artsy musings of a bibliophile

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Interview + Giveaway: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda Blog Tour

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I’m so excited to be a part of #SimonVs blog tour because it’s one of my favorite books that I’ll be pushing everyone to read. Harry Potter and Elliot Smith obsessed Oreo-fiend, Simon Spier is my favorite this year. He’s also a hopeless romantic who can’t help his hilarious typos in flirty emails to Blue. I’m plan to reread it forever and ever and cannot wait to hold the beautiful hardcover in my hands.

ABOUT THE BOOK

young adult lgbtq contemporary romance published by Balzer + Bray on 7 April 2015

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.
With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

THE INTERVIEW

I’m so incredibly happy to have Becky on the blog today because I adore her! Case in point, we both had one day to get this post ready and she was so fast with her replies to my emails despite being so busy. Basically, she’s such an amazing person.

It says in your bio that you write ‘very nerdy contemporary young adult fiction.’ How did the very nerdy part came to be?

I LOVE this question, because the fact that you even have to ask is extremely flattering. I think I will always write about nerds, because I can’t even begin to imagine what goes inside the brains of cool people. Fact: Simon and his friends are nerds, but my own nerdiness reaches a whole other level.

As a clinical psychologist, how has your experience of working with teenagers influenced you as a writer?

I think it’s a mixed bag! Being a psychologist gave me the opportunity to get to know so many incredible teens, and I think it helped re-acclimate me to how teens talk, think, and interact. That being said, balancing the two roles has been challenging at times. I went from having basically no online footprint to being a public figure, and that alone has been a huge transition. Furthermore, in my role as a psychologist, teens have trusted me with really precious information, and it’s critically important that I never mine that for my fiction. Beyond that, I try to do everything within my power to make sure my former clients never feel vulnerable that their confidentiality could be breached. I won’t let it happen – that’s nonnegotiable – but I still worry that they think it might!

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is about so many things so this might be very hard for you to answer, but what’s your favorite part about it?

Hmm…I think my favorite part of this book is the love story. I loved writing the email chapters. I think I got a little lost in Simon and Blue’s relationship at times! And I feel like I’ve gotten to know them both so well over the past two years that it’s really special to see them get their happy ending. I truly believe that every Simon deserves to eat infinite Oreos and make out with the grammar nerd of his dreams.

Drunk Simon or Oreo eater Simon?

That is, in fact, a trick question, because Simon is ALWAYS Oreo eater Simon (and Drunk Simon is especially Oreo eater Simon). I will resolve this dilemma by linking to this very informative Buzzfeed. Why, yes, I will be making these for my launch party.

Do you know you probably gave us all a heart attack with Martin’s involvement in Simon’s life?

My work here is done!!! 😀

It’s awesome to see so many diverse YA coming out this year! What’s your take on that?

I’m completely thrilled by it. It’s incredibly inspiring to see editors acquiring such a range of diverse titles, and especially to see the reading community responding to them with such enthusiasm and positivity. In my imprint (Harper’s Balzer + Bray), I can name four 2015 debuts off the top of my head that star LGBTQIA+ characters, and one of their huge contemporary titles this year stars a Turkish-American girl. I think this shift is so incredibly important and so desperately needed – and, thanks to influencers like the We Need Diverse Books team, I expect it will only continue to improve. Of course, it’s also important to acknowledge how much work there is left to do in challenging our tendency to default to white, straight, cis, male, non-disabled characters and authors. Nonetheless, I’m excited to be a part of that work.

Are you currently working on anything?

I am working on something! I’ve been in edits and rewrites for the second book of my two-book deal with Balzer + Bray, which I would describe as a loose companion book to SIMON. I’m hesitant to reveal much about it, since I keep making such dramatic changes as I rewrite. I’m hopeful that we can expect to see it on shelves in 2016.

Lastly, everyone should know that you are – ?

