August 01, 2014

Blog Tour: GONE by Anna Bloom - Review, Interview, & Giveaway!



Title: Gone
Author: Anna Bloom
Genre: Mature YA (intended for readers ages 16-19)
Publication: July 28th, 2014

Rebecca Walters harbours a dark secret, and as the fifty-three bangles she wears on her wrists as a self-imposed sentence of guilt remind her, she can’t even begin to consider moving on. Not after what happened on that night six months ago… a night which she can’t remember and yet managed to change her life forever.

When Rebecca comes across Joshua Adams, man equally haunted by past tragedies, on a moonlit beach, both of their lives are destined to change forever, and when the girl made out of the sun meets the boy made out of the moon and sea, anything can happen… but will the knowledge of their murky pasts bring them together or drive them apart?

Will Rebecca finally be able to claim her freedom? Will she stay and fight to be the girl she found on the sandy beaches of Cornwall or is she destined to keep running and hiding from a past that won’t stay Gone? One thing’s for certain: either way, nothing will ever be the same again.




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Anna Bloom is a contemporary romance writer who writes about life as it happens. Combining a busy schedule of looking after two small children whilst working in a local school and completing The Uni Files series she also spends a lot of time imagining kissing hot guys – all in the name of her art.


                  Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads  




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Interview

1. How did you come up with the idea of GONE?
I can’t recall clearly what made me come up with the whole idea. When I write it tends to be quite an organic experience (haphazard!) I start with a character and I know what’s in their mind and Iet it grow from there. With Rebecca Walters I knew all the things she had in her past before I even started typing, it was just a case of teasing a story out of her. The book is a dual POV so it was the same for Joshua Adams, I knew what had happened to him, I knew what his heartbreak was I just needed him to tell everyone else. 

2. What scene was the hardest for you to write?
I had two scenes that I struggled to write. The first was when Rebecca (Bex) tells Josh about her sister being bullied. That nearly killed me because I could visualise it too clearly in my mind and I hated even making up that something that terrible could happen to a young girl. The second scene is Joshua’s goodbye near the end. I actually cried when I wrote that. 

3. What do you need to set the mood for you to write?
I don’t need to be in any specific mood – thankfully. For a long time I used to force myself to write everyday but this year I have relaxed a little and I only write if I have something specific I want to do. Saying that, sometimes I don’t think I am going to write a words and instead I complete a whole chapter. 

4. If you could bring one of your characters to life, who would it be? And why?
It would have to be Benjamin Chambers from The Uni File series. I just love him, I can’t help myself. He was my first male character to write and as such he means the most. I guess it’s like what they say about first loves. They are the ones you don’t forget. I would want him to come and play me guitar and cook me spaghetti Bolognese. 

5. How different would you say the final version of GONE, is from the first draft?
The final version could not be more different. The first was called ‘Home’ for a start. It only had a single POV and it was in an entirely different style. I did three re-writes in total to make it what I wanted. The subject matters mean so much to me I didn’t want to let the story or my characters down.


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It’s not often that I’m able to say I love a book. The more I review, the less often I find myself rating books five stars. So when I read one from beginning to end without thinking of a single negative thing to say about it, it’s some kind of miracle.

You know how sometimes you read a book about artistic characters and it feels so contrived that you can’t feel it? Okay maybe that’s just me. In any case, with Gone, I FELT it. The entire mood of the book has an artsy edge, and I absolutely love when an author is able to pull this off. Couple that with surfer boy Joshua and no non-sense Bex, and apparently you’ve got a recipe for the first book I’ve rated five starts in two years.

I loved these characters and I really felt their struggles. I loved watching them come together and fight through all of their demons together, but not in a way that made them dependent on each other. Their fights were their own but they bonded over a similar grief and I found it compelling.

Cover, characters, setting, plot…I loved it all. This was my first Anna Bloom book, but it won’t be my last.





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