Author Interview: Jennifer Murgia

I would like to introduce you all to Jennifer Murgia, author of Angel Star, releasing May 18th, 2010. She was kind enough to let me interview her and I really enjoyed getting to know this lovely author.

The Book Pixie: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Jennifer Murgia: I’m the mother of two and am sort of a homebody – especially in the winter. If I could hibernate, I would! I’m soft-spoken. I love the smell of lemons. I’m never without a book and I’m addicted to coffee, which tends to make me chatty.

TBP: Give us a brief synopsis of your book.

JM: Seventeen-year-old Teagan McNeel falls for captivating Garreth Adams, her guardian angel come to earth. But where there is light, dark follows, and now she is torn between one angel's sacrifice and another angel's vicious ambition that threatens not only her life, but the lives of everyone she knows.

TBP: What is it like to have your first book published?

JM: It’s an amazing feeling! This has been my dream for a long time.

TBP: How did you react when you first discovered that Angel Star was going to be published?

JM: My publisher called with the offer and I was actually shaking! My son and daughter were home at the time and we all sort of jumped around and screamed, then I called my husband with the news. It’s still hard to believe ANGEL STAR is getting published!

TBP: What is it you love most about being a writer?

JM: I love creating new worlds. Scenes and conversations will stew around in my brain for a while, so I love having the opportunity to bring it out into the open and not keep it all contained. The story usually sprouts legs at that point and I often have to do all I can to keep up!

TBP: Do you have a favorite scene or line from Angel Star?

JM: I do! And here it is:

“Do you believe there is a heaven?” Garreth whispered, his face close enough I could feel his breath on my hair.

“Yes,” I whispered back. How could I possibly tell him that if heaven were here on earth at this very moment, it would be here. Now.

“And angels?” he asked once again. I could feel my pulse quicken, my heart racing behind my ribs . . . wings came to mind. I slowly looked up at him and asked what I knew was slightly irrational.

“Are you for real?”

TBP: What song do you think best suits Angel Star?

JM: Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls ~ although I was heavily influenced by Evanescence while writing. (Evanescence rocks!)

TBP: How did you come up with the names Teagan and Garreth?

JM: I always had a soft spot for the name Teagan. I had heard it somewhere and it stuck with me. Garreth is Latin for “light”, which represents all he encompasses.

TBP: Who in your life has made the biggest impact on who you are today? (Besides yourself.)

JM: I believe my husband, my parents and my grandmother all deserve to be given credit here, but I really need to say my children have made me who I am right now.
They're my perfect balance. We have structure, house rules, but yet we have crazy, silly moments that I cherish deeply. Being a mother has taught me to let go and be the real "me".

TBP: Anything else you'd like to add?

JM: I just want to say thank you so much for having me! This has been really fun! I also want to invite everyone to stop by my website http://www.jennifermurgia.com/ from time to time as we wait for the release of ANGEL STAR.

I would like to thank you all for stopping by my blog and welcoming Jennifer. I would also like to thank Jennifer for the interview. I hope you all enjoyed getting to know her as much as I did.

Waiting on Wednesday

Firespell by Chloe Neill
Publisher: Signet
Release Date: January 5th, 2010
Pages: 256
Age Level: YA
Series: Dark Elite #1

Synopsis
As the new girl at the elite St. Sophia’s boarding school, Lily Parker thinks her classmates are the most monstrous things she’ll have to face…

When Lily’s guardians decided to send her away to a fancy boarding school in Chicago, she was shocked. So was St. Sophia’s. Lily’s ultra-rich brat pack classmates think Lily should be the punchline to every joke, and on top of that, she’s hearing strange noises and seeing bizarre things in the shadows of the creepy building.

The only thing keeping her sane is her roommate, Scout, but even Scout’s a little weird—she keeps disappearing late at night and won’t tell Lily where she’s been. But when a prank leaves Lily trapped in the catacombs beneath the school, Lily finds Scout running from a real monster.

