Review: "Searching for Beautiful" by Nyrae Dawn

Before, Brynn had a group of best friends, a loving boyfriend, a growing talent for pottery. She had a life. And after…she had none. When Brynn lost the boyfriend who never loved her, the friends who feel she betrayed their trust, and the new life just beginning to grow inside her, she believes her future is as empty as her body. But then Christian, the boy next door, starts coming around. Playing his guitar and pushing her to create art once more. She meets some new friends at the local community center, plus even gets her dad to look her in the eye again…sort of. But can Brynn open up her heart to truly find her life’s own beauty, when living for the after means letting go of the before? This is a Young Adult title.

Thank you to Netgalley and Entangled Publishing, LLC for allowing me to read and review an ARC of this book.

Honestly, I could not help but feel for Brynn.  There were times that I wished she made smarter choices, or was more open with her friends, but that's the beauty of Nyrae Dawn's writing - even though we may not agree with everything a character does, we can still understand why they did what they did and empathize with them.  Brynn was already in such a vulnerable spot when she met the boyfriend who would ultimately betray her that it's understandable and forgivable for her to get involved with him.  She ignored all the warning signs, but given her situation, it's easy to see why she would.

Christian was great!  I loved how he was so confident and sure of himself.  He was a really good influence on Brynn whenever she started to feel ashamed, guilty, or embarrassed around her old friends.  Around him, she could be herself and to hell with what everyone else thought.  He seemed to give her the strength she needed to work her way partially back to who she was before - someone who loved pottery, had a close relationship with her father, and had friends.  And although I don't think she will ever be quite the same as she was, those were the things that made her truly happy before her tragedies.

While this isn't a really light, happy read, I think it is still very worthwhile in that it touches on some very serious subjects facing teens today (or even back in my day, so old people like me can relate, too!).

My rating: 

Top Ten Tuesday

I haven't participated in any memes for a while, so I thought I'd better get in on this week's Top Ten Tuesday. Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.  This week's topic is:  Top Ten Bookish Things (That Aren't Books) That I'd Like To Own.

I have a pinterest board titled "Things I Want to Make", and there are some fabulous bookshelf ideas I've pinned.  Here they are (the pictures are linked to the pins):

1.  Pallet shelf:

2.  Ikea spice rack bookshelves

3.  Fabric sling bookshelves

4.  Ladder bookshelf

5.  Tree bookshelf

6.  Floating bookshelves

7.  Pipe bookshelf

8.  Rain gutter shelves

9.  Front facing bookshelf

10.  And last, but not least, this is what I want my TV room to look like:

Can you just imagine what those shelves would look like jam packed with books?  Heaven!  

I hope you've enjoyed my little top ten post!  Leave me a link to yours, and I'll be sure to visit back!

"Imaginary Lines" Release Day Launch!

Tamar Rosenfeld has been in love with New York Leopards linebacker Abraham Krasner since they were twelve years old. She'd always considered it destiny that they'd end up together…until Abe was drafted and she professed her feelings in a moment of blind excitement. The sting of his rejection was like nothing she'd ever felt before, and it's nothing she'll ever forget. Older and wiser, Tamar has landed a dream job as a reporter for one of New York's premier athletic websites. Determined to stop being the safe, boring girl she's felt like for most of her life, Tamar makes a list of all the things she wants to do and see in her new city, and Getting Over Abraham is priority number one. But destiny has finally chosen to interfere. Just as Tamar's decided to move on, Abe's realized she's the only woman for him. When he confides the truth, Tamar has to decide if she can put her crush behind her, or take a chance on the very man who's been holding her back all these years.

Allison Parr Bio:

Allison Parr is the author of Rush Me, Running Back, and Imaginary Lines. She grew up in small town New England, where she developed an incurable case of wanderlust. After graduating with degrees in archaeology and creative writing, she spent the next several years living in San Francisco, Paris, Boston, and New York.  When she’s not traveling or writing, she’s making a mean chocolate cake or bad historical jokes. She’s also amassing enough books to rival the library in Beauty and the Beast.

To learn more about Allison’s books and travels, visit her at www.allisonparr.com

Buy Links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Imaginary-Lines-Allison-Parr-ebook/dp/B00GKBHIQM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396555527&sr=8-1&keywords=Imaginary+Lines

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/imaginary-lines-allison-parr/1117366825?ean=9781426897757

Links:

Blog: www.allisonparr.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Allison_Parr

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allisonparrwrites

Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6876947.Allison_Parr

Imaginary Lines Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20645592-imaginary-lines?from_search=true

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Review: "The Edge of Always" by J.A. Redmerski

He was taking the long road. She was taking the road to nowhere. It just so happened that they led to the same place… When everything falls apart, love remains . . . THE EDGE OF ALWAYS Camryn Bennett has never been happier. Five months after meeting on a Greyhound bus, she and her soul mate Andrew Parrish are engaged—and a wedding isn’t the only special event in their future. Nervous but excited, Camryn can’t wait to begin the rest of her life with Andrew – a man she knows in her heart will love her always. They have so much to look forward to—until tragedy blindsides them. Andrew doesn’t understand how this could happen to them. He’s trying to move on, and thought Camryn was doing the same. But when Andrew discovers Camryn is secretly harboring a mountain of pain and attempting to numb it in damaging ways, there is nothing he won’t do to bring her back to life. Determined to prove that their love can survive anything, Andrew decides to take Camryn on a new journey filled with hope and passion. If only he can convince her to come along for the ride…

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review an ARC of this book.

