Posts Tagged ‘Jennifer Iacopelli’
I’m a sporty girl. I’ve played and coached soccer. I run and dance. And I usually enjoy myself at sporting events. I even own a tennis racket. But the truth is, I don’t really know a darn thing about tennis. Seriously–I’m clueless. But that did not matter one, tiny, iota when I was reading GAME. SET. MATCH. I LOVED IT!!!! In fact, in addition to feeling like I read a great book about friendship and romance, there was a secret side effect. I now feel like I know tennis a little better.
And as if GAME. SET. MATCH, being a great read isn’t enough to make me love it, debut author Jennifer Iacopelli, is one of my Wolf Pack Sistahs and I love her to pieces.
But we’re not here to talk about the pups. Let me fill you in on GAME. SET. MATCH. (Outer Banks Tennis Academy, #1)
Nestled along the North Carolina coast, the Outer Banks Tennis Academy is the world’s most elite training facility. In this pressure-cooker environment, futures are forged in blood and sweat, and dreams are shattered in an instant.
Penny Harrison, a rising female star, is determined to win the French Open and beat her archrival, Zina Lutrova. But when her coach imports British bad boy Alex Russell as her new training partner, will Penny be able to keep her laser-like focus?
Tennis is all Jasmine Randazzo has ever known. The daughter of two Grand Slam champions, she’s hell-bent on extending her family’s legacy and writing her own happily-ever-after…until her chosen Prince Charming gives her the just-friends speech right before the biggest junior tournament of the year, the Outer Banks Classic.
With a powerful serve and killer forehand, newcomer Indiana Gaffney is turning heads. She’s thrilled by all of the attention, especially from Jack Harrison, Penny’s agent and hot older brother, except he keeps backing off every time things start heating up.
With so much at stake, dreams—and hearts—are bound to break. Welcome to OBX: Where LOVE is a four-letter word, on and off the court.
Kimberly’s Review of GAME. SET. MATCH.
I’m going to jump right in and say, my favorite part of GAME. SET. MATCH, is how much I liked ALL of the GSM characters–even when they were behaving badly. Iacapelli has built an academy of players that I enjoy the way I love the cast of the television show Friday Night Lights. Just like FNL, there was so much going on at any given time, yet it was NEVER confusing. These flawed and fabulous characters were dropped right in the middle of the fast-paced life at OBX Tennis Academy, where romance, heartache, friendship and disappointment gets volleyed back and forth almost as much as the tennis balls do, making this a fast and fun read.
Although I know very little about tennis myself, I was quickly pulled into the story and never once felt lost. In fact, I think I now know more about tennis than I ever have. Even so, I consider myself athletic, and as a soccer player in high school, I groaned in sympathy every time someone at OBX had to do Einsteins. (One of the adorable details found in GSM that made it so entertaining and believable.) Iacopelli knows and loves her sports and her audience, making me more than willing to invest in all things OBX.
I’m also a big fan of the tasteful, but hot and steamy way that the romance was done. GSM walks the line and it does it brilliantly, leaving plenty of room for a YA audience to transition into NA. So, if you’re a fan of Miranda Kenneally’s very addictive, contemporary, sports related, romances–I know you’re going to love Iacapelli’s writing too. I absolutely can not wait to see what happens next at OBX!
You can get your own copy of GAME. SET. MATCH. here…
*Amazon for Kindle
*Barnes & Noble for Nook
Jennifer Iacopelli was born in New York and has no plans to leave…ever. Growing up, she read everything she could get her hands on, but her favorite authors were Laura Ingalls Wilder, L.M. Montgomery and Frances Hodgson Burnett all of whom wrote about kick-ass girls before it was cool for girls to be kick-ass. She got a Bachelor’s degree in Adolescence Education and English Literature quickly followed up by a Master’s in Library Science, which lets her frolic all day with her books and computers, leaving plenty of time in the evenings to write and yell at the Yankees, Giants and her favorite tennis players through the TV.
GAME SET MATCH was released on 5/1/13 by Coliloquy! Check out the official GSM Facebook Page and a teaser trailer for the series!
