then dead.
I love you, Park says.
Wherefore art thou, Eleanor answers.
I’m not kidding, he says.
You should be.

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love—and just how hard it pulled you under.

Anyone else read this one? Any other Duckie fans out there? And how do you feel about left-to-interpretation endings?

The Romantic Build-Up by Justine Dell + a Giveaway!

Today I have a special treat for you--a guest blogger and a giveaway! Please welcome Justin Dell, author of All-American Girl.

I hope you'll give her a warm welcome and enter the contest below. Take it away, Justine...

Romance: What Makes those hot scenes so…HOT

by Justine Dell

I’ll be the first to tell you, it’s not the sex. I read all kinds of romance. Paranormal, contemporary, sweet, erotic, you name it, I engulf it. And one of the reasons I engulf romance is because of the build. And the build is what gets us to those oh-so-smexy scenes that makes us want to fan ourselves when we are done.  And it’s those scenes that I’m talking about. Sure, it’s nice two people who have been fawning over each other finally get it on, but it’s not the getting-it-on part that makes it so special. 

Nobody would read books where people just had sex for the purpose of having sex. There’s a name for that, and it’s a whole different type of subject matter. No, we are focusing on the romance, and the romance is what makes the love scenes so beautiful and heart-warming (and hot) for us gals. 

The magical moment is in a thought, a touch, a laugh, a feeling. A well-written and swoon-worthy love scene will not focus solely on the act itself, it will focus on the emotions and actions of the characters. What they are seeing in the other person, what they are feeling (inside and outside), introspection into what this moment means, and everything that has come before this moment. A good love scene is the build. The act is a bonus. 

What do you think? What is your favorite thing about romance love scenes? 

~JD 

BLURB: 

At the age of thirty, with two failed marriages and a tanking writing career, Samantha Moore deals with the world with the only tool she had left: anger. And she’s tired of it. When her grandmother's near-death sends her rushing back home to Vermont, she hopes for the chance to overcome the rage ruling her life.

Once she’s home, Lance Cummings becomes a constant source of indigestion. Lance is a single father who learned first-hand the devastating effects of a damaging relationship. He sees through Samantha’s nasty temper—straight to her cry for help. He wants to help her, but he also wants to know why Samantha ran from him—and their future—twelve years before.

Taking care of her Grams, dealing with an alcoholic brother, and getting Lance to remove his annoyingly attractive nose from her business is draining on Samantha. And she’s only got three weeks to finish her stagnated novel or her publisher will drop her. No pressure. To top it off, pretending to hate the man she actually loves makes each day in Vermont harder than the last. Especially when Lance turns up the heat. 

BIO: 

Justine lives in the Midwest, happily catering to her family, which consists of a horse-obsessed teenage daughter, four dogs, and a husband who is too good to be true. She's never moved from her hometown, but hopes to grow old in a much warmer climate.

During the day she works a normal job with college students who try their best to keep her young. They've done a good job thus far. At night, said teenage daughter and her horse require mounds of love and attention. The weekends belong solely to her and her writing. That's when she morphs into a sticky bug, unable to leave the confines of her computer chair.

She started writing four years ago after seeing a movie that set off a chain reaction she couldn't have stopped if she'd wanted. It's not a hobby for her; it's an obsession. One she loves and one she loves to share. Her debut book, Recaptured Dreams and her newest release, All-American Girl, are available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and wherever book are sold. 

BUY: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Omnific 

Book Trailer | Justine's Blog | Twitter | Facebook

GIVEAWAY: Justine is giving away one copy of the ebook today. She will also giveaway an AAG postcard and Vermont Maple Candy (together). To be entered, you must leave a comment with your email address included.

She is also hosting a giveaway on her blog that includes a copy of my e-novella STILL INTO YOU. Click here to enter that giveaway as well!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Must-Read Monday: The Happiness Project

 Typically, on Must-Read Monday I feature fiction, but today I thought I'd share a non-fiction book that I recently read and loved. Now, I know I'm probably behind the curve on this one because it came out a few years ago, but hey, better late than never. : ) 

If you stopped by the blog last week, I mentioned this book in my post about Journaling for the Chronic Journal Abandoner, but I didn't really go into details about the book. So here's today's recommendation:

The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin

Blurb:

Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. "The days are long, but the years are short," she realized. "Time is passing, and I'm not focusing enough on the things that really matter." In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project.

In this lively and compelling account, Rubin chronicles her adventures during the twelve months she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. Among other things, she found that novelty and challenge are powerful sources of happiness; that money can help buy happiness, when spent wisely; that outer order contributes to inner calm; and that the very smallest of changes can make the biggest difference.

I picked up this book because I'd seen it mentioned on a few blogs and then found Gretchen's blog. I liked her voice and the concepts she was blogging about, so I was compelled to try it. And I'm so glad I did. I'm a pretty happy person by nature, but I'm always open to ways to make life more purposeful, meaningful, and mindful. Time does pass too quickly, and sometimes we go through our days unconsciously putting one foot in front of the other, unaware of time just falling away. So I really wanted to see what she had to say on finding happiness and meaning in every day life.

