Tag: Sarah Ockler

Review: The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler

Posted June 12, 2015 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

summer of chasing mermaidsRowena’s review of The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler.

The youngest of six talented sisters, Elyse d’Abreau was destined for stardom—until a boating accident took everything from her. Now, the most beautiful singer in Tobago can’t sing. She can’t even speak.

Seeking quiet solitude, Elyse accepts a friend’s invitation to Atargatis Cove. Named for the mythical first mermaid, the Oregon seaside town is everything Elyse’s home in the Caribbean isn’t: An ocean too cold for swimming, parties too tame for singing, and people too polite to pry—except for one.

Christian Kane is a notorious playboy—insolent, arrogant, and completely charming. He’s also the only person in Atargatis Cove who doesn’t treat Elyse like a glass statue. He challenges her to express herself, and he admires the way she treats his younger brother Sebastian, who believes Elyse is the legendary mermaid come to life.

When Christian needs a first mate for the Cove’s high-stakes Pirate Regatta, Elyse reluctantly stows her fear of the sea and climbs aboard. The ocean isn’t the only thing making waves, though—swept up in Christian’s seductive tide and entranced by the Cove’s charms, Elyse begins to wonder if a life of solitude isn’t what she needs. But changing course again means facing her past. It means finding her inner voice. And scariest of all, it means opening her heart to a boy who’s best known for breaking them . . .

What an interesting book this one turned out to be. It’s different from any Ockler book that I’ve read because the main character is a person of color (yay!) and she didn’t have a voice so she couldn’t talk (or use sign language). The entire book, we’re in Elyse’s thoughts but when she’s speaking to the other people in the book, she writes what she wants to say to them and they read. That’s got to be a really difficult thing to do and take up so much time but I found that the way that Elyse chose to deal with the loss of her voice (and she was a singer too. Damn.) was just…interesting.

The book begins with the night of Elyse’s accident and at first, I thought she died but then the rest of the book is what happens after the accident and she’s still alive and kicking. She’s just not talking. She’s also not at home anymore either (she’s from Tobago) but staying with family friends in Atargatis Cove, Oregon.

The accident took its toll on Elyse and she’s coping with trying to figure out where to go from here. She had big plans for her future in the music industry and she was going to sing professionally with her twin sister but now that she has no voice, she’s got to give up that dream and find a new dream so this book is all about her finding herself now and letting go of who she was before the accident.

It wasn’t an easy book to read and at times,  I felt that the story moved slowly and there were times when I wanted to smack Elyse upside her head but all in all, it was a good book.

I enjoyed getting to know the love interest, Christian. I enjoyed the friends that Elyse made on the island with Kirby and Kirby’s best friend (whose name I can’t remember) and I really enjoyed the friendship that blossomed between Elyse and Christian’s little brother Sebastian.

I think my favorite part of the book was seeing Christian and Elyse get the boat ready for the race. It’s during this time that they get closer and closer. They’re racing to save Elyse’s family’s house and Christian’s vacation home and while they’re getting closer and closer to the finish line, they kept having to deal with bullshit that adults were piling on top of them. Namely, the sleazy mayor and Christian’s own father.

The villains did a great job of keeping me pissed off. The whole save the town feel the book had me interested to see if the kids can save the day but it made me pissed off at the adults in the books for making the kids save the day. That lady at the hardware store? Ugh, I wanted to smack her for treating Christian and Elyse the way she did during the whole thing but Christian and Elyse didn’t let the haters get them down, they buckled down and worked hard.

My favorite character in the book was surprisingly not Elyse or Christian though I did like them. I liked little Sebastian the best. I thought he was such a great character and I loved that the teens rallied behind him and accepted him the way that he was. They made things possible for him and I loved his obsession with the mermaids and just everything about that kid was great.

Overall, this was a good story but it’s not my favorite of Ockler’s books. I think fans of the Little Mermaid will enjoy this book as it’s kind of a modern re-telling and I think fans of Sarah Ockler will enjoy this one as well.

