{Review} DUSK: THE HOLLOW TRILOGY, Book 1 by Brent Kruscke

ISBN #: 978-0692360224

Page Count: 370

Copyright: 2015

Publisher: The CineMen; 1st Edition

Book Description:

(Taken from Amazon)

In 1976 a string of grizzly murders plagues the small town of Pointe's Hollow. 16 year old Nicholas Wake is pulled into the investigation by a deadly event which nearly costs his life. Dusk, a mysterious gunman, begins to piece together the facts of the case with Nicholas's help. As the pieces fall into place, Nicholas's eyes are opened to the evil that has been brewing in Pointe's Hollow for more years than anyone can count.

This is the first installment of a much larger story entitled The Hollow Trilogy. In Book One, Brent Kruscke spins a wildly fun, yet dark tale with colorful characters and twisted circumstances. Follow Nicholas and Dusk as they fight for survival and unravel the mysteries of Pointe's Hollow.

Lupe's Review:

Ok in full disclosure, I actually KNOW the author. Like he is dating a lifelong family friend of mine. That being said, this was seriously worthy of all 5 stars I just gave on Goodreads.  From the very beginning, I had chills.

We start with Nicholas, a pretty average 16 year old who lives in a small town in Michigan. He has all the regular problems: homework, family and girls. Until one night in the woods when all that changes. Nicholas is on his way home from helping the town librarian when he sees something straight out of a horror flick. And then his adventure begins...

We meet Dusk, Nicholas's savior in the night. A troubled man with a dark and sad past, he is a vigilante but not of human injustices, but those things that go bump in the night.

Together, Nicholas and Dusk fight the battles that no one in Pointe's Hollow could even imagine. There is more to this world than meets the eye.

I was weary at first because horror novels sometimes seem to me to all be the same. It was one of the reasons I stopped reading a series recently. It just didn't capture me. This one, though?? I am so disappointed that I now have to hound Brent RELENTLESSLY to hurry up and get the second book done. Like, yesterday. He needed it done yesterday. This was fun, engaging, thrilling and scary all at once. It was magnificent. The pace was great, and it kept you guessing to the very end. I sincerely cannot wait until the next installment.


*A physical copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

{Book Launch: Q&A and Spotify Playlist} ALL SOULS TRILOGY by Deborah Harkness

To help Penguin celebrate the launch of the paperback edition of Deborah Harkness' THE BOOK OF LIFE, we're bringing you a Q&A with Ms. Harkness and the Spotify playlist that inspired Deborah as she wrote the final chapter in this trilogy.

We hope you enjoy!

A Conversation with Deborah Harkness

Q: In your day job, you are a professor of history and science at the University of Southern California and have focused on alchemy in your research.  What aspects of this intersection between science and magic do you hope readers will pick up on while reading THE BOOK OF LIFE? There’s quite a bit more lab work in this book!

A. There is. Welcome back to the present! What I hope readers come to appreciate is that science—past or present—is nothing more than a method for asking and answering questions about the world and our place in it. Once, some of those questions were answered alchemically. Today, they might be answered biochemically and genetically. In the future? Who knows. But Matthew is right in suggesting that there are really remarkably few scientific questions and we have been posing them for a very long time. Two of them are: who am I? why am I here?

Q: Much of the conflict in the book seems to mirror issues of race and sexuality in our society, and there seems to be a definite moral conclusion to THE BOOK OF LIFE. Could you discuss this? Do you find that a strength of fantasy novels is their ability to not only to allow readers to escape, but to also challenge them to fact important moral issues?

A. Human beings like to sort and categorize. We have done this since the beginnings of recorded history, and probably well back beyond that point. One of the most common ways to do that is to group things that are “alike” and things that are “different.” Often, we fear what is not like us. Many of the world’s ills have stemmed from someone (or a group of someones) deciding what is different is also dangerous. Witches, women, people of color, people of different faiths, people of different sexual orientations—all have been targets of this process of singling others out and labeling them different and therefore undesirable. Like my interest in exploring what a family is, the issue of difference and respect for difference (rather than fear) informed every page of the All Souls Trilogy. And yes, I do think that dealing with fantastic creatures like daemons, vampires, and witches rather than confronting issues of race or sexuality directly can enable readers to think through these issues in a useful way and perhaps come to different conclusions about members of their own families and communities. As I often say when people ask me why supernatural creatures are so popular these days: witches and vampires are monsters to think with.

