For today’s stop on the Irish Banana Blog Tour, author Michael Mazza shares with us his top ten reasons to take his novel That Crazy Perfect Someday to the beach. Before I get too carried away, let me give you a little more information about the book.
That Crazy Perfect Someday
Michael Mazza
Turtle Point Press
Published June 13, 2017
About That Crazy Perfect Someday
The year is 2024. Climate change has altered the world’s wave patterns. Drones crisscross the sky, cars drive themselves, and surfing is a new Olympic sport. Mafuri Long, UCSD marine biology grad, champion surfer, and only female to dominate a record eighty-foot wave, still has something to prove. Having achieved Internet fame, along with sponsorship from Google and Nike, she’s intent on winning Olympic gold. But when her father, a clinically depressed former Navy captain and widower, learns that his beloved supercarrier, the USS Hillary Rodham Clinton, is to be sunk, he draws Mafuri into a powerful undertow. Conflicts compound as Mafuri’s personal life comes undone via social media, and a vicious Aussie competitor levels bogus doping charges against her.
Mafuri forms an unlikely friendship with an awkward teen, a Ferrari-driving professional gamer who will prove to be her support and ballast. Authentic, brutal, and at times funny, Mafuri lays it all out in a sprightly, hot-wired voice. From San Diego to Sydney, Key West, and Manila, That Crazy Perfect Someday goes beyond the sports/surf cliché to explore the depths of sorrow and hope, yearning and family bonds, and the bootstrap power of a bold young woman climbing back into the light.
Top Ten Reasons to Take That Crazy Perfect Someday to the Beach
by Michael Mazza
Booklist calls it a “[A] beach-bag must-have.”
Many of the scenes take place on a beach!
Read it on a beach. With the sand fleas, stinky kelp odor, and sea spray, you’ll have a truly interactive experience.
It’s a conversation starter for that hunky, tropical resort bartender fixin’ up your fourth Mai Tai.
It’s a story with drones, sharks, Aussie surf thugs, monster waves, bonobo apes, a Louis the XIV wedding, and celebrity wipe-outs. Who doesn’t like celebrity wipe-outs?
Your mom would approve of it—wait, scratch that.
It makes a great sunshade when not in use.
Word is that fish love it! Sea mollusks too!
It goes great with a refreshing umbrella drink.
The sun gods will shine their heavenly goodness upon you for reading it. And isn’t that reason enough?
Finally, always wear sunscreen, never drop in on another surfer, and support your local indie bookstore.
Michael Mazza is a San Francisco Bay Area fiction writer whose stories have appeared in Other Voices, WORDS, Blue Mesa Review, TINGE, and ZYZZYVA. He is also an internationally acclaimed art and creative director working in the advertising industry. That Crazy Perfect Someday is his first novel.
I’m today’s stop on the Bloomsbury Blog Tour celebrating the release of two fantastic middle grade books: The Dragon with the Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis and The Frog Princess Returns by E. D. Baker. I’m so excited to share both of these books, and I’ve got excerpts to share and a chance to win both books, so read on and enjoy!
The Dragon with the Chocolate Heart
Stephanie Burgis
Bloomsbury
Published May 30, 2017
About The Dragon with the Chocolate Heart Aventurine is the fiercest, bravest dragon there is. And she’s ready to prove it to her family by leaving the safety of their mountain cave and capturing the most dangerous prey of all: a human. But when the human she finds tricks her into drinking enchanted hot chocolate, Aventurine is transformed into a puny human girl with tiny blunt teeth, no fire, and not one single claw.
But she’s still the fiercest creature in the mountains — and now she’s found her true passion: chocolate! All she has to do is get herself an apprenticeship (whatever that is) in a chocolate house (which sounds delicious), and she’ll be conquering new territory in no time…won’t she?
Excerpt from The Dragon with the Chocolate Heart
He hesitated a moment. Then he leaned down and scooped up a wooden spoon from the ground, his hand trembling. “Trust me,” he said. “You should have the full experience.”
As his face squeezed tight with concentration, he began to whisper to himself, almost chanting the words. Was he singing that stupid song again? The rhythms didn’t sound quite the same, but who needed to hear more human nonsense? Not me. I didn’t even try to make it out.
