KML: When the story began to take shape, did you think that it would go as far as it did? Or were you planning it as a stand alone novel at first?

FB: The old cliche´ for writers to write what they know has an intense resonance for me. Over 10 years ago, when this literary adventure and excavation first began, I only knew what the lost deck of cards and the mysterious, erudite antiquities dealer had revealed to me about Wonderland and Princess Alyss Heart.  I knew she had been exiled from Wonderland and lost in our world.  I knew she had told her harrowing tale to Lewis Carroll hoping he would write a book so her bodyguard (Hatter Madigan) would find her and bring her home.  And I knew that Lewis Carroll had betrayed her and changed everything….even the name of her bodyguard!  So armed with what I KNEW of this much darker tale in a much darker Wonderland, I began writing the first book which in my mind would be THE BOOK.  But as I wrote I discovered more and more and more about Wonderland, its heros and villains and its history.  So the more I came to KNOW, the more I had to write and that’s how the ever mushrooming Looking Glass Wars and Hatter M graphic novels grew and expanded and continue to expand.  Knowledge.

KML: How much of your story telling was pulled from real history and already established literature?

FB: ‘Real history’ and ‘established literature’ provided a pattern of invaluable clues.  While much of the accepted history and established literature proved merely smokescreens for the truth they unwittingly laid out a backdrop — a sort of chronological grid — that I could use to track and verify the information provided to me by the deck of cards discovered in the British Museum.  I have told the story of how I discovered the cards and ultimately the truth of Wonderland in the museum in many interviews but for the sake of any of your readers who are unfamiliar with the history of the Looking Glass Wars I will gladly recount it again here.

At the tail end of the 20th century, I was in London and visited the British Museum where I saw an exhibit of ancient cards.  For instance, Napoleon hired artists to hand paint depictions of his many victories in battle.  But what caught my attention, at the very end of the exhibit, was an incomplete deck of cards illuminated by an unusual glow, almost as though they were alive.  I was intrigued by the exhibit and captivated by the images on the cards.  This was a very, very different version of Wonderland. For the remainder of my trip I was preoccupied with the images and told several friends, one of whom suggested I meet with an antiquities dealer he knew who specialized in collecting all sorts of ancient playing cards. When I met the dealer  I told him about the unusual exhibit, he revealed that he in fact owned the cards missing from the deck and brought out this old, worn leather box filled with cards and told me the story as he flipped one card over at a time, revealing the saga of THE LOOKING GLASS WARS.  When I returned to Los Angeles, I began putting all the pieces together and weaving the revelations of just how different the real Wonderland and its inhabitants were compared to the children’s lit version the world had known and accepted for nearly 150 years. Carroll’s choices in how he changed Alyss’s story were so fascinating (he even changed her name!) – the monsters and heroes of her lost world became these cheery reinventions.  It was such a betrayal on Carroll’s part and was in fact, the reason for the rift that eventually occurred between the writer and his muse.  For instance – the characters we know as the White Rabbit, the Red Queen, the Cheshire Cat and of course, the Mad Hatter all appear in The Looking Glass Wars as they were intended to by Alyss when she told Carroll her harrowing tale.  The White Rabbit was in fact Bibwit Harte, the six foot tall albino royal tutor for all Wonderland Queens (Carroll had anagrammed his name to create the White Rabbit), while the Red Queen was in truth Alyss’s aunt Redd, the revenge maddened usurper to the throne ably assisted by her top assassin, The Cat, a man size feline who morphs from adorable kitten to giant mutant feline when called upon to kill.  So you see, there was a lot of truth to be uncovered from its shroud of ‘real history’ and ‘established literature’.

KML: Do you plan on recruiting musicians to create soundtracks for the other titles?

FB: The soundtrack for Book 1 was truly a seminal soundtrack that opened the door and invited readers to ‘aurally travel’ to Wonderland.  I’m not sure how much more additional soundtracks would assist in this journey.  For anyone who hasn’t heard the soundtrack  I invite you to visit my website and sample some of these realm jumping tracks.

