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Catherine Hapka Interview
Catherine Hapka is one of the most prolific authors you may not know you know. Writing over 100 books as herself, and as a ghostwriter from the S.A.S.S. series to Nancy Drew, Star Power, HTTYD and more, she graciously took the time to answer my questions about her start, what makes a ghostwriter, and what’s coming next.
1. When did you begin writing, and what drew you to children’s books in particular?
I can’t remember ever NOT writing; I wrote little stories and plays as a child, and started several epic novels as a teenager. I also read everything I could get my hands on.
After studying English lit in college, I landed my first adult job as an editorial assistant in the children’s department of Bantam Books in New York. At that time we published lots of monthly mass market series, including Sweet Valley, Choose Your Own Adventure, The Saddle Club, and others.
A few years later after I’d left that job, the creator of The Saddle Club, the wonderful and generous Bonnie Bryant (who had been writing all the books herself to that point — on a monthly publishing schedule!), decided to bring in some ghostwriters to help out. She knew I knew the series, that I was interested in horses, and that I aspired to be a writer, so she gave me a shot at writing one of the first ghostwritten titles, which soon turned into many more. The rest was history!
As a teenager and in college I was convinced I’d end up writing literary novels and short stories. So while I always loved kids’ books, I guess you could say I ended up writing them somewhat by chance. However, kids’ books are so varied and fun that now I can’t imagine doing anything else!
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Instructions for Dancing Review
Evie Thomas doesn’t believe in love anymore. Especially after the strangest thing occurs one otherwise ordinary afternoon: She witnesses a couple kiss and is overcome with a vision of how their romance began . . . and how it will end. After all, even the greatest love stories end with a broken heart, eventually.
As Evie tries to understand why this is happening, she finds herself at La Brea Dance Studio, learning to waltz, fox-trot, and tango with a boy named X. X is everything that Evie is not: adventurous, passionate, daring. His philosophy is to say yes to everything–including entering a ballroom dance competition with a girl he’s only just met.
Falling for X is definitely not what Evie had in mind. If her visions of heartbreak have taught her anything, it’s that no one escapes love unscathed. But as she and X dance around and toward each other, Evie is forced to question all she thought she knew about life and love. In the end, is love worth the risk?
Yoon does it again with a swoon-worthy contemporary romance. I found Evie to be very relatable during this period of transition in her life. She’s cynical about love due to her father cheating and divorcing her mother. But it’s less anger and cynicism as feelings of loss, and nostalgia. She misses the person she used to be, the one who believed in love, and who thought her father was infallible. Also due to graduation coming, she doesn’t want her friendships or other relationships to change.
Evie also fears the pain as is common after these types of events. Heartache can be worse than a broken bone because with a broken bone there is a set time for when it will heal. Heartbreak can be forever.
The newfound curse she has to see the fate of other peoples’ love lives always end in heartbreak, fueling her desire to stay alone until X comes, and omg X is such a great romantic interest. I wanted him to be real. He’s funny and sweet and charismatic, and Evie with all her romance novel knowledge knows she’s falling for him after the patent one eyebrow smirk. Plus all the dance lessons together bring on the heat. Tango is the dance of lovers after all, and the cover illustrates that so well.
They were sweet together, but readers may be disappointed that their romance is more of a side story to Evie’s internal journey of seeing loving in the moment is worth it by itself.
My nitpick is more than her friends, while entertaining, felt a bit one-dimensional, but again, everyone was shut aside because this was Evie’s story. Not theirs. Even son, Evie’s Dad and Mom did have some great chapters that added insight to how they’re dealing with the divorce and add to Evie’s revelation about the importance of love even if love ends in heartbreak.
Another thing I enjoyed out of the book is that Yoon sidesteps the chapters focusing on minor characters or events that were present in The Sun is Also a Star, and Everything, Everything. This was purely focused on Evie and I think helped keep the narrative centered on her, her thoughts and reactions and how they shape her perspective.
