Tag: MTV Books

Review: Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols.

Posted September 9, 2013 by Rowena in Reviews | 1 Comment

Dirty Little SecretRowena’s review of Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols.

Hero: Sam
Heroine: Bailey

From the author of the “real page-turner” (Seventeen) Such a Rush comes an unforgettable new drama that follows friends-turned-lovers as they navigate the passions, heartbreaks, and intrigue of country music fame.

Bailey wasn’t always a wild child and the black sheep of her family. She used to play fiddle and tour the music circuit with her sister, Julie, who sang and played guitar. That ended when country music execs swooped in and signed Julie to a solo deal. Never mind that Julie and Bailey were a duet, or that Bailey was their songwriter. The music scouts wanted only Julie, and their parents were content to sit by and let her fulfill her dreams while Bailey’s were hushed away.

Bailey has tried to numb the pain and disappointment over what could have been. And as Julie’s debut album is set to hit the charts, her parents get fed up with Bailey’s antics and ship her off to granddad’s house in Nashville. Playing fiddle in washed-up tribute groups at the mall, Bailey meets Sam, a handsome and oh-so-persuasive guitarist with his own band. He knows Bailey’s fiddle playing is just the thing his band needs to break into the industry. But this life has broken Bailey’s heart once before. She isn’t sure she’s ready to let Sam take her there again…

Jennifer Echols made me a fan of hers when I read Going too Far and while I haven’t enjoyed every single book by hers that I’ve read, I still gobble her books up whenever they come out. Dirty Little Secret was another winner for me and I’m still smiling over how much I liked this book.

Bailey’s having a bad year. For as long as she can remember, she’d been playing her fiddle with her sister all over the place and when a record label wants to sign her sister, without her, Bailey is kicked to the curb while her sister goes off and gets famous. Suddenly, left without a band to play in, Bailey hides her disappointment and hurt with her parents by acting out. Now she’s moved in with her grandfather while her parents are out on the road with her sister and she can’t do a damn thing on her own. She can’t make trouble, she can’t tell anyone her last name because the record label people don’t want a scandal that will taint the progress that they’re making with Julie’s career.

I really liked this book. I loved the Nashville setting, the country music scene and the romance that blossomed between Sam and Bailey and I really liked when Bailey finally spoke up for herself. It’s really disappointing for me as a parent to see parents portrayed so selfishly and displaying favoritism toward their kids. I’m not perfect but my daughter’s happiness is important to me and I try to make her as happy as I can be and it’s sad to me that not too many parents are portrayed as good parents in the books that I’ve been reading lately. Bailey’s parents fall into this selfish category and they pissed me off in this book.

So Bailey joins Sam’s band and the band really takes off. There’s a lot of drama between the bands because Sam used to date the drummer and she hasn’t gotten over him but he’s trying to keep the peace even though he really likes Bailey. So that was interesting and I really liked that they played songs that I actually know and like. It’s not very often that I know the songs that are mentioned in the books that I’m reading but I love me some Zac Brown Band and I loved Sam and Bailey’s band because they covered their songs.

What I really liked about this book is that the story came alive through the words on each page. I was so wrapped up in the story that I felt like I was a part of the book and not just reading it. I think Echols excels at this and when I closed the book, I had a goofy smile on my face because the book ended just the way that I wanted it to and I felt the resolutions in the book were dealt with in a realistic way and I really liked that.

There were times when I wanted to strangle both Sam and Bailey because they fought so much and usually they found about things that in the grand scheme of things were just not important. But you can see the growth between not just them but each character in the book and I really liked that.

I definitely recommend this book.

Grade: 4 out of 5

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

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Review: The Perks for being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Posted September 26, 2012 by Rowena in Reviews | 5 Comments

Review: The Perks for being a Wallflower by Stephen ChboskyReviewer: Rowena
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Publisher: MTV Books
Publication Date: August 14th 2012
Genres: Young Adult
Pages: 225
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a story about what it’s like to travel that strange course through the uncharted territory of high school. The world of first dates, family dramas, and new friends. Of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Of those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.

I got this book in the mail for review and was looking forward to reading it because I like that Logan kid from Percy Jackson.  I also like Harmoine from Harry Potter.  I’ve been slogged down in review books for the past couple of months and so this book fell off my radar for a little bit but was thrown right back onto the top when my nephew Jarred told me on Instagram that this book was a really good book.

