I LOVED this book. It’s not often that you find a novel where every word counts. Oh, sure, as a writer you strive for that, but do you really pull it off? She does.

This book is so full of love it sets you to longing for love. Which is pretty funny to me since I’m about as well-loved as a person could hope to be. All I can say is, don’t miss this book.

Creating a sequel-worthy character is hard enough to do, let alone carrying it off in the sequel. Readers who do love this series will be thrilled to see in the back of the book that she’s writing more. I’ll probably stop reading here though. I did like the first one quite a bit though. Scott is very good at voice and I don’t envy anyone trying to keep 16 teammates straight and identifiable to the reader. She did a great job at that.

I am very excited about a book I bought at the conference, from the author, called THE SUMMER OF THE SKUNKS by Wilmoth Foreman. She had us falling out of our chairs with her subtle humor when she read from the book, and although I was first in line to buy it from her, I noticed quite a few of the other conference goers were in line behind me with their money read. I’ll keep you posted on how I like it.

The first one I mentioned yesterday, do-over. I really, really liked the voice in this book. I liked how all the characters were in little worlds of their own too. Having known a lot of artists, I found Vail’s artist father really rang true (I don’t mean his actions were typical artist actions, but the way he was oblivious to a lot of stuff around him when he was working and couldn’t surface). And as a professional (although, mostly in my former life!) actor, it was great to see a book where they did a school play and all the terminolgy and stuff was accurate. You’d be surprised how many published books I read where I think, “Ummm…yeah…that’s the wrong word” or “that’s never happened to me in the theater”. As I suspected, Vail is a trained actor too.

I don’t want to give anything away in Ever After, so I’ll just say it’s about friendship and the twist was really nice and refreshing, especially since I went through something similar, but I’ve never really seen it addressed much in a book (except maybe in The True Meaning of Cleavage, which is actually different, but still about friendhip in the same way…okay, I could explain this but I don’t want to ruin either book for anyone!). I better just stop here.

I’m excited about the authors I’ve been coming across lately. First Adrian Fogelin and now Rachel Vail. I’ve got some more Fogelin to read in my pile and I’m looking forward to that. Anyway, I’ll undoubtedly sneak in another YA before I go, even though I have to read my manuscript again and finish the two text books. I’ve read all three of my workshop groups’ manuscripts and written up the stuff I was supposed to, so I’m feeling rather accomplished.

I am reading DO-OVER by Rachel Vail and I am in LOVE. Oh, I love this book. It’s so…well, fabuolous because of it’s simplicity. The characters are so well done, the dialogue snappy, the settings defined. I just love it. It reminds me very much of Jerry Spinelli too, who is one of my favorites. I have another of her books waiting for me when I finish this one…Ever After, I think.

Anyway, that’s what I’m reading. Hope you’re all reading something good on these hot, hot days of summer (supposed to be 91 here today, which is a bit hotter than normal, but close to average, I think).

Nevil Shute’s The Rainbow and the Rose – an absolutely wonderful book, a reread for me…you can NEVER go wrong with Nevil Shute…a master storyteller.

The Leaving (by somebody I can’t remember) – this was one of the novels they sent Mum when she took the ICL course. It was well written, but kind of depressing…

Love Among the Walnuts by Jean Ferris (I think that’s the author, but it’s still packed in my suitcase, so I can’t check) – I liked this…it’s told in a strange sort of way that I can’t exactly describe…but The Penderwicks had this feeling too…

Size Twelve is Not Fat and Every Boy’s Got One by Meg Cabot (loved the first one, the second one was like watching the WB, or what I imagine watching the WB to be like since I never have watched it, except for when I used to watch Reba and that was only because my friend’s wife was on it and it actually turned out to be a pretty funny show…but I digress)

I think that might’ve been it. Our vacations usually are day hikes followed by an early return to our room/house/wherever we’re staying and reading the evening away, but this trip was packed. Really, truly packed. It was fun, but not what I’m used to! We did get some hiking in though, even if I didn’t get to read as much as I usually do.

I have about 30 new YA library books to read over the next month or two also, and I’m looking forward to that.

Anyway, I hope everyone’s reading well and having a great summer…I will be reading my workshop group’s manuscripts and my craft books for the next week or so to get ready for Darcy’s workshop, so I may not have much to write about on here…we’ll see.