What Light by Jay Asher Book Review

Title: What Light

Author: Jay Asher

Rating: 5/5 Stars

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Sierra’s family runs a Christmas tree farm in Oregon—it’s a bucolic setting for a girl to grow up in, except that every year, they pack up and move to California to set up their Christmas tree lot for the season. So Sierra lives two lives: her life in Oregon and her life at Christmas. And leaving one always means missing the other. 

Until this particular Christmas, when Sierra meets Caleb, and one life eclipses the other.

By reputation, Caleb is not your perfect guy: years ago, he made an enormous mistake and has been paying for it ever since. But Sierra sees beyond Caleb’s past and becomes determined to help him find forgiveness and, maybe, redemption. As disapproval, misconceptions, and suspicions swirl around them, Caleb and Sierra discover the one thing that transcends all else: true love.

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This was probably the coziest YA romance I could have picked up for the month of December. I’ve had it on my TBR since earlier this summer and had been waiting for the holiday season to hit so I could read it (yes, I prefer to read books in whatever season they take place in.)

I loved this novel so much, it wasn’t a life changing, I’m in complete since I finished it like I was with November 9 last month, but it was still super cute and I was totally crushing on Caleb.

I didn’t find too many issues with the plot in this and I never found the characters annoying or bland. Which was why I gave this novel a perfect rating. The drama was minimal, and was usually quickly resolved.

This is the perfect novel for you to snuggle up to this Christmas! I highly recommend it, no complaints here! Beautiful scenery, plenty of details, wonderful story.

 

 

Dirty (Dive Bar Book 1) by Kylie Scott Review

Title: Dirty (Dive Bar 1)

Author: Kylie Scott

Genre: Romance

Rating: 3/5 Stars

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The last thing Vaughan Hewson expects to find when he returns to his childhood home is a broken hearted bride in his shower, let alone the drama and chaos that come with her.

Lydia Green doesn’t know whether to scream or cry in a corner. Discovering the love of your life is having an affair on your wedding day is bad enough. Finding out it’s with his best man is another thing all together.

Just when this runaway bride has nowhere left to turn, a handsome stranger offers her a broad, muscular shoulder to cry on. Vaughan is the exact opposite of the picture perfect, respected businessmen she’s normally drawn to. This former musician-turned-bartender is rough around the edges and is facing his own crossroads. But Lydia’s already tried Mr. Right and discovered he’s all wrong–maybe it’s time to give Mr. Right Now a chance.

After all, what’s wrong with getting dirty?

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After I read Trust by Scott, I was really excited to check out some of her other books. I was a little let down by this one, it wasn’t as good as Trust was and I felt like things moved way too quickly. The ‘instalove’ was VERY instant in this novel. It started out hilarious, I mean, what would you do if you found a porn of your soon-to-be husband having sex with his groomsmen? Talk about dodging a bullet.

One thing I’m not a fan of in Kylie Scott’s books is how she makes her characters self-conscious of their body weight. Unless it has to do with the plot, which it didn’t in this novel, don’t make it part of the story. I feel like she’s only writing overweight characters in order to get a target audience. Not into that.

This novel takes place over one week… as I mentioned before about the instant love between these two characters, I wasn’t lying. Even Lydia says at the end of the book that they moved too fast.

With all that said, I might still read book two in the series (Twist) just to see if it’s any better.

 

Cover Reveal and 10 Fun Facts About The Last July!

With the upcoming release of my very first novel, I thought it would be fun to share some facts about The Last July as it went from it’s very rough first draft to the final edit. Today is also my birthday, and for my birthday, I’d like to share my cover reveal with my blog followers! This has been a long time coming!

