Today I’m extremely excited to tell you about a new book that’s out … and share an exclusive guest post written by the author herself. This is an interesting topic and I hope you enjoy reading her post as much as I did.
Young People, Disability and Ageism
Guest Post by author Angelina Kerner
No matter where we go, we’re being judged. Whether it’s something we’re aware of or not, we’re being judged. Sometimes, it’s unintentional. Sometimes, it’s with malice. Sometimes, it’s from being ignorant. And, sometimes, we’re the judges.
First of all – what is ageism?
“Prejudice or discrimination against a particular age-group and especially the elderly.” – www.merriam-webster.com
Problem with the definition stands out right off the bat because there’s even discrimination in the wording – against young people. That’s of course, mainly due to the fact that the most popular cases of ageism happens against the elderly.
Emi Harrison has avoided her ex-fiance, Jack Cabot, for nearly two years. Her twin brother Evan’s wedding is about to end that streak.
From bad bridesmaid’s dresses, a hyperactive sister-in-law, a mean girl with even meaner secrets, and too much to drink, nothing seems to go right for Emi, except when she’s wearing her little gray dress.
When she speed-walks into Liam Jaxon’s bar, things get more complicated. He’s gorgeous, southern, and has no past with Emi. He may be exactly what she needs to prove for the last time that she doesn’t need or want Jack!
Her favorite little gray dress has made an appearance at nearly every major event in Emi’s adult life. Will it make another when she least expects it?
That was a really fun read…. and was filled so many interesting characters!
I hardly ever read chick-lit though I do write it… weird I know, but that’s how I am. However, Aimee was recommended to me by NovelGossip for book tours and so when I went exploring Aimee’s book blog, I also learned that she’s an author like me! I, of course, jumped at the chance of reading her novel and returning the favor. ^_^ And, I wasn’t disappointed.
Aimee’s writing is carefree, easy to read, and at times was hilarious. This is one complex novel because of how it’s organized. While Emi Harrison is going through the motions of being a bridesmaid and drinking her way through her “modern life,” we’re being sent back to her past about her life with her ex-fiance, Jack. We get to remember the events while she’s trying to tell everyone that she had moved on in real time, including to the sexy bartender.
This is a great book for those of us who love romances and sometimes want to seek forgiveness but don’t know how…even when there’s umm complications. I know someone compared this novel to Bridget Jones, but honestly (and don’t kill me) – I hated that movie. It made me cringe… it was too much for me. Little Gray Dress is way better! It made me sad and it made me laugh. It made me want to slap Jack and steal a kiss from Liam. Great writing!
Aimee Brown is a writer and an avid reader. Little Gray Dress is her first published novel. My second novel is in the works now. She’s currently studying for her Bachelor’s degree in English Writing. She spends much of her time writing, doing homework, raising three teenagers, binge watching shows on Netflix and obsessively cleaning and redecorating her house. She’s fluent in sarcasm and has been known to utter profanities like she’s competing for a medal.
Aimee grew up in Oregon but is now a transplant living in cold Montana with her husband of twenty years, three teenage children, and far too many pets.
She would love to hear your thoughts on Little Gray Dress! If you’d like to chat with her she’s very active on social media. You can find her at any of the networks below. Stop by and say hello!
Is There a Message in Your Novel That You Want Readers to Grasp?
Really, the only thing I wanted from Little Gray Dress for readers is for them to feel good when it was done. To me, reading is a mini vacation that I want to have fun with. I hope readers laugh and fall in love with the characters in the same way I did as I wrote it.
What moment defined you as an author?
You know, I’m not sure I’ve even had it yet. Of course, there were those moments where I’d read what I’d written and feel like I was good at writing. But then again, I’ve had the opposite moments too. I’ve been having messages come in from readers who love the book and can’t wait for whatever else I write. I think that is what is really making me feel like an author. Otherwise, writing is just something I’ve always done over the last fifteen years or so.
If You had the chance to cast your main character from Hollywood today, who would you pick and why?
I think I’d choose Ashley Benson (Hannah, from Pretty Little Liars) to play Emi. I feel like she really has the right personality to pull Emi off. There is just something about Ashley that screams Emi to me.
