Dear Cassie by Lisa Burstein

* *

What if the last place you should fall in love is the first place that you do?

You’d think getting sent to Turning Pines Wilderness Camp for a month-long rehabilitation “retreat” and being forced to re-live it in this journal would be the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.

You’d be wrong.

There’s the reason I was sent to Turning Pines in the first place: I got arrested. On prom night. With my two best friends, who I haven’t talked to since and probably never will again. And then there’s the real reason I was sent here. The thing I can’t talk about with the guy I can’t even think about.

What if the moment you’ve closed yourself off is the moment you start to break open?

But there’s this guy here. Ben. And the more I swear he won’t—he can’t—the deeper under my skin he’s getting. After the thing that happened, I promised I’d never fall for another boy’s lies.

And yet I can’t help but wonder…what if?

Review:


I requested Dear Cassie because it sounded interesting.  I have wanted to read more contemporary YA and this looked like a great addition to that category.   Unfortunately, Dear Cassie just wasn’t for me.  

First I want to point out the great thing about this book.  Lisa Burstein did an amazing job of getting into her heroine’s head.  She got inside Cassie’s head and it was as if you really are reading the words of this hard on the outside and broken on the inside teen.   

The unfortunate fact of the matter is that Cassie is a frustrating and unlikeable character.  She is whiney and annoying and mean and so closed off.  Yes, she is very broken.  Yes, what happened to her has left her with a significant amount of pain and grief – understandably so.  Her inability to respect and love herself is sad and (because I’m not a monster – at least I don’t think so) I wanted to take her in and give her the love and parental support she really needs.  But because her story is told in the first person and I was constantly in her head full of whiney self recrimination, I found it hard to turn the page.   Ever chapter is titled “(number) of f***ing Days to Go.”  And all I could think was “(number) f***ing chapters I have left read.”  That is how frustrated I was with her character.  

I, personally, saw very little growth in her character.  And although I wouldn’t expect a ton of a growth in just a month’s time if I were dealing with a real live person, I guess I did kind of expect it with a fictional character that only has a few hundred pages to improve her outlook on life.

As for the other characters, I don’t have much to say.   I think if this story had been told in the third person or in alternating first person POV, I could have understood the secondary characters better.  Particularly Ben.  I never quite understood his motivation behind pursuing Cassie.  

This book was definitely not for me.  The reason I give it 2 stars instead of 1 is due to the author’s ability to absolutely and unapologetically own her heroine.  Even if I didn’t like this book personally, I can’t deny how impressive it is to have that ability as a writer.

Nat

Losing It by Cora Carmack

* * *

Virginity.

Bliss Edwards is about to graduate from college and still has hers. Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, she decides the best way to deal with the problem is to lose it as quickly and simply as possible-- a one-night stand. But her plan turns out to be anything but simple when she freaks out and leaves a gorgeous guy alone and naked in her bed with an excuse that no one with half-a-brain would ever believe. And as if that weren't embarrassing enough, when she arrives for her first class of her last college semester, she recognizes her new theatre professor. She'd left him naked in her bed about 8 hours earlier.








Review:

This was one of titles we received at the Romantic Times Convention.  I had seen it in passing but didn’t know anything about it.  I like the new New Adult genre so was definitely excited to learn more about it and receive a copy.  The  premise seemed both cute and romantic.  One of my many favorite combinations.

Bliss Edwards gives into peer pressure to lose her virginity.  By picking up a random guy at a bar.  Just when she is about to lose her nerve and go home alone, she meets Garrick Taylor.  The sparks fly between them so fast and furiously that she doesn’t think twice about chatting with him at the bar and then taking him home to her apartment.  But she chickens out at the last minute.  And I mean the LAST minute.  Leaving Garrick naked and alone in HER apartment.  After fleeing her apartment in only her bra and skirt, Bliss doesn’t think anything could be more mortifying.  The next day proves her wrong when she finds her one night stand that wasn’t is her new theatre professor.

I enjoyed this story.  Bliss is ridiculously awkward.  To the point that I was laughing and cringing every time she was in the same vicinity as Garrick.  She is what I imagine Stephanie Plum would be if Stephanie wasn’t so flaky.  I had a hard time connecting to Garrick.  I didn’t feel I knew enough about him to love him as much as Bliss did but their relationship was still engaging.

What no one who knows me will find surprising is that I absolutely fell in love with one of Bliss' BFF's.  Cade is a total forever boy and Bliss completely rejects him.  Let's be completely honest.  He might be the reason I couldn't connect to Garrick.  Why would I want the sexy British boy when I could have the sexy boy next door?  Fortunately for me, Finding It, which comes out in June is all about Cade.  Needless to say, I have a date with Cade on June 4th.  Don't bug me that day.

