Review: The Art of Wishing by Lindsay Ribar

Blurb from Goodreads

He can grant her wishes, but only she can save his life.

Margo McKenna has a plan for just about everything, from landing the lead in her high school play to getting into a good college. So when she finds herself in possession of a genie’s ring and the chance to make three wishes, she doesn’t know what to do. Why should she put her life into someone else’s hands?

But Oliver is more than just a genie — he’s also a sophomore at Margo’s high school, and he’s on the run from a murderer. As he and Margo grow closer, she discovers that it will take more than three wishes to save him.

A whole lot more.

ebook, 320 pages

Published March 21st 2013 by Dial Books

edition language: English

series: The Art of Wishing

genre: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult

My Thought

Be careful of what you wish for, that was what I learnt after spending my childhood reading Goosebumps series by R.L Stine. Having a genie whose can make my wish come true sounds great, awesome and powerful. If there is such a thing like genie, I bet everyone would love to have their own genie. But, as I learnt from Goosebumps and I dream of Genie TV series wishes never as simple as what we thought first. That’s what Margo learnt after she has her own genie, Oliver Parish. She is a straight-A student, talented musician who wish can write her own songs.

I never read a story about genie, maybe it’s because I never heard a book about it before. This book intrigued me since the first time I laid my eyes in its blurb. First part of the story, a little bit slow-paced. It’s where the characters and the story were introduced. In this case I didn’t mind at all. I think it needed so readers can see the characters changes throughout the story, especially Margo and her not-so-friend, Vicky. I love reading about Margo, she’s a little bit drama queen but in an interesting way, she’s also normal, as normal as 17 years old teenage girl. I found it refreshing after reading books about teenage girls who didn’t act like a teenager. I really enjoyed reading her ‘mind’.

I also love the way Lindsay Ribar created the story. Oliver Parish is a genie. A genie just like I know from Aladdin but he’s also has a life. The story of his life is acceptable for me. I mean I can understand it and in a paranormal kind of books, it makes sense to me. It didn’t left loopholes so that make me ask questions about it.

All in all, I enjoyed and loved reading it. It can be a good standalone book but as I read in author’s acknowledgements there will be sequels, I don’t mind reading another Margo & Oliver’s story

Result: 3.5 of 5 Stars

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Review: Fight or Flight by Jamie Canosa

Blurb from Goodreads

Be smart.
Keep your head down.
And look out for number one.

These are the rules Jay has lived by for the past two years. The rules of surviving life on the streets. But when Em comes bursting into his life, in all of her disastrous glory, the rules go right out the window.

Survive.
Flee what’s been left behind.
And never look back.

Emerson’s plan was simple. Though, it was easier said than done. The city streets are dangerous and unforgiving to a new arrival. Especially, a seventeen-year-old girl who’s never known anything but life in the suburbs. Sometimes, however, what’s lurking behind those white picket fences can be more frightening than any dark alley.

Both of them made the same decision when life got overwhelming—to run from their demons. Brought together by fate or circumstance, Em and Jay find the kind of love neither of them ever expected. But, when those demons come back to haunt them and their love is on the line, which instincts will they choose to follow this time . . . Fight or Flight?

Kindle Edition, 356 pages

Published March 12th 2013 (first published March 2013)

edition language: English

genre: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult

My Thought

I understand living in the street is hard but I think after read this book I will never look teenagers who living in the street the same way again. This book reminds me of Don’t Breathe a Word by Holly Cupala but I liked this book better. Jamie Canosa wrote the difficulties of being in the street so vivid and poignant make my heart ache and sometimes I almost stop reading it.

But there is one thing that I quite hard connected to the story, it’s the time setting. The characters in this book aren’t teenagers who easily trust others. They live their life in a hard way they have good reasons to trust no one. So when they finally falling in love in just less than a month, I was quite difficult to relate it to their trust issue. But then again maybe it’s because they found each other in a hopeless place, the insta-love sort of an understanding for them. I also feel the ending too rush and too easily left me questions things from the story.
It makes me wonder if this isn’t a standalone book. 

