I was not expecting this book at all. A cutthroat, blood thirsty grad school setting? I didn’t know I needed this in my life. Our FMC is mysterious as heck, we don’t know who she is or where she comes from, but man, does she give me Wednesday Adams vibes. We have four unique MMCs: an over-the-top protective dragon shifter with a temper, a frosty, smart as hell ice elemental with commitment issues, a psychotic incubus prince with some violent tendencies, and a morally grey blood fae with a curse that might be his undoing.
Watching the FMC futilely try to push them away was sheer comedy, and I loved every minute of it. The writing and pacing are so well done that it had me devouring this in a matter of hours.
My only drawback is that the third book isn’t out yet!
I am so surprised there are not more people talking about this book, and I will shout it from the rooftops that this book is amazing and worth the read!
Have you read this one yet? What was your last five star?
The first 11 episodes of my story are up for viewing with more on the way if anyone is interested!
As a friendly reminder, it’s a college, sports romance between a football player playboy and the true crime loving athletic training student. They both sign up for the schools dating app turned tv show, only to match despite it being forbidden by the school for them to be together.
It’s spicy. It’s a little angsty. It’s giggle inducing.
I had the pleasure of working on this book as the proofreader, but never has a book felt less like work than this one!
Blurb:
A single woman stands between order and chaos.
She will determine the fate of Taria.
An anomaly in the world that values the future over the ways of old, Renna is in great danger.
Possessing unexplained—and forbidden—magic, she now attracts unwanted, dangerous attention.
Amidst the chaos, there are two who desire her safety.
Khellios mourned her, living with guilt for the last two millennia. The God of Moon and Stars, he offers her a sanctuary in Taria, trying to rekindle the flame between them.
Sethos, a fae with unusual magic, has been guiding Renna from afar, drawing her nearer and keeping her safe. He now visits within her dreams.
Conflicted by her desires, Renna is pulled between the men who are willing to fight for her. But when a deadly force breaches the sanctuary and threatens to destroy Taria, she is faced with an impossible choice.
Embrace the life she’s wanted without magic with Khellios’s help, or accept her destiny as a daughter of chaos at Sethos’s side.
This book had everything I could want, and I’m already harassing Mina for the next book! I cannot wait to see what happens in Renna’s story!
So I did something huge today. I published an episode on Kindle Vella. It’s my first time publishing something I’ve written in the fiction realm. While I don’t think anyone will actually read it because I’m anxious about marketing it and it being me as the author and people knowing that, I am proud of myself for finally doing it.
Shoot, maybe I’ll finally finish the thing too!
However, if anyone is interested, you can find it for free here!
Heh…well, I started my page back in 2021 just before Covid, and I felt like I had to have this catchy handle. I had this plan to start every post with “Hey Bookworms!”
How quickly did that fall away because my adhd could not for the life of me remember to actually start posts with that.
However, by the time I thought about changing it, I was already several thousand followers deep and I felt weird changing it. So, here we are with Hey Bookworms still three years
I’m not here to judge your writing! I’m simply someone hired to do a technical job! I will assess your writing and suggest edits or fix anything that is incontestable.
This will always be your work! It will always be your voice! I’m just here to make that voice clear, concise, and accurate.
I will always be your biggest cheerleader. The books I work on and the authors I work with have a special place in my heart. I will hype up everything you do, and I will always be a message away to chat.
Dishonesty doesn’t serve either party in editing. I will always be honest, but you can count that I will constructive in any criticism. Rudeness has no purpose in our jobs. I will be gentle and offer suggestions, but remember, they’re just suggestions! It will always come down to your choice in the end!
Don’t be afraid of your editors! We’re here to help you and make your work the best it can be!
Show don’t tell is a phrase authors and writers hear constantly. Whether it’s from writing coaches or reviewers, it’s almost always at the forefront of any analysis of writing. What does that phrase even mean though?
Showing your reader involves putting the reader into the situation. The author describes feelings, sounds, sights. The author effectively plays to all of the reader’s senses. When telling is involved, the author will state exactly what is being conveyed.
When the author shows instead of tells, the reader feels what is happening. The reader is able to come to the correct conclusion of the emotion being felt by the character or the idea being portrayed. In the above example, a thriller author is going to have a better chance of creating that eerie setting and feeling with the first description. The second sentence doesn’t give nearly enough of an emotional connection to it to evoke the chills on the reader’s spine.
Take out those feel words. The “heard,” “smelled,” “tasted,” “saw.” The character is happy, sure, but how can the writer describe that? Did she have tears streaming down her face, her stomach aching from laughing so hard? Did her cheeks feel as though they were ready to split in two from grinning? Was there a lightness in her chest that wasn’t there before?
Choose an emotion or a scene and write! Go back and look to see how many of those feeling type words are used and then rewrite those bits.
