Utah Book Week: Author Events

In honor of Utah Book Week, I wanted to mention all the awesome book events our local libraries and bookstores put on. Since we have some pretty awesome authors from Utah we get to see a lot of them...numerous times. It's awesome!

Provo city library has hosted so many great events. I go to a lot of them but am horrible at taking pictures or posting about it but just last week my friends and I got to go meet Carol Lynch Williams for the first time and her daughter Kyra Leigh who just had her first book published.

That's Carol on the left and her daughter Kyra on the right. They asked each other some fun questions and then let the audience ask questions.  Sometimes the author's do readings...

And there's always fun giveaways too. My friend Kami won a free tarot card reading. We got to sit in on it and it was awesome!

And of course the authors always sign books.

So big shout out to my local libraries and bookstores that bring all the authors to us.

Review: After Hello

Title After Hello
By Lisa Mangum
Genre YA contemporary romance
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
Sara is spending the day in New York while her dad attends a business meeting. When she captures a picture of Sam leaving a bookstore there's just something about him that makes her follow him. Thus starts their adventurous day together as they both come to terms with their pasts.

First Sentence
I shouldn't have noticed him.

I've only read the first book of Lisa Mangum's Hourglass series and was not impressed. It came so closely after twilight I felt like it was too closely related...especially the whole romantic part, but when I stumbled upon this one at a thrift store and fell in love with the cover I decided to give it a go. I thought maybe paranormal romance wasn't Mangum's thing and a contemporary romance would be better.  I think I was right.

While some people might find bits and pieces of this story unbelievable, I only found one thing that had me raising an unbelieving eyebrow. Most of the other things were easy for me to suspend my belief and go along with the story.

I liked following the characters through their quest but couldn't quite connect to them.I felt like maybe the things that happened to them in their pasts was supposed to make me have sympathy for them and I sort of felt like the author only threw their pasts in to manipulate us.

But the overall story was cute and easy to read. If I think too long and hard about it I could probably tear this one apart but if this book had one thing going for it, it was that it didn't make me want to dislike it.

The back cover of this book has a small, simple blurb saying, "What if the first day of your relationship was the only day you had?".  I was worried the author would fall into peer pressure and not stick true to that blurb, but she did. Phew!

Should you read it
I think if you read Mangum's other books and disliked them you need to give this one a go. It's different and a much better read.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today's Topic: Ten Hidden Gem Books in X Genre. Since it's Utah Book Week I thought I'd list the top ten books by Utah author's you all need to be reading!

The Hollow City by Dan Wells
This is the number one Utah book I push on people. Why people don't pick it up and read it already is beyond me. It's unique and engaging and just plain entertaining as hell!

Once Was Lost by Sara Zarr
If you haven't read a Sara Zarr book you need to. But which one? Any of them but I always recommend Once Was Lost. It's issuey and sad but so, so, so beautiful!

Glimpse by Carol Lynch Williams
This author writes a lot of verse novels and they're sad and heartbreaking and REAL. I love them.

Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson
This Utah author has only given us two books so far but if you love Regency romances and haven't read one of her books you need to! I loved Blackmoore just a titch more so I'm recommending it.

Austenland by Shannon Hale
Speaking of loving Regency romances. Jane, the MC of Austenland, has just a tiny, tiny obsession with them. Watching her obsession play out in this one is a treat.

The Princess and the Hound by Mette Ivie Harrison
If you love fantasy, this is the fun beginning to a series. I've only read the first one so far so I can't vouch for the whole series.

Elevated by Elana Johnson
This contemporary verse novel blew me away. I thought it was going to be a cute romance and was surprised with a much deeper story that moved me to tears.

Stitching Snow by R.C. Lewis
A scifi retelling of Snow White that was both inventive and delightful. If you think Marissa Meyer and her Lunar Chronicles has the monopoly on sci-fi retellings you'd be horribly wrong. Read this one. You'll see.

Transparent (Transparent #1) by Natalie Whipple
I read this one a few years ago for Utah book month and was not expecting anything great. I ended up loving it...and really need to get my hands on book two. What's up with that?

My Ridiculous Romantic Obsessions by Becca Willhite
This cute little romance is perfect for anyone who might just have a few too many fanciful, romantic ideas about love.



And that's just some of the lesser known Utah books that I read and loved. There's tons of books by Utah authors that you've probably read and loved and books that I haven't even read yet. Yep, I have to admit it. Utah has some pretty awesome authors. Am I right?!

Review: My Lady Jane

Title My Lady Jane (The Lady Janies #1)
By Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows
Genre Historical Fiction Romance
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
The (not quite true) story of Lady Jane Grey. Queen of England for only nine days.


First Sentence
The King, it turned out, was dying.

I read this one for several different reasons. First: It's Utah Book Week and it's written by three authors, one of which is from Utah, Two: My book club was reading it for August's meeting, and Three: I wanted to. It sounded amusing. I liked the idea of taking a historically sad story and rewriting it to be humorous, romantic, and happily ending.

Somewhere between hearing about this one and buying it and actually reading it, I had gotten the idea it was going to be overly cheesy and badly written. I was  (blessedly) wrong on all accounts. It was written very well. We got three perspectives: Lady Jane, (written by Jodi Meadows) Gifford (written by Utah Author Brodi Ashton) and King Edward (written by Cynthia Hand).

The story was fun and adventurous with lots of romance and nods to pop-culture like The Princess Bride, Monty Python etc. With all that maybe you can see how I thought it was going to be cheesy too? Maybe not but I was worried. It wasn't bad at all, however, the writing was well done and easy to read and I liked the story even if it did end a little too happily? *shrugs*

My only real problem with the book was the length. It was nearly five hundred pages and easily could have been cut down to around 300 and not lost much. That, and it's overly happy ending made this one likable but not lovable for me.

Should you read it
Yeah, I'd recommend it just be ready for that length!

Sundays in Bed With Utah Book:After Hello

It's Sunday again! Day of rest and reading! Thanks to Kate and Kim for this fun prompt.

Today, in honor of Utah Book Week, I'll be scrambling to finish After Hello by Utah author Lisa Mangum so I can get a review up for you! What are you reading today?