NA Romance – Page 3 – The Talking Bookworm

Book Review: Dare You To by Katie McGarry

July 26, 2014July 7, 2016 Veronica Porras (TTB)

Goodreads Summary:

Ryan lowers his lips to my ear. “Dance with me, Beth.”

“No.” I whisper the reply. I hate him and I hate myself for wanting him to touch me again….

“I dare you…”

If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk’s home life, they’d send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom’s freedom and her own happiness. That’s how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn’t want her and going to a school that doesn’t understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn’t get her, but does….

Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can’t tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn’t be less interested in him.

But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won’t let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all.

My Initial Thoughts:

If I am completely honest, I didn’t want to read DYT because of Beth. She broke Isaiah’s heart and I couldn’t forgive her for that. Kayla kept telling me, Come on you’re gonna love it, and I refused until I finally caved on my own.

Review:

Why didn’t I read this sooner?! Honestly I’m kind of mad at myself it took me this long to kinda get over what Beth did to Isaiah so that I could finally read it. I’m glad that it finally happened though.

Date You To is Beth’s story right after Pushing The Limits. We saw Beth in PTL, and DYT is her and Ryan’s story.

Since I just mentioned Ryan can I just say I need a Ryan in my life. He is perfect. For me at least. He is a writer to begin with. I’m a sucker for those, and musicians too… and mechanic dudes like Isaiah. OMG, okay, a lot of guys are my type. Haha.

Anyways, Beth’s story surprised me so much. I did not expect her story to go like this. I personally think it sheds a light on her, and her very “tough” attitude. As a reader, we finally get a in-depth view of the circumstances in her life that made her hard and bitter. The beginning made me cringe a lot because of the effort Beth’s uncle was making to try to make her life better, yet he couldn’t really do much. The entire book is about her journey and how both her uncle and Ryan little by little start chipping away those walls she has built around her heart. Towards the end of the story, her walls hadn’t all collapsed, but she we can clearly see she is on the road to recovery (by that I mean her heart and mental state), and for those who have read Crash Into You, we know she is doing a lot better a few months down the road after DYT.

Ryan’s story made me cry a little. Okay, my eyes just got a little misty. The home he lives in is horrible. Can you imagine living in that type of hostile environment and having to be exactly what your parents want you to be 100% of the time? It made me upset that his father wouldn’t support his writing career. If your kid is good at something, I say support him in that. Don’t make him something he isn’t. Okay, I’m getting off my soapbox now.

I think the most important thing I learned from Beth’s story is the importance of realizing that our loved ones are not always how we picture them. We can’t make excuses for their bad choices. Beth’s mom didn’t learn her lesson and wasn’t going to either. Beth couldn’t see the damage and danger her mother is to herself and to Beth. When she realized that at the end, I finally exhaled in relief. Her mother needs helps, just not Beth’s help. If Beth wants her life to change, she needs someone else to take care of her mother.

Overall, I thought it was a great book, and I’m glad I read it.

(Reviewer note: Sorry Guys! I meant to post this review up like 3 weeks ago, but the job training I’m going through in Utah is intense and doesn’t leave me time to read or even write reviews, but I made time today! The blog will be back to regular schedule the month of August!)

Rating: 5/5

NA Romance, Reviews

Book Review: Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

June 28, 2014July 7, 2016 Veronica Porras (TTB)

Goodreads Summary:

Sometimes discovering the truth can leave you more hopeless than believing the lies…

That’s what seventeen-year-old Sky realizes after she meets Dean Holder. A guy with a reputation that rivals her own and an uncanny ability to invoke feelings in her she’s never had before. He terrifies her and captivates her all in the span of just one encounter, and something about the way he makes her feel sparks buried memories from a past that she wishes could just stay buried.

Sky struggles to keep him at a distance knowing he’s nothing but trouble, but Holder insists on learning everything about her. After finally caving to his unwavering pursuit, Sky soon finds that Holder isn’t at all who he’s been claiming to be. When the secrets he’s been keeping are finally revealed, every single facet of Sky’s life will change forever.

Review:

Ummmmmm. I do not have words. At all. I am speechless. Absolutely speechless.

Okay, first of all, the first chapter is totally misleading! It had me believing Holder was bad when he is an absolutely, adorable, endearing book boyfriend. I just declared him one of my top book boyfriends. Yes, yes, I know. My list is very long at this point, but I don’t care. I don’t.

It’s been a day since I read it and I cannot find fault within it. Okay maybe the cover is misleading and not the best choice when trying to promote it (and Kayla will probably never read this even though I want her too because she is such a book cover snob. I love you too), but it’s that good.