Talk to me about female athletes in the Kidlit world? What are you favorite books in the space? What do you want to see more of?
Tags: Book Review, Coliloquy, Game. Set. Match., Jennifer Iacopelli, Kim Sabatini, Kimberly Sabatini, Michelle Wolfson, New Adult, Wolf Pack, YA Books
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Yesterday, Daisy Whitney posted this tweet…
And of course it got me thinking. Reviews ARE important. Really important. We live in a media and statistical world, at least until the zombie apocalypse comes. This means that review are right behind the act buying the book in importance to an author’s success.
Kinda cool. Kinda scary. But here’s how I’ve been visualizing it. It’s like surface space…
In today’s social media age, a book without reviews is like a flat piece of paper. It’s there, but it has trouble standing out. Add reviews (positive or negative) and the book starts to become more visible and textured. It’s surface space appears to expand and it catches the eye. There are more options to touch the surface. Yeah, I went there LOL!
The truth is, authors need your reviews, just as much as we need your word-of-mouth recommendations.
This, of course, got me thinking about effective marketing strategies. The world is a busy place. Who has the time to write a review when there are a zillion other things we could be or should be doing. I’m guilty of this myself. In such a busy world, is there an incentive to get those fingers typing?
I didn’t have to look far for a great idea. My wolf pack sister, Jennifer Iacopelli (debut author of GAME. SET. MATCH.) and her publisher Coliloquy came up with this…
I LOVE the idea! So here’s what I’m going to do…
I would love to increase the number of reviews on my Amazon TOUCHING THE SURFACE page and my Barnes & Noble TOUCHING THE SURFACE page. If you write a review of TOUCHING THE SURFACE for Amazon, you’ll entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card. If you write one for Barnes & Noble, you’ll be entered to win a $100 Barnes & Noble gift card. If you’ve written a review on Goodreads already, all you have to do is post it to Amazon and Barnes & Noble for two entries. If you write one review for Amazon, it can also be posted on Barnes & Noble or visa versa. One review (that you may have already written) gets you entered once or twice for a gift card.
In order to make sure I can reach the winner, use this Rafflecopter to record your entry. The contest will be open for the whole summer. And I’ll be posting it on my website home page so it’s easy to follow.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thanks so much for taking the time to do this. And if you have other authors that you love and you’d like to see them continue to put books on the shelf, help them out with a review. They will love you so much, they want to share their chocolate with you. I’m serious.
Tags: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Review, Coliloquy, Contest, Daisy Whitney, Game. Set. Match., Jennifer Iacopelli, Kim Sabatini, Kimberly Sabatini, Touching the Surface, When You Were Here, Wolf Pack
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Last year I spent several days at BEA but this year I was only able to go down for the day. A day which started with my 8yo home from school. And if you know anything about me–that makes me crazy. Maybe I do have a little bit of a control freak streak that comes out from time to time. But my sitter (practically a big sister to my boys) was already lined up to hang with the 12 you for the day (he graduated to middle school the day before) so I decided to put on my fancy shoes and go anyway.
I’m so glad I wore those comfy puppies on my feet and stashed my fancy shoes and top in my bag for the Simon & Schuster Pulse/Aladdin happy hour. Because the first thing I had to do when I hit NYC was wait in about a 20 person taxi line in the sweltering heat. OMG! Liked the Wicked Witch of the West–I was melting!
This was when I only had 3 or 4 people in front of me and I was getting excited. LOL!
A sweaty but very happy me in the cab with air conditioning until….
My driver stopped at a red light, pulled out a book and started reading. It was pointed out to me how cool it was that I was going to Book Expo America and my cab driver was reading. NO! Sorry, not cool. Even with air conditioning–not cool! Unless a new Harry Potter book comes out–then I’ll totally let you do it. But that’s it.
Made it to BEA alive and who was waiting for me? Lisa Lueddecke from The Young Adult Connection. <3 We were roomies for BEA last year and this was our 1 year Friendaversary. It was so awesome to see her, but I’m going to straight up say that between her evil, painful shoes, my lunch with my agent and the poor cell phone service, I didn’t see her nearly as much as I wanted to. Such a tease. We are totally going to have to Skype or something. Soon. If I could figure out how to Skype. I seriously have SDD Skype Deficit Disorder. *le sigh*
But just like old times, Lisa and I went ARC hunting and we found OMG!!!! LAUREN MYRACLE!!!!!!! AND I HUGGED HER!!!!!! AND SHE IS MORE AWESOME IN REAL LIFE THAN ALL CAPS CAN REALLY EXPLAIN.
