Category Archives: I heart books

Now Read This: The Life Intended by Kristin Harmel

The Book:

After her husband’s sudden death over ten years ago, Kate Waithman never expected to be lucky enough to find another love of her life. But now she’s planning her second walk down the aisle to a perfectly nice man. So why isn’t she more excited?

At first, Kate blames her lack of sleep on stress. But when she starts seeing Patrick, her late husband, in her dreams, she begins to wonder if she’s really ready to move on. Is Patrick trying to tell her something? Attempting to navigate between dreams and reality, Kate must uncover her husband’s hidden message. Her quest leads her to a sign language class and into the New York City foster system, where she finds rewards greater than she could have imagined.

In this richly told story where Sliding Doors meets P.S. I Love You, Kristin Harmel weaves a heart-wrenching tale that asks: what does it take to move forward in life without forgetting the past?

(From cover)

The Author:

(from Goodreads.com)

I can’t help but adore Kristin Harmel—not only is she a fellow University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications grad, but she lives here in Orlando, too. No, but really, it’s all about her books. The former People magazine journalist has written several women’s fiction favs like The Art of French Kissing and Italian for Beginners as well YA novels. She switched things up with her last novel, The Sweetness of Forgetting, a heartfelt drama that became an international bestseller and one of my (and my mom’s) favorite books of 2012.

Find Kristin at: Her Website * Twitter * Facebook *Goodreads

The First Lines:

“It was 11:04 when Patrick walked through the door that final night almost a dozen years ago.

I remember the number glowing red and angry on the digital clock by our bed, the sound of his key turning in the lock. I remember his sheepish expression, the way his five o’clock shadow had bloomed into and almost-beard, the way his shirt looked rumpled as he stood in the doorway. I remember the way he said my name, Kate, like it was an apology and a greeting all in one.”

The Good Stuff:

Do you ever have dreams so real, so blindingly vivid yet absolutely normal that you wake up unsure if they really happened? Where you pause when you wake, rationalizing away what occurred and finding that one absurd link that proves it couldn’t have been real…
I do. All. The. Time. If I dare mention anything about my alternate slumberville universe to my dear husband, he’ll merely shake his head and wonder if someone’s slipping hallucinogens into my chardonnay before bed.

Luckily, my husband is alive and well and breathing loudly beside me when I wake. But in THE LIFE INTENDED, Kate’s not so fortunate. When her *perfect* husband Patrick, who was killed over a decade ago, starts sharing the sheets with her again, Kate’s life gets complicated.

Kate appears to finally be moving on: she has a successful career as a music therapist (very interesting) and a fiance who’s an absolute gem…on paper. But when Patrick—and their daughter—start joining Kate in her dreams, Kate loses track of that line between what’s real and what should be real.

When this amazingly real but imaginary daughter they never actually had begins talking to Kate in sign language, Kate takes lessons so she can fit into that alternate life she believes she should have led via her nightly dreams. Except… the sign language classes introduce Kate to the world of foster kids and the people who care for them, and certainly none of them lead the perfect lives they’d imagined. And these people make an impact on her she wasn’t prepared for.

One of my all-time favorite performers, Dave Matthews, usually switches around lyrics during live shows, and in my favorite version of Dancing Nancies he asks:
“Don’t you ever wonder…..
Maybe if you took a left turn, instead of taking that right
You’d be somebody quite different tonight…
Don’t you ever wonder, what could I have been? Anyone?”

This story is kind of like that. Kate realizes that the right turn she believes she was supposed to take has been washed away by a landslide, so she finally takes that left turn, and things go quite different. And different can be good. Something for us all to remember.

The Recommendation:

Read it. While this tale full of ghosts, grief, heartbreak, and disappointment could have been a sappy tearjerker, Harmel deftly allows us feel like we’re in Kate’s shoes and makes her plight believable. You’ll probably get at least teary a few times—I did, but it felt right. And the coincidences—there are a zillion of them, but I totally found my self buying all of them due to the way they are woven into the tale.

THE LIFE INTENDED is a sweet yet moving story about making room in your heart without crowding out those who’ve filled it before, about making the life you want happen instead of waiting for it to happen. It may leave you feeling as if we all somehow find our intended life, no matter how unconventional it may be.

