Book Coop

Hello bookworms! This is Nicole here. It's been so hectic these few weeks for me with starting my university year and I finally got the time to post our monthly newsletter! 

I'm so excited to be able to post these month's book coop because I joined the The Double Trouble- Twin Reading Challenge earlier this year! So here's the list of books our team has read from our review request paired with the books we read from our personal bookshelf.

Review Request Coop                                                            Bookshelf Coop

The Thirteenth Prophet by T. Lucas Earle                          Under the Dome by Stephen King

Open Your Eyes by Jake Olson                                             Papertown by John Green

Escape the Doubt by Andrea Michelle                                 Barracuda by Christos Tsiolkas

The reviews for those request coop will be definitely come around soon so keep an eye on it if you're interested to know more! I'm not going to promise we will do any review for the personal bookshelf coop books as life are getting more hectic for both Donna and I. I am starting my freshman year in college while Donna will be pursuing her graduate degree so please do understand that our time for reviewing books will be very limited now. 

I apologise for the delay to all the authors or publishers that books we accepted for reviews. We will review every book that we had agreed to review so rest assured. For the time being, BWS is not accepting any review request therefore we will not reply to any of the request emails. However, I will send out a notification email once we are back in receiving review request. Therefore, feel free to drop in an expression of interest to request a review!

The good news is BWS will definitely accept request in the near future. Once we had settled everything and are able to review books, I will let everyone know with a Book Coop post as well as through Google+. Author interview and guest post, however, is another matter. I am very happy to say that BWS still do and will feature author interview, book spotlight, and guest post! Just approach us through email and we will be more than happy to host those things for you.

I would like to say thank you for everyone who is reading and has been reading BWS for a while, or since we started (welcome to first-timers! So glad to have another enthusiastic bookworm! Even if you are not, it doesn't matter as we love to have another reader. We will have book giveaways and blog tours coming up; to those interested, you could sign up and participate in the giveaways :) Happy reading, everyone!

Bookworm Buzz

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: ANDREA MICHELLE

Today, we have the amazing author of Escape the Doubt for an interview with us. Read on to know more about her debut novel, what's she's currently working on, how she overcomes writer's block, and some advice shared with the rest of us.

Escape the Doubt book cover

BWS: Hi Andrea, thank you for agreeing to this interview. What inspired you to write Escape the Doubt?

Andrea: Escape the Doubt is actually inspired a lot from my own past. Although the story is fictional, many of the emotions involved in the story were my own at the age. In fact, the poems in the novel were written by me when I was sixteen and seventeen years old.

BWS: Give us an insight into your main character in Escape the Doubt. How did you come up with Riley Shaw’s character? 

Andrea: Riley Shaw is a troubled seventeen year old. She struggles with relationships. She knows she wants to love and she wants to be loved. But she doesn’t believe love exist, not forever. She see’s love as being full of lies and secrets. Men cheat and break hearts. She is full of doubt about love, life and everything in between. I came up with Riley by tapping into what I felt like at that age. I then added in what I could imagine it might feel like to have been through everything she had been through. It’s not her fault she is so scared. She wants to change, wants so badly to have things different. She just doesn’t know how to let go of her past and move forward.

BWS: What are you working on at the minute?

Andrea: I am working on the sequel in this series, Embrace the Moment. It is a continuation to their story. I’m also working on a NA Romantic Suspense Novel that I began before Escape the Doubt. Stories are funny like that. One spoke louder than the other. I also have an Adult Contemporary Romance Novel in the works, Abandoned Identity. Many stories are swirling in my mind and multiple WIP’s sit on my laptop but they’re only so many hours in the day. LOL ;)

BWS: Do you ever get writer’s block? If so, how do you overcome it?

Andrea: Yes, for example with my sequel. I’m content with the ending in Escape the Doubt. There is just so much more to tell to their story. However, I don’t want to ugly up their beautiful just to create conflict. So I’m trying to stay true to the story they want me to tell. As far as overcoming it... MUSIC. It is an addiction and almost necessary for me to write to. It creates inspiration. 

BWS: Where is your favorite place to write? 

