Currently Reading

I found out about this book through a blog I follow Austenprose.com. She was having a give away contest and I actually won a copy. I thought this book would be interesting to read as I myself am trying to write a story with kind of the Sense and Sensibility plot line (for my story click here)... so I really wanted to see how another author did it. And I have entered contest before but never won so I doubted I would win but surpisingly I did. YEAH!!!

After I finished The Wild Rose I was trying to figure out what book to read. Unfortunately all my books were in boxes. So I couldn't get at them. Then when I moved the first night I opened my boxes to seek out a new book to read. I didn't know what to read, I have a long list of books to get through. I decided on this one not only because I wanted to see how another author tackeled the Jane Austen classic plot but also I know soon I will be in class with not that much time for fun reading so I liked the idea on reading a new book book but with I plot I knew and loved.

Goodreads.com says this...

Daphne Rivera and her sister Gabby could not be more different.


For fifteen-year-old Daphne, the glass is always half full, a dab of lip-gloss can ward off a bad day, and the boy of her dreams—the one she's read about in all of her beloved romance novels—is waiting for her just around the corner.

But Daphne’s older sister Gabby wishes Daphne would get real. In Gabby’s world, everyone’s out for themselves, wearing makeup is a waste of time, and boys only distract you from studying before they break your heart. The only boy Gabby trusts is her best friend, Mule, who has always been there for her.

Both Gabby and Daphne are still reeling from their parents’ divorce, though in very different ways. While Gabby will never forgive her unreliable father for failing her mother, Daphne idolizes her daddy and is sure that everything would work out fine if her cranky mom would just let him back into their lives.

When a crisis leaves the girls and their mom homeless, help comes from an unexpected source, and both girls are courted by surprise suitors who shake up their views of the world. Suddenly the glass isn’t so clearly half empty or half full . . . and love seems a lot more complicated than they ever could have imagined.

An Interview with author Jennifer Ziegler can be found at Eve's Fan Garden .

My New Neighborhood

I have had more one previous "sorry post" but since I started trying to write every day I hoped I would not write another "sorry post".... but I feel it has been a week since I have been on here.  :(

If you have been reading my blog you know I have been going through a move and right now at my home I still don't have Internet. But I am happy to say I am unpacked and that makes me very happy because now I feel like I am in my new home. My cat is still getting used to this new place but I am sure soon she will be owning it. 

Victory Garden with Prudential building in background.



Though I have been working around the clock I have made time to explore my new neck of the woods. I have walked through the Fens or the Fenway (for those out of town). Yes it has the same name as the baseball park but its a park like a garden not park like a baseball field. There is this part of it called the "Victory Gardens" started in WWII but still exist today as little individual gardens for people of the city to use their green thumb. Even though I don't like fall because that means winter is coming I can't wait to see the fall foliage here.

On another one of my walks around I also found a garden called the Riverway. It had lots of cool trees. One that drooped so low I imagined Emma and Mr. Knightly from the Miramax 1995 version (my favorite),minus the cars and the shopping area behind it. It was still very beautiful and fun to discover new places. I took my notebook their and got some writing done on my story, which felt like a nice break from my busy weekend. This is another place I look forward to walking around here with the fall foliage.

Found at Inkwell Inspirations


I am loving my new neighborhood and can't wait to spend more time exploring it.

September

Tomorrow is the first of September... it's time to move, time to start school again, and time to prepare for fall. But as I was putting up the September calander in my office (dry erase) I wondered what colors to use. I didn't want to use pure fall colors because September feels more like a time of transition. So I actually googled "September Colors" and I got a range of colors. From blue, red, purple, green, golden orange, maroon.


I found these color templates Pomegranate and Patchouli a fun artsy blog with lots of pictures and fun quotes.

So even though fall might be coming embrace color still...pleaes people don't just go to browns and blacks now that calander has flipped.

Sorry if I don't post tomorrow I will be moving tomorrow.... can't wait for this experience to be over.
This is my cat from over the weekend making sure I take her too.

The Book Quiz

A blog I follow, Writer at Large posted her results to book quiz (click here) its a really simple 4 question quiz. So I was intrigued to tell me what it would say about me...

MY RESULTS...

You tend to have your head in the clouds. You love to be drawn in to a whole other world.

Me: Yes that's true... but shouldn't all writers.

You are a sensitive person. You find it easy to be emotionally effected by books.
Me: Yes... I was crying at the end of The Wild Rose but I cry a lot.

You are a person with a few deep interests. If you're drawn to something, you learn everything about it.

Me: Some what true.

You are a person who loves to acquire possessions. You can't resist a sale, and you own a lot of things.

Me: Some what true for certain things books, movies, and bags.

The Wild Rose

I am happy and sad to say that I have finished the Jennifer Donnelly trilogy of The Finnegan family, the Tea Rose, the Winter Rose and the The Wild Rose. I am happy because I love the writing so much I was waiting for so long for this book to come out but sad because its over and I want to read more about The Finnegan family.I feel the story could go on. Each of the Finnegan children have big families we could see what happens to them. I want to know what happens to Katie, Fiona's daughter.

I don't know how to review these books with out giving away any spoilers.

They are each about 600 pages but they are the fastest 600 pages you will ever read. With all three of them I could not put them down even if some nights that meant staying up till 2 AM to read it.

The first book... The Tea Rose follows the story of Fiona. Goodreads.com says...
"The Tea Rose is a towering old-fashioned story, imbued with a modern sensibility that is fresh, compelling, and perfectly pitched for these times. This sweeping epic follows young Fiona Finnegan's climb from the teeming streets of East London."... there is more but it spoils some of the twist of the story and my favorite thing about these stories and Jennifer Donnelly's writing in general is her twist.

The second book... The Winter Rose though it starts off being about a girl India Sewlyn Jones she gets involved with the Finnegan's clan through some twist. Goodreads.com give a little description of the book with out any spoilers.

I did find a good blog The Sleepless Reader that writes a review of this book. I don't feel I would do these two books justice if I wrote about them as I have not read them in two years and some of the details are hazy and I would hate to give spoilers away, especially since my sister is reading this book right now. But now I want to re-read the first two books so I can remember all the plot twist that got the readers to The Wild Rose.
This book is set in pre-WWI and during WWI. In the book we follow Fiona's youngest brother Seamie's story and the woman that changes his life, Willa Alden. I don't know much about WWI so it was a great story that covers details of the suffragist movement in England to control over the Middle East. An interesting character Lawrence of Arabia even plays a big part in Willa's story. Which I will admit I loved because Peter O'Toole played him in the movie... and I love Peter O'Toole. I will also say at one point in the book I was so worried for Seamie and Willa's love story I had to read the last few pages just to make sure it ends happy... I got so caught up in these character's lives I wanted to prepare myself if was going to end happy or sad.

Okay that's not much about those 3 books but I loved them... that much is true and if you love twist and turns that will keep you up till 2 AM and love late Victorian Era to WWI, and a love stories of passion I recommend these books. These stories have adventure, love, hope and inspiration all in one. Also I can tell Jennifer Donnelly, has a deep love of history and she loves to make sure everything is dead on accurate and the great research she does makes you feel you are in the scene with the characters.