The Details:

The Life Intended
by Kristin Harmel
368 pages, Gallery Books
Release date: December 30, 2014

And don’t forget to check out these other books by Kristin:

Reading Challenge Complete! 75 Books of 2014

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Happy New Year, my friends!

I don’t know about you, but I can’t imagine keeping up with my reading list without Goodreads. Last year I decided I’d challenge myself to read 75 books by the end of the year—in years past I *thought* I’d averaged about two books per week, so a measly 75 should be a breeze, right?

Weeeelll…between my job and writing and, oh I don’t know, having a family and a life, it proved to be more of a challenge than I though. But I did it. Just barely, but I did it.

My books of 2014 are listed below. I’ve fallen drastically behind on my book reviews, but hopefully I’ll post my favorites by genre soon. {fingers crossed!}

Not included on the list are the countless chapters I’ve read from my supremely talented (and witty) WFWA Critique Group ladies—I can’t wait to see those entire WIPs in print someday! And I also had the privileged of reading an entire beta draft of an exceptionally gifted writer’s latest work. Since I read three-fourths of it on my kindle, it felt as if the work had already been published. It read like pure honey. I’m honored to have experienced the work.

And now, without further ado—my books of 2014—a mix of women’s fiction, mystery/thrillers, and mainstream, with a pinch of non-fiction, historical, YA, and romance thrown in for good measure:

	Us	Nicholls, David
	This is the Story of a Happy Marriage	Patchett, Ann
	The Perks of Being a Wallflower	Chbosky, Stephen
	Gray Mountain	Grisham, John *
	Golden Son (Red Rising Trilogy, #2)	Brown, Pierce *
	Delicious!	Reichl, Ruth
	Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander, #2)	Gabaldon, Diana *
	Spin	McKenzie, Catherine *
	Prince Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles #11)	Rice, Anne
	A Land Remembered	Smith, Patrick D. *
	Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail	Strayed, Cheryl *
	Once More With Feeling	Crane, Megan *
	Before He Was Famous (Starstruck, #1)	Wicks, Becky *
	Skink–No Surrender	Hiaasen, Carl
	Barefoot in the Rain (Barefoot Bay, #2)	Claire, Roxanne St. *
	Outlander (Outlander, #1)	Gabaldon, Diana *
	Endangered	Schrefer, Eliot *
	One Plus One	Moyes, Jojo *
	Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls	Sedaris, David

The Sassy Belles

Albright, Beth *

	Barefoot in the Sand (Barefoot Bay, #1)	Claire, Roxanne St. *
	Writing The Bestseller: Romantic And Commercial Fiction	Porter, Jane *
	The House on Mermaid Point (Ten Beach Road, #3)	Wax, Wendy *
	The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles	Pressfield, Steven *
	After I Do	Reid, Taylor Jenkins *
	It Comes In Waves	Marks, Erika *
	Paper Moon (Moonstruck #1)	Windsor, Linda
	Her Road Home	Drake, Laura *
	The Mystery of Mercy Close (Walsh Family, #5)	Keyes, Marian
	Hands Free Mama: A Guide to Putting Down the Phone, Burning the To-Do List, and Letting Go of Perfection to Grasp What Really Matters!	Stafford, Rachel Macy *
	The Good Girl	Kubica, Mary *
	The Heist (Gabriel Allon, #14)	Silva, Daniel
	Landline	Rowell, Rainbow *
	Forever, Interrupted	Reid, Taylor Jenkins *
	After	Efaw, Amy *
	That Night	Stevens, Chevy *
	Vintage	Gloss, Susan *
	All Fall Down	Weiner, Jennifer *
	Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns (The Devil Wears Prada, #2)	Weisberger, Lauren
	The One & Only	Giffin, Emily *

