How to Love by Katie Cotugno

Title: How to Love

Author: Katie Cotugno

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Release Date: October 1, 2013

Source: ARC from BEA

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository

Before: Reena Montero has loved Sawyer LeGrande for as long as she can remember: as natural as breathing, as endless as time. But he's never seemed to notice that Reena even exists…until one day, impossibly, he does. Reena and Sawyer fall in messy, complicated love. But then Sawyer disappears from their humid Florida town without a word, leaving a devastated--and pregnant--Reena behind.

After: Almost three years have passed, and there's a new love in Reena's life: her daughter, Hannah. Reena's gotten used to being without Sawyer, and she's finally getting the hang of this strange, unexpected life. But just as swiftly and suddenly as he disappeared, Sawyer turns up again. Reena doesn't want anything to do with him, though she'd be lying if she said Sawyer's being back wasn't stirring something in her. After everything that's happened, can Reena really let herself love Sawyer LeGrande again?

In this breathtaking debut, Katie Cotugno weaves together the story of one couple falling in love--twice. 

Katie Cotugno's debut How to Love was easily one of my most anticipated books this year. As you can imagine, I had very high expectations and I really didn't want to be disappointed by the book. And in all honesty, I wasn't even close to bring disappointed. How to Love is one of my favourite books this year. 

Three years ago, Reena Montero was in love with Sawyer LeGrande. Had been in love with him for as long as she could remember. When Sawyer appears to be returning her feelings, Reena is ecstatic. But being love with Sawyer is more complicated than Reena ever thought it would be. And it gets more complicated until the day Sawyer disappears leaving everything and everyone behind, including a pregnant Reena. When Reena thinks she is finally figuring out how to live without Sawyer and raise her daughter, Hannah, Sawyer waltzes back into her life with no warning. But this new Sawyer is different from the Sawyer Reena knew three years ago. And before long, old feelings resurface. Could Reena be falling in love with Sawyer for the second time?

How do I even begin to explain how much I loved How to Love. I read the book on my way home from BEA back in June and even now, four months later, I still can't seem to get these characters and this story out of my mind. There was just something powerful about this story that touched me in a way I don't know how to explain. For starters, Katie Cotugno is a fantastic writer. With How to Love she essentially wrote two stories: the story of how Reena fell in love with Sawyer in high school and the story of Reena and Sawyer getting to know each other again three years later. I loved how the story alternated between the present and the past. It allowed me to understand the characters in a way I wouldn't have been able to otherwise. But it also allowed me to see that being in love doesn't always look the way you think it will, even if you think you know the person. There was just so much to love about How to Love that no matter what I say I just know I won't be able to do the book and the story justice. 

The thing about Reena and Sawyer is that I basically got a two-for-one deal in a way. Because there were two timelines, there was a past Reena and a present Reena. And the same goes for Sawyer. And like I've said before getting to know past Reena and Sawyer helped me better understand present Reena and Sawyer. And that meant I saw who they became who they now are. With Reena, I saw her go from being the wide-eyed girl who's been in love with the same boy since she was a child to being this hardened person who has had to learn how to get by on her own and care for a child. With Sawyer the change was obviously more drastic, but a bit more of a mystery. With the story being told from Reena's point of view, I was able to see the differences between past and present Saywer, but it was less clear how he became the latter. But honestly, I didn't really need to know. All that mattered was that, like Reena, I pretty much fell in love with Sawyer. 

I could keep going on and on about Katie Cotugno's How to Love. This is a book with a story and characters that will stay with you for a long time after finishing the book. But more than that, How to Love reminded me why I love YA and contemporary stories as much as I do.

New Look!

So you may notice that things are looking a little different around, namely, there's a lot more purple than there was before. And that's because I decided that Emilie's Book World needed a new look. I've finally been getting out of a slump and decided that what I needed was a new look for the blog.

Thanks to the amazing Katie from KD Designs, I now have this awesome new look. If you're looking for a new design for yourself, I would strongly recommend Katie. Not only did she manage to pretty much read my mind and come up with a design I absolutely love, she did so in record time!

Blog Tour - Sidelined by Kendra C. Highley + Giveaway

Title: Sidelined

Author: Kendra C. Highley

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Release Date: October 1, 2013

Source: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon / Barnes & Noble

After being pushed to excel her entire life, high school basketball star Genna Pierce is finally where she wants to be. University scouts are taking notice, her team is on its way to the state tourney, and Jake Butler, the hot boy she'd daydreamed about since ninth grade, is showing some definite interest. When he asks her out and their relationship takes off, Genna believe things can't get better.

Then, it's over.