Andrea: You might find this funny, but lying in my bathtub when I’m relaxed.

A Bowl For the Soul

BLOG TOUR: ESCAPE THE DOUBT 

Good day, bookworms! Today I'll be reviewing Escape the Doubt by Andrea Michelle as part of her blog tour. I receive an ARC from Enticing Journey in exchange for an honest review. It's a young adult romance story but it is also much more than that so here we go!

Synopsis:

After the unexpected death of her Dad and the haunting manner in which he died, Riley Shaw built invisible walls around her heart. Barriers she created to protect her from splintering into broken pieces that couldn’t be repaired. She was unable to move forward from her past, letting the guilt of her parent’s mistakes dictate her own choices. 



Dean Warren was safe. Being with him was innocent and peaceful because she didn’t truly love him. His words held her captive in a false sense of security. His eyes were deceptive, and his promises of never pushing her beyond what she was willing to give were broken, leaving Riley Shaw in a state of regret and doubt. 



Joshua Parker had the power to take what was left of Riley’s splintered pieces, and ruin her completely or make her whole again. He was her best friend, her next-door neighbor - everything she wanted and settled on never having. Loving him was as easy as breathing air. The fear of losing him forever was more real to her than the feelings she couldn’t escape. 



When faced with the very thing she feared the most and in the arms she thought were safe, Riley finds herself questioning every decision she has made over the past two years. When she finally escapes the doubt in her head and accepts the truth in her heart is it too late? 



Is taking a chance with your heart worth the escape or was it better to have never loved at all? Can forgiveness really set you free? 



*Warning: This is a mature young adult novel. Recommended for readers 17+ due to underage drinking, sexual content and adult language. 



*This is book one in a series however can be read as a standalone.

This is a beautiful, heartbreaking love story about two teens struggling for their love towards each other while coping with their other life dilemmas at the same time. Everyone has gone through that particular phase where we fell in love for the first time and our times during high school. That is what exactly what I get from reading Escape the Doubt. We can relate well with the story and characters because it happened to most of us at some point in our life.

A Bowl For the Soul

IT AIN'T EASY BEING JAZZY

“Jasmine.” I stuck out my chest. “Jasmine T. Peacock.” “What’s the T stand for?”
 “Nothing. My mom just thought it sounded cool.”- Jazzy; "It Ain't Easy Being Jazzy"

As a part of 'It Ain't Easy Being Jazzy' blog tour, here's the review of this compelling hilarious story by Quanie Miller. If you like humour and funny chick-lit story, then this is the book for you. 'It Ain't Easy Being Jazzy was loosely based on Miller's experiences loving in Silicon Valley. 

Book Blurb:

Jazzy secretly wants to get back together with her ex boyfriend, Curtis, so when he calls and reveals that he's got something important to tell her, she's got no idea that he's about to propose-to her first cousin and bitter rival, Mercedes.

The annual family dinner is coming up, and fearing that she will spend the evening seething while Mercedes flaunts her four carat engagement ring in her face, Jazzy asks Reggie, an Adonis she met at the mall, to accompany her. As fate would have it, not only did Reggie and Mercedes used to date; that backstabbing, leopard print wearing cow is still carrying a torch for him! Revenge. It's never been so sweet. 

But falling for Reggie? Holy crap! That wasn't part of the plan! She's got enough on her plate as it is with a mother who spies on the neighbors and a sister and best friend with man problems that could land them on Jerry Springer. So when Curtis comes sniffing around again-this time, with an accusation that sends her blood pressure shooting through the roof-the one good nerve that Jazzy's got left has just about run its course.

Even the book blurb made me smile while reading it so I was really eager to start the book. Then, I finished it in two days! Yes, it was that funny and tear-inducing (tears of laughter mind you). This book had definitely won my heart and this book is a must for those who are feeling a little blue these days. 

The main heroine, Jasmine "Jazzy" T. Peacock, will make you laugh so hard with her mischievous nature till your stomach cramps and within her family, she's the least quirky along with her sister. Even her spying-on-the-neighbors-as-a-hobby mother is loveable with her catty attitude. The supporting characters such as Serai are also humorous which made me snort with laughter along the way.