Showing posts with label Kimberly Karalius. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kimberly Karalius. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Review: Love Charms and Other Catastrophes by Kimberly Karalius

Love Charms and Other Catastrophes (Grimbaud, #2)Title: Love Charms and Other Catastrophes
Author: Kimberly Karalius
Source/Format: Purchased; Paperback
More Details: Young Adult
Publisher/Publication Date: Swoon Reads; May 17, 2016

Goodreads     Amazon     Barnes & Noble     Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads...

Sometimes love comes gift-wrapped…literally...

Aspiring love-charm maker Hijiri Kitamura was excited to come back to Grimbaud for her sophomore year—until she learned about the upcoming charm-making competition. She, along with her friends and fellow rebels, had worked too hard to free the town from Zita’s tyrannical love fortunes to allow some other charm maker to move in and take over. The only solution is for Hijiri to win the contest herself.

Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done, especially when Love itself has decided to meddle in Hijiri’s life. Concerned that its favorite charm maker has given up on finding a love of her own, Love delivers a very special gift—the perfect boyfriend, specially crafted just for her...
Last year, Love Fortunes and Other Disasters was one of my favorite books. So, it’s easy to see why I was so excited for the sequel, Love Charms and Other Catastrophes. I was ready to go back to Grimbaud and see where my favorite characters ended up. Plus, I also wanted to see what happened to the town now that it was free from Zita’s tyrannical monopoly on love.

So, over 4th of July weekend, I stopped by Barnes & Noble and finally picked up a copy. Needless to say, Love Charms and Other Catastrophes was a spectacular follow-up. It was just as charming and entertaining as the first in the series. However, rather than a rebellion against Zita, there’s a new danger present in Grimbaud: love charm makers and shady business practices. Plus, Love was back and meddling again, only this time the focus was on Hijiri’s love life.

I was really glad that Karalius decided to tell Hijiri’s story since her perspective was so interesting. I was rooting for Hijiri to get a happy ending since she played such a fundamental role in both books. It was also great to see Fallon, Sebastian, and the rest of the club members again. There was a lot of character development going on since the characters were getting older, and for some, their time in high school was coming to an end. So, despite the magic of the story, there were moments when ordinary troubles were addressed.

Love Fortunes and Other Disasters was a strong opening for the series. The groundwork was all there—characters, setting, and convincing conflict and themes that could and were carried over to the sequel. Love Charms and Other Catastrophes had good plot and pacing. From page one I was hooked. Karalius’ writing was fantastic, and captured the charming atmosphere of the setting. The extra details only added to the pre-established world, and fleshed-out secondary characters both new and old.

So, while it might have taken me a while to get my copy, Love Charms and Other Catastrophes was well-worth the wait. It was a delightful novel with a satisfying ending, and deserved its place as the sequel to one of my all-time favorite books. Now, I’m just curious to see what Karalius writes next.

Friday, July 8, 2016

The Friday 56 (69) Love Charms and Other Catastrophes by Kimberly Karalius

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE
25819497Synopsis from Goodreads...

Sometimes love comes gift-wrapped…literally...

Aspiring love-charm maker Hijiri Kitamura was excited to come back to Grimbaud for her sophomore year—until she learned about the upcoming charm-making competition. She, along with her friends and fellow rebels, had worked too hard to free the town from Zita’s tyrannical love fortunes to allow some other charm maker to move in and take over. The only solution is for Hijiri to win the contest herself.

Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done, especially when Love itself has decided to meddle in Hijiri’s life. Concerned that its favorite charm maker has given up on finding a love of her own, Love delivers a very special gift—the perfect boyfriend, specially crafted just for her...
"When he tried speaking, his voice caught in his throat and he coughed into his fist. Ken looked down at his hands, staring at his palms as if he could see through them. He tried again. This time, his voice was soft but firm."--Love Charms and Other Catastrophes by Kimberly Karalius
Comments: I was really excited to pick up this book since Love Fortunes and Other Disasters was one of my favorite 2015 reads. I've already read Love Charms and Other Catastrophes, but figured I might was well mention it here, as my Friday 56. What are you reading this week? 

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Interview: Kimberly Karalius

Today I'm so excited to finally bring you my interview with Kimberly Karalius, the author of Love Fortunes and Other Disasters. (You can check out my review for the book HERE) But before I get to the interview check out the synopsis below to learn more about the book...

