Book Review - Legendary by Stephanie Garber

   So y'all. Guess which epic book comes out tomorrow?

   LEGENDARY.

4 Stars

I've been waiting to read Legendary ever since I finished reading Caraval when it came out (I will never quit raving about Caraval. Try and stop me, I dare you ;D), so when my lovely friend Soleil sent me a copy (you're a gem, my friend! <3), I devoured it in less than 24 hours!  

From The Back Cover

A heart to protect. A debt to repay. A game to win.

After being swept up in the magical world of Caraval, Donatella Dragna has finally escaped her father and saved her sister Scarlett from a disastrous arranged marriage. The girls should be celebrating, but Tella isn’t yet free. She made a desperate bargain with a mysterious criminal, and what Tella owes him no one has ever been able to deliver: Caraval Master Legend’s true name.

The only chance of uncovering Legend’s identity is to win Caraval, so Tella throws herself into the legendary competition once more—and into the path of the murderous heir to the throne, a doomed love story, and a web of secrets…including her sister's. Caraval has always demanded bravery, cunning, and sacrifice. But now the game is asking for more. If Tella can’t fulfill her bargain and deliver Legend’s name, she’ll lose everything she cares about—maybe even her life. But if she wins, Legend and Caraval will be destroyed forever.

Welcome, welcome to Caraval...the games have only just begun.

View Legendary on Goodreads   ---   View Legendary on Amazon

- The mystery. Oh look, and here's one of the biggest reasons that I also mentioned back in my Caraval review! xD But a HUGE portion of this Legendary was Tella trying to find out who Legend really is - which meant that I was guessing the entire time, too! It was loads of fun going through the whole book thinking 'could he be Legend? Wait, hold on - maybe he's Legend!' . Loved that aspect so much <3. Plus, the game that the book revolves around - Caraval - is never what it seems, so that only added to the mystery aspect, which was tons of fun. 

- The descriptions. Guys, let me tell you - Stephanie Garber is QUEEN when it comes to descriptions. I was basically drowning in the goregousness of it all the entire time I was reading Legendary <3. Normally in a book where the main character's dress is described EVERY TIME she changes, I'll get a little bored and start skimming descriptions. But in this book? NO WAY - there's was no way I was missing any more of Garber's beautiful word play!

- The world...and the higher stakes. The world of Legendary is just as vivid as the world in Caraval - but the place that Legendary is set in is so different from the Isla de los Suenos in Caraval. I loved how it was the same game being played, but a whole new environment. (also, what I wouldn't give it visit Elantine's Tower <3) I also loved how everything took a higher-stakes turn in Legendary! In Caraval it was Tella being played for, but in Legendary, Tella is playing to save...well, everything (#spoilers).

- Some scenes were...ah, not needed. I almost knocked the rating down to 3.5 stars because of that (I'm kinda still considering it - but the prose, plot, and world building were too good for less than a four) But ANYways - there were definitely some scenes in Legendary that made me cringe, and I wish they could have been taken out. They really weren't needed.

- The characters were harder to get attached to. Hey, hey - I did still like the main character, don't get me wrong (Tella is super spunky and fun) but some of the character's morals were completely out of whack. Like, the love interest prided himself on being bad, so ... there's that. I just found the characters a little harder to get attached to in Legendary than I did in Caraval. (could be because I held them all up to Scarlett, and I loved Scarlett a LOT xD). (also MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT (highlight to read): Dante was Legend? And I still don't know what to think about that? Do I like it or not? *has problems* *probably will have problems until Finale comes out* ;D END OF SPOILER)   

Legendary spun a web that Stephanie Garber is going to have a hard time getting her characters out of in Finale (who am I kidding, no she's not - Garber is a MASTER writer)! If you enjoyed Caraval, I'd say you should give Legendary a shot (though I'd only recommend it for readers 16+). And I'll just be over here, melting into a smol puddle as I wait for the final installment of the Caraval trilogy.

