Review with Author Interview: A Touch of Gold by Annie Sullivan

Book info:

Title:  A Touch of Gold
Author:  Annie Sullivan
Genre:  YA Fairy Tale Retelling
Release date:  August 14th, 2018
Publisher:  Blink YA/HarperCollins
Source:  ARC from publisher which did not influence my opinion
My rating: 4 stars

Synopsis:
King Midas once had the ability to turn all he touched into gold. But after his gift—or curse—almost killed his daughter, Midas relinquished The Touch forever. Ten years later, Princess Kora still bears the consequences of her father’s wish: her skin shines golden, rumors follow her everywhere she goes, and she harbors secret powers that are getting harder to hide.

Kora spends her days locked in the palace, concealed behind gloves and veils, trying to ignore the stares and gossip of courtiers. It isn’t until a charming young duke arrives that Kora realizes there may be someone out there who doesn’t fear her or her curse. But their courtship is disrupted when a thief steals precious items from the kingdom, leaving the treasury depleted and King Midas vulnerable. Thanks to her unique ability to sense gold, Kora is the only one who can track the thief down. As she sails off on her quest, Kora learns that not everything is what it seems—not thieves, not pirates, and not even curses. She quickly discovers that gold—and the power it brings—is more dangerous than she’d ever believed.

Midas learned his lesson at a price. What will Kora’s journey cost?

My Review:
If you've followed my blog for very long, you know that I am a big fan of Fairy Tale retellings. And this book did not disappoint at all!  It was quite a bit of a change in the story, maybe you could say an addition or expansion of the story and the characters in it.  It was a pretty easy read, but had a lot of great world-building.  I liked the ways the author changed or rewrote the whole curse of King Midas, as well as expanding it with the other curses often meted out by the Greek gods.  

I liked Kora, Midas's daughter.  You could see how hard it would be for her to be kept so isolated, when all she dreamed of was getting out and exploring the seas.  She has no hopes or dreams of actually finding a man and falling in love, not with how people react to her golden skin, and the fear of what her curse may be able to do.  Then there is Aris, who comes along, and gives her hope that maybe someone could see past her skin, and potentially fall in love with her.  When tragedy strikes, and they must go find the gold that has been stolen, Kora gets to realize part of her dream to travel the seas.  But things won't be all as they seem up front, of course.  Those she thinks she can trust will not be truly reliable, and others that seem to not have her best interests at heart may actually be the ones to come through in the end.

I really liked the story, and loved all the different aspects of mythology and other tales that were woven throughout the plot.  And while it had an ending that was mostly resolved, I can see that there could be a sequel to this, unanswered questions and other issues.  I would say the characters would be good to read more about.

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.?

My writing process always starts with the spark of an idea. As soon as I have that, I like to start writing and see where the story takes me, so I definitely fly by the seat of my pants. I’ve found that I’m more creative that way, and the story flows more naturally then if I try to plot things out before I even have a chance to see the characters on the page. Often I’ll have a general idea of a few stops the story might make along the way, but I don’t like to set anything in stone until I explore the characters and their personalities. I do like to have a vague idea of where the story will end just so I have a direction to head when I start writing.

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

I get ideas from all over the place. They can come from rereading old fairytales, watching movies, overhearing a snippet of dialogue and wandering what people are talking about, or even my dreams. Often, ideas come from asking the question “what if” a lot. “What if X happened in a fairytale instead of Y?” “What if this character did this?” “What if I change the genders of these two famous characters? How does that change the story?”

 

For example, my idea for A TOUCH OF GOLD came from watching the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I asked, “What if there was an easier way to collect all that cursed gold the pirates needed to find?” From there, my mind jumped to King Midas because of his relationship with gold. However, since I usually write about strong female characters, I instantly started thinking about his daughter. What if I told her story—her curse? 

3.  How important are names in your books?  Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds, or the meaning?  Do you have any name choosing resources you recommend?

Names are actually really important to me, but I both love and dread coming up with names. I love it because it really can be fun to find the perfect name for a character. I hate it because I can’t write a character until I know their name. I’m not sure why, but I’ve tried using placeholders before—and it just doesn’t work for me. However, names are often where I hide most of the little “Easter eggs” that I hide in my work. These are usually things that have a lot of significance to my life, so readers may not pick up them right away. But I know they’re there.

