Jane - April Lindner

The Story: Jane Moore´s life is not so easy. She has always been family´s ugly duck, has recently lost her parents and doesn´t have any money, what made her leave college, where she was studying.

Without any other option, she got a job as a nanny at Thornfield Park, mansion of Nico Rathbury, a rock-star, typical bad boy, father of a little and lovely daughter, that doesn´t receive much of his attention.

Nico knows many futile women, only interested in his money and fame, and because of this he gets facinated for strong and at the same time sweet Jane´s personality and tries to keep her close, turning her into a close friend. Inevitably, they end up falling in love, but Nico has his secrets, and some of them may destroy his romance with Jane for forever.

My Opinion: I wrote a completely different review for this book, but I decided to download BBC´s mini-series Jane Eyre and I changed this text. Deservedly.

First of all, I have to affirm that April Lindner is very brave. For those who doesn´t know "Jane" is a retelling of Jane Eyre, that I´m ashamed to say that I´ve never read. But I had an idea of how big and wonderful Charlotte Bronte´s book is (by the way, what great sisters they were) and of April Lindner´s intteligence.

"Jane" is amazing! She got the most important scenes from the original story (as I could watch in the series) and turned them into a modern book, but tasting as a classic. A new masterpiece, a new story of a timeless tale.

There are some differences between both books. First of all, Jane happens in actual days and the male character is a musician. The girl that Jane babysits is Nico´s daughter, he´s not her tutor and there´s the press and the band. But we have the same essence, the gothic atmosphere is present and we recognize the same Jane, so strong, with her honest opinions, the Jane that changes, that blooms when falls in love. Well, I have to stop here so as not to tell the whole story.

This is a story that I´ll always remember, unforgettable. And I want to thank the author for giving me the oportunity to read her wonderful book, by sending me its ARC.

How many stars? *****

Soundtrack: Although I know it´s not the perfect melody, everytime I had Jane in my hands, I started to sing: Diary of Jane by Breaking Benjamin - and as Nico was a rock star, it´s worthy!!!

Stranded - J.T. Dutton

The Story: In Heaven, Iowa, nothing is as it seems. People hide their secrets and there´s a church that control their thoughts and deeds. And that´s where Kelly Louise will live.

And that´s in Heaven, this town so full of principles, that a little baby is found dead, a newborn, in the middle of the street. And nobody knows who´s the mother that abandoned her.

Besides her mother, Kelly lives with a conservative grandmother and a cousin of her age, but with entirely different personalities. While one of them is very cool, talks naturally about sex and makes her own mistakes, Natalie, the cousin, is very religious, follows all the rulles imposed by her grandmother and is repressed in every way.

But Natalie has a secret. Something that can change the way people see her and something that can prove that looks can be deceiving.

My Opinion: "Stranded" is known as a Young Adult book, but I´d say that it´s much more than that. When I started reading it, I thought I would encounter a teen drama, like The O.C. (that I really love). But I was completely mistaken. The story is strong, but the author tells it in a very soft and funny way and I got surprised.

Kelly and her cousin Natalie are very different, as I said, but there are some similarities between them. Although Natalie seems conformed with the life she lives, at every oportunity, she shows herself trapped in a cocoon, longing for freedom. Deep inside, she envies Kelly, that´s the family´s black sheep, at least in theory.

Natalie had a very hard life, and it makes us feel sorry for her (even when she acts like a bitch) and these difficults that he had been through made me understand her attitudes and justify her weird behavior for a girl her age.

To me, Stranded was a book with a beautiful moral that teaches us not to judge anybody by appearance. Human being are much more complex then they appear and you may never know a person, no matter how long you know her.

Recomended!

How many stars: ****

Sondtrack: Unfold by Marie Digby.

"I don´t wanna go on living

Being so afraid of showing

Someone else my imperfections."

Hunted by the others - Jess Haines

The Story: Shiarra Waynest is a private investigator in a city where humans live relatively well with the "Others" - vampires, werewolves, mages and other creatures with supernatural powers that appear long the way.

In this city, the "Others" conquered their rights, but in return they cannot cause any harm to anybody (for exemple, a vampire can´t bite a human unless theu both sign a contract allowing that.) Humans and Others can even get married and have kids.

Shiarra is in the middle of this confusion and although she doesn´t want get envolved with their issues, money speaks louder and she is hired by a female mage to find a powerful artifact that fell into the hands of a seductive and manipulative vampirem that puts her in a dangerous situation.

But Shia is not alone in this adventure. She counts on Sara, her human friend, Arnold, a nerd mage and Chaz, her handsome ex-boyfriend.

Will she be able to save her own life?