22718710Synopsis from Goodreads...

Love is real in the town of Grimbaud, and Fallon Dupree has dreamed of attending high school there for years. After all, generations of Duprees have successfully followed the (100% accurate!) love fortunes from Zita’s famous Love Charms Shop to happily marry their high school sweethearts. It’s a tradition. So she is both stunned and devastated when her fortune states that she will NEVER find love. Fortunately, Fallon isn’t the only student with a terrible love fortune, and a rebellion is brewing. Fallon is determined to take control of her own fate—even if it means working with a notorious heartbreaker like Sebastian. Will Fallon and Sebastian be able to overthrow Zita’s tyranny and fall in love?


How did you come up with the idea for Love Fortunes and Other Disasters?

Love Fortunes started from a few conversations I had with my fellow English majors in college. We used to study together in the dorm lobby, and our texts usually sparked some interesting tangents. Girls severely outnumbered boys on campus; with such a lack of dating opportunities, we used to imagine ourselves becoming glamourous spinsters after graduation, with mansions, butlers, and rooms full of cats (or dogs for me. I’ll always be a dog person). I wanted to turn that idea into a YA novel, but I knew it would be a challenge since teens have their whole lives ahead of them – why should they be worried about not finding love? Then Zita’s 100% accurate love fortunes and the town of Grimbaud came to be.

What made you decide to submit your novel to Swoon Reads? Was there a particular reason why the platform appealed to you?


I knew I wanted to submit my novel to Swoon Reads because of its crowd-sourcing model. I was already comfortable with the model after sharing my work for years on Figment.com, a teen writing site, which uses a similar idea to boost popular stories on the site for more readers to see. I loved giving and receiving feedback with fellow writers and readers on Figment, and the sense of community that came with it, so I couldn’t wait to jump into Swoon Reads and see what it was like there (with the hope of having my book published too!).

Do you have a particular spot where you like to write (especially in the summer)?

I don’t have much tolerance for hot weather, and Florida gets extremely steamy during the summer months. So when I write, I like sitting on a comfy couch with my laptop in my lap, in direct contact with air conditioning. In fact, I love writing in sweaters and sweats, which is something I can get away with if I don’t go outside *laughs* That’s an ideal situation, though. I graduated a while ago, so I work at my fulltime job over the summer (writing time only happens at night now, when the temperature drops, hurrah!).

What was your reaction to learning that your novel had been selected to be published by Swoon Reads?


I was so excited I was shaking, but I had to suppress any further reactions until when I got home from work. I found out while I was working – I had a nice cubicle in the department I worked in at the time, but it was still exposed. So when I got the email and talked with Jean Feiwel and my future editor, Holly West, I was trying so hard to appear calm and collected in front of my coworkers. After all, as awesome as it was to get the good news, I had to keep it a secret until Swoon Reads officially announced it to the world. So… much shaking, and a LOT of internal screaming and dancing.

What’s your biggest source of inspiration?

Anything strange and vintage. I gravitate towards antique and gift shops for that reason. It’s fun to wander through the aisles and wonder who would buy certain items and why (customers… and future characters, perhaps). Recently, I saw bookends shaped like keys. I have no use for bookends since I had too many books (my books are bookends), but I could picture a lonely baron owning the pair in his dusty library overlooking the grey ocean below.

What’s next for you?

I’m happy to announce that my second book with Swoon Reads is a sequel to Love Fortunes and Other Disasters. The main character is someone you’ve already met in the previous book. That’s all I can say for now, but keep a lookout on the Swoon Reads site for more news soon!

And that's it. Thank you to Kimberly Karalius for doing the interview, and don’t forget to check out her book Love Fortunes and Other Disasters. Happy reading!
Kimberly Karalius
 About the Author...

If you gave her a wish bone, Kimberly would wish fervently for snow in Florida. Her love for 90s cartoons (or any cartoons, really) knows no bounds. She might be the only person you know who can be completely engrossed in watching silent films. Being in Florida certainly has one big perk: going to Disney World. Which she does. Frequently. Kimberly holds an MFA in fiction from the University of South Florida. Her fiction has appeared in literary journals such as Luna Station Quarterly, The Medulla Review, and Hogglepot. Her chapbook, Pocket Forest, was published by Deathless Press in August 2013. Love Fortunes and Other Disasters (Swoon Reads/Macmillan May 2015) is her debut novel

Places to find Kimberly Karalius online . . .

