Showing posts with label contemporary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label contemporary. Show all posts

Book Tour (Review & Favorite Quotes) + Giveaway: Losing the Ice (Ice #2) by Jennifer Comeaux




Series: Ice #2
Release date: February 23rd 2015
Purchase: Amazon


Synopsis via Goodreads:
Courtney and Josh are in love and excited to finally compete as skating partners. When they take the ice for their first competition, they want to show everyone, especially Josh's family, they are the perfect pair.
But ice is slippery, and one misstep puts all their dreams in jeopardy. Now they must show each other both their love and their partnership are strong enough to survive.





I'm so lucky to have received Losing the Ice. The thing is, I absolutely adored Crossing the Ice and those six months were way to long to wait for th sequel. So getting it early was not only a pleasure but also a relief.

First off, Josh and Courtney were adorable as ever. It's hard to tell any more than that without spoilers, but I can disclose this much; their relationship changed. A lot. And it's not necessarily in an easy or positive way. However, in the end I was more than satisfied with how the difficulties morphed their romance into something more and, of course, the fluffiness just made. Me. Swooon.


The story was also exciting. Many bumps along the way and Ms Comeaux always sets the pacing so well. Both Crossing the Ice and Losing the Ice were unputdownable. Although, I did have one issue with Losing the Ice. While it was a great story, it felt more like a prequel. It was rather short and more or less revolving around the one main thread.

All in all, Losing the Ice didn't disappoint me. While I wish it had been a tad longer, I can't wait for the third book to come out. (Do we even have a title yet??)


Favorite Quotes:


"They made me want to run screaming into the hills." - Courtney

""If she starts giving you a hard time, we're out the door." "Then we should probably keep our coats on." - Josh and Courtney

"And you told me, 'You're not going to fall because I'll always protect you." - Stephanie

"What a gorgeous night." I tilted my head back to gaze at the sky full of twinkling light. "There must be a million stars out." - Courtney



About the Author
Jennifer Comeaux is a tax accountant by day, writer by night. There aren’t any ice rinks near her home in south Louisiana, but she’s a die-hard figure skating fan and loves to write stories of romance set in the world of competitive skating.
One of her favorite pastimes is traveling to competitions, where she can experience all the glitz and drama that inspire her writing. Jennifer loves to hear from readers!
jennifercomeaux.blogspot.com | TWITTER | FACEBOOK






Book Tour (Review + Dreamcast): Crossing the Ice by Jennifer Comeaux




Release date: August 3rd 2014
Purchase: Amazon


Synopsis via Goodreads:
Falling hard never felt so good.

Pair skaters Courtney and Mark have one shot left at their Olympic dream. They vow not to let anything get in their way, especially not Josh and Stephanie, the wealthy and talented brother and sister team.

The heart doesn’t always listen to reason, though...

The more time Courtney spends with sweet, shy Josh, the harder she falls for him. But they are on opposite sides of thecompetition, and their futures are headed in opposite directions. Will their friendship blossom into more or are their paths too different to cross?
I didn't delve into Crossing the Ice with particularly high expectations. I've never read anything else from the author and the premise was not exceptinally unique by far so I considered it to be a nice, light read, but nothing more.
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BOY WAS I WRONG! This was one of the best books I have ever, EVER read. It was so hilarious and excited and suspenseful and adorable and having just finished it I feel so much like...


...because the book was just...




Please give me a moment to compose myself...

Okay, so let's get down to our raving rating business. Or rather the review first, and just then...I may need another minute.


The story


"You were following your dream. There's nothing wrong with that."
"I could've followed it more sensibly."

Crossing the Ice embraces about a year's time, from an important competition in terms of Olympics, until a little after the afortementioned event. Throughout this span we follow Courtney's journey toward fulfilling or failing? her dream to skate in the biggest competition an athlete can ever particiapate in and also, we get to know how she tackles a relationship with the sexy, shy Josh, who is her biggest competitior, too. 

