Review: Faking It

Book Title/Author: Faking It by Cora Carmack
Publication Date/Publisher: June 4, 2013/William Morrow and Company

Series: Yes, #2 in the Losing It Series
Source and Format: Received advanced reader copy from publisher and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review
Rating: 3 stars

From Goodreads:

Mackenzie “Max” Miller has a problem. Her parents have arrived in town for a surprise visit, and if they see her dyed hair, tattoos, and piercings, they just might disown her. Even worse, they’re expecting to meet a nice, wholesome boyfriend, not a guy named Mace who has a neck tattoo and plays in a band. All her lies are about to come crashing down around her, but then she meets Cade.

Cade moved to Philadelphia to act and to leave his problems behind in Texas. So far though, he’s kept the problems and had very little opportunity to take the stage. When Max approaches him in a coffee shop with a crazy request to pretend to be her boyfriend, he agrees to play the part. But when Cade plays the role a little too well, they’re forced to keep the ruse going. And the more they fake the relationship, the more real it begins to feel.

I apparently really like reading about fake relationships. I think it’s how silly the whole notion is – I can’t possibly introduce my current flame to my parents/go home alone, why don’t I ask this attractive stranger to travel somewhere with me and act like we know each other very intimately?

I don’t get it. But that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it!

I don’t remember caring about Cade much one way or the other in Losing It. In Faking It, he is trying to get over Bliss, since she is still with Garrick. And it’s just as well, because Cade and Max are about a billion times hotter than Bliss and Garrick could ever dream of being. There is some steamy goodness happening here.

The most unbelievable part of the whole story for me is Max’s band. She is kind rockabilly and punk mixed together, the bassist is kind of emo and punk mixed together, and the drummer (her actual boyfriend, Mace) seemed pretty metalhead-y to me…and they play covers of Rilo Kiley songs? My imagination can only go so far.

I look forward to reading Kelsey’s story in the forthcoming Finding It. Faking It is out June 4.

Waiting on Wednesday: Fangirl

“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

Book Title/Author: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Publication Date/Publisher: September 10, 2013/St. Martin’s Press

From Goodreads:

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .

But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

Or will she just go on living inside somebody else’s fiction?

This one might be cheating a little, because I did get Fangirl from Netgalley to review…but I haven’t been able to read it yes! It’s the greatest injustice in the world.

I have had some fangirl moments of my own and I hope to squee my way through this VERY SOON.

Armchair BEA Introduction Post

• Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?

My name is Justine and I’ve been blogging for over ten years, but since February 2013 here at Paperback Heart. I made the switch to book blogging because I’ve always been a reader and I wanted an outlet where I could connect with other people with the same interests.

• Where in the world are you blogging from? Tell a random fact or something special about your current location. Feel free to share pictures.

I live in Monterey, CA (home to many otters) just down the road from Salinas, CA (home of John Steinbeck). I work in downtown Salinas, right where East of Eden takes place…and despite how horribly touristy it is, I love to go to Cannery Row and walk around – there’s all these little banners hanging from the light posts that have quotes from Cannery Row on them.

This is what’s behind my Target.

People in the 831 are REALLY into expressing themselves with giant wooden figures. This is from a year or two before I moved here.

Me and Lady at Lover’s Point

San Jose is closest big city. It’s also home to the only in-state team I care about. We’re big fans.

 

• Have you previously participated in Armchair BEA? What brought you back for another year? If you have not previously participated, what drew you to the event?

I haven’t participated in Armchair BEA before, but I’m very excited about it! I heard about it last year, and right when I started book blogging was right when everyone was starting to get ready to go. I think it’s a great alternative, but I do secretly hope to attend BEA in the future.

• What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2013?

As the time of this writing, I am reading NOS4A2 by Joe Hill – probably the first “grown up” book I’ve read in a while.

• Tell us one non-book-related thing that everyone reading your blog may not know about you.

I am really into health and fitness. I love weightlifting and seeing my progress as the changes in my body, and I love eating clean to maintain that progress.,

Least impressive workout photo ever. From 13.1 in the Crossfit Open.

Top Ten Tuesday: Freebie!

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This week, The Broke and the Bookish is giving us a freebie and letting us choose – which is even harder than coming up with ten things for a set topic, I think. So, this week, my topic is TOP TEN BOOKS I WISH I NEVER READ…SO I COULD READ THEM AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME.

1. Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
2. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
3. Summer Sisters by Judy Blume – the first time I read this, I was probably like 12 and everything went waaaay over my head. I’ve read it several times since then, but I think it would be better to read for the first time as an adult.
4. Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
5. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
6. Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
7. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
8. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
9. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
10. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

What topic did you pick for this TTT?

Review: Wonder Show

Book Title/Author: Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby
Publication Date/Publisher: March 20, 2012/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Series: No
Source and Format: Library e-book
Rating: 3.99999 stars

From Goodreads:

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, step inside Mosco’s Traveling Wonder Show, a menagerie of human curiosities and misfits guaranteed to astound and amaze!

But perhaps the strangest act of Mosco’s display is Portia Remini, a normal among the freaks, on the run from McGreavy’s Home for Wayward Girls, where Mister watches and waits. He said he would always find Portia, that she could never leave.

Free at last, Portia begins a new life on the bally, seeking answers about her father’s disappearance. Will she find him before Mister finds her? It’s a story for the ages, and like everyone who enters the Wonder Show, Portia will never be the same.

I love a circus setting! In Wonder Show, we stick to one part of the circus – the freak show tent. There is a strong man, conjoined twins, a bearded lady, a fat lady,  and a lady with no arms who throws knives with her feet, to name a few.

I really liked that we get chapters from the “freaks” to learn more about them, and how their individual relationships with Portia play out. I like the very real fear that Mister made me feel – creepy older man with a house full of young girls? You know that’s not going to end well.

I like music as much (or possibly more) as the next person, though most of what I like is not liked well by anyone else. Still, Wonder Show inspired me to create a mini-playlist, but I can’t get it to embed for whatever reason. So videos it is.

 

 

And finally, a great piece of advice:

My treat, darling. Bad luck for a girl to pay for her first lipstick. It’s like the tarot cards. You can’t buy them for yourself. You can’t pay for something powerful.

Review: Dreamland

Book Title/Author: Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
Publisher/Year: May 11, 2004/Speak

Series: No
Source and Format: Library Book
Rating: 2 stars

From Goodreads:

Wake up, Caitlin

Ever since she started going out with Rogerson Biscoe, Caitlin seems to have fallen into a semiconscious dreamland where nothing is quite real. Rogerson is different from anyone Caitlin has ever known. He’s magnetic. He’s compelling. He’s dangerous. Being with him makes Caitlin forget about everything else–her missing sister, her withdrawn mother, her lackluster life. But what happens when being with Rogerson becomes a larger problem than being without him?

What started out as the most promising of all the books on this Sarah Dessen binge ended up making me the most upset.

Caitlin was the most likeable of all the Dessen girls, and definitely the most interesting. She leaves the football player hanging to hang out with a guy she met at a car wash. She goes home with her bra in her pocket that night! She wants to have sex, and then (eventually) she does! She hates being a cheerleader! She smokes pot and cigarettes! What happens to her feels, to me, like punishment for doing these things.

I could relate to Caitlin a lot more than the other Dessen girls. My typical day in high school was pretty different than how they’re portrayed in most YA – I took a lot more smoke breaks and beach days, which is easy when you go to high school in San Diego. I didn’t even like the beach, but I hated my fifth period English class more.

I was actually really enjoying Dreamland until the horrible thing (I don’t want to give it away because I seriously did not see it coming) happens to Caitlin. That ruined the rest of the book for me.

 

Review: The Comeback Season

Book Title/Author: The Comeback Season by Jennifer E. Smith
Publisher/Year: March 4, 2008/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Series: No
Source and Format: Library book
Rating: 3.75 stars

From Goodreads:

The last place Ryan Walsh should be this afternoon is on a train heading to Wrigley Field. She should be in class, enduring yet another miserable day of her first year of high school. But for once, Ryan isn’t thinking about what she should be doing. She’s not worried about her lack of friends, or her suffering math grade, or how it’s been five whole years since the last time she was really and truly happy. Because she’s finally returning to the place that her father loved, where the two of them spent so many afternoons cheering on their team. And on this — the fifth anniversary of his death — it feels like there’s nowhere else in the world she should be.

