Guest Blog by Author Reese Monroe

Is New Adult a Passing Fad?

Guest Post by Reese Monroe

I started writing back in 2008, and one of the first things I was told was. “Your characters are too old for Young Adult but too young for adult. Change it or you won’t get published.”

As a person new to the trade and no experience whatsoever in the rules of writing, I probably should have listened to those people advising me, right? While I respected them and often took their advice, this was one piece I couldn’t follow.

I had to go with my gut. I loved my characters too much to do otherwise. They weren’t dealing with the issues common found in high school, they were dealing with college, or life after high school in the work place, or life after a major change (usually some form of super natural power popping up LOL!)

But that’s what I loved writing about. Not that YA and Adult are bad, not at all, but New Adult (NA) was different from them, and there really wasn’t a place for it—yet. 

So, I just hunkered down and kept writing the stories in my heart. It wasn’t until 2011 (and novel #13) that I signed my first contract with a company as their first NA author.

It was an exciting time. And now, NA is really hot. I think NA was lying in wait for a long time, and when the readers really called out for it after getting a taste from self-publishing authors it became a big demand everywhere. 

I’m a contributing author on NA Alley Blog, and I love how NA is described there: “Bridging the gap between YA and Adult fiction.” To me, that’s very descriptive, because YA is more sweet and Adult can get very descriptive and hot, so bridging the gap with NA is a nice description. 

It’s a category within varying genres, so yeah, issues in NA can, and often do, vary by genre. But keep in mind that it’s about the time between adolescence and adulthood, so that’s a wide range of issues to touch on, right?  

I’m curious. What do you guys think of this New Adult category? Did it take you by surprise? Were you one of the many readers who’d been calling for it? Is it a passing fad? Here to stay?  

Darkside Sun Review

Darkside Sun by Jocelyn Adams
The Mortal Machine Book 1
Published March 10, 2014 by Embrance
4 Galactic Stars


"The beginning was so slow I almost gave up on the book, I am so glad I didn't."



Summary -

Addison Beckett tries hard to pretend she’s normal, but she’s far from it. Since she was six years old, she’s seen the world around her unraveling, as if someone is pulling a thread from a sweater and it’s all slowly coming undone. When she ignores it, it goes away, so that’s what she does. 

Enter her arrogant-but-hot professor Asher Green. He knows all about her special brand of crazy. In fact, he might be just as nuts as she is. Asher insists that the dead from a parallel dimension are trying to possess the living in this one. And since Addison seems to be the only one who can see these “wraiths,” she just might be the key to saving the world. 

Addison wants nothing to do with Asher or his secret society, The Mortal Machine. But as their animosity grows, she finds it harder and harder to ignore the chemistry between them. And when she discovers that Machine laws forbid her from touching him, she realizes that’s all she wants to do. 

Stop the wraiths. Break the rules. Save the world. All in a day’s work.

Normal was overrated, anyway.  (Goodreads)

Review - 

The first several chapters, while extremely detailed were also extremely long and unnecessarily drawn out. CFBS, Classic First Book Syndrome, where the author is trying to balance the scales between enough information to form the plot, and too much.  This one tipped towards too much, almost to the point of making readers feel as though they are forcing themselves to keep going, not to mention a triple dose of teenage hormones.  But when the actions does begin readers will be more than pleased they decided to continue on.  

The Mortal Machine is a group of individuals with extrasensory skills and abilities.  Skills they use to keep this world from being overrun by the dead; wraiths, dead beings able to take over human bodies with a weak link in the mind.  Each having his/her own function within the Machine; Outfitters, Soldiers and Sentinel, only what their functions may nothing more than a lie.  They have been lead to believe that their soul purpose in life was to destroy Wraith's, even if that meant killing the host in the process.  And not being able to touch one another without risking death.  Going through life by doing just that, getting through it and not actually living it.  The very laws meant to keep them safe may have been twisted by one of their own to instead keep them weak.  Until a eighteen year old redneck comes in and flips all of their lives, and the Machine itself, upside down, Addison.   Not only has she been seeing the rifts within the veil since she was no more than six years old, but she can also see the Wraith's true form, something that has been unheard of, until now.  

Addison was abandoned by her mother the very day she was born.  Never knowing there may very well have been a true reason for her doing what she did, all she knew was how much it broke her Father's heart.  So she vowed to never to to him what her Mother did to the both of them.  Which makes her decision of entering into the Machine that much harder.  Though the choice may not be hers to make.  And to make matters worst, the person destined to train her, and maybe more, has too much fear in him to do either.  Even though the two of them are quite literally stronger together than they could ever dream to be apart; their minds, bodies and powers calling to one another. 

Though in the beginning it appears to be one of those books that will be a struggle to get through, it turns out to be truly a worthwhile read.  Once you get past all the hormones that Addison has going on, I do believe there may be a tie between her amount of hormones and powers; and all the power within her packs a huge punch.  After the rough bump in the first few chapters, it is non-stop action from the middle to the end.  So much so that it will become harder and harder to even put the book down.  Adams does know how to make characters readers will wonder what will happen next for them, or to them and feel there emotional breakthroughs as they go through them.  Not to mention wondering when Book 2 is due to come out.

There is no hot sex, only some heavy petting, and a lot of fantasizing.  And the person who turned out to be the traitor, of Misgiver, shocked even me.