Review: Open Road Summer by Emery Lord

Book Title: Open Road Summer

Author: Emery Lord

Published Date: April 15th, 2014

Publisher: Walker Books

Genre: YA Contemporary

Standalone

Book Link: Goodreads

Order Links: Amazon, The Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads:

After breaking up with her bad-news boyfriend, Reagan O’Neill is ready to leave her rebellious ways behind. . . and her best friend, country superstar Lilah Montgomery, is nursing a broken heart of her own. Fortunately, Lilah’s 24-city tour is about to kick off, offering a perfect opportunity for a girls-only summer of break-up ballads and healing hearts. But when Matt Finch joins the tour as its opening act, his boy-next-door charm proves difficult for Reagan to resist, despite her vow to live a drama-free existence. This summer, Reagan and Lilah will navigate the ups and downs of fame and friendship as they come to see that giving your heart to the right person is always a risk worth taking. A fresh new voice in contemporary romance, Emery Lord’s gorgeous writing hits all the right notes.

Disclaimer: This book was a personal purchase.

Review:

This book made me want to blast some country music and have an impromptu dance party.

I needed a book to wow me after a recent reading slump and so on Twitter the other day, I asked if Open Road Summer would do that for me and the response was a resounding YES. Boy were they right. This book had it all, country music, friendships, boys and family and of course those all important feels. Unlike other debut books, this didn’t FEEL like a debut book, it didn’t feel like a brand new author wrote it.

Emery Lord writes like she’s been writing books all her life. The writing is beautiful and I am so thankful for that. Oftentimes when a book cover is that gorgeous, the writing is lacking. Not in this case. It was beautiful and emotional and evocative so major kudos to Emery Lord for that. 

Dee and Reagan have been friends since they were 8 years old. They’ve seen each other through everything and now they are excited to spend the summer together. Reagan is the wild child and that wild child behavior got her into some trouble that included community service and a bad boy. Dee is an accomplished singer who is an up and comer in the country music scene. They couldn’t be more different in the family department either. Yet, none of that matters to them. They remain best friends despite disagreements and the usual ebbs and flows in a friendship.

Sweet and sexy Matt Finch appears on the scene shortly after a scandal threatens to halt Dee’s burgeoning career. Matt is everything that Reagan is not and on paper he seems to be a better match for Dee. Yet Dee is still hung up on Jimmy, the boy she left to follow her dreams.  Matt Finch was adorable and sweet and kind and basically my perfect boyfriend. He’s a good fit for Reagan though and there’s definitely mutual attraction between them early on. 

Something else that caught my eye while reading this book, was the progression of Reagan’s relationship with her stepmom Brenda. Initially Reagan paints Brenda in a very negative light, but by the end of the book, things have definitely improved between the two of them. I really liked seeing that storyline and how it played out.

I absolutely adored this book and it is absolutely getting 5 stars from me. I am definitely going to be pushing this book on all of my fellow YA Contemporary lovers.

Blog Tour: A Life, Forward by Tracy Hewitt Meyer

Book Title: A Life, Forward (Book 2 in Rowan Slone series)

Publish Date: April 7th, 2014

Genre: NA

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Link: Amazon

Synopsis:

Her father is gone. Her mother is in jail. And Rowan Slone has left her dysfunctional, violent past behind. With college looming on the horizon, she has a new job that she loves, and a safe place to call home. She is close to achieving everything she ever wanted-a sense of family, a sense of purpose, and a sense of self.

But there are cracks in Rowan’s life that threaten to send her future crumbling to the ground. When her relationship begins to suffer, her father returns and her long-held secret is discovered, Rowan must find the courage to fight for the most important thing yet-herself.

Review:

When we first met Rowan Slone, she was dealing with a horrible home life that involved her abusive father, her drama-filled sister and her obese and depressed mom. Things had been like that since Rowan’s brother Aiden had died in his crib 7 years ago. Rowan carried the guilt with her wherever she went and when things got too bad, she dealt with the pain by cutting herself.

Now her father’s gone, her mother’s in jail and Rowan is living with her boyfriend’s family. But things aren’t so good in the romance department either. Mike is away at college and things seem to be drifting apart between them. Rowan misses him so much and it doesn’t seem like he misses her at all.

