Back When You Were Easier to Love by Emily Wing Smith

Here's a quick blurb from the Goodreads page: What's worse than getting dumped? Not even knowing if you've been dumped. Joy got no goodbye, and certainly no explanation when Zan - the love of her life and the only good thing about stifling, backward Haven, Utah - unceremoniously and unexpectedly left for college a year early. Joy needs closure almost as much as she needs Zan, so she heads for California, and Zan, riding shotgun beside Zan's former-best-friend Noah.

Original and insightful, quirky and crushing, Joy's story is told in surprising and artfully shifting flashbacks between her life then and now. Exquisite craft and wry, relatable humor signal the arrival of Emily Wing Smith as a breakout talent.

My Take

First off, let me apologize for not updating my blog regularly.  I've been working almost 80 hours some weeks and just can't sacrifice the time.  I'll try to be better.  In the meantime, thanks for your patience.

Aahh, teenage love!  Great, right?!  Pretty torturous really.  Especially if you're Joy.  Her boyfriend, Zan abandoned her.  To make matters worse, she has no idea why.  He only left his best friend Noah to look after her.  Noah, who she finds excruciatingly annoying.

I wasn't sure if I could really connect with these characters at first, but I did.  I found myself enjoying the story.  There were times I wanted to scream at Joy to "wake up".

Noah is a great guy who is more than willing to be roped into whatever Joy chooses.  He keeps trying to show her what a nice guy he is.  I kept thinking, she had to realize it before he gave up and quit being a nice guy. 

Everyone needs closure, right?  Go along on the journey and see if Joy ever gets any closure with Zan?  And where would that leave Noah anyway?

This is one of the books in the Contemps Challenge also.  I'm giving it 4 sweet kisses!

Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer

Here's a blurb from Ms. Wealer's website: Meet Brooke: Popular, powerful and hating every minute of it, she’s the “It” girl at Douglas High in Lake Champion, Minnesota. Her real ambition? Using her operatic mezzo as a ticket back to NYC, where her family lived before her dad ran off with an up and coming male movie star.


Now meet Kathryn: An overachieving soprano with an underachieving savings account, she’s been a leper ever since Brooke punched her at a party junior year. For Kath, music is the key to a much-needed college scholarship.

The stage is set for a high-stakes duet between the two seniors as they prepare for the prestigious Blackmore competition. Brooke and Kathryn work toward the Blackmore with eyes not just on first prize but on one another, each still stinging from a past that started with friendship and ended in betrayal. With competition day nearing, Brooke dreams of escaping the in-crowd for life as a professional singer, but her scheming BFF Chloe has other plans. And when Kathryn gets an unlikely invitation to Homecoming, she suspects Brooke of trying to sabotage her with one last public humiliation.

As pressures mount, Brooke starts to sense that the person she hates most might just be the best friend she ever had. But Kathryn has a decision to make. Can she forgive? Or are some rivalries for life?
 
My Take
 
This is one of the books in the Contemps Challenge.  All wonderful books.  I loved this book and I can totally see how girls get caught up in the drama of competition.  I think most never fully intend for things to go very far but it's easy for it to get out of hand.  I loved the fact that the ending wasn't quite as predictable as I would have thought it might be.  Definitely pick this one up and see what you think.  I'm giving it 4 1/2 lovely kisses!

Fall for Anything by Courtney Summers

This is one of the books for the Contemps Challenge. To find out more about it, please click on the link provided HERE. Here’s a blurb about the book from Ms. Summer’s website: When Eddie Reeves’s father commits suicide her life is consumed by the nagging question of why? Why when he was a legendary photographer and a brilliant teacher? Why when he seemed to find inspiration in everything he saw? And, most important, why when he had a daughter who loved him more than anyone else in the world? When she meets Culler Evans, a former student of her father’s and a photographer himself, an instant and dangerous attraction begins. Culler seems to know more about her father than she does and could possibly hold the key to the mystery surrounding his death. But Eddie’s vulnerability has weakened her and Culler Evans is getting too close. Her need for the truth keeps her hanging on… but are some questions better left unanswered?


My Take

Eddie’s father committed suicide and she’s become consumed with wanting to know why. I can see how that would could easily become an obsession. It’s difficult enough when people die without throwing in the fact that they committed suicide. It’s also easy for kids to absorb some of the blame for things. They feel that surely they played some part in things. I felt for Eddie trying to grapple with everything and only having her best friend Milo to count on.

