The Busy Bibliophile

Review: Nantucket Blue by Leila Howland

Title: Nantucket Blue
Author: Leila Howland
Publisher: May 7th 2013 by Disney Hyperion
Format: Hardcover, 304 pages
Source: Publisher
4 owls

Summary

For Cricket Thompson, a summer like this one will change everything. A summer spent on Nantucket with her best friend, Jules Clayton, and the indomitable Clayton family. A summer when she’ll make the almost unattainable Jay Logan hers. A summer to surpass all dreams.

Some of this turns out to be true. Some of it doesn’t.

When Jules and her family suffer a devastating tragedy that forces the girls apart, Jules becomes a stranger whom Cricket wonders whether she ever really knew. And instead of lying on the beach working on her caramel-colored tan, Cricket is making beds and cleaning bathrooms to support herself in paradise for the summer.

But it’s the things Cricket hadn’t counted on–most of all, falling hard for someone who should be completely off-limits–that turn her dreams into an exhilarating, bittersweet reality.

A beautiful future is within her grasp, and Cricket must find the grace to embrace it. If she does, her life could be the perfect shade of Nantucket blue.

My thoughts

Jules and Cricket are besties, so much so that Cricket spends most of her time at Jules’s house. Cricket’s mom is a depressed divorcée, and Jules’ family is so welcoming and warm. Her parents and younger brother all consider Cricket part of the family, and when Jules’ invites Cricket to spend the summer with them in Nantucket, Cricket jumps at the chance to get away from her mom and live her own life.

Cricket was a sweet girl. She tried hard to be a good daughter, and in fact, did a fabulous job of it. Her mother was still depressed after her divorce, even though Cricket’s father had moved on and remarried, and Cricket had pretty much become the mother figure. She took care of her mom, made sure she ate and tried to come up with activities to help get her out of the house. Cricket was mature for her age, mostly thanks to her mom, and though she had every right to be angry, she wasn’t. She was just sad about the situation.

Her bestie Jules seemed like a nice person, but once the devastating tragedy occurred (and it was truly devastating), she almost turned into a completely different person. And not a very nice one. I can understand her sadness and moodiness, but she turned on Cricket in such a mean way, I had trouble forgiving her for it.

Besides the 2 main characters, I loved everyone else: the sassy chambermaid, the kind and observant hotel manager, the harried author… All had their own characteristics and little quirks that made them believable and likable. The dialogue was great, I appreciated how honest Cricket was, even if it was sometimes hard for her. Leila Howland has a gift for saying the most complex things in a simple and understated way; it makes the words seem more powerful.

I enjoyed the setting of Nantucket, Leila Howland did a fabulous job of making me feel like I was there with the girls. The mood and setting were all descriptive and fun. I could picture the beach, the houses and all the little shops. Even the hoity toities who summer there. It was a fun story, as Cricket learned to stand on her own, as she fell in love, as she tried to figure things out with Jules. There was sadness, but there was also funny bits and romance. Speaking of the romance, I really enjoyed it. It was spare, in that there wasn’t a lot of flirting, giggling, and coyness or “Squee, does he like me?!” But it was there and you could feel it and appreciate it for its simplicity.

The novel zips along, and the 3 month summer flies by, then the book’s over before you know it. Although I was happy with the length of the story, and the way it ended, I wanted more! More Cricket and her man, more Liz, more Gavin and more George. Just more.

The sum up

I really liked this book and quite frankly, I’m surprised that this is Howland’s debut novel. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

Connect with the author

Website | Blog | Twitter | Goodreads

Purchase

The Book Depository | Nantucket Blue | Nook |
Kobo | Books A Million

Other opinions

So Many Books, So Little Time | reutreads | Serendipity Reviews

06/20/2013 Filed Under: 4 owls, Beach, Besties, Chemistry, Contemporary, Loss, Mental health, New adult, Sad, Summer, Sweet Leave a Comment

Excerpt + Giveaway by Michelle Kemper Brownlow {In Too Deep}

Author Michelle Kemper Brownlow is stopping by the blog today to share an excerpt from her debut novel and to offer up a chance for 5 lucky winners to win an ecopy of the novel.

Michelle Kemper Brownlow has been a storyteller her entire life. Her debut was on the high school cheerleading bus granting requests to re-tell her most embarrassing moments for a gaggle of hysterical squadmates.

Earning her Bachelor’s degree from Penn State University in Art Education and then marrying her very own “Jake,” she moved to Binghamton, NY where she taught high school. After having two children she quit work and finished her Master’s degree in Elementary Education at Binghamton University.

