#jenn bennett

[bookishfreedom]

no better feeling than successfully recommending someone a book

[catsbookreviews]

Alex, Approximately - Jenn Bennett

The "plot twist" is literally in the blurb. Talk about a spoiler alert.

Story: This girl, Bailey, moves to this town in California, which just so happens to be where her online pen-pal/crush lives. But she also starts falling for this guy that drives her crazy, in a shocking turn of events that is definitely not stated on the back of the book, he is actually her online crush.

Review: Anyways, this book really bugged me because the main plot point wasn't revealed until the end of the book. It was also just okay anyways.

Overall 3/5 ⭐️

[entrecosmos]

“Spontaneity is overrated. Movies and television shows would like us to believe that life is better for partygoers who dare to jump into pools with their clothes on. But behind the scenes, it’s all carefully scripted. The water is the right temperature. Lighting and angles are carefully considered. Dialogue is memorized. And that’s why it looks so appealing—because someone carefully planned it all. Once you realize this, life gets a whole lot simpler.”

Jenn Bennett, Starry Eyes

[lawbreaker13]

Not my usual type of post but I just need to say it somewhere;

I just finished reading Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett and like. First off I have a new favorite book. Second, HOLY CRAP CAN I PLEASE HAVE A PORTER. LIKE PLEASE THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD AND THE CHARACTERS WERE SO WELL WRITTEN AND THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY MISUNDERSTANDINGS THAT COULD’VE BEEN EASILY RESOLVED BECAUSE THEY MOSTLY JUST TALK IT OUT LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE EXCEPT FOR THE REVEAL BUT YOU EVEN END UP SIDING WITH PORTER BECAUSE COME ON AND LIKE IT WAS ALL VERY WEIRDLY REALISTIC AND OHHHHH MY GOSH IT WAS JUST SO GOOD

ALSO THE MAILBOX SCENE. THE MAILBOX SCENE. PEOPLE THINK I CARE ABOUT THE SEX SCENES NO THE MAILBOX SCENE I AM NOT OKAY

Anyway yeah, highly recommend, good book

[movlit]

I'm heartbroken cause I just started reading The Lady Rogue by Jenn Bennett and was looking for some fanart to see how the characters look and there are literally none so... sorry but I'm going start picturing Theodora like this

Latinx people you know what's up

[my-year-of-books]

Starry Eyes - Jenn Bennett

“I think we’ve always been together, even when we were apart.”

📖 Started?: January 1st, 2024

📖 Finished?: January 8th, 2024

📖 Recommend?: YES!!

I am a little biased when it comes to this book, because it is my favorite. This was my eighth time reading it. A lot of that comes from the memories attached to my first time reading it. I was 14. I was going through severe trauma. I was desperately craving love. This book offered an escape from all of it and allowed me to dive into a world with Zorie and Lennon, our main characters.

This book takes place in California over the summer break before our MCs’ senior year of high school. They have a rivalry. Their families have rivalries. Their friends don’t get along. They are the perfect strangers to friends to lovers to enemies to friends to lovers combo you have ever seen (are there more of those to see either way…? Idk).

This book has it all. Camping, danger, romance, fighting, longing, secrets, scandals, and the ever present pull of the Great Outdoors. The only thing I can warn against is that once you read it, if you’re like me, you’ll be hard pressed to find another book that makes you feel the same way.

I give it a billion out of ten and am sure you will see another re-read of it pop up in the near future.

🏕️🐻💜🖤🌌🔭🔥🗺️☠️🐍🎒🐺🦟🌲☄️🍤🏔️

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Alex, Approximately | Author: Jenn Bennett | Publisher: Simon & Schuster (2018)

[roseunspindle]

Books by “B” Authors I own and Need to Read Part 2

[books-to-add-to-your-tbr]

Title: Starry Eyes

Author: Jenn Bennett

Series or standalone: standalone

Publication year: 2018

Genres: fiction, romance, contemporary

Blurb: Ever since last year’s homecoming dance, best-friends-turned-best-enemies Zorie and Lennon have made an art of avoiding each other. It doesn’t hurt that their families are the modern-day Californian version of the Montagues and Capulets...but when a group camping trip goes south, Zorie and Lennon find themselves stranded in the wilderness alone together. What could go wrong? With no one but each other for company, Zorie and Lennon have no choice but to hash out their issues via witty jabs and insults as they try to make their way to safety...but fighting each other while also fighting off the forces of nature makes getting out of the woods in one piece less and less likely. As the two travel deeper into Northern California’s rugged backcountry, secrets and hidden feelings surface...but can Zorie and Lennon’s rekindled connection survive out in the real world, or was it just a result of the fresh forest air and the magic of the twinkling stars?

