Title: Thanksgiving at the Inn
Author: Tim Whitney
Genre: Middle Grade/Young Adult
Publisher: Bancroft Press – ARC

Summary:
Left to live alone with his resentful father after his mother leaves them behind Heath Wellington III struggles to find a way to co-exist with a man who is no longer the parent he grew up with.  Having difficulty both at school and at home he is further blindsided when circumstances surrounding the untimely death of his grandfather shift how he and his father are expected to live their lives.

From the start Heath and his father (called Junior) don’t have the best relationship.  Their lives aren’t filled with baseball games and father son vacations on the lake where they bond over fishing.  Instead Junior drinks too much, treats his son like a pariah, and is in a generally foul humor one-hundred percent of the time.  For his part Heath too maintains a surly attitude of secrecy and  distance making no effort to bridge the gap between he and his father.  That is until Junior’s father (Senior) passes away and his will stipulates certain changes in their lives.

In order to gain their inheritance Senior has required the two to move from their New Jersey hovel to a New England bed and breakfast where they’re required to live on a meager allowance and care for the facilities and it’s inhabitants.  You see, Junior and Senior had been estranged for much of their adult lives and now that the older is no longer around he wants to make amends with the younger from the grave.  His way of going about doing so is to leave the Inn and the remnants of his fortune to Junior with the caveat that he turn his life around for the better and more specifically mend the strained relationship he has fostered with his own son.

With hopes of finding a way around the stipulations of the will Junior packs he and Heath up and moves them to Massachusetts for what he thinks will be a few weeks as compared to the three months required.  Upon arrival the duo are faced with a hodge-podge crew of Inn-habitants who take an instant liking to the younger Wellington.  It is through Heath’s subsequent relationships with these people that we see his personal growth, Junior’s further decent and a coming together of an unlikely family.

Opinion:
Thanksgiving at the Inn is a heartwarming tale where the central characters not only learn from each other but also themselves.  I enjoyed watching the progression both remaining Wellington’s made as each navigated their way through complex relationships.  I found the struggle for the father and son to bond after the loss of Heath’s mother and Junior’s father believable and honest.

While I was disappointed in the elder Heath’s emotional abandonment of his son at a critical juncture of life it drove the story with great impact.  I found it interesting to watch Junior replay and relive the sins of his father with his own son.  His behavior and actions echoed those that were perpetrated against him long ago and he still didn’t have the common sense to look through his own pain to make it better for his own child.  The fact that he continued to be so spiteful towards Senior (despite the man no longer being present) made it more believable that his own son did his best to be the better man.

I adored the youngest Heath as the central character.  Despite some challenging circumstances and situations his reactions and behavior were far more dignified than a typical boy his age.  He was so well mannered and caring, love starved even, as he built relationships with the Inn-habitants and other members from town that he interacted with.  He was not without his faults but was honest about them and did his best to become a better person.

Whitney built a wonderful cast of characters in the Inn-habitants.  The diversity of their lives allowed Heath to experience different life lessons through each.  Even better, the author did well to showcase each individual and their life story without side-tracking the all encompassing plot  by focusing too much on any.  They were all a means to an end not the main story.

If you are looking for a light, quick read about family dynamics and growing as a person then Whitney’s Thanksgiving at the Inn is a wonderful selection to add to your shelves.

Title: The Promised World
Author: Lisa Tucker
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Atria Books for Simon & Schuster

Summary:
Lila thought she had the idyllic life – perfect marriage to a wonderful man, great job she’d aspired to all her life, and a loving twin brother in Billy who would do anything for her.  That is until that very same brother commits “suicide by police” leaving Lila, his estranged wife and their three children behind to piece together the reasons why.

The loss of Billy starts Lila and his remaining family down a road to self discovery that is both frightening and eye-opening at the same time.  Stepping back through their history his sister recalls how together the two shared a bond made stronger by their love of literature, loathing of their parents and a quest for the perfect future.  Always reliant on his support and sure of his adoration for her Lila was never skeptical of the innocent nature of their relationship.

