Blog Tour Review with Giveaway: If It Makes You Happy by Claire Kann

Book info:
Title:  If It Makes You Happy
Author:  Claire Kann
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: June 4th, 2019
Genres: Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance, Young Adult
Source:  E-galley received from Xpresso Tours which did not influence my opinion
My rating:  4 stars

Synopsis:

High school finally behind her, Winnie is all set to attend college in the fall. But first she’s spending her summer days working at her granny’s diner and begins spending her midnights with Dallas—the boy she loves to hate and hates that she likes. Winnie lives in Misty Haven, a small town where secrets are impossible to keep—like when Winnie allegedly snaps on Dr. Skinner, which results in everyone feeling compelled to give her weight loss advice for her own good. Because they care that’s she’s “too fat.”

Winnie dreams of someday inheriting the diner—but it’ll go away if they can’t make money, and fast. Winnie has a solution—win a televised cooking competition and make bank. But Granny doesn’t want her to enter—so Winnie has to find a way around her formidable grandmother. Can she come out on top?

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My Review:
This was really a good book.  It had so much to it, depth, characters, back stories, side stories, emotion, drama, and a lot of really good takes on issues that you may not think about normally, or don't realize because they were from the side of an issue you may not identify with.  Even some of them that I do feel like I connect with, the whole overweight thing especially, I even learned a few things or began to think of them from a slightly different angle.  I loved Winnie's relationship with Kara, but I also liked that she wasn't sure if it was going to just be Kara for the rest of her life. Well, she knew Kara would always be in her life, but the fact that she knew she might want to see who or what was still out there was definitely a great look at how a young person might really feel.  I like that she wasn't just your standard LGBTQ character, that she was also truly interested in Dallas, but that it didn't change her feelings for Kara, even if it did make her wonder and think about them more.

I really thought there was a lot of great details about how being overweight doesn't always mean someone isn't healthy.  I had a doctor recently who actually gave me similar facts, about how some people are more genetically likely to get diabetes, but could be skinny, it just has to do with how the body deals with certain substances.  I also didn't realize you could refuse to have your weight taken at the doctor's office!  And then I liked Kara's one line about how she was fiscally conservative without the Republican agenda.  While I don't completely agree with the "agenda" part, I know that really describes me, or is how I describe myself a lot of times with my own personal political leanings.

Her family was just really real too.  I like how things ended with her grandma.  Well, like might not be the right word, but I felt it was so realistic, and a perfect way to show that sometimes it is okay for that to be what happens, that you have to stand up for yourself.  Winnie's self-confidence was great, something we see with a lot of characters these days, but I like that she knew how much it actually covered and how it actually worked for herself.  A lot of her self reflection really caught me as exact thoughts and feelings I've had myself. 

A great book, I can't wait to put it in my library, as well as recommend it to my students to read.

Author Bio:

Claire Kann is the author of LET’S TALK ABOUT LOVE and an award-winning online storyteller. In her other life, she works for a nonprofit that you may have heard of where she daydreams like she’s paid to do it. Find out more by visiting her website: www.clairekann.com (and while you’re there, tell her about your cats. She loves cats. A lot.)

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Lisa's Looking Foward To #16 - June 4th, 2019

Back to joining up with the Waiting on Wednesday Posts, and the Can't Wait Wednesday posts hosted by Wishful Endings.  Now, there are a LOT of books on my list for next Tuesday, so sit back and get ready to scroll!

From my ARC list for June 4th:

Love the cover and the blurb below!

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Sarah Mlynowski, this heartfelt and humorous contemporary take on Sense and Sensibility follows two sisters—complete opposites—who discover the secrets they’ve been keeping make them more alike than they’d realized.

For two sisters as different as Plum and Ginny, getting on each other’s nerves is par for the course. But when the family’s finances hit a snag, sending chaos through the house in a way only characters from a Jane Austen novel could understand, the two drift apart like they never have before. Plum, a self-described social outcast, strikes up a secret friendship with the class jock, while Ginny’s usual high-strung nature escalates to pure hysterics.

