Interview/Giveaway with Sherry Gammon

Hello, Sherry Gammon, and thank you so much for talking with me today! To begin, could you just tell us a little about yourself?

I'm a nomad! I have lived in six states and something like 26 different homes/apartments! I have a secret desire to live in Paris, or Hawaii, I'll take either! We have been in Upstate NY for 8 years now. We love it and plan to stay here forever…Unless we get the chance to move to Paris and Hawaii!

How long have you known that you wanted to be a writer?  Did you receive a clear “calling” from God or have you always had a desire to write?

I started writing poems in Junior High and fell in love with writing. I found it a great way to express my feelings and emotions. When in College, I graduated to short stories, with my teacher encouraging me to continue writing. I became a mom and that took my attention, as it should. About five or six years ago, I wrote a Harry Potter novel for fun, after JK Rowling started killing off characters that I cares about. My love for writing was reignited, and I have written ever since.

Who has inspired you the most?

JK Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, and the great Victor Hugo. I would LOVE to write a novel as wonderful and Les Misérables!

What are two things that people wouldn’t normally know about you?

I wear a size 11 shoe, and I am a horrible typist!

You recently have had a book published, would you take this time to describe it to us? How and where can readers buy your book? (Versions and locations)

Book Bio: Seventeen year-old Maggie Brown is truly the poster child for Heroin Chic, complete with her jutting bones and her dark-ringed eyes. She’s struggling with her growing feelings for the new guy at school, Seth Prescott, and fears he is just another person who will let her down, like everyone in her life has done thus far.
Seth Prescott is an undercover cop assigned to Port Fare High, and despite his job, he’s developed strong feelings for Maggie. Seth’s working tirelessly to flush out the sadistic heroin peddlers that have invaded the small town of Port Fare, New York, while Maggie fights to stay alive as the search turns deadly.

Seth and Maggie’s romantic journey is one of humor, heartbreak and self-discovery as their world is about to change forever.

You can buy the Ebook at Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Unlovable-Port-Fare-ebook/dp/B004K1F9BA

And at Barnes and noble:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/unlovable-sherry-gammon/1029730320?ean=2940012120045&itm=1&usri=unlovable

The hard copy is on Amazon.com also.

Is there a spiritual message in your book?  If so, what is it and what can readers expect to get from reading it?

To NEVER give up. Life is hard, at times VERY hard, but things will get better. AND don't let the cycle of abuse continue. If you have been in an abusive situation, you DO NOT have to repeat it. They say it is hard to break the cycle… I say it is not. You can DO anything, especially if it is worth it.

What’s your favorite part of the story?

When Maggie realizes she is Not the unlovable one.(So many others in the story are, but not Maggie!)

What was the hardest part to write?

The hospital scene with her mom near the end and the next scene when Maggie is in her trailer.

Do you have any other books in the making?

I am working on book two of the series right now. I am also working on a fun take on an Old Fairy Tale!

Would you give us your blog or webpage so everyone can check it out?  Anything else you’d like to share?

I wrote this story so my daughters and I would have clean teen romances to read together. They have been my biggest supports and promoters!! I hope clean read blogs like this hope they will spread like wildfire throughout the internet!!

The web site for Unlovable is: www.WordpaintingsUnlimited.blogspot.com

And the FB address is: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Unlovable-Book-One-of-The-Port-Fare-Series/129260103811533?created&v=page_getting_started

Here are a few fun questions:

Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate!!!!!!!

Pepsi or Coke? Diet Pepsi!

Cats or Dogs? Dogs…Look for Daisy May, she is in the story -- she's my dog!!

Summer or Winter? Winter…I hate the heat.

Thank you for allowing me to share UNLOVABLE with you, and thank you for your great web site. If you will send me the exact web address of the interview, I will post it on my blog and on my FB account. Keep up the great work.

Thank you Sherry Gammon for writing a clean romance!! We need more of those! Thank you for sharing your story with us!!

