Review: Secret for A Song by Adriana Ryan

Author: Adriana Ryan
Title: Secret For A Song
Publication: June 2013
Source: Author via Blog Tour


Saylor Grayson makes herself sick. Literally.

She  ate her first needle when she was seven. Now, at nineteen, she’s been kicked out of college for poisoning herself with laxatives. The shrinks call it Munchausen Syndrome. All Saylor knows is that when she’s ill, her normally distant mother pays attention and the doctors and nurses make her feel special.

Then she meets Drew Dean, the leader of a local support group for those with terminal diseases. When he mistakes her for a new member, Saylor knows she should correct him. But she can’t bring herself to, not after she’s welcomed into a new circle of friends. Friends who, like Drew, all have illnesses ready to claim their independence or their lives  

For the first time, Saylor finds out what it feels like to be in love, to have friends who genuinely care about her.  But secrets have a way of revealing themselves. What will happen when Saylor’s is out?

Saylor is in love with sickness. She craves the high it gives her to come up with a way make it appear natural. Her parents seem to have adjusted to the fact that she does this to herself. They each manage the chaos in their own way. Her father is always away on business and her mother barely talks to her. Now, home from college, Saylor convinces her therapist to allow her to volunteer at a local hospital and she eventually hopes to get into restricted areas to get more stuff to aid in making herself sick. What she doesn't expect is to befriend a group of people with terminal illness and to fall for one of them. Buried deep in lies and deceit, Saylor must figure out how to come clean or lose the one person that makes her feel different. 

Saylor initially made me uncomfortable. I couldn't wrap my mind around what she does to her body and I hate needles. Gradually, she begins to change as she sees sickness through the eyes of Dean and the rest of the support group. Her parents aren't exactly supportive; they are just going with motions each time they need to take her to the hospital. It's like if they don't talk about her illness, it doesn't exist. Her mother struggles with her own internal battle that Saylor isn't aware of but it's easy to see that she just wants her mom's attention and I think that need is what contributes to her behavior. Overall, the writing is good and the characters will touch your heart. I haven't actually heard of Munchausen Syndrome before and this book gives good insight into the thought process of someone with this illness. 

Author Bio
A huge fan of spooky stuff and shoes, Adriana Ryan enjoys alternately hitting up the outlet malls and historic graveyards in Charleston, SC where she lives and imbibes coffee. Her husband and two small children seem not to mind when she hastily scribbles novel lines on stray limbs in the absence of notepads.
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Guest Post & Giveaway:World of Shell and Bone By Adriana Ryan

About the Author:Adriana lives and writes in beautiful Charleston, SC. A huge fan of spooky stuff and shoes, she enjoys alternately hitting up the historic graveyards and outlet malls. World of Shell andBone is her first book.

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Which was your favorite scene to write? What scene was hardest to write and why?

Can I pick two favorite scenes? The one I had the most fun writing was probably the scene with Ceres’s birthday party. I loved writing it. I think I was smiling the entire time as I imagined all those kids getting dressed up for the first time in their lives and actually looking forward to an event like normal little kids should. I also had fun bringing out Vika’s softer, more girly side. :)

The one that touched me deeply the most was the scene where Vika and Shale finally “do it.”Not the mandated “it,” but when they do it because they fall for each other. I wrote that from my soul, and I really felt like I was in the moment.

The hardest scene to write was probably the one where Vika sees her mother for the last time. Without giving too much away, I was really sad for Vika and wanted to gather her into a hug. But it had to be done (said the evil writer).

World of Shell and Bone
By Adriana Ryan
In a world ravaged by a nuclear holocaust, Vika Cannon knows there are no guarantees: no guarantees of safety, no guarantees that your neighbor is not actually a spy for the government, and no guarantees you’ll be allowed to emigrate to a new life in Asia.New Amana is dying. Food and water are scarce, and people suffering from radiation-caused mutations—the Nukeheads—are the new class of homeless.Vika has just one purpose: to produce healthy progeny using a Husband assigned by the Match Clinic.Unhealthy children are carted away to Asylums to be experimented on, just as Vika’s little sister Ceres was, eight years ago. Parents incapable of producing healthy progeny are put to death in gas chambers.When she’s assigned a Husband shortly after her twentieth birthday, Vika expects him to be complacent and obedient. But Shale Underwood has a secret. He is a member of the Radicals, the terrorist group intent on overthrowing the government. And Shale has information about Ceres.As she learns more about the Rads’s plan, Vika finds herself drawn to Shale in ways she’d never imagined.When freedom calls in the way of a healthy pregnancy, will she betray her government and risk death for Shale and Ceres?

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