April: Round Up of Discussions

Just in case you missed any of the great discussion with Deb, check out these links and drop your comment!

rgz Newsflash
Welcome, Deb!
Things to Know About Deb
Playlist
Party
Thank you!

Discussion questions

What makes a choice good?
Chemistry in Love
Have you been "in" love?
Is love hard work?
Bad Boy Allure
The Guy Warning Signs List
Do you give away moments?
Do you listen to second thoughts?
Repairing someone else's wrong
Waiting for 100%

Thank you, Deb Caletti!

Here's a big MERCI to the awesome and inspiring Deb Caletti for for joining us at readergirlz this month!

We loved hearing stories from Deb and learning more about the experiences that inspired our featured book The Secret Life of Prince Charming.

Some things we loved this month:

Deb is not a baker. "I like those cookie packages where you add butter and you're done," she said, during our live chat.

Her song-for-each-character playlist blew our minds!

Up next: STAY. In Deb's words, "It's about a girl and her father who run to a remote beach house to escape an obsessive boyfriend. Much faster paced than my usual." COOL!

We've adored having you here this month. Thank you, Deb!

April: Will You Wait for 100% in Love?

Featured author Deb Caletti says, "Quinn's grandmother advises: 'Wait. Wait for 100 percent.' Do you agree?"

April: Do You Give Away Moments?

Featured author Deb Caletti says, "Elizabeth Bennett says, 'We should not give away a moment to anyone who does not deserve it.' Do you agree? Have you ever given away moments?"

Story Secrets: THE SECRET LIFE OF PRINCE CHARMING by Deb Caletti

My adoration for Deb Caletti is no secret - she writes amazing books exploring difficult relationships and dark family pasts (and she said the nicest things about TELL ME A SECRET!). She is also the featured author over at readergirlz this month, so if you missed her live chat last night, go check it out!

I am honored to welcome her to talk about THE SECRET LIFE OF PRINCE CHARMING (which just got a lovely new paperback cover). Welcome, Deb!

*****

PRINCE is the story of a girl who sets out on a road trip with her younger sister and the step-sister they never knew to return the objects their father has stolen from the women he’s been in love with.

Deb's story behind the story:
When I was nineteen, I met a twenty-one year old young man who was dark and handsome, mysterious and moody. Three years later, after a long-distance relationship, we would marry, and that’s when he became the abusive husband I would live with for the next thirteen years. This one decision, this decision to have this particular relationship, would result in years upon years of devastation – emotional, physical, financial – complicated layers of pain and damage that would affect me, our kids, our families and friends.

As my kids approached the age when I first met their father, and as I got clearer over the ten years since I left, the need to write about relationship choices and self protection grew. Grew? Became urgent. The choice of a partner (even just a dating partner) is one decision has an impact and weight we can’t even begin to see at nineteen, and yet where is the guidance on how to make it? Where are the high school classes about healthy relationships? Even if a relationship does not evolve into a marriage with children, an unhealthy one can harm or haunt for a good long while. And… the letters I was getting from readers were telling me that many, many young women were in harmful places. I decided, then, to write a story where I could pull in everything I had learned about making good relationship choices – everything. From my own experiences, from those of many women I knew...

Read the rest!

rgz LIVE! chat with Deb Caletti!

Welcome to our rgz LIVE! chat with Deb Caletti! We're super excited to have her visit, and the chat will start at the top of the hour--make sure you're here and ready to talk about truth, rgz!

rgz LIVE! chat tonight with Deb Caletti!

Stop by tonight for a chat with Deb Caletti, author of THE SECRET LIFE OF PRINCE CHARMING! Live chat at 6pm PST/9pm EST - see you here!

April: The Guy Warning Signs List

Featured author Deb Caletti says, "Quinn's mother keeps a list of warning signs on her refrigerator (click here to see it). What would you add to the list? What would you take off of it?"

rgz CAMEO with Diane Duane!

Welcome to our rgz CAMEO chat with Diane Duane! It's an online release party! We're super excited to have her visit from Ireland, and the chat will start at the top of the hour--make sure you're ready to talk all about her books, and especially her latest, A Wizard of Mars!

rgz CAMEO with Diane Duane tonight!

Stop by tonight for a special online release party with Diane Duane, author of A WIZARD OF MARS! Live chat at 6pm PST/9pm EST - see you here!

April Playlist: The Secret Life of Prince Charming Soundtrack!

Check out the awesome music Deb Caletti has chosen for the soundtrack to The Secret Life of Prince Charming. Have a listen in the right-hand sidebar or just open up this month's issue of readergirlz and the music will start!

Deb selected a mix of different styles and time periods, for each of the main female characters...

