Blog Tour: A Prom to Remember by Sandy Hall (Review)

A Prom to Remember

Author: Sandy Hall
Publisher: Fiewel & Friends
Published: April 24, 2018
Kindle, 320 pages
Rating: 5 Stars
★★★★★
Goodreads  Amazon

Summary

Seven seniors, seven problems, one senior prom.

Cora: Head of the Prom Committee (and basically every other club in school). Has been dating Perfect Boyfriend Jamie™ for approximately forever, and has NO IDEA how to break up with him....

Paisley: Sarcastic feminist who wants nothing to do with prom. Has somehow managed to nominate her anxiety-ridden best friend for prom king...

Henry: Quiet ballplayer who hates social situations. Invited to prom by the most popular girl in school. SEND HELP!

Otis: Charming, popular, and one half of one of the cutest couples in his class. Doesn't know how to tell his boyfriend that he's not quite ready for a post-prom hotel room experience...

Lizzie: A little bit shy, and a lot excited to finally get out of her comfort zone and go to prom. With a boy. Whose name she doesn't know.

Cameron: Loner with two jobs and zero friends. Is so done with high school and this whole town: the only thing he still wants to do is meet the mysterious girl who's been leaving him notes...

Jacinta: Unnamed Nerd Girl #3. Determined to become the star of her own life, starting with prom. Now if only she could find a date....

A Prom to Remember, the newest book from Sandy Hall (author of A Little Something Different) is a funny and cinematic look at the biggest dance of every high schooler's life.

Review

This book is so cute. There are about a million main characters, and they're all so different and so great in a wide variety of ways. I am torn if I love Paisley and Henry or Lizzie and Cameron most. Jacinta is also great. Oh, and so is Cora. And also Otis and Luke. And Madison, LOL. …Dangit.

This is told from the point of view of a bunch of different seniors in high school starting when they get back from spring break at the end of April all the way up to their prom night on June 1. (Thankfully NOT in the first person POV, or I'd have gone bonkers trying to follow it…) Normally I'd be a little put off by how MANY "main" characters there are, but they're all such individuals and so interesting. Jacinta feels like a side character in her own life, Paisley and Henry clearly have some social/mental issues (Man, is Paisley fantastic), Cora has been with her boyfriend basically since 7th grade and is just realizing she needs space to discover who she is, Cameron is adjusting to life after closing himself off after his mom remarried, Otis is feeling his way through what it means to be gay in high school with his boyfriend Luke (and what Luke getting a hotel on prom night means for their relationship), Lizzie is a plus-sized worker at a food court restaurant that only sells baked potatoes and has a "double-blind" relationship with someone that she communicates with using only a shared classroom laptop. Who am I forgetting? :D

This book is so light-hearted and fun, like fizzy champagne bubbles and that gooey cheese on bowling alley pizza. That is how this book is. (Yes, I'm aware the description makes little to no sense. Just go with it.) The ending left me smiling a big, dorky grin and wishing I could relive my own prom experience (which involved driving a bunch of friends in my parents' big ugly blue conversion van, and making up dances we called things like "The Giraffe Dance" and "The Llama Dance"). Read this book for a light-hearted, fun, low-angst, quasi-drama-filled read that will leave you feeling all gooey and bubbly. <3

About the Author: Sarah Hall

I’m a teen librarian from New Jersey where I was born and raised. I have a BA in Communication and a Master of Library and Information Science from Rutgers University. When I’m not writing, or teen librarian-ing, I enjoy reading, slot machines, marathoning TV shows, and long scrolls through Tumblr. A LITTLE SOMETHING DIFFERENT is my first novel.

Website Goodreads Facebook Twitter

Book Review: Sit, Stay, Love (Rescue Me #2) by Debbie Burns

Sit, Stay, Love

Author: Debbie Burns
Series: Rescue Me, Book 2
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Expected Publication: April 3, 2018
Paperback, 416 pages
Rating: 4 Stars
★★★★☆
Goodreads  Amazon

Summary: These dogs aren't the only ones in need of rescue
For devoted no-kill shelter worker Kelsey Sutton, rehabbing a group of rescue dogs is a welcome challenge. Working with a sexy ex-military dog handler who needs some TLC himself? That's a different story.
Kurt Crawford keeps his heart locked away from everyone. Well, everyone except the dogs who need his help...and always have his back. But as Kurt gets to know the compassionate, beautiful woman he's been assigned to work with, he can't help but feel a little puppy love...