Grade: 3 out of 5

This book is available from Simon Pulse. You can purchase it here and here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.


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Review: #scandal by Sarah Ockler

Posted June 17, 2014 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Rowena’s review of #scandal by Sarah Ockler.

Lucy’s learned some important lessons from tabloid darling Jayla Heart’s all-too-public blunders: Avoid the spotlight, don’t feed the Internet trolls, and keep your secrets secret. The policy has served Lucy well all through high school, so when her best friend Ellie gets sick before prom and begs her to step in as Cole’s date, she accepts with a smile, silencing about ten different reservations. Like the one where she’d rather stay home shredding online zombies. And the one where she hates playing dress-up. And especially the one where she’s been secretly in love with Cole since the dawn of time.

When Cole surprises her at the after party with a kiss under the stars, it’s everything Lucy has ever dreamed of… and the biggest BFF deal-breaker ever. Despite Cole’s lingering sweetness, Lucy knows they’ll have to ’fess up to Ellie. But before they get the chance, Lucy’s own Facebook profile mysteriously explodes with compromising pics of her and Cole, along with tons of other students’ party indiscretions. Tagged. Liked. And furiously viral.

By Monday morning, Lucy’s been branded a slut, a backstabber, and a narc, mired in a tabloid-worthy scandal just weeks before graduation.

Lucy’s been battling undead masses online long enough to know there’s only one way to survive a disaster of this magnitude: Stand up and fight. Game plan? Uncover and expose the Facebook hacker, win back her best friend’s trust, and graduate with a clean slate.

There’s just one snag—Cole. Turns out Lucy’s not the only one who’s been harboring unrequited love…

I think it’s pretty safe to say that Sarah Ockler writes my kind of contemporary YA’s.  The kind that makes me all swoony.

Lucy has liked Cole since the first time she saw him but before she could tell her best friend how she felt about him, Ellie asks Cole out…and they get together.  Lucy wasn’t happy about it but what could she do? She’s tried to bury her feelings for Cole and for a long time, it works but even though the feelings are buried, they’re not necessarily gone. So when Ellie gets sick right before prom, she asks Lucy to go to prom with Cole and even though it’s the very last thing she wants to do, Lucy goes.

And gets a whole lot of drama for her troubles.

A kiss that rocked her world is splattered all over Facebook and Lucy’s world takes a nosedive.  She’s involved in a scandal that has hurt her best friend and this book takes place as Lucy forms a makeshift Veronica Mars team to help her find out who is on a fast track to ruining Lucy’s life.  Her main objective is to clear her name and to win Ellie’s forgiveness.

One of my favorite things about this book was all of the Veronica Mars references.  I just discovered the awesomeness of that show and the show is so fresh in my mind that seeing Lucy get her Veronica Mars on, endeared her to me.  But let me tell you, it wasn’t always a walk in the park with Lucy.  I thought she took a long time to come around with just about everything.  She made a lot of boneheaded mistakes that made me want to smack some sense into her but in the end, it was all good.

The love interest, Cole was a great love interest.  He was equal parts sweet and hot all rolled up into one awesome package and I enjoyed the page time that he got.  My only gripe with Cole was that we didn’t get nearly enough of him.  It would have been nice to get more than we got of him because what we did get was fantastic.

Overall, this story hit all of my happy buttons.  The story itself was interesting and it kept me guessing about who did it all because I thought that the person they were pinning it on was too obvious and then it hit me. I knew who did it.  And when I ended up not being wrong, I shook my head because…damn.  Kudos to Ockler on writing another enjoyable story that is sure to entertain readers all over.  I’m certainly glad that I didn’t wait to read this one.

Grade: 4 out of 5

This book is available from Simon Pulse.  You can purchase it here or here in e-format.  This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.


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Review: Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler

Posted February 13, 2014 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Bittersweet
Rowena’s review of Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler.

