Book Review & Playlist: Sanctum

Title: Sanctum
Author: Sarah Fine
eBook: 433 pages
Pub. Date: Oct. 16, 2012
Publisher: Amazon Children's Publishing 
Source: Bought
Check it out on: Goodreads / Amazon /
Barnes & Noble

Goodreads Summary:
“My plan: Get into the city. Get Nadia. Find a way out. Simple.”

A week ago, seventeen-year-old Lela Santos’s best friend, Nadia, killed herself. Today, thanks to a farewell ritual gone awry, Lela is standing in paradise, looking upon a vast gated city in the distance—hell. No one willingly walks through the Suicide Gates, into a place smothered in darkness and infested with depraved creatures. But Lela isn’t just anyone—she’s determined to save her best friend’s soul, even if it means sacrificing her eternal afterlife. 

As Lela struggles to find Nadia, she’s captured by the Guards, enormous, not-quite-human creatures that patrol the dark city’s endless streets. Their all-too-human leader, Malachi, is unlike them in every way except one: his deadly efficiency. When he meets Lela, Malachi forms his own plan: get her out of the city, even if it means she must leave Nadia behind. Malachi knows something Lela doesn’t—the dark city isn’t the worst place Lela could end up, and he will stop at nothing to keep her from that fate.

Starting Lines:
On my first day at Warwick High School, if you'd told me I would choose to go to hell for any of the students, let alone Warwick's queen bee, I would have laughed. Or maybe I would have stabbed you with a ballpoint pen (it was kind of a rough day).

My Thoughts:
I can sum up this book in one word: Unexpected.
In what way? Well, I didn't see myself loving the book. I didn't see myself actually reading it now that I think about it. So thank you Ashely @ Nose Graze for introducing me to Sanctum. I would have easily disregarded it if I hadn't read her review first (Check it out here).

So Sanctum, which shall now and forever be known as the book that almost got away (or I almost didn't read), was... wow, it was good. Like really good. I was hanging onto the book even after it ended, wondering if I should read it again. I didn't, but just know that I really wanted to. I decided to take a minute and replay the events that played throughout the book... and to think of Malachi a little more. :)

This is another 'Underworld' book, where suicide victims end up in this twisted version of Hell. Now, putting it that way, I know it sounds... well, it sounds wrong, but the entire premises of the book is solely on Lela's mission to save her best friend. So think of it as another dimension. It's the world of the dead in a very mythological way, nothing to do with religion. I promise. The world-building is compelling but not difficult to understand. Plus the characters... oh the characters.
Lela was probably the most persistent character I have read since Katniss from The Hunger Games. She's tough, super observant (overly attentive), and ready to kick some ass. I totally loved her witty attitude and the fact that she would still continue to fight even though she was like half-dead and bleeding all over the place. Plus, she was 1000% loyal to her suicidal friend and I almost cried at how much she went through just to save Nadia (who was really starting to get on my nerves). I don't know how this girl did it, but wow. Someone needs to give her a medal or two... or three or four.

Malachi, on the other hand...

Mr. Darcy in the Sanctum! Dark, brooding, and completely misunderstood *dreamy sigh*. Lela and him were the perfect match. It took a while for the romance to progress, but wow was it worth it. And, unlike many male YA characters, Malachi was actually very sentimental and not entirely invincible. I could spot his flaws just as easily as I could spot Lela's and Nadia's, but that's the best part of the book. Sanctum had incredibly believable, and totally unique, characters who easily made me laugh and cry. Malachi overall.

Story-wise, Sanctum blew me away. Nadia kills herself and Lela decides to save her skinny ass, and that's all her intention was: Save Nadia, get out. Unfortunately, Lela runs headfirst into a full blown rebellion. There are those inside Sanctum who want out, the Mazikin, and it's Malachi's job to keep them in. Lela wasn't planning on getting captured, falling in love, or even falling into the trap. In the end, she sacrificed everything and everyone for her best friend. I didn't whether to cry or... actually, just cry. Yeah, there wasn't much of an option here. *sniffles* It's a twist, no doubt about it. I had absolutely no idea how things would turn out, I just knew things weren't looking so good for anyone. But don't worry! Everything turns out... um... well, that I'll keep a secret. It's a great ending though.

