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Crow Made a Friend Series: I Like to Read® Written and Illustrated by Margaret Peot Holiday House     9/15/2015 978-0-8234-3297-4 24 pages     Ages 4—8 “Crow was alone. He had a plan. He tried and tried and tried to make a friend. If you like to read, you will like this book.” [back …

Welcome to the TLC Book Tour of the latest in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series: An Echo in the Bone.   It's hard to describe the Outlander series. I first discovered Diana Gabaldon on the "new" and "one week only" section at the New York Public Library.   It was one of my weekend runs to the library and I found myself staying up all night reading the first in the series.  This is a series that you must read in order - the story is complex with many important characters, events and subplots.  Each installment is over 500 pages - and each chapter builds on the story.  I was lucky enough to discover the series in 2006, so I was able to read one book after another and lose myself in the adventures of Claire and Jamie.  

The books combine time travel, historical fiction,  and politics and unforgettable characters with an amazing love story.  As Gabaldon tells the story of Claire and Jamie, she takes us back to 1945 and 1743 and to Scotland, France, England and "the colonies".

What would you do if you went back in time to a place where you run the risk of being burned as a witch for by revealing what you know? 

That's what happens to Claire Randall as she finds herself transported from 1945 to 1743.   Things that she'd taken for granted  -- facts, history, basic knowledge are unknown to the inhabitants around her and are enough to mark her as a witch.  Claire acts bravely and with care -- balances her good sense with her sense of what is right.  Fortunately,  Claire meets young Jamie Fraser.  Claire wins Jamie's loyalty and protection even though he doesn't comprehend the mystery that Claire hides or the danger that she brings.



The blurb:
James Fraser is an eighteenth-century Highlander, an ex-Jacobite traitor, and a reluctant rebel in the American Revolution.  His wife, Claire Randall Fraser, is a surgeon -- from the 20th century.  What she knows of the future compels them to fight.  What she doesn't know might kill them both.

With one foot in America and one foot in Scotland, Jamie and Claire's adventure spans the Revolution, from sea battles to printshops, as their paths cross with historical figures from Benjamin Franklin to Benedict Arnold. 

Meanwhile, in the relative safety of the twentieth century, their daughter, Brianna, and her husband e

Welcome to the TLC Book Tour of Based on Availability by Alix Strauss!

Based on Availability

Welcome  to the TLC Book Tour of The Killing of Mindi Quintana by Jeffrey A. Cohen


I'm particularly excited to welcome the author here today.    Let me fill you in on the book and the author and then we'll settle in for a chat with Jeffrey A. Cohen.

The blurb:
Freddy Builder is certain he is meant for more.  More than his life in corporate America bondage.  More than selling china to bluebloods in Philadelphia's landmark department store, Chanet's.  Meant for more, meant for better, and lacking only, only an occasion to rise to.

And now that occasion is murder -- of Mindi Qunitana, an old college flame wanting simply to stay in his past.

Freddy's crime is major news from the start.  Mindi is the beautiful daughter of a renowned Philadelphia businessman whose dramatic fall a few years back captivated the city.  A televised trial for Freddy is in the offing.  Meanwhile, he is writing the book about his relationship with Mindi -- a remorseless rewrite of her life, his own, and their miserably thin involvement.

As excerpts of the book are published to acclaim, he gives articulate, sympathetic jailhouse interviews, publishes ghostwritten articles on prison issues, and coverage goes national.  A new celebrity murderer is taking the stage -- a killer with a book, a jailhouse literary sensation.

Freddy's defense attorney, Philip, watches in disgust as his client builds his fame with the bones of his victim.  As a career public defender, Philip thought he'd seen evil in all its incarnations.  He'd lost his outrage, his passion for the law, and his marriage along the way.  But as Freddy's case is a turning point for him -- the public's sympathy for the poet-murderer, the rebel, the killer as great soul -- stirs something dormant in Philip.

To stop Freddy, and to vindicate Mindi, Philip will have to violate his oath, even break the law.  But with the help of Mindi's best friend Lisa, he gives Mindi back the truth of her life and her death.  And he'll deliver a comeuppance to a killer with a book.

