Blog Tour - Blue Notes by Carrie Lofty + Giveaway

Today I have the pleasure of being part of the blog tour for Carrie Lofty's upcoming New Adult novel, Blue Notes. Keep reading to find out what I thought of the book and for your chance to win some pretty sweet prizes!

Title: Blue Notes

Author: Carrie Lofty

Publisher: Gallery Books

Release Date: May 6, 2014

Source: eARC for Blog Tour

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

For fans of Jamie McGuire and S.C. Stephens, a sizzling new adult novel featuring the tumultuous relationship between a young piano prodigy and a reluctant billionaire playboy--set against the vibrant backdrop of a New Orleans college campus.

After being bounced from foster family to foster family, Keeley, a talented pianist, is ready to start over as a junior at Tulane. But when she plays a small concert that attracts the attention of Jude, a brooding playboy and heir to an enormous fortune in the wake of his parents' tragic death, suddenly Keeley's life is thrown off balance once again.

Jude is the first person to confront her about the pain behind her music, and she struggles with whether or not to let him into her life or to keep protected herself from the hurt that relationships have caused her in the past. But Keeley's about to learn that the melancholy young billionaire who appears to have everything he wants can open her eyes to exactly what she needs...

Because it’s still so new, I’m never really sure what I’m going to get when I pick up a New Adult book and I’m always afraid when I pick one up that the story will be more about the sex than the plot. And as nervous as I may have been, the synopsis for Carrie Lofty’s Blue Notes really piqued my curiosity. And once I started reading, I didn’t take long for me to get sucked into the story and fall in love with the characters. 

For the last six years, Keeley Chambers has finally been able to be who she really wants to be. Even after all this time, it’s still not easy going. Now, though, Keeley is starting her junior year at Tulane University, improving her skills as a pianist and composer. If only she could get over her fear of playing in public, things would be great. When Jude Villars, a local playboy, overhears her playing in a rehearsal room, things start to change. Now, Keeley finds herself wanting to outdo herself, pushed out of her comfort zone by this man she barely knows. But Jude challenges Keeley in ways no one ever has before and as much as she wants to trust him, she’s afraid that letting him in all the way could also mean losing him forever. Could being with Jude be exactly what Keeley needs?

As I’ve already stated, New Adult books always make me a little nervous. I have a few authors whose books I’ve read and loved and generally trust, but whenever I encounter a new NA author and book, I never know what to expect. It’s happened a few times that the story ended up being more about sex than actual plot and I’ve been disappointed. But I really shouldn’t have worried about Carrie Lofty’s Blue Notes. I loved this story. Right from the start, I was completely pulled in. I wanted to find out more about Keeley and her past, as well as what the future could possibly hold for her, all things considered. And so I was sucked in. I couldn’t seem to turn the pages fast enough, and every time I told myself I would stop after just one more chapter, I would keep going. The next thing I knew, it was 3 AM and I was finished the book. But there was just something about this story. It was a lot darker and even deeper than I initially thought it would be and I loved that about Blue Notes. But, as they often do, what really made this story for me were the characters.

Right from the start of the story, I loved Keeley. Saying she had had a tough life would be a major understatement. But despite how bad things had been in the past, she was actually moving forward with her life, going after her dreams. And even though I only knew her very little, I still wanted what was best for her. And if I’m being honest, at first I didn’t think that was Jude Villars. Keeley and Jude’s wasn’t exactly healthy when it first started out. Keeley became borderline obsessed with Jude and in return it kinda felt like Jude was just toying with her. But then the more I found out about Jude, the more I started to think that maybe he needed Keeley just as much as she needed him. And that feeling just kept growing as I kept reading. By the end of the book, I was pretty much convinced that Jude was as good a guy as they come. And yeah, I was a little bit in love with him. 

Carrie Lofty’s Blue Notes took me by surprise. This was a story that I knew I would enjoy, but one I didn’t think I would end up loving as much as I did. If you’re looking for a good romance with some deep characters, than I would strongly recommend giving Blue Notes a try.

And of course, be sure to check out the other tour stops!

GIVEAWAYS!

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Breakfast Served Anytime by Sarah Combs

Title: Breakfast Served Anytime

Author: Sarah Combs

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Release Date: April 8, 2014

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

A coming-of-age debut evokes the bittersweet joys and pangs of finding independence in one unforgettable summer away at "geek camp."