It's going to be epic. 

~ Savannah Grace 

have you read Legendary (or Caraval) yet?

what's your favorite book that revolves around a game?
 

5 Reasons To Write Fairytale Retellings - A Guest Post By Christine Smith

YOU GUYS - it's fairytale month, and guess which fairytale-retelling-genius is here to give us an epic post that will DEFINITELY have you itching to write a retelling? The incredible Christine Smith from Musings Of An Elf! <3

And I'm going to hand the blog right over to her, because I'm just as excited to read this post as you are ;D.

Fairytales. Or as I like to call them: Plot Bunny Fodder.

I've been a fairytale nerd since...forever. I can't remember a time where I wasn't captivated by brave princes, cursed princesses, wicked stepmothers, magical fairies, enchanted woods, haunted castles, fearsome dragons, and on and on and on it goes. The myths and legends and folklore and pure intrigue and wonder of the world of fairytales is like an endless wellspring to my imagination.

There are so many fairytales out there and so much that can be done with them. It makes my writer heart trill. (And makes me want to achieve immortality because lololol I'll neverrr live long enough to retell alllll the fairytales I want to. Which is...all of them.)

But maybe you're not big into fairytales. Maybe you're not so sure there should be yet more retellings in the world. Or perhaps you just haven't thought of doing a retelling before. Whatever the case may be, today I'm here to tell you WHY writing retellings is a joy, and maybe even convince you to create one of your own! (Nooo, this is not manipulation because I want more fairytale retellings. What are you talking about? *cough, cough, cough*)

- 5 REASONS TO RETELL A FAIRYTALE -

THERE ARE SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM

I'm talkin' hundredssss here. I'm not kidding when I say fairytales are endless plot bunny fodder. Not only are there a gadrillion stories just begging to be retold out there, there is an INFINITE amount of ways that you can retell them. From the traditional medieval European fantasy story to Cinderella in space. There are NO limitations.

The thing about fairytales is that they're not...detailed. Most are just a couple of pages long and leave much to be desired. But that's what I love about them. They stir up the storyteller in me because I want to know why the villainous witch is so evil, I want to know how the prince found the cursed princess, I want to explore the inner workings of the enchanted forest and see more of the strange castle and figure out a solid reason why the dragon wants a damsel in distress in the first place.

Literally every. single. time. I read a fairytale, I have this incredible yearning to retell it. To dig deeper and create answers for all the many questions the original story left me with. And maybe actually bring some logic to it as well because, let's be real, not all fairytales lean on the logical side of the spectrum. Eheh.

Are you feeling dry on story ideas? How about go pickup a fairytale collection? If you're like me, next thing you know you'll find yourself overwhelmed with hordes of plot bunnies!

IT CAN CREATE ORIGINAL CONTENT

“Okay,” you may be saying, “fairytales are nice and all, but shouldn't we be creating original stories?”

A lot of people complain about this one. I've seen many a person whine that there are too many retellings and that we need more original content.

Well...there are no original stories. Per se. You know how you make a story original? You take already used story elements and twist them into something new. You know how you make a fairytale retelling? You take a fairytale and twist it into something new.

It's literally the same thing.

Retelling a fairytale is basically taking a plot device, as we would with any story, and shaping it into something fresh and intriguing.

I'm a huge fan of Marissa Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles, which takes the stories of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Snow White and puts them in the future and in space. And you know what? I found that far more original than if the author had skipped making them fairytale retellings and instead simply created a generic sci-fi series. Cinderella as a cyborg is the kind of original content this world is looking for.

Turning a story into a retelling is a brilliant and fun way to make original content.

THE STORY FOUNDATION IS ALREADY THERE

Sometimes the hardest part of writing is that blank page. After all, we're literally having to come up with an entire universe (I mean...if you're writing fantasy, but still), people, plotlines, and strain to make it logical and amazing one...word...at...a...time. WRITING IS HARD, GUYS. Plots are hard. It's all hard! But retellings help ease the pressure.

