Cicely Loves Books

If there's one tour I had  to do for 2016, it was this one. Booki Vivat is known to a lot of us in the blogger world for being a kick ass publicist, but now she's adding kick ass author to her resume. FRAZZLED took me by storm - this is the book I needed before I walked through those middle school doors. I still maintain that I want to be Abbie Wu when I grow up. Booki recently sat down to answer some questions about her new book and how being a publicist and an author are very  different things. 1. CONGRATS on your first book, Booki! Now I know it happened, but can you tell everyone how FRAZZLED came to be a book? Frazzled has a pretty unconventional origin story. It didn’t start with a traditional pitch or a query or a manuscript. It started with a doodle—or rather, a whole bunch of them. I began keeping a planner a few years ago to try and get my life in order, but it ended up becoming more of a creative outlet to channel all my feelings. Doodles literally took over the...

  I'm so happy to welcome Kristen Simmons to the blog today to chat about her ideal dinner party and her new release, METALTOWN! Top 10 fictional characters you  would have over for dinner Gansey, so I could stare longingly at him and be delighted that he’s my boyfriend Magic Mike, for after dinner entertainment (that counts, right?) Shazi from THE WRATH AND THE DAWN, so she can teach me how to use a bow and arrow (must prep for end of the world) Kady from ILLUMINAE to help me fix my computer and basically just strut around like a badass Mather from SNOW LIKE ASHES to fawn over me in his broody way Hermoine, because she’s the smartest/coolest girl ever Edward and Jacob for ONE FINAL EPIC SHOWDOWN BWAHAHAHAHA Okay sorry. (They arrive as a pair but only need one seat at the table, thanks to said showdown.) Peeta. Someone’s got to bake us some bread around here. Katniss, to be distracted by Peeta so that I can steal… Gale right out from under her nose. HAHA WIN.  ABOUT MET...

Welcome to the CROOKED KINGDOM blog tour! Today we're spotlighting Wylan - a character I definitely needed more of after Six of Crows! Leigh Bardugo on Wylan: "A lot of people have asked why Wylan didn't have POV chapters in Six of Crows. I wrote some, but the voice felt all wrong for the book, and I think it was because Wylan really wasn’t a member of the crew yet. I loved writing his chapters in Crooked Kingdom, not only because I really got a chance to get to know him, but because he's led a much more sheltered life than the other characters." The Irish Banana Review on Wylan: I am so excited that we're getting more Wylan in CROOKED KINGDOM! Six of Crows left me wanting more of Wylan. His struggles absolutely endeared him to me, making him a quiet favorite. I loved his innocence and almost wanted to put him in a protective bubble, but I can't wait to see him come into his own! About CROOKED KINGDOM: Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist ...

EEEEK! I am so excited to be celebrating the release of LIKE A RIVER GLORIOUS! Today, I bring you the team I would assemble to make my own Oregon Trail trek. 1. Stephanie from No BS Book Reviews :  Because she's basically my brain twin and right hand gal for all things that can be categorized as "adventure or expedition".  2. Jen from Jenuine Cupcakes :  Because we need cupcakes, yes? And she's also seriously fun to road trip with. 3. Nicole from Paperback Princess :  She's my bestie. Do I need to add anything else? 4. Lauren from Resch Reads & Reviews :  I watched this girl assemble a city out of cardboard. I have no doubts we could use her ingenuity on the trail. Also? She brews her own beer.  5. Krista ( Krista's Dust Jacket ), Val ( Stuck In Books ) & Brianna ( Paperback Princess ):  And maybe Caitlin. But seriously, these three make me laugh and keep me sane ... and can totally be bribed into anything I want by offering PB&J san...

1. The details in the book are remarkable—from the specifics of dissection and Victorian-era medicine to the historically accurate descriptions of late 19th-century London. What research did you do to make the story so authentic? Thank you! I pored over actual Ripper case files and studied the notes the forensic team/medical examiners had taken during their autopsies. I thought it was really important to capture the medical techniques of the day and spent a great deal of time investigating what was around, how it was used, and what the general thoughts of the public were. One of my favorite parts in Stalking Jack the Ripper is when [Audrey Rose’s] uncle, a brilliant forensic medical examiner, has his own theories that cannot be proven by medical professionals, but are practices and truths we know today. I also did a lot of research into how autopsies are conducted today, what bodies smell like after trauma, to fully flesh out my understanding of how our procedures might differ from Vi...

And now ... a Q&A with Mindy McGinnis. 1. THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES is one of the most intense books I’ve ever read. Several times I had to set it down to digest what had happened. How long did I take you to write this and where in the world did the idea come from? I actually wrote the book fairly quickly, I’d say in about three months. Part of the reason for that is  that the idea has been percolating for about 15 years… since I was in college. As a freshman I had a lot of adjusting to do and one of those things I needed to adjust to was cable TV (I didn’t have it at  home). So I kind of glutted myself at first. I was watching some sort of true crime show about a murder of a young girl that had happened in a  small town. Everyone pretty much knew who did it, but there wasn’t enough evidence to convict, so  he walked free. The show named the town, and the suspect. I thought to myself, Gee, an unhinged  person could take that information and … huh … that’s a...