Keeping Her Secret: Review

Hi everyone! I heard about Keeping Her Secret by Sarah Nicolas on Twitter, and knew I had to pick it up because it had two of my favorite things: girls in love, AND summer camp stories! Two days later, I bought it on my kindle, and finished it in one whirlwind of a night.
Keeping Her Secret tells the story of two girls, Riya and Courtney, who used to be best friends. After a kiss between the two, followed by Riya moving away, their friendship falls apart--until they reunite at summer camp years later. Riya, openly bisexual and working hard for a volleyball scholarship, is surprised to see that Courtney is the camp heart-breaker, who is still pushing aside her dreams to please her parents. Starting with a rousing prank war between the two, their friendship (and possibly relationship?) begin to grow again. But will Courtney be able to accept her attraction to Riya, and learn how to follow her dreams? Or will Riya be left heartbroken once again?
It's always a testament to a book when I finish it in one night--I am usually exhausted when bedtime comes around, so staying up until midnight to finish a book is huge! But I just couldn't put Keeping Her Secret down. First of all, I strongly related to Riya; she's a strong, smart, openly bi girl who is determined to follow her dreams. I love her perspective. I also love how she has her own flaws to work with throughout the story. Courtney herself is delightfully infuriating--you understand her struggles, but also wish she would JUST KISS RIYA, DAMMIT! The two girls have a chemistry that pops off the page, keeping you interested.
The side characters are also fun and interesting in their own rights. Riya's best friend and Courtney's brother are also exciting to watch, and have their own sweet little storylines. Every character in Keeping Her Secret is a sweet cinnamon roll that you want to protect at all costs!
I also love how the book tackles the girlxgirl relationship in this book gently and with awareness. Early on, Courtney doesn't know what bisexuality is, and it's gently explained to her (and the myths are busted!) by Riya and one of her friends. When Riya is angry at Courtney for not coming out, she's reminded of how difficult coming out can be for many people. Courtney's brother is always sweet and understanding--the fact of Courtney liking girls, especially Riya, has never been an issue for him. I love when books aren't afraid of LGBT issues. It's important for YA to keep being diverse and loving, showing kids who read them that they're valid.
All in all, I give Keeping Her Secret 5 stars. It's a light, frothy read that makes you smile--I felt like I should have been reading it out on the beach with some ice cream in my other hand! Next time you want a sweet love story to devour, pick up Keeping Her Secret.

The Wrath and The Dawn: Review

“So you would have me throw Shazi to the wolves?”
“Shazi?” Jalal’s grin widened. “Honestly, I pity the wolves.” 

In The Wrath and the Dawn, a strong young woman named Shahrzad al-Khayzuran volunteers to exact vengeance. In a kingdom trapped in gruesome tradition, the king, Khalid, takes a wife every night only to kill them in the morning. After Shahrzad's best friend is taken, she sacrifices herself, and weaves stories to distract Khalid until morning. Her life becomes a game of irony and survival--how will she exact vengeance when she is falling for the man who killed her best friend and holds her life in his hands?

I had bought The Wrath and The Dawn a couple months ago while on vacation, but hadn't gotten to reading it until the first week of school, when I needed something to distract myself with. I'd picked up the book first because it had a woman of color on the cover, and second because the story, based on 1,001 Arabian Nights, was interesting and unique to the other things I saw on the shelves. 

Once I started reading, the novel did not disappoint. It hooked me from the start--women protecting women? What's not to love about that? Shahrzad's internal monologue is interesting and complex. You instantly empathize with her, and continue to do so throughout the novel. She is a fun and dynamic protagonist, and not just a strong badass that shuns femininity like a lot of characters I see. She's real, raw, and alluring. 

It makes sense, then, that she and Khalid's romance is an interesting one. I'm always a sucker for those "forbidden", difficult romances with lots of angst and spark. I spent practically the whole book praying they'd show their true feelings! They have so many problems and them struggling together is heartening and difficult at the same time. 

I loved almost everything about this book. I only had two real issues, but they weren't that big at all. 1) I had wished there were a couple more female characters involved. I loved all the characters there were, and the female characters were great--that's exactly why I wanted more! If Jalal or Shahrzad's grandfather's genders had been flipped, I would have loved it even more! 2) This was probably just me, but I loved all the scenes with Shahrzad, and found the scenes without her or Khalid slow or less interesting--I often skimmed them. Tariq was cool enough, but he was so genuinely good that I couldn't find his scenes as fun as the romance and action of Shahrzad and Khalid's scenes.