Even if you're making your retelling wildly different from the original tale, you still have that foundation, that fist inkling of a plot bunny. A baby bunny, if you will. Instead of an entirely empty canvas, you've got that backdrop color to get you started, it's just up to you to add the picture and details. (Let's just pretend my analogies make sense...) And as an added bonus, every fairytale has a theme already built in. And I repeat: WRITING IS HARD. Capturing a good theme can sometimes be headache-inducing. But with fairytales? It's already there! (Hey, we will take any excuse to make the writing process easier, amirite?)

It's so, so nice to have that foundation of a story before you. And on that note...

ENDLESS INSPIRATION TO FIGHT BACK WRITER'S BLOCK

Back when I was outlining my current WIP, a Beauty and the Beast retelling, whenever I'd get stuck, I would go back and read the original Beauty and the Beast fairytale. Almost every single time, it would spark an idea and break down that wall of writer's block.

Now, my B&B story is nothing like the original, but it helped so much to snag ideas from the original story and twist them into something new. Such as the magic mirror gave me an idea for a very huge plot device within my own story. And in one part in the original story, Beast sent Beauty a trunk of gowns, which gave me just the idea I needed for another section of my book.

Yeeears ago I wrote an Arthurian Legend novel and did the same thing. Every time I was stuck, I'd go read King Arthur legends and next thing I knew, I had too many ideas.

Of course I don't mean copy the original tales, but studying each element in the fairytale can give you some amazing ideas for where to take the story. Such as in The Lunar Chronicles, Cinderella's glass slipper is instead a mechanical foot because Cinderella is a cyborg. (I know, right???)

 

There are always ideas to glean within the original fairytales. I find writing stories based off fairytales or legends so much easier when it comes to gaining ideas and fighting off that writer's block.

BUT, for the love of everything good in the world, please go to the original source and do not base your story off Disney's fairytales. I adore Disney's movies with all my heart, but those are nooooot the original, they are very much retellings themselves. It just gets really annoying when people mistake Disney's movies for the basis of fairytales. #PetPeeve

Ahem. Moving on!

TWISTING FAIRYTALES IS JUST WAY TOO MUCH FUN

When it comes down to it, retelling a fairytale is just FUN, whatever method you take. Finding new and crazy ways to retell a well-known story is thrilling, and so, so satisfying when you think up a brilliant way to turn the story on its head.

And there are so very many awesome, wild ways to do it. If you're not sure where to begin, our own dear Savannah just wrote THE most inspirational post about asking “what if?”. I seriously have like three dozen new plot bunnies after reading it. It is a fantastic place to start if you're looking for great ways to retell a fairytale!

So have I convinced you yet? Retelling a fairytale is a crazy and wondrous experience. The possibilities are literally endless. ENDLESS, GUYS. Sometimes retellings can be the most original, epic stories in the fiction market.

And have I mentioned they're fun to write? Because THEY'RE REALLY FUN TO WRITE! But you won't know until you've triiiied. *wink, wink* *nudge, nudge*

Christine Smith is a twenty-something, homeschool graduate who still believes in fairies and has every intention of owning a pet dragon someday. One day she thought it’d be fun to write a book. Sixteen years and much caffeine later, she’s still writing. Stories are her life—reading, writing, watching, whatever it may be. She writes primarily YA speculative fiction novels, and refuses to stop, no matter how old she gets. She loves tales grand and epic and whimsical and beautiful. But her greatest love is her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Her favorite adventure of all is letting Him sweep her off on His beautiful plan for her life. You can find Christine at her blog, musingsofanelf.blogspot.com, where she muses on those many peculiar things writers think about.



*applause, applause* Wasn't that great? I always love Christine's posts - and all of that made me want to go out and start writing yet another retelling! If you guys managed to escape the flock of plot bunnies gathering around this post, then you are a special person indeed xD.

