Review: Golden by Jessi Kirby

Golden by Jessi Kirby
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication date: May 14th 2013
My rating: 4 stars 

Seventeen-year-old Parker Frost has never taken the road less traveled. Valedictorian and quintessential good girl, she’s about to graduate high school without ever having kissed her crush or broken the rules. So when fate drops a clue in her lap—one that might be the key to unraveling a town mystery—she decides to take a chance. Julianna Farnetti and Shane Cruz are remembered as the golden couple of Summit Lakes High—perfect in every way, meant to be together forever. But Julianna’s journal tells a different story—one of doubts about Shane and a forbidden romance with an older, artistic guy. These are the secrets that were swept away with her the night that Shane’s jeep plunged into an icy river, leaving behind a grieving town and no bodies to bury. Reading Julianna’s journal gives Parker the courage to start to really live—and it also gives her reasons to question what really happened the night of the accident. Armed with clues from the past, Parker enlists the help of her best friend, Kat, and Trevor, her longtime crush, to track down some leads. The mystery ends up taking Parker places that she never could have imagined. And she soon finds that taking the road less traveled makes all the difference.

Golden was a gorgeous novel that delves into the aspect of first loves and choices. Shane Cruz and Julianna Farnetti have always been looked up to as the golden couple in Summit Lakes. Their lives were taken too early on the night of their graduation. They’re honoured by a billboard with a photo of them as soon as you leave town and a scholarship to give youngsters a chance on what they missed out on. But when Parker is set the task of posting out diaries from students 10 years ago, she discovers the golden couple weren’t as perfect as everyone imagined.

I liked how Kirby focused Golden on both of the past of Julia and Shane and with the present life of our MC Parker. Parker’s life wasn’t by all means perfect, she was going for a scholarship her mother wanted her to go for, she was studying hard for her mother, and she had confused feelings about the guy from school Trevor. Was she really doing something for herself? Her stumbling across Juliana’s school project/diary was the wake-up call she needed. She didn’t want to read a person’s private thoughts especially not a dead persons but she found once she started, she really couldn’t stop. And some of the things she discovered really someone needed to know about. Julia and Shane were epitomised as the golden couple and their demise was truly tragic but the real truth behind their relationship was much more so.

I liked how Parker decided to put everything to one side to get to the truth of the matter. She had an important speech to write up for her potential scholarship but she put it to one side to go on what some may have considered a wild goose chase. But the more she delved deeper, she discovered it wasn’t that but a truly heart rendering story of what could have been. I enjoyed discovering the mystery behind Juliana’s story and Parker’s mission to find a happy ending. But what I enjoyed most was how much Parker was able to take away from just once in her life taking a risk and doing something she normally wouldn’t. Not only was the journey she went on a discovery of Juliana’s life. But it was also an important journey of discovery about herself.

Only a few books I have discovered which truly resonate with me. Jessi Kirby’s Golden I am pleased to say is one of those books. Her writing is poignant yet purposeful, with it evoking such a depth of emotions within me. This was my first novel by Jessi Kirby, if I have to take anything away from this novel it’s that it’s certainly won’t be my last.

If you’re looking for a novel littered with beautiful meaningful passages, a beautiful mystery, a road trip full with revelations, strong relationships and a sweet romance then go pick up Golden.

Rachel had the great opportunity to meet Jessi Kirby, as part of the Summer Lovin' Tour, you can read her wonderful recap here. And enter to win a signed copy of this beautiful book. 

Author Event Recap & Giveaway: 2013 Summer Lovin' Tour

 

Hello readers! Last night I attended the Summer Lovin' Tour at Mrs. Nelson's Toy and Bookshop in La Verne, CA.  I know I'm incredibly lucky to live in the Los Angeles area, because of the awesome authors that come through our city.  With that said, this event has to be one of the extreme examples of just how lucky I truly am!! Six amazing authors all in one spot.  I seriously needed smelling salts to keep me from collapsing on the floor!! I laughed hysterically while being pelted with snack size Skittles, and chocolate that the authors would throw at us (yes, I'm serious).  That was our reward for correctly answering which book a quote came from. 

There is a reward at the end of this post.  I'm giving away a SIGNED hardcover copy of The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler and a SIGNED hardcover copy of Golden by Jessi Kirby, so make sure you scroll down and fill out the rafflecopter!