I literally enjoyed every single moment of this book. The story was so very sweet and ginormously suspenseful all along, though the latter is not much a surprise as it's utterly fast-paced. It basically highlights a couple of days of the year and a half or so we spend with Courtney, the more significant ones. No filling scenes, no meaningless parts, just pure action. Okay, not that much action in fact, It's a tranquil story with no drama tainting it and when I write no drama, I mean not grim, disastrous drama. Because would the book be book without it at all? Despite the fact that it intended to be a rethorical question, I'm going to answer it. And that answer is a shocking: yes. there would be. But we would probably be bored to death. Where was I anyway? Oh, yeah drama. It mostly gathered around our FMC and Josh's relationship, however, sometimes the prior's personal life got involved as well. It was depicted completely realisticlly and unlike in a lot of YA novels, nothing was overreacted or stretch out just for the sake of the conflict.


The characters


"Yeah, because off the ice the only language Stephanie speaks is fluent bitch."

Courtney was an awesome FMC. I totally loved her attitude, her spunkiness, her guts as well as her soft, passionate, romantic side. She had her opinion and didn't mess around for a second, not with the bitchy Stephanie or her even worse mother, but wasn't scared of reciting an apology or thank a generous old woman her generous donation. All in all, I adored her and could relate her perfectly.

As for Josh....Oh, Josh, I  might swoon just at the mention of his name. He's shy and quiet, but not when it comes to Courtney. Or at least not after eight years. What he is when it comes to Courtney though, is devoted and understanding aaand SO SO FRIGGIN CUTE!  Not to mention his superhuman powers. No, it's not a paranormal. Just go read it and figure it out. Anyway, I may have a new book boyfriend. 


The Writing Style


"There was nothing quite like the sound of ten thousand people gasping at one.
Especially when it was because my butt had just slammed into the cold, hard ice."

Admittedly, I'm a writing style snob. I'm very picky when it comes down to it and if it's not nearly perfect if not perfect, that can take away much from the experience. And from the overall rating. However, this was not the case here. Jennifer Comeaux's writing style was most definitely stellar. Not only was it eloquent but still readable - meaning she didn't weight down our minds with long, unpronouncable words to create a unique feeling-, but it had that plus to it that sends it over the roof.


Overall




Jennifer Comeaux is a tax accountant by day, writer by night. There aren’t any ice rinks near her home in south Louisiana, but she’s a diehard figure skating fan and loves to write stories of romance set in the world of competitive skating. One of her favorite pastimes is traveling to competitions, where she can experience all the glitz and drama that inspire her writing. 




And now something I have never done before...


Claire Holt as Courtney




Darren Criss as Josh




Lyndsy Fonseca as Stephanie





Chace Crawford as Mark




Bridie Carter as Em




Jeffery Dean Morgan as Sergei


Image of Jeffrey Dean Morgan


Review: Barely Breathing (Breathing #2) by Rebecca Donovan

13454149Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Smashwords
Publication: May 8th, 2012

Pages: 421 (Kindle Edition)
            432 (Paperback)
            385 (eBook)

Editions: Kindle Edition, Paperback, eBook, Audio book

Purchase via: Amazon  I  Barnes&Nobles  I  Indigo  I  Abebooks  I  TBD  I  Audible


Synopsis:

Emma’s struggle with an abusive home life came to a heart pounding conclusion in the final chapters of "Reason to Breathe". Now everyone in Weslyn knows Emma’s secret, but Carol can’t hurt Emma anymore. Some are still haunted by the horror of that night, and some must face the repercussions of their choices. Fans of Rebecca Donovan’s debut novel will discover there’s still much to learn about Emma’s life.


Rating:

    

Review: Reason to Breathe (Breathing #1) by Rebecca Donovan

15718777Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: - (Indie) / Wood Street Publishing
Publication: May 9th, 2011

Pages: 377 (Kindle Edition)
            386 (Paperback)
            374 (eBook)
Editions: Kindle Edition, Paperback, eBook

Purchase via: Amazon


Rating:

    

Synopsis:

"No one tried to get involved with me, and I kept to myself. This was the place where everything was supposed to be safe and easy. How could Evan Mathews unravel my constant universe in just one day?"