A freak accident ends her career before it's even begun. Her parents are fighting more than ever, her friends don't understand what she's going through, and she's not sure who she is without basketball. And while he tries to be there for her, Genna doesn't understand how Jake could ever want the broken version of the girl he fell for. 

Here life is a tailspin, Genna turns to the only solace that eases her pain: Vicodin.

So here's the thing about Kendra C. Highley's Sidelined, I knew next to nothing about the book when I first started reading it. To be honest, all I really knew was that it was a contemporary story, the main character played basketball and I had guessed from the title that something happens to her and she can no longer play. I was going in blind. But I'm glad I did because it meant I was able to enjoy the story in a way I don't think I would have otherwise. 

Genna always knew what her future would hold: she would graduate high school with an athletic scholarship to play basketball in college. And that reality was with her reach. Until one fateful moment on the court changed her life completely. A double leg fracture puts an end to her basketball career and now Genna has to rebuild her life from scratch.  But it's not just her basketball career that falls apart, it's Genna's whole life. And before long, Genna is spiralling downs dark whole where the only thing capable of easing her pain is the one thing that is bringing her down. 

I went in completely blind with Sidelined. I had briefly read over the summary and that had apparently been enough to convince me I wanted to read this book. And as much as I am sometimes weary of reading books when I know nothing about them going in blind can have some distinct advantages. I didn't have any preconceived ideas about the book. Sure after a couple chapters I had a vague idea of where the story might be going, but even then, Sidelined didn't end up going quite where I thought it would. I didn't really think it would go beyond exploring how Genna dealt with giving up basketball. And in a way, the story definitely did this but it also went deeper. All of a sudden I was reading a story about addiction and there wasn't much sugarcoating. I could see how much Genna struggled with being addicted to her pain meds. I could see how it was affecting not just her, but the people around her. And I appreciated the fact that I saw that inner struggle in Genna. It meant that I was able to see the progression, see her downward spiral to addiction and then her fight to get better. In a way, it made Genna feel a lot more real. 

So that brings me to Genna. I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say that I didn't really think much of her when I first started reading the story. Even once she got injured and had to deal with the implications of that injury, I still just saw her as someone telling a story.  But once she started getting addicted to her pain meds, I started finding her a lot more interesting as a character. Having the story told from Genna's perspective definitely helped with that. With the story told this way, I could see her inner turmoil, how the drug was starting to control her. And the I saw her inner fight against it. It all made her more interesting. And as much se there were other characters in the story that were both supporting her and  were there for conflict purposes, the story was very much about Genna and her conflict with herself. And for me, that made for a really interesting and engaging story. 

Kendra C. Highley's Sidelined wasn't what I thought it would be. Not knowing what to expect made for a more interesting reading experience. If you're looking for a story that's deeper an deals with a harder subject matter than I would definitely recommend Sidelined. 

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Blog Tour - The Great & Calamitous Tale of Johan Thoms by Ian Thornton

Today I have the pleasure of Ian Thornton here on the blog to answer a few questions about his debut novel, The Great & Calamitous Tale of Johan Thoms. While this book is not one I would normally pick up by myself, it is proving to be quite the entertaining and interesting read. So here is what Ian Thornton had to say.

Where did inspiration for The Great & Calamitous Tale of Johan Thoms come from?

I read an article in a Sunday newspaper in England back in the early 90s about a young man in Sarajevo who left college one Friday evening and by the time the weekend was over, he had set in motion a chain of events, which has affected the lives of everyone on the planet today. Many great men spend their lives trying to alter a city block, and here was one young chap who just wanted to be left alone for the weekend and drink coffee and read books, maybe a newspaper, but instead set fire to the twentieth century. That is powerful stuff. Imagine the turmoil, the horror of dealing with that. This kernel always stayed with me, and when I decided I was going to write, there was never any discussion in my mind that this would be my subject matter. 

I guess too, in hindsight, there may have been some sub-conscious mirroring of events with those in my own life. I too had made some rather stupid decisions, and was running away from them. Maybe I empathised with this poor boy more than I realised at the time.

The book covers an entire century's worth of events. How did you decide when to be faithful to history and when to create your own version of history?

I attempted to create a moving, amorphous life against the rigid backdrop of historical events. I have not read Flashman (it is NEXT on the list, given the recommendations I have had) but I suspect parallels, though his fidelity to history seems to be legendary. I have actually avoided George Macdonald' Fraser's work while I was writing for the natural fear of mimicking what may already be of a similar feel. I think the real artistic license comes when the tale passes from the macro to the micro. Established and well-known events are solid and immovable. The minutiae of individuals movements and lives are pliable and malleable. These two positions merge when Johan's story becomes that of the planet and her trajectory, i.e. Sarajevo June 28th, 1914. This I will explain in a second.