	China Dolls	See, Lisa *
	Save the Date	Andrews, Mary Kay
	Your Perfect Life	Fenton, Liz *
	Catching Air	Pekkanen, Sarah *
	The Stories We Tell	Henry, Patti Callahan *
	Chasing the Sun: A Novel	Sylvester, Natalia *
	After Dead: What Came Next in the World of Sookie Stackhouse (Sookie Stackhouse, #13.5)	Harris, Charlaine
	Sweet Life	King, Mia *
	The Shadow Year	Richell, Hannah *
	The Big Beautiful	Duncan, Pamela
	Insane City	Barry, Dave
	The Supreme Macaroni Company	Trigiani, Adriana *
	Where’d You Go, Bernadette	Semple, Maria *
	Kids These Days: A Novel	Perry, Drew *
	Mad About the Boy (Bridget Jones, #3)	Fielding, Helen *
	Bone Deep (Doc Ford, #21)	White, Randy Wayne
	Losing It (Losing It, #1)	Carmack, Cora *
	Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance, #2)	Grisham, John *
	The Expats	Pavone, Chris *
	The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry	Zevin, Gabrielle *

	The All You Can Dream Buffet	O’Neal, Barbara *
	Lost Lake	Allen, Sarah Addison *
	Ripper	Allende, Isabel *
	Command Authority (Jack Ryan, #9)	Clancy, Tom
	Slow Cooker Revolution: One Test Kitchen, 30 Slow Cookers, 200 Amazing Recipes	Kitchen, America’s Test
	The Rosie Project (Don Tillman #1)	Simsion, Graeme
	Dust (Kay Scarpetta #21)	Cornwell, Patricia *
	The Art of Falling	Craft, Kathryn *
	Becoming Josephine	Webb, Heather *
	The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress	Lawhon, Ariel *
	White Fire (Pendergast, #13)	Preston, Douglas *
	The Beast (Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus, #21)	Kellerman, Faye
	Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1)	Mantel, Hilary
	Code Name Verity (Code Name Verity, #1)	Wein, Elizabeth *

Last to Die (Rizzoli & Isles, #10)

Gerritsen, Tess *

How did you do this year?

Making Merry—The Library Book Snowman

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‘Tis the season when the door count dwindles and I have a few spare minutes to play on the job. Everyone seems to be hitting the stores, so libraries aren’t very busy come December. Time to spruce the branch up for the holidays! Well, minus the spruce…

This being my first official holiday season in our library system, I had to figure out what decorations were permissible. My first idea to make a book tree was nixed due to its religious affiliation, but I discovered that snowmen are totally allowed. And since it’s Florida, a library full of snowmen might make the 80 degrees outside feel a bit more seasonal…

After perusing Pinterest, I came up with a basic idea how to construct my ~~snowy~~ bookish guy. Some coworkers doubted Frosty would look like anything but a pyramid of recycled-paper-covered books. I think he looks smashing.

How I made him:

Body: The base uses trade paperbacks while the middle and the head uses regular paperbacks and romance novels. We wrapped the books in recycled flyers and scrap copy paper—I think it would look cool to make white book jackets as well.

Accessories: I found the mother-load of spare snowman parts in the craft closet. Frosty has three buttons on his chest, two buttons for eyes, and a “carrot” nose made from rolled orange construction paper. His hat is made from three small pieces of black craft foam sheets, and I cut his smile from a scrap. Luckily, I dug out a nice wide ribbon to make his scarf, and a coworker grabbed two sticks from outside to make his arms.

Easy-peasy, uses all recycled/reclaimed materials, and free!

Here’s a back view so you can see the way the books are stacked better: My inspiration: Copy Ream Snowman and Book snowman From the Friends of the New York Mills Public Library in New York Mills, Minnesota.

I just barely had time to create up the children’s area display board. I went with an ELF (the movie) theme:

Inspiration: FromtheShortStacks.blogspot.com

It makes me giggle and crave candy each time I walk by.

Five of the Scariest Novels I’ve Never Read

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Readers seem to love or hate this unique novel, and it has a die hard cultish following. It’s been described as not only a mind-blowing haunted house story, but a story inside a story inside a story…(or was it a riddle wrapped inside and enigma?) Due to its trippy print style, the books is only available in print, so readers can scour the appendices, colored texts,
sideways prose, and do the old “read backwards in a mirror” gimmick.
But it’s scary…if you can make it through the 700+ pages
without feeling physically trapped by the style.