 

Additionally, I do often pick names based on how they sound and based on meaning. Kora, for example, is the main character in A TOUCH OF GOLD. Her name is derived from the Greek word for maiden. I like to add little touches like that to give the story some hidden meaning.

4.   What are your favorite:

Books/authors/genres: I love young adult fantasy and sci-fi. Those are my go-to genres. Some of my favorite books right now are Caraval and Legendary by Stephanie Garber, Frostblood by Elly Blake, Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson, and The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. In addition to the authors of those books, I love Jane Austen, Meg Cabot, Madeline L’Engle, Shannon Hale, and Lois Lowry. 

Movies/TV Shows: My favorite TV show of all time is The Twilight Zone. I know it’s older and not many young people have seen it, but it truly is a masterpiece of storytelling and plot twists. Other shows I love include Project Runway, America’s Next Top Model, and House Hunters. Some of my favorite movies are Beauty and the Beast (the animated version), Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, A League of Their Own, Romancing the Stone, and Pride & Prejudice. I also love pretty much any Disney or superhero movie. 

Music: I love listening to music when I write, so music is really important to me. My favorite band of all time is the Goo Goo Dolls. But I love listening to a wide variety of music—everything from Pop to Classical! 

Food/Writing snack: Desserts!!! I love desserts so much. Anything from cake to cookies to pie. Although, to be honest, I typically don’t eat when I’m actually writing because I need both hands to type, and if I’m eating, that’ll just slow me down. I save the desserts for when I’ve hit my word count goal for the day.

About the Author:

Annie Sullivan is a Young Adult author from Indianapolis, Indiana. Her work has been featured in Curly Red Stories and Punchnels, and her novel, Goldilocks, won the Luminis Books Award at the 2013 Midwest Writers Workshop. She loves fairytales, everything Jane Austen, and traveling and exploring new cultures. When she’s not off on her own adventures, she’s teaching classes at the Indiana Writers Center and working as the Copy Specialist at John Wiley and Sons, Inc. publishing company, having also worked there in Editorial and Publicity roles. You can follow her adventures on Twitter (@annsulliva).  

Blog Tour: The Last Gambit by Om Swami

Book info:

Title:  The Last Gambit  
Author:  Om Swami
Genre:  YA coming of age
Release Date:  February 2017
Publisher:  Harper Element (Harper Collins)

Synopsis:

Success by design is infinitely better than a win by chance. Vasu Bhatt is fourteen years old when a mysterious old man spots him at a chess tournament and offers to coach him, on two simple but strange conditions: he would not accompany his student to tournaments, and there was to be no digging into his past. Initially resentful, Vasu begins to gradually understand his master’s mettle.

Over eight years, master and student come to love and respect each other, but the two conditions remain unbroken – until Vasu confronts and provokes the old man. Meanwhile, their hard work and strategy pay off: Vasu qualifies for the world chess championship. But can he make it all the way without his master by his side?

Inspiring, moving and mercurial, The Last Gambit is a beautiful coming of age tale in a uniquely Indian context.

Add to Goodreads

Buy on Amazon!

Excerpt:

Saving a few times, like when he was sleeping, living with Andrei was a continuous challenge. He was just not designed with any sense of living in a world sans chess. He couldn’t even pour tea without spilling it in the saucer. He would never remember to turn the gas off after cooking. And the only thing he knew how to cook was an omelette. It was scary to be in the same car with him because he would just stop anywhere and start making notes on some game.

He would forget his wallet in the restaurant and keys in his car. It’s hard to imagine that the genius Andrei, immaculate on the chessboard, would be so clumsy in real life. The man who could think through lengthy lines of variations in his head could not string together two words to hold a conversation. He never spoke to my parents. He would say he didn’t have any conversational skills. Surely, he could have learnt these skills, if only he had made an effort.

 I kept my hopes up for six long years and then one day I realized that ‘if only’ doesn’t work with people like Andrei. If it could, he wouldn’t be Andrei then.

