Tag: YA

Posted in News

My Book and Profile Are on Goodreads!

Posted on by Amy McNulty

Some of you may have missed the news, but you can already add THE VEILED MAN’S GODDESS to your to-read list on Goodreads.

Just today I finished updating my Goodreads Author Page. Become a “fan” to follow my updates, although I understand if you feel you can’t because you haven’t read my book yet!

Since a more detailed summary of THE VEILED MAN’S GODDESS is available on Goodreads, I’ll share it here:

In a village of masked men, magic compels each man to love only one woman and to follow the commands of his “goddess” without question. A woman may reject the only man who will love her if she pleases, but she will be alone forever. And a man must stay masked until his goddess returns his love—and if she can’t or won’t, he remains masked forever.

Where the rest of her village celebrates this mystery that binds men and women together, seventeen year old Noll is just done with it. She’s lost all her childhood friends as they’ve paired off, but the worst blow was when her closest companion, Jurij, finds his goddess in Noll’s own sister. Desperate to find a way to break this ancient spell, Noll instead discovers why no man has ever loved her: she is in fact the goddess of the mysterious lord of the village, a Byronic man who refuses to let Noll have her right as a woman to spurn him and who has the power to fight the curse. Thus begins a dangerous game between the two: the choice of woman versus the magic of man. And the stakes are no less than freedom and happiness, life and death—and neither Noll nor the veiled man is willing to lose.

Posted in News

The Sight Seer 2, The Soul Healer, Is Out in April!

Posted on by Amy McNulty

Anyone who’s followed my blog for a while knows that author Melissa Giorgio is one of my best friends and beta readers, so of course I’m a little biased, but I truly think her debut series, The Silver Moon Saga, is one of the funniest YA reads out there with some of the best characters. (Don’t be fooled, though–there’s plenty of dynamic action, too!) The first book, The Sight Seer, came out last summer and became an Amazon bestseller. She followed up with a novella set between books 2 and 3, An Autumn Dream, in the fall.

And now she’s posted the news: Book 2 in the series will be called The Soul Healer, and you can buy it April 11th!

It’s been two months since Gabi Harkins first learned of demons and the mysterious hunters who battle them. After discovering a few unbelievable surprises about herself, she simply wants to settle into a normal routine that involves dating her boyfriend Rafe Fitzgerald, hanging out with her friends, and eating lots of dessert. But when her peaceful life is destroyed by the ultimate of betrayals, Gabi must rely on her wits—and a few new crazy friends—to survive her hardest challenges yet.

 The sequel to The Sight Seer combines action, romance, and a healthy dose of humor as Gabi struggles to learn the truth about the secrets that surround her life.

I can tell you as one of her betas that fans of book 1 will love book 2 just as much, if not more, so watch this blog for more news as it becomes available!

You can already add the sequel (AND book 3! No release date yet for that one, though) on GoodReads. Click here for book 2 and here for book 3!

Posted in Reading

My Reads for 2013

Posted on by Amy McNulty

Okay, there are a few days left in the year, but I probably won’t finish the book I’m working on before then. (But who knows, I could get really addicted–if so, I’ll edit this entry!)

Last year I listed the books I’d read for the year at the end of the year, and I thought I’d keep up the tradition. It’s a fun retrospective, and I’m especially happy since this year I read way more books than I usually do (which is still very little compared to some avid readers out there). As usual, most of the books are YA, but some MG and adult made their way on there.

This year a number of things happened, reading-wise:

  • Early in the year, I set out to finish my to-read shelf by the end of the year. By which I mean the books I had literally sitting on a shelf, ones I’d never read before. Somehow, that shelf got full of books I didn’t touch for YEARS. I think the oldest one had been sitting there since 2008, the last time I “caught up.” I did catch up about halfway through the year (even though I added some new books along the way), right in time for ALA.
  • I attended the American Library Association annual conference in June just because it was nearby (Chicago). I’m not a librarian, but it was open to the public, and as a writer and reader, I thought it would be fun. (Especially after hearing from friends how awesome Book Expo America is.) I got my first-ever set of ARCs, most of them books I’d never even heard of before going but seemed appealing, and I made it a quest to read them all before their release dates, and I did.
  • I got a Kindle for my birthday, after years of thinking I’d hate reading e-books. Now I change between reading paper copies and e-books pretty often! I like how e-books are instantly available and most of the time more affordable than paper copies. They also take up less space, obviously, and although I still prefer paper copies, I’m trying to cut back on the books I own since I have so many already. This way I still own them, just in virtual space.
  • I went to the library more often toward the end of the year to save money and save book shelf space by just borrowing some books I found appealing. Mostly books by authors I’d read earlier in the year and because I then wanted to read everything they wrote!
  • I went to an event at Books of Wonder not having heard of the YA authors there and walking away with three of their books and putting the rest on my get-from-the-library list.
  • …And now thanks to the Kindle and the library and all the many, many books that seem interesting, I have a sizeable to-read list again. And I’m not even counting the many, many books I want to read but I don’t have a copy of yet. (I also want to re-read some books soon!) It never ends. The reader’s happy but overwhelming dilemma.

The 2013 list (not counting the many graphic novels and manga I read this year as well):

  1. Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore (autographed, thanks to a friend who got it for me; I started this one in 2012 but finished in the new year; probably my favorite in the trilogy)
  2. Mr. Monk Gets Even by Lee Goldberg (the last book in the series! It was like saying a second farewell years after the TV show ended ;-;)
  3. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
  4. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo (I was really into this book! It came highly recommended)
  5. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (the beginning was a bit of a slog, but I was really addicted after the first 100 pages or so; it’s depressing, but good, and I’ll read whatever she writes!)
  6. The Luxe by Anna Godbersen
  7. Rumors by ditto
  8. Envy by ditto
  9. Splendor by ditto (I read the whole series at once, a gift from a friend)
  10. City of Swords (Stravaganza 6) by Mary Hoffman (sorry to see this series end!)
  11. A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan (so good, a gift from a friend, and I wish more people read it!)
  12. The Witch of Duva (novella) by Leigh Bardugo
  13. The Juniper Game by Sherryl Jordan (I bought a bunch of her books years ago since I liked the books of hers I’d read when younger)
  14. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
  15. Wizard for a Day by Sherryl Jordan
  16. The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily by Dino Buzzati (I picked this one up years ago just because I saw it had an introduction by Lemony Snicket, ha)
  17. A Time of Darkness by Sherryl Jordan
  18. The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani
  19. Time of the Eagle by Sherryl Jordan
  20. The Too-Clever Fox (novella) by Leigh Bardugo
  21. Sabriel by Garth Nix
  22. Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
  23. Secret Sacrament by Sherryl Jordan (this was actually a rare re-read because Time of the Eagle was the sequel and it reminded me how much I loved the first one)
  24. The Sight Seer by Melissa Giorgio (I’m cheating here, ha; I read this in 2011 before she even queried it, not this year that it came out, but this year I DID read the sequel as a beta reader, so I did read a book by her and it counts toward my # XD)
  25. Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis (autographed at ALA; really good and different!)
  26. The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling (I liked it better than The Casual Vacancy, although nothing will be as good as HP, of course, but it was a fun, faster-paced read)
  27. Sometimes Never, Sometimes Always by Elissa Janine Hoole (autographed at ALA)
  28. Inhuman by Kat Falls
  29. Unthinkable by Nancy Werlin (autographed at ALA; I liked this so much despite not reading the books that came before it that I made it a quest to read all of Werlin’s books!)
  30. Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer by Katie Alender
  31. The Wolf Princess by Cathryn Constable
  32. Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott (oo, still not out! I’ve read an ARC that’s still not out!)
  33. Impossible by Nancy Werlin (the first book in the Unthinkable canon; love this series!)
  34. I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga (I read it since I like Dexter)
  35. The Registry by Shannon Stoker
  36. The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
  37. Goth Girl Rising by Barry Lyga
  38. Pivot Point by Kasie West (pretty awesome, better than I was expecting!)
  39. Dexter’s Final Cut by Jeff Lindsay (a better maybe-ending to the series than the TV one, I suppose!)
  40. Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin
  41. The Killer’s Cousin by Nancy Werlin
  42. Game by Barry Lyga
  43. Allegiant by Veronica Roth
  44. A Shimmer of Angels by Lisa M. Basso
  45. The Waking Dark by Robin Wasserman (autographed when I met her at Books of Wonder in NY; the first YA book my bf actually asked to borrow and liked!)
  46. An Autumn Dream (novella) by Melissa Giorgio
  47. Double Helix by Nancy Werlin
  48. The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin (so gripping, I read it in two sittings~)
  49. Black Mirror by Nancy Werlin
  50. More Than This by Patrick Ness (not the book I bought autographed by him at Books of Wonder, but it seemed intriguing, so I got it from the library)
  51. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (this is the one I got autographed; still reading)
Posted in Reading

