Book Review: Losing Clementine

Losing Clementine
by Ashley Ream
ARC Provided by Publisher via TLC Book Tours
Published Date: March 6, 2012
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Book Format: Paperback; pp 320
Age Demographic: Adult Contemporary
amazon | b&n

In thirty days Clementine Pritchard will be finished with her last painting and her life.
World-renowned artist and sharp-tongued wit Clementine Pritchard has decided that she’s done. After flushing away a medicine cabinet full of prescriptions, she gives herself thirty days to tie up loose ends—finish one last painting, make nice with her ex-husband, and find a home for her cat.

Clementine plans to spend the month she has left in a swirl of art-world parties, manic work sessions, and outrageous acts—but what she doesn’t expect is to uncover secrets surrounding the tragedy that befell her mother and sister. In an ending no one sees coming, will we lose Clementine or will we find her?

Summary taken from TLC Book Tours.

❝My Thoughts❞

Losing Clementine is a highly emotional yet sometimes hilarious novel about a young artist trying to get her complicated life together and in order during the month leading up to her eventual suicide. It is a hard gritty look at the complexities of mental illness and depression, without a constant state of darkness clouding the better moments or judgments. The portrayal of mental illness and the messy complications of life are written in an interesting realistic way that allows readers to better understand Clementine and her decision. It is filled with the highs and lows of discovering secrets of the past, the search for oneself, and gut-wrenching emotional twists and turns. Ream has ultimately taken such a sensitive subject as suicide and has created a balance between relatable and funny.

Clementine is not your typical heroine, she's unusual in her own way with many facets of personality. Ream has taken care to write her as likable allowing readers to easily connect with her. She is incredibly strong in the face of the struggles she's had to deal with in life and completely unforgettable. In some instances, she comes across as endearing and sympathetic to readers as they follow her on her journey of self-discovery. Clementine is also deeply flawed and conflicted in such a realistic way, as well. She has this way of coming across as selfish and sometimes a bit rude, yet still possessing likable qualities that make her very human.

The supporting cast and the effect their presence had on Clementine's life is also very well developed and engaging. Chuckles may quite possibly be my favorite character in the book itself. That miserable cat had so much wonderful personality of its own shining through the pages, that it was hard not to love him just as much. Ream's amazing writing style and vibrantly descriptive imagery will leave readers feeling for Clementine as if, they too, are in the story. It is an emotionally compelling novel that is intensely sad and physically draining to varying degrees. But, in the end, as everything is being wrapped up there's a sense of faith or redemption in mankind that's restored. That is what makes this novel well worth the read.

Losing Clementine is the kind of book that will leave readers reflecting on life and simple compassion for others. It is kind, it is funny, it is overwhelmingly sad, and filled with hope, faith, and poignant insight. It is an incredible debut novel for what is sure to be a new brilliant author in adult contemporary.

Ashley Ream got her first job at a newspaper when she was sixteen. After working in newsrooms across Missouri, Florida, and Texas, she gave up deadlines to pursue fiction. She lives in Los Angeles and works at a nonprofit.

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Other stops for the tour can be found here. Also Book Club Girl will be interviewing Ashley Ream on April 10th at 8 EST.

This book was received from HarperCollins via TLC Book Tours, in exchange for an honest review which I have provided. No money exchanged hands, I review books for fun because I love to read. I am not interested in monetary gain.

Book Review: Overbite by Meg Cabot

Overbite
by Meg Cabot
ARC Provided by Publisher via TLC Book Tours
Published Date: Febrary 7, 2012
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint
Book Format: Paperback; pp 305
Age Demographic: Adult/Cross-over Young Adult
amazon | b&n

Meena Harper has a special gift, but it's only now that anyone's ever appreciated it. The Palatine Guard — a powerful secret demon-hunting unit of the Vatican — has hired her to work at their new branch in Lower Manhattan. With Meena's ability to predict how everyone she meets will die, the Palatine finally has a chance against the undead.

