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Tuesday, May 16, 2017 / , , ,

The Red

Usually when I am in a reading rut I stay there. I stay there and mope, or read really terrible online romances to fill the void of whatever it may be on that particular day. Something soft. Something sweet, and usually pink.

Well, now all I see is Red.

And I am quite pleased about it.



Never make a promise you don’t intend to keep… 

Mona Lisa St. James made a deathbed promise that she would do anything to save her mother's art gallery. Unfortunately, not only is The Red painted red, but it's in the red. She soon realizes she has no choice but to sell it.

Just as she realizes she has no choice but to sell it, a mysterious man comes in after closing time and makes her an offer: He will save The Red if she agrees to submit to him for the period of one year.

The man is handsome, English, and terribly tempting...but surely her mother didn't mean for Mona to sell herself to a stranger. Then again, she did promise to do anything to save The Red...

Let me begin by openly admitting that I will read anything Tiffany Reisz writes. Novels, series, novellas, saucy short stories of all shapes and sizes. I would probably read her grocery list and wonder at what kind of cereal she is fond of. Tiffany Reisz is part of my soul now, if that is not a totally creepy thing to say...I sound a tad bit off my rocker, don't I?

Apparently this new erotic (and I found out just before beginning to read) paranormal novel, The Red, is rubbing off on me.

Tiffany did warn me though when I began and announced such on Twitter about how excited I was to get my hands on another one of her erotic, light on the romance, works. She replied to me with, "It's insane pornography. How you like that sort of thing!"

All I can say is why yes. Yes, it is absolute filth, and thank you.

"Art should be dangerous, you know. It should say something to society that society doesn’t want to hear." -The Red, Tiffany Reisz

It was also somehow absolutely beautiful in a type of story telling that somewhere inside me I really needed as of late. My soul filled with great stories is telling me this as I type.

I can easily see now why in her Original Sinners series, sweet cinnamon bun Mick from The Angel was willing to trade covers in the bookstore for it. The Red is a book of sexy filth that made my week. Who would have thought that days after reading a straight up erotica that I would still be thinking about it? From the art, the plot that lead me on to the very end, and of course the sex scenes that were vivid and situations for all to enjoy while reenacting famous paintings, The Red made me wish I had an art gallery to save.

It also really made me want to meet our main character Mona's mother who previously owned the gallery. She sounds awesome.

Tiffany- or shall I say, Mistress Nora Sutherlin from the Original Sinners, outdid herself with this intense and wonderful erotica that still managed to hold a strong story line that promised to reveal a one sinful and captivating end. Of course I am not too surprised.

This was a novel that I went in knowing not a whole lot but the words Red, Erotica, and Art. I loved it as I sat down and read it deep into the night even after my kindle beeped of how its battery was low. There was nothing stopping me on this mysterious and slightly weird journey of Mona and all the stories of The Red that swept me away into its pages and famous paintings tied in a red velvet bow that only now makes me question if such wonder was only a dream.

Or something greater.

I'm going with greater.



The Red by Tiffany Reisz is being released on July 11, 2017 from 8th Circle Press.

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The Red

Tuesday, May 16, 2017
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Wednesday, January 4, 2017 / , ,

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

And my first book of the year was All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood. I should preface this with pretty much going into this book after seeing it on a trusted books instagram-ers page and only slightly reading the summary. It sat in the my goodreads 'to read' list for a while before I couldn't stand it anymore and got for myself as I birthday present in its hardcover beautiful glory. And now I have read it and I am a bit blown away.

“I love you. I love you all the way.” 
― Bryn Greenwood, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things


So yes, it was a very good pick for my first book of the year. Phew.

From the moment I picked it up, it was yet again another novel I thought I would read a bit of before putting it away for the night and getting some writing done. That did not happen though. Nope, I read this stunning story of hardship and the harsh reality between love, family, and life under the stars all the way through before I reached the last page. And still, I wanted more even the story concluded with all I could have asked of these broken characters. More of Wavy, Kellen, and so many other characters that we dove into the minds of through different point of views that made this book truely magical. This coming from someone who isn't a big fan of multiple point of views when I get into a character. Impressive.

