Review: Cam Girl

By Leah Raeder
Available now from
Review copy

CAM GIRL starts with a crash on an icy road.  Vada is the only one who remembers what happened.  Her girlfriend, in the car with her, was drunk and can't remember the accident.  The other driver, a teen boy, was also drunk and died on the scene.  Everyone knows Vada is lying about how the accident happened, but not exactly what her lies are.

This is one of those books that I picked up to read and then forgot about for awhile.  It wasn't what I expected from the cover and description at all.  There are no real thriller elements, although every once in awhile the book convinced me that something sinister would happen.  It's much more of a character-driven story.

Although the crash is the final nail in Vada and Ellis's relationship, it soon becomes clear they had other problems.  Between losing her drawing hand and her relationship going horribly awry, Vada's self-esteem is low.  She's upset and carrying a lot of guilt.  She finds her way to working as a cam girl, for a new site that promises to pay better and be less predatory, but one that carves its market niche by taking things farther to the edge.  Vada is consenting to be exploited, but she's still be exploited.

At times, CAM GIRL felt like it was edgy just to be edgy.  Vada's specialty is breathplay, or auto-erotic asphyxiation.  The book eventually manages to ground it in Vada's character and past, but at first it seems like Vada is practicing hardcore BDSM with no buildup.  Surely it happens, but it was rather jarring.

Vada's life as a cam girl gets shaken up by several events: she starts falling for a big spender client, Ellis re-enters her life, and she finds out the driver of the other car might have been committing suicide.  Her complicated romantic life and search for answers about Ryan tangle together.  I felt everything was a bit too obvious and got frustrated with Vada quite a bit for not realizing what was right in front of her face.

Leah Raeder's CAM GIRL tackles many issues of gender and sexuality that society is really just beginning to discuss.  She's drawn a convincing portrait of a flawed character surrounded by equally flawed people.  (Including Brandt, Ellis's cousin who feels like he wandered in from the thriller I expected.)  It was a book I ultimately failed to connect to, but I expect its messages will connect to many other readers. 

Review: Girl Underwater

By Claire Kells
Available now from Dutton (Penguin Random House)
Review copy

GIRL UNDERWATER has some unfortunate timing.  Books come out on a long-set schedule, and no one can control current events.  But GIRL UNDERWATER starts with a plane crash, which probably isn't what most people want to read right now. 

(I will admit that this fictional crash mostly bothered me because the dangling oxygen masks are repeatedly mentioned, but no one puts one on.  The oxygen masks drop when cabin pressure drops, and you should put yours on immediately and then assist nearby children and other people who can't get their own on.  The bag may not inflate, but oxygen is still flowing.  Hasn't Claire Kells listened to the safety demonstration?)

Avery Delacorte is a college freshman, a swimmer, and one of five survivors of a plane crash into a lake.  Her teammate Colin survived, as did three little boys.  GIRL UNDERWATER alternates between the past, with the five working to survive their wounds and their lack of food sources in the increasingly hostile winter, and the present, where Avery struggles to readjust to normal life.  She's clearly traumatized by her experience, and she's internalizing everything.  She won't even talk to Colin or the boys, the only people who know what she's been through.

I found Avery fascinating.  I didn't always understand her decisions, but I did understand why she was making them.  She's horrified by what she did and didn't do to survive and she's terrified of the media scrutiny.  She wants to be forgotten, not remembered as a hero.  She feels a lot of shame.  The past narrative contradicts a lot of her feelings of inadequacy, showing that her cool head, first aid skills, and other talents were vital in their survival.  She's blaming herself for no good reason, but at the same time it is a believable reaction to the awful things she went through.

GIRL UNDERWATER weaves together a survival story, a recovery story, and a romance in a compelling mix.  This is Kells' first novel, but it feels quite polished.  I couldn't wait to find out how Colin and Avery saved themselves and the kids, nor how Avery would manage to get her feet under her again.  She found reserves of strength in the wilderness, but that doesn't mean she automatically knows what to do with them.

GIRL UNDERWATER will appeal to fans of HATCHET and other classic survival stories.  I liked that GIRL UNDERWATER also encompassed what happened to the survivors after they went home.  It's a sharply realized little book.

Review: Trust the Focus

Book one of the In Focus series
By Megan Erickson
Available now from InterMix (Penguin Random House)
Review copy

Justin just graduated from college.  He's going to start working for his mom's political campaign in September, but until then he's going on a road trip with his best friend Landry.  It's not all happy: they're going to spread Justin's father ashes on twelve sites that were important to him.  There's also a catch: Justin has been in love with Landry since high school, but he's still in the closet.

I feel like the closeted story has been fading away as marriage equality and other movements for equal rights for LGBTQ people gain more steam.  But it is still a reality many people face, especially if they don't have supportive families.  Justin planned to tell his parents, but then his dad died, and that was the parent he trusted to be supportive.  His mother is a conservative, and already upset that her divorce affects her family values image.  He's afraid of how she'll react when she learns the truth.  It is a reasonable fear, even if he is a grown up.  He lives with her and is relying on her for a job, after all.  (And sadly, those don't grow on trees.)  TRUST THE FOCUS is a very modern take on a familiar story.

One thing I absolutely love: Justin's interest in photography.  His dad was a father, and always told him to "Trust the focus."  (Title drop!)  Throughout the book Justin takes shots to memorialize the trip and his relationship with Landry.  Too often books tell you that a character has a passion and never shows it.  Justin's photography runs throughout the whole books, and is used to advance the plot in multiple ways.  It also gives a chance for Landry to get a little of his side of the story in, through excerpted blog posts that he writes to go with the photos.

I believed that Landry and Justin felt deeply for each other.  I love that everything initially happens fast after the truth comes out, since they've pined for so long, but that the brakes come on soon after because Landry is understandably upset about being lied to by a friend (when he clearly would've been supportive) and he's not content to be with someone still in the closet.  There's also the issue of Justin's temper, which becomes more and more of an issue.  I liked that Landry didn't put up with Justin saying mean things whenever he got angry.  I also liked that Justin knew he needed to work on a lot of the things making their relationship difficult whether the relationship ended up working out or not.  Being comfortable with himself, not being angry with himself and turning that anger outward, those things are important.

TRUST THE FOCUS is a cute friends-to-lovers story with a touch of angst and many spicy scenes.  New Adult author Megan Erickson does a good job with her first gay romance.  She manages to incorporate the issues gay couples face into the story without making them all that the story is about.  I did wish for a little more Landry sometimes.  Since Justin narrates, he's the more vibrant character.  I did still believe in their happily ever after.

Review: The Vanishing Girl

First in a trilogy
By Laura Thalassa
Available now from Skyscape (Amazon)
Review copy

I'll admit that I wanted to read THE VANISHING GIRL entirely because I thought the cover was gorgeous.  I like the colors and the abstract strangeness, like a bit of classic sci-fi sneaking into a modern YA cover.

The eponymous girl is Ember Pierce, who teleports for ten minutes every night just after she falls asleep.  She thinks she used to it until she wakes up in a club and flirts with a man named Adrian, only to find a gun in her purse and a note telling her to kill him.  Rather sensibly, she panics more over someone knowing what she can do and trying to use her instead of attempting to assassinate a complete stranger.

Then she finds out that her parents could only have a child through an experimental program, and she now owes two years of service to the military.  It's very obviously illegal and preposterous, even in a world where people can teleport, so you just have to go with it.  At the school she's taken to she's paired with Caden Hawthorne, who is infuriatingly good at keeping her from escaping.  Ember falls for him in a rather rote manner, although I did appreciate that there wasn't a forced love triangle with Adrian.  The scenes between Ember and Caden are written with lots of tension, its just hard to believe she falls for him after how terribly he treats her at first.

Ember, unsurprisingly, starts to find more and more evidence that the school is sinister.  Because secret experiments on babies and being kidnapped weren't enough evidence that everything was bad new.  I sound cranky, I know.  I enjoyed reading THE VANISHING GIRL, and thought it was a a fun ride.  But after I finished, it was hard to seize on anything as a standout moment.  Also, it was one of those books without a real ending, which drives me nuts.

I am, however, eager to read the second book.  THE VANISHING GIRL ends with a cliffhanger, and I'm not sure how Ember will survive or how she'll react to what happened in the next book.  I also hope the next book has more Adrian, who is conducting his own investigation into the school and experiment outside its walls.