I really enjoyed her voice and the way the book was laid out with each chapter being a month of tackling new resolutions specific to on topic such as Vitality, Marriage, Parenthood, Money. And I found myself taking notes and making my own resolutions as I went. It really was a great book for self-reflection. Plus, I love making goals, resolutions, and commandments, and learning new ways to think about things. It's already affected how I've gone about my days since I've read it. And now I have my mom reading it, and she's having a similar reaction.

I really do think there is something in this book for everyone--great nuggets of wisdom and practical advice. And if you're unsure if you'd be into the book, it's worth checking out The Happiness Project blog to get a taste of what the book is like.

So, has anyone else read this? Thoughts? What books have you read that really made you stop and think about the way you were doing things in your life?

Journaling for the Chronic Journal Abandoner

My stack of pretty notebooksI'm a writer. This means I love books and writing and pens and paper and pretty notebooks and words. Also, my first career was as a therapist, so I'm introspective and navel-gazing to a fault. You would think that this would mean I'd be a prime candidate to be a journal or diary keeper.

Sadly, this has not been the case. I've started many a journal. I like the *idea* of a journal. However, in practice, it usually last 2-3 entries before I bail. Something about writing to no one but myself doesn't appeal. The reason why I can maintain a blog is because it feels like it has a purpose--someone is reading, there is interaction. But waxing poetic in a journal that only I'm going to see--well, it feels like a waste of time. I don't need to write down my thoughts to know them. I ruminate enough as it is.

However, this week I finished reading The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun  by Gretchen Rubin, and she had a quote in there that really resonated with me. "The days are long, but the years are short." 

How very true this is. I feel it when I look at my son who somehow is now five even though I feel like I just cried, "My epidural is wearing off, DO something!" to my dear doctor. So, this got me to thinking about finding a better way to track the days and the memories that pass in a blink. And one of the suggestions in the book was to do a one-sentence journal. That way, the journal abandoners of the world like me wouldn't have to commit to anything more than a few words a day.

This concept appealed to me. One sentence. I could do that. So I went to Barnes and Noble and looked at some of the 5-year journals that provide 2-3 lines for each day. However, as I looked at them, I realized that although I didn't want to do long journal entry. I wanted to have room to say what I wanted to say and maybe I'd need more than a sentence at times.

So after spending way too much time looking at all the journals, I decided to get a blank, spiral-bound one. And instead of a one-sentence journal, I'm doing a bullet list journal. So maybe that will only be one bullet on a day or maybe there will be three. It will depend on the day. And I'm not recording private things that no one else can see. I'm treating it instead like a record of life passing--something that my husband or son can look through years down the line with me. It's like a photograph but with words instead. 

Here's my first journal from Monday:

• President's Day - Kidlet informed me this morning, "Mommy, no presents for us. Only presidents get presents today."
• Best moment of the day: Eating cookies in the mall with kidlet and hubs while we watched the carousel.
• Caught kidlet singing Lady Gaga's "Judas" while he played with his cars. Adorable.

So, as you can see, it's no deep and meaningful pondering on life, but it's the stuff that will drift from my mind and disappear in a week or two. Little important moments that I don't want to forget. The years are short indeed, and I want to be able to look back and smile at them.

Do you journal? What do you think of the idea of the one-sentence journal or my version, the bullet-list journal? Any other journal abandoners out there? How do you keep track of the little moments you don't want to forget?

Must-Read Monday: A Hero in Drag? Yep, It Totally Worked

First, a few quick announcements of guest posts I've put out there in the world. Would love if you stopped by:

• Entering a Writing Contest? Five Newbie Writing Mistakes To Avoid at Savvy Authors
• Ten Every Day Items To Add A Little BDSM Spice to Your Relationship at Romancing Rakes (and a chance to WIN Fall Into You!)

All right, now on to Must-Read Monday...

You ever read the back cover of a book and think...yeah, I'm not sure how they're going to pull THAT off?

Well, even though I'm about as open-minded in my romance as they come, this was one of those books for me. A few weeks ago, I saw buzz on Twitter from some of the romance reviewers about a book called Painted Faces--a book with a straight, alpha male, drag queen hero. Yep, you're reading that right. Even though my first reaction was what I said above and I was worried because I like my heroes very alpha, my tastes tends to run closely to these particular reviewers (here are their reviews: Smexy Books, Fiction Vixen, and Dear Author) so I figured, what the hell, I'll try it. (Plus, it was on sale and you know how I am about a book sale.) And I'm SO glad I did.

This book was totally unconventional and different but also really sweet, funny, sexy (and dark at times). Nicholas dresses in drag for performances only, so during his every day life, he's in guy mode. But both sides of him are very important (and there is believable backstory attached to this.) And the heroine, Freda, embraces both sides of him, which is the beauty of their relationship. Also, Freda is a fun heroine to go on the journey with. She's quirky, awkward, sarcastic, and self-deprecating. Because this was in first POV, it also had a "new adult" feel to it. 

Painted Faces by L.H. Cosway

I can't say I'd ever expected to read a romance where the hero teaches the heroine how to walk in heels, lol, but it totally worked. Don't be afraid of the unconventional hero, and check this one out. It's only 2.99 in ebook.

Has anyone else read this one? What book have you read that you kind of didn't expect to like but it totally surprised you? What's on your must-read list this week?