Winner of Readers' Favorite Bronze Award

It's been an exciting couple of weeks, not counting politics, where something actually positive has happened. Take My Husband, Please! has won the Bronze Award for Romantic Comedy in the Readers' Favorite International Book Competition.

And I got these cool bronze award stickers. Hey, I didn't have bronze stickers before this, so WIN!

The running theme in every review of this book is how it made readers laugh out loud. This is something I'm particularly proud of since I have forever wanted to be on the same "hilarity footing" with my pops, who has been for most of his existence the proverbial life of the party. While I may not have quite reached that pinnacle (I don't even know when I last attended a doo where they let me get up on the table), I'll take the kudos for being highly entertaining—the book, not me. I'm quite entertaining to my friends, in fact, which is the sole reason they are my friends, but the larger universe has been elusive because, as a writer, I am a solitarist. Yes, I just made up that word.

The other thing that stands out to me as an author is that nearly every single reader has told me they read the book like they're watching a movie. They can see the scenes vividly. It's also how I saw it as I wrote it. So I'm thinking some day the stars will align, and this baby will become a major motion picture. I can dream, y'all.

In the meantime, you'd do me a huge kindness by telling all your peeps about Take My Husband, Please, which is available on Amazon any time of the day or night, no matter if you're on a train to Tipperary or a boat to Bermuda or simply lollygagging in the loo. That's how convenient it is to claim this great read. I thank you.

#TakeMyHusbandPlease #Awards #ReadersFavorite

Book Review: The Sister, by Louise Jensen

First, I alternated between reading this book and listening to the audio version. When I do this, I find big differences in my perceptions of the story, and subsequently the way I review it, based on a number of criteria (see The Audio Book Review below). So, heads up, I preferred the audio version.

Second, when I first saw the title on Amazon: The Sister: A psychological thriller with a brilliant twist you won't see coming, I admit I bought the book to see if the subtitle (stretching the definition here) would make good on its promise. And truly, I never got over the full title, regardless of how else I felt about the book. Admit it, this is a weird thing to add to your title, and it's off-putting because it's sheer click-bait.

My Book Review

Despite my aversion to the title, The Sister did a lot of other things right. The prose was well done—could have been tweaked, editorially speaking—but it was the author's style and quick plotting pace that really elevated my opinion. I kept churning through the pages to see what would happen next.

The Sister is part psychological thriller, part mystery, part action—a great combo. It dips back and forth between Then and Now, incorporating some nice twists and turns into the mix. It was just enough of a thriller to keep me on edge, but not so much that I had to take a break and watch a romantic comedy.

Here's the synopsis:

Grace hasn't been the same since the death of her best friend Charlie. Haunted by Charlie's last words, and in a bid for answers, Grace finds Charlie's old memory box which reveals some surprising things she didn't know about her best friend. When Grace starts a campaign to find Charlie's father, Anna, a girl claiming to be Charlie's sister steps forward. For Grace, finding Anna is like finding a new family, and soon Anna has made herself very comfortable in Grace and boyfriend Dan's home. But something isn't right. Things disappear, Dan's acting strangely, and Grace is sure that someone is following her. Is it all in Grace's mind? Or as she gets closer to discovering the truth about both Charlie and Anna, is Grace in terrible danger?

I liked Grace and thought she was pretty believable, except for maybe two instances that tripped me up. There, I felt she was too gullible to not catch on about things that may as well have had spotlights aimed at them. She was otherwise very likeable, and I did root for her, especially when it came to her dealings with the significant headaches in her life—Charlie, Dan, Anna, Charlie's mother Lexie, and other characters.

About that title. I did see the twists coming. Maybe it's because I'm a writer and foreshadowing is part of the gig so I recognize it, but this is where the book's weird title runs afoul. It was actually a brilliant lie. But hey, sucked in by click-bait, I bought the book!

So, cut to the chase, I really enjoyed The Sister and give it 4 out of 5 stars.

My Audio Book Review

Voice is everything in an audiobook. If I can't live with it for the span of the story because the narrator is shrill, too perky, overdramatic, or otherwise hard on the ears, I'll stop listening. I've done it many times, so authors, be picky when you choose a narrator for your stories. The narrator for The Sister was Natalie Blass. I absolutely loved her voice; she did everything right. She also sounded a lot like Minnie Driver, so that was a plus too. I would listen to pretty much anything Blass narrates, after listening to her narrate this.

I did enjoy this book more on audio, partly because the narrator was so engaging and also because I could take off my editor's glasses and just enjoy it. Because the plot kept me curious, I stayed up way past my bedtime listening, anxious for what might happen next. For me, that's a sign of a great book.

I recommend this audio book, and give it 4 stars.

Get The Sister on Amazon.

NaNoWriNot

Just as sometimes my eyes are bigger than my stomach, my hope to be competitive in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is bigger than my ability to follow through. It appears that my mascot, who cheered me into thinking I could produce 50,000 words in the 30 days of November, has conned me with a load of utter horseshit. Pollyanna cannot see into the future. She lives in The Now. She is taking the hit on this one.

It's haaaaard to write 1,667 words a day; but I am nevertheless muscling through as many word counts as I can to cross the finish line with the hope of being greeted by the angelic cyber squeees of an infinitesimal fraction of the blogosphere. You did it! You wrote 50,000 words! Yay, you!

Alas, we're beyond the halfway mark, and I've written roughly 7,000 words—a far cry from the 30,006 goal for the 18th day of November. Yet, even now, Pollyanna is hanging over my shoulder, pep-talking me to distraction: Stay at it! Don't give up! Double your writing time! Catch up! Forget about that Day J.O.B. Forget that you are freaking tired. Drink even more caffeine!

And while she yammers on, I entertain fantasies of backhanding her and stuffing a ball of yarn into her happy mouth. If only I had a ball of yarn.

Sorry. Since the election, I've become a cynic, entirely immune to Pollyanna's nagging implorations to be glad. Doesn't help that I just finished reading Margaret Atwood's The Handsmaid's Tale. If you haven't read it, you should. It's wonderful by any measure. And all too poignant, considering the election ramifications.

But I digress and hereby officially throw in the proverbial towel. Though I'm still writing as I can on my works in progress, November will be henceforth known as NaNoWriNot.

What about you?