Review:
The Killing of Mindi Quintana drew me in from the start.  The first scenes and much of the novel is told from Freddy Builder's point of view.  We're privy to his thoughts, grievances, and fears as he plods through his workday.   He is unhappy, quick tempered, emotionally sensitive and callous at the same time.   It is clear that Mindi Quintana had represented a bright spot in his college life and he often relives the time they'd had together.

When a chance encounter brings Mindi and Freddy together, he is desperate not to lose her this time.  Freddy's perception of her interest and his own determination  keep him from seeing Mindi's disinterest. &n

To celebrate the release of John Sanford's 20th Prey novel, Storm Prey, on May 18, 2010, TLC Book Tours organized this special book tour that covers all of the earlier Prey novels starring Detective Lucas Davenport.

From May 3 until May 18, bloggers answer a few questions about each of the earlier Lucas Davenport novels for leading up to Storm Prey's release. To celebrate Storm Prey's release, the publisher is sponsoring a giveaway of the book that I'm focusing on today, Sudden Prey, & an advanced reader's copy of the soon to be released Storm Prey! Every blog participating in this tour will be giving away one of the earlier Prey novels and an ARC of the latest Storm Prey. So head over to Penguin's Days of Prey site at www.penguin.com/stormprey where you can learn more about John Sanford, Detective Lucas Davenport, read excerpt of the 19 Prey novels, and link to the participating blogs to read reviews and join book contests.

Today, at Starting Fresh, we're focusing on Sudden Prey, the 8th book in the Lucas Davenport series.


Title and series number of the book:
Sudden Prey, #8 in the Lucas Davenport series
ISBN-10: 0425157539

Year published: 1997
genre: detective mystery/thriller

About Lucas Davenport

What is Lucas doing when he first appears in the book? Set up the scene.
We hear about Lucas Davenport before he appears on the scene. In downtown Minneapolis, men are shadowing a 30-something blond woman who seems to be aimlessly window shopping during the Christmas rush. The woman's movements have the men on alert and man suddenly says that it's time to call in Lucas Davenport. Davenport arrives, dons a bulletproof vest, makes small talk as he scopes out the area.

Give us a sense of time and place.
The story opens in Minneapolis, during the holiday season, in the 1990s.

What is Lucas's occupation or professional role?
A deputy chief and political appointee.
His sideline software business makes him independently wealthy.

Lucas's personal status (single, dating, married)
In a serious relationship with Weather Karkinnen.

Lucas Davenport is a known clothes horse - did you notice any special fashion references?
"He was wearing a blue wool suit, a white shirt with a long soft collar and what looked like an Hermes necktie -- one of the ana

Welcome to the Book Blog Tour of Watermark: A Novel of the Middle Ages by Vanitha Sankaran.

The blurb:
Watermark is an atmospheric and compelling debut novel about the search for identity, the power of self-expression, and the value of the written word.

The daughter of a papermaker in 1320s France, Auda has an ability to read and write that comes from a place of need. Silenced, she finds hope and opportunity in the intricacies of her father's craft. But the powerful forces of the ruling parties in France form a nearly insurmountable obstacle.
In time when new ideas were subject to accusations of heresy, Auda dares to defy the status quo. Born albino, believed to be cursed, and rendered mute before she'd ever spoken, her very survival is a testament to the strength of her spirit. As Auda grows into womanhood, she reclaims her heritage in a quest for love and a sense of self.

Review:
Watermark: A Novel of the Middle Ages opens with the event of Auda's birth, her welcome to the world, and a glimpse of the superstition that she faces throughout her life. By the time Auda is grown, she has learned her father's craft and has learned to express herself clearly in her writing. Few of the people around her are literate, but Auda has fashioned a life for herself.

Between assisting in the papermaking, serving as a scribe, and hiding her albino features, Auda has learned to move around in her world. Despite the danger to her person, Auda is not one to trade freedom for safety or independence for marriage. Though with the spread of the Inquisition's power, Medieval Europe is fraught with danger for anyone who seems different - and Auda knows that she can never blend in.