First however, I think/hope it is quite clear from very early on that it is a fantastical tale. The line about 'the exaggerations of two old men and the DNA of the cadaver known as the tale' is a key one, explaining how this story is third-hand and told through a prism.

Yes, June 28th, 1914. The newspaper story I mentioned earlier planted the seed of doubt about who the chauffeur was. When I spent time in Sarajevo several years ago, the eminent professors there could provide no absolute answer and no overall consensus as to whether the driver was Loyka or Urban. So this, along with my memories of the newspaper article, allowed for enough room for conjecture, for fiction and for a third possible culprit.

Hemingway, Paker and Orwell were all in Spain at the same time, though quite unlikely to have been in Monreal del Campo on Hemingway's birthday in 1937. I guess it is the definition of historical fiction; an imagined story set against the immovability of history. Historical fiction in this regard does seem oxymoronic. The line may move as to where one starts and the other ends, but if the reader knows he or she is not reading non-fiction, then that license is understood, and one assumes Coleridge's willing suspension of disbelief.

On that note, how much research went into writing this story?

This is a good question. It is my first book, so I have no real measure, no yardstick. It seemed like a lot, I hope it comes across as such. I spent a lot of time in Sarajevo, Southern France, Vila di Bispo, the 'end of the world' in Portugal, Spain, London and Minehead.

Things like clothing, the architecture and the language I picked up osmotically through a raging love of early and mid-century cinema; English, European, you name it.

A lot of Johan's experiences were my own, transposed. I guess they were therefore in effect research, though I did not know it at the time. If this seems like a cop out by hanging out in these places and calling it research, then I guess I am guilty. In hindsight, it was a quite effective way of utilising many lazy and happy days for a more sensible and career-minded end. Don't they say 'write about what you know'?

Yes, there was the slog of library books and increasingly the internet, but a lot of the research came from having lived a life and watched hundreds of movies. I guess the downside of this, is that my next book is likely going to be more study-based. Or maybe not…

How would you describe The Great & Calamitous Tale of Johan Thoms to someone who knows nothing about it?

The ten second La Croisette pitch? HIstorical fiction, black comedy, love story, buddy story set against the war-torn twentieth century.

The thirty second La Croisette pitch? The fictionalised life story of the man who inadvertently started the Great War, by being the driver for Franz Ferdinand on the day of the assassination. How he took a wrong turn and couldn't find reverse gear when the lead Serb assassin walked out of a café to find, by chance, his target. How he (the driver) blames himself for not only the assassination, but also for the Great War and everything that led from there; the Russian Revolution, the Treaty of Versailles, the rise of Hitlerism, the Second World War, the gas chambers, the atomic bomb, Vietnam, you name it. A.k.a How I started a world war and finally learned to stop worrying about it. Sort of. 

About the book:

A wild, rollicking novel on chance, friendship, love, regret, and the entire history of the twentieth century. 

Johan Thoms is poised for greatness. A promising student at the University of Sarajevo, he is young, brilliant, and in love with the beautiful Lorelei Ribeiro. He can outwit chess masters, quote the Kama Sutra, and converse with dukes and drunkards alike. But he cannot drive a car in reverse. And as with so much in the like of Johan Thoms, this seemingly insignificant detail will prove to be much more than it appears. One the morning of June 28, 1914, Johan takes his place as the chauffeur to Franz Ferdinand and the Royal entourage, and with one wrong turn, he forever alters the course of history. 

Blaming himself for the deaths of the Archduke and his wife, Johan hastens from the seven , and for once his inspired mind cannot process what to do next. Guild-ridden, he flees Sarajevo, abandoning his friends, family, and beloved in the fear that he has caused them irreparable grievance. He watches in horror as the Great War unfolds, every death settling squarely on Johan's conscience. Turning his back on his old life, Johan does his best to fade out of memory.

But the world has other plans for Johan Thoms. As each passing year burdens Johan with further guilt for his inaction, he seeks solace in his writing and in the makeshift family he has assembled around himself. With everyone from emperors to hooligans at his side, and pursued by the ever-determined Lorelei, Johan winds his way through Europe and the Twentieth Century, leaving his indelible mark on both. 

Blog Tour - Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl by Emily Pohl-Weary

Title: Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl

Author: Emily Pohl-Weary

Publisher: Razorbill Canada

Release Date: September 24, 2013

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Chapters Indigo

Sometimes Living in the Big Apple Really Bites!

Eighteen-year-old rock start Sam Lee isn't like other girls. She's the super-talented bass player and songwriter for an all-girl indie band and an incurable loner. Then one night after a concert in Central Park, she's attacked by a wild dog.

