SALLY'S LAMENT by Mari Mancusi

Sally's Lament by Mari Mancusi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my favourite movies. Sally is one of my favourite characters. Sally and Jack are one of my favourite couples. So of course I wanted to read this lovely book.

Remember when Jack discovered Christmas Town? Well, imagine it was Sally and Zero who actually discover the tree and find themselves in the snowy wonderland. Except, Sally discovers there's something really dark going on...

I loved this! I was captivated from the very beginning because the opening scene is directly from the movie, but seen through Sally's POV. After that, this becomes a whole different story, an amazing adventure that both Sally and Jack share together. And because of that, the way their connection grows is more organic, and romantic.

I found this reimagining of Christmas Town intriguing, and loved the new cast of characters that are introduced. Plus the scenery, because this adventure expands the winter wonderland to include some dangerous places. Not to mention that Sally having her own agency makes her mission to help those who need it most even more exciting.

Yeah, I LOVED this charming story. 😍


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CASTLE OF THE CURSED by Romina Garber

Castle of the Cursed by Romina Garber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have to admit that the first thing I noticed about this book was the awesome cover. It certainly captures the creepy gothic vibes I enjoy so much.

After Estela loses her parents under mysterious circumstances, she feels like her life is over. She's totally alone and desperately wants answers. But when she finds out she has an aunt living in Spain, she suddenly finds herself inside a castle called la Sombra. A place full of secrets and shadows...

Wow. What a wonderful and strange story this turned out to be. It's about a teenager who is struggling with the grief of losing her parents and has trouble moving on. And if that's not enough, she has to move halfway across the world to discover her heritage, while uncovering a bunch of shocking secrets about her past. And learning Spanish from scratch. As well as realising that there are many things hiding in the darkness.

I really like how Estela changes as the new experiences she's forced to face shift as quickly as her surroundings. How she discovers that she didn't know anything about her parents, and that the world is full of unfathomable mystery. Her voice is strong and interesting, and I love the writing style because it really dragged me in.

There's an air of darkness that shadows the story from start to finish and the depth of weird that throws the story into unexpected territories was enough to keep me glued to the pages.

Oh, and did I mention that there's also a love story buried within all of the danger and uncertainty? Plus a twist that I quite enjoyed.

Great book!

 

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It's Release Day!

Happy Halloween!

Today is the day...

My first self-published book is now available! And you can grab a copy from Amazon right now.

To say I'm excited doesn't even begin to capture the way I feel about this book being out in the world again.

This particular story has gone through a lot, and I'm not even joking when I say that. The first version (which is only the first part of the book) got caught up in some pretty nasty business earlier this year, but I refused to focus on all that crap and instead forged ahead to put together a novel in two parts, that tells the story some of you might already be familiar with. As well as the continuation in the Roscoe family curse.

I want to thank my husband, Eugene, because this was his idea in the first place, Erin Al-Mehairi for doing the final copy edit, and Adrian Medina from Fabled Beast Design for not only the perfect cover, but also for the book's awesome interior.

This has been a wild ride and I hope you'll revisit, or take a look around Brittle for the first time. I'm not sure if you'll Suffer or Surrender, but I hope you enjoy it.

THE DARKNESS IN THE WOODS BECKONS HER...

A bleak tale about a cursed family and the mother trying to keep them together. The Exorcist meets Hereditary in this small-town horror story that will force you to embrace the darkness.

SUFFER

Kae Roscoe’s daughter vanished sixteen months ago and all she wanted during her absence was for Molly to return. But when her daughter comes back, she isn’t the same.

Molly hardly speaks and refuses to eat. The only emotion she displays is violence.

As much as Kae hates to admit it, there’s definitely something wrong with Molly, and her reappearance sets off a dark turn of events that threatens to tear the town apart.

SURRENDER

Summer Urbina has finally graduated from college and is excited about spending time with her mother. But as soon as she gets home, everything feels odd.

When her best friend sends an ominous text, Summer decides to trek across the country to make sure he’s okay.

She might not understand why, but the town of Brittle seems very familiar. The darkness calling her from the woods threatens to consume her entirely, and she’s not strong enough to resist.

ADD TO GOODREADS

Thank you for reading!

Thinking Time...

Hi, how are you today? I hope this week treated you well. I've been doing a bunch of different things.

A lot of thinking. And sorting. Some spring cleaning. Plenty of reading.

For most of this year, I've been so consumed with my own writing/planning and other stuff that reading has taken a bit of a backseat. If you check below, you can see what I read the last few days. One novel. One short story. One novella. All awesome and very entertaining.

Asides from enjoying some cool stories, I also continued what I started last week: revisiting novels that I thought were already done. Until I decided they weren't. LOL. 

Well, the longer novel was finished (again) last week, but not the shorter one. That story required a lot more thinking. So much that I decided to chat to my husband about it. He's very good at listening and offering great insight when I feel a bit lost or stuck, plus talking to him always helps me figure things out. And this time was no different. While discussing the issues I had with this story during one of our river walks, something very obvious clicked into place.

The reason why I couldn't stop thinking about this particular novel turned out to be very simple. In its current state, it doesn't work. And I quickly realised that attempting to fix all of the issues I have would require a complete rewrite. Something I just don't have the enthusiasm for right now.

There's only one thing left to do. I'm going to shelve it. I don't know if it'll be forever, but this version is back to sitting on my hard drive as a WIP. I might return to it in the future, but I might not. If I do, a complete rewrite is the only way to salvage the best parts. If I don't, it was a learning experience.

Either way is fine with me. Some stories work and some don't. But it feels good to have made a decision so I can move on to other projects. 🙂

And that means that I can now daydream and brainstorm my next WIP. This is a vampy story that's been renting space inside my brain for months. I love these characters and the snippets inside my head. I'm looking forward to joining their adventure soon.

Well, that's it for now. We've got a three-day weekend, so I'm very excited.

Have an awesome day!!

REALITY BUT MORE FUN by Madeleine Swann

Reality But More Fun by Madeleine Swann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Let me start by saying that the cover is absolutely fabulous. And the story intrigued me so much, I got stuck into it last night and didn't want to stop.

Jade and Louise are sisters staying in the surreal Belle Epoque theme park with their mother. They're not supposed to stay there long, but can't remember how long they've been there, and stranger things than usual start to happen...

Peculiar. Bizarre. Awesome.

I found this story to be utterly delightful in its quirky weirdness. It's quite the trippy ride and the imagery is bright and beautiful with a very dark veneer. I love stories where everything seems perfect and lovely, almost to the point of being a sugary utopian experience... but the ugly truth slowly pushes its way through.

First, it's a simple glimpse at the utter confusion about what's really going on, but it doesn't take long for the eerie truth to become clear.

The sisters were quite charming. Louise is married and trying to do the right thing by her mother. While Jade longs for adventure and finds herself in the clutches of an unsavoury individual with questionable intentions. I also really liked Samir and Gillian because they're quite the problem-solving duo.

I had a LOT of fun reading this charming slice of strange, and loved the descriptive writing style.

 

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