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

What happens when YOU create the monster? In reality, it’s a story that often drives fear into all of our souls—a teen opens fire in a school, and seven classmates and two adults die. This could be in your neighborhood, in your children’s school. But cold-blooded killers aren’t just born, are they? This novel explores how our culture creates child killers, and how it would feel if this child was your own. The threat of school massacres hits me too close to home. I…just…can’t…

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

On the surface, the protagonist is epitome of a golden boy: attractive, filthy rich, and a Wall Street wunderkind. But inside, the man is a raving lunatic. A calm one at that. He kill, rapes, and tortures with a cool detachment. Some say this novel is a comedy, a satire of epic proportions. Others say it’s pure horror. I haven’t seen the movie either, and reading Ellis’ IMPERIAL BEDROOMS disturbed me enough for a few years, thanks.

Runners up:

Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy

Though technically a Western, this perverse story evokes images of Heironymus Bosch as it follows a band bounty hunters for Indian scalps near the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s–a ragged caravan of indiscriminate killers led by an unforgettable human monster called “The Judge.” Described as bleak, and bloody, and bleak—a book that may or may not leave you with no faith in humanity whatsoever.

Complete Collection Of H.P.Lovecraft – 150 eBooks (Complete Collection Of Lovecraft’s Fiction,Juvenilia,Poems,Essays And Collaborations)

Okay, this one I’m buying now, since it’s only $1.99 on Amazon now. Dubbed “Twentieth Century’s greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale,” Lovecraft’s stories have influenced generations of horror writers and readers.

How about you? What’s the scariest book you’ve NEVER read?

10 Books that have stuck with me

Forever, Interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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“Have you ever heard of supernovas? They shine brighter than anything else in the sky and then fade out really quickly, a short burst of extraordinary energy. I like to think you and Ben were like that . . . in that short time, you had more passion than some people have in a lifetime.”

The Book:

Elsie Porter is an average twentysomething and yet what happens to her is anything but ordinary. On a rainy New Year’s Day, she heads out to pick up a pizza for one. She isn’t expecting to see anyone else in the shop, much less the adorable and charming Ben Ross. Their chemistry is instant and electric. Ben cannot even wait twenty-four hours before asking to see her again. Within weeks, the two are head over heels in love. By May, they’ve eloped.

Only nine days later, Ben is out riding his bike when he is hit by a truck and killed on impact. Elsie hears the sirens outside her apartment, but by the time she gets downstairs, he has already been whisked off to the emergency room. At the hospital, she must face Susan, the mother-in-law she has never met—and who doesn’t even know Elsie exists.

Interweaving Elsie and Ben’s charmed romance with Elsie and Susan’s healing process, Forever, Interrupted will remind you that there’s more than one way to find a happy ending.

(From cover)

The Author:

(from Goodreads)

Taylor Jenkins Reid is an author and essayist from Acton, Massachusetts. Her first novel, Forever, Interrupted, was named one of the “11 Debuts We Love” by Kirkus Reviews. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Alex, and their dog, Rabbit.

Find Taylor at: Her Website * Twitter * Facebook * Goodreads

The First Lines:

“Have you decided if you’re going to change your name?” Ben asks me. He is sitting on the opposite end of the couch, rubbing my feet. He looks so cute. How did I end up with someone so goddam cute?

The Good Stuff:

I picked this up from my library shelving cart about a week ago. Something had niggled at me, maybe I’d heard I should read this from someone…? The back cover blurb seemed a little depressing, but I figured I’d give it a whirl when the mood struck me. I’d just read a stack of novels about the more serious side of marriage—infidelity, secrets, etc.—and a few more in the same tone are lined up in my queue. This had a cute cover in my favorite color. It seemed lighter…

I cracked it open Thursday night as the family spread out on the couch for reading time. Next thing I knew, I was on page 79 and it was a half-hour past my kiddo’s bedtime. I was that sucked in. You know it’s good stuff.

Something about this story just hooked me at the start. Maybe it’s that Elsie is a book-loving, NPR-listening, only child librarian. Maybe it’s because she met her husband at New Year’s (like me), instantly felt that indescribable connection with her future hubby (like me), and he’d proposed by May (like me). Maybe it’s just because the cover was the exact same shade of aqua as the p.j. shorts I was wearing.

Elsie is instantly likable—once again, maybe because she seemed so familiar. Ben, the love-of-her-life was charming and adorable and passionate about YA novels written for 13-year-old girls. Come on. They are both cute and slightly geeky and totally relatable. I believed that they could meet and know that the other was “The One” that fast. I felt as if my dear hubby and I could be them 15-years, a kid, and a mortgage payment later. But we know from the start Elsie and Ben don’t get that. He’s killed in the first chapter when he gallantly rides his bike to the drug store to fetch some Fruity Pebbles for her. We know they don’t get their happy ending together.