Ryan is once again filled with hope as she makes her way to the game. Good luck is often hard to come by at a place like Wrigley Field, but it’s on this day that she meets Nick, the new kid from her school, who seems to love the Cubs nearly as much as she does. But Nick carries with him a secret that makes Ryan wonder if anyone can ever really escape their past, or believe in the promise of those reassuring words: “Wait till next year.” Is it too much for Ryan to hope that this year, this season, might be her comeback season?

That thing where you pick up a book thinking it’s about love and baseball and suddenly there’s a dead dad, a dead dog, and boyfriend with cancer. Like, ooooh I liked Catching Jordan, let’s read this other sports-y book…and now I’m dehydrated from crying and know waaaay more about the Chicago cubs than any non-baseball fan living in Giants territory would ever need to.

Ryan is very likeable. I had a lot of sympathy for her – her dad died 5 years ago, her mom is remarried and with child, her younger sister doesn’t really remember their dad. She is a completely average girl: not great at school, no hidden talents. Just a love for the Chicago Cubs.

Nick is verrrrry likeable. He’s a normal teenage boy…with osteosarcoma (thank you, medical terminology course!). He has an easy friendship with Ryan and you can FEEL his feelings for her, even if Ryan can’t.

The Comeback Season is my favorite from Jennifer E. Smith so far. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight was just ‘meh’ for me, This is What Happy Looks Like was much better…but The Comeback Season is the best of them all.

Review: Keeping the Moon

Book Title/Author: Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen
Publisher/Year: September 1, 1999/Speak

Series: No
Source and Format: Library Book
Rating: 2 stars

From Goodreads:

Colie expects the worst when she’s sent to spend the summer with her eccentric aunt Mira while her mother, queen of the television infomercial, tours Europe. Always an outcast — first for being fat and then for being “easy” — Colie has no friends at home and doesn’t expect to find any in Colby, North Carolina. But then she lands a job at the Last Chance Cafe and meets fellow waitresses Morgan and Isabel, best friends with a loving yet volatile relationship. Wacky yet wise, Morgan and Isabel help Colie see herself in a new way and realize the potential that has been there all along.

I really should have put more books in between each Sarah Dessen book. One is not enough. At this point, I only have two more to read. Important life lesson learned: don’t request every available book the library has by one author.

Keeping the Moon is rice cakes. Airy, light, diet food that needs a big spoonful of almond butter to perk things up.

Colie is boring. She was fat until her mom became a 1999 version of Jillian Michaels, aerobicising and infomercialing her way into the hearts of every woman on the planet. Once she lost the weight, she got caught on the country club lawn…talking to a boy. The mean girl at her school was the one to catch her and told everyone she was a slut, so everyone thinks she’s a slut. To deal with it, she became all edgy and dyed her hair black and pierced her lip. She plays with the lip ring a lot. That’s Colie’s entire backstory.

Every other character is infinitely more interesting than she is – even the baby with the giant head. Even the artsy/hippie/burger-flipping love interest, Norman, is more interesting and he’s the lamest love interest ever. And kind of a jerk. And probably not that great of an artist, just sayin’.

Blog Tour and Giveaway: Mother’s Curse

Please enjoy this guest post by Thaddeus Nowak, author of the exciting and beautifully written YA fantasy, Mother’s Curse, and its sequel, Daughter’s Justice. Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including a Kindle Fire, $450 in Amazon gift cards, and 5 autographed copies of each book.

Why This Male Reader Loves Strong Female Characters

A Guest Post by Thaddeus Nowak

I’ve mentioned it before, but my formative childhood years were spent with the neighborhood girls.  My family had the only boys for many blocks and with my closest brother being four years younger than me, the only people my age to play with were girls.  I learned all about Barbie and Ken and playing house.  I’m not complaining, we also romped around the woods, got covered in mud, had snowball fights, and played ball just like any group of kids would.  To me, they were just my friends.  There were no boys versus girls attitudes between us (that concept came later when we went to different schools and I had to make new friends).  And even when faced with that concept, I always preferred to be on the girls’ team, because that’s where the girls were.

Due to those early years–to this day–I always think of women as equals, and probably superior in many cases.  So when it comes to reading novels or watching movies, I have no trouble identifying with a female lead.  In fact, I think female leads actually make stronger characters than their male counterparts.

What is a strong character?

