Book Review: Echo After Echo

Title: Echo After Echo
Author: Amy Rose Capetta
Genre: Literature, Contemporary, Mystery, Romance
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

It's so rare to find a book where the main characters are LGBTQ and their love story isn't engulfed in stigma or cultural acceptance. For me what makes Echo After Echo so wonderful is that at its core it's a love story that is not contrived, forced or surrounded in stigma. 

The Love Story
Perhaps this will not make sense to some, but I just have to say that for me (a bi-sexual woman), it is so refreshing to read a story where a woman falls in love with another woman and the basis of that love has nothing to do with discovering their sexuality, determining their 'preference' or even circumstance. Instead it's just an easy, natural love story. Whether it was between two women, two men, or a man and a woman it wouldn't matter. It's clear that Amy Rose Capetta has experienced true love and understands that it's not about what type of person you fall in love with but who. The actual person and personality of that person, not their sexuality. It has so much less to do with gender than most people are likely to understand. Capetta takes this knowledge she has and translates it to the reader in a natural and perfect way. 

The Theatre
Having never had the desire to be an actor (of any kind) I was concerned that Echo After Echo would be too 'theater-y' for me. In the past I've read stories where knowing or caring about theatre culture or the culture of whatever niche group is involved have been all encompassing and made the book dull. That is definitely not the case here. While you may learn a number of things about the theatre including: auditioning, lighting, rehearsals, memorization, costuming, etc., the only really important thing to know is that this group of theatre folks is very close to one another, like family. I would compare the theatre portion of the book like the ballet in Black Swan, while important it could easily be replaced by any niche, professional group and the core story would not change. 

The Mystery
I'm not big into reading murder mysteries and certainly that is not why I was interested in Capetta's story. However here the murder mystery side of the story, while very relevant to the overall plot arc and our lead gal's character development, is not the focus of the story. Whether you determine any part of the mystery out in advance is mostly irrelevant (until the last couple chapters). As at its core, Echo After Echo is a story of a teen acting on her dream and falling in love where love wasn't looked for and may not be safe to engage in. 

Overall
I'd easily have give Echo After Echo 5 stars just for it's brilliant love story. However I can also say that at no time did I want to put it down, or avoid picking it back up. It's a solid read that I think almost anyone can enjoy. Because it hits on many different novel genres I believe there is something here for anyone that may want to find it. 
I truly hope that many people pick this up without knowing it's a LGBTQ love story and find themselves suddenly enamoured with Capetta's brilliant story only to realize much later that the love story was between two women (and that maybe there was relevance to their lack of 'noticing'). Capetta has truly done her community justice by creating a love story that is irrefutable and genuine. 

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

Book Review: Daughters in the Air

Title: Daughter in the Air 

Author: Anca L. Szilagyi

Genre: Teen, YA, Contemporary

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars 

Did Not Finish (DNF) @ 35% 

Through the opening 35% of Daughters in the Air that I read, I kept hoping that I would be drawn in by something, anything really. So many reviewers have praised this novel, and yet I just couldn’t feel any real connection or compassion for any of the characters. That includes our lead teen who runs away. 

Each chapter swaps between her in the current time, as she is running away, and her past time, when her father left and her relationship with her mother deteriorates. I can honestly say I don’t care the reason why the father was suddenly no longer able to return, why her mother was such a bitch or even why our lead gal was so naive to think she could just runaway with little to no resources and hope that people would help her out. It’s baffling to me in some ways that I didn’t care about our lead gal and her plight as it seems like all the right elements are there but the story and characters slogged along for me at a snail pace. Enough so that I fell asleep while trying to reading Daughters in the Air on more than one occasion. 

Perhaps there is an amazing ending or story to be found here but I couldn’t get into it and can honestly say I’m okay never finding out. 

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

Stitching: New Patterns!

While Nashville Needlemarket was almost two months ago; I only got the last of my purchases from it this week. The lovely ladies at my LNS (Traditional Stitches) always do a great job of allowing me to add items to my order (via email no less) and then packing and shipping items to me. 

There were a lot of amazing (as always) patterns and items this year and yes I bought far too many of them! LOL. 
But I have a few favourites I want to share in particular; including one which I plan to start in the next couple of months! 
As many of you know I have an obsession with Ink Circles, Jeannette Douglass Designs and Mill Hill Kits. So it won't surprise you that almost half of what I bought is from those three designers/companies. I'm nothing if not predictable. 

First up in this photo is this amazingly beautiful Journey pattern from Jeannette Douglass and a lovely new Mill Hill kit (there are six in the series and I want them all!). 

My parents travel a lot and so I'm excited to stitch this little beauty up for me Mom. With the lovely pastel colours, gorgeous silk threads (in thread pack) and Jeannette's ability to integrate specialty/embroidery stitches I cannot wait to start it. This will be the first start from this set of purchases for sure! (also because it has a destination). 

In this second photo is the stunning 'companion' piece to last year's Sumatra Dragon from Ink Circles. It's trees!! Somewhere between fantasy themes, autumn, halloween and mandalas is a love of patterns that are forest or tree related. The effort that Tracey from Ink Circles put into investigating and putting together this pattern is amazing. I love that the pattern comes with the story about how Tracey landed on the design and what her influences were. A piece that while large will make a stunning heirloom for those that stitch it. 
Also in this photo is an adorable new pattern from Brenda Garvis (another designer I adore) and the cutest little Wizard of Oz pattern! I really need to stitch up at least one of the multitude of Oz patterns I have collected over the years. 

In Other News: 
Thanks again for thoughts and well wishes on my infected finger. It's doing quite good. No more meds or bandaging needed; although there is a lot of yucky blood and colours under the nail that will take the next couple months to grow out (or so I'm told). I guess it's a good reminder not to chew, pick or cut at my cuticles for the next couple months. Maybe that will help me have some self-control? (but let's face it probably not). 
I have to catch up on my Etsy shop, file taxes, and it's my local Comic Con/Expo next weekend! So much to do that stitching time is a bit scarce. BUT I will maybe share some highlights from Comic Expo after next weekend and in May I plan to get some good progress going on a bunch of items. Including a new start on a children's sampler for a friend and finishing up that last pesky dragon! I also really need to get back to Alice. Thankfully I can at least get to it all again with my finger no longer trying to kill me. :) 

Happy Stitching!