Be My Guest, Charlotte of The Book on the Hill!

I can't even begin to tell you how fabtastic today's BE MY GUEST segment is going to be. I have something so gloriously fun, frivolous and fabtastic for you, it could only have come from Charlotte of The Book on the Hill.  And it did! I give you:

Charlotte of The Book on the Hill!!!

Take it away, Charlotte!

I would like to start this post by thanking Misty of having me on this oh-so-romantic or oh-so-enraging day. Ah, Valentine’s Day. To love it or to hate it, that is the question.

To entertain you on this special day, I decided to use the Create A Cover game that has been around the blogosphere for a while. I love it. If Create A Cover were a guy, I would send him a Valentine card. And if I knew who invented this game, I would send him flowers.

The idea is to create a possible debut novel cover thanks to the infinite powers of the internet :
1. Get a fake author name on Fake Name Generator.
2. Get a title by picking the first verb that comes out at Random Word Generator.
3. Go to FlickrCC, type in the title, and the first picture that shows a person becomes the cover.
4. Put all the elements together.

I changed the game a little in order to get in the Valentine mood : I typed ‘love’ to get the book cover. Otherwise the title and author were chosen like the rules say. I played a little with PaintShop, and here is the result.

I give you :

Promise, written by debut author Bettany J. Burke.

I shall now tell you what the story is, share my review of the book and its trailer.
Warning : Any ressemblance with any person who really existed or is still alive would be fortuitous.

The Author : Bettany J. Burke lives in Billings, Montana, with her husband Brandon and their two cute rattlesnakes : Squigy and Floppy. She was born on Valentine’s Day, which inspired her to write about it. Her debut novel, Promise, is weird.

The story : If you could have a look at Polly Jimerson’s wardrobe, here is what you would see : checked shirts. Everywhere. You wouldn’t catch Polly wearing a T-shirt or a jersey. May it be summer or winter, Polly wears checked shirts only. Although this simple fact could intrigue you, it does not impress her classmates at all. Polly is a loner. One day, after class, Polly meditates on a bench, asking herself why she doesn’t have any friends, when someone sits next next to her.
Someone wearing a checked shirt.
As soon as Polly’s eyes fall on Theodore Paddington’s torso and the pink balloon he’s holding, she knows her life will never be the same again. Polly has never felt this comfortable with anyone (except maybe her little checked kitten, which in an inspired moment she had called Kitty).
That day, Polly and Theodore made a promise : to always be there for one another.
But as always, things are not easy as they look. Quite quickly, Polly starts to notice some of Theodore’s weird habits : he sends her roses and chocolates everyday, comes to school wearing angel wings (on top of his checked shirts), and his voice is strange most of the time because of his tendency to inhale helium. Polly is a rational girl, and considers that Theodore is just an eccentric guy. But when he invites her to join a secret society of which he is the only member, things get tricky. Polly would do anything for Theodore, so when she has to sing ‘Rudoph The Red-Nosed Reindeer’ with helium as a rite of passage, she kindly obliges. Polly finally unravels the mystery of Theodore’s weirdness : he has the Valentine Syndrome. Always has, always will. His life revolves around love, kisses, hearts, bubbles, lollipops, balloons – and of course, checked shirts. By involving Polly in his personal secret society, Theodore has cursed her to : Polly is now drawn to pink things, fluffly things, chocolate hearts and cupids – and as always, checked shirts. Will Polly embrace her new life, or will she fight it ? Will she keep her promise, or run away like a coward ? Will she have her happy-ever-after with Theodore ? At least one thing is certain : Valentine’s Day will never be the same again.


Review : Such an emotional read ! I couldn’t put it down, and I have to admit that quite a few tears were shed.

The descriptions of Polly’s checked shirts were fascinating : I learnt about color shades, textures, buttons and more. Since reading this book, I can’t stop buying every checked shirt I see ! And I loved Polly’s little kitten, for a secondary character Kitty was really well described and I couldn’t get enough of her.

Theodore is the perfect guy, and I fell in love with him right from the very beginning. From the way he chooses chocolates to the way he flaps his wings, we girls can only fall for him. So cute and so romantic.

The rite passage was a very strong moment. I totally understood Polly’s doubts, but at the same time just wanted to scream at her : ‘come on, it’s just helium and a Christmas song !’. I mean, I woud’ve done it right away if it were for a guy as awesome as Theodore. This scene was therefore quite deep, philophical and emotional.

When Polly is cursed and has to follow Theodore on his duties as a Valentine, things get a little bit out of hand though. We could say it’s action-packed, but that’s what I didn’t like : I prefered reading about their love story than their missions. At one point, Polly has to deliver a Valentine card and a fluffy kitten to the school librarian, and the woman overreacts because she knows nobody loves her. So she throws a pile of books at Polly, who gets hurt and then before you know it there’s blood everywhere. I wasn’t prepared for that.

All in all, I really liked this book. I would recommend it to anyone, because I think we can all relate to the characters. On top of being a romantic book, it’s also very educational and profound, although being a little too gore sometimes. Don’t miss it !

Book trailer for Promise, the surprising smash hit!

That's it for today, my lovelies!  I was right, right?  Only word to describe Charlotte and what she just unleashed on the world = fabtastic.
I hope you enjoyed the special themed BMG  hoopla. 
Enjoy your ♥-shaped boxes of chocolate or your Pretty In Pink marathons.

Big ♥ and smooches!

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