Hope’s Rebellion by Jade Varden-a review and guest post

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk/ Barnes and Noble /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release December 2013

Their friendship will test the fabric of tradition, duty and destiny…

There are only two seasons in Godenor: summer and winter. Weather brings the only surprises to a society where everything is planned, and everyone’s status is determined at birth…by the color of their hair.

Rinna has the right hair, Drexi the wrong, and Prelly is almost too ordinary — in every way but..

**********************

REVIEW: One of the greatest perks about reading is you get to escape reality and lose yourself in another world, time in history or era. It’s fun to lose yourself in forests that are bursting with color or opulent mansions but all I can say is you don’t want to lose yourself in this world I’m about to tell you about. This is a place call Godenor where you don’t Get to choose your destiny but your hair color does along with your irrh measurements like length, weight and other things. If you have blonde hair, you get an education and special treatment. If you have black hair and didn’t measure up, you likely got sent to a labor camp to be a servant or what they call a “dinwa”. This book reminds me Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Lois Lowry’s The Giver where everything is planned and people’s destinies are chosen for them.

This book was a captivating page turner from the first page where one mother with the highest status falls from grace and another ordinary mother rises in status when she gives birth to the perfect child with a head full of golden hair. Rinna, Drexi and Prelly are three friends who start a ripple effect that will change the Allocation system of Godenor. They are all so different from each other but it’s those differences that bring them together. I really enjoyed their friendship but found myself saddened at times when it seemed like their friendship was strained because of their circumstances. Drexi, Rinna and Prelly all had traits that I really came to admire like Drexi’s strength, Rinna’s confidence and Prelly’s courage. Of the three, Drexi was the one who really stood out to me. Drexi was destined to be a ” dinwa” because of her black hair and her failure in her first exam but she in her own way chose who own destiny. I appreciated her rebellious ways from the labor camp and her fearlessness to take risks even if it meant for her to be killed. She showed much how she clearly had a mind of her own despite how controlling Godenor is to their citizens. She proved to be bright, and tough physically and mentally.

I honestly thought the “caste-like” system and allocations were downright stupid to let something other than yourself to decide your destiny. I felt like it affected Godenor in so many negative ways, it’s no wonder there was a group trying to start a rebellion against it. It was saddening to see Rinna long to choose her fate but feel hopeless when her fate is already decided for her. Or to see Drexi work so hard to prove herself so that she was worth more than becoming a “dinwa”. And who can forget poor Prelly that she felt so hopeless that she can’t find anything she is good at that she constantly feared for her future. A word of warning, this book did get intense with adult situations like rape, violence, abuse, and death. Don’t get me wrong because I really liked this book. This book was surreal, poignant and intense. This book is so jammed packed with emotion that you can’t put this book down without feeling unaffected, this book gets under your skin in ways you didn’t think of and draw a lot of emotions out of you. While I love happy themed books and happy endings, I also respect book that draw strong emotions out of you and thought-provoking such as this book. I admit that many aspects and elements of this book pissed me off to no end but I highly recommend this book and would even read this book again. 🙂

Reviewed by Xtina

Copy supplied by the author

How is Deadline Stress Killing Your Writing?

Whether the deadline has been imposed on you by an editor, a publication date or even your own strict goal-setting rules, it’s stressful to be on a specific timeline. You’re working against the clock, and no matter how much time remains on that clock you can hear it ticking. It’s always there, it’s always waiting…and it’s always capable of causing you stress. But do you really know what deadline stress is doing to your ability to write?

Under Pressure

Stress will affect your thought processes If you’re writing under duress and feeling the pressure, you won’t be writing at your best. Stress can wreck your concentration and even hamper your ability to take in new information. It will affect short-term memory (so you can’t keep track of what you’re writing) and leads to hasty decisions. None of this is the stuff of well-crafted writing.

Stress triggers a physical reaction as well. It can create tension in the muscles, speed up the heart rate and even affect your reflexes. You can’t write well if you’re writing tense and feeling frenzied. Stress is a real problem if you’re trying to write…so how can it be solved?

Clearly, the answer is to get rid of writing deadlines. Us creative types need time to think and digest and plan and imagine, right? The trouble is, that’s not going to happen. The deadlines are never going to go away, so every writer has to find their own healthy (stress-free) ways to deal with them.

Relief is Spelled R-E-L-A-X

You can’t change the deadlines, but you can change your approach to them and the way you manage them. Don’t let tasks fall through the cracks. Use a calendar program to keep track of your schedule and the tasks you need to complete. Google has one built-in, and you can even sync it to an app on your phone. When you know what’s in store for the day, and the week, there’s less risk that tasks will creep up on you.

Walk away every once in a while. Don’t just write continuously in an effort to stay ahead of the deadlines. Take a break every few hours. Go out with friends in the evening, or shopping in the afternoon. Creativity flows best when you free your mind, and you need recreation to avoid a stress overload.

Don’t wait. If you have time today to work on something that’s due tomorrow, then do it. Procrastination will only cause you more stress, and that makes it harder to complete your work. Get done ahead of schedule whenever possible.

And don’t forget to breathe. It’s going to be okay, even if you can’t make a deadline. Write an email, tell them you’re working on it and get back to grinding out those words. Just keep doing what you do, and it’s going to be fine. In other words, don’t let the deadline stress get to you. There will always be deadlines, but they’re not always going to beat you.

~~Jade~~

Jade Varden writes young adult novels for teen readers. When she’s not crafting mysteries in her books, Jade also blogs practical writing tips for authors who self-publish. Jade currently makes her home in Louisville, Kentucky, where she enjoys reading and reviewing indie books by other self-published authors. Follow her on Twitter @JadeVarden. Visit Jade’s blog at jadevarden.blogspot.com for reviews, writing tips, self-publishing advice and everything else you ever wanted to know about reading and writing books.