When Auda obtains the job of scribe in the castle, she flourishes. Her skills and writing bring her the respect and appreciation of powerful women. But her writing and beliefs also bring danger and loss.

Watermark is a carefully crafted and fascinating work of historical fiction. It's a story of love, fear and superstition, and of the struggle to keep one's identity.

ISBN-10: 0061849278 - Paperback $14.99
Publisher: Avon A (April 13, 2010), 368 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher and TLC Book Tours.


About the Author:
Vanitha Sankaran holds an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University. In addition, her short stories have been published in numerous journals, such as Mindprints, Futures, Prose Ax, and The Midnight Mind. She is at work on her second novel, which is about printmaking in Italy during the High Renaissance. Read more on Vanitha Sankaran's website.

To check out other participating sites, head over to

Welcome to the TLC Book Blog Tour of The Forgotten Legion by Ben Kane! We're fortunate to have Ben here with us today to share his experience writing his first novel, The Forgotten Legion and what it was like getting his book to market.

I asked Ben if he could write about his experience writing the book, finding an agent, and getting the book to market? What would he tell aspiring writers?

Starting on the path to write The Forgotten Legion, my first published novel, was a little unusual.

From as early as I can remember, I wanted to be a veterinarian. I duly became one, but after more than a decade in the workplace, I was totally disillusioned. Incredibly long hours, the difficulty of finding a practice where I wanted to stay long-term and the nightmare of being ‘on call’ had finally revealed that this was not the life for me.

But what else could I do? The highly trained field of veterinary medicine is such a narrow one that there are precious few options when it comes to changing career. Naive and full of enthusiasm, I rashly decided that I would become a bestselling historical fiction author. I sat down the same night and began writing about a Roman centurion in second century A.D. Britain. I spent two years on that book, spending approximately 10-20 hours a week writing or researching, as well as working full-time as a veterinarian. I spent large amounts of money on textbooks, and many weekends visiting Hadrian's Wall, becoming in the process somewhat of a Roman geek. I went on a residential writing course run by the Arvon Foundation, a charitable organisation in the UK. In short, writing became an obsession. Along with a rather wide stubborn streak, I believe this single-mindedness is one of the reasons for my breakthrough into mainstream publishing.

Needless to say, that first novel is still on the hard drive of my computer. After about two years, thinking it was ready, I sent the first three chapters to a number of agents. From each I received standard refusal letters, all of which include the immortal line: ‘This book is not for us’. I think it means ‘We don't think this book is good enough.’ It was then that luck, or fate, entered my life and I received a personal introduction to an agent. He read my three chapters, gave positive feedback and asked for a meeting. This in itself was a major step in the right direction.

The good news was that a week later, I had been signed up by my agent. To my delight, he reckoned that my writing wasn't too far off the mark to win a publishing deal. The bad news was that I had to write a totally new novel, something with broader scope and much greater public appeal. Some time, and a great deal of idea bashing later, the plot for The Forgotten Legion had emerged into the light. Over the next 18 months, I repeated the process that I had undergone for my first novel, except this time I spent 20-40 hours a week on my computer, all the while working full-time.

When it was done, I paid a freelance professional editor recommended by my agent to go over m

Welcome to the Book Blog Tour of Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence - and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process by Irene M. Pepperberg

I'm excited to welcome you to the Book Blog Tour of The Longest Trip Home by John Grogan. Grogan's novel, Marley & Me, about his dog Marley and the early years of his marriage was an international bestseller. In The Longest Trip Home, Grogan shares the events and adventures from his childhood to the present.

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By: gaby317, on 11/15/2009
Blog: Starting Fresh (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  TLC Book Tours, After the Moment by Garret Freymann-Weyr, young adult fiction, Add a tag

Welcome to the Book Blog Tour of After the Moment by Garret Freymann-Weyr! Trish was very enthusiastic about After the Moment and just having finished it now, I thoroughly understand why.

