Tag: new adult (Page 16 of 17)

Undeclared by Jen Frederick

May 7, 2013 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I was provided with a review copy by the author.

ETA April 2015: At the time I accepted/read the book and wrote the review, I didn’t know Jen Frederick was also Jane Litte from Dear Author. No Jen Frederick books have been reviewed by me, anywhere, since I became aware of this and, given my existing relationship with Jane, I will not be reviewing any more of her books. I will continue to update my personal Goodreads account with all the books I read as per usual but, consistent with my review policy, there won’t be further formal reviews of Jen Frederick’s work.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) For four years, Grace Sullivan wrote to a Marine she never met, and fell in love. But when his deployment ended, so did the letters. Ever since that day, Grace has been coasting, academically and emotionally. The one thing she’s decided? No way is Noah Jackson — or any man — ever going to break her heart again.Noah has always known exactly what he wants out of life. Success. Stability. Control. That’s why he joined the Marines and that’s why he’s fighting his way — literally — through college. Now that he’s got the rest of his life on track, he has one last conquest: Grace Sullivan. But since he was the one who stopped writing, he knows that winning her back will be his biggest battle yet.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): When the author approached me regarding a review, I read the blurb and then went to her website and read the two excerpts available. I liked the premise and I liked the excerpts, particularly the one from Noah’s POV, so I said yes. I’m glad I did but the experience wasn’t wholly successful for me

Rush Me by Allison Parr

April 16, 2013 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I pre-ordered this one from Books on Board (*sobs*) after I saw a column by Carina editor Angela James and Harlequin HQN editor Margo Lipschultz on the Harlequin blog regarding New Adult. (I completely agree with the definition by the way.) I bought the other book mentioned as well (My Favourite Mistake), but haven’t read it yet. After BoB went belly up, I had my doubts that my pre-order would be honoured (to my surprise, it was) so I downloaded Rush Me from NetGalley because I didn’t want to buy it twice.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) When post-grad Rachael Hamilton accidentally gatecrashes a pro-athlete party, she ends up face-to-face with Ryan Carter, the NFL’s most beloved quarterback.While most girls would be thrilled to meet the attractive young millionaire, Rachael would rather spend time with books than at sporting events, and she has more important things to worry about than romance. Like her parents pressuring her to leave her unpaid publishing internship for law school. Or her brother, who’s obliviously dating Rachael’s high school bully. Or that same high school’s upcoming reunion.Still, when Ryan’s rookie teammate attaches himself to Rachael, she ends up cohosting Friday night dinners for half a dozen football players.

Over pancake brunches, charity galas, and Alexander the Great Rachael realizes all the judgments she’d made about Ryan are wrong. But how can a Midwestern Irish-Catholic jock with commitment problems and an artsy, gun-shy Jewish New Englander ever forge a partnership? Rachael must let down her barriers if she wants real love–even if that opens her up to pain that could send her back into her emotional shell forever.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I’ll be honest, I thought Ryan was a bit of a dick at the start. In fact, I found myself flipping to the back of my e reader to check whether he was the hero, that’s how much of a dick I thought he was. (then of course, I remembered that flipping to the back was completely pointless because it was an E READER. *sigh* I swipe my finger to turn the pages when I read a paper book too – very frustrating).

Good For You by Tammara Webber

January 27, 2013 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I read an early copy of Dare You To (Pushing the Limits #2) recently (soooo good) and I wasn’t ready to leave New Adult for something else – I also wanted to read something I’d been saving for a rainy day, so I opened Good for You, a book I’d bought last year at the same time as Easy.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Reid Alexander’s life is an open book. His Hollywood celebrity means that everything he does plays out in the public eye. Every relationship, every error in judgment is analyzed by strangers. His latest mistake totaled his car, destroyed a house and landed him in the hospital. Now his PR team is working overtime to salvage his image. One thing is clear—this is one predicament he won’t escape without paying for it.Dori Cantrell is a genuine humanitarian—the outward opposite of everything Reid is about. When his DUI plea bargain lands him under her community service supervision, she proves unimpressed with his status and indifferent to his proximity, and he soon wants nothing more than to knock her off of her pedestal and prove she’s human.Counting the days until his month of service is over, Dori struggles to ignore his wicked magnetic pull while shocking him with her ability to see past his celebrity and challenging him to see his own wasted potential. But Dori has secrets of her own, safely locked away until one night turns her entire world upside down. Suddenly their only hope for connection and redemption hinges on one choice: whether or not to have faith in each other.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): Man, I loved this book. It was beautiful, heartwrenching, unexpected and bittersweet. Never fear – there is a happy ending, but not everything in this book is hearts and roses and not everything is miraculously resolved.

