I posted last week about starting a new feature called Author Addiction and, as I mentioned, the first author Kaja and I are featuring is Jennifer l Armentrout, also known as J Lynn. She is an author that people often have differing opinions about, she is a bit like Marmite, you either love her or you hate her.
She is divisive because of her writing style, she keeps things simple in her writing, but that can often be too simplistic. Her tendency to feature popular culture, such as popular TV shows, and she includes phrases used across the internet which can make her writing feel a bit like a tumblr users fan fiction. But it’s not all doom and gloom for Armentrout, after all, there is a reason I adore her writing and often rave on about her to others. I simply felt it necessary to point out the flaws in her writing, because I am aware of her writing and flaws and love her books despite all that. I'll be answering three questions to help fully explain why j love Armentrout and you should give her a chance too.
When did you first discover this author?
The first Armentrout book I read was actually one she wrote under the pen name J Lynn, back when I was first getting into the New Adult genre. It was Wait For You, I was a bit wary going in because, from what I had seen, the storylines of NA books were always so dramatic, and this one was doubly so. It was all about a girl who had a big trauma in her past and was reluctant to get to close to anyone. I have to say, I didn’t think I was going to like it, but I ended up enjoying it and buying the second book in the series, which I think I enjoyed a bit more because it was a bit less dramatic (not that much less dramatic, but you know). I think it was the Wait For You series which made me fully embrace the New Adult genre, the books were dramatic and over the top, and they got steamy, and they were exactly what I was looking for in a romance novel which I could relate to.
I didn’t realise, to begin with, that it was Jennifer L Armentrout writing under a pen name, I’d heard about her on a couple of blogs, but hadn’t been too interested, but after reading that series I later searched out more of her writing, eventually venturing to her YA reads, seeing what she’s written. I wasn’t too fussed with her other writing though, I was on a NA binge, with YA writing boring me for a bit. It was only later in the year I read others series and truly became addicted to her writing.
What's your favourite book by them?
My favourite books is Wicked and it is simply for the fact it is set in New Orleans. There are other reasons for me loving this book, like the whole fae thing and the magic and fantastical elements of the book. And the snark and banter as well. But its mostly the setting that did it because Armentrout was so good at genuinely creating what new Orleans is like. Her writing took me back to New Orleans, and when i book can transport you so completely it’s easy to understand why I loved it.
It was so much fun to read a book set in a place I’ve visited and feel myself be transported back there to how it was. It is well written in the fact it truly tells you what New Orleans is like and the characters are great. Sure, some of the banter and snark and references can get a bit much, but this is a fun easy read that you will enjoy, I am sure. And it’s a girl who can totally kick some ass, I just wish that Armentrout wasn’t so insistent on ending a book with a cliffhanger. They are the worst, but also totally effective because it practically guarantees you’ll buy the next book in the series.
Which book by this author would you recommend to others and why?
You might think I would recommend my favourite book to the unfamiliar with Armentrout's writing, but you'd be wrong, I would recommend The Dark Elements series because it is that series that led me to become addicted to her writing and to want read more of what she's done. I picked up the first book in the series, White Hot Kiss on a whim because it was on offer for kindle and it was that book which reminded me urban fantasy and paranormal romance series are my jam, also Armentrout writes the best cliffhangers. You don't have a mega one in the first book, but the second one the cliffhanger is mega. If you enjoy romance and urban fantasy in your YA fiction then this is the series for you and the third book is put this year, all the better really.
I hope you have enjoyed reading my love Jennifer L Armentrout, she is really an excellent author with books that leave you wanting more, and sweep you into a binge read of all her books. I hope you do pick up a book by her an d give her a go, she is not to everyone’s tastes, but she knows how to write an addictive read. If you feel like participating please leave a link in the comments, we were thinking about creating a linky for you all, but given it’s the first month, we thought it best to leave off this month and just see what happens, we only came up with the idea a couple of weeks ago so this really is a dry run for us.
And if this hasn't been your onth, you've not read Armentrout's books, then join us next month as we fangirl over Sarah J Maas, an author most, if not all, of you will have read.
January was an excellent reading month for me, but I have to say that not all the books I read gripped me. Normally when I read I feel myself become fully absorbed in that bookish world and I am often unwilling to leave when real life requires m involvement, not all of my reads this month invoked such a response from me, but that is neither here nor there I suppose. I did enjoy all my books, there was no book that invoked major disappoint me and I had to stop reading. I did occasionally get tempted to stop reading, but I think that was just romance fatigue on my part.
I also did a lot more posts this month than I thought I had, my posting schedule has being a bit more solid than it was last year, but I still forget to get my posts up when I intend. Maybe I’ll start scheduling them, but I don’t like to release a post out into the world without checking it, or skim reading it. I am surprised I’ve only posted two book reviews in January! I won’t to try and post more, never shall I review all the books I read because I’ve read 25 this month, started two more than that, and at the rate I read the time required to then review all those books, I dread to think. It would be a full time job.
