Author Spotlight: Gwen Hayes

 Goodreads         Twitter

 

I have been thinking about doing this feature once a month, not necessarily on any planned day, just when I really have connected with an author's work that month. Such as this month, with the recent release of her debut novel Falling Under, I previously bought all her short stories/novellas on my kindle. And I have to say I really like Gwen's style. Some of the books are obviously more adult, but whether it was geared to the younger or older crowd Gwen really understand her characters. So instead of writing full-fledged reviews I will post summaries and snippets of my thoughts here for you....

Title: So Over You

My favorite of the books I read. A young adult novel about love that just makes you root for them till the end.

Summary:
Layney Logan, girl reporter.

That's all she's ever wanted to be. This year, her senior year, not only does she have to share the coveted Senior Editor position with her arch nemesis, Jimmy Foster, she also has to figure out how to keep the school paper alive. With the local paper closing and the school cutting Journalism from the budget, it's a long shot. Working side-by-side with Foster, the guy she likes to call Lucifer,makes it even worse.

The only thing Layney dislikes more than swimming in the high school dating pool is Jimmy Foster think he got the best of her, so she takes
his ridiculous newspaper assignment--to go on twelve blind dates--to prove his powers of darkness won't work on her. The trouble is, the more she learns about herself on her journey of bad blind dates, the more she wonders if maybe Foster has known her better than she knows herself all this time.

And maybe she should have trusted him with the secret she’s kept for four years—the secret that broke them up to begin with.

So Over You is a young adult short novel of almost 40,000 words.

Title: Butterface

A young adult novella about having confidence and knowing yourself. Has the power of a full novel.

Summary:

When love isn't lucky...or pretty.

The scars on Beth's face aren't nearly as deep as the ones she nurses on the inside. She was born with hemifacial microsamia and was supposed to feel "lucky" that she wasn't as disfigured as some people.

One boy, Lucky O'Leary starts to find the cracks in her hard shell and finds himself falling for her. Only Lucky has a secret--he needs to bring Beth to a "dog dinner" or lose his spot on the team. She can't find out that the guy who brings the ugliest date wins a prize.

Young Adult Short Story--8000 words

Title: The Chosen

Adult paranormal novel that just gave me goosebumps!

Summary:
Daniel "Morgue" Morgan hunts demons. And likes it--until the day Madigan Carter cuts through his life like a blade of sunshine. She is everything he isn't, and for the first time in his life, he questions his calling when it means he will be forced to turn Madigan into a killer. Just like him.

Madigan doesn't believe in demons, until the day she fends one off with her Louis Vuitton bag. She doesn't want to be an Expeller, and she really doesn't want to be trained by the most aggravating--and sexy--man she has ever met. When the Expeller instincts, and the unnatural hungers that go with them, threaten to overwhelm her humanity, will her connection to her mentor be enough save both their souls?

I really enjoyed these books so I will definitely be buying Falling Under, Gwen Haye's debut novel that was released March 1, 2011.