Jacque Stevens's Blog

My Review PolicyThe Weight of Feathers:Lovely worldbuilding in this book. I liked the writing style. It was very poetic and I think that alone made up for some of the faults, but there were still a few things I got caught up on.I wish there were less Spanish and French words used or at least, that they were more quickly translated. I shouldn’t have to be fluent in two different languages after ordering the English version of your novel. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t that bad, but bad enough to be distracting and pull me from the story a few times—especially in the beginning.There was a whole chapter where the girl was topless in front of the male character for no reason other than “she wasn’t sure what to wear.” Ridiculous and pointless. Just grab a shirt. Any shirt. I might have even accepted a bra since she was swimming. I can be forgiving for some content depending on how it is handled/framed and who it is marketed for, but this just seemed stupid, even if it wasn’t graphic.I liked how the different story threads came together in the end. The characters were well-developed and interesting, even though the action parts of the plot were a bit slower. I’m interested in looking at what else this author has written, but I would pay careful attention to any potential content issues to see if it would be an okay fit for me.Four StarsAmazonGoodreadsWarcross:I loved this one. The futuristic world was a good mix of dark and cool new tech. I liked the main character. The romance was nicely present without taking over too much, and there weren’t any overly distracting content issues. The best part for me in this one was the twists. I predicted one bigger thing, but not another, and still was able to look back and say that all the clues were there and it made perfect sense. So cool.Though I’m not sure when the next one will come out and am mad at myself for not checking on that before reading. The end isn’t a terrible cliffy, but enough that I would have preferred having the option to dive right in. So rude. :PI'll have to see if there is something else by this author I can read in the meantime!Five StarsAmazonGoodreadsBurning Glass:I wanted to read this book mostly because I heard that the magic-system of an empath was shown very well here and I was not disappointed at all on that front. Super interesting. Very well done.The love triangle though was everything I sometimes hate about YA/teen books. I didn’t care for either of the love interests or understand why they were all so enamored by the MC and visa versa. Sometimes, I can still really enjoy a book without paying attention to the romance, but in this book, it was all so tied to everything else in the plot (in that heavy-handed way that a lot of YA/teen books have) that it was hard to keep enjoying the parts of the worldbuilding and plot points that I liked without the romance spilling over and spoiling it for me.The book stands well alone. The end was almost too satisfying in that I don’t know if I care to read the next one—probably depends on what the plot is. I will have to look and decide.Four StarsAmazonGoodreadsA Life of Death:I liked the idea of this book. I just never found it all that believable. Yes, I could follow along with the more supernatural stuff, but he kept running into murder after murder in a way that didn’t seem all that likely. Some of it seemed pointless, like this extended bit where he saw all these visions of Civil War deaths. Yes, many of those deaths were awful and there are some good lessons there, but it seemed an unnecessary distraction from the more current cases and overly long.There were some social issues addressed that are usually very interesting to me, but I felt that this was a shallow interpretation. The “bad guys” were a bit one-note and the injuries and violence seem so extreme that I couldn’t see how he kept walking away from these encounters without much consequence—for him or the other person involved. Sort of cartoonish, even though it was dealing with more serious issues. Even the good guys/love interest were so useless and generic that I didn’t much want them around.It was a super quick read for me though and it ended well. I still found myself curious about where the rest of the series goes. Not a bad book really, just might not have been the best fit for me overall.Three StarsAmazonGoodreads24 Hours in Ancient Rome: (Bonus Book)I read this for research for a novel I am currently editing. I’m a fantasy writer and a more character driven one at that, so I don’t worry at all about being perfectly historically accurate, but I still wanted something to give me a light overview of Rome and some more details to add some color to the setting/time period. This book perfectly delivered. It had a great mix of original sources and just enough of its own narrative story to keep things moving.Very well done and interesting. I wish there was more—like a series of different books in different locations/time periods under this same concept.Five StarsAmazonGoodreads