Suzanne Young, Kimberly Derting, Sarah Ockler

Jessi Kirby & Shannon Messenger

Kicking off the night, we played a game where each author told us two truths and one lie. We had to guess the lie. Let's go with some truths: Shannon Messenger had to make conversation with a shirtless Rob Lowe!! (that poor, poor girl!); Sarah Ockler wore PJ's to school everyday in high school, for one WHOLE year; Jessi Kirby never ditched a day of school in her life (she was much like the protagonist in Golden); Morgan Matson could get in touch with Justin Bieber if she wanted to, and Kimberly Derting hung out for one week with the Olympic Swim Team from Bahrain.

Sarah Ockler minus the "blue bandana"

The authors introduced the books they're on tour for (see above for books).  I read and really enjoyed The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler (my review), and she was a thrill to meet!  Underneath that conservative looking exterior is a wild gangster-rap loving woman!  She embraced that persona in high school by wearing purple baggy jeans, and a blue bandana to complete her look.  We were all giggles as she was relating which rap groups were "authentic".  Back to books: in addition to her newest release, The Book of Broken Hearts, she's currently working on Love & Other Internet Disasters about a girl with a mad crush on her best friend's boyfriend, a forbidden kiss, and how social-media-gone-bad figures in.  It sounded amazing, and is coming to us Spring/Summer 2014. 

Kimberly Derting is the author of The Body Finder series, which I love, and The Pledge series.  She was out promoting the second in The Pledge series which is a dystopian world separated by languages.  Each language is in it's own caste and it's illegal for anyone to speak a language other than their own.  The series centers on a girl who can speak and understand all languages. Kimberly is currently working on the third in the series as well as a new series coming out in 2014.  The new series is called The Taking and is about a girl who vanishes from the car while her father is driving and is missing for five years. She reappears to find everything about her life changed yet she is still the same sixteen year old with no recollection of where she was.  It's expected publication is summer 2014.

Morgan Matson &Jessi Kirby

Jessi Kirby's was out to promote her latest: Golden and so far it's been receiving raving reviews. (Tune in Monday for Jasprit's review!) Golden is about Parker who lives in a world of expectations until she finds the journal of a girl from her school that was part of the "golden" couple that disappeared ten years ago. Exploring the past and the mystery behind this couples disappearance, spurs Parker to find her own identity and direction.  Jessi told us about the book she's currently working on and I was blown away by the description! A girl loses her boyfriend in an accident, and his organs are donated.  Trying to work through her grief she writes to each recipient, and all but one writes back.  Guess which organ?  Well she tracks down the owner (illegally, there are strict rules that govern identities in organ donation) of that organ, and he is instantly drawn to her, putting her in an awkward situation because he has no idea who she is! Sounds incredible, right?!! 

Shannon Messenger

Shannon Messenger is currently in "threequel purgatory," working on the third book of both her series': Let the Sky Fall, her YA fantasy/romance trilogy, and the third in her middle grade series: Keeper of the Lost Cities. 

Morgan Matson is working on another contemporary romance about a girl named Emily who's best friend leaves without warning and sends a list to Emily with thirteen things to do, like go skinny dipping, kiss a stranger, break something, and has no idea what all these things mean but thinks if she does them it will give her a clue to her best friend's whereabouts. There's also a boy, and kissing, of course!  This is due to come out May 2014. Morgan also informed us that she did indeed take the road trip in Amy & Roger's Epic Detour, sadly, there was no "Roger". 

 Suzanne Young is the writer of The Program and A Need So

Beautiful series working on the second and final book to The Program series.  She's also working on something with Cat Patrick, Just Like Fate which shows two distinct paths a girl's life could go on based on her decision made one night.  This will be out in August 2013. 

As part of this author recap I'm giving away a SIGNED copy of Golden by Jessi Kirby and a SIGNED copy of The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler. The giveaway is INTERNATIONAL, just fill out the rafflecopter below for a chance to win! 

   

Review: Spirit (Elemental #3) by Brigid Kemmerer

Spirit (Elemental #3) by Brigid Kemmerer
Publisher: K Teen
Publication date: May 28th 2013.
My rating: 3 stars

With power comes enemies. Lots of them. Hunter Garrity just wants to be left alone. He’s learned the hard way that his unusual abilities come at a price. And he can’t seem to afford any allies. He’s up to his neck in hostiles. His grandfather, spoiling for a fight. The Merrick brothers, who think he ratted them out. Calla, the scheming psycho who wants to use him as bait. Then there’s Kate Sullivan, the new girl at school. She’s not hostile. She’s bold. Funny. Hot. But she’s got an agenda, too. With supposedly secret powers rippling to the surface everywhere around him, Hunter knows something ugly is about to go down. But finding out what means he’ll have to find someone he can trust…

Trust is a big issue for me when it comes to Hunter’s character. Hunter hasn’t been too great in showing that he is a trustworthy character. There have been points where I’ve thought I’d seen a glimpse into his real character, but then he goes and does something which makes me all wary again. So I was really eager to pick up Spirit and discover the real Hunter who had been hiding for way too long.

