Finding Sky Blog Tour + Giveaway: All things romance!

The Finding Sky blog tour is stopping here at Girls Without a Bookshelf today, where we welcome author Joss Stirling for chat about romance!

And if you're from the UK who has not yet read Finding Sky, you may even snag yourself a copy of this fabulous title. Enjoy!

Welcome Joss!

1. Sky and Zed are soulfinders - soul mates. Do you believe soulmates truly exist?

It depends what you mean. I think you can find your soul mate in real life. I’d certainly say my lovely husband is mine and we have quite a few years of marriage behind us! I’d like to think that after the end of the book Sky and Zed do go on to develop that deep relationship that lasts longer than the first fizz of romance – that’s certainly how it is in my imagination. On the other hand, unlike the curse on the savants, I don’t believe that you can only find happiness with one person and are stuffed if you mess it up. In reality, it is more about adapting to the person you choose so that you both become the best people possible together.

2. What, for you, is the most important aspect of a relationship?

So many things go in to a good relationship but a key thing has to be commitment.

3. Was Sky and Zed's relationship inspired by any you know?

My characters are always themselves. I don’t borrow from real life but hope to make them true to their role in the book. However, any couple I’ve met who are really in love has lent a spark to them.

4. If you can describe Sky and Zed's relationship in one word - what would it be and why?

Tender. That is the heart of the story – going from first impressions to a deep caring for each other.

5. What, in your opinion, is the best love advice that everyone should abide by?

Don’t try and change the other person to fit you but look to your own faults.

6. In Finding Sky, is it only the savants who have and find their true other half?

The soulfinder is peculiar to the savants and part of the fantasy, but I also think that Sky’s parents, Simon and Sally, are soulmates and a good non-savant example for her.

7. If you can pick and choose your soulfinder from the Benedict Boys, who would you most likely see yourself with?

Wow. I’ve given Zed to Sky and Yves is already taken in the next book so they are off limits. Trouble is that I’ve purposefully made all of them appealing to me as that is part of the fun of thinking up a family of such stunning boys. I think I’m a little in love with all of them. But if I had to choose today, I’d probably choose one of the older ones with a dark side, maybe Victor, as he has depths I haven’t yet had a chance to imagine in full!

8. What is your favourite romance book?

Pride and Prejudice of course. Mr Darcy – swoon. And the writing is extraordinarily deft and witty.

(And I will echo: swoooon!)

9. Would you rather read a book about forbidden romance, the-more-you-hate-the-more-you-love romance or a best-friend-turned-boyfriend romance?

Hmm, all have potential. I like the mutual hatred masking love theme so let me pick that for now. Ask me another day and I expect my answer will be different.

10. Are we readers going to enjoy more savant and soulfinder books?

Oh yes. I’m currently occupied with Yves and his soulfinder. He is the sixth son, the one described in FS as a bit like a ‘hot Harry Potter’, and who hides under this studious appearance the ability to makes things explode. I’m very much enjoying giving him a suitably unsuitable soulfinder and then letting things take their explosive course.

Yes! More soulfinder books :) The Benedict boys will be pleased indeed :) Thank you to Joss for joining us here today and to Liz without whom none of this would have been possible. Thank you.

Don't forget to head over to Portrait of a Woman tomorrow for the next stop of the Finding Sky blog tour! Now here's what you've been waiting for: the giveaway! Don't forget to read the rules before entering!

Rules.

• Open to UK entrants only. International Entrants with a UK mailing address may of course participate.
• You do not have to be a follower to enter.
• Deadline for entries will be on 31st October, 12MN BST.
• Winners will be drawn through random.org
• Winners will be contacted via e-mail, and will be given 48 hours to response. Otherwise, a new winner will be drawn.
• Any details will be deleted after use and will not be passed on to any third party.

Finding Sky blog tour + Torment trailer and widget!

I'm excited to announce the schedule of the UK blog tour for Joss Stirling's Finding Sky! Check out the dates and the respective stops below, and do help us spread the word by promoting the banner where possible.