Q: From the moment Matthew and a pregnant Diana arrive back at Sept-Tours and reinstate themselves back into a sprawling family of witches and vampires, it becomes clear that the meaning of family will be an important idea for THE BOOK OF LIFE. How does this unify the whole series? Did you draw on your own life?

A. Since time immemorial the family has been an important way for people to organize themselves in the world. In the past, the “traditional” family was a sprawling and blended unit that embraced immediate relatives, in-laws and their immediate families, servants, orphaned children, the children your partner might bring into a family from a previous relationship, and other dependents. Marriage was an equally flexible and elastic concept in many places and times. Given how old my vampires are, and the fact that witches are the keepers of tradition, I wanted to explore from the very first page of the series the truly traditional basis of family:  unqualified love and mutual responsibility. That is certainly the meaning of family that my parents taught me.

Q: While there are entire genres devoted to stories of witches, vampires, and ghosts, the idea of a weaver – a witch who weaves original spells – feels very unique to THE BOOK OF LIFE. What resources helped you gain inspiration for Diana’s uniqueness?

A. Believe it or not, my inspiration for weaving came from a branch of mathematics called topology. I became intrigued by mathematical theories of mutability to go along with my alchemical theories of mutability and change. Topology is a mathematical study of shapes and spaces that theorizes how far something can be stretched or twisted without breaking. You could say it’s a mathematical theory of connectivity and continuity (two familiar themes to any reader of the All Souls Trilogy). I wondered if I could come up with a theory of magic that could be comfortably contained within mathematics, one in which magic could be seen to shape and twist reality without breaking it. I used fabric as a metaphor for this worldview with threads and colors shaping human perceptions. Weavers became the witches who were talented at seeing and manipulating the underlying fabric. In topology, mathematicians study knots—unbreakable knots with their ends fused together that can be twisted and shaped. Soon the mathematics and mechanics of Diana’s magic came into focus.

Q: A Discovery of Witches debuted at # 2 on the New York Times bestseller list and Shadow of Night debuted at #1. What has been your reaction to the outpouring of love for the All Souls Trilogy? Was it surprising how taken fans were with Diana and Matthew’s story?

A. It has been amazing—and a bit overwhelming. I was surprised by how quickly readers embraced two central characters who have a considerable number of quirks and challenge our typical notion of what a heroine or hero should be. And I continue to be amazed whenever a new reader pops up, whether one in the US or somewhere like Finland or Japan—to tell me how much they enjoyed being caught up in the world of the Bishops and de Clemonts. Sometimes when I meet readers they ask me how their friends are doing—meaning Diana, or Matthew, or Miriam. That’s an extraordinary experience for a writer.

Q: Diana and Matthew, once again, move around to quite a number of locations in THE BOOK OF LIFE, including New Haven, New Orleans, and a few of our favorite old haunts like Oxford, Madison, and Sept-Tours. What inspired you to place your characters in these locations? Have you visited them yourself?  

A. As a writer, I really need to experience the places I write about in my books. I want to know what it smells like, how the air feels when it changes direction, the way the sunlight strikes the windowsill in the morning, the sound of birds and insects. Not every writer may require this, but I do. So I spent time not only in New Haven but undertaking research at the Beinecke Library so that I could understand the rhythms of Diana’s day there. I visited New Orleans several times to imagine my vampires into them. All of the locations I pick are steeped in history and stories about past inhabitants—perfect fuel for any writer’s creative fire.

Q: Did you know back when you wrote A Discovery of Witches how the story would conclude in THE BOOK OF LIFE? Did the direction change once you began the writing process?

A. I knew how the trilogy would end, but I didn’t know exactly how we would get there. The story was well thought out through the beginning of what became The Book of Life, but the chunk between that beginning and the ending (which is as I envisioned it) did change. In part that was because what I had sketched out was too ambitious and complicated—the perils of being not only a first-time trilogy writer but also a first time author. It was very important to me that I resolve and tie up all the threads already in the story so readers had a satisfying conclusion. Early in the writing of The Book of Life it became clear that this wasn’t going to give me much time to introduce new characters or plot twists. I now understand why so many trilogies have four, five, six—or more—books in them. Finishing the trilogy as a trilogy required a lot of determination and a very thick pair of blinders as I left behind characters and story lines that would take me too far from the central story of Diana, Matthew, and the Book of Life.