ANYways, I hope you all enjoyed that epic post! And if you want more posts about writing retellings, I'll be back with another in a week-ish, so stick around! I can't wait to chat retellings with you ;D. But for now, feel free to jabber with the lovely Christine Smith down in the comments (and check out her blog!)! I can honestly say that she is one of the sweetest people in the blogosphere <3.

~ Savannah Grace 

have you ever written a retelling?

what got you into writing retellings?

How To Write Fairytale Retellings: digging deeper

   Time for the second part of the How To Write Fairytale Retellings series! Last week's was lots of fun (and you can check it out here if you missed it!), and I'm super excited to dig in deeper ;). Who's ready?

   Last week we messed around with creating what-if questions for rewriting fairytales, and this week I chose four of those questions (one from each category!) to expand upon. Let's take a look at how we can dig deeper into those what-if questions ...

The POV what if: what if Rumpelstiltskin was told from Rumpelstiltskin's point of view? 

   See, the POV ones get tricky, because you're basing the retelling off of someone else's point of view. But there still needs to be twists and a side to the story that we didn't know about. So how would you do that with Rumpelstiltskin?

   Well, first off, you could stick with him being the villain and have it be a story from the villain's point of view (these retellings are always cool, I like seeing the "why" behind the villain's actions), OR you can show that there was a different side to the story that we didn't know before.

   Maybe Rumpelstiltskin had forseen that the child he was trying to take would lead the kingdom into ruin, and he knew the only way to save it. Or maybe the child had been prophesied as the warrior that would save the fae folk, and he needed to bring it home. Or he knew the child was a changeling, not the Queen's real child at all - but he wasn't able to tell her. There's tons of things you could throw in to twist the entire story around with this one, it's just too much fun! xD

 The Twisty-Tale what if: what if Sleeping Beauty meant to prick herself? 

    Obviously, Sleeping Beauty (we'll call her Briar-Rose because I very much prefer it) would need a good reason to want to put herself to sleep for a hundred years. Why? What's her reasoning?

   Well, maybe she's using the hundred-year sleep as a way to escape from a disastrous marriage that would ruin her kingdom. Maybe the "sleep" isn't really sleeping at all, but a series of dream-trails that Brier-Rose knows she must pass before she can become Queen. Maybe the only way to protect her people is by sacrificing herself - whether that means that falling prey to the spindle's curse will save the people from an outside danger, or save them from herself (OH, THE PLOT BUNNIES). 

    This one is actually the what-if question from a novella that I wrote YEARS ago (and will never return to *shudders*) for the Rooglewood Sleeping Beauty writing contest, and I can attest that it is a very fun one to play with! <3 Except I'm never looking at 14-year-old-Savannah's version of it ever again. Nope. Not.

how I feel about that old novella xD

The backstory what-if: how did Peter Pan find Neverland and the Lost Boys?  

   I'm not a wizard when it comes to backstory retellings, but this is one that's always had me curious! How did Peter Pan find his Neverland? What was his childhood - his before-permanent-childhood childhood - really like? What made him not want to grow up?

   Maybe he watched his older sister - who used to play with him and make up the most wonderful stories - start getting older and lose her interest in adventures. Maybe he saw the careworn lines in the face of his father,  or the way that none of the grown-ups could find any fun the way that he could. And so he decides to leave, and ends up running into Tinkerbell, who takes him to Neverland. Or maybe he finds Neverland all on his own? Maybe he discovers pixie dust and sails off all on his own after the second star.

   ... wow, plot bunnies are doing ALL the attacking right now, you guys xD. I think this would be a really cool idea to mess around with! Who knows what incredible stories y'all could come up with about Peter Pan before he become the eternity child? (just be warned that whoever takes on this tale...will have to deal with very angry fangirls if they get the story wrong. Just saying' *shrugs*)

The Continuation what if: what if Snow White finds another magic mirror - and realizes that the Mirrors are actually trapped people?

