Writing through Grief Workshop

BOOK REVIEW: Perfect 10 by Erin McCarthy

"There was no delicate way to say that women were like mushrooms to him. He liked the taste of some and others he did not. It wasn't personal. Some people loved chanterelles, he preferred shiitake. Trina had been shiitake."

And with that Erin McCarthy basically drops the mic...or pen, and waits for our well-earned applause. Here's the blurb:

Katrina’s Lesson in Social Media Disasters or How Technology Can Bite You In The A**

Katrina Phillips is an expert social media manager. But that doesn’t mean she can’t make mistakes. Horrible, hide-in-your-closet-forever mistakes... like accidentally syncing her BootyBook app with her online profiles.

Blammo. Now everyone in the world can see who Katrina has dated and how they rated in appearance, sexual performance, and (OMG) detailed descriptions of their manly parts! Now her phone is blowing up with irate exes—and an out-of-the-blue text from the only guy who came close to a perfect score...

Katrina has had a thing for Drew Jordan since forever ago, even if a booze-fuelled one-nighter did destroy their friendship. So why is he suddenly texting her now—and is it because she rated his Sexy Staff Of Manliness as “magnificent”? Now the only way to satisfy her curiosity is to reunite with Drew... and rate him all over again!

I opened this eBook trying to decide whether to read it or two others. I never got to the two others because McCarthy pulled me in from her first sentence and didn't let me go. At least not until the hero and heroine had sex. After they boinked, they got stupid.

This is a BFF turned lovers story; a trope I love. But I'm finding too many stories of BFFs who understand each other completely when they're in the friend zone, but then as soon as they cross the bedroom threshold they are plagued with BMs and TSTLs.

Don't get me wrong, this book is a DELIGHT. I'm just looking for another take on this trope. A take where the problem isn't a sudden lack of understanding or miscommunications.

New Series from Lauren Layne

BROKEN by Lauren Layne Teaser Reveal and Cover Spotlight

Lauren Layne, the author of the hit New Adult romance Isn’t She Lovely, and Random House’s Flirt imprint, are thrilled to share a first look at BROKEN, Lauren’s upcoming New Adult romance, and spotlight her gorgeous new cover!

Lauren became an author to watch for me during the Stiletto series, but she became an autobuy after "Isn't She Lovely." See my review here.

Ms. Layne writes the wittiest dialogue since Sex in the City. I'm excited to get into her new adult series, Broken, this fall.

Dark and Deadly Boxed Set

Dark and Deadly: Eight Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance Boxed Set is now available worldwide for a special introductory price of only $0.99!

This ebook boxed set of eight hot paranormal romances by New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors. Alpha-male bad boys will fulfill your darkest, most deadliest desires in these stories about shifters, werewolves, vampires, magic, special powers and other realms. I've already read the first two. Find out how many stars I gave them below.

BODYGUARD by Jennifer Ashley

Elizabeth Chapman is saved from an armed attacker by a Kodiak bear who shifts into a tight-bodied, naked human male. Ronan takes Elizabeth to Shiftertown, becoming her 24/7 bodyguard. The mateless Ronan has adopted a houseful of orphaned Shifters--having grown up in foster care, Elizabeth is touched by his protectiveness. Ronan only wants to keep Elizabeth safe, but the sassy woman is triggering his long-buried need to mate.

Two Stars! I liked the world building with shifters living in ShifterTowns and fitted with Collars made by the fae to keep them under control.

ALEJANDRO’S SORCERESS by Alyssa Day

He’s a warrior, hardened by years of protecting his town from vampire attack. She’s a garden witch who sees the world in shades of sunshine and delight. Opposites don’t only attract, they go supernova in this sizzling tale of magic and mayhem.

Two stars! I liked the pacing of this story. All the action took place in one day and one location.

BEWITCH by Felicity Heaton

A vampire with a bloodstained past and a soul tainted with darkness, Payne is perfect in his self-control, never surrendering to his darkest desires. Now a beautiful witch in the shadowy fae underworld reawakens long denied hungers and tempts him with pleasure. When one incredible night of fulfilling their fantasies leads to more than just keeping a promise and saving a friend, will they be able to overcome the barriers that stand between them and forever?