The moment he reached into his pocket, though, I grabbed his shoulder with one claw. “No swords!”
“I—I…” He stuttered to a halt. “It’s not a sword,” he finally managed. “Look.” He pulled out a bag from his pocket. “It’s just cinnamon.”
Cinnamon? I leaned down toward the bag suspiciously. If he was trying to poison me…
“I’ll eat some myself,” he said. “Look.” He reached one shaking finger into the bag and scooped out a few orangey-brown specks. Then he swallowed them. “See?”
I smelled, which was even better. The open bag smelled amazing.
“Put it in,” I ordered. I wanted to smell that combination. I could already tell that the mixture of cinnamon and chocolate would be wonderful.
He shook in a few pinches, still breathing hard.
Ohhhh, I had been right. These new smells were even better.
I was almost starting to wish that I didn’t’ have to take him home afterward for my family to eat. It would be much more satisfying to keep this human as a pet, to make hot chocolate for me any time I wanted.
He would be a hardworking pet, too, I could tell. As he stirred the hot chocolate, he kept on whispering to himself the whole time in that funny rhythmic chant, his whole body taut with concentration. I suppose I could have listened harder, to try to pick out his words, but really, when had I ever cared about anything humans said? Besides, I was far too busy enjoying the smells from his pot. If I could have, I would have wrapped myself up in those steamy tendrils of scent and rolled around in them for hours. Hot chocolate. Talk about a treasure fit for a dragon!
I’d have to look for more chocolate in his luggage when I finished here. I already knew I would have to have hot chocolate again. Lots of it.
Finally, he looked up and gave me a nervous, wavering smile. “It’s ready,” he said. “Shall I pour it into a cup, or…”
I snorted, sending a ball of smoke flying past his face. “Do you really think I could drink from one of your tiny human cups?”
“I suppose not,” he said. “You’d better drink it from the pot then.” He wrapped one soft, human hand in his outer covering for protection, and then lifted the pot by its long handle. “Look out, it’s hot.”
I gave him a contemptuous look as I reached out with one forefoot. “I’m a dragon.”
My claws curved around the little pot, cradling it like the most precious of gems. Carefully, I lifted it to my mouth. Closing my eyes, I tipped the luxuriant, hot liquid into my mouth.
Ohhhhh!
Bliss exploded through my sense. I reeled with pleasure.
Chocolate chocolate chocolate—
“Ahhh!”
And then everything exploded inside me, and the world went black.
The Frog Princess Returns
E. D. Baker
Bloomsbury
Published June 6, 2017
About The Frog Princess Returns Fans of E. D. Baker’s The Frog Princess, rejoice! Fifteen years after the original, Princess Emma, Prince Eadric, and all the beloved characters are back for another magical adventure from popular author E. D. Baker.
Two weeks after Emma’s birthday, Prince Eadric — having been turned from a frog into a human again — is still in Greater Greensward. One day, a beautiful princess named Adara arrives at the castle in Greater Greensward for a visit, claiming to be Emma’s distant cousin. But Adara has other motives that threaten Emma and Eadric’s blossoming romance.
Meanwhile, something is very wrong in Greater Greensward. Crops are dying, streams are drying up, and large sections of trees in the enchanted forest are withering — all because the Fairy Queen has disappeared. Without her, there is no peace in the magical kingdom, and dangerous foes threaten to take advantage of her absence. Only brave, tenacious Emma with her knowledge of the land can restore order . . . but first she must set out on a journey unlike any before.
Brimming with lovable characters and page-turning magic, The Frog Princess Returns will bring a whole new batch of readers to E. D. Baker’s highly acclaimed, wonderfully popular world of Frog Princess series.
Excerpt from The Frog Princess Returns
We had reached the top of the stairs when Adara announced that she wasn’t feeling well and was on her way to bed. She was walking away when a guard approached. He told me that someone was waiting to talk to me in the Great Hall. Eadric and I looked at each other, wondering who it could be at that hour. Following the guard, we entered the Hall and found a middle-aged man wearing the clothes of a farmer sitting on a bench by the door.