• The Last July was originally in two different POV’s, Penelope and Sampson’s.
• In the first few drafts, TLJ was a story about a romance between a camper and counselor. It wasn’t until the final two drafts that Penelope was almost 18 and Sampson was slightly younger.
• The very first draft of TLJ was written in the Spring of 2014 during Camp NaNoWriMo, I didn’t go to finish it until April 2016 when it was only 31k words. It still wasn’t finished! So it pretty much took me three to four years to write this novel, I just took many breaks. Too many breaks.
• Some of the camp activities in the novel are my favorite things that I did at camp when I was younger. Swimming, hiking, capture the flag, even the mashed potato mohawks!
• Camp Arthur is based off of the camp I attended as a kid/teen in Ohio, but is set in Tennessee because it’s one of my favorite places to vacation.
• I’ve hiked Abrams Falls (twice) and it’s a very tough trail! But the waterfall is so worth it!
• I wrote about five different final chapters, never sure of how I wanted Sampson and Penelope’s story to end. I finally went to my husband to give me their ending. Yay for having a husband who is also an author!
• In one of the many drafts, Penelope’s friend, Jenny was supposed to be a camper who suffered an awful fate of a bee sting. I quickly realized that was a bit too morbid, I was watching Game of Thrones at the time.
• TLJ is a stand alone, but I do plan on writing in the world of Camp Arthur again one day.
• The authors that I got some inspiration from over the years were Sarah Dessen and Katie Cotugno. I love their contemporary summer romances! Hopefully, one day I can inspire someone the way they inspired me!

 

I also made a blog post for the songs that inspired some scenes in the novel, find that one here. And a sneak peak that can be found here.

The Last July is set to come out very soon, fingers crossed. Follow the blog for updates on the release, deals, and pre-order!

This is an exclusive blog post that I won’t be sharing to any of my other social media platforms! So you guys get to be the first to hear the news!

Guys, now I’m starting to feel like an author!

Here’s the cover! Tada!

Cover Reveal and 10 Fun Facts About The Last July!

With the upcoming release of my very first novel, I thought it would be fun to share some facts about The Last July as it went from it’s very rough first draft to the final edit. Today is also my birthday, and for my birthday, I’d like to share my cover reveal with my blog followers! This has been a long time coming!

• The Last July was originally in two different POV’s, Penelope and Sampson’s.
• In the first few drafts, TLJ was a story about a romance between a camper and counselor. It wasn’t until the final two drafts that Penelope was almost 18 and Sampson was slightly younger.
• The very first draft of TLJ was written in the Spring of 2014 during Camp NaNoWriMo, I didn’t go to finish it until April 2016 when it was only 31k words. It still wasn’t finished! So it pretty much took me three to four years to write this novel, I just took many breaks. Too many breaks.
• Some of the camp activities in the novel are my favorite things that I did at camp when I was younger. Swimming, hiking, capture the flag, even the mashed potato mohawks!
• Camp Arthur is based off of the camp I attended as a kid/teen in Ohio, but is set in Tennessee because it’s one of my favorite places to vacation.
• I’ve hiked Abrams Falls (twice) and it’s a very tough trail! But the waterfall is so worth it!
• I wrote about five different final chapters, never sure of how I wanted Sampson and Penelope’s story to end. I finally went to my husband to give me their ending. Yay for having a husband who is also an author!
• In one of the many drafts, Penelope’s friend, Jenny was supposed to be a camper who suffered an awful fate of a bee sting. I quickly realized that was a bit too morbid, I was watching Game of Thrones at the time.
• TLJ is a stand alone, but I do plan on writing in the world of Camp Arthur again one day.
• The authors that I got some inspiration from over the years were Sarah Dessen and Katie Cotugno. I love their contemporary summer romances! Hopefully, one day I can inspire someone the way they inspired me!

 

I also made a blog post for the songs that inspired some scenes in the novel, find that one here. And a sneak peak that can be found here.

The Last July is set to come out very soon, fingers crossed. Follow the blog for updates on the release, deals, and pre-order!

This is an exclusive blog post that I won’t be sharing to any of my other social media platforms! So you guys get to be the first to hear the news!

Guys, now I’m starting to feel like an author!

Here’s the cover! Tada!

Trust by Kylie Scott Book Review

Title: Trust

Author: Kylie Scott

Genre: Young/New Adult

Rating: 3/5 Stars

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Being young is all about the experiences: the first time you skip school, the first time you fall in love…the first time someone holds a gun to your head.

After being held hostage during a robbery at the local convenience store, seventeen-year-old Edie finds her attitude about life shattered. Unwilling to put up with the snobbery and bullying at her private school, she enrolls at the local public high school, crossing paths with John. The boy who risked his life to save hers.

While Edie’s beginning to run wild, however, John’s just starting to settle down. After years of partying and dealing drugs with his older brother, he’s going straight—getting to class on time, and thinking about the future.