YA Novella Giveaway: An Autumn Dream by Melissa Giorgio

Posted on by Amy McNulty

This contest is over!! Congrats, Megan S., for winning!

All contests over! Thanks for entering!

Enter Melissa’s own Giveaway of Awesome, where you can win An Autumn Dream PLUS many other prizes!

And who doesn’t love even MORE chances to win? Head on over to River and Sam’s book review blog for another chance for a free copy!

An Autumn Dream by Melissa Giorgio, a Silver Moon Saga Novella, coming November 14th

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Gabi, Rafe, and all of their friends are back in three exciting short stories that bridge the gap between books one and two of the Silver Moon Saga. Join them as they celebrate Halloween in A Sweet Treat—can they make it through the night without Gabi destroying her costume? Find out what Rafe’s really afraid of in Indiana Rafe, a story told exclusively from his perspective. And in An Autumn Dream, Gabi struggles to make amends with a painful part of her past. Filled with laughter and tears, demon battles and plenty of kissing, this novella is a must read for fans of The Sight Seer!

For fans of The Sight Seer, the first book in the Silver Moon saga, getting your hands on this book is a no-brainer, so I thought I’d give one lucky fan a helping hand!

So here’s the deal.

I’m giving away one e-book copy of An Autumn Dream.  The e-book is for the Kindle only, so the winner will have to provide me with an e-mail address connected to his or her Kindle account. If you don’t have a Kindle, you can still get the digital Kindle copy and read it via a free Kindle app for PCs, Macs, tablets, smartphones and web browsers.

Click here to enter to win An Autumn Dream e-novella.

Contest ends November 13th, the day before An Autumn Dream‘s book birthday. Once the e-book is available, and the contest ends, I’ll send it to the winner after I confirm his or her Kindle e-mail address. Enter every day, and follow the instructions on Rafflecopter for even more chances!

Posted in Geek Out, Reading

My First Books of Wonder Event

Posted on by Amy McNulty

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Every few months in the past year or so, my NY bestie and fellow writer Melissa tells me about going to YA author events at Books of Wonder, an independent children’s bookshop in Manhattan. So when visiting NY this year, I half jokingly asked her if the bookstore would have an event when I’d be there, and they did!  I hadn’t heard of a single one of the authors there. Melissa had only heard of/read one book of one, but we figured, why not?

The guests who showed (I think one may have canceled) were Patrick Ness, Robin Wasserman, Alex London, and Gene Luen Yang. Before the event (because I feel weird taking pictures of people without their permission, heh):

NY2013Sun 007 (Medium)

I browsed some of the books by the authors we’d see and wasn’t sure which I wanted to buy. Melissa bought one to get signed for a friend. We got seats at the event and waited. And it was so fun! Even my non-YA-author-reader boyfriend had a nice time. Seriously, they were all incredibly funny, and I think I could never in a million years be as entertaining if called on to give a talk. (I’m worried about future signings apparently, ha.) The authors were also good at pitching their books to the point where I wanted ALL THE BOOKS. I settled on buying three… But I wished I could buy them all. ;-;

The authors were all nice, but I was too chicken to say much other than their books sounded great… (And point out to two of them I didn’t have a nifty post-it with my name on it like everyone else–but that was rectified by the time I saw the third one.) Mr. Ness asked if I’d just bought the book there, and I said yes and admitted I’d never read ANY of his books, and he said not to worry, I hadn’t been spoiled much (a fan in the audience asked what she even admitted was a spoilery question 0-0) and he hoped I enjoyed it. The other authors seemed like big fans of his, so I’m sure his writing is awesome!