Q: A Discovery of Witches begins with Diana Bishop stumbling across a lost, enchanted manuscript called Ashmole 782 in Oxford’s Bodleian Library, and the secrets contained in the manuscript are at long last revealed in THE BOOK OF LIFE. You had a similar experience while you were completing your dissertation.  What was the story behind your discovery?  And how did it inspire the creation of these novels?

A. I did discover a manuscript—not an enchanted one, alas—in the Bodleian Library. It was a manuscript owned by Queen Elizabeth’s astrologer, the mathematician and alchemist John Dee. In the 1570s and 1580s he became interested in using a crystal ball to talk to angels. The angels gave him all kinds of instructions on how to manage his life at home, his work—they even told him to pack up his family and belongings and go to far-away Poland and Prague. In the conversations, Dee asked the angels about a mysterious book in his library called “the Book of Soyga” or “Aldaraia.” No one had ever been able to find it, even though many of Dee’s other books survive in libraries throughout the world. In the summer of 1994 I was spending time in Oxford between finishing my doctorate and starting my first job. It was a wonderfully creative time, since I had no deadlines to worry about and my dissertation on Dee’s angel conversations was complete. As with most discoveries, this discovery of a “lost” manuscript was entirely accidental. I was looking for something else in the Bodleian’s catalogue and in the upper corner of the page was a reference to a book called “Aldaraia.” I knew it couldn’t be Dee’s book, but I called it up anyway. And it turned out it WAS the book (or at least a copy of it). With the help of the Bodleian’s Keeper of Rare Books, I located another copy in the British Library.

Q: Are there other lost books like this in the world?

A. Absolutely! Entire books have been written about famous lost volumes—including works by Plato, Aristotle, and Shakespeare to name just a few. Libraries are full of such treasures, some of them unrecognized and others simply misfiled or mislabeled. And we find lost books outside of libraries, too. In January 2006, a completely unknown manuscript belonging to one of the 17th century’s most prominent scientists, Robert Hooke, was discovered when someone was having the contents of their house valued for auction. The manuscript included minutes of early Royal Society meetings that we presumed were lost forever.

Q: Shadow of Night and A Discovery of Witches have often been compared to young adult fantasy like Twilight, with the caveat that this series is for adults interested in history, science, and academics. Unlike Bella and Edward, Matthew and Diana are card-carrying members of academia who meet in the library of one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Are these characters based on something you found missing in the fantasy genre?

A. There are a lot of adults reading young adult books, and for good reason. Authors who specialize in the young adult market are writing original, compelling stories that can make even the most cynical grownups believe in magic. In writing A Discovery of Witches, I wanted to give adult readers a world no less magical, no less surprising and delightful, but one that included grown-up concerns and activities. These are not your children’s vampires and witches.

Spotify Playlist:

"Ghost in the Town" by Joshua James

"The Spirit was Gone" by Antony & The Johnsons

"Le Labyrinthe" by Colleen

"White Blank Page" by Mumford & Sons

"Night Air" by Jamie Woon

"Time Stands Still" by Uh Huh Her

"C'est La Mort" by The Civil Wars

"Different Breed" by Carter's Chord

"Blood Sings" by Suzanne Vega

"Secret" by Seal

"Record Collector" by Lissie

"Sort of Revolution" by Fink

"House I Built" by Steve Reynolds

"Warning" by Great Northern

"The BurntOver District" by Hem

"Here Before" by Lissie

"In No Time" by Mutemath

"What the Water Gave Me" by Florence + The Machine

"Bell, Book and Candle" by Eddi Reader

"Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac

"Over My Head" by Fleetwood Mac

"You Make Loving Fun" by Fleetwood Mac

"Fire and Dynamite" by Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors

"I Choose You" by Sara Bareilles

"Dark Night of the Soul" by Philip Wesley

"Ship Song" by Lissie

"Flesh and Bone" by Braveyoung

"Diamond" by The Guggenheim Grotto

"The Mercy of the Fallen" by Dar Williams

"Scientist" by Martha Tilston

"Dust Bowl Dance" by Mumford & Sons

"This is Why We Fight" by The Decemberists

"Sinners" by Lauren Aquilina

"Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac

"Don't Stop" by Fleetwood Mac

"Anniversary" by Suzanne Vega

"Brave" by Sara Bareilles

"Proof" by Rachael Sage

If you're on Spotify, you can click here to go directly to this playlist.

