Chat with me Thursday (8): Author Interview with Andrea Washington

       Chat with me Thursday is hosted by me here at YA Book Reviews, On Thursdays I interview an author or a blogger and it's a bunch of fun. If you would like to be featured on a CWMT, email me here: sibellasreviews@gmail.com for my details, visit my Chat with me Thursday page

       Today I have Andrea Washington author of The Veiled Truth.

1. Could you tell me a bit about yourself?

            

       I always have trouble with this; I never know what to say about myself.  I love to write, and it’s been my passion for years. I am pretty new to the Indie publishing world and I am falling in love with it more everyday. I am all about promoting other Indie Authors like myself on my Blog http://andrearosewashington.blogspot.com/

I want I to become the norm to see Indie books everywhere in the world.

2. When and how did you come up with the plot for The Veiled Truth?

            

       I came up with the plot in college, I was rolling this idea of what would happen if you were suddenly without your parents. Why would you be and what would you do? The would grew from there. I started to free write and more ideas came to me and ‘The Veiled Truth’ was born.  

3. How long did writing the The Veiled Truth?

            

       It took me four years, I wrote while I was in school so there were times when I couldn’t touch it for months. Though each year I wrote a new draft until I was finally happy with what I wrote.

4. What was the hardest part of writing this book?

            

       The hardest part was sticking to one idea. It took me a while to stick to just one plot line for this book. I can’t tell you how many ideas I went through. I would finish a chapter and a new idea would hit me and before I knew it I re-wrote the entire thing. It took a lot of effort to stick one plot line. My mind runs a mile a minute.

5. Do you have any habits that surface while you are writing?

            

       Procrastination! I mean it’s always been a problem but when I write its blows way of proportion. Sometimes I have to go somewhere with no internet to write and I have to leave my phone off so I won’t surf the web.   

6. How do you rid yourself of writers block?

            

       What I have found that has helped is printing out the rough draft walking away for a few days then reading it not as the author but as a reader. If it’s a bad writer’s block I will have a TRUSTED friend read what I have so far and give me their thoughts and where they think I should go with it. Sometimes it nice to spit ball ideas back and forth to knock something loose.

7. Any advice for aspiring authors?

                

       Start today! It’s never too late or early to start writing. Do not let others affect your work, if you like the idea then write it. There have been times when people told me my idea was not good enough and no one was going to like it, I didn’t listen to them and I pushed on! Write what you want to read not what you think others want to read. Stay true to who you are! Nothing has to be perfect on the first try! 

Blackmail Boyfriend by Chris Cannon

Author: Chris Cannon
Publisher: Entangled Publishing LLC
Date published: August 11 2015

Introduction

       Haley Patterson,isn't seen as girlfriend material, and she knows it's because she has two overprotective twin brothers keeping any guy that shows interest in her far away. When Haley shows up at school and a rumor is going around that she hooked up with golden boy, Bryce Colton, she sees how she could use this to her advantage. The rumors aren't technically true. Bryce did not hook up with Haley Patterson. He hooked up with a different Haley, who happens to have a very angry boyfriend.

       Haley gives Bryce a choice, he can pretend to be in a relationship with her for a month, showing boys that it is possible to get passed her brothers, and that she really isn't a skank that enjoys one night stands. Or, she can deal with her brothers, and Denny, the other Haley's angry boyfriend.

       All Bryce was doing when he hooked up with Haley was trying to get his obsessive ex-girlfriend off of his back, but now he's wrapped up in the mess of a fake relationship with an honor roll geek, she's so different than anybody that he's ever dated and he's not sure how much he likes her. Good thing this is all fake, right?

Cover

       All that comes to my mind when I look at this cover is "aww. How cute!" It truly is an adorable cover.

Writing

       Blackmail Boyfriend is written in alternating POV between Haley and Bryce. It was interesting because they both live such different lives with such different families. Also, with the alternating POVs (mostly with Bryce) you get to be on the inside what they are really thinking versus what they do. 

Haley

       At times I found Haley to be overbearing and snotty, and sometimes she makes demands I don't believe that she's entitled to, such as telling Bryce that he has to drive her somewhere. Regardless of what she thinks all he has to do is pretend to be in a relationship with her and make sure people notice, none of the extra stuff. Though I kind of get it, since she's in the position to call the shots and he's not really in a stable enough place to refuse.
       On a good note, I admire Haley's ability to speak her mind, and how she (most of the time) stands up for herself and (most of the time) doesn't play the damsel in distress,

Bryce

       Bryce annoyed me at some points as well, as it was repeated again and again that Haley wasn't his type and he was scared of that, but he should have given her more of a chance than that to start out with.
       On a good note for him, when he when he decided to be nice, he went all out and was really, really nice.

