Shawn Maravel was born in a small New Jersey town located between somewhere and nowhere. She fled the country looking for adventure while following her heart and the love of a soldier.

Shawn started writing when her husband joined the Army in 2008. It started out as a way for her to cope with the long periods of time that they spent apart but slowly took on a life of its own, becoming something she did for herself. Having always enjoyed writing and dabbled in it from time to time in previous years, the military lifestyle really provided her with the opportunity and an outlet to explore the passion further.

Website: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4760235.Shawn_Maravel
Twitter: ShawnKMaravel

• 11% done with The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern http://t.co/3LtfknrGvP
• The Girl with the Green Shovel: What I'm Reading Now http://t.co/I4K3jD9itM
• @techie1287 I definitely almost bought that exact onsie.
• Addicted to @BONESonFOX #seriesathon
• @techie1287 babies can sneeze, blink, smile, even cry in the womb. Sounds human to me. :(

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Blog: http://shawn-kirsten-maravel.blogspot.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Shawn-Kirsten-Maravel/e/B004RUZLPS/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

adventure    angel    angels    army    crime    ebook    ebook authors    fiction    literature    love    love adventure    love romance    love story    mafia    mafia adventure    mafia book    mafia fiction    military    motorcycle    police officer    ptsd    romance    shawn maravel    shifting gears    suspense    suspense action    the rider series    the wanderer    volition    ya    young adult   

• Not So Easy on Oct. 19, 2012
  
  I have a compulsion when it comes to writing reviews where I need to write it the second I finish it...I was up until 2am finishing this astonishing, compelling, and moving novel. Despite the crazy hour, I NEEDED to take the time to write the review while this story and its characters were still fresh in my mind. First, a brief note on bullying and my own personal experiences going into reading this novel. Bullying is something I've never been able to tolerate, luckily in school I wasn't bullied nor did I witness it on any great level. In addition, I had a strong group of friends that made it easy for me to ignore anything that might be said about me behind my back, and there were things said, but nothing that left emotional scarring as with JD and Izzy. In high school I sat at a lunch table full of what I affectionately nicknamed my fellow orphan chairs. My mom (an avid antique collector) decorates with only antiques and all of the chairs in her house are different, unique, but all equally beautiful. She calls them orphan chairs. My friends in high school, especially those I spent lunch with were like those chairs. All different, each beautiful in their own way. And that's what this book reminded me of. My first day of high school I picked an empty table in the lunch room to sit at by myself. Towards the end of the lunch period, a few guys from the freshman football team came over and talked to me, inviting me to sit with them from then on. It was their kindness, and kindness of others like theirs, that propelled me through those tough four years of trying to find myself without losing myself to the constant pressure that always lingers in a high school setting. I could go on and on, but what it comes down to is that this book really grabbed hold of my soul in more ways than one. I was transported back to my own high school years and then some. With that in mind, this novel is not for the faint of heart. JD and Izzy were not as lucky, nor were they easily excepted, at least not for a long time. They had hard lives and struggled endlessly with bullying in nearly every aspect of their lives. As Ms. Gammon states in the end of the novel, these are extreme cases of bullying and not all of those who are bullied or those who do bully come from these types of home environments, but the truth remains...it does happen. So rarely do people consider how much deeper the pain is in others than what appears on the surface. The reality of it is that most people suffer, those who we might assume have hard lives, and those who pretend otherwise. you simply can't know unless you've walked a day in their shoes. This novel paints that picture more clearly than any novel I've ever read or probably ever will. Further more, Gammon tied these two characters together so effortlessly, creating a real and tangible struggle between striving to overcome and the desire to buckle under the pressure, that I felt as if I was the third wheel in JD's body. I felt his pain, his agony, his desperate need for it to just end. I felt Max's struggle just as strongly, trying to pull through, pushing against the weight of grief so embedded that it seemed unmovable... Powerful message aside, the skill that is required for an author to be able to so effortless transport their reader to that emotional depth and connection is evident in Gammon's writing. She managed to tell a story so well rounded and so emotionally gripping that her readers can't help but learn from these character's struggles, walking away, dare I say it, with a whole new outlook on life and on bullying. I've read in a few previous reviews that Souls in Peril should be required reading. I for one know that I will certainly be making sure that my children read it. Bullying is intolerable. And we all need to make a conscious effort to put an end to it, once and for all. READ THIS BOOK.
  
• Not So Easy on Oct. 19, 2012
  
  First, a brief note on bullying and my own personal experiences going into reading this novel. Bullying is something I've never been able to tolerate, luckily in school I wasn't bullied nor did I witness it on any great level. In addition, I had a strong group of friends that made it easy for me to ignore anything that might be said about me behind my back, and there were things said, but nothing that left emotional scarring as with JD and Izzy. In high school I sat at a lunch table full of what I affectionately nicknamed my fellow orphan chairs. My mom (an avid antique collector) decorates with only antiques and all of the chairs in her house are different, unique, but all equally beautiful. She calls them orphan chairs. My friends in high school, especially those I spent lunch with were like those chairs. All different, each beautiful in their own way. And that's what this book reminded me of. My first day of high school I picked an empty table in the lunch room to sit at by myself. Towards the end of the lunch period, a few guys from the freshman football team came over and talked to me, inviting me to sit with them from then on. It was their kindness, and kindness of others like theirs, that propelled me through those tough four years of trying to find myself without losing myself to the constant pressure that always lingers in a high school setting. I could go on and on, but what it comes down to is that this book really grabbed hold of my soul in more ways than one. I was transported back to my own high school years and then some. With that in mind, this novel is not for the faint of heart. JD and Izzy were not as lucky, nor were they easily excepted, at least not for a long time. They had hard lives and struggled endlessly with bullying in nearly every aspect of their lives. As Ms. Gammon states in the end of the novel, these are extreme cases of bullying and not all of those who are bullied or those who do bully come from these types of home environments, but the truth remains...it does happen. So rarely do people consider how much deeper the pain is in others than what appears on the surface. The reality of it is that most people suffer, those who we might assume have hard lives, and those who pretend otherwise. you simply can't know unless you've walked a day in their shoes. This novel paints that picture more clearly than any novel I've ever read or probably ever will. Further more, Gammon tied these two characters together so effortlessly, creating a real and tangible struggle between striving to overcome and the desire to buckle under the pressure, that I felt as if I was the third wheel in JD's body. I felt his pain, his agony, his desperate need for it to just end. I felt Max's struggle just as strongly, trying to pull through, pushing against the weight of grief so embedded that it seemed unmovable... Powerful message aside, the skill that is required for an author to be able to so effortless transport their reader to that emotional depth and connection is evident in Gammon's writing. She managed to tell a story so well rounded and so emotionally gripping that her readers can't help but learn from these character's struggles, walking away, dare I say it, with a whole new outlook on life and on bullying. READ THIS BOOK.