[bookishfreedom]

i impulsively picked this book up to take to brunch the other day and then never put it back down

[vivianstravelblog]

Book Review: Starry Eyes

~ Warning! Spoilers! Book Review: Starry Eyes by – Jenn Bennett (2018) ~ REVIEW Book outlet had quite a few of this author’s books available for purchase, so I decided to buy one for kicks. I like the cover and title of “Starry Eyes,” so I picked it. Zorrie and Lennon used to be best friends, but they had a terrible falling out and now don’t talk at all. During a group camping trip, they are…

[haveyoureadthispoll]

Classic movie buff Bailey “Mink” Rydell has spent months crushing on a witty film geek she only knows online by “Alex.” Two coasts separate the teens until Bailey moves in with her dad, who lives in the same California surfing town as her online crush. Faced with doubts (what if he’s a creep in real life—or worse?), Bailey doesn’t tell Alex she’s moved to his hometown. Or that she’s landed a job at the local tourist-trap museum. Or that she’s being heckled daily by the irritatingly hot museum security guard, Porter Roth—a.k.a. her new arch-nemesis. But life is whole lot messier than the movies, especially when Bailey discovers that tricky fine line between hate, love, and whatever-it-is she’s starting to feel for Porter. And as the summer months go by, Bailey must choose whether to cling to a dreamy online fantasy in Alex or take a risk on an imperfect reality with Porter. The choice is both simpler and more complicated than she realizes, because Porter Roth is hiding a secret of his own: Porter is Alex…Approximately.

[thequietabsolute]

The Habit of Art // Alan Bennett

The Habit of Art is a 2009 play by English playwright Alan Bennett, centred on a fictional meeting between W. H. Auden and Benjamin Britten while Britten is composing the opera Death in Venice. It premiered on 5 November 2009 at the Lyttelton Theatre at the Royal National Theatre, with the central roles filled by Alex Jennings as Britten and Richard Griffiths as Auden (the latter replacing Michael Gambon, who had to withdraw from the production due to minor ill health).

[the-bi-library]

Here are bisexual books of July!

Books listed:

Exes & Foes by Amanda Woody

Abbott: 1979 by Saladin Ahmed

Rise by Freya Finch

The Loudest Silence by Sydney Langford

The Seduction of James Gray (Moonlight Falls, #1) by Colette Rivera

Long Live Evil (Time of Iron, #1) by Sarah Rees Brennan

Heads Will Roll by Josh Winning

The Princess and the Thief by Mary Lynne Gibbs

Bitterbound by A.Z. Louise

These Deathless Shores by P.H. Low

Loser of the Year by Carrie Byrd

Between Dragons and Their Wrath (The Shattered Kingdom, #1) by Devin Madson

Anyone's Ghost by August Thompson

The Viscount's Forbidden Love by M.M. Wakeford

Home Ice Advantage (Penalty Box #3) by Ari Baran

The Sky on Fire by Jenn Lyons

A Rose by Any Other Name by Mary McMyne

Misrecognition by Madison Newbound

Rare Birds by L.B. Hazelthorn

The Ghostkeeper by Johanna Taylor

Portrait of a Shadow by Meriam Metoui

Chaos Station by Jenn Burke, Kelly Jensen

Lonely Shore by Jenn Burke, Kelly Jensen

Skip Trace by Jenn Burke, Kelly Jensen

Cursed Under London by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch

The End Crowns All by Bea Fitzgerald

Young Gothic by M.A. Bennett

What Blooms in the Dark by Audrey T. Carroll

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

💙💜💖 Bi Books Coming Out July 2024

💖💜💙 Do you know what we could always use a little more of? Bi books! Here are a few bisexual books coming out in July that would make fabulous additions to your never-ending TBR! Happy reading!