DARKNESS FALLS by Erin Kellison

Agent Malcolm Rook is hunting for people with the rarest of talents—the ability to master dreams. He finds the undeniably gifted Jordan Lane, but she’s wary of mysterious Rook and resists his pursuit as long as she can. Yet the dreamwaters they enter are too exhilarating to resist, and attraction soon ignites electric passions. Delving too deep stirs a nightmare, one they must defeat, or be forever lost to darkness. 

ROGUE’S PASSION by Laurie London

Blaming himself for the death of a friend, Iron Guild warrior Asher Kane vows to bring those responsible to justice. After he’s hurt on a mission and nursed back to health by a beautiful yet mysterious woman, this dangerously sexy bad-boy finds himself falling for Olivia…even as he struggles to stay away. But stalking them on the streets of New Seattle is a cruel and vengeful evil—one that threatens to destroy them both…

THE FORBIDDEN LIFE OF ALEX MOORE by Erin Quinn

Alex’s mission: Kill the hellhounds that have invaded earth and return to his home in the Beyond. But from the start, things go horribly wrong. The hounds are cunning and a human female witnesses their attack—she intervenes and saves Alex’s life. Now he must keep the alluring Lilly alive while fighting his desire for her. When passion flares, Alex risks all to protect her and defend the forbidden life he craves.

THE MATING HEAT by Bonnie Vanak

Werewolf Kara Mitchell fled with her brother Aiden to Montana after their alpha father punished her for kissing sexy omega werewolf Ryder Carrington. Left scarred by her father’s cruelty, Kara believes no one can love her. After killing his alpha to save the pack, Ryder now rules, but needs a mate. His blood runs hot for Kara. Ryder will do anything to claim her, even risk an all-out pack war that could cost them everything…

TRAPPED by Caris Roane

Mastyr Vampire Zephyr, a one-man fighting force, struggles to save the life of a woman who despises his warrior ways. She’s been a thorn in his side, but he has one goal: to keep her safe. For Alesia, however, she just wishes he’d leave her alone since she can never approve of his profession. She broke up with him months ago and wants to start a new life. The trouble is, he’s still the one man who can curl her toes.

Grab the boxed set for just $0.99. Dark and Deadly: Eight Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance is available from Amazon Kindle, Kobo Books, Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple iBooks stores and other retailers. Find the links to your preferred retailer at: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/dark-and-deadly/  

MOVIE REVIEW: City of Bones

Fear of taboo can ruin a story.

When the movie adaption of Cassandra Clare's "City of Bones" came out last summer I was first in line. I was also last out of the theater, wallowing in disappointment while the credits rolled. The film failed due to the fear of flowers in the attic. I just watched it again on cable with my children and I stand by my wallow.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a proponent of incest.  What  I am against is society putting its issues in front of a good story.

Who doesn't groan "Ew!" after their second viewing of "The Empire Strikes Back" when Leia kisses Luke. But that storyline got a chance to play out in "The Return of the Jedi." Why couldn't they do the same with "City of Bones?"

The major nail biting incident in the book was the substance over Clary and Jace's bond. Readers are led to believe that Clary will be the girl to tame bad boy, demon hunter with the face and strength of an angel, Jace. We are invested in this time-tested trope because what girl doesn't want to believe she's special enough to reign that in. At the end of the book we get the floor pulled out from under us with the circumstantial evidence that the two are blood related.

WTF!

Clare keeps our hearts pounding in the second installment "City of Ashes" with pages of are they? aren't'? will they? won't they? We don't learn the

truth of their blood until we are nearing the finish line. Unfortunately, the filmmakers were not this brave. They took this huge part of the story and spoiled it in the movie. We watch the bad guys concoct a ruse with the transparent purpose of keeping movie-going parents happy so that they don't have to explain incest to their adolescents.

They're falling in love. Let's tell them they're brother and sister.

Oh good one, mate! They're kicking our arses. That'll put a stop to it. Plus they'll believe us because we're the bad guys!

It didn't work. It completely dissipated the angst and sounded really stupid. I'm a huge fan of letting the reader know more than the character. But this was one of those times where it would have pulled more tension if we'd all been kept in the dark.

MOVIE REVIEW -JOBS "A Visual Powerpoint"

Ashton Kutcher killed it in the biopic Jobs! He got the walk down. He got the talk down. He got the ticks and fidgets of a deeply wounded man down. But this movie is not worth the price of viewing. Ashton's parts should be taken and made into re-enactments for a documentary about the evolution of the Apple computer.

