Laura's blog

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop hosted by Jaime Morrow. What I'm Reading I've been assigned The Covenant with Black America by Tavis Smiley for class. It's an engaging read. It's different from other non-fiction works I've read in that it is a proposal for a plan of action, on the individual, local, state, and federal levels. Other non-fiction I've read has mostly been "here is this cool true story" or "did you know these facts?" or "you should do this thing here do it based on my opinion no really it's totally the thing you should just do." The Covenant beats all of them out of the park. (Is that the correct expression?) I also finished The Year of Shadows by Claire Legrand. I have a soft spot for angry characters, and Olivia's arc was complex and emotional. She was a character I related to on a more personal level than I usually do.  At one point, she's being taunted by shades who fling insults at ...

Well, it's been a while since one of these. I thought I'd ease back into blogging with a What's Up Wednesday, a weekly blog hop hosted by Jaime Morrow. What I'm Reading I'm nearing the end of The Year of Shadows by Claire Legrand. I really love this one, and I also loved Ms. Cavendish's Home for Boys and Girls. The Year of Shadows is an MG ghost story, while Ms. Cavendish is MG horror. I have a feeling that Claire Legrand will become a favorite author of mine. Both these books are so good, and so different. What with this and the new Nick and Tesla, I've been reading mostly MG. However, I still have a big TBR pile to get to, which includes a mix of genres and age ranges. What I'm Writing Reviews and blog posts! I just reviewed the ARC of Nick and Tesla's Secret Agent Gadget Battle, an MG mystery. I'm also getting ready to jump back into writing Contracted . I was really overwhelmed with spring semester stuff, but now that it's the s...

Hello! I'm back from my blogging hiatus. I've been on a horror kick lately, and most recently, I watched the first two episodes of Netflix's Hemlock Grove. I'm a bit late to this series, but for what it's worth, here's my review. I have some...issues.  Pacing It's based on a novel, and you can tell. Once the show introduces something that might be interesting or lead to tension and conflict, it snatches it away like a precious plot-gem that it doesn't want you to see. There is way too much exposition and filler. The plot hangs together pretty well, but not much really happens. Case in point, it should not have taken two whole episodes to find out Main Character is a werewolf. Especially since everyone seems clued into this fact and accepts it as truth -- except the viewers. Then suddenly Rich Boy is asking if he can watch the transformation like it's understood that Poor Kid Main Character is a werewolf. No warning, no lead-up, nothing. ...