32 Candles
Ernessa T. Carter
338 pages
Amistad an Imprint of HarperColllins Publishers

Some folks sail through adolescence with grace. They may occasionally lose altitude, but eventually, they descend and make a gentle landing. Others come crashing to earth in a tangle and have to work their way up to true flight.

The awkward limbo of adolescence some teens experience comes to mind easily for people who survived it. It’s a period in life when we are not yet fully formed, discovering who we are and who we would like to be. We also find ourselves painfully aware of our appearance as our hormones and genetics drag us through the gates of physical maturity.

Davidia Jones knows this painful awkwardness intimately. Her home life is hell. Her school life is purgatory. In short, her existence is one of vast suffering. It seems that her brief story will end before it has begun. She lives in small town Mississippi with little prospect of getting out. Her mother seems to loathe her existence. When her schoolmates acknowledge her, they torment her with a vicious nickname, Monkey Night.

The situation seems pretty hopeless for Davidia until she discovers the now classic film, Sixteen Candles. She aspires to achieve her own Molly Ringwld ending. If she is patient and coordinates her opportunities, she’ll get the love of her peers and the most popular guy in the school.

Enter James Farrell, an Atlanta transplant, heir to the Farrell Cosmetics fortune, star football player and object of Davidia’s unrequited affections. She adores and obsesses over James who fails to notice her. His sisters on the other hand are fully aware of her and contribute to her suffering.

Shortly after their arrival, a cruel prank that almost destroys Davie, motivates her to shake the dust of Mississippi from her feet. She begins a new life in Los Angeles remaking herself as sultry lounge singer Davie Jones. She has confidence, friends and a laid back lifestyle that suits her.

Everything is just fine, until she runs into James Farrell as fine and fabulous as ever. He doesn’t recognize her from high school and he’s interested in getting to know Davie. As a matter of fact, when Davie tries to leave him and the craziness of her high school experience in the past, he insists. Unable and unwilling to resist, Davie and James embark on a love affair that seems destined for a happy ending, until the sleeping dogs of the past wake up barking.

Ernessa T. Carter tells a story about betrayal, coming of age and true love with edgy humor and intelligence. Davie is a warm, smart and funny character whose unexpected insights make what could easily become tragic in her life a comedic success story. The story parallels the style of cinematic storytelling and is written in first character; Davie pulls you into her experiences in much the same way that Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and other characters do in our favorite Brat Pack era films of the 80s--“breaking the wall” and engaging us in the unfolding events.

As you read, you hope that 32 candles aren’t too many for a happy ending.

The writer received an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book for review.

View all my reviews >>

32 Candles
Ernessa T. Carter
338 pages
Amistad an Imprint of HarperColllins Publishers

Some folks sail through adolescence with grace. They may occasionally lose altitude, but eventually, they descend and make a gentle landing. Others come crashing to earth in a tangle and have to work their way up to true flight.

The awkward limbo of adolescence some teens experience comes to mind easily for people who survived it. It’s a period in life when we are not yet fully formed, discovering who we are and who we would like to be. We also find ourselves painfully aware of our appearance as our hormones and genetics drag us through the gates of physical maturity.

Davidia Jones knows this painful awkwardness intimately. Her home life is hell. Her school life is purgatory. In short, her existence is one of vast suffering. It seems that her brief story will end before it has begun. She lives in small town Mississippi with little prospect of getting out. Her mother seems to loathe her existence. When her schoolmates acknowledge her, they torment her with a vicious nickname, Monkey Night.

The situation seems pretty hopeless for Davidia until she discovers the now classic film, Sixteen Candles. She aspires to achieve her own Molly Ringwald ending. If she is patient and coordinates her opportunities, she’ll get the love of her peers and the most popular guy in the school.

Enter James Farrell, an Atlanta transplant, heir to the Farrell Cosmetics fortune, star football player and object of Davidia’s unrequited affections. She adores and obsesses over James who fails to notice her. His sisters on the other hand are fully aware of her and contribute to her suffering.

Shortly after their arrival, a cruel prank that almost destroys Davie, motivates her to shake the dust of Mississippi from her feet. She begins a new life in Los Angeles remaking herself as sultry lounge singer Davie Jones. She has confidence, friends and a laid back lifestyle that suits her.