It’s a light, thoughtful read that has nice moments of humor with lots of character development for Evie. Perfect for any romantic readers who want to remember why love is so important, and how scary, crazy, beautiful, uncertain, worth it, it is.
4 stars.
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Ranking The Wedgeford Trials
Courtney Milan does it again! I wrote in my ranking for Milan’s Turner trilogy that Milan is a rare romance author who nixes the miscommunication trope that plague so many couples. Rather she subverts the status quo and has the couple communicate like mature adults while maintaining the suspense of internal/external forces threatening their coupledom. It can be done without making them idiots! And she does it again here in her Wedgeford Trials trilogy. Wedgeford is a small, forgettable village where England’s oriental community gravitate to be able to forget their pasts, and a safe haven from a prejudicial society.
But for such a small village, there are quite a few secrets and nobles abounding.
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Speak Review
The first ten lies they tell you in high school.
“Speak up for yourself—we want to know what you have to say.”
From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether.
Ah yes, the award-winning and multi-banned book (those two often go hand in hand), since it’s so famous, I had to read, and see if it’s as impactful as everyone says. Although I think it’s famous enough that people have a general idea of what it’s about, I’m still keeping this spoiler-free for those who haven’t and will not spill what the secret trauma is.
It’s a short book, being only 200 pages, but I’d say the second half was more impactful than the second half. The first 100 pages go through Melinda’s first two academic quarters where she maintains a cynical, deflated tone that is reminiscent of the early 2000s teen ennui. Everyone is a poser, parents don’t get it, reality tv bites, etc. Of course, one is more sympathetic to Melinda’s POV after they find out her secret, and her depressive personality is a result of trauma rather than edgy teen angst. But it does make the story drag much like how life seems to drag for Melinda.
When Melinda finally comes to terms herself with what happened to her, the language and imagery becomes more raw, and speak to the scars Melinda is dealing with. It didn’t only change her physically, but emotionally, mentally, and it just seems no one will care if she does tell.
Nonetheless, I wish we got more insight to how Melinda was before IT happened so readers might have a comparison to how much it impacted her life into a line of BEFORE and AFTER. Perhaps this is because I already knew the secret thus it was not a shock like it must have been back in 1999 to discuss such topics, and left me wanting more from the narrative when it came to her healing arc.
Nonetheless, it’s thoughtful and poignant in detailing what depression and trauma is like, so others may feel like they’re not alone in reacting this way after an event like this happens.
4 stars.
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Three Girls in the City
Horse girls may be more familiar with Jeanne Betancourt for her popular Pony Pals series, here she takes a different slice of life approach with, as the title says, Three Girls in the City.
The premise is as follows: NYC, 2002. Three 13 year-old girls meet at a summer photo Carolyn, fresh from Wyoming, motherless and scared; Joy, who has everything plus a bad attitude, and Maya from Harlem, strong, proud and surprised to find herself liking these 2 mismatched girls. Just as these 3 discover they’re friends despite their differences, Carolyn’s father decides to send her back ‘home’ to Wyoming. Then, in her first flush of street-smart confidence, Carolyn gets scarily lost on the subway – and it’s Joy and Maya who find her – and show her dad that New York City is the home they’ve been looking for.
There’s still horses, but there’s more than that. Taking place after 9/11, it casts a shadow on the cast and setting with numerous references to it, and other recent events. Joy, in particular, seems to have PTSD from seeing the towers fall from her bedroom windows. Carolyn’s father is said to be always overprotective, but I sense his concerns over how dangerous NY is may also stem from that event.
It’s a slice of life that is thoughtful, can get heavy sometimes. It touches on topics like child abuse, AIDs, eating disorders and creepy men, not in depth but enough to show that this is in the periphery of their lives. Yet there’s lightness that balances it too. Much like life. It commits to the realism in depicting the confusing mix of adolescent feelings in trying to figure out a sense of style, where you fit in with your friends, happy one moment, sad the next, moody etc.