I was soooooooo happy when I received this book for review.  I think I squealed, and I'm not much of a squealer!  But then I read it (picture me with a sad-looking frown on my face).

At 30%, this is what I wrote:

"Having a hard time seeing where this is going.  It feels very slow, especially in comparison to "The Edge of Never".  There's no sense of the urgency I felt when reading "The Edge of Never".  With that book, even though I had some issues with the writing, I was able to overlook them because I was so drawn in by the story.  I could barely put it down, I just HAD to know what was going to happen next!  "The Edge of Always" is very put-downable, and Camryn and Andrew don't have the same pull on me as before.

At 58%, this is what I wrote (and this would be considered spoilerish, so if you are planning to read this book, skip ahead to the next page break):

"Just finished reading the part where Camryn and Andrew get drugged, and I don't know, it just doesn't strike me as authentic.  Here's what I thought SHOULD have happened - Andrew only thinks he was drugged.  Really, he has another brain tumour and that's why he's hallucinating.  Camryn wakes up to him getting into a fist fight over something that didn't really happen!  And then she starts to worry.  I think that would have been much better.  Or how 'bout this?  The cop pulls over, and instead of just chatting with them and letting them go, he arrests Andrew for assault?  But no, what we've got here is a series of crises that get wrapped up very quickly and simply.  And really, I'm starting to get bored by it all."

Later on in the book, there's a section where Camryn realizes that she can't go back in time and recreate the amazing experience she and Andrew had in New Orleans, and by trying to do so only resulted in tainting those great memories. That's basically how I feel about this book.  By reading it, I've only tainted the memory of my reading experience with "The Edge of Never". I almost feel like this book should not have been written. But that's pretty harsh.  I guess I'm just really disappointed.  

My rating:

Dream Cast Blitz!

Today is the character dream cast blitz post for the A LITTLE TOO FAR series by Lisa Desrochers. Three groups of bloggers will be posting dream casts from one of the books in the series. Be sure to check out each group to see how each story is connected and which characters can be found in one of the other books.

 

This blog is featuring the dream cast from A LITTLE TOO MUCH.

 

Character Casting

A LITTLE TOO MUCH:

  We first meet Alessandro Moretti in A LITTLE TOO FAR. He is a transitional deacon studying in Rome, only months away from becoming a Catholic priest…until Lexie Banks stumbles into his life. She shakes him to the core and makes him question the path he’s on. He had a rough upbringing, and did some things he believes are unforgivable. He feels his only road to redemption is to give himself to the Church and devote his life to helping others. Lexie makes him see the flaws in his logic. Eduardo Verastegui is my perfect Alessandro He returns to New York to try to make amends for some of the wrong he’s done, and Hilary McIntyre is one of those things. He hurt Hilary in ways he can’t even admit to himself, and now he want to help her…but from a distance. But Alessandro finds that history catches up with him and he can’t stay objective when it comes to Hilary. Despite his best intentions, he’s falling in love with her all over again. Hilary is hard to cast because she’s the product of an Irish redhead and a Jamaican. Picture Paula Patton with faint freckles and a reddish tint to her black hair. Seeing Alessandro again rocks Hilary’s world. She’s finally got her life on track and there’s no way she’s going to let a ghost from her past derail it. And he can never know the true devastation he left behind. But as she finds herself falling for the man who, as a boy, both saved her and destroyed her, she has a decision to make. Risk everything for love, or walk away from her only chance at happiness. We see these two again in a pivotal scene neat the end of A LITTLE TOO HOT (book 3 in the A LITTLE TOO series).   ---------------------

 

BOOK SUMMARY: In the follow-up to Lisa Desrochers’ explosive New Adult novel A Little too Far, Alessandro Moretti must face the life he escaped and the girl he loved and left behind. Twenty-two year old Hilary McIntyre would like nothing more than to forget her past. As a teenager abandoned to the system, she faced some pretty dark times. But now that’s all behind her. Hilary has her life on track, and there’s no way she’ll head back down that road again. Until Alessandro Moretti—the one person who can make her remember—shows up on her doorstep. He’s even more devastatingly gorgeous than before, and he’s much too close for comfort. Worse, he sees right through the walls she’s built over these last eight years, right into her heart and the secrets she’s guarding. As Hilary finds herself falling back into love with the man who, as a boy both saved and destroyed her, she must decide. Past or future? Truth or lies?  

