Blog Tour - The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things by Ann Aguirre + Excerpt & Giveaway!

Title: The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things

Author: Ann Aguirre

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Release Date: April 7, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo / B&N

Sage Czinski is trying really hard to be perfect. If she manages it, people won’t peer beyond the surface, or ask hard questions about her past. She’s learned to substitute causes for relationships, and it’s working just fine…until Shane Cavendish strolls into her math class. He’s a little antisocial, a lot beautiful, and everything she never knew she always wanted. 

Shane Cavendish just wants to be left alone to play guitar and work on his music. He’s got heartbreak and loneliness in his rearview mirror, and this new school represents his last chance. He doesn’t expect to be happy; he only wants to graduate and move on. He never counted on a girl like Sage.

But love doesn’t mend all broken things, and sometimes life has to fall apart before it can be put back together again…

Until I picked up The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things, I had only read Ann Aguirre’s New Adult titles. Her YA books just hadn’t appealed to me until now. But The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things sounded like it had the potential to be a total “me” book. And I am more than happy to report that I was absolutely right. 

Sage has spent the last three years trying to be as perfect as possible. She’s afraid that if she’s anything less, her aunt will send her back to state care and she’ll lose everything she’s worked so hard for. Being perfect also means people won’t look at her too closely, they won’t figure out that she has a past she wants to keep hidden. And Sage would have kept it up right until she graduated if Shane Cavendish hadn’t walked into her math class. Shane isn’t like the other boys at school and Sage immediately feels drawn to him. But Shane isn’t interested in a relationship. He just wants to keep his head down and play guitar. He just needs to keep it together until graduation. His expectations are low and he never expected Sage. Soon, Sage and Shane will learn that keeping it together and being perfect isn’t all that matters, and that sometimes imperfections are the best thing that can happen.

As I’ve already mentioned, until recently I had only read Ann Aguirre New Adult books and I really enjoyed them. But as far as her YA was concerned, I just wasn’t interested. The stories didn’t sound like something I would enjoy, and that was that. But then I heard that she was writing a YA contemporary story and it immediately got added to my TBR. And with good reason. When I found out more about The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things, it sounded like a book that had the potential to be a total “Emilie book.” So I started reading. And at first I started rethinking my assumptions. But then I got completely caught up in the story. I couldn’t put the book down. The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things was addicting, plain and simple. The romance was just how I like it. It put a smile on my face and warmed my heart, but it also wasn’t always warm and fuzzy. But that was just fine with me because it fit with the characters and what I knew about them. And really, as much as I loved the story and the romance, Sage and Shane were the real reason I loved this book as much as I did.

Sage confused me a little at first. And kind of annoyed me to be honest. But that’s because I didn’t know her and her whole story yet. The more I read, the more I started to understand her, to realize that the Sage she presented to the world wasn’t the real Sage, but instead the one she thought she needed to be. So once I started seeing who the real Sage was, I quickly changed my mind about her. She was flawed and I loved that about her. And I loved that in Shane she found someone who was just as flawed as her and wanted her and all her flaws. I won’t lie, I was totally expecting Shane to be your typical YA brooding bad boy. That’s the feeling I got when I read the book’s description. But that wasn’t who Shane was and I can’t say I’m exactly disappointed by that. I loved that Shane was actually a nice guy disguised as a bad boy. It made peeling back the layers of his personality that much more interesting. And it made me want to root for him and Sage so badly. Because they both deserved someone who would accept them, flaws and all, and would love them for it.

It should go without saying that I loved Ann Aguirre’s The Queen of Bright and Shiny Thing. This story ended up being so much more than I thought it was going to be. And from now on, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for more contemporary stories from Ann Aguirre. Because I will read them all.

Excerpt

The sophomores can’t hear us down the table, as it’s loud in here, but I pitch my voice low just in case. “Basically, Ryan was never my boyfriend. He just let people think we were together. Because I’m an idiot, I didn’t guess why.” Those last words come out bitter.

“So why did he do that?” I head all kinds of nuances in his voice, questions, doubts.

Here’s where it gets tricky. “It’s complicated. He lied to me, though, and that’s what I can’t just get over. Maybe someday we’ll be friends again, but for now…” I shrug.

“Friends?” He repeats.

“Yeah. Friends.”

“So he didn’t break your heart.” He sounds relieved.

“Did you want him to?”

“I was afraid he had. That maybe you were talking to me…” His eyes cut away from mine.

