Comicpalooza 2019 Literature Event is LIT!

For those of you unaware, Comicpalooza is an incredible convention held every year in Houston, Texas. This will be my third year attending and I say without hesitation it is my favorite con to attend. They have a bit of everything from fantastic guests from the film industry to amazing authors. This year's guest list includes some big names such as Emilia Clarke from Game of Thrones, Grant Gustin from The Flash, and authors Timothy Zahn and Wesley Chu. I had the opportunity to meet Timothy Zahn a couple years ago and he was an absolute delight! He created the character Mara Jade whom I costume as a member of The 501st Legion and Rebel Legion. For Wesley Chu I'm thrilled to meet him as I am about to start reading The Red Scrolls of Magic, which he collaborated with Cassandra Clare to write. Literature events featured this year are author panels, fan roundtables, read and critique sessions for aspiring writers, and a character-building springboard writing workshop. I'm really excited about this years convention and to meet other like-minded individuals. It'll be a blast! I still can't believe I got to meet author Lev Grossman a couple years ago at Comicpalooza.

With Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians at Comicpalooza 2017

Featured Guest Q&As and discussions include:

Open Mic Reading for All Genres

Timothy Zahn Introspective

Cory Doctorow Introspective

Wesley Chu & Sam Sykes Introspective

Other entertaining panels to check out:

The Storytelling of Game of Thrones

Writing Robots and AI

Evil-ution of Literary Horror

Blood! Gore! How to Write Heroic Fantasy

Cyberpunk Returns, but Did It Ever Really Go Away?

Magic Systems for Writers

Horror for the 21st Century: Film and Literature

Beyond Earthsea: Ursula K. Le Guin's Writing Legacy

Writing and Reading Mysteries and Thrillers

Setting the Hook, Screenwriting and Your First 10 Pages

Creature Horror: Why We Are Drawn To It, and How To Create Montsters

Aspiring writer's may want to check these panels out:

World-building for Short Stories, Novelettes, and Novellas

Help! I'm an introvert!: Networking and Marketing for Writers

Art & Writing Crossovers from Comics to Artist Collaborations

Stop Copycats: Protect Your Ideas

Idea to Publishing: Behind the Scenes with Indie Authors

Writing Powerful Women in Genre Fiction

Writing With/Against Your Gender/Orientation/Ethnicity/Identity

Copyrights and Conduct: The Legal Side of Conventions

Worldbuilding Tips and Tricks: How to Create Believable Worlds

Words Matter: Crafting the Perfect Sentence

How to Avoid Legal Potholes in Your Writing and Publishing

Comicpalooza 2019 takes place May 10-12!

For more info and to get tickets head to COMICPALOOZA.COM

Book Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

WHERE TO BUY: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Books-A-Million

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS: Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan.... But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she's really good at it. She and her twin, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it's what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fanfiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath's sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can't let go. She doesn't want to.

Now that they're going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn't want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She's got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend; a fiction-writing professor who thinks fanfiction is the end of the civilized world; a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words...and she can't stop worrying about her dad, who's loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

MY REVIEW: This was such a FUN read! And a fast one at that! By far my favorite Rainbow Rowell book! Cath is definitely me in college. I wrote fanfiction, I was socially awkward, I was (and still am) weird around boys. It was fun to read about the experience from an outside perspective! I really enjoyed how passionate she was about fanfiction and Simon Snow. She didn't let anyone try to talk her out of what she was passionate about, not even her professor. She was witty, funny, and all around fun to learn and read about.

Reagan, Cath's roommate, was a huge star of this book. She was SO funny and sarcastic. Her dry humor and her interactions with Cath made the book for me a lot of the times. She was so brash in her approach to life, but it was so endearing to me.

Wren, Cath's twin sister, took a long while for me to warm up to. I did not like this girl for a majority of the book. Mainly because of how she treated Cath, but then it turned into because she was stupid. The way that she was living her life made me cringe. As I was reading about Wren, I thought that her lifestyle was going to get her into trouble sooner or later. She had no buffer and was constantly taking jabs at Cath for various things. While I understand the need for independence, especially as freshmen in college -- Cath was her twin sister and she shouldn't have been treating her like some stranger. It wasn't cool.

