The Big Love Letter Event 2015

Last year the wonderful Danny from Bewitched Bookworms and I hosted an event that ran the month of February wherein we celebrated our obsession with all things romance, and I'm beyond excited to announce that we're once again hosting the event this year! I think I summed the event up pretty well in last year's introductory post, so instead of reinventing the wheel, I'm just going paste that intro below. Laziness, thy name is Jenny.

In celebration of Valentine's Day (but really, more in celebration of how much Danny and I love to swoon over sexy bad boys and adorable good guys), we've asked some of our very favorite authors to write love letters that will appear on our blogs every Friday during the month of February. We proposed letters written from one character to another, from author to character, character to readers, or anything else the authors might be inspired to write that would help us honor our love of love, and the result is something truly fantastic.

Be sure and check both here and Bewitched Bookworms every Friday as we'll be featuring letters from different authors on each blog, and throughout the event we'll also be hosting a fabulous giveaway, so I hope you guys are as excited about this as we are!

The response we received last year was so enthusiastic that we decided to extend the event from 4 weeks to 6, so every Friday from February 6th to March 13th both Danny and I will be posting various types of love letters on our blogs. We have a truly outstanding lineup this year, so we can't wait to kick things off in a couple weeks! You can expect to see letters from the following:

• Kristen Simmons (The Glass Arrow)
• Mindee Arnett (Polaris, The Nightmare Dilemma)
• Melissa Landers (Invaded)
• Sara Raasch (Snow Like Ashes)
• Emery Lord (The Start of Me and You)
• Liza Palmer (Girl Before a Mirror)
• Laura Lee Guhrke (Catch a Falling Heiress)
• Anna Banks (Joyride)
• Heather Demetrios (I'll Meet You There)
• Nikki Kelly (The Styclar Saga)
• & More!

Kristen Simmons will get things rolling here at Supernatural Snark on the 6th, so I hope you'll all stop by to see what she has in store! You don't want to miss it:)

Review: Of Triton

OF TRITON
Of Poseidon #2
Anna Banks
Paranormal Young Adult
256 pages
Feiwel & Friends
Available Now
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Amazon)
Emma has just learned that her mother is a long-lost Poseidon princess, and now struggles with an identity crisis: As a Half-Breed, she's a freak in the human world and an abomination in the Syrena realm. Syrena law states all Half-Breeds should be put to death.

As if that's not bad enough, her mother's reappearance in the Syrena world turns the two kingdoms--Poseidon and Triton--against one another. Which leaves Emma with a decision to make: Should she comply with Galen's request to keep herself safe and just hope for the best? Or should she risk it all and reveal herself--and her Gift--to save a people she's never known?

MY THOUGHTS
Of Triton is one of those reads to be picked up purely for the joy of reading, with expectations of emotional intensity and plot complexity kept reasonably in check and at times set aside in favor of utter escapism. While Ms. Banks captivated us instantly in Of Poseidon with Emma's hilarious first meeting with Galen, we get off to a bit of a shakier start with this sequel, some frustration with Emma's mother keeping us a bit at a distance as she seeks to perpetuate a miscommunication decades long rather than finally facing it. Once things are cleared up however (which thankfully does not take long), this story really finds its groove and we're easily swept up in the increasing political tension between the House of Poseidon and the House of Triton.

Emma isn't quite as socially inept and endearing as she was in book one, but then again the seriousness of her and Galen's situation–as well as that of her mother and Galen's brother Grom's–calls for a more somber Emma who is forced to mature a great deal in a short period of time. While we can't help but miss her offbeat and adorable sense of humor a bit in this tale, it's gratifying to see Emma start to listen to Galen and not fight him every step of the way as she did previously, finally trusting in his knowledge of Syrena laws and customs and not pushing him in order to assert her independence. She in no way bends to his will though, instead she pushes her opinion when she deems it important and then defers to him when she recognizes she's in over her head, forcing a smile of appreciation to stretch our lips at her handling of some very fragile circumstances.