KML: Has anyone optioned the rights to create a Looking Glass Wars film? Who are some casting choices you’d consider if it was ever a possibility?

FB: The rights have not been optioned by a film studio, but I have made a deal with Chuck Roven who produced The Dark Knight.  Regarding our plans for the films, I have the option of starting with the Looking Glass Wars or with my Hatter M graphic novel series.  Hatter’s 13 year quest in our world to find the lost princess is a natural entry point because he is such a cool action hero figure.  Right now I have scripts for both the Looking Glass Wars and the Hatter film and am in discussions with some high profile directors.

I’m going to turn questions regarding casting choices over to some of LGW’s  ardent fans who have been writing in with their opinions…

Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie or Tilda Swinton as Her Imperial Viciousness Queen Redd.

Emily Mortimer, Cate Blanchett as Queen Genevieve

Mila Kunis as Homburg Molly

And then there is Alyss…though I have had suggestions for actresses I am holding this one back and not putting out any preconceptions because my plan is to do a search for an unknown to star as Alyss.

I reserve the right to my opinion for who best to play Hatter and I choose Clive Owen.  I think he would be brilliant.

KML: Why did you decide to tell Hatter M as a graphic novel? Will there be LGW graphic novels?

FB: Royal Bodyguard Hatter Madigan’s 13 year quest in our world to find the lost Princess was introduced and followed in a few chapters in book one of the Looking Glass Wars.  It was an exciting overview and arc of Hatter’s mad search and caught the Imagination of one small boy in London who told me I absolutely must do a comic book about Hatter.  Absolutely must!  Following this visionary’s advice I was able to interest artist Ben Templesmith in illustrating a limited series of comic books.  And the boy was right!  The first 4 issue mini-series proved very popular and was  nominated for an Eisner Award.  Rather than continue with single issues we moved to doing full books and have so far completed a second and third volume.   Volume 1 – Far From Wonder (illustrated by Ben Templesmith), Volume 2 – Mad With Wonder (illustrated by Sami Makkonen), and our latest …. Volume 3 – The Nature of Wonder, (Illustrated by Sami Makkonen)  The re-issue of Volume 1 in hardback and the newest Volume 3 – The Nature of Wonder in both hardback and paperback will be available October 15, 2010.  We are currently working on Volume 4 – The Zen of Wonder – and plan to debut this as a special hardback edition at the 2011 San Diego Comic Con.

I would love to do more graphic novels based on other LGW characters and stories but this will have to remain on my ‘to do list’ for awhile since the list is quite long at present.

KML: Do you plan on continuing any of the characters’ stories?

FB: I am currently researching information that has come to me with regard to Redd having an heir.  And on the reverse end of time I am in possession of the unexpurgated school records of Cadet Hatter Madigan from his boyhood days at Wonderland’s Millinery academy. With regard to Hatter’s academy adventures, I am planning to do a series of 5 (prose) books that will take readers from his first year initiations into the mystery of the Hat straight through, year by year, to his graduation to full Milliner.

KML: Are there new marketing strategies we can look forward to from this series?

FB: Yes and I would love to share them with you but they are under lock and key in a box marked ‘top secret’. However, I will brazenly say this much, once the Young Hatter series is finished I plan to introduce a new publishing paradigm.

KML: Why did you choose to make the web site so interactive?

FB: For fun!  Most of us would agree there just isn’t enough fun in this world so whenever I have an opportunity to add some I take full advantage.  In addition to my main site at lookingglasswars.com I  built the destination site cardsoldierwars.com to extend the universe of my books and create an environment  that offered ongoing interaction and community.  Rather than merely being  a promotional site, it is a society of Looking Glass Wars enthusiasts who get to share an imagined world. This online society of wonder allows readers to express themselves, interact with friends, play games and hopefully, have fun.

KML: How do you feel about the concept of e-books vs. bound books?

FB: I love my bound books on bookshelves, but I can’t bring them all on the plane, with e-readers I can, so they’re here to stay.