My review of UNLOVABLE: 

 Unlovable was everything I thought it would be! I read some reviews of this book before I read it and was fully prepared for what it had to offer and I was actually surprised! It was a lot better than the one negative review I've read... a lot! This is about a young girl, Maggie, which is a senior in high school that struggles daily to survive. She lives in a trailer with her alcoholic mother and barely gets enough food because her mother spends all her money on booze. Maggie continually questions whether or not she is lovable because she hasn't been told by her mother that she is loved since she was a toddler.

I really enjoyed the characters despite the fact that there were some minor stereotypes going on. I think the author nailed Maggie as a true to character abused and sad young girl. Living with an alcoholic mother can really mess with a kid and this seemed evident with Maggie. The other main character was Seth, an undercover MET cop that is working at the high school pretending to be a popular student to try to find out who is selling drugs to the kids. He seemed a bit too perfect at times but I just really adored him. He had values and stuck to them, he was nice, sexy (which is always great in a hero) and he was a bit shy with how to flirt and impress the girl he wants and I found that delightful.

There aren’t a whole lot of young adult books out there that offer clean but exciting romances and I was thrilled that Unlovable was one of those books!! There was plenty of kissing scenes and danger that kept this book alive and exciting.

Even though this book did suffer some predictability I still enjoyed reading it and in-fact I couldn't seem to put it down. I was worried about what was going to happen to the mother, the drug issue and fragile state of Maggie all the way through.

There were some grammatical errors but it really didn't deter from the story at all. I barely noticed a few of them and they are in no way significant to distracting the reader.

I really was invested in all the characters, and I'm excited to learn that there is going to be additional stories on Booker and Cole. I will be picking up a copy of those when they are released because I really want to read some more about the lovable secondary characters.

Thank you to Sherry Gammon for providing me a copy of Unlovable for my honest review. All opinions are my own!

GIVEAWAY TIME

 
Okay readers, here is your chance to win a copy of "Unlovable" by Sherry Gammon!!

TO ENTER:

*Leave an encouraging comment about the interview/author with your name and email address (so I can contact you if you win). The comment is mandatory. You will not be entered unless you leave a comment AND your email address. Use this format kcmelone(at)yahoo(dot)com to protect you from spam.

*If you leave a comment you are automatically entered in the giveaway, unless you tell me not to.

*Here are ways to get entries:

mandatory entry: comment saying you would like to be entered with your email address.

+1 Become one of my followers OR subscribe to my blog by email.

+2 Rate my latest review (on Judgement Day) on Blogging for Books by clicking here.
 

+2 Read and leave a comment on any of my other reviews located on this blog.

**This is a total of 6 entries.  Tell me in your comments which of these entries you did. **

*The contest will run from today July 7 until July 21. I will announce the winner that night. The winner is always randomly drawn. I will contact the winner either directly and then that person will have one week to reply. If the winner doesn't reply within that time period, I will pick a new winner.

Good luck! Thanks for visiting.

**USA addresses only, please**

eIn

Called Home: Two Hearts Answer by Gloria Schumann

My Review:
4 STARS

(maybe more like 3.5)

My skin is crawling!! Ahh!! Called Home was filled with suspense and mystery!! This was about two adults that had moved away from their hometown but had decided to return for different reasons. David is a mystery author and decides to move back to the small home town after spending some time in NY making a name for himself as a best-selling author.  Emma is an Elementary teacher that moves back home to help her mom pay for the farm and help her out!  These two have interesting ways of meeting and things continue to get more complex as the story progresses.  They find themselves in the middle of a mystery and it'll either tear them apart or push them together.

There were some great things about this story!! The best thing was the romance, the passion and the stolen kisses were just fantastic!! I'm all for a good kissing scene and there was plenty of those in this book to go around.  The plot was pretty unique and I thought I had the ending figured out but I sure was surprised at what enfolded.  I loved the mystery and was really freaked out at times.

