Review: Through to You by Emily Hainsworth

Goodreads Summary:

Camden Pike has been grief-stricken since his girlfriend, Viv, died. Viv was the last good thing in his life: helping him rebuild his identity after a career-ending football injury, picking up the pieces when his home life shattered, and healing his pain long after the meds wore off. And now, he’d give anything for one more glimpse of her. But when Cam makes a visit to the site of Viv’s deadly car accident, he sees some kind of apparition. And it isn’t Viv.

The apparition’s name is Nina, and she’s not a ghost. She’s a girl from a parallel world, and in this world, Viv is still alive. Cam can’t believe his wildest dreams have come true. All he can focus on is getting his girlfriend back, no matter the cost. But things are different in this other world: Viv and Cam have both made very different choices, things between them have changed in unexpected ways, and Viv isn’t the same girl he remembers. Nina is keeping some dangerous secrets, too, and the window between the worlds is shrinking every day. As Cam comes to terms with who this Viv has become and the part Nina played in his parallel story, he’s forced to choose—stay with Viv or let her go—before the window closes between them once and for all.

Publication Date: October 2, 2012

Despite a couple of things that bothered me about Through to You, I really liked many of the story concepts in the novel. With a mix of romance, science fiction and mystery, I found myself drawn into this character driven book.

Camden is introduced as a grief-stricken teen that loses his girlfriend in a tragic car accident. The first half of the book is pretty slow moving as the reader is given example after example of how moody and sullen Camden has become in the months following Viv’s death. I felt the book had potential so I’m glad I stuck it out to the middle. This is where things pick up.

The parallel universe was a cool idea and I liked how the author had the characters jump between worlds. It was interesting to see the subtle differences between the worlds and how much they affected the lives of the characters. The book was very light on the science-fiction aspects so the parallel universe angle was never really fully explored.

Camden was hard to like. I found myself screaming at the page at times and wanting him to wake up. Things that were very obvious to the reader took a long time for Camden to realize. However, by the end of the novel, he redeemed himself enough that I hoped for a happy ending for him. He had so many crappy things happen to him—you couldn’t help but sympathize with him.

There were a few tear-jerking parts, but I felt like the book had a hopeful ending. This was a stand alone debut and I’m curious to see future works from the author.   

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this novel for review!

How to Market to the New Adult Audience

For the Day 17 prompt of the 28-Day Blog Challenge for Authors, the question is:

Describe the market for your book – to the tiniest detail (e.g., childless divorced women past age 50 who want to remarry). Why that demographic? How do you connect with them to market to them?


This is an interesting question because as I have mentioned in previous posts, I consider my book part of the emerging "new adult" genre. This term caught on back in 2009 when St. Martin's Press announced a contest looking for submissions from authors who have protagonists slightly older than teens. These books are intended to appeal to adults who read young adult novels and older teens.

The audience for the new adult genre is mostly females who are in that in-between stage of their lives. They may live in a college dorm or still live at home with their parents. New adults are typically at an uncertain phase of their lives. They may be looking for their first job, leaving home for the first time or beginning their first serious romantic relationship.

The reason I chose this audience and made my protagonist Kate 21 years old is because I find this stage in a girl's life fascinating. She has to find her footing for the first time without her parents and must make a decision on the type of career path she wishes to pursue. College is also such a fun time in a person's life and leads to experiences (bad and good) that stay with you forever.

Since agents and publishers are reluctant to take on older protagonists for YA books, it's a tough market to break into. Most of my marketing has been done via social networking, connecting to other NA writers, blog guest stops and online giveaways.

If you are a writer of new adult fiction or want to learn more about the genre, here are a few excellent resources:

NA Alley: This is a must for NA authors! The fabulous group of bloggers that run this site are both NA authors and fans of NA books. They review NA books, discuss the genre and host giveaways.

Writer's Digest: An article from 2010 breaks down the genre and talks about typical protagonists and the intended audience for the books.

Quick Reviews and What I'm Reading Next

Ugh, so nothing like a stomach bug to knock you on your butt for a few days. The only positive thing about being bedridden was I able to catch up on my DVR shows and some reading. Here's what I thought about the books I finished:

Across the Universe by Beth Revis-I REALLY thought I was going to love this book. The premise sounded interesting and the opening scenes had me on the edge of my seat. The book lost some of its mojo for me by the middle and I found myself losing interest. I think it came from not being overly fond of Elder. The chapters from Amy's POV were much more enjoyable. I would have to give it three out of five stars and I'll probably check out the sequel down the road.

Awake: A Fairytale by Jessica Grey: Do you ever need an escapist novel? This was the perfect antidote to my sick blues. It's fun, silly and I'm definitely a fan of books that portray teenage girls realistically. I also enjoyed how much growth the main character experienced over the course of the novel. Great read overall and I'll be sure to check out the sequels.  Four and a half stars out of five.

Next on my reading list:

Existence by Abbi Glines: Read the Kindle sample and it's really sucked me in. It definitely has a creepy feel and I'm definitely curious to see where things will go.

Black Dawn by Rachel Caine-The last two books in the Morganville Vampires series have been AMAZING. I was shocked to see this is Book 12! It doesn't feel tired to me and I'm excited to check out the latest entry.


City of Bones by Cassandra Clare-I've heard way too much about this YA series to not finally check it out. Plus, I've got to find out what this whole Team Jace and Team Simon thing is about.