{Blog Tour} THE LAST WITNESS by Jerry Amernic

The Last Witness

by Jerry Amernic

on Tour May 2015

The year is 2039, and Jack Fisher is the last living survivor of the Holocaust. Set in a world that is abysmally complacent about events of the last century, Jack is a 100-year-old man whose worst memories took place before he was 5. His story hearkens back to the Jewish ghetto of his birth and to Auschwitz where, as a little boy, he had to fend for himself to survive after losing his family. Jack becomes the central figure in a missing-person investigation when his granddaughter suddenly disappears. While assisting police, he finds himself in danger and must reach into the darkest corners of his memory to come out alive.

Book Details:

Genre: Historical Thriller
Published by: Story Merchant Books
Publication Date: October 29th 2014
Number of Pages: 334
ISBN: 9780990421658
Purchase Links:

Read an excerpt:

Chapter 1
New York City, 2035

He was a tough sort. Ninety-five years old with elastic skin stretched across his bones like taut canvas, he was supposed to be an easy mark. Fragile and weak. A pushover. Albert Freedman lived by himself in a flat on the upper East Side, and when they came for him they didn’t expect any trouble. Albert knew something wasn’t right when the second one walked in, but the voice was soft and reassuring.
“We’re here to change your palm reader,” he said through the door. We’re doing all the apartments on your floor today and you’re the first. It won’t take five minutes.”
“You’re here to change my what?”
“Your palm reader.”
“I donno what yer talkin’ about. Go away!”
“You don’t understand. There’s a problem with the sensor. You know, the thing that opens your door when you put your hand in front of it? The palm reader?”
“What?”
“It scans your hand. Your print. Then it lets you in.”
Nothing.
“Look,” the man said, more softly now. “Mr. Freedman? You are Albert Freedman, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I realize you don’t want to be bothered but this is for your security. It’s like putting a new lock on the door.”
“A new lock?”
“That’s right. The sensor in your palm reader is ten years old.”
“It is?”
“The year’s inscribed on the side of the door. It says 2025. See for yourself.”
Albert looked, but he didn’t see anything. His eyes weren’t good. “Where does it say that?” he said.
“On the side of the door. It might be hard to read. The numbers are small.”
“Where are they?”
“Trust me. The thing is ten years old and it’s not working right. But we have new ones now that are much better. But it’s not only that. You see there was a break-in last week and they want everyone’s palm reader changed. That’s why we’re here. You’re the first one on our list, Mr. Freedman. We’ll be done in five minutes. Can we come in?”
“Five minutes you say?”
“That’s all it takes.”
He started jiggling the latch from the inside and then he stopped. “Wait a minute. Why am I the first one? This isn’t the first flat on the floor. You should be down at the end of the hall. Unless you’re doing it alphabetically and then you wouldn’t be starting with me. Why am I the first one?”
He was ninety-five years old. He wasn’t supposed to be asking questions like that. He was just supposed to open the door so they could kill him and make it look like a robbery.
There was an audible sigh from outside the door. “Look Mr. Freedman. It's like this. Doing all these sensors isn’t going to be much fun for us but the landlord said you’re a nice guy and we thought we’d start with you.”
At first nothing and then the jiggling from inside the door started again.
“All right. Come in. But make it fast.”
Albert released the latch that was linked to a sensor that had nothing wrong with it in a building where there had been no break-ins the past week, the past month or the past year. The first man through the door was short and slight, thirtyish with close-cropped hair and a soothing voice. He had a tattoo on his arm that looked like a snake, and if Albert had seen that he wouldn’t have opened the door. But then it was too late.
“Thank you,” the man said with a disarming smile.
The one behind him, younger and bigger with straggly hair and brown skin, burst through the door and pushed Albert out of the way. Old Albert fell against the wall and managed to brace himself with his hand, but the sudden impact jarred his wrist. The arthritis. Then the girl appeared, tall and skinny, dressed in black. Albert never got a good look at their faces, but it didn’t matter. He would be dead before they left.
“Where do you keep the money?” the girl screamed at him. “Tell us!
The small slim man with the snake on his arm turned, retreated into the hallway and closed the door behind him. In his hand was a little gadget with a screen on it. He touched the screen and a list of names came up. He ran his fingertip over the last name – Albert Freedman’s name – and it disappeared. Then he was gone.
The girl began riffling through Albert’s cupboards and drawers. Albert was confused. He didn’t get many visitors.
“Where do you keep the money?” the girl said again.
“What do you want?”
“Your money!”
The man who was now inside Albert’s flat didn’t waste any time. He came for him with his fists clenched. He hit him in the face and knocked him to the floor. Albert fell on his side, his hip, but was close enough to the door so he could reach behind it for his cane. The one with the heavy metal handle. He always kept it there.
Blood dripping from his nose, he scrambled to his knees, brought the cane back over his head, and with every ounce of strength he had walloped the intruder or thief or whatever he was across the ankles. There was a loud cry, but Albert wasn’t finished. He got to his feet, straightened up, and brought his cane back a second time. Now he turned on the girl and landed that metal handle square on the back of her shoulders.
“I’ll kill you both!” he said.
But Albert was old and the man was enraged now. He tore the cane from Albert’s hands and started hitting him with it. He hit him on the head. He hit him on the chest. He hit him on the arms. Albert tried to shield himself with his flailing hands, but the blows were relentless. They kept coming and coming and coming. The girl was going through his drawers, throwing everything she found on the floor. Albert always kept his place neat and he didn’t like that, but he could barely see through his eyes now.
“Here’s his wallet,” she said. “Get it over with.”
The beating took less than a minute. Albert, barely conscious, lay on the floor, bloodied and battered to a pulp, a near corpse of broken bones. He couldn’t move and the only thing to feel was pain. The man with the brown skin and straggly hair turned him over so he was face down and all there was to see was the cold dusty floor. It was the last thing Albert would see in his ninety-five years. He sniffed at the acrid air as a knee went deep into his back and the cane came up under his chin. Albert gurgled a few times, there was a crack, and his body went limp.