My Review PolicyRed Rising:This book has the same set up of a lot of dystopian novels, but I still really liked how the world was shown. I felt really bad for the main character in the beginning and liked watching him grow into a more complex character. I hope to check out the next one soon. People were dying left and right, and there was some more adult material, but nothing too graphic on screen. The characters might be younger to start with, but this isn’t really a teen book, so I didn’t mind so much. Especially since you could see the main character trying to improve the darkness in the world around him. Five StarsAmazonGoodreadsCinder Heart: I liked the idea of modern fairytales and the powers. There were a few clever twists that I enjoyed and it was a nice, clean novel. I just wasn’t connecting as much to the character and the conflict as I would like. Even though it’s kinda cool that she has these powers, there didn’t seem to be much point to them. The love interest didn’t impress me. It was just . . . okay the whole way through. Nothing terrible, but nothing I loved either. I probably won’t continue this series, but might read something else from this author if the premise is something that interests me. Three StarsAmazonGoodreadsDark Triumph:I loved the first one of this series and I really liked this one too. It has a historic feel, but its still relatable and draws you right into the action and the characters. It is interesting to watch these characters grow and the world evolve around them. I hope to get to the next one sooner than I did with this one! My only real complaint here was some of the content. I expected some grittiness, like in the last one, but there just seemed a few moments where the framing was off, where a few terrible actions were supposed to be good somehow. And since this book IS marketed to older teens, it was a bit off-putting to me. That’s the only reason I might hesitate to recommend the book to someone else. Four StarsAmazonGoodreadsDaughter of the Pirate King:This was a fun book, with lots of fun pirate-y action, and of course, lots and lots of "I hate him/I love him-type" romance. I liked a lot of the world building and it was an easy book for me to zip on through. I spent far too much time trying to decide if I liked the main character or not. She was too full of herself for me, but I did like some of the clever ways she did things. By the end, I think my only lingering frustration was that there just wasn’t a lot of growth . . . or an ending. There were a few scattered tense moments, but I’m not sure what the actual climax was supposed to be. And when I got to the last chapter, I kept turning pages looking for more—not in a good way. Like in an actual, "I think there is something wrong with this book" way. It wasn’t even a tense cliff-hanger ending, just an exposition-type conversation that resolved nothing, that I would expect to transition to another scene. I know there is a sequel that might tie things together better, but sometimes when I’m left hanging so much that it seems unfinished, I just don’t know if I want to keep investing in the story. We’ll see. Four StarsAmazonGoodreads

I'm so excited to start posting about Depths, a Little Mermaid story in the spirit of Winter Falls. The stories are not connected, but are darker versions of the fairy tales and should appeal to a similar audience.Here is the blurb:I always knew this day would come. That just as my hair lengthened and my curves formed, I would make the transition from girl to woman.To siren.Arianna is the youngest daughter of a siren. To become a siren herself, she must kill a man and sacrifice his heart to the God of the Deep. But she never expected to be assigned to kill a prince or to fall in love with him.Torn between her family and her new love, Ari must decide what lies in the depths of her soul.DEPTHS is a darker twist on The Little Mermaid that borrows from Greek/Roman mythology and early Christianity.Do you want to write a book with me?The early draft of Depths is debuting on Wattpad. With a free account, you can read and make comments on the book as you go.I will add new chapters every month until it is completed and leave the unedited draft up until the finalized version is published. If you make a comment in every chapter (either a quick reaction or a critique) I will list you as an official beta reader/critique partner in the acknowledgements of the final release. If I get good participation, I might do it again for another book in the future.If you ever wished you could yell at a character (or an author) and get a response, this is your chance!

So I made my plan. I didn’t like the east coast where my sister and brother in-law were stationed. I wanted to move back west, and I wanted to be near the majority of my family again. But moving in with other families hadn’t worked for me as I constantly felt like an outsider bending to their plans and schedules—retreating into myself. I needed people in my same stage of life so I could feel more independent with my decisions, which is why I am so very lucky my parents gave me so many sisters. Most of them were married, but my younger one was still in college at BYU. She wanted to get off campus for her last year, so we decided it would get an apartment together.And as we were making those plans, one of our single cousins in the area reached out to us saying she had two rooms in her house in Provo if we wanted them. We did.Step one, done. I knew where I wanted to live—I chose it for myself and I was ready.I moved there, and my mom was there to assist again. My parents had moved to Alaska and declined to take one of their cars, so they were allowing my sister and me to share it. So the next step was the one I dreaded most, I still needed a job.And I really didn’t hate the idea of nursing anymore. Busy hospitals probably weren’t for me, but if I could find a more individual way to help people, I felt there had to be a way to apply what I learned in school to get me the immediate money/security I needed. I really didn’t think after three years of near inactivity I would be a desirable nursing candidate, but it still made sense to me to try—really try.I told my mom my plans, and she became my assistant for the first couple weeks. I knew I had to change all my licenses to my new state and update a few minor things like my CPR card, so my mom would go with me, mostly just drive with me and cheer for me