When Gloria sets out to spend the summer before her senior year at a camp for gifted and talented students, she doesn't know quite what to expect. Fresh from the heartache of losing her grandmother and missing her best friend, Gloria resolves to make the best of her new circumstances. But some things are loving to be more challenging than she expected. Like the series of mysterious clues left by a certain Professor X before he even shows up to teach his class, Secrets of the Written Word. Or the very sweet, but very conservative, roommate whose coal-industry family champions mountaintop removal. Not to mention the obnoxious Mason, who dresses like the Mad Hatter and immediately gets on Gloria's nerves--but somehow won't escape her thoughts. Beautifully told by debut author Sarah Combs, this honest and touching story of growing up is imbued with the serene atmosphere of Kentucky's natural landscape. 

Books like Sarah Combs' Breakfast Served Anytime are the reason I love contemporary stories as much as I do. This was a quiet story that completely drew me in and held me captive the whole way through. And after having read this story, I am ready to read just about anything Sarah Combs writes.

Gloria Bishop thought she knew what she would be doing after her high school graduation. For as long as she can remember, she and Carol, her best friend, having been planning their great escape to New York City where Gloria will act and Carol will dance. But since her grandmother's death, Gloria isn't so sure that's what she wants anymore. To help her decide, Gloria decides to go to "Geek Camp" for four weeks, but the experience is not what Gloria thought it was. Her professor sends mysterious letters to her class, her roommate, though sweet, doesn't share many of Gloria's opinions, and then there's Mason. Mason, the boy who always gets on Gloria's last nerve, but who she can't seem to stop thinking about. But over the course of those four weeks, Gloria will discover just who she is, and more importantly, who she wants to be.

It's no secret that I love contemporary stories, and if I listened to myself, I wouldn't read much else. Every once in a while though, I'll pick up a book and as I'm reading, I'm reminded of just why contemporary is my favourite genre. This was the case with Sarah Combs' debut, Breakfast Served Anytime. The best way I can think of to describe this story is quiet. This wasn't a story with a big and crazy concept, it wasn't a story that was wild. Instead it was a story that was more subdued, but that was still powerful. Because this story isn't really about the plot. Sure there are events and those events lead to some of the character development, but if you ask me, Breakfast Served Anytime is about the characters. Well, character. Because this is Gloria's story in all senses of the word. These four weeks spent at Geek Camp are about Gloria understanding who she is and who she wants to be, away from her regular life. And I loved that about Breakfast Served Anytime--how almost introspective it was. It was the textbook definition of a coming-of-age story. And to make things even better, it was set in summer AND at camp. So this story? I loved it.

In many ways, this story is very introspective. Sure Gloria comments on what goes on in the world around her, and on her relationships with the other people at Geek Camp, but it's very much about her and how she'd slowly discovering exactly who she is. It's very often about how what other people say or do make Gloria think about her own opinions on certain subjects or how her actions compare to the actions of others. So I really loved seeing her thoughts and her reactions to the other members of her class. I loved how protective she could become of Calvin, how quickly she became friends with Chloe despite her reservations, and the way she just let Mason get under her skin. I just enjoyed seeing Gloria's growth over the course of the story, coming to realize just who she is, and what she wants her future to look like, including the people she wants in that future. But what struck me the most, was just how real Gloria felt, and in turn how real her growth felt. And that's what made the story resonate with me.

Sarah Combs' Breakfast Served Anytime was a whole lot more than I thought it was going to be. I didn't expect to read a quiet story that would resonate with me, but I loved every page of it. I can't wait to read more from Sarah Combs.

Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Title: Amy & Roger's Epic Detour

Author: Morgan Matson

Publisher: Simon & Schuster BFYR

Release Date: May 4, 2010

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Amy Curry thinks her life sucks. Her mom decides to move from California to Connecticut to start anew--just in time for Amy's senior year. Her dad recently died in a car accident. So Amy embarks on a road trip to escape from it all, driving cross-country from the home she's always known toward her new life. Joining Amy on the road trip is Roger, the son of Amy's mother's old friend. Amy hasn't seen him in years, and she is less than thrilled to be driving across the country with a guy she barely knows. So she's surprised to find that she is developing a crush on him. At the same time, she's coming to terms with her father's death and how to put her own life back together after the accident. Told in traditional narrative as well as scraps from the road--diner napkins, motel receipts, postcards--this is the story of one girl's journey to find herself. 