“Because I was trying to make Ryan jealous? Not my style.”

I want to say, OMG, Shane, you think I’m a dude magnet? I’ve been Ryan’s sidekick, his not-girlfriend so long, that I have no idea what this or what I’m doing. But I love it.

“I’m not looking for drama,” Shane tells me.

I understand the reason for the pronouncement immediately. Ryan’s watching us from across the cafeteria, but he won’t be shoving Shane into any doorjambs or cornering him in the boys toilet. In some ways, his silent, wounded eyes are worse. I can tell he feels horrible and that he misses me, but what am I supposed to do? After what I’ve learned, I don’t want to be his girlfriend, which is what he was shooting for when he made his big confession. I feel like I hardly know the guy, and that hurts most of all.

“There won’t be any.”

“I just…I can’t afford any trouble,” he says softly, not looking at me. “Any more, and I’m off to juvie until I’m eighteen.”

Possibly he thinks this will scare me off. But I have my dark side, too. The staff at the group home pulled me off an emotional ledge years ago, so I know what it’s like to feel completely out of control, doing stuff you know deep down is a terrible idea and yet you cannot stop. I study the rigid line of his shoulders. “Did you put that post-it on my locker?” I ask.

He’s dead silent, but his eyes answer where his lips do not. I see the yes written in aquamarine.

In this moment, I want to kiss him so bad it hurts.

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Blog Tour - The Shape of My Heart by Ann Aguirre + Giveaway

Title: The Shape of My Heart

Author: Ann Aguirre

Publisher: Harlequin HQN

Release Date: November 25, 2014

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo / B&N

Some people wait decades to meet their soul mate. Courtney Kaufman suspects she met hers in high school—only to lose him at seventeen. Since then, Courtney’s social life has been a series of meaningless encounters, though she’s made a few close friends along the way. Especially her roommate, Max Cooper, who oozes damaged bad-boy vibes from every pore.

Max knows about feeling lost and trying to move beyond the pain—he’s been on his own since he was sixteen. Now ti’s time to find out if he can ever go home again, and Courtney’s the only one he trusts to go with him. But the trip to Providence could change everything…because the more time he spends with Courtney, the harder it is to reconcile what he wants and what he thinks he deserves.

It started out so simple. One misfit helping another. Now Max will do anything to show Courtney that for every heart that’s ever been broken there’s noter that can make it complete. 

After having read the first two books in Ann Aguirre’s 2B trilogy, I couldn’t help but want to read the third one. These books are addicting, and they feature characters that often aren’t seen in other stories. To say I devoured The Shape of My Heart would be an understatement. And of course, I loved every page of it.

Courtney Kaufman believes in the idea of soul mates. And once upon a time she even found hers in her high school best friend. Unfortunately for her, she lost him when she was seventeen. Since then, Courtney hasn’t found anyone she was willing to give her heart to, but that hasn’t stopped her from making a few close friends. Among those friends is Max Cooper, her roommate, and someone who seems to have just as much baggage as he does. Max knows all about how difficult it can be to trust people. He’s been on his own since he was sixteen and has let very few people get close to him. But with Courtney, things are different. He wants to let her in, he wants more than just her friendship. If only he thought he deserved her as much as he needs her. Both Max and Courtney have suffered great heartbreak, and together they might just be able to fix each other’s hearts. 

I feel the need to once again apologize in advance if you get a Backstreet Boys song stuck in your head. Believe me, it’s stuck in my head to (though that might just be because I’ve had it playing the whole time I’ve been writing this review). Moving on. I’m going to be honest, what initially drew me to these books are the Backstreet Boys-related title. But after I read the first one, I was completely hooked because of the story and the characters, the titles were just an added bonus. The Shape of My Heart was just an addicting read. It helped that I knew the characters, and that since the first book I had been looking forward to reading more about Max. He just intrigued me. So knowing this was his story just made me super excited to read it. And let me just say that there were many times when his and Courtney’s story broke my heart, but in a really good way. Because I absolutely loved the romance in this book. It wasn’t rushed, it felt completely natural and Max and Courtney were friends before they were anything else which made it even better. And really, that’s why I loved this story. Because of the people in it.

