It's been a looooooooong time since I've posted a book review on the blog. I've been reading. The GoodReads Challenge has done a decent job of keeping me motivated. I did get a little behind, but read a few novellas and short stories and that got me back on track even though I'm not sure if that should count. ;)

Today, I thought I'd highlight a book that was the start of a friendship. It's currently on sale too, so you should totes get it. Still unsure? I've included my review.

Back in my June #WriteMotivation post, I finally achieved my goal of reading both the short stories I had written, Influence of Love and Balance of Love. They are two short stories, under 7500 words. Influence was posted for free on Amazon for a while, but I took it down out of fear that it was hurting my sales of other books (I don't believe that was the case. YA is hard to get noticed in. Stand alone YAs, doubly so.) Balance never got that far and I'm glad of that because upon rereading it, I found some spots that would benefit from character development. Both are on Wattpad, but I've failed pretty badly at building an audience there so they don't get read much.

Shhh, don't tell, MB. She didn't ask me to do this but I am. >.> This is what she gets for giving me an ARC to review. =P It's been ages since I've blogged a book review too.

Given I'm a supernatural creature junkee, I enjoyed this story. Vampires, werewolves, demons, and more! But, also, it was an interesting premise. We've had humans raised by the undead, but never had that human have a job running errands for the supernatural creatures. That gave the story a unique twist and allowed the glimpses into the world Ellie lives in we might not otherwise get if she didn't have to walk a couple of hell hounds or take Selkie pelts to the dry cleaner.

Reading a memoir wasn't high on my to-do list until I started following The Bloggess. (Took me a while to find the first post I read. Partly because I kept stopping to read.) Sorry, I read to escape reality, not read about someone else's. But the blurb to her first book, Let's Pretend This Never Happened perked my interest and I figured why not give memoirs a shot. Totally good call on my part. The book was awesome.

But this isn't a review about her first book, this is a review of her second book, Furiously Happy. Although, it's less a review and more of my thoughts on the subject matter and the author.

With the release of Gabriel, I put out a call for bloggers asking to let me take over their blogs for release day. Along with it, I asked if anyone wanted to review it. A fellow Twitter buddy, Avid Reader, said yes, but when it came time to send the review copies, I found out she hadn't read previous books. Naturally, I offered to send them. Then we ran into a little hitch.

Avid Reader wasn't a fan of LGBT stories and Michael has LGBT characters and love interest. Gabriel did as well. At first, she offered to give them a shot. I was fine with that, hopeful Michael and Lake would win her over. As we talked, I started feeling bad. I didn't want her to read something that wasn't her cup of tea just for my sake. She then said Zadekiel and Jophiel sounded interesting, so I offered to let her know how the series end. Then it hit me. (I was in the shower, naturally, when the muse smacked me upside the head with the solution.)

Recently, on #indiechat hosted by Bibliocrunch over on Twitter, we were discussing holiday promotions. Kate Tilton at one point suggested that if you write for kids or teens to give some candy with your book covers. I thought that was a cool idea. It was like trick or treating with books. Then I thought parents might look at me weird if I hand out my book on Halloween (barring I get any trick-or-treaters.) Then S. Usher Evens suggested business cards with a code to get the ebook for free. Then Selena Blake said it was like an author group promo based on trick-or-treating.

THEN I HAD THE BEST IDEA EVER!

Yes, that required all caps, because, y'all, this idea is freaking amazing. (Also, I've been reading The Bloggess a lot lately and I think I may be channeling her.) Hear me out.

When I published Being Human, I knew, without a doubt, that someone would read it and be disappointed it wasn't anything like the TV show. And it happened. I chuckled at the review and got on with my writing. Then, when I published Snapshots, again, I knew there would be reviews that did not like the fact that Cyc starts the story off saying he's gay, but ends up with a girl. They would point out that he is gay. The thing is...

he's not gay.

As I said, in the beginning it's what he thinks, but at one point in the story, with a little help from Amber, he figures out he's really bisexual. I even get into why Cyc thought he was gay and not interested in girls. I don't mind telling you this because it's not really a spoiler. In fact, it's something I want known. Whenever there's interviews about Snapshots, I say it's an LGBT story that focuses on the B. Part of the inspiration was a Twitter chat about the lack of bisexual main characters.

Here's my first review for Cayce's LGBT year long reading challenge and I had to pick my writing partner's new release, Heavyweight. (I swear I'm not biased either. When I read what she posted on her blog, I knew I had to read this. It has a few things I love – although no vampires – LGTB, YA, eating disorder. I get a weird enjoyment out of reading books that have storylines about disorders. I think I like getting into their heads and learning their motivations for the harmful behavior. I also like to see them beat the disorder and earn a happily ever after.)

My review:
Ian's struggle to hide his secrets had me turning the pages quickly, scared things would fall apart and he wouldn't get a happy ending. Things did fall apart - real life isn't all rainbows and sunshine and the author did not shy from making things hard for Ian. I found the fact that Ian relapsed into his eating disorder believable. Disorders can be a life long struggle and it's important for those suffering to know it's not weak of them to relapse and have to climb back on the wagon. The fact Ian is a boy suffering from bulimia is important too seeing how you see a lot of stories about girls struggling with it, but not many boys.

I found this challenge thanks to Marie blogging about it. I've never done a year long challenge before. A year is a lotta time for me to forget about it. But I did the smart thing and followed Fighting Dreamer's blog, so now I'll get notifications about posts relating and be reminded.

The rules of this challenge are simple. You only need to read three LGTB books and review them. There will also be challenges and discussion posts to participate in. We aren't just reading LGTB, we are discussing them as well. Should be fun.

For a more detailed explanation of the challenge, head over to Fighting Dreamer's blog and read the sign up post. (Then sign up.)