Goodreads     Website     Twitter     Instagram     Pinterest


Thursday, June 18, 2015

Review: Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius

Love Fortunes and Other DisastersTitle:Love Fortunes and Other Disasters
Author: Kimberly Karalius
Source/Format: Won, Paperback
More Details: Young Adult
Publisher/Publication Date: Swoon Reads, May 12, 2015

Goodreads     Amazon     Barnes & Noble     Book Depository 

Synopsis from Goodreads...

Love is real in the town of Grimbaud, and Fallon Dupree has dreamed of attending high school there for years. After all, generations of Duprees have successfully followed the (100% accurate!) love fortunes from Zita’s famous Love Charms Shop to happily marry their high school sweethearts. It’s a tradition. So she is both stunned and devastated when her fortune states that she will NEVER find love. Fortunately, Fallon isn’t the only student with a terrible love fortune, and a rebellion is brewing. Fallon is determined to take control of her own fate—even if it means working with a notorious heartbreaker like Sebastian. Will Fallon and Sebastian be able to overthrow Zita’s tyranny and fall in love?
Literally as I was finishing my review for Save Me by Jenny Elliott, this book arrived in the mail. My last tango with a Swoon Reads novel left me a little disappointed; however, that wasn't the case this time. I read the prologue of this book and I was hooked. Thankfully, this time around it was better and I ended up loving Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius.

Karalius' book presented the idea of what could happen if fortunes proven to be 100% accurate about love and relationships started to go horribly awry. The story basically follows Fallon Dupree after she goes to the town of Grimbaud for school and an almost mandatory visit to Zita’s Lovely Love Charms shop to have her fortune told. It was a tradition that had worked for her family, but sadly for Fallon things didn’t turn out the way she thought they would. And I enjoyed seeing her try to fight her fortune rather than give up and accept the fate that everyone was convinced would happen. The secondary characters in the story were just fantastic, and I enjoyed how everything worked together—and how the seemingly miscellaneous details ultimately played a role in what happens to the characters.

Romance was a big part of this novel and I have to say that it was cute. I liked the way Karalius handled the relationships in the novel, and developed the characters in a way that it felt natural instead of forced despite the circumstances that brought them together.

Another aspect of this novel that I enjoyed was the writing. There was never a moment that I felt like I couldn’t grasp what was happening, and there was a good flow to the story that kept me engaged. The concept was handled nicely—it seemed like a complete idea, and stuck to the point of the story rather than unraveling. The setting was more or less fitting and there was enough detail so I could easily picture where the characters were going and what was happening around them. I actually really enjoyed how whimsical the novel was.

I had plenty of questions regarding the town and why Zita’s fortunes and charms had such a hold over them. And despite the sunshine and rainbows that constantly hovered over the town of Grimbaud like a fluffy sparkly cloud, I always had that lingering feeling that there was something not right with the pristine, love obsessed town. And as the events gradually unfolded the details became clearer, and I liked the gradual build up to the end.

Basically I was pleasantly surprised by Love Fortunes and Other Disasters. This book is one of my new favorites, and I am looking forward to what Karalius writes next.

**Check back next week for my interview with Kimberly Karalius**

Friday, June 12, 2015

The Friday 56 (28)

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

My 56 this week comes from a book I recently read and loved. Its called Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius, one of Swoon Reads books.

About the book (Synopsis from Goodreads)...

Love is real in the town of Grimbaud, and Fallon Dupree has dreamed of attending high school there for years. After all, generations of Duprees have successfully followed the (100% accurate!) love fortunes from Zita’s famous Love Charms Shop to happily marry their high school sweethearts. It’s a tradition. So she is both stunned and devastated when her fortune states that she will NEVER find love. Fortunately, Fallon isn’t the only student with a terrible love fortune, and a rebellion is brewing. Fallon is determined to take control of her own fate—even if it means working with a notorious heartbreaker like Sebastian. Will Fallon and Sebastian be able to overthrow Zita’s tyranny and fall in love?

Love Fortunes and Other Disasters"Mr. Dupree spoke next, asking her briefly about her classes, but then the conversation turned sour as her parents started making assumptions about her fortune."--Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius


What would you do if you ever found yourself in the same situation as Fallon Dupree?
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