Once upon a time, Hudson knew exactly what her future looked like. Then a betrayal changed her life, and knocked her dreams to the ground. Now she’s a girl who doesn’t believe in second chances… a girl who stays under the radar by baking cupcakes at her mom’s diner and obsessing over what might have been.

So when things start looking up and she has another shot at her dreams, Hudson is equal parts hopeful and terrified. Of course, this is also the moment a cute, sweet guy walks into her life… and starts serving up some seriously mixed signals. She’s got a lot on her plate, and for a girl who’s been burned before, risking it all is easier said than done.

It’s time for Hudson to ask herself what she really wants, and how much she’s willing to sacrifice to get it. Because in a place where opportunities are fleeting, she knows this chance may very well be her last…

I’ve been wanting to read this book for, forever and I’m so glad that I finally got around to it. This book starts out with leopard print bras, tension filled car rides and walking away from things that you’ve always had in your life…and that’s all in the prologue. When I started the prologue, I kept right on reading despite the fact that I was at work and it was still early in the day. Long before lunch time. But man, I couldn’t bring myself to care because that prologue started off a book that I really came to love.

Hudson Avery is an ex-figure skater who walked away from the world of ice skating when her parents marriage fell apart. These days, you’ll find Hudson baking delicious cupcakes in the kitchen of her mother’s diner. She’s made a name for herself in the town that she lives in as the Queen of Cupcakes (which confuses me with the cover of the book since…I don’t ever recall Hudson baking cookies in the book but whatever) and each chapter of the book begins with one of Hudson’s cupcake recipes. When Hudson walked away from ice skating, she walked away from it all. Her coach, her best friend and well, you get what I mean. Now she’s got a new best friend and she’s trying to help her Mom stay afloat in the food service business by baking cupcakes and filling in wherever she can. Her Mom is now a single parent, since Hudson’s father took off and lives with hundreds of miles away.

This is one of those coming of age stories that makes you smile, makes you laugh and makes you sigh with contentment. It’s a story about a young girl who is dealing with loss, with first love and with finding out how to be happy again.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was such a wonderfully put together book with a story that stayed with me long after I finished it.

The love interest in this book was adorable and just perfect for Hudson. Hudson is a normal teenager so of course she made mistakes and decisions that made me want to smack her a time or two but in the end, it was all good. She learned some life lessons and she found a way to make herself and those around her happy and I was glad.

This was a good book, one that I’ll be recommending to my daughter to read. She’s just starting to get into reading and this is one of those books that I just know she’d enjoy…and I’m sure anyone else would too. I definitely recommend.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

This book is available from Simon Pulse. You can purchase it here or here in e-format.


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Review: The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler

Posted July 3, 2013 by Rowena in Reviews | 1 Comment

Review: The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah OcklerReviewer: Rowena
The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: May 21st 2013
Genres: Young Adult
Pages: 352
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-half-stars

When all signs point to heartbreak, can love still be a rule of the road? A poignant and romantic novel from the author of Bittersweet and Twenty Boy Summer.

Jude has learned a lot from her older sisters, but the most important thing is this: The Vargas brothers are notorious heartbreakers. She’s seen the tears and disasters that dating a Vargas boy can cause, and she swore an oath—with candles and a contract and everything—to never have anything to do with one.

Now Jude is the only sister still living at home, and she’s spending the summer helping her ailing father restore his vintage motorcycle—which means hiring a mechanic to help out. Is it Jude’s fault he happens to be cute? And surprisingly sweet? And a Vargas?

Jude tells herself it’s strictly bike business with Emilio. Her sisters will never find out, and Jude can spot those flirty little Vargas tricks a mile away—no way would she fall for them. But Jude’s defenses are crumbling, and if history is destined to repeat itself, she’s speeding toward some serious heartbreak…unless her sisters were wrong?

Jude may have taken an oath, but she’s beginning to think that when it comes to love, some promises might be worth breaking.

