EN:
Saturday, December 21, 2024
Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Festival Nacional del Libro 2024 (7). Escritores de origen latino: Anna Lapera
En pocas palabras: Javier J. Jaspe
Washington D.C.
The 2024 National Book Festival was
held in the nation’s capital at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on
Saturday, August 24, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Several programs were livestreamed,
and video of all talks can be viewed online after the Festival’s conclusion.
EN: https://www.loc.gov/events/2024-national-book-festival/
Una lista completa de los autores que participaron en el
Festival Nacional del Libro de 2024
(FNL2024) puede verse
EN: https://www.loc.gov/events/2024-national-book-festival/authors/
La
serie que continuamos hoy se refiere a escritores de origen latino que
participaron en el FNL2024. Su objeto no consiste en realizar un análisis de su
obra, sino el de publicar material encontrado en Internet relacionado con la
misma y sus autores. Los textos de Internet se transcribirán en itálicas, en
español o inglés, según sea el caso, con indicación de su fuente. Esta séptima
entrega se refiere a Anna Lapera. Veamos:
Anna Lapera
Anna Lapera is a mixed-race Guatemalan American
author and educator. A Pushcart Prize nominee, she teaches middle school by day
and writes stories about spunky kids stepping into their power in the early
hours of the morning. When she’s not writing or teaching, you can find her
occasionally playing the drums or searching for the crispiest plátano frito in
town. Lapera lives in Maryland with her family. Her debut middle grade novel,
“Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice,” is featured at the 2024 National Book
Festival.
EN: https://www.loc.gov/events/2024-national-book-festival/authors/item/no2024021147/anna-lapera/
Videos en el FNL2024:
Anna Lapera and Sherri Winston: A Kid vs. the World
EN: https://www.loc.gov/events/2024-national-book-festival/schedule/item/webcast-11496/
Selected Works at the Library of Congress
EN: https://www.loc.gov/search/?all=true&sb=date_desc&uf=contributor:lapera,%20anna
Website de la autora:
https://www.annalaperawriter.com/
////////////////////// EN: https://www.hgliterary.com/anna-lapera ////////////////////////// Libros (books) en el Website de la autora:
https://www.annalaperawriter.com/books
//////////////////////
Entrevistas/Reportajes
CANVAS REBEL
Photograph…..
STORIES & INSIGHTS
Meet Anna Lapera
June 13, 2024
EN: https://canvasrebel.com/meet-anna-lapera/
We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful
Anna Lapera. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anna below.
Anna, appreciate you joining us today. Do you wish you had waited
to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?
Ever since my school’s poetry week in 5th grade, I knew that I wanted to be a writer. However, I did not begin writing seriously until I was 33 years old. That day back in 5th grade, my class sat in a circle outside and I wrote the following line: “clear blue opening shadows of the earth’s territory”. At the time, I thought that was SO good! It didn’t matter; I loved the feeling I got while writing, so I tried to write whenever I could. I wrote poems to friends, I later oined my high school’s creative writing magazine, and I entered a writing competition here and there in college. However, I never truly chose writing. It was always a side project I did while I was doing my main thing.
I
went to grad school for Latin American studies and urban planning and on
research trips I started a blog where I wrote creative essays about my
experiences, but slowly, my writing stopped and I never found time for it. I ended
up working for the Federal government for three years, during which I wrote
nothing. I felt unhappy, so I quit to become a teacher. I think I was feeling
restless and unfulfilled because I was not writing at all, but I could not
figure that out at the time. It was three years into teacher that I was
scrolling through my email and I saw an announcement from a local writer’s
center for a one-year evening short story workshop. Even just applying for the
workshop was the step and motivation I needed to reignite that feeling I got
when writing. I got into the workshop and began to build a writing schedule and
routine that worked for me as a full-time teacher and mom: I wrote (and still
write) every single morning from 4 – 6 am. There have been moments in my writing
journey from the past three years where I wish I could have started sooner.