Conclusion

       I wanted a fun quick read, and that's exactly what I got from this. I think I would read it again because every once in a while I like to read something cute.

Stacking the Shelves #2

       Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. It's all about sharing books you've added to your shelves be it physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in a  physical store, or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course ebooks.

       I haven't added quite as many books this week as last week, but I have added a few:

These books were given to me from the authors in exchange for a review and I am very excited to start reading them!

This book was given to me from the publisher (Sourcebooks Fire) via Netgalley. I've written the two other books written by Natalie D. Richards, Six Months Later and Gone too Far, and I thought they were both fantastic, so I was overjoyed to get approved for this title as well. According to Goodreads I am currently 65% finished reading and I have loved every moment.

Emerge: The Awakening by Melissa Craven

Author: Melissa A Craven
Series: The Awakening (#1)
Date published: April 1st 2015
Publisher: Midnight Hour Studio

*Given to me from the author in exchange for an honest review

       This entire review contains spoilers, as it would have been difficult to talk about the characters without spoiling anything. If I didn't have some spoilers in, I would be delicately dancing around the whole plot, my dearest apologizes, but you have been warned. 

Introduction

       Allie knows there has to be a reason that people flinch at her touch, she knows that there has to be a reason why people have always treated like an outsider.

       Allie's family has always moved around a lot, but this move feels different, more abrupt than usual. It's on Kelleys Island that she meets Aiden McBrien. He treats her like she's normal, and with him she feels things falling into place. He introduces her to his friends who aren't quite as comfortable with her as he is, but they try as hard as they can to hide it.

       As Allie feels happy with her new friends, she's completely caught off guard when she awakes in agony, after struggling for a while to grasp what is going on, Aiden finally gives her answers. Allie is immortal, as he is, and as all of the friends they share are. He tells her that they have all suffered the agaony that she went through and they will get through everything that is to come, together, as one family, what is to come happens to be training to defend herself, as she is a target to people who wish to take what is her birthright. She has an even bigger target on her back, because she is a particularly strong immortal so she must learn to fight, to learn exactly how to hurt people, even if she has very little desire to do so.

Cover

       The cover is very pleasing to the eye and I love how Allie's red hair stands out against the otherwise dark colors.

Allie

       Allie was pretty cool, her sarcasm always kept things fresh and I enjoyed that. It was also very interesting to see her progress throughout the novel, I think she progressed very nicely, I liked how she made the progress slowly, and is still very far away from perfect even at the end of the book. It would have been unrealistic for her to completely change into a bad-ass fighter who is swift and elegant throughout the course of just one book.

Aiden

       Aiden was great! I can't pinpoint why but I really like the way that he speaks. When ever he speaks to anybody he has a way of making things seem like they'll be okay. He had sort of a relaxing comforting vibe with him. His gift(s) (especially the one that appears later in the book) are very, very cool and I am looking forward to seeing how he progresses more as the series goes on.

Vince

       I don't really have much to say about Vince, he seems  perfect in the book-boyfriend-y kind of way, not that I have anything against that. He balances out Allie's life nicely.

Sasha

       I really liked Sasha. Her gifts were very intriguing especially the one about being able to slightly control the temperature.

The rest of the family

       A lot of characters are introduced in this book, it would be difficult to write about all of them individually, so I'm just going to leave it at the fact that I liked all of them. They are all unique with the gifts and backstories they offer and I can't imagine the story without any of them.

Vince Allie & Aiden

        This book does feature a bit of a love triangle type deal and I had no problem with the love triangle thing that was present in this book because it wasn't a dramatic war between Vince and Aiden for Allie's heart.
     
       In understand why Allie loves Vince and chooses to be with him, but if I could offer my love advice to Allie here, it isn't good for Allie to love him, since he is a mortal. I do understand her argument that she feels like she still has a normal life when she's with him, but if we're being practical here, he's just going to die eventually and it'll suck for Allie to have to live without him. That said, I am not saying that she should be with Aiden, because there are some obvious issues with that as well, but I feel as though it would be best for Allie to not be with Vince, on account of the fact that she is going to live forever and he is not.

Overall story progress

       The beginning was kind of slow for me, but if you are reading this and are thinking the same thing, I encourage you to continue! Everything picks up and becomes very, very, fantastic.

Ending

       The ending kept me on the edge of my seat. As a matter of fact, I was on the edge of my seat since the 254th page action. The ending awesome and provided some great action.

Conclusion

       Although the book started out a bit slow, it still had me hooked from the first few pages. I really need to stop falling in love with books that end in cliffhangers...*Sigh* I guess I'll never learn... I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing where this story will lead in the future!

