LIES WE TELL OURSELVES

The Book

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
Genre: YA | american literary fiction

About Lies We Tell Ourselves:

It’s 1959. The battle for civil rights is raging. And it’s Sarah’s first day of school as one of the first black students at previously all-white Jefferson High. No one wants Sarah there. Not the Governor. Not the teachers. And certainly not the students – especially Linda, daughter of the town’s most ardent segregationist. Sarah and Linda are supposed to despise each other. But the more time they spend together, the less their differences matter. And both girls start to feel something they’ve never felt before. Something they’re determined to ignore.

Source: Info in the About Lies We Tell Ourselves was from the press kit from the publicity team.

Buy Link(s):


The Buzz

Because it’s one thing to stand up to an unjust world – but another to be terrified of what’s in your own heart 'This is so thought-provoking it almost hurts to read it, yet every word is needed, is necessary and consequently this is a novel that lingers long after you've finished it' - Lovereading

‘Lies We Tell Ourselves is a powerful, important story that I can’t recommend enough’ - Paperback’d Reviews

‘I want to recommend this book to everyone. This book will make you angry, it will make you cry, but it will also make you smile.’- No More Than Books

a Harlequin title

www.mirabooks.co.uk | twitter | facebook

Meet The Author

About Robin Talley:

I grew up in Roanoke, Virginia, and escaped to Washington, D.C., at the first opportunity. I now live with my wife, our antisocial cat, and our goofy hound dog on Capitol Hill and work for a progressive nonprofit organization. I spend my nights and weekends writing young adult fiction about LGBT characters, reading books, and enjoying The Daenerys Show (you may know it as Game of Thrones).

My first novel, Lies We Tell Ourselves, will be released Sept. 30, 2014, by Harlequin Teen. It's set in 1959 Virginia, and it's about a black girl who's one of the first to integrate an all-white high school, and the white girl with whom she ultimately falls in love. My next book, Unbreakable, follows a high school couple -- Gretchen, who identifies as a lesbian, and Toni, who identifies as genderqueer -- whose relationship is tested when they're separated for their first year of college.

My website is at http://www.robintalley.com. You can reach me on Twitter at @robin_talley or by email at robintalley678 at gmail.com.

www.robintalley.com | twitter | facebook | goodreads

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Review: SCENT OF MAGIC

Scent Of Magic by Maria V. Snyder
Book 2 of the Healer trilogy
Genre: fantasy
Format: large paperback

About Scent Of Magic:

Hunted, Killed—Survived?

As the last Healer in the Fifteen Realms, Avery of Kazan is in a unique position: in the minds of her friends and foes alike, she no longer exists. Despite her need to prevent the megalomanical King Tohon from winning control of the Realms, Avery is also determined to find her sister and repair their estrangement. And she must do it alone, as Kerrick, her partner and sole confident, returns to Alga to summon his country into battle.

Though she should be in hiding, Avery will do whatever she can to support Tohon’s opponents. Including infiltrating a holy army, evading magic sniffers, teaching forest skills to soldiers and figuring out how to stop Tohon’s most horrible creations yet; an army of the walking dead—human and animal alike and nearly impossible to defeat.

War is coming and Avery is alone. Unless she figures out how to do the impossible ... again.

Source: Info in the About Scent Of Magic was taken from http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16082550-scent-of-magic on 14/12/12.

Review:

I've read this author's Yelena Zaltana trilogy and loved it! However I did not like the Opal Cowan trilogy. So this author has her ups and downs. But one thing remained consistent with her is the compellingness of her author's voice. No matter that the story has gone pear shaped or the character gone stupid, the book would still compel readers to continue reading until the very end. And I think that is where this author's strongest writing feature lies. The weakest is the plot build-up and at times the character development. In this book, the superb story telling quality is apparent. However, we also see a little bit of that character weakness. Additionally, Maria V. Snyder has now adopted the writing style where she goes back and forth between two threads which has the effect of breaking the continuity of the story and jarring me out of the "zone" and yanking me back to reality. And I have to reset my mind-set back to "reading mode" again and this made the pace quite slow. But despite the slower pace, I will still continue reading this series because of the wonderful world building that the world of Avry has! For one, it is simply beautiful! I really like the premise of sentient lilies! For another, Maria V. Snyder doesn't break her own rules. The magic and story line is consistent which I very much appreciated because I find authors who break their own magic rules really annoying! And another reason which makes me continue reading this series is because of the compellingness of the author's voice ... and let's keep our fingers crossed that this series would go more like the Yelena Zaltana way rather than the Opal Cowan way. At the end of it, I enjoyed this book and looking forward to reading the finale of this trilogy!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 3.5
Story itself = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 5
Plot = 4
Cover art = 3.5
Pace = 3

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries


Book Trailer:

Author Links:
Maria V. Snyder
Maria V. Snyder at Facebook

Other Links:
www.touchofpowerbooks.com
GoodReads
Mira at Facebook

Thank you to Mira Books for the review copy of Scent Of Magic by Maria V. Snyder received.