But this has always been the sisters’ dynamic. So why does everything feel different this year? Maybe because Ginny is going to leave for college soon. Maybe because Plum finally has something that she doesn’t have to share with her self-involved older sister. Or maybe because the girls are forced to examine who they really are instead of who their late father said they were. And who each girl discovers—beneath the years of missing their dad—could either bring them closer together…or drive them further apart.

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE. 

Sounds like a great #ownvoices type of story.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Katsuyamas never quit—but seventeen-year-old CJ doesn’t even know where to start. She’s never lived up to her mom’s type A ambition, and she’s perfectly happy just helping her aunt, Hannah, at their family’s flower shop.

She doesn’t buy into Hannah’s romantic ideas about flowers and their hidden meanings, but when it comes to arranging the perfect bouquet, CJ discovers a knack she never knew she had. A skill she might even be proud of.

Then her mom decides to sell the shop—to the family who swindled CJ’s grandparents when thousands of Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during WWII. Soon a rift threatens to splinter CJ’s family, friends, and their entire Northern California community; and for the first time, CJ has found something she wants to fight for.

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE.

So, I really enjoyed the first two in the series.  I guess they did not make an ARC for the third, so I didn't get one.  Plus as I've mentioned before, my Disney contact has moved to another publisher, and so I no longer have anyone to contact there anyway.  I don't know that I like this cover as much as I did the first two:  Royal Bastards and City of Bastards.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

A year has passed since the fall of Lightspire. The Inquisitor Miles Hampstedt has usurped the throne and rules Noveris with a blood-soaked iron fist. Tilla and her friends have become hardened rebels in the Unbroken, a band of guerilla fighters hiding out in the fringes of the Kingdom. Tilla is plagued with doubt and regret; Lyriana struggles with the burdens of being a fugitive Queen; Zell atones for his guilt by killing for the cause. And even as they all fight, they know their cause is doomed, that with very passing day Miles' power grows, his army of Bloodmages spreading to cover the continent.

Then a raid on an outpost produces two unexpected prisoners: Lord Elric Kent himself, now a prisoner obsessed with revenge, and Syan See, a strange girl from the Red Wastes. Tilla struggles with the emotional weight of confronting her father, but it's Syan that offers the true revelation. She demonstrates a new incredible kind of magic, and speaks of a secret civilization hidden in isolation in the mysterious Wastes. With Miles' forces closing in, Tilla and her friends (alongside a hostage Lord Kent) set out to make contact with Syan's people, to make an pact that could turn the war. The journey will test their character, forge unlikely alliances, reveal the horrifying true nature of magic, and set in motion a battle that will determine the fate of Noveris itself.

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE.  

Love that cover!

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Critically-acclaimed author Leah Thomas blends a small-town setting with the secrets of a long-ago crime, in a compelling novel about breaking free from the past.

In Samsboro, Kentucky, Kalyn Spence's name is inseparable from the brutal murder her father committed when he was a teenager. Forced to return to town, Kalyn must attend school under a pseudonym . . . or face the lingering anger of Samsboro's citizens, who refuse to forget the crime.

Gus Peake has never had the luxury of redefining himself. A Samsboro native, he's either known as the "disabled kid" because of his cerebral palsy, or as the kid whose dad was murdered. Gus just wants to be known as himself.

When Gus meets Kalyn, her frankness is refreshing, and they form a deep friendship. Until their families' pasts emerge. And when the accepted version of the truth is questioned, Kalyn and Gus are caught in the center of a national uproar. Can they break free from a legacy of inherited lies and chart their own paths forward?

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE.

Love the cover, love the blurb!  I've been seeing this around the blogosphere a lot lately, wishing I'd had time to get to it.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Selah has waited her whole life for a happily ever after. As the only daughter of the leader of Potomac, she knows her duty is to find the perfect match, a partner who will help secure the future of her people. Now that day has finally come.

But after an excruciatingly public rejection from her closest childhood friend, Selah’s stepmother suggests an unthinkable solution: Selah must set sail across the Atlantic, where a series of potential suitors awaits—and if she doesn’t come home engaged, she shouldn’t come home at all.

From English castle gardens to the fjords of Norge, and under the eye of the dreaded Imperiya Yotne, Selah’s quest will be the journey of a lifetime. But her stepmother’s schemes aren’t the only secrets hiding belowdecks…and the stakes of her voyage may be higher than any happy ending.