Result: 3.5 of 5 Stars

Review: On an Edge of Glass by Autumn Doughton

Blurb from Goodreads

You can’t plan for everything…
That’s what Ellie Glass realizes after she has a chance encounter with a young musician. Long-haired, a bit scruffy, and undeniably sexy, he’s the exact opposite of her “type,” but now Ellie can’t stop thinking about him. When fate intervenes and the two are thrown together, Ellie gets more than she bargained for. Pretty soon she finds herself feeling and doing things that she never thought were possible.
This is the captivating story of an undeniable attraction, the choices that we make, and ultimately, the unexpected power of love.

ebook

Published March 9th 2013

edition language: English

genre: Contemporary, Romance, New Adult

My Thought

I’m not quite like insta-love yet I can make an exception throughout the story. Just a couple pages in the beginning, it has already described how Ellie more than intrigued to Ben. I even think that it’s love at first sight for her. It told from her POV so I kept reading that she kept thinking about how she cannot forget him and so on. I don’t believe in love at first sight either so I wonder whether I will like this book or not but I don’t mind, if it’s an attraction or even infatuation. Then an infatuation grew slowly to become love, that I can take it. Although there is nothing new in this story, quite predictable and slow-paced, I love the writing.

A line of impatient caffeine addicts snakes out the door just behind me, letting in an unsettling gust of cool air. It ruffles my hair and the pages spread out on the low table in front of me.

I really can feel the cool air ruffles my hair when I read it.

As much as I like and enjoyed it, there are things that I didn’t quite like. First, I’m annoyed with Ellie’s clueless that her other roommates going to find out about her relationship. I mean, they live in the same house, how come she didn’t think that Payton and Ainsley won’t know or hear what happen with her and Ben? For half of the book she kept thinking over and over how to tell them because of their pact. The pact that I think useless and her thought about it is ridiculous. I have to agree with Mark, her bestfriend when he said “So, what you’re saying is that you’re only breaking girl code if you tell your roommates about it? Just going back on your promise is alright? Okay then. Thanks for clearing that little detail up for me.”

Second, the story has a very obvious pattern that I can guess. It’s like this, part one Ellie and Ben cannot stay away from each other, Ben tried to speak to her but Ellie kiss him, then they make out and Ben walk away. Part two they are a secret couple, Ben made a mistake he tried to speak to Ellie but she kiss him, then Ben walk away. They didn’t speak for weeks, kept avoid each other, then in sweet-awkward moment they kiss and they speak again. Part three, they relationship getting better, Ellie make a wrong assumption, they misunderstand each other, Ben tried to speak to Ellie but Ellie kiss him.

Third, I kind of hard to believe that Ben is so easily move on after 2 year relationship.  But then, I think what he had in first part of his relationship with Ellie is an attraction or just infatuation, so I can take it.

So, my conclusion is (despite the things that I didn’t quite like) On an Edge of Glass is a sweet love story that I liked and enjoyed it. I especially love the way Ellie told her love to Ben, I think it is sweet and beautiful and I’m surprise with Ben acted but has a very good reason to it. I also love the cover, at first I thought it just an abstract pink cover with title in it but when I look closer there is a couple in it. I think it’s a lovely cover.

Result: 3 of 5 Stars

Review: Rapunzel Untangled by Cindy C. Bennett

Blurb from Goodreads

Rapunzel is not your average teenager.

For one thing, she has a serious illness that keeps her inside the mysterious Gothel Mansion. And for another, her hair is 15 feet long. Not to mention that she’s also the key to ultimately saving the world from certain destruction. But then she meets a boy named Fane, who changes all she has ever known, and she decides to risk everything familiar to find out who she really is.

Filled with romance, adventure, and mystery, Rapunzel Untangled is one story you won’t want to put down. Discover the true meaning of love and friendship in this modern twist to the classic fairytale.

ebook, ebook, 306 pages

Published February 12th 2013 by Cedar Fort, Inc.

edition language: English

My Thought

I didn’t grow up with fairytale stories as my bedtime story. I knew about it when I was in junior high from Disney version. And then a couple years ago my friend told me that apparently Disney versions were quite different from original one. It intrigued me, I want to know more about it yet I also interested in retelling version, just like what Disney did. I think didn’t grow up with Disney versions has advantage to me, I can see and understand the difference clearly than if I know it in my early life.