I read this book in one sitting.  It’s not that long of a story but I thought it was interesting that the author decided to tell Charlie’s story through letters.  The entire story is told through letters that the main character, Charlie writes to a “friend”.  What surprised me most about this format was how well it worked for Charlie’s story.  I was really engrossed in Charlie’s world and in his story.  He was so strange but learning to be okay with how different he was with everyone.  I loved his teacher, Bill and I loved both Patrick and Sam, even when things got so out of control with the both of them.  I thought Chbosky did a fabulous job of showing how much Charlie grew (emotionally) from the beginning to the end.  I really enjoyed seeing him get closer to his family.

The way that this story unfolded piece by piece and it was not always fun reading but man was it real.  I could picture everything that happened in this book so vividly and I couldn’t put this book down.  There were a few times when the book didn’t move fast enough for me but in the end, I was just so glad that I read this book that I let the little things that bothered me slide.

This book was a solid and good read.  I definitely recommend this book to teens because I’m sure that teens these days can connect with a character like Charlie.  He wasn’t this perfect character, he was flawed and he made mistakes but best of all, he learned and I came to love his character through the telling of this story.  I will most definitely be reading more from this author and I’m definitely watching the movie.  I actually can’t wait for the movie.

…and that’s your scoop!

This book is available from MTV Books. This book was received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Buy the book: B&N|Amazon|Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com

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four-stars

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Review: Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols.

Posted July 17, 2012 by Rowena in Reviews | 3 Comments


Rowena’s review of Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols.

Main Character: Leah Jones
Love Interest: Grayson Hall (Highlight to see)
Series: None
Author: Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

A sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers.

When I was fourteen, I made a decision. If I was doomed to live in a trailer park next to an airport, I could complain about the smell of the jet fuel like my mom, I could drink myself to death over the noise like everybody else, or I could learn to fly.

Heaven Beach, South Carolina, is anything but, if you live at the low-rent end of town. All her life, Leah Jones has been the grown-up in her family, while her mother moves from boyfriend to boyfriend, letting any available money slip out of her hands. At school, they may diss Leah as trash, but she’s the one who negotiates with the landlord when the rent’s not paid. At fourteen, she’s the one who gets a job at the nearby airstrip.

But there’s one way Leah can escape reality. Saving every penny she can, she begs quiet Mr. Hall, who runs an aerial banner-advertising business at the airstrip and also offers flight lessons, to take her up just once. Leaving the trailer park far beneath her and swooping out over the sea is a rush greater than anything she’s ever experienced, and when Mr. Hall offers to give her cut-rate flight lessons, she feels ready to touch the sky.

By the time she’s a high school senior, Leah has become a good enough pilot that Mr. Hall offers her a job flying a banner plane. It seems like a dream come true . . . but turns out to be just as fleeting as any dream. Mr. Hall dies suddenly, leaving everything he owned in the hands of his teenage sons: golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson. And they’re determined to keep the banner planes flying. Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business—until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers—and the consequences could be deadly.

Ever since I read Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols, I’ve been devouring each of her new releases and hoping to fall in love with her books, the way that I fell in love with Going too Far. And it’s finally happened.

This book follows Leah Jones as she tries to survive in life. She’s seventeen years old and she can fly airplanes. She lives in a trailer park with her negligent mother and she works at the local airport. She’s dirt poor and her mother would rather pawn their meager belongings to pay the rent then get an actual job to help support her young daughter. Leah didn’t have it easy but she survived her way through life and she was a fighter. The only parental figure she had in her corner was her boss, Mr. Hall. He taught her how to fly and helped shape a future that Leah could look forward to but when he dies, the future she was working so hard toward is thrown all out of whack.

Leah doesn’t expect Mr. Hall’s two young sons, Grayson and Alec to take over the family banner flying business and she doesn’t expect them to hire her on to help them run it. Grayson and Alec have been around for years but Leah’s not close to either of them. They don’t bother with her and she doesn’t bother with them, but she’s watched them. For years. She’s got the hots for Grayson but when he blackmails her, she falls in line but is pissed off that she still has the hots for him.

Grayson has reasons for everything that he’s doing. Whether they’re for the right reasons or not, they’re his reasons and he’s doing what he needs to do. When his older brother died in the military and then his father died, shortly after, Grayon’s life has been one huge pot of grief. Not wanting to lose anymore family members, Grayson takes over his Dad’s banner flying business and hopes he knows what he’s doing.