Review: Say What You Will

By Cammie McGovern
Available now from HarperTeen (HarperCollins)
Review copy

Amy has severe cerebral palsy and requires a wheelchair and a voice box.  She's a bright girl and determined to look on the bright side.  But her classmate Matthew points out to her that she can't be that happy; after all, her only friends are adults.  So, Amy decides to request teenage helpers for her senior year of high school.

And she requests for Matthew to be one.

I loved the blooming friendship and romance between Amy and Matthew.  They're really portrayed as issues.  Amy has the drive that Matthew lacks, and she's more open about her issues since she can't hide them.  Matthew, meanwhile, is trying to deny his OCD.  I also like that Cammie McGovern went outside the box.  Not only is Amy not a paint-by-the-numbers heroine, the plot goes unexpected places.  It doesn't end with senior year and the prom, for instance.

I liked that SAY WHAT YOU WILL was realistic about Amy and Matthew's limitations, the way society views someone as physically crippled as Amy and the way mental health issues are stigmatized.  I liked that both of them had difficult journeys, but ones they could help each other with - if they approached each other with respect and understanding.  It's a hard road for two teenagers.

The charm of SAY WHAT YOU WILL started to run out for me about three quarters of the way through the book.  The ups and downs just went on for too long for me, like a soap opera.  I think I might've enjoyed it more if I read it slower, interspersed with other books.  At the same time, I still liked it a lot.  McGovern's prose is unobtrusive and she imbues both of her protagonists with charming voices.  I liked how organically the relationship grew, and that SAY WHAT YOU WILL explored what happened after high school, when the relationship is tested by long distance and other factors.

SAY WHAT YOU WILL is McGovern's first YA novel and bodes well for her future forays in the genre.

Review: For Real

By Alison Cherry
Available now from Delacorte Press (Penguin Random House)
Review copy

I was pretty much sold on FOR REAL by the end of the first paragraph, when heroine Claire muses, "I wish I were watching this on a real television. I fear I'm missing the nuances of his six-pack."  Claire is a reality-television addict, because she wants to work in TV herself and it is the great equalizing genre.

It's always been her weird hobby, but when her sister Miranda dumps her cheating boyfriend, Claire decides to help Miranda get revenge.  It just so happens that a slot has opened up for two new teams on the reality show Sanjay's been bragging about appearing on.  It's the perfect opportunity to humiliate him in front of the whole world.

The reality show Around the World takes clear inspiration from The Amazing Race with a dating-show twist.  I loved all the descriptions of the contests and could've read even more of crazy faux-cultural activities enlivened by forced bonding.  There's nice character work to back up the humor of the competitions.  Most of the competitors only get a little shading, but there are hints of them having their own lives.  Claire works on coming out of her bubble, falling for fellow contestant Wes, and redefining her relationship with her sister now that they're both adults.

FOR REAL was exactly the light and frothy read I needed when I picked it up.  It's fun and effortlessly charming.  The relationship between the sisters is terrific - it has realistic ups and downs, but they've always got each other's backs when the chips are down.  This may be a short read, but it's a good one.

If you need a pick-me-up, I highly recommend FOR REAL.  It's light fare well executed, like the best of reality shows.  (And unlike many real-life dating reality shows, it remembers LGBT people exist, in a nice touch.)  This one put a smile on my face as big as the smiles on the hardcover.

Review: My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories

Edited and with a story by Stephanie Perkins
Stories by Holly Black, Ally Carter, Matt de la Peña, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Myra McEntire, Rainbow Rowell, Laini Taylor, and Kiersten White
Available now from St. Martin's Griffin
Review copy

For her first anthology, Stephanie Perkins did not play fair.  She gathered up a veritable who's who of YA authors to deliver a nearly perfect anthology with something to offer for everybody.  Some of the stories are speculative fiction; some are contemporary.  All have at least a touch of a romantic edge.  There's also a smattering of diversity.

For me, the weakest link was Jenny Han's "Polaris Is Where You'll Find Me," the story of a human girl adopted by Santa.  There were hints of an interesting elf world and two potential love interests, and it was all a bit much for one of the book's shorter stories.  It felt like the beginning to something longer.  My favorite was Kelly Link's "The Lady and the Fox," a sort of Christmas retelling of Tam Lin with a young girl who loves costumes and an old family with lots of stories.

David Levithan, Rainbow Rowell, Matt de la Peña, and Gayle Forman and more deliver solid contemporary Christmas and New Year's stories.  I liked that Levithan's brought in some Jewish heritage to the proceedings.  Holly Black did what Holly Black does.  So did Laini Taylor to deliver a memorable closing story.  I found Kiersten White's "Welcome to Christmas, CA" took longer to charm me than the others, but by the end I was under its delicious spell.

I appreciated that MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME skewed a little older.  Almost all of the characters are in their first year of college.  It united the anthology in a way, and gave it a bit of a different vibe from similar YA holiday anthologies.

This is a charming collection and an excellent choice for anyone who likes at least one or more of the twelve authors.  It's rare to come across an anthology this solid.  And with so much winter cheer, it's hard for me to be a Grinch.

Review: Thorn Jack

The First Night and Nothing novel
By Katherine Harbour
Available now from Harper Voyager (HarperCollins)
Review copy

Finn Sullivan and her father move to the small town where he grew up in the wake of her older sister's suicide.  There, Finn attends college and makes two good friends, Sylvie and Christie.  She's finding the rhythm of life again.  Then she meets gorgeous Jack Fata at a concert.  The Fatas are beautiful, strange, and scary - soon Finn, Sylvie, and Christie are in over their heads.  They must be clever to save themselves.  But Finn doesn't just want to save herself; she wants to save Jack as well.

I felt that THORN JACK started slowly.  For one thing, the college sounds nothing like a college and it really bothered me.  It's called HallowHeart.  What kind of name is that?  It's even a college with a phys ed requirement.  Plus, Finn and her friends all live at home and generally seem more like high schoolers than college students.  I don't think it would've changed the story to put them in high school, and several little things would've made more sense.

I did enjoy being slowly pulled into the mythology of the Night and Nothing series.  It's fairly traditional, as THORN JACK is based on the Tam Lin ballad.  But it incorporates a few non-Celtic traditions and has its own spin on things.  I also liked that the danger to the main characters felt very real.  They mostly survive because the Fatas have plans for them, although they do a little better once they learn how to protect themselves and to fight (with poetry).

Katherine Harbour is a debut novelist, but she has strong control over her language.  THORN JACK is very lush and lovely, although she repeats some of her best images until they become almost meaningless.  Generally, however, the beautiful imagery enhances the horror elements. 

If you're familiar with Tam Lin, you know where everything is headed in THORN JACK.  But Harbour makes the story worth reading.  Finn is a heroine who is somewhat foolhardy, but also loyal, determined, and inventive.  Jack may be dangerous, but he's protective of Finn.  (For a moment, it did look like THORN JACK was headed for the TWILIGHT mode.)  Finn's best friends are great additions to the story.  I am eager to read the next two books in the Night and Nothing series and to learn more about the wolf-eyed man.

Review: Be With Me

Wait for You, Book 2
By J. Lynn (Jennifer L. Armentrout)
Available now from William Morrow (HarperCollins)
Review copy

Jennifer L. Armentrout has had major success and I've been meaning to read her forever.  (I've even bought the first couple of Lux novels.)  I just . . . haven't done it.  So when I got the chance to review her New Adult novel BE WITH ME, I jumped on it.

BE WITH ME is the story of Teresa Hamilton and Jase Winstead.  Tess had her life planned - she was going to be a professional dancer.  In fact, she was accepted to the Joffrey School of Ballet on a scholarship.  An injury has left her unable to dance until she recovers, so she's now at college as a backup.  She's frustrated and worried that this might end up being her life, if she injures herself again.  Jase is her brother's best friend, good looking and good with the ladies.  He also never called Tess back after they kissed at a party, and it's awkward now that they're back in each other's orbit.

I thought BE WITH ME was a cute romance, albeit one that went on a bit too long.  The last second relationship hurdle made me roll my eyes; I would've preferred more of Tess and Jase being together and working out the details of their relationship instead of pointless drama to finish out the book.  I didn't like that BE WITH ME wasn't all about them.  Tess escaped an abusive relationship when she was a teenager and thinks that her roommate is in a bad situation.  However, she doesn't know how to approach her and help.  But, clearly she can't just let it happen.

I know New Adult has a reputation for being steamy.  There are sex scenes in BE WITH ME, but they aren't over the top and they don't take over the book.  I felt like there was less sex than a Harlequin Presents, for example.  Mostly, it was just a contemporary romance that happened to be set at a college.  I enjoyed that.  (And I definitely enjoyed that it was clearly a college, not a vaguely disguised high school.)

I'm sure that J. Lynn/Jennifer L. Armentrout's fans will enjoy BE WITH ME.  It certainly didn't scare me off of reading more of her books.  It was a pleasant way to spend a Saturday morning.

Review: Fangirl

By Rainbow Rowell
Available now from St. Martin's Griffin (Macmillan)
Review copy

FANGIRL: the novel that launched a thousand laudatory reviews.  It's a little difficult to be just one more, sometimes.  If you haven't heard about it, FANGIRL is the story of Cath, a freshman in college.  She's long found solace in fandom and has become a popular writer of Baz/Simon fanfiction (basically Harry Potter).  She's had some difficulty in her home life: her mother left when she and her sister were eight and her father is bipolar and sometimes has breakdowns.  Now at college, she doesn't even have her twin by her side.  Wren decided to room with someone else at the last minute.

The first reason FANGIRL is easy to love is that its very relatable.  Freshman year is a liminal time.  Some people spend it getting drunk, like Wren.  Some people spend it huddled in their dorm room, like Cath.  Often times things happen to shock people out of their patterns, which of course happens in the book.  The second is that FANGIRL is a total female fantasy.  Cath is hippy but still considered attractive, has no less than two potential love interests, is adored by a professor, and finds fame online.  Her college life is, in many ways, the life other socially anxious internet dwellers dream of.  There are some downsides (anxiety) (parental abandonment), but on the whole it is just plain fun to spend time in Cath's life.

FANGIRL is the cherry on top of a wonderful year for Rainbow Rowell.  She's really arrived as an author, and I am looking forward to her next book.  This book is a great choice for anyone going to college, or who has been to college, or who didn't go and wants proof that college quite often bites the monkey.

Review: Roomies

By Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando
Available now from Little, Brown BFYR (Hachette)
Review copy
Read my review of The Best Night of Your (Pathetic) Life

I love that the explosion of sexy reads about twentysomethings is starting to bring about interest in books that are about life in college, or just before college, without necessarily being about an intense romantic relationship.  I wish there'd been more books about this time of life back when I was in college.

ROOMIES is about the last summer before college for the alternating narrators, EB and Laura.  EB a New Jersey girl is excited to move across the country to San Francisco and hopes to make friends with her roommate because, well, she won't know anyone else.  Laura hoped for a single because she's moving out of her house with five siblings and just wants some alone time.  EB's perky email introducing herself was not what Laura hoped for.

It's a great premise for a novel, because the roommate relationship is such a unique one and so very variable.  You could be best friends with your roommate and hate living with them.  You could hate them but think they're great to live with because they never eat your food or steal your makeup.  Or anywhere in between!  Pre-move-in email exchanges are basically the only thing you know about the person you'll be living with for a year before you make that plunge.  (Unless you decide to room with a friend when you go off to college.)  Plus, it's a situation ripe for misunderstandings.  Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando clearly had a great deal of fun playing with the idea.

I found it a little hard to warm to EB and Laura at first because they were both determined to think the worst of each other based off of some pretty ungenerous readings of each other's emails.  Then I started really getting into their stories.  Laura's is the simpler one.  She's preparing to move away from her close family, which is difficult even though it's something she really wants, and maybe starting a relationship with a coworker.  Her coworker is black, and ROOMIES does a great job of dealing with how people act like they don't notice that but do.  EB, meanwhile, is having to deal with her mom's affair with a married man, the new guy she likes despite having a boyfriend, and getting up the courage to talk to her estranged gay dad who lives in San Francisco.  It is to the book's credit that it refers to this storyline as a soap opera but doesn't let it get too overly dramatic.

I really loved how many relationships are woven into ROOMIES.  There is the girls' growing, fraught relationship, of course.  But both of their family relationships are explored, as are their relationships with boys, and their relationships with their best female friends, all of which are changing because going off to college is a huge transition.  It's very realistic, which helps keep ROOMIES moving smoothly along instead of feeling overstuffed.