There are moments during my 4am writing sessions when I just can’t put the
right words together, that I wish I could have chosen writing in my 20s, in
college and grad school when I could have written for hours during the middle
of the day. I sometimes think about how many books I would have already written
by now. Sometimes I wish I would have started writing before having kids,
because I think of all the books I could have written during those evening
hours. But recently that changed. I realized two things: First, I became a
voracious reader not until in my 30s, and that has shaped me as a writer. I
could not have become a writer without becoming a reader first. Second, my life
experiences have shaped my writing. I write for teens, and the world building
in my writing is shaped by the countless hours I spend in school classrooms and
hallways. After my novel was published, I slowly began to realize that I chose
writing at the time that was right for me; that any sooner might not have
shaped me into the writer I truly wanted to be. I still write at 4am, and even
though I balance my writing with the responsibilities of family, teaching, and
life, I have been able to return to that first feeling I got in 5th grade,
which I have finally been able to describe: that this is exactly what I am
meant to be doing.
Photograph…
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you
briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a Guatemalan-American author, educator, mom and occasional drummer. My novel, Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice, was published March 5th, 2024. I spent decades wanting to write but never choosing writing as my path, until, three years ago when I decided to take the leap and join a writing workshop. I never did an MFA and I didn’t start writing my novel right out of college, even though I would have liked to do all of those things. But I made a way and let all of my life experience shape and inform my writing, and I think it has made me a stronger writer.
I am most proud of the way I have made room for my passion and the ways
in which I have prioritized it along with being a present mom and teacher. I am
also proud that I write stories of which there are not many. I tell stories
that feature Central American experiences and histories. During my time
teaching kids that were newly arrived from Central America, I started to see
what a void there was of stories that centered young people from Central America.
It also made me remember that own childhood of never seeing books that
represented the places my family was coming from. I wanted to write stories not
just about immigration (though that is an important topic and we need those
stories too), but also about friendship, finding your voice, activism, family,
as well as the many challenges that all kids are faced with in school. It is
important not only for all kids to see themselves represented in stories, but
to give all kids the opportunity to make connections with characters and
experiences that may be new to them. I think everyone can find connection with
Central American stories.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had
to pivot?
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your
creative journey?
There are so many community creative spaces that I wish I would have taken advantage of earlier. For example, open mics, writer meetups, etc. Many writers talk about what a lonely and solitary endeavor writing is, but I have found the opposite to be true. I would say I write a lot in community. I got to open mics, I join online writing meet ups, in person meetups, and form friendships and critique groups at several of these. Now, whenever I meet someone who is just starting out, I try to invite them to every community writing space I know of.
Contact
Info:
- Website: https://www.annalaperawriter.com
- Instagram: @annalaperawriter
- Twitter: @WriterOfCuentos
Image Credits
Personal
photo: Kira Palmer
Other photos: Harold Morales,
An Open Book Foundation, Ilana Giller
Suggest a Story: CanvasRebel is built on recommendations
from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you
know deserves recognition please let us know here.
///////////////////////////
LAS MUSAS
Photographs…….
MANI SEMILLA FINDS HER QUETZAL VOICE...
EN: https://www.lasmusasbooks.com/anna-lapera.html
For fans of Donna Barba Higuera's Lupe Wong Won't Dance and Aida Salazar's The Moon Within, comes Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice – a contemporary middle grade novel full of spunk and activist heart.
Life sucks when you're twelve. You're not a little kid, but
you're also not an adult, and all the grown-ups in your life talk about your
body the minute it starts getting a shape. And what sucks even more than being
a Chinese-Filipino-American-Guatemalan who can't speak any ancestral language well?
When almost every other girl in school has already gotten her period except for
you and your two besties.
Manuela “Mani” Semilla wants two things: To get her period, and
to thwart her mom's plan of taking her to Guatemala on her thirteenth birthday.
If her mom's always going on about how dangerous it is in Guatemala, and how
much she sacrificed to come to this country, then why should Mani even want to
visit?
But one day, up in the attic, she finds secret letters between her mom and her
Tía Beatriz, who, according to family lore, died in a bus crash before Mani was
born. But the letters reveal a different story. Why did her family really leave
Guatemala? What will Mani learn about herself along the way? And how can the
letters help her to stand up against the culture of harassment at her own
school?