Minha Opinião: The girl, the vampire and the werewolf. Does it sound familiar? It may be, but I´m sure you´ve never read a story like this.

In Hunted by the others, the girl is brave, smart and even a little bold. The vampire is not so nice and the werewolf... he is another story. I promise I´ll mention him again in another paragraph *-*.

Jess Haines created a whole new world, full of fantastic creatures, where everything can happen... but somehow you start to believe in the things she write. You even start to ask yourself: "What if one of my friends is a vampire or a mage?" Who knows...

I really liked Shiarra, with her very human soul among so utopic beings. She cries, feels fear and asks for help when she needs it. But I also hated her reluctance in accepting Chaz back (the handsome werewolf). I´m in love with him and I beg the author: "Please Jess... I want more of Chaz in the next book!!!"

How many stars? ****

Soundtrack: It was not so easy! The book, despite of being a little dark is very funny too. So I chose Poison by Tarja Turunen that has both features.

You can buy it at Livraria da Cultura HERE

Almost to die for - Tate Hallaway

"The vampires.

Nikolai put a finger to his lips. "Don´t say their name, especially that one. Their hearing is incredible.

I halted my insistent march toward the road. "You sound like you know things about them."

"Are you kidding? My people have been hunters for centuries."

"Vampire hunters? You mean like Buffy?"

The Story: Being a teenager is not that easy. Specially when you´re not much popular at school and you´re not the prettiest. Just to make the situation worse, you´re the daughter of a witch, but you don´t know how to make any spell to scare your idiot colleagues from school. Oh! And I almost forgot... still there´s the fact that you have different eyes. One is blue and the other is brown!

Is this disgrace enough? I haven´t even started telling the worst about Ana´s story.

On her sixteenth birthday, she simply discovers that besides being the daughter of a witch, her father is the Prince of the Vampires, in other words, she´s a dhampir, half human and half vampire. And witches and vampires are enemies and the war between them is just starting.

O Romance: But not everything in Ana´s life is tragedy, my friends! As she finds out that she´s a dhampir, she starts to be disputed by two different boys - Nikolai, a male witch, that comes from a legendary family of vampire hunters, and Elias, the capitain of the knights that protect the prince and becomes a kind of a "bodyguard" of hers.

They both touch Ana´s heart in different ways. But what will happen if she has to chose between the two lives? Will it influence in her relations with Nikolai and Elias?

Minha Opinião: Join vampires, witches (two themes that I really love), two irresistible and good doses of humor. There´s no way to go wrong! "Almost to die for" is a successful union of great ingredients.

It´s easy to like Ana, that shy girl, with a weird family, that tries to fit in some group at school. She´s not ugly, but she´s screwed by the popular guys and she just wants to be normal.

Besides all that, on her birthday she will participate of her Initiation as a "True Witch", but she knows it will be a complete disaster because she can´t do magic and this is making her very nervous. There´s a lot of pressure over her. And exactly in that day, Ana discovers that she´s a Vampire Princess. Isn´t that a lot for a sixteen years old teenager´s mind? Yes, it it... but we´re lucky ´cause Tate Hallaway tells this story wonderfully and Ana seems to deal pretty well with all these things. The book is still a little dark but it´s light, what I really liked.

And I have to confess that I didn´t want to be in Ana´s shoes. Nikolai and Elias are wonderful! And would never know how to pick only one. Nik is that handsome boy from school, super-cool, that sings in a band, besides this is cute and gentle, that would even be able to go against family tradition and not hunt the Vampire Princess. Elias is the sexy guy, that would give his life to protect her... and he conquered me every time he called Ana: "My Lady" ou "Your Highness". What a hard life, isn´t it?
I loved it! One more book to the list of the great YA books that I´ve been reading.

Quantas estrelas: ****

Tem uma trilha sonora: It was hard to find the perfect song, but I chose For the heart I once had by Nightwish, ´cause it talks about a heart that has changed, becoming darker.

True Vision - Joyce Lamb

"He thought he´d feel some guilt. He´d just killed a woman. But it was a woman who deserved to die. Just like the other one. They´s both known, and he couldn´t have them, anyone, knowing. Couldn´t let the secret out. It would destroy them, and they´d worked too hard for too long to sit back and let the destruction begin.

No, the secret to success was destroying the enemies before they could destroy you."

The Suspense: She was just a journalist full of idealisms, living in a small town, where everything that was published in its principal newspaper was controlled by its advertisers, what prevented her to publish many things. But she made the mistake to provoke one of the most powerful man of Lake Avalon.

It would be enough for her to make some enemies. But everything went worst when she witnessed a hit and run and the victim gave to her, with only one touch, her psychic powers.

