Tag: Dutton Juvenile

Book Watch: The Best Night of Your (Pathetic) Life by Tara Altebrando.

Posted June 29, 2012 by Rowena in Promotions | 2 Comments


An all-day scavenger hunt in the name of eternal small-town glory

With only a week until graduation, there’s one last thing Mary and her friends must do together: participate in the Oyster Point High Official Unofficial Senior Week Scavenger Hunt. And Mary is determined to win.

Mary lost her spot at Georgetown to self-professed “it” bully Jake Barbone, and she’s not about to lose again. But everyone is racing for the finish line with complicated motives, and the team’s all-night adventure becomes all-night drama as shifting alliances, flared tempers, and crushing crushes take over. As the items and points pile up, Mary and her team must reinvent their strategy–and themselves–in order to win.

This book looks like a fabulous book to read now that school’s out and summer is in full effect. I absolutely adored the scavenger hunts that me and my friends used to do in the summer. We used to go from place to place and collect things, sing silly songs, talk and meet so many random strangers on the street and just have an absolute blast with it all. So of course, I’m all in to read this book. It sounds like all kinds of fun and though none of my scavenger hunts with my friends ever ended with life lessons learned, it was still fun and I’m excited to read this.

The book comes out on Tuesday so mark your calendars and let’s all read this book. It’s gonna be a good one, I’m sure of it. Like the old dude said in Love, Actually, I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes. =)

..and that’s your scoop!

This book is available from Dutton Juvenile.
Buy the book: B&N|Amazon|Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com

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Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Posted October 18, 2011 by Rowena in Reviews | 7 Comments


Main Character: Lola Nolan
Love Interest: Cricket Bell
Series: Companion novel to Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Website|Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

*MAJOR SPOILERS ALERT*

This review is going to contain spoilers so if you want to read the book and don’t want to be spoiled, steer clear of this review because everything will be talked about.
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I’m serious, I will spoil this book for you so go away and come back after you read the book.
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You have been warned, don’t get mad at if you go ahead and read this review after I told you about all the spoilers.

In this companion novel to Anna and the French Kiss, two teens discover that true love may be closer than they think

For budding costume designer Lola Nolan, the more outrageous, the outfit – more sparkly, more fun, more wild – the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins move back into the house next door.

When the family returns and Cricket – a gifted inventor and engineer – steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.

This is the book that I’ve been most looking forward to reading all year. Ever since I finished Anna and the French Kiss, I had to get my hands on this book. When it finally came in and I held it in my hands, I did my happy dance. I cracked this sucker open in the morning and by the early afternoon, I was finished. I read every single word and was a happy camper.

I can’t say that I loved this book more than I loved Anna but I did enjoy it a whole lot. I absolutely adored Cricket, more than I adored St. Clair (which was shocking because I LOVED St. Clair).

I noticed in this book that I spent a great deal of the book annoyed with Lola. I felt the same way with Anna in her book. I just felt that it took her way too long to break up with Max. She’s got this whole “relationship” thing blossoming with Cricket and yet she’s still with Max. She’s keeping secrets from Max and she wonders why Cricket’s sister was pissed at her? Even after the truth comes out about what really happened those two years ago that made Lola hate Cricket, she stayed with Max. It was obvious by that point that the relationship was over and yet, she stayed with him. I can chalk it up to her being young but I won’t because she should have known better.

Aside from Lola taking forever and three months to break up with Max (and stringing Cricket along the whole time), I really enjoyed the book. I enjoyed seeing Lola’s parents and their hands on approach to parenting (the bad cop, good cop thing made me smile). I really enjoyed getting to know Cricket and I liked Lola’s friends. It was good to see Anna and St. Clair back in action and I think a lot of romance authors should take a page out of Stephanie Perkins book where recurring characters are concerned. In the romance novels that I’ve been reading lately, the recurring characters (who are couples) that come back are so cheesy and corny that it chips away from my love for them. In this book, Anna and St. Clair are in the picture but they don’t steal Cricket and Lola’s thunder and they’re not so cheesy that I wanted to vomit. Perkins does a great job of including them in the story.

Overall, this story was really good and I enjoyed it a lot. I was happy with the way that it ended and for me, Cricket was the best part of this book. He’s everything that young girls should be dreaming about and I just absolutely adored him. I would definitely recommend this book to lovers of the first book, fans of the author and fans of contemporary YA in general. This book is a definite treat.

..and that’s your scoop!