“I’m sorry to disturb you so late in the day, Your Highness, but I came right after I saw what had happened and it took me a while to get here,” said the farmer. “I’m Johnson. My fields are next to the enchanted forest. I planted my crops there because of the fairies. They take good care of the forest, and the dust they use runs off into the fields around it, making them healthy, too. I’ve had some of my best harvests ever since I started planting those fields. I would have had a great harvest this year if this hadn’t happened. It’s my wheat, you see. Someone gave it the blight.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, but I don’t know what I can do about it,” I told the man. “Haven’t you ever dealt with the blight before?”
Johnson nodded. “Back before I planted near the forest, it happened every few years, but it was never like this. It’s not the blight itself, you see. It’s the way it hit my wheat. Some wheat has it and some doesn’t. It’s made a pattern like a big circle. Darndest thing I ever saw.”
“Really?” I said. “You think someone might have infected your crop with the blight deliberately?
“I can’t think of any other reason it would look like that. Who would do such a thing to a man’s wheat?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out,” I replied. “I’ll come look at it tomorrow.”
First Maple and Water Lily, now Farmer Johnson. Something must be really wrong.
Visit the Other Stops on the Blog Tour
Check out some of the other great blogs participating in this tour. There are guest posts and interviews with the authors as well as some other fun tidbits– not to mention you might want to add a few of these blogs to your own reading list.
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app.
Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose?
Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.
My Review for One of Us is Lying
This is definitely the kind of story that keeps you turning pages late into the night. Every chapter hints at and slowly reveals new secrets that change what you know about each character in the room with Simon when he dies.
I liked that each character had a lot more going on than it originally appeared, and each is a lot deeper than her classmates initially perceive her to be. I liked each of the characters a lot, especially as I got to know them.
Throughout the story, important clues come from surprising places, which again kept me guessing. There was a point at which I thought I had the plot figured out and was pretty close. Honestly, by then, I was so invested in the story and so curious as to what would happen to the truly innocent parties, that I didn’t care if I turned out to be right.
If you’re a fan of the cult classic The Breakfast Club or murder mysteries in general, you need to add this one to your summer reading list. If you’re like me, once you read the first chapter, you won’t be able to put it down.
Representation Bronwyn and her sister are half-Latino. One character comes out as gay midway through the story.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.
Romance/Sexual Content Addy’s mother teaches her that the only way to keep a man is to keep him sexually satisfied. She and her boyfriend make out on her bed, and it’s clear she means to have sex with him. Through the course of the story, she begins to question her mom’s advice and eventually decides to take a break from dating and be herself.
Some kisses are exchanged between boy and girl or between two boys.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content A boy goes into anaphylactic shock and dies.
Drug Content Nate sells drugs to pay the bills his father ignores. After Simon’s death, he stops, knowing the police investigation puts him at too great a risk of getting caught. Eventually he finds other reasons not to pick the habit up again.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of ONE OF US IS LYING in exchange for my honest review.
The highly anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestselling thriller everyone is talking about, One of Us Is Lying! There’s a new mystery to solve at Bayview High, and there’s a whole new set of rules.
Bronwyn’s younger sister, Maeve, and her best friend/ex-boyfriend, Knox, and their friend Phoebe become targets of the next gossip attack. Appearances from the original Bayview Four.
About The Hunger Games
The nation of Panem, formed from a post-apocalyptic North America, is a country that consists of a wealthy Capitol region surrounded by 12 poorer districts. Early in its history, a rebellion led by a 13th district against the Capitol resulted in its destruction and the creation of an annual televised event known as the Hunger Games. In punishment, and as a reminder of the power and grace of the Capitol, each district must yield one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 through a lottery system to participate in the games. The ‘tributes’ are chosen during the annual Reaping and are forced to fight to the death, leaving only one survivor to claim victory.
When 16-year-old Katniss’s young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12’s female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta, are pitted against bigger, stronger representatives, some of whom have trained for this their whole lives. She sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature.
