'Different From the Others' [14]
Art by J.C. Leyendecker [16]

Preview:


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I woke up this morning in tears, yesterday I got a email from my ex boyfriend. Basically stating that he is happy that he met me, because I made him become a better man, and that he will always love me and etc. I thought it was nice, but this morning i woke up and felt so empty inside. I missed him and his family. I know we are not good together at all, but I miss the closeness I had with them, especially now when i have no one. My family and I aren't that close, and even though Im trying to make a effort to get close them, it's not the same.I I pray God gives me strength, I met a great man, we are dating, I like him alot, he is so sweet to me. Sometimes I wonder if God put him in my life.
But that emptiness that I had from my mother's death, was filled by Jay and his family. And now that they are gone, I am forced to deal with it again......and some days I just can't. Someone cut my heart out, take away all the pain, and just bring me Peace.

• 10:12 @adamlambert gets a citation! ROFL!!! www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWnZVVaNNdU #

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I'm doing an outline of my current project. I just finished the second draft, and it's now time for me to corral the free, wandering, rambling manuscript. To look at the plot threads and pacing, to watch where each character appears. This is a macro edit. Once the scenes and the plot threads are all in the right place, I can return to micro-editing, the scene-by-scene and line-by-line wordsmithing. Right now, it's all about the big picture.

• 09:00 @christianenoll HAHAHAHAHA That baby is sure never going back to before =P #
• 09:11 @winddancer55945 Yeh that didn't help matters either. #
• 09:58 Watch the entire cast of RAGTIME perform "Wheels of a Dream" and "Ragtime" in Battery Park against the backdrop of... bit.ly/4GzOzg #
• 13:43 Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fever. *chants* NO NO NO NO fever! #

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Ash (2009)
Written by: Malinda Lo
Genre: YA/Fairy Tale/Fantasy
Pages: 264 (Hardcover)

The premise: in unfairly simple terms, Ash is a lesbian re-telling of Cinderella. But that's an unfairly simply description. Sure, you've got the Cinderella myth, but rather than falling for the typical Prince Charming, Ash finds herself attracted to the King's Huntress, and she'd do anything to stay with her. Even if it means bargaining with the fairy, a risk that could very well make her lose everything.

My Rating

Worth the Cash: note I'm giving this rating to a hardcover. I always feel that carries more weight than if the book were a paperback, for obvious reasons. At any rate, this is a very enjoyable read that I tore through in a day, but the prose isn't light so much as it reflects a certain fairy tale quality, perfect for a re-telling of the Cinderella story. Ash is a likable heroine you can empathize with, and even though she makes mistakes, the mistakes are her own and she works to fix things the best she can. The love story itself needed a little bit more development between the first meeting and the admission of love, but I did like the characters together, and I liked that Ash was attracted to a person instead of the wealth and power a partner could bring her, which signifies not only the difference between Kaisa the Huntress and Prince Charming, but also between Kaisa and Sidhean. One of the most important messages of the book: loves doesn't ask for anything in return, and love will love you for who you are, not who you aren't. What a simple lesson, and what an easy one to forget. Malinda Lo is definitely on my watch list, and I look forward to her next offering, whatever it may be and whenever it might arrive.

Review style: it's kind of a hard book to spoil, isn't it? I mean, anyone who knows the general Cinderella tale knows where the book is going, but the trick is, because it's a re-telling, you're on ground that's familiar but not, and you tend to forget it's a re-telling you're reading. At any rate, there's spoilers, but nothing that doesn't correlate to the actual fairy tale.

The full review, if you're interested, may be found at my LJ. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. :)

REVIEW: Malinda Lo's ASH

Happy Reading!

DON'T FORGET: November's book challenge is drawing to a close, but you can still get your hands on Alaya Dawn Johnson's Racing the Dark. However, December's challenge has been announced, so if you want to get an early start on Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn, we'd love to have you! Details on participation are here!

• 02:04 Pres Obama showed up in a dream again. I dont even watch CNN. #

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