A fun exercise I like is to select a scene from your favorite movie or show and try to write it out. Convey all the emotions and feelings without just simply stating what they’re experiencing.
We’re starting something new today. I’m going to feature a different indie author every Sunday, in addition to reviews, ARC reads, and y’know, just general posts about indies.
Today, we’re focusing on an indie that I actually stumbled upon right before releasing her debut novel, Smoke. I signed up for her ARC team on a whim, and I’m so glad I did because she’s become a dear friend of mine.
Smoke is a wolf shifter romance with bodyguard, politicians daughter, “she’s mine,” and star crossed lovers vibes. There’s also fated mates, some delicious hand necklaces, outdoor spice, plus size rep, and mental health—specifically, anxiety—rep.
Shifter romances are so hard to make seem not cheesy. It’s common for shifter romances to feel like the MCs are just going through the motions and don’t feel like they really have an option other than ending up together. Not the case here! I love the struggle between the characters as well as the outside world.
While I thought Cade was my end all be all of sexy, alpha wolves, Finn came barreling in the door in book 2 knocking that thought right out the window.
I mean….isn’t he just delectable.
Irish. Mobster. Alpha af. Caretaker.
Sign me tf up. These books are chunky. Jaeger doesn’t leave any world building out and does it so beautifully it all feels seamless with the real world. On top of that, each book’s politics build on the last so they don’t end up being ships passing in the night in terms of an interconnected series. Plus, we love a well-written woman in STEM.
Our third MMC in this series is near and dear to my heart….not only because he lives in my backyard basically, but because he is so perfectly flawed and troubled. I won’t give anything away about who he is, other than her dad’s best friend and deliciously alpha.
Sarah’s books are some you don’t want to miss.
They’re on Amazon here! You can also follow Sarah Jaeger on insta here!
Comma splices are so common. I think everyone was taught to just add a comma if you pause, but comma splices are just one problem that arises.
So what is a comma splice?
It happens when two independent clauses are joined by a comma and nothing else. It feels natural to take pause between those two clauses, but that pause should be a full stop period or it requires different punctuation and another device to reach a proper sentence.
So, what are the ways we can fix that?
1. You can use a conjunction!
Let’s throw it back to freshman English. Fanboys, do yall remember those? I’ll be honest, I forgot to use them all the time before I really got into focusing on grammar and writing.
2. Fix it with a semicolon!
Are your two clauses related to each other? Great! You can now get rid of the splicing comma by swapping it for a semicolon. Easy fix, right?
3. Fix it with a semicolon and a transition word.
This one adds a little flair to our last option. The transition is a bridge between two thoughts. However, although, in addition, furthermore, and understandably are all examples of those transitions.
4. Fix it with a period!
By far the easiest way to fix the comma splice is to just use a period. This is your best option when the two thoughts or clauses do not relate to each other.
Hopefully this helps someone out there! Happy writing!
Book Mail always makes me feel so special. I love opening up my mailbox to find PR boxes and books I’ve pre ordered. It feels like Christmas year round, ha!
I totally was not expecting to receive Lucia Franco’s books, but I’ve been impatiently waiting for Heaven Breaker and A Curse of Blood and Wolves.
Hush Hush by Lucia Franco
Blurb:
I knew the rules.
Never reveal my true identity. Play the game, give the illusion. Don’t get close to the clients.
The dark and glamorous lifestyle of the rich and shameless open my eyes to a lavish world of sin and wealth, and a man I can’t have.
A man I desperately want—James Riviera.
We’re treading a fine line as we live the ultimate double life until we make a startling discovery that tests both our loyalties. I only had to follow the rules, but rules are meant to be broken.
Is it possible to be drawn to someone you’ve never met?
When Ruby feels the eyes of a stranger in the woods, she knows she should be scared, that she should run away, but she can’t. Instead, she feels a thrill, feels drawn to this stranger who follows her in the woods. Yearns for his eyes on her every night as she walks home, hoping to hear the crunch of leaves under his feet that signals he’s there.
The duke of the powerful House Hauteclare is the first to die. With my dagger in his back.
He didn’t see it coming. Didn’t anticipate the bastard daughter who was supposed to die with her mother―on his order. He should have left us with the rest of the Station’s starving, commoner rubbish.
Now there’s nothing left. Just icy-white rage and a need to make House Hauteclare pay. Every damn one of them.
Even if it means riding Heavenbreaker―one of the few enormous machines left over from the War―and jousting against the fiercest nobles in the system.
Each win means another one of my enemies dies. And here, in the cold terror of space, the machine and I move as one, intent on destroying each adversary―even if it’s someone I care about. Even if it’s someone I’m falling for.
Only I’m not alone. Not anymore.
Because there’s something in the machine with me. Something horrifying. Something…more.
Hey Bookworms Editing 