Buy the book: B&N|Amazon|Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com

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Guest Review: Back When You Were Easier to Love by Emily Wing Smith

Posted July 19, 2011 by Ames in Reviews | 7 Comments

Main Character: Joy
Love Interest: Noah
Series: n/a
Author: Website|Facebook|Twitter|Good Reads

What’s worse than getting dumped? Not even knowing if you’ve been dumped. Joy got no goodbye, and certainly no explanation when Zan – the love of her life and the only good thing about stifling, backward Haven, Utah – unceremoniously and unexpectedly left for college a year early. Joy needs closure almost as much as she needs Zan, so she heads for California, and Zan, riding shotgun beside Zan’s former-best-friend Noah.

I picked this one up thinking it was going to be a cute road-trip novel about a girl falling for her ex-boyfriend’s best friend. It was and it wasn’t.

Joy is in her senior year and she’s still in shock that her boyfriend just up and left without saying anything to her other than he needs to get away from it all. She knows where he’s going to school but that’s about it. Basically Zan doesn’t want to be found. But Joy wants closure and she comes up with a scheme to go to his college in California and see what’s up.

Meanwhile, Zan’s best friend, Noah, has been trying to hang out with her. Noah is a Soccer Lovin’ Kid and he hangs out with the crowd that Zan didn’t like…so Joy doesn’t like them either. That’s the only reason she doesn’t want to befriend Noah. But Noah lets Joy know that Zan asked him to look out for her and so she drags him along to California (it’s his car LOL).

But once Joy gets to California, things don’t go as planned.

All right, first of all, there was a road trip in this novel but it wasn’t really a road trip story. It’s road-trip lite. So don’t go into this thinking it’s going to be on the scale of Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour. It is not – they are in totally different hemispheres. Also, Joy doesn’t even like Noah for 85% of the book. He’s one of those cute, charming boys who don’t let others get him down so he just keeps on trying to befriend her. It finally sticks when he’s there for her in a difficult situation.

Now Joy. I don’t know what it is, but this is the second character I’ve read in a YA in a relatively short period of time that I can refer to as obsessed. She was so in love with Zan and she was so lost without him. Those kind of girls get on my nerves like you wouldn’t believe. You know the girl I’m talking about, she’s nothing without a guy. That’s how Joy came across to me. Even her friends refer to her as a stalker. This is not good, she doesn’t come across as a strong character.

A pleasant surprise for me was the Mormon aspect of the book. I’m not Mormon and it was interesting for me to read about how life in Haven, Utah was. Joy was a girl who lived strongly with her faith and that was something I can get behind. She was strong there, if not anywhere else.

I’m giving Back When You Were Easier to Love a C+. It was an enjoyable read but had a weak heroine and a predictable plot.

Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com

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Review: Where She Went by Gayle Forman.

Posted June 28, 2011 by Rowena in Reviews | 3 Comments


Main Character: Adam Wilde
Love Interest: Mia
Series: If I Stay, Book 2
Author: Website|Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

 

It’s been three years since the devastating accident . . . three years since Mia walked out of Adam’s life forever. Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Juilliard’s rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend.

When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia’s home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future – and each other.Told from Adam’s point of view in the spare, lyrical prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Went explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.

When I finished reading If I Stay, I didn’t know that this book was coming not too long after. I remember finishing the book and wishing that I got to know Adam more and Gayle Forman gave me more Adam by writing this book and I swear that I’m going to name my next baby after her. Unless it’s a boy than I’ll probably name him like Forman or something, anyway you get my drift. I wanted this book and finally got it and I freaking loved it.

Every freaking minute of it, I loved.

This book takes place three years after Mia’s accident and it shows us what happened from the time Mia left the hospital til now. Sure, it’s strung along differently but still, we got the scoop and I ate up every word. The story is told by switching back and forth from present day to the past and Adam fills in the blanks for us. I’m a huge fan of the way that this book was written, I loved getting to know Adam, getting into his head and experiencing everything through Adam’s eyes.

I thought I loved him in If I Stay but nothing prepared me for how much I loved him in this book.

What really got to me was seeing how everything turned out. It was so different from what I thought would happen after I put down If I Stay. After If I Stay, the ending was a happy for now kind of ending and I thought that Adam and Mia would be together forever, only in this book we’re shown that they didn’t end up together and it tore Adam up.

You knew that they had that once in a lifetime love in If I Stay but to see them go through the last couple of years in this book made their journey to that true love all the more enjoyable because when you finished If I Stay, their romance made sense. Their love is what got Mia through and what kept Adam going.

But in Where She Went, Mia distanced herself from Adam. They didn’t end up together and your heart broke all over again and the feelings that you felt when you were reading about Mia’s horrible experiences from then and seeing the aftermath and what her disappearance did to Adam, it was like your heart was bleeding all over again. And damn if Gayle Forman didn’t pick those pieces up and show you that though love is real, it’s not always rays of sunshine.