About the Author:

Om Swami is a monk who lives in a remote place in the Himalayan foothills. He has a bachelor degree in business and an MBA from Sydney, Australia. Swami served in executive roles in large corporations around the world. He founded and led a profitable software company with offices in San Francisco, New York, Toronto, London, Sydney and India. 

Om Swami completely renounced his business interests to pursue a more spiritual life. He is the bestselling author of Kundalini: An Untold Story, A Fistful of Love and If Truth Be Told: A Monk’s Memoir. 

His blog omswami.com is read by millions all over the world.

  

Blog Tour Organized by:

 

**Tour hosted by Garima Om** 

Review: Banished (Forbidden #2) by Kimberley Griffiths Little

First thanks to Harper Collins and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  I loved the first book, Forbidden, so much, that as soon as I saw this was available, I downloaded it to read.  Once again I'm participating in a tour with Dena from Batch of Books for this series.  If you haven't read the first book,  you need to go click on my link above to read that review, because there is a very good chance that this review of the 2nd book will have spoilers for the first book.  I am glad to say that other than one or two tiny details, I was able to dive right back into the story without forgetting what had happened before. And honestly, those details were very vague already in my head, and I soon remembered them as soon as there was a mention of those things in this story.

We join in with Jayden alone in the desert.  She has escaped Horeb and knows that she must look for Kadesh, even though as far as she knows, Horeb killed him.  But it's obvious that since the story goes on, she will find him.  But he's really injured, Horeb has done so much to him in that fight where he said he'd killed him.  But Jayden doesn't care, she loves Kadesh, and she tells him so.  The tribe that has rescued him accepts Jayden as his future wife, and promise to protect her as well.  However there is at least one man in the tribe that Jayden remembers from when her family's tribe had been attacked in the last story.  But supposedly he has sworn to help with the rest of his tribe.  And the prince of this new tribe, not only does Jayden see him meet with this tribe member, but he seems to be developing a romantic interest in Jayden as well. 

The tribe must move on as they soon find out that Horeb is on their tail, he wants to take back his betrothed, Jayden, any way that he has to.  First Jayden will want to save her family.  Going back to her own tribe, Jayden finds them turned against her, thanks to Horeb's mother, and they threaten to stone her.  Only Jayden's grandmother is there, her father has gone back to the city to look for her sister.  Kadesh's friends in the tribe will do their best to help Jayden get as many of her family members back as she can, and then take them all to Kadesh's kingdom, Sariba.  But things won't be the perfect ending and happily ever after once they reach Sariba.  Kadesh hasn't told Jayden everything, and there will be obstacles to face in order for things to go the way they should. 

The end of the book leaves us wondering how Kadesh's tribes will fight off Horeb.  After having dealt with some betrayal, soon they will have to fight members of their own kingdom who have their own sights set on the kingdom.

Once again I fell back in love with Jayden and Kadesh, although the bit in the kingdom, when we learn of Kadesh's secrets, it was emotional.  I did cry.  Such great emotion in this story.  I love all the historical parts especially.  The stoning, the worship of different gods, and even the locations are so fascinating.  Once again I love how the author gives some insight into the history at the end of the book.  We just finally got our copy of the first book in the library for my students to read.  I can't wait to get this second book ordered and added to the shelves for my students when they finish the first book. 

Review: Get Even by Gretchen McNeil

First I must say thank you to Harper Collins and Balzer and Bray for allowing me to read an e-galley of this from Edelweiss.  Gretchen McNeil is an author that I heard lots of buzz about with her book Ten, before I even read any of her books.  So far 3:59 is my favorite of her books, but Get Even is a close 2nd!  At first as I was reading I though, oh, it's going to be a contemporary romance type of book.  But of course, it was more, and boy did it even get to be more than I'd expected. 