Rapunzel is one of those stories. To be honest I knew more about it after I watched animation movie (again) by Disney in 2010, it captivated me. It’s one of my favorite animation movies. And when I read that Cindy C. Bennett wrote its retelling I’m so eager to read it.

Since it is a retelling it has similar story, it even has similar scenes with Disney version. It has this scene:

then this scene

and even this one

Yet, Cindy C. Bennett wrote it from her perspective, it makes this story quite different from Disney though it has similar scenes and character name and in some part I like it better. It’s more serious, I can see that Bennett tries to explore it and make it her story. I especially like Rapunzel ‘voice’ I can connect to her, feel sorry for her and more understand her feeling and her thought. She isn’t just a girl who trapped in a tower with beautiful long hair but she also smart, curious and lonely. I also liked the way Bennett wrote it, she brought this retelling into present time with familiar things I can relate.

But, there is one thing that I’m not quite satisfied. It’s the way Rapunzel was kidnapped, it was just because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Although Gothel has a purpose, I feel like it is too random and too coincidence. I think I need more reason about it.

Result: 3 of 5 Stars

Review: Fever #1, Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

Blurb from Goodreads

MacKayla Lane’s life is good. She has great friends, a decent job, and a car that breaks down only every other week or so. In other words, she’s your perfectly ordinary twenty-first-century woman. Or so she thinks…until something extraordinary happens.

When her sister is murdered, leaving a single clue to her death–a cryptic message on Mac’s cell phone–Mac journeys to Ireland in search of answers. The quest to find her sister’s killer draws her into a shadowy realm where nothing is as it seems, where good and evil wear the same treacherously seductive mask. She is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to learn how to handle a power she had no idea she possessed–a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae….

As Mac delves deeper into the mystery of her sister’s death, her every move is shadowed by the dark, mysterious Jericho, a man with no past and only mockery for a future. As she begins to close in on the truth, the ruthless Vlane–an alpha Fae who makes sex an addiction for human women–closes in on her. And as the boundary between worlds begins to crumble, Mac’s true mission becomes clear: find the elusive Sinsar Dubh before someone else claims the all-powerful Dark Book–because whoever gets to it first holds nothing less than complete control of the very fabric of both worlds in their hands….

ebook format

Published October 31st 2006 by Delacorte Press (first published October 1st 2006)

edition language: English

series: Fever #1

genre: Paranormal, Romance, Adult

My Thought

All those hype and high rating brought this book to me, but it didn’t mean that I instantly like it. To be honest, I have to struggle, very hard to keep reading it. Half of the story bored me to death, I cannot connect to the characters, especially Mac. She annoyed me most of the time. She said she want to know what happen to her and what she really is but when Jericho Barrons tell her she keep deny it. As he said “as much as you’ve seen and heard, you’re still trying to deny it”, her denying made she do things that quite irritated me. I also think that her priorities in half of the story are non sense for me. She had been chased by monster and Barrons tried to help her yet the only thing she think is her hair color?. I really cannot believe it.

The story told from Mac’s POV but sometimes I cannot understand her thinking. Her ‘voice’ quite confused me. She used later, would soon, would later and words/phrase similar to it a little bit to much, I have to reread to understand what she means because sometimes I thought she talk in present time but she used future words too much it seems she already known it.

I won’t bore you with the details of the monsters that came through the doorway. Barrons and I would discuss them later and try to identify their castes, and you’ll meet most of them soon enough, anyway.

I would later discover that my discover that my gut instinct was right.

It makes me, as a reader, know somethings that I think I should know later. Like when Vlane shows up, I already know from Mac long before he introduces himself.

Even today, after all that I’ve seen, I couldn’t begin to decribe Vlane, prince of the Tuatha De Danaan. Then after pages and dialogues, the price introduced himself I am Vlane, prince of the Tuatha De Danaan, and I am here on behalf of……..