The Brownlow family of four moved to Michelle’s hometown of Morgantown, PA while the children were still quite young. A few years after moving, her family grew by one when they welcomed a baby into their home through the gift of adoption. The family still resides in PA, just miles from where that high school cheer bus was parked.

Michelle has been an artist for as long as she can remember, always choosing pencils and crayons over toys and puzzles. As a freelance illustrator, her simple characters play the starring roles in numerous emergent reader books published by Reading Reading Books.

“Writing is my way of making sense of the world. When I give my characters life on the pages I write, it frees up space in my mind to welcome in new stories that are begging to be told,” says Brownlow.

the busy bibliophile
Gracie has just finished her freshman year of college in Memphis when she takes a job at a local pizza joint in her home town of McKenzie, Tennessee. She is the epitome of innocence when she meets Noah. Noah is unabashedly handsome, intriguingly reckless and just cocky enough to be sexy. Gracie’s instincts tell her to stay far away from him and based on the stories she hears from her co-workers he leaves broken hearts in his wake. But still, she can’t explain her fascination with him.

Noah puts aside his bad boy ways when what he thought was a summer crush has him unexpectedly falling in love. But soon after Gracie transfers to UT Knoxville to be with Noah, their unexpected love becomes riddled with anger, deceit and humiliation.

Jake, Noah’s former roommate and Gracie’s best friend, can no longer be a bystander. Gracie’s world falls out from beneath her and when she breaks she turns to Jake for strength. As Jake talks her through a decision she’s not yet strong enough to make, together they uncover a truth so ugly neither of them is prepared for its fallout. Will Jake pull her to the surface or is Gracie Jordan finally In Too Deep?

the busy bibliophile
The strong force of the wave pulled me under. I gasped for air just before my face disappeared below the surface. My body rolled over and over, my arms flailed, and my head pounded into the sea bed which felt like a concrete floor. The salty water stung my eyes. I forced myself to keep them open, fearing I would slip into unconsciousness from the blow I took to the head. I knew I had to hold it together long enough for the swell to pull me back up when the wave rolled. But something was pulling me deeper. I fought with all my might, kicking against the thick water swallowing me whole. I used my arms like underwater oars and sliced through the depths trying to reach what I needed most, but I was in too deep.

“Get out!” I could barely get the words out before I had to run to the bathroom and void my gut of its contents. Noah didn’t move.

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and screamed, “I said, Get! Out!” I stumbled back into the room, grabbed the box of mementos I’d collected from the last year of our relationship, and dumped everything into the trashcan in the corner. Like a communal grave, there lay movie tickets, dried rose petals, a strip of photos from the boardwalk, all the beautiful letters he wrote last fall semester, an empty beer bottle, and all the rest of what was now just a reminder of the guy I thought I knew.

“Gracie, don’t…” His face fell, but he didn’t move from the edge of my bed.

“Don’t? Don’t what, Noah? Don’t break up with you? Are you kidding?” My ears burned from his admission of guilt. It hit me broadside. I wasn’t prepared for the words he had spoken just moments before.

The rush of water covering me grew cold. Icy. My body quaked. My lungs burned and begged for air. I could see light above. It glimmered and danced on the small waves my panic created. I reached for the surface. Even if I couldn’t pull myself up, maybe just feeling the sun’s warmth would stop the shivering that threatened to unravel me.

My legs gave out beneath me and I crumbled into a heap on my apartment floor. I sobbed so uncontrollably I gasped for air. I was livid. Repulsed. Crushed and torn. Noah was the love of my life, and things were just getting back to the way I longed for them to be. Back to what used to be our “normal.” Before he pledged Sigma Chi. Our relationship hadn’t been easy since I transferred to Knoxville. But our story wasn’t ready to end.

It went something like this:

Bad boy meets good girl.
First kiss.
Bad boy turns sensitive.
Love.
Good girl gives sensitive boy all of her.
Long distance.
Flowers. Love letters.
Long, sweet phone calls.
Good girl transfers to sensitive boy’s school.
Sensitive boy becomes fraternity boy.
Drunken social events.
Secrets revealed.
Fraternity boy pulls good girl under.
Good girl finds herself in too deep.

the busy bibliophile

If you’d like more information about Michelle or her debut novel, check out the links below:

Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

If you liked that little tidbit, enter below for your chance to win a copy of the book! If you don’t see the Raffleopter form, try refreshing your screen, or just click the link.

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06/19/2013 Filed Under: Excerpt, Giveaway 2 Comments

Interview: Bailey J. Thompson {Yellow Socks and Blood Spots}

Author Bailey J. Thompson is stopping by the blog today to answer a few questions about herself. She is a young author whose debut novel was published on May 15th. I love the idea of a teen pregnancy novel written by a teen. Who else is closer to the subject than an actual teen?