There also doesn’t feel like there is a set plot despite each book summary. The events in each chapter don’t build to a climax or a traditional three-act structure because life is not as simple as that. It goes day by day so sometimes plot threads feel left unresolved or overlooked, I see it as demonstrating that life doesn’t have clear conclusions to problems. A conversation with parents can resolve everything because the girls are realizing at the juncture of their lives, they can’t trust their parents to have all the answers, sometimes they’re the problems. They’re taking steps to figure things out on their own.
Additionally, it stopped after four books which seems to have been the plan, but a lot of things were left open-ended or to be picked up later, and as someone who likes conclusions in her stories, it made me want to know more.
I enjoy how each girl and her family life feels distinct and you can see subtly maturity in each. Carolyn becomes less fearful of meeting strangers and the cosmopolitan city of New York. She advocates for herself with her father and becomes more independent.
Joy is the most moody with her turbulent divorced parents, but she even sees the benefits of letting friends see her vulnerabilities even though she worries Maya and Carolyn are closer to each other than her.
Maya is the most adjusted of the three, I think, but even she learns about how to navigate a changing friendship with her bestie, Shana, who seems to dislike that she’s friends with white girls now.
My nitpicks are tiny: The POVs is third person omniscient between the three girls, not chapter by chapter, but by sentence to sentence sometimes which was confusing when I first began reading. The font doesn’t allow for italics nor does the author put quotation marks to distinguish internal thoughts which makes it hard to distinguish between internal thoughts and stuff said out loud.
Also since it’s focused on the photography class, most of the story takes place in their free time afterschool, but I am a little curious to what they’re school life is like. Especially as Joy repeatedly mentions the snobbish mean girls in her private school that have obviously given her an inferiority complex, and the fact that Maya and Carolyn go to school together. I expected more drama could be wrung from that.
Otherwise, this is a great time capsule to 2002, and a grittier NY with such cool “new” technology like digital cameras and photoshop. Yet the struggles of growing up remain unchanged.
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Ranking Lively St. Lemons
Lively St. Lemons is a small village with intense political rivalries between the Whigs and Tories. But that’s a side note to the intricacies of the population therein.
1. Sweet Disorder: Phoebe Sparks is such a unique heroine in the historical romance genre. She’s plus-sized, hot-tempered, has intense maternal desire, and a dirty mind. She has layers is what I mean and doesn’t fit neatly into tropes. Same with the MC, Nicholas Drymond who is the black sheep in the political heavyweight Whig family. He has a limp from the war as well as intense insecurities in trying to please his family, his acquaintances, everyone he meets that he’s unsure of what he really wants. I really enjoy how Lerner explores the nuances of toxic family members, and the caregiving role Phoebe hoists on herself. Same with the new take on a complicated former marriage that has left Phoebe uncertain she wants to marry again. Plus it has political intrigue, and steamy scenes (he’s a sub! I know, another rare thing in historical romance but fits perfectly with his fears of not disappointing anyone and wanting someone to give him direct orders). It’s just a unique gem in the genre with great characterization.
2. A Taste of Honey: For only a novella, Lerner packs a lot of feels and spice in a pastry shop. Robert Moon is the adorkable owner of the local confectionary who’s in danger of becoming bankrupt. Betsy is his loyal right-hand who wants him to realize she can shoulder the struggles of the pastry shop as a helpmeet, not a burden of a wife. Set over the course of a week, things move fast, but Lerner creates an easy intimacy, different sort of sex scenes that take advantage of the setting, and make one root for this genial couple to make it work.
