Sheila's Guests and Reviews

Today I'm delighted to welcome Kyle Prue to my blog. He's the (seventeen-year-old!) author of the The Sparks, book one of the Feud Trilogy, and he's touring the internet with PRBytheBook. I'm delighted to have him here on my blog to answer a few questions. I hope he drinks coffee, but I do have tea and soda as well. So please pull up a chair and join our conversation. A Q&A with Kyle Prue, author of The Sparks, Book One in the Feud trilogy So, Kyle, could we start by asking where  you got the idea for the Feud series? This is a coming of age story for young adults and I am a teen in that demographic. Everyone struggles to find their path in life and my characters are all struggling with not wanting to let people down and to find their way; forgiveness and hope is a part of that journey as well. One night, at the age of 15, I had terrible insomnia and I couldn’t sleep. I was thinking about the different personalities of my siblings and myself and h...

Today I'm delighted to spotlight a thriller with a truly fascinating title, the Third Twin, by C. J. Omololu. When you read the premise, below, I'm sure you'll agree this one sounds like a must-read - so make sure you enter to win at the end of this post! About the book When they were little, Lexi and her identical twin, Ava, made up a third sister, Alicia. If something broke? Alicia did it. Cookies got eaten? Alicia’s guilty. Alicia was always to blame for everything. The game is all grown up now that the girls are seniors. They use Alicia as their cover to go out with boys who are hot but not exactly dating material. Boys they’d never, ever be with in real life. Now one of the guys Alicia went out with has turned up dead, and Lexi wants to stop the game for good. As coincidences start piling up, Ava insists that if they follow the rules for being Alicia, everything will be fine. But when another boy is killed, the DNA evidence and surveillance photos point to on...

Today I'm delighted to welcome Annamaria Bazzi back to my blog with her wonderful White Swans. I still had some questions left over after we last shared a virtual coffee on this blog , so she kindly agreed to return and answer them. I guess what I'm brewing can't be too bad! To read the first interview, just click on the virtual coffee link above. And to get you in the mood, here's a blurb for the book, before I introduce the author: Kendíka’s second chance at life begins as a nightmare. Will the eerie eyes always looking down from the sky reveal themselves? Kendíka challenges the aliens no one has ever seen to bring about a better life for the humans trapped in the surreal Regency world she wakes up in. While getting to know her alien owner, she discovers the aliens aren’t so perfect and have much to learn about humans. Will Kendíka survive or perish, attempting to make life better for the people living on Regency? Annamaria, please help yoursel...

I had several YA dystopian novels on my review list last weekend. Having plenty of time to read, since my husband was out at a chess tournament, I supplemented the list with a few dystopian novels I'd received for Christmas too. The result was 6 novels read, three of them collected in one larger e-library, and a really enjoyable holiday from real life. This morning my husband asked me about the books. I think he was wondering if any of them might be things he'd enjoy. After all, he's always loved science fiction, and isn't dystopian fiction a branch on the same book tree? So I talked about plots and premises and why they intrigued me so much. We agreed that science fiction places people in alien environments then asks that magical "what if?" But what is the difference between scifi and dystopia? Of course, this revived all our old "discussions" about where fantasy fits into scifi. If there's no science, can it be scifi? And if there is some s...

Maybe love is the theme of my next book reviews, but perhaps I should call it "maybe love," since the first novel, After Byron by Norman Beim , leaves the reader waiting awhile to find out if love is  an illusion or just a twist of fate. Dark gothic mansions loom; dark deeds are hidden in the past; and dark ghosts roam while the pages of journals and letters reveal... well, something more. Simultaneously traditional and modern, and filled with many different shapes and forms of love, it's a perfect tale for untraditional Valentines, best enjoyed with some 5-star dark intense coffee. On the trail of love, one must of course visit Jane Austen, so here's a book of traditional faith-based love which includes a visit to her home. In Mr. Shipley’s Governess, by Joanne Troppello , a young woman who's given up speaking to God becomes a young Christian child's tutor. There's a rich handsome father, the opportunity of world travel, and, of course, romance, making...

Have you ever noticed how busses arrive in threes but movie plots are only repeated in twos? There are always three things that go wrong, but you wait for the second shoe to drop? Three wishes anyone? But only two fall in love in a romance? What is it with those twos and threes? Of course, the mathematician in me looks at all the fours and fives we ignore--perhaps the number's a little to high to call coincidence. And then there are all the singles--truly, don't most busses arrive roughly on time, only one bus at a time? But we notice what's different, as long as there aren't too many differences, hence twos and threes. Last week I noticed I was reading pairs of books, so I'll review them in twos too. But there were singles as well (or could I have made one a three?)--they'll be in my next post. The first is a pair of books based in Biblical history: The Edge of Revolt (David Chronicles book 3) By Uvi Poznanski is the third in a really cool trilogy. The a...