Everything is just fine, until she runs into James Farrell as fine and fabulous as ever. He doesn’t recognize her from high school and he’s interested in getting to know Davie. As a matter of fact, when Davie tries to leave him and the craziness of her high school experience in the past, he insists. Unable and unwilling to resist, Davie and James embark on a love affair that seems destined for a happy ending, until the sleeping dogs of the past wake up barking.

Ernessa T. Carter tells a story about betrayal, coming of age and true love with edgy humor and intelligence. Davie is a warm, smart and funny character whose unexpected insights make what could easily become tragic in her life a comedic success story. The story parallels the style of cinematic storytelling and is written in first character; Davie pulls you into her experiences in much the same way that Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and other characters do in our favorite Brat Pack era films of the 80s--“breaking the wall” and engaging us in the unfolding events.

As you read, you hope that 32 candles aren’t too many for a happy ending.

The writer received an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book for review.

Visit the author's website on HarperCollins.com

View all my reviews >>

Book Review: 31 Bond Street

31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The humble origins of iconographic places often get lost beneath the layers of time and change. In the late 1800s, the streets of New York City still used cobblestone paving. The Jersey shore still had lots for sale. Shanty towns peppered the city and wooded areas still bordered the city. However the life changing opportunities and unforgiving competition for position and power which personify New York were well on their way to being fully formed. New York society teamed with economic and cultural growth as well as political power. Ellen Horan captures the burgeoning persona of New York in her novel, 31 Bond Street and offers up an enticing drama filled with murder, intrigue, greed and betrayal.

Horan’s novel retells the murder trial of Dr. Harvey Burdell, a dentist, a respected citizen of New York and a man who dabbled in local real estate. She brings the city of the era clearly and engagingly to life. Her vivid descriptions, characterizations and believable imagining of the events preceding and following the murder trial clearly illustrate her skill as a writer and the depth of her research.

The novel opens in the winter of 1857. Burdell has been viciously murdered in his home. Emma Cunningham, the widow who resides there with her two daughters and manages his home is the primary suspect. She finds herself being tried in the court of public opinion as the Coroner Edward Connery conducts a highly questionable inquest in the Burdell home; she may receive a guilty verdict before her case makes it to trial.

Recognizing her precarious position Cunningham sends a note to Henry Clinton a popular New York attorney known for taking on worthy and challenging cases. When he accepts her request, he learns that his professional rival, New York County district attorney, Abraham Oakley Hall seems to intend to use the trial to raise his public profile and further his bid for the mayoral seat of New York.

Using these dynamic historical figures and equally intriguing fictional additions, Horan weaves a solid story of murder, personal betrayal and political ambition. 31 Bond Street is not an edge of your seat page turner to be bolted down in a few sittings. It’s a meal to savor much like the one described in a scene during which Clinton and his junior partner discuss trial strategy. The meal is served in sumptuous and fully articulated courses meant to be weighed and appreciated to the last bite. This novel deserves the same.

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Book Review: Husband and Wife

Husband and Wife: A Novel by Leah Stewart

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Husband and Wife opens on a common domestic scene, but it's not tranquil. The baby sitter has arrived to attend to the two young children of Sarah Price and her husband, Nathan, as they prepare to go out for the evening. Sarah is searching for her husband's shoe and resisting the urge to go breastfeed her baby son when Nathan shatters this contained chaos. He confesses that his pending publication titled, Infidelity, holds somebasis in fact. He had an affair the previous year while attending a writers conference. Ironically, they are getting ready to attend the wedding of two of their closest friends.



When Sarah and Nathan met, they gravitated to each other. They shared a passion for the written word, him as a fiction writer and her as a poet. They explored the joys and difficulties of their art together. Then they married and had their first child, and then a second. Nathan continued to write while Sarah drifted away from her poetry into the role of mother and provider. She did not mind so much, or at least she believed that she didn't, until Nathan's tearful revelation as she hands him the missing shoe.



