Book Review: THE BLEEDING HEART by Amy Giuffrida

Amy, the lovely and giving human that she is, offered all the members of Bookish Group Press a copy of her book, THE BLEEDING HEART. I devoured it in one sitting. 

It's the story of Brooklyn, a girl with a dark history and a pretty dark way of dealing with it. When meeting a new guy and inflicting pain in her uncle's tattoo shop get mixed up with the all too present remains of her past, she struggles to keep her carefully crafted balance.

I really enjoyed the flawed character of Brooklyn, particularly her self-awareness with how wrong her coping mechanism is. She is fascinated by blood and pain and she knows it. She knows it's not normal, she knows it's bordering on a dangerous obsession but she keeps doing it anyway. Seeing her interactions with the rest of the characters was really interesting and intriguing. It also served to humanize her rather twisted fascination and practice and I loved the potential in her character arc for both positive and negative change.

Without spoiling anything, I will admit that I was frustrated by the ending. I wanted it to end differently for so many reasons. The biggest reason for me is because I felt like there was more potential character growth that was cut short. Even if there had never been a sequel, I wanted the potential set up and the promise of a continuing arc of emotional evolution. The ending didn't allow me that.

Does this book sound like it's a good fit for you? Check out these writing and bookish chances to win a copy! 

Right now, The Midnight Society is running a flash fiction contest and THE BLEEDING HEART is one the prizes! Find out more about it here: http://midnightsocietytales.com/2015/09/29/writing-bloody-flash-fiction-contest/

And book bloggers, don't forget to sign up for the Bookish Group Thankful Tour for a chance to win copies of all of the BGP books! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1g26oXDNbwpganbhLkgAPIeoyPQYU2Nk0092WUoXhVtw/viewform

The definition of busy.

So I have officially transitioned into my fall schedule and it is exhausting. 

I thought my summer schedule was hard with my internship (which finished up fantastically btw but that is for another post) and nearly full time job. I was wrong. 

A friend of mine described my current situation like this: You have your hands in a lot of pots and they are all full of wasps. 

That is exactly what it feels like. 

I'm doing another internship two days a week in addition to taking an evening grad class; I'm tutoring one evening and Saturday mornings at an local university; I'm substitute teaching in two districts; and I'm taking ballet class four nights a week, plus Saturday afternoon rehearsal because I'm performing in Nutcracker. 

Somewhere in there I am trying to keep my lawn tended, myself and my cats fed, and talk to my friends. 

Oh, and maybe write. 

It goes without saying that I am exhausted. HOWEVER, I'm also happy. Yep, your read that right. I am happy. I feel empowered and smart and social and just GOOD. I still have bad days, but I am feeling really positive. And it is such a welcome change. 

Busy as I am, I still managed to have a writing lunch yesterday with a local friend bursting with an idea. It was great, we talked about plotting vs pantsing and outlining options. I talked about the idea I'm working on that I shouldn't be working on because I have two other already-started ideas. We had a really great time and even though it was only a few hours out of a busy day, It was awesome. 

I haven't found time to write more than this blog post just yet, but I'm working on it. I've got a three hour window in my Friday schedule that is looking pretty good right now. 

How is fall shaping up for all of you?

xoxox

L.S. Mooney