Here at Girls Without a Bookshelf, I will be interviewing Joss about all things romance, and will be giving away a copy of Finding Sky to one lucky UK entrant. So do check back here on Thursday, 21st October!

In the mean time, check out the trailer for Torment below!



When I first saw this, I very distincly remember thinking: Less is more. Agree?

To those who haven't read Torment yet, I'm guessing you're anxious for it. Check out the widget HERE to read the prologue and the first chapter!

Book Review: Finding Sky (Joss Stirling)

When Sky catches a glimpse of Zed for the first time, lounging against his motorbike at school, she is drawn to him just like every other girl in Wickenridge. But Zed sees something special in her that the other girls don't have. Zed tells her they are both Savants - people with special powers like telepathy and the ability to see into the future. Not only that, she is a Savant too, and his soulfinder - meant to be together. 

When a soulfinder speaks telepathically to her partner, it's like all the lights coming on in a building. You lit me up like Vegas. But for Sky it's just not that easy - she's a mystery to herself, haunted by nightmares from her past before she was adopted, and riddled with doubt and insecurity. Just when Sky is slowly coming round to the idea of being with Zed she is kidnapped by a family of criminal Savants. In a chilling twist, Sky and Zed's relationship is put to the ultimate test and the fate of those she loves lie in Sky's hands. Will Sky have the strength to embrace her power and be brave enough to control her own destiny, or will the dark demons of her past prevent her from realising her true potential?

Ladies and gentlemen, you'd want to read this book. You ladies will sigh and swoon over and enjoy the romance between soulfinders - and the gents can note down a few pointers from the Benedict boys. I was yearning for good YA romance novel when I started Finding Sky and I got exactly what I needed. It was the cure to and signalled the end of my reading break!

When I mention 'good YA romance', I'd like to emphasise on 'good'. I don't favour romances without substance and am often critical of those whose transition from attraction to love is lightning quick - Finding Sky is neither of those. Although primarily a book about soulmates, you won't find the characters falling head over heels in love in the span of a few pages. The romance isn't sappy or boring, nor plain or forgettable. It highlights the most important aspects of romance in a way that is real and tangible to every reader - trust, comfort, acceptance. The romantic tension arrives in a different form; I welcomed the break from the usual and the stereo-typical.

The narrator, Sky Bright, is one of the few characters I can personally relate to. Joss Stirling has captured exactly how it feels to move out of your comfort zone; believe me, I have been there myself. Her descriptions of Sky's thought and emotional process is spot on, never straying or exaggerating from just the precise feeling or thought. The author's description of trauma is vivid, real and true. Without the jargon to weigh it down, it is portrayed in a way that is accessible to every reader. Interestingly, the themes and motifs of this book is channelled through Sky, so in that sense she is very diverse character indeed. Of course, a special girl needs a special boy - enter Zed Benedict. Zed is a peculiar boy - he is broody, mysterious and a bad boy at the beginning. But as the book progresses and the reader unravels what it is that makes Zed so mysterious, we see a complete change in him. This turnaround underscores the concept of a soulfinder and results in a courtship between him and Sky -a courtship so romantic it easily surpasses many YA romance books out there.

Finding Sky is written impeccably well. The literary devices - particularly the metaphors and similes - used are fresh and brilliant. The contrast between the British usage and American usage of English words and phrases are also distinct and well-highlighted. Towards the end, it falters, but it can be explained through Sky's adaptation of the American usage, given that she is in fact already across the pond.

I have minor complaints - for instance, the tension in the plot is present but could be stronger. There are also quite a few sub plots I wanted to be explored further (not to mention a few more kisses between Sky and Zed), but I am hoping for a sequel because although it ends neatly, I am not quite ready to let it go!

With an emotional and psychological edge to a very interesting concept of meeting one's soul mate, this romantic debut will delight many of you readers out there.

Four Stars!


* Copy received for review. Thanks to Liz and Oxford University Publishing.