Steve Jobs was a lot of things to a lot of people. As a loyal Apple user I wanted to understand this enigma of a man. I wanted to spend 2 hours understanding his genius, contemplating his philosophy, comprehending his demons. Unfortunately, the screenwriter failed to bring me this side of the story. I can't even call it a story because there was none. Jobs suffers from a debilitating lack of character motivation. The writer never bothered to answer the question "Why?" in any of the scenes and scenarios of a recent history we're all expected to know. The movie presented itself like a glossy visual PowerPoint with bullet points as the dialogue.

Take the beginning. There are three of them. We fade from black to see Steve Jobs introducing the device that did in fact revolutionize society as we know it: the iPod. This fantastic scene never, ever, comes back into the 2 hour story. Then there's a scene with Steve bare-footing around Reed college where he's dropped out but still goes to philosophy and calligraphy class and gives freelove to random co-eds never hiding the fact that he has a girlfriend. If you know some of Jobs' story, you know that calligraphy inspired him in the digital world, but that point never comes up again in the 2 hour story. And finally, there's a third attempt at exposition where we meet Woz, Steve's right hand man. Woz helps Steve solve an engineering problem and the two decide to build a personal computer for the everyday man or woman. This is really where the story starts. But by then I was already wary.

The problem is, from there until 2 hours later, the movie becomes a documentary about the evolution of early Apple products. We see the Apple, the Apple II, the Lisa, the Macintosh. We hear a lot of technical jargon that went right over my head so I couldn't appreciate the complexity and beauty of what was doin' on the screen. I think the writer didn't consider that lay people outside of Cupertino, CA were coming to see this movie. There were too many facts and not close to enough emotion or connecting drama.


Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had a Kirk and Spock type of relationship where they fueled each other to explore brave, new worlds where no one even dared dream were possible. There are attempts -brittle attempts- at exploring this relationship. But it fell so short. Watching the scenes between Ashton Kutcher's Jobs and Josh Gad's Woz you feel them delivering a performance that makes you lean forward. There are these pregnant pauses, these deep, penetrating glances and glares, these witty battles of wits between the two actors. But they just weren't given the words to say.

The same can be said for every character that revolved around Jobs from the rest of the founders of Apple who were cheated of their company bonds after bleeding in the Jobs' family garage to Jobs' issues with his adoption and his own absentee parenting which they glanced over. All of the elements of a great story were there. But the writer never went there.

MOVIE REVIEW: Epic Heroine! "Epic"

"Epic" is the typical tale of young girl gets pulled into a mythical, magical world, finds a set of cajones she never knew she had, and steps up to save the world alongside a rebellious hero type of film. It was textbook, and I don't say that in a mean way -I teach out of textbooks after all. What stood out for me was the portrayal of Queen Tara as played by Beyonce Knowles Carter.

Beyonce (as Tara) was on screen, via her voice, for maybe fifteen minutes or twenty minutes. Her mocha-colored skin coupled with her barely cleaned up Texas-ebonic drawl absolutely delighted me! Unlike the main heroine, M.K. who was thrust into a brave, green world and had to learn the rules fast, Queen Tara existed in this world and its rules; rules that she could create, bend, and stretch. Still being the most powerful being in matriarchal world, the secret lands of Moonhaven held a hint of the male-dominated chauvinism.

What delighted me about Tara, and the sass Beyonce lent to this character, was that this Queen was the perfect balance of I Can Do This Myself and Can You Fellas Give Me A Hand With This. Taking a nod from her true husband, Beyonce as Tara brushes this sad truth off her shoulders with easy smiles and zen-like quips. Tara has the power to take any of her guard down with a flick of her magical wrist but she always identified and admitted when a situation was too much for her. Perfect role model; not just for my daughter but for me too!

I found myself hoping that my daughter ignored the scripted heroine of this tale, M.K., who started off clueless, then puffed out her chest in mock-bravery upon entering Moonhaven and soon rushed in foolhardy to situations that she couldn't handle which inevitably gave the rebel without a cause hero, Nod, something to do. Textbook trope that needs to be updated. But then you see the irony that it was. In this very film!

Ignore those crazy kids. There's another love story afoot! It's so subtle this other love story that I think only the adults understood that a little sumthin' sumthin' was going on behind the trees. The chemistry between Queen Tara and her Captain of the Leaf Guard, Ronin played by Colin Farrel, was palatable and tear-jerky. Their unsaid romance stayed with me after the film. It was perfection! It was epic.