KML: Did you always plan for this series to fall into the Young Adult category?

FB: No.  I wrote the book I wanted to write and the publishers chose the marketing and age parameters. For example, in England my book was published as a children’s book, in Germany it was published as an adult book and in the US as Young Adult.  Since I didn’t mentally  limit the age of the readers when I was writing the books, the ‘happy accident’ is the fact they have a multi-generational appeal.  Because of this parents, aunts, uncles, teens and children can all enjoy the series and save on the family book budget.  I’ve heard this again and again at book conventions and comic cons as entire families gather around my booth  to recount the trials and tribulations of sharing the books and how kooky aunt rosemary left it on the bus or somebody is waiting for somebody else to finish it and pass it on.  I must admit to feeling a little shiver of glee at the thought that my books have brought everyone together around the family hearth to wrestle and compete for the Looking Glass Wars.

KML: Is there anything you would like to share with your fans?

FB: I invite everyone to visit my free online game cardsoldierwars.com., come be my friend on Facebook and follow myself and the Glow on Twitter.

There you have it folks! One of the nicest guys you’ll ever encounter. So go, check out his web site! Check out his books! I guarantee a library has them. Better yet, check out your local Borders book store.

KML: How are you doing today?

LK: I’m great! I am packing up to hit the road for my book tour. I’m feeling really excited.

KML: You have a very extensive tour ahead of you, five weeks I hear.

LK: Yeah. I love touring, I have in the past. Hopefully I’ll have as great of an experience this time. It’s great for me, having spent so much time alone in front of a computer. It’s great for me to get out and be able to talk to so many people. I feel like I catch up on everything that’s going on in the book world when I’m touring so I’m very excited.

KML: Fallen made its debut last year. I can personally say that as a bookseller, it served as lively competition for many of the standard YA titles that teens were being exposed to. Do you think that your novels offered a contrast or do you think it was playing into the same themes?

LK: The only time I think about that is during interviews. As with many writers, while working on a book, I’m not trying to work against or with others that are trying to tell a story. The books that Fallen stands on the shoulders of are all apart of the themes that I like. My main focus is to tell the best story I can tell.

KML: In Fallen and Torment you play with very familiar themes (Nephilim, reincarnation, etc.) which we have been seeing in film and media a lot lately. How have these themes been reflected throughout your life?

LK: Reincarnation is something I’ve always been fascinated by. I think I have had one past life experience in this life. It has to do with a castle in Scotland, and I’ve never been there. I’ve only seen photos of it. I’m hopefully going to check it out this fall while I’m in the UK. It’s only something I’ve been thinking about, what you would retain if you died and come back as something else. In the Fallen series, when working on Luce’s character (right now I’m working on Passion, which is the prequel), Luce’s soul is always the same but her character in each of the lives when she comes back is very, very different. This is because of the way she was raised, where she was brought up, who she met, who she interacted with, and how this all shaped her. When she meets past versions of herself she is alarmed at how different she can be. So that’s something that always fascinated. As for the Nephilim, that’s something I stumbled onto later. As I was doing research for Fallen, I don’t think I’d ever heard of them or knew much about them. Because my series is about an angel choosing love over heaven, obviously there would be some heaven. They play a big part in Torment and the rest of the series.

KML: Why did you choose to write for the YA genre?

LK: That wasn’t really a conscious choice. I’ve been writing short stories since I was seventeen years old. 80 percent of any story or book I try to write has about a seventeen year old girl. I’m not really sure why, it’s a voice that comes naturally to me. When I started writing Fallen, I didn’t know it would be YA. That may have to do with how the publishing market is right now, that it got slotted into a place that I really didn’t know where it would end up as I was writing it.

KML: Do you feel that Luce is living up to your idea of what kind of heroine she should be?