Although Bliss totally chooses the wrong guy, this book would make a great beach read.  Laugh out loud moments with a couple you want to both throttle and cheer on (yeah, even I cheered them on).  If you are looking for a light romance, this one might be for you.

Nat

Waiting on Wednesday (64)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that highlights future releases that we are excitedly anticipating.

By Jennifer Estep
Publication Date: July 30, 2013


Here we go again …

Just when it seems life at Mythos Academy can’t get any more dangerous, the Reapers of Chaos manage to prove me wrong. It was just a typical night at the Library of Antiquities — until a Reaper tried to poison me. The good news is I’m still alive and kicking. The bad news is the Reaper poisoned someone else instead.

As Nike’s Champion, everyone expects me to lead the charge against the Reapers, even though I’m still hurting over what happened with Spartan warrior Logan Quinn. I’ve got to get my hands on the antidote fast — otherwise, an innocent person will die. But the only known cure is hidden in some creepy ruins — and the Reapers are sure to be waiting for me there …





By Jessica Sorensen
Publication Date: May 28, 2013

Ella and Micha have survived tragedy and heartbreak. When they're together, anything seems possible. But now they are thousands of miles apart, and managing their long distance relationship will put their love to the test.

Ella is back at school, trying hard not worry so much about her future. But with her father in and out of rehab, she's having a hard time making it through the days. All she wants is Micha by her side, but she refuses to let her problems get in the way of his dreams.

Micha spends his days touring the country with his band, but deep down he knows something is missing. Being away from Ella is harder than he thought it would be. He wants her closer to him-needs her with him. But he won't ask her to leave college, just to be with him.

The few moments they do spend together are intense and passionate, but it only makes it more difficult when they have to part. They know they want to be together, but is wanting something enough to get them to their forever?

Portrait of a Crossroads Blog Tour - Interview with Kelly Rand

Do you remember when I went absolutely giddy over Riptide Publishing's presence at this year's Romantic Times Convention?  Well, they have just managed to make me MORE giddy.  Riptide has released it's first f/f stand alone story - Portrait of a Crossroads by Kelly Rand.   And to make this even more exciting for us, Portrait of a Crossroads is part of the New Adult category!   

We are super happy to be part of the Portrait of a Crossroads Virtual Book Tour.  Keep reading a special guest post and interview from author, Kelly Rand!

Guest Post and Interview:

Hello there! I’m Kelly Rand, and thanks for joining me on the virtual book tour for Portrait of a Crossroads, my new release from Riptide Publishing, which also happens to be Riptide’s first standalone F/F story—how exciting! As a writer of trans* fiction, f/f, m/m, and more, I’m thrilled to help Riptide expand their rainbow romance catalog. I invite you to comment on my guest posts all week long to share your thoughts on Portrait of a Crossroads, F/F fiction, the weather, or just to just say hello! One lucky commenter will even win a $5 store credit to Riptide Publishing, so don’t be shy! Comment below before midnight on 5/26 to enter.

Hi Kelly, and welcome! You’re a new Riptide author, so help us get to know you a little better. 

As an author yourself, who are your idols? Which other authors have influenced your writing the most?

It’s absolutely Billy Martin (Poppy Z. Brite). I’ve read almost everything he’s ever written. When I first picked up Drawing Blood, which is still my favourite book ever, I felt like he’d touched on everything I’d ever wanted to read or write about. He creates such alluring characters, and tells such beautiful, unorthodox love stories. He’s retired from writing now, but I want more than anything for him to come back. I keep hoping. He taught me to boldly follow my imagination – to fully go there, if you will – and it turned my world around. He said “I write about what turns me on” once, and that quote flashes through my mind at least once a week.

What’s the most common response you hear when you tell people that you’re a writer?

When I tell them my genre, they say “Have you read Fifty Shades of Grey?” Then they tell me their own views on Fifty Shades of Grey. 

Do you have any special writing rituals? 

I write for 10 minutes a day every day. It doesn’t seem like much, but if I think of writing as something that requires hours of concentration at a time, I’ll never write. So I sit down thinking “I’m just going to go this for 10 minutes,” I end up being a lot more productive.

Do you listen to music while you write?  

No. I need complete silence. I’ve written plenty of stories inspired by music though. I try to attach a Matthew Good song to every story I write too. The one for “Portrait of a Crossroads” is “Empty’s Theme Park.”

Do you have a writing tip to share with our readers? 

Try writing in a notebook. With a pen. I’ve read articles about how the act of writing with a pen and paper actually inspires creativity. I used to do it as a kid and have just gotten back into it, and I find I can’t wait to get home at night and write.

