Wide Awake by Shelly Crane Blog Tour - April 16th: Interview, Review, & Giveaway by The Alternative Kryptonite!!
I have always loved Shelly Crane and her books. I never got the chance tho participate in one of her blog tours and now that I am, I am so excited, thankful, and happy to be working with her and Mandy from iReadIndie.
Review:
"A girl.
A coma.
A life she can't remember.
When Emma Walker wakes up in the hospital with no knowledge of how she got there, she learns that she's been in a coma for six months. Strangers show up and claim to be her parents, but she can't remember them. She can't remember anyone. Not her friends, not even her boyfriend. Even though she can't remember, everyone wants her to just pick up where she left off, but what she learns about the 'old her' makes her start to wish she'd never woken up. Her boyfriend breaks up with the new girl he's dating to be with her, her parents want her to start planning for college, her friends want their leader back, and her physical therapist with the hazel eyes keeps his distance to save his position at the hospital.
Will she ever feel like she recognizes the girl in the mirror?"
Thoughts:
FINALLY Shelly Crane becomes NY Times Bestselling Author.....
I can't say that Shelly Crane has made a novel as endearing and charming as this one. Ever. Yes, the Significance series is being made into a movie, and her other books are works of art, but this one was different. I am continually astounded by Crane's ability to capture the soul, rip it apart, and gently sow it back together, leaving you in awe of the story. Wide Awake is, in my opinion, one of her best books (maybe the best, CONSIDERING IT GOT ON THE NY TIMES BESTSELLER LIST). I can only describe Wide Awake as a brilliant quilt. Woven together near-perfectly, with dark colors and light colors. The book demonstrates these dark and dangerous emotions, along with bright, wonderful ones. With characters expertly written and a plot that takes twists and turns, this book is one of - if not - her best novel yet.
Emma Walker wakes up in a hospital to find that she had been involved in a hit-and-run and no memory of her past life. Throughout the book she has to grapple with re-discovering the old and discovering the new Emma. As always, the emotions in the novel were wonderfully written like you were inside her head, feeling the things she feels. But I think the thing that stands out about this book is the amount of things she has to worry about and how she handles and reacts to situations. I was surprised to find how... independent Emma was. I noticed in the Significance series, for example, conflicts arose with both Maggie and Caleb having to deal with them. In Wide Awake, she has to take a more individual approach with how to handle things, even if it wasn't the best way. I guess you could say I was a great example of the "human condition". Everything felt so real and Emma had such human reactions to everything that you couldn't help but connect with her.
Mason brings most of the charm to this story I have to say ;-). In Wide Awake, the main love interest is most definitely not perfect in my eyes. But I think that's what makes Mason so great. He has a completely human reaction to everything that makes you connect with not just Mason or Emma or Isabella, but everyone in the novel. This brilliant novel was able to capture me from the first page because of ALL the bad, ALL the pain, but also all the happiness, the swoonyness (that is a word.....), and relationships that are formed, broken, and reformed.
Overall, I loved this book with every kink and bump. The characters were wonderfully relatable, and the plot was as well. There were so many twists and surprises that it just heightened the awesomeness. Bravo, Shelly Crane, bravo.
5 out of 5 stars
P.S. NY-FREAKING-TIMES......
Interview:
And now...the part you've all been waiting for...the wonderful SHELLY CRANE!!
*and the crowd goes wild*
Me:Thank you so much for doing this interview for Wide Awake blog tour and The Alternative Kryptonite!!
Shelly: Very excited, thanks for having me!
Me: Ok so I'd like to start off by asking: What makes WA different
from all your other books? (besides the plot line and such)
Shelly: Well, it's my first YA contemp. I have an adult one, but this one was a lot
different for me. And the issues in the book are something I'd never thought
would be interesting or maybe...something I wouldn't want to delve into. And
sometime while writing the book, I'd dread writing a scene because I knew it
was going to be particularly rough. Especially the scene with her parents. They
loved her so much and I know most of the people who've read WA didn't like her
parents at all, but if you stood a minute in their shoes and imagined someone
with your daughter's face not remembering you or anything of her life? Yeah,
those scenes were hard to write. So I guess I've written gut wrenching books
and scenes before but for this book, it was more of digging deep and focusing
on her life more than just the romance like I usually do in my books. Though,
there's plenty of romance is this book, too.
