Showcase Sunday #35

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Vicky at Books, Biscuits and Tea. The aim is to showcase our newest books or book related swag and to see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, bought in bookshops and downloaded onto eReaders this week.

Hello lovelies, the last two weeks have been super busy, the only thing that has kept me going through being ill and having endless family members over is the fact that I can curl up with a great book. Once again I didn't receive many books, but nonetheless I'm super excited about reading all of them at once. (This is definitely the time when I need Bernard's Watch). 

Time After Time (Time Between Us #2) by Tamara Ireland Stone | Into the Still Blue by Veronica Rossi | Salvage by Alexandra Duncan | Playing Dirty by Jennifer Echols

Thank you to Disney Hyperion, Harper Collins and Pocket Books.

I read Time after Time in a few days, although I didn't enjoy it as much as the first book, I still appreciated the sweet story that Tamara Ireland Stone provided. I couldn't download Into the Still Blue fast enough when I saw it up on Edelweiss, the last book was just amazing, so I'm dying to start this book already, but I have a few more upcoming books before I can do that :(

Rachel the lucky lady is at Laguna Beach for the weekend, but will be back soon sharing her lovely posts with you. Here's a picture of where she's spent her day reading! 

If you post a book haul of any sort this week, then feel free to leave a link in the comments, and I will be over later!

A Kid's Perspective: Judging a Book by it's Cover #5

A Kid's Perspective: Judging a Book By Its Cover is a feature hosted by Sara @ Forever 17 Books where Sara gets her six year old son Shawn's perspective on a few Young Adult covers.

Hello everyone, my sister is back with another interpretation of a YA book cover, this time she has decided to go for a book that I've never read before. So without further ado! 

I think this book is about a girl who has a long distance relationship with her boyfriend and the way they show their love for each other is through postcards. 

After my sister wrote her perspective, I went to check what this book was actually about, and it does actually involve the MC sending a postcard to her sort of boyfriend. I actually think that I would probably would end up reading this book with my sister's perspective, I hardly see anyone send postcards anymore, so it would be interesting to see if their relationship would work out seeing how they live so far apart! 

Crash (Visions #1) by Lisa McMann

Crash (Visions #1) by Lisa McMann
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication date: January 8th 2013
My rating:  3 stars

If what you see is what you get, Jules is in serious trouble. The suspenseful first of four books from the New York Times bestselling author of the Wake trilogy.

Jules lives with her family above their restaurant, which means she smells like pizza most of the time and drives their double-meatball-shaped food truck to school. It’s not a recipe for popularity, but she can handle that.

What she can’t handle is the recurring vision that haunts her. Over and over, Jules sees a careening truck hit a building and explode...and nine body bags in the snow.

The vision is everywhere—on billboards, television screens, windows—and she’s the only one who sees it. And the more she sees it, the more she sees. The vision is giving her clues, and soon Jules knows what she has to do. Because now she can see the face in one of the body bags, and it’s someone she knows. Someone she has been in love with for as long as she can remember.

In this riveting start to a gripping series from New York Times bestselling author Lisa McMann, Jules has to act—and act fast—to keep her vision from becoming reality.

My Thoughts:

Crash was a book I was really excited about.  I love mystery, suspense and action stories, especially if a little swoony romance is thrown in.  Crash was exactly that.

The Demarco’s and Angotti’s have been rivals for years. Each have an Italian Pizza restaurant and competition and old accusations keep the bitter rivalry going.  This isn’t good for Jules Demarco because ever since she can remember, she’s been in love with Sawyer Angotti.  They were once thick as thieves growing up, having all kinds of fun together.  This is when Jules longtime crush on Sawyer developed.  When their parents find out about their friendship they are not too pleased, and Sawyer drops Jules like a hot potato. So in the here and now, they both attend high school together, but Jules must content herself with pining from afar. *sniff*

I’d imagine us in Bulger Park on a blanket, ignoring the tree frogs and the pigeons and little crying kids. I’d touch his cheek and push his hair back, and he’d look at me with his gorgeous green eyes and that crooked, shy grin of his, and then he’d lean toward me and we’d both hold our breath without realizing it, and his lips would touch mine, and then…

Suddenly, Jules starts having a vision of a terrible crash involving the Angotti’s.  At first she thinks she’s going nuts, but as details become clearer Jules knows she has to warn Sawyer, because she couldn’t bear it if she didn’t speak up and she lost him for good. The visions amp up in intensity and in frequency and Jules wonders if there’s anything she can do to prevent a horrible tragedy from happening.