In the affluent town of Weslyn, Connecticut, where most people worry about what to be seen in and who to be seen with, Emma Thomas would rather not be seen at all. She’s more concerned with feigning perfection while pulling down her sleeves to conceal the bruises - not wanting anyone to know how far from perfect her life truly is. Without expecting it, she finds love. It challenges her to recognize her own worth - but at the risk of revealing the terrible secret she’s desperate to hide. 

Reason to Breathe is an electrifying page turner from start to finish, a unique tale of life-changing love, unspeakable cruelty, and one girl’s fragile grasp of hope.

Review: The End of You and Me by Wendi M. Lee

I have a good and a bad news. As the good one won't make much sense without the bad, I will start with the latter. I still haven't finished Days of Blood & Starlight. I found that I was making such a slow progress, because I couldn't get into it right now. I should be able to concentrate for one, it's to complex to keep up absentmindedly and also I could not enjoy the distinct world in this state. (Am I sick? That has never ever happened before.) However, I realized something else, too; for the first time in forever (There'll be music, there'll be light...) I was acrually craving for contemporary. Something though-provoking, and deep and dark. Thus I ended up at The and of You and Me, an ARC I received a while back. (Cue I received an ARC from the author in exchange for an an honest review.) So here we go.


21948123Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Createspace
Publication: April 18th, 2014
Pages: 136

Purchase via: Amazon  I  Barnes&Noble  I  Abebooks  I  TBD  I  Alibris  I  IndieBound

Rating:

    

Synopsis:

Sixteen year old Kate can't live without London. Their friendship is intense to the point of obsession. Nothing else matters: not dating, college applications, or her military father's disapproval. When beautiful red haired Anastasia sweeps into town and becomes fast friends with the pair, life changes forever. Suddenly Kate's quiet world is threatened.

What makes an honor student like Kate snap? Is it a redhead armed with seduction and lies? And how far will either of them go to get what they want?

The History Of Young Adult Books

The roots of young adult go back to when "teenagers" were given their own distinction as a social demographic: World War II. Seventeenth Summer, released by Maureen Daly in 1942, is considered to be the first book written and published explicitly for teenagers, according to Cart, an author and the former president of the Young Adult Library Services Association. It was a novel largely for girls about first love. In its footsteps followed other romances, ands sport novels for boys.
The term young adult was coined by the Young Adult Library Services Association during the 1960s to represent the 12-18 age range. Novels of the time, like S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders, offered a mature contemporary realism directed at adolescents. The focus on culture and serious themes in young adult paved the way for authors to write with more candor about teen issues in the 1970s, Cart said.
The first golden age is associated with the authors who the parents of today's teens recognize: Judy Blume, Lois Duncan and Robert Cormier. The young adult books of the 1970s remain true time capsules of the high school experience and the drama of being misunderstood. Books like Cormier's The Chocolate War brought a literary sense to books targeted at teens.
But once these books devolved into single-problem novels -- divorce, drug abuse -- teens grew tired of the formulaic stories. The 1980s welcomed in more genre fiction, like horror from Christopher Pike and the beginning of R.L. Stine's Fear Street series, and adolescent high drama a la Sweet Valley High, while the '90s were an eclipse for young adult. With fewer teenagers around to soak up young adult lit due to low birth rates in the mid-1970s, books for tweens and middle-schoolers bloomed. But a baby boom in 1992 resulted in a renaissance among teen readers and the second golden age beginning in 2000, Cart said.