LK: That’s a great question. She’s beginning to. When I first started writing Fallen, I had an idea in my mind about a very different narrator. I wanted to write somebody more like Lyra Belacqua, a great fictional hero of mine. I realized as I was writing it that she couldn’t be quite as self assured as I wanted. She’s going through so much; she had to begin at a very different place than she ends up. She’s going to end up very empowered, enabled, and active. For me, she starts from a very low place. It was a bit of a struggle to write that kind of character but it’s been really rewarding that the further along I get, the more punch I can give her in the upcoming books. Surprisingly, it’s been a lot of fun.

KML: Angels have lived in our mythology throughout human history. What do you find most interesting about angels that make them worth writing?

LK: The reason I like writing about angels is because I also like writing about demons. I really like the dualistic nature of good and evil. Good and evil rely on each other so much and there’s a feeling of interplay between the two of them. One might not be able to exist without the other, what does that say about the relationship between them? We paint them as such opposites, but in the books I’m writing, they really come together and fuse into one another often. The exciting thing is determining ‘what is the nature of good and evil?’ and is it as clear cut as we think it is?

KML: There are several kinds of love that pulse through your novels, there are many levels of love that Luce experiences, as a daughter, friend, and lover. What were you hoping that the reader would understand about love after reading your novels?

LK: That’s another great question. The question I get asked a lot is how do I know if it’s true love and that’s a separate answer from the answer to this question. In this case, what is important about love that I’m trying to show about Luce and Daniel is how enduring it is. It’s really hard for a lot of readers and for me to write, coming into the middle of things. There’s so much back story between these two that the reader isn’t privy to, that Luce isn’t privy to, Daniel doesn’t display in anyway, at least in Fallen and a little bit more so in Torment. I think it’s a stick-to-itiveness that I want to show these characters have for each other because they feel something very deeply though neither of them can understand the complexities of it or the challenges of it, and they persevere. I think that’s a very important element of love, not giving up on someone. As I’ve been writing Passion, in a way it’s the most rewarding to write so far. I get to show why all of this angst and secrecy is worth it. I get to show the true nature of their love. That perseverance is applying to the reader, maybe, trying to get to the point where everything is illuminated.

KML: The marketing campaign for Fallen and Torment is in full swing. I can boast that I own a very slimming Torment T-Shirt (which I love). What can we look forward to as we wait for the third installment of your Fallen series?

LK: Definitely a lot of me on the road. I’ll be traveling to 8 cities in the US in the next 3 weeks. Then I’ll be in the UK for 2 weeks. When I get back, I’ll be doing a lot of local appearances around LA and several throughout the southwest and southeast in the winter. What’s really fun for me is all of the foreign editions of Fallen and now two of Torment that are starting to come out. With each of those there are new teasers and trailers available on my website and Youtube. As you said, the t-shirts are great. I think there’s going to be a lot more of that kind of thing to come in the future.

KML: Can you tell us more about The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove?

LK: That’s my first book. In some ways it’s similar to Fallen. It’s a southern gothic story, set in Charleston, South Carolina. It’s basically a retelling of Macbeth told from Lady Macbeth’s point of view set in a contemporary southern high school. It’s a very saucy tale. Natalie is the opposite of Luce. She’s conniving, knows what she wants, and will stop at nothing to get it. She’s really sharp and funny. It’s a great book. I’m hoping it will get more readers in the wait between Torment and Passion.

KML: Who are your main influences as an author?

LK: My oldest influences are probably F. Scott Fitzgerald (the Great Gatsby is absolute perfection to me, and I love all of his other books too), I love Dickens, Virginia Woolf, Don Delillo, and more recently I’ve been inspired by The Hunger Games. I think Suzanne Collins is incredible. I love Philip Pullman, Frances Hardinge, Maureen Johnson and John Green. I just read a really great book called The Replacements by Brenna Yovanoff. I’m so impressed by her.

KML: Is there anything you’d like to share with your readers that they may not already know?

LK: My complete excitement about Passion. Readers right now haven’t even gotten their hands on Torment but I’m a little bit further down the road and already thinking about how killer this third book is going to be. For anyone who feels that at the end of Torment they have so many more unanswered questions, I promise to deliver in Passion.