Do you have a little gray dress? If, yes, please share a photo. ^_^
Honestly, I do not. I hate dresses and I think the last time I wore one was the day I got married (20 years ago!). I’m girly but not wearing dresses and heels girly. I love the idea of it and I fall in love with those types of characters on TV and in books so likely that is why I chose that kind of character. It’s the opposite of me and that’s always fun to write.
Is there going go be a standalone novel about Liam?
I gotta say, this is the question I get the most. The plan was that Little Gray Dress would be part of a 2-book series following Emi through a few years of her life. There will still be a 2nd book to Little Gray Dress.
But… just like everyone else who’s read the book, I fell in love with Liam too! So… I’m happy to announce that there will be a stand-alone book with Liam but, he’s only the second of two main characters… (aahhh… now you’re really wondering) I promise you will NOT be disappointed. I’ve kind of worked out a plan with how I’m playing this out for the future of the Aimee Brown brand.
Did you have an author who inspired you to become a writer?
Oh, gosh. I’ve been a book blogger for a couple of years so I’ve read hundreds of amazing authors books both indie and well-known. There are so many! There are some who inspire me with their writing and some who inspire me with their author persona. I could never pick just one.
Describe your latest book in 4 words. (Don’t use the title)
I’m going to give you four ‘insights’ to happenings in the book.
1 – Portland Oregon (again, yes, I know the city well after living there for years – it’ll probably be the setting of most of my books)
2 – Vintage (I really want to bring back some of that vintage charm America has lost)
3 – Starlight Skate (roller skating may make an appearance)
4 – Set-Ups (everyone loves an awkward forced date)
What inspired you to write romantic comedy?
I fell in love with romantic comedy movies when I was young. I own all the classic 90’s rom/coms on DVD and watch them until I wear it out! It’s just me. I miss the feel good romantic comedies of the 90s. It seems like everything is so heavyhearted now days. We have enough drama in the world, give me some happy endings and I’m happy.
What books are you reading now?
Penguin just sent me over Jane L. Rosen’s new book Nine Women, One Dress and as soon as I read the first page I was hooked. It’s like the movie Valentine’s Day with a more Sex in the City type of vibe.
Who are you going to dedicate your next book to and why?
I don’t want to give it away quite yet but, I’ve had a few ‘early’ excited readers that really caught me off guard and I’d love to dedicate it to them.
I have the cutest Giveaway for the tour – pictured here & opened worldwide.
Included is a ‘create’ coffee cup, some dark & handsome K-cup pods, a cute Life is Short, Eat Cake wall art, some tiny macaroons, a Little Gray Dress bookmark & postcard!
Hotel Address: 1038 Lighthouse Avenue, Pacific Grove, CA 93950, United States of America
Rating: Dragon paws are only for books. This hotel only gets 1/5 stars and that’s only because of it’s location. Otherwise, it gets a 0.
Warning: THIS PLACE IS ABSOLUTELY NOT FOR MOTHERS AND THEIR KIDS. READ MY REVIEW TO UNDERSTAND WHY. I HAD NEVER BEEN INSULTED LIKE THAT BEFORE IN MY LIFE.
So over the past week, I had been on vacation. My first vacation with my son! I showed him the ocean. I showed him the aquarium. I showed him lots of deer and bonfires. We listened to live music and enjoyed ourselves, except for the last night of vacation.
Here’s what happened:
We made the reservation for this inn through Booking.com. When we came to the inn and entered our room, we were highly disappointed.
This is what I saw when I made the reservation.
When we came into the room, we saw a queen bed and a couch bed – a couch bed! We went back to the front desk, thinking that they gave us the wrong room. The girl said that Booking.com has it wrong and that they don’t have a room like that and all of the rooms are alike. We said that okay, a queen room with a queen bed, but where is a twin bed? She said that it was the couch bed. We told her that there’s a difference between the twin bed with a regular mattress and a couch. She said that the couch is a twin bed. My mother and I decided to stay there… well frankly we had no choice BUT to stay. We needed to book a new room and all the hotels next door were full. We were to sleep there only anyway. During the day we had made lots of plans. We told her that we would let Booking.com know about the mess up. We asked about discount and received none. We should have checked their website…that’s what the girl said.
Okay, that can be forgiven, but the girl- the manager can’t be. We stayed there two nights and every time we entered the office, she was there. Did she take a break? It was more than 48 hours and she was there at midnight, at 8am during breakfast, at noon when we would leave the hotel, and at night when would return. Our key kept deactivating because we kept it by an iPhone.
I think that she needs a vacation. When we brought up the topic of the room or of anything by that matter, she didn’t have the proper attitude. She was ready to argue and defend and not apologize or explain. I think she needs to take courses on hospitality. Totally rude.
It got worse the second night. At about 10:30pm, our room gets a call. I figure that someone complained about the TV. I don’t have a TV at home so I was enjoying watching Psych and Tom and Jerry while my son was playing next to me with his toys. No, the phone call wasn’t about the TV. It was about my baby. You see –
SOMEONE COMPLAINED THAT MY BABY WAS CRYING TOO MUCH AND NOT LETTING THEM SLEEP!
Background: I have a son. He will be 6 months next week. He’s a baby.
Because we returned late from Asilomar Camping Grounds, his bath wasn’t at 9pm but at 10pm. After I gave him his nightly bath, I fed him and then played with him. Bath took about ten minutes, feeding took about 10 minutes and so he was maybe playing with me for ten minutes before her phone call.
First of all, my son wasn’t crying. Second of all, he was laughing and agooing and singing. He was happy and it wasn’t constant noise from him, as I said, maybe about ten minutes. He was HAPPY. That’s what I told her over the phone. She didn’t listen and asked to keep down the noise from my baby and get this – she didn’t say anything the first night because she let it slide that he’s a baby.
WHAT CHANGED OVER 24 HOURS? HE’S NOT A BABY ANYMORE?
Since, she wasn’t listening, I told her that I’m putting him to bed. She said okay and we hung up. I was fuming by that point. So at the hotel, it’s okay to have dogs. It’s okay to watch TV at all hours. It’s okay to yell at 6:00 AM about shower not working next door but it’s not okay for a baby to cry or be happy????
He wasn’t loud either. Not louder than the TV anyway. I actually don’t think that neighbors complained, I think it was her. She wasn’t happy that we weren’t happy with the room, that we asked for discount, that we asked for more shampoo. She didn’t want to be friendly. Of course, That’s only my opinion but that’s how it felt. Again, my son was not louder than the TV and the TV was loud.
I can sooth my son when he’s crying and I always do it. It hurts my heart when he cries and is not happy, but I’m not going to stop him from being happy. (if you got this point, I’m allowing you to curse since I’m cursing right now.)
GRRRRRRR
I felt disgusted. After I put him down to bed and next to my mom, I went to take a shower to calm down. It didn’t help. I watched an entire episode of Psych. It didn’t help. I kept turning and turning. It was impossible to sleep. Babies will be babies and complaining about baby noises is not forgivable!!!!! I mean seriously. When people take vacations, they take vacations with family members, friends, and pets. So, people need to be prepared for some level noise and baby noise for forgivable. I MEAN SERIOUSLY, IT WASN’T MORE THAN ABOUT 10 MINUTES AND HE WASN’T AS LOUD AS THE TV.
During the night, I fed him a couple of times and by morning, I was so exhausted that all I wanted to do was go home and sleep. But, we stayed and went to the beach, trying to let go of all the built up bad energy. I MAY ADD THAT MY SON DIDN’T WAIL OR ANYTHING IN THE NIGHT. THE MOTORCYCLE AT 4AM WOKE EVERYONE UP, BUT MY SON DIDN’T WAKE ANYBODY UP.
When we went to turn in our key to the room, she was there again and get this, was trying really hard to stay on the phone. IT WAS THAT OBVIOUS. It was funny and when she understood that we weren’t going away, she hung up. There was a man getting breakfast and when he heard of what we were talking to her about, he disappeared so fast, it was funny. She tried telling us that she didn’t know that the baby was happy. She thought that he was making noise. I told her that, I told her over the phone last night that he WAS HAPPY. She clearly didn’t listen.
