Hello all, I am semi-excited/mostly terrified to announce my second YA book will be available on Amazon in the coming weeks. Although I am proud of this title, (which I invested in by hiring both an editor and someone to professionally format it) I am also wildly nervous. What if it flops and that is all money down the drain? Or....worse what if no one reads it and I spent months, and many dollars writing something no one outside of dear old Mom and Dad will read? I suppose those are the risks. Putting yourself out there is hard, which is why when I review titles I try and keep in mind that authors are people, and their projects very personal representations of their hard work and passion. Usually it is me reviewing someone else's project but today I am asking YOU to review mine. If you are interested in a free preview copy in exchange for an honest Amazon/Goodreads review please shoot me a message via the contact form or comment below. Without further ado...the cover and description for this year's shot at the dream career...psp thats writing if you didn't catch on :) The Hunter’s Daughter takes place in the rodeo town of Pendleton, Oregon where 17 year old Maura lives with her 8 year old sister and single father Mike. When Mike’s diabetes threatens to take his foot he decides to spend his final steps hunting in the Blue Mountains; leaving his children to fend for themselves.
Meanwhile, back at home Maura’s elderly alcoholic neighbor takes in his teenage grandson Alex. Before long Maura finds herself falling in love while navigating nearly 30 days entirely unsupervised. Though nothing about Maura’s summer has been easy it becomes far more challenging when Mike’s return date comes and goes with no sign of her father. Determined to bring Mike home she and Alex venture into the wilderness in search of the only real parent she has ever known. Maura has never doubted her father’s love but the deteriorating state of his health and the mental conflict that accompanies it has her wondering what she’ll do if it turns out she’s looking for a man who doesn’t want to be found.
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The Librarian of Auschwitz is my first review title from the good people at netgalley.com (a great place to snag free ARCs). I feel like I struck gold getting approved for this title, which won't be available to the public until October.
The Librarian of Auschwitz is YA historical fiction at its best. Real life heroes and villains of Auschwitz come to life in this unique telling of a little known aspect of the holocaust, the family camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When we read about concentration camps we typically learn little of the children because very few children survived. There are of course stories of parents who successfully hid their children from the SS guards, and heart wrenching tales of children gassed on arrival but little is said of the children who were allowed to live, allowed to go to school, given extra food rations, given as the author puts it "Special Treatment". Don't get your hopes up the family camp and the school that resided within it were not a flicker of kindness in an otherwise dark time. The family camp existed for one purpose. To hide the reality of the concentration camps from the rest of the world. The Nazi's knew that the Red Cross would be inspecting Auschwitz and the family camp was developed to make it appear that jewish families remained intact within the camps. Think Japanese American Internment Camps. That was the image meant to be portrayed by the family camp. Author Antonio Iturbe researched Auschwitz extensively while crafting this novel. Though the story centers around Dita Kraus, a young girl who served as an assistant in the family camp's school and was the keeper of the schools 8 contraband books, he incorporates other important figures in history including Rudi Vrba, Freddy Hirsch and the unimaginably cruel Dr. Mengele (famous for experimenting on prisoners). Nothing about this book shies away from the brutal reality of the jewish experience in World War II. However, the graphic details are minimized making it approachable for young teens. I predict this book will be a crossover favorite for adults and teens alike. My take: I feel real real bad that you all have to wait for October to get ahold of this title. That being said, mark your calendars because this book is going to make waves and you don't want to be 47 people down on your libraries hold list when it hits the shelves. |
AuthorWith my Masters in Library Science I review for School Library Journal, Indie Authors and local publications. Archives
August 2017
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