This week, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to Carolina Valdez Miller.

I met Carolina earlier this year and instantly hit it off with her. In addition to being a talented YA writer, Carolina is warm, funny and incredibly generous. You’ll find all of these qualities over at her blog, but my favorite reason to visit are for Carolina’s book reviews. Guys, you don’t want to miss these. Few people invest as much thought and care into their book reviews. They are brilliant.

So head over and check out Carolina’s blog. I guarantee you’ll return often.

Happy Friday!

Ha Ha! You have to wait for your surprise! First... HEREAFTER by Tara Hudson

From Goodreads:

Can there truly be love after death?

Drifting in the dark waters of a mysterious river, the only thing Amelia knows for sure is that she's dead. With no recollection of her past life—or her actual death—she's trapped alone in a nightmarish existence. All of this changes when she tries to rescue a boy, Joshua, from drowning in her river. As a ghost, she can do nothing but will him to live. Yet in an unforgettable moment of connection, she helps him survive.

Amelia and Joshua grow ever closer as they begin to uncover the strange circumstances of her death and the secrets of the dark river that held her captive for so long. But even while they struggle to keep their bond hidden from the living world, a frightening spirit named Eli is doing everything in his power to destroy their newfound happiness and drag Amelia back into the ghost world . . . forever.

From me:

Hudson sets a lovely tone for this book with clear, descriptive settings and pretty prose. When the afterlife is described, it’s downright eerie, but there are also delightful moments between Amelia and Josh. I really loved spending time with these two. They genuinely cared for each other, and their chemistry was terrific. Amelia’s transformation throughout the story is palpable, both physical and emotional, as she reconnects with the girl she once was. Touching. Creepy. Romantic. This is one to curl up with in the hammock or on the beach and savor.

ANNNDDD now for a special celebration! Veronica Roth's brilliant DIVERGENT landed on the NYT Bestseller list as soon as it hit the shelves. The Bookanistas couldn't resist a celebration. Congratulations on an amazing book and fantastic accomplishment!

Check out what the rest of the Bookanistas are reading this week:

Elana Johnson and Stasia Ward Kehoe savor Bad Taste in Boys

LiLa Roecker celebrates The Summer of the Bear

Christine Fonseca has got a surprise for a Bookanista buddy (ooh—curious?)

Beth Revis interviews Blood Magic author Teresa Gratton

Carolina Valdez Miller enjoys a special celebration

Jessi Kirby and Megan Miranda gush about Imaginary Girls

Bethany Wiggins is crazy about Delirium

Shana Silver sings praises for Starcrossed

Jen Hayley applauds Possession

Carrie Harris glories in Texas Gothic

I've spent the last few weeks devouring romances from some of my favorite authors as I try to uncover the secret to what makes a romance resonate.  Who better to teach me a thing or two about romance than the wonderful Simone Elkeles?  I've read and loved PERFECT CHEMISTRY and its sequel, RULES OF ATTRACTION, but fellow muse V suggested I read LEAVING PARADISE, her own favorite Elkeles novel.

So I did.  In one sitting.  Then at eleven pm on a "school" night, I immediately ordered and downloaded the sequel, RETURN TO PARADISE and started in on that one.

Simone Elkeles is an inspiration.  She writes characters that feel alive, with real flaws, real character, and real emotion.  She is a master at writing the bad boy with the heart of gold, and Caleb Becker is no exception.

In LEAVING PARADISE, Caleb is released from a juvenile detention facility where he did time for a hit and run drunk driving accident.  He comes home to a find his family is every bit as damaged as he is, if not moreso.  He finds solace in an unlikely heroine, the victim of the hit and run accident that sent Caleb to prison, Maggie Armstrong, who is still recovering from her physical injuries. 

Against all odds, Maggie and Caleb help each other cope with the aftermath of the accident.  They share a unique understanding of the shadows cast across their lives by the events of that night.  Maggie and Caleb have to learn to forgive each other before they can start to heal themselves, and you'll be rooting for them long after you turn the last page.  Or if you're like me, you'll be shopping in the Kindle store a few seconds later to snag the sequel.