To me, a strong character is one who’s personality can be felt.  They may have inner fears and concerns, but they make the hard decisions and are decisive when it counts.  They know what they want and actively make plans to get it.  A strong character is a leader, someone the other characters look to for guidance.  That is not to say they are hard-headed and stubborn; they have to be smart enough to know when they need to ask for advice and be willing to admit when they are not able to do something themselves.  Delegation does not have to be a weakness–when done right it is a strength.

It may seem counter intuitive, but physical strength and prowess do not make a character strong.  In fact, it can make them weaker in the long run.  A bully lashing out and attacking may be able to overpower and intimidate others, but they still lack the strength of character that someone standing up to them possesses.

For male characters, physical strength and skill in combat (especially in fantasy novels) is a socially expected norm.  A male character, who is not stoic in the face of danger can’t overcome his foes and has to rely upon others, is perceived as weak.  The problem is, being a stoic loner often overshadows some of the character’s personality and limits how dynamic the character can be.

Whereas a female lead, while she may be physically adept, is not expected to use brute strength to overpower her foes.  Society accepts the fact that she can have doubts (which are perfectly human, regardless of sex) and allows her to use her mind and intelligence to overcome obstacles.  She has to decide to stand up to the stronger bully.  I personally feel it makes the character richer and more balanced–more human and more like the girls I grew up with.

It’s not what’s on the outside that counts

The other reason I prefer stories with strong female protagonists is that they do not usually feature the females as window dressing–on the cover or in the story.  While I have my share of traditional fantasy art hanging on my walls, my childhood influences don’t align with the concept of the half-naked damsel in distress unable to do anything for herself.  Too many of the stories with male protagonists tend to have the main woman of the stories hopping along on the man’s coattails, doting on his every action.  The girls I grew up with definitely did not dote; they knew what they wanted and knew how to get it.  So when I read a story, I want to enjoy a little nostalgia and see women as I know they are.

As part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel Publicity, the price of the Mother’s Curse and Daughter’s Justice eBook editions are just 99 cents this week. What’s more, by purchasing either or both of these fantastic books at an incredibly low price, you can enter to win many awesome prizes.

The prizes include a Kindle Fire, $450 in Amazon gift cards, and 5 autographed copies of each book.

All the info you need to win one of these amazing prizes is RIGHT HERE. Remember, winning is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment–easy to enter; easy to win!

To win the prizes:

1. Get your copy for just 99 cents
2. BONUS:  The sequel is also discounted to 99 cents
3. Enter the Rafflecopter contest below
4. Visit the featured social media event

Mother’s Curse is a coming of age story about the youngest Princess of Cothel and her efforts to save her father and brother from her mother’s schemes, while at the same time, coming to terms with what it means to be a witch. Get it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or iTunes.

Daughter’s Justice continues Stephenie’s journey of discovery, where she must overcome national opposition to her being a witch as well as lead her friends and protectors on a mission to stabilize her countries finances. Get it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or iTunes.

Thaddeus Nowak is a writer of fantasy novels who enjoys hiking, photography, and the outdoors. Visit Ted on his website, Twitter, Facebook, or GoodReads.

Waiting on Wednesday: When You Were Here

 

 

 

 

 

“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

Book Title/Author: When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney
Publication Date/Publisher: June 4, 2013/Little, Brown

From Goodreads:

Filled with humor, raw emotion, a strong voice, and a brilliant dog named Sandy Koufax, When You Were Here explores the two most powerful forces known to man-death and love. Daisy Whitney brings her characters to life with a deft touch and resonating authenticity.

Danny’s mother lost her five-year battle with cancer three weeks before his graduation-the one day that she was hanging on to see.

Now Danny is left alone, with only his memories, his dog, and his heart-breaking ex-girlfriend for company. He doesn’t know how to figure out what to do with her estate, what to say for his Valedictorian speech, let alone how to live or be happy anymore.

When he gets a letter from his mom’s property manager in Tokyo, where she had been going for treatment, it shows a side of his mother he never knew. So, with no other sense of direction, Danny travels to Tokyo to connect with his mother’s memory and make sense of her final months, which seemed filled with more joy than Danny ever knew. There, among the cherry blossoms, temples, and crowds, and with the help of an almost-but-definitely-not Harajuku girl, he begins to see how it may not have been ancient magic or mystical treatment that kept his mother going. Perhaps, the secret of how to live lies in how she died.

This totally sounds like a book that is going to make me cry A LOT of tears, but I say BRING IT ON. Sometimes you just need a good cry and an adventure in Japan.