Now her father is coming back around. She doesn’t want him around her but when he drops a bombshell on her, Rowan starts to feel guilty for pushing him away. Now this is where I really wish there had been more development in this storyline. I thought that it was too rushed and things were resolved way too quickly. 

I had an issue with Rowan this time around. She was too dependent on Mike for happiness. Yes she had had a rough childhood and teenage years. She longed for approval and acceptance from her family that when she got together with Mike, she made him her whole world. Yes, Mike is to blame as well. He could have tried harder to keep their relationship afloat but he didn’t. I don’t know if he was really into her or if he just wanted to save someone.

Watching Rowan slowly figure out what she wanted in life and taking steps to make sure she achieved her goals was great. She clearly wants to make something of her life and she’s not willing to allow anyone or anything to stand in her way.

Loved Jess’ storyline as well. So glad that Rowan was by her side throughout everything that Jess went through. Jess needed someone on her side as she dealt with unexpected surprises. Rowan’s unfailing loyalty to her friend is wonderful to see. So often in YA books we have frienemies. Not in this book. Not with Jess & Rowan.

For the most part I did enjoy this book. I thought certain things were rushed and I wanted more on certain storylines and Rowan was a pain in the butt at times. She finally started to focus on her dreams again, which was a welcome reprieve from how she was in the beginning of the book. I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed book 1 but I did enjoy it. I will be giving it 4 stars.

About the Author:

Tracy Hewitt Meyer is a multi-genre, multi-published author of new adult fiction as well as adult paranormal and contemporary romance. She has a B.A. in English and a Master of Social Work, both of which feed her true passion-a love of writing. Born and raised in the beautiful state of West Virginia, Tracy now lives in the mid-east with her family, a goldendoodle, and a bearded dragon.

Connect With The Author:

Goodreads

Website

Twitter

Facebook

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Stacking the Shelves #39

This feature is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

I’m baaaaack!

Things have been a little weird for me lately. Dealing with my first legitimate blogging slump has caused there to be no reviews for nearly two weeks. Of course that is because I am fighting a monster of a reading slump. I’m sad, frustrated and aggravated as I don’t like not having consistent blog posts up. Not to mention, there was two recent health scares for my mom & grandmother, so of course I didn’t feel like blogging OR reading. Thankfully, the health scares have passed and hopefully my reading & blogging slump has passed along with it.

Yesterday was my 1 year book blogging anniversary so I bought myself three books in celebration of it. I’ll be buying a few more this month as I came in under budget (yay me) Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve gotten 5 books from Edelweiss. Also, I participated in Andi’s Spring Book Exchange and received book 1 of a series I’ve been dying to start. Thanks again Lindsay!

More book mail included a book I had won from Goodreads and a book that a fellow blogger had seen me dying for and had offered to send me a copy. So thanks Lena!

Let’s see what I got this week.

Bought

Pointe by Brandy Colbert
What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick
Open Road Summer by Emery Lord

Received for Review

-Edelweiss-

Bleed Like Me by Christa Desir

Boomerang by Noelle August

The Returned by Jason Mott

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
Let’s Get Lost by Adi Alsaid

Gifted

Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer

The Ring and the Crown (The Ring and the Crown #1) by Melissa de la Cruz

Won

Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern

So, definitely let me know if you’ve read any of these or if you’re wanting to. Definitely leave your Stacking the Shelves links in the comments so I can stop by.

Bloggers Mentioned

Andi of Andi’s ABC’s

Lena of The “I Love Books” Club

Lindsay of The Broke Book Girls

My 1 year Blog-o-versary is finally here!

Well I made it!

Last year on this very day I decided to start book blogging. I had no idea what to expect or if I would make any friends (making friends as an adult is HARD) but I had always loved books and I had always loved blogging, so I took the bull by the horns and started blogging about books. I learned a lot as I went along. I made mistakes, but I’d like to think that I changed over the past year.

Twelve months ago I didn’t know anything about ARC’s or E-ARC’s or NetGalley or Edelweiss. I had never heard of BEA or ALA. Now I can rattle off those terms in a matter of seconds and know what they mean. Sometimes, I still feel intimidated by certain things but not always, and not nearly as much as I was at the beginning of this.