An unlikely bond grows between the two as John keeps Edie out of trouble and helps her broaden her horizons. But when he helps her out with another first—losing her virginity—their friendship gets complicated.

Meanwhile, Edie and John are pulled back into the dangerous world they narrowly escaped. They were lucky to survive the first time, but this time they have more to lose—each other.

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I received an eARC of this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Lately, I haven’t been breezing through books, but this one, I did! From the very first chapter, I was drawn in and couldn’t put the novel down. That being said, it wasn’t great writing either. It wasn’t beautifully written like the latest Sarah Dessen and it wasn’t ‘life-changing’, but it was very interesting and I’ll give it a ‘okay’ rating for that.

This wasn’t an insta-romance either, which was surprisingly pleasant since I love that troupe. It was more so, ‘insta-crush’. Edie and John go through a traumatic event together, but they don’t immediately want to date. John tries to protect her from his bad boy image, worried people will judge her for being associated with an ex-drug dealer.

I kind of got tired of hearing about the weight of our main character. In my eyes, she wasn’t fat, I couldn’t tell if she was huge or just a little chubby. I don’t think the weight of our character matters much unless it’s part of the plot like in Dumplin’. I feel like in order to make her weight a bigger deal, more people should have been picking on her for that.

The constant underage partying was also an issue for me. I get high schoolers party on occasion, but it felt like that was all Edie and her friends did. Constant underage drinking, sex, ect… I would classify this book as new adult, rather than young adult, because of these topics.

I loved John in the robbery scene, but he fell short after that. During the robbery, John was so kind and social, but after that, we just got grunt responses from him. He seemed to act like Edie was pesky to him. I know John was going through a lot with his brother, and the robbery, but he changed a lot from the guy he was at the gas station.

I’m  also pretty sure Kylie Scott might be a pen name… possibly Kevin/Hedwig from Split has written this book, with all the etceteras in the beginning….

Overall, I did like the book, but I felt like it had a lot of issues that still needed to be worked out. I plan on reading more from Kylie Scott in the next few months. Always willing to give an author a second shot!

 

Once and For All by Sarah Dessen Book Review

Title: Once and For All

Author: Sarah Dessen

Genre: Young Adult (though, I’d recommend over the age of 16 to read this one due to some content).

Rating: 5/5 Stars

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Louna, daughter of famed wedding planner Natalie Barrett, has seen every sort of wedding: on the beach, at historic mansions, in fancy hotels and clubs. Perhaps that’s why she’s cynical about happily-ever-after endings, especially since her own first love ended tragically. When Louna meets charming, happy-go-lucky serial dater Ambrose, she holds him at arm’s length. But Ambrose isn’t about to be discouraged, now that he’s met the one girl he really wants.

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I thought this was going to be just another lighthearted, summer YA by Dessen, but parts of it had my heart racing with fear. Though I didn’t love some of the content in this novel, there’s no way I could give this book any less than a 5 star rating because of how beautiful Dessen’s writing is.

The mother/daughter dynamic in this novel reminded me a lot of Lorelai and Rory from Gilmore Girls, which I adored. I love when authors remember to keep the parents of a YA novel involved with their child and this one did great at that.

There were also a few side characters that I enjoyed, mostly her best friends brother, Crawford. Though he had few lines, he had me cracking up with his honesty.

And it’s not a Dessen book without the love interest… or shall I say, not so much of a love interest. I was not a fan of Ambrose for the most part, this was the first time I’ve not been interested in the main characters potential suitor. I hated how he was a serial dater and was way too friendly with every woman he met.

And then there’s Ethan… he seemed like the perfect boyfriend but sadly, the unthinkable happened and I just could not handle his storyline. This was probably the most troublesome plot (emotionally) that I remember reading from Dessen.

 

 

Book Review: Bad Penny by Staci Hart

Title: Bad Penny

Author: Staci Hart

Genre: Romance

Rating: 3/5 Stars

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Nothing good comes after the third date.

Date three is the crucial point when things get real, which is exactly why I bounce out the door, twiddling my fingers at whatever poor boy I’ve left behind. Because if I stick around, one of three things will happen: he’ll profess his undying love, he’ll get weird and stalky, or I’ll go crazy. Like, Sid and Nancy crazy. Like, chase-him-through-the-streets-begging-him-to-love-me crazy.