Blurb:

Since finding her father’s body at the bottom of the basement stairs, Annette’s been drifting through her days, watching cars pass down the rural Ontario crossroads beside her house. Her brothers have no great ambitions, but Annette remembers a time when she did. She just can’t remember what they are.

Then she meets her neighbour, Sadie, a tattooed, world-weary, newly single portrait artist. Something about Sadie awakens something in Annette—the essence she captures in her subjects, perhaps, or the way the old familiar crossroads seem so fresh and promising from the view out Sadie’s window.

Annette begins to help Sadie, cleaning brushes and filing invoices between long lazy afternoons of conversations and shared silences. Soon, though, Annette wants more from her enigmatic neighbor, and their slowly heating friendship melts into passionate nights. Somewhere along the way, Annette discovers that her lover has illuminated for her, as with the people Sadie paints, not just her essence but her own endless worlds of possibilities.



Purchase Portrait of a Crossroads from Riptide Publishing here.

About The Author


Kelly Rand lives in southern Ontario, Canada. She has worked as a journalist for more than fifteen years, covering court cases and elections and every kind of human interest story imaginable. She published her first erotic romance in 2012.
She has a particular interest in trans fiction, and has published some and wants to write more of it. She also writes male/male, female/female, and male/female stories that range from figure skater love to sexually disgruntled Canadian musicians. In her more highfalutin moments, she likes to think of her stories as a merger between erotic romance conventions and Southern Ontario Gothic.

When she’s not writing, she likes live music, spontaneous road trips, volunteering with street youth, obsessing over various celebrities, and looking at pictures of cats on the internet.

You can find her at http://www.kellyrand.net or on twitter as @Rand_Kelly.

Tremble by Jus Acardo

***1/2

From Entangled:

Dez Cross has problems.  She's almost eighteen and on the verge of losing her mind thanks to the drug the Denazen corporation used to enhance her abilities.  People close to her have turned their backs on the underground and are now fighting for the wrong side.  And then there's Kale...  Things couldn't get any worse.

Until, of course, they do.  Denazen is about to start a new trial - this one called Domination - and it works.  But that means out with the old and in with the new.  The order has been given to terminate all remnants of the second trial - including Dez.  The good news is that there's a survivor from the original trial.  A woman whose blood may hold the cure for the second generation of Supremacy kids' defects.  But the underground Sixes aren't the only ones who know about her.  

Dez's father is willing to throw away everything he has to keep Dez from getting the cure - including the one thing that might tear her apart from the inside out.  

I'm torn between liked and really liked...

Tremble was heartbreaking and hopeful, all at the same time.  Dez is facing her impending death and the hate and Kale's rage and anger, all at the hands of her father.  Even facing death, heartbreak and memory loss, Dez is full of sarcasm and spunk, making her an endearing heroine.  Tremble is about the power of love and lengths desperate people will go.  It's a great third installment and I recommend you all pick up this series.  Wit, humor, hot boys and great superhuman fun, who could ask for more?

~Shel

It Had To Be You by Jill Shalvis

****

From Grand Central/Forever:

Ali Winters is not having a good day.  Her boyfriend left her, everyone in town thinks she’s a thief, and now she’s about to be kicked out of her home.  Her only shot at keeping a roof over her head and clearing her name is to beg for help from a police detective who’s as sexy as he is stern….

After a high-profile case goes wrong, Luke Hanover returns to his hometown for some peace and quiet.  Instead he finds a bombshell brunette in a heap of trouble.  As he helps Ali put her world back together, the pieces of Luke’s own life finally seem to fall into place.  Is this the start of a sizzling fling?  Or are Luke and Ali on the brink of something big in a little town called Lucky Harbor?

It Had to Be You kicks off another branch of the Lucky Harbor family tree featuring newcomer Ali Winters and hometown boy Luke Hanover.  The twist?  Ali just moved to Lucky Harbor and Luke is returning after a long absence.  Have I mentioned that I love Lucky Harbor?  I so want to live there!  You have the best old people (Lucille and in IHTBY we meet Luke’s grandfather Edward), super-hot guys (see heroes in ALL Lucky Harbor books) and beautiful scenery (I mean besides the hot guys).  *sigh*  What a great place Jill Shalvis has created!

To be honest, IHTBY is probably my least favorite of the Lucky Harbor books, which is a lot like saying “This is my least favorite bite of my fabulous chocolate cookie.”  It Had To Be You is full of Shalvis’ trademark humor and steam, and this time we have a little mystery thrown into the mix.

Speaking of, in case you missed it, the BiblioJunkes met THE JILL SHALVIS at the RT Convention in Kansas City a few weeks ago.  Oh My God, people, I met Jill Shalvis!!!!  See, there’s photographic proof!