The trust issues I had with Hunter, it was easy to see that he also had the same issues with everyone else, it took him a lot to extend his trust to others, but when he did it always seemed to be snatched away from him. After everything that had happened, I understood why the Merricks had a hard time trusting Hunter. But seriously the Merricks are the best around, if a person who I thought was a friend of mine screwed me over, I would have a tough time trusting them again, heck I wouldn’t want anything to do with them. But the Merricks being as awesome as they are are quick to extend an olive branch when they have a friend in need. I just wish Hunter could have felt the same way. 

Hunter was one messed up character, poor guy. The way his life had been and the direction it was going in did make me feel for him. But every time he needed help, he buried his head in the sand. And then he was quick to jump to assumptions when he didn’t know the full story. I had a feeling the Merricks would have his back, so at times I did feel like shaking a little sense into Hunter so that he could realise this too.

But Hunter was pretty much torn in Spirit, he never knew his parents really, the path his dad wanted him to follow, he kept finding himself drifting along a different one entirely and who could he really trust? I wish things could have ended differently for Hunter in some aspects, every time he saw the Merricks with their girlfriends, my heart went out to him, I wanted him to finally find his own happiness.

I’m glad Kemmerer decided to give us a story from Hunter; I had a few issues with him at the beginning of the series. But now after Spirit I think I’m finally beginning to understand his character that little bit more now. Also it was great fun being back with the Merricks once more; with their fiery outbursts and witty scenes. But once again the Merricks are left in a precarious situation, with so many different people after them. I can’t wait to find out how they will deal with it all in the next book.    

Review: Riptide by Lindsey Scheibe

Riptide by Lindsey Scheibe
Publisher: Flux
Publication date: May 8th 2013.
My rating: 3.5 stars

Grace has one summer to prove she’s good enough. For Grace Parker, surfing is all about the ride and the moment. Everything else disappears. She can forget that her best friend, Ford Watson, has a crush on her that she can’t reciprocate. She can forget how badly she wants to get a surf scholarship to UC San Diego. She can forget the pressure of her parents’ impossibly high expectations. When Ford enters Grace into a surf competition—the only way she can impress the UCSD surfing scouts—she has one summer to train and prepare. Will she gain everything she’s ever wanted or lose the only things that ever mattered?

I love picking up books where you go into them expecting a light summery read, but you’re left ending up with a deep emotionally overwhelming story.

Surfing is Grace’s thing, it’s always been something she’s good at. So with a big surfing tournament around the corner and well known scouts rumoured to be there. Grace knows she has to up her game but this gets difficult when her best friend Ford and surf trainer decides to intern at Grace’s dads law firm over the summer. On top of that Grace’s dad puts extra pressure on her to get into one of the Ivy League colleges. Has anyone stopped to see what Grace actually wants to do? She’s getting all this pressure from everyone but shouldn’t she just follow her heart?

I really did feel for Grace, she was always one to keep what was going on in her life private. Her perfect family image everyone saw was a big lie, and these feelings she had for her best friend Ford, she decided to deny whenever it came up. Grace was super talented and she knew she had a great shot at getting scouted, but her parents had entirely different opinions. Grace’s parents were the worst; her dad had a fake facade that had everyone thinking he was a decent man, but then at home he was just hell. Then there was Grace’s mum, she was always quick to make assumptions about everyone and then always put Grace down. However what pained me the most about her was that she was never there when Grace needed her the most, she just shut down everything Grace did or said. Despite having crap parents, Grace tried her best to rise above it all, and I truly did admire her characters strength. She did make a few mistakes along the way, but hiding a secret as big as she did, I understood why she kept everything away from Ford.

With dual narratives from both Grace and Ford, we were given great insights into both characters. I adored Ford (his real name is Ferdinand, which I preferred) he was sweet, down to earth and such a fun guy. He had his over protective role over Grace nailed, but he was also able to lighten the mood with his jokes and banter. But what I adored the most about was him that he always knew what mattered to him the most; his family and his roots, he was never one to forget how important this was and tried to as much as he could to make a difference. Ford’s parents were also great; they clearly illustrated what honest parents are meant to be like with their insightful wisdom they imparted on Ford, and how they were also quick to take Grace in whenever she needed a place to hang out.