The writing is beautiful, the characterisations clever and nuanced, the style spare and direct, while at the same time, leading the reader up to the door of various concepts/conclusions but leaving them for the reader to ponder rather than swinging a heavy hammer.

Raw Blue by Kirsty Eagar

September 18, 2012 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: Brie from Romance Around the Corner mentioned this one to me on Twitter when we were talking about some New Adult books we were loving. She wanted to get hold of the book but as the author is Australian, it was geo restricted for her. as an ebook and at the time, not available in print either. Myself, I ended up waiting for the UK publication as it was less than half the price to buy it from The Book Depository than to get it here – even in an ebook version. Brie tells me this one is now lined up next in her queue.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Carly has dropped out of uni to spend her days surfing and her nights working as a cook in a Manly café. Surfing is the one thing she loves doing … and the only thing that helps her stop thinking about what happened two years ago at schoolies week.And then Carly meets Ryan, a local at the break, fresh out of jail. When Ryan learns the truth, Carly has to decide. Will she let the past bury her? Or can she let go of her anger and shame, and find the courage to be happy?

Warning: If you have rape triggers, this is not a book for you.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): This is kind of a hard one for me to grade. On the one hand, I devoured this book in 1 day, staying up way too late to make sure Carly got a happy/hopeful ending. The writing was clean and engaging, even though I probably didn’t understand more than half of the surfing language. (It will be interesting to see what Brie thinks of the Australianisms in the book – there’s a lot of “mate” and other Aussie terms. It felt authentic to me even while I was sometimes cringing at the way some of my brethren can be… less than articulate).

Carly gutted me. After being sexually assaulted during “schoolies week” (I think in the US many teens go to Florida to celebrate the end of school – here they go to the Gold Coast in Queensland) after she finished high school, she withdrew from her family and friends, dropped out of university, moved from the Central Coast of New South Wales to Manly and lived only to surf. Her only happiness was in surfing, where she could get away from herself and not feel empty or awful anymore. She is frightened of men, intimacy, sex. She feels rage and emptiness and overwhelming shame. What bothered me, both in terms of the book and for Carly, is that she didn’t talk to anyone about it. Even by the end of the book, there is really only a fairly brief discussion with Ryan (and, while he loves and accepts her, he possibly did not articulate what she needed to hear – but then, what do I know, I’ve not been sexually assaulted). Carly got no treatment, no counselling – it seems she wasn’t even tested for STD’s. She didn’t tell anyone, until Ryan. She has very interesting reasoning for not telling anyone and for not reporting it, which felt authentic but at the same time, it left her dealing (or not dealing as the case may be) with an horrendous trauma completely alone.

By the end of the book, Carly was essentially doing the same things she had been doing at the beginning, albeit she had now opened herself to love with Ryan. But she had made no decisions about possibly going back to uni (to pursue perhaps a different form of study given that she clearly hated the business communication course she had been doing) or possibly pursuing further education/an apprenticeship as a chef/cook. She had not reconciled at all with her family. She had not been to a counsellor. After the big reveal to Ryan, which was heartwrenching – gritty and raw rather than especially graphic in my opinion (and I DARE YOU to stop reading after that), she burrows away for a long time and eventually finds solace again in the surf. There is a happy/hopeful romantic ending, never fear, but I wasn’t convinced, in terms of Carly’s mental health, that she had really processed anything or was in a better place.

