Reading, Writing, and Me

Today I'm chatting with Lillie Vale about her upcoming book, Small Town Hearts , which comes out in less than a week! If you haven't heard about the book, I recommend you read my review linked here and below, and if you'd like to preorder it now, you can do so here . If you'd like to connect with Lillie, you can find her on Twitter at @LillieLabyrinth and on Instagram at @labyrinthspine, and you can find me in the comments below, on Twitter at @readwriteandme , and Instagram at @readingwritingandme ! 1.        Small Town Hearts is full of mouthwatering food, beautiful scenery, and summer fun. Do you have a favorite memory about writing the book or a scene you enjoyed most?    Hi, Lauren! Thanks for hosting me on your blog. So excited to talk about Small Town Hearts with you today!   This was the foodie, messy friendship, bi book of my heart. I adored creating the world of Babe’s beloved Oar’s Rest (the lighthouse!! the beach cave!! the Busy Bean!!), writing al

Small Town Hearts  by Lillie Vale (336 pages) P urchase at your local bookstore!* Overview: Babe lives in Oar's Rest, an idyllic Maine tourist town. She works at the Busy Bean, which she loves, and she's ready for an epic summer with her best friends Chad and Penny who will both be going to college in town at the end of the summer. Nothing has to change. And then it does. Babe's ex-girlfriend that no one knew about comes back to town after ghosting her all year, Penny and Chad, who have a love story for the ages, break up for no reason, and a hot new boy starts renting Babe's mom's house. She doesn't know what to do with so much change, and the thought that her future is so uncertain does not help. Overall: 4  Characters: 4  Babe really faces a lot of shocking things at once. She's out of the school system for the first time and suddenly the rug gets pulled out from under her. I think that readers will really identify with Babe's fear of change and

Long Way Down  by Jason Reynolds (306 pages) Buy At Your Local Bookstore* Overview: It's just one elevator ride. Just one elevator ride to the rest of Will's life. Eight floors takes so long when you're headed to kill someone. Even in revenge. Even for justice. Even when your brother was just murdered. It's even longer when every stop brings someone who's left your life back in. There's so much to learn before Will hits the lobby. Overall: 4  Characters: 4 Because of the atmosphere and the point of the story, we don't get super into the characters. They each represent a stop on a horrible cycle. It starts with Buck, Will's older brother, Shawn's, older brother figure. When Buck got killed, Shawn had to avenge his death, which got him killed. He also meets his Uncle Mark, an aspiring filmmaker who's death lead to Will's father's death because of the Rules. Each character doesn't exist to explore themselves or have their own motiv