JUST RELEASED!

QUMRAN

Jerry Amernic's next novel QUMRAN is a biblical-historical thriller about an archeologist who makes a dramatic discovery in the Holy Land. It’s something that could set the world on its edge. He is both an atheist and an expert on the Romans, but this find more than upsets his logical theory of the universe, leading to a struggle between science and religion. Indeed, this intersection where science meets religion is the theme of the novel.
In historical flashbacks, we see him as a young archeology student who helps discover the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, just off the Dead Sea, and it happens when the State of Israel is being created. Later, he gets involved with investigating the legends of the Holy Grail and Holy Shroud of Turin, and each time out another Arab-Israeli war is tearing the Middle East apart. Throw in his close friend who is a brilliant Egyptian pathologist, along with his Israeli research assistant and his wife who is an authority on ancient languages and you have a foursome standing against the world. But the new discovery must be studied in secret. Or all Hell will break loose.

 

Author Bio:

Jerry Amernic is a Toronto writer who has been a newspaper reporter and correspondent, newspaper columnist, feature writer for magazines, teacher of journalism, and media consultant. His first book 'Victims: The Orphans of Justice' was a true story about a former police officer whose eldest daughter was murdered and who became a leading advocate for crime victims. This resulted in Jerry’s column about the justice system for The Toronto Sun. More recently Jerry co-authored 'Duty - The Life of a Cop' with Julian Fantino, the highest-profile police officer Canada has ever produced and now a member of the Canadian Cabinet. In fiction, Jerry’s first novel 'Gift of the Bambino' was praised by The Wall Street Journal in the U.S., The Globe and Mail in Canada, and others. His latest novel is the historical thriller 'The Last Witness'. Just released is the biblical-historical thriller 'Qumran'.

Catch Up:

Tour Participants:

Giveaways:

This is a giveaway hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours for Jerry Amernic. There will be ONE U.S. or Canadian winner. The giveaway begins on May 1st, 2015 and runs through June 12th, 2015. a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

So what exactly was the Holocaust and D-Day?

 

Get More Great Reads at Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours

 

 

{Review} GOOD FAITH by Liz Crowe

ISBN #: 978-0989306980

Page Count: 522

Copyright: November 14, 2013

Publisher: Tri Destiny Publishing

Description:

(Taken from back cover)

Strong personalities—volatile marriages—stressful careers—conflicting goals—difficult children.

Contemporary challenges facing close-knit families form the crucible that forges a new generation.

Brandis, Gabriel, Blair and Lillian emerge from the entanglement of their parents’ longstanding emotional connections, but one’s star will burn brighter – and hotter – than the others.

With a personality that consumes everyone and everything in its path, Brandis Gordon struggles to maintain control as he ricochets between wild success and miserable failure. His life proves how even the strongest relationships can be strangled by the ties that bind.

