Saving Juliet

This one I'm reading for the Take a Chance Challenge. The challenge is to pick out a book based SOLELY on the cover. First, write about what you expect the book to be about based on the cover art. Then read the book and write about how the book was different from and/or similar to what the cover art led you to expect.

I'm writing the summary before I read the book but I'm posting this after I've read it.
So I picked Saving Juliet by Suzanne Selfors. I liked the cover since it reminded me of Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty and The Luxe by Anna Godberson. Covers like this, with half the girl's face cut off and just a torso or upper body shot are popular for some reason right now. But I like the old fashioned dress. Only since the girl is blowing a bubble with her gum and has sunglasses hanging from her dress, I'm guessing this just isn't a period piece, maybe some kind of time travel is involved or a play (most likely Shakespearean) and the girl is the lead character.

Mimi is playing Juliet at her family's renowned theater, The Wallingford Theatre though she is suffering from stage fright. She's been acting ever since she was 3 so this sudden onset of stage fright is causing her big problems. Also causing her problems is her mother who wants to control Mimi's life and dictate where Mimi should go to college. On the night of the final performance of Romeo & Juliet, Mimi is magically transported, with her gorgeous co-star Troy Summers, to Verona, Italy and into the story of Romeo & Juliet. But her presence is changing the story and she doesn't know how to get back to her life. Can Mimi save Juliet and save herself?

So I was right about my guess based on the cover. Only I said time travel or a play and I got both. It was a very cute book, a little contrived, but cute nonetheless. It didn't take much time to read. I understood Mimi's problems and her mother was so overbearing that it was ridiculous. Lady Capulet was the same way. The author tried very hard to parallel Mimi's problems with Juliet's, but sometimes it was a little forced. And I wasn't really crazy about Troy. He just bothered me. It was cute how Mimi changed the story of Romeo & Juliet and it all ended up alright. It was fun seeing the characters of the classic play reacting to life outside of that story. All in all, it was a cute, fun book.

Raven's Gate (The Gatekeepers #1)

Matt has been a troubled boy ever since his parents died when he was eight. Now fourteen, Matt is living with his aunt and her boyfriend. When a guardsman is stabbed while Matt and his friend break into a warehouse, Matt is sent to live with Mrs. Deverill in the town of Lesser Malling. Strange and sinister things are happening and Matt is at the center of an evil plan. But he is chosen for something else too.

Honestly, I went into this book thinking that it was going to be abandoned. I don't know why. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked it. It was really good. Matt is so sad and mistreated and he acts out and, yes, deserves punishment but getting sent to Mrs. Deverill is too much. She is a little cliched as are all the town characters. The premise is a good one, boy is chosen to guard the world from evil and to find the other Gatekeepers. The information is a little lacking, but then this was obviously set up to be the first in a series. It's like a pilot for a TV show. You get just enough information to pull you back. I think I'm going to switch to the audio though for no real reason.

Twitter Lesson - Direct Links

If you want to give someone the exact link to a tweet, click on the time that you sent it on the bottom of your tweet (it shows up in Twitter proper on the web). This will lead you to the direct link to your Tweet. You can either right click on the time and "copy link location" or you can click on it and copy the link from your browser bar. Then if you are trying to link to someone or entering a giveaway and want to give the exact tweet, you can paste it into the comment box or whatever you are trying to do.

Here's what the link will look like: http://twitter.com/lilbookworm/status/3113425220




Does anyone have any other Twitter questions?

Teaser Tuesdays - Saving Juliet

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

"If I were insane I'd have no problem with the fact that one minute I'd been standing outside the Wallingford Theatre in New York City and the next minute I was half a world away in Verona, Italy, where characters from Romeo and Juliet walked the streets-speaking English, no less. That would seem perfectly reasonable to an insane person and it didn't seem perfectly reasonable to me."

p. 54 Saving Juliet - Suzanne Selfors