Overall, if you ever get the chance to read this one DO SO!! I highly recommend it. The characters are amazing, the story itself will leave you gasping at just every turn of the page. Best part (apart from everything else) is that, even though there's a second book coming out, Sanctum can be read alone. That's not stopping me from getting the next book when it comes out. :)

Final Thoughts-

So I was bored and I decided to make a playlist for Sanctum. Hope you like!

Demons by Imagine Dragon- This fits Lela's dark thoughts. She's haunted and she feels dirty, but she wants to be with Malachi.

Miracle by Shinedown- Ah, Malachi's miracle, which would be Lela :) <3

"You are the miracle in me." That sounds so like him!

Keep Holding On by Avril Lavigne- Both Nadia and Lela's song. They are both strong characters, but even strong people break down. Especially Nadia. Gosh that girl was a mess.

Somewhere I Belong by Linkin Park- Lela! And Malachi... and everyone else. Thing about this book, no one felt like the belonged.

The Road I'm On by 3 Doors Down- Once again, this is for Lela and Malachi and everyone else. But I'm dedicating this one to Malachi. This is when he meets Lela and he feels her pain... even though he's completely suspicious of her.

The Only Exception by Paramore- For Lela, who was abused and beaten and broken, but she didn't let that get in the way. So here's for Lela and Malachi together.

So what do you think?

Cover Reveal: Keeper of the Lost Souls

Hosted by YA Bound

You ready? :)

Keeper of the Lost Souls

by

Kristy Centeno

Released: June 2013

Check it out on: Goodreads

Book Blurb:

Bryn McCaskey is young, naïve, and can talk to ghosts. Like her mother and grandmother, Bryn is part of a breed of witches called The Keepers of the Lost Souls, whose main purpose is to guard those spirits which are permanently or temporarily grounded in the world of the living.

Because Bryn is a witch, she’s fairly comfortable dealing with all sorts of threats, which she does with ease and confidence. Handling supernatural creatures is as easy to her as baking a pie. Dealing with people however, is something she is yet to learn how to handle.

Unfortunately, as her 18th birthday approaches, and the time for her to take on her first assignment finally arrives, Bryn is forced to confront her inability to communicate with others in an effort to save the one soul that can mean the difference between life and death for mankind.

Johnny Shaw is a lost soul with a personal vendetta against witches. A vendetta he has carried on even after death. However, as much as he might hate them, in order to stop a century old threat, he must join forces with one. When fate brings them together, not only will they be forced to learn how to work as a team, but they will have to depend on each other to stop an evil witch carrying a six hundred year grudge. 

Author Bio:

About the Author

I’ve always had a passion for writing but never had the opportunity do so until now. After trying out numerous options I realized that writing was what I loved the most so when I found myself with some free time on my hands, I decided to give it a shot. As it turned out, my very active imagination helped me achieve my goals of creating believable plots with some ordinary, and some not so ordinary characters that helped the stories move along in one way or another.

As I keep moving along in achieving my dreams of becoming a published author, I divide my time in between my four children and my very understanding husband.

You can find her on: 

Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook

.........

Top Ten Tuesday (3)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme/feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

 Where a question is asked and you feature your top ten. Anyone can join! :)

This week's Top Ten is:

The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Clarke- I LOVE LOVE LOVE everything about this cover. The colors, the title's font, the background (especially the background). It screams 'Let's go on an adventure!'.

Tiger's Quest by Colleen Houck- It's got a black tiger on it. What's not to love? 