This year also brought me in contact with some of the kindest individuals I’ve ever had the pleasure of dealing with. Meredith, Pixie, Kara, Steph, Bekka, Kat and Andi to name a few. Thank you ladies. At times I wanted to quit. I was sad and frustrated by some things, but you seven helped me more than you will ever know. Of course there are so many other ladies (and yes even a few guys) who have been there supporting me, that there’s no way I could name them all. Thank you all so very much. You don’t know how much I appreciate you.

There are so many moments that stick out to me as important in the past year, I doubt I could name them all.

• Getting my first review book in the mail.
• Getting my first pieces of swag in the mail.
• Getting auto-approved for HarperTeen’s titles through Edelweiss.
• Winning my first book through GoodReads.
• Filming and positing my first vlog on YouTube.
• Getting my first print ARC from Scholastic.

Those are only some of the moments that have stuck with me since I began this journey.

Let’s not forget the writers. The beautiful, amazing and talented writers that have been amazing to work with. There’s no way I could name them all and you know what? I’m not even going to try.These writers have been supportive and kind all across the board and I am grateful to be able to collaborate with them as I, along with so many other bloggers, work to show the world how talented and underrated these writers are.

The publishers, they have all been awesome. Harper Collins, St. Martin’s Press and Scholastic, to name a few. I look forward to working with all of you more in the future.

Thank you, to each and every one of you who has been a part of my journey so far. I love and appreciate all of you so very much.

Stone of Destiny (The Danaan Trilogy Book 2) by Laura Howard

Stone of Destiny (The Danaan Trilogy Book 2)

by Laura Howard

Genre: New Adult Paranormal Romance

Blurb:

Allison thought it was crazy enough when she found out her father, Liam, wasn’t entirely human. But now she has to join his magical allies to unravel his former mistress’s plans. Aoife wants to keep Allison’s parents apart forever.

Despite Allison’s efforts to keep Ethan, the only guy she’s ever cared about, out of this supernatural mess, fate keeps throwing him back into the mix.

Will Allison be able to find the amulet that holds the enchantment Aoife placed on Liam and destroy it? Are Ethan’ s feelings for Allison strong enough to endure the magic of the Tuatha De Danaan?

Links

Amazon:

Barnes & Noble 

Kobo:

The Forgotten Ones

Book One in The Danaan Trilogy

About Laura:
Laura Howard lives in New Hampshire with her husband and four children. Her obsession with books began at the age of 6 when she got her first library card. Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley High and other girly novels were routinely devoured in single sittings. Books took a backseat to diapers when she had her first child. It wasn’t until the release of a little novel called Twilight, 8 years later, that she rediscovered her love of fiction. Soon after, her own characters began to make themselves known.

An Explaination

Hello everyone,

 You may have noticed that I have not posted anything in about a week. This was totally unplanned and it was only yesterday that I really realized how long it’s been since I posted anything. I have a couple posts drafted and several reviews scheduled but nothing for awhile. This blogging slump happened to coincide with yet another reading slump. I have started several books but nothing is really grabbing me lately. I’m sad and frustrated as I have piles of books piling up everywhere, many of them I am dying to read, but I don’t want to start any of them. I don’t want to run the risk of not being able to enjoy a book because of the reading slump.

I don’t do filler posts that much anymore unless it’s an author I love or a book I enjoyed. When I was starting this book blogging thing, I did a lot of promotional posts. I don’t do them much anymore. I usually do 1 meme, and as many reviews as I can fit in. I don’t want to post more than one post a day. I don’t focus on keeping a certain schedule anymore. It doesn’t work for me. What I do focus on is having fun with this adventure. If I happen to have a week or two where I don’t post anything, that’s okay.

This coming Saturday I will be celebrating my one year blog-o-versary. It’s exciting and it’s honestly not a milestone I thought I would get to. I’m sure I’ll have a post up for that day, maybe not a full fledged wrap-up post, but I’ll definitely acknowledge the bloggers and writers and publishers that I have been fortunate enough to work with this past year.

Review: The Secrets of Lily Graves by Sarah Strohmeyer

Book Title: The Secrets Of Lily Graves

Author: Sarah Strohmeyer

Publish Date: May 13th, 2014

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Genre: YA Thriller

Standalone

Book Link: Goodreads

Pre-Order Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads:

With the intrigue of Pretty Little Liars and plenty of romance, bestselling author Sarah Strohmeyer weaves a story of secrets and lies—set in a funeral parlor.

