Tag: Kristina McBride

Review: A Million Times Goodnight by Kristina McBride

Posted July 30, 2015 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Review: A Million Times Goodnight by Kristina McBrideReviewer: Rowena
A Million Times Goodnight by Kristina McBride
Publisher: Egmont USA
Publication Date: July 28th 2015
Genres: Young Adult
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one-star

A teen Sliding Doors. One choice creates parallel dual narratives in this romantic contemporary mystery-thriller perfect for fans of Just Like Fate and Pivot Point.

One Night. Two Paths. Infinite Danger.

On the night of the big Spring Break party, Hadley "borrows" her boyfriend Ben's car without telling him. As payback, he posts a naked picture of her online for the entire senior class to see.

Now Hadley has a choice: go back to the party and force Ben to delete the picture or raise the stakes and take his beloved car on a road trip as far away from their hometown of Oak Grove, Ohio, as she can get.

Chapters alternate to reveal each possible future as Hadley, her ex-boyfriend, Josh, and her best friends embark on a night of reckless adventure where old feelings are rekindled, friendships are tested, and secrets are uncovered that are so much worse than a scandalous photo.

Like a teen Sliding Doors, A Million Times Goodnight is a fast-paced romantic contemporary thriller for fans of Just Like Fate and Pivot Point.

The last book that I read by McBride stayed with me for days, I want to say even weeks. The characters, the story line, everything about that book broke my heart and I just couldn’t move on. I didn’t love the book but it was compelling and interesting, that I couldn’t put it down. When I found out that she was coming out with another book, I knew that I was going to read it. How could I not? So when I finally picked this one up for review and opened the book to start, I was disappointed that right from the jump, I didn’t like it. I don’t even know why I kept reading because the book never got better for me.

Now, I haven’t seen Sliding Doors but I did read Pivot Point by Kasie West and enjoyed it so I thought that I would be okay while reading this book but I was confused for a huge chunk of the book. I’m not sure if it was the eARC that I got or the way that the book is written but for me, it was all over the place. I kept getting sucked out of the book because I had to go back and re-read what I just finished reading and put the pieces together in my mind so that I could figure out which timeline we were in. I didn’t think it was a seamless transition from one timeline to the other.

My disappointment kept mounting when Hadley would make stupid decision after stupid decision (in both timelines) and then everyone else in the book. I hated the way that everyone in town treated Josh, I hated the way that Hadley used Josh and basically forced him into it by telling him that he owed her. I think I kept reading because I wanted to find out what the hell happened the night Penny died and what exactly Josh was guilty of. There were even times when I wanted to punch Josh in the throat. Nobody was safe from me.

The whole Hadley stole Ben’s car to have a memorial moment with her friends over her best friend’s death (the night was the one year mark of Penny’s death so Hadley and her friends drove to the last place that Penny was alive for a moment of silence and to just remember her and miss her together) so a pissed off Ben posts a naked picture of Hadley on FB and the picture goes viral pissed me off. What a freaking asshole to do something like that. He knew that Hadley was coming back and I get that he was pissed but what he did had lasting effects on Hadley’s life. He got his car back. Nothing in his life was going to change but Hadley couldn’t say the same.

But holy cow, Hadley is stupid too. In one timelime, she steals Ben’s car and goes on a little road trip, bar hopping with her friends and Josh. WTF? Brooklyn’s older brother gets fake IDs for Brooklyn and her friends so that they can get drunk wherever they wanted (he got all of them fake ids so they could all drink – who the hell was going to drive them home after they were all drunk? Seriously, WTF?) but he was pissed that Josh was them? He gets all in Josh’s face because of what happened to Penny, but he’s okay with his underage little sister bar hopping and doing who knows what??? What a dickhead. In the other timeline, they all head back to the party and while I liked that timeline better, it didn’t come without it’s share of WTF-ness.