   The continuation what if is probably the most open-ended retelling that you can do, and rests just on the edge of being its own story and not a retelling at all. So the hardest part of writing a continuation is, in my opinion, still having it stay true to the original story. And how can you do that with a continuation of Snow White's story?

   Well, maybe there can be a thing about poisoned apples. They can be a contraband item in the kingdom (but people still smuggle them ... shh!), and tie into the continued plot really well. And another big part of the Snow White story is the seven dwarfs - so it would be really fun, in a continued story, to show us what the dwarfs (if they're dwarfs at all in your retelling - after all, its your story!) went on to do AFTER the Snow White story. And of course, there's the Mirror - which is where the trapped people element comes in. Maybe after the Evil Queen died, the Mirror broke free of some oath of silence and can finally tell people what really happened.

   But, since this is a continuation story, try to drop lots of little hints and tie-ins to the original stories. Its always fun for us readers to go "aha!" and get madly excited as we point at all the little hints we were able to catch as we watch the pieces fall together.

   And that about finishes up the second part of this part of the series! I hope it was fun for y'all to get a deeper look at what these stories could possibly be. The next post in this series will be up in about a week, and we'll be figuring out how to tie everything together to make your story a real retelling. So much sure to follow along! You aren't gonna want to miss it ;).

~ Savannah Grace 

which one of this ideas would you most like to write?

can you think of any more ways to dig deeper with these four ideas? 

Featured Author - May // TAYLOR BENNETT

   Eleven days into May, and its time for the first Featured Author of the month! I'm stoked to introduce you all to one of the sweetest gals in this writing community, Taylor Bennett - who's debut book was published exactly eleven days ago! Who's ready to meet this ray of sunshine?

A few epic Taylor-things that you should check out:

What if friendship cost you everything?

Stranded in Hawaii after the death of her mother, sixteen-year-old Olive Galloway is desperate to escape. She has to get back to Boston before her dad loses all common sense and sells the family house. But plane tickets cost money—something Olive gravely lacks.

With the help of Brander, the fussy youth group worship leader, and Jazz, a mysterious girl with a passion for all things Hawaiian, Olive lands a summer job at the Shave Ice Shack and launches a scheme to buy a plane ticket home before the end of the summer.

But when Jazz reveals a painful secret, Olive’s plans are challenged. Jazz needs money. A lot of it. Olive and Brander are determined to help their friend but, when their fundraising efforts are thwarted, Olive is caught in the middle. To help Jazz means giving up her ticket home. And time is running out.

her contemporary YA debut novel, Porch Swing Girl

her beautimous Instagram, @taylor.bennett.author

her author website, taylor-bennett.com

Savannah Grace: Hey, Taylor! So happy that you're able to be here today, I'm excited to interview you! What are a few quirks about yourself that people might be surprised to know?

Taylor Bennett: Thank you so much for having me, Savannah! I’m thrilled and honored to be here 😊.

Until I started pursuing publication, I actually had no social media accounts whatsoever. So when I started to build my platform, I literally started with nothing—no FB friends, Instagram buddies, NOTHING. And even now that I have a social media presence, I don’t have a smartphone (or any phone for that matter.) 😊

When I was in elementary/middle school, I could not spell AT ALL. Even though I spent as much of my free time as I could reading, the words didn’t stick in my brain. Now, I’m a much better speller, but…well…I’m still thankful for the spell-checker on my computer 😉

I’m kind of an old soul, evidenced by my chosen friends. My best-friend-since-birth is my mom, and my other friends are…her friends!! I have “kid friends” too, but I’ve always been more comfortable talking to adults.

