Hello lovelies,
Welcome to another dose of SSS! If you follow me on my
personal book account you’d probably know that I’ve loved reading Broken Skies
by Theresa Kay. (If you actually read my captions.) Personally, I feel that my
tiny little jumbled blob of a review on Instagram does not do the book any
justice at all. I’ve decided to do a decent review on SSS instead. Give the
book the proper justice it deserves! Also, I have a special guest on my blog
post. She’s a lawyer by day, author by night, and a supermom 24/7. The
beautiful and fierce Madhuri Baylock! I’m pretty damn sure she’s my spirit
animal. Let’s get this party started, and by party I mean the post.
Broken Skies by Theresa Kay
synopsis << link
My review: Jax is this kick-ass
twin who goes through hell and back to save her brother. Along the way she
discovers herself, and realizes that the only person who she needs to depend on
is herself.
In the book you’ll
read on how her brother Jace stayed strong for the both of them. He had to be this
rock for Jax to lean on. What’s so
interesting about Jace’s character is that he does whatever he possibly can to protect
his sister. Theresa Kay was daring when she wrote Jace. There are not a lot of
books that I’ve read where guys like guys. I'm applauding Theresa for being bold and courageous enough to step out of the lines.
Although, Jax finds love there are secrets and betrayal that
will change her forever. Not only is she being tested, but boundaries get pushed. I forgot to mention that aliens called E'rikons takeover the world… Prepare yourselves to be blown away by Broken Skies.
The story continues in book #2, and I cannot wait to see
what happens! It’s the waiting part that I’m not good at.
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*plays music* Madhuri Baylock takes over!
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Strength
in the Softer Parts
by
Madhuri Blaylock
I wrote this post for
a blog series about women and empowerment but love it so much that when Shelsea
told me I could talk about anything under the sun for Shelsea’s Super Saturday,
my mind immediately came back to this - the softer parts. I finished writing my
paranormal trilogy, The Sanctum, earlier this year and am already deep into my
next writing project, so if I’m being honest, I hardly thought I would get
excited about going back to my fantastical world of hybrid demons, warriors,
and vampires for this post. I figured I would need some time away from them, to
decompress from the drama of their finale. And yet, here I am, talking about
the women of The Sanctum
and you know why?
Because they are such
freaking badasses, I simply cannot help myself.
It’s quite fitting
actually, since the genesis of The Sanctum lies in my own desire to create the
girl absent from the pages of my many and varied fantasy and paranormal books.
Not the Badass, because she exists, in so many shapes and forms, on the pages
of so many novels and screenplays, kicking butt and taking names after her
badassery has been explained to her
laid out and examined
expounded upon and
studied.
Nope. I didn’t want
that girl because although she evolved into something fierce and proud, she
began wide-eyed and unaware, beholden to some secret about herself unlocked by
a cute boy.
I wanted the
Self-Aware Badass. The girl who knows she is the shit, why she is the shit, and
exactly how she became the shit.
Hermione Granger, all
grown and sexy.
That’s the girl I
wanted to meet, the girl I sought, craved really. And when I couldn’t find her,
I created her. And while I was doing that, a funny thing happened.
I created a whole
crew of similar women - tough as nails, whip smart, deadly, and full of a sense
of self and purpose. Women who knew their worth without a man needing to define
it, set the parameters, and provide the explanations.
Hermoine Granger, all
grown and sexy.
Interestingly enough,
now that I look back on these women - Dev, Darby Winthrop, and Jools Clayworth
- I realize that for all of their feats of greatness, the moments where they
felled the antagonist, slayed the devils, and single-handedly made evil think
twice, their true strength lies in their softer side.
Their vulnerabilities
and their willingness
to accept those weaknesses, because that’s really what they are, look them in
the face, understand they are just as vital as all the indestructibility, the
super-human strength, the lightning speed
and do not make them
any lesser of a woman.
If anything, they
make them so very real and relatable and worthy
of all the accolades
and hurrahs
the greatness and
power.
It’s the
vulnerabilities and the weaknesses that make these women whole and complete
grown and sexy.
For I love watching
Dev lay waste to the warriors who come after her, felling them with ease,
laughing in their faces as she slides her blade across their throats. I love
living through her regeneration, knowing her body rebuilds itself after
suffering horrific trauma. I love listening to her explain her creation and her
purpose and her meaning - her knowledge of self is exhilarating.
But more beautiful
than all of that is learning her fears and her weaknesses, her need to appear
strong and unmoved, and watching as she accepts the hand offered her and takes
a chance, trusting someone besides herself
sharing herself and
her fears and weaknesses with another.
The quiet of that
moment, its meaning and significance, stay with me long after her story
ends.
Then there is Darby
Winthrop, the Southern Belle from Hell, the vampire I love madly. She is brash
and sexy, uncouth and deadly. She’ll smile in your face and woo you with her
Southern charm, then snap your neck before you knew what hit you. She’ll kiss
your throat and run her hand up your thigh, making you all hot and bothered and
wild, then she’ll drain you of every drop of blood and leave you for dead.
She is centuries old,
smarter than anyone in the room, and stronger than them, too. She is funny and
witty and full of life; she is sexy, in touch with her darkest desires, and
simply oozes sensuality.
She is power - she
wields it, she owns it - and watching her at work, bending men and women to her
will and whim is a thing of beauty. But more wondrous than all of that, is
learning Darby’s one weakness, for in him, we realize just how truly powerful
she is. For in him we witness her capacity to love and forgive and forget,
until that is no longer an option and she is forced to do the unthinkable.
And it is beautiful
and painful and
extraordinary
and makes us fall for
Miss Winthrop harder than we ever thought possible.
Last but not least is
Jools Clayworth, younger sister, only daughter, given to fits of jealousy,
brat. Superior warrior, killer instinct, natural leader. A roiling mess of
insecurities, well hidden but fueling her every immature and petulant antic.
Until she can no longer continue acting the child, when her skills on a
battlefield are no longer enough, and she is forced to evolve into the strong,
determined, powerful leader no one but Jools ever expected her to become.
And still that is not
enough to protect her from herself, for she is her own worst enemy. She is her
own weakness and when she finally realizes as much, when she comes to grips
with all she has witnessed and all she has engendered, and she desperately
reaches out to another to save her
it is gut-wrenching
and moving
and I, the writer,
Jools’ creator, who respected her and her gangsta from day one, but felt little
else for the warrior or the woman, am finally able to also love and appreciate
her.
Because sometimes
the true strength of
the Badass
the beauty
and the wonder
lies in the softer
parts.