“Summer had so many tricks. The nights lasted longer than the days, even though the angle of the Earth’s axis meant that was impossible. The night couldn’t be longer, but summer made it seem that way. Summer sneaked time for me, taking a minute from February, three minutes from English class in March, ten whole minutes from a boring Thursday in April. Summer stole time to give me another hour under the stars with Kellen.” 
― Bryn Greenwood, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

This novel of course, if you know anything about it and the relationship of characters is not your average coming of age novel or romance. The moral intrigue and interesting way of characterization is what really rounded this story. Throughout, I was questioning the morality and wonder of it all. It had me squirming in some parts with its lovely prose and rooting for the story in others as I remained captured the entire way through.


“Your family is real, but mine isn't? Real people with real feelings, but my family isn't real to you. You think. I'm a character. A story. Those women you talk about. Not real people to you. Stupid women. I'm real. I'm as real as you are. My family is real like your family.” 
― Bryn Greenwood, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

Though never in such a situation as the characters as well, I couldn't help but relate to them in the smallest ways. From Amy in the first chapter needing to feel as if she belonged and was more. Wavy and her loneliness that simply became apart of her. Even Grandma who baked the cookies with soft middles, I related to in tiny ways of being unique. Each of them constantly keept me engaged and FEELING.

It seems like it is all about the feels for me, guys. And this book had it as well as plot and a fresh story as different as its characters with light and dark woven throughout like the stars in the sky Wavy and Kellen admire in the late summer nights as they tried to form the love and family they have always wanted and needed together.


As you all know if you saw my previous post, the first book of the year I feel means something to me. It is as if it has a small touch on how my year will go. With this novel, I can only hope it means greatness for my own. You know, if I ever have time to write with all these fantastic books popping out at me.

Of course, I will never be angry at that.

What was everyone else's first reads of 2017? I hope they were amazing.

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All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

Wednesday, January 4, 2017
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Tuesday, December 27, 2016 / , , , ,

The Hating Game

I certainly did not hate this book. Not one bit. After seeing it all over bookstagram, and it having a wonderful cover, I knew it was on my to read list. What I didn't know when I picked it up before dinner to start reading the beginning was that I would be up until almost 2 a.m. reading it and then lying in bed thinking about it after and through the next few days of my life, because yes, it was that wonderful.


I have a theory. Hating someone feels disturbingly similar to being in love with them. I've had a lot of time to compare love and hate, and these are my observations.

Love and hate are visceral. Your stomach twists at the thought of that person. The heart in your chest beats heavy and bright, nearly visible through your flesh and clothes. Your appetite and sleep are schredded. Every interaction spikes your blood with adrenaline, and you're in the brink of fight or flight. Your body is barely under your control. You're consumed, and it scares you.

Both love and hate are mirror versions of the same game - and you háve to win. Why? Your heart and your ego. Trust me, I should know. - The Hating Game, Sally Thorne

First diving in, I was thinking. yeah, this is pretty good, though I was still worried that maybe the hype was too high. But then suddenly- this book hits me. And there was no stopping the fantastic wonder page by page I read with joy.

When I reached the last page and felt it between my fingers while reading, in my head I was thinking over and over. Please not be the end please not be the end. Alas, turning the page, it was. I want more. Yet, it was magnificent.

Seriously, I am still thinking about it a good week and a half later and have no plans on ever stopping until Sally Thorne writes another novel. Even if it distracts me from other books including my own writing at times. Because I will ponder and whimsically sigh over this story. And also because, as I mentioned, I will be waiting buy the next novel in waiting. Sally Thorne already has my auto-buy trust. If my love for The Hating Game, cuddling up in bed with it ALL night, and already telling you that I would buy her book without even looking at the summary or cover doesn't show you the severity of my love for this novel...I don't know what will.



I want to know what's going on in your brain. I want to juice your head like a lemon. -The Hating Game, Sally Thorne

The book was what romance should be, and what I very much appeared to need when I sat down with The Hating Game. It should be, being that it is up with my very top favorite books of the year...or even ever. I know, that right there is a HUGE statement. It deserves it,

With the steam and banter and characters that gave the plot line a complete rom-com feel while being so relatable. Or if it wasn't, I at least would want to make it be. Publishing house, paintball, sexual tension and all! Lucy and I are practically the same person anyway. We like books, red lipstick to go with out near matching sense of style- we are even the same height! All I would need to do is track down a Joshua to play the hating game with.