Savannah: I can absolutely relate to have no social media accounts! I really need to step up my game, haha ;D. What steps did you take that helped get you published so early on in your life? (you're my age exactly, I think, which I find super cool ;))

Taylor: I started pursuing publication when I was thirteen, just a few months before I entered high school and, honestly, I’d say that the biggest step was simply being consistent with my goal. When I started querying publishing companies, I had a way-too-small-to-be-a-real-novel manuscript and a haphazardly-constructed query letter. But, as I received rejections and studied the writing craft, I learned more about the publishing world. I could have given up after getting my first rejection letter in the mailbox, but I had to make the decision to stand by my goal, no matter what.

That didn’t make it any easier, but it did make it easier for me to keep pressing forward when times got tough. Other than making a firm commitment to follow my dream, something that helped me a lot was joining a community of writers. I found an online critique group where I could learn and grow both by getting and giving feedback.

Savannah: THIRTEEN? Girl, you are dedicated. *fistbumps* Thank you for being such an all-star, Taylor, you're an inspiration! With all the publishing houses out there, how did you end up signing with Mountain Brook Ink? 

Taylor: Once I realized that my first non-novel wasn’t going to earn me a book contract, I changed tactics. I tried writing several other books, but either my computer would crash or I would get discouraging feedback that made me realize it wasn’t the “right” book for me.

Finally, I woke up one morning with three words going through my head: Porch Swing Girl. Though I didn’t know where the words came from or what had prompted them, I couldn’t get them out of my mind. In a few short hours, I had concocted a story to go along with the title, and I felt more inspired than I had in months.

When I attended the Oregon Christian Writer’s conference that summer, I pitched the idea (I hadn’t even finished writing it yet!) to three different publishers. Two of them were dream publishers and the other was…a wild card. Mountain Brook Ink was the wild card and, as it turned out, the only one interested in publishing a contemporary Christian YA book.

I spent the next year polishing Porch Swing Girl, and, when I met Miralee Ferrell, the owner of Mountain Brook Ink, at the same writer’s conference a year later, she was still interested. In fact, she wanted me to write two more books—and that’s how the Tradewinds trilogy was born. 

Savannah: Good gracious, that's amazing! (also - go you for having the bravery to pitch!) I love that you not only got a deal for Porch Swing Girl to be published, but for a whole trilogy. What inspired you to set Porch Swing Girl in Hawaii?

Taylor: I was inspired to set Porch Swing Girl in Hawaii because of an acute mix of wanderlust and homesickness. Thanks to the generosity of a family friend (who is really more like family) my mom and I had gotten the opportunity to stay in a beachfront condo in Maui several years before. I’d been dreaming of returning to the island ever since and I figured, if I couldn’t go back for real, I could at least transport myself there via my writing. (Fun fact: I ended up going back to Maui twice during the writing of Porch Swing Girl for “research trips.”)

And why do I love Hawaii that much? Sure, the beach is great, the palm trees and hibiscus bushes beautiful, but the real secret behind Maui’s charm is its aloha spirit. It might sound cheesy, but anyone who’s ever visited this enchanted isle will tell you—Hawaii is a special, magical island because of the people who live there and their culturally rich heritage. Where else can you make friends with a rooster, eat at five-star restaurants, and watch sea turtles frolic just inches away?

Savannah: I'm legit dying to visit Maui now ;D. I'm so glad that you got to visit there so many times! It's super neat that your book is set in such a lovely place. Are any of the scenes (or characters) in your book inspired by real-life experiences of yours?

Taylor: Oh, I love this question!! Mainly because half of the people in the book are actually real people. Okay…maybe not quite half, but there are a lot of them!! A couple of family friends that we actually met during the editing stage of Porch Swing Girl got written into a scene, and one of my favorite snippets (where my character, Olive, attempts to apply for a job at a snobby boutique) was actually a reimagining of a similar experience I had while visiting Maui.

I also wrote a lot of my own quirks into Olive, including my then-dislike of egg salad. The funny thing? As I was editing Porch Swing Girl, I actually ended up falling in love with egg salad. I just had it for lunch today, as a matter of fact 😊
 

Savannah: That's seriously epic, Taylor, I love how much of your real life got tied into the story! Nothing can make a book feel more real than real-life getting tied in ;). What do you hope that people come away with after reading Porch Swing Girl?

