Thursday, June 4, 2015

SNAPPED: The Complete Series by Ketley Allison



Snapped: The Complete Series Synopsis:
5 friends. A killer within. WHO WILL SNAP?

In nine weeks Charlie Miller's life goes from absolute perfection to gruesome tragedy. All it takes is one night, one blade, and her boyfriend, best friend and new friends all either end up as suspects or dead.

But Charlie's world of pro football golden boys, law school domination and New York City nightlife crumbles long before sudden death. Nate Westcott, a pierced, tattooed, charismatic lawyer, is a man she can’t have—but a seductive danger she can’t ignore. He’s cocky, infuriating, brilliant and wrong, making her question whether she really is the good girl she wants to be or more like the selfish killer everyone thinks she is.

And her body wants him in ways she’s not supposed to crave.

Despite her desire for it to be how it was during college, Charlie's changing, and so are the friends she thought she knew. Everyone she cares about is at risk because one of them has darkness lurking beneath, and if Charlie wants to survive, she must find that single, poisonous soul.

Because they want Charlie out of the way. And to succeed, they'll kill.

Our reviews:

Start at the beginning. Question them all.
Ketley Allison Bio:
Ketley Allison is a twenty-something (maybe almost thirty-something) author who believes that supernatural love shouldn’t stop at eighteen. She began her career by writing books as birthday presents for her friends (with her friend as the main character and opposite a super sexy lead, of course) before ending it in order to walk down a path she thought she was supposed to follow.
The writing bug never left her—and, in fact, would often bleed into the official papers she was supposed to write—so now Ketley’s putting down her suit and finally following her dream. While her friends are no longer the stars of her books, she still throws in bits and pieces of them into each and every one of her characters.
As a result, her books tend to focus a lot on friendships as well as love, because let’s be honest, friends are what really get you through—especially when your epic love turns into epic heartbreak.

How To Keep Your Characters Different

This is a tough topic, because every writer is automatically different. We all have our own unique style of writing, but there are definitely some habits that a lot of us fall into. First, I want to say that this post isn’t meant to criticize anyone. I am merely talking from my own perspective and experience—and here we get back to the toughness of this post, everybody’s different! But, in my writing, I did notice a few things my characters did that I definitely tried to correct. Hence the change in this post title J

My heroine’s habits. Eye-rolling, lip-biting, cocking out a hip, to name a few. I noticed that a lot of characters do this, and I understand why. We need to cue the reader through action instead of just writing, very annoyingly, “Charlie isn’t comfortable right now and wants to walk away.” And I also understand why we as writers automatically use these actions—they’re just so habitual! And perfect in enunciating our point. But then, it keeps happening. All of a sudden your heroine has chewed her cheek off and given herself a chronic eye-ache.

My hero’s habits. Leaning against things, clenching teeth, forming hands into fists. In short, being mysterious, cocky and sexy. The same problems arise as my heroine: it becomes habit, expected, slightly annoying. Now, I’m not saying I’m perfect here. I guarantee you will find these habits in my writing. But I tried to use different actions so I didn’t make it so expected and so unnatural.

So the question is, then, how do we make our characters different? I found the answer to be surprisingly easy. So easy that I’m sure this isn’t anything new: take habits from people you know in real life. I learned this long ago, and it’s been with me ever since and it has absolutely made my characters better.

If you take habits from your friends or your family, you’ll be surprised how real your characters become. I’m not even talking complex things—I mean simple, barely-registering-on-your-radar type things. For instance, my character Macy hates coffee and only drinks hot chocolate, a trait taken from my best friend. Another example (one I haven’t used yet, but may one day) is the fact that when my brother eats Lucky Charms, he picks out all the grains so only the marshmallows are left and calls that breakfast—and he’s 28 years old.

See what I mean? All of a sudden your characters have these normal yet unexpected quirks, making them more personable, and most importantly, making them more realistic. Your readers will be drawn to them more, and if you’ve really done it right, they’ll like them more—even love them.




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