Month: August 2018

Aug 31

August 2018 Wrap-Up & Best of the Bunch

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Best of the Bunch, Monthly Recap 40

My Goings On in August: I submitted to #PitchWars! I know it’s a complete long-shot that I’ll get chosen as a mentee (they got 3,452 entries), but really that’s the way all of publishing is, so I figured it doesn’t hurt to try. Cross your fingers for me!! Things I watched: I binged all of the latest season of The 100. It was great motivation for working out! I also watched a bit more of Fear the Walking Dead, but I’m getting a little burnt out on it already, and I’m only in season two. I just watched the first episode of The Innocents on Netflix. I’m definitely intrigued! And I watched To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before on Netflix and Ready Player One on DVD. I thought both adaptations were really well done. (I think I actually liked the movie of TAtBILB better than the book. Shhhh!) I… Read more »

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Aug 31

August Wrap-Up Round-Up Link-Up & Make Me Read It Giveaway

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Giveaways (Ended), Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up 16

It’s time for the August Wrap-Up Round-Up! The July giveaway ends today, so head over there for your last chance to enter! This is the link-up AND giveaway for our August wrap-up posts. I realized I was making things a whole lot harder on myself (and others) for no real reason by splitting up the giveaway and link-up posts, so they’re going to be in one post from now on. If you don’t already know about the Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up, read the information below: Every month, at the end of the month, I’ll put up a monthly wrap-up link-up post where everyone can link up their month-end posts. There are no specific requirements for what needs to be in your post, as long as you have a book blog and your wrap-up summarizes your month in some way. The round-up will include a giveaway that encourages people to visit YOUR… Read more »

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Aug 29

Where to Find Book Series Recaps. (Since most books don’t have a synopsis.) Let’s Discuss.

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Let's Discuss 38

The other day, I posted a random tweet about how I wished there was a synopsis at the beginning of new books in a series. Based on the response I got, I’d say quite a few people agreed with me. Why is it that TV producers don’t expect us to remember what happened last week without “Previously on” reminders, and yet book publishers expect us to remember the details of a story for a whole year or more? Can’t we have a “Previously in” in our books? Pretty please? — Nicole Hewitt (@NicoleMHewitt) August 25, 2018 First off, I was excited for the fact that my tweet went mini-viral (well, at least, it’s by far the most attention one of my tweets has ever gotten). But I was also both amused and educated by the responses. But what did I mean by these 280 little characters? Some people misunderstood my intent. There were… Read more »

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Aug 26

Sunday Post: Pre-order Deals & Giveaways Galore – 8/26/18

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Sunday Post 28

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): It’s official. All three of my kids have started school as of Wednesday. I still have to do a bit of driving around, but I have a whole lot more free time now. Now I just have to make sure I’m utilizing it in the best ways possible. Because, no surprise, even now I still feel like my time is too limited. There just aren’t enough hours in the day! I’ve been preparing for #PitchWars. I know getting in is a long shot, but it never hurts to try. If I don’t get that, I’ll send out to another… Read more »

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Aug 25

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Thing About Jellyfish, Unwritten, and The Girl with More than One Heart

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Middle Grade, Reviews 12 ★★★★½

I’ve got three middle grade reviews for you today: two contemporaries and a contemporary fantasy. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! This book is really interesting because it’s written from the POV of a character who seems like she’s probably on the autism spectrum (but it’s never explicitly said, and she might not even be diagnosed as such). I actually sort of love this because I have a kid with a similar background—often in life you don’t get a definitive “this is the label that your kid has and it makes so much sense and everyone needs to know this label and act accordingly.” I’ve found raising kids to be a lot more complicated than that. Anyway, this book deals with the death of Suzy’s best friend, but it’s a lot more complicated than that. Early on, we learn that something happened between Suzy and Franny—you… Read more »

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Aug 23

Dance of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson: A Spectacular Spin-Off!

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 16 ★★★★½

I can’t tell you how excited I was to see that Pearson was revisiting the Remnant Chronicles universe! This book takes place several years after the conclusion of the original series. You definitely don’t have to have read the original series to understand what’s going on in this one, but I LOVED it, so I highly recommend reading it for the background history. Some of the characters make appearances in this book. What Fed My Addiction: Thief turned warrior. Kazi is an accomplished thief who crosses the queen. I love that, instead of punishing her, the queen sees Kazi’s potential and puts her into her elite royal guard. Kazi has a tragic backstory that we learn as the story unfolds. Her sense of loyalty to the queen combined with her own search for vengeance against the man who sent her tragic story into motion—and anyone who would take advantage of the weak—make her… Read more »

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Aug 19

Sunday Post: Pre-Order Deals & Giveaways Galore – 8/19/18

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Sunday Post 30

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): This week was hectic because of all the back-to-school stuff going on. My daughter Danielle started high school this week. Public school will definitely take some getting used to, and we’ve had some bumps along the road, but I think she’s enjoying it for the most part. She joined the swim team, and she’s making friends, which is a huge win as far as I’m concerned (she sometimes has a hard time jumping into social situations when a lot of people are involved—and public high school is nothing if it’s not BIG!). I discovered the musical Dear Evan Hansen… Read more »

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Aug 18

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Book Thief, Crank, The Chosen One and Writing Irresistible KidLit

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 16 ★★★★

I’ve got an eclectic collection of reviews for you today: one that’s probably considered a modern classic, one YA novel in verse, a YA contemporary about a Mormon fundamentalist group, and a nonfiction writing book. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! I debated writing an “official” review of this book, since I mostly already said everything I had to say in a random Sunday Post, but I decided to go ahead and add it here. This book is magnificently and masterfully written. The unique POV (death) makes it stand out from the crowd, and it gives the whole story an otherworldly perspective. We see human triumphs and failures through neutral eyes, and that somehow brings them into clearer focus. The language is beautiful as well. The only thing that held me back from giving this book one of my highest ratings is the… Read more »

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Aug 15

I Love Me Some Purple Prose. Let’s Discuss.

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Let's Discuss 55

We all have specific writing styles that we gravitate to. And it’s interesting how one style can resonate so strongly with one person and totally turn someone else off. I was reading a review of A Thousand Perfect Notes the other day and the blogger mentioned that while she didn’t dislike the book, she wasn’t a fan of the purple prose. My response: “WHAT? That’s my favorite part!” First off, I should give a little definition of purple prose, in case you’re not familiar. Wikipedia says: “In literary criticism, purple prose is prose text that is so extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw excessive attention to itself. Purple prose is characterized by the excessive use of adjectives, adverbs, and metaphors.” Okay, well when you put it that way, it sounds pretty negative. But I guess everyone has a different threshold for when flowery language starts… Read more »

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Aug 12

Sunday Post: Pre-Order Deals & Giveaways Galore – 8/12/18

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Sunday Post 46

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): I can’t believe that summer’s almost over! I’m both excited and terrified to have more time on my hands once school starts. Excited because … well, time!! Terrified because it means I’ll have no excuses for not making some real progress on my writing goals. LOL! This week I participated in the Make Me Read It Readathon. I can’t say that I spent a lot of extra time reading, unfortunately, but I did read The Book Thief, started reading Strange the Dreamer, and started listening to Warcross. I guess that’s not so bad. Those were all books that have… Read more »

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