Perhaps Sally Thorne knows where I can find one...

While I wait, I am just going to reread this one again. Or maybe a few times.



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The Hating Game

Tuesday, December 27, 2016
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Tuesday, August 16, 2016 / , , , , ,

The Sweet and the Bitter

Recently I have devoured the novel that is Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler. And when a book is good, I feel it my duty as I devout reader to let the world know and almost spoil them. It is all in good means of course, I just get really excited and tell them each major plot point, character, and how I felt about it whether they understand what is going on or not up until the end where I usually am quite polite in asking, "Do you mind if I spoil it just a teensy weensey bit?" A fabulous librarian I talked to quite often luckily didn't mind at all since she was a rebel who liked to read the last few pages of a book first anyway.


Don't worry, I will try not to do as such a disservice on here. It is much better going into this read blind if you were on the fence. I will though let you know though if you need some extra umph to get this pretty pink hardcover in your hands, that the prose is some of the sweetest I have ever read in a full length novel, even though the end left me bitter for more.

Seriously, what happens next to Tess? Does she become the writer people have seen her as? Is she based off of Stephanie Danler at all more than the server experience? The world may never know.

“Any business transaction—actually any life transaction—is negotiated by how you are making the other person feel.”  -Stephanie Danler, Sweetbitter

Yet here I am still am, going to be asking such questions and wanting to meet Stephanie to both praise, and get to know the lovely woman who wrote such a raw story. This book, that somehow had the power to keep me turning pages just to see what was going to happen, rather than for a killer ending we see in many strictly laid out novels.

This one felt like life.

A feature that I think is what a book that sticks with a variety of people needs. A sense of perpetual reality in all the excitement of meeting possible true love or running into an epic fantasy battle. A sense that we all have scars from living- and this is the story of how living brought them about one hit at a time whether they be visible or not.


In a worn down world full of dreamers and those who want to break them down, it is nearly inevitable after all.

I think that is how I most related to Tess in this novel, though I also felt that on some level whether it be in the most minute detail, anyone could see a bit of themselves in this last minute coming of age story. Tess is someone who wants to be optimistic but ends up simply falling into a pattern I am familiar with, and not just because I have a more light experience with waitressing but because my thoughts are so much grander than reality that also deserves to be expressed. Her thought process brought such a strong voice throughout that stuck to me and my mind until the last page. 

It was full of prose and beautifully tortured in some other parts that had the most lovely lust filled undertone that made each word my very own treat that books have always been for me. Especially such surprises as this book was.

I toted it around wherever I went for two days straight, and not just to show it off.

It is these books that make me think. These books that make me question myself most specifically as a writer while that positive self in the back of my mind is telling me instead, to let it inspire. To let such beautiful bound books turn into action of being present. To sit myself down and fall forward into words that do not like to not fall into place right away either. 

As this book showed and will continue to as it stays in my mind for some time to come though, I have to start somewhere since life evolves and I may need to choose if I would like to with it no matter how many messy mistakes follow me without reminder. Whether it all takes me on the road where I planned or not.


“Not being able to swipe into the subway when people are backing up behind you. Waiting for him at the bar. Leaving your purse open on a stool with a mess of bills visible. Mispronouncing the names while presenting French wines. Your clogs slipping on the waxed floors. The way your arms shoot out and you tense your face when you almost fall. Taking your job seriously. Watching the sex scene from Dirty Dancing on repeat and eating a box of gingersnaps for dinner on your day off. Forgetting your stripes, your work pants, your socks. Mentally mapping the bar for corners where you might catch him alone. Getting drunker faster than everyone else. Not knowing what foie gras is. Not knowing what you think about abortion. Not knowing what a feminist is. Not knowing who the mayor is. Throwing up between your feet on the subway stairs. On a Tuesday. Going back for thirds at family meal. Excruciating diarrhea in the employee bathroom. Hurting yourself when you hit your head on the low pipe. Refusing to leave the bar though it's over, completely over. Bleeding in every form. Beer stains on your shirt, grease stains on your jeans, stains in every form. Saying you know where something is when you have absolutely no idea where it is.
At some point, I leveled out. Everything stopped being embarrassing.”          
-Stephanie Danler, Sweetbitter 


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The Sweet and the Bitter

Tuesday, August 16, 2016
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