Month: September 2019

City Girl vs Country Boy by: Jordan Ford

City Girl vs Country Boy (Forever Love #1)

Oh! Where do I even start…Let’s see-in this book, you have characters who have suffered tremendous loss that changes everything they have ever known. I have been not so patiently waiting for this book to release since the author first started talking about it and now the time has come where I can share it with you. 

When tragedy strikes and three families become one, some major changes take place. After losing their parents in a car crash Harper and her two siblings along with Stacey and her twin Bianca end up going to live with their “uncle” Beck and Tane, who is living with Beck since his mother’s indiscretions. Beck and the kids’ fathers where all best friends growing up and made a pact that if something ever happened to any one of them, the remaining family would take care of their children/family. 

Everyone deals with grief differently, and in this story that holds true, as Harper’s sister becomes mute and her brother gets lost in the online world and develops anger issues. Stacey and Bianca, who used to be super close, let past mistakes come between them. 

Beck, even though he is still dealing with his own trauma, does what any good person would do and takes the kids in and helps them through the difficult time as best as he can, which turns out to be really good for Harper’s brother. When things blow up with the kids, Beck takes all of them out to sit around a fire and finally tells them the story of how the guys all became friends and what happened in the past. He ends in telling them they are all welcome to stay with him for as long as they need and no one has to leave.

Harper, who is 18 and about to start college, has to make a tough choice of choosing between continuing to live with Beck and have help, or take her younger siblings back home to their house and become a single parent/college student. 

It is told from Harper, Tane and Stacey’s pov. Where getting back to who they used to be and friendship is more of the forefront instead of a romance but you can feel the pull between Harper and Tane. I wouldn’t say it ends on a cliffhanger per-say, but the story is continued in book 2 Broken Girl vs Fix-it Boy which comes out in October. 

The author informs you in the beginning that it is based in New Zealand, so some of the wording might be a little different than what you are used to but I have to tell you that I loved seeing a different part of the world.

I received this as an ARC for my honest and voluntary review. 

Publication Date: September 26, 2019 Pages: 317  Kindle Edition YA Family, Tragedy, Romance

 

 

15 Days With You by: Ara Grigorian

This is my first book by this author but I am glad I was given the chance to read it. I had not read a blurb when I got this book so I was going into it blind but the cover intrigued me as I am still wishing it was summer and I was at the beach. 

Shep, who has recently lost his mom to cancer, loads up her old truck and moves from Texas to California to live with his uncle and aunt. When he arrived there he meets Sam, who is basically a sister to Carmen, his cousin. She is known as a clutz to the family and when she tries to help Shep move in, she breaks a picture frame of Shep’s, his uncle comes in saying “what has Sam broke this time” only to find out that behind the picture was a letter for Shep to only be read after talking with his uncle. So they all head down to the kitchen to talk and it comes to light that his mom was a surfer back in the day and went on a 15 day surfing trip up the coast and wants Shep to take the trip and spread her ashes at each of the spots she visited. 

In her letter to Shep, she tells him that she is not proud of the choices she made when she was younger but she wants him to take this journey and on each day there will be a letter for him to read that will give insight to her life 18 years prior. Shep and Carmen decide they are going to go on the 15 day trip but Sam wants to go as well and it takes a little convincing for his uncle to let Sam go, with the rule being that Shep has to sleep in a tent so they are not in the RV together. 

During the 15 day trip, Shep learns a lot about his mom, which as she warned was not all good, but he learned to push past his own barriers and do what she wanted him to do. When Shep left his old home and school he left some, let’s say demons, behind and it has been eating at him while on the trip. As the three of them travel, Shep and Sam get closer but she can tell he is hiding something from her, but he tells her he is not ready to talk about it. When he was younger he had learned to surf but had a traumatic experience so now being afraid of the water feels like he can’t honor his mother’s wishes and as time goes by, he finally asked Sam to teach him how to surf.  

I want to keep talking about the book, but I feel like if I do then you won’t even need to read the book. So I’m going to stop there and tell you that the lessons he learns while on the trip are much needed to help him heal. I felt like this book was very well put together and it sucked you in from the beginning. 

I received this as an ARC for my honest and voluntary review. 

Publication Date: September 24, 2019 Pages: 348 Kindle Edition YA  Family, Loss, New Beginnings

Yep it’s been a bit

I’ll admit, it’s been a hot minute since I really posted any reviews, but life has just kinda got in the way. So today, you are treated with not only one review-but two. Both are YA from two different authors, one I have read several books from and the other is a first for me. Both books are similar in they deal with loss, family, and new beginnings. I’m sorry that I haven’t been posting recently and I promise that I’ll make it up to you! Hope y’all enjoy.