Bailey J Thompson is a teenage author who resides in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. She has been storytelling since the moment she could talk, and has since developed passions for creative writing, photography, nature and the environment. Yellow Socks and Blood Spots is her debut novel.

the busy bibliophile
What 1 book do you think should be on everybody’s must read list?
Anastasia – Vladimir Megre. And not for the writing style or skill, but for the story.

What 3 words would you use to describe yourself?
Workaholic. Chaos. Motivated.

What’s your favorite part of writing/publishing a novel?
My favorite part of publishing a novel is the whole reality that people are actually reading your work. Before you’re published, it’s just your friends/family/etc., but this is a little more remarkable. As exciting as that part is, it also makes it scary!

Who/what influenced your writing style?
When I first started writing, I was a huge fan of Judy Blume. Now I look up to Dean Koontz. I think my writing style is a combination of my favorite authors, but also my own voice.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
Well… To answer that question, you have to think about what it means to be a writer. For me, being a writer is being able to channel into the little things, finding never ending plots and climaxes in every day life, catching yourself narrating your own life from a third-person perspective every once in a while, and distrupted sleep from sudden (genius) ideas. It’s also the cliche things, like spending days and nights all alone except for the company of your coffee cup, staring at a computer screen OR spending hours laying in a hammock in complete bliss as you plan out the next story. I actually found myself asking the question “am I actually a writer?” over and over again over the past couple of years? Am I actually all of those things. I think being a writer is a really special thing, and it took me a really long time to accept that I was a writer – not because I didn’t want to be, but because the honor was so astounding. If I was going to call myself a writer, I was going to own up to the title… It wasn’t going to just be a hobby, it was going to be a definitive state of myself. I think that moment when I was able to define myself as a writer was the moment in which I finally finished my first novel (Yellow Socks and Blood Spots). That was the moment that said “I CAN do this.” and “I DID it” and “This is what I WANT to be doing.”… It really made the whole being a writer thing really real for me.

Do you seek out reviews of your novels?
Yes.

the busy bibliophile

Two lines means pregnant, and pregnant is the very last thing seventeen-year-old Isabelle wanted to be. She’s just beginning her senior year, she’s rekindling the respectable relationship she once had with her family and she has finally fallen in love.

Her boyfriend, Jason wants an abortion, while Isabelle wants to give her baby a chance at life, whether that means adoption or raising her baby herself. Her situation raises a question of values, beliefs, rights, societal expectations and personal opinions, and as Isabelle’s friends and family discover the news, they seem to think they know what’s best for her and her baby. Within two weeks of finding out about their beautiful disaster, Isabelle and Jason have to come to a mutual agreement and make a life and death decision.

the busy bibliophile

Thanks so much for stopping by today, Bailey. I’m impressed by how grounded you are – I don’t know of many teenagers who can sit down and write an entire novel. Congratulations on this huge accomplishment! Thanks again for answering my questions.

If you’d like more information about Bailey or her debut novel, check out the links below:

Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

06/13/2013 Filed Under: Interview, Teen pregnancy Leave a Comment

Audio Review: Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson

Title: Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson
Author: Jenny Lawson
Narrator: Jenny Lawson
Publisher: April 17th 2012 by Penguin Audio
Format: Audio CD, 8 hrs and 41 mins
Source: Purchased
4 owls

Summary

When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father (a professional taxidermist who created dead-animal hand puppets) and a childhood of wearing winter shoes made out of used bread sacks. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it.

Lawson’s long-suffering husband and sweet daughter are the perfect comedic foils to her absurdities, and help her to uncover the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments-the ones we want to pretend never happened-are the very same moments that make us the people we are today.

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened is a poignantly disturbing, yet darkly hysterical tome for every intellectual misfit who thought they were the only ones to think the things that Lawson dares to say out loud. Like laughing at a funeral, this book is both irreverent and impossible to hold back once you get started.

My thoughts

Everyone has read Jenny’s blog, The Bloggess (and if you haven’t, why the hell not?), and her debut memoir is just like it, full of crazy things she does, awkward conversations she has, crazy texts she shares with Victor or sometimes, dark places she finds herself when her anxiety or depression take hold. The chapters are individual stories, told in chronological order.

Jenny states in the beginning that most of the stories are true, and even though she says only names and dates have been changed, you have to wonder if everything else could really be true. If so, she’s had quite the life! There were a few stories or mentions that I recall from reading her blog, but most everything in the book was new to me.

