Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Book Review: Everlong By: R. Raeta

Full disclosure: I am not a big romance reader.  I picked this book up based on the recommendations of many friends on social media who promised I would enjoy it.  They were not wrong.  Everlong is not the book I thought it would be.  Do not judge this book by it's cover.  Yes, it is a “slow- burn” romance, but it is so much more!  My experience with this book started off a misled state of mind of what I assumed this book would be like.  So, as I began reading it, I would have told you that it was nicely written, but off to a slow start.  I got a little lost in the first couple of chapters as I tired to figure out who Lily really was.  When I finally caught up, I couldn’t stop reading this book.  Lily’s story is exceptionally well written, with wonderful descriptive texts.  The dialogue is believable and easy to read—I could easily hear the characters speaking the words in my mind.  The chemistry between Sam and Lily was fun, and sad (yes, keep those tissue boxes close) but their time together seemed authentic and satisfying.   

As I said, I’m not a big romance reader.  In fact, I don’t think I have ever actively gone looking for a romance book to read.  Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate romantic elements in paranormal story or a mystery story, etc.  Everlong is definitely a romance with a paranormal element, and it works!  If romance is your thing, you are going to love Everlong.  If romance isn’t your thing, I recommend you give this one a try anyway.  As for me, I’ll be watching for the next book from R. Raeta! 

I ordered a paperback copy of this book because that is my preference, but Everlong is available for your kindle, and is also enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited program if you are a member.  You can find the book HERE on Amazon.


Sunday, October 3, 2021

Coming To Life...

I’ve been working on my next book for several months now.  I’ll be honest, it’s been a daunting task and for one reason alone:  My characters—though I know what I want them to look like, and how I want them to act—they haven’t really come all the way to life yet.  My mind knows who they are, but the page has yet to really recognize their greatness.  To be clear, I don’t usually just throw a character together and make them up as I go.  Okay, maybe I do for some characters that have a minimal part in to play in the story, but I put a lot of thought into my main characters.  They have extensive back stories, even if their entire story doesn’t get told in my book, (or at least in the book I’m working on) they come from somewhere and had a life before I began writing them.  There is a point in my writing process—and it is usually about the half-way to two-thirds point into the book—when the character begins to take on, not just the life that I had envisioned for them, but they actually take on a life of their own.  They begin to have feelings and wants and needs that I didn’t even realize that they had.  This is the turning point of the writing process for me.  This is when my flame for the story is reignited, and everything begins to pull together.  Writing the book is no longer a discouraging task that I need to push myself to complete and force into existence—it’s something I can barely pull myself away from because the words are falling off my fingertips onto the page.  It’s as if the lives of the characters are going to keep moving forward—the story is going continue to be told even if I step away from the laptop for a few hours.  They’ve become real and believable.  This is the reason that I write.  To create the life on the page; to let other people experience that life and to question that life.  To be honest, I get a rush from it.  Really… I will get up and pace around the room just to calm down sometimes.  Today is the day that I’ve reached that point.  It’s all downhill from here.  If you’re writing a story, I hope all of your characters make you feel this way—I know I can’t be the only one.  I’ll see you all on the other side!  Keep reading!  

BOOK REVIEW: The Manic Mission: Children of the Mob, BY: C.J. Simone

  This was a wild ride right from the beginning.  In the first pages there’s action, mystery, thrills, and suspense, and it doesn’t let up f...