It’s been a long time since the last time that I’ve read anything by this author.  The last book that I read was Twenty Boy Summer and I remember really enjoying that one.  I’ve been reading on different blogs and on Goodreads that people are really liking this book.  Those reviews are what really pushed me to request this on Edelweiss.  Now that I’m finished reading the book, I’m so glad that I did because I really liked this one.  A lot.

Jude Hernandez just graduated from high school and she due to start college in the fall out in Denver.  She’s spending the summer rebuilding an old motorcycle with her father who was diagnosed with early on-set Alzheimers and when she came across an old motorcycle in the garage, it brought a happiness to her father that she hopes will help him through what he’s going through right now.  The only problem with that summer plan?  The guy that her father hires to help with the rebuild is a freaking Vargas.

The Hernandez sisters (Araceli, Lourdes, Mariposa and Jude) made a pact when Jude was 12 years old that they were completely done with everything Vargas.  Reading back on it, I thought it was kind of silly but I understood why they did it.  I mean, they went all official and swapped blood, lit candles and everything.  Their blood ritual was legit and all these years later, Jude was scared of what her sisters would say when they found out that the youngest Vargas brother was working on their father’s motorcycle and Jude was getting really close to him.

Jude didn’t really understand the whole pact or the book of broken hearts that was passed down from sister to sister, a book that documented their broken hearts.  Those older Hernandez sisters were a fierce and loyal lot.  They hated the guys that broke their sisters hearts and two of those guys are Emilio’s brothers.  So because Johnny and Miguel Vargas broke Celi and Lourdes’ hearts, the Vargas brothers were off limits.  That whole family was off limits, to be exact.

But over the course of that summer, Jude and Emilio grow close.  Emilio is helping Jude’s father come back to life.  He’s bringing a smile to his face and joy to his life again which is rare these days.  Jude will do whatever it takes to keep that smile on her Dad’s face for as long as she can.  So Emilio stays.  The closer they get, the deeper she falls and seeing her struggle with her loyalty to her sisters and her feelings for this Vargas brothers made for a really great story.  As my daughter is fond of saying, “The struggle is real.”  And it really was, for Jude.

Jude was dealing with what was happening with her father, the strain she can see her mother dealing with and dealing with her friends slipping away from her.  On top of that, was her thing with Emilio.

I really liked Jude.  I really, really liked Emilio.  Emilio was so flirty spice and he was so carefree but you knew that there was more to him than what he put out for everyone to see.  I really liked the emotional journey that we go through right along with Jude and I thought that Ockler did a fantastic job of writing Jude’s story.  She wasn’t a perfect character but she was likable.  And I was able to connect with what she was going through and how she was feeling.

I really liked getting to know her family and I liked Emilio, his friends and his mother.  I loved getting to know each and every single character that we came across in this book and I’m so very glad that I read this book.  It was entertaining, it was emotional and it took me to my happy place so overall, I loved it.  I highly recommend this to lovers of contemporary YA, new adult and contemporary stories in general.  It’s a good one.

Grade: 4.75 out of 5

This book is available from Simon Pulse.  You can buy it here or here in e-format.  This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

four-half-stars


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Hero of the Month: Matt Perino.

Posted November 5, 2010 by Rowena in Features | 4 Comments


This month’s hero of the month is a hero that I read just a couple of months ago. I enjoyed the story so much that the guy in this book immediately went onto my list of possible Hero of the Months for the blog…

…and his name came up again when I was picking this month’s Hero of the Month.

I couldn’t get him or his story out of my mind for the past couple of weeks so I started thinking about this post and before I knew it, I was 100% sure that Matt had to be this month’s HotM.

So this month’s spotlight is on Matt Perino from Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler.

If you haven’t read this book then you need to fix that soon because this book does such an incredible job of breaking your heart and then putting it back together again. You can read my entire review on this book here.

Here’s the blurb for the book:

“Don’t worry, Anna. I’ll tell her, okay? Just let me think about the best way to do it.”