January Reads
January Posts
Reading Challenge Round Up
Flights of Fantasy: 17%
Fairytale Retelling: 8%
Dusting Off The Shelves: 13%
That is January for me. Here’s hoping February is just as productive a month.
I don’t really have any clear memories of reading fairytales as a child. I still have a book of fairytales that I’ve had ever since I can remember, and I do remember sitting in my room reading it as a kid (or looking at the pictures anyway) but properly reading wasn’t what I did, there were so many words in it and I got bored. I would instead sit marvelling at the pictures and remember how much I loved one story or another. I think, like every other girl in the western world, it was Disney which began my love for fairytales. I remember watching films like Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast and being enchanted by those worlds. I wanted to be a princess and find my prince charming, gaining friends and having adventures. I wanted to believe there was magic and no matter how terrible things may seem there was always a happy ending to come.
I know these films didn’t really promote the best attitudes in life for me, the idea of being a princess and waiting for my princess charming to get my happily ever after, but they were wonderful and magical and I didn’t really care at the time. I didn’t know any better and
That is where I fell in love with fairytales, but then when I became a teenager I fell out of love with them. These perfect worlds where girls were rescued by one person or another and were waiting for their prince, they stopped being something that inspired me. fairytales, but adapted to suit more modern values. But that didn’t come straight away and the fact of the matter is once you reach a certain age it just isn’t cool to like Disney with the magic and the musical numbers. I got over that by the time I was sixteen, but when I began secondary school I just couldn’t embrace the Disney loving.
I ventured off into other genres, watched other films, read different books and grew up a bit. I read a lot of romance when I was at university, because really Disney influenced me way more than I thought, and also romance always has a happy ending, and that’s what gave me the warm and fuzzies in Disney films, so what did you expect? In those romance novels there is always a guy and a girl and some issues and then they end up together with a happily ever after. Then that started to bore me, because we all know what happens when you binge too much on one genre, you get fed up and cynical of it, so I was on a path to find something new.
I rediscovered the YA genre, which could offer me romance, without the sickly sweetness, and it also offered me some action that had been sorely lacking from the books I’d been reading. I then discovered book like Abandon by Meg Cabot and The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter, which are a retellings of a Greek myth, and I began reading YA books in earnest, not realising I was going to become totally obsessed with the genre.
I think it was probably Throne of Glass which is the first fairytale retelling I read, and even then I was not aware it was any kind of fairy tale retelling, because it is an amalgamation of different fairy tales and is so much it’s own story that I could not be expected to recognise the beginnings. I was not quick to read stories like Cinder and the Lunar Chronicles, because I was till wary of retellings, because I have seen them go wrong. When I finally committed, though, it was love and I cannot believe I did not embrace them sooner. Then, slowly, retellings have become a thing, I think they were always a thing. After all, the Disney versions of fairytales are nothing like the stories they claim their origins from. Happy endings were not always a thing that happened in these stories and they certainly weren’t all that light and fluffy. I love that retellings can completely reinterpret what we think we know about a fairytale and turn it on its head, it’s just so fascinating, I think that’s why I love them really.
But, anyway, I slowly came to embrace retellings of all kinds and am now committing to the fairytale retelling reading challenge for the year, which is made all the more challenging by finding the best books to read in the genre (is it a genre?) and also committing to buying or lending them.
I said at the beginning of the year that I wanted to write something about my favourite authors, a way to feature them in some way, especially as I am a terrible reviewer on my blog. I hadn’t quite thought up the specifics on this idea when I got a tweet from Kaja asking me if I wanted to try and do something together. I was intrigued and so we got chatting and this has all sort of snowballed from there.
I have never worked on anything with a blogger before, unless you include that time I did a post on Oh! The Books, and that was back in my early days of blogging. I was excited, because having someone else enthusiastic about something is always a good motivator for me (in case you’ve failed to notice before, I’m lazy). I was also excited by Kaja’s enthusiasm, my idea had just been something that had been lingering in the back of my mind, but it was her excitement that really got me started on thinking about I actually wanted to do with it.
After tweets were exchanged and a series of emails were sent, we came up with the idea of doing a monthly feature on our favourite authors. This will not be any old feature, though, but it will be a feature which could include anyone that is interested. We were thinking a book meme of sorts, but mostly it’s just a monthly post for us which we want to encourage others to get involved in. We will propose the author and we will chat about why we love them so, and why you should be interested too, and if all goes well we would like to encourage you to give it a go as well.
We spent a long time, like a couple of weeks, thinking up a name for this little feature, and finally we settled on Author Addiction, because the whole point of this monthly feature is to highlight our love of authors and our immense love for them.
You may all be thinking, how on earth will it work as a meme if you’re doing about your favourite authors, and what do I say to that?
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| Yeah, sorry if you don’t the gif reference, it’s a British thing I think. |
It really is simple what we are proposing. Each month we will do a feature on out favourite author, with a few questions posed to get your thoughts going and direct your post, and we will announce who we plan to feature each month, so if you see an author you love you can get writing and tell everyone you know why you love them.
