Shelloquent

Y I K E S y'all, it has been a very long time since I posted. A lot has changed since my last post and I'll try to catch you up before I get back into the swing of things around here. Then we'll get back to posts on books, publishing, and more!

Things are a-changing around here. You may have noticed that my blog's name changed. I'm streamlining things and trying to get a little more focus on me myself and I. So this blog will no longer just be about books and publishing. I'll be putting more on here about me, what I'm up to, and trying to curate more of a presence on here. So, I'll be back soon with more!

All right we all knew this topic had to come up at some point right? I work in digital publishing, so for the most part, my job is all about eBook publicity and marketing. But I also handle a number of select print titles as well, so I'm definitely in a position to be asked that now evergreen question: digital books or print books?

For today's Working Wednesday, I'm going to be promoting another Kensington book that I'm just incredibly proud to have worked on. Alyssa Cole's  AN EXTRAORDINARY UNION  was released yesterday. It's the first in the Loyal League series, and is a historical novel set during the Civil War. It's genre-bending and flat out amazing. AN EXTRAORDINARY UNION Blurb:  As the Civil War rages between the states, a courageous pair of spies plunge fearlessly into a maelstrom of ignorance, deceit, and danger, combining their unique skills to alter the course of history and break the chains of the past . . . Elle Burns is a former slave with a passion for justice and an eidetic memory. Trading in her life of freedom in Massachusetts, she returns to the indignity of slavery in the South—to spy for the Union Army. Malcolm McCall is a detective for Pinkerton's Secret Service. Subterfuge is his calling, but he’s facing his deadliest mission yet—risking his l...

It's been a while, and I've been meaning to post here, but for one reason or another it just hasn't been happening. So I'm going to try to do better this year. I figure why not kick of the new year with something personal. I went back to work last week after my holiday break. Unfortunately I caught a cold and had to take a sick day today. I got a LOT accomplished over the break. Mostly cleaning. I've taken pictures because it was a hell of a process. The way my room looked before was just...it was the physical embodiment of depression. Simple as that. It's not perfectly clean now, but I can get to my drawers and wardrobe, I've given away two bags of clothes for Goodwill, with I'd say at least two more to come.  I've made a lot of plans about how to redo my room, including buying a full-sized loft bed with a desk underneath. That's a little ways off, but knowing it's in the works is doing a lot to brighten my outlook. I got a new stan...

For today's Working Wednesday, I'm going to be promoting the heck out of a book I'm super proud of, and I'm just as proud of the author. Lynn Cahoon's A STORY TO KILL was released yesterday. It's the first in a brand-new print cozy mystery series, which is a first for her. Lynn is well known for her digital Tourist Trap mysteries with Lyrical Press, but she's going to be publishing but in print and digitally with these two separate series. I did a featured staff recommended read which will be live on Kensington's website tomorrow but you get a sneak peek here! I may be a bit biased where it comes to Lynn Cahoon, but it’s for good reason. She always writes a clever, fun mystery with a good hook. But she’s outdone herself with the first book in her brand-new print series, A Story to Kill. Cahoon cleverly blends the right about of mystery, intrigue, and whodunit with a rekindling romance with a hot handyman. What more could you want? A Story to K...

It's been a bit since my last book review. I'd been in a reading slump and decided to read a quick queer novella to jump-start me. I made the right choice.  THE COBBLER'S SOLELESS SON by Meredith Katz Blurb:  Everyone expects Renart Walker to follow in his mother's footsteps and become the cobbler for their little demon-ruled town. That'd be the proper thing to do: keep his head down, live his quiet human life, and try not to get too involved with demons. But Renart has never been terribly concerned with proper, and he isn't interested in a quiet life. His interests are a little more ambitious: he's aiming to catch himself a demon prince. As a human, he'd never be allowed to even get close to Prince Hrahez. The only solution is to make a bargain with a demon, and everyone knows what they want. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained, and he's got a plan—but it involves tricking a demon. If it doesn't work, nobody in town would want ...

If you've been paying attention on Publishing Twitter today, you might have seen people in all walks - agents, editors, publicists, authors - weighing in on one particular topic: David Benjamin. I won't go into a lot of detail here about what exactly he said because it's already been covered (and I'll link to that), but I did want to say how he is the epitome of the best practices on how not to land yourself an agent, I get it. Rejection can hurt. But a  lot of writers who go on to write some beloved stories have been rejected over and over. JK Rowling is a prime example. And it's fine to blog about your disappointment at yet another rejection. What's not fine is a mean-spirited, belittling, straight-up misogynistic rant about agents who didn't like your ill-prepared pitch. This is what he sounded like to me underneath the gross misogyny. I'll let In the Inbox take it from here. This literary agent intern screencapped the post and some...