Her mother is too deeply mired in grief to even realize the pain that Eddie is in. She’s checked out, emotionally anyway. She can’t see to her own emotional needs, let alone be there for Eddie.

Eddie meets Culler Evans, a student of her father’s. They begin exploring clues left behind by Eddie’s father as Eddie grows closer to Culler. She clings to each message in hope that it will give her the answer she’s been longing for. How will this triangle between Eddie, Milo and Culler work out?

This book was as lovely as a book about a girl’s agonizing trip through grief can be. There’s hope in Eddie’s and Milo’s relationship. The writing was wonderful, evocative, and thought provoking. In the end you realize that sometimes there are no answers. I’m giving this one 4 kisses!

Girl, Stolen by April Henry and Interview News

Here's a bit about the book from April Henry's website: Sixteen-year-old Cheyenne Wilder is asleep in the back of her mom's car when it's stolen from the pharmacy parking lot. Cheyenne is not only sick with pneumonia—she's also blind. Griffin, the teenager who was stealing packages out of parked cars, hadn't meant to kidnap her; he just impulsively stole the car with her in it. But once Griffin's dad finds out that Cheyenne's father is the president of Nike, everything changes—now there's a reason to keep her. Will Cheyenne be able to survive this harrowing ordeal and escape? And if so, at what price?

My Take

This is one of the books in The Contemps Challenge.  Wow, holy super suspensful Bookies!  I read this book quickly (1 day) because it was so on the edge of your seat amazing.  Cheyenne is this strong, centered character.  She's been through so much adversity and come out the other side.  Will she make it through this inadvertent kidnapping?

Every chapter ended in a place that you simply had to turn the page and read more.  This book spoke to the depths of the dark side of humanity.  However, it also spoke of personal strength and the resiliance of the human spirit.  How even amongst all the darkness, there can live someone with a good spirit. 

Go check it out!  I'm giving it 4 big super kisses!  **By the way, tune in tomorrow to read my interview with the author of Hope In Patience, Beth Fehlbaum.  I hope to see you there.

Dusk til Dawn *yawn* & Contemps Challenge Info

Okay, so I'm trying to keep the caffeine flowing to keep my eyes open.  No seriously, it's not that bad.  I was only up until midnight last night.  Not too shabby.

I received both Crescendo (Traveling ARC Tours) and Mockingjay in my mailbox yesterday.  I had to cast aside Extraordinary for the time being.  I managed to get almost halfway through Crescendo last night.  I went straight to Back to School night and I do believe the Lang Arts teacher was coveting my copy of Mockingjay. 

I passed the flyers for The Contemps Challenge to both him and the library.  Oh and he seemed genuinely excited to enter the challenge.  They're also talking about reading Hunger Games for one of their books this year.  I'm hoping so, as I've been unable to get my son to read it. 

Tonight and the rest of the weekend is devoted to finishing Crescendo, and Mockingjay.  I don't know that I'll make it beyond those two.  Wish me luck! :)

Oh, and this Dusk 'Til Dawn Challenge comes with maid service right?  Right?

Hmmm, I'm guessing not.  Darn it all. :o)  Here's to turning as many pages as possible.

Accept the Challenge

I love YA literature.  I mean, obviously, the name of my blog is YA Literature Lover, but I really do mean it.  Young Adult literature really moves me.  I think it's because I remember struggling to figure out who I was back then, to really be me, and trying hard to be the best version of myself that I could be.  Don't go thinking I actually got it right all the time either.  Not by a long shot!  But it's those failed attempts that teach us a lot about ourselves as well.

Needless to say, I love young adult books.  I'm sure you do too or you wouldn't be trolling my blog. :o)  For which I truly thank you too.  Go have a look at this website: The Contemps  They're a group of YA authors who are keeping it real.  They write contemporary YA literature.  Everyone likes a little fantasy now and then, but I find I'm drawn to contemporary literature too (and no, it has nothing to do with the fact that I'm writing a YA contemporary novel).  There is something about sitting down and reading a book about a character going through something you've been through, or maybe it's something similar.  At any rate, they are all something relatable.  I love that.  Through these books, we come together.

So cruise on over there and become a part of this challenge.  It will be fun and you'll get a chance to read some great books.  Heck, you might even win something.