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce- The way everything blends in so nicely with the two girls and the wolf? Wow. Just... just wow. 

Possess by Gretchen McNeil- It's just plain cool. I don't know what about this cover calls to me, but I can't stop staring at it. 

For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund- Well for starters, the color for the title is just awesome. Actually the title rocks too... and so does the font... and the background... and, well, so does everything else. I'm putting this on my 'I love everything about it' pile. 

Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross- It's very fairy-tale-ish and I like that. It speaks for itself. :)

Perfect by Ellen Hopkins- The title of the book says it all. This cover is perfect.

The Archived by Victoria Schwab- It's definitely unique, but I especially love the way her face ends with smoke. 

Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor- LOVE the face paint around the eye. Plus the way the rest of the cover is black and white makes the colors stand out so much better.

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson- Okay, I did not know that was a girl in a dress until one of my friends pointed that out. SO much cooler!!!

So what covers made your top ten? 

Book Review: Winter Queen

Title: Winter Queen
Author: Amber Argyle
eBook: 254 pages
Pub. Date: June 19, 2013
Publisher: Starling Publishing
Source: provided by author for honest review
Check it out on: Goodreads / Amazon /
Barnes & Noble

Goodreads Summary:
Becoming a winter queen will make Ilyenna as cold and cruel and deadly as winter itself, but it might be the only way to save her people from a war they have no hope of winning.~

Mortally wounded during a raid, seventeen-year-old Ilyenna is healed by winter fairies who present her with a seductive offer: become one of them and share their power over winter. But that power comes with a price. If she accepts, she will become a force of nature, lose her humanity, and abandon her family.

Unwilling to pay such a high price, Ilyenna is enslaved by one of the invaders, Darrien. While in captivity, she learns the attack wasn’t just a simple raid but part of a larger plot to overthrow her entire nation. 

With the enemy stealing over the mountains and Darrien coming to take her to his bed, Ilyenna must decide whether to resurrect the power the fairies left behind. Doing so will allow her to defeat Darrien and the other invaders, but if she embraces winter, she will lose herself to that destroying power—forever.

Starting Lines:
Ilyenna's horse danced nervously beneath her, the animal's hooves clicking against the snow-covered stone that coated the land like dragon eggs. Reaching down, she patted her mare's golden neck. "Easy, Myst. What's the matter, girl?"
"There." Her father pointed at the base of a forested hillock not fifty paces beyond the road. Ilyenna saw the shadowed form of a large animal.

My Thoughts:

I was excepting something else to be honest. I read lots of 5-star reviews on this book and I really wanted to give it a try. It sounded intriguing and I was given the chance to review it so I instantly accepted, but the story felt flat to me. Not that Winter Queen wasn't an okay read, but that's just all it was for me, an okay-read. There wasn't much holding me on by the end, the characters were interesting at the start, but they never really grew on me, and the plot...

It had potential, but it was... well it was kind of dull. Sure, there were fairies and barbarians and battle scenes all over the place, but none of that really hit the spot. There was a lot of magic, but I didn't feel any of it. I pretended to just so I wouldn't give up on the book but... eh, it was very superficial.

Ilyenna, the Shyle clan mistress, is portrayed as this strong, dependable young woman who would risk her own life for her clan (which she ends up doing... more than once). She gets taken as a tiam (a slave) by Darrien, the son of the Tyran clan chief (the enemy). Horrible things are done to her. And by horrible I mean: almost raped and whipped. Not necessarily a vacation getaway.
The pro's about her character is that she was indeed a very strong heroine and if I had the chance to actually connect with her, then I'm sure I would have loved her. Thing is, I didn't connect with her at all. She felt like a robot to me. The entire story felt robotic to me.
Beginning Middle and End.
Yippee, I'm done. Now I can finally move on.
I didn't have that story hangover where I get stuck in the world the author created and it takes about an entire day for me to move on to another book. No, this one was just 'Eh, nice way to pass the time when I have nothing else to do and I'm stuck in a waiting room for hours'.