….
ABOUT
ANNA...
Anna Lapera teaches middle school by day and writes stories
about girls stepping into their power in the early hours of the morning. She is
a Pushcart-prize nominee, a member of Las Musas, and a 2022 Macondista and
Kweli Journal mentee. When she’s not writing, you can find her visiting trails
and coffee shops in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she lives with her family.
Her debut upper middle grade novel, Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice, comes
out on March 5th, 2024.
www.annalaperawriter.com
//////////////////////////////
Kirkus Reviews
EN: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/anna-lapera/mani-semilla-finds-her-quetzal-voice/
MANI SEMILLA FINDS HER QUETZAL VOICE
A poignant, feminist coming-of-age story.
Inspired by her aunt, who was an activist in
Guatemala, a 12-year-old finds the courage to stand up to rampant sexual
harassment at school.
Manuela Semilla’s grandmother is losing her memory,
but she urges her granddaughter to find her “quetzal voice.” Mani initially
struggles to understand what Abuelita means, and why she’s comparing her to a
quetzal, the national bird of Guatemala, which, according to Mayan legend,
hasn’t sung heartily since before the Spanish invasion centuries ago. Mani,
who’s of Guatemalan, Filipino, and Chinese descent, sometimes feels torn
between her family’s opinions and what she wants to do as a contemporary
American preteen, such as wearing clothes her mami deems immodest. Her
adolescent angst—over everything from debating when she should speak up to
fretting over not getting her period yet—is extensively and realistically
conveyed. Teachers are condescending. Boys are mean if not outright abusive.
Her mother is unfair for forcing Mani to visit Guatemala this summer. But after
Mani finds letters from her late Tía Beatriz describing her bravery in speaking
out about violence against women, she begins to observe a common thread between
the injustices her aunt fought and the bullying and harassment that her school
administration allows to escalate. Mani’s feelings evolve into a firm resolve
to help make things better. The second half of the story flows well,
culminating in heartwarming moments of understanding between Mani and Mami, as
well as actionable steps toward real, positive change.
A poignant, feminist
coming-of-age story. (Fiction. 10-14)
//////////////////////
Videos/Podcasts
Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice by Anna Lapera · Audiobook
preview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmXAeeTUO9E
Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice by Anna Lapera | Official
Audiobook Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM87_UtYQQA
También puede
verse:
https://texasbookfestival.org/directory/author/anna-lapera/
https://www.audible.com/author/Anna-Lapera/B0CJVJ8DF9
https://school.teachingbooks.net/book_reading.cgi?id=34580&a=1
https://latinxinpublishing.com/blog/mani-semilla-finds-her-quetzal-voice-by-anna-lapera
https://forum.teachingbooks.net/2024/06/anna-lapera-on-mani-semilla-finds-her-quetzal-voice/
https://www.dionnalmann.com/interviews-blog-parties--more/happy-book-launch-day-anna-lapera
Las relaciones entre Estados Unidos y América Latina serán activas e intensas
Cynthia Arnson, analista en temas internacionales, dijo que el presidente electo de EE UU revertirá las licencias para exportar petróleo y gas de Venezuela e impondrá sanciones más fuertes al gobierno de Nicolás Maduro....
EN:
Sunday, December 15, 2024
Thursday, December 12, 2024
Articulos (21) sobre Latinoamérica y otros temas publicados en 2023 que podría ser de interés releer
EN:
Marino J. González diciembre 20, 2023
https://talcualdigital.com/los-futuros-inciertos-en-america-latina-por-marino-j-gonzalez-r/
Navika Mehta diciembre 21, 2023
https://www.elnacional.com/opinion/como-un-mundo-de-hombres-ignora-sistematicamente-a-las-mujeres/
Daniel García diciembre 22, 2023
GDA diciembre 24, 2023
Carlos Andrés Brando diciembre 23, 2023
El Nacional diciembre 24, 2023
Arturo McFields diciembre 24, 2023
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
Sunday, December 8, 2024
Saturday, December 7, 2024
Friday, December 6, 2024
Festival Nacional del Libro 2024 (6). Escritores de origen latino: Abby Jimenez
En pocas palabras: Javier J. Jaspe
Washington D.C.