The story is told from Carly’s first person POV and Ryan isn’t a big talker, so I did feel that I didn’t get enough of him. However, there was one wonderful scene (involving a discussion about tattoos) which showed he was absolutely gone over Carly. And, when push comes to shove, he chooses Carly over everyone else. Ryan is a fairly unusual hero. When we meet him, he’s just got out of jail. While it wasn’t a violent crime he was put away for, I wonder if some readers may find his criminal past makes it difficult to warm to him. But, I liked that he turned his life around and it was clear he wasn’t going back to jail. (He got a job and he moved on – that’s why I particularly noticed that Carly (with the exception of her relationship with Ryan) didn’t.) Considering that for most of the book he was clueless about what made Carly so skittish (and, while he wasn’t a bully or pushy, he wasn’t what I’d call sensitive either – at least in terms of sex) he was certainly very patient with her emotions – to the extent that on one of their first dates she spends a lot of it sobbing in his arms. Ryan is also unusual in that he’s not drop dead gorgeous. He has a good body – he’s a surfer: of course he has a good body, but he has freckles everywhere and “sandy lank hair” and ears that stick out. I liked that he wasn’t an Adonis. Not a lot was made of his looks really (or hers for that matter – there was little physical description of Carly in the book) and it put me in mind of the recent post by Kate Elliott regarding the male gaze – I felt this book was written very much with Carly’s gaze – it wasn’t terribly sexual – which makes sense given what happened to her. She sees bodies more as functional, particularly in relation to surfing. Or, at least, that was my impression.

I would have liked a few more chapters, or maybe an epilogue a little bit down the track to give me some comfort that Carly was truly going to be okay. My heart broke for her. As much as Ryan loves her, I didn’t think his love alone could “heal” her and I really wasn’t convinced she could do it on her own. While I understood her reluctance to get help, I wondered if the book was perhaps sending an unhealthy message to younger/vulnerable readers? (my inner parent showing).

What else? Carly is 19 and Ryan 26, so I’d say this book is definitely “New Adult” rather than YA. One other thing I’ll add is that it is told in present tense – that might put some people off, but I found in this book, it kept the tension strong – I was finding out what was happening just as Carly was, and I wasn’t ever sure just what would happen. While I’m not a huge fan of 1st person present tense, I think it worked well in this book.

Carly strikes up a friendship with a fellow surfer, 15 year old Danny. He has synaesthesia – he sees things in terms of colour. For example, Wednesday is green. The title of the book is actually a reference to a way Carly describes the ocean toward the end of the story:

When I come over the top of the dune I see the ocean and I feel like I’m seeing it for the first time.

Today it’s blue, straight and simple. Raw blue.

But, it also relates to Carly herself. Danny sees Carly as blue – when she is particularly troubled, it is a dark, sickly, blue from which Danny flinches and when she is better the colour is somehow easier on his eyes. And Carly was certainly “raw” in very many important ways.

While I devoured the book and the main character gutted me (my concern for Carly ran well beyond the end of the book), there were some things I felt were missing or light on, in terms of an excellent story. Hence, my grade. I’d recommend it but it may leave you feeling on the melancholy side rather than with warm and fuzzy with satisfaction and triumph.

Grade: B- ETA B This book has stayed with me. The more I thought about it… well, now it’s a B.

Something Like Normal by Trish Doller

July 14, 2012 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I saw the Twitter buzz about this one – Brie from Romance Around the Corner and Jane from Dear Author were both recommending it and I picked it up from Kobo with a coupon which meant I only paid about $5. Yippee

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) When Travis returns home from a stint in Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother’s stolen his girlfriend and his car, and he’s haunted by nightmares of his best friend’s death. It’s not until Travis runs into Harper, a girl he’s had a rocky relationship with since middle school, that life actually starts looking up. And as he and Harper see more of each other, he begins to pick his way through the minefield of family problems and post-traumatic stress to the possibility of a life that might resemble normal again. Travis’s dry sense of humor, and incredible sense of honor, make him an irresistible and eminently lovable hero.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I’m a hero-centric reader, so a story told from the hero’s POV is very tempting for me. There aren’t that many of them around.