Now Charlie can touch a person and see something from its past. Besides this, she can feel exactly everything the person felt in this moment. And this is not a good thing.

And someone decides that Charlie is dangerous for its plans. Someone that doesn´t want her to discover a fatal secret in one of her visions.

The Romance: Noah Lassiter is a detective from Chicago, that arrives in Lake Avalon to investigate the death of her friend. Yes, the same woman that transferred her powers to Charlie and the one that had a strong conexion with her. He knew that the hit and run was a murder and he decided to find the killer. He didn´t expected to fall so hard for Charlie and to live a torrid romance with her, full of surprises.

Minha Opinião: Everyone that read my blog knows that Romantic Suspense is my favourite kind of book. But I´ve read so many things with this theme, that the books end up being too similar and with no surprises. It didn´t happend with True Vision! Definitely!

I loved every page and the reading was very pleasant. I´m surrendering myself more and more to paranormal romances and Joyce Lamb´s story came in a good time, which I´m avid for these things.

I felt a deep agony for Charlie. She received a gift as a "heritage" from the lady that died and wasn´t prepared at all for what would happend next. Each time that she touched a person, she entered in a memory and phisicaly felt the pains and emotions of this remembrance. And this was true for good and bad things. I cannot forget to mention the hottest scenes between her and Noah, where she could feel the same as him (If you know what I mean ;)).

I felt sorry for her, when she became exhausted after so many visions, but I got envy too, ´cause devoted Noah was always there, to help in her difficult moments. Their dialogs are great and I fell in love with their romance. And the suspense is very good too.

I really recomend!

How many stars: *****

Tem uma trilha sonora? Yes! I found the perfect one - No need to explain by Lacuna Coil.

"Take and hold this hand what you feel inside?

Is another dream, won´t you give me a part."

The Fame Factor - Polly Courtney

"Offstage, she had an ordinary existence, but on stage, she became extraordinary. It no longer mattered who was listening. It didn´t even matter if nobody was listening. She was surrounded by and absorbed in the music, feeling more alive than she could ever feel in the day."

The Story: They were "Dirty Money". Four young, talented and beautiful girls making music - a different kind of rock, without stereotypes, with no definitions. Besides having an enviable chemistry on stage, they were really close friends.

Zoe Kidd was their front woman. While she was dreaming on being a rock star, she was dealing with a boring job and with a family that didn´t accept her double life and didn´t comprehend her dream of having success in an uncertain carreer as music.

Everything changes when a really good musical producer comes into their lives and gives Zoe some difficult alternatives that can change her life completely.

Is fame that important? Even more important than family, friendship, love and happiness?

My Opinion: Do you wanna know one thing, guys? While I was reading the first pages of The fame factor, I was familiarizing myself with the happenings in Dirty Money´s lives. I used to have a band and I made some of these things mentioned in the book. I´ve spent hours adding friends to our myspace, I lost days at school to go to essays, I composed songs with my best friend and I´m sure that read it all gave me a sense of a good nostalgia.

But more than that, Polly´s book, besides being really amazing to read is a life lesson that tells us that we can wish for everything, to think that we have it all and when we look around and see a crowd surrounding us, in fact we are more alone than never. Deep inside we have nothing that really matters.

I confess that I would never make some choices that did Zoe. She is a great character and I felt angry with her and for her. I wanted to enter inside the book and make her realize the mess she was making, But that´s exactly when I know the book is pleasing me.

I recomend it! It´s a trip through the sordid world of showbiz, drugs, friendship and about learning what´s really worthy.

Oh, and I can´t forget to say that Polly Courtney is very lovely!

How many stars: ****

Soundtrack: In my way home from work, I found the perfect song for this It´s my life by Bon Jovi. I decided for this version, ´cause it´s more melancholic.

"I ain´t gonna be just a face in the crowd

You´re gonna hear my voice when I shout it aloud"

Interview with Angela Morrison (TAKEN BY STORM AND SING ME TO SLEEP)

Hi Guys...
I´m here today to show you a delicious interview that I had the pleasure to make with an international writer - Angela Morrison that wrote TAKEN BY STORM and SING ME TO SLEEP.

I confess that I´m delighted with Angela, not only because she´s extremely caring and gentle, but because her answers made me her fan and I haven´t even started reading her book (soon I´ll review it!). It was a big pleasure to translate this interview and I confess that Im touched with the message she left!

See for yourself...


AMS: When and why did you start writing?