Emma and Galen's relationship is of the sweet variety, relatively light on angst and emotional drama (for which we are extraordinarily grateful), but at the same time we don't really have the opportunity to get our hooks in them and see their struggles, their pain, and their love from point-blank range. We're happy when they're happy and we root for them throughout, but the ride in this book is fairly smooth, almost like running a gauntlet while completely encased in bubble wrap—emotional and physical blows are muted and don't quite have the strength to really knock us off our feet or send us reeling. Though that fact is a minor criticism, it's also a compliment as sometimes a lighter read is exactly what we we're looking for, and Of Triton certainly delivers on that front with an easy, fun jaunt into an underwater world.

Rating: 4/5

Find Anna:

Website • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads • Amazon

This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: Of Poseidon

OF POSEIDON (Of Poseidon #1)

Anna Banks
Paranormal Young Adult
324 pages
Feiwel & Friends
Available May 22nd
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)

Galen is the prince of the Syrena, sent to land to find a girl he’s heard can communicate with fish. Emma is on vacation at the beach. When she runs into Galen—literally, ouch!—both teens sense a connection. But it will take several encounters, including a deadly one with a shark, for Galen to be convinced of Emma’s gifts. Now, if he can only convince Emma that she holds the key to his kingdom . . .

MY THOUGHTS
Filled with humor and dreamy sigh-inducing romance, Of Poseidon gives us two strong protagonists between whom tension crackles like we’ve wrapped our hands around a live wire, the incendiary potential of them together causing our entire bodies to hum as we wait for that potential to erupt into emotional and physical action. Emma’s first person point of view alternates with the third person present-tense of Galen, a combination that’s a touch off-putting at first until we really settle into the back and forth rhythm, and while every now and then the present tense in Galen’s case causes us to stumble, the story progresses at a quick pace and keeps us in stitches as Emma repeatedly finds herself in situations that have us blushing on her behalf.

Emma captivates us from the opening pages, her inner monologue as she debates the best course of action to salvage her dignity after smacking into a shirtless Galen on the street giving us sore cheeks as a result of a broad grin held entirely too long. She’s charmingly clumsy and self-deprecating, and when she’s introduced to the world of the Syrena (don’t call them mermaids/mermen!) she handles it with a respectable maturity. That maturity does slip now and again in her dealings with Galen though, as she often ignores his instructions to stay on land simply to be contrary and punishes him with the silent treatment when he hurts her, but for the most part we’re able to cut her some slack knowing our own behavior isn't always exemplary when our hearts suffer what feels like a fatal blow from someone we’re attracted to.

Galen for his part is as endearing as Emma, his unfamiliarity with human interaction causing him to make many a mistake where Emma is concerned, and we can’t help but want to pull him aside and give him a rundown of what not to do when dealing with a young woman. He can be both refreshingly honest–blurting sometimes inappropriate things out when he gets uncomfortable–and also alarmingly misleading (though not in a malicious way) as he struggles between what he wants most for himself and what he wants most for the Syrena. While there is plenty of heat between Galen and Emma throughout the story, there’s thankfully no instant love, instead we have a relationship deliciously full of opposites: hurt and happiness, secrets and openness, and normal and paranormal.

Overall, Of Poseidon is a thoroughly entertaining debut by Ms. Banks, her sense of humor a true highlight in this tale as we laugh so loudly and unexpectedly we startle those around us with the force of our outbursts. We’re given a solid introduction to the world of the Syrena but are left with enough mysteries to have us itching for more, and while we easily catch on to certain things long before the characters, our early knowledge does not detract from our enjoyment. The conclusion is a bit abrupt, but it’s not a significant enough drawback to hinder our amusement with the story as a whole, and we set the book aside with a smile on our faces while our fingers fly over our keyboards as we attempt to glean any information we can from the internet about the next book and its possible release date.

Rating: 4/5