Review: This book was great on so many levels. Kelsey and Kurt are both great characters dealing with issues from their pasts, as well as trying to do their best to get through each day and build a better future. I love Kelsey's history with depression, her rainbow color-of-the-day T-shirts, and how she takes one of the shelter dogs home with her each night. I appreciate the amount of diversity in this book - Kurt is dealing with PTSD, Kelsey struggles with depression, Patrick (a wonderful side character) has Asperger's.

The romance storyline doesn't really feel front and center of this book to me. It splits its focus on Kurt dealing with his PTSD, his family issues, and the loss of his grandmother;  running rehab for 37 dogs rescued from a dog fighting ring in a falling apart mansion, with a specific focus on a few of the individual dogs' stories, as well as issues with protesters and the like; the relationship with Ida (another really great side character). There are also many themes of fate in this book, which at times got a little sappy for me. The sex scenes are also told in a very fade-to-black manner, so this book is definitely more sweet than steamy. At times it got a little too saccharine sweet for me, which is what inevitably made me rate it 4 stars instead of 5. The writing is great, I loved the characters and the world they built, and this book make me want to go adopt a cat exactly like Mr. Longtail.

This is the second book in the Rescue Me series, but can be read as a stand alone novel. The first book, A New Leash on Love, is about Megan and Craig who do feature some as side characters in this novel, but the spoilers are really limited to things you already know from reading romance (i.e. that they wind up together and live happily ever after). There is also some set up that makes me really hopeful that the next book will be about Tess and Patrick.

*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

New Release Blitz: Finding Mr. Happily Ever After: Nathan by Melissa Storm & Melissa McClone (Giveaway)

Love is complicated.

Jazz Michaels isn’t sure she wants it. That is until she sees the boy next door in a whole new light. Problem is, revealing her feelings could mean losing the best friend she’s ever had-and growing up as the only child of a single mother is lonely enough, thank you.

Nathan Reed wants to live a life of passion, love, and freedom. A serious relationship is the last thing on his list, but picturing a future without Jazz by his side just isn’t possible. As their paths diverge, will Jazz and Nathan find a way to remain together? Or does growing up also mean growing apart?

One bride, four possible grooms, unlimited potential for disaster to strike. Is the man waiting at the end of the aisle the one that’s meant to be Jazz’s forever love? Find out in this addictive series of one woman’s journey to her happily ever after.

About The Book

Finding Mr. Happily Ever After: Nathan
by Melissa Storm & Melissa McClone
Series
Finding Mr. Happily Ever After
Genre
Adult
Sweet / Clean Romance
Contemporary Romance
Publisher
Partridge & Pear Press
Publication Date
January 31, 2018
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Kobo  |  Google Play  |  iBooks

CELEBRATION GIVEAWAY!

Win a Chocolate Tower, a signed book from each author and a copy of the collection signed by both authors.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER!

TAKE A QUIZ!

Find YOUR Mr. Happily Ever After!  CLICK HERE!

ABOUT MELISSA STORM

Melissa Storm is a mother first, and everything else second. She used to write under a pseudonym, but finally had the confidence to come out as herself to the world. Her fiction is highly personal and often based on true stories. Writing is Melissa’s way of showing her daughter just how beautiful life can be, when you pay attention to the everyday wonders that surround us.

Melissa loves books so much, she married fellow author Falcon Storm. Between the two of them, there are always plenty of imaginative, awe-inspiring stories to share. Melissa and Falcon also run the business Novel Publicity together, where she works as publisher, marketer, web designer, and all-around business mogul. When she’s not reading, writing, or child-rearing, Melissa spends time relaxing at home in the company of her four dogs, four parrots, and rescue cat. She never misses an episode of The Bachelor, because priorities.

MELISSA STORM’S LINKS
    

ABOUT MELISSA MCCLONE

USA Today bestselling author, Melissa McClone has published over forty novels with Harlequin and Tule Publishing Group and been nominated for Romance Writers of America’s RITA® award. With a degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University, Melissa worked for a major airline where she traveled the globe and met her husband. But analyzing jet engine performance couldn’t compete with her love of writing happily ever afters. Her first full-time writing endeavor was her first sale when she was pregnant with her first child! When she isn’t writing, you can usually find her driving her minivan to/from her children’s swim practices and other activities. Melissa lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, three children, two spoiled Norwegian Elkhounds, and cats who think they rule the house. They do!

MELISSA MCCLONE’S LINKS
    

This promotion is brought to you by Pure Textuality PR.

Book Review: By a Charm and a Curse by Jaime Questell

Rating: 5 Stars

Expected publication: February 6th 2018 by Entangled: Teen
Summary: Le Grand’s Carnival Fantastic isn’t like other traveling circuses. It’s bound by a charm, held together by a centuries-old curse, that protects its members from ever growing older or getting hurt. Emmaline King is drawn to the circus like a moth to a flame…and unwittingly recruited into its folds by a mysterious teen boy whose kiss is as cold as ice.