Beyond excited to launch this book. Incredibly, ridiculously grateful to all of those who have supported me along the way. Thrilled to be a part of this community. Looking forward to what comes next!
Becky Albertalli can be found at

THE GIVEAWAY

We may never now what the emboss on an Oreo cookie means but that surely isn’t stopping Simon or us from enjoying one or a whole pack of it. One lucky person will win a copy of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda along with a package of Oreos. (Please do visit my policies page before entering!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Additionally, you can also win a personalized hardcover of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda if you tweet how you eat your Oreos or Instagram a picture using the hashtag #SimonVs by April 6th. Yes, today’s the last day so get going!

Interview: Amy Zhang

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Click the image for more info on #KiRCReads.

If you know me, you know I love contemporary YA the best and I’m very glad to be a part of Keepin’ it Real. Kaitlin is awesome for doing this and I’m so glad to be interviewing Amy Zhang. I’ve read 58% of Falling into Place after which I stopped because hello, I-don’t-want-this-book-to-end syndrome. I think I’ll re-read it before finishing it because it’s just that good.

It says in your bio that ‘books, tea, architecture, words, and pie make me very happy.’ Well, all of those things make me happy, as well (though, doughnuts and pizza make me more happy than pie). Anyway, I’d love to see a photo of your paper-mached desk that you did yourself using old book pages. And now for the question part of the question, tell us a bit more about yourself.
Hi! Thanks for having me! I’m Amy. My hobbies include wasting time on Pinterest, marathoning TV shows, and online shopping. I started writing in a fit of self-pity when I moved to Sheboygan, WI, in eighth grade, and I kept writing because I fell in love with it. I’ll be going to New York for college in a few weeks, and I’m nowhere near ready. My favorite word is “misadventures.”

Hello, Amy’s gorgeous paper-mached desk.
Liz is a beautifully raw character and it’s hard to not like her despite her flaws. I think we need more books like this, so thank you for writing Falling into Place. How would you describe your debut, Falling into Place?
I usually tell people that it’s just a book about high school and all of things that happen in those years. It’s about wanting to grow up but not know how. It’s about being a friend and falling in love and feeling like the world revolves around you because you haven’t seen enough of it yet to know any different. It’s about living in the moment and making mistakes and trying to fix them and not doing a good job of it. It’s about learning how to be a person.
How do you like the cover of Falling into Place? I, for one, love it because it’s abstract and minimal and yes.
I LOVE IT. I can’t stop looking at it. Originally, we were going to go with a different cover, but when my editor sent me this one, I just remember thinking, yes, this fits better. I couldn’t imagine a better cover. I love the car and the hand and the physics equations in the background. I love the colors and the chevron on the flaps and the pearl finish. It’s absolutely perfect. 
Falling into Place is about suicide and Newton’s laws of motion. How did you get to writing about such an unusual combination?
Falling started as two short stories, one of which was about a girl who committed suicide and left behind a notebook with her reasons why outlined in terms of Newton’s laws of motion. I was really intrigued by the idea of motion—how things don’t move if you don’t push them, how they keep moving unless you stop them. There was something about that that seemed so applicable to life, particularly high school life. I think that as a teen, you always feel kind of isolated. You exist in the moment. You’re often afraid to share your opinions, so you almost feel as though you’re the only one to ever think, really think. You feel alone, and that just isn’t true—actions reverberate. Everything is an interaction.
Falling into Place starts in the present and then goes back bit-by-bit with memory flashes. Did you intend it to be this way?
You know, I don’t actually remember what I was thinking when I first sat down to write. My first outline had all of the flashbacks and snapshots, but I never really thought about the structure. That was just the way I saw Liz’s story—in flashes, in memories, in puzzle pieces. Honestly, I didn’t think even think of it as nonlinear until one of my critique partners put a label to it. I don’t know that I intended to tell a certain way—that was just the way the story needed to be told.
Books about unlikable characters are always a bit tough to write because you’re working on a very thin line of endorsal vs portrayal. How did you tackle it in Falling into Place?
I think everyone is a bit of a jerk in high school. What I wanted to show in Falling into Place is that you can’t define yourself in moments—either your best or your worst. No one is likeable at their worst, and Liz was constantly at her worst. I wanted readers to know why, and that she had reasons for being there.
You’re doing a #100daysofFiP photo project on Instagram. How did that come to be?
I have this app on my phone that counts down the days until Falling’s release, and I wanted to do something fun once I hit the 100-day mark. I had just gotten a new camera as a graduation present, and I figured that I should put it to good use!
Is the world of publishing as scary as it sounds? How has your experience been?
Not at all! Deciding to look into publishing was the best decision I’ve ever made. Everyone is so incredibly dedicated and enthusiastic. I think publishing is just one of those industries in which everyone is there because they want to be there, and you can totally see that. It’s fantastic.
Are there any other works in progress? Since I read your blog a bit, I know there are a few and I’m very fascinated by all of them, especially, Memento Mori.
Yes! I’m working on a book tentatively titled This is Where the World Ends right now, which is about a boy who’s obsessed with apocalypses and a girl whose goal in life is to make the entire world fall in love with her. There’s spray paint and a coffee shop full of origami cranes and wings made out of dictionaries, and I can’t wait to share it with everyone! Memento Mori will probably be my next project.