He felt her skin against his, and for a moment he couldn't breathe. He needed to say Hello or How are you? He would need to shake the hand of her date, and introduce her to Kathleen. He had to find out if she was well and happy. If she had recovered from what happened, both to them and to her. And he had to do it without ever knowing how desperately he needed the answer. But she seemed to know everything already, as her eyes remained on his. It made sense that she would know more than he did, for the detail that made his and Maia Morland's love story different was that Leigh was forever a few pages behind in the plot.

-After the Moment by Garret Freymann-Weyr

The blurb:
Maia Morland is pretty, only not pretty-pretty. She's smart. She's brave. She's also a self-proclaimed train wreck.

Leigh Hunter is smart, popular, and extremely polite. He's also completely and forever in love with Maia Moreland.

Their young love starts off like a romance novel - full of hope, strength, and passion. But love is not a romance novel and theirs will never become a true romance. For when Maia needs him the most, Leigh betrays both her trust and her love.

Told with compassion and true understanding, After the Moment is about what happens when a young man discovers that sometimes love fails us, and that quite often, we fail love.

Review:
The book opens at a dinner party in New York City, when Leigh sees Maia Moreland for the first time since high school. We're immediately aware of her impact on him and that he's never gotten over some event in their past where he did something dreadful. We don't know their history, only that there was something beautiful and fragile that was destroyed somehow and that Leigh has carried this with him for years.

After reading the opening pages of their chance encounter at the NY dinner party, I was pushed so off-center that I put the book down for weeks. I didn't want to read about the violence or how Leigh hurt Maia so badly and was still so affected by their past. I won't go into details - you deserve to read the book without any spoilers - and to enjoy it as the story slowly unfolds.

Here is just a quick peek into the plot and characters:
After the brief scene where Leigh and Maia meet in the present, the main story opens in flashbacks to Leigh's last years in high school. Towards the end of his junior year, seventeen-year-old Leigh has everything going for him - excellent grades, a spot on the soccer team, and Astra, his dropdead beautiful, popular and smart girlfriend that most everyone else wants to date. He's not unappreciative of his life even though "the good fortune that Leigh knew as his wasn't something that he could feel or point to...It was more like oxygen or blood; it was that intrinsic." Leigh knows that he doesn't yet know what future he wants but he's steady and dependable and he does his level best, knowing it's "a matter of continuing to do the right things: study and apply to colleges, as well as keep old friends and make new ones." Though Leigh isn't driven by clear plans for his future, he will do almost anything for his younger step sister Millie. So when

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By: gaby317, on 10/19/2009
Blog: Starting Fresh (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  TLC Book Tours, The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter, Add a tag

"When the hole started opening two years ago, Lisa and I congratulated ourselves because at least we weren't in one of those La Brea Tar Pit adjustable-rate home loans. We had a normal thirty-year, with a normal fixed rate, and even though we'd unwisely cashed in equity for a couple of costly remodels, we were still okay. We had some normal debt; normal credit cards, normal furniture layaways, normal car payments, some uncovered medical bills, Teddy's normal braces and Franklin's normal speech therapy (Oh, for God's sake, say your 'R's'). But then my perfectly normal dream of starting my own business, the afore-derided poetfolio.com, turned out to take longer and be more costly than we thought, and we found ourselves taking another line of credit on the house, going deeper in debt. Then came Lisa's abnormal online shopping binge, and our credit cards rolled over on us a couple of times and the car payments lapsed and the ground began slipping away and the only thing that seemed rock steady was the house, so we took another chunk out of it, just to catch up, we said, to temporarily cover living expenses, and we refinanced at the peak value; like a snake eating its tail we borrowed against our house to pay the house payment of a house leveraged at forty percent more than the house was worth. When the dip came I scrambled back to the newspaper, but with the hole growing deeper and the monthly interest charges eating us alive, we fell further behind, missed a few house payments and our helpful mortgage lender offered us an "agreement of forebearance," six months away (with interest!) to get on top of our payments, and we jumped at that lifeline, but then I lost my job and maybe we were distracted by that and by my father's collapse (we dragged him into the hole with us) because while we fretted and waffled and stalled, the stock market went out for milk, got stoned and lost forty percent of its value, depleting my 401(k), which, due to my stubborn love for financial and media stocks, had already begun to look more like a 4(k). ...This is how a person wakes up one morning to find that he's six days from losing his house."
-The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter



Synopsis:
Successful throughout his life, Matt Prior finds himself in the unexpected position of being unemployed, deeply in debt and weeks away from losing his home. Things have been difficult at home and he can't bare to tell his wife the true state of their finances. Matt continues with the everyday life - caring for the children, applying for jobs, negotiating with their mortgage lender, and the usual household chores. When one late night, Matt discovers a possible solution - wacky and dangerous though it may be - to solve their financial hell, he decides to give it a go.

Review: In Jess Walter's The Financial Lives of the Poets, Matt Prior goes on a hilarious and absurd adventure triggered by today's financial crisis. Matt has his own crooked logic that will leave you chuckling, whether he's plotting ways to sabotage his wife's flirtation with her high school boyfriend or eke revenge against M_ who laid him or finding ways to reassure his father during his slow descent to senility. A fun and crazy ride - highly recommended!

Publisher: Harper (September 22, 2009), 304 pages.
Review copy courtesy of TLC Book Tours.


About the Author, courtesy of his website:
Jess Walter is the author of five novels and one nonfiction book. His work has been translated into more than 20 languages and his essays, short fiction, criticism and journalism have been widely published, in Details, Playboy, Newsweek, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe among many others. Learn more on Jess Walter's website at http://www.jesswalter.com/index.htm


Participating Blogs:

Monday, October 12th: Lit and Life
Wednesday, October 14th: One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books
Thursday, October 15th: Jo-Jo Loves to Read!
Monday, October 19th: Starting Fresh
Tuesday, October 20th: I’m Booking It
Wednesday, October 21st: Beth’s Book Review Blog
Friday, October 23rd: Take Me Away
Monday, October 26th: Raging Bibliomania
Tuesday, October 27th: Booksie’s Blog
Wednesday, October 28th: Book Nook Club
Thursday, October 29th: Books and Movies
Friday, October 30th: The Novel Bookworm


Book Tour Events in your area:

October 21-25 -- SAN FRANCISCO Tomales Bay Writers Conference

October 26 -- CORTE MADERA, CA Book Passage, 7 p.m.

OCTOBER 27 -- BELLINGHAM, WA Village Books, 7 p.m.

October 28 -- SEATTLE, WA Elliott Bay Books, 7 p.m.

October 29 -- SEATTLE, WA Seattle Mystery Bookshop (noon)

October 29 -- PORTLAND, OR Powells Books, 7 p.m.

November 4 -- SPOKANE, WA. Tinman Gallery 7 p.m.

November 5 -- MISSOULA, MONT. Fact and Fiction, 7 p.m.

November 16 -- BELLINGHAM, Western Washington University

November 18 -- LEAVENWORTH, WA, A Book for All Seasons

November 19 -- EVERGREEN STATE COLLEGE, OLYMPIA, WA 3 p.m. & Swing Winery 7 p.m.

November 20 -- OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

November 21 -- HOOD RIVER, Bookstop

December 2 -- EWU MFA -- The Zero with Sam Ligon

December 3 -- MOSCOW, IDAHO -- University Bookstore

December 5 -- AUNTIES BOOKS, Spokane Reading with Sherman Alexie

December 10 -- THIRD PLACE BOOKS, Bothell

January 22 -- BOOKMANIA, Florida

February 4 -- WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

February 13 -- CANNON BEACH READING SERIES

March 25 -- APPALACHIAN STATE UNIVERSITY

April 17 -- SPOKANE, GET LIT

April 23 -- WHITWORTH COLLEGE, 7 p.m.

July 12-18 -- CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY

Thanks so much to Jess Walter, Trish and TLC Book Tours for this opportunity!

1 Comments on Blog Tour of The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter, last added: 10/19/2009

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Trish said, on 10/19/2009 1:12:00 PM

Normally I wouldn't pick up a book like this, but I just finished Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell and really enjoyed it! For some reason this book is reminding me of Beat the Reaper, so I think I'll give this book a shot.