What I'm Reading Right Now

Quite a hectic week at the Wood household. I've just got hired for a slew of freelance writing projects and I've been working like crazy on marketing the book. As a new author I'm sure that I'm spending way too much time on marketing, but I'm trying to read as many resources as possible to figure out what approaches work best. Anyway, it's amazing that I had enough energy, but I've been able to fit in some late night reading. My recent reads include:


Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin-Do you ever start reading a book and think you're going to hate it and end up loving it? This was the case with Griffin's novel. I just couldn't initially connect with Araby and only really picked up the book because Poe's short story is one of my all-time favorites. I am so glad I stuck it out. It was really a page turner that kept me up late to finish it. I love the dark and deadly world Griffin created and none of the characters were clearly good or bad. Ending was a great cliffhanger and I can't wait to see what happens!

Across the Universe by Beth Revis-This is one of those book that are pretty polarizing: people either love it or hate it. I'm only about three chapters in, but seems pretty cool. The beginning scene was pretty intense and definitely creeped me out. I'm hoping it doesn't disappoint since I see there's a sequel available.

Awake: A Fairytale by Jessica Grey-I downloaded this as a loan because apparently I received a free one month Amazon Prime membership when I bought my Kindle Fire. The unfortunate thing was that I realized this after only a week was left of the trial. Anywho, I picked this one out since the sample seemed kind of interesting and it's been promoted as a modern twist on Sleeping Beauty. Although the beginning is a little slow-going, I'm definitely curious to see where it goes . The MC (Alex) is very relateable and I like that she's not a cookie cutter protagonist.

Excerpt from First Visions: Second Sight Book One

So, I'm set up to do a blog tour towards the end of the month, but I thought I would share an excerpt from my novel now. I'll be making stops at a ton of fabulous blogs and participating in guest posts, giveaways, reviews and all sorts of other fun things. In the meantime, the following is the Prologue of  

First Visions: Second Sight Book One:

Kate Edwards Journal

May 8

I always prided myself growing up as being one of a kind. Being fearless and never giving a damn what anyone had to say about it. In high school, I was one of those girls who refused to fit into a mold. I wasn’t with the glue sniffers out back under the bleachers, but I wasn’t sitting with the head cheerleaders either. I felt in charge of my destiny and I was going to pursue my dream of being an artist despite the odds stacked against me. If anyone had told me otherwise, I had no problem telling that person where to shove it.


Little did I know, it sometimes really blows being one of a kind. For starters, I contracted bacterial meningitis in college. What are the chances? Only about 1,500 people in the entire country get it each year. I think there were more kids than that in my graduating class of high school. Once a person has meningitis, she has an eleven percent chance of dying and a twenty percent chance of losing a limb or suffering from brain damage. Nineteen years old and there was a good chance I was either going to be dead or armless.

Lucky for me, I woke up from the coma I fell into. No brain damage, both arms in tact and alive and kicking. Kate was back in business and ready to kick ass and take names. However, fate decided to kick my ass instead. I came back from the dead not the same old Kate. No, I was now Kate with a second sight.

Some people may not understand why I don’t simply bask in the glory of having psychic abilities. Set up a psychic hotline, write a book or maybe open a palm reading shop. My mother and I could move to a mansion and I could rename myself some cool mystical name like Clairvoyant Caterina.

Well, the first reason is— that idea isn’t possible. I have no control over what I see. I’ll go to sleep at night and dream myself unwilling into someone else’s head. It’s unimaginable how truly awful that could be. Do I really care about that special day my mailman spent with his first dog Skippy at the park during the summer he turned eleven? Or do I need to know about the yearlong affair my dentist has been having with his secretary? Worse yet, I haven’t been able to predict anything. I may be able to tell someone what he ate for dinner on a first date ten years ago, but not if he is going to die choking the next night.

Sometimes I think maybe there is some way to control what I see. Or maybe I should be doing something worthwhile instead of destining myself to a life as a shut-in. I just can’t understand why this happened to me. Whose brilliant idea was it to nominate Kate to see inside other people’s heads? And now that I’ve been given this gift, what the hell am I supposed to do with it?    

YA and New Adult Vacation Reading List

Although my hubby thinks I’m nuts, I have a very ambitious vacation reading list. I really want to devour as many books as possible while I’m away because when I return I plan to do marketing work for Second Sight and start on my first draft for the sequel (gulp). I pretty much have the story in my head already and an outline, I just hope it translates as well to paper. For research and enjoyment purposes, I’m keeping my list mainly YA and New Adult.

Goddess Interrupted by Aimee Carter-When I saw the first book was from Harlequin Teen, I almost didn’t read it. I have such a love/hate relationship with the books from this publisher. There’s been a few that I’ve had to throw across the room because I’ve been so disappointed. However, the Goddess Test was REALLY good which makes me have high hopes for the sequel. (I also saw there’s an ebook novella out as a bridge story. Some of these for series books are cool, but I typically only download the freebies.)

Expel by Addison Moore-The Celestra series has been one of my faves lately. Love the mix of humor and action. Great twists too that will get you excited about the next book. I’ve read mixed reviews on this latest entry, but I’m sure I’ll consider it fabulous.

Life on the Edge by Jennifer Comeaux-I’m such a sucker for 90s movies and this book description makes me think of the Cutting Edge. Plus, it is new adult (upper YA) which I’m trying to read more of.

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi-I’ve heard AMAZING things about this book so I’m definitely looking forward to checking it out.

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire-Another New Adult genre book I’m hoping to get to. This book has also received a mix of bad and good reviews, so I’m wondering if it will end up in the chuck pile.

Crossed by Ally Condie- This is in my maybe pile. I read the sample chapters and it’s not sucking me in just yet. Wondering if it could get better?