I suspect that the “new adult” stories I’ve been reading lately have worked for me largely because, even though the protagonists are young, they are dealing with adult issues. Coming back from war is definitely something that strikes me as very adult and the depiction here seemed very authentic. Travis came across as a 19 year old who had seen too much, who was starting to mature and realise that life doesn’t revolve only around him (as teenagers do). He notices his mother in a new way and thinks about her happiness, rather than just what she can/should do for him. He reconnects with Harper and for the first time (it appears) really understands what his thoughtless exaggeration of their game of “7 minutes in heaven” in middle school meant for her. (Although, to be fair, it wasn’t all his fault – I suspect Paige had much to do with how big the story became). I would have liked to have seen Travis stand up to his friends a little more on Harper’s behalf and actually make it clear to them that the rumours were false but you can’t have everything.

Travis is far from perfect but he’s working hard to become a better man and I believed that by the end of the book he was on his way. There was a delightful lack of arrogance about him too. His transformation was perhaps a bit fast, but I put that down to his adult experience of war. I was prepared to accept that having those experiences and then being back in his home town for the first time since he enlisted, meant that he saw things a different way than he had before. It made sense to me that he would place value differently now.

His interactions with Paige (his ex-girlfriend, now his brother’s girlfriend) were interesting. Ordinarily they would be the type to really piss me off but actually, they fit with where I saw Travis at the time, his age and even where things were at with Harper. My sense was that he was letting things happen to him – and Paige fell into that category. When he finally started to control things better and make deliberate moves, he gave Paige her marching orders and I, as the reader, was able to move past it without any ill feeling for him. I wondered how Harper would react. In the end, I thought she probably had the right of it. My sense was that she internally told herself the things she would not let Travis say and realised that he hadn’t actually made her any promises (as upsetting as it was).

I loved Travis’ sense of humour and the self-deprecating way he thought to himself.

I’m not an especially romantic person, but when a beautiful girl invites a guy to the beach at night, sea turtles are not usually involved.

It’s actually quite a romantic book – it’s not at all all explicit (which strangely enough for me, I didn’t mind at all – it fit the book entirely).

I step into the space between us and take her face in my hands. I kiss her for days. Or maybe just a couple of minutes. It’s hard to tell.

What I also liked is how Travis is always 19 when he’s being romantic, so there’s humour and youth mixed in.

She beams at me and it’s almost enough to make up for the fact that I’m harder than trigonometry right now. Almost.

and here

“Yeah, well, it’s my first time with you and I want to get it right.” It sounds like a line. Like I’m trying to get in her pants. Which I am, but not the way it seems. Harper’s skepticism registers in the hitch of her brows and it makes me laugh. “Okay, that sounded lame, but”—I drop my voice low because I have to admit something that kind of scares me—“I don’t want to mess this up.”

She gives me that tiny bit-lip smile that always knocks me out, and I know I’ve said the right thing.

“But”—I shoot her a grin—“if you want to wait, I’ll live. Of course, my balls will probably shrivel up and fall off, but don’t feel bad about that or anything.”

Harper gives me a little punch in the gut, then circles her arms around my neck. Her lower lip grazes mine and, just before she kisses me, she tells me to shut up.

I loved the interaction between his fellow Marines – that felt very authentic to me. I saw from the author’s acknowledgements at the back of the book that she spoke to many Marines during her research and the portrayal of life in Afghanistan and the camaraderie between the fellow solders felt very realistic. Sometimes, we bloggers talk about how women write male dialogue as they wish them to be, not as they are. But I could imagine guys talking this way for sure:

“Did you or did you not close the deal, Kenneth?”

“I don’t think I want to tell you now.” He crosses his arms over his scrawny freckled chest, all huffy, and turns his nose up, pretending to ignore me.

“Kevlar, man, I thought we were BFFs,” I say. Moss doesn’t open his eyes, but a chuckle rumbles out. “I still have my half of the necklace, and last night I wrote in my diary, ‘Dear Diary, Kenneth is my BFF. I hope he gets laid, because it’s a special night when a man loses his virginity and contracts a sexually transmitted disease at the same time.’”

I suppose the secondary characters could have been further developed but to be honest I didn’t feel the lack. I would have liked to have seen more interaction with Harper and Travis (more of Harper in general actually) and my HEA-gene would dearly love to know that Travis will survive his entire deployment. Nevertheless, I appreciated that the story ended where it did – there is definitely a happy ending but not everything is sewn up with a bright red bow. Which is a good thing – the kinds of experiences a soldier has in Afghanistan don’t get fixed in under 200 pages after all.