Sure, her ex-boyfriend was Lucien Antonescu, son of Dracula, the prince of darkness. But that was before he (and their relationship) went up in flames. Now Meena's sworn off vampires for good ... at least until she can prove her theory that just because they've lost their souls doesn't mean demons have lost the ability to love.

Meena knows convincing her co-workers — including her partner, über-demon-hunter Alaric Wulf — that vampires can be redeemed won't be easy ... especially when a deadly new threat seems to be endangering not just lives of the Palatine, but Meena's friends and family as well.

But Meena isn't the Palatine's only hope. Father Henrique — aka Padre Caliente — New York City's youngest, most charming priest, has also been assigned to the case.

So why doesn't Meena — or Alaric — trust him?

As she begins unraveling the truth, Meena finds her loyalties tested, her true feelings laid bare ... and temptations she never even imagined existed, but finds impossible to resist.

This time, Meena may finally have bitten off more than she can chew.

Summary taken from Goodreads.

❝My Thoughts❞

Overbite is a thrilling action packed, suspenseful, and enganging paranormal novel. It's filled with unraveling truths, loyalties that are tested over and over, and inner most feelings exposed as they slowly come to light. Meena, the heroine of this story, will be faced with dark and alluring temptations that she will have to battle with and overcome. Incredible twists and turns will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Cabot does a fantastic job of picking up where Insatiable left off.

The characters are all very human and possess likable qualities about them, that would hook any reader who enjoys paranormal fiction. One of the most interesting facets about this novel, is how perfectly well Cabot illustrates that not everything in the world is as black and white as it may seem, in terms of love and what may appear to be evil. Not everything is as it may appear to be and Meena has a hard task, in trying to convince Alaric and other's that vampires can be redeemed and some of them are even capable of love. To a demon-hunter such as Alaric Wulf, who both knows and has witnessed otherwise, that task may prove to be futile. The character development for all of the major players such as Meena, Alaric Wulf, and Lucien Antonescu (son of Dracula interestingly enough) is brilliantly fleshed out and much more revealing in some situations and interesting in other aspects.

Cabot's knowledge and history of vampires and the mythology surrounding Dracula was handled very well. She pens such an intriguing and cleverly written take on vampires and manages to blend a little bit of the history surrounding Palatine effortlessly. Overbite is chalked full of gritty violence, action packed danger, and steamy romance enough to get any paranormal fan's blood pumping. With juicy plots, fantastically developed characters, interesting spin on history and mythology, Overbite is sure to wow. In short, Cabot fans in general will fall in love with this fast paced, funny, and compelling novel.

Meg Cabot was born in Bloomington, Indiana. In addition to her adult contemporary fiction she is the author of the bestselling young adult fiction series, The Princess Diaries. She lives in Key West, FL with her husband.

Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook

Stops for the tour can be found here.

This book was received from HarperCollins via TLC Book Tours, in exchange for an honest review which I have provided. No money exchanged hands, I review books for fun because I love to read. I am not interested in monetary gain.

Book Review: This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman

This Beautiful Life
by Helen Schulman
ARC Provided by Publisher via TLC Book Tours
b&n // amazon
Published Date: Febrary 7, 2012
Publisher: Harper Prerennial; Reprint
Book Format: Paperback; pp 256
Age Demographic: Adult/Young Adult
amazon | b&n

When fifteen-year-old Jake Bergamot receives—and then forwards to a friend—a sexually explicit video that an eighth-grade admirer sent to him, the video goes viral within hours. The scandal that ensues threatens to shatter his family’s sense of security and identity—and, ultimately, their happiness. This Beautiful Life is a devastating, clear-eyed portrait of modern life that will have readers debating their assumptions about family, morality, and the choices we make in the name of love.

Summary taken from TLC Book Tours.

❝My Thoughts❞

This Beautiful Life is a poignantly written exploration of the emotional consequences of one's actions and how it can affect many lives in such a devastating way. It paints a stark portrait of the sacrifices and choices that are made in life, with regards to family, morality, and life altering lessons and trials endured by young people these days. It's not only thought provoking, but also quite disturbing in the story it has to tell. To say that it's shocking would most assuredly be an understatement. Yet, it is one of the most compelling books that I have read so far, this year.