Simone Elkeles has a gift for writing emotionally engaging romances, filled with humor and intelligence.  It's a winning combination that you won't want to miss.

Recently there’s been a lot of action (and reaction) on Twitter and the blogosphere from the YA community over an article in the Wall Street Journal.  The author claims that bookstores have succumbed to the weight of darkness in literature for young adults.  And that there is nothing for the discerning (and concerned) parent or teen to mitigate this.

I can’t help but think that this is a rather blinkered view of the world, because we can’t (or at least shouldn’t) protect our children from what is really going on the world.  From the addict sleeping in the doorway down the street, from the radio report of the high school students who witnessed rape and did nothing to prevent it, from the images of war and uprising on the nightly news.

I think the reason people retreat from such depictions in fiction is because we empathize with the characters.  They become real to us in a way that the images on the television or the words on the radio don’t.  Because we can get into a character’s head in fiction, we feel more strongly about her sleeping on the sidewalk than we might about the man we cross the street to avoid.

I, personally, would love to believe in fairies at the end of the garden.  I would love to shut my eyes and think that the war in Afghanistan or the turmoil in Syria are far away and none of my business.  I would love to think that addiction and depression and meaningless acts of cruelty won’t happen to my children.  But I would be deceiving myself.  And betraying my responsibility to them.  To let them know the truth.

I recommend Ruta Sepety’s BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY because of its unflinching descriptions of the atrocities waged upon the “undesirable” populations of the burgeoning Soviet Republic during and after the Second World War.  We have all read Anne Frank and understand the implied violence enacted upon her and her family after the diary ends.  But how many of us knew what happened to the Lithuanians, the Estonians and the Latvians in Stalin’s Russia?  How many of us truly know the meaning of being sent to Siberia?

Ruta Sepetys writes beautifully spare prose to describe the experiences of fifteen-year-old Lina – a girl who wants to be an artist, who admires her older cousin who wishes to be a doctor, who sees the cruelty of the world and makes sense of it through her own vivid imagination.  I was entirely engrossed from the first haunting line: “They took me in my nightgown.”  In little twists and droplets, Sepetys brings in a host of characters and illuminates the desperate Siberian landscape.  The humanity in this story is breathtaking.

There is much darkness in this novel.  People die.  Horribly.  There is cruelty.  Bitterness.  Injustice.  Terror.

But I would never in a million years suggest that teenagers should be sheltered from it.  Because there is also truth.  It’s an historical novel.  Things like this really happened.


And within the darkness, there is also love.  Forgiveness.  Acceptance.  Courage.  Hope.  There is the truth of human experience.

And in that there is light. 

Continuing my quest to read at least one book from each of the keynoters at the upcoming SCBWI conference in LA, last week I picked up Libba Bray's BEAUTY QUEENS. To say it's funny is an understatement. It's layer upon layer of humor and satire. So much so, I found myself re-reading passages and chapters to savor the moment. Reading as a writer, I appreciated the myraid of multiple characters, multiple points of view, multiple story lines and multiple references to pop culture. It's awe-inspiring. Reading as a reader, it's just fun! Definitely add this one to your summer reading list!

From the author's website:

Synposis:"Teen beauty queens. A "Lost"-like island. Mysteries and dangers. No access to emall. And the spirit of fierce, feral competition that lives underground in girls, a savage brutality that can only be revealed by a journey into the heart of non-exfoliated darkness. Oh, the horror, the horror! Only funnier. With evening gowns. And a body count"

Reviews:

"This is Libba Bray, a writer much more interested in subverting that paradigm—girl-on-girl psychological violence as spectator sport—than playing into it…Beauty Queens is a madcap surrealist satire of the world in which her readers have come of age—reality TV, corporate sponsorship, product placement, beauty obsession—but ultimately, it's a story of empowering self-discovery."
–New York Times Book Review

"{a} hilarious romp into an examination of femininity and feminism, sex and sexuality…sure to be popular."
–Booklist

"Out-there satire…Lord of the Flies with an evening gown competition, anyone?"
–Publishers Weekly