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE. 

I have an ARC of this one, will be reading or am reading it as this is posted.  Will post a review probably right before pub date.
Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Five friends cursed. Five deadly fates. Five nights of retribución.

If Lupe Dávila and Javier Utierre can survive each other’s company, together they can solve a series of grisly murders sweeping though Puerto Rico. But the clues lead them out of the real world and into the realm of myths and legends. And if they want to catch the killer, they'll have to step into the shadows to see what's lurking there—murderer, or monster?

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE.

I won an ARC of this from Bookish First, and by the time this post actually goes live, I will have read it.  My review will be sometime over the next few days!

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

From Danielle Vega, YA’s answer to Stephen King, comes a new paranormal novel about dark family secrets, deep-seated vengeance, and the horrifying truth that evil often lurks in the unlikeliest of places.

Hendricks Becker-O’Malley is new in town, and she’s bringing baggage with her. With a dark and wild past, Hendricks doesn’t think the small town her parents moved her to has much to offer her in terms of excitement. She plans on laying low, but when she’s suddenly welcomed into the popular crowd at school, things don’t go as expected.

Hendricks learns from her new friends that the fixer-upper her parents are so excited about is notorious in town. Local legend says it’s haunted. Hendricks doesn’t believe it. Until she’s forced to. Blood-curdling screams erupt from the basement, her little brother wakes up covered in scratches, and something, or someone pushes her dad down the stairs. With help from the mysterious boy next door, Hendricks makes it her mission to take down the ghosts . . . if they don’t take her first.

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE.

Sounds like a cute romance kind of story.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Modern love plus online anonymity is a recipe for romantic disaster in this lighthearted new romance from the author of The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love.

How bad can one little virtual lie be?

NYU freshman Mariam Vakilian hasn’t dated anyone in five months, not since her high school sweetheart Caleb broke up with her. So, when she decides to take advantage of an expiring coupon and try out a new virtual reality dating service, it’s sort of a big deal.

It’s an even bigger deal when it chooses as one of her three matches none other than Caleb himself. That has to be a sign, right?

Except that her other match, Jeremy, just happens to be her new best friend IRL.

Mariam’s heart is telling her one thing, but the app is telling her another. So, which should she trust? Is all fair in modern love?

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE.

So the former science teacher in me just loves the cover. And it sounds like a fun read!

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

A fun, witty, light-hearted romantic comedy―The Rosie Project, for teens

Seventeen-year-old Amalia Yaabez and Ezra Holtz couldn’t be more different. They’ve known (and avoided) each other their whole lives; she unable to stand his buttoned-up, arrogant, perfect disposition, and he unwilling to deal with her slacker, rule-breaking way of moving through the world.

When they are unhappily paired on an AP Psychology project, they come across an old psychological study that posits that anyone can fall in love with anyone, if you put them through the right scientific, psychological steps. They decide to put that theory to the test for their project, matching couples from different walks of high school life to see if science really can create love.

As they go through the whirlwind of the experiment, Ezra and Amalia realize that maybe it’s not just the couples they matched who are falling for each other . . .

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE.  

Beautiful cover, and I like the library aspect of it.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power.

Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.

As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.

Sound good? Add to Goodreads HERE.

I've got an e-galley of this one to read, and it sounds really good!  I should be posting my review of it on it's release date.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

High school finally behind her, Winnie is all set to attend college in the fall. But first she's spending her summer days working at her granny’s diner and begins spending her midnights with Dallas—the boy she loves to hate and hates that she likes. Winnie lives in Misty Haven, a small town where secrets are impossible to keep—like when Winnie allegedly snaps on Dr. Skinner, which results in everyone feeling compelled to give her weight loss advice for her own good. Because they care that’s she’s “too fat.”

Winnie dreams of someday inheriting the diner—but it'll go away if they can't make money, and fast. Winnie has a solution—win a televised cooking competition and make bank. But Granny doesn't want her to enter—so Winnie has to find a way around her formidable grandmother. Can she come out on top?

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE. 