Thanks to the seemingly never ending winter we've been having here in Canada this year, I made the decision to start reading the summer romances sitting on my shelves as a way to escape the snow and cold. But I also got to read a bunch of books that I've been meaning to read for who knows how long. And in the process, I realized how stupid I had been for not picking up Morgan Matson's Amy & Roger's Epic Detour. You read that right. I, the contemporary love, didn't read Amy & Roger's Epic Detour until about a month ago.

For the past month, Amy has been living alone in an empty house, finishing out her junior year before driving her mom's car across the country to her new home in Connecticut. But the last thing Amy really wants to do is drive. Since her father's death in a car accident a few months earlier, nothing has been the same. To help her get the car to Connecticut, Amy's mother enlists Roger, the son of an old friend. Amy isn't particularly looking forward to speeding long expenses of time alone in a car with someone she barely knows, but before she knows it, she finds herself enjoying her time with Roger more than she thought she would. Somewhere along the way, Amy starts coming to terms with her father's death and starts piecing her life, and her heart, back together.

So yeah, despite being the contemporary lover--and borderline fanatic--that I am, up to about a month ago, I still hadn't read Morgan Matson's Amy & Roger's Epic Detour. Which I know, bad on many levels. But in an effort to escape the never ending winter we've got going on over here, I decided that it was the perfect time to read all the summer romances I had sitting on my shelves. And so when I picked up Amy & Roger's Epic Detour I realized how big a mistake I had made not reading this book sooner. I mean, I had read Morgan Matson's Second Chance Summer when it first came out, so it's not that I didn't know whether or not I would enjoy the book. I knew I would on some level that I would love the book, I guess I just forgot I had it? But seriously, why had no one forced me to sit down and read this book before? Because I LOVED it. It was everything everyone had told me it would be and I loved every page of it. The story completely sucked me in and it felt like I was right in that car with Amy and Roger. And as can be expected, once I finished reading the book, I basically just wanted to hop into a car and go on a cross-country road trip of my own. This book made me realize that there's so much of the world, heck of my own country, that I haven't seen and that I just want to see.

Of course as much as I loved the story, I loved the characters even more. Right from the start, I just knew that Amy and Roger would be good for each other. Each one came with their own baggage and I loved seeing them grow and slowly start to let go of some of that baggage. Amy was clearly suffering because of her dad's death and I knew there was more to it than she was letting on, especially with her reluctance to drive. And I loved seeing her start to discover how she really felt about everything, especially where Roger was concerned. And Roger, what can I even begin to say about him? I loved that for once, i was reading a story where the guy was just a good guy, plain and simple. Because that's who Roger was: a good guy. Granted, a good guy who had some issues, but still. I was just reading, waiting of him to realizes that he should just get over his old girlfriend and do something about Amy. So basically, this book, and these characters in particular, just kinda gave me all the feels.

Why I didn't read Amy & Roger's Epic Detour sooner? WHY? I loved it. Actually I more than loved it. And now for a small PSA: If, like me, you still haven't read Amy & Roger's Epic Detour (or any of Morgan Matson's books for that matter), get on that. Don't do what I did and wait to read them. They are more than worth it.

Waiting On Wednesday (85)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine where book bloggers devote a post to an upcoming book release they are particularly looking forward to reading.

THIS WEEK'S PICK:
#SCANDAL BY SARAH OCKLER

Lucy's learned some important lessons from tabloid darling Jayla Heart's all-too-public blunders: Avoid the spotlight, don't feed the Internet trolls, and keep your secrets secret. The policy has served Lucy well all through high school, so when her best friend Ellie gets sick before prom and begs her to step in as Cole's date, she accepts with a smile, silencing about ten different reservations. Like the one where she'd rather stay home shredding online zombies. And the one where she hates playing dress-up. And especially the one where she's been secretly in love with Cole since the dawn of time.