Lastly, everyone should know that you are – ?
…horribly disorganized, usually sleep-deprived, and alarmingly dependent upon caffeine.
Amy Zhang can be found at
Add Falling into Place on Goodreads

Are you looking forward to Falling into Place? I really think you should be. It’s releasing on September 9th.

Interview: Lauren Miller + Giveaway

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I only read Parallel last month and loved every bit of it. Seriously guys, it’s heartwarming, mindblowing and edge-of-the-seat nervous. So I thought why not interview the author herself and give away a copy of Parallel because awesome author and a must-read debut.
THE INTERVIEW

It says in your bio that you decided to write Parallel during the first 100 days of your baby’s life. You even blogged about it. How was the whole experience?

It was an experience like none other in my life! Super intense, but doubly rewarding. For those who don’t know, I called the whole experiment “Embracing the Detour” (the detour being motherhood – my husband and I weren’t planning to try for kids for several more years when we found out I was pregnant, and the pregnancy had me panicked that I’d never make the transition to full time writer with a baby at home). The point was, yes, to write a book, but it was also to see whether I could turn what most people say is the most draining period of a woman’s life into the most creatively fruitful of mine. And it worked! It was remarkable, really, how productive I was able to be, simply because I didn’t allow myself an alternative. I wish I could have kept that up after the 100 days was over! 🙂
You are a practicing lawyer, what sparked your interest in science?

I’ve always been drawn to stories that have a supernatural element, but that respect readers enough to give them a WHY. Science, for me, is the most satisfying “why,” because it feels plausible

I feel that at its core, Parallel answers one of the big what if questions. How did it end up with parallel universes and paths that change over and over?
When I started writing Parallel, I knew I wanted to give Abby a “do-over” of sorts, and so I set out to find a scientific (or, at least, pseudo-scientific!) explanation for how a girl might get to experience the consequences of the path she didn’t take. I knew I didn’t want it to be a time travel story — Abby going back in time to make a different choice. I wanted her to wake up in the life she would’ve had if she’d made a different choice without her actually making that different choice. Entangled parallel worlds is where I ended up.

I should confess that my heart stopped every time Abby’s path changed. How did you keep track of all that was happening in the book?
With a giant white board! I’ll admit, it was a little crazy keeping track of it, but it was also a lot of fun! I loved working the cause and effect out in my head, trying to imagine how parallel Abby’s actions might play out in Abby’s life.
Abby and her parallel are merely living in different points of time but their destiny is fixed. Do you believe that destiny transcends space and time?
I believe that destiny is about becoming the person you were created to be — it’s not about finding the right path, it’s about finding the right YOU. In Parallel, my two Abby’s are not the same person, so they have different “destinies” — they are meant to become very different people, with different lives and different loves, not because they live in different worlds but because they are different souls.

Parallel portrays a strong friendship between Abby and Caitlin. How did that come to be?
I am a strong believer in — and proponent of — female friendships, especially among young women. There is so much focus in our culture on romance, when we should be paying at least as much attention to friendship, since these relationships can be as — if not more — formative. Our friends help shape who we become, so it was important to me that Abby have someone great by her side. Caitlin was very easy for me to write, because I based her my own best friend!