I really enjoyed this story.  It had twists and turns and was pleasantly entertaining.  Jules is a typical sixteen year-old, but she faces quite a few heartbreaking problems.  Her dad is a train wreck, and when I found out everything behind his story I was surprised and angry for the whole family. Selfish man!  The men in Sawyer’s family are no better, and I think everyone would be better off if they all just went away! Unrequited love is a romance that always gets to me, and this one was sweet. 

Crash was an entertaining and fast read, but I can’t help but think that there was just a little something missing.  It was enjoyable but lacked the “wow” factor.  I will continue with the series because I want to know what happens.   There is a cliff, not a horrible one, just a more like a “to be continued…” sort of situation.  No worries, I have Bang on hand and plan to pick it soon! 

Review: Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone

Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone
Publisher: Doubleday Children's
Publication date: October 25th 2012.
My rating: 4 stars 

  

Anna and Bennett were never supposed to meet. Why would they? Anna is sixteen in 1995, fiercely determined to leave her quiet town and finally travel the world. Bennett's seventeen in 2012, living in San Francisco and trying to control his ability to travel through time - an incredible gift, but also an unpredictable curse, which constantly threatens to separate him from the people he loves. When Bennett suddenly finds himself in Anna's world, they are inescapably drawn to one another - it's almost as if they have met before. But they both know, deep down, that it can never last. For no matter how desperate Bennett is to stay with Anna, his condition will inevitably knock him right back to where he belongs - and Anna will be left to pick up the pieces.

Time Between Us was a gorgeously written story that deals with falling in love, making choices and if we decide to choose things differently how would this end up affecting our lives in a major way? I’m probably not making much sense right now as I’ve just finished reading the last page of this gem of a book, but in Time Between Us Tamara Ireland Stone develops a sweet relationship between two characters and sprinkles it with a special time travel twist. 

Time Between Us went way beyond what I was expecting it to be. I had recently devoured another time travel book and was in the mood for another time travel book and a bit of romance. I’m pleased to say Time Between Us delivered in these aspects and provided so much more. It had a nice mystery aspect to it with us not really knowing what was going on with the new boy Bennett. I didn’t like Bennett at all at the beginning, he constantly blew hot and cold which frustrated me to no end, and it was clear that there was something strong between him and Anna but for whatever reason he continued to be closed off and a grump about it. But I admired Anna’s resilience and thought her best friend Emma’s (who was exactly what best friends should be like) encouragement went after Bennett once more. I’m so glad that Anna did because the relationship which emerged was one of the most sweetest and beautiful ones yet. 

I kind of had a feeling that there would be heartbreak along the way for Anna and Bennett and to be honest this is how I like my romance in stories to be, I want my characters to have a battle through tough hurdles and really fight for their relationship. And this is exactly what Bennett and Anna had to do. But the hurdles they had to deal with were so different to what a normal couple had to deal with. With Bennett’s ability, it was that they could only enjoy themselves so much before something out of their control could take everything away in an instant. 

Time Between us not only had a poignant romance it also featured many beautiful places; Vernazza Italy, La Paz Mexico and Ko Tao Thailand, I loved having that feeling of being able to be whisked away to another place anywhere in an instant and being able to forget the rest of your troubles behind. 

Tamara Ireland Stone truly wrote an exceptional story in Time Between Us. I liked how she didn’t leave it easy for our characters Bennett and Anna that they had to constantly try and savour each moment as their last. The twists thrown in I extremely enjoyed, as I was constantly left guessing until the very last page. Time Between Us was a book which satiated my latest addiction of time travel books. Now all that is left is my own Bennett to turn up and whisk me away to some place else. 

A big thank you to Rebekah for reading this with me.

Review: One Tiny Lie by K.A. Tucker

One Tiny Lie by K.A. Tucker
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication date: June 11th 2013
My rating: 4 stars

Livie has always been the stable one of the two Cleary sisters, handling her parents' tragic death and Kacey's self-destructive phase with strength and maturity. But underneath that exterior is a little girl hanging onto the last words her father ever spoke to her. “Make me proud,” he had said. She promised she would...and she’s done her best over the past seven years with every choice, with every word, with every action.