Scout’s a member of a splinter group of rebel teens with unique magical talents, who’ve sworn to protect the city against demons, vampires, and Reapers, magic users who’ve been corrupted by their power. And when Lily finds herself in the line of a firespell, Scout tells her the truth about her secret life, even though Lily has no powers of her own—at least none that she’s discovered yet…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok so why do I want to read this book? Because Firespell has the whole package: great title, compelling cover, and an intriguing premise. And if that wasn't enough to make my mouth water, there is the Exclusive Look into Firespell that I posted earlier. Check it out. :D

An Exclusive Look Into.....Firespell by Chloe Neill

Thanks to Chloe Neill, you very lucky readers of mine are going to get to read an exclusive scene from her upcoming book, Firespell. Go on, you can say it, you love me don't ya? And Chloe of course. :P Enjoy peeps!

Excerpt from:
Firespell (Dark Elite #1) by Chloe Neill
Publisher: Signet
Release Date: Janurary 5, 2010
Pages: 256
Age Level: YA

~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time I glanced up again, Scout and Jason were only feet in front of
me. That meant the blond girl was only a
few yards behind. I saw the look of horror on Scout’s face. “Get up,
Lily!” she implored. “Run.”

I muttered a curse that would have made a string of sailors blush, and
ignoring the bruises blossoming on my knees,
jumped to my feet and did as I was ordered. The three of us took off down
the hallway, presumably for a safer place.

We ran through one corridor, then another, then another, heading in the
opposite direction of the path I’d taken with
the brat pack—probably a good thing, since there was no giant metal door
in that part of the convent to keep them
out.

To keep her out.

Whatever juju the blonde used before, she used again, the ground rumbling
beneath our feet. I don’t know how she
managed it, how she managed to make the earth—and all the limestone
above it—move, but she did it sure enough.

We all stumbled, but Scout reached out a hand and grabbed at the wall to
keep her balance, and Jason caught
Scout’s elbow. I caught limestone, the stones rushing toward my face as
she knocked me off my feet. I braced myself
on my hands, the pads of my hands burning as I hit the floor.

They were on their feet again and yards ahead before they realized I
wasn’t with them.

“Lily!” Scout screamed, but I was already looking behind me, watching
the blonde. The earthquake-maker just stood
there, and I figured if I was already on the floor, there wasn’t much
else she could do to me.

Of course, that didn’t mean the guy who stepped out from behind her
couldn’t do damage. He was older than she
was—college, maybe. Curly dark hair, broad shoulders, and blue eyes that
gleamed with a creepy intensity—With a
hunger. And all that hunger and intensity was directed at me.

I swallowed down fear and panic, and tried to make my brain work, tried to
make my arms and legs push me up from
the floor, but I was suddenly puppy-clumsy, unable to order my limbs to
function.

The boy stepped beside the blonde, muttered something, and just as she had
done, whipped his hand in my
direction.

The air pressure in the room changed, and something flew my way, some
thing he’d created with that flick of his
hand. It looked like a contact lens of hazy, green smoke, but it wasn’t
really smoke. It wasn’t really a thing. It was
more like the very air in the room had warped.

Still on the floor—only a second or two having passed since I fell to
the ground, time slowing in the midst of my
panic—I stared at it, eyes wide, mouth open in shock as it moved toward
me.

Nothing in my sixteen years of life in Sagamore, or my week in Chicago,
had prepared me for . . .. whatever it was.
And whatever it was, it was about to make contact.

They say there are moments in your life when time slows down, when you can
see your fate rushing toward you. This
was one of those times.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well if that doesn't make you want to read Firespell then I don't know what will. I've got a feeling I'm going to love this book. For those of you who have already made up your mind that this is a book you want, there are some links below where you can pre-order it.

Amazon

Book Depository

Barnes and Noble

&

Borders

In My Mailbox (21)

In My Mailbox

I know I usually post my IMM on Saturday but I decided to take yesterday off.

BookMooch

~Girl V. Boy by Yvonne Collins and Sally Rideout

~Confessions of a Not It Girl by Melissa Kantor

~Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles
~The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading by Charity Tahmaseb and Darcy Vance

From Contests

~ARC of Geektastic by various authors (from Park-Ave Princess)

~Ruined by Paula Morris (from Must and Lust for Books)

~ ARC of A Match Made in Highschool by Kristin Walker (from Princess Bookie)

~Bo's Cafe by John Lynch (from A Few of My Favorite Things)

For Review

~Ansel Adams in Color (from Anna at Hachette)

Bought

~Betraying Season by Marissa Doyle

~Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick (For contest)

~Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead (For contest)

From Marissa Doyle (Thanks so much!)