💖 What Blooms in the Dark - Audrey T. Carroll 💜 Rare Birds - L.B. Hazelthorn 💙 These Deathless Shores - P.H. Low

💖 Young Gothic - M.A. Bennett 💜 The Sky on Fire by Jenn Lyons 💙 A Rose by Any Other Name by Mary McMyne

💖 Rise by Freya Finch 💜 The Ghostkeeper by Johanna Taylor 💙 Exes & Foes by Amanda Woody

💖 Abbott: 1979 by Saladin Ahmed 💜 The Loudest Silence by Sydney Langford 💙 Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan

💖 Between Dragons and Their Wrath by Devin Madson 💜 Heads Will Roll by Josh Winning 💙 Cursed Under London by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch

💖 The Seduction of James Gray by Colette Rivera 💜 Anyone's Ghost by August Thompson 💙 Portrait of a Shadow by Meriam Metoui

💖 Bitterbound by A.Z. Louise 💜 The Princess and the Thief by Mary Lynne Gibbs 💙 The End Crowns All by Bea Fitzgerald

💖 Loser of the Year by Carrie Byrd 💜 The Viscount's Forbidden Love by M.M. Wakeford 💙 Misrecognition by Madison Newbound

[writingquestionsanswered]

Motivated by Reader Connection

Anonymous asked: I recently did some reflecting and figured that I want to write because i want to be in conversation with readers who connect with my work, not because of the process of writing, but I worry this is a bad motivation to get into professional writing. Currently I am writing fanfiction and in fandom it's quite normal to be in the same communities with readers, but my professional writer friends tell me this is not the case for folks who publish their work. In fact, it seems like being in the same community with readers is more damaging to the writer than it is inspiring. I'm rambling, but my main question is... is it wrong to want connection with the audience as motivation for writing professionally?

Is it wrong to be motivated by wanting to connect with your readers? Absolutely not. In fact, I would say that's a pretty typical motivation for publishing in the first place. It's just that how you define that connection can vary, and it doesn't always require a literal conversation with the reader.

What I mean is this: storytelling, quite often, is about exploring the human condition through theme, thematic statement, symbolism, cautionary messaging, and even illustrating a belief or opinion. In and of itself, that's "having a conversation with the reader," it's just that your involvement in the actual back and forth of the conversation is passive. As in any conversation, you make a statement and support it in various ways, and the reader responds with an understanding, a question, or a rebuttal. The only difference is you're not in receipt of that response... it stays in the reader's head, so part of your job as a writer is to anticipate what their understanding, question, or rebuttal will be so that you can respond right in the story. So, for example, let's say you've written a story where your message is something like "we are the masters of our own fate." You're going to illustrate that message through the events of the story and the things the protagonist goes through. Each time something happens where you add to this message, the reader comes away with something--you anticipate what that will be, then address it in a later thing that happens. So, in that way, it's still very much like having a conversation, even if it's not a two-way conversation in the moment.

Also, a lot of writers interact with readers in other places... book signings, readings, workshops, and other events.

Even outside of that, though, it's not true at all it's not normal for "professional writers" to be in the same communities with their readers. It certainly depends on who you are, what you write, and how you define community. For example, I can't imagine literary beacons like Kazuo Ishiguro or Ian McEwan probably spend a lot of time engaging with their readers on social media, but there are plenty of writers who do. Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, John Green, Brandon Sanderson, Diana Gabaldon, Seanan McGuire, George R.R. Martin, Jenn Bennett... these are just a handful of published (and well known) authors who regularly interact with their readers on social media. And, those are just big name authors... when you start getting into the ranks of authors who don't have movies or TV shows based on their novels, you'll see interaction become more and more common.

As an indie author, my social media community is split between my readers and my author friends. And, sometimes my author friends become readers, and my readers become author friends. It can be whatever you want it to be. You can choose the type of interaction you want and the level. Some writers choose not to interact at all, but by no means does that mean it's "not normal" to interact or that interaction makes them inferior in any way.

So, I definitely wouldn't say that wanting to interact with--and have both literal and figurative conversations with--your readers is bad motivation. In fact, I strongly suspect more writers are motivated by that or some aspect of it than they are by the writing process itself. I can honestly say I don't know a lot of writers who are in it only because they love to write. Writers who are in it only because they enjoy the process usually aren't publishing their work.

I hope that reassures you!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here