The 2024 National Book Festival was
held in the nation’s capital at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Saturday,
August 24, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Several programs were livestreamed, and video
of all talks can be viewed online after the Festival’s conclusion.
EN: https://www.loc.gov/events/2024-national-book-festival/
Una lista completa de los autores que participaron en el
Festival Nacional del Libro de 2024
(FNL2024) puede verse
EN: https://www.loc.gov/events/2024-national-book-festival/authors/
La
serie que continuamos hoy se refiere a escritores de origen latino que
participaron en el FNL2024. Su objeto no consiste en realizar un análisis de su
obra, sino el de publicar material encontrado en Internet relacionado con la
misma y sus autores. Los textos de Internet se transcribirán en itálicas, en
español o inglés, según sea el caso, con indicación de su fuente. Esta sexta
entrega se refiere a Abby Jimenez. Veamos:
Abby
Jimenez
Abby Jimenez is a No. 1 New York Times bestselling romance
author. Her novels have sold over 1.5 million copies and been translated into
28 languages. She has received a Good Morning America Book Club pick, a Book of
the Month’s Book of the Year Award and a Minnesota Book Award. Before her
writing career, Jimenez was in the national spotlight as a “Cupcake Wars”
champion and founder of Nadia Cakes bakery, which has gone on to win numerous
Food Network competitions and amass an international following. Her latest
novel, “Just for the Summer,” is featured at the 2024 National Book Festival.
EN: https://www.loc.gov/events/2024-national-book-festival/authors/item/n2018063925/abby-jimenez/
Videos en el FNL2024:
PBS Books 2024 National Book Festival Author Talk:
Abby Jimenez
EN:
https://www.loc.gov/events/2024-national-book-festival/schedule/item/webcast-11415/
Abby Jimenez and Casey
McQuiston: Modern Dating, We Love It, We Hate It
EN:
https://www.loc.gov/events/2024-national-book-festival/schedule/item/webcast-11491/
Selected Works at the Library of Congress
EN:
https://www.loc.gov/search/?all=true&sb=date_desc&uf=contributor:jimenez,%20abby
Website de la autora:
https://www.authorabbyjimenez.com/
Biografía de la autora en Wikipedia:
EN: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abby_Jimenez_(writer)
Entrevistas/Reportajes
Abby Jimenez's journey from baker to bestselling author
Abby Jimenez has a sweet tooth for love.
Image….
April 2,
2024, 4:57 PM EDT
By Kelly Vaughan
EN: https://www.today.com/popculture/books/abby-jimenez-author-interview-rcna145924
Abby Jimenez's fans devour her
cupcakes and her
romance novels. The author of "The Friend Zone" and her most recent,
"Just for the Summer," is at the top of her literary and culinary
games.
“These are my hobbies. Baking
was always a hobby for me, writing was always also a hobby for me. I just
happen to be able to do things that other people like, which is great,” Jimenez
tells TODAY.com.
The winding tale of Jimenez's
twin careers begins in 2007. At the time, Jimenez was working as a retail
manager when she got pregnant with her third baby in three years.
Six months later, she lost her job and found herself scrambling to earn enough
money to pay the bills.
"I decided to take some
cake decorating classes at the local Michael’s just to distract myself from how
depressed I was,” Jimenez says.
What was supposed to be a
band-aid on a temporary financial hardship became the foundation of Jimenez’s
success.
Image….
On launching her baking business
Jimenez never intended to start selling her baked goods, let
alone open and operate a brick-and-mortar bakery. But the bills kept piling up
and so she saw only one choice: to launch Nadia Cakes, named after her middle
child, from her house.
AD….
For two years, Jimenez
baked and sold assorted cupcakes from her California home while her three
children climbed on her as if she were monkey bars.
Jimenez, who says that
she was chronically exhausted, ended up developing carpal tunnel in both of her
hands. “My nerve damage was so bad in my right hand that (the doctor) said
‘surgery on Friday,’” she says.