On the bright side, Winter Queen had an interesting concept and the antagonist was definitely someone you wanted to see skinned, drowned, and decapitated. He would have taken nasty to a whole new level if I actually cared what he did to the characters, because, again, I didn't have any emotional appeal towards them.
The fairy part was actually pretty cool. It gave the story a nice twist at the end and it also kept me from DNFing the book. I love fairies, what can I say?
On the not so bright side, the romance between Ilyenna and Rone was about as dead as a barren plain with tumbleweeds rolling by. There was no spark, no swoon, and while I did find some of their moments together kind of cute, I was pretty much disappointed. Maybe it's because you could smell their romance from a mile away and it was utterly cliche to the point of me gagging. I knew how things would play out in the end. Thankfully, there was another slight twist; one that I didn't really see coming. I didn't think things would be taken that far, but I can honestly say I was impressed. I REALLY wanted to know how Rone would react. Even though Rone was the epitome of predictable, I still had my fingers crossed.

Overall, Winter Queen was okay. The writing didn't really draw me in any more than the characters did, but I did enjoy some of the battle scenes and, of course, the fairies. I think about this book as a one-time read only. It's a nice way to pass time, but it didn't leave me breathless or wanting more. 

Cover Reveal: Banished from Grace

Hosted by YA Bound

You ready? :)

Banished from Grace

by

Aria Williams

Released: June 2013

Check it out on: Goodreads

Book Blurb:

Nardia is a very special nurse, one with a unique gift. With the touch of her bare hands, she can heal any physical ailment. With the help of her angel guide, Benilde, Nardia has healed her way through countless centuries.

Life should be easy for this attractive (not to mention, immortal) woman, but throw in two handsome men, a coffee addiction and memory loss that dates back to the medieval ages, and you’ve got a life that’s more than complicated.

When she meets AJ at her favorite coffee shop, she can’t help but feel an immediate attraction to him. At the same time, she knows there’s more to his story than what he’s letting on. And then there’s the handsome Doctor Regan, who she feels a connection with, but is she trying to make it more than is really there in order to spare her the heartbreak of being with AJ?

Only adding to her problems is the new resident, Dr. Jeffries, who seems out to get her from day one, and a murder case she can’t help solve without revealing her own secrets.

Can Nardia uncover the secrets of her own past while still moving forward and saving those in need of her help in the present?

Author Bio:

Aria was born in the large county town of Orange situated in NSW, Australia. In 2011 she moved to Forest Reefs NSW and settled on nine acres with her husband and young family.

Aria completed her Enrolled Endorsed Nursing studies over a year ago, while completing this course the idea for Fall From Grace came to her. This dream was put on hold till she finished her studies and settled into her new life in Forest Reefs.

Aria travels to a residential care facility and cares for the disabled during the day and at night enjoys her passion of writing YA and paranormal romances. In her spare time she loves to play with her five Siberian huskies who give her great joy.

Aria enjoys late night walks with her husband and family dinners involving her parents, four other siblings, their partners and her niece and nephews.

The inspiration for her writing comes from her four children, who never give her any quiet time but she would not change this for the world.

You can find her on: 

Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook

Ah, rain + purple = magic! The cover speaks the truth. I want to be there right now, feeling the rain on my face... *sigh* Plus her makeup doesn't run. I guess she'd look like a clown if that was the case.

What do you think? Love it? Hate it?

I'm jealous, like always :)

I'm DONE!!! :D

AP testing week. Yeah I'm done.
Done.
Done.
Done!!!!
And anyone out there who went through the same horror, let me just say: WE. MADE. IT!!!!
No more hard chairs that make my butt ache and heavy breathers who keep choking in front of me.
After cramming studying the night before obviously an entire five months before, I've come to the conclusion that sleep is wonderful and caffeine makes the world go round.
It was G.R.E.A.T. *cough cough*

Well it might have been thirty-five minutes and fifteen seconds, but who's counting? Not me... haha... ha.

