Reading, Writing, and Me

Today I'm doing a little bit of a rewind of a past review to celebrate Art Boss  by Kayla Cagan which hits shelves on Tuesday. I met Kayla two years ago at Teen Book Con where I discovered her first book Piper Perish . Appropiatly, because the book is about a group of artists, it is one of the best made hardcovers I've ever held. You will be impressed when you pick up a copy at how much detail is in the cover and inside flaps (and also how substantial it is). Inside, it also includes pictures interspersed with the journal entries which rings true for Art Boss as well. The thing that originally drew me to Kayla's book was it's setting. I used to live in Houston, where the book takes place, and it was amazing to recognize all the places mentioned in the book. I wonder if that's how people in L.A., San Fransisco, or New York feel all the time. Sadly, Art Boss moves the story out of Houston, but, appropriately, Piper's next chapter unfolds in New York City. So be

Today I have an extra awesome post for all of you! As part of my new series, Into YA focused on giving you a look into what goes on before the book gets into your hands, I'm talking to rockstar agent Eric Smith (who is also an author himself)! If you don't follow him on Twitter over at @ericsmithrocks, then you should be. He has one of the best Twitter accounts. 1. How did you decide to become a literary agent? I'd been working in publishing for a number of years, at Quirk Books, an indie publisher in Philadelphia known for books like  Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and  Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children , when I decided it was time to really focus on books that I wanted to work on. I loved everything we did at Quirk, but I wanted to focus on more Young Adult books, as well as the kind of literary fiction I loved. So... along came my colleagues at P.S. Literary, and it's been a happy place for the past three years.  2. Like me, many of my rea

Warcross  by Marie Lu Overview: Emika is a bounty hunter with $13 to her name and an eviction notice on her door. Then she's the hacker girl who glitched into Warcross. And then she becomes Hideo's personal bounty hunter who stands to win ten million dollars. Emika's life has changed a lot, and it only gets more complicated as she gets deeper and deeper into the world of Henka Games. Overall: 4  Characters: 5 Okay, it's hard to go into this much without getting spoiler-ey, but I'll be vague. First off, I loved Emika. She's a great main character with the right amount of sensibility and emotion. What was really impressive though, was how Marie Lu plays with character evolutions. At the end of the book, there will be a moment where you put the book down and go wow at how Marie is able to twist shades of good and evil making us think about the grey. Plot: 4 I finished this book in a few days thanks to its fast pace and urgency. While some of the game descript