While Jimenez was
recovering, she found herself on the brink of a mental and financial breakdown.
“I told my husband, ‘I
can’t keep doing this.’ People who do this either have a bakery or they have a
daycare,” she remembers saying.
Jimenez was operating
both, all while descending into deeper debt. Her husband casually suggested
that they open up a formal bakery, an idea that Jimenez says she gawked at. Yet
she found herself begging a local bank to offer her a loan.
After securing a $5,000
loan, Jimenez recalls the “scary” moment when she and her husband charged
$125,000 additional opening expenses to their credit cards.
“We were so broke. We
were like, ‘this is really all or nothing.’ We’re either going to be successful
and have a bakery or we’re going to lose our house, our cars, we’re gonna lose
everything,” she says.
If Jimenez’s life was a
fairytale, this next moment would be one in which she’d be garnished with pixie
dust and sent to step into her new fantastical life.
In 2009, she opened the
doors to Nadia Bakes in Palmdale, California to “instant success” with “lines
wrapped around the building.”
The bakery made a name
for itself with its geode cakes, which looked like they were cut from the side
of a crystal. One cake broke the internet for its resemblance to a certain body part.
Jimenez says that she
couldn’t keep up with the demand, so her husband quit his job as a retail
manager to join her formally as CFO, handling the financial and logistical side
of the business.
Within six months, she
was cast on TLC’s “Fabulous Cakes,” followed by Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars,”
where she won $10,000 for her Rose Bowl-inspired display of cupcakes.
At that time, she found
herself ready to open a second location, but the oversaturation of cupcake
shops in California encouraged her to look East.
“We really wanted to
move somewhere where there were seasons. So we took a five-week cross-country
trip with all the kids in the car and drove through 23 states. When we came to
Minnesota, we were like, ‘This is nice,’” she says.
Within three months, her
family packed up their California home, trading in palm trees for parkas in The
North Star State.
Photograph….
On stumbling into her writing career
After opening not just
one, but two locations in Minnesota, Jimenez once again found herself itching
for something new, so she turned a page and picked up a romance novel, her
go-to genre.
“I was chasing a certain
kind of romance and I had a really hard time finding it. I wanted something
that was funny, but also had depth. I wanted to read stories that felt
realistic, like they were people I would know. I had such a hard time finding
exactly what I wanted and I was like, ‘You know what, maybe I can write my own
romance,’” Jimenez says.
It’s at this point that
I decide, if given the opportunity, I would be hesitant to accompany Jimenez to
an amusement park. She strikes me as someone who only moves at one speed —
which is faster than humanly possible — and never looks back. But she corrects
me.
“You know, I am really
not a risk-taker actually. I’m very risk-averse. My husband is the one that’s
like, ‘No, you can do this,’” she says.
The self-proclaimed
risk-averse writer decided to write what she describes as a YA dystopian novel
that was “absolutely terrible.”
After receiving some
advice from a literary agent, she decided to try her hand at writing a
contemporary romance novel. Again, Jimenez submitted the book to a new literary
agent, who decided to take her on as a client.
If you’re reading this
and thinking that Jimenez was born under a rainbow and sleeps on a pot of gold,
she’ll be quick to correct you too.
“It was not all sunshine
and roses after that. After that, everything was hard,” Jimenez says.
She says she was in
submission to publishers for so long that she had enough time for her to write
a draft of her second book, "The Friend Zone."
“Nine months into this,
we ended up getting an offer for a three-book deal and I got two offers on the
same day,” Jimenez says. Now, you may start to reconsider that pot of
gold.
Jimenez’s sixth book,
“Just for the Summer,” will be released on April 2, 2024 but she’s well on her
way to doubling her batch.
“I have two more books
after that that I have book deals for. I don’t think I’m ever going to stop
because I love it too much.”
In some ways, her
writing process hasn’t changed since those early dystopian days. Success has
meant that she now has a lake house she can retreat to when she needs to “bust
out 10,000 words” but most of the time, you’ll find her writing on the sofa in
her living room with her laptop resting on her body.