AM: I wanted to be a writer ever since I was a little girl. I read a biography about Louisa Mae Alcott and decided I wanted to be her. I had a big sister just like Meg--pretty and perfect. And I was the sister who wanted to run around outside and climb trees. I also loved to make up stories. In high school, I went to workshops for kids who wanted to write fiction and got to meet real life authors who encouraged me. In university, I majored in English Literature. That turned me into a really good critic. I got married and had four children, but I always felt like I needed to work more on my writing. In 2002 I enrolled in Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA (master of fine arts) in Writing for Children and Young Adults. I learned from professionals how to write professionally. And I've been trying to do that ever since. It took me almost four years after I graduated to sell my first book, TAKEN BY STORM, to Razorbill at Penguin.

AMS: Why writing books for young adults readers? And why do you think that they touch grown up´s heart and attention so much?

AM: I write for young adults because those are the voices that surrounded me when I started writing every day all day. My oldest sons were teens at the time. And I'd taught teens at church every morning for three solid years. I love the concept behind YA now. The poignant struggles of teens trying to move through the transition from child to adult and trying to figure out love as part of the process are what draw me to a story.

AMS: You have two books already released. What are the most perceptible differences between your writing in each of them?

AM: TAKEN BY STORM is a collage novel. What does that mean? The story is told through a "collage" of entries. Leesie contributes poems from her "Most Private Chapbook," Michael lets us see his journal entries that he scribbles in his dive log (he is a scuba diver!), and then I added online chat transcripts of Michael and Leesie's chats and Leesie's chats with her poet friend, Kim. This story starts with a tragedy and ends with a sense of healing.

SING ME TO SLEEP is written entirely from Beth's point of view. We don't see into anyone else's head. My editor wanted a poetic element in this book, too, so she asked me to sprinkle lyrics from the songs Beth writes throughout the book. I also had to make up lyrics for all the choral songs her choir and she and Derek perform in scenes. This story ends in tragedy with a hope of healing.

AMS: Who is your favorite character from these two books?

AM: That's a tough question. It's like asking a mother to choose a favorite child. I just finished writing the sequel to TAKEN BY STORM, UNBROKEN CONNECTION, and Michael is so amazing in that book that I have to say he is my favorite right now. I'm starting to work on the final book in Michael and Leesie's saga, CAYMAN SUMMER, and I'm so excited to see what he'll do. I've decided not to keep that journey to myself. I'm going to write CAYMAN SUMMER and post it on a dedicated blog as I write it--poem by poem, dive log by dive log, chat by chat. I hope some of you will want to join me!

AMS: What do you think that´s essential in a book, something that makes you really stuck on it?

AM: I love to read about wounded characters who learn from their difficulties and find happiness with a precious person who will love them forever.

AMS: Can you name three perfect books in your opinion?

AM: Perfect? Whoa. Is anything perfect? I think there are some books that come close. I love Jane Austen. PERSUASION is my favorite because Anne suffers so acutely and Captain Wentworth is so horrible to her, but he finally returns to the love he knows is true. Katherine Paterson's JACOB HAVE I LOVED breaks my heart every time I read it but closes with a sense of spiritual joy that is palpable. My favorite YA novel in recent years is THE BOOK THIEF. The artistry in that book is incredible. When I feel like I need to tune up my prose, I read it again.

AMS: Can you give some advice for new writers?

AM: Read hundreds and hundreds of books. Write every day. Try to find opportunities to learn from professionals--whether it is in a formal degree program, through online classes or critique groups, or studying all the amazing material that is on the internet these days. Study your craft. Search out mentors. You would never expect a professional soccer--oops, football to you--player to star in the World Cup without years of professional coaching and thousands of hours of practice. The same is true for writers. Writing is a vocation that we are driven to do--despite how difficult it is to make any money do it. I'm miserable unless I'm writing. If you feel the same, you're a writer. Keep at it. You will get better and better. Take advantage of all the new avenues that are opening up for writers. Publishing as we know it is under going a gigantic shift. The trend to ebooks and print on demand books is just the tip of the iceberg. Get involved. Enjoy the journey. And write fantastic books! (There are lots of practical writing how-to's on my liv2writ blog on my website.)

AMS: I wish you could leave a message for the blog and for my readers ^^.

AM: Thank you, Bianca, for hosting me--sending me questions in English and translating my answers. I know how hard that is. I appreciate it so much. My motto these days is from Robert Frost, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood / And I took the one less traveled by / And that has made all the difference." Check out the roads less traveled. Trust your life to a higher power. He knows what's around the corner. And I know He has some amazing surprises in store for all of us!
Kisses!

***

Angela, thanks so much for using your free time (that I know that must be very rare) to answer my questions!

And for my readers, I hope you like it!