~Signed! Bewtiching Season (For contest)

~Door hangers and Bookmarks (For contest)

~Wooden fan (For me.)

~Personalized Bookplate (Not pictured, for me.)

Win a Signed ARC and T-Shirt

Suzanne Young is having this totally awesome contest for a signed ARC of The Naughty List and a Naughty List T-Shirt! If you haven't already, go ENTER!

I've been quoted!!

OMG! I'm like so excited right now. After emailing the link to my Mackenzie, Lost and Found review to author Deborah Kerbel, whom I was reviewing it for, she asked if she could quote me on her site. Of course I told her she could and here it is people. Click here.

I was so happy when I saw it! You absolutely rock Deborah! To read my full review of Mackenzie, Lost and Found, just click here. And if you haven't already, I highly suggest you get yourself a copy of this amazing book and read it.

Review: Mackenize, Lost and Found

Mackenzie, Lost and Found by Deborah Kerbel Publisher: Dundurn
Pub. Date: November 17, 2008
Pages: 256
Age Level: YA

Synopsis
Still recovering from the loss of her mother, fifteen-year-old Mackenzie Hill feels like she's drowning in a sea of pain and loneliness.To make matters worse, her eccentric father is forcing her to leave behind the only home she's ever known and move with him to Israel.

Coming of age in the ancient city of Jerusalem, Mackenzie forges a friendship with an American girl who's also suffered a tragic loss. At the same time, she becomes caught up in a forbidden romance with a Palestinian boy and an unwitting involvement in a ring of black-market bandits. Mackenzie has to find a way to solve the mystery of the stolen artefacts without betraying her first love. And along the way, come to terms with the grief that has been slowly eating away at her heart.

Review
Mackenzie, Lost and found is the utterly original, beautifully crafted story of a forbidden love.

I thought Mackenzie and Nasir were such realistically portrayed characters. They were easy to relate to and I have a good feeling they will be very hard to forget. I particularly found Nasir to be an intriguing character. There was just something about him that was just so different from other male love interests in YA books and I don't just mean the fact that he's Muslim, though that probably played some part. Mackenzie and Nasir's relationship was genuine and based on the more important things, like being able to really talk to each other. Though at times it seems their relationship is developing too quickly, I had to remember that this book takes place over nearly a year of time. For this reason, I found myself wishing this book had been much longer so I could have watched their relationship develop and grow more, instead of just getting glimpses.

Mackenzie, Lost and Found is a very unique, and in some ways, possibly controversial story. However, I only loved it all the more for it. I have to give serious kudos to Deborah Kerbel for writing this wonderful book. There are very few authors out there who would dare to write a story about a romance between a Caucasian Canadian girl and a Muslim boy.

Deborah Kerbel's writing style definitely helped me form a closer connection to the story and its characters. I found it was suprisingly easy for me to picture the setting of Jerusalem. Now, everyone knows I love alternating perspectives in a book. After all, don't most people? Furthermore, I thought it was especially important that this book was written with alternating perspectives for numerous reasons. For starters, the insight I got into the Muslim culture. Another is that I got to know Nasir's opinions on his own culture and on others. Plus there is the obvious reason of getting to know both side of the story in general.

The ending, well, lets just say the ending was not my favorite aspect of this book. There were parts about it that I liked and parts I really didn't. What I liked about the ending was that I could really see how Mackenzie had changed throughout the book and, in a way, she finally finds closure on a couple of things. However, this book also left me with a huge, nagging question that I really wish had been answered. I believe anyone who has read this book knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Mackenzie, Lost and Found is an impressive, memorable book that I'll never forget. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend this book to anyone. Of course, there are always going to be those who aren't going to be keen on the idea of this book, but I think Mackenzie, Lost and Found is one that even they should read. I know it is one I'll be re-reading and I'm proud to have it in my personal library.

Grade
Characters: A-
Writing: B+
Plot: A
Ending: C+
Recommendable:A-
Cover: B (Would have been higher but the girl on the cover just didn't seem to really reflect Mackenzie the way I'd have liked. Plus, she is supposed to be a blonde, so what is with the dark brown eyebrows?)

Overall: B+