Suddenly, this long-time vegetarian is craving meat--and the bloodier, the better. Sam finds herself with an unbelievable secret and no one she trusts to share it. And so begging the endless lies to cover up the hairy truth…

When a new girl gang appears in the city--with claws and paws--Sam suspects there's a connection to her own inner beast. Trapped in a tug-of-war between her animal and human selves, forced to choose between the guy who sparked her carnal appetite and the one who makes her feel like a normal teenage girl, Sam has to unravel the mysteries of the werewolf world before her bandmates, her mother, and the media catch up to her.

Q & A with author Emily Pohl-Weary

How do you go about doing research for your work?

I don't think I do anything particularly special! For me, research usually just involves wandering around the neighborhoods my character frequents, which in this case means New York's Lower-East Side and Brooklyn (which I absolutely love). I talk to people who live there, smell things (eww!), listen to the sounds. Hmm. Now that I think about it, maybe my research process is to make like a fish and swim in my book's ocean. Really immerse myself. I listen to a soundtrack that gets me into the right headspace for writing. I read a ton--on average three novels a week, though I try to avoid anything too similar while I'm writing a book--and watch teen movies/TV shows to analyze plot twists and dialogue and get fashion ideas.

Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl from start to finish--what process did you go through while writing this book?

My writing process is a combination of haphazard writing spurts, chronic tinkering, and intense outlining. With Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl, I wrote about 50 pages in a rush, then sat back and thought about where it was headed, and wrote up detailed notes that would get Sam from point A (the attack in Central Park) to point B (the end, which I won't spoil). Then I wrote and wrote and wrote and stressed and outlined and wrote and re-outlined and wrote again. Repeat that for a couple years. Once I finished a draft, I asked a bunch of writer/reader friends to give me feedback. I edited again for several months, then gave it to my agent Alison MacDonald at The Rights Factory, who is an incredibly shrewd editor. And all of this was before the publishers bought it and started their own intensive editing process. Sometimes I think it's miracle that anyone books are finished. So much work goes into them.

What are some tips for writing a story with paranormal elements?

Keep everything as realistic as possible--the way characters talk, move, think, respond, live their lives--then toss in completely unreal things, but treat them like they're normal. For Sam Lee's world, I really wanted to put myself into the head of a girl who lives in a hectic, crowded city but is terrified that her inner monster will escape. I mean, for Sam it's a monster, but for the rest of us, there's usually a secret of something we've done/that has happened to us that we really don't want strangers knowing about. Rather than fixating on the magical elements of the story, I held onto the feeling of having to hide something awful. Oh, and what it would be like to be a rising indie rock star with less and less privacy!

Review

I didn't really know much of anything about Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl by Emily Pohl-Weary when I first started reading. I didn't have many expectations, but it I did, they would have all been met. The story was fun and engrossing, exactly what I needed it to be.

Despite being in the spotlight with her band, Sam Lee has always been a major loner. So while biking home through Central Park one night after a show, Sam finds herself alone facing down two wild dogs and fearing for her lie. And so she gets bitten, but instead of going to the hospital, she gets back on her bike to go home. And the next morning, everything feels different. Sam finds herself craving foods she's never craved, and wanting to hurt people for no reason. Add to that, two boys being for Sam's attention and a new and mysterious girl gang, and Sam finds herself having to deal with a lot more people than she can handle. So much for being a loner.

I didn't know what to expect from Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl, but I certainly didn't expect what I ended up getting: an engrossing story that completely grabbed my attention. I didn't actually expect to enjoy the story as much as I did. This was just a fun story. I loved getting to know the characters, seeing Sam start to realize just how much her life was changing and come to terms with that fact. What I really enjoyed about the story though, was that despite the paranormal elements, it felt like I was reading a contemporary story the whole time. Sure, being turned into a werewolf isn't exactly realistic, but that aside, the story didn't feel paranormal at all. And I think that had a lot to do with my enjoyment of the story.

It may have taken me a few chapters to warm up to Sam, but once I did, I really liked her. I really enjoyed seeing her come out of her shell more even when I could totally relate to wanting to be alone. It was just great to see her learn to trust new people and open up to them. As far as her love interests were concerned, Harris rubbed me the wrong way right from the start. There was just something about him that was off for me, I can't really explain why. Though admittedly the same could be said about Marlon, but Marlon I definitely came around to. Once I got to know him more, I realized that he really had good intentions and that he really cared about Sam. Harris just came across as a jerk.

Emily Pohl-Weary's Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl took me by surprise. If you're not usually into paranormal stories, I recommend you give this book a try. Just like me, you might be in for a surprise.