Attempting to build separate lives Lila heads off to college where she meets and marries a young man of academic talents that rival her own.  Billy too forges a life of his own when he marries the mother of his first child and subsequently has two more.  Unfortunately, forsaking his own education for his new family begins Billy down a path to self destruction that ultimately culminates in his aforementioned demise.

Over time Billy and Lila migrate back to each other and their bond, further strengthened by age and education, roots much more deeply.  So deep that in the eyes of their spouses and other family members (at different times) the former innocence of their relationship is undoubtedly questioned.  Viewed through snapshots of Billy and Lila’s lives as they grow up not just as siblings but as best friends some wonder if their attachment to each other is unnatural.

It is at the point of his death that the many secrets he’d been keeping start to trickle back into Lila’s memory causing her to question the true nature of their relationship as well.  Even though she is married to a wonderful man in Patrick and has all the love and support a woman who has just lost the one most important family member she has could want it isn’t enough to keep her from her past and in the end she has a complete breakdown.

Opinion:
Child abuse is always a difficult subject to wrap one’s head around.  It’s uncomfortable and emotional and not short of infuriating yet Tucker has skillfully navigated her way through those issues to build a story that handles each delicately.  She’s crafted a story that is both thought provoking and suspenseful; one which the reader is not quite able to pinpoint what has actually happened until the very bitter end when the pieces of the puzzle are more closely locking together.  While not the darkest it could be elements of The Promised World would certainly not e described as chipper or fluffy either.  Tackling the subjects of suicide, abuse, and depression was something Tucker did deftly and with great sensitivity.  She took the reader through the intricacies of the mind and allowed us to feel that angst and pain without sending us into the depths of despair ourselves.

Told through multiple points of view (Billy, Patrick, Lila, Billy’s wife and children) it took me some time to get used to the voices jumping around from chapter to chapter.  But once I did I enjoyed that we got a more rounded view of the story.  I liked being able to see the events from the eyes of the most important people, I enjoyed hearing the perspective of the people involved as compared to being told assumptions about those same scenarios from other characters watching it happen.

About the only element I struggled with initially was Lila’s seemingly unnatural attachment to Billy and subsequent disassociation from many other facets of her life and relationships.  I found that at times it made her feel quite robotic, emotionless and cold.  This is best exemplified by her interactions with her husband Patrick whom (early on) I didn’t get the feeling that she loved very much.  This, I know was by design, but until certain elements of the plot played out towards the end I didn’t get the feeling she felt much more for him than companionship.  He seemed to be more of a placeholder, or a means to an end, until she was able to be with Billy again. This characterization didn’t ruin the story for me but I wish I felt some small traces of that love it turns out she had for her husband a bit earlier in the story.

Having said that I found this a well written and intriguing book that kept me on my toes throughout.  I enjoyed the detailed viewpoints and portrayal of emotional upheaval a tragedy like this would inevitably create on the people in the lives of a love one lost.  Furthermore, I was consistently interested in where the story was going and was truly rooting for Lila to come out of her depression healthy and happy.

[This review is part of a blog tour arranged by TLC Book Tours]
(book provided via publisher/tour company)

Title: Dreaming Anastasia
Author: Joy Preble
Genre: Middle Grade/Young Adult
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Summary:
Anne Michaelson is having strange dreams; dreams of a time long since past. Dreams, in fact, of witches and magicians and long dead Russian royalty. Only these dreams aren’t so much dreams as they are memories — she’s present and feeling in all aspects of the events.

Enter Ethan, a handsome and mysterious boy who seems to appear at Anne’s every given turn. Initially thought to be a random teenage stalker Anne quickly learns that her connection to him is much deeper than his seeming obsession with her. They are marked by a mystical destiny to help free the last Romanov standing from the powerful witch compelled to keep her.

