Review with Author Interview: By a Charm and a Curse by Jaime Questell

Book info:

Title:  By a Charm and a Curse
Author:  Jaime Questell
Genre:  YA contemporary Fantasy with magical realism
Release Date:  February 6th, 2018
Publisher:  Entangled Teen
Source:  Egalley from publisher
My rating:  4.5 stars

Synopsis:
Le Grand’s Carnival Fantastic isn’t like other traveling circuses. It’s bound by a charm, held together by a centuries-old curse, that protects its members from ever growing older or getting hurt. Emmaline King is drawn to the circus like a moth to a flame…and unwittingly recruited into its folds by a mysterious teen boy whose kiss is as cold as ice.

Forced to travel through Texas as the new Girl in the Box, Emmaline is completely trapped. Breaking the curse seems like her only chance at freedom, but with no curse, there’s no charm, either—dooming everyone who calls the Carnival Fantastic home. Including the boy she’s afraid she’s falling for.

Everything—including his life—could end with just one kiss.

My Review:
Personally, I loved this story.  I'm always a sucker for a good story that takes place in a carnival or circus.  This one hit all the points that I love about stories like this.  The characters were really great, I felt so much for Emma, and couldn't help but like Ben so much.  When I picked this one up, I hated whenever I had to put it down.  I mostly read during lunch breaks at school, so it made going back to work really hard.  I got swept into the mythology behind the curse and the charm.  I liked how there were people you would assume would be a problem with trying to break the curse, but they surprised you.  I loved how Sidney even became someone you empathized with, and wanted to see him get his true love finally.  And then there was all the horrible things those with the curse had to endure. The initial breaking to start the curse, followed by the coldness and twitching.  Not being able to feel anything.  Then the guilt of having to either do the same terrible thing to another innocent person in order to save yourself, or else having to be stuck with the curse yourself, not being able to go back to your own family.  Also the curse was related to the rest of the carnies "charm" and how much they were able to do as part of their amazing acts.  

I loved the connection to New Orleans.  And the story behind the curse was so good.  Solving the curse was a very heart-breaking solution, and it was easy to understand why Emma didn't want to do it the way it had to be done.  A great story, a book I will definitely be purchasing for my school library!

Now, my only issues.  First, the aerial family members that were the "bad guys" in the story.  I almost feel like I needed a little more reason for what they did.  For how evil they got at the end.  I didn't quite understand what their solution was with Ben and Emma.  My other thought is one I had about teens today.  I wonder, do teens today really know or get what a carnival or traveling circus show is?  I mean, Barnum and Baileys are going out of business, right?  So what circuses are there anymore?  And even as I was growing up, there weren't really the carnivals like this story is about.  The reason I began thinking about this, is that another of my favorite stories,  Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond, is about a circus, and I can barely get students to even look at it.  I guess I just wonder if carnivals or circuses mean the same to teens today as they did when I was growing up.  

Author Interview:

1.  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 love outlining. Outlining helps me feel like I’m writing with purpose. Early in the process, I’ll do a super vague outline of plot points that  I know need to happen. And later in the process, when I’m stuck, I’ll do a micro outline, something meatier than an outline but without the emotion, metaphors, and dialogue that make it a real scene. That said, while I don’t always know exactly how thing will end when I start a draft, I do know the feeling I want to leave the reader with, which I think helps. So I usually know my beginning (though sometimes it takes fine-tuning to find the actual beginning), I know the ending note, and my billion outlines help me figure out the steps between.

2.  How do you come up with your ideas for your stories? 

 Music, as hokey as it might sound, is incredibly inspiring for me. CHARM was inspired by a song (Coin-Operated Boy by the Dresden Dolls), and I always make up a playlist for whatever I’m working on. Though I will say, I listened to my playlist for CHARM so much that now I skip those songs when they randomly pop up on my phone.

3.  How long have you been writing?  

Not quite ten years. I wrote a YA (that is SO bad I cannot even begin to explain it depths of its clichéd cheesiness) for fun and my best friend convinced me to join her critique group. After that, it became something I needed to do.

4.  What tips do you have for aspiring writers?  

I think that persistence and resilience is so important. My writing group critiqued that terrible YA within an inch of its life until I made it something better. And then I queried it and received over two hundred rejections. Then I wrote CHARM and got my fabulous agent, and after we polished that manuscript we sent it out and receved even more rejections. But it’s so important to not take those rejections personally or to let them discourage you. There’s almost always something to learn from a rejection, but you can’t let them drag you down.

5.  What are your favorite:

Books/authors/genres Too many! I love speculative fiction, fantasy, and thrillers. Right now my favorite authors are Leigh Bardugo (everything, just put it all in my grabby hands), Lisa Maxwell (The Last Magician is stunning), Nic Stone (Dear Martin wrecked me!), M.R. Carey (The Girl with All the Gifts, obviously, but Fellside was fab, too), Kelley Armstrong (her Casey Duncan series is awesome!), and Julie C. Dao (I will follow her to the ends of the earth after Forest of a Thousand Lanterns).

Movies/TV Shows How to Get Away with Murder is like a wacky, murdery rollercoaster that I never want to end and I have to watch Fresh Off the Boat, Black-ish, and Bob’s Burgers every week. I basically love almost all the Marvel films, but Captain America: The Winter Soldier is amazeballs. And I am a sucker for cooking competition shows like Top Chef, Chopped, and Cutthroat Kitchen.

Music I’m a little all over the place with my music, but one thing that it all has in common is that it has to be upbeat. My BFF jokes that I listen to all the upbeat stuff and she listens to all the quieter, sad stuff, and our tastes in music are each other’s kryptonite. My current faves are DNCE, Bruno Mars, Beth Ditto, Andra Day, and New Politics.