Taylor: I hope that people come away from reading Porch Swing Girl with a smile on their face and hope in their heart. When I write, I hope to touch people, to show them that just because things are messy and broken doesn’t mean they aren’t also beautiful. I want to give readers hope and joy, and I want them to be able to get caught up in a story without having to worry about “content.” I want to write YA fiction that will resonate with everyone, but that is focused first on God and on being holy, pure, and innocent so that He is ultimately glorified.

Savannah: That's one of the best goals there is <3. And with how much hype your book has, I have a feeling its going to do just that! What has surprised you the most to learn during the process of getting Porch Swing Girl published?

Taylor: How nice everyone is!!

That might sound weird, but really—I can explain.

When I used to envision the publishing world, I pictured it is a cutthroat community of review-hungry writers whose only goal was to win the biggest awards and hit #1 on the NYT. I’ve come to realize that the Christian writing community is nothing like that. Everybody knows everyone, and more established authors are always happy to help out industry newbies (like me!)

I’ve been amazed and encouraged by support from industry veterans like Sara Ella and Nadine Brandes, and I can’t wait until I can pay it forward someday by encouraging a young author myself.

Savannah: Isn't the industry great? Everyone always talks about how hard it is, and how you have to develop a thick skin - but I think there's still an awful lot of sweet people out there that can make the process so much easier! It's great that you've found those people ;). What’s one line (or paragraph) you’re written that you really love, and why do you like it so much?

Taylor: I’m seriously attached to Porch Swing Girl’s first line: “I hate Hawaii.”

Why? Because it’s perfectly ironic, and it also sets the stage for my main character’s transformation throughout the course of the book. I’d elaborate more about said transformation, but…well…spoilers 😉

Savannah: Haha, spoiler territory is a scary place! I'll just have to read your book for myself and find out ;). Okay, one last question before we let you bounce off to do more epic writer-things: who are three of your greatest inspirations, and why?

Taylor: My mom—she is literally the most dedicated, most loving person I know. She makes it her mission to be sure that everyone she meets feels loved and cared for, and she has the biggest, brightest smile I’ve ever seen. Her heart is so huge and so beautiful (and she’s super smart and talented, too!) and I can only hope that, someday, I can become more like her.

Stephanie Kehr—this fellow writer is an amazing person and she inspires me to always trust God and to live with joy no matter the circumstances. I’ve never had the opportunity to meet her in person, but I’m so happy to have connected with her through writing. Her blog and Instagram posts are sure to brighten my day and encourage me to live with grace and kindness no matter what comes my way.

Beverly Cleary—for one, I grew up reading her beloved Ramona books. For another, she’s a fellow Oregonian! And thirdly, she penned one of my favorite quotes: “If you don’t see the book you want on the shelf, write it.” That quote inspires me every time I sit down to write!

Savannah: I absolutely agree about that incredible quote! So much importance there. Thank you for chatting with us today, Taylor! You're a gem - I can't wait to read your gorgeous masterpiece! <3

Homeschooled since kindergarten, Taylor Bennett is the seventeen-year-old author of Porch Swing Girl, which will be released by Mountain Brook Ink on May 1^st. When she’s not reading or writing, Taylor can be found playing her violin or taking walks in the beautiful Oregon countryside. She loves to connect with readers via her author website, as well as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram (her favorite!), Pinterest, and Goodreads.

   I hope y'all were inspired but that interview! You guys, Taylor's only seventeen and she's already traditionally published with more books coming. If that isn't incredible, I don't know what it ;).

   ANYways - keep being epic, y'all. <3 I'll be back in a few days with another post!

~ Savannah Grace

have you ever traveled anywhere for a "research trip"?

feel free to chat with Taylor in the comments!