The Devil's Poetry by Louise Cole

Louise Cole was my guest for yesterday's episode of the GSMC Book Review Podcast. We talked about her book, The Devil's Poetry, in which the heroine, Callie, discovers that she is a Reader and she just might be able to save the world.

Source

Callie’s world will be lost to war – unless she can unlock the magic of an ancient manuscript. She and her friends are being drafted and many of them won’t come back. When a secret order tells her she can bring peace just by reading from a book, it seems an easy solution – too easy. But how do you make the right decision when no one will tell you the truth? Callie soon finds herself hunted, trapped between desperate allies and diabolical enemies. There are only two people Callie can trust – her best friend and her ex-Marine bodyguard. And they are on different sides. Callie alone must decide: dare she read this book? What’s the price – and who will pay? (Source)

In many ways The Devil's Poetry follows fairly standard themes for Young Adult books: Callie lives (and has a complicated relationship) with just her father after the death of her mother when she was six. She knows nothing of being a reader until seemingly random circumstances thrust her into a life she didn't know existed. And there is a very handsome young man that comes with that new life. But things aren't always what they seem, and you soon realize, along with Callie, that her new role as a Reader isn't as simple as it appears. Read from the book, save the world. Not complicated, right? Except that it is, and there are many twists and turns throughout the story as Callie tries to figure out who she can trust, just what her powers may or may not accomplish, and whose side is the right one.

The Devil's Poetry is the first book in a trilogy, and I am very interested to find out what is going to happen to Callie next, as well as to learn more about the origins of the book, the order that protects it, and the group that wants to destroy it.

Genres:

• Young Adult
• Fantasy
• Contemporary

What I enjoyed:

• All of the literary references. Callie loves to read and frequently makes references to the stories and characters of books she's read and loved.
• That the reader affects the book just as the book affects the reader, both in terms of Callie as the heroine and as someone who loves books.
• The gray areas.  Things aren't so easy as right and wrong, and the moral questions make the story that much more interesting.

Who should read the The Devil's Poetry?

• Fans of Young Adult stories with strong heroines.
• Fans of contemporary fantasy.
• Fans of books with lots of literary references.

Quotes:

• "I'd planned to bury myself in a book. I always hid in someone else's story when things got rough."
• "It was kind of bizarre hanging out in a coffee lounge with an empath, sipping bad lattes, while waiting for a couple of soldiers to come and rescue us from fear-inducing demons."
• "My father always used to say: when something seems too good to be true, it usually is. And saving the world simply by reading from a book definitely fit the too good to be true category."

Where you can find Louise online:
Facebook: @louisecoleauthor
Twitter: @louisecole44
Instagram: louise_cole_books
Amazon: Louise Cole
GoodReads: Louise Cole
BookBub: @louisecole

Author Bio:

Source

Louise Cole has spent her life reading and writing. And very occasionally gardening. Sometimes she reads as she gardens. She can be seen walking her dogs around North Yorkshire - she's the one with a couple of cocker spaniels and a Kindle. She read English at Oxford - read being the operative word - and hasn't stopped reading since.

In her day-job she is an award-winning journalist, a former business magazine editor and director of a media agency. She writes about business but mainly the business of moving things around: transport, logistics, trucks, ships, people.

Her fiction includes short stories, young adult thrillers, and other stuff which is still cooking.

Her YA and kids’ fiction is represented by Greenhouse Literary Agency and she is also published on Amazon as one of the Marisa Hayworth triumvirate. (Source)

Does the Devil's Poetry sound like a book you'd like to read? You're in luck as I have 3 copies from Louise to give away! All you have to do is go to either our Facebook or Twitter pages and share the episode with Louise's interview. Simple as that: just share or retweet episode 64 and you'll automatically be entered to win this wonderful book!

Facebook: @GSMCBookReview

Twitter: @gsmc_bookreview

For the interview with Louise please click here.