All in all though, this was a great book! The main character was dynamic, the love interest was interesting and mysterious, and their romance was intense to say the least! Not to mention the culturally diverse setting! 

I rate this book a must-read if you love romance, intrigue, and magic!

I am now currently reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Review will come upon completion!

The Cast of Sorcera: Part I (+ Their Hogwarts Houses!)

Welcome! I was thinking that this might be a good time to introduce you all to some of my characters from my currently-being-rewritten (on my second draft) novel, Sorcera, which I have previously mentioned in this blog post.

For those of you who may not know, Sorcera is a young adult/urban fantasy novel about a coven of witches named Sorcera (what a surprise!). This coven is made up of 3 young adults living in New York--however, their world is turned upside down when their coven is made "Complete" by a fourth fire witch, and they're thrown into a highly-public battle against another coven, prompted by an archaic prophecy.

As you might expect, I have 4 main characters. If you would like me to tell you about my four antagonists, or any of my other characters, I would be happy to--just let me know!

Character 1: Rebellious Hot (:P) Fire Witch: Adele Esperanza!

First up is Adele, the fire witch who turns the rest of the coven's world upside down by showing up in New York City at the worst possible time. I loved Adele from first write because she manages to have attitude without being a total dick to people. She likes to pretend she's aloof and dangerous, but deep down she's just a sweetheart looking for a girlfriend. Definitely a Gryffindor!

Character 2: Mama Spock: Nicole Kwon!

Next is Nicole--initially seeming cold and rational, Nicole has strong motherly instincts and is incredibly loyal. She loves learning, and the other witches most often find her with her nose in a book. Nicole sometimes has trouble admitting she's wrong, and hates messing up in any way. She is through and through a Ravenclaw.

Character 3: Down-to-Earth Mediator: Malone Vaccaro!

Malone is the moral heart of the group, always working for everyone else's well-being and trying to steer the coven in the right direction. He's definitely a people person, and inherently cares about everyone--however, his trust sometimes leads him in the wrong directions. Obviously, Hufflepuff!

Character 4: Shy Ditzy Air Witch: Bambi Lachapelle! 

Bambi is the baby of the group; not only is she the youngest, but she's also incredibly introverted and deals with anxiety. Bambi is scared of her powers, and tends not to use them unless she absolutely has to. She loves video games, TV shows, animals, and generally anything but magic. Despite her shyness, everyone loves Bambi--she has an inherent goodness rarely found in the witch community. Once again, she's a Hufflepuff!

I've been working with these characters for about two years ago, and my love for them grows every time I sit down to write--I feel like they're my family! By far, my favorite part of Sorcera, a character-driven story from the get-go, is writing these four characters and their interactions with each other. How many of you also love writing character interactions?

There's my little post for the day, I hope it entertained you a little bit! Let me know which character seems most interesting to you. Maybe I'll do little focus pieces on each of them in the future!

Kekai

We Need Diverse Books: Here's Why

Have you ever felt the ping of recognition when you realize you share a trait with a character? The happiness as you realize that you and her both wear glasses, or you and him both stutter when you're nervous? The thrill as you realize you're the same height, and the two of you have frizzy, blonde hair?

Imagine never feeling that. Or imagine feeling that only once or twice, when you've read hundreds and hundreds of books about people who don't look, talk, or act like you. This is how it is for many people of color, people with disabilities, people of varying sexualities, people with unique genders, and many other people who aren't white, able-bodied, cisgender, and straight.

There are many kids and teens in the world who think that there's something wrong with them. Black girls who think their beautiful curls are ugly. Trans people who think they're freaks. People with disabilities who feel invisible to the rest of the world. I think one of the biggest reasons for that is a lack of representation in popular media. If our favorite books all had characters that represent us, we would feel a lot better about ourselves as a whole!

There's this wonderful initiative called We Need Diverse Books that advocates diversity in the literature community, mostly aimed towards children's books, as children are the ones that are most affected by representation (or lack of it) in their media. There are lots of ways you can get involved with WNDB, or you can just show your support by following them on Tumblr and the like! They even have a page geared towards writers here.I'm really glad there's an organization like them out there; there really should be more!

In a nutshell, this is why I work to try and include diversity of all sorts in my novels. One of my characters, Bambi, is a pansexual black girl, who is incredibly curvy. Another character is a hispanic lesbian. I work hard to ensure that these characters, and my other diverse characters, aren't just props of diversity, but real characters that people can relate to. As a white-passing person, I get the chance to relate to so many characters in literature. It's just unfair that so many other people don't get that chance! Let's make it happen, shall we?

Kekai