when I came back with each task completed. It was silly. I was 24, an adult. I shouldn’t need my mommy like that, but things had gotten so bad that I really did.Once she returned to Alaska, the training wheels came off, but I had a few things accomplished and making forward momentum. I went to the career center and applied for jobs now not because I thought I would get one, but to prove to myself I could try and do it. Each action became the victory, not the result.And at the same time, I knew I wanted to look more seriously at my writing again. I didn’t want to hide it anymore, so my first step to embrace my new duel identity as a nurse/writer was to go a book signing at the library—actually meet an author I liked. I waited in line next to a girl ,and we shared a few words of mutual nerd-dom, but I would have been happy to scatter to my own corner when we got to the auditorium if I hadn’t brought another assistant, one who just like my mom, saw my plans and was now more than happy to help me along.I started to sit down, and He told me it was wrong, that I needed to be sitting next to the girl I stood in line with. So I did, and we talked some more. And as “luck” would have it, she was also an aspiring writer and had just started a local writing group. She invited me to join them.I wanted to go desperately, but I was SO nervous. I refused to show them my stuff the first month, but that didn’t last long. They were soon my best friends and introducing me to more of the writing community in Utah—who knew when I arbitrarily decided I wanted to go west to be with my sister that I actually stumbled into one of the best places with so many resources for writers? With these things now established, I showed my new group my suicide book and finished the first draft of mydjinni book in the first six months I was with them.Back to nursing. When I started to apply to jobs, I found out a mental health hospital was opening in Orem—a new building with zero staff. They needed a lot of nurses, making them more willing to consider someone with no experience and had graduated a few years ago.I was desperate for any job, but soon I discovered how good of fit it was for me at that time. While some more of my medical nursing skills needed to be refreshed, I had already started researching mental health with my own struggles with depression. I still had a lot to learn, but not as much as I feared. And in some ways, these kind of patients were less socially intimidating to me than the medical patients, where helping them sort out their emotions became so much more important than worrying about my own.And that is when I drew this final picture for my mother. It isn’t perfect, but I smile whenever I see it. That girl went off to slay dragons, but when she really committed, she found that the dragon wasn’t nearly as large or scary as it was supposed to be.That is not to say that my life magically became perfect. I had some more nursing ups and downs. I had some writing ones. And I still haven’t met my elusive Prince Charming, but I’ve been moving forward. Things that used to be hard are so much easier now. When something disappointing happens in one area of my life, I find comfort in the other until I find another way to work through my challenges. I have never returned to that dark place of my Seattle Christmas, but even then, I know the next step, that that is where God was waiting for me, telling me that if I built my own plan, he would magnify my efforts.And that is all that matters.

I didn’t tell anyone about these thoughts. In fact, this may be the first time some of my family will have heard about them. But what I did do was started praying, really praying. I told my Heavenly Father that if He could just tell me what I should do, I would do it. I wouldn’t be passive aggressive anymore. If He would tell me how I should be running my life from this point onward, and assure me that it wouldn’t fail, then I would jump in full-force into whatever it was.But He declined to do so.He didn’t tell me what I should do. He didn’t tell me I wouldn’t fail. I never really questioned the existence of God, I knew He was there and He was declining to help me the way I wanted, and like any mature child, I threw a tantrum and told him how much I hated him for it. Didn’t He realize how serious this had become? How could He have create me and leave me without a plan, a way to be happy? After so many years of being “good,” why was He so useless in return?That was when my answer and my current relationship with God formed. He loved me, so He would never take the role I offered him and dictate my life. He knew I never would be happy if I continued to let other people and circumstances tell me what I should be doing. And then I told him my real fear, that if I went after what I really wanted that I would fail, and somehow that would be worse than failing at something I didn’t want.That was what my decision to become a nurse really was based on, it was the “smart,” “safe” choice to me because I could fail and it didn’t matter in the same emotional way one of my more passionate desires would. Or at least it wasn’t supposed to. Now I had failed, and it mattered.How could I keep trying, even something I really wanted, knowing that I wouldn’t succeed? If I put in my full effort and allowed myself to want something desperately, wouldn’t that make the failure greater? The depression worse?But that was the thing. There wasn’t a “worse.” I was already considering my own death.Then I found a scripture I memorized as a high school student in seminary while being a very good girl. It comes from the Book of Mormon if you are unfamiliar:Ether 12:27And if you come unto me, I will show unto, you your weakness. I give unto men weakness that