Final Thoughts:
 Several that I have copies of to read ahead.  One that I wish I did.  I left off one that has been a big controversial title and that the publication was cancelled on, although I heard it is now back on.  Have you read any of these yet?  Are they on your TBR?  And hey, while you're here, you should go try to win some of my ARCs from Cleaning Up My TBR Post HERE. The US only giveaway is open till Friday at midnight.

Blog Tour with Author Interview and Giveaway: Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann

Book info:
Title: Let’s Talk About Love
Author:  Claire Kann
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: January 23rd, 2018
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult

Synopsis:

Alice had her whole summer planned. Non-stop all-you-can-eat buffets while marathoning her favorite TV shows (best friends totally included) with the smallest dash of adulting–working at the library to pay her share of the rent. The only thing missing from her perfect plan? Her girlfriend (who ended things when Alice confessed she’s asexual). Alice is done with dating–no thank you, do not pass go, stick a fork in her, done.

But then Alice meets Takumi and she can’t stop thinking about him or the rom com-grade romance feels she did not ask for (uncertainty, butterflies, and swoons, oh my!).

When her blissful summer takes an unexpected turn, and Takumi becomes her knight with a shiny library employee badge (close enough), Alice has to decide if she’s willing to risk their friendship for a love that might not be reciprocated—or understood.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes and Noble / iBooks / Kobo

Author Interview:
What does your writing process look like? Do you know the whole story when you start?  Or do you just start writing and go with it (seat of the pants writing)?  If you plan it out, how do you do that?  Outline, notecards, post-it-notes, etc.?
I am an intense plotter who uses multiple word documents because I’m loyal and refuse to jump ship to Scrivener. Usually, I start with a flow of consciousness, where I write down all of my ideas about the plot, characters, and distinct story parts. From there, I sort through what I have and begin to group the portions into sections with headers:
Characters
Story Outline/Beats
Themes
Uncategorized Extras
Once that’s all filled out, I start writing. Writing is rewriting so I’ll have anywhere from 3-6 drafts of a story before I consider it finished.

How do you come up with your ideas for your stories?
I belong to the there are no original ideas left camp. Everything comes from and is inspired by something else. My story ideas usually come from asking, “What if X met Y?” or “What would happen if X got thrown in with Y and then Z showed up to the party?” Occasionally, I’ll have a personal eureka moment and say, “Wow, this terrible thing is happening to me—I should make a sci-fi story with aliens about it because aliens from another dimension make everything better. Or worse.”

How long have you been writing?
My creative anniversary is January 1, 2014. That was the day I decided I would give life to the stories in my head by using written words and turn them into books.

What tips do you have for aspiring writers?
Work hard and stay humble.
Keep your eyes on your manuscript, but it’s also okay to add someone else’s achievements to your list of goals/dreams.
If you need to say no to social obligations to stay home and write, then do it.
Go at your own pace—publishing isn’t going anywhere.
Listen to good music, eat good food, and don’t forget to enjoy your life.

What are your favorite:
Books/authors/genres:
My favorite books are the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman.
I am a big fan of Brandy Colbert and Rainbow Rowell.
While I love most genres, I adore romance. All of my favorite stories usually have some kind of romantic plot or subplot.
Movies/TV Shows
I don’t think I have a favorite movie of all time, but I do watch a lot of TV. I love The Good Place, Fringe, Living Single, and Futurama. I also have an undying love for Sailor Moon and Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica.
Music
Music is in my blood. I love just about everything except for country music and am always on the lookout for my next favorite song. My all-time favorite musicians are My Chemical Romance, Michael Jackson, SHINee, and Whitney Houston.
Food/Writing snack
Apples! Eating crunchy foods helps me concentrate. While I love Funyuns and Chili Cheese Fritos, it’s not a good idea to survive on those for hours at a time. I also make a divine coffee/hot chocolate mix every day before it’s time to settle in for work.
 

Author Bio:

Claire Kann hails from the glorious Bay Area where the weather is regrettably not nearly as temperate as it used to be. She has a BA in English/Creative Writing from Sonoma State University, works for a nonprofit that you may have heard of where she daydreams like she’s paid to do it. LET’S TALK ABOUT LOVE is her debut novel.

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