The Rose and the Dagger

Published May 10, 2016 by Ashley Townsend

dagger

Oh, Renee, you never cease to amaze me! *happy sigh*

After Renee Ahdieh’s “The Wrath and the Dawn” blew–let’s be honest–EVERYONE away (and also after I met the sweet, hilarious writing genius at Comic-Con 2015), the book fandom world suffered greatly for a year in anticipation of the final installment in the duology. Then came a description and the cover!!! (Shipper hearts exploded everywhere) And, finally, after millions of painful hours spent crying softly with want and need, the book arrived.

david tennant eager

Oh, how the heavens rejoiced!!!

Anyway, you know I’m not one for being the recipient OR giver of spoilers, so I’ll just give you a brief overview of the story through “Teen Wolf” gifs. Now, come, enter our fandom. WARNING! There are no exits.

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The book begins with Shazi at the camp Tariq brings her to, and it was actually nice to see them interacting again. But as much as I like Tariq, I have been waiting a year for Khazi to reconnect, so OUT OF THE WAY!!! At long last, once Shazi came to Khalid on her magic carpet (trying so hard not to sing the Steppenwolf song right now!), it was like nothing else mattered in the world.

yesss

And there is this one moment where something happens to Shazi (no spoilers!), and Khalid is about to go into full-on zombie mode to avenge her. I believe every fangirl felt this way in that instant:

hot

But, inevitably, now that we’ve had some great times together, there’s bound to be some drama. Or, like, truckloads of it. I finished the book in two days (if it wasn’t for eating, sleeping, and work, I could have finished sooner!), and I was basically a hot, concerned mess until the last page.

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And when Khalid fights to free himself from his curse, we were all cheering him on.

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The only issue (“issue” even sounds extreme, since its just my preference) that I had with the book was that there sometimes wasn’t enough of Shazi and Khalid together–plenty of pages were dedicated to secondary characters. For example, I like Irsa as a person, I really do, but sometimes having entire chapters dedicated to her (when you just know Khazi it out there somewhere) was a little tedious. Though I always looked forward to Rahim in her scenes! But as much as we love them, raise your hand if you don’t want Irsa to occupy half of Khazi’s story.

irsa

Although having so many secondary characters at the forefront of the story was sometimes distracting, when one of them–one of my favorite characters–lost his life, I was totally broken up over it and shed several tears. But then I couldn’t see the page and had to dry my tears so I could finish!!!

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And somehow Renee can break your heart and then mend it 1,000 times over. Just. Sigh. One of the most perfect series enders I have read in a long time. Kudos, Renee!

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But I was so entrenched in the story that once I had rushed through to the end and placed the finished story aside, it hit me that it was over. I had just read the epilogue, and the series was over! Excuse me while I die and then proceed to re-read “The Wrath and the Dawn” 40 times.

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Now buy, BUY the book! What are you waiting for? GOOOOOOOO!!!!

Winter Joy and #NaNoWriMo Update

Published December 1, 2015 by Ashley Townsend

Okay, all, so you might have noticed I’ve been in a little place called Cognito for a couple of weeks. This lack of attention to you guys was basically due to Thanksgiving, UC transfer application drama, essays up the wazoo, and, you guessed it: NaNoWriMo. I got soooooo close to the 50,000 word goal, but didn’t quite make it, capping out last night with 46,000 (not counting an additional 8,000 words for essays). BUT, hey, that is the most I’ve ever written in any single month, so I’m pretty ecstatic about my progress in Defying Shadows. Hey, it’s all about personal growth, and so I think I’ll take my “measly” 46,000 words and try again next year. ^_~

Now, onto serious business:

HAPPY DECEMBER!!!!!

By: Volleyball Beauty♛ ♡ (VolleyballBeaut):

the friday of all months:

Okay, so we’ve been celebrating Christmas since November 1st in our house, getting out our decorations, music, baking, and Christmas cheer for the past month, but it always becomes more exciting once we actually get into December. And this season is especially exciting for me because I’ll be spending New Year’s in Colorado with my best friend of 22 years. We haven’t been able to celebrate our favorite holidays with each other for nine years, so we’re doing it up with all our old New Year’s traditions, plus some new ones we’ve acquired over the years. AND, because her house was always my second home growing up, I’ve demanded that Mama K. and the fam leave all the decorations up and that we have Second Christmas, where we swap gifts by the fire in the morning, go sleigh riding in the afternoon, dress up for a pizza dinner (they do NOT have any Papa Murphey’s near us in San Diego, and that should be a crime), and then wander their neighborhood to look at the lights. Maybe “demand” is a strong word, since they all jumped aboard halfway through my explanation. Haha. It’s going to be amazing, and I cannot WAIT to get out there!

What are some of your Christmas traditions?

LETS DO THIS girls week joeys home! knicks game BEYONCE Christmas New Years :):

Splintered Review

Published May 29, 2013 by Ashley Townsend

You know how much I love retellings of classic stories and fairytales, so I was pretty excited when I got “Splintered” from the library. It’s a very funky take on the original “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll, with some crazy-wild twists thrown in that make “Splintered” very much the author’s own.