Despite being a sci-fi, Parallel reads like a contemporary. Was this your intention?
Absolutely. As much as I love science, I’ve never been a sci-fi reader. I’ve always gravitated toward contemporary stories that have some mind-bendy twist, so when I started writing I set out to write that. I want my books to appeal to readers who, like me, don’t read a lot of sci-fi.

The ending of Parallel is suggestive, did you always knew that you were going to go for a not-so-definite ending or it’s just something that happened?
Oh, I knew the story had to end the way it did. But, in my mind, it’s as definite as any ending could be. At the end of any story, the characters are left to live out their lives. In Parallel, I wanted to put Abby back in the driver’s seat of her life at the end of the story, but I also wanted to leave her on the hook. I wanted to make her work for the happily-ever-after she wants, to force her to put what she’s learned about the power of her choices into practice. If she wants to end up with Josh, she’ll have to do two things: make good, forward-thinking decisions while at the same time not trying to micro-manage things. She’ll have to find the balance between action and trust. Will she and Josh end up together? I hope so. But in the end, it’s up to Abby not to screw it up. 🙂 The other thing that was important to me was to give Josh the opportunity to fall in love with the “real” Abby. Live, in real time. For most of the book, his love for her comes from his memories of his parallel’s experiences with parallel Abby.
As a writer, what comes first when you’re writing a book?
The themes. For Parallel, it was the power of our choices and the interplay between fate and free will. For Free to Fall, it was the trade-off between “happiness” and freedom. Once these themes take root in my mind, a story begins to take shape. Then I move towards an outline.
How would you describe you upcoming book, Free to Fall?
We’re calling it a “puzzler,” a term I adore, because it just fits so well. Free to Fall is a puzzle! It’s set in the near-future, a point in history at which two things are true: (1) everyone’s lives are orchestrated by an app called Lux that makes all their decisions for them, and (2) the proverbial “whisper within” — that inner voice that guides you along — has been labeled a psychosis that should silenced with medication. My protagonist, Rory, is a 16-year-old girl who begins to discover that there is more to the story when it comes to both of these things. I’m super excited about it!

Lastly, everyone should know that you are – ?
Working on a third book! It’s still super secret, but I’m having a lot of fun writing it, and can’t wait to see what it becomes. I mentioned that I start my books with themes – the theme of this one is Beauty with a capital B.
Thank you!

Lauren Miller can be found at
Add Parallel and Free to Fall on Goodreads
THE GIVEAWAY
I love Parallel so much that I’m giving you guys a chance to win a Kindle copy of it. Good luck and please see Terms and Conditions in the widget below before entering!

Review: Fractured Soul by Rachel McClellan Blog Tour + Interview + Giveaway

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Click the banner for the tour schedule.

Title: Fractured Soul (Fractured Light, #2)
Author: Rachel McClellan
Genre: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Cedar Fort
Release Date: 12 February 2013
Pages:  336 (eARC)


Synopsis
Llona will do whatever it takes to protect her new found friends and home, but the dark plot that is threatening Lucent Academy, a school that’s supposed to be a safe place for Auras, may be too powerful for even Llona to defeat. This fast-paced tale of love, loyalty, and overcoming the darkness will keep you on the edge of your seat until the last page!