Me: Do you have a
set-in-stone writing process? If so, what is it?Shelly: I get an idea, I do NOT plot or outline, I'll be washing clothes or
something one day and a scene will come to me. I'll run to write it down and
then open the laptop and start an opening. I'll say to myself that I'm just
going to write a couple pages and five hours later, three chapters are done.
Then I stay up late, way past when my family goes to sleep, and write til 4am.
And then I repeat the next day.
Me: Where do you find
inspiration? Is there a certain
place/event that inspired you to write WA?
Shelly: Not really. I try not to
base my books off of anything else. My ideas just come out of nowhere mostly.
My brain doesn't really turn off and I have about fifteen book ideas in my
notebook right now that I'm dying to
Me: What inspired/caused you
to start writing?
Shelly: Boredom started my reading obsession. We traveled with my hubs job and he
worked 12 hour days, 7 days a week back then. And then when I read everything
in the YA section at Borders, I got the idea for Collide and figured I'd sit
and write my own book since a lot of the books I'd been reading were alike. I
wanted to read something different, so I sat down and started Collide, never
intending anyone to read it. It was just from sheer boredom.
Me: How do you form your
novels and their plot line? Lock
yourself in your room, sit in a park, watch The Walking Dead?
Shelly: I can write anywhere. I sit in my brown leather club chair, put my
headphones on and I'm gone.
Me: What are some habits
(good or bad) that you tend to have while writing?
Shelly: I don't take breaks
when I get in the zone and hurt the next day. I don't eat that much while in
the zone because I don't want to stop typing to do it. I find tons of new music
for my playlists and I love that. Music is essential to writing for me. Quiet
is the enemy.
Me: I do the same thing with Minecraft and reading.... Why did you choose to
write YA romance/paranormal romance?
Shelly: It's what I used to
read, so it was what I wanted to write. I only have one more paranormal book in
the line-up, Altered (devoured #3) and then the rest of the books I have in my
notebook are contemporaries.
Me: What is your biggest
challenge whilst writing a book? Editing,
first page, last chapter?
Shelly: Probably the middle. To
be so far from the beginning but so far from the end.
Me: Do you ever go back and
read the books you've previously written? Do you ever find inspiration from those books, or do
you try to stay away from them?
Shelly: If you try to stay away
from them, why? No, I go back and re-read some of them a lot. Especially if a
sequel is coming out. But sometimes, I just miss my characters and will go back
and read a couple favorite scenes.
Me: What is your favorite
food (BESIDES A DESSERT)?
Shelly: Pasta with white sauce.
Sausage, chicken, beef, doesn't matter. White sauce is my fav.
Much thanks to Shelly Crane for answering my questions!!!
YA author from a small town in Georgia and loves everything about the south. She is wife to a fantastical husband and stay at home mom to two boisterous and mischievous boys who keep her on her toes. They currently reside in everywhere USA as they happily travel all over with her husband's job. She loves to spend time with her family, binge on candy corn, go out to eat at new restaurants, buy paperbacks at little bookstores, site see in the new areas they travel to, listen to music everywhere and also LOVES to read.
Her own books happen by accident and she revels in the writing and imagination process. She doesn't go anywhere without her notepad for fear of an idea creeping up and not being able to write it down immediately, even in the middle of the night, where her best ideas are born.
Giveaway:
WIN an eBook of Wide Awake! Choose between a nook & Amazon eBook!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Links!
Visit The Alternative Kryptonite's Official Facebook page here!
Stop by and say hi to Shelly Crane here.
Follow Shelly Crane and I on Twitter:
@maggie_a_t
@AuthorShellyCrane
Visit The Alternative Kryptonite's YouTube Channel for a Musing Monday every week!
Wide Awake Links!!!!!