But the story is wonderful just the same.

It alternates between the six months Ben and Elsie had together and the six months after his death. It sounds miserable, but it’s not, I promise. Ben never told his mom he’d eloped. He’d never mentioned he was even dating Elsie, so needless to say, Mom’s not thrilled when she not only loses her only child but discovers he’d gotten married on the sly. Elsie has a rather detached relationship with her cool physician parents, so she’s terrified by this new woman who’s just brimming with emotion. Over the six months, they get to know not only each other, but their beloved Ben and themselves.

The Recommendation:

FOREVER, INTERRUPTED is a delightful debut novel that reminds me a little of Rainbow Rowell (one of my writer crushes). It has a similar easygoing familiarity, but the voice is more mature (as Elsie is a few years older than Rowell’s main characters in Eleanor & Park and Fangirl). It’s surprisingly brighter than you’d imagine for a book about a young widow, but don’t expect to make it all the way through without at least a few tears. My hubby politely ignored mine at the end—or perhaps he was just too sucked into the World Cup third place match to notice.

See, now I’m late getting started on dinner prep because I just had to get this out while the experience and the salty tear streaks are still fresh. Great book. Now you’ll have to excuse me—I’m off to add Taylor Jenkins Reid’s sophomore novel After I Do to my library queue.

The Details:

Forever, Interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Print Length: 353 pages
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Release date: July 9, 2013

A Fresh Turn on the Path Not Taken: YOUR PERFECT LIFE by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

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A very happy Pub Day to Liz & Lisa!

The Book:

Best friends since childhood, Casey and Rachel couldn’t lead more different lives. While workaholic Casey rubs elbows with celebrities daily as the host of Gossip TV and comes home nightly to an empty apartment, stay-at-home mom Rachel juggles an “oops” baby, two fiery teenagers, and a husband who barely seems the man she fell in love with two decades before. After an argument at their twentieth high school reunion, Casey and Rachel throw back shots to get the night back on track. Instead, they get a life-changing hangover.

Waking up in each other’s bodies the next morning, they must figure out how to navigate their altered realities. Rachel is forced to confront the reason she gave up her broadcasting dreams when she got pregnant in college, and Casey finally steps out of the spotlight to face the truth about why she’s alone. And they soon discover that they don’t know themselves—or their best friend—nearly as well as they thought they did.

Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke bring humor and heart to every page of this novel that is sure to please fans of In Her Shoes and The Opposite of Me. Your Perfect Life is a story about two very different women, what they didn’t know about each other, and how, by switching lives, they each learn to appreciate their own.

The Authors:

If you love ::ehem:: Contemporary Women’s Fiction, you’re probably familiar with long-time book bloggers Liz Fenton & Liza Steinke’s Chick Lit is NOT Dead. Their fun and fabulous site features book reviews, author interviews, and tons of book giveaways. With the release of YOUR PERFECT LIFE, Liz & Lisa have transformed it into their own author site. The duo has been best friends for 25 years and survived high school and college together. Liz lives in San Diego, CA with her husband and two children. Lisa, a former talk show producer, now lives in Chicago, IL with her husband, daughter and two bonus children.

Find Liz & Lisa at: Their Website * Twitter * Facebook * Goodreads

The First Line:

My mouth tastes like ass.

The Good Stuff:

Admit it: you’ve had that dream where you switch lives—just for a blessed moment—with someone who doesn’t appreciate your brand of daily chaos. Maybe it’s the friend who doesn’t get how you can spend an entire day constructing the perfect paragraph, the Mother-In-Law who thinks you eat bonbons all day while you stay at home with a houseful of kids, or the old college friend who’s accomplished her career aspirations and so much more, has a nanny and a wine cellar, a perfect husband, and zero body fat. We always think there’s someone out there who has it all together, whose life is so easy compared to our hot mess of domestic and/or professional existence.