KML: Good! I can’t wait.

For all of you psycho-author fans, here’s a copy of the tour schedule. I hope to see some of you out there!

Love Never Dies

Lauren Kate is coming to your area on a 9-city tour!

San Francisco

September 28 @ 6:30 PM

Barnes & Noble

6050 El Cerrito Plaza

El Cerrito, CA 94530

San Francisco

September 29 @ 7:00 PM

Kepler’s Books

1010 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA 94025

Seattle

September 30 @ 6:30 PM

University Bookstore

15311 Main Street
Mill Creek, WA 98012

Seattle

October 1 @ 7:00 PM

Borders

16549 Northeast 74th Street
Redmond, WA

Portland

October 2 @ 2:00 PM

Powell’s Books

Cedar Hills Crossing

3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd.

Beaverton, OR 97005

Portland

October 2 @ 7:00 PM

Barnes & Noble

12000 SE 82nd Avenue

Portland, OR 97266

Los Angeles

October 3 @ 11:00 AM

OC Children’s Book Festival

Atlanta

October 4 @ 7:00 PM

Barnes & Noble

Mansell Crossings

Shopping Center

Alpharetta, GA 30022

Atlanta

October 5 @ 7:00 PM

Books- A- Million

5900 Sugarloaf Parkway
Lawrenceville, GA 30043

Memphis

October 6 @ 6:00 PM

Davis-Kidd Booksellers

387 Perkins Road Ext

Memphis, TN 38117

Memphis

October 7 @ &:00 PM

Barnes & Noble

2774 N Germantown Parkway

Memphis, TN 38133

Nashville

October 8 @ 4:00 PM

Davis-Kidd Booksellers

212 Green Hills Village Drive

Nashville, TN 37215

Nashville

October 9 @ TBA

Southern Festival of Books

New York

October 11 @ 7:00 PM

Barnes & Noble

91 Old Country Road

Carle Place, NY 11514

New York

October 12 @ 7:00 PM

Borders

1260 Old Country Road
Westbury, NY 11590

Chicago

October 13 @ 7:00 PM

Anderson’s Bookshop

123 West Jefferson Avenue

Naperville, IL 60540

Chicago

October 14 @ 7:00 PM

Borders

1540 E Golf Rd
Schaumburg, IL 60173

Lauren will also be visiting local schools throughout her tour.

For media, contact: Noreen Herits / 212-782-9677 / nherits@randomhouse.com

Or Roshan Nozari / 212-782-9677 / rnozari@randomhouse.com

A great big thanks to Lauren Kate for taking the time to talk to me and to her wonderful publicist, Noreen for setting everything up for me. Don’t forget to check out Lauren Kate’s website! Her books are available at Borders.com.

Happy Reading!

Have you ever met someone that left you stunned? You think that somewhere you’ve seen that smile before. The goose bumps crawl across your arms and neck as you try to place the hair and the eyes into any memory you’ve ever had. It’s impossible. You know you have never met, but you can’t let go of that feeling. Then, he flips you off and gives you the cold shoulder. That’s the relationship that begins between Luce and her brand new reform school crush, Daniel.

Luce has had some problems in her past, a mysterious fire that she can’t explain and shadows that flit through her peripheral vision more often than she would like. Her parents, desperate to figure out how to help their daughter, send her to a reform school where she would be strictly monitored. So began a parade of interesting characters that would make Luce’s experience at Sword & Cross anything but typical.

Fallen’s imaginative plot arc takes the classic story of enduring love to a whole new level. Luce is a character that, while not a kick ass heroine, is an honestly lonely girl that just wants to know what’s wrong with her. You can’t always start with a character that knows who she is and what she’s setting out to do, that’s part of the journey! Kate’s characters speak to a side of teenagers that we hardly see in YA lit—a realistic need to just be a teen. Throughout the somewhat mundane, there is always an eerie quality that saturates the narrative. From the creepy feeling that she’s seen Daniel before to the bone chilling sensation the reader gets when Luce talks to Cam for the first time, Fallen does not fail to deliver on atmosphere.