Seriously, it’s better for everyone this way.

So when I meet Bodie, I figure it’ll be the same as it ever was. It doesn’t matter that he doesn’t put a single string on me. Doesn’t matter that he’s funny and smart and jacked or that he can play my body like a grand piano. Because even though I’m built for love, love has only carved me up like a Christmas ham.

Resistance is something I can only hang on to for so long, and he has persistence in spades. But my heart isn’t as safe as I want to believe, and neither is his. And the second I ignore my cardinal rule is the second I stand to lose him forever.

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Sometimes it’s nice to take a break from the norm and ready a fun and easy romance novel. This did just that for me. This book pulls you in with its wit from the very first chapter title, literally, I laughed out loud when I saw it. Penny is an all around happy, independent woman who knows what she wants in life, that is, until she meets Bodie. I’m so used to the tame, girl next door type going after the bad boy in these types of novels, so it was cool to see a badass tatted girl in a novel getting involved with the nerdy gamer (who is also chiseled beyond belief). I admit, I saw the cover and that’s what pulled me in, I don’t think I even looked at the synopsis.

With alternating chapters, we get to see both POV’s, which I loved because we got to know that Bodie wasn’t just using Penny like she was using him in the beginning.

If you’re not a fan of ‘insta-romance’, this book isn’t for you because the romance starts off within the first two chapters. There’s no build up at all. If you’re looking for erotica, this book also isn’t for you. The sexual scenes in this novel were very tame in nature, but they did exist.

I rated this lower than my normal reviews only because there wasn’t enough conflict to keep me involved and concerned for the characters. And when there was conflict, it was rather annoying and self-inflicted.

Would love to see a second book in Veronica’s perspective. Who is she dating?!

The ending was perfect, but I feel like the characters (or at least Penny) didn’t act their age throughout the entirety of the novel.

 

What are your favorite adult romance novels? Looking to fill up my kindle with some reads similar to this.

 

 

Book Buying Ban

I have a problem.

I officially have purchased too many books and I’m in over my head with my TBR list. Yikes!

 

I heard a ‘booktuber’ the other day mention in a video that they’re currently on a ‘book buying ban’. I thought, huh, it’s possible to stop buying books? I used to not be bad about buying books and not reading them. I would only buy a book, read it and then by another one. Since I’ve started blogging over a year ago, I’ve gone into the habit of buying a book every time I see one that interests me, even if I didn’t have the time to read it.

My name’s Breanna and I’m addicted to buying books.

 

 

But some of them are cheap e-books! I protest.

No, I must not buy any more books until I at least finish my hard copy TBR list.

Here are the books that I must read before I can lift my book buying ban (non-e-books). Preferably in this order:

 

 

Wow, that’s a lot of paperbacks/hardback books…

I’ve been piling those up for about a year now. I have read Nevermore, but I’d like to re-read it before I read the rest of the series. I’ll probably marathon those in October.

And here are the books I’ve been stockpiling on my kindle that I need to read. I usually breeze through those because I read quicker on my kindle as opposed to physical copies.

 

Folks, if you didn’t count, that’s 18 books to read before my book buying ban is lifted. That’s a ton in my opinion. I’m also less than five books away from completing my GoodReads challenge! Thanks to my subscribers for pushing me to read more this year! 

Have you considered going on a book buying ban? This is a first for me!

Author Interview: Khardine Gray

1. How did you get into writing?

   My earliest memory of writing was when I was about 11 years old. I loved reading books like Sweet Valley High and Nancy Drew. I remembered thinking on one occasion that I wished one of the stories had ended differently. Then it occurred to me that I could try to create my own stories.

That was my light bulb moment and there hasn’t been a day that passed since I didn’t write something. Even if it was for ten minutes.

I have stacks of handwritten books from my childhood and teenage imagination that I plan to revisit one day. In 2015 I thought about trying to get published, so I sent off my manuscript and was completely shocked when it was accepted. My life has changed immensely since then.

2. How can authors develop an emotional connection between their readers and their characters?

I think it’s important to build that connection with my readers. I do newsletters each week so that I can keep in touch. In those I always let my readers know how much I appreciate them and how I love to hear from them. I try to find topics that they like to discuss and encourage them to connect . My husband pointed out once that I’m supposed write for my readers. If I don’t then it would be better to just imagine up my stories in my head and not bother to write them down. He was right. My readers are like gold dust to me and they inspire me to continue doing what I love the most. 