Liz and Lisa tapped into our imaginations, constructing the perfect “what if” story. We’ve all read/watched versions of this story before, but what could have ended up as a hokey cliche becomes fresh and funny in their hands. The characters are extremely likable, slightly sassy, and feel—well, kind of like us. I wanted to invite them over to share a pitcher of sangria by the pool and dish about our days. (Daiquiris would work, but I couldn’t handle the Belvedere and sodas they swig in the book.) Maybe it’s because Casey and Rachel are right about my age. Maybe it’s because I’m a long-time SAHM who just went back to a “real” job and I relate to both sides of that great debate. Maybe it was just a smart, sweet, and insightful take on how women reflect upon that path not taken—and how with one sharp turn we can find our true direction.

And did I mention it was funny? Just look at that first line. If you’re reading this in public, watch out. Snort-worthy.

The Recommendation:

If you enjoy contemporary women’s fiction, a good laugh, or need a fun beach read, buy it. Perfect for a flight, long drive, or vacation read. You’ll breeze right through it, and wish it didn’t end.

The Details:

Your Perfect Life by Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke
Release date: June 10, 2014
Print Length: 304 pages
Publisher: Washington Square Press

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced review copy. All opinions are my own.

Lit Snapshot: Sailing Out of Darkness with Normandie Fisher

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Today I’m pleased to introduce a new feature to the blog: Lit(erary) Snapshot. My first guest is one of the kindest writers out there. Be it through the Women’s Fiction Association, Writer Unboxed, or one of the many blogs and forums writers flock to, she’s always ready with a gracious comment and encouraging words of wisdom. Her second novel, Sailing Out of Darkness, has recently been released and is receiving lovely reviews. Let’s give a warm welcome to Normandie Fisher. . . {cue applause}

Tell us about yourself: who are you?

I experienced the best of several worlds: a Southern heritage, access to schooling in the DC area (which meant lots of cultural adventures), and several years of sculpture studies in Italy before I returned to finish my degree here. It might have been better for me if I’d used all these opportunities more wisely, but the imperfect and the unwise also add fodder for the artist and the writer.

My life changed radically when I married the love of my life at an age when some would have said I was over the hill and way past my prime. A lifelong sailor, I was delighted to find that Michael also longed to cruise lovely waters, which is what we did from Northern CA to Mexico, spending too few years in the incomparable Sea of Cortez. Sea Venture, our 50′ ketch, is back home in North Carolina now because my mama needed care. Still, it’s gorgeous here, too, and I can write and edit from home as easily as I could on the boat.

My two grown children, son-in-law, and two step-sons are handsome (or gorgeous, as the case may be), talented, and a delight—as is my new grandbaby. I just wish they lived a lot closer to home.

We took Sea Venture north in 2013 to visit some of these young folk. Along the way, I had a delightful time hosting boat party/book signings from Beaufort to NYC. Keep a lookout for our beautiful boat with its clipper bow as we sail into various harbors in 2014.

Tell us about Sailing out of Darkness:

Love conquers all?

Maybe for some people.

When Samantha flies to Italy to gain distance from a disastrous affair with her childhood best friend, the last thing on her mind is romance. But Teo Anderson is nothing like her philandering ex-husband or her sailing buddy, Jack, who, despite his live-in girlfriend, caught her off guard with his flashing black eyes.

Teo has his own scars, both physical and emotional, that he represses by writing mysteries—until one strange and compelling vision comes to life in the person of Sam. Seeking answers, he offers friendship to this obviously hurting woman, a friendship that threatens to upend his fragile peace of mind.

But not even sailing the cobalt waters of the Mediterranean can assuage Sam’s guilt for destroying Jack’s relationship and hurting another woman. Soon the consequences of her behavior escalate, and the fallout threatens them all.

Sailing out of Darkness is the haunting story of mistakes and loss…and the grace that abounds through forgiveness.

What made you write this particular story?

Over the years, I’ve met a number of women who, overwhelmed by loss and guilt, imagined themselves friendless and condemned. Some chose a final solution. Sam’s story is fictional, but I’m hoping that it will speak to hurting women and to those who know them, to those who might listen to voices crying in the wilderness after following their heart into an unhealthy place.

I also hope readers will have fun with the sailing and the visits to Italy and will come to love Sam and Teo as much as I did.

What did you learn writing Sailing out of Darkness?