My Rating

* * * *
The Review

Fractures Soul begins with Llona’s first day at Lucent Academy and even though there’s only a slight chance of things getting back to normal, Llona knows her life wouldn’t ever be the same. Her plan is simple: to learn more about the nature and history of Aura, hone her abilities and get out of world the Auras has chosen to live in. However, she is yet unknown to the danger that threatens to wipe out Auras and it seems that trouble has followed Llona inside the protected walls of The Lucent Academy. 
The stakes are higher especially when the ones responsible for the safety of Auras are willing to sacrifice it for personal gains. Llona has her own demons to deal with as darkness calls to her, a hunger lodged deep inside her and the smell of blood everywhere. It is no surprise when Llona plans to sneak out at night unable to get rid of her nightmares.
Llona craves destruction and her need to get rid of the energy buzzing inside of her leads her to Vykens present close to Lucent. Llona fights the blood battles despite warnings from Jackson, a Guardian. Christian also arrives but Sophia is against their relationship and makes it clear so. Despite the dangerous ground she is treading upon with him, Llona knows he means too much to her to lose him. Thus, she eventually takes Liam’s offer to help the light within her come to life again. 
Rebellious as ever, Llona has to overcome the difficulties she is faced with. Fractured Soul fits perfectly to Llona’s state in this book as she tethers on the edge of darkness. Threats are given, secrets revealed and hearts are broken as it becomes clear that something big is going on. With the help of Christian, Liam, Tessa and May, Llona sets out to fight the danger, loving the thrill it offers to a showdown and another life-changing moment in Llona’s life. 
Will she ever find salvation and come to peace with herself? Fractured Soul shows a new side of Llona, but she is consistent with her rebellious streak which is what I love about her. This is one tough nut to break. Fractured Soul is a very satisfying continuation of the series and I’m more than looking forward to how it will end. Three cheers to Rachel McClellan for crafting a yet another brilliant story.

Best Quotes:
“I imagined my skin shimmering, transforming into actual Light, My nails dug into my palms. Change! My body began to vibrate, ratting my insides until I thought I’d break into two.“
“If I could just find him, give him all of my Light to save him.“ 
About the Author
Rachel was born and raised in Idaho, a place secretly known for its supernatural creatures. When she’s not in her writing lair, she’s partying with her husband and four children. Her love for storytelling began as a child when the moon first possessed the night. For when the lights went out, her imagination painted a whole new world. And what a scary world it was…

Rachel McClellan can be found at 
| Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Publisher |
Buy Fractured Light (Fractured Light, #1)
| Amazon | B&N |
Starting 4 February, buy the eBook of Fractured Light for only $2.99 for two weeks only!

Pre-order Fractured Soul (Fractured Light, #2)
| Amazon | B&N |

The Interview

What is the one thing writing Fractured Light series has taught you about yourself?
Honestly it taught me to be stronger and to face my problems head on. It was amazing how simply writing about a tough girl made me want to be one. No shrinks for me. I write. 🙂
What five words would you use to define Fractured Soul?
Enduring, power, loyalty, strength, and heart-breaking.
Despite being cautious about her survival it’s clear that Llona’s looking for more than just to survive. How does that shape up in Fractured Soul?
It’s one thing to survive outside forces, but I think it’s a whole other beast to survive inner torment. In Fractured Soul Llona has to do just this. In addition she wants desperately to fit in, but not at the cost of giving up what she believes in. That’s why the title of this book is so perfect for Llona.
Manipulation of light. How did you come up with the idea?
I’ve always been fascinated by light. It contains so much power and always chases away the darkness. This is an eternal truth that can never be changed. Because it is so strong, I wanted to give it to a teenage girl to see what she could do with it. I was pleased with the results.
Did you think making Llona’s hair to be so whitish blonde made her stand out more? Or is it only about being different?
I wanted there to be something in Llona’s life that not only made her stand out, but also was something she couldn’t control. Sometimes that’s how how life is–we are different and there’s nothing we can do about it.
Everyone should know that you are – ?
Really into my TV shows, but I don’t just watch them for enjoyment. I study how they are done: when the main conflict is introduced, how the characters develop, how they keep the dialogue focused on the current problem, etc. I love the shows The Walking Dead, Being Human, Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, The Following, and Downton Abbey.
Lastly, what question have you always wanted to be asked in an interview and how would you answer that question
Does writing run in your family?
My mother is an excellent poet and has written some short stories. And although she’s the only writer, everyone else in my family is extremely artistic. I, however, can not draw or paint to save my life. Only create stories.
Thank you so much!

The Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks to Rachel McClellan and Cedar Fort for providing me a copy of Fractured Soul for review.