Watching this story unfold was exciting. The characters draw you in and you can’t help but want to read on to find out what happens. I was just as invested in Leah’s life as Grayson was and I wanted to know more about Grayson, the same way that Leah did. Jennifer Echols did a great job of bringing Grayson and Leah together. She was patient and she let them work their crap out because when the end finally came around, I was so freaking satisfied with everything that I’d read that I sighed myself to sleep. The characters were great, the storyline meshed well and even the things that I thought were kind of weird (Grayson’s reason for blackmailing Leah) didn’t matter because the book ended the way that it was supposed to end and I really enjoyed the overall reading experience. Kudos to Jennifer Echols on writing another story that just knocked my socks off.

..and that’s your scoop!

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

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Review: Forget You by Jennifer Echols.

Posted July 29, 2010 by Rowena in Reviews | 9 Comments


Main Characters: Zoey, Doug Fox
Series: None

WHY CAN’T YOU CHOOSE WHAT YOU FORGET . . . AND WHAT YOU REMEMBER? There’s a lot Zoey would like to forget. Like how her father has knocked up his twenty-four- year old girlfriend. Like Zoey’s fear that the whole town will find out about her mom’s nervous breakdown. Like darkly handsome bad boy Doug taunting her at school.

Feeling like her life is about to become a complete mess, Zoey fights back the only way she knows how, using her famous attention to detail to make sure she’s the perfect daughter, the perfect student, and the perfect girlfriend to ultra-popular football player Brandon. But then Zoey is in a car crash, and the next day there’s one thing she can’t remember at all—the entire night before. Did she go parking with Brandon, like she planned? And if so, why does it seem like Brandon is avoiding her? And why is Doug—of all people— suddenly acting as if something significant happened between the two of them? Zoey dimly remembers Doug pulling her from the wreck, but he keeps referring to what happened that night as if it was more, and it terrifies Zoey to admit how much is a blank to her. Controlled, meticulous Zoey is quickly losing her grip on the all-important details of her life—a life that seems strangely empty of Brandon, and strangely full of Doug.

I’ve been looking forward to this book for a long time now (or so it seems anyway) but only since I first read Going too Far. I adored the cover of this book, it’s cute and beachy and perfectly fits both Zoey and Doug’s swimmer’s personality. I dove right into this book because Echols has a way of writings stories that I can’t for the life of me put down.

Echols also has a way of writing heroines that I want to beat with a pipe. This story follows Zoey Commander after an accident she was in. An accident that left her with a spotty memory of what happened the night of the accident. She can only remember bits and pieces of the night and she’s confused as to why her boyfriend Brandon seems to have disappeared and Doug Fox, the guy that she thought hated her seems to be around…a lot.

Watching Zoey struggle to remember what happened the night of the accident was equal parts frustrating and interesting. First of all, she went about it all wrong. Yes, I understand that she was having a very rough time of it since her father was a total prick and then her mother tried to commit suicide and is now in the loony bin. Her father threatens to throw her in the loony bin too if she tells anyone about her mother and I understand that she was going through some crap but as the story progressed, I forgot all about the crap she’s been through and went from mildly irritated with her to flat out pissed off and wanting to choke her the hell out.

After the whole one time deal with Brandon, in her mind, they were a couple. Because she slept with Brandon, that made him her boyfriend. Oh sweetie, how wrong you are. Sleeping with Brandon, made Brandon a douche and you, a confused young girl who was going through some crap. The thing that pissed me off about Brandon is that he was supposed to be good friends with Zoey and instead of being a good friend to her and setting her straight (right from the jump), he turns into a ghost and lets her go on thinking that they’re in a relationship. It made my hatred for that douche bag grow and fester over the course of the book and when him and Doug go at it…I almost wanted Brandon to drown.

Yeah, I can be blood thirsty.

What turned the tides for me where Zoey was concerned was when her Mom came to her swim meet and she’s driving her Mom back to the hospital. The way that she treated her Mom, the horrible things that she said to her Mom made me want to push Zoey out of the car and then run her ass over and then back up for good measure. I couldn’t forgive her for those things she said because she hated when her father said those kinds of things to her and then she went and turned it all onto her Mom. Not cool.

It’s a testament to Echols writing that I could still enjoy the story after thoroughly disliking the main character but it was Doug that I really wanted to know more about. It was Doug that kept me going through out the story. I wanted to get this story through his eyes. I was curious about his family life and I wanted a more in depth look into Doug’s story. I wanted in on those memories of when he ran away and even when he was sent to juvie. I wanted to know his brother Cody more and I just wanted more from him. I adored him, thought he was great and he’s a reader…how can you not love him?