Growing up in a house of female morticians, Lily Graves knows all about buried secrets. She knows that perfect senior-class president Erin Donohue isn’t what she seems. She knows why Erin’s ex-boyfriend, hot football player Matt Houser, broke up with her. And she also knows that, even though she says she and Matt are just friends, there is something brewing between them—something Erin definitely did not like.

But secrets, even ones that are long buried, have a way of returning to haunt their keeper.

So when Erin is found dead the day after attacking Lily in a jealous rage, Lily’s and Matt’s safe little lives, and the lives of everyone in their town of Potsdam, begin to unravel. And their relationship—which grew from innocent after-school tutoring sessions to late-night clandestine rendezvous—makes them both suspects.

As her world crumbles around her, Lily must figure out the difference between truth and deception, genuine love and a web of lies. And she must do it quickly, before the killer claims another victim.

Disclaimer: I received this e-ARC from Balzer + Bray via Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review.

Review:

This book had been floating pretty far under the radar among my fellow book bloggers so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. What I got was a mind-blowing, hangover-inducing twisty ride that I never wanted to get off of.

Lily Graves lives in a home with her mother, grandmother and aunt, all of them being morticians. That was so totally awesome. I completely enjoyed that aspect of it. I had always found funeral homes & the morticians that run it, incredibly fascinating. So a family of morticians was awesome and unique.

Then there was her best friend Sarah. Lily & Sara had been friends their entire childhood. They bonded over the fact that they were “freaks” Sara had a deformed hand & Lily and her family lived in a funeral home. Despite Sara’s family’s very strict rules, Lily and Sarah’s friendship had lasted a long time.

After Erin is found dead, things begin to change for everyone. Lily & Matt, Erin’s boyfriend are now surrounded by suspicious people. No one believes that Lily and Matt had nothing to do with this. Even Sara doesn’t believe that Matt is innocent.

So now Lily must figure out what the police department cannot figure out. Who killed Erin? Was it suicide or homicide? If it was a homicide, who was responsible? Lily must figure all of this out before another life is lost.

Now this book was filled with twists and turns, most of them, I didn’t even see coming. The tangled web of lies and deceit had been weaved so brilliantly that once I finished reading I was left with a massive book hangover.

I absolutely loved this book and it should surprise no one that I am giving it 5 stars. The pacing was quick and exciting, the beginning was awesome and it allowed for me to be immediately drawn into the story, which absolutely loved. The ending absolutely blew my mind and it was crazy-awesome, twisty and shocking. I would totally recommend it to anyone that likes mysteries because while this was a thriller, it was also a mystery and a very well written one at that.I literally have nothing else to say about this crazy ride except, you need to read it.

Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Book Title: We Were Liars

Author: E. Lockhart

Release Date: May 13th, 2014

Publisher: Delecorte Press

Genre: YA/Contemporary

Standalone

Book Link: Goodreads

Pre-Order Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads:

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.
 
We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. 

Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

Disclaimer: I received this e-ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Review:

This book has been very highly regarded among my fellow bloggers so when I was granted access to this title, I was excited. I had very high hopes for this book. Upon finishing it, I felt let down in a big way.It wasn’t this amazing book that had reduced me to tears. It was a pretty “meh” book for me overall.

From the beginning, I knew that this book was going to be different. I hated the writing style. It was lyrical and it bored me. I thought the male love interest was a colossal jerk and I couldn’t understand what Cady saw in him. Also I really didn’t like Cady all that much. At times, I felt sympathy for her, but I never really warmed up to her the way I wanted to.

Through the first 70% of the book, I was bored. It seemed like the book was too long for not much to happen. Maybe it had to do with the insanely slow moving plot that only picked up in the last 30% of the book. Maybe it had to do with the characters. There seemed to be too many of them and not enough time was devoted to really developing them the way I would have liked.

Now the last 30% was like someone completely different wrote the book. The writing was less lyrical and more straightforward and the feels were there in a way that they hadn’t been in the first seventy percent. It was like it was a totally new book. That was really disconcerting to me.This book lacked fluidity throughout.