Review: Greta and the Goblin King by Chloe Jacobs Blog Tour + Interview + Giveaway

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Title: Greta and the Goblin King (The Mylena Chronicles, #1)

Author: Chloe Jacobs
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Release Date: 13 November 2012
Pages: 298 (eARC)

Synopsis
While trying to save her brother from a witch’s fire four years ago, Greta was thrown in herself, falling through a portal to Mylena, a dangerous world where humans are the enemy and every ogre, ghoul, and goblin has a dark side that comes out with the eclipse. 
To survive, Greta has hidden her humanity and taken the job of bounty hunter—and she’s good at what she does. So good, she’s caught the attention of Mylena’s young goblin king, the darkly enticing Isaac, who invades her dreams and undermines her will to escape. 
But Greta’s not the only one looking to get out of Mylena. An ancient evil knows she’s the key to opening the portal, and with the next eclipse mere days away, every bloodthirsty creature in the realm is after her—including Isaac. If Greta fails, she and the lost boys of Mylena will die. If she succeeds, no world will be safe from what follows her back…
My Rating
* * * *
The Review
Greta and the Goblin King sucked me in from the start. I had been pretty intrigued by the cover and the synopsis but to actually read the book, it was all I could ask for. The action sequences, the electric chemistry, Mylena creatures out for blood and a bounty hunter as the protagonist. Just wow. Greta is something else entirely and on top of it, Isaac is a very intriguing character. 
Greta and the Goblin King is set in the world of Mylena where the humans are considered evil and where every kind of creature from faeries to goblins to gnomes, demons and ghouls thrive. But Agramon wreaked havoc on Mylena and the Great Mother had to put a curse of ice and snow and the two moons on the people of Mylena. The world-building is flawless and being as taken with the icy cold weather as I am, I found myself wanting to feel the cold penetrate deep in my bones more than once.
Add up all that with a human stuck in their world unwillingly as a result of a sacrifice to save her brother’s life. Suffice it to say that it hasn’t been an easy four years in Mylena for Greta. But Luke miraculously didn’t kill her on sight, instead took her in and taught her all the trades of surviving. Everything was as peachy as it could be for Greta when the goblin king decided to pay her a visit during her job as a bounty hunter. The same goblin who just a fortnight ago was trying to get her to say his name and unknowingly giving him the power to come inside her mind whenever she dreams. All because Greta intrigued him. Now isn’t that charming. 
What do you do become when you have nothing? Fearless is only a glimpse into Greta’s personality and she is pretty self-reliant. But for a human to survive right along with paranormal creatures as a bounty hunter and trying to disguise her humaneness. Not an easy one. But somehow Greta manages until all hell in the shape and name of Agramon threatens to take her last bit of her sanity. 
And then there is Isaac, the infuriatingly intense and hot as hell Goblin King of Mylena. Only not as much by choice but as a stroke of fate. It is so engaging to see Isaac hot on her trail, haunting her in her dreams, making her want him and trying to get her to see the real him. But Greta haven’t earned the title of the best bounty hunter for nothing. She is an expert when it comes to guarding her emotions. Only lately, along with Isaac, she is somehow also letting others affect her judgement and making her care. 
Wyatt, Sloane, Jacob and especially Ray made me fall in love with their stories and it was admirable to see them trying to protect each other through thick and thin. All of them played a role in trying Greta to see the other side of the story and to light the fire in her again that willed her to live and survive in the cold, cursed land of Mylena.
I found myself absolutely engrossed in the story of Greta and the Goblin King, willing the words to fly by as quickly as they can so I would know what was going to happen next and how it would all play out. I always find such books to be great reads. I loved how Isaac remained true to his own self even in the most turbulent of times; that’s devotion. I can only imagine what kind of action would be in store for Greta in Books 2. Three cheers for Chloe Jacobs!
Best Quotes:

““You have such a peculiar way of speaking,” he said. “I rarely have any notion what you’re talking about, but I could listen to your voice all day long.”“

“There was no mistaking his frustration and anger, even his pain. It came off him like a fever, engulfing her with a blast of terrible heat, but she still felt safe, protected. It may only last for as long as he held her, but for now that was enough.”