Anyways, I just want to take a moment to feel that awesome sensation of closure after about five hours in a packed gym. 

Walk out like Beyonce.

Except it was more like this for me:

But it makes no difference, everyone else looked like they escape an episode of The Walking Dead. Poor kids. *shakes head* I'd feel sorry for them if I weren't part of it. 

But on the bright side, the person in front of me didn't pick their nose like the one from last year did. That's something to look up to I guess. And if you're wondering if I'm joking about the nose-picking thing... yeah, I'm not. Surprisingly though, it helped me focus on my work. I wouldn't dare look up. 

So I'm back now, brain dead but sane. Or at least as sane as I can be at this moment.

So lesson learned:

Drink more coffee :)

Book Review & Interview: The Wild Boys

Title: The Wild Boys
Author: Travis Heermann
eBook: 226 pages
Pub. Date: Dec. 1, 2012
Publisher: Damnation Books
Source: provided by author for honest review
Check it out on: Goodreads / Amazon /
Barnes & Noble

Goodreads Summary:
One sixteen-year-old girl versus a plague of beasts…
Can a sixteen-year-old girl stem the tide of a lycanthropocalypse? When three younger boys show up on Mia’s doorstep, naked and on the run, she is drawn into a shadow world where a series of strange disappearances heralds a slowly spreading plague of lycanthropy. 

Mia must save the three orphaned boys from their brutal Alpha, a man-beast who believes humans are food. A war is brewing for the top of the food chain; Mia doesn’t know it yet, but she holds the key to the future of the human race.

Starting Lines:
Harvey Roach groaned. "Oh, crap, not again."
The spot of mustard stain on the front of his uniform looked like a little dollop of dried vomit next to his Pinkerton Security Services badge. He rubbed at it with a napkin, succeeded only in smearing it around, then gave up and shoved the rest of the cold hotdog into his mouth, washing it down with warm Mountain Dew.


My Thoughts:
I didn't expect to be so drawn to a werewolf book. I haven't read many that actually live up to the legends, and now I'm constantly expecting the stories to disappoint me. I still like to take the risk though, but most of them are either a hit or miss. So when I started reading The Wild Boys, I put on my 'I am unimpressed face', which looks a little like this:

And it stayed that way for a while. I was unsure of where the story was heading and I (from past experience)  deducted (like the great detective I am) that it would soon lead to utter disaster.

It wasn't a bad start at all. Three boys escape Saint Sebastian's School for Children and disappear into the night, that sounds pretty mysterious. I just didn't want to get my hopes high. 

Reality check: I'm a horrible detective. 

The Wild Boys was definitely a hit for me. It's one of the few werewolf books that I've read that actually does a pretty good job illustrating the legendary characteristics of the beast. It's not the cheesy 'good/bad werewolf falls in love with girl, blah, blah, blah' story. This is pure lupine blood-thirst.
 
It's FBI, secret agent level and the 'damsel in distress' is definitely a top kick-butt heroine. Even with a couple of downsides, I still can't believe how well the story turned out. The beginning is pure mysterious tension and the best part is, once you actually know what the heck is going on, you still feel entrapped in the story because from then on it's pure, nonstop action. Besides, the villain is nasty. The moment he was introduced, I just knew the guy was bad news. He gives off that 'I-will-kill-you-in-your-sleep' vibe that sent chills down my spine. I wanted him dead as much as most of the characters did.