Brandis and Gabe Frietag are as close as any brothers, bound by both loyalty and fierce rivalry. The strength of their ultimate alliance is tested time and again by Brandis’ choices.

Companions from birth, Blair Frietag and Lillian Robinson share loner tendencies, but come to rely on each other through adolescence. As they mature, both are forced to confront their feelings for the men they knew as boys.

Somewhere between the tangle of good memories and bad, independence and addiction, optimism and despair, the intertwined destinies of the new generation finally collide, leaving some stronger, others broken, but none unscathed.

As a chronicle of three families navigating the minefields of teen years into the turbulence of young adulthood, Good Faith holds up a literary mirror to contemporary life with joys and temptations unflinchingly reflected. Its fresh, real-life voice portrays the sheer volatility of human nature, complete with the hopes, dreams, and unexpected setbacks of marriage, parenthood and "coming of age."

Charlene's Review:

The seventh in the Stewart Realty Saga (of which I was unaware of but am know itching to read) this is a story of three intertwined families facing the demons of the past, and the struggles of the present. This book focuses mainly on the storyline of Brandis, young and wild, and addicted. As his life unravels, each family feels the shockwave and lives are possibly changed forever.

A formidable read at 507 pages, it took me longer to finish because of interruptions beyond my control. However, I found it deeply emotional and it pulled me to finish. Covering about every dysfunction you can imagine, Ms. Crowe probes deep into the human psyche and relates to her readers in a frank, humbling way. I was totally invested in these families triumphs and disappointments from the very beginning.

Ms. Crowe borrowed a lot of the background details from the loves of her own life, such as brewing, soccer, and real estate, which makes the details even more believable. I found nothing that didn’t seem "real" within this story. My only caveat would be that there is extensive sexual interactions throughout the story. If this is an issue, I would highly suggest you avoid this book. Otherwise, I cannot express enough how captivating the characters are and watching them grow and survive was an honor.

5 out of 5 stars!!


*A physical copy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

{Book Spotlight} RE JANE by Patricia Park

ISBN #: 978-0525427407

Page Count: 352

Release Date: May 5, 2015

Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books

Book Description:

Journeying from Queens to Brooklyn to Seoul, and back, this is a fresh, contemporary retelling of Jane Eyre and a poignant Korean American debut

For Jane Re, half-Korean, half-American orphan, Flushing, Queens, is the place she’s been trying to escape from her whole life. Sardonic yet vulnerable, Jane toils, unappreciated, in her strict uncle’s grocery store and politely observes the traditional principle of nunchi (a combination of good manners, hierarchy, and obligation). Desperate for a new life, she’s thrilled to become the au pair for the Mazer-Farleys, two Brooklyn English professors and their adopted Chinese daughter. Inducted into the world of organic food co-ops, and nineteenth–century novels, Jane is the recipient of Beth Mazer’s feminist lectures and Ed Farley’s very male attention. But when a family death interrupts Jane and Ed’s blossoming affair, she flies off to Seoul, leaving New York far behind.

Reconnecting with family, and struggling to learn the ways of modern-day Korea, Jane begins to wonder if Ed Farley is really the man for her. Jane returns to Queens, where she must find a balance between two cultures and accept who she really is. Re Jane is a bright, comic story of falling in love, finding strength, and living not just out of obligation to others, but for one’s self.

*     *     *     *     *     *

Publishers Weekly says that “Park’s debut is a cheeky, clever homage to Jane Eyre, interwoven with touching meditations on Korean-American identity…. Park’s clever one-liners make the story memorable, and her riffs on cultural identity will resonate with any reader who’s felt out of place.”

Kirkus Reviews calls Patricia Park as “a fine writer with an eye for the effects of class and ethnic identity, a sense of humor, and a compassionate view of human weakness who nevertheless doesn't make the rookie error of letting her characters off easy.”

About the Author:

(Taken from author's Amazon page)

Patricia Park was born and raised in New York City and is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science. She received her BA in English Literature from Swarthmore College and her MFA in Fiction from Boston University, where she studied with Ha Jin and Allegra Goodman. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, Slice Magazine, and others.

In 2009 she received a Fulbright grant to South Korea to research RE JANE. She has also received writing fellowships with The Center for Fiction and The American Association of University Women. She has taught writing at Boston University, Ewha Woman's University in Seoul, and CUNY Queens College. RE JANE is her first book.