Livie walks into Princeton with a solid plan, and she’s dead set on delivering on it: Rock her classes, set herself up for medical school, and meet a good, respectable guy that she’s going to someday marry. What isn’t part of her plan are Jell-O shots, a lovable, party animal roommate she can’t say ‘no’ to, and Ashton, the gorgeous captain of the men’s rowing team. Definitely him. He’s an arrogant ass who makes Livie’s usually non-existent temper flare and everything she doesn’t want in a guy. Worse, he’s best friends and roommates with Connor, who happens to fits Livie’s criteria perfectly. So why does she keep thinking about Ashton?

As Livie finds herself facing mediocre grades, career aspirations she no longer thinks she can handle, and feelings for Ashton that she shouldn’t have, she’s forced to let go of her last promise to her father and, with it, the only identity that she knows.

My Thoughts:
I was surprised to find out how much I really loved One Tiny Lie. I had started reading it with a lot of apprehension because I found out there was cheating in the story, and I HATE cheating stories. It almost always ruins the story for me.  Why did I start reading when I knew this? Well, first of all I requested this title before I knew about the cheating.  Second, I was assured that the story was really good in spite of the hated subject.  I have to agree with that.

Livie Cleary is the sister who was very much overlooked in the previous book because her sister Kacey was such a train wreck.  Kacey was in the accident that killed their parents and left her in rehab for a year, so Livie had to be strong because her sister was not.  Now that most of Kacey’s demons have been dealt with, all eyes turn to Livie because no one can be that perfect and not crack at some point. Dr. Stayner, Kacey’s very unconventional therapist, basically forces his guidance on Livie. Not even letting up when Livie leaves Miami for Princeton.  He keeps trying to get Livie to look at her life, make sure all the decisions she’s making is because she wants them and not because she is leading the life she thinks her parents would’ve expected her to.  So with the advice to make some mistakes, and to loosen way-the-heck-up, Livie starts college.

Enter Ashton.  He’s beautiful, and Livie’s drunk at her first college party, and they can’t keep their hands or their mouths off each other!  Livie finds out that Ashton has a girlfriend and resolves to stay away from him, writing him off as a man-whore jerk.  Life has other plans when she strikes up a friendship with his best friend, Connor.  Connor is everything her parents would approve of.  He’s a steady guy, serious student, and comes from a solid family.  He’s good looking as well, but there’s no spark. However, because Livie feels this is the type of guy she should be with, she doesn’t say no when he asks her to date. Being that Connor and Ashton live in the same house and are best friends their paths cross, often….

So yes, this sounds like a recipe for disaster if you hate cheating, right? Well, here is why I think it worked for me: I think the author did a wonderful job conveying Livie’s naiveté, as well as showing how very young she is for her age.  She makes mistakes, stupid mistakes, but they are realistic “being young” mistakes, AND they are not done with malicious intent. Livie fully intends to stay away from Ashton, and Ashton away from Livie, BUT they end up together and their chemistry and connection make short work of their resolve.  Have you ever been with someone that you just click with intensely, you’re drawn to them like a magnet?  This is Ashton and Livie.  Plus, the whole Connor relationship is one that just sort of happens to Livie, he just keeps making the next date, and she doesn’t say no.  I know, messed up.  Another reason I was able to stomach this is because there were hints that all wasn’t as it seemed with Ashton and his girlfriend, or his life. 

I’m not saying that I agree or even condone what happened, but I don’t always have to like the actions or behavior of characters to enjoy the story.  If I can understand the motivations and reasons for their transgressions, I can look past them.  I did with Livie and Ashton. They just clicked for me and I wanted everything to work out for them.  They clearly cared so much for each other, they just needed to sort their shit baggage out!

I have ten pages worth of highlights showing how much I loved this story.  Here’s one of my favorites that had me totally laughing:

When pressed to come up with some redeeming qualities, this is Ashton’s note to Livie while in English class:

1. I'm brilliant

2. I'm charming

3. I'm hung like a thoroughbred

4. I've stopped philandering

5. I'm highly skilled, as you've learned the other night

P.S. Stop staring at my hands.  I know what you want me to do with them.*

One Tiny Lie was captivating story of two people finding the strength to live the life they want and chose to, instead of a life decided by guilt or expectation.  I’m so happy I read One Tiny Lie in spite of my reservations, because I ended up really loving it. 

*Quote taken from an uncorrected proof and may change in the final copy.