Forced to travel through Texas as the new Girl in the Box, Emmaline is completely trapped. Breaking the curse seems like her only chance at freedom, but with no curse, there’s no charm, either—dooming everyone who calls the Carnival Fantastic home. Including the boy she’s afraid she’s falling for.

Everything—including his life—could end with just one kiss.
(from Goodreads)

Review: I just watched The Greatest Showman in theatres and was so amazed that I was desperate for more circus/carnival action. By A Charm and a Curse is everything I was hoping Caraval would be and was disappointed in (sorry, Stephanie Garber!!)

The world building is great. I love the way the charm and the curse are intertwined, and there's just enough magic present in the form of Emma's transformations because of the curse to make things extra filled with oohs and aahs - just like the real circus!! Le Grand’s Carnival Fantastic is this circus/carnival hybrid, with carnival rides and games, deep fried candy bars and cotton candy, and then tents with shows of acrobats and girls in sequined costumes doing tricks on the back of running horses that run periodically. It's like no circus I've ever been to, but reminds me a lot of the MN Renaissance Festival, especially with the concept of paying admission to get in, and then going to shows that start every hour or two on the hour and tipping, as well as buying food or paying to play games. I love me a good circus (especially the aerialists, they're my favorite part!) so I was excited to read this book (though a little gun shy after the very not-carnivalness that was Caraval).

By A Charm and a Curse is told in the first person present tense, with chapters switching off between Emma (a townie attending the carnival who was tricked into taking on the curse that keeps the carnival going and now is stuck with it) and Benjamin (a carpenter at the carnival who works behind the scenes with his mom, who is the master carpenter). I really liked that you get to see inside the heads of both of the leads, rather than just getting the entire story from a single point of view, as is usually the case in first person present tense novels. It's also nice to read a YA novel that's NOT the first in a trilogy or series, so I'm not asked to commit myself to more than just this book, at this time. Emma and Benjamin are both interesting characters, and there are a lot of interesting supporting characters as well. Usually when I finish a book I've got no idea what the names of the other characters were, but I could even describe what they look like, what their personalities are like, and what they do with the circus for Duncan and Pia, Gin and Whiskey, Marcel, Sidney, Lars… I loved all of these characters, and they (and this book!) made me want to run away and join the circus.


*I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back by Sariah Wilson

Book Review: The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back by Sariah Wilson

Rating: 5 Stars

Published August 15th 2012 by Fire & Ice Books
Summary: Everyone knows how all those fairy tales go. The princess gets beautiful, nabs her prince, falls instantly in love, lives happily ever after and leaves her evil stepsisters in the dust.

But what happens when you’re the ugly stepsister and your obnoxiously perfect—read pretty, smart, and, worst of all, sickeningly nice—stepsister is dating the charming, tall, devastatingly handsome guy you’ve had a thing for since you were nine years old?

Quirky, artistic and snarky Mattie Lowe does not lead a charmed life. Her mother is constantly belittling her on Skype. Mercedes, the school mean girl, has made it her personal mission to torment Mattie. But worst of all? Her stepsister Ella is the most beautiful, popular girl in school and is dating Mattie’s secret longtime crush, Jake Kingston.

Tired of being left out and done with waiting for her own stupid fairy godmother to show up, Mattie decides to change her life. She’ll start by running for senior class president against wildly popular Jake.

Ella can keep her Prince Annoying. Mattie’s going to rule the school.

And no one, not even a cute and suddenly flirty Jake, is going to stop her.
(from Goodreads)


Review: I feel like the blurb for this one doesn’t do it justice. Mattie has been in love with Jake since she was 9 and he knocked her off the swing with a rogue kickball to the face. She’s a zaftig gal with pink hair and a love for manga, John Hughes movies, and The Princess Bride. And, ok, I will admit that my love for this book mayyyybe has something to do with feeling a lot like Mattie for most of my life, right down to her fandoms and pink hair, haha. But I digress.

Mattie has some understanding hang-ups that create problems, and there are the obligatory misunderstandings to do timing and unfortunate circumstances. I really appreciated the inclusion of a bonus section at the end that gives the reader things from Jake’s point of view. I almost skipped this section but boy, am I sure glad I read it anyway!! I loved Jake’s take on Mattie, especially the reveal on when he fell for her.

Set in Mattie and Jake’s senior year of high school, this is YA/NA but written in a very relatable way that I thoroughly enjoyed at almost-32.

*I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.