It was a fun way to spend an afternoon, and I definitely recommend that anyone in Manhattan keep an eye out for future events!

My goodies:

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Posted in Writing, Writing: Help

WIPMarathon Check-In #4

Posted on by Amy McNulty

Last Check-in Wordcount + ChapterCount: 72,956 words and 28 chapters (first draft completed)

Current WC + CC: 73,226 words and 28 chapters (still editing)

I surpassed my overall goal (“get as much of the first draft done as possible by the end of the month”), so yay. 😀 The marathon has been motivating and a lot of fun to participate in. When I started writing this one in early July, I really didn’t feel like I could finish before the end of the year. Earlier this month I became more determined to finish, but I still thought it would take me another few months. So this was beyond awesome.

WIP Issues this week: Despite totally kicking my goal’s butt this month, I actually barely scratched the surface of the goals I set for myself for this week once I’d finished the draft: Edit it all–just a typo-check and minor continuity changes at this stage–AND write the outline for my next project, the shiny new idea that came to me last week. I didn’t get as far with editing as I’d like, mostly because I was busy, and I didn’t even start the outline.

A good thing, though, because the outline for the shiny new idea continues to evolve in my head. It’s important it evolves and becomes something a little different because it’s dangerously close to some been-there, read-that vibes from other books, I think. It’s how I execute it that I hope sets it apart and makes it worthwhile. (It’ll be my first attempt at a straight-up contemporary, no supernatural involved, so that’s why I was unsure I could make it unique enough. Also… I’m actually going for NA instead of YA this time, which I never thought I’d do.)

What I learned this week in writing: I can actually miss writing/editing on days I’m stuck doing work writing instead. ;-; (I’m usually so tired of staring at a computer screen on those days I don’t miss it.)

What distracted me this week while writing: Work. I also beta read 20 chapters of someone else’s work, which was a pleasant distraction. 😀

Plan after the marathon: Finish the first edits, do the beta process, hopefully get it off to my agent, and meanwhile also outline the next project and dive into it soon!

Last 200 words: I can’t share the last 200 written or edited due to spoilers, but I guess I’ve steeled myself and am ready to share the very first 200 words of the book if you guys want to see it.

I’d lived only five winters the first time I saw an infant drowned.

I felt Father’s hand on my shoulder as the horse jostled us slightly, shaking her head and whipping the tips of her silky black mane across my eyes. Father noticed the instinct that took over, the mere moment my eyelids closed despite the how hard I’d fought to keep them open. “Watch, Rohesia. Burn the moment into your mind.”

The shrieking woman held aloft by two soldiers kicked her legs, sending her skirt upward. I noticed the mud that collected among the hem, the strands of straw-colored hair that escaped her kerchief and swung wildly across her mouth. The hair blew with each shriek like curtains in the breeze, the skirt a gale that tore through a field of wheat, the woman the only source of movement beyond the scuffing hooves of the horses beside me.

“The child, Rohesia. Not the mother.”

The soldier by the river tossed the tattered cloth that had wrapped the baby on the ground and held the crying infant as far out in front of him as his stocky arms would allow. One gauntlet supported the baby’s head and neck, the other gripped the child’s body loosely, and I saw one impossibly small leg kick upward vainly.

–Oops, beta reader, I read this over again and changed a few words yet again if you noticed a difference, but yeah…

Posted in News, Reading

Cover Reveal: Darkness Watching by Emma L. Adams

Posted on by Amy McNulty

Anyone reading my blog lately has noticed I participated in the WIP marathon for the month of August, and that helped me really crack down on my writing goals. I wouldn’t have found out about the group if I hadn’t become Twitter friends with Emma L. Adams, one of the WIP marathon participants. She’s a MG/YA/NA author who writes some pretty awesome-sounding fantasy and paranormal stuff. So I decided to join in on her cover reveal today! This book sounds great, so let’s all check it out next month! Enjoy the pretty:

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Darkness Watching by Emma L. Adams 
(Darkworld #1)
Publication date: September 30th 2013
Genres: New Adult, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy

Synopsis:

Seventeen-year-old Ashlyn is one interview away from her future when she first sees the demons. She thinks she’s losing her mind, but the truth is far more frightening: she can see into the Darkworld, the home of spirits– and the darkness is staring back.