Seeing where time has taken both Adam and Mia’s life and seeing how far they’ve both come was such a wonderful roller coaster of emotions. I felt it all while reading this book and I couldn’t read this book fast enough. I was so locked in Adam’s world, my heart hurting for him and putting the book down was just not an option for me. I loved every minute of this book, getting to see everyone again from the band, getting to hear about Kim and see what she’s up to, seeing Mia and Adam meeting up again – goodness, I could go on but I won’t because really, just pick this book up and see for yourself. You won’t be sorry, Gayle Forman can weave the heck out of a story and she’ll make you fall in love with her characters and before you know it, you’ll be hooked.

This book was a wonderful addition to a fantastic book and the characters that you came to love in If I Stay will warm your heart all over again. There were times when it was hard to get through this book because of all of the new people that came into Adam’s life, seeing how low Adam had gone in his grief, seeing the distance that he created for him and everyone around him because there was this huge wall separating him from the world. But reading through everything, seeing Mia again and coming to realize why she did what she did to him. It all made the reading experience that much greater to me. I loved it all. I think what I loved most of all was that Mia finally recognized that she wasn’t the only person that lost her family. Her grandparents weren’t the only people outside of her that loved her parents and Teddy. Adam lost them and loved them too. He grieved for them to and she wasn’t there for him. After everything he did for her, he needed her and she wasn’t there. Seeing them work through their problems struck me where it hurts but man did I love it all anyway.

I know that this review is all fan girly and I’m sorry but I can’t help it. I absolutely adored this book and want everyone to read and love this book too. What are you waiting for, run out and get these books and read them. You won’t be sorry!

Reading Order:

For all my Moms out there, I’d give this book a rating of:


This book is suitable for the 13 and up crowd, it’s got mature themes and lots of teenage angst and language.

..and that’s your scoop!

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

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Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins.

Posted January 12, 2011 by Rowena in Reviews | 10 Comments


Main Character: Anna Oliphant
Love Interest: Etienne St. Claire
Series: S.O.A.P. Books? (I don’t know what the series is called)
Author: Website|Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris—until she meets Étienne St. Claire: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he’s taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home. As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near-misses end with the French kiss Anna—and readers—have long awaited?

I was kind of scared to read this book because it was getting such good reviews everywhere I turned in the YA community that I was scared my expectations for this book would be too high and that the book wouldn’t live up to my impossible expectations but what do you know…I loved the hell out of this book anyway.

This book follows Anna and she makes her way to Paris, France for her senior year at a boarding school. Her Dad is like a James Patterson, who writes those cheesy epic romantic stories that never have a happy ending and he’s got all this money but is still cheap as all hell when it comes to spending it on his kids. When he gets it into his brain that it would be good for Anna to move away to Paris and finish up her high school years over there, Anna is more than a little pissed off. She doesn’t want to go to Paris. She’s got her best friend and her family here in Atlanta and an almost relationship with the guy she’s been lusting after for the longest time, Toph.

The minute Anna’s parents leave her all alone in Paris, she kind of panics and her next door neighbor comes to her rescue and the next day, introductions are made and Anna has herself a new group of friends to ride out this school year with and the hottie from the night before is a part of that group.

Watching Anna as she let these new people into her life and watching them form their own little family at school made for such a great, entertaining read. I adored seeing how close Anna and St. Claire were getting and I adored when St. Claire stopped being St. Claire but became Etienne, instead.

*sigh*

I’m a sucker for a good romance and there was a great romance in this one. I was able to forgive Etienne for stringing Anna along because he was just so good. I loved him. There wasn’t a thing about him that I found lacking, he was that perfect…and when I say he’s perfect, I mean he’s not perfect and I accept him flaws and all. =) Etienne made this story come alive for me, the way that he took Anna and showed her Paris, the way that he was there for Anna whenever she needed anything and the way that he made it clear through his actions that she was a big part of his life.

Watching as their romance blossomed into the love that we witness at the end of the book had me sighing all over the place. I walked away from this book with a great big smile on my face and I can’t recommend this book enough. At first, I was going to give this book a B but like Mollie, I can’t find anything wrong with this book because even what was wrong with this book, I couldn’t find fault with because it made the story pop even more.

I adored this book and I adored the characters, Perkins did a fantastic job of making every character introduced in this story shine in their own little way without stealing Anna and Etienne’s (he’ll always be Etienne to me) thunder. This book was a whole lot of fun and even though I was scared to read it with all of the hype that surrounded it, I’m glad that I went ahead and read it anyway because again, I adored it!

..and that’s your scoop!

Buy the book: B&N|Borders|Amazon|Book Depository

Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com

For all the Mom’s out there, I’d give this book a rating of:

There is some inappropriate language but not much.

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