Teaser Tuesday (7): The Veiled Truth by Andrea Washington

 Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should be Reading.
Anyone can participate in Teaser Tuesdays. Just do the following:
• Grab your read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers!
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your 
teasers!

       This week my teasers will come from The Veiled Truth by Andrea  Washington. I'm almost finished it, so expect a review to be coming your way soon. I also should be having her for a "Chat With Me Thursday" author interview soon.

My teasers (page 14)

"They are in the house, Sasha realized as she sank back against the wall in an effort to become one 

with it."  

"“There is no way they could have gotten past us. We had the house surrounded,” the first voice 

shouted back"

Stacking the Shelves #1

     

       I know I've already posted a review of Burn Girll by Mandy Mikulencak today and I normally don't post twice in one day, (the only other time I've posted twice is when the cover of Ignite me by Tahereh Mafi was released, almost a two years ago to date) but I always see this weekly meme but I've never tried it out myself, and lately, I've been talking about how many reviews I'll be writing and how many books have recently come into my possession one way or another, so I thought this week would be a great week to start doing this popular weekly meme.

       Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. It's all about sharing books you've added to your shelves be it physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in a  physical store, or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course eBooks.

 So recently I have added 6 books to my metaphorical shelf as they are all review copies. I've already read BOOST by D.a Paul and Emerge:The Awakening by Melissa A. Craven and those reviews will be up super soon, to say the least, I highly recommend both of them. Currently I'm reading The Veiled Truth by Andrea Washington and the rest of the books listed will soon follow!

       This is probably just me but sometimes I'm amazed at how active some book bloggers are. I already consider August a very busy month as I already have 5 posts lined up, but for some book bloggers, that would be considered a slow month, and it kind of blows my mind, so shout out to all of the bloggers who are on top of everything they do!

Burn Girl by Mandy Mikulencak

Author: Mandy Mikulencak
Pages 288
Expected Publication Date: September 1 2015
Publisher: Albert Whitman and Company

Introduction

       

       Arlie knows what to do when she finds her mother dead after a purposeful overdose. Arlie has spent her life taking care of her mother and spent a great deal of time running from her step-father, Loyd, who is responsible for a meth lab explosion that left Arlie's face disfigured when she was young. Arlie has never been more afraid in her entire life than now. Now she's alone. She has taken care of herself as long as she can remember, her mother wasn't exactly the most reliable, but now even she's gone.

      After a few weeks, Frank, an uncle of Arlie's that was previously unknown to her, is appointed her legal guardian. A world of new opportunities opens up to Arlie. She has a place to call home now, she goes to school, and is falling for a boy named Cody. Arlie's life is looking up in ways she didn't know could ever change, but  then Loyd comes back in the picture, Demanding things. With him in her life, she knows it could ruin all the progress she's made to be better, and he could easily ruin the relationships she's made, and she'll be damned if she lets that happen.

Cover

       I like the cover of this book. I like how it looks washed out and the title stands out nicely. I also like how the model on the cover's face isn't shown. I feel like that symbolizes Arlie and how she hides her face because of the scar she was left with after the meth lab explosion

Arlie

       Arlie is wonderful. She's strong and sensible most of the time, and she seems like a real person, she seems like somebody that would really exist. She's not too flawed, and she's not too perfect, she's the perfect middle ground and I couldn't get enough of her.

       

       After reading some reviews of Burn Girl I couldn't help but notice that some people found Arlie to be reckless and exasperatingly so. Arlie does do some reckless things, but I feel as though she really does think about what she's doing and she isn't being selfish. Maybe she could contemplate things a little more but I really do believe that she is trying to do what's best.

Frank

       Frank is such a good character and I loved every scene with him in it. He was so light-hearted and I loved how much he took taking care of Arlie seriously, despite not knowing anything of her prior to his sisters death.  

Mo

       I loved Mo as well.  I like how she always cared for Arlie and always made sure to have faith in her. I also like how in the scene where Mo tells Arlie that she is "so sick of her sh*t" it doesn't come off as a mean insult, it's like more of an aggressive way to remind Arlie that people care about her, and if she puts herself in dangerous situations, it'll hurt her and her other friends as well.

Cody

       I liked Cody. I liked the relationship he had with Arlie, I feel as though they are a perfect fit because Cody understands the struggle of feeling different because of something that isn't of the persons control.

Conclusion

       I love this book, the characters were fantastic and I was never bored while reading it, something about the book kept me wanting to turn the page and find out what's next, the book ends with a quietness that I found fitting and I am very happy with every aspect of this book.