they might be humble and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before for me. For if, they humble themselves before me and have faith in me then will I make weak things become strong unto them.When I first memorized that scripture apart from its context, I assumed that it meant that if I prayed and had enough faith, God had the power to remove any weakness or imperfect I had. But as I started to read the full chapter this time I realized that this was God speaking to one of his prophets after Moroni expressed a fear. He said in essence, “God I am not strong in writing. I have precious things I want to share, but I’m worried that people will only mock what I have struggled so hard to give to them.”I write novels. I had people be critical and struggled to share them. In a moment, I felt I knew exactly what Moroni was talking about. And when I had those doubts, friends often would swoop in to say “Oh, don’t worry. You’re so good!” But I never believed them.God doesn’t do that.He says “Fools WILL mock.” He agrees with Moroni! “Yes! Your writing kind of sucks and some people will mock it. But that shouldn’t be your concern. I am not going to make writing easier for you or make your audience more receptive. I just want you to show faith and write what you have to share anyway.”That is when I looked at the scripture I had memorized differently. God was saying he recognized that we all have weaknesses. He put them there on purpose and intends for us to live good lives anyway, even if those weaknesses never go away. And when we are humble with our weaknesses, when we ask for help from God and others, we will be stronger and happier having formed those connections then we would be as superhuman beings all alone.Weaknesses force us to find God and others who can help us and that is why they are an asset, a strength.When I prayed for God to plan out my next steps in life so I wouldn’t fail, the only answer I got was that He didn’t care if I failed. He wasn’t going to choose for me or bubble wrap a perfect path for me. He wanted me to make my own plan and try something hard, even if I failed. And if I really was trying, I couldn’t fail, not in his eyes. In that moment, I learned life wasn’t about what other people thought about me or the outward results I achieved—all the ways I thought I was failing and thought I would continue to fail. It was about intentions and efforts and putting one small step in front of the other to be a little better each day.(TO BE CONTINUED)

This depression didn’t last for just a few weeks or months. This lasted three years. When I couldn’t find a job living with my parents, one of my married siblings reached out. She was having some medical struggles and with her husband in the military, she wanted my help nannying her toddler and new baby. This was both good and bad. It was good because I love my sister and WAS able to help her. It was bad because I was back to avoiding the real question of figuring out my life, prolonging the issue.I was back to writing in the closet, but my writing became darker. I started writing a story about a girl whose life/prophecy wasn’t what she wanted (Stone Bearers!!!), but in the end even that was too “light” and “happy” for me to finish. I abandoned that project half-way through for something that fit my emotions better, a story about a girl who rejected life completely.A story of Katie and the Winter Queen. It really wasn’t as bad as that sounds. Or at least, it wasn’t at first. I channeled my feelings into my character. I wasn’t depressed. My character was. I was just fine. I might not be able to find a job, but I had cute nephew babies to mother. And that was really all I did. I was on the other side of the country from where I grew up. Making new friends was always difficult for me, and now I had a new struggle. The dreaded get to know you question, “What do you do?” To avoid it, I avoided new people and even some of my old friends, becoming even more reclusive than usual—near agoraphobic as my social skills worsened and became more anxiety-ridden with lack of practice.But again, it couldn’t last forever. My sister got well enough that my presence didn’t seem to be helping her anymore. Having me there was really becoming enabling to both of our current weaknesses, and I knew it would soon be time for me to leave without accomplishing anything on my path to self-discovery. I couldn’t even picture myself having a real life again—marriage or a normal job seemed completely out of reach. That Christmas, I went to visit my parents in Settle and went on a fairy (the nonmagical boat kind). That was when it happened, a thought came to me, clear as day.“You could just jump off. Then you wouldn’t have to worry about figuring out your life anymore and would no longer be a burden to your family.”This was similar to a scenario with my character, but it wasn’t my character. It was me. I was suicidal and it terrified me.(TO BE CONTINUED)