Despite Mac personalities and her voice, I liked the way Ms Moning wrote fae in this story. I always thought that Ireland is a perfect place for fae and here she told that fae is dangerous and fierce, just like I used to know. She also set the setting and the world building clearly, I can picture it and intrigued by it.

I also like that Mac isn’t a damsel in distress, as much as I’m annoyed with her whine and bubbling about her figure, I love that she also has strong, confidence personalities and doesn’t just waiting to be help by Barrons. And he surely aren’t a gentlemen kind of hero who is always be there for the female character. He’s fierce, strict and push Mac beyond her limitedness.

In the end this isn’t a mind blowing kind of story for me but I will surely read its sequel later.

Result: 3 of 5 Stars

Review: Falling #1, Falling Into You by Jasinda Wilder

Blurb from Goodreads

I wasn’t always in love with Colton Calloway; I was in love with his younger brother, Kyle, first. Kyle was my first one true love, my first in every way.
Then, one stormy August night, he died, and the person I was died with him.

Colton didn’t teach me how to live. He didn’t heal the pain. He didn’t make it okay. He taught me how to hurt, how to not be okay, and, eventually, how to let go.

ebook

Published March 14th 2013 by Jasinda Wilder

edition language: English

genre: Contemporary, Romance, New Adult

My Thought

Since this book loved by readers and they have wrote a very good review, I won’t write about the writing, the story, the characters and the setting. I don’t have to explain it again but I’m going to write things that I thought as important as the story, at least important for me as a reader.

Dedication Page

I wonder what’s wrong with me and dedication page. Just 3 books ago I’m intrigued with Nyrae Dawn dedication page in Freeing Carter. Then, 3 days later Jasinda Wilder did it to me.

This book is for anyone who has ever lost a loved one, for anyone who has woken up crying and gone to bed the same way, for anyone who has had to learn that it’s okay to be not okay. Surviving isn’t strength, it’s continuing to breathe one day at a time; strength is learning to live despite the pain.

It’s really intrigued me and makes me want to know what the story is all about because I believe what she wrote in it connected to the story. Dedication page definitely will be one of things that draw my attention to read a book, aside the blurb, the authors and friends’ recommendation.

The playlist

My first encountered with The Avett Brothers was from Slammed by Colleen Hoover. And I paid more attention to The Civil Wars because of The Edge of Never by J.A Redmerski. A lot of YA/NA books have a song or two that I didn’t familiar before I read the books, but I think I never read a book with a lot of songs I love, like in this book. I’m kind of chilled whenever I read about those songs and know it and love it. Not only because half of songs in it are also in most played playlist in my iPod, but also it connected to the story and to me. Just like Nell said, those songs speak to the story and to me. And I love One Hour More, it’s so beautiful. I think Jasinda Wilder should give a melody so that it become a song that I can sing 😀

The issues

I can relate Nell & Colton’s story to real life, my life at least. I know what it feels to lost someone you love, the fear to forget them, the need to move on yet feel guilty to be able to move and the need to forgive yourself and let it free. What Jasinda Wilder wrote through Nell & Colton is true. They story is sad but it’s true. That’s why I love it.

As much as I’m falling into Falling Into You, I have a few things that quite distract me and questioned it. In the beginning of the story, I learn about Nell & Kyle relationship, I love their relationship. It’s sweet and perfect as a first love kind of relationship. Along their story, I know that Kyle’s letter is important (sort of) to Nell. So how come it never explained again after she met Colton. I mean if Nell kept it for almost 2 years I thought that it will always with her moreover she still feel guilty for his death and her relationship with Colton. I just assume it is something she can hold and true from Kyle so she will keep it for a very long time, at least until she let herself free.

Another thing is I’m wondering why Nell rarely meet Colton before Kyle funeral. I understand with his issue that (maybe) keep him from people but Nell is Kyle’s BFF since they were born and they are neighbor, I just cannot understand it. And then, both of Nell and Colton have serious issues, through Colton, I can relate and understand more about Nell’s issues but it didn’t work for Colton’s issues. I think he has bigger issues, his brother death, his relationship with his dad, being in the street and his dyslexic.