I have this habit where I get impatient and ruin books for myself (I spoil myself), but I didn’t want to do it with this book so I went into it blindly. Hopeless looks like a NA book, but it’s not. There are no explicit sex scenes. None. Zilch. Nada.

One of the reasons I love Hopeless so much is that we have a very real character that I can actually see myself befriending in real life.

That’s basically Sky. We could really be best friends. I can be Five for all I care since six and seven are taken. (You won’t get this if you haven’t read the book. Yes I’m basically forcing you too). One more thing about Sky. That girl can kick some butt! She says what she thinks, she’s brave, and strong, and doesn’t put up with anyone’s bullcrap. I’m so happy I’m seeing strong female characters in books because we need more of them. Lots of them.

I also liked that we were able to see the relationship play out over a period of several months. There isn’t really any insta-love… It’s….Insta-lust!? Even Sky is like WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME! I just loved that the author made Sky like that because it just made things ten times funnier. I feel like Ms. Hoover was totally making fun of insta love. It was great.

This book hits every spot. The recipe for this book is as follows: heart wrenching feels + happy feels + comedy + fangirl moments + a strong kickass female protagonist + a hot strong male character = Hopeless.

Rating: 5/5

NA Romance, Reviews

Book Review: Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover

April 26, 2014December 6, 2022 Veronica Porras (TTB)

Goodreads Summary:

At twenty-two years old, aspiring musician Sydney Blake has a great life: She’s in college, working a steady job, in love with her wonderful boyfriend, Hunter, and rooming with her good friend, Tori. But everything changes when she discovers Hunter cheating on her with Tori—and she is left trying to decide what to do next.

Sydney becomes captivated by her mysterious neighbor, Ridge Lawson. She can’t take her eyes off him or stop listening to the daily guitar playing he does out on his balcony. She can feel the harmony and vibrations in his music. And there’s something about Sydney that Ridge can’t ignore, either: He seems to have finally found his muse. When their inevitable encounter happens, they soon find themselves needing each other in more ways than one…

My Initial Thoughts:

All I knew was that Colleen Hoover is an author loved by many and that a few of my book tumblr friends were going crazy about it. So I bought it and thought to my self “My Body is Ready!”

Review:

Oh My Freaking Gosh. This Book. I just can’t. Dead.

Those are my fangirling thoughts of the book. Yes, it is as good as everyone says it is. Yes, it will leave you in a puddle of feels. Yes, it brings up a lot of issues that you are dealing with or makes you deal with them. This book is a music lovers dream come true.

First off, let me just say that I FREAKING loved that this was an interactive book and that every single one of the songs that was is in the book EXISTS. The songs were made especially for the BOOK. I have been spoiled and I want every book to be an interactive experience because it just made everything ten times better.

Secondly, two of the characters in the story had disabilities and they were not seen as less or inferior. They were portrayed as normal. NORMAL. I absolutely loved that Ms. Hoover addressed the fact that people who are deaf or that have any other disability are NORMAL. They are not different. They are human too. The social activist in me was just bursting with joy.

Third, I want to address the fact that the main female character, Sydney, is written as a strong female character. She finds out her boyfriend cheats on her and she breaks up with him and is all like GOODBYE WE AINT NEVAH EVAH GONNA BE TOGETHER AGAIN. When things get complicated between her and someone else (cough*my new secret lover*cough), she takes control of the situation and says BACK OFF I NEED SPACE and not only do we see a FEMALE character that says it, but we see a MALE character that LISTENS to what she wants.

Fourth, I want to say that I LOVED that this didn’t have sexy times (well except for that one scene towards the end, but it’s not really described soooo I don’t count it). Not everyone that is in college is having sex all the time or with a person they just met. I was so happy that this book was not “teens + lots of sex” like a lot of NA books out there that I shall not name. This was Young Adults in College + life issues = NA. THANK YOU COLLEEN HOOVER THANK YOU!

(Honestly, I have nothing against NA when it’s done right. I personally don’t like reading sexy times, but when people use the NA genre as an excuse to write a million sex scenes and hardly any plot lines, it pisses me off. Isn’t the erotica genre for that? Why do you have to go and RUIN a genre for me. Sigh. Okay, Rant over.)

(December 2022 Edit: Oh young naive little me in her early twenties that did not like reading about sexy times aka sex. This is hilarious to me now as someone who is married and in her early thirties. Totally okay with SMUT now but I will leave what I said above to keep the integrity of this review, and also to showcase that people can change and it is perfectly okay to do so as you grow older.)