Thanks for being on this tour, Gaby!

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By: gaby317, on 10/11/2009
Blog: Starting Fresh (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  In A Perfect World by Laura Kasischke, TLC Book Tours, Add a tag

Welcome! We're kicking off the TLC Book Tour of In A Perfect World by Laura Kasischke here at Starting Fresh.


Synopsis:
Set sometime in the near future but in a world ravaged by an epidemic of the deadly Phoenix flu, In A Perfect World is a close look at the demands and sacrifices of love.

Thirty-two-year-old Jiselle is ready to be swept off her feet by the dashing Captain Mark Dorn and shrugs off her mother's warnings. It didn't matter to Jiselle that she'd only known Mark for a few months and that she would be inheriting a ready-built family. Captain Dorn is universally regarded as a catch and the other flight attendants are jealous. After handling the tantrums of drunken passengers during transatlantic flights, the prospect of spending time with three children in a quiet New York town strikes Jiselle as a peaceful and positive change . So, Jiselle succumbs to the romance and trades in her flight attendant's wings for motherhood and married life. Then the Phoenix flu spreads into Jiselle's world, and alters it forever.

Review:
Kasischke takes complex and believable characters and drops them into an apocalyptic future. The effect is a suspense novel that holds all the emotional layers of a rich family drama.

I expected to be frustrated by Jiselle's naivete, but she proved to be such a sympathetic character. I was charmed by her kindness and thoroughly enjoyed Kasischke's approach to storytelling. In A Perfect World is an absorbing and satisfying read - I strongly recommend it!

Publisher: Harper Perennial (October 6, 2009), 336 pages.
Review copy provided by TLC Book Tours and the publisher.



About the Author, courtesy of the publisher:
Laura Kasischke teaches in the University of Michigan MFA program and the Residential College. She has published seven collections of poetry and seven novels. She lives with her family in Chelsea, Michigan.

If you'd like to meet Laura Kasischke or learn more about the book, check out Laura Kasischke's Book Tour Stops:

Participating Bookstores

Oct. 8 - Ann Arbor, MI at Nicola's Books

Oct. 14 - Birmingham, MI at Borders

Oct. 15 - Novi, MI at Borders

Oct. 21 - Milwaukee, WI at Next Chapter Bookshop

Oct. 22 - Minneapolis, MN at Magers & Quinn

Oct. 27 - St. Joseph, MI at Forever Books

Oct. 29 - Chicago, IL at Book Cellar

Nov. 3 - Ann Arbor, MI at Borders

Participating Blogs:
October 12th – Starting Fresh
October 14th – BookNAround
October 15th – Book Club Classics!
October 19th – A Reader’s Respite
October 23rd – The Book Nest
October 26th – Galleysmith
October 29th – A High and Hidden Place
November 2nd – Word Lily
November 3rd – Books on the Brain
November 5th – Write Meg

Thanks so much to Laura Kasischke, Trish and TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to participate in this book blog tour!

0 Comments on Book Blog Tour of In A Perfect World by Laura Kasischke as of 10/12/2009 10:49:00 PM

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By: gaby317, on 10/6/2009
Blog: Starting Fresh (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  TLC Book Tours, The Return by Victoria Hislop, Add a tag

I'm excited to be part of the TLC Book Blog Tour of The Return by Victoria Hislop.



Synopsis:
Sonia visits Granada to celebrate a friend's birthday with a dance class. Unfamiliar with the city's past and the brutality under Franco's regime, a chance encounter at a neighborhood cafe introduces Sonia to the brave and complex story of the Rodriguez family's suffering and survival through the Spanish civil war.

Seventy years earlier, Concha and Pablo owned and managed the same cafe with no notion of the danger and pain that would soon visit their family. Their eldest son, Antonio, is an idealistic young teacher. Their second child, Ignacio, is a star matador. Their only daughter, Mercedes only loves to dance and would spend her days honing her skills with their third child, Emilio, a gifted musician. But when Ignacio is seduced by General Franco's policies, the civil war tears the family apart.