3. False Pretenses: Most of these stories deal with the members of the Whig party, but the second book follows Lydia Reeves, hostess and patroness of the Tory party as she falls for a Jewish swindler, Asher Cohen. The scandal, but as Ash is trying to go straight, you can believe their connection is real while keeping on the edge of their seat as Lydia that maybe it’s not as real as it could be. The reason it comes third is because Ash may be Jewish, he is very divorced from it, so it didn’t feel as much of a deal as it could be. Which is the point as he often points out he passes as a gentile as long as he has a gentile name and doesn’t pull off his pants. There are mentions tat Lydia is suddenly interested in helping Jewish charities but it’s also off-page, and just feels like if Lerner’s going to add that to a MC’s identity, they could go further with it.
4. Listen to the Moon: The saucy maid, Sukey, and stuffy valet, John Toogood were interesting supporting characters in Sweet Disorder, and their opposites attract vibe in a marriage of convenience makes a good spark, but it could fan the flames of a 300 page book. They were interesting by themselves, but the novel didn’t interest me. It felt like a drag, and could have ended 100 pages earlier.
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My Sister the Vampire
Yes, I return to the world of early 2000s nostalgia with this series-My Sister the Vampire. This time I read all eighteen books. Here’s the initial premise.
When Olivia Abbott moves to town, she’s excited to join the cheerleading team and make new friends. Then she meets Ivy Vega. At first, Ivy, pale and dressed all in black, looks like Olivia’s opposite. Then the girls look beyond the glittery pink blush and thick black eyeliner to discover they’re identical—identical twins! Olivia and Ivy are brimming with plans to switch places and pull every twin trick in the book. But Olivia soon discovers that she and Ivy aren’t exactly the same. Ivy’s a vampire. And she’s not the only one in town.
If you ignore that in the beginning there is little nuance in the goth lifestyle (like it’s impossible for the characters to imagine that goths can’t be uniform in their tastes of music/clothing/interests), my overall impression is that it still works.
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Twisted Tales: Cruel Truth Review
What if Anita and Cruella were best friends?
It’s 1953, and teenage Anita Weatherby and her family have just moved to a booming postwar London. While her older sister settles right in, to the delight of their parents, Anita finds their new school—and her academic rival, Roger Radcliffe—daunting. Nothing seems to be going Anita’s way until a glamorous, confident new student moves to town. Stella De Vil is haughty and aloof—but surprises everyone by taking an immediate liking to Anita.
Swept into the luxurious world of Stella’s high-end family fashion label, Anita soon finds herself the anticipated star of the House of De Vil’s next fashion show, where she’ll be modelling a family heirloom, the Weatherby diamond, and walking the catwalk with two adorable Dalmatian puppies to raise awareness for a local animal shelter. But when disaster strikes and the Weatherby diamond goes missing, Anita will have to decide whom she can trust before her life goes to the dogs.
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Book Highlight: Goddesses
As I mentioned in a previous post that part of quarter-life crisis is finding and reading books from my childhood, this is one I never had read but I remember being intrigued by the cover long long ago. Finally, I have read it.
Three goddesses, banished to earth by their dad, Zeus (yeah, that Zeus)…
Polly, Era, and Thalia are stuck on earth, and to get back to Olympus, they’ve got to prove they’ve learned their lesson. And they’ve got to get through high school in the meantime. Which would be hard enough without the horribly evil Furies threatening to destroy their chances of ever seeing home again….
The premise is interesting, and maybe my thoughts would have been different if I had read it when I was 9 or something. Reading it now. . . it’s meh.
No, that’s a little too harsh. It’s dumb fun.
By that I mean, the Greek mythology aspect is not well-researched. Hantman has a basic understanding of stuff like the Muses are midlevel goddesses, the Tantalos myth, so on, but there’s lots she gets wrong. She has Poseidon and Neptune in the same novel. Neptune is the Roman name for Poseidon. Maybe she was trying to reference Triton, Poseidon’s grand/son but the point is Neptune is not a separate god. She has Apollo being the one whose chariot makes the sun rise and set, but that’s Helios’ occupation. Clio, one of the muses is spelled Cleo.