Max had been pretty prominent in the first book and was referred to quite a bit in the second book, but The Shape of My Heart was all about him. Well, him and Courtney. But you get my point. Whenever I had seen him in the previous two books, I had always wanted more. There just always seemed to be so much to him and I wanted to see what that “so much” was. It turned out to be pretty heartbreaking, but it made me love Max all the more because of it. I just needed him to realize that he deserved to be happy to and to get what he wants for once in his life. And that brings me to Courtney. Much like with Max, I loved Courtney. I’d had very brief glimpses of her in the other two books and I really enjoyed getting to know her better. What I liked the most about Courtney is that she wasn’t the type of heroine I’ve almost come to expect when it comes to New Adult. It was refreshing. And her and Max together were just fantastic. I loved the way their relationship evolved from friendship to something more. It all just felt natural, and I couldn’t picture two people who fit together better than those two.

In case you hadn’t figured it out, I loved Ann Aguirre’s The Shape of My Heart. It was a great conclusion to her 2B trilogy. Though I would be lying if I said I was didn’t want more stories about this group of friends (I don’t know about you guys, but I could definitely do with a story about Angus). Fans of New Adult romance should definitely be checking out this series.

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Blog Tour - As Long As You Love Me by Ann Aguirre + Giveaway

Title: As Long As You Love Me (2B Trilogy #2)

Author: Ann Aguirre

Publisher: Harlequin HQN

Release Date: September 30, 2014

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo / B&N

Most people dream about getting out of Sharon, Nebraska, but after three years away, Lauren Barrett is coming home. She has her reasons—missing her family, losing her college scholarship. But then there’s the reason Lauren can’t admit to anyone: Rob Conrad, her best friend’s older brother.

Football prowess and jaw-dropping good looks made Rob a star in high school. Out in the real world, his job and his relationships are going nowhere. He’s the guy who women love and leave, not the one who makes them think of forever—until Lauren comes back to town, bringing old feelings and new dreams with her.

Because the only thing more important than figuring out where you truly belong is finding the person you were meant to be with.

I’m all about the books that share titles with Backstreet Boys songs. I loved the first book in Ann Aguirre’s 2B trilogy when I read it a couple of months ago. And having now read the second book, As Long As You Love Me, I can say that these are some highly enjoyable books.

Lauren Barrett is the only person ever left her small Nebraskan hometown, only to want to come back after having lost her college scholarship. What she’s not willing to admit to anyone though, is that she also came back for Rob Conrad, her longtime crush…and her best friend’s older brother. No one has ever looked past Rob’s good looks. All his life, he’s never been seen as more than a pretty face with muscle, working construction around his small town. But when Lauren shows up in town, stirring up old feelings, Rob realizes that he might be more than everyone has believed him to be. But is that enough for someone like Lauren?

Much like I did in my review of the first book in the series, I would like to take a moment to absolve myself of any responsibility should you end up with any Backstreet Boys song stuck in your head. I am not sorry, though I’m stuck with it in my head too. But that’s not the point. The point is that I really enjoyed Ann Aguirre’s As Long As You Love Me. After finishing the first book in this trilogy, I was lucky enough to be able to tread this one right away. And I got sucked right into this story. Though it could easily be read as a standalone,  As Long As You Love Me is the second book in a series. Because of that I already sort of knew the two main characters, making it so that the story could get going pretty fast. And that meant that the romance got started pretty fast. But it didn’t feel rushed or like it all happened too fast because Rob and Lauren had known each other pretty much their wholes lives. That also made it so there was an interesting dynamic between the two and I really enjoyed seeing it change into something more.

I’ll admit that neither Lauren nor Rob made much of an impression on me in the first book even though they were present in the background. But with As Long As You Love Me I got to find out more about them and I loved what I learned. Though people questioned the match, Lauren and Rob were good for each other. Around Rob, Lauren didn’t have to pretend to be more than who she was, she could just be her computer geek self. And Lauren was the first person to see more in Rob, to make him believe in himself because she believed in him. Both of them had a lot of growing to do and they were there to help each other through the process. But of course is wasn’t all easy. Lauren and Rob struggled with their respective lifetimes of insecurities and it hurt me to see them fight because I how good they would be together. They just had to get through it.

Ann Aguirre’s As Long As You Love Me was another great new adult read. Once again, I got sucked into the story and I loved losing myself in it for a few hour.s I can’t wait to read The Shape of My Heart, the final book in the 2B trilogy.