I’ll admit that in the last 30% I teared up. I didn’t full on sob like a baby, but tears were produced. In the interest of not spoiling things, that’s all I’ll say about the ending. Oh and that things aren’t always how they seem.

If I was rating just the first seventy percent of the book, it would get only one star. If I was rating just the last 30% of the book, it would be getting 4.5 stars. I’ll average it out to three stars. I hated the first seven-tenths of the book but I loved the last three-tenths of the book.Overall I didn’t hate the book, but I didn’t love it either.However, I know many other people loved it, so some of you may as well.

Review: Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaria

Book Title: Love Letters to the Dead

Author: Ava Dellaria

Publish Date: April 1st, 2014

Publisher: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux

Genre: YA Contemporary

Standalone

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads:

It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more; though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her. Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was; lovely and amazing and deeply flawed; can she begin to discover her own path.

Disclaimer: I borrowed this book from a fellow blogger. 

Review:

This book is going to be a very hard book to review. First of all, you need to put away any preconceived notions you have about this book. I know I had to. Secondly, if you aren’t kicked in the feels by the time you finish reading it, then you are dead inside. Okay, maybe not dead inside, but at least for me, it was a book full of feels. It’s a book that I had a hard time getting into. It was slow at first and I was getting sad and disappointed by the fact that I wasn’t loving it.But it grows on you and before you know it, you don’t want to put it down.

Laurel has gone through her parents divorce but nothing hurt as bad as it hurt when her big sister died. She blames herself for it and she’s convinced that her mom does also. Why else would her mom have moved so far away from her, leaving Laurel to split her time between her Aunt Amy & her dad.

Laurel starts off writing a letter to a dead person as part of a school assignment, but it gets bigger than that and soon she is writing many letters to many dead people. She talks about her friendships with Kristen, Tristan, Hannah & Natalie. She talks about maybe, possibly, falling in love with Sky. Most importantly she uses these letters as a way to grieve for May.

Through these letters, we grow to learn what exactly happened to May and what happened to Laurel as well. Laurel also learns that May wasn’t as perfect as she thought she was and that she was flawed but did her best to hide that from Laurel, most likely, because she wanted to protect her little sister.

I ended up loving this book, but it wasn’t an easy road and it wasn’t until about page 150 that I really began to fall in love with this book. From that point on, I spent most of the book in tears, even sobbing by the time I had finished the book. Dellaria broke me in the feels but in one of the most honest, and beautiful ways possible. I would love, love to give this book a full 5 stars but knowing how long it took me to even get into the book, I have to give it 4 stars. I would absolutely highly recommend it to anyone. 

Stacking the Shelves #38

This feature is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

Hi everyone, hope this was a great week for you. My week started off great and continued to be great. I got two books in the mail. One was for an ARC tour and one was my prize from Octavia’s Twitter giveaway. I also received some swag & was approved for a few NetGalley titles. I also received an e-book for an upcoming blog tour that I am participating in. I did not purchase anything this week as I have 4 pre-orders coming at some point this month and I’m already significantly behind in my reading.

However, I did go to my favorite bookstore on Monday. I haven’t been there since before I started blogging so I was excited to see all the YA titles that they have there. I even pushed some books on people who were standing & looking at the books in the YA section. I am really not shy at all.Especially when it comes to telling people about the book that they are currently holding and it just happens to be one I loved.

Now, the books.

Bought

–

Received for Review

-NetGalley

We Are The Goldens by Dana Reinhardt

The Right Thing by Amy Conner

-ARC Tour-

The Geography Of You And Me by Jennifer E. Smith

-Blog Tour-

A Life, Forward by Tracy Hewitt Meyer

Gifted

Swag from Emery Lord, author of Open Road Summer.

Won

Scan (Scan #1) by Walker Jury & Sarah Fine

Be sure to leave the links to your Stacking the Shelves vlogs or posts so that I can make sure to stop by.

Weekly Blog Wrap-Up

Monday- Review of After The Storm by Marie Landry

Tuesday- Review of Great by Sara Benincasa

Wednesday- No Post

Thursday- No Post

Friday- No Post

Saturday- No Post

I know the blog content is slipping again and I apologize for that. Hoping to be swinging in the right direction again soon.

Bloggers Mentioned

Octavia of Read. Sleep. Repeat.