It's a beautifully written insight into such a horrifying event. Schulman is brilliant at showcasing where the fault lies from such a potentially bad juvenile decision, how the fall out is eventually dealt with, as well as highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the Bergamot family and their shortcomings. With Jake's poor judgment at hand, comes the revelation that not one person in the Bergamot family unit is unscathed by his lack of what seems to be a much needed moral compass. It further raises even more questions regarding their parental responsibilities. The exposure garnered from such a horrendous blunder on Jake's behalf, is enough to emotionally devastate his whole family in one way or another.

This Beautiful Life addressees issues that deal with the social boundaries of privacy, the culpability of such an ugly event, and the moral responsibility people have to themselves to acknowledge right from wrong. One of the drawbacks with this novel is that the parents seemed to be just as confused as their children were, as far as culpability was concerned. For instance, one could say that the young teenage girl was at fault for making such an explicit video and sending it to Jake, but I personally feel as if Jake is more at fault for making the choice to not delete it or at least tell his parents about it and then forwarding it on to all of his friends, so they could forward it onto theirs. It almost seemed, at times, as if the parents were only worried about protecting their own family names or reputation. The confusion and angst surrounding this story is captured in such a beautiful way, that the moral outcome of this book will stay with readers long after the last page has been turned.

Schulman does a wonderful job of making all of her character's sympathetic to reader's, in such a realistic way that they will stick with them. While it is true that what Jake did was wrong by forwarding that video on to his friend, he never would have done so if he had known that it would hurt Daisy in such the way that it did. This Beautiful Life is a heart-wrenching, emotional rollercoaster that is thought provoking, and filled with beautiful prose. It is a story about personal choices and how mistakes can affect people, in many ways as result of them. The characters and story arc are well developed, while still possessing hidden but realistic flaws of their own.

This Beautiful Life is not a novel that readers will soon be forgetting.

Helen Schulman is the author of the novels A Day at the Beach, P.S., The Revisionist, and Out of Time, as well as the short story collection Not a Free Show. An associate professor of writing at The New School, she lives in New York City.

Note: The link to where you can find the summary of This Beautiful Life is also where you can find the rest of the tour stops and reviews for this brilliant novel at TLC Book Tours.

This book was received from HarperCollins via TLC Book Tours, in exchange for an honest review which I have provided. No money exchanged hands, I review books for fun because I love to read. I am not interested in monetary gain.

#013 In My Mailbox featuring Books For Review

Basically, In My Mailbox or IMM was originally inspired by Althea of Pop Culture Junkie and is now hosted by the lovely Kristi over at The Story Siren where you talk about the awesome books that you received in the mail, via the stacks of your local library, recent purchases, ARC's or any books that you might have received for review, etc.

This vlog is about two weeks worth of review books and ARC's for various tours and whatnot, so enjoy!

ARC'S & REVIEW BOOKS RECEIVED: The Springsweet by Saundra Mitchell A Temptation of Angels by Michelle Zink Torn by Amanda Hocking ;; Review for Switched (The Trylle, Book #1) Embrace by Jessica Shirvington This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman Losing Clementine by Ashley Ream Special thanks to St. Martin's Griffin, HarperCollins, Soucebooks Fire, TLC Book Tours, and ATW ARC Tours.

Book Review and Giveaway featuring Jessica Keener and Night Swim

Night Swim
By: Jessica Kener
Book Provided by Publisher via TLC Book Tours
b&n // amazon
Published Date: January 10, 2012
Publisher: Fiction Studio
Book Format: Paperback; pp 284
Age Demographic: Young Adult

Sixteen-year-old Sarah Kunitz lives in a posh, suburban world of 1970 Boston. From the outside, her parents’ lifestyle appears enviable – a world defined by cocktail parties, expensive cars, and live-in maids to care for their children – but inside their five-bedroom house, all is not well for the Kunitz family.