BUY LINKS FOR THE SERIES

A LITTLE TOO FAR Buy Links: Amazon: http://amzn.to/Q5sQhu B&N: http://bit.ly/NAKZlS
A LITTLE TOO MUCH Buy Links: Amazon: http://amzn.to/1k50NMu B&N: http://bit.ly/1bzqHhf
A LITTLE TOO HOT Buy Links: Amazon: http://amzn.to/Jx61jI Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1cpveCZ


AUTHOR BIO: LISA DESROCHERS is the USA Today bestselling author of the A Little Too Far series, courtesy of HarperCollins, and the young adult Personal Demons trilogy from Macmillan. She lives in Northern California with her husband, two very busy daughters, and Shini the tarantula. Find her online at www.lisadwrites.com, on Twitter at @LisaDez, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LisaDesrochersAuthor.

AUTHOR LINKS:

Website: http://lisadesrochers.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LisaDesrochersAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LisaDez

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3342174.Lisa_Desrochers

Review: "Deeper" by Robin York

In Robin York’s sizzling debut, a college student is attacked online and must restore her name—and stay clear of a guy who’s wrong for her, but feels so right. When Caroline Piasecki’s ex-boyfriend posts their sex pictures on the Internet, it destroys her reputation as a nice college girl. Suddenly her once-promising future doesn’t look so bright. Caroline tries to make the pictures disappear, hoping time will bury her shame. Then a guy she barely knows rises to her defense and punches her ex to the ground. West Leavitt is the last person Caroline needs in her life. Everyone knows he’s shady. Still, Caroline is drawn to his confidence and swagger—even after promising her dad she’ll keep her distance. On late, sleepless nights, Caroline starts wandering into the bakery where West works. They hang out, they talk, they listen. Though Caroline and West tell each other they’re “just friends,” their feelings intensify until it becomes impossible to pretend. The more complicated her relationship with West gets, the harder Caroline has to struggle to discover what she wants for herself—and the easier it becomes to find the courage she needs to fight back against the people who would judge her. When all seems lost, sometimes the only place to go is deeper.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review an ARC of this novel.

Now THIS is what a New Adult novel should look like, and feel like, and just BE like!  Robin York is my new heroine of the genre!

I think I'm kinda in love with this book (in case you couldn't tell from my previous gushing).  I love Caroline, and I love West!  They're both pretty kick ass in their own ways.  So let's break it down, shall we?

Caroline

• I love that she didn't head for the hills when those pictures surfaced online.  I hate to admit it, but I think that's exactly what I would have done if I were in her shoes.
• I love that she gets into rugby.  It's such a gnarly sport - I don't know much about it, but I have a bunch of friends who play, and I think it's just so cool!
• I love her relationship with her dad.  Something about father/daughter moments make my eyes well up.
• I love how she's tongue tied and flustered around West - so cute!
• I love how her best friend didn't judge her and stuck by her throughout her scandal.

West

• I love how he pretty much raised his little sister.
• I love that he works in a bakery.  A guy who can bake?  Seriously, how great is that?
• I love that he can hold his own in a fight.
• I love that he doesn't baby Caroline.

I didn't really love that West was into some illegal stuff, but it definitely fit within the context of the story, and it didn't make West any less lovable.

Not sure what else I can say that hasn't already been said, but if you're looking for a New Adult read and you want to skip the rest and go straight to the best, pick up "Deeper" for yourself.

My rating:

Review: "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner

Despite all my best intentions, I was still only able to read one "real" book last month.  I struggled a bit with "The Maze Runner", but I'm glad I finally read it because it's been on my TBR list for so long!  Here's what I'm hoping to read for the Real Book Challenge over the next three months:

Quite the pile, I know!  I'm soooo intimidated by that Stephen King book, I don't know how I'm going to get through that one!!!

So, I might as well kill two birds with one post - read on for my review of "The Maze Runner".

"If you ain't scared, you ain't human." When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He's surrounded by strangers--boys whose memories are also gone. Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It's the only way out--and no one's ever made it through alive. Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.

This is one of the rare cases where I think the movie might surpass the book.  I had a hard time getting into the book at first, but I pushed on, and I"m glad I did because I'm quie excited to see the setting and action of "The Maze Runner" on the big screen.

One think I really got a kick out of was the slang/swear words the boys in the glade used.  I wonder what people would think if I called my car a piece of "klunk"?  I think I might try to incorporate some of these into my everyday language - might keep me out of trouble!

The glade and the maze were easy for me to imagine.  The boys, on the other hand, kept getting mixed up in my mind.  I never had a clear image of Thomas, and once the other boys were introduced and described once, that was it.  I think Alby was African American, and I think Newt was blonde, but honestly, if you told me the opposite was true, I wouldn't be surprised.

The action was somewhat sporadic, making the plot a bit slower than other dystopian YA novels I've read, but if you don't mind taking your time with a book, "The Maze Runner" is worth a read.

My rating: