Books By Their Cover

Thursday, February 2, 2012

The Disenchantments

The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour
Grade: 4 stars out of 5
Published: February 16, 2012 Buy from Amazon
Source: won from LibraryThing ER

After reading the praise behind Hold Still I caved and read Hold Still. I liked it. I wasn’t jumping off my seat in love with the book. Then I gave the book to someone else because maybe that person will love the book like many people who encouraged me to pick it up.

Then I got The Disenchantments in the mail. My conscience is telling me to pass this book, but a part of my brain says “maybe this is the book that will make you fall in love with LaCour”. And you know what, it wasn’t, but it was on the right track. The Disenchantments is a roadtrip that will break your heart and find redemption.

Colby (which is a guy by the way because yay for unisexual names) and Bev go way back. They’ve been friends for a while time. They’ve made a pact: after graduation they’ll go travel Europe together. No college. So on tour for Bev’s all-girl band, The Disenchantments (who aren’t good at all), Colby expects things to go smoothly with fun before the band goes their separate ways. But when Bev announces that she’s going to college, Colby starts to wonder why and what else has Bev been keeping a secret?

The Disenchantments took me a little over a month to read. It’s been an on-and-off read where I managed to finish almost 10 books in-between the starting and ending point. I couldn't connect to the book; I couldn’t connect to Colby as a narrator. I couldn't understand why Colby liked Bev so much.

Once Bev admitted that she knew Colby liked her, I gave up. Bev was already distant to being with, but when she made the announcement I really had a hard time trying to figure out what made Bev the girl to Colby. She is selfish, she leads people on, she lies. She’s a borderline b’tch. And then have Colby mooning over her for god knows how much longer in the book, I wasn’t going to last. I had to put The Disenchantments down.

After several weeks enough was enough. I put on my big girl pants and dragged myself through the rest of the book. (I was only about a third way finished.) I don’t know where and when it happened, but I hit a spot in The Disenchantments where I really just started to like to.

The little towns where the band was stopping seemed to shape Colby into a much more interesting narrator. Bev started to flesh out as readers find out what secrets Bev has kept hidden. It’s more emotional than I ever expected from the same girl I once considered to be a b’tch. What started as an innocent road trip turns into self discovery, family struggles, and forgiveness. No one is perfect and The Disenchantments point to that, but the heart wants what the heart wants.

The Runaways: Hello Dad! Hello Mom!

I love the intermingling of art (especially finishing up Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley) especially the various forms of art: drawings, paintings, sculpting, music, acting, photography, tattooing, etc. Each of these forms bring in more characters to the novel, and while it normally would irritate me, I found that it worked quite well in The Disenchantments. The characters were different enough that I was able to keep track of them and saw that they had purpose to the novel.

The Disenchantments is a bold novel with bold characters. Bandmates Bev, Meg, and Alexa with tag-along Colby make this roadtrip an unforgettable one.

Cover A-/B+

I love the vibe I get from the cover and how well it translate from the book.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Waiting on Wednesday (56)

Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

Coming out: July 10th 2012 by MTV Books

A sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers.

High school senior Leah Jones loves nothing more than flying. While she’s in the air, it’s easy to forget life with her absentee mother at the low-rent end of a South Carolina beach town. When her flight instructor, Mr. Hall, hires her to fly for his banner advertising business, she sees it as her ticket out of the trailer park. And when he dies suddenly, she’s afraid her flying career is gone forever.

But Mr. Hall’s teenage sons, golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson, are determined to keep the banner planes flying. Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business--until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers--and the consequences could be deadly.

Such a Rush is Jennifer's debut hardcover novel! I'm super excited about this book! I've greatly enjoyed Jennifer's past novels and having just finished The One I Want I'm ready for whatever else Jennifer has in store.

WoW is hosted by Jill from Breaking the Spine!

Monday, January 30, 2012

Would This Nerd Go Back to High School? ft. Jay Clark

Booty School Dropout: Would This Nerd Go Back to High School?

Flashback: I’m a freshman in high school, feeling lame because I’ve just taken the same girl-who’s-just-a-friend to the last two dances. When it comes to making heads of chasing tail, my moves are nowhere near Jagger. More in the vicinity of Groban.

Meanwhile, a crazy person has just invaded my bedroom, and she’s trying to convince me I’m smack-dab in the midst of one of the best times of my life.

“Mom!”

“What?” she says innocently. “It is!”

moves like Groban

“Then here,” I say, handing her a pillow. “Put this over my face and press.”

Mom shakes her head, refusing to be an accessory to my death. She’d much rather see me die from embarrassment.

Then she agrees me some cinnamon rolls, and I’m over it.

I’m not gonna lie, my high school experience wasn’t exactly a big bowl of reefer cherries. I was boring beyond my years, a grandpa before his time, obsessed with tests and homework and whatever class election was coming up next. Snooze. I jokingly like to blame my sister for these problems, because that beautiful Homecoming Queen was way too popular for both our goods. Queen Clark had star power to spare, so I had no choice but to step out from the shadows and disappoint her subjects with the fact that I wasn’t, you know, her. Look out, here comes the little brother! Dude, why is he reading a book during lunch? That kind of thing.

But guess what? I wouldn’t change my awkward four-year stint for the world. Somewhere along the line, I learned how to be funny(ish?) as a way to compensate for my absence o’ social skills. To this day some would even say overcompensate—thanks for the unpleasant reminder, grouchy Kirkus reviewer lady! If I hadn’t learned how to make a majority of my critics laugh, though, then I wouldn’t be typing this blog post right now, trying to pimp a humorous book that’s loosely based on my life as a teen. See, everything crappy happens for a reason.

yum...

Young or old, we all just want to be liked, and there’s no better (or worse) place to test our personalities-in-progress than high school. Tough audience? The toughest. But arguably the most rewarding. Hence why I still have teeth-grindingly bad dreams about it, and why I’m drawn to being a writer of the genre. Does this mean I have to admit my mom had a point? Never! Maybe a little one, but I’d say it’s more about me being a glutton for punishment.

Regardless, even if the book heads straight for the bargain bin, I know exactly where to get some cinnamon rolls to ease the rejection.

Jay Baker is the debut author of The Edumacation of Jay Clark, coming out tomorrow!

Meet Jay Baker . . . or, as he is not-so-affectionately called by his opponent in the freshman-class presidential election--no comment.
A few random bullet points about Jay:

He is stupidly in love with his best friend, cheerleading dynamo Cameo "Appearance" Parnell.

He is also trying to score (points) with earthbound tennis-playing goddess Caroline Richardson.

He is fighting a losing battle with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

He rocks a touché array of pop-culture references, jokes, and puns.

His family life cookie is about to crumble.

Root for Jay as he exchanges ego-blows with his mortal enemy, gets awkward around his dream girl(s), loses his marbles in a Bermudian love triangle, watches his parents' relationship implode, and, finally, learns to keep it real and be himself(ish).

Does The Edumacation of Jay Baker interest you? Do you have a thing for Groban? Do you like cinnamon rolls or awkwardly funny guys? Well I have ONE (1) ARC of The Edumacation of Jay Baker to give to you lovely readers!

Fill out this FORM to enter!