#BlogTour After the Rain by Natália Gomes

 It’s a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour After the Rain by Natália Gomes.

About the Author

Natália Gomes has an MLitt in Scottish Literature & Creative Writing and an MEd in Education. Inspired by her experiences as a special education coordinator in a public school district in the US, Natália started writing fiction with a focus on mental health among young adults. Her debut novel Dear Charlie is endorsed by Amnesty International and was longlisted for the 2018 International Dublin Literary Award.

Natália currently lives in Scotland with her chocolate labrador Charlie, and is completing a PhD in English Studies. Follow @nd_gomes on Twitter, on Instagram, 

About the book

‘We’re alive. So let’s start living.’ – Two strangers – Jack was sporty and outgoing. Alice was bookish and introverted. Their lives were on completely different paths.

One life-changing tragedy – That is before the day they were in the wrong place at the wrong time: before the day their lives were torn apart in a bombing.

A hopeful new friendship – Struggling to cope with their new worlds, their unlikely new friendship helps them find hope. But can they help each other rebuild their lives and start again?

Review

Jack and Alice become part of each others lives and forever entwined when they are both part of the same tragedy. It’s an event that changes both of them. Having to come to terms with the trauma, the pain and the guilt is a completely different journey for Alice and Jack.

The What If factor plays a role for the two of them. If they had gone their individual paths a few seconds earlier or one of them had gone in a different direction. What doesn’t really occur to either of them is that any of these alternatives could also have equalled death.

It’s not really about the two of them saving each other, although in a way they do that from time to time. It’s really about recognising that there is a way forward for each of them individually, but only after they have recognised what they need to heal, cope and move on.

Kudos to Gomes for keeping it simple and not feeling the need to add to the scenario, for not making this into another YA love goes into the night romcom. No really – it would have spoilt the whole premise. Grief, fear and survivor’s guilt should remain at the core of this story from start to finish. They do, which is why it is a good read.

Buy After the Rain at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎HQ Young Adult pub date 8 July 2021. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour The Love Curse of Melody Mcintyre by Robin Talley

Today it’s a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour The Love Curse of Melody Mcintyre by Robin Talley.

About the Author

Robin Talley (she/her) is a queer author who grew up in southwest Virginia and now lives in Washington, D.C., with her wife and their kids. She did digital communications work for LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, educational equity, and other progressive causes for fifteen years before she turned to writing full-time, and is now the New York Times-bestselling author of six novels for teen readers: Music From Another World, Pulp, Our Own Private Universe, As I Descended, What We Left Behind, and Lies We Tell Ourselves.

Her books have won accolades including the Amnesty CILIP Honour and the Concorde Book Award, have been short-listed for the Lambda Literary Award and the CILIP Carnegie Medal, and have appeared on the Junior Library Guild, Amelia Bloomer Project, Kids’ Indie Next, and ALA Rainbow lists. They’ve also been covered in media outlets including Entertainment Weekly, The Guardian, The Chicago Tribune, Teen Vogue, NPR, Buzzfeed, Vulture, Huffington Post, Vice, and Bustle.

Her short stories have appeared in the young adult collections Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft, All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages, A Tyranny of Petticoats: 15 Stories of Belles, Bank Robbers and Other Badass Girls, and Feral Youth.

Follow @robin_talley on Twitter, on Amazon, on Goodreads, Visit robintalley.com, Buy The Love Curse of Melody Mcintyre

About the book

Melody McIntyre, stage manager extraordinaire, has a plan for everything.

What she doesn’t have? Success with love. Every time she falls for someone during a school performance, both the romance and the show end in catastrophe. So, Mel swears off any entanglements until their upcoming production of Les Mis is over.

Of course, Mel didn’t count on Odile Rose, rising star in the acting world, auditioning for the spring performance. And she definitely didn’t expect Odile to be sweet and funny, and care as much about the play’s success as Mel.

Which means that Melody McIntyre’s only plan now is trying desperately not to fall in love.

Review

First thoughts – goodness how extremely serious do they take their plays, musicals and world of theatre in general. Then multiply that by drama and teenage angst tenfold, add on years of superstition and the result is a bubbling mess of a stage manager called Melody.

Melody believes that curses determine the success or failure of the production she is in charge of. Some of the curses seem to be made up as they go along, such as deciding that Melody’s love life has a negative impact on their show, hence her being forbidden from falling in love henceforth. Sounds a lot easier than it actually is, especially when love is closer to her than she thinks.

I took a step back from this after reading it and thought about the story in relation to other work by Talley, who has without a doubt been able to bring social commentary, racism, identity politics, civil rights, sexual identity and discrimination to the table for YA genre – in a way that is both hard-hitting, relatable and empowering. Her thought process is always to ensure something remains long after the read. I will never forget reading Lies We Tell Ourselves. There is a reason she is a critically acclaimed author.

With that in mind I wondered at the seeming simplicity and what appears to be a lot of teenage angst, drama and common YA unicorn fluff. What is it that lurks beneath the surface of the water as the reader bobs for the apple?  

Buy The Love Curse of Melody Mcintyre at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: HQ Young Adult; pub date 12 Nov. 2020. Buy at Amazon com. At Hive.co.uk. At Bookshop.org