About the Author

Chloe Jacobs is a native of nowhere and everywhere, having jumped around to practically every Province of Canada before finally settling in Ontario where she has now been living for a respectable number of years. Her husband and son are the two best people in the entire world, but they also make her wish she’d at least gotten a female cat. No such luck. And although the day job keeps her busy, she carves out as much time as possible to write. Bringing new characters to life and finding out what makes them tick and how badly she can make them suffer is one of her greatest pleasures, almost better than chocolate and fuzzy pink bunny slippers.
Chloe Jacobs can be found at 
| Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Publisher | 
Buy Greta and the Goblin King (The Mylena Chronicles, #1)


The Interview
Now it’s time for a fun interview with Chloe Jacobs getting to know more about Chloe, the characters and their story. I hope you all find it as much fun as I did!

So do you really own ‘fuzzy pink bunny slippers’ as it says in your bio?
Yes! I love them! My son found them in a store once and he said he had to buy them for me. He was four at the time, so I’m pretty sure my husband paid for them (which he probably regrets because he trips on them all the time—I have a bad habit of leaving them on his side of the bed *evil grin*).
What is the one thing writing Greta and the Goblin King has taught you?
Writing this story taught me the value of a fantastic editor. Without Heather’s help this book would never have been as good as it ended up.
What five words would you use to define your debut book?
Dark. Fantasy. Character-driven. Emotional.
Despite being a very strong character, Greta has a hard time figuring out who she really is. What made you write about such a character?
I was really intrigued about the idea of a character who is stripped of EVERYTHING. How would I survive if I were in her place? If I couldn’t call my family, or email them, or Facebook them? If I couldn’t see them again, and I had no friends. If, in fact, everyone wanted me dead?? It just seemed like the perfect character to set on this particular journey.
A Goblin King as the hero. How did you come up with the idea?
It started as a twist on the Hansel and Gretel story, and when I was thinking about the world Greta finds herself in, I knew there would be goblins and ghouls and all kinds of fairy tale creatures, so the Goblin King sounded like a much better choice than King of the Ogres. The trick was trying to make Goblin = sexy 🙂
How difficult it was for you to tackle the world-building in Mylena?
I LOVE world building. I can’t get enough of it. In fact, there was probably a lot more of the world building in the original draft, but for the sake of keeping up the pace of the book, we had to trim it down a little bit. In book 2 I’ll be expanding the world and hopefully helping readers see Mylena a little better.
What do you want readers to take away from Greta and the Goblin King?
I want them to see how much Greta grows, to see her strength and realize that it’s even more precious because it doesn’t come easy for her. As strong as she is, she struggles not to give into her loneliness and sorrow every day. I would also want readers to know that there’s much more to Isaac than we’ll see in this book, but not to worry. I’m going to put him through his paces in book 2.
What was the hardest part of writing Greta and the Goblin King?
The hardest part was trying to find a proper balance between the story and the backstory. Since the book starts after Greta and Isaac’s first meeting, I had to filter in their history at appropriate times in the book, trying not to halt the action and pacing of the current plot line.
And the best?
OMG the best part was the back and forth between Greta and Isaac. They had fantastic chemistry on the page and I LOVED writing the scenes when they were facing off against one another!
Everyone should know that you are – ?
Crazy.
Lastly, what question have you always wanted to be asked in an interview and how would you answer that question?
If I were a superhero, I’d be the kind that could read people’s minds. I always want to know what people are thinking. It must be the writer in me that’s always looking at someone and needing to know what’s going on in their head. I want to know their deepest darkest secrets, and I want to see their every desire.
…That would probably get me in a lot of trouble though. LOL
Thanks so much for letting me come visit you! I had a BLAST!
The Giveaway
Chloe Jacobs is giving away fabulous prizes to US/Can residents. International entries can win an eBook copy of Greta and the Goblin King. Rules are it the widget.

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Thanks to Entangled Publishing for providing me a copy of Greta and the Goblin King for review.