My Review
My favorite thing about The Hunger Games is the balance between Katniss and Peeta. Katniss is a survivor. She’s strong and clever with traps and snares but emotions totally mystify her. Peeta’s work at the bakery affords him physical strength, but his real asset in the Games is his intuition, his understanding of others, and his strength of heart. Those two need each other if they have any hope of surviving in the arena.
While the plot moves quickly and the threat of death keeps readers on the edge of their seats, the story’s real victory is its unforgettable characters. Rue, the clever, young tribute Katniss watches in training, and Cinna, her compassionate costume designer and unexpected ally, remain my favorites.
While it’s very clean in other ways, The Hunger Games, as you might imagine from the description, has some strong violence which may make it the wrong pick for younger or more sensitive readers. My daughter has been asking to read Divergent, which has more violence and some sexual content, which I’m not sure she’s ready for, so reading The Hunger Games was an alternative I felt more comfortable with, and which still let her into the young adult spectrum. We read the book together and sometimes stopped to talk about what was happening.
The Hunger Games Movie
After reading the book, my daughter and I watched the movie together. It does have some brief, mild profanity, and of course, gives visual to the violence depicted in the scenes of the book. The movie stays pretty true to the spirit of the book, though it does streamline and minimize some things. For instance, instead of Katniss listening to hours of a tribute being tortured, she quickly ends his life in an act of mercy. You can read a full content breakdown of the movie here.
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Cultural Elements
Major characters are white and straight, except Rue and Thresh, who are black.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing between boy and girl. They spend nights together, but usually one or other is gravely injured, and at any rate, no mention of anything sexual happening.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content Strong violence. Tributes actively try to kill one another with weapons and traps. An older teen kills a younger one with a spear. A girl kills opponents with knives. Mutant wasps kill and wound others. A boy bashes another tribute’s skull in with a rock. Genetically mutated monsters which appear to be some kind of human/dog hybrid chase tributes, torturing one they catch. (Katniss describes hearing the pained sounds of the victim for hours, but can’t see what’s happening.)
Drug Content
Katniss samples wine with her dinner. Her mentor, Haymitch, abuses alcohol. He stumbles about drunk and at one point collapses into his own vomit.
About Shadow and Thorn An exiled king.
An elusive thief.
And the treasure they would give their lives to possess…
Alexei is returning to his homeland after more than twenty years in hiding. His kingdom is destroyed, his people dead or enslaved. His only hope to provide sanctuary for those few who remain is the uncertain word of a traitor, a broken man who claims to know the hiding place of Erath’s greatest treasure. To find it, Alexei will have to return to the place where Erath fell, and brave the shadowed halls of a castle that echoes with the ghosts of his past.
Zara is a woman without a future—a treasure hunter, and a thief who hates to steal. Trapped by fate in an abandoned castle, she encounters a destiny she could never have predicted, and uncovers a treasure far greater than she ever imagined.
When their paths collide, Alexei and Zara may both have a chance to atone for past mistakes… unless they kill each other first. Brought together by enemies both expected and unexpected, they will plumb the depths of an unimaginable betrayal and forge the foundations of a love they would risk anything to keep.
My Review Confession: The characters’ ages make this technically adult fiction, which I almost never review here. I’m making an exception for two (kind of flimsy) reasons. One is that I LOVE this series, and the other is that earlier books fit the young adult genre a lot better, so YA readers who’ve been along for the earlier books may want to know what I have to say about this one.
The only hiccup for me was the opening scene. I was kind of confused by what was happening and I wasn’t sure if I should be able to place it with something from a previous book. Once I got a few chapters in, I realized exactly what was happening in that opening scene, and I appreciated it a lot more.
I remembered Alexei from the third book in the series, and I definitely remember thinking I wanted to know more about him. So finding him at the center of this book was really exciting. I also liked Zara a LOT. She’s spunky and good, which you don’t often see paired together. I was a fan from the moment she walked on scene.
Shadow and Thorn is a re-imagining of the story of Beauty and the Beast, but it’s possibly the most clever re-imagining of that story I’ve ever read (and I do NOT say that lightly because Robin McKinley’s Beauty is easily in my top twenty-five favorite books ever.) because while it retells the story in a different way, it also becomes an origin story. I know that’s vague. I don’t want to give too much away, but there were so many moments as I read the story where things suddenly clicked and I was like, OHHHHHHH! I see what’s happening here! And that made reading it so much fun.