The way she deals with the setbacks and disappointments in her life are wonderful; she is a great example of how humor can make most anything better. There are some truly sad parts, like her many miscarriages, but she continues on. Though it’s sad at the time, she can look back later and find the funny. She talks a lot about her husband, Victor, and I just adore him. He has (almost) the same sense of humor as Jenny, and he has the patience and understanding of a saint.

My only complaint is the audiobook. I adore Jenny Lawson, but her voice grates on my nerves. A lot of the time, she spoke in a monotone, with hardly any inflection. Several times, she would read a long paragraph or story (in a monotone), and her voice would get this gravelly sound. It got so bad I wanted to say “Clear your throat already!” And for some strange reason, she sang the chapter titles. Not very well. For those reasons alone, I would suggest going for the print version instead of the audio version.

The sum up

If you like The Bloggess, or awkwardly funny situations, check this one. Beware the salty language.

Connect with the author

Purchase

Other opinions

Spice of Life | Lovingly Thrown Together | Shelf Love

06/12/2013 Filed Under: 4 owls, Adult, Audio, Autobiography, Chick lit, Contemporary, Drugs, Funny, Loss, Mental health, New adult, Not for the kiddies 2 Comments

Cover Reveal: Being Kalli by Rebecca Berto

Today I’m excited to be part of the cover reveal for Being Kalli, a new-adult book by Rebecca Berto. The tour is hosted by AToMR Tours and the cover was designed by Najla Qamber Designs.

There are two things you should know about Kalli Perkins.
1. She’d rather do it in public than be alone with a guy.
2. She loves her little brothers more than her mom does.
Kalli doesn’t pretend to be a good girl. At nineteen, she’s never been in love and doesn’t ever intend to be. She has her issues handled. She’s managed to keep the secret of what happened to her nine years ago from her mother, although her mother’s usually high anyway and barely notices Kalli or her little brothers.
One night at a party, Kalli makes a bet with her friend, Nate, that could change everything. Their friend, Scout, tells them there’s no uncrossing the friendship line once it’s crossed—even though they were both drunk. But Kalli can’t imagine how anyone could want her damaged self for anything more.
She didn’t count on Nate. Nate’s very capable of satisfying her not only under her clothes, but in her heart, too.
She just doesn’t know it yet.

Rebecca Berto is a new adult contemporary romance author. She is also a freelance editor.

She writes stories that are a bit sexy, and straddle the line between Literary and Tear Your Heart Out. She gets a thrill when her readers are emotional reading her stories, and gets even more of a kick when they tell her so. She’s strangely imaginative, spends too much time on her computer, and is certifiably crazy when she works on her fiction.

Rebecca Berto lives in Melbourne, Australia with her boyfriend and their doggy.

Connect with the author:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads

06/11/2013 Filed Under: Cover reveal 2 Comments

Review: The Collector by Victoria Scott

Title: The Collector
Author: Victoria Scott
Publisher: April 2nd 2013 by Entangled Teen
Format: Paperback, 352 pages
Source: Publisher
5 owl rating

Summary

He makes good girls…bad.

Dante Walker is flippin’ awesome, and he knows it. His good looks, killer charm, and stellar confidence have made him one of hell’s best—a soul collector. His job is simple: weed through humanity and label those round rears with a big red good or bad stamp. Old Saint Nick gets the good guys, and he gets the fun ones. Bag-and-tag.

Sealing souls is nothing personal. Dante’s an equal-opportunity collector and doesn’t want it any other way. But he’ll have to adjust, because Boss Man has given him a new assignment:

Collect Charlie Cooper’s soul within ten days.

Dante doesn’t know why Boss Man wants Charlie, nor does he care. This assignment means only one thing to him, and that’s a permanent ticket out of hell. But after Dante meets the quirky Nerd Alert chick he’s come to collect, he realizes this assignment will test his abilities as a collector…and uncover emotions deeply buried.

My thoughts

Dante has been a Collector for 2 years; he jaunts around town minding his own business, and when he sees someone committing a sin (or just being a jerk), he gives them a “tag,” a black square that sticks on their soul. Once someone’s soul is completely covered in black squares, it can be collected. They continue to live normally, but after their death, they head downstairs. Dante’s tired of having to go back to hell when his collections are done, and this latest mission comes with a nice promotion: a permanent home on earth from which to supervise other Collectors. But his last collection, Charlie, is not making things very easy.