1. "Daughters" by John Mayer Trio – Live (Quote from the opening page of the book)

2. "Baby I Can't Please You" by Sam Phillips (For Mom – Mary Louise Hoffman)

3. "Love You Madly" by Cake (For Aunt Annie)

4. "Shop Around" by Smokey Robinson (For Grandma – Dorothy Hoffman)

5. "I Was Never Young" by Of Montreal (For Sprout)

6. "Skinny Love" by Bon Iver (For Frances Lee)

7. "Changed the Locks" by Lucinda Williams (For Joelle Giofranco)

8. "Oh My Love" by John Lennon (For Elizabeth Bennett)

9. "A Lucky Guy" by Rickie Lee Jones (For Olivia Thorton)

10. "Not The Doctor" by Alanis Morissette (For Brie Jenkins)

11. "Love Is A Stranger" by Eurythmics (For Abigail Renfrew)

12. "Secret Heart" by Ron Sexsmith (For Quinn)

SWOON.

rgz review: Jacqueline on The Secret Life of Prince Charming

The Secret Life of Prince Charming

By: Deb Caletti

Review written By: Jacqueline Glade

Reading The Secret Life of Prince Charming by Deb Caletti, I found out things I didn't know, had heard many times in love stories (yet it didn't sound like a cliche), and the beautiful truth of love. Not only is this book based on a family and their confusing struggles with love, but it also includes a teen girl, Quinn; her sister, Sprout; and her half-sister, Frances Lee.

The girls quest to return missing items to Quinn's fathers past lovers. They weren't missing from Quinn's father, Berry, though. He kept them and pretended like he had no idea where they went, but he really placed them in a room like a display. Names and ages on the bottom of the objects were the only evidence of the prior owners of the items. Quinn saw this and felt as if the things needed to be returned and the quest began.

Quinn and her sisters' adventure to the various houses of Berry's past lovers is one of my favorite parts in the book. With every house came a new part of Berry's long confusing love life. The "stories" that the women Berry had been with, the women that had loved him, were full of truth and never settled pain. I understood how each and everyone of those women felt, not through personal experience but through the avid description.

I loved this book for many different reasons one of which of course had to do with love. This is one of the best books I have ever read and would recommend it to teen girls.

April: How Important is Chemistry in Love?

Featured author Deb Caletti says, "Dorothy Hoffman, Quinn's grandmother, writes about chemistry and love. How important is chemistry in a relationship?"

April: Tanya Lee Stone

A special note of thanks from author Tanya Lee Stone, author of A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl, one of this month's postergirlz recommended reads. (See the April issue of readergirlz for more!)

I'm so psyched that A BAD BOY CAN BE GOOD FOR A GIRL is a recommended read for April, and not just because it's National Poetry Month (all hail National Poetry Month!). This YA novel in verse first came out in 2006, but teen readers still write to me all the time and say stuff like: "Hey, how do you know exactly what my life is like?!"

Nothing makes an author more excited (well, almost nothing) than hearing from readers, and readergirlz readers are an especially special crew! So, if you've ever been played by a guy, gotten in over your head, or been the shoulder for a girlfriend who loved and lost, see what Josie, Nicolette, and Aviva have to say about the bad boy in this book -- and how the choices you make affect the path you'll take. Three girls, one guy -- who comes out on top?

And for you Judy Blume fans out there (and let's face it, who ISN'T a Judy Blume fan?), FOREVER has a cameo role in this story.

Here are a few "extras" for you -- a sneak peek excerpt, an interview with the ever-fabulous Cynsations, and a FREE Reading Guide.

Readergirlz ROCKS!

~ Tanya Lee Stone

Things to Know About Featured Author Deb Caletti

On the nightstand: A Leaning Tower of Books.

Favorite bookstores: The ones in my neighborhood: Third Place Books, University Bookstore, Half Price Books, and all the fabulous independents around the country who've had me to visit.

Favorite library: The Bellevue branch of the King County Library System. Love that KCLS!

Pet: Jupiter, my beloved Beagle, who I just lost but who is still very much with me.

Place to write: I have a lovely, glassed-in sun room for an office, but still like to write sitting on my bed.

Cure for writer's block: A walk around the room, a cookie.

Favorite outfit: One of my white robes.

Laptop or longhand? Laptop.

Next up: Stay, to be released April 2011.

Other YA Novels: The Queen of Everything; Honey, Baby, Sweetheart; Wild Roses; The Nature of Jade; The Fortunes of Indigo Skye; The Six Rules of Maybe

Additional Interviews: Powell's Books, Seattle PI with John Marshall, TeensReadToo, Bildungsroman with Little Willow, Dominique McCafferty, Q&A

Website: www.debcaletti.com

Read more about our featured author in this month's issue of readergirlz!

Welcome, Deb Caletti!

We are thrilled to welcome Deb Caletti to readergirlz. Her new-in-paperback novel The Secret Life of Prince Charming is our April pick! Check out the our interview with Deb, book party ideas themed around her book, and our Reach Out project idea--as well as the awesome soundtrack Deb has chosen for the book--on readergirlz.com.

Here's a little about The Secret Life of Prince Charming:

Quinn is surrounded by women who have had their hearts broken. She tries to be an optimist, but then she too is abruptly and unceremoniously dumped. She's also gingerly handling a renewed relationship with her charming father. Quinn's happy to have him around again until she realizes how horribly he's treated the many women in his life, how he's stolen more than just their hearts.

