Monthly Archives:: January 2014

Friday, January 31, 2014

Review & Dream Cast: Deeper by Robin York

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I received this book for free from Random House in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review & Dream Cast: Deeper by Robin YorkDeeper by Robin York
Series: Caroline and West #1
Published by Bantam on January 28th 2014
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult
Source: Random House
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

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.

A slow budding romance, loads of chemistry, and highly character driven; Deeper has a lot to offer. Revenge porn is something that happens all too often, and unfortunately continues to be legal in most States. Finding those sex pictures of herself after a break-up was only the beginning of a very long, very dark chapter in Caroline’s life. Not only is she plagued with the knowledge of everyone having seen her during such an intimate act, she’s ashamed, haunted by the voices of the men who call her vile names, describe the repulsive things they’d do to her in comments, making her wary of anyone that looks her way. This is not something that ever goes away.

Deeper is not a fast paced read. It’s a slow character-oriented story that begins with Caroline living through an incredibly difficult time, building up to her realizing who’s truly to blame despite all the fingers pointing at her. I truly admire her for learning to be above it all. Even though there is a guy involved in her getting her strength back, it’s done in a way that had me happy she found someone to see her for who she was, not who she thought she had become. Sometimes, you just need to be nudged by the right person.

West and Caroline aren’t instant lovers, though. Quite the opposite actually. West being so driven to give his sister a nice life made him reluctant to let someone into his own. He could not allow anyone to disrupt the road he was on. This doesn’t mean there was no immediate chemistry. From the start, their attraction is like a character in itself. Their ignoring it just makes it all the more infuriating, albeit in a good way. I loved their banter and fun-loving relationship; they’re so different from each other, yet fit so right together. The time spent at the bakery just keeping each other company might be “boring” to some, but I loved the whole atmosphere and it’s where we see them connect beyond attraction. The cast of mutual friends become a group that makes this story even more character driven. They all help get Caroline through this. Each one adds to the depth to this novel.

I already mentioned it’s not a fast paced read. Some parts in the middle did drag a bit where I wished it would have moved along faster, but overall I’m satisfied with the lack of urgency this plot has. The ending is one that leaves a lot of open roads, especially from West’s perspective. If this was a stand-alone, I would say the story was left incomplete, but seeing as it’s the first in its series this is clearly not the end. All in all, we’ve got a fantastic mix of humor, romance, friendship, and conflict with an important message touching on the often misplaced blame of online attacks. It’s an eye opener, and I hope it opens yours, too!

four-stars


Dream Cast, by Robin York



Hello, Xpresso Readers!

Thanks for inviting me to share my dream cast for Deeper, my debut new adult novel. It was fun finding just the right faces for my characters.

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First up, I picked Nicholas Hoult for the novel’s hero, West. Hoult can look a lot of different ways depending on how his hair is, how he’s dressed, etc., and not all of them remind me of West, but he’s got the eyebrows and the interesting face, and he’s very West-like in these photos.


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And who’s a better heroine for Hoult than Teresa Palmer? No one, that’s what I say. But the Teresa Palmer who looks like my heroine, Caroline, isn’t the glamorous blond one. Caroline’s not even blond, actually. (I kind of doubt Palmer is, either.) The Palmer I love is the more natural, messy one, as in these pictures.Perfect, right?


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Now, just for fun, here’s our supporting cast. West’s best friend, Krishna, played by Rajiv Surendra.


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And Caroline’s best friend, Bridget, played by this adorable redhead whose name I can’t find, but put her in track pants and she is perfect.


There you have it!


This post is part of the Deeper blog tour.


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Giveaway

Thanks to Random House Publishing and Robin York, you can enter to win a signed copy of Deeper!


  • Open internationally
  • Giveaway is set and managed by author/tour host, not Xpresso Reads
  • Use the Rafflecopter below to enter

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Review: Codename Zero by Chris Rylander

Review: Codename Zero by Chris Rylander

Posted by on 01/30/2014 • 19 Comments

There’s nothing better to cleanse the reader’s pallet than a good ol’ middle grade novel.  No cliche romance, no chance of a love triangle and just piles of fun! Codename Zero was such a fantastic read, one that I took in in a single day and one that I could have devoured much more of if given the chance.