So Mia, the female protagonist, is a broken heroine. She has to deal with the loss of her brother, the fact that  her mother blames her for his death, and the empty spot her father leaves in their family since he's always working. She doesn't have a lot of friends and the only time she ends up making one... yeah, she finds his headless, mutilated body in the middle of the forest. Lovely. Just lovely. (Where's a sarcastic font when I need one?)
How to make matters worse? Well, wild animal attacks begin to rise. Huge, black shapes start stalking her while she's out riding her bike... oh! And three strange and utterly naked boys, who have a craving for raw meat, appear out of nowhere and ask for help.
How to make matters better? Eh, cute guy at school finally notices her.
The romance in this book was a huge miss. It came out of nowhere and it blossomed for some unknown reason. Dalton, the lover-boy, felt like a fake to me. He was the perfect 'Prince Charming' that showed up just in time. What a coincidence. I actually had my suspicions on him for about half the book until I realized he was just some love-struck kid, who played a big part later on, but was introduced in a very un-stylish manner. His relationship with Mia was cute, but I didn't get why they even had one to start with.

Mia herself was definitely a strong heroine. She was levelheaded, which is something you don't see in young adult books very often. She was sort of sensitive to her Asian background, and incredibly tough, but not unrealistically tough. I loved the way she handled some of the situations. Naked boys pop out of nowhere? 

Werewolf car chase, bleeding arm, almost killed? No problem. She's got this down.
She had breakdowns, don't get me wrong. Who in their right mind wouldn't? But she wasn't the sort of person who gave up easily or spent like half the book contemplating on whether she's a good or bad person and if what she did was right or wrong. Sure, there are times when she over-analyzes things, but it doesn't get heavy.

Plot-wise, there's a lot going on. I don't want to get into it too much, because I don't want to spoil it for anyone. It's nail-biting and there are quite a number of twists throughout the book. It's like a supernatural action movie. Think Supernatural plus some Teen Wolf. There are werewolves and secret agents and deadly viruses and cool fighting scenes. I loved it!

Overall, even though the romance sucked, I was completely taken by the rest of the story. The Wild Boys was definitely one of my top werewolf books of the year (maybe even ever). It's a change of scenery, sort of. The ending isn't a big deal, there aren't any HUGE revelations, but that's the best part. I felt completely satisfied by the time I got there, and I was relieved that it didn't end with a cliffhanger. Plus, the villain... yeah, he needed to go down. Hate. Him.
I definitely recommend this one to anyone who's ready for some real werewolf action.

I'm so excited to have Travis Heermann over at my blog today! I know I've been gone for a long while, but thankfully that's over... for another while :) And I really do need to apologize here for postponing this for such a long time, but thank you so much Travis Heermann for being patient with me. 

Me: So, what's it like being an author? Did you ever expect to become one? 

Travis Heermann: I knew from the time I was about 12 or 13 that writing is what I wanted to do. These dreams were derailed by life, circumstances, and too many people trying to herd me into a "sensible" career field. 

Now that I have steered my life back onto that course, I can say that I still don't really know what it's like to be one, because it's changing so quickly, I'm trying to keep up. I am constantly learning new skills, trying new things, all in efforts to improve my writing, and to learn all the other things I have to know to navigate a really, really difficult business. A career writer has to do more than just write good books; he or she has to be constantly digging up new opportunities for paying work, marketing the work that has already been published, and putting out the work that's finished but not yet out in the world. 

Me:  Did you ever experience writer's block while you were writing? How'd you get over it?

Travis Heermann: There have been periods in my life where I wrote very little, largely because I didn't realize how important it was for me to be doing it. Nowadays, since I write full time, I don't have the luxury of accepting writer's block. I have to be writing because it's my job. So if something is not working, a story is not coming, I either work on it anyway, knowing that what is coming out might be awful but trusting that I can go back and improve it later, or I work on something else on which I might not be blocked. With enough irons in the fire, I always have something I could be working on.

Me: Is there anything in The Wild Boys that's based off real life experiences or is it purely imagination?

Travis Heermann: Writers steal characters, locales, and moments from their own lives all the time. So there are characters in the book that are conglomerations of people I have known, places I'm familiar with. It's life experiences that give writers their unique perspective, and that inevitably appears in their fiction.