Coming home from school, Sarah finds her well-dressed, pill-popping mother lying disheveled on their living room couch. At night, to escape their parents’ arguments, Sarah and her oldest brother, Peter, find solace in music, while her two younger brothers retreat to their rooms and imaginary lives. Any vestige of decorum and stability drains away when their mother dies in a car crash one terrible winter day.

Soon after, their father, a self-absorbed, bombastic professor begins an affair with a younger colleague. Sarah, aggrieved, dives into two summer romances that lead to unforeseen consequences. In a story that will make you laugh and cry, Night Swim shows how a family, bound by heartache, learns to love again.

*Summary taken from TLC Book Tours.

❝My Thoughts❞

Night Swim is a fearlessly haunting portrait of a broken family, filled with deep thoughtful reckonings, heart-shattering greif, the uneasy feeling of spiraling out of control during a time of historical growth for a nation of chaos during the 1970's. It follows the story of a strong, passionate, and often times fierce young heroine who is made of steel, yet she is often filled with quiet vulnerabilities that has a way of drawing reader's in making them want to see inside her - see the quiet gentle soul of a young woman on the verge of something more. The nature and beauty that Keener put into this story, is enough to leave reader's breathless.

Sarah is so much more than what any reader would expect in a main herione, she's chalk full of so much grit and spit-fire and determintation to survive and overcome any obstacle thrown in her path. Her triumphs and sorrows, do wonderfully well at providing reader's with such a lyrically beautiful insight into who she is and what makes her a survivor. There is a tenderness and a wondering sense of beauty that makes this novel stand apart from any, I've personally read in the last year. Night Swim isn't just another book to be packed away on a shelf somewhere or stowed away in a box to collect dust. This is a deeply rich and highly emotional story that is sure to upset the delicate balance in anyone's world. The fact that Sarah gains so much of her strength in who she is from the relationships she shares with her brothers, parents, and other individuals present in her life is enough to remind reader's that just because something appears one way it doesn't necessarily mean that's the way it is.

This is a novel that is about keeping secrets, letting go, learning to live with the truth once it's out, and above all else: surviving insurmountable odds. One of the best things about this novel is the fact that Keener isn't afraid to tackle controversial topics and meets them head on, with strength and precision in her writing that's not only beautiful, but poetically lyrical in a sense. But above all else, this novel reminds me of something a really good friend of mine always says, "I have to believe that it will get better." Night Swim is the type of novel that will stay with reader's, leave them feeling in the wake of the aftermath, struggling just as much as to survive and find their independence as Sarah does, and will them thought provokingly emotional.

This is a novel not to be missed out on. One, that I highly suggest you read at least once, if not more.

The lovely and generous Jessica Keener and her publicists, have offered a copy of Night Swim to be given away to one lucky reader. So, these are the rules: 1. You must leave me your name and email address, that is mandatory so that I'll be able to contact you should you win. 2. You also must be a resident of the USA, sorry to my oversea's friends, I can't make it happen this time. But, soon. 3. And last but not least, just fill out the rafflecopter below and you're in!

Book Review: Everything We Ever Wanted by Sara Shepard

Everything We Ever Wanted
By: Sara Shepard
ARC Provided by Publisher via TLC Book Tours
b&n // amazon
Published Date: October 11, 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins
Book Format: Paperback; pp 352
Age Demographic: Adult

A recently widowed mother of two, Sylvie Bates-McAllister finds her life upended by a late-night phone call from the headmaster of the prestigious private school founded by her grandfather where her adopted son Scott teaches. Allegations of Scott’s involvement in a hazing scandal cause a ripple effect, throwing the entire family into chaos. For Charles, Sylvie’s biological son, it dredges up a ghost from the past who is suddenly painfully present. For his wife Joanna, it forces her to reevaluate everything she’s hoped for in the golden Bates-McAllisters. And for Scott, it illuminates harsh truths about a world he has never truly felt himself a part of.