Book Review:
Beautifully written, The Return transports you to the Spain during the complex and extraordinary time of the Spanish civil war. You will be drawn in as Concha and Pablo try to keep the Rodriguez family together and safe. The children battle their fates. Bullfights, Spanish dancers, Federico Garcia Llorca, warring brothers, loving parents, and star-crossed lovers, the story offers beauty, drama and violence. The stories of love and sorrow will linger with you for a long time.

Publisher: : Harper Paperbacks (October 6, 2009), 416 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher and TLC Book Tours.
Thanks so much to TLC Book Tours, the publisher and Victoria Hislop for this opportunity!




About the Author, courtesy of author's website:

Victoria Hislop read English at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, and writes travel features for The Sunday Telegraph, The Mail on Sunday, House & Garden and Woman & Home. Her first novel The Island was published by Headline Review and held the number 1 slot in the paperback charts for eight consecutive weeks, selling over a million copies in the UK. The book has also been published in over twenty languages and has also been a number 1 bestseller in Greece. Victoria was the Newcomer of the Year at the Galaxy British Book Awards 2007 and won the Richard & Judy Summer Read competition. She lives in Kent, with her husband and their two children.

Interested in discussing the book further? Visit Victoria Hislop's website for a reading group guide for The Return at http://www.readingcircle.co.uk/return-guide.html

Intrigued by the book? Visit the other host blogs listed below.

Participating Sites:

Monday, October 5th – Life and Times of a “New” New Yorker
Tuesday, October 6th – Starting Fresh
Thursday, October 8th – As Usual, I Need More Bookshelves
Tuesday, October 13th – Bending Bookshelf
Wednesday, October 14th – All About {n}
Thursday, October 15th – The Tome Traveller
Monday, October 19th – The Scholastic Scribe
Tuesday, October 20th – Dreadlock Girl Reads
Wednesday, October 21st – Write Meg
Thursday, October 22nd – Literate Housewife
Monday, October 26th – Diary of an Eccentric
Tuesday, October 27th – Drey’s Library
Wednesday, October 28th – Book Chatter and Other Stuff

3 Comments on Book Blog Tour of The Return by Victoria Hislop, last added: 10/7/2009

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trish said, on 10/6/2009 10:58:00 AM

Bullfights and star-crossed lovers? Sounds like a fun book!

Thanks for being on this tour, Gaby!

Cym Lowell said, on 10/6/2009 11:13:00 PM

Thanks Gaby :)

-CYM

Amanda said, on 10/7/2009 11:58:00 AM

Great review! I really loved this one. It took me a while to get used to the story telling...not a whole lot of first person used. But in the end, what a beautiful and sad tale of the family.

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By: Aerin, on 6/9/2009
Blog: In Search of Giants (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Authors With Heart, TLC Book Tours, New Authors, book review, 5 stars, ARC, pages read, 100+, Add a tag

Starfinder: Book One of the Skylords
by John Marco

May 5th 2009 by DAW Hardcover
Hardcover, 326 pages
0756405513 (isbn13: 9780756405519)

rating: 5 of 5 stars

Moth was flying his kite near the aerodrome when he heard the dragonfly crash.

Young Moth had grown up in Calio, the mountain city, dreaming of becoming a Skynight, one of the elite pilots who flew the fragile, beautiful, newfangled flying machines called dragonflies. To the north of Calio stretched the Reach, looking like a sea of fog that never ended. Flat and peaceful, the mists of the Reach flowed all the way to the horizon, and Calio loomed over this vast forbidding expanse like a sentinel standing guard.

There were numerous tall tales about the lands beyond the Reach, and Moth heard the wildest of them from Leroux. Leroux, had once been one of the legendary Eldrin Knights, had taken guardianship of the ten-year-old when Moth's mother died. At first, Moth had been expecially fascinated by Leroux's stories of the Skylords, but at the grown-up age of thirteen, Moth was becoming increasingly skeptical about the existence of these mysterious, powerful and frightening beings from beyond the Reach.