The things I didn't like about the book were small but maybe worth mentioning; I got confused a few times as to what perspective and voice we were reading.  One minute you were hearing what Emma was thinking then all of sudden it was David and it was at times a bit hard to follow but really didn't distract from the story because I did understand what was going on. 

I also struggled with liking Emma but she really grew on me as the story progressed.  At first I just wanted her to stop being so stubborn but then I felt like she was learning to lean on others as time went on and I really did enjoy her change of attitude.

I really enjoyed the character David; he was dreamy in the sense that he was buff and extremely handsome but also put a lot of value in his family and he loved to look out for his neighbors and help Emma deal with her past and her current problems.

Those that like to read my reviews to find out whether a book is clean or not should know that I feel this is a pretty clean book. There are a lot of kissing scenes, but they are done tastefully and there is no sex, which is great.  I also have a lot of readers that read Christian only and I wanted to express that this is not a Christian romance but just a clean romance.

I received this book free from the author in exchange for my personal and honest review.  All opinions are my own!

Book Blurb:

Emma Benson's view of life was crafted by the death of her brother as a child, abandonment by her father and later, the man she trusted she would marry, until David Schlosser-back in town after years in New York writing best-selling novels-threatens her neatly tended life. Romance blooms. Emma and David eventually persevere in the face of tragedy, refusing to leave their dreams behind. 

Buy Called Home: Two Hearts Answer!

  

Fateful by Cheri Schmidt

About the book:

A huge fan of Jane Austen, Danielle hopes to find her own Mr. Darcy when she leaves Colorado to attend art school in London. Of course she knows it's silly to wish for that, naive even. But she's met enough males who lacked respect for women, a growing trend it seemed. And at nineteen...well.... However, on only her second night there she gets lost and is threatened by a stalker who proves to be immune to her martial arts training. Before she is completely overpowered, she is then saved by Ethan Deveroux.

While Danielle does find the romance she seeks in Ethan, he's no Mr. Darcy. Her hero is held by a spell which fractures their chance at a happy ending. During the day Ethan is closer to mortal than immortal and can date her like any other man. Yet, as the sun sets, the powerful magic of an ancient curse returns and the evil of that spell is revealed. When that magic begins, Danielle's fairytale romance ends because Ethan Deveroux is a vampire.

My review:
4 STARS

I have to admit...I was a bit skeptical of this book when I was asked to read it by the author for the purpose of reviewing. I LOVED Twilight with a passion but have found it almost impossible to enjoy another vampire or paranormal book since, so I was convinced I wouldn't enjoy it. This book was an exception. I really liked it!! Fateful is about young Danielle who moves to London to go to school there and live with her Uncle, Aunt and cousin. Soon after her arrival in London she is attacked, but then saved by the handsome and delicious Ethan. The only issue is that her handsome rescuer is actually a cursed vampire. They soon begin dating and it proves to be almost impossible for Danielle to stay out of harm’s way.

One of my favorite quotes "She loved the way her name melted from his tongue, like a tender endearment, made sweeter by his British articulation."

This story has a lot to be desired! The characters were delightful and I couldn't get enough of the sweet romance between Ethan and Danielle. The romance was my favorite part because it was sweet, and passionate yet clean. Danielle is a charming "girly girl" that loves to wear skirts and has an innocent way about her. Ethan is handsome, charming, and very old school when it comes to dating. The story line was very good. It did have a lot of similarities to Twilight, which is the only reason I gave it a 4 instead of a 5 star rating, but then again, most vampire books do. The differences were great though and Cheri made her story stand out! There was lots action and most of the story was unpredictable. The ending was unique and I devoured the story as soon as I started reading it. I can't wait for the next book by Cheri Schmidt; she is a very gifted author! If you love young adult paranormal/vampire books then this needs to be added to your list of books to read, I highly recommend it!

I received a copy of this book to read and review from the author. My review is not biased by the fact that I was given this book. I HONESTLY read and review any book whether bought or given to me. If I did not like the book I would definitely not give a rave review or recommend it.