Ihave always been a fairly obedient girl, one who lived in constant fear of “getting in trouble” or ticking someone off. I am the sixth of eight children, and had so many examples to follow and learn from, I rarely had to be directly disciplined at all. I liked being in the background. I never wanted to stand out for making the wrong or embarrassing choice, so I often opted for the path of least resistance.So when it came to going to college, I knew the “right,” “smart” way to do it. I wasn’t going to sit around for Prince Charming, I wasn’t going to pick a “frivolous” degree or something with an unclear career path. I was going to college to train for a job, and with that in mind, I opened up the college catalogue my high school senior year and thought “maybe nursing would be all right.” It looked interesting; there was no question it was an honorable job. No uncomfortable ambiguity, you major in nursing, you become a nurse. The world needed nurses and nurses make money. Guess work done.So I signed up for my freshman classes and started taking Anatomy and other pre-recs and a few other things started falling in place. I’ve heard some people say that college was a wakeup call, that they coasted in high school and had their legs kicked from under them in the first year of college. I pretty much had the opposite experience. I was used to taking advance classes, and when doing general classes in college, I shot to the top. Even though nursing is a fairly competitive major, I got in even without the same advance preparation a lot of people put into deciding to become a nurse.But once I got into my actual nursing classes, the “real work” began. It was an accelerated program, and it was a lot of work. There is no question about that. Though it really wasn’t the academics or subject matter I struggled with, it was the social demands. I had instructors who actually told me after written tests and reports they were “surprised” to discover I actually knew my stuff because I was so quiet in the practical setting. I would stutter and fumble when I felt like everyone’s eyes were on me—as they often were in clinical scenarios and such.Blood, no problem. Knocking on a stranger’s door and introducing myself to a new patient, terrifying.But I was not a quitter. I had decided to become a nurse, so that was what I was going to do.And I DID do it. I graduated. But just the act of “nursing” drained me socially and when I left college, I felt like I had barely experienced much outside of my chosen major. I went to my classes, forced myself though them, and came home and retreated into my real comfort zone—writing and more artistic pursuits, things I always knew I enjoyed on my own, but never wanted to “ruin” by inviting more critical eyes.So that was what happened. I was so “smart” about my college choices that when I finished, I got exactly what I wanted. I was a nurse with no Prince Charming, and no “frivolous” experiences. And that reality hit me in the face when I graduated. I had known I had to be smart about my college choices, but I guess I secretly hoped that serendipity would intervene along the way, and I would get the “unsmart” things—marrying early and pursuing my art while chasing down toddlers.That was what I really wanted, but since I never felt comfortable admitting to it, I got something entirely different. I hit the wall realizing that instead of accomplishing one hard thing, I signed myself up for one hard reality of actually being a nurse.I came home and became the worst kind of statistic. I applied for jobs I didn’t want, barely getting any interviews as it seemed everyone was looking for “experience.” And I just didn’t want to fight anymore. The queen of passive aggressive behavior, I would agree with what my parents said I needed to do to find a job or continue schooling, but give a half-hearted effort hoping I WOULDN’T get them. I fought during nursing school, and without a real love for the profession needed to clear the obstacles, I became exactly what I most feared, directionless and lost.This is where I usually start to tell people about my writing experience, that I finished college with a novel I finished in a closet, and when the reality of becoming a nurse arrived, I tried to retreat to my writing again. But I was now living at home with a different kind of mother, one whose full nest was emptying. Instead of being a “mostly good” girl lost in the crowd of my siblings, I became her number one focus. She zeroed in on my struggles/desires and decided that if I really liked writing, I should take my first novel and show it to someone who really could help.She showed it to a published author in our church ward.And that author (and her critique group) really wanted to be helpful. They were so helpful, I watched my poorbook baby get ripped to pieces and with it, my life seemed to crumble. My last coping mechanism and hiding spot had been snatched from under me.I didn’t want to be a nurse, I didn’t have a Prince Charming, and I was a terrible writer. (TO BE CONTINUED)

A Night Divided:Good historic fiction. I've read a lot about WWII, but less about the period after and I liked Nielsen's other books a lot, so this was something I was excited to read. Germany history is super interesting. The plot is fairly simple, but there’s a steady stream of tension to keep things moving that I think is kind of Nielson's trademark. I think the brother was my favorite character . . .Yeah, I don’t really have much to say about this one, but it was really good. :)5 stars.AmazonGoodreadsHow to Hang A Witch:I enjoyed the history explored in this novel along with the supernatural elements. I didn’t even realize that the author was also a descendant until the end.I don’t know why, but there were several times where I had to reread parts and I kept feeling like I was missing something. A few things just seemed overly complex or convoluted. But the bones of the story were great. Some of the twists surprised me and the ending was fully satisfying.The next one seems interesting too, so maybe I will read it. Kind of on a historic fantasy kick.4 stars.AmazonGoodreads4 Years Trapped in my Mind Palace: I work with patients with disabilities so this was an interesting read. I always wonder how much my non-verbal patients can understand. It would be miserable to be trapped like that and be so aware of everything.I liked the characters and the light fantasy in the story. That said, I don’t know how much the shared visions interested me. I was skimming them by the end.The ending was really