Time for another book review! I'll be trying to do these on weekends, especially when I've finished a book that I really want to talk about. And I really want to talk about Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire. EVERY HEART A DOORWAY by Seanan McGuire I have been a Seanan Fan for a few years now. I picked up the first in her October Daye series when I got sick of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files (for many reasons I chose to stop reading it), and found that Seanan's series delivered exactly what I'd wanted from Butcher's. I picked up more and more of her work, increasingly please by what I read. I have a lot of Feels about Seanan's work, and was super excited to pick up Every Heart a Doorway. Blurb: Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children No Solicitations No Visitors No Quests Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes...

Sup everyone? Enjoying your holiday weekend if you're in the States and/or work someplace that observes Memorial Day? Don't forget to take some time to reflect on why we have a day off for Memorial Day while we kick off the unofficial start to the summer! This is the first in what's going to be a series called Monday Me-Time where I'll blog about something personal: my likes, travels, something that means something to me. But before I get into that I want to talk about what I did over the weekend: ta-dah ! I have a website! I thought it'd be good to put myself out there professionally, partly to improve my online footprint (I barely have one!) and partly to make sure I keep my professional achievements chronicled. Still more to come obviously: the "Work" page needs to be updated with some press releases, achievements, and articles I've been featured or quoted in. But I'm really excited about how it came out! Now, moving onto my Me...

Hello again folks! As I said in my previous entry, I wanted to diversify the blog a bit, so that it's not just book reviews and so that posts come more frequently. While I do read a lot, I don't always have time to sit and write a proper review. So I'll be saving that for books I'm really excited about reading, while I also impart some knowledge about publishing, as well as some insight into me, myself and I. Today's topic falls under the umbrella of the former: publishing industry info. "Working Wednesday" is going to be a once a month thing where I discuss what's going on in publishing from industry events that I've attended to knowledge I've gained on the job that could help aspiring writers or just excite readers. For my first Working Wednesday I want to talk about the question I get asked most in some way: how do I get published?

Oh wow have I been slacking here or what? I did however come up with a plan to get myself more organized around here, and keep my updates coming more regularly. Hopefully it it will work out. They won't just be book reviews; I'll be diversifying a bit with some more personal things, as well as monthly posts on the publishing industry. I'm getting back in the writing grove with a book review for the last book in the Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater. I read these as they came out so it was a long ling coming waiting for book four. Let's get right into it. THE RAVEN KING by Maggie Stiefvater Blurb : Nothing living is safe. Nothing dead is to be trusted. For years, Gansey has been on a quest to find a lost king. One by one, he’s drawn others into this quest: Ronan, who steals from dreams; Adam, whose life is no longer his own; Noah, whose life is no longer a lie; and Blue, who loves Gansey… and is certain she is destined to kill him. Now ...

Ok, I know. It's been too long since my last review. There were holidays, a rough start to the new year, and just not a lot of time to review what books I did read. But I just read one I absolutely need to talk about. REBEL OF THE SANDS by Alwyn Hamilton Blurb: She’s more gunpowder than girl—and the fate of the desert lies in her hands. Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mystical beasts still roam the wild and barren wastes, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinni still practice their magic. But there's nothing mystical or magical about Dustwalk, the dead-end town that Amani can't wait to escape from.  Destined to wind up "wed or dead," Amani’s counting on her sharpshooting skills to get her out of Dustwalk. When she meets Jin, a mysterious and devastatingly handsome foreigner, in a shooting contest, she figures he’s the perfect escape route. But in all her years spent dreaming of leaving home, she never imagined she'd gallop...

Okay spoiler alert: this was probably the cutest book I have read all year. I picked this up when I was at Book Riot Live last month, but I'd been eyeing it for longer, ever since I sat in on a webinar about LGBT publisher and this publisher was featured. Iwent to check out their site and saw a YA book about a selkie boy and I knew I had to have it.And the other main character being a bisexual poc was even better! So here we go: SEVEN TEARS AT HIGH TIDE by C. B. Lee Blurb : The sea holds many secrets ... Kevin Luong walks to the ocean’s edge with a broken heart. Remembering a legend his mother told him, he lets seven tears fall into the sea. “I just want one summer—one summer to be happy and in love.” Instead, he finds himself saving a mysterious boy from the Pacific—a boy who later shows up on his doorstep professing his love. What he doesn’t know is that Morgan is a selkie, drawn to answer Kevin’s wish. As they grow close, Morgan is caught between the dan...