Just like with Endless Summer, it was the boy in the book that saved the story for me. It was Doug that I was pulling for and even though I wanted better for him than Zoey, I cut Zoey some slack at the end of the book because she was what Doug wanted. Because if I’m being honest, there isn’t a thing I wouldn’t forgive Doug for…even getting with Zoey. =P

Echols wrote a complicated story that I just could not put down. It was one of those books that even though the characters were getting on your nerves, you’re drawn to them anyway because you can’t help but be drawn to them. You want to be there when everything clicks into place for the characters and you want to be happy for them. Echols pulled at my emotions (every last one of them) with this story and while I couldn’t exactly like Zoey, I didn’t hate the story. She sure can write the heck out of a story. The romance between Doug and Zoey was complicated but it was steamy and I enjoyed that part of it.

I can’t exactly say that this book won me over but the ending did calm me down some so that’s saying something. As much as I loved Doug, he wasn’t enough to save the entire story for me so this one gets a C from me.

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

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Review: The 310: Life of a Poser by Beth Killian.

Posted July 12, 2010 by Rowena in Reviews | 5 Comments


Main Character: Eva Cordes
Series: The 310, Book 1

A new cell with the right area code. A sky’s-the-limit credit card. A chance at becoming a Hollywood It Girl. What else could Eva possibly want?

Caught in the middle of senior year’s juiciest scandal, Eva Cordes graduates early and moves to L.A. to live with her aunt — the top talent agent for teens — who plans to make her a star.

Eva has another reason for heading to Hollywood: it’s time for her to get to know her mother — a once-famous model who left Eva to be raised by her grandparents.

But when she gets stuck rooming with a bunch of outrageous teen starlets, and her mom doesn’t want to admit she even has a daughter, Eva’s life is one big tabloid story after another.

Smoking-hot Hollywood insider Danny wants to be her leading man, but he’s officially off-limits. With all these complications, how can Eva ever make it down the red carpet without falling flat on her face?

This is the first book in the 310 series from MTV Books. I live in the 310 so I was curious to see how different my life would be from the people from this series. I don’t live too far from Downtown L.A., I’ve had lunch on Rodeo Drive, I’ve shopped (okay, so I window shopped) at the Beverly Center and I’ve walked up and down the street near the Kodak Center where the stars are.

This seemed like the perfect book to start the summer with and while I enjoyed it, I didn’t think it was all that.

In this book, we follow Eva Cordes as she leaves her life in Massachusetts to come to the bright lights of Hollywood. She’s come to live with her Aunt who is going to make her a star. She’s running from her troubles at home and when she lands in L.A., her life takes on some drastic changes.

Lots of new people and trying to weed out the fake from the real is about as easy as solving the world’s problems and we see Eva go through some major hiccups on her journey to self discovery. I started off, not giving a damn about Eva because of her emails with her friend from back home, Jeff. She was such a liar and a fraud that I couldn’t find it in myself to sympathize with her but over the course of the book, I started to like her.

She’s got some major issues with her family, this white boy wanna be rapper that won’t leave her alone and then a roommate from hell who just so happens to be one of the IT girls in Hollywood. Seeing all of these things fix themselves (with a lot of help from her too) made for an interesting read. This book showed me just how different my 310 is from Eva’s and I’m okay with that because in my 310, I know who my friends are and my family isn’t afraid to claim me as one of their own and I’m glad for it.

Over the course of the book, Eva comes into her own without completely selling her soul to the devil and that’s saying something. I ended up liking her and what’s surprising is that I ended up enjoying the friendship that blossomed between her and her roommates, Jacinda and Coelle. The way that Jacinda and Coelle came to her aid when she needed them made me glad that Eva wasn’t completely alone in the world. Her relationship with her Aunt left a lot to be desired since Laurel had Eva doing some weird crap that no Aunt should make their niece do and Eva’s mother was a complete mess and well, the bright side of it all was that she met Danny and I heart Danny.

Baseball player from UCLA? Yum! This book has definitely got me all curious about the rest of the books in the series so I’m pretty sure that I’ll be checking those out as well. I’m curious to see if we get books from Jacinda and Coelle’s POV or if it’s more from Eva. I guess, I’ll have to find out for myself.

Would I recommend this? Sure, it’s not the best book out there but it’s good for a couple of hours of entertainment. It’s light, fluffy and perfect for a lazy day at the beach.

Buy the book: B&N|Borders|Amazon

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