Inventiveness/Creativity: 9 (her admirable ability to wholly re-craft the story was what kept me pushing through to the end)

Overall Storyline: 7

Execution: 7 (this is a non-biased view of her actual ability, not my opinion of the story)

My Overall Interest: 5. I have to break it down into sub categories because I was a little torn.

Okay, first 200 pages: 8 for blow my mind creativity and a 6 for feeling detached from the actual story.

Once Morpheous was introduced (next 100 pages): 9 for increased interest—I hate to say I kind of loved him—though the story had its ups and downs quite a bit after that (I know; I am completely dissecting the book).

Ending: 4 Though it was technically a “happy” end where everything was tied up nicely, I was a little disappointed with how things were finalized. Call me a predictable sap, but I love perfect, even sometimes unrealistic endings. It’s fantasy for a reason, people!

Recommend: A one-time read, in my opinion.If you have other books to read, this one can definitely wait, unless you’re bored and just want some unique filler, then give it a go if you like funky and strange YA fantasy. But if you’re on a dystopian kick like I am, then maybe save this one for another time or read at your own discretion. (And now I remember why I usually steer clear of YA fantasy: What’s with the tongue kissing? Grodie!)

My take on it: Completely wild and crazy and unique as the story kicks off. Like I said, funky is the operative word. Most of the creatures the author imagined are a little more grotesque (?) than the original fluffy white rabbit and almost cuddly, albeit blubberous, walrus and other creatures in Lewis’ tale and the Disney film, though I kind of liked that about it. But the good creatures and fairylike characters were fascinating and very inventive, and even the sometimes grodie creatures the author presented in the story to block Alyssa’s path were interesting, though at times they were a bit much. However, I loved the fact that our bad boy/childhood friend and Wonderland guide, Morpheous, was the Caterpillar-turned butterfly. He. Was. AWESOME! In, like, a crazy way. And I mean, Kuh-razy! He was ultimately what pushed me to finish the story. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the tale, but mostly I stuck it through because I admired the author’s ability to completely spin the idea and create a 100% unique backstory for generations of Wonderland characters, while also—technically—staying true to Lewis’ original tale. “Splintered” is a little dark, though it’s almost a juxtaposition to the brightness of the story, which I did like, though I think sometimes it got a little too strange for my liking. I know I’m going back and forth on my opinion of it, but this is how I felt reading the book. I wasn’t sure whether to be grossed out, roll my eyes, keep reading, drool over Morpheous, or applaud the author’s aplomb and finesse with such a crazy—dare I say strangely awesome?—storyline. I think I liked it more because I honestly was amazed and sometimes took a moment to marvel at the author’s craftiness. Praise for her talent aside, I can’t necessarily recommend this book, since I had to force myself a little bit to finish it—and Morpheous completely stabbed me in the back!—but if it sounds like something you’re interested in, don’t let my entirely confused and fickle review stop you!

A Day in the Life of an Author

Published February 4, 2013 by Ashley Townsend

Lately, I’ve had a few people ask me what my process for writing is and how I get inspired for my stories. Sooooo, this is for the rest of you curious people, and, yes, this is honestly how my “free” days go. I don’t write this much every single day—I’m not a total hermit!—but on my more productive days, this is about it.

The life of an author:

8:00 am: Wake up. Lay in bed for an hour thinking and plotting, while also trying desperately to get a few more minutes of sleep to make up for a late night of thinking and plotting.

9:00 am: Decide it’s useless to lie there any longer, finally accept the inevitable, and get up to make breakfast. During breakfast, read a book or chew on the story that was devised around midnight the night before.

11:00 am: (hair might be brushed by this time) Water garden. Either listen to music for inspiration from the “Inspiration” playlist on the iPod, or take advantage of the silence by mentally moving scenes around and devising new characters and ideas for other stories.

12:30-ish pm: Eat lunch. This time is usually reserved for reading.

1-2:00 pm: Generally when the actual writing begins, sometimes lasting well into the evening—with a break for dinner with the family, of course. This time can produce anywhere from zero pages—on a very unproductive day spent revising and reading previous chapters—to twelve pages of new work. This kind of productivity usually only happens in the middle of very exciting or intriguing scenes.

8:00 pm: Try to tie up loose ends of whatever was produced during the day and prepare for nighttime shows, game night, or an evening movie with everyone.

12:00 am: Lie wide awake in bed because the total silence has caused the floodgates of inspiration to be opened wide. Spend the next hour mapping out tomorrow’s writing and thinking everything through, almost against your will. (Unfortunately, this happens a lot, but it’s when I get some of my best inspiration!)

Right now my sisters Elizabeth, Katie, and I are blowing through seasons one and three of the show Castle. There’s this hysterical saying that the author in the show does at the beginning of each episode, and I thought it might give you all a chuckle. He says something like, “There are two types of people who spend their days thinking up ways to kill people: Psychopaths and mystery writers.” Thankfully, I fall into the latter category. ^__^