Last One… or Five

So I’m a little worried that all that time on the internet last week following For Darkness promo may have broken my brain. Guys: I checked my Amazon rankings. I haven’t done anything like that since like 2006. It’s pretty much rule number one for veteran authors: though shalt not make thyself crazy by checking Amazon rankings.

And yet I did. Bad, Diana. Bad.

Even worse, a variety of scheduling conflicts, family stuff and other issues (like the fact that the only bookstore in a 10 mile radius was a Borders) have factored into the sad truth that I have yet to see my own book in the wild. I know. It’s really, really sad. I think I’m going to pack up Queenie and take a spin around some local bookstores today. It can be a tradition — hopefully one she likes. Maybe if I follow-up with Ice Cream?

So anyway, this will probably be the last blog review round up for a while:

Wastepaper Prose: “For a story so fraught with the kind of romance that makes your heart ache, there’s very few traditional romantic scenes (i.e. the big epic kisses).  The thing is, it doesn’t really need it, nor do I really miss those scenes.  There are so many others that are so intense that you will find yourself squealing in glee when she and Kai so much as GLANCE at each other.  And whenever he shows up in the barn, in their old stomping grounds, my heart practically leaps out of my chest. Clearly, I adore For Darkness Shows the Stars.  The characters delight, the world grabs hold of you instantly, and the words flow perfectly.  I will be reading and recommending this for years to come.”

Khy at Frenetic Reader: “Such a well-developed world is nothing without great characters, but luckily For Darkness Shows the Stars has an abundance of those. Every character is worth a mention– dear sweet Ro, fierce Andromeda, deceptively shallow Tatiana, ambiguous but always sketchy Benedict– but for the sake of the length of this review, I’ll focus on the two leads. Elliot is such a wonderful heroine, and it’s always easy to sympathize with her struggle to reconcile her Luddite beliefs with the necessity of caring for her estate no matter the potentially dangerous consequences. Kai spends much of the novel in mystery because of his anger at Elliot’s decision years ago, but even in his briefest appearances, his preference for his new lifestyle and his complex feelings about the North estate always make themselves known. My favorite thing about both of them, though, is their relationship with each other. Between chapters are letters they wrote to each other as children, from all sorts of years, and these letters reveal not only the contrast between their lifestyles but the genuine care and love they have for each other; their childhood innocence makes their discussion of the Luddite/Post tension all the more powerful because they never seem to have an issue caring for each other despite all the times they told aren’t to.”

Late Bloomer Online: “For Darkness Shows the Stars is an amazing book.  It is a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion and Diana incorporates all the best elements from Austen’s novel while adding plenty of magic of her own.  This novel hurt my heart, but it hurt so good, because I knew awaiting me right around the corner was  romance and redemption I would not soon forget.”

From Andie Z at From A to Z: “Elliott and Kai are both absolutely brilliant and incredibly frustrating at the same time. I loved each of their journeys as individual characters, and I definitely loved them together. This is my favorite kind of love story, you guys. The tension between them is palpable; you feel everything they’re going through so much. They’ve had a difficult history together, and Kai is just harsh enough with Elliott for it to be perfect. I will say that the romantic in me wanted a little more of the lovey-dovey stuff (yeah, I’m a sap), but honestly it didn’t even matter, I still loved it. And the whole story is peppered with letters that Kai and Elliott wrote to each other as they were growing up, which was a wonderfully sweet window into their back story and really allowed the reader to see their growth and maturation.”

And here’s a fun one, about the free prequel “Among the Nameless Stars” from Read-A-holicZ: “One word: AMAZING! Okay I read the small (84 pages) excerpt of For Darkness Shows the Stars that HarperTeen has on their website, HERE. That was SO good & will be buying it this week. So after the abrupt ending of that excerpt I needed MORE. So i stumbled upon this story. Kai’s Story. I fell in love with Kai. He is my type of character, wounded, betrayed, and determined. I understood why he wanted his freedom, why he left. This POV story brought me SO much closer to him.” (Then they “match it” with Florence + the Machine’s “Shake it Out” which is kinda perfect, don’t you think?)

Did you know I had another release going on, that, like “Among the Nameless Stars”, is a freebie? It’s an Anthology called Eternal Spring, and though it’s only available for free online, you can enter to win a free print edition by visiting any one (or all) of these guest blog giveaways. Check them all out, then download your own free copy and read my killer unicorn story, “On a Field, Sable.”

Okay, enough of all that. I’m off to sign some book copies with my brand new midnight blue sharpie. You know, and get off the internet. Wish me luck that Queenie finds this fun, and doesn’t pull too many books off shelves.