And of course I had lunch and hung out with the agent of awesome…MICHELLE WOLFSON!!!! One of my favorite things in the whole world. <3 I also got to finally meet my Wolf Pack Sistah, Jennifer Iacopelli, debut author of GAME. SET. MATCH. Which I started reading on the train ride home and LOVE!!!!! And I also ran into my local book buddy and friend Emily.
There was more, a hazy hot blur of more. I actually ran into a lot more friends and met a bunch of amazing new people between BEA and the Pulse/Aladdin Happy Hour, but my phone battery!!!! The Javits Center eats battery bars for snacks, but on the bright side I met old and new friends while hanging at the charging station. LOL!
So, what have I decided about BEA? I need less than three and a half days and just a little bit more than one. And on the bucket list…I plan on signing there at some point. And on that note–it’s back to work.
PS I’d just like to add that I REALLY REALLY WANTED an ARC of FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell. And I may have threatened to mug a young book blogger at the charging station, when she whipped out her copy. But I didn’t. So–there was that. What book from BEA would you have almost mugged a book blogger for?
Tags: BEA, Book Expo America, Fangirl, Game. Set. Match., Jennifer Iacopelli, Kim Sabatini, Kimberly Sabatini, Lauren Myracle, Lisa Lueddecke, Michelle Wolfson, NYC, Rainbow Rowell, Taxi
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I am revising like a fiend. If you squint your eyes a little bit, I almost look like a Wolfson Wolf Pack Cub–keeping up with the pack. And I love it because the Wolf Pack is fabulous and I’m so proud to be a part of it. My Wolf Pack girls are insane, crazy producers and what makes them special is that they don’t just write quickly, they write amazing books.
(Usually this is me–slowly chewing on my thoughts in the corner. LOL!)
That’s why I wanted you to check out what’s new and coming your way. Wahhooooooo…
Kierten White: The author of the New York Times bestselling Paranormalcy trilogy (Paranormalcy, Supernaturally, and Endlessly) also has Mind Games, the first in a new series, out on February 19th. And she has an Egyptian mythology-based standalone, The Chaos of Stars, following in fall 2013, with the sequel to Mind Games in February, 2014.
Daisy Whitney: By day, Daisy Whitney is a new media producer, reporter and on-air host. At night, she writes novels for teens and is the author of THE MOCKINGBIRDS and its sequel THE RIVALS (Little, Brown). Her third novel WHEN YOU WERE HERE releases in June 4th, 2013 (Little, Brown), and her fourth novel STARRY NIGHTS (Bloomsbury) hits shelves in Fall 2013.
Kasie West: her debut novel, PIVOT POINT, will be published by HarperTeen Feb. 12, 2013. (Followed by its sequel a year later.) And THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US, her contemporary YA novel, will be published in the July 2, 2013 (HarperTeen).
Linda Grimes: is an author of light urban fantasy. Her first book, IN A FIX, was published by Tor in September 2012. The second in the series, QUICK FIX, will be released in the summer of 2013 (8-20-13).
Jennifer Iacopelli: Her first novel, GAME SET MATCH, will be released by Coliloquy in Spring 2013! (Cover coming soon!)
See I told you–awesome! What are you looking forward to reading from the Wolf Pack? Did you get your hands on any of these ARC’s yet? Since you can’t have these just yet, what are your Friday Reads?
Tags: Daisy Whitney, Game. Set. Match., In A FIx, Jennifer Iacopelli, Kasie West, Kiersten White, Kim Sabatini, Kimberly Sabatini, Linda Grimes, Michelle Wolfson, Mind Games, Pivot Point, Quick Fix, Starry Nights, The Chaos of Stars, The Distance Between Us, When You Were Here, Wolf Pack, Wolfson Literary
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