The follow up to Fallen, Torment, continues to impress the reader with intricate plot twists. Often the reader will feel as if there is a wealth of information just beyond the veil and any hint of dialogue will reveal everything we’ve been dying to know. The battle for true love wages on while Luce continues to feel as if everything is being turned upside down on her. The past haunts her every shadow and Daniel is just as infuriating as ever. With clever quips that made me laugh out loud and run to share with my friends, Torment kept my attention and entertained me though it ripped out my heart and broke it into a million pieces. I was, however, promised redemption in the next installment, Passion. Fans of Fallen will definitely love this heart aching sequel and will continue to ache until Passion comes to clear away our doubt and fears. Readers who have yet to get involved with Lauren Kate’s enchanting characters would do well to give it a shot. You won’t be disappointed. I was incredibly lucky to have an opportunity to talk with the lovely and charming Lauren Kate (seriously, she’s the nicest person). Come back later to check out that interview!

What are the rules? That’s easy. To enter, you must:

1. Send an e-mail to BittenByKarma@gmail.com and make sure the subject line says “Kiss My Lit wanted me to send you a chain-letter!” (just copy and paste from here)

2. CC kissmylit@gmail.com (Don’t know how? When selecting who to send an e-mail to, there is an option to add a CC or a BCC. Select CC and put my e-mail there).

3. Leave me a comment saying that you did so, that way I can check my e-mail and make sure it went through.

Told you it was easy. Now, there are also ways to increase your chances of winning. You can: share this contest on your Facebook, Twitter, or on your own blog. If you do one of these, you get your name tossed into the hat (yes, I will use a hat) a second time, and if you do all of them then you get an extra shot per promotion. You MUST, however, provide a link to prove that you have done as you have said. Facebook is a little trickier to track. Here’s what to do: like my page on Facebook, then post in your status “@Kiss My Lit is hosting a contest!” and provide the link to this page. It’s that simple, guys.

Some of you may be wondering what I get out of this. I’ll be honest, this is for a contest. The blogger that gets the most readers to send an e-mail with the blog name attached has their blog mentioned in Stacy Kramer and Valerie Thomas’ upcoming YA novel. I know we can do this. I have faith in all of my friends and my readers. You guys believed in me when I couldn’t. This was the perfect way to say thank you. If this goes well, then I’ll try to do the random interview with a reader frequently.

Reckless is the story of a boy who finds his place on the other side of an enchanted mirror. Jacob Reckless becomes entranced by the world that lay hidden in his father’s abandoned office. As a young man he makes the discovery, and then over the years he constantly disappears into that other world. He leaves reality behind with each visit, including his mother and younger brother, Will. The story officially begins with Jacob and his brother as adults. Will has been afflicted by a disease that is the stuff of fairy tales. The boys live up to their names, Jacob risks bringing his sensitive brother into a world that he is not ready for, and Will keeps risking the love of his life as they search for a cure. Jade stone spreads across Will’s skin like a plague and mythic Goyl (humanoid creatures made from stone and fiery rage) hunt him for that legendary color. The world is filled with dangers, dwarves, vixen girls, and unicorns that could rip you apart.

Cornelia Funke has a way with language. I always want to learn German so I can read her books the way she writes them. She has a beautiful landscape that expands and grows inside of her mind and she lets it develop every time she writes. Her characters are filled with life, truth, and faults. It is their inner torment that makes them beautiful and stand out in a world that is constantly changing and threatening them.

Reckless will drop on September 14th, 2010. Her books can be found, as always, at Borders.com. If you have a chance, check out her world. It has plenty to offer.

Come back this weekend for a special surprise! Happy reading, lovelies.