To be honest, I never thought about it so when I read it, it kind of surprised me and I liked it, I’m intrigued. I want to know more about it but it never explain more than it caused him left home and bad relationship with his dad. I kind of want to know what he’s going to do about it now when he knows what is actually happen to him.In the end I wonder whether Jasida Wilder keep this open (I really feel that the story haven’t yet finished) so there will be another story from Nell and Colton.

Result: 3 of 5 Stars

Review: Off The Subject #2, Redesigned by Denise Grover Swank

Blurb from Goodreads

While fashion design major Caroline Hunter may have been born economically unlucky, in college, she’s been lucky in love. Until her senior year at Southern University. She’s gone from a serious long term boyfriend to a string of crappy dates.

Then she meets mathematics grad student Reed Pendergraft.

Reed is everything she’s not looking for. Serious. Headed for a low paying university job. Boring. Caroline spent the first eighteen years of her life wondering where her next meal was coming from. She sure wasn’t getting trapped in that life again with a man living on a professor’s salary.

An encounter with Reed in a club proves she might have pegged him wrong. He brings out a lusty side she never knew she had. But just when she’s about to give in to her hormones, Reed makes a fool out of her.

When she shows up for the first committee meeting for Southern University’s Fall fashion show, a fundraiser for underprivileged kids, Caroline’s horrified to discover the insufferable Reed is the committee chairman. While she refuses to tolerate his totalitarian rule of the committee, she’s not sure she’ll survive the month with her heart—and her pride—intact. Just when she thinks she has everything figured out, she finds that her entire life has been redesigned, thanks to Reed Pendergraft.

Paperback, 294 pages

Published June 10th 2013 by Createspace (first published June 9th 2013)

edition language: English

series: Off The Subject #2

genre: Contemporary, Romance, New Adult

My Thought

This is Denise Grover Swank second book I read. I had same excitement as my first one, After Math. As much as I liked and enjoyed After Math, I didn’t give it more than 3 stars, there were things that prevent me to say I really like it. So, when I decided to read Redesigned I didn’t expect much. Apparently it’s more than I expected. I enjoyed and loved it.

The story is simple and there isn’t something new in it. A lot of books have similar story but somehow Ms. Swank
make it works and it really works for me. I can connect with the characters. I love them all they are perfect in their imperfection. And it is surely an emotional story. I feel sorry for Caroline but I’m happy that she knows what she want and fight for it. To be honest, I mostly like when she told her childhood story, it is a sad story but the way she told touching me. I love Reed for his persistent to never let Caroline go, even when he misunderstood her, though I have to admit I kind of want to scream at him and tell him that he was wrong. I also happy to meet Scarlett and Tucker again and read a glimpse of their happily ever after story. I even love Lexi, Reed’s sister, and eager to read her own story. I’m pretty sure Off The Subject #3, Business as Usual will be her story and I kind of hope that Brandon is truly her love interest. Although Reed didn’t trust him, I want to read more about their story.

Result: 4 of 5 Stars

Review: Off The Subject #1, After Math by Denise Grover Swank

Blurb from Goodreads

Scarlett Goodwin’s world is divided into Before and After.

Before she agreed to tutor Tucker price, college junior Scarlett was introvert, struggling with her social anxiety and determined to not end up living in a trailer park like her mother and her younger sister. A mathematics major, she goes to her classes, to her job in the tutoring lab, and then hides in the apartment she shares with her friend, Caroline.

After junior Tucker Price, Southern University’s star soccer player enters the equation, her carefully plotted life is thrown off its axis. Tucker’s failing his required College Algebra class. With his eligibility is at risk, the university chancellor dangles an expensive piece of computer software for the math department if Scarlett agrees to privately tutor him.Tucker’s bad boy, womanizer reputation makes Scarlett wary of any contact, let alone spending several hours a week in close proximity.