cute. I enjoyed it.4 stars.AmazonGoodreadsThe Bear and the Nightingale:This had a real classic fantasy feel to it—a bit old-school in the writing style that made me hesitate toward the beginning. And it hoped characters and timelines so quickly that it was hard to know exactly what the focus of the story would be, but I loved the Russian world-building from the start. Many of the characters were interesting and complex. They fit with the historic setting, but still were very sympathetic. And I loved all the different fantasy creatures that were included.All the fairytale troops were present, but richly developed. It made things a bit slower paced, but it was worth the extra effort. There were so many fun details that just made the setting come alive. :)Two slight things that bugged me were the feminist and anti-Christian undertones. It was very subtle, but I just got tired of hearing how poor Vasya had no choice but to marry or go to the convent and how “repressive” it was to have things expected of her based on her gender. I get that it was a harder time for women, but it was a harder time for everyone. Boys also had hard things expected of them based on their gender. They also were expected to marry or could be sent to become a priest. And since most other cultural aspects seemed so in line with the time-period, this just stuck out to me as “off,” as being a more modern ideal. It probably was a necessary part of the character conflict though. I probably just need to get over it. :PAlso, I have no problem with a corrupt priest being shown as a villain in favor of the wild druid magic. Priests can certainly be corrupt, and I love wild druid magic in fantasy. But I guess I just wished there was something to balance it out. Something to say that not all Christians are repressive in their views or to show some of the good things that came from their country’s conversation to Christianity. It just seemed really one-sided by the end.Minor complaints though. It didn’t ruin the book for me. I’d like to read the other books in the series at some point. :)5 stars.AmazonGoodreads

I am going to post some more review here, but I’m not soliciting for books to review. If you are a reader friend and you honestly have a recommendation on something you think I would enjoy, that’s great, but if you are an author recommending your own book or something of that nature, I want to shy away from that.Though I’m a teen fantasy author who reads a lot of teen fantasy, I don’t want to give the appearance of direct review swapping (which is highly unethical) and really, designated author reviews work better when the reviewer can positively GUSH about your book in a creative way. That’s not me. I will be fair, and point out what I love, but I’m too analytically-minded even of my own stuff to positively GUSH about much of anything.Don’t worry though! I have no trouble finding more books I genuinely want to read, and with how my time is divided, I couldn’t commit to taking tons of requests anyway.In an effort to keep my blog positive, I will only talk about books when I have something positive to say, when I would recommend them to others. Sorry, but I know enough authors personally and have written enough myself that I can’t just post a review without thinking of the author behind it (even if that author is so big that they would never see my review anyway). If they were my critique partner, I wouldn’t hold back, but once they’re published, they deserve to be praised or politely passed over to be praised by a more appropriate audience. At least in a public setting like this. I still reserve the right to rant privately to my family and friends after reading a REALLY bad, not-for-me book. :PI read mostly fantasy and teen novels of all genres, but I branch out occasionally. I don’t read erotica or overly graphic content.Here is the Rating System:5-stars- I loved it and would recommend it.4-stars- I liked it and would recommend it with a few more reservations. Or it might be a book that was extremely well done, but just a mismatch for me personally.3-stars- A mismatch for me, but I still would recommend it to an appropriate audience. Not terrible, but more meh or average than awesome.1-2 stars will not be featured on my blog. Enjoy!!!

My wonderful cover designer gave me TWO fabulous covers for my Fall 2017 release Fairy Ring. Help me decide which one to use by responding to the poll below.Here is the blurb to tell you what the book is about:Fourteen-year-old Livy’s best friends just happen to be fairies.With them, she defeats snow monsters and discovers lost treasure, running wild through her apartment complex. Game after endless game. That’s how it works with fairies. They might be illusions, but they helped her cope when her father walked out, leaving her to care for her drug-addicted mother alone.Then Child Protective Services swoops in, sending Livy to live with her father, but that doesn’t stop the fairies from tagging along. The illusions that helped her in the past now cause nothing but trouble—preluding fires in chemistry and sword fights in gym. It isn’t any wonder her stepmother thinks she’s crazy, maybe even on drugs like her mother. Forced into therapy, Livy tries to conform to her new life. But when the military precision of her stepmother’s household becomes too much, she crosses the fairy ring to a dream world where her imagination can run free again.Her scars transfer from one world to the other. So does a death. With her family ready to have her committed, Livy must unravel the truth behind her so-called schizophrenic delusions before they take another life—hers.And here are the fabulous covers!!The Blue One!!!The Orange One!!NOWVOTE!!!! (And comment if you REALLY want to plead your case!!)