Mundie Moms

Friday, May 27, 2011

Book Review- Between Here & Forever

Published by Simon Pulse
Released on May 24th, 2011
Source- ARC from publisher for review
3 stars- It's a good read

Abby accepted that she can’t measure up to her beautiful, magnetic sister Tess a long time ago, and knows exactly what she is: Second best. Invisible.

Until the accident.

Now Tess is in a coma, and Abby’s life is on hold. It may have been hard living with Tess, but it's nothing compared to living without her.

She's got a plan to bring Tess back though, involving the gorgeous and mysterious Eli, but then Abby learns something about Tess, something that was always there, but that she’d never seen.

Abby is about to find out that truth isn't always what you think it is, and that life holds more than she ever thought it could... (quoted from Goodreads).

I am one of those readers who has a love, dislike relationship with contemporaries. I either enjoy them or despise them and I don't know why there's no middle ground with my feelings for them. There's only a few writers who's contemporaries I will pick up without any hesitation and Elizabeth Scott is one of them. Her writing in Between Here and Forever not only flowed well and had my attention from page one, but the emotional aspect of the book between Abby, her family and Eli really brought the story to life.

Abby is a character I had a hard time with. She has this incredibly low self esteem that became annoying at times, because she constantly compares herself to her older sister Tess and she excepts others to see do the same. Abby puts her self down so much that she refuses to believe that other people see her for who she is, and not what Abby wants them to see. That's what bothered me the most with her character, because she ends up pushing some pretty amazing people away from her because of that. At the same time, this is what makes her relatable. I think there will be readers who will relate to her feelings of inadequacy, which often times happens during those really fun teen years.

At first I felt bad for Abby and I wanted to reach out to her and help her feel better, and help her realize she's nothing like her sister. I wanted to her realize there's more to her than she sees. After her college age, beautiful and "perfect" sister comes home and ends up in a coma after a tragic accident, I felt Abby just became selfish. She felt trapped and able to move on with her life now that Tess is in her coma, and in order for her to move on, she wants Tessa to wake up. This is when Elizabeth Scott's writing shines. Everything up this point is through Abby's eyes, and how she perceived everything. As the story starts to turn Elizabeth allowed me to realize that Abby's feelings are only a small part in the story, there's a lot more to Tess than even Abby realized. In learning about "the real" Tess, Abby learns a lot more about herself.

I really loved Eli, the love interest in the story. I liked the role he plays in Abby realizing that everyone has insecurities, life is unpredictable, and everyone has something that holds them back. She has Tess and Eli has his OCD, which I thought Elizabeth wrote in a fantastic way. Elizabeth Scott has a talent for weaving together realistic topics, and pulling back the emotional layers through out her story little by little leaving both her characters and readers feeling vulnerable. Between Here and Forever doesn't have a warm fuzzy ending, but a relatable, true to life hopeful one. This is a story about Abby's journey into letting go and believing in herself. Believing she can be loved, believing she is beautiful and she deserves to live her life free of being in Tess's shadow. It's also a story about love, over coming insecurities, deception, forgiveness and moving on. There is some extremely mild language and very mild sexual context, and over all this is a book I'd recommend to readers 14 yrs and older.

Armchair BEA, Day 5: Blogging About Blogging

Things are wrapping up for BEA & Armchair BEA. It's been a really fun week talking about books, getting to meet new bloggers and chatting with author Kendare Blake. Today's topic of discussion is "Blogging".

Blogging Advice: I think the most important thing to remember is to BE YOURSELF. Let your blog be a reflection of you and do not compare your blog to anyone else's. Blogging should be fun, not competitive. There's a lot of great blogs out there, and I think the ones that stand out the most are the ones who aren't afraid to be themselves. Enjoy what you do. We love talking about and promoting books, sharing Cassie's latest news, other author news, chatting with authors and hosting giveaways. What we love to do is evident on the blog.

Reviews- We're not going to fall in love with every book we read, and Sophie and I have often talked about our rating system. Should we post reviews under a 3 star rating or just keep doing what we've always done? I personally like reading blogs that have reviews posted for books they loved and books they didn't like as much. I feel the key to writing a good review regardless of whether you loved the book or not, is to be respectful. You can write a review about a book you don't like with out bashing the author. I don't enjoy writing reviews for books I didn't like, but just because I didn't enjoy doesn't mean the next reader won't love it. It's important to talk about the things you like and didn't like with the book.

Memes- I think memes offer another way for bloggers to network and get to know each other. There's two memes we take part in, IMM and WOW, and the rest are ones we created for Mundie Moms. Mundane Monday, Twitter Tuesday, Thoughtful Thursday and Freebie Friday. Memes aren't a requirement for blogging. There are a lot of creative memes out there and if it's something you want to take part in, find the ones that best fit your blogs needs.

Social Networking: When MM's first started the first person I reached out to was Cassie herself. After Cassie, I reached out to other authors, inviting them to come and chat with us about their books. I wanted to offer something unique on MM's, while at the same time allowing authors and fans to discuss their books, which is how our author chats started. In the beginning we chatted on the forum, then we used another site before we moved the chats to the blog and began using our current chat room. We've hosted over 100 author chat, and I feel through those chats we've been able to get to know authors and bloggers more.

Authors & Publishers: For me it's been extremely important for MM's to have a relationship with authors and publishers, as well as bloggers. In regards to our relationships with authors and publishers, we rarely, if ever discuss those relationships publicly, nor do we give out our contacts information. That's purely based on our personal opinion, and something we feel is personal and we're not at liberty to share.

When you are establishing a relationship with publishers, it is very important to not only include your name, and mailing address in your email, but include your blogs stats (page hits/views, what genre you're reviewing for etc) and let them know what it is you want to do. If you just posted a review, share the review. If you're wanting to possibly set up an author interview or request a book to review, let them know what dates you'd like to post your review on. Just because you request a book to review, does not mean you'll get it. Don't be discouraged. Share your review with the publishing house for books you buy and books you receive to review. Be sure to always share your review with the publicist you've established a relationship with after it's posted, even it's for a book you didn't enjoy. Publishers like to know what our thoughts are on the books we're reading.

Bloggers: We love meeting new bloggers. When the blog first started we networked by reaching out to people who shared similar interests. Twitter is a great way to meet new bloggers, as well as attending local author signings, which is where I did a lot of networking. We also connected with a lot of friends some of which are our affiliates. Goodreads, Facebook, and Amazon are other places we've met friends and fellow bloggers.

Blogging: Blogging is a hobby, and it's something that we enjoy doing. Our real job is that of being wives and moms. There's never a question for us of what comes first, but that also doesn't mean we don't make time to blog. I spend a good chunk of blogging either late at night or early in the morning before my kids are up. If it ever gets to a point where we feel burnt out, we take a break for a bit. There's no rule to how often you need to be making posts. I think it's important to remember that when you're feeling burnt out, take a break from it. The quality of your posts are more important than the quantity.

I'm sure a few of you may be snoring now that you've read through this long post. LOL I'm snoring too. Have fun with your blog. I love what I do on MM's. It's been a lot of fun talking about books, chatting with authors and getting to know many of you. THANK YOU to all of your for being apart of MM's!!

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