Continuing the trend of unusual historical romance, I decided to review Such a Dance by Kate McMurray, which is a fabulous LGBT book set in the 1920s prohibition era. SUCH A DANCE by Kate McMurray (Lyrical Press) Blurb : When a vaudeville dancer meets a sexy mobster in a speakeasy for men, the sparks fly, the gin flows, the jazz sizzles—and the heat is on… New York City, 1927. Eddie Cotton is a talented song-and-dance man with a sassy sidekick, a crowd-pleasing act, and a promising future on Broadway. What he doesn't have is someone to love. Being gay in an era of prohibition and police raids, Eddie doesn't have many opportunities to meet men like himself—until he discovers a hot new jazz club for gentlemen of a certain bent...and sets eyes on the most seductive, and dangerous, man he’s ever seen. Lane Carillo is a handsome young Sicilian who looks like Valentino—and works for the Mob. He’s never hidden his sexuality from his boss, which is why he was cho...

Before I start this review, this needs some backstory. The first real romance novel I ever read was when I was about 13 years old and I don't remember the title. All I remember was my best friend handing me the book, queued to a passage, and I read it, my eyes going wide and I clearly remember saying, "Wait how can you do that on a horse ?" That said, I started reading historical romances aplenty and after a while I noticed something. The heroines absolutely never looked like me. They were pale, waifish blondes, or fiesty redheads, or sultry brunettes. They were never black. It's not as though black people didn't exist back then. You can argue with me that they weren't in high society or were such a minority that it would practically be historically inaccurate to write about them in eh context of a historical romance. And I will pull receipts and show you why you are wrong. But then I discovered Beverly Jenkins. She writes historical romance with people...

This was further down in my to-post list, but as it comes out today I really wanted to post this review now. It's the first in a new series by Lisa A. Olech, a new author to Kensington's digital-first imprint, Lyrical Press. And yes, it's a historical romance...at sea...with pirates! WITHIN A CAPTAIN'S HOLD by Lisa Olech Blurb : Captain Jaxon Steele is a tall, sun-bronzed, fierce-fighting Pirate King. He and the notorious crew of the Scarlet Night are both feared and respected for their ruthless reputation. The Captain’s only love is the open sea and the ship he calls home. When it comes to women, he has three rules: never sleep with another’s wife, don’t take virgins into bed, and most importantly, never bring a woman aboard—that brings the worst luck of all. Annalise Gatherone has to leave London—tonight! Usually her only concern is the color of her latest gown, but now she’s choosing between life and death. Desperate to escape the clutches of an evil...

This is going to be a quick, short review. I read this one because it is the favorite book of a good friend and as he rereads it every Halloween, I decided to read it myself to see why he enjoyed it so much.   THE HALLOWEEN TREE by Ray Bradbury   Blurb: "A fast-moving, eerie...tale set on Halloween night. Eight costumed boys running to meet their friend Pipkin at the haunted house outside town encounter instead the huge and cadaverous Mr. Moundshroud. As Pipkin scrambles to join them, he is swept away by a dark Something, and Moundshroud leads the boys on the tail of a kite through time and space to search the past for their friend and the meaning of Halloween. After witnessing a funeral procession in ancient Egypt, cavemen discovering fire, Druid rites, the persecution of witches in the Dark Ages, and the gargoyles of Notre Dame, they catch up with the elusive Pipkin in the catacombs of Mexico, where each boy gives one year from the end of his life to save Pi...

One thing I promise not to do is let this blog get too biased toward Kensington titles. I do have access to a lot of them, so you will be seeing plenty, but I'll be sure to review as many non-Kensington titles as possible too. However I couldn't not post a review for Jennifer Estep's Dark Heart of Magic . DARK HEART OF MAGIC by Jennifer Estep Blurb : Something Wicked This Way Comes... As a thief, I stick to the shadows as much as possible. But when the head of the Sinclair Family picks me to compete in the Tournament of Blades, there's no escaping the spotlight—or the danger. Even though he's my competition, Devon Sinclair thinks I have the best shot at winning what's supposed to be a friendly contest. But when the competitors start having mysterious "accidents," it looks like someone will do anything to win—no matter who they hurt. As if I didn't have enough to worry about, mobster Victor Draconi is plotting against Devon and the ...

I'm really far behind on my reviews, folks, and I'm sorry about that. I've read more than this over the past few months, but I haven't had the desire to review them all. But I did want to review one of my favorite books so far this year and I have a backlog that will be coming over the next few days. SHADOWSHAPER by Daniel José Older Blurb : Cassandra Clare meets Caribbean legend in SHADOWSHAPER, an action-packed urban fantasy from a bold new talent. Sierra Santiago was looking forward to a fun summer of making art, hanging out with her friends, and skating around Brooklyn. But then a weird zombie guy crashes the first party of the season. Sierra's near-comatose abuelo begins to say "No importa" over and over. And when the graffiti murals in Bed-Stuy start to weep.... Well, something stranger than the usual New York mayhem is going on. Sierra soon discovers a supernatural order called the Shadowshapers, who connect with spirits via pai...