Me: Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published?

Travis Heermann: That's a difficult question to answer, because my writing career has undergone fits and starts and long dry spells, largely because of my very first published book. The short version is that it involved an unscrupulous, dirty publishing house, and a literacy agency where everyone did 3-4 years in federal prison for fraud.  You can read about the whole story here, and it should serve as a cautionary tale for writers.
http://travisheermann.com/blog/?page_id=34

I consider Heart of the Ronin to be the book where my career truly got started, and that was very much by the traditional route. I queried several dozen agents and ultimately found one who loved the book. It had a really near miss with one of the Big 5 publishers, but after three years of trying it ultimately sold to Gale-Cengage's Five Star imprint.

Me:  Is there anything that you would like to say to your readers and fans?

Travis Heermann: My fifth novel, the second in my Ronin Trilogy, titled Sword of the Ronin, will be my first venture into indie publishing. It is coming out in June, and I have to say the cover paintings by Alan M. Clark and Drew Baker are just stunning. I ran a Kickstarter campaign back in January, that was really successful, and it was gratifying to see so many people come out and support my work, so if you like historical fantasy with ninja, samurai, duels, and strange critters, check it out.

As a general call out to readers everywhere, I want to say this: If there is a writer, artist, musician out there whose work you enjoy, admire, etc., it is absolutely critical that you support them by paying money for their work, especially if they are working outside the bounds of big publishing houses and big record companies. Too many people don't think about the fact that books and music and art represent somebody's livelihood, the difference between paying the rent and living in their parents' basement. Help give them the financial breathing space to let them create the next work you will love.

And for the fun questions :D

Me: Have you ever read something that you really wanted to like, but you ended up hating?

Travis Heermann: Usually when I encounter a book I don't like, I know pretty quickly that I don't like it. Since I'm so stubborn (I have to be; I'm a writer) I will usually keep going and hope to find something in it that can redeem it somehow and make it worthwhile. Usually, however, I don't, and I just end up throwing it in a corner. "Well, that sucked." The last time I was really incensed with how crappy a book was, was when I had decided to write a YA novel, so I decided to read a few and get a feel for the YA realm. I picked one up that was a best-seller, and it came highly recommended. On about page 60, I threw it across the room, yelling, "Oh my god! What a piece of crap!" The storytelling was awful, the fantasy world completely unbelievable, and the prose redundant, boring, and uninspired. I never picked it up again. Then I read Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels, and my faith in YA was restored. It was an absolutely awesome novel.

Me: If you could magically teleport to anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Travis Heermann: That depends on what day you ask me. I have traveled all over east Asia, and lived in Japan for three years. Lately I find myself really missing Japan and the friends I still have there, so today I would zap myself to Fukuoka, Japan.

Me: What movie scared you the most when you were a kid?

Travis Heermann: There was a movie I saw on the late movie one night when I was staying over with my cousins when I was probably eight or so. The movie was a Roman Polanski film called The Fearless Vampire Killers. It was ostensibly a comedy, but I remember being absolutely terrified. And it featured Sharon Tate, in one of her last roles before she was murdered by the Manson family. I remember thinking she was one of the most beautiful creatures I had ever seen, so that movie holds a special place of fascination in my childhood memory. 

Me: If you could swap places with any character in any book, who would it be?

Travis Heermann: I would be John Carter of Mars. Growing up, I was completely fascinated by that character, and I think part of me would still love to be him. Master swordsman, savior of a whole planet, strange critters and beautiful women everywhere. What's not to like?

Me: What do you think would be the coolest pet to have?

Travis Heermann: I'm mostly a cat person, but I've also had two iguanas. I always thought a snake would be pretty cool, though, or maybe a raccoon.

Thank you so much, Travis, for stopping by my blog today!
I totally agree that Tender Morsels was a great read, and I'm glad you didn't give up on the YA  genre!