Despite some of the focus on dark family issues, Riptide was also a story laced with scenes of summer fun and beautiful friendships. There was a lot of surf lingo dotted throughout, but just like Raw Blue by Kirsty Eagar, I still found myself enthralled by a mesmerising read. Riptide was a story I’m glad I gave a try; it was littered with beautiful achy scenes, but also a lot of fun along the way. If you’re in the mood for something different I definitely recommend giving Riptide a try. 

True by Erin McCarthy

True by Erin McCarthy
Publisher: Penguin Group/Intermix
Publication date: May 7th 2013
My rating:  4 stars

When Rory Macintosh’s roommates find out that their studious and shy friend has never been with a guy, they decide that, as an act of kindness they’ll help her lose her virginity by hiring confident, tattooed bad boy Tyler Mann to do the job…unbeknownst to Rory.

Tyler knows he’s not good enough for Rory. She’s smart, doctor smart, while he’s barely scraping by at his EMT program, hoping to pull his younger brothers out of the hell their druggy mother has left them in. But he can’t resist taking up her roommates on an opportunity to get to know her better. There’s something about her honesty that keeps him coming back when he knows he shouldn’t…

Torn between common sense and desire, the two find themselves caught up in a passionate relationship. But when Tyler’s broken family threatens to destroy his future, and hers, Rory will need to decide whether to cut her ties to his risky world or follow her heart, no matter what the cost…

True ended up being more of a deep story that the blurb implies.  I have to admit the first paragraph of the description had me cringing, but reading on I thought this story might have potential.   Seeing Jenny’s excellent review @SupernaturalSnark spurned me on to pick this up sooner rather than later, and I’m so happy I did!

Rory is a smart, logical, socially inept girl used to keeping people at arm’s length.  She’s more comfortable with a book than with a living, breathing person.  That’s until she goes to college and meets Jessica and Kylie, her fun loving, big-hearted, outgoing roommates, who love and include her in everything they do.  When these girls find out that Rory is still a virgin they arrange for, and pay off their friend, Tyler, to seduce and take her virginity; unbeknownst to her, at first.  

Tyler ended up being and all around nice guy, and genuinely interested in Rory.  Instead of doing a “hit and run” (yes, I did actually type that, lol!) he pursues Rory, trying to get to know her.  Rory was truly interested in Tyler, he has a way of melting her insides, but after finding out about the “arrangement” she thinks the only reason Tyler showed any interest is because he was being paid to do it.  She’s rightly suspicious of Tyler and initially rebuffs his interest.   Tyler is persistent and as she lets him in, Rory realizes that he has his own insecurities.  Coming from a mess of a family, he feels Rory is too good for someone like him. 

As a protagonist, Rory was refreshing to read about, because she used logic to make her decisions, and even when she was emotionally compromised, she managed to see the “forest for the trees,” grasping  the big picture.  Seeing her come out of her shell and gain confidence around others was a pleasure to read.  Tyler was also lovely.  He was responsible beyond his years, being forced to grow up and look after his younger brothers as a result of crappy parents.  The first scene where we meet his mother made me want to cry for him.  He’s so noble, trying to do what’s right. 

I had a couple of snags with this story, but they were pretty minor and didn’t take up much of the story.  The first one was the whole idea of Rory’s friends buying off a guy to seduce her.  I didn’t care for the idea, and I can’t say that I bought it.  I really don’t see this happening with the way they seemed to care for Rory throughout the story, unless they were incredibly stupid.  If you care about someone, you’re going to pay off some guy to take her virginity?!!  Isn’t that supposed to be important to most people? But like I said: small portion of the story.  The second snag I had was in regards to Jessica (one of Rory’s friends) and Tyler’s relationship in the beginning.  I won’t elaborate too much but it just grated on me.  I was quickly emailing Jenny as soon as it came up which was somewhere at the 4% mark, and fortunately she assured me this did not have a major impact on the story.  Thanks, Jenny!!  I really love your “hand-holding” (you should’ve seen our emails about Iced!)!  I guess at 4% I should’ve been a little more patient, lol!

I was really happy to find out at the end of this story there’s a companion novel centering on Rory’s friend, Jessica.  There's no title yet, but it's supposed to be out November of this year. I was totally happy to get a little glimpse of Rory and Tyler in the future with the excerpt I read!

In the end, True was more than just a romance between the “awkward girl” and the “popular hot guy.”  This was a story about finding a true connection and love in the midst real and messy lives.