Karma Bites

Stacy Kramer and Valerie Thomas created a beautiful thing here, a charming fantasy that is deeply rooted in reality. Magic weaves with our real lives on a daily basis, it’s astonishing to see it told to us in this novel. Franny’s problems are shared by millions of teens and preteens across the world. It’s no secret that it sucks when your parents split. It’s hard when your parents try to move on but you’re stuck in the past. We all have friends that we just can’t reconcile, the mean girl that always stands in our way, mean English teachers, and awful cafeteria ladies. This novel uses Franny’s life to show that there is no magical solution to fix our problems. You can’t just expect everything to be okay when you’ve put absolutely no work into the balance or the solution. This novel teaches a wonderful lesson, being yourself and talking things out can work magic better than spells or potions.

One of the things I loved about this novel is that there was an obscure love interest that never took the reins and led the novel. It’s about friendship and discovering what it takes to figure out your own life. The writing was clean with sarcasm layered through the dialogue. There was good humor and clever humor that I could not resist. The characters were brilliant. I, personally, would love to have a character like Granny in my life. I recommend this novel for anyone that’s tired of overused fantasy and wants to see where real magic might be found in their lives. It’s also pretty nifty if you want to try some new recipes. If I liked banana bread, I’d have made that Be Better Banana Bread a long time ago to break my writer’s block.

Check out Stacy Kramer and Valerie Thomas on Twitter. Their new novel can be found at Borders, here. Also, check out their web site and show them some love.

Happy Reading.

P.S- I’m back.

I’m sure someone out there is thinking to themselves “Why remake Dracula? Bram Stoker is spinning in his grave.” Honestly? Who cares? It’s just a book. The classics are being remade around us left and right. Pride & Prejudice & Zombies turned out okay, so why shouldn’t this? Some people may say that this modernized text message and e-mail format is dumbing down the story for teens, but I think it’s enticing them. The classics are always going to be remade and reformatted. Why not do it in a way that’s exciting and relatable? My concern is why make this a market campaign for iPhones? Because Apple needs another promotion for their empire. Nonetheless! Be on the lookout for Bekka Black’s iDrakula coming out this October. We all need a book with a bite.

Siren by Tricia Rayburn is a novel about a girl that is terrified of everything. Vanessa jumps at shadows cast by the sun shining through the leaves, the creaky groans of an old house, and the silence that fills you when there’s nothing left to say. Her sister is the complete opposite,  proud and fearless. Justine is beautiful, vivacious, and foolish. A fight ignites between mother and daughters. Justine ran away into the stormy night, never to be seen again alive. Vanessa is shattered by the death, but is driven to discover the secrets her sister had been keeping. In a glimmering hope to face her fears and find out what Justine had been hiding, Vanessa seeks out Justine’s summer flame, Caleb. He had been there the night she died, and he had the answers. To her surprise, Caleb ran away from home, leaving his own brother perplexed and looking for answers. Together, Simon and Vanessa work to track down Caleb and find out what he knows about Justine’s death. The secrets are nothing like they expect, uncovering rapid and escalating storms that lead to mysterious deaths ending with smiles.

Rayburn’s novel was something different for me. The heroine began in a terrified state and changed, but not into a brave and fearless Valkyrie. She gained confidence throughout the novel, which is only natural when a character comes of age. The character development worked incredibly well. Vanessa pushed through mostly on her own. There were outside forces helping her along but it was still Vanessa that made decisions. I had not yet read a book about sirens in the YA genre, and this was a great introduction. I love when authors take myths and own them, which is what Rayburn did. These sirens were terrifying and beautiful, real and destructive. Some of the teen drama was predictable, but necessary to drive Vanessa’s heart. I would have liked it if certain story lines had been fulfilled and details hashed out, but the novel ended with a little question mark. I can live with the little question mark.

The novel was filled with twists and turns that kept me hooked from page to page. I didn’t really know who the villain was or who was responsible for what terrible occurrence until towards the end of the novel. I certainly didn’t anticipate the connections between Vanessa and the sirens. Fans of Twilight, Fallen,  City of Bones, and Tithe will definitely enjoy Rayburn’s Siren and should pick it up July 13th.

Check out Rayburn’s blog and show her your love. As always, her books are available here.

Happy reading!