Together Ethan and Anne fight for (or is it against?) The Brotherhood in a quest to find the mythical Baba Yaga’s ever moving liar where young Anastasia Romanov is being held captive for eternity. In a series of bizarre events the two struggle against and use magic to investigate the young princesses whereabouts and attempt to free her. The only problem is that in their hunt to find Anastasia they too become the hunted.

Opinion:
Dreaming Anastasia was an enjoyable read from start to finish. So enjoyable, in fact, that it’s gotten me interested in reading more about the Romanov’s and their history. I, of course, know vague high school level details of the events but the plot in this story fictionalized elements so interestingly that I’m intrigued to find out more. This is a testament to Preble’s ability to interweave fact with fiction thus making it entirely believable that this young princess was swept away by magic to live an ageless life until saved from captivity.

Speaking of magic, I appreciated that Preble didn’t bang us over the head with mysticism and magical pyrotechnics. The story was driven by compelling characters who happened also to have these forces inside them — some were for good others for evil . While magic was entirely prevalent throughout it wasn’t a caricature or some outrageously constructed series of laughable actions that people were left scratching their heads over. In this case the magic was all completely relevant and believable in the scope of the story.

The relationship between Anne and Ethan carried with it that invisible bond magic and the mission they were carrying out held over them. She with her initial skepticism over the events transpiring and the struggle to accept her role and power; he the person with all the answers for her yet measuring how to best move forward in providing them. There was just enough to push them together but also plenty to keep them just that much apart. Speaking of which, I enjoyed that Preble didn’t fall into the trap of prolonging the initial distance between the two in the hope of keeping that “who is he” mystery alive. It was clear from the beginning there was a bond and we were kept guessing for just the right amount of time before small details started to trickle out. The timing of that was very well done and kept intriguing me throughout.

The attraction between Ethan and Anne was apparent from their initial meeting. Yet, the budding love story between the young couple is chaste. I never felt like they were completely in or out of love just that they were moving more and more in the direction of figuring it all out. This, in my opinion, makes the book a good gateway for readers moving from Middle Grade to Young Adult. To further the latter point, Dreaming Anastasia is a quick read with plenty of suspense and mystery to keep readers not only interested but invested in the outcome.

The use of mystical storytelling and lore is widely used and certainly effective. The story of Baba Yaga is vivid and creatively portrayed. There is equal parts fearsome monster and sympathetic captive compelled by others to do their bidding. She quickly becomes one of those members of the cast that readers either love or love to hate. Further, the story surrounding the role she plays in Anastasia’s captivity is quite imaginative and makes one wonder if it is truly of real Russian folklore. Yet another area where readers may be compelled to do further research after completing the novel.

In the end Dreaming Anastasia is a story of love and loss on many different levels. It was a wild, fun and sweetly romantic ride.

[This review is part of a blog tour arranged by Sourcebooks]
(book provided via publisher)

Drea and I are super excited to get into our inaugural book club discussion for the newly formed Literary League: Read ’til YA Drop young adult literature book club.  We wanted to take the opportunity to both welcome you and encourage you to jump right in to our first discussion on Catching Fire.  Our conversation online will be occurring in the newly formed Facebook group with the same name as this club.  To join simply click this link:

Literary League Facebook Group

Once a member please remember the guidelines listed below:

1. Discussion will occur based on the assumption that everyone has read the entire book.  This is not a chapter by chapter situation.  As such expect that major plot points will likely be revealed.
2. Any one participating can start a discussion thread. We’ll usually start out with a few posts to get conversation started but goodness knows we can’t think of everything so if there is something specific you’d like to talk about by all means start that discussion!
3. This group is open to anyone and everyone! Young, old, boy, girl…. Please keep in mind however, that no one will be expected to censor themselves so if you are uncomfortable with the content of a particular discussion or feel it isn’t age appropriate please forgo accessing it further.
4. As it relates to freedom of speech please remember to treat each other with respect and civility. Not everyone will agree on every point so keep discussion truthful but hater free.
5. Anyone believed to be flaming, harassing, or generally inciting participants will be removed from the group and blocked from further access.  Again, open disagreement is alright -  nasty behavior is not!