AND EVEN IF HE WAS CRYING OR UNHAPPY WHAT RIGHT DOES SHE HAVE TO TELL ME TO MAKE MY BABY STOP CRYING??? LIKE SERIOUSLY? IF HE’S CRYING, I’M DOING EVERYTHING IN MY POWER TO SOOTH HIM.
It’s like that I, his mother, was a bad mother. Just letting him make noise and ignoring him. Yeah….I’m INSULTED. I would never ignore by boy. I asked if she had kids and she said NO. When she does have children, I hope that she gets to learn a lesson or two.
I feel DISGUSTED even now.
Again, she ignored the complains the first night telling them that he’s a baby, she could ignore it the second night or be more understanding and actually listen when I said that he was happy and the people who complained know nothing about babies. Again, maybe it was all her.
I’M NOT GOING TO SHUT UP MY BABY WHEN HE’S HAPPY AND I’M GOING CUDDLE HIM AND SOOTH HIM WHEN HE’S UNHAPPY.
Anyway, there’s probably more to this story that I’m forgetting but please MOTHERS don’t stay at this Inn. It was the worst hotel experience and I have stayed in hotels all over the country.
The manager needs to take courses. She needs to listen. She needs to be polite. Or…she needs to find a new job.
Book Title: Curiosity and The Sentient’s Oblation (Gabrielle Book 3)
Book Author: Zachary Chopchinski
Source: K.U.
Rating: 5 Dragon Paws
Spoiler Alerts
The adventure continues. Gabrielle now questions her decisions. She didn’t think that there would be consequences that would touch too close to home.
What I liked –
Gabrielle is older once again. She gets to talk about her journey with Morrigan since the rules had changed. She’s also less held together and acts more like the child that she is. She lets two humans know about the gods and they get swarmed by evil creatures. She also gets to kill a man…not a monster like she got skilled at killing them. It was bound to happen. This story is more dark. So get ready for blood….and gruesome scenes.
Less typos than the previous book!
Nice choice of time in history.
I recommend to young adults who like paranormal fantasy, adventure, confused characters, and the past.
Book Title: Curiosity and The Hounds of Arawn (Gabrielle Book 2)
Book Author: Zachary Chopchinski
Source: K.U.
Rating: 5 Dragon Paws
Spoiler Alerts
The adventure continues. Gabrielle chose to stay on the adventure and leaving her life with her mother behind. I don’t know if I would be able to do if I were in her place. Would I be able to leave my family to save souls? It makes me questions the decisions that are put before us and if we make the right choices.
What I liked –
I liked that Gabrielle was in an older girl’s body for this one. Since, Gabrielle chose to help Alexandra, it’s only natural for her to grow up along the way, though we were reminded at times that she was still a 13 year old young girl. Again, compliments to the author. Well Done!
Also, it was nice that Gabrielle was able to catch herself and not talk about her mission. It must have been really hard!
However, there were a couple of typos that made it confusing to read in one part of the novel.
I wonder how Zachary chose the people in history for this one? Intentional or spontaneous? ^_^
I recommend to young adults who like paranormal fantasy, adventure, and scary red eyes.
Book Title: The Curious Tale of Gabrielle: YA Paranormal Fantasy
Book Author: Zachary Chopchinski
Source: K.U.
Rating: 5 Dragon Paws
This is some great writing. At first, I wasn’t sure what to think. It was a bit confusing, the change, but the ending of the book brought things to light.
Gabrielle is a great character. She’s young and gets to see her own innocence wither away with her adventure. At first, I thought that the books fell under the middle grade genre but as those clicks kept increasing, I decided that it’s more for young adults though Gabrielle is only 13. I guess, I didn’t read the YA Paranormal Fantasy part of the title. 😉 I chose to read it because a lot of my fellow bloggers read and the cover looked interesting.
What I liked –
I liked the emotions that Gabrielle felt. Zachary did a good job with it. He also introduced the characters in in interesting ways. Also, what’s impressive is that Zachary wasn’t scared to hurt his characters. Some authors are afraid of having their characters go through pain and hurt the smaller roles. Well done!
I recommend to young adults who like paranormal fantasy, adventure, and magical objects.
I’m exploring the world of Facebook or want to use it more and it will be used for my next release…but if I give away any details now, it will ruin the surprise. So join my group and wait for the news and then play play my game to win swag. ^_^
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