But for all the Bates-McAllisters, the call exposes a tangled web of secrets that ties the family together: the mystery of the school hazing, the event that tore Charles and Scott apart the night of their high school awards ceremony, and the intended recipient of a certain bracelet. The quest to unravel the truth takes the family on individual journeys across state lines, into hospitals, through the Pennsylvania woods, and face-to-face with the long-dormant question: what if the life you always planned for and dreamed of isn’t what you want after all?

“Sara Shepard delivers the perfect read….A brilliant storyteller.” — Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of Very Valentine and Brava, Valentine

“[Written] with unflinching honesty and unstinting compassion.” — Jacquelyn Mitchard, author The Deep End of the Ocean

“This riveting, provocative and well-crafted family drama surprised and delivered at every turn. I could not put it down.” — Sarah Mlynowski, author of Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have)

*Summary taken from TLC Book Tours.

❝My Thoughts❞

In Sara Shepard's novel Everything We Ever Wanted there are varying shades of relatable characters that we, as reader's, are introduced to. This may make reading this book a bit uncomfortable at times, but it also helps to enlighten the reader as well. Shepard is a well-rounded seasoned author who has tackled many an issue in previous novels, such as her Pretty Little Liars and The Lying Game series. She is quite versed in penning and seemlessly incoporating the mystery element into her novels, quite flawlessly.

The way in which she writes her characters, is both natural and relatable. Some would argue, almost a bit too relatable but that's when you know an author is doing something right. When they possess the ability to take the their time in cultivating these characters and developing storyline's for them that cause the reader to self-reflect a bit and see shades of themselves in the characters presented. Everything We Ever Wanted may not be everything these character's thought it would be, nor what they necessarily hope for. There's a reason why we're told as children and adults, to be careful what we wish for because it might not be everything that we thought it would be.

In other words, it might not be everything we want.

Shepard manages to tackle the lack of communication in Sylvie's family, in such a way that's so real and honest, something that I personally think hits home more than anything and shows that sometimes when you do have everything, you find that you really don't. All of the monetary status in the world, isn't going to buy you a family that's built on honesty if you can't open up and talk to one another, and Shepard does a fantastic job of illustrating that in this novel. She goes gon to show the reader, that sometimes no matter how much a person tries, things just can't be fixed that easily with money or with words that contain hollow meaning after there's been such a lack of communication.

Everything We Ever Wanted is a mature emotionally written novel, that is sure to leave the reader introspectively examining themselves and their personal or moral values long after turning the last page. The only quibble that I would personally have with the book, would be the pacing. At times, it seemed to move a bit slow. Other than that, it is a wonderfully written and well developed book that is worth any reader's time.

Sara Shepard graduated from New York University and has an MFA in creative writing from Brooklyn College. The author of the bestselling young adult books Pretty Little Liars and The Lying Game, as well as the adult novel The Visibles. She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and dogs.

• Sara Shepard
• Sara Shepard@Twitter
• Sara Shepard@Facebook
• Everything We Ever Wanted by Sara Shepard Book Tour via TLC Book Tours

Note: That last link above in the bulleted list, is where you can find the rest of the book tour stops and read some more fascinating and insightful reviews of Everything We Ever Wanted by Sara Shepard.


{ This book was received from HarperCollins via TLC Book Tours, in exchange for an honest review which I have provided. No money exchanged hands, I review books for fun because I love to read. I am not interested in monetary gain.}

Book Review: The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson (TLC Book Tours)

Solid
By: Deborah Lawrenson
ARC Provided by Publisher via TLC Book Tours
b&n // amazon
Published Date: August 9, 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins
Book Format: Paperback; pp 400
Age Demographic: Adult

When Eve falls for the secretive, charming Dom, their whirlwind relationship leads them to purchase Les Genevriers, an abandoned house in a rural hamlet in the south of France.

As the beautiful Provence summer turns to autumn, Eve finds it impossible to ignore the mysteries that haunt both her lover and the run-down old house, in particular the mysterious disappearance of his beautiful first wife, Rachel. Whilst Eve tries to untangle the secrets surrounding Rachel's last recorded days, Les Genevriers itself seems to come alive.