But from her first encounter, she realizes Tucker isn’t the person everyone else sees. He carries a mountain of secrets which she suspects hold the reason to his self-destructive behavior. But the deeper she delves into the cause of his pain, the deeper she gets sucked into his chaos. Will Scarlett find the happiness she’s looking for, or will she be caught in Tucker’s aftermath?

Paperback, 250 pages

Published March 12th 2013 by Createspace (first published March 11th 2013)

edition language: English

series: Off The Subject #1

genre: Contemporary, Romance, New Adult

My Thought

I’m more than eager reading this book, if it is possible. I always love reading books with torture-bad past kind of characters. I cannot help it, it’s my sweet torture. So when I had this book, I straight read it, leaving my to-be read next book pile that I’ve scheduled for months.

In some part After Math reminds me of Charade by Nyrae Dawn, both of it have a bad past characters that effect their present life. But unlike Charade, this book told only from one POV, Scarlett’s. She is a very smart mathematic student who set her future to be unlike her mom and her sister. She is in half way to leave her past behind, though she still have a mark from it, her panic attack. That’s why she tent to be invisible, out of people attention. And then one day she has to tutor Tucker, a soccer star who always brings people attention to him.

From Scarlett’s POV, I know that the real Tucker isn’t what people see. He only shows it to Scarlett and vice versa. Tucker can see and understand Scarlett more than her family and her bestfriend and sometime, as Scarlett said, more than herself.

Scarlett’s thought feels real to me, especially when she had panic attack, I can relate her anxiety. But I have to admit I also want to know Tucker’s thought. Reading Tucker’s bad past from Scarlett’s POV couldn’t make me connected to his torture soul. I know what happened to him was a very bad experience yet I feel he doesn’t have good reasons acted the way he did, to Scarlett and mostly to himself. At this point I cannot relate to Tucker.

Although Scarlett’s thought quite real, I kind of didn’t like the way she said something again and again, like when she said she know Tucker for only a few weeks. It is quite repetitive for me and annoyed me a little bit.

I love their relationship, it isn’t instant love. Their built it from trust and friendship. Yet, I also feel the ending was too simple, too plain. I want more drama in it. Something more that make me feel they have overcome their past and it makes their relationship is worth fighting for.

In the end, this is a good story I liked and enjoyed reading it. But there are also a lot of books with this kind of story, while I never give up reading it I expect it has a surprise or a twist of whatever that make it different from others.

Result: 3 of 5 Stars

Review: Barbie Doll #1, Barbie World by Heidi Acosta

Blurb from Goodreads

The only thing that 17 year old Barbie Starr wants to do is graduate high school so she and her little brother, Everett, can get out of Alabama. She doesn’t care about the rumors that are spread around about her like wild fire. Rumors are nothing new to her. Sure, maybe she could change her reputation, but why bother. She is leaving Alabama as soon as she can. That is, if she can pass algebra and graduate.

The only thing Dylan Knight would like to do is go through high school unnoticed; he has had enough of the drama that is high school. He took the whole of last summer to bulk-up: finally he is not being called names or being shoved into lockers. He wants to remain on the outside of the circle of constant rumors that surround the so-called popular kids who get all the attention. He would not, however, mind if his long time crush Katie took notice of him.

But it is Barbie who notices Dylan and she offers him a deal he can’t pass up: if he helps her pass algebra, she’ll help him get the girl of his dreams. Dylan agrees, but, as it turns out, nothing is simple when it comes to Barbie. Somehow, she can’t help but draw attention to herself — and to him. Soon Dylan finds himself tossed into the whirlwind of rumors that seem to follow Barbie everywhere. Can he save his reputation and still get the girl of his dreams? Or will Barbie be the one to break through his carefully-built facade?

ebook, 191 pages

Published (first published November 1st 2012)

edition language: English

series: Barbie Doll #1

genre: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult

My Thought

I have to confess I didn’t want to read this book in the beginning. I picked it up randomly when I couldn’t decide which book I want to read next. It didn’t tempt me because I didn’t like the main character name as I read in the blurb, moreover when I read the first few chapters. Barbie Starr, Dylan Knight, Third and Tyler Smalls made me thinking “are you kidding me?”. I have a weird connection with character names. I tend to pay more attention to it and thought that character names are as important as other elements of the story. So, when I found this book has weird-obvious, if not ridiculous, names I almost give it up. Yet I try to keep reading it and put away my judgment. While hoping the author had a reason picked those names which I’m glad that she did, at least for Third and Barbie, though I still didn’t like her last name it’s too obvious for me.

