Review and Interview

My reviewof Do Over by Shannon Guymon is posted on Meridian this morning. You can read the review or better yet, read the book, but I want to focus now on the description of the heroine, Iris. She's young, pretty, been badly hurt and wants a complete change in her life. One thing she does is change her hair. Her long auburn locks are cut and she has the tips bleached then tinted to look like flames. The book is a light fun read, perfect for escaping the winter doldrums, but a funny thing happened while I was preparing this review. I received a picture of a great niece I hadn't seen for a long time. This is Katie, but she's exactly how I pictured Iris.

 

 

I don't often do interviews, but I agreed to let Tanya Parker Mills interview me a few days ago. You can read the interview here.  It was fun answering her questions and she included some pictures from my childhood along with my answers to her questions. I somehow missed her book, A Night on Moon Hill, when it was released in 2012, but since it's a finalist for a Whitney Award I decided to find and read it. To say I'm impressed is an understatement.  Picking which book gets my vote in the general category just got a lot harder.

 

It's always a little difficult for me this time of year to read the Whitney finalists I've missed during the year and keep up with new books to review at the same time.  This year I'm not even trying.  I'm just reading four categories and concentrating on new books.  I've got one Whitney finalist waiting for me at the library and two partials to finish, one I can hardly drag my way through and one I'm anxious to get back to.  Then I'll be done with the Whitneys unless I decide to do another category.  How about you?  If you're reading the Whitney finalists, how close are you to finishing.  If not, what are you reading and have you nominated any of the books you've read this year for the next Whitney contest?  Remember each comment is a chance to win my new book Where the River Once Flowed.