What else? The book is fairly short, coming in at about 140 pages. As much as I enjoyed it, I’m glad I didn’t pay full price. On the one hand, for a fairly short novel it certainly packed a punch – I remember thinking when I first picked it up that there was a lot going on in such a small space, but it never felt rushed. I have said before that writing short is a special talent and I think Ms. Doller has it.

Grade: B+

Easy by Tammara Webber

July 8, 2012 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: This was another “new adult” book recommended by Jane at Dear Author. I actually bought 2 by this author but I haven’t read the other one yet. I’m saving it.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) When Jacqueline follows her longtime boyfriend to the college of his choice, the last thing she expects is a breakup. After two weeks in shock, she wakes up to her new reality: she’s single, attending a state university instead of a music conservatory, ignored by her former circle of friends, stalked by her ex’s frat brother, and failing a class for the first time in her life.

Her econ professor gives her an email address for Landon, the class tutor, who shows her that she’s still the same intelligent girl she’s always been. As Jacqueline becomes interested in more from her tutor than a better grade, his teasing responses make the feeling seem mutual. There’s just one problem—their only interactions are through email.
Meanwhile, a guy in her econ class proves his worth the first night she meets him. Nothing like her popular ex or her brainy tutor, Lucas sits on the back row, sketching in a notebook and staring at her. At a downtown club, he disappears after several dances that leave her on fire. When he asks if he can sketch her, alone in her room, she agrees—hoping for more.

Then Jacqueline discovers a withheld connection between her supportive tutor and her seductive classmate, her ex comes back into the picture, and her stalker escalates his attention by spreading rumors that they’ve hooked up. Suddenly appearances are everything, and knowing who to trust is anything but easy.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I loved this book. The main characters are 18/19 and 21/22 I guess and it is set at a college so it qualifies as “new adult”/YA. But in all other respects it is a contemporary adult romance. Eminently satisfying, with beautiful writing and a hot sexy hero – what more could you want?

The book starts when Jacqueline is attacked outside a frat party and Lucas intervenes to stop her from being raped. It’s the first time she’s aware of him but afterwards, she sees him everywhere. In the meantime, having been absent from her economics class for 2 weeks following the breakup with her douche-y ex-boyfriend, she’s terribly behind and after a groveling session with the professor, is assigned an extra project and help from the class tutor. So, there’s Lucas the hottie rescuer in the back of the class and Landon, the smart tutor who flirts with her on line. Lucas rescues her physically and Landon rescues her educationally. Both seem so different but both have significant attraction. What to do?

I won’t spoil the story with too much more description but be assured that the romance is very satisfying and the story has a HEA. There is more to this book than meets the eye; with depth and emotion, close friendships, steamy love scenes and wonderful main characters. And don’t worry, there’s no major love triangle going on – things become clear fairly early in the story.

What else? Here’s a taste of the great writing and sexy hero number 1….

Eyes blazing, he looked down at me. “Jacqueline?”

I blinked. “Yes?”

“The night we met—I’m not like that guy.” His jaw was rigid.

“I know tha—” He placed a finger over my lips, his expression softening.

“So I don’t want you to feel pressured. Or overpowered. But I do, absolutely, want to kiss you right now. Badly.”

He trailed his finger over my jaw and down my throat, and then into his lap. I stared at him. Finally comprehending that he was waiting for a response, I said, “Okay.”

He dropped the pad onto the floor and the pencil followed, his stare never unlocking from mine. As he leaned over me, I felt a heightened awareness of every part of my body that touched a part of his—the edge of his hip pressed to mine, his chest sliding against mine, his fingers tracing from wrists to forearms and then framing my face. He held me in place, lips near my ear. When he kissed the sensitive spot, my breath shuddered. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered, moving his mouth to mine.

My favourite kind of story is one where the hero rescues the heroine and, just like in Pretty Woman, she rescues him right back. This book is my favourite kind of romance.

I just loved it. I will definitely re-read this one.

Grade: A