JAIME QUESTELL grew up in Houston, Texas, where she escaped the heat and humidity by diving into stacks of Baby Sitter’s Club and Sweet Valley High books. She has been a book seller (fair
warning: book lovers who become book sellers will give half their paychecks right back to their employers), a professional knitter, a semi-professional baker, and now works as a graphic designer in addition to writing.
Author Website: jaimequestell.com
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Excerpt from By a Charm and a Curse:
Leslie smiles at the girl with a mixture of pride and tentative hope. “It took us a few days to get Sidney set up somewhere else, and I’m sorry about that. But this wagon belongs to the occupant of the box.” Leslie strokes the side of the ladder that leads to the door. “What you’re going through is terrible, we know it is, though we can never truly understand. It’s a small comfort, but we want you to have a place that’s just your own, a place that you can use to escape.”
A weak, wobbly smile lifts the corners of the girl’s mouth as her gaze roves over the outside of the wagon, a shadow of the smile I saw the other night, when she was with her friend. I wonder what it would take to get her to smile for real.
“What about Sidney?”
“Sidney can make do.” Leslie’s smile broadens into a grin. “Have you seen the way he’s been eating? I wouldn’t be surprised to see him waddle out of the cook shack one of these mornings like Templeton the Rat.” She dangles a small copper key from the end of a length of faded red ribbon. “It’s like I said—the carnival owes the person in the box. This is the least we can do for you in return.”
The girl’s hand shakes as she reaches for the key, and she wraps her slender fingers around it tightly, as though she’s afraid of dropping it. I lose sight of her as she steps inside, and all I can do now is hope she likes the wagon.
I turn to head home and feel the sickening lurch as my foot lands in a slick patch of mud and whips out from beneath me. I throw out my arm. A flash of white-hot pain flares through my hand, but I manage to keep my footing. I step out of the mud that had nearly sent me sprawling on my ass, unsure as to how I even missed it in the first place. Then my hand begins to throb.
A gash runs diagonally across my palm. Blood wells from the wound, filling my cupped hand. The pain sets in, a deep pulsing starting in my palm and radiating up my arm. I glance over at the trailer and see a splash of red smeared along a sharp flap of metal. I must have sliced my hand on that as I tried to grab onto something to keep from slipping.
Falling on carnival grounds doesn’t happen; the charm sees to that. But my bloodied hand begs to differ.
Where to buy the book:
https://entangledpublishing.com/by-a-charm-and-a-curse.html
Title: By a Charm and a Curse
Genre: YA Magical Realism?
Author: Jaime Questell
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Publication: February 6th 2018
Cover Rating: 5/5
Reading format: Provided Hardback
By a Charm and a Curse by Jaime Questell is the magically whimsical story of Emmaline and how her first kiss turned her life into Night of the Living Dummy.
First kisses are almost always awkward. The word 'awkward' is awkward but that's a dicussion for another time. When you are thinking about your first kiss you worry that you might miss, suck, be sweating uncontrollably, etc. But what if you had to worry about if your first kiss would turn you into a living puppet? You probably wouldn't be so worried about all the others things, huh? If it was me, I would never kiss anyone. But, sadly, Emmaline didn't know her first kiss would land her on a one way flight to puppet town.
Emmaline is one of those characters where I wasn't sure if I liked her or not. There wasn't much to dislike but she just didn't have much of a personality, in my opinion. But this was one of those books where the story was the main character. And that story was, Emmaline now had to pass on the curse that was bequeathed to her. Passing on this curse means she has to do the same thing that was done to her. She has to trick someone in to kissing her. But this person has have a specific set of traits or it wont work. Emmaline has a lot of work ahead of her.
This is also one of those books where it is told is duel point of view so, luckily for me, I liked Benjamin. He was a very sweet guy and knowing what might happen to him made me pretty sad. It was also pretty sad knowing he didn't feel like he belonged where he was even though he did so much work for the carnival people.
One of the main things I think I enjoyed the most about the book was the sense of togetherness. All of these people relied on Emmaline and most of them showed their graitude. Obviously there were people who didn't but the majority wanted to help her pass the curse on. It was a damned if you do/damned if you don't situation. But some of the people could have taken a lesson from the old passage "don't bite the hand that feeds you."
In the end, this book was sooo good, especially if you are a fan of the Fear Street books by R. L. Stine. I felt like I was reading a creepy book from when I was a teenager. I loved the atmosphere of the story and the events surrounding the curse. It was a very solid book and I will definitely look out for more books by Jaime Questell in the future.
Overall, I gave the book 4.5/5 stars.
*Disclaimer* I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
1 comments:
Just put the book on my wishlist for the kindle. Love that Jaime was a Sweet Valley book kid too. This curse sounds like a wild ride. Can't wait to read it.
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