Desperate to escape the demons, Ash accepts a place at a university in the small town of Blackstone, in the middle of nowhere – little knowing that it isn’t coincidence that led her there but the pull of the Venantium, the sorcerers who maintain the barrier keeping demons from crossing from the Darkworld into our own world.

All-night parties, new friendships and a life without rules or limits are all part of the package of student life – but demons still stalk Ash, and their interest in her has attracted the attention of every sorcerer in the area. Ash is soon caught between her new life and a group of other students with a connection to the Darkworld, who could offer the answers she’s looking for. The demons want something from her,  and someone is determined to kill her before she can find out what it is.

In a world where darkness lurks beneath the surface, not everyone is what they appear to be..

AUTHOR BIO:

568Emma spent her childhood creating imaginary worlds to compensate for a disappointingly average reality, so it was probably inevitable that she ended up writing fantasy and paranormal for young adults. She was born in Birmingham, UK, which she fled at the first opportunity to study English Literature at Lancaster University. In her three years at Lancaster, she hiked up mountains, skydived in Australia, and endured a traumatic episode involving a swarm of bees in the Costa Rican jungle. She also wrote various novels and short stories. These included her first publication, a rather bleak dystopian piece, and a disturbing story about a homicidal duck (which she hopes will never see the light of day).

Now a reluctant graduate, she can usually be found in front of her writing desk, creating weird and wonderful alternative worlds. Her debut novel The Puppet Spell, published in 2013 by Rowanvale Books, is a fantasy tale for young adults and the young at heart, inspired by her lifelong love of the fantastical, mythology, and video games. Emma also writes supernatural fantasy novels for older teens and adults. Her next book, Darkness Watching, is the first in the upper-YA/New Adult Darkworld series, and will be published in September 2013 by Curiosity Quills Press.
Posted in Writing, Writing: Help

Character Voice and First Person Point of View

Posted on by Amy McNulty

I’m a fan of first person narrative. I love reading it, and I love writing it, and thankfully it’s pretty common in my favorite genre (YA). There’s something so immediate about first person narrative that lets you slip into a character’s head better than third person, to picture the action from his or her point of view. Through one character’s eyes, you go on an adventure you’d probably never get to experience, you get romanced (sometimes~) and, in YA at least, are free to regress to a younger age when you were just getting used to the unfairness of the world (and overreacting to it), and you viewed things through a not-yet-adult-no-longer-a-child point of view.

I love writing when first person voice is unreliable especially. As the writer, you know your character isn’t seeing things as they truly are, but it’s fine manipulating the reader into seeing things from the skewed point of view, only to turn it on its head later.

My only problem as a writer of first person perhaps? Learning to give each narrative voice its own flavor. So far I have one completed manuscript in first person and two works in progress in first person—the newest will actually have four different first persons at that. I know, I’m crazy, but that’s the story I want to tell. (My other two works in progress are in third person and I’ve yet to become as attached to them, perhaps because I don’t feel as immersed in them.) I’ve seen multiple points of view first person done well (among them, one I’ve beta read and hope you all see someday), and I think I can come up with some strategies for trying to make each voice different. (We’ll see if others agree I’ve done a decent job distinguishing them, since I’ve yet to share more than one first person narrative with a single human being… My cat, though, she’s seen them while getting fur all over my laptop screen.):

  • Try to figure out who the narrator is before you start writing. What makes him or her different from the other characters you’ve written before? What are their strengths, and what are their weaknesses?
  • How would you write dialogue for this character? Chances are, you “get inside the heads” of dozens of characters all the time anyway when they speak to your narrator. This time you just have to think of how the new character would describe everything unfolding in the room.
  • How are they unreliable? Everyone is, to a certain extent. Figure out the “truth” of the scene, and then figure out how the character would interpret that truth. How would they describe a scene in a different way than the last character from whose point of view you wrote?
  • Don’t go overboard with the voice differences. Having one character drop the “g” off of “ings” seems like a good idea to remind the reader that this is Character B speaking, not Character A, but it’s really just distracting. If Character A is serious and Character B takes everything as a joke, there are ways to express that better than speech differences, like smarmy commentary.

What other tips and strategies do you have for writing different first person points of views? Share them with me!

