Genre: Contemporary


Thursday, June 02, 2016

Review: Suffer Love by Ashley Herring Blake

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

Review: Suffer Love by Ashley Herring BlakeSuffer Love by Ashley Herring Blake
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on May 3rd 2016
Genres: Contemporary, YA
Source: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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three-half-stars

“Just let it go.”

That’s what everyone keeps telling Hadley St. Clair after she learns that her father cheated on her mother. But Hadley doesn’t want to let it go. She wants to be angry and she wants everyone in her life—her dad most of all—to leave her alone.

Sam Bennett and his family have had their share of drama too. Still reeling from a move to a new town and his parents’ recent divorce, Sam is hoping that he can coast through senior year and then move on to hassle-free, parent-free life in college. He isn’t looking for a relationship…that is, until he sees Hadley for the first time.

Hadley and Sam’s connection is undeniable, but Sam has a secret that could ruin everything. Should he follow his heart or tell the truth? (less)

I read this book a while ago, but have been totally slacking on actually writing reviews. I’m sure that you all have noticed. I am going to try to do my best with this since I get hazy on details if I wait to long. I really did like the characters, and I thought they had good chemistry. I haven’t been reading a whole lot lately, but I have been really into contemporary novels and this one was one I did enjoy.

Hadley is a bit of a rough character. Her father cheated on her mom, but they are still together, but it’s not really a happy place. Her mother tries to make her father as annoyed an uncomfortable as possible, and he tries to act like it’s all okay. No one wants to ruffle feathers. Hadley is stuck in the middle of this odd thing going on. She doesn’t know how to forgive her father, but more than that, she isn’t sure of herself. If her parents went through this, she might end up hurt in the future too. She’s a smart and lovely girl, but she’s got a lot of crap to deal with.

Sam was great, but a bit thick in the head to be honest. He has good intentions though. He lives with his mom and sister. His father has moved to Boston after he found out that his wife cheated on him. Sam is very protective of his sister and it’s really sweet. He ends up having to do a project with Hadley, and they end up starting to like each other. The thing is, he knows something that she doesn’t and he doesn’t want her to find out. He really does like her, but doesn’t want to get too close and complicate things.

Besides Sam and Hadley starting to totally fall for each other, I really liked the friendship that Hadley formed with his sister. I thought it was sweet. Hadley’s best friend was pretty awesome too. I wish I could remember her name. This book wasn’t super emotional and didn’t give me all the feels, but it kept me interested and I really wanted for Hadley and Sam to figure their shit out and just be with each other. It was enough to keep my attention, which considering that I was in a major reading slump, is a pretty good thing. I wish I remembered more about the book, but it was good and I thought that it was set at a good pace. I did feel like I knew the characters well and really just wanted the best for everyone. I promise, by reviews will be better going forward. I don’t usually wait this long after reading a book to write a review.

three-half-stars

3.5 Hot Espressos

Saving Montgomery Sole by Mariko Tamaki

Posted by on 04/20/2016 • 1 Comment

When I found out that Mariko Tamaki had a book coming out, I was so excited!  I was curious to see how Tamaki’s storytelling style would differ from This One Summer and it helped that the book had a stunning cover.

Montgomery Sole’s voice is truly unique and stands out. She is angsty like many young adults (in YA novels and in real life) but her way of dealing with her angst is usually not dealing with it at all which explains the title and her need to be ‘saved.’ Montgomery Sole also spends a surprising amount of time searching conspiracy theories and buying rocks we know won’t actually do anything. That’s okay though because Montgomery Sole is a precious child that needs to be protected from the world. All of this…

Giveaway: The Haters by Jesse Andrews

Posted by on 04/04/2016 • 1 Comment

Thanks to the lovely people at Abrams Books, we have a copy of The Haters by Jesse Andrews up for grabs today! Jesse Andrews’s debut novel, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, a New York Times and USA Today bestseller, was published to critical acclaim and starred reviews. His adaptation of the book for the big screen won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Jesse is also a musician and screenwriter. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts. Visit Jesse at www.jesseandrews.com.

PRAISE for The Haters:

“truly hilarious….a teen road trip packed with music and drama.” — Kirkus

“an uproariously funny addition to the teen-road-trip canon…readers will be sucked into this story, a raunchy bromance in the vein…

Review: Titans by Victoria Scott

Posted by on 02/11/2016 • 10 Comments

You know when you start reading a book and you are just pulled into it and want to devour it? Yeah, this was one of those. I loved just about everything about it. The underlying story is sad and bleak, but the main part of it is thrilling and full of adventure. This book is fast paced and keeps your heart racing along with the characters. And the best part is, there’s not really romance in it. There’s no need for it and it would have taken away from the story and I am glad that the author didn’t feel the need to throw it in there. The characters are fabulous and I really enjoyed getting to know them. The Titans were so interesting and I couldn’t help but want…

Blog Tour: Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum – Review

Posted by on 01/30/2016 • 4 Comments

Hello and welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Tell Me Three Things!! I adored this book. It was just one of those books that makes you feel good. It’s not all fluff and rainbows and all that cute stuff though. There is a lot of depth to it, and things that aren’t quite so easy for the characters, but in the end it’s a book that just made me happy. I loved Jessie getting to know Somebody Nobody. I had a pretty good idea of who it was from the start, but I did keep wondering throughout if I was right. And man did it throw me for a loop at times. Anyways, I liked the honesty in the messages that they sent to each other and…

Interview with Laurie Elizabeth Flynn + Giveaway!

Posted by on 01/22/2016 • 2 Comments

I’m happy to have the Firsts blog tour stop by today for an author interview plus a chance to win! Let’s see what this book is all about first:

Interview with Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

Hi Laurie! Thanks so much for visiting this little blog of mine! Let’s start with telling us a little something about your book that might surprise us:

Hi Giselle! Thank you so much for having me on your blog. That’s a great question! I think readers may be surprised to find out the reasons behind why Mercedes tries to help the boys. While she puts on a tough front and can be even cruel at times in her incisiveness, Mercedes is soft and vulnerable in a lot of ways, and things that happened…

Review: The Mystery of Hollow Places by Rebecca Podos

Posted by on 01/13/2016 • 2 Comments

So I’m not really sure what to think of this book. It wasn’t bad, and it had the potential to be really good, but it missed the mark. I’m all about background information and learning the history of the character and their lives, but this one was to the point that is was very disruptive to the story and it really just disconnected me from the whole thing. It was hard to really care abou the story and what was happening when it was interrupted for long stretches explaining something about the past. I get that it’s the thought process of the main character as she is the one telling the story, but it just did’t quite work for me.

Imogene is the MC and she was just okay…

Review: My True Love Gave To Me: Twelve Holiday Stories Edited by Stephanie Perkins

Posted by on 12/22/2015 • 6 Comments

I love the holidays, so when I was approached about reviewing this book I couldn’t pass it up. I also always love “feel good” stories and knew this would be filled with them. It didn’t disappoint. It has twelve different stories having to do with the holidays written by an amazing variety of authors. No matter what holiday you celebrate, this book will make you smile. Some even had me tearing up with happy tears. I always really have a hard time reviewing anthologies because I don’t want to have a review that is super long or too short, but I am going to try to do it as good as I can, but be assured, this is a book you want to read around the holidays or any time…