“Okay.”

“Promise me? Promise you won’t say anything?”

“Don’t worry.” I laughed. “It’s our secret, right?”

According to her best friend Frankie, twenty days in ZanzibarBay is the perfect opportunity to have a summer fling, and if they meet one boy ever day, there’s a pretty good chance Anna will find her first summer romance. Anna lightheartedly agrees to the game, but there’s something she hasn’t told Frankie—she’s already had that kind of romance, and it was with Frankie’s older brother, Matt, just before his tragic death one year ago.


Beautifully written and emotionally honest, this is a debut novel that explores what it truly means to love someone and what it means to grieve, and ultimately, how to make the most of every single moment this world has to offer.

The reason I chose Matt to be this month’s Hero of the Month is because even though we lost him early on in Twenty Boy Summer, I literally grieved for him throughout the entire book. The whole time that Anna and Frankie are grieving for Matt, I was too.

We first meet Matt when Anna is thinking back to her fifteen birthday, the night that Matt kissed her for the first time and Ockler did such a great job of describing the event because I could see everything as it happened as clearly as if I was there myself. I could taste the frosting from the cake that Matt smashed in Anna’s face, I could feel my breath hitch as I thought Matt was going to kiss Anna right in the middle of her backyard boogie and my heart stopped when they’re cleaning up and this happened:

“Come here,” he whispered, his hand still stuck in my wild curls, blond hair winding around his fingers.

“I still can’t believe you made that,” I said, not for the first time. “It’s so –cool.”

Matt looked down at the glass, his hair falling in front of his eyes.

“Maybe I’ll give it to you,” he said. “If you’re lucky.”

I smiled, my gaze fixed on the blue triangle. I was afraid to look at him, because if I let my eyes lock on his, he might try to–and then everything would be–and I might just —

“Happy birthday,” he whispered, his breath landing warm and suddenly close to my lips, making my insides flip. And just as quickly as he’d surprised me with the cake, he kissed me, one frosting-covered hand moving from my hair to the back of my neck, the other solid and warm in the small of my back, pressing us together, my chest against his ribs, my hip bones just below his, the tops of our bare summer legs hot and touching. I stopped breathing. My eyes were closed and his mouth tasted like marzipan flowers and clove cigarettes, and in ten seconds the whole of my life was wrapped up in that one kiss, that one wish, that one secret that would forever divide my life into two parts…”

*swoon*

If I was fifteen and that kind of first kiss with the boy that I was crushing on big time, I would have melted into a puddle of lust right at his feet. What makes Matt so special is it took me a page and a half to adore the heck out of him.

I loved his playful demeanor, the way that he talked to Anna, the way that he cared about her and just the way that he was when he was with Anna. It was too cute for words. He was a total flirt and I just adored him to pieces.

I adored when he said:

“Happy birthday Anna,” he said, picking me up and spinning me around in a giant hug, telling me with a wink that he’d see me tomorrow, just like he’d done on a thousand other nights. “Write something for me tonight.” (He gave her a journal for her birthday)

*sigh*


Matt was such a great addition to this story and I missed him sorely after he left it. My heart was broken for a good chunk of this book because I wanted more Matt.

Memories, dreams, I didn’t care, as long as he was in them and when the story ended, I was okay again. Ockler did a great job of making it okay. For me, the draw to this book wasn’t Anna, Frankie or the trip to Zanzabar but Matt.

His sparkling personality, getting to know him through the people who loved him was an interesting way to get to know him and it made me love him all the more. He was a great character, a most memorable character and if you haven’t read this book and you don’t know the goodness that is Matt Perino then I urge you to fix that because this book rocked and knowing Matt rocked too.

Matt had dark hair and bright blue eyes, the only person I could think of that would make a good Matt was Zac Efron because he’s a little hottie. He’d make the perfect Matt in my eyes. =)

Until next month..that’s your scoop!

Buy Matt’s book: B&N|Borders|Amazon|The Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com


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