Depending on how things progress other guidelines may follow, but since we’re all responsible and respectful individuals I suspect we’ll be good to go with just the above!

Part of the fun of our monthly discussion is a Skype chat.  For this month’s Catching Fire chat we’re planning to meet at 4pm EST on Sunday, October 4th.  If you’d like to participate please send your Skype information to either Drea or I (via comment, email or Twitter) and we’ll be sure to include you.

Drea and I also want to be proactive for the future so we’re going to take the opportunity to announce the titles for the next few months.  We want to be as even as we possibly can in concentrating attention on books that are both newly released and those that may have been sitting on the shelves a bit longer so we’re going to do our best to rotate book selections.

With that in mind these are the titles we’ll be discussing in coming months (dates still to be determined):

• October – North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley and Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble
• November – Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
• December -  Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer

Many months we’ll have more than one book selection.  You can choose to participate in conversation on one or both but obviously you aren’t required to.  It’s totally up to you!  We just want to offer variety.

Now that all the business has been conducted let’s get to gabbing away, as you all know our first book selection is Suzanne Collins’ Catching Fire recently released by Scholastic Press.    Surf on over to the Facebook group and join in!

In preparation for my review posting of Dreaming Anastasia tomorrow I’d like to tike the opportunity to hand the reigns of Galleysmith over to author Joy Preble. Welcome Joy!

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I’m what one would call a late bloomer. Publicist Paul and I dance our way around this now and then, as famously indicated by my blog post about Twitter wherein I mentioned that I was fairly certain that his reference to his parents’ Alaskan cruise was a pointed dig at my inability to figure out where the Tweetdeck was located. I’m not old, exactly, but my son has graduated college now and so most people can do the math and figure out that unless I’m writing a novel about how I became a mother at the age of twelve, that I’m old enough to know better about a lot of things. Full disclosure – I rarely know better. But I like to pretend.

And as this post is supposed to be about my journey to publication, at least more or less, let me say that this was a prime example of me not knowing crap about what I was really supposed to be doing with my life. Or rather, I knew, but I ignored it. Which honestly, is a lot easier to do than you think. I’d write a little, start a book, maybe even get something published in a magazine or a newspaper and then I’d basically get some sort of career attention deficit moment and just wander off to do something else. This resulted in many interesting adventures, some strange part time jobs (the worst being when I was hired to be a “marketing assistant” for a woman who was starting her own line of scarves and ended up ironing and folding scarves with eight elderly Polish women, none of whom spoke a word of English) and a long gig of teaching, in addition to the above mentioned child-rearing thing. But it did not result in a book on a shelf.

But the muse, she is a funny and persistent girl. And the universe, I’ve discovered, has a way of making you pay attention. So the truth is that about five years ago, a little after I’d finally gotten off my ass to some extent and joined SCBWI and started going at least sporadically to conferences and a critique group, I suddenly found myself having the worst possible year ever at the school where I was teaching. By worst, let me say that what I really mean is utter despair. The kind of year that makes you want to just say f*** it and run off and join an ashram somewhere or at the very least go home every day and drown your academic colleague hell woes in a bottle of Jameson’s or that being unaffordable on your teacher salary, a cheap bottle of Merlot.

There’s a lot of mental wallowing that comes with that type of year. And said wallowing was also occurring while I was looking down the jaws of above mentioned son’s imminent high school graduation. It was, as they say – whoever they are – time for a change.