There are four main characters:  Kitty, Olivia, Bree, and Margot.  They aren't friends in "real" life, no one has ever really seen them together.  But ever since a project their 9th grade year, they decided to form a group called DGM for short, or Don't Get Mad.  All of them have dealt with bullying in some way in their past.  Margot used to be overweight, and was bullied, so badly that she tried to kill herself.  Kitty knew about it from a friend who got kicked off their volleyball team.  Olivia is one of the popular girls, and so is around friends who do it all the time.  And Bree's best friend is a boy named John, who gets teased a lot, because his last name could rhyme with a bad term for gay people.  They all go to a Catholic school where the bullying seems to be rampant, to the point that the adults often ignore name calling and even somewhat support the bullies at times.  DGM has a goal to stop the bullying.  They don't make stuff up, they only take what is already out there about these bullies and make it clear to everyone else.  The other students for the most part are fans of the DGM.   But not the administrator, Father Uberti, or F.U. as the girls call him snidely.  And also not one of the teachers, Coach Creed, who is really a big bully himself.

Something has changed now, someone is sending the four girls manila envelopes with pictures and other clues in them.  They are being led to a military school where the Coach used to be. And then one of their new students, a douche-bag type of guy named Ronny dies.  Right after DGM gets things to try to humiliate him for what he's done.  Some of the clues paint their fellow DGM members in a suspicious light, taking away what trust they have for each other.  Secrets start being kept from each other, while other secrets from the past start to get revealed.  The girls of DGM must decide if they can still trust each other to do what is right, the mission of DGM, or if the person behind all the secretive notes is one of them. 

Let me just say this ended on such a HUGE cliffhanger!  I had to go to the author's Facebook page and tell her that there was no way I'd be able to wait a whole year to know what happens next.  She said next summer is when the next book comes out, and that ARCs could be out as soon as December.  Believe you me, I'll be keeping my eyes wide open for it on both Netgalley and Edelweiss, as well as possibly researching to see who the publicity person is that I might be able to talk to so that I can make sure to get this read as soon as possible.  What a great mystery that totally kept me guessing, and with that ending, left me guessing still!

Review: Panic by Lauren Oliver

First, thanks to Edelweiss and Harper Collins for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  I am a fan of Lauren Oliver's Delirium series, as well as her first book, Before I Fall.  So I was excited to get a chance to read the e-galley of this one.  It is a contemporary mystery story basically.  It is set in a small town where things are not great, lots of jobs were lost, and people are pretty much hurting for money or things like that.  There are two characters that we get their points of view throughout the book, Heather, and Dodge.

The title, Panic, refers to a secret game that occurs every year after high school graduation.  The seniors enter, and it is made up of many dangerous challenges.  What is the purpose?  Well, throughout the year students give money, according to our narrators, the money is given whether they want to or not.  And by the time of the competition, there is a huge prize amount.  Often $40,000 or more!  Many people have their own reasons to enter, of course the money is a big one.  Originally, Heather's friend Nat was going to be the one of their group to enter.  But then at the night of the first event, Heather sees her boyfriend with another girl, and decides to enter as well.  Heather's  home life isn't great, she can really use the money to help get herself and her younger sister out of the trailer park where they live with their druggie/alcoholic mother.  Nat is not happy with Heather at first.  And their other friend, a boy named Bishop, is worried as well.

Dodge has a reason besides money to enter.  Revenge.  It was only a few years ago when his sister Dayna was competing, and in a car accident, the last challenge, was paralyzed.  And Dodge wants to get revenge against the younger brother of the boy who won that year and crippled his sister.  Dodge isn't well liked, he has been picked on and treated like an outsider, even though his family had lived there for a few years.  Longer it seemed than his family had lived in other places.  He has always been interested in Heather's friend Nat, except that at a party one time she called him by the wrong name.  As he begins hanging out with Heather, Nat, and Bishop, he soon learns that the name mistake may be due to the fact that Nat is a bit of a drinker.

As we go through all the challenges, the cops get called, people get hurt, someone dies.  There are deals made to share the winnings, and then later deals are made with others, then broken.  Not all three can make it till the end in our group.  It will get down to just two of them and one other at the end.  The judges who create the competitions are anonymous, only Dodge might just figure out who one is.  One of them will end up in the hospital after a challenge, but then make it out to go on to compete again.

A lot of suspense, and a good ending that had me gasping when a twist occurred, only to turn out to be the perfect way to end the story.  The characters' lives will change in many ways.  Reasons for revenge may be changed, love interests develop, and friendships are tested.  Family problems will develop, and then will actually help to learn what real family is.  A good story, I recommend it for a contemporary read.