Carson Fender is a prankster.  He lives in a small town in North Dakota and is quite frankly bored with the every day small town life.  He likes to spice things up with his pranks, take people by surprise and uproot the daily routine.  One afternoon while carrying out an epic prank involving fainting goats and super glue a sweaty man in a suit rushes up to him and hands him…

Review: Waiting by Carol Lynch Williams

Posted by on 01/29/2014 • 20 Comments

I read two of Carol Lynch Williams’ books last year and I quickly became a fan of her as an author. This year I decided to venture into her verse stuff at the urging of Bekka from Great Imaginations. Since opening myself up to verse novels much more over the holidays I was more open to the idea and I am so happy that Bekka recommended this one to me.

Waiting is the story of London’s life in the aftermath of her brother’s death. The novel starts with a very bleak feel and I felt so sad as we looked in on London’s life. Since her brother’s passing her mother can’t even look at her and her father is never home. There was an intense darkness to the story and…

Worlds We’d Never Want To Live In

Worlds We’d Never Want To Live In

Posted by on 01/28/2014 • 35 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish where every week there is a new top 10 topic where we list bookish things.

Worlds We’d Never Want To Live In

Giselle

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis: Reading this book made me so thirsty and exhausted while lounging on my couch reading, I couldn’t imagine actually having to live like that at all! Very bleak, very sad world. Wither by Lauren DeStefano: Women only live to be 20 in this series. And well, I’m 29 so really I’d already be dead and typing this from beyond the grave! Blood Red Road by Moira Young: This world is terrifying in so many ways! Not…

Review: Minders by Michele Jaffe

Review: Minders by Michele Jaffe

Posted by on 01/27/2014 • 21 Comments

Minders is a futuristic story about a new science that allows a person to piggyback on someone else’s mind. During what’s called Syncopy, minders see what their host sees, read their thoughts, feel their pleasure and pain, however they can’t control anything, and their host don’t know they’re being watched.

I was quite surprised by the depth of this story. For the most part, it comes off as a contemporary novel inside a sci-fi bubble. We’re literally thrown inside Ford’s mind; someone hurt, broken, and deeply troubled by grief. It’s saddening to see his family crumbling from his brother’s murder. With a now useless mother, Ford is the one who has to raise his sister and put food on the table. He’s also starting to realize there’s more to…

Giselle’s Stacking the Shelves [Jan. 26]

Giselle’s Stacking the Shelves [Jan. 26]

Posted by on 01/26/2014 • 33 Comments

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews featuring the books we got this week, and I also mention blog news/happenings of the past week. How is everyone this week? It’s been pretty quiet for me. Just letting winter pass along I guess. So me and Jenni both have birthdays in February and we’ve been talking about doing an awesome giveaway to celebrate. Let’s see what we can come up with >.< As for my haul this week I got a very gorgeous packaged book in the mail which apparently is old news now (they save us Canadians for last – but you all know what that means ;), and then a few ebooks I was very excited for! Let’s take a look and I’m back to binge-watching…

Fresh Batch (New Releases January 26th – February 1st)

Fresh Batch (New Releases January 26th – February 1st)

Posted by on 01/25/2014 • 17 Comments

Fresh Batch, posted weekly, keeps you up to date on the hottest releases of the upcoming week.

Flavor of the week:

Uninvited Sophie Jordan Series: Uninvited #1 Publication date: January 28th 2014 by HarperTeen

Goodreads Purchase

The Scarlet Letter meets Minority Report in bestselling author Sophie Jordan’s chilling new novel about a teenage girl who is ostracized when her genetic test proves she’s destined to become a murderer.

When Davy Hamilton’s tests come back positive for Homicidal Tendency Syndrome (HTS)-aka the kill gene-she loses everything. Her boyfriend ditches her, her parents are scared of her, and she can forget about her bright future at Juilliard. Davy doesn’t feel any different, but genes don’t lie. One day she will kill someone.

Only Sean, a fellow…

Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Posted by on 01/24/2014 • 32 Comments

What an intense thrill ride! Red Rising gives us one meticulously built strategy game with a large cast of colorful characters who represent social status in a whole new perspective.

Ultimately, the Red Rising Trilogy is a story of rebellion, and this is its first chapter. Set on Mars, we’re introduced to an intimidating oligarchy government where your color decides your fate. Darrow, a Red – the lowest of the lows – is surgically enhanced to look like a Gold, and here’s hoping he can successfully infiltrate and beat the system. This whole color classification did not have me completely convinced, I will admit. Pinks for pleasure, Golds for “gods”, Reds for slaves and so on. No question that it’s fascinating, even not so far from the racial disparities that…