"When I was a teen in the '90s, there were probably three shelves of teen books I wanted to read," said Shannon Peterson, president of the Young Adult Library Services Association. "Now, I feel like it's evolved from three shelves to whole hallways of books."
The book world began marketing directly to teens for the first time at the turn of the millennium. Expansive young adult sections appeared in bookstores, targeting and welcoming teens to discover their very own genre. J.K. Rowling's well-timed Harry Potter series exploded the category and inspired a whole generation of fantasy series novelists, Cart said. The shift led to success for Stephenie Meyer's Twilight vampire saga and Suzanne Collins' futuristic The Hunger Games.
But why did paranormal and dystopian tales connect so well with teens?
"Just like adolescence is between childhood and adulthood, paranormal, or other, is between human and supernatural," said Jennifer Lynn Barnes, a young adult author, Ph.D. and cognitive science scholar. "Teens are caught between two worlds, childhood and adulthood, and in YA, they can navigate those two worlds and sometimes dualities of other worlds."

Review: Panic by Lauren Oliver

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: March 4th 2014
Pages: 416 (ebook, Kindle Edition, Paperback)
              408 (Hardcover)


Synopsis:


Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of twelve thousand people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.

Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She'd never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.

Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game; he's sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he's not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.

For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.


Books That We Are Insanely Looking Forward To Read 3 - Don't Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout

What? Another Jennifer L. Armentrout book? First White Hot Kiss (The Dark Elements #1) and Fifty First Times: A New Adult Anthology, which is a book about nineteen of the best New Adult, Young Adult, and Romance authors who give us a peek inside some of their characters' lives' most intense moments, just came out nine days ago, then there's the so badly anticipated Opposition, which is the 5th and last installment of one of her most famous sequels, the Lux series. It will be published on August 5 (I've already written an article on it (Book That We Are Insanely Looking Forward To Read 2 - Opposition). We'll also get two special Collector's Edition of this series on June 3 (article HERE) and in this year there will be published Stone Cold Touch (The Dark Elements #2), Be with Me (Wait for You #2), Tempting the Bodyguard (Gamble Brothers #3), Stay with Me (Wait for You #3), Scorched (Frigid #2), and Undone (Nephilim Rising #2) by her, however, she's been writing the last 5 books as J. Lynn, which is her pen name for her New Adult and Adult romanc books. Looks like it's going to be a great and profitable year for her. And so, I believe, a great and profitable year for us, since her works are usually lovable and thrilling. 
So this is my next article of Books That We Are Insanely Looking Forward To Read topic, since I skipped the last one on Sunday, and I though I'd catch up on it. I hope you'll like it!


Special Collector’s Editions Of The Lux Series

I found something big today, related to the Lux series so caution, please sit down, you may need it in case you start to feel faint. You ready? Then drums...and...a special collector’s editions will be released and shelved on June 3, 2014. It's so great, incredibly cool, can't wait...but wait. What is it at all? Well firstly, you don’t get just one book on June 3rd, but you get TWO books. There will be two volumes releasing that day. Lux Series Volume 1 (Obsidian and Onyx), Lux Series Volume 2  (Opal and Origin). You can actually pre-order Volume 1 right now, as it’s already up on Amazon by clicking HERE, and you’re going to want these special editions.  And here’s why.
Volume 1 will have not one but TWO never seen before, original material that was cut from Obsidian and Onyx, featuring Katy and Daemon.
Volume 2 will have two Daemon POVs. You’ll get that very special chapter of Opal in his POV. You know, a certain smexy scene from Chapter 33 in his POV, and you will also finally get the last scene of Opal in Daemon’s POV.
This bonus material will only be available in the collector editions.
And that’s not all. There are a lot of cool things you’ll have a chance at getting with these new bound editions, plus surrounding them at RT and ALA coming up next year.

Books That We Are Insanely Looking Forward To Read 2 - Opposition

Hi, Dear Reader. Here I come with the second installment of the topic, Books That We Are Insanely Looking Forward To Read (huh, bit long, isn't it?) As I promised it's going to be on Opposition, the fifth book of the Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. The previous book was a ginormous cliffhanger ending, perhaps even bigger than the Opal's end, so thus it's kind of a torture to wait until August 5, when Opposition will come out. But do we have any other choice but waiting? Not really. So until then we must content ourselves with smidgens of informations on it.