Now I’d like to say here that I stuck my butt in a chair, yanked out my laptop and finally got to work. But at that point, I didn’t even have a laptop. What I actually did was start looking for a different teaching job. Even got one. Went into my principal’s office and resigned. Went home and told husband and son. Went out to dinner to celebrate my grand ability to take charge of my life. And in the middle of my tandoori chicken, I started to panic. Cold sweat kind of panic. My son figured it was the curry.  Except it wasn’t, and the next day, I asked for my old job back, quit the new one and pulled out the two pages of a story that had come to me one rainy day when it was pouring too hard to leave the building.

It had finally occurred to me that I wanted to write. I needed to write. It wasn’t going to make any of those other things better. It was just one of those rare moments where I was absolutely certain that this was what I was supposed to be doing. (I’ve had those moments before, btw. Dating the guy on the fencing scholarship. That third shot of tequila at a party. A red and white striped t-shirt that I thought looked cute in the dressing room but actually made me look like Where’s Waldo)

So I wrote. And I wrote. And some weeks later, all I managed was two pages. We have a rule in our critique group that you must come with new work every time we meet. Some weeks, that was the only reason I wrote. And by the fall of 2005, I had the first draft of the novel that would eventually become Dreaming Anastasia.

My life was still chaotic, but I’d done this thing I’d set out to do. It felt different. Good different, not crap! the chicken tandoori is about to blow its way out of my stomach different, although honestly no less scary. I think I realize now that changing your life is always scary. But that’s a good thing.

So there was this story. And because it was my first novel, I thought I’d do something simple, like having three narrative voices and re-writing it from third person to first person to make it work better and adding an element of Russian folklore to ground the fantasy elements and creating a novel that was part contemporary fantasy, part alternate history and part romance. Because hey, how hard could all that be?

Sometimes, I think, it’s easier when you don’t really know the answer to certain questions like that.

I wrote draft after draft. I queried agents. I kept getting up and teaching Julius Caesar to tenth graders. I even ate Indian food again, although that turned out a little dicey which is another issue entirely.

There’s a story I used to read my son when he was a little boy called “Leo the Late Bloomer.” It’s about this tiger who just can’t do anything right. But “One day, in his own good time,” Leo blooms.

And let’s just say that so did I.

In early 2006, I queried four more agents. Among them was Laura Rennert of Andrea Brown Literary, who passed my manuscript, then titled Spark, on to new agent Michelle Andelman. Dreaming Anastasia is dedicated to two people. One of them is my mom, who died too early to appreciate all this with me. The other is Michelle, who took a chance on a goofy, sarcastic girl from the slush pile named Joy and stuck her in revision boot camp for a long number of months until neither of us could look at the manuscript another second. Eventually, Lyron Bennett at Sourcebooks fell in love with it and acquired it in 2007. And then the real work began.

Between then and now, I survived Hurricane Ike when it hit Houston last fall. Michelle went on to a different area of the publishing world. I’m now repped by the best cowgirl agent a girl could want – Jen Rofe, also of ABLA, who puts up with me and nurtures me and tells me things will work out. Lyron left Sourcebooks (these are those moments where you do start asking, “Is it me? Did I forget to put on underwear or something?”) and my new editor is the stunningly brilliant Dan Ehrenhaft who will be the one with me when DA releases as Sourcebooks first YA on September 1^st. The Sourcebooks people directed the creation of the most amazing cover and somehow people in the blogosphere have started to catch on. Waiting on Wednesday picks, growing buzz of all sorts. It’s honestly rather crazy.

So the lesson here? The one beyond how you shouldn’t be stubborn and you should tweet if Publicist Paul tells you to? Well, I think it’s follow your dreams. You are never too young or too old or too in the middle to find your passion. But if it involves tandoori chicken, leave me out of it. I’m just saying…

—-

Thank you Joy for taking the time to reach out to Galleysmith readers, I’ve enjoyed hosting you.  To communicate with Joy directly give her a shout out at @JoyPreble , check out her website or visit her blog Joy’s Novel Idea she’d love to hear from you.