She likens her home to
an “international airport,” with three teenagers and four dogs passing through
at any given time. “It’s very distracting and not conducive.”
Still, Jimenez says she
has a tendency to complete her drafts a few months before deadline. “If I’m
turning my book in on deadline, I feel like I’m late,” she says.
On learning about life in a love stories
Jimenez’s books, which
are all interconnected, fit squarely into the romantic-comedy genre, with funny
scenes bordering the steamy ones.
Don’t call them light,
though. Her books have more serious threads stitched between the pages with
characters who are dealing with anxiety, domestic abuse and
infertility. It was an intentional choice, but not an immediately welcome
one, Jimenez says.
Her newest book, “Just
for the Summer” touches on “the effects that your childhood can have on your
relationships as an adult.”
“One thing that I heard
a lot of during the rejection period was, ‘We’re looking for lighter fiction.
We’re looking for lighter romance right now,’” Jimenez says.
She says those responses
were frustrating.
“I can’t picture writing
anything that doesn’t have these more important themes because romance takes
place in the folds of everyday life. These are the real things that happen to
real people when they’re falling in love,” Jimenez says.
Jimenez believes that
her inclusion of real-life situations is her strong suit. “Every single one of
my books now is run through a rigorous beta read team and rigorous sensitivity
read. I find advisors for important themes in every single one of my books,
which is why they feel so authentic and they feel so accurate,” Jimenez says
proudly.
Quotation ….
At the same time, she’s
found that the stigma around romance novels has changed. Readers and publishers
alike know more than to expect romance authors to present a fluffy manuscript
that can be read in one sitting, then tossed aside.
“When I started writing,
there were bookstores that simply didn’t carry romance. I find that less and
less now. It’s very rare now that I walk into an indie bookstore and can’t find
a romance section. Not only are publishers taking the genre more seriously, I
think that sellers are taking it more seriously," she says.
“I think a lot of people learn how to be in healthy, non-toxic
relationships through reading the right kind of romance.”
Kelly Vaughan Recipe Editor Today
/////////////////////
Review: Are Abby Jimenez’s Books Worth the
Hype?
August
30, 2024
written by STEPHANIE MCKINLEY
The Everygirl’s product selections are curated
by the editorial team. If you buy something through our links, we may earn an
affiliate commission, at no cost to you. We only recommend products we
genuinely love.
EN:
https://theeverygirl.com/abby-jimenez-books-review/
I
first read The Friend Zone, Abby Jimenez’s debut romance
novel, when it came out in 2019, and I rated it five
stars on Goodreads—I knew from the start that she had something special as a
writer. However, for whatever reason, I didn’t read the rest of Abby’s novels
until this year. All of them were sitting on my bookshelf, so I honestly don’t
know what was stopping me from reading them—but when Just for the Summer was all over my feed starting this spring, I
knew it was time to return to Abby Jimenez’s literary worlds. In this book
lover’s opinion, her books are absolutely worth the hype. Here’s why:
AD…..
In
this article
1 Why I love
Abby Jimenez’s Books
2 Is there spice
in Abby Jimenez’s books?
3 Do you have to
read Abby Jimenez’s books in order?
4 Where I think
you should start with Abby Jimenez’s books
Why I love
Abby Jimenez’s Books
In Abby Jimenez books,
we get to see the point-of-view of both parties in the relationship. This means
we get to see every love story unfold
from two perspectives. We know when he first found her attractive and when she
first thought of him as something more. We know how hard it was for her to wait
for the first kiss and how good it feels for him when he finally gets to touch
her.
And
most importantly, we know how much each couple in Abby’s novels cares for each
other. We know that he would conquer his biggest fear in order to be with her
and that she would finally stay in one place long enough to fall hard for him.
We know that they are in love.
They don’t shy away from real-life issues
No matter if a
character is struggling with family, work, or health, Abby
handles the issue with care. Justin makes the best of his situation, getting
help when he accepts that he can’t do it on his own. Alexis continues to forge
her own path, addressing the challenges in her relationships as they come.