In regards to my characters, I think of them as pieces of my imagination I’ve given life to. They are very much a part of me and are a result of everything I’ve experienced internally, and externally in the world around me.

The same way I love my readers, I love my characters and I do everything to make my characters as real as possible so that emotional connection can be made. I spend a lot of time creating my characters and I go as far as listing down everything about them. That way I know exactly what they would do in different situations. How they feel, what they would say, what effect different things and people would have on them.

My aim is to create memorable characters so that my readers will never forget them. 

3. What’s the best summer beach read? If you could take that book anywhere in the world, where would you go to read it?

I like Susan Elizabeth Phillips. My favorite book by her is Natural Born Charmer. I’d read that on the beach for sure and I’d love to read it on one of the amazing beaches on Okinawa Island, Japan. I’d be right at home reading there. It’s truly beautiful and has that scenic landscape worthy of a screen saver.

4. What makes romance your genre of choice? Are any of your characters based on personal experiences?

   I love writing about love and falling in love. I’m one of those people who values love and it fascinates me to create characters who have this intense magical feeling that draws them together.

         I think I identify a lot with my characters in I Only Have Eyes For You. 

        Of all my books that’s probably the one where I’ve mingled a few of my personal experiences with the fiction world I created. I guess I am a lot like my heroine, Savannah too. We love shopping, pizza, our family and friends.

Savannah made this big life change that would allow her to follow her dreams and not just do things because she was good at it. She wanted to do something that made her happy, something that truly represented her. I feel that I did this with my decision to be an author.

 I am good at a lot of things and I have a great academic background, but I felt that I reached a stage in my life where it was time to do what made me happiest. Savannah travelled to Japan and things took off for her from there. I submitted my manuscript to a publisher and that’s when things changed for me.

5. There can sometimes be a bit of stigma surrounding romance readers and writers. Have you ever had any negative experiences resulting from your profession as a romance writer?

I haven’t really had much negativity I think it’s because I tend to share what I do with those who I know will be interested. There was someone though who once said to me that writing romance will never be a stable career. I knew different because I know authors who make six figures a month. 

Aside from that I tend to not worry about what others think of me. I’m definitely in my element when I write and writing romance is a craft that comes from within. I write from my soul, knowing that gives me the strength to deflect any negativity that may come my way.

 

For more from Khardine Gray, check out her website.

The Five Stages of Grief (After Finishing a Novel)

We’ve all been there, you just finished yet another amazing book and you just ‘can’t even’ right now! What’s left to do but crawl into your bed and become a sad burrito as you ponder on what to read next or why we read through the last book so quickly? Here’s your five stages of book grief.

 

Denial:

So you hammered through that novel and now you’re sitting there shaking your head because you don’t know what to do. You can’t even think about hopping on Goodreads and reviewing the book because you feel so incomplete. Whether it was an unexpected ending, the death of a character or your favorite couple in-shipping, you’re in major denial!

 

 

Anger:

Now you’re pissed! You’ve given yourself time to think about it but it’s still not adding up. None of it makes sense at all! Why the hell would the author end the book like that!? That’s not a resolution! She/he better make a sequel! This is a stand alone? Hell no! I will not accept that!

 

Bargaining:

You would literally settle for anything else from this author. Remember when we wanted more Twilight and Stephanie Meyer was writing the Edward version of Twilight but then stopped because it was ‘leaked’, yeah, I bet you jumped on fanfiction just like me looking to sooth your soul because you were addicted to that Fandom. Hey, everything worked out in the end though, right? We got Life and Death…

No, Stephanie Meyer! That’s not what we wanted! We’ll do anything to see what happens with Rennesme!

 

Depression:

So there’s not going to be a sequel. You rushed through this book like there’s no tomorrow and now you have a book hangover and you don’t think you’ll ever love a book more than the masterpiece you just completed in record time. Load up into that sad burrito again, but this time, grab a pint of ice cream, you’re going to need it.

 

Acceptance:

You finally get the strength to pull yourself out of bed and go to the bookstore (or an online website) and realize there are so many more books out in the sea. If you’re like me, in a year you’ll completely forget the plot to the book and be able to reread it! Book life goes on!