There were plenty of times that I almost DNF’d it but I wanted to know how this whole thing would turn out and I wanted to find out which timeline was the real timeline. I shouldn’t have bothered because I closed the damn book with a scowl on my face because I didn’t like it. Ugh.

Grade: 1 out of 5

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

one-star

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Review: One Moment by Kristina McBride.

Posted June 28, 2012 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments


Rowena’s review of One Moment by Kristina McBride.

Main Character: Maggie
Love Interest: Adam (highlight to see)
Series: None
Author: Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

This was supposed to be the best summer of Maggie’s life. Now it’s the one she’d do anything to forget.

Maggie remembers hanging out at the gorge with her closest friends after a blowout party. She remembers climbing the trail with her perfect boyfriend, Joey. She remembers that last kiss, soft, lingering, and meant to reassure her. So why can’t she remember what happened in the moment before they were supposed to dive? Why was she left cowering at the top of the cliff, while Joey floated in the water below–dead?

As Maggie’s memories return in snatches, nothing seems to make sense. Why was Joey acting so strangely at the party? Where did he go after taking her home? And if Joey was keeping these secrets, what else was he hiding?

The latest novel from the author of The Tension of Opposites, One Moment is a mysterious, searing look at how an instant can change everything you believe about the world around you.

After reading this book, I have to take a serious break from reading books dealing with death in them. This book did such a great job of depressing the hell out of me while I was reading it. I had to keep putting it down because I would sink so low while I was reading that I had to jump right back out and read something else so that my heart would go back to normal.

Right from the beginning, I knew that something wasn’t right with Joey and Maggie’s relationship. When the secrets started coming to light, I started getting more and more pissed off that we weren’t finding them out quickly enough. The way that Maggie handled everything got on my hot damn nerves. Mostly, the way that she handled the accident after it happened. She leaned heavily on Adam for everything and she acted out by being a brat and I could never understand people like that. Things are already hard enough, why lash out and make things just that much harder for everyone involved? What purpose does it serve other than to drag things out unnecessarily?

As a main character, Maggie took a lot of getting used to. She painted Joey to be this perfect specimen that I knew immediately that he was anything but. I also discovered the secrets before I was ready to discover them. I knew that her friends (the ones involved) were up to no good and I knew that the guy she ended up with was the one that she was supposed to end up with. For him to stand by and wait for her to open her eyes and realize what has been standing before her all along, to wait that long, he had to have had some serious feelings for her. They were intense and strong and so very real. I ate up every scene with him in it. I knew before he even confessed everything where his head was throughout this whole ordeal.

He was fighting his own grief and his own guilt so I understood why he needed his space from the group. He had to have been pissed off and scared and just overall devastated by everything that happened. I loved seeing him come to terms with everything and well, I just loved him.

With Maggie, it was hard for me to connect with her at times because I spent a good deal of the book exasperated with her memory loss, her reactions, her actions that for a while I kept wondering what the hell Adam saw in her. But then, like out of nowhere, something clicks with me. I continue to read and I get it. I get Adam. I even get Maggie and I think I didn’t like her because I wanted so much to like Joey…and I blamed her for that since she held him on a pedestal for so long. I can’t even explain what clicked and why I suddenly forgave her, I just did.

It was when she went to see Shannon. To tell Shannon what she remembered from the day of the accident. It was like, I was finally getting over my grief (because damned if I wasn’t grieving right along with them, I was so depressed) over Joey and letting him go. I feel kind of silly telling you guys this but that’s how I felt.

Some things that bothered me about the book is even though I got it and I let go, I still thought Maggie moving on from Joey, so quickly, was too much too soon. I wish more time had passed before her and Adam hooked up but still, it was a happy ending, or well, as happy as it was gonna get and I was glad for it.

This is a deep read with a whole crapload of conflict so if you’re going to read this, you should know that this book isn’t a light and fluffy read. It really is about how one moment can change the course of your life and the consequences that that one moment leaves behind. But it was good and I’m glad that I read it.

…and that’s your scoop!

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

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