Stacking the Shelves - March 1st, 2014

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  It is a way for us to share the new books we have collected. This week totally made up for the small haul I had last week.  I made quite a few trades on YA Book Exchange.  I got a book from Harper Collins, and I won a giveaway from another blog.

Free e-book:

I saw this was free somewhere, or really cheap.  I forget. But it sounds good, so I grabbed it!

ARC from Harper Collins:

I think I got an e-galley of this, but I was excited to receive an actual physical ARC in the mail this week for this.  I think it was through a giveaway in Shelf Awareness.

Traded for through YA Book Exchange:  

You might remember a few weeks ago my Waiting on Wednesday had to do with some lost books.  Well, to make up for the lost book, which wasn't her fault at all, the trader, Mia, sent me an ARC of Charm and Strange.  I actually hadn't heard of it before, but it sounds pretty good!  So thanks to her!  I also got another trade from her, one that finally made it through now that I've had them sent to my work address.  White Space was one I was reading as an e-galley, but it was hard to read, so I really wanted a copy of it, and Mia was willing to trade me the ARC of it.  Yay!  I saw Eternity Cure on the website, and while I have a copy of the first book in the series, The Immortal Rules, and I've already read this one, I don't have a copy of it, so I traded for that.  And my final book traded for was an ARC of Spells.  I just read the first one, Wings, last summer when I got a free copy of it at the RT Convention.  I really enjoyed it, and while I could just check the others out from a library, I saw this older ARC, and traded for a good deal on it.  If you haven't been to YA Book Exchange, you really need to check it out!  I have a few things up for trade, and there are some really awesome traders out there!

Won from another blog:

I won this from Stormi at Books, Movies, Reviews! Oh My!  And it came on the perfect day you could say, as I finally went and saw the movie last night.  I know the movie didn't get rave reviews, but I still enjoyed it, and learned a lot of things.  Although I'm still irked that George Clooney's character talks about the World War I museum as being in St. Louis, when it is not, it is in my hometown, Kansas City.  It may not be a book, although there is a book to read.  But I did win it from a book blog, so thought I'd share it!

So, what have you added to your shelves this week?

Into the Still Blue (Under the Never Sky #3)

Once again a trilogy that ends on a great note!  There were definitely some deaths that sucked.  But it wasn't anything that ruined how the story went or ended.  Of course, I first need to say thanks to Edelweiss and Harper Collins for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  It was so hard to finish the book, knowing that this was a trilogy, and now it was over.  I want so much to read on in this story and find out what happens next.  As I've seen others post on Goodreads, I would also be happy with a story on Roar.  Maybe we could go on with the story, but from his point of view.  Or whatever girl he might be able to find love with after losing Liv?  I don't know.  I just know I'm not ready to leave this world.  Okay, I will try not to spoil the story, but if you haven't read the first two, you should probably stop reading now.
We start where the 2nd book left off.  The Tides, as well as whatever of Aria's people from the pods that left with her are now living in the cave.  Hess and Sable have their own people, as well as Cinder.  Roar and Perry are still having issues, but Aria needs them to talk and get their friendship back on track.  Aria and Perry are not going to hide their relationship anymore.  And the big goal now is to get Cinder back.  And maybe, just maybe, get the people in the cave to the Still Blue.  This is something that needs to be done, so they don't end up having to live permanently in the cave.  The aether storms are getting worse.  The people from Aria's home are scared of the Tides and other people in the cave.  Aria must figure a way to get them to all work together so that they can figure a way to go rescue Cinder and save themselves.  They have a plan, but of course there will be obstacles.  Sable is quite the evil man, and soon Hess even figures out he is being double crossed, but when he tries to work a deal with Perry and Aria, it doesn't go so well.  There is also someone from Aria's past that we meet in this book, and it even leads to a new way of life or at least of thinking for her.
This final installment has tons of emotional bits, lots of adventure and action.  Even moments when you just know that the good guys have to be defeated, that you just know someone important must be dead, although you hope not since there was never a definitive scene showing that.  And in the end, well, it pretty much ends on a great note.  I don't believe you'll be disappointed with how it ends, just as I wasn't.