When Leroux died, Moth was faced with an impossible task: to protect Lady Esme, Leroux's pet kestrel. And protecting Lady Esme meant venturing into the forbidden Reach with his best friend Fiona, to find dragons, battle Skylords, and discover the secret hidden within the kestrel herself.

It would be easy for me to ambiguously rave about Starfinder. As I said before, I loved it. But I know that others found it lacking, so I thought I would specify what I loved, so that you can judge whether you might use the same criteria as I.

1. It's intelligent.
The tone of the book doesn't condescend to readers. The narrative might be a little slow for someone only interested in action, but the metaphors and literary elements are delightful for those who choose to identify them. The language is lyrical but not flowery, with lots of good SAT words sprinkled throughout, in only appropriate places.

2. It's original....but familiar.

The Hindenberg meets Fantasyland? Heck, yeah. I never expected, plot-wise, what would happen next. The characters were complex enough to keep me guessing. And the Reach itself is a magical land created wholly by Marco, rather than lifted from the idea of some other one.

While the plot and characters are original, Starfinder, for me, had the feel of so many of my favorite worlds and authors and characters: Narnia, Neverland, Naussica of the Valley of the Wind, Anne McCaffrey, Lewis Carroll, Howl's Moving Castle, Xena - to name a few. In other words, this story felt very comfortable, both exciting and familiar, and that added to its charm.

3. It's got heart.
Marco is careful not to reduce any of the conflicts in Starfinder to dualisms. There are many shades of grey, and the reader is given a chance to think about what his or her own response might be even as Moth or Fiona make theirs. There's a great deal of affection - parental love, friendship - without romance playing much of a role in this book (other than, for example, a husband-wife who are obviously fond of each other.) Whatever the emotions, Marco elicits them organically, without resorting to cliches for loss or joy or anger or exhilaration.

Starfinder would make a great present for boys around ages 12 to 14 who like to read, or for reluctant boy readers ages 12 to 18. I wouldn't buy this for a girl unless I knew she was open to the strong female characters and didn't expect mushy romance. But everyone - everyone - should at least check it out from the library.

Starfinder book tour sponsored by TLC Book Tours.

9 Comments on STARFINDER by John Marco, last added: 6/13/2009

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Kat said, on 6/10/2009 3:12:00 AM

I like what you say about this book being comfortable and familiar- I like fantasy worlds like that, they feel like home, but they still keep it exciting!

Llehn said, on 6/10/2009 7:51:00 AM

This book sounds AWESOME AWESOME. I love books with heart and books that make you think. I have been eyeing this one for a while now actually.

Shooting Stars Mag said, on 6/10/2009 8:30:00 AM

Nice review. I just got the second half up for my review the other day and I do agree about everything you said. It's definitely intelligent with a lot of fantasy and the world he created was just fantastic. I was always interested to see what happens next, and I liked that it seemed true to life...not everyone ended up with a happily-ever-after but it's still hopeful.

-Lauren

Kate said, on 6/10/2009 1:52:00 PM

Lovely review. This sounds really interesting. i am oddly in love with the cover. I think that I would really enjoy this book.

Belle said, on 6/10/2009 2:35:00 PM

I have been on the fence about this - I think it was the whole flying thing (but then again, I loved the Pern books). But now that I've read your review, I'm slipping off that fence a bit. I think I'll add this to my list.

Steph Su said, on 6/10/2009 7:45:00 PM

Ever since that comment you left on my Starfinder review, I've been waiting to read yours, and I enjoyed it! I also like how you mentioned Nausicaa, because that's exactly what I thought too. And I even went so far as to rewatch Nausicaa the other day because of this book...!

Kate said, on 6/11/2009 10:32:00 AM

P.S.
You have some awards:
http://anotherbookblogwhore.blogspot.com/2009/05/blog-awards-yay.html

trish said, on 6/12/2009 11:50:00 AM

Great review, Aerin! I really liked how you were really specific why you liked it, particularly since others have had issues with the book (and fairly so!).

beth said, on 6/13/2009 10:09:00 AM

I've had this one on my radar for awhile. It seems unique!

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