When Cole surprises her at the after party with a kiss under the stars, it's everything Lucy has ever dreamed of…and the biggest BFF deal-breaker ever. Despite Cole's lingering sweetness, Lucy knows she'll have to 'fess up to Ellie. But before they get the chance, Lucy's own Facebook profile mysteriously explodes with compromising pics of her and Cole, along with tons of other students' party indiscretions. Tagged. Liked. And furiously viral.

By Monday morning, Lucy's been branded a slut, a backstabber, and a narc, mired in a tabloid-worthy scandal just weeks before graduation.

Lucy's been battling undead masses online long enough to know there's only one way to survive a disaster of this magnitude: Stand up and fight. Game plan? Uncover and expose the Facebook hacker, win back her best friend's trust, and graduate with a clean slate.

There's just one snag--Cole. Turns out Lucy's not the only one who's been harboring unrequited love...

So this is the part where I admit that the only one of Sarah Ockler's books I've read is Twenty Boy Summer. Considering how much of a contemporary lover I am, that fact surprises even me. But regardless, I'm really excited about #Scandal. It sounds like just the kind of story that will draw me in and I just can't wait to read it. 

#Scandal by Sarah Ockler will be published June 17, 2014 by Simon Pulse. 

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

Title: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

Author: Leslye Walton

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Release Date: March 25, 2014

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Magical realism, lyrical prose, and the pain and passion of human love haunt this hypnotic generational saga.

Foolish love appears to be the Roux family birthright, an ominous forecast for its most recent progeny, Ava Lavender. Ava--in all other ways a normal girl--is born with the wings of a bird. In a quest to understand her peculiar disposition and a growing desire to fit in with her peers, sixteen-year old Ava ventures into the wider world, ill-prepared for what she might discover and naïve to the twisted motives of others. Others like the pious Nathaniel Sorrows, who mistakes Ava for an angel and whose obsession with her grows until the night of the Summer Solstice celebration. That night, the skies open up, rain and feathers fill the air, and Ava's quest and her family's saga build to a devastating crescendo. First-time author Leslye Walton has constructed a layered and unforgettable mythology of what it means to be born with hearts that are tragically, exquisitely human.

I really knew nothing about Leslye Walton's debut, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, when I started reading it. I mean, I had read the synopsis and I expected it to be different but I honestly didn't know what I should have been expecting. This book was different from anything else I've ever read in YA, but it was a beautiful story all the same. 

If you're familiar at all with my reviews, you'll know that I usually try to summarize the story in my own words before getting to talking about the story and characters. But I just don't know how to even begin doing that with The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender. This book was just so different from everything I've read in recent years, especially as far as YA fiction goes. I'll be the first to admit that this book confused me a little at first. I mean, I started reading and for the first 100 or so pages the main character isn't even born, yet she's the one narrating this story. So I was scratching my head a little, but Leslye Walton's writing was just beautiful so I didn't want to stop reading. And the more I read, the more I got drawn into this story. It was so interesting to get to read not just the main protagonist's story, but to also get to read her family's story and see how it was all connected and something that started so long ago impacted Ava's present. Because this was basically a generational story. It started with Ava's grandmother, Emilienne, and moved on to her mother, Viviane, until the story was about Ava. And even at that point the story wasn't all about Ava. It was just all weaved together perfectly.

This might be stating the obvious, but the plot is very much intricately linked to the character's lives. This is the kind of story that's all about the characters, there lives make up the plot in a way that's different than what I've read before. This is especially true when I think back on the story. As I was reading, it was pretty clear that this story was about the Roux/Lavender family and all their quirks and oddities. But looking back on it, this story couldn't really have been told any other way or it wouldn't have had the same impact. The way Leslye Walton chose to tell this story makes it so you're told everything you need to know in order to figure out what's going to happen, but at the same time you won't necessarily piece it all together until it's all laid out for you to see. At least, that's how it was for me. And that's, in my opinion, what made this story so powerful. All those little details that were spread out through the story came together in a way that brought on all these emotions, until the climax of the story where I was just reading with this feeling of dread I couldn't get rid of. It was just all weaved together perfectly. 

I'm hoping this (hopefully) somewhat coherent rambling will have made you want to pick up Leslye Walton's The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender. This is a story that's so different (apparently that's the only way I can think of to describe this story) from what's currently available in the world of YA fiction and it will make you wish for more like it. If for nothing else, at least read it for Leslye Walton's beautiful prose, you won't regret it.