The plot of the book was great. The plot lines were all believable. We had a ton of character development not just in the main characters, but in the secondary characters as well throughout the entire novel. There was also a good balance between the heavy moments and the lighter moments. Really I can’t say one bad thing about this book.

So my last suggestion to you is…

Rating: 5/5

NA Romance, Reviews

Book Review: Flat Out Love by Jessica Park

December 2, 2013June 15, 2016 Veronica Porras (TTB)

Goodreads Summary:

He was tall, at least six feet, with dirty blond hair that hung over his eyes. His T-shirt read Nietzsche Is My Homeboy.

So, that was Matt. Who Julie Seagle likes. A lot. But there is also Finn. Who she flat out loves.

Complicated? Awkward? Completely.

But really, how was this freshly-minted Boston transplant and newbie college freshman supposed to know that she would end up living with the family of an old friend of her mother’s? This was all supposed to be temporary. Julie wasn’t supposed to be important to the Watkins family, or to fall in love with one of the brothers. Especially the one she’s never quite met. But what does that really matter? Finn gets her, like no one ever has before. They have connection.

But here’s the thing about love, in all its twisty, bumpy permutations—it always throws you a few curves. And no one ever escapes unscathed.

My Initial Thoughts:

The first time I heard about Flat Out Love was through Kayla (thethousandlives). Before that I had only heard of Park’s other novel Left Drowning which a lot of bloggers were saying was depressing. I was hoping Flat Out Love would be more lighthearted. I was also nervous because her previous novels were NA and I wanted a book without the naughty bits.

Review:

The story starts of with the main character stranded in Boston. We learn that she had been cheated off by someone posing as a landlord who was renting apartments to college students, but in reality the address led to a burger joint. No apartment complex in sight. No landlord. No Money.

After Julie calls her mom the situation is fixed when her mom’s college roommate happens to live in Boston and her mom arranges for her to stay at her house for the time being. In comes Matt, the son of her mom’s college roommate.

They story progresses as Julies meets the quirky family whose son Finn is out exploring the world, leaving the youngest, Celeste, in shams picking up after the pieces his departure left in their lives.

Flat Out Love was written in three parts, which helps the reader pinpoint the importance of each occurrence and the consequences of Julie’s and Matt’s actions. What surprised me the most is that the book is a self-published book, through Amazon’s publisher. All I can say is that Ms. Park created such a unique story one that I’ve never read before and that is saying something. Many know me as the YA Contemporary guru, since I’ve read a lot of contemporary novels throughout my lifetime. This makes book shopping hard with me, as Kayla discovered, because every suggestion is followed by a, “Oh, I’ve already read that”. This novel is something new, something fresh in the YA Contemp genre. It will break your heart and at the same time it will make it soar in the clouds with the many adorable moments. Think of it as the baby of Ana and the French Kiss and Second Chance Summer.

I wish I could read this book again. It has been a while since I’ve read a book that has me giggling, gasping, making me tear up, and jump of joy! The themes in the novel, mental health, grief, love, friendships, family, are all very well written and executed. Ms. Park brings some important issues to light in this book that should be discussed more instead of ignored by the masses.

I suggest you all give this book a try; it may sound like your average YA Contemp novel but it isn’t. Trust me on this one.

Rating: 5/5

NA Romance, Reviews, ya romance

Book Review: Crash Into You by Katie McGarry

November 6, 2013June 15, 2016 Veronica Porras (TTB)

I was given a ARC of Crash Into You by Katie McGarry through NetGalley from Harlequin Teen in exchange of a honest review

Goodreads Summary:

The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that’s who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers…and she’s just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can’t get him out of her mind.

Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look.

But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they’ll go to save each other.

My Initial Thoughts:

I had read Pushing The Limits about a year ago and I know that I loved it. My expectations coming into this novel weren’t high because I had forgotten a lot of information and why I had loved this author’s writing so much. After Crash Into You, I quickly remembered why I love Ms. McGarry and why I didn’t hesitate to request this ARC a while ago.

Review:

I am going to start this review by gushing. I LOVED this book. I ab-so-lu-te-ly loved it. Ask Anjie, Ask Kayla, heck go on my twitter and see what I tweeted Ms. McGarry.

One of the reasons why I love this novel so much is the car talk. I love cars, so when you give me a well written book with a to-die for male protagonist and cars?! I’m speechless. If this were my tumblr I would insert here a gif saying that I ship myself with it all.