Sailing out of Darkness was, I think, my third completed manuscript, one I worked on over a number of years before my agent sold it in its present form. Because the story was dear to me, I wanted to tell it a certain way, but my husband—who always has my back—read its zillionth iteration and shook his head. “The middle has to go.”

Yikes! I loved that middle. None of my critique partners had even hinted that it should be slashed. I mean, the middle was great! It showed character development! It wasn’t fluff, but solid action! (Can you hear me? Can you see my hands raised, fending off disaster and the grim manuscript reaper?) I wanted folk to understand and sympathize with Sam. She needed that middle.

My husband is one of the smartest people I know, so I’d have to be a fool to ignore him. I took a deep breath, sighed loudly, and hit Delete. Out came chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter. Instead of beginning at the beginning, I began at the end of the middle. The old saying that writers must be willing to kill their darlings? Well, they also have to be willing to put their manuscript on a diet and lose fat that either doesn’t propel the story forward or, as in this case, propels it in the wrong direction.

What’s your favorite paragraph/line from Sailing out of Darkness?

That’s a difficult question. I probably love the snippets of poems best, such as this from Chapter Twenty-three:

Time has a way of galloping when what we do is fun. It passes slower than a snail’s pace, Leaving a gooey snail’s trail, When what we do is wrong.

Or, from Chapter Two:

Lonely isn’t lonely if one looks from outside in; It’s just the inside out that makes a person feel so thin.

But this sums up my heroine:

…“Stefi was right.”

“What do you mean?”

“She said you’re good at guilt. Honey, you’re not just good, you’re first rate…”

Who will this book appeal to?

Readers who enjoy a bit of romance, a hint of suspense, a dash of the literary, a soupçon of fantasy, some sailing, and, of course, travel to one of my favorite countries, Italy.

What’s next for you?

I’m busy with requested revisions of Heavy Weather, the next of my Beaufort books. Readers of Becalmed will remember Hannah, who now gets her own story, one she shares with an abused mama, two wounded children, and the police lieutenant who arrested the bad guy in Becalmed. Having fun!

How can we keep up with you?

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon | Goodreads

Thanks so much for joining us, Normandie—I can’t wait to pick up my copy of Sailing Out of Darkness!

On Book to Movie Adaptations and Giving Yourself the Gift of Distance

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Like millions of other holiday moviegoers, the family and I watched Catching Fire over the weekend. Did I enjoy it? Heck yeah. Was it as good as the book? Nah, not quite—but it was still very entertaining IMHO.

A few years back, a book club friend forced me to start reading the Hunger Games trilogy. At the time I was highly prejudiced against YA. I was an adult. Adults didn’t need to read a novel geared to teens. ::can you feel the snoot in my voice?:: Plus dystopian creeped me out and I avoided the genre like the plague (whether or not there was one in the story). But my fellow book-lover swore I could not consider myself ‘well read’ if I didn’t give the series a try.

I can give any book a try. Challenge accepted.

I fell in love with the books, devouring the series just after Mockingjay was released. Then I made my husband read them.

But I digress…back to the movie. One of the main reasons I was able to enjoy the movie so much is that I gave myself time to let the story fade into feathered memory. Sure, I remember the main premise, the favorite characters (big picture but not details), and plot highlights, but the rest settles into that dusty storage attic where I could probably pull out details for a trivia question, but it would take longer than the final Jeopardy theme song.

I quite like it that way.

Nothing is worse than watching a movie and nitpicking every last detail. If you’re a reader, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Our suspension of disbelief is loyal to the book — the world the author built and our imagination colored and populated. There’s just no way even the most talented filmmaker can include all of the minute details. (Unless you’re Peter Jackson, and then you can make a 287 page book last almost six freaking hours on the big screen.)

With a few years (and a few hundred books) distance, I was able to enjoy Catching Fire with the proper suspension of disbelief. I’ve always thought Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrleson, and Lenny Kravitz were perfectly cast. I’ve always thought Liam Hemsworth was totally wrong (that boy’s obviously enjoyed good genes and plenty of food–he’s way to brawny to be an underfed District 12 member).

The other characters…I really don’t remember.