Levi, oh my sweet adorable Levi, what on earth to say about this guy? Other than he was absolute flawed perfection on paper. Levi was so fun! He was energetic, friendly, supportive, vulnerable, honest -- everything you could want in a first boyfriend. Sure, he made his fair mistakes but overall, he was a really great character. Developed well and fun to follow. I really loved his interactions with Cath. He really was enamored with her. And it was fun to witness her become just as enamored and not know how to handle it.

Rowell did a fantastic job on painting an accurate picture of the fangirl transition -- from high school to college -- where people most likely wouldn't understand why fanfiction, midnight book releases, etc. are so important. Witnessing Cath come into herself was one of the most rewarding things about this book. She grows so much throughout the book, but by the end of the story, you really sit back and think of how far she has come. WIth the help of Reagan, Levi, Wren and even her professor. There's a character, Nick, that teaches the not-so-fun college lesson to Cath. And I was so proud of her for how she handles him at the end. She's just a different, though the same, girl at the end of this book.

I loved it. Fantastically written, fun, friendly, adorable -- all of the words!  

MY RATING: 4.5 out of 5 stars!

Book Review: Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

WHERE TO BUY:

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Book Depository

SYNOPSIS:

Sixteen-year-old Austin Szerba interweaves the story of his Polish legacy with the story of how he and his best friend , Robby, brought about the end of humanity and the rise of an army of unstoppable, six-foot tall praying mantises in small-town Iowa.

To make matters worse, Austin’s hormones are totally oblivious; they don’t care that the world is in utter chaos: Austin is in love with his girlfriend, Shann, but remains confused about his sexual orientation. He’s stewing in a self-professed constant state of maximum horniness, directed at both Robby and Shann. Ultimately, it’s up to Austin to save the world and propagate the species in this sci-fright journey of survival, sex, and the complex realities of the human condition.

MY REVIEW: 

Seriously… WTF was this book?

I bounced between a 4-star and a 5-star rating for about 12 hours. Mainly because this book was a lot to process, but not in a bad way. Andrew Smith is crazy. This book is crazy. The plot is crazy. The characters were extremely hormonal (they’re teenagers – boys, at that!). I cannot begin to count how many times Smith used the word ‘horny’ while we were in Austin’s, the main character, head!

Anyway, this story follows the life of Austin Szerba and his confusion over his sexual orientation. That, to me, was the primary focus. He was in love with his girlfriend (since the 7th grade), Shann and also with his best friend, Robby. Through his trying to figure out his preferences, he and Robby accidentally unleashed a plague upon the small town of Ealing, IA. People become infected/infested with parasitic “stuffs” and mutant grasshoppers hatch from within their bodies. Gross, I know!

This is definitely a weird adventure. And I don’t use that term lightly. While the grasshopper part was interesting enough, I found myself more interested in Austin and his relationship struggles. He is a comical, though horny boy who likes to feel good and he always has sex on the brain. I laughed out loud at times, especially when he was telling stories about getting in trouble for reading specific books or when he and Robby were “experimenting”. It felt awkward because it was, but it was also one of my favorite moments in the book.

The characters DID fall a bit flat for me at time, while I really enjoyed Robby, I didn’t come to learn too much about him. Shann — I really knew nothing about her personally. Austin was the only one that I can say that I kind of knew the most, but that’s because we were in his head the entire time.

This time around, I feel that Smith focused on the weird, complex plot of mutant grasshoppers and Austin’s sexual orientation experimenting. Not a bad thing, but I do kind of feel like something was sacrified for the sake of the weird plot.

With that being said, I enjoyed the book. I like how weird it was, I like Austin’s confusion over Shann & Robby. While this book is primarily about a boy’s adolescence and self-discovery, Smith threw in some Storm Trooper crap to make it more interesting. And it was absolutely more interesting. I 100% like “Winger” a lot better, but this one was not a bad read at all!

MY RATING: 4 out of 5 stars!

Book Review: Obsidian (Lux, #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

WHERE TO BUY: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million

GOODREADS SUMMARY: 
Starting over sucks.

When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I'd pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring.... until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.

And then he opened his mouth.

Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something...unexpected happens.

The hot alien living next door marks me.

You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon's touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I'm getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades.

If I don't kill him first, that is.

MY REVIEW: 
This was such an interesting take on humans & aliens! I liked it a lot. This is only my second Jennifer L. Armentrout book, but I am simply adoring this woman! The way that she develops her characters is unlike a lot of authors I read.

The main characters in this story, Katy & Daemon, are the perfect duo. They play off of each other so well and I just how their stories intertwine throughout the book. Originally, Katy got on my nerves, just a little bit. She was constantly making "unsmart" decisions and I couldn't quite understand why. But then again, I actually could. It was just frustrating at times. But as the book went on, she turned into this kick ass woman/girl. With such ambitious and fight in her. I definitely appreciated her character, especially her fierce loyalty and love for Dee (and the other aliens). She is definitely a character I love.

Moving on to Daemon -- it is very apparent that Jennifer likes her bad boys. Very apparent, indeed. Daemon is deemed a bad boy from page one. He is snarky, sarcastic, flirtatious. But he's also fiercely protective and loyal to those that he cares about, especially his sister, Dee. I enjoyed him from the second I was introduced to his character. And the cool part about him is that he developed quite well throughout the book, but not to the point where you barely recognized him from the beginning. He's still a jerk, which I love.

His interactions with Katy, Dee, or anyone were so much fun to read about. Didn't matter who you were, he was going to be himself. And I love that.

Obsidian is the perfect introduction to the Lux series, I honestly couldn't put this book down. I read it in about 5 hours. Definitely a five-star book for me!

MY RATING: 5 out of 5 stars!

Book Review: 'Cinder' by Marissa Meyer

Where To Buy: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Author Website

Goodreads Summary: Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

U.S., Italian, and Spanish covers

My Review: This was seriously the most creative twist on a fairytale! Wow. I've never been the biggest fan of Cinderella, mainly because I simply cannot handle how her stepmother and stepsisters treat her. The essence of the fairytale is very much present in this book, but there is so much more to it than just that. The cyborg take on it was a fabulous tangent. 

I really enjoyed the story as a whole, more so than the individual characters themselves. Cinder, Prince Kai, Peony, etc. were a great bunch of characters, but I honestly found myself looking more into what was going to happen to the people of Earth once the Lunar Queen Levana got hold of the earthly throne.

I got so angry with Adri and Pearl because there was simply NO justification for their treatment of Cinder. Jealousy, resentment, and plain old bitterness. Cinder was a firecracker of a character and I really enjoyed her interactions with everyone she came across -- Prince Kai, Adri, Pearl, Queen Levana, Dr. Erland, anyone. She was a spunky girl. Didn't take crap from anyone. Of course that attitude got her into more trouble than not, but I was really entertained.

What happened to Peony, the nicer stepsister who Cinder actually really loved, was an emotional experience. Especially since Cinder was SO close to being able to help her. But I think it motivated Cinder to do more than just focus on saving Peony. There were bigger problems at hand, especially after the chip inside of Kai's android was discovered and accessed.

Moving onto the nasty, but brilliantly written, Queen Levana. This witch is seriously the worst of the worst. She put Kai and the Commonwealth between a rock and a hard place and smiled while she did it. I found myself yelling at her in my head. The way that she can manipulate people into doing/seeing what she wants is a scary, scary thing.

The ball scene was an all over emotional MESS for me. I was happy, sad, angry, scared, anxious... everything! I just couldn't believe that everything Cinder experienced was really happening. It honestly read like a bad nightmare that she just needed to wake up from. I felt so bad for her. Especially with what Adri and Pearl did. And the situation/ultimatum that Kai was presented with, I felt my heartstrings tug. Although, once he found out what Cinder was, his reaction to it and his decision on how to handle it made me a little mad. I just don't know how to feel about Kai by the end of the book, to be honest. I DO feel it'll get better, though.

So, what I actually did see coming (and it still made my mouth drop) was when Dr. Erland came to Cinder and told her who and what she truly was. 

I'm happy that everything is finally out in the open, but now it begs the question -- now what?

And that's where book two comes in!

Rating: 5/5 stars!