On a more serious note, I do want to mention one of the reasons why I loved this novel so much is because it is very well written. The story just sucks you in and it almost becomes your reality. In the moment you are reading the novel, you are experiencing what Isaiah and Rachel are feeling. You are in the driver’s seat, and it is one heck of a ride!

The characterization in the novel is fantastic. I feel like I will run out of adjectives soon, but I can’t stop gushing over this novel. I do want to say that this novel may not be a “everyone will automatically love” type of novel. Not everyone is into cars (like myself), and if you haven’t read Pushing The Limits, it might be a little hard to understand what’s going on and why characters act the way they do.

The pacing of the novel was perfect right up until the end where I did feel like it hiccuped a little. Knowing that the next novel is through abut a certain character (I wish I could say but I don’t want to spoil anyone), it makes sense why the end is how it is.

Overall, I find no fault in this novel and I can’t wait for future books written by Ms.McGarry.

Rating: 5/5

NA Romance, Reviews

Short Book Review: Crossing the Line Novella(Pushing the Limits #1.5) by Katie McGarry

May 26, 2013June 15, 2016 Veronica Porras (TTB)

Goodreads Summary:

Lila McCormick, Echo’s best friend from Pushing the Limits, first met Lincoln Turner when tragedy struck both their lives. But she never expected their surprise encounter would lead to two years of exchanging letters—or that she’d fall for the boy she’s only seen once. Their relationship is a secret, but Lila feels closer to Lincoln than anyone else. Until she finds out that he lied to her about the one thing she depended on him for the most.

Hurting Lila is the last thing Lincoln wanted. For two years, her letters have been the only thing getting him through the day. Admitting his feelings would cross a line he’s never dared breach before. But Lincoln will do whatever it takes to fix his mistakes, earn Lila’s forgiveness—and finally win a chance to be with the girl he loves.

Review:

This is a nice fluffy read for those who loved Pushing the Limits. We get to see Lila, Echo’s best friend, in a new light as she is having to deal with her own problems. In Pushing the Limits, we saw her as the ditzy but protective best friend. I even doubted she would stay by Echo’s side, but in this story we see how much she loves Echo and that she would do anything for her. Even though it was short, it is a novella after all, I really liked it. In the few pages we had, we got to know not only lila but lincoln really well and were able to understand and empathize. I almost want to say I liked Crossing the Line more than Pushing the Limits. If you liked Pushing the Limits, I’m pretty sure you’ll like this novella as well. (Both Echo and Noah make a cameo appearance.)

Rating: 4/5

Rating System:

1/5: I hate it.

2/5: It had some redeeming qualities but overall, not a good book.

3/5: I like it /A fun read.

4/5: I really like it, but something is missing.

5/5: I love it! It’s as close to perfection as it can get!

NA Romance, Reviews

Book Review: Pushing The Limits by Katie McGarry

May 9, 2013June 15, 2016 Veronica Porras (TTB)

Goodreads Summary:

So wrong for each other and yet so right.No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with “freaky” scars on her arms. Even Echo can’t remember the whole truth.

But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his surprising understanding, Echo’s world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common.

Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can PUSH THE LIMITS and what she’ll risk for the one guy who might teach her HOW TO LOVE AGAIN.

What I liked:

Oh Boy, there is a lot I liked in this book! I liked that we had both Echo’s and Noah’s point of view. I also liked the way the background of the characters was presented in the book because it did not bore me. It didn’t feel like I was being given background information. What I mean by that is that sometimes in some books when the author is giving background information, it seems to drag on forever and I start getting impatient. Also, the pace of the novel was perfect. It wasn’t too slow or too fast. I also enjoyed that the characters in the book were relatable and I was able to empathize.

What I disliked:

The writing could have been a little better. It wasn’t bad, but some sentences felt awkward to me. I wish we would have known a little more about Echo’s mother and Beth. I know this will make me sound nit-picky but I didn’t like the font they used for Noah.

Overall:

I really liked this book. It got me out of the reading funk I was in. I had just finished Clockwork Prince and couldn’t seem to read anything else after that. I guess I was in a book hangover type of situation. Pushing The Limits wasn’t heavy, but it wasn’t a light book either. As the tumblr book community would say, This book wasn’t too hard on the feels. I encourage you guys to read this book. You won’t regret it. 🙂

Rating: 4/5

Rating System:

1/5: I hated it.

2/5: It had some redeeming qualities but overall, not a good book.

3/5: I liked it (A fun read).

4/5: I really like it, but something was missing.

5/5: I love it! It’s as close to perfection as it can get!