I DO remember when I first saw the actor who was cast as Finnick I was not impressed. Too lanky, to small. Once again, I was proved wrong. Or should I say, Sam Clafin proved me wrong—from what I remember of the character, he portrayed Finnick beautifully. I remember less about Joanna, but I loved Jenna Malone’s sassy, strong character in the film.

Had I read the book right before watching the movie, I’m sure I would have come up with criticisms—plot points they left out, fine details missed, characters acting out of step. But I gave myself the gift of distance, and I was able to enjoy the novel as I read it a few years ago and fully experience the movie as it was meant to be seen.

How about you: do you like reading a book right before watching the movie adaptation or do you like to give it some space?

Review: Karma Gone Bad: How I Learned to Love Mangos, Bollywood and Water Buffalo by Jenny Feldon

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Review: Non-fiction, travel, memoir

Imagine you are a chic Manhattanite, living a Sex in the City-ish (freshly married) life filled with yoga lessons, designer duds, and your daily Starbucks hit. (I know, it’s a far cry from my life. Ever.) Now imagine your new husband’s employer “asks” him to start up a new office in a far-flung local. (Uhm–yay? I get to be a world traveler?) You think London, Paris, maybe even Amsterdam or Istanbul. Instead you get…Hyderabad, India. (Where?)

As Karma Gone Bad opens, our narrator, 27-year-old blogger, writer, and yoga enthusiast Jenny, is worried about having enough time to get a blow-out and which stilettos to pair with the gorgeous Diane von Furstenberg gown she’s wearing to her goingaway party. Though she adores NYC, she’s turned off by the trash in the gutters, rude taxi drivers, and the ‘grit’ of the Big Apple. India will be a jet-setters paradise, right? She ever-so-reluctantly packs her novel-in-progress, designer shoes, cocktail dresses, and her dog’s teddy bear for the journey of a lifetime. And her beloved dog, Tucker, of course.

Yes, dear readers, at this point I was shaking my head, too.

We know this isn’t going to go smoothly. Someone is ripe for a major wake-up call.

And that call came before she could find any coffee.

You see, coffee isn’t really prevalent in India. Not a Starbucks to be found—at least when Jenny arrives. She endures a (chauffeured) drive through the congested Third-world city only to find overpriced chai tea (costing ten times what it does for natives) —then realizes she left the house with no rupees, only a worthless AmEx card.

It takes Jenny a while to truly awaken to life in India. Her journey is as much internal as learning the lay of this strange land.

She hadn’t planned on finding “help,” but in India, she’s expected to have servants. Her driver, cook, housekeepers, security guard, and water tank watcher (you’ll have to read the book to understand that one) become stifling. She hardly ever sees her overworked husband, and she grows desperately lonely though she’s never alone.

Jenny tries to forge a sense of community through the few other corporate wives and expats who seem to have acclimated to Indian life easier, yet they’re carefully elated when their short times are up and they return to the states. Jenny is in it for the long-haul.

Now, this story could have stalled if our plucky-yet-somewhat-spoiled heroine remained stagnant in this world of frustration, desperation, and denial. But instead of withering in the Hyderabad heat, she grows.

Karma Gone Bad is a well-spun tale about discovery—not only of a foreign culture, but of self. Jenny’s brutal honesty about her decent into travel-induced depression, strained marriage, and inability to grasp her purpose in Indian life endears her to readers, but it’s her humor that keeps us going as we cross our fingers hoping she finds her way.

When I read stories of Upper West Side wives, I often feel as if I’m reading a travel memoir. These women live in a place I’ve never been doing things I can only imagine—the smells, sights, and experiences seem foreign to this suburban Floridian. Jenny’s journey from that NYC world to Hyderabad allowed me to live vicariously through her, as I’m pretty sure now I never want to spend two years in India. Visit—sure. I’ll travel anywhere. But spend two years? ::shaking head:: Though she may not have seemed it in the beginning, that girl was brave.

Karma Gone Bad will sate your travel bug and leave you laughing, worrying, and cheering as you follow Jenny’s humbling and enlightening journey. Thanks for taking us along for your beautiful, bumpy ride, Jenny.

Jenny’s Blog: Karma Contiued | website | Twitter | Facebook |

Karma Gone Bad: How I Learned to Love Mangos, Bollywood and Water Buffalo
by Jenny Feldon
Sourcebooks (November 5, 2013)
336 pages