I think ROOMIES will be a big hit with contemporary fans and anyone who is making their own transition to college.  It's very positive while not ignoring potential negativity, and often just sweet and funny.  Just don't be fooled by the cover: they don't make it to the dorm room until the very end.  And you'll have to read the book to find out whether EB and Laura decide to live together after all.

Be sure to visit on January 10th when I post my own Roomies story and give away a copy of ROOMIES!

Review: Bad Houses

By Sara Ryan
Art by Carla Speed McNeil
Available now from Dark Horse
Review copies

The two main characters of BAD HOUSES are Anne and Lewis, who both appear on the cover.  But there are a number of other important characters, many of whom have bits and pieces of their stories told, all living in Fallin, Ohio.

Lewis helps his somewhat overbearing mother out with her estate sale business, selling people's possessions after their deaths.  It is at one of those sales that he meets Anne, who longs to escape her mother's hoarding, which encroaches on her space after her mother meets a new man.  Their issues with their mothers and possessions are very different, but they drive both characters.  I liked the romance between Lewis and Anne, which is low key and helps both of them grow.

I also love how many stories are entwined throughout BAD HOUSES.  Often, the stories play out through possessions left behind.  We imbue the things we own with meaning.  There are bits about the history of the town, bits about Lewis's father (who he's never met), bits about the man who haggles for treasures at the estate sales and sells them for more in his shop.  It's all very easy to follow along, and if it ties together a bit too neatly, well, that makes for a better story.

YA readers might be familiar with Sara Ryan from her perennially popular book THE EMPRESS OF THE WORLD, one of the lesbian novels.  BAD HOUSES is her first graphic novel, but she's written shorter comics before and seems to understand the medium well.  Webcomics readers might be familiar with Carla Speed McNeil through the aboriginal SF graphic novel FINDER.  McNeil's art is a good fit for the book, managing the transitions between point of view well.  I like her clear, strong style, which reminds me of last year's Cybils winner Faith Erin Hicks.

BAD HOUSES is short but powerful.  It's a wonderful story about life, relationships, and stories left behind.  I think it's a particularly good choice for older teens who are working out their own relationships with their parents and what they'll do when they move out and make their own home.

Review: Where the Stars Still Shine

By Trish Doller
Available now from Bloomsbury
Review copy

Callie grew up on the road with her mother, picking up and moving every time she got scared.  But when they get stopped by the police and Callie is sent to live with her father, it turns out she had a loving, stable family waiting for her.  Callie struggles with her past and her future, where and who she wants to be.

WHERE THE STARS STILL SHINE deals with some very difficult subjects.  Trish Doller's writing, however, kept me turning the pages instead of weeping.  It's not that molestation and the slow death of a parent aren't treated like terrible things.  But when I read them, I knew that her characters could make it through.  I felt very hopeful, reading WHERE THE STARS STILL SHINE.

There were times when I wanted to shake Callie.  She makes some terrible decisions.  It's not even always that she doesn't know they're terrible at the time.  And it's not that I didn't understand why she was making those decisions; Doller is terrific at showing what's going on inside Callie's head.  It's just that I wanted Callie to have her happily ever after.  But it can be hard to admit that you deserve to be happy and to do what you need to in order to be happy.

Then there's Alex, the older guy who Callie has an instant lust for.  Major props to Doller for portraying that the character's initial attraction is not love and developing both their attraction and their emotional attachment.  Their relationship is hot (WHERE THE STARS STILL SHINE is aimed at more mature YA readers) and sweet.  Alex is exactly the guy Callie needs - one who respects her boundaries and talks to her when things go wrong.  And she's who he needs - willing to push his boundaries before he makes a mistake he might regret.  His confidence in his dreams, and his distance from them, is a nice foil to Callie's uncertainty about what she wants.

And how great is the setting?  It's a port town that attracts tourists, full of Greek people who are almost always somehow related to Callie.  It's an intimate community, which is a big change for someone who grew up on the edges of society.  I liked the difficulty of it all.  And Callie's cousin, who wants to be her best friend but keeps messing it up, was great.  Romantic relationships aren't the only tricky ones to navigate.

SOMETHING LIKE NORMAL marked Doller as an author to watch, and WHERE THE STARS STILL SHINE confirms it.  This is contemporary fiction done well.  It's romantic, feminist, and hopeful.  I don't know about you, but I'm up for round three.