Determined to, for once, take action in her life, Quinn joins forces with the half sister she's never met and the little sister she'll do anything to protect. Together, they set out to right her father's wrongs...and in doing so, begin to uncover what they're really looking for: the truth.

And the buzz...

"How would you deal with finding out your father isn't who he says he is, and love isn't quite what you thought? Readergirlz will cheer for Quinn as she teams up with a half-sister she's never met and a younger sister who may be the wisest of the bunch to find out the truth, and in the process discover truths about themselves. We are honored to welcome Deb Caletti this month to explore truth, Prince Charming, and maybe even a little romance." - Holly Cupala, readergirlz diva

"Caletti's gifts...are at their sharpest." - Publishers Weekly, starred review

The honors and awards Deb has received for her novels include:

National Book Award Finalist

PNBA Best Book Award

PEN USA Literary Award Finalist

School Library Journal Best Book Award

We are excited to have the lovely Deb with us this month! Join us all month right here on the blog for discussions and mark your calendars a LIVE chat on Wednesday, April 21st at 6pm PST/9pm EST.

Happy April, readergirlz!

April 2010: rgz Newsflash!

Dear friends,

We are thrilled this month to be talking about Deb Caletti’s THE SECRET LIFE OF PRINCE CHARMING. Reading this book is like sitting down with a box of chocolate—so luscious, rich, and satisfying. Quinn lives with a houseful of broken-hearted women. But she has a boyfriend who’s into her—or is he? When her dad re-enters her life, Quinn’s determined to give him a chance. Things take a turn for the unexpected, as Quinn learns her dad isn’t just a thief of hearts. Also, there might be a giant plastic hamburger guy involved. And with that, our lips our sealed. Just read it and prepare to be awed.

Are you ready to Rock the Drop?

Operation Teen Book Drop is April 15. We can’t wait! Here’s what’s happening:

• We’re delivering 10,000 new books to teens on Native reservations and tribal lands.


• More than 100 awesome YA authors are dropping off their books around the country. Will you be one of the lucky finders?


• You can play along, too. Drop a book in a public spot and you’re done. (You can dress it up with a bookplate if you’d like: http://www.readergirlz.com/tbd.html)


• You can also go to Powells.com after April 7 and donate books yourself. There are two wish lists of hundreds of books that will fill the shelves of two tribal school libraries in need.


• We’re having a huge virtual party at our blog. It’s at 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern.
  
  

Our partners in all this excitement are GuysLitWire, Young Adult Library Services Association, and If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything, along with a long list of generous publishers you can check out on our video.

Mark your calendar

On April 12, we’re hosting a release party for Diane Duane’s A WIZARD OF MARS. It’s at 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern.

And on May 3, we’re celebrating the launch of THE UNWRITTEN RULE by our author-in-residence, Elizabeth Scott. She’s holding fun contests and giving away stuff at her blog, so check it out here: http://blog.elizabethwrites.com/

Meet our new hosts

While we love our monthly online book salons, we also love meeting authors in person. That’s some of the stuff our rgz HOSTS will be doing around the country, and this month, we’re psyched to introduce three superstars:

Little Willow, in Southern California. You might know her from her blog, or from guest appearances she’s made on such shows as Disney’s Wizards of Waverly Place.

Representing from the Big Apple is Micol Ostow, author of more than 40 published works, including SO PUNK ROCK (AND OTHER WAYS TO DISAPPOINT YOUR MOTHER).

Our blast of Miami heat will come from Crissa-Jean Chappell, author of TOTAL CONSTANT ORDER, which VOYA called a “breakthrough” first novel. You can read all about it and her many accomplishments at her site.


More reasons to celebrate!

One of our founding Divas, Dia Calhoun, just sold a middle-grade novel in verse to Antheneum. It’s called EVA OF THE FARM, and we can’t wait for this one to come out. Stay tuned for more details.

And diva Holly Cupala, whose debut novel, TELL ME A SECRET will release in June, just sold her second novel, STREET CREED, to HarperCollins with a double "Wow." We can't wait!

Community service: Operation TBD

This month, we’re encouraging everyone to participate in our own community service event, Operation Teen Book Drop. If you can, leave a book for someone to find. Celebrate reading and make someone’s day. And if your budget allows, consider donating one of the books on the list at Powell’s. You’ll help bring the power of the right story at the right time to a deserving teen.

Postergirlz picks - Lots of Great Titles to Dig Into!

Beauty Shop for Rent by Laura Bowers
A Bad Boy Can be Good for a Girl by Tanya Lee Stone
Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers
The Stolen One by Suzanne Crowley
FBI Girl: How I Learned to Crack My Father's Code by Maura Conlon-McIvor

Have a great month, everyone!

the readergirlz divas~

Dia Calhoun, Avielle of Rhia
Justina Chen, North of Beautiful
Holly Cupala, Tell Me A Secret (June 2010)
Liz Gallagher, The Opposite of Invisible
Lorie Ann Grover, Hold Me Tight
Elizabeth Scott, The Unwritten Rule
Melissa Walker, Lovestruck Summer



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