Throwing My Life Away by Liz Czukas

Title: Throwing My Life Away

Author: Liz Czukas

Publisher: Self-Published

Release Date: December 20, 2016

Source: ARC from Author

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / iBooks / Kobo

7 photographs, 2 weeks, an entire life to get back. No problem, right?

After her stepfather accidentally throws away her high school mementos, sentimental Mariska is pretty sure the world is over. That is, until she comes up with a plan. She’s going to recreate her past, with a little help from her friends.

It’s not easy to rally everyone into helping, especially Caine, who couldn’t be less sentimental about anything if he were a park bench. But from a guerrilla kite festival to convincing her ex-boyfriend to recreate her lost prom picture, Mariska is willing to do what it takes.

With a little nudging from Caine, Mariska starts to realize she can’t actually get her past back. And maybe that’s okay. Because while she’s so focused on the past, she’s missing out on the present, where her friends are busy having the summer of their lives. And where funny, quiet Cain might just be the future she never knew she wanted.

As someone who reads a lot I know that there are some books that will stick with me more than others, it's just what happens. But those books that stick with me, they do so for a reason. Sometimes it's because they resonated with me in a particular way, in other cases it's because it was a particularly good story. I don't know exactly what it was about Liz Czukas's Throwing My Life Away, but I know that also two months later, I'm still thinking about it.

Despite having her books on my shelves, I haven't actually read any of Liz Czukas's books. Well, that's not entirely true; I've read the New Adult titles she's written as Ellie Cahill and I absolutely loved them. So when she approached me to see if I would be interested in reading Throwing My Life Away I jumped at the opportunity. And I'm glad I did because I loved reading this story. Right from the start, it made me nostalgic for that time between high school and college where I was ready to move forward and see what the future had to offer while also wanting to hold on to all the memories of the past (granted I'm someone who actually liked high school and have lots of good memories from it). While reading, I could understand Mariska's sadness and anger at losing all her pictures because it felt like she was losing all her memories. But as much as it sucked, if that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have had a story to read and that would have sucked just as much. 

As much as I enjoyed reading all about Mariska and her friends recreating her memories (or at least doing their best to recreate something close to her memories), my favourite part of the story was Mariska's relationship with Caine. At first, I honestly didn't think their relationship would be anything beyond friendship and that it would just be some side plot that wouldn't really get explored. And I was immediately disappointed because there was something about the way they interacted with each other that made me want to know and see more. And then Caine started popping up all the time and before long I was rooting for Mariska and Caine. They so clearly made sense together even if it took forever for the both of them to figure it out. And even when they figured it out, I still wasn't quite sure they were going to happen. But they did and it was perfect. 

There's a lot about Liz Czukas's Throwing My Life Away: the nostalgia it brought on, the photo quest, the yearbook battle, the slow build of the romance. It was so many things I love all in one book. To make a long story short, this is a story you definitely don't want to miss.

Cover Reveal - Throwing My Life Away by Liz Czukas

Title: Throwing My Life Away

Author: Liz Czukas

Publisher: Self-Published

Release Date: December 20, 2016

Add on Goodreads!

7 photographs, 2 weeks, an entire life to get back. No problem, right?

After her stepfather accidentally throws away her high school mementos, sentimental Mariska is pretty sure the world is over. That is, until she comes up with a plan. She’s going to recreate her past, with a little help from her friends.

It’s not easy to rally everyone into helping, especially Caine, who couldn’t be less sentimental about anything if he were a park bench. But from a guerrilla kit festival to convincing her ex-boyfriend to recreate her lost prom picture, Mariska is willing to do what it takes.

With a little nudging from Caine, Mariska starts to realize she can’t actually get her past back. And maybe that’s okay. Because while she’s so focused on the past, she’s missing out on the present, where her friends are busy having the summer of their lives. And where funny, quiet Caine might just be the future she never knew she wanted.

Isn't this cover absolutely gorgeous? I've been lucky enough to read Throwing My Life Away already and let me just say that it's a story you don't want to miss--look out for a full review next week!

Here's what Liz had to say about her beautiful new cover:

I am so excited to share this cover with you all! I am seriously in love with it. Sarah from Okay Creations did such an amazing job! I can’t wait for you all to read the book so you can see exactly how perfect each one of the images she chose is. Seriously when I saw it, I was almost spooked by how utterly perfect they were.

It’s completely surreal to be sharing this cover so close to the release! In only 5 days, Throwing My Life Away will be up on all digital platforms and also available in paperback. Such a chance from the usual way, where we have to wait months just drooling over a gorgeous cover image before we get to see it in person. 

And you guys, seriously, the paperback is possibly even more gorgeous. I’ll post pics as soon as I can.

Thank you Sarah, for the bee-you-ti-ful cover! I’m proud to have it among my covers. And a huge huge hank you to all the awesome bloggers who have helped to spread this cover far and wide. The suppose of the book blogging community is one of my absolute favorite parts of being an author.

Now for the giveaway! You could win one of three paperback copies of Throwing My Life Away! If the winner is in the US, I can send a signed copy, but that doesn’t mean you international peeps can’t enter! You’ll get a paperback copy shipped to you, and I’d be happy to drop a signed bookplate in the mail to go with it!

That giveaway she mentioned? Just go here to enter!

When Joss Met Matt by Ellie Cahill

Title: When Joss Met Matt

Author: Ellie Cahill

Publisher: Balantine Books

Release Date: February 24, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Ellie Cahill is poised to coin the term “sorbet sex” with her charming twist on the age-old ‘friends-with-benefits’ story.

Dating can be fun, but it can leave a nasty taste in your mouth. For Joss, ever since her longtime boyfriend cheated on her, she doesn’t want her last memory of a guy to be that jerk. Enter her college friend, Matt. They come up with a theory: after a bad break-up, a person needs to cleanse the palate with a little sorbet sex. Lovers for a night, but always back to being friends in the morning. The two can handle it because they have a contract: rules they wrote, rules they follow and rules they can sometimes bend. The arrangement works: everyone needs a little sorbet now and again…until it starts to be the only thing you want. And then Joss breaks the one rule they never wrote down: don’t fall in love.

It’s not a secret that I love New Adult stories. But sometimes, it can start to feel like they’re all similar. That’s not to say that the stories aren’t original, but at the same time it can feel like the same themes and ideas are explored in each of the stories I read. Ellie Cahill’s When Joss Met Matt was refreshingly different and made for a compelling read.

When Joss and Matt met their freshman year of college, they didn’t think they would be anything more than friends. But when Joss’ longtime boyfriend breaks up with her, they make a pact: anytime one of them goes through a break up, the other will be there to offer sex. That way, their last memory of sex won’t be with someone they don’t care about. And that’s how sorbet sex was born. And for a time the arrangement works: Joss and Matt have a contract and rules they follow where sorbet sex is concerned. But what happens when the person you want more than anyone is the person you’re not allowed to have for more than one night? After all, the most important rule of sorbet sex is to not fall in love.

Every so often, a book’s premise sounds so different from what I’ve been reading that it draws me right in and wants me to read the book right away. That’s what happened when I heard about Ellie Cahill’s When Joss Met Matt. I was intrigued by the idea of sorbet sex and how two friends could possibly make this idea work. And then when I started reading, I really liked the way the story was told. The best way to describe it is to say that the story is told in a semi-linear way (or at least that’s how I see it). Basically the story switches back and forth between chapters starting when Joss and Matt first meet during their freshman year of college and chapters set in what I think of as present day. And then eventually the two timelines join up towards the end of the book. Having the story told this way allowed me to really see the history these two characters have together and how they got to be where they are in the present. In a way, it was almost like I was getting two stories. And the one set in the present sometimes had me worried. I knew what I wanted to happen and though I was pretty sure I was going to get what I wanted, there were definitely moments where I started doubting it. But it all worked out and I was one happy reader. Needless to say that When Joss Met Matt was exactly the romantic read I was hoping it would be. Though the romance worked because Joss and Matt just worked together.

I really enjoyed getting to know Matt and Joss over the course of the seven years they’ve known each other. It really allowed me to see how both characters changed and grew to become the people they were in the present. Not only that, but it made their relationship feel that much more realistic. It didn’t happen all at once, it was built up over the course of seven years. So when I say that the romance between Joss and Matt was a slow-burn kind of romance, I mean it. Like I said, their relationship develops over the course of SEVEN YEARS. All that to say I believed in the friendship, and the eventual “more,” between them. On their own, Matt and Joss were great too. And even though I’m feeling a bit like a broken record, getting to know them over the course of seven years allowed me to get a real sense of their respective personalities. In a way, it made me wish that more books were written to cover suck a long timespan. It was just really fun to read their story and I would have gladly kept on reading more about Joss and Matt but, sadly for me, the book ended.

Ellie Cahill’s When Joss Met Matt was just what I was hoping it would be: a New Adult read filled with romance and heart. If you are looking for a romantic read that will cause you both to swoon and pull at your heartstrings, then this is the book for you.