As strange events begin to occur with frightening regularity, Eve's voice becomes intertwined with that of Benedicte Lincel, a girl who lived in the house decades before. As the tangled skeins of the house's history begin to unravel, the tension grows between Dom and Eve.

In a page-turning race, Eve must fight to discover the fates of both Benedicte and Rachel, before Les Genevriers' dark history has a chance to repeat itself.

*Summary taken from Goodreads.

❝My Thoughts❞

The Lantern is a lush and mysteriously gothic dreamscape that draws the reader in and evelopes them in a dark world filled with intrigue, mystery, intense passion and a beautiful scenery. It is a story that richly entails a love that is both deeply passionate and another that is just as heart wrenching. The atmosphere that Lawrenson provides early on in The Lantern does a marvelous job in setting the tone for the story depicted and brought to life through her brilliant turn of phrase and masterful imagery.

The prose is beautiful and almost leaves the reader breathless, as the mystery and the story begin to unravel within the pages and it introduces them to the character's and the fate that keeps them tied to the old farmhouse in Provence. It plays well on the audience's senses as it introduces reader's to an old farmhouse in need of repairs that's been sealed up, possessing strange happenings that occur randomly. The mystery of a stain that Eve (the main protragonist) cannot seem to get rid of no matter how much she seems to try, keeps things intriguing and the various scents that seem to haunt the hallowed walls of this dwelling, does a wonderful job of breathing life into this novel.

There is an intense feel of a modern gothic ghost story and a subtle romance that keeps the reader captivated, as they turn the pages and begin to sink deeper into The Lantern. It's very seductive in a sense, as it begins to weave magic, mystery, and darkness, mixing it with enchanting scenery and subtle hints of lavendar.

The question of just how well Eve really knows Dom, who he was, what her suspiscions regarding him really were, and the lengths that she went to in an effort to uncover the mystery are ever present as the pacing of this book moves along a bit slowly and more deliberate at certain points pertaining to the plot. I personally found this to be mildy frustrating at times, but not so much that I couldn't appreciate the novel for the story it had to tell and the answers to the secrets that had been kept.

The haunting nature of this novel is sure to leave a bit of a chill in any reader's bones, as the reader begins to wonder if Dom is who he really projects himself to be. Is he a masterful villian well skilled in the art of manipulation and secret keeping or is he a hero? There's a bit of a dark thrill, pulsing in the truth revealed regarding Dom's first wife that will be almost unexpected to the reader and possibly my personal favorite aspect of The Lantern.

That being said, my only quibble is that it felt as if the character's weren't quite as fleshed out as I would have appreciated them to be, for example Dom. He could be, perhaps, closed off but also be well depicted in such a way that the reader gets to know who he is and what his story really entails. Sadly, I felt as if he was a bit lacking in this area, which is why I'm more apt in giving The Lantern three stars out of the five I would normally give.

The pacing also played a significant part, as well. While I understand the need for it to be slow and deliberate in certain ways, it began to feel a bit too tedious for me to follow along as a reader. Although, I can honestly say that it was a good book in general and I would encourage anyone who enjoys gothic novels to read this one and judge it for themselves and not just solely rely on my opinion alone.

I am thrilled that I was give the opportunity to read and review The Lantern honestly, because it was a captivating story that I enjoyed depsite the few flaws I encountered along the way. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a modern twist on ghothic ghost stories that incorporate romance as well.

Deborah Lawrenson grew up in Kuwait, China, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Singapore. She studied English at Cambridge University and has worked as a journalist for various publications in England, including the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, and Woman’s Journal magazine. She lives in Kent, England, and she and her family spend as much time as possible at a crumbling hamlet in Provence, France, the setting for The Lantern.

• Deborah Lawrenson


• Blog


• Facebook


• The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson Book Tour via TLC Book Tours

Note: That last link above in the bulleted list, is where you can find the rest of the book tour stops and read some more fascinating and insightful reviews of The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson.


{ This book was received from HarperCollins via TLC Book Tours, in exchange for an honest review which I have provided. No money exchanged hands, I review books for fun because I love to read. I am not interested in monetary gain.}