Posted in News, Reading

Free YA Book Giveaway! The Sight Seer

Posted on by Amy McNulty

This contest is OVER!!

I’m proud to announce the first ever giveaway on my blog:

The Sight Seer by Melissa Giorgio, a YA paranormal thriller

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Gabi Harkins likes to think she’s a pretty normal sixteen-year-old. She goes to school, suffers though an awful part-time job, and deals with a bratty younger sister. But when a potential shoplifter morphs into a monster right in front of her, Gabi realizes her life is far from normal—especially when that monster follows her home and ends up battling a boy wielding a sword in her backyard.

The boy, Rafe Fitzgerald, is a member of Silver Moon, an organization devoted to eradicating demons before they kill humans. If this little bit of news isn’t earth-shattering enough, Rafe reveals that he needs Gabi’s help. As strong as Rafe is, he does not possess the Sight—a rare ability that allows a hunter to See through a demon’s glamour, enabling them to strike before the demon does. But guess who does?

While Gabi is reluctant to face another demon, she knows she owes Rafe big time for saving her. Together, they’re thrown headfirst into heart-stopping situations as they battle newer and more frightening demons. When she starts to fall for Rafe, Gabi knows her normal life is gone forever.

Anyone who’s been keeping up with my blog knows that Melissa is one of my best friends and beta reader. I had the pleasure of being one of the first The Sight Seer readers, and I remember being upset because she’d only sent me about half the book before going out of town—and I was salivating for more! You guys won’t have to wait to read it all.

So here’s the deal.

I’m giving away one e-book copy and one paperback copy of The Sight Seer. The contest is open internationally. You can enter for both, but on the off chance that you win both, I’ll ask you which you prefer to have and pick another winner for the other category.

The e-book copy is for the Kindle, so the winner will have to provide me with an e-mail address connected to his or her Kindle account. If you don’t have a Kindle, you can still get the digital Kindle copy and read it via a free Kindle app for PCs, Macs, tablets, smartphones and web browsers.

 Click here to enter to win The Sight Seer e-book.

I’ll ship the paperback copy via the USPS to the address provided to me by the winner after a confirmation e-mail.

Click here to enter to win The Sight Seer paperback.

Contest ends June 14th, the projected publication date for The Sight Seer. Once the e-book is available, and the contest ends, I’ll send it to the winner after I confirm his or her Kindle e-mail address. The paperback copy may take a couple of weeks more, depending on when it’s available and how quickly it ships first to me and then to you. Enter both every day, and follow the instructions on Rafflecopter for even more chances!

Posted in Geek Out, Reading

Late to the Party or First One in Line?

Posted on by Amy McNulty

I was trying to think of how many books I’ve read as soon as they came out. It’s a pretty limited number, and that small number is limited largely to sequels/prequels to books I already loved, or on occasion, a book by an author I know I already love. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a brand-new book by an new (or new to me) author anywhere near its release date.

It seems like I’m always “late to the party” when it comes to books. They have to get a lot of buzz and/or a recommendation from a friend before I bother to pick them up. It’s not that what the new (or new to me) authors have to offer doesn’t interest me–far from it–but it feels like I’ve always got a pile of books to read (probably because I literally do) as is, mostly books that others read months or even years ago and I’m just getting to. Fitting in a brand new book I’m not even sure I’ll like is hard when I’m already excited about the books I already have! But it does feel weird to be on the sidelines, to hear friends discuss a book you may not read for years if at all. (But of course, I do have friends who plow through books at a much faster rate than I do!)

I picked up ONE YA book last year that my friends hadn’t already read, and I wasn’t too impressed. (I read it a few months after it came out–I’d just read a summary online and got intrigued.) A few years ago, I did read another series that I liked and none of my friends have yet read (The Forbidden Game by LJ Smith, if you’re interested), but I think that covers the only YA books I’ve read that they haven’t. So maybe I’m not meant to explore the bookscape wilds without someone to light the path before me, and that’s okay. I may be late to the party, but I’ll get there someday!

That said, I’d love it if people read my first book as soon as it came out. 😉 But I understand that there are just too many exciting books out there to read!

Do you love discovering new favorites in brand new releases or are you still crossing old releases off of your to-read list?