We will, obviously, be open to suggestions on how this feature should work, and we will do months where it’s a freebie week open to whatever author you may choose, because our tastes do vary. On the first Monday of each month we will doing the feature, so please come back on Monday where we will talking about our love for: Jennifer L Armentrout.
- When did you first discover this author?
- What's your favourite book by them?
- Which book by this author would you recommend to others and why?
Both Kaja and I will be doing our own posts, so don’t forget to go visit her over at Of Dragons and Hearts on Monday to see what she has to say. I hope you’ll come back and see the feature, and I would love to hear your thoughts.
I am continually amazed at the topics proposed for the weekly meme that is Top 10 Tuesday, which is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. I have to question how they keep coming up with new ideas, and whilst I know they often get recycled, a lot of them are new and interesting, and this one is definitely a different one for me.
I've never been part of a book club so I'm not really sure how book choices would go. I mean surely you can just read whatever? But, then I have seen before at the end of a book questions for book clubs so maybe you have to choose good books to discuss. I think if I ever joined a book club I would try and read adult books as I don't read as many in that category as I would like. If I was to ever join a book club I’d want one which would help encourage me to read outside my box and I think having to read it to discuss with others might motivate me to read and finish the books. I also would want to read books I've not read in a while and new books to keep things interesting. I would try and introduce books I love to others whilst also trying to get them to introduce books to me to help expand my horizons. This means I will split my choices in two, those books I’ve read and would love to read again, and those I haven’t, for whatever reason, and would like others in the book club to help motivate me to read.
First the books I’ve read and would love any excuse to read again and force others to enjoy.
When I was first introduced to this book it was as a romance, and it is a romance, but it is so much more than just that. I’m hoping the series will be so much more as well. I would love to get others to fall into the blackhole that is this series with me, and because I picture myself being in a book club with women, so what better than a time-travelling romance to bring us together? Although, I have only just finished this books, and it is a very long series, so maybe wait a while before having it as a book club read.
I think I would encourage my book club to read anything by Neil Gaiman, but especially this books and Good Omens, they are both books I would like to read again, and I think they would be improved by being able to discuss them with others afterwards. I also think it could easily be followed with a reading of Anansi Boys, which I’ve not read yet, but my brother told me good things, so it would be a good excuse.
I’ve not exactly been quiet in my love for this book series, even though I’ve yet to read the third book, but I would love to force others to read it too. This may possibly be to motivate me to read the third book. I know it’s a romance, so I would probably need a book club filled with women to pull this one off, but still, it’s a great series, and vampires are so much cooler in this book, and there are witches and history. It’s like all the things I loved when I was younger in one awesome book series.
Because it is a book about people that like to read and can do cool and weird things with it. It’s like Inkheart for adults, but better. And because I can only vaguely remember what happens, so it would be nice to reread.
I read this book when I was at uni and I loved it. I love a good mystery crime thriller type book, I think this is motivated partly by my mothers reading choices. She loves them, and back at school I had a very limited reading budget, so if I had not been to the library it was her books I had to read. Thus I have a love of a good mystery. I would love to reread this book, and read the second one, which is unread on my shelf. My mom bought the second and sent it up to me in a care package at uni, I never get around to reading it. It’s probably been three years since I first got it, I would love to remedy that.
I think every book club ever has probably already read this book, but I should think that m book club should read it, mostly because I picture being a part of a book club with my best friend and I know she hasn’t read this book. I would abuse the power of choosing books for book club and force her to read it just so we can talk about it.
Now for the books I’ve been meaning to read but haven’t and would like my supposed book club to help force me to.
That best friend I mentioned earlier, she gave me a book to read about six months ago. SHe said it was a bit weird and not what she expected, but a really good read. SHe then gave it to me and told me to enjoy it. I have not looked at that book beyond moving from one of books to another when it was in the way. I am a terrible friend, but if i read this book as part of a book club there is every chance i would be motivated to read.
I saw this film when I was younger and adored it. I’ve always adored Sandra Bullock though. When I found out it was based on a book I knew I wanted to read it. My mom got me Ya-Ya’s in Bloom from the livarary when I was younger, and I devoured that, but I still have yet to read this one. I’ve read Little Alters Everywhere, as well, which is like a collection of short stories about the family, and I loved it, yet still this book sits unread on my shelf.
A friend of mine recommended this. She said that she simply could not put it down, the story drew her in. I’ve tried reading it once and could not say the same. I was reading it in pieces though. I would love to try reading it again and see if I experienced the sae struggle. I think it may be a book which you read with others to urge you on.
I have nothing but good things, and I think a light-hearted read like this would be needed with my book club. Also, I am really curious to read it but simply have not begun the book because I have not been in the mood to.
And those are the books I would love to read as a part of my fictional book club. I think they all would be suitably interesting enough to fuel discussion.
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