Food/Writing snack Sushi if I can get it, or if I’m limited to stuff that’s in the house, something that’s salty and sweet. I think I drive my family nuts with that combo, because I’m the only one who likes it and they’ll pick up some candy I bought and wind up disgusted with it. But hey, it’s a great way to keep my snacks safe!

About the Author:

JAIME QUESTELL grew up in Houston, Texas, where she escaped the heat and humidity by diving into stacks of Baby Sitter’s Club and Sweet Valley High books. She has been a book seller (fair warning: book lovers who become book sellers will give half their paychecks right back to their employers), a professional knitter, a semi-professional baker, and now works as a graphic designer in addition to writing. Currently, she lives in the suburbs with her family, one derpy dog, and one imperious cat. If she had her way, she’d have an army of corgis, like the Queen of England.  (From Goodreads)

 

Website:  http://jaimequestell.com 

 

Okay, I don't always come back and make anymore to my post at this point, but I have to point out how much I love what she says in her bio about how book lovers who become book sellers giving half their paychecks right back to their employers.  Yeah, that describes me at my bookstore job.  I pretty much work there so I can buy books, even though I really should be working there to pay off bills.  

 

  
 

Review: Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond

First, thanks to Amazon Children's Publishing and Netgalley for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  The book actually was published at the beginning of October, but I did get an e-galley of it right after that I believe.  I was very interested in it for several reasons. First, I really enjoyed the other book that I had read by this author, Blackwood.  Second, there was a time when I was younger that I really wanted to be trapeze artist, so a story about a girl who was a high wire walker in a circus was definitely interesting sounding.  And of course, with American Horror Story being set in a kind of circus/freak show this season, it has really been something that is on my mind lately.  And can I say, that I enjoyed this book a lot!!  It was a really great story I thought.

The main character is Jules.  She is 16 years old and her family has always been a part of a circus, but kind of in a small setting on their own.  She and her father are wire walkers, while her mother does tricks with horses.  The reason they have worked on smaller shows is because of an old feud between their family and the Flying Garcias.  This feud dates back to the time when Jules' grandmother, who she calls Nan, was a circus performer in the same show as the Garcias.  There is a new "big" show called the Cirque American that has asked her family to join.  But because the Garcias are a big part of the show, her father tells the man in charge, Thurston, no.  Jules decides that's ridiculous, and she wants to be a part of something bigger than the show that they will probably not be able to keep going much longer.  And so she sets up an ultimatum by running away and demanding her father make a deal and take their family to the circus. 

When they get there, they get a cold reception from all the other performers.  You see, Jules' grandmother was blamed for several accidents that happened back then, to the point where she was chased out of the show.  Upon arriving, Jules goes exploring, and wanders into a tent where she sees a cute boy practicing on the trapeze.  And then she realizes that this boy is one of the Garcias, so she leaves quickly.  At the big welcome party the owner throws from them, this boy is the first to ask Jules to dance.  And she finds that he may not be as bad as the rest.  That he may be willing to give her and her family a chance.  His sister also seems to be intrigued by Jules' cousin Sam.  But it is their brother Novio that picks a fight with Sam that first night.  And when they get home after the fight, it seems their trailer has been ransacked.  Soon other things keep happening, symbols of bad luck appear as Jules is doing her act, almost causing accidents.  Remy, the first Garcia she met, has found a board, what would be called a murder board on a detective show.  And on it there are pictures of the items that seem to be showing up causing the bad luck.  And there are lots of clues. 

I won't say who, but one character that you will love will have a disaster happen during one of their acts because of these bad luck tokens.  And now Jules and Remy really must figure out who is behind this before anyone else gets hurt.  But they must also figure out if there can truly be feelings between them when they come from families with such bad blood between them.  They are basically a Romeo and Juliet story, down to their names even.

I loved this story. I feel like the love wasn't insta-love, but there was the instant attraction, and that's okay.  I think the relationships between the people in the story were portrayed pretty realistically.  I love all the stuff about the circus that was in the story.  And the disaster I mentioned?  Well, if I hadn't been at work on break when I read that part, I would have been in tears.  Instead I had to hold them in and go back to work, still wondering who was behind the sabotage, and how in the world Remy and Jules would solve the mystery.  Not to mention, what magic might her grandmother have.  And was it really all Nan's fault what happened in the past, with Remy's grandfather.

Another great story from Gwenda Bond.  Now I must get ahold of The Woken Gods soon, because I'm sure I'll love it as well.  Also she has another book coming out next year that will be one of my WOW posts coming up in the next few weeks.

The Friday 56 #12

I am not having much reading time, and so I'm only about halfway through my current read, and then I'll have to start another one tomorrow for a tour post on Monday.  So, once again this week I'm going to participate in Friday 56, sponsored by Freda's Voice.  Here are the rules:

Rules:

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader
 *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you.
*Post it.
*Add your (url) post below in Linky. Add the post url, not your blog url. It's that simple.

Here is my post for the week:

 

 "I've never seen her like that.  It was scary, Jules," he said. "She told us we had to throw the trunk in the water, and when we told her we couldn't do that, she sent me to go get lighter fluid from the supply trailer.  We carried that thing way back behind a bunch of Dumpsters.  Where she made us torch it.  The smell of the leather...it was awful.  And she was chanting something weird under her breath.  I guess in Italian.  Or Latin maybe."  He shivered in the fan's breeze."

You can probably tell there is a bit of superstition in this book about the circus.  And something bad had to be destroyed because of it.