Along the story I’m glad I keep reading it. It has more story than just about a mess up girl named Barbie Starr who fall in love with a knight in shining armor named Dylan Knight. Although it reminds me of few of YA contemporary books I loved and it was like the author mix those stories in to Barbie Girl, somehow it works for me and I enjoyed it. Through 2 POV I can feel what characters feel. In the end I can see why Barbie and Dylan acted the way they did. And the choices they chose are reasonable for me.

Despite of characters name, typos and punctuation mark, I really enjoyed this emotional book. And the ending made me wanting more. More about Barbie and Dylan, more about Third and Roxie and even more about Everett and Emmy.

Result: 3 of 5 stars

Review: Wishing You Were Here by Catherine Chant

Blurb from Goodreads She’s out of place.

He’s out of time.

In 1956, Joey Tempo was the biggest sensation to hit Memphis since Elvis Presley. Within twelve months he was gone–killed in a transatlantic plane crash.

Half a century later, Callie Reinard is headed for college and her dream career in radio broadcasting. When she discovers Joey’s iconic first album, she’s mysteriously drawn to his tragic story. A profound desire to change his fate invokes a mystical force that sends her back to 1957 to “make things right.”

What Callie doesn’t expect is her meddling to make everything worse…much worse. Joey may be glad to be alive, but not everyone welcomes her presence. Especially not Joey’s glamorous fiancée, who has her own plans for his future.

Every second Callie spends in the past she’s altering much more than Joey’s fate. She’s changing the lives of everyone around her. And she’s growing closer to Joey by the minute.

If Callie can’t find a way back to her own time soon, she may lose more than a college education and the career she’s always wanted. She may lose her heart to a boy she can’t have.

Kindle Edition, First, Electronic, 342 pages

Published December 1st 2012 by Catherine Chant

edition language: English

Genre: Contemporary, Romance, New Adult

My Thoughts

Time travel (and also reincarnation) is not my favorite story. I feel it is a little bit tricky than other stories. It’s because the authors have to have a good reason to cause their characters to time traveling. Thus they also have to provide the logic in it. If the characters can do it how they are going to back to where they belong, what happen with their life if they change the past, whether they can carry on things when they time traveling and other stuff like that. If the authors fail to intertwine those questions with logical explanation and cannot be related to the story then it failed me. In the other hand, the idea fascinated me so I will always up for time travel story. I even have one stand nicely on my favorite book shelf, The Time Traveler’s Wife.

Yet, I have to admit that I didn’t read this ebook as soon as I got. Somehow I left it behind to read another books. At the beginning, it made me curious. The prolog and first few chapters made me keep my eyes open. I like the idea Callie time traveling back to 5 decade her time, she learn a lot about it and Ms. Chant did a good job providing the setting and the music reference.

Then Callie met Joey and continued to second part of the story, I’m bored. Callie indecision whether she want to stay or go back to her time was kind of annoyed me. While I can understand her hesitation, I couldn’t believe Joey’s love for her. I felt it was too rush, too instant yet kept wonder how it will going to end. I even considered put it on hold since I felt asleep a couple times whenever I tried to read it.

At third part of the story my effort paid. There are surprises and twist. I keep asking why I didn’t think about it. Once again it made my eyes kept open and I can stay awake this time. Then, in the end of the story a very big twist. I love a story with twist and surprises, story that let my mouth and eyes wide open and the good thing is I can relate to all of the tricky stuff in this story.

Thanks to YA/NA Fanatics and of course to Ms. Chant who allow me reading this story.

Result: 3.5 of 5 stars