I also liked that Alexei has a team of allies–sort of the way the Beast has his servants in the castle who are loyal and often see things he doesn’t. It rounded out the cast of characters really nicely. The castle appears as a character, too, and I thought that was really imaginatively done. She is ancient and inhuman, and it definitely came across in her actions and desires and added some real complexity to the tale.
I feel like fans of Leah Cypess need to read the Andari books. Seriously. Something about this story reminded me of her debut, Mistwood. If you’re a fan of fairy tales re-imagined, you need to put this series at the top of your reading list. Kenley Davidson has published four books so far, and I’ve loved every one of them. If you’ve never heard of the Andari Chronicles before, check out my review of the first book, Traitor’s Masque here .
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Cultural Elements
The Andari Chronicles feel rich with varied cultures. This story focuses mostly on one culture, which had previously been enslaved because of their magical abilities.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Brief kissing between a boy and girl.
Spiritual Content Magical abilities allow some people to do amazing things—manipulate crystals, predict the future, heal others, or control them.
Magical ability can also be used to form an unbreakable bond with someone. When someone shares a bond with someone else, they must stay near each other or risk death if they become too distanced from one another. Also, if one member of the bond dies, the other will follow.
Violent Content Brief battles. Some soldiers become wounded.
Drug Content
None.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Ever since Aileana witnessed her mother’s brutal death, she has hunted for the killer. Maintaining the balance of her daylight life as a wealthy, prominent young woman in Scottish society becomes increasingly difficult as faeries, the monsters who prey on humans like her mother, begin to find Aileana everywhere. Then Aileana learns more drives her than her thirst for vengeance. She’s the last of an ancient race with the ability to fight even the most powerful faeries. And she’ll need all her sleeping gifting to wake if she has any hope of stopping terrible creatures from forming an army and destroying all of humanity.
At first I had a little trouble reconciling all the various parts of the story. The setting has this sort of Jane Austen feel. The terrifying faeries bring a pretty serious suspense, almost horror element. And the strange mechanical devices Aileana depends on and invents give the story a steampunk flare. Once I acclimated to all these things, though, I felt like they complimented each other pretty well. The story needs all those things in order to complete its plot.
The characters—just, wow. I loved the banter between Aileana and her best friend Catherine and of course Aileana and her mentor Kiaran. Pretty much every character surprised me in some great way through the course of the story. I felt like their emotions were complex and realistic, and the fact that sometimes I spotted things before Aileana did (she was rather determinedly clueless about a couple of things) really added to the story and made it believable, if that makes sense. I guess it gave her blind spots and flaws.
I’m crazy eager to get my hands on the second book in this series. I stayed up way too late last night finishing The Falconer and I can tell you I would have jumped straight into the second one if I’d had an ARC on me. I’m hoping there’s still time to get one, but if not, I might have to break down and pre-order this one. It’s too good to miss.
I think if you liked the complex story world and banter between characters in Six of Crows, then The Falconer will definitely appeal to you. Fans of Julie Kagawa might find the faery lore similar and enjoy the human versus fae dynamic.
Recommended for Ages 13 up.
Cultural Elements
All the characters are from Scotland, so pretty much white and upper class.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used with moderate frequency.
Romance/Sexual Content Brief kissing. Aileana is very aware of propriety and strives to behave herself like a lady even when circumstances make that difficult. At one point, rumors circulate that she and a young man have been caught in a compromising position, but those rumors are false. At another time, a man enters her bed chamber to clean and dress a wound of hers.
Spiritual Content The story contains faeries and monsters who possess magic. Some humans have specialized abilities which allow them to sense faeries or resist their magic.
Violent Content Several intense battle scenes. Some were a bit gruesome.
Drug Content
Alcohol is served at gatherings. Aileana’s friend drinks quite a bit of liquor to get drunk. A pixie living in Aileana’s closet gets drunk on honey and acts silly.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