Vanessa lives life to the fullest but still breaks down in honest moments of
fear. The love interests in each romance novel are always there to lift each
other up in times of need instead of distracting from the challenge at hand or
making it harder for the other character.
They’re both serious and hilarious
Abby’s characters are always going through tough times, but that doesn’t mean they can’t laugh along the way. You’ll be cracking up at Kristen’s ability to constantly fluster Sloan with her absolute lack of a filter in The Happy Ever After Playlist. You’ll chuckle at the creative dates Daniel plans for Alexis in Part of Your World. The humor infused in these books is what makes them so fun to read because life isn’t always heavy—sometimes, the more challenging moments are intertwined with hilarious ones.
Is there spice in Abby Jimenez’s books?
Ah, the most important question for picking up a new romance novel: How much spice is there on a scale of 1-5 chili peppers? Frankly, Abby Jimenez books are not the spiciest romances out there, probably landing around one chili pepper. You can expect a couple of spicy scenes in each book, but nothing that’s going to get your heart rate up. And that’s totally fine! Sometimes, we need romances that are a little on the sweeter side.
AD…..
Do you have
to read Abby Jimenez’s books in order?
I am not a fan of getting lost in a series. My TBR list is so huge that it’s hard enough to pick the next book I read, never mind the next several. What I love the most about Abby Jimenez’s books is that reading another one makes me love the previous one even more.
Abby’s books are not sequential or character-focused in the way Sarah J. Maas’s books are, but they go farther
than your average companion novel. Each book follows a different couple, but a
narrator in a previous book will likely show up as a side character in the next
book. For example, Kristen and Sloan of The Friend Zone and The Happy Ever After Playlist are best friends. Without giving too much away,
the narrators in Part of Your World and Just for the Summer are more related
than I ever could have guessed.
AD…..
For that reason, while each
book can be read as a standalone, you’ll get the best experience out of Abby
Jimenez books if you read them in publication order. Technically, The Friend Zone, The Happy Ever After
Playlist, and Life’s Too Short are all related, while Part of Your World, Yours Truly, and Just for the Summer are each connected. Does six books feel like too big of a
commitment? You can start with Part of Your World, the first book in her second series. Here’s what you need to
know about each book:
Images
relating to Abby Jimenez’s books….
Where I
think you should start with Abby Jimenez’s books
Still not convinced that Abby Jimenez’s books are worth the hype? You can dip a toe into her writing style with Worst Wingman Ever, a short story in The Improbable Meet-Cute, a Kindle series by Amazon. At only 61 pages, it’s the perfect way to get a taste of Abby’s books. Following a hospice nurse and the “worst wingman ever” who accidentally exchange tons of notes before finally meeting face-to-face, this short story will have you laughing and crying, just like all of Abby’s novels.
Meet the author
Stephanie McKinley, Contributing Entertainment
Writer
Stephanie is a
freelance writer and product designer living in Charlotte, NC. She has been a
Contributing Entertainment Writer for The Everygirl since 2021. She regularly
reads over 100 books per year across young adult contemporary, women’s fiction,
romance, thriller, and more.
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Finally Read My First Abby Jimenez! — Just For The Summer by Abby
Jimenez {Book Review}
By Lindsey
April 19, 2024
///////////////////////
Abby Jimenez’s Yours Truly: My
Review
By
Shanea Patterson - SP Publishing
Feb
22, 2024
EN: https://authorshaneapatterson.medium.com/abby-jimenezs-yours-truly-my-review-dbab38bfcf46
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Abby Jimenez Books in Spanish
EN:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/b/contributor/abby-jimenez/_/N-2z93Z1z13w9s
/////////////////////
Videos/Podcasts
The Jason Show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjPaJVVVw7E&t=5s
Arizona’s
Family (3TV/CBS 5):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SF75xRTJLA
Bethany
Atazadeh – YA Fantasy A…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B29PNebiiQ4&t=9s
También puede
verse:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18446724.Abby_Jimenez
https://www.instagram.com/authorabbyjimenez/?hl=en
https://x.com/authorabbyjim?lang=en
https://www.facebook.com/authorabbyjimenez/
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