If there’s anything I can say now to sum up my thoughts on this book, allow me to show you the very articulate message I sent the author, Victoria Scott:

@VictoriaScottYA I love you. And Dante. But mostly Dante. That is all.
— The Busy Bibliophile (@TheBusyBiblio) May 30, 2013

The characters were so different! Dante was a cocky, uncaring asshat. He was very confident in his abilities and in his looks. He was good at his job, and he knew that part of it was the effect he had on women. He knew he looked good and he enjoyed spending money to keep himself in the high life. I’m the first to admit I like the sweet boy next door much more than the bad boy, but Dante had my heart from the beginning. I’m not sure why that was, maybe I saw something in him before anyone else did, or maybe because he was so good at being bad. At any rate, I loved him from the get-go.

Charlie was a spectacular person, pretty much the girl we should all be. She was not traditionally pretty, but she was beautiful on the inside. She was kind, thoughtful and selfless. Even when someone made fun of or bullied her, she still managed to be happy at something as simple as the weather. The secondary characters were just as entertaining; Charlie’s 2 besties and Dante’s fellow Collector bestie, who was almost as arrogant as Dante.

A lot of times in the bad boy/good girl type of stories, you don’t often get the bad boy point of view, so I loved getting Dante’s POV as he changed from an egotistical self-centered badass into something else. It took him a while to understand what was going on, and he fought it mightily, which only made me like him even more. And Charlie was content with being his friend. There was no flirting or insta-love.

I loved lots of little things: the dialogue, the way Dante always said what he was thinking, the way Charlie always managed to see the bright side of things, the way Max stood by Dante and even seemed to look up to him, Blue’s (not so) secret love for Charlie, the incredibly slow way Dante figured out what was happening, Valery’s no-nonsense approach… All of it added up to one big ball of amazing entertainment.

The story started out with a bang, as we’re introduced to arrogant Dante, then Scott’s writing just drew me in and kept me hanging on until the end. There was a touch of religious talk, but it wasn’t overwhelming. There was a bit of mystery, as Dante wondered what was so important about Charlie, why his boss wanted the soul so badly. Will he manage to collect her soul? Will Blue finally tell Charlie how he feels? There wasn’t any sex, but there was passion and romance. And also, lots of cussing. Definitely not a book for the kids (though there were a few nice life lessons hidden in there).

The sum up

If you like your bad boys very bad, this book is for you. And, this is probably only the third time this has ever happened, even though I’ve already read the eARC, I will also be purchasing the paperback copy. I need Dante on my bookshelf.

Connect with the author

Website | Facebook| Twitter | YouTube | Goodreads

Purchase

The Book Depository | Amazon | Kindle | Nook | Barnes & Noble

Other opinions

Cuddlebuggery | Lost in Literature | Vampire Book Club

06/06/2013 Filed Under: 5 owls, Bad boy, Besties, Male Point of View, Not for the kiddies, Swoon-worthy, Young adult 5 Comments

Top Ten Books Featuring Travel in Some Way

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today’s list is:

Top Ten Books Featuring Travel In Some Way (road trips, airplanes, travelogues, anything where there is traveling in the book!)

Some of my choices include travel in an actual vehicle, while some only feature travel via foot over a city, desert or made up location. Either way, they traveled somewhere, so I figure it counts!

1. The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa – Allie travels on foot to find her maker and rescue him from the deranged vampire that’s torturing him.
2. Being Henry David by Cal Armistead – A young man wakes up and has no idea who he is, so he follows the only clue he has – a book by Henry David Thoreau – to Concord, Massachusetts.
3. Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn – Dash and Lily run all over New York City one weekend, trying to top each others’ dares.
4. Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill – Julia travels to London on a school trip and finds more than she bargained for.
5. Splintered by A. G. Howard – Alyssa and Jeb go on a journey through Wonderland in an effort to find the secret to free her mom from her mental illness.
6. The Assassin’s Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke – Ananna and Naji travel across the desert, first to kill each other, then to lift the curse that binds them together.
7. Two-Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt – Jordan and Courtney, unfriendly exes, travel cross-country together in time for their college orientation.
8. Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard – Bria makes the ultimate journey of self-discovery in Central America.
9. The Edge of Never by J. A. Redmerski – Camryn hops on a bus with no idea where she’s headed and has quite the adventure.
10. The Host by Stephenie Meyer – Melanie, and the alien that has possessed her body, must travel to find Melanie’s family who have hidden away from the aliens.

I had fun looking back at the books I’ve read and deciding which ones qualified as travel related. Also, it turns out I love travel related books because every one of the books on this list are rated either 4 or 5 owls. I just learned something new about myself! Leave some links to your Top Ten so I can find some new books to add to my tbr list!

06/04/2013 Filed Under: Meme Tagged With: top ten tuesday 4 Comments