Review and Giveaway: A Little Too Far

Book One in the A Little Too . . . series
By Lisa Desrochers
Available Sept. 17 (ebook) and Oct. 1 (paperback) from William Morrow (HarperCollins)
Review copy

I think Lisa Desrochers' Personal Demons series is an underrated gem, so I was excited when I heard she had a new book coming out.  And as I like it when authors play around with different genres and I've been meaning to read more New Adult, I wasn't put off by the fact that A LITTLE TOO FAR was neither a paranormal nor YA.

Visit all the tour stops!

At the beginning of A LITTLE TOO FAR, Lexie Banks sleeps with her stepbrother, Trent.  Their parents married when they were fifteen, and they've always been close, but best friends close.  They don't even have time to talk about what happened before Lexie is off to Rome for a semester abroad studying art history.  This creates an odd structure for the romance, since the heroine and hero rarely interact.  At the same time, it puts the focus squarely on Lexie's feelings and her struggle to determine whether a romantic relationship with Trent is what she really wants.

However, A LITTLE TOO FAR isn't all about a boy.  Lexie is, after all, in Rome.  She makes friends with an English girl studying abroad who gets too little page time.  She also makes friends with a soon-to-be priest, Alessandro Moretti, after she goes to church to confess her sins.  Lexie isn't particularly religious, but going through the Catholic rituals helps her with her guilt.  And working with Reverend Moretti gives her a chance to see even more art and to discover that her career path might be different than she expected.

There is a love triangle in A LITTLE TOO FAR, which didn't quite work for me.  I think Desrochers' did an amazing job with the Personal Demons love triangle, so I had high expectations.  I got why there was an attraction between Lexie and Alessandro - two good looking people who are friends - but I never felt that they were endgame and thus it was awkward that their relationship received so much more attention in the book than Lexie's relationship with Trent.

New Adult has a reputation for being sexy, but I think Desrochers struck a nice balance of sex and plot.  There were fewer than I expected (based on the marketing), which I preferred.  I don't mind explicit sex scenes, but I definitely don't want to read a book that's mostly sex.  Most of the nudity in the book is comedic!  When there are sex scenes, Desrochers neither resorts to ridiculous synonyms nor makes it overly clinical. 

I think A LITTLE TOO FAR will appeal to fans of New Adult looking for a book with a well-developed heroine and few difficult issues.  (Is it just me or does every other New Adult book involve rape or abuse?)  There are also some lovely descriptions of art, for any art fans out there.

About the book:

“More than a ridiculously sexy, HOT read, Desrochers takes you on a wild ride of self-discovery and bittersweet romance.”

— JENNIFER L. ARMENTROUT, #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR

Have you ever gone just a little too far?

Lexie Banks has.

Yep. She just had mind-blowing sex with her stepbrother. In her defense, she was on the rebound, and it’s more of a my-dad-happened-to-marry-a-woman-with-a-super-hot-son situation. But still, he’s been her best friend and confidant for the better part of the last few years … and is so off limits. It’s a good thing she’s leaving in two days for a year abroad in Rome.

But even thousands of miles away, Lexie can’t seem to escape trouble. Raised Catholic, she goes to confession in hopes of alleviating some of her guilt … and maybe not burning in hell. Instead, she stumbles out of the confessional and right into Alessandro Moretti, a young and very easy-on-the-eyes deacon … only eight months away from becoming a priest. Lexie and Alessandro grow closer, and when Alessandro’s signals start changing despite his vow of celibacy, she doesn’t know what to think. She’s torn between falling in love with the man she shouldn’t want and the man she can’t have. And she isn’t sure how she can live with herself either way.

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About Lisa Desrochers:

 

Lisa Desrochers lives in northern California with her husband, two very busy daughters, and Shini the tarantula. If you'd told her five years ago she'd write a book, she'd have laughed in your face. As it turns out, she'd owe you an apology. Writing has become an addiction for Lisa and A Little Too Far, courtesy of HarperCollins, is her first novel for adults. She is also the author of the young adult Personal Demons trilogy from Macmillan.

When she's not writing, she's reading, and she adores stories that take her to new places, and then take her by surprise. Connect with her online at www.lisadwrites.com, on her blog at lisadesrochers.blogspot.com, on Twitter at @LisaDez, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LisaDesrochersAuthor. 

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