This was taken during Robyn Carr’s party, right after Jill HUGGED me and told me she LOVES me!! I may have just told her that she might have edged out Janet Evanovich as my favorite author, which is completely true.  That’s right friends, I have achieved my life goal and Jill is totally my BFF and we are going to live on BFF island with Nat, Bel, Helenkay Dimon, P!nk and others where we will be waited on by Ranger, Green Arrow, RDJ, Ian Somerhalder and more.  They will serve us cookies and cake and pie, OH, and drinks with umbrellas!  BFF island is completely awesome. 

Forgive my distraction, I was talking about the books you should read, by my BFF Jill Shalvis.  Of forget it.  Just read this book!  Unless you hate puppies, sunshine and all things good, you will enjoy any Jill Shalvis book.

~Shel

(Please forgive my fangirling.  I promise to only do it occasionally).  

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

* * * *

"Bono met his wife in high school," Park says.

"So did Jerry Lee Lewis," Eleanor answers.

"I’m not kidding," he says.

"You should be," she says, "we’re sixteen."

"What about Romeo and Juliet?"

"Shallow, confused, then dead."

''I love you," Park says.

"Wherefore art thou," Eleanor answers.

"I’m not kidding," he says.

"You should be."

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, ELEANOR AND PARK is the story of two star-crossed misfits – smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love – and just how hard it pulled you under.

Eleanor & Park is one of the standouts of the year and will definitely be a strong contender for my Top 10 of 2013. Between Rowell’s smooth writing, Eleanor and Park’s charismatic personalities and the amazing soundtrack as backdrop, I was completely under its spell.

Set in Omaha in 1986, Eleanor and Park first meet each other on the school bus. Park likes to keep to himself on the bus and occupies himself with his music and comics. New girl Eleanor shows up and threatens his peaceful, under-the-radar sanctum by sitting beside him.  Eleanor has no choice since most of the seats have been taken and Park looks the least threatening. What begins as a silent hostility evolves into steadfast friendship.

What did I love about the book? Pretty much everything. Above all, it was Eleanor and Park themselves.  I easily identified with Eleanor’s awkwardness and insecurities which are atypical of that age. There were so many times when I thought to myself, "yeah been there, felt that". She has a messed up home life with a stepdad who drinks constantly and abuses her mom. She’s the eldest child in a family that barely has any money and her house is a disaster as evidenced by the lack of a door on the only bathroom in the house. Eleanor is always trying to be invisible to her stepdad whom she despises because she doesn’t want to stir up any more trouble than there already is.

Park’s life is magical in comparison. His parents are still madly in love and their PDA tends to make Park a little uncomfortable. At that age who wants to see their parents make out? He’s essentially a good kid who is aware that he doesn’t necessarily live up to his father’s high expectations. His dad is more of a macho guy who was stationed in Korea where he met Park’s mom.  Park knows how different he is from is dad and even his younger brother. Where they’re taller, more athletically-inclined and even look more like each other, Park is shorter, not really interested in sports and looks more Asian.  Despite this, Park has carved out his own identity and carries himself with surprising self-assurance. He is the kind of boy any girl would be luck to have as a first love. He has that "forever boy" vibe going on that will seriously melt your heart. Oh and he wears guyliner. Yeah. I love him.

When Eleanor and Park meet, they’re an enigma to each other. Each is judging the other one based on first impression, day-to-day appearance and random encounters. As the school year progresses and Park catches Eleanor reading his comics over his shoulder, he decides to adopt a less hostile attitude towards his seat-mate and starts loaning her his comics. The best part of all of this is that they haven’t even spoken a word to each other yet – except when he yelled at her to sit down on her first day on the bus. I love how Rowell describes them starting to notice each other. It really feels like your inside their minds as they're daydreaming about each other. One of my favorite scenes is when they have their first real conversation and it's not even in person but over the phone. It's so innocent and sweet. As they get more comfortable with each other, Park introduces her to a new world where hanging out at his home is like Disneyland. But that bubble could burst because of Eleanor's insecurities about her appearance and her fear of her step dad constantly get in the way. 

I cannot say enough how truly awesome Eleanor & Park is. The description of their budding friendship and romance has so much heart. And it's their friendship that saves Eleanor from drowning in her depressing family life. Oh and let's not forget the soundtrack that had me giddy with nostalgia! From The Smiths to Joy Division to Elvis Costello, I was a happy, happy reader! It truly is a feel-good story that has clung to me. I find myself wondering what kind of people they'd be now, what they would have overcome and just for my amusement, what kind of music Park would have discovered along the way. And hopefully, he'd still whip out the guyliner on occasion. :) 

~ Bel