The pages that follow paint a lyrical exploration of the aftermath of infidelity. Stewart renders a believable and empathetic telling of Sarah's journey to reclaim her personal identity which she allowed to be subsumed by responsibility and self-doubt. She rediscovers her poetic voice and the thrill of writing by revisiting the path that she did not choose. This path is personified by Rajiv, a handsome filmmaker and college chum, who expressed deep affection for her several times, over several years. She always declined his advances and returned to Nathan. Did she make the right choice?



Stewart keeps this common story fresh with her well developed and quirky characters. Alternately sad, insightful and comical, the end result is a very real story that could be anyone's experience rather than the hyperbole that often accompanies tales about infidelity. The novel is also full of literary references made by the characters, several writers themselves. As a writer and a reader, I appreciated the additional depth provided by the references. Sometimes our words are not enough to express what we feel, and sometimes, someone else said it better first. Sarah uses the words of other writers to give depth to her own and when language fails her.



Stewart also gives a glimpse into Sarah's writing life. She inserts poems authored by Sarah into the text as she rediscovers her ability to write. Nathan's writing also makes an appearance as a short story. Stewart accomplishes this without breaking the rhythm and flow of the novel. Husband and Wife almost reads as a poem itself; it has a cadence, is told in three parts or stanzas, and loops back beautifully to the opening of the book, just before it ends.



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Christina Katz Shows Writer Mamas How to Have Kids & A Build A Career Too

Writer Mama; How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids

Christina Katz

Writer Digest Books

296 Pages

 

Before motherhood, you envisioned a prolific and financially rewarding writing career. Maybe,you even had one. Then, the baby came and the occasionally mind numbing routine of midnight feedings, baby changes, laundry, and other household chores took over the time you'd dedicated to your writing. On the other hand, this all could have happened before you thought to embark on a writing career at all.

 

When my children were about two years and almost a year old respectively, a dear friend of mine reentered my life and resuscitated my brain cells. She provided adult conversation and insisted on adult television in her presence. Blues Clues and Gullah, Gullah Island would not do as the backdrop for our conversations. She asked me the all important question: What do you want? She also helped me begin to explore how it could be done.

 

Christian Katz provides a similar act of friendship through her book Writer Mama; How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids. This compact professional reference volume serves double duty; it is a step by step guide to pursuing a writing career and a book of friendly advice to help fellow writer mamas keep their homes in order while working toward a successful career as a freelance writer.

 

Katz focuses primarily on writing mothers, who remain home with their children and pursue a freelance writing career as a personally fulfilling and entrepreneurial endeavor. She discusses time management issues, childcare and some of the best ways for freelancing mamas to find and get writing gigs.

 

The book opens with Katz offering encouragement to aspiring mom freelancers then, dives right into how to get the business of writing and selling articles and eventually a non-fiction book.  She guides her reader through the steps of freelance writing starting with mining ideas,then identifying target audiences and markets. Next, she teaches them how to execute a cover or query letter and submit the finished piece. Sidebars and exercises propel the reader through the book keeping them motivated, on track and moving toward publication. Each chapter, opens with a quote from successfully freelancing mothers; anecdotal accounts from Katz, regarding how she grew her freelancing career into the e-zine, Writers On the Rise, and other successful freelancing internet entrepreneurs like C. Hope Clark  and Maria Bailey, keep the text engaging while offering a range of perspectives and potential career paths.

 

She also offers coping strategies to help writer mamas deal with the stresses of raising children while creating a business. She advises writer mamas find another writing mom or better yet, several to share ideas, resources and accountability. When the writing needs to get done but the mind is unwilling, she suggests quick breaks that serve the dual purpose of fulfilling a necessary task and clearing the mind. For example, clearing the junk from one drawer or setting the timer for twenty minutes then clearing a counter or folding a batch of laundry, these activities provide a break and don't take a writing mama completely away from the task at hand, her next submission.

 

This brightly colored and compact book is concise and highly portable, in other words it's mom and writer friendly. It's packed with references to further reading material and online resources to help writer mamas fast track their careers or plot a steady path to freelance success. It's all up to the reader and in the end, that's the true purpose of this book, to empower writers who happen to be mamas to take control of their lives and that of their chosen careers.

 

 

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