Then there’s lots of little references that are totally anachronistic for ancient Greece like tennis, Bahamian resorts, leprechauns, Sir Percival, etc. Like choose is this going to be ancient Greece or anachronistic Ancient Greece, you can’t have both. Not to mention she has Hera and the Furies being the most cartoonishly evil like literal lava spills out of her mouth at one point (even though that’s not a power any god has in the myths), they all smell stinky, have warts. It lessens the intimidation one must admit.
But I admit making the Furies the rhyming trio of “Backroom Betties” (ugh so 2000s it hurts) made them entertaining. Honestly, I enjoyed their appearances more than Thalia’s narration sometimes. That’s a big sticking point as Thalia can be so selfish and immature that I wished that Hantman had allowed for rotating POVs instead of just giving Polly/Era only chance in book 2.
Basically, if you’re looking for an accurate primer on myths this is not a place to go.
As for the characters, they are supposedly sent to high school in 2002, but they act more like middle-schoolers, and the character development doesn’t really hit (especially for Thalia) until the last few chapters in the final book.
Which makes sense as it’s for lower-schoolers, but why not just have them go to middle school?
Even so, there are just random bits of inappropriateness that would have raised eyebrows like the characters talking about who’s sexy in their tight pants, minor cursing, who has Amazonian boobs, etc. Although I must admit there is one hilarious point where Thalia explains who Artemis is-“Artemis is Apollo’s twin virgin sis. She takes out her frustration by killing monsters.”
I just found that a succinct yet funny descriptor.
See what I mean, it has the bare bones of research, a mix of immaturity with the early 2000s sexualization, and yet when I turned my brain off, I enjoyed it. The Muses’ confusion and delight over the ultra-modern world of 2002 was funny as well as their hijinks like causing chaos at the Macey’s Thanksgiving Parade or letting alligators loose in New Orleans’ Jean Lafiette park, Apollo stuck in the body of “Dylan from Denver,” the teacher assigning them to make documentaries like The Real World with their video cameras.
Apollo is also extremely accurate as the overly-dramatic, lovelorn god chasing Thalia everywhere just as he did to Daphne in the myths. Same with Artemis who sadly only appears once as the sensible, serious foil to her twin’s antics. The descriptors for Dionysus and his hijinks were also entertaining and made me wish he appeared too.
I just wish she extended that to the Muses themselves. They mention being into the arts with Polly being the best at singing, and Thalia fulfilling the comedic, adventurous role but Era has no relation to her art- the flute – and is just the boy crazy, ditzy one.
Then again, these books were not meant to be about depth. I’m just glad I finally got to read what they were about.
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The Singular Life of Aria Patel Review
Aria Patel likes stability, certainty, predictability. It’s why she’s so into science. It’s why she dumped her boyfriend before they went to different colleges because the odds were that something would go wrong, eventually. In a life that’s already so chaotic, why obsess over complicated relationships and shadowy unknowns when the scientific method gives you direction and a straight path to avoid all the drama.
But there’s no avoiding anything when Aria finds herself suddenly falling through parallel universes and there’s no formula that can save her. She can’t explain why she’s been waking up in a new reality almost every day, or why Rohan, and a poem from her English class, seem to be following her through every new life.
As Aria desperately attempts to find a way home, she eventually ends up stuck in a parallel world very similar to her own. She cherishes this new version of her family, and she finds herself unable to deny the yearning she has for Rohan…but it’s not her life or her Rohan. It belongs to another Aria, another girl, and unless Aria can get back home, she’ll have taken this happiness away from someone else forever. And she may never find her own.
Ahmed makes a departure from her stirring, personal is political works to have a journey through a multi-verse. Now time-traveling stuff hurts my brain especially as she brings in physics and quantum mechanics into it. She tries to explain it within text, but it still goes over my head. No matter, the science of the universe is a blip to the adventures of Aria Patel.
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Rachel Reads & Reviews 