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Blog Tour - I Want It That Way by Ann Aguirre + Giveaway

Title: I Want It That Way (2B Trilogy #1)

Author: Ann Aguirre

Publisher: Harlequin HQN

Release Date: August 26, 2014

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo / B&N

Nadia Conrad has big dreams, and she’s determined to make them come true—for her parents’ sake as well as her own. But between maintaining her college scholarship and working at the local day care to support herself, she barely has time to think, let alone date. Then she moves into a new apartment and meets the taciturn yet irresistible guy in 1B…

Daniel Tyler has grown up too fast. Becoming a single dad at twenty turned his life upside down—and brought him heartache he can’t risk again. Now, as he raises his four-year-old son while balancing a full-time construction management job and night classes, a social life is out of the question. The last thing he wants is for four noisy students to move into the apartment upstairs. But one night, Nadia’s and Ty’s paths cross, and soon they can’t stay away from each other. 

The timing is all wrong—but love happens when it happens. And you can’t know what you truly need until you stand to lose it. 

“A tender, sweet, and sexy story about how life—and falling in love—can never be planned.”

—Jennifer L. Armentrout, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wait for You

I’m always on the lookout for new New Adult stories. Sometimes they don’t always catch my attention, especially if it sounds like a different version of a story I’ve already read. But I’ll be honest and say that with Ann Aguirre’s I Want It That Way what convinced to read this book was that the title also happened to be the title of a Backstreet Boys song. And I’m happy to say that this story didn’t let me down.

Nadia has always been focused on achieving her goals. She’s the first person in her family to go to college and she’s determined to to be her best. Her academic scholarship, and her parents’ hopes and dreams, depend on it. She’s always been good about staying focused on what matters, but when she meets the guy who lives in the apartment below her, Nadia finds her attention wandering down the stairs. Ty knows better that to think about the girl who lives in the apartment above him. He has more than enough on his plate between work, night school and being a single dad to a four-year old. But she can’t help but think about what it would be like to get to know Nadia better, to spend time with her, to be a normal twenty-four-year-old guy for once. No matter how much they try to resist it, Nadia and Ty can’t seem to stay away from each other. They both know better, but they can’t help it.

First and foremost, I would like to absolve myself of any responsibility if a certain late 90s song gets stuck in your head because of this review, I am not sorry. Moving on. As a 90s child, I am all about the Backstreet Boys and I am not ashamed to admit it. So when I came across a book that shares a title with one of my favourite Backstreet Boys song ever, I was powerless—I had to read this book. I didn’t even need to really now what I Want It That Way was about, just the title was enough to get me reading. And read I did. In all honesty, I devoured this book. I just couldn’t seem to turn the pages fast enough (though in this case it was the page turn button on my Kindle). This story was engrossing. Like is often the case with a lot of the New Adult books I’ve read, the story isn’t anything exceptional but it’s just written in a way that keeps me reading. Every time I would find myself thinking “Okay, just one more page/chapter/whatever,” I would keep reading way beyond when I told myself I would stop. I just couldn’t help it. And, I mean, it doesn’t hurt that the romance was pretty hot. I was reading this on my commute to work, and there were definitely moments when I was hoping no one was reading over my shoulder because that could have been awkward. And obviously, a large part of what made me love the romance in I Want It That Way, so much was Nadia and Ty.

I connected with Nadia right away when I started reading. Her attitude toward school and her focus on her goals was something I could definitely relate to. Beyond that initial connection, I found myself liking Nadia more and more the further into the story I got. I loved seeing the different sides of her personality come out, depending on who she was with. The scenes with her interacting with children t the day care center where she works were adorable and warmed my heart. Nadia’s loyalty to her friends was also something I admired, and seeing her interact with her roommates always led to fun moments. And her chemistry with Ty leapt off the page. Granted things seemed to happen a little fast between them, I couldn’t help but enjoy those rare moments where Ty and Nadia just got to be themselves around each other. So it goest without saying that much like I really liked Nadia, I really liked Ty. It was refreshing to read about a guy in his early twenties who also happened to be a single father who was making it work. Reading the book, I had a lot of respect for Ty and all the sacrifices he made for the good of Sam. And speaking of Sam, he just stole the show. Anytime he made an appearance, I would find myself wishing the story was all about him (granted t that point this would no longer be NA). He was such an adorable little guy and I can totally understand why he charmed everyone he met. 

I really enjoyed Ann Aguirre’s I Want It That Way (and not just because of the title). It was a great New Adult story with characters likeable characters, some of which even wormed their way into my heart. If you’re looking for your next New Adult read, I would strongly recommend this one.

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