Speak of the Devil by Shawna Romkey-Review and Guest Post with the author

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 2013

What happens when falling in love and falling from grace collide?

After dying in a car accident with her two best friends, Lily miraculously awakens to grief and guilt. She escapes to her dad’s to come to terms with the event and meets some people at her new school who seem all too eager to help her heal. Sliding deeper into sorrow and trying to fight her feelings for two of them, she finds out who…what they really are and that they are falling too.

Can she find the strength to move on from the past, reconcile her feelings for Luc, find a way to stop a divine war with fallen angels, and still pass the eleventh grade?

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Speak of the Devil is the debut novel of author Shawna Romkey. The story line begins as Missouri teen Lily Tyler faces a tragic car accident that leaves her dead and miraculously brought back to life and left to deal with the heart breaking loss of her best friend Julie and almost boyfriend Mike. And the never-ending question of – why her? Grief stricken and unsure of how to continue to live in her small town where everything seems to remind her of the loss she has sustained and the ghosts of memories that continue to haunt her – Lily decides to deal with her depression by moving to the big city with her father and step-mother. There, trying to live a normal life and keeping people at arms length, Lily begins school, gets a job with the school newspaper an begins working on assignments. Through one such assignment her life will take a new road. All this will test her trust and thrust her smack dab in the middle of a battle between good and evil!

Finding friends among a high school theater group we are introduced to Mo, a nerdy red haired musical theater member who has a wonderful sense of humor and eager to be friends or more than friends with Lily. But Lily finds herself attracted to Luc, the green eyed, flak jacket wearing, mystery theater member who leaves her enthralled from the first moment! Lily feels very comfortable and at home with these new friends, but soon realizes that running away from her past may not end the sorrow she fought so hard to put an end to!

Thus setting off the enchanting tale of good versus evil! I connected with the teen angst that the author brought forth when one deals with death at that young age. The struggle to find yourself again and your place in the world after a devastation and loss. I was brought to tears by Lily on several occasions as her struggles hit home on many levels. Not only is this an epic story of good versus evil the romantic twists and turns leaves you wanting more! The paranormal element is just one of many that grabs hold and won’t let go! Refreshing and different! The cliffhanger ending lets you, of course wanting more and craving the second book! As on older reader this will definitely be a book that I will save and pass on to my young daughter to read one day!

Copy supplied by the author

Reviewed by Erin

I write YA. Young adult. The age limits vary but we’re talking 12 – 18 as in the YA category, but women up to the age of 45 read it, too. There is some talk in this genre about whether to write sex into YA, and there is much debate on this topic. I say, definitely not.
Some want to make it edgy or daring. And to be honest in my first draft of Speak of the Devil, I had swear words that started with every letter of the alphabet. I wanted to write Twilight with some sizzle, but the more I thought about it, the more I edited out my profanities. Why? Young adult is for young adults. It’s not as though they can’t go into any store that sells books and pick up Fifty Shades of Gray, uncensored, no identification required and read graphic sex if they wanted to. They can. If that’s what they want, they can get it without their parents’ permission and without question. Or they can go on the Internet and find all the sex images, words and videos they want.

I keep it out because I think young adult girls are already bombarded with sex as it is. Music videos, magazine ads, TV shows… it’s difficult to watch a situation comedy that isn’t talking about sex repeatedly. I love the Big Bang Theory, but at its premise it is a story about whether geeks can get laid. Love is only sometimes part of that equation. Is sex really the end-all be-all of life? I don’t think so, but I think our young adults get the message that it is.

Maybe I’m a prude, but when I watch The Vampire Diaries, I’m thinking, these girls are in high school and they’re drinking wine right out of the bottle at their slumber party? They’ve had sex repeatedly with multiple partners. They’ve grown up too fast, and while some of them have had to after their parents died, but is it a situation to be glorified? Shouldn’t it be one to be mourned?

Sure, I swore in high school. I had sex in high school. I drank in high school, but not on a constant, regular basis. Did I want to do all of those things if it got right down to it? Not really. Did I feel like I had to because that’s all anyone talked about? Pretty much. And back in the 80’s when I was in high school, the sexual pollution in the media was significantly lower than it is today. That was before the Interwebs. That was before media regulation was thrown out.

So I think maybe, just maybe, teens need a break from all of the bumping and grinding and drinking and drugging. Maybe they need a safe place where they don’t have to worry about sexual relationships and growing up too fast. Maybe, just maybe, they need a place to escape where they can just be who they want to be and not who everyone tells them they should be. They need a Hogwarts. They need a Forks. Adding in sex and swearing to be edgy and bold, isn’t edgy and bold at all. Everyone is doing it now. Just turn on the TV and watch a YA show. Save the edgy and daring for the NA genre and for the adult genre.

Give the YA a place to be YA.

Shawna grew up in around farms in the heart of Missouri but went to the University of Kansas, was raised in the US but now lives on the ocean in Nova Scotia with her husband, two sons, two rescue dogs and one overgrown puppy from hell. She’s a non-conformist who follows her heart.

She has her BA in creative writing from the University of Kansas where one of her plays was chosen by her creative writing professor to be produced locally, and two of her short stories were published in a university creative arts handbook.  She earned her MA in English from Central Missouri State University where she wrote a novel as her thesis.

She’s taught English at the university and secondary levels for close to twenty years and can’t quite fathom how all of her students have grown up, yet she’s managed to stay the same.  She’s a huge geek and fan of Xena, Buffy and all kick ass women, and loves to write stories that have strong female characters.

Shawna’s debut novel was just released and is a YA Paranormal Romance called Speak of the Devil.

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