Focus On Me by Megan Erickson

Title: Focus On Me (In Focus #2)

Author: Megan Erickson

Publisher: InterMix

Release Date: July 21, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Indigo

Colin Hartman can now add college to his list of failures. On the coast-to-coast trek home from California, Colin stops at a gas station in the Nevada desert, and can’t help noticing the guy in tight jeans looking like he just stepped off a catwalk. When he realizes Catwalk is stranded, Colin offers a ride.

Riley only intended to take a short ride in Colin’s Jeep to the Grand Canyon. But one detour leads to another until they finally find themselves tumbling into bed together. However there are shadows in Riley’s eyes that hide a troubled past. And when those shadows threaten to bury the man whom Colin has fallen in love with, he vows to get Riley the help he needs. For once in his life, quitting isn’t an option…

In the last year, Megan Erickson has quickly become one of my favourite authors when it comes to romance books, especially ones that are packed with all the feels. So Focus On Me? It hit me right where it hurts. But it was oh so good.

Colin thought he was going to be spending his drive across the country thinking about his latest failure: college. But his trip has barely begun when he can’t help but noticing the guy who looks like he’s come straight out of the pages of a magazine. And he offers him a ride without a second thought. What starts out as something completely innocent, quickly becomes something a lot bigger for Colin. But Colin isn’t sure Riley feels the same way he does. Until it becomes very clear that both of them want the same thing and it all comes out one night in Dallas. But Colin can’t help but notice those moments where Riley seems to almost be haunted by his past. And Colin is determined to do whatever he can to help Riley, no matter what it takes. Because for once, Colin is determined not to fail.

Despite having only been publishing books for just over a year, it feels like I’ve been reading Megan Erickson’s books for much longer than that. In the year that her books have been out, she’s quickly become one of my favourites when it comes to romance and her books are all auto-buys for me. And earlier this year, I read what I thought was my favourite Megan Erickson book, Trust the Focus. In fact, I couldn’t seem to shut up about the book (seriously, ask my friends, they will confirm it). But Trust the Focus may now have been replaced by Focus On Me, the second book in the In Focus series. I started reading Focus On Me when I was supposed to be reading something else entirely. And then proceeded to stay up until way too late (considering I had to go to work the next day) just because I had to keep reading and know how the story would end. Well, actually, I wanted the story to last forever, but that's not really the point. I knew going in that Focus On Me was going to be an emotional read, one that was likely to hit me right where it hurts (in a good way). And it absolutely delivered on that. More so than I could have ever have predicted. Even though I could tell what was coming, it still didn’t prepare me for how much that emotional punch hit me. There was so much in this story that needs to be said and needs to be seen. Focus On Me touched me in a way that I didn’t think it would. And by the end of the book, I was crying in bed at 3 AM. Because Colin and Riley’s story was an absolutely beautiful one. Emotional, yes, but beautiful all the same.

Having read Trust the Focus, I know that Megan Erickson can write some absolutely beautiful relationships between boys. But the relationship between Riley and Colin in Focus on Me couldn’t have been more different than the relationship between Justin and Landry in the first book. Where there was a lifetime of history between the two boys in the first book, Colin and Riley are complete strangers at the beginning of the story. But the connection between them was instantaneous and I loved seeing the relationship between the two develop the way it did. Colin’s easygoing nature perfectly balanced out Riley’s intensity. And Colin was the caring person that Riley needed in his life, the person who would do whatever it takes to help him, even if he didn’t want the help. If I’m completely honest, there were plenty of times where their story was completely heartbreaking. But I wanted nothing more than to root for Colin and Riley, for them to make it through everything that was standing between them and get to be together the way they deserved to be. But in the end, all the pain was completely worth it because of what it led to. And I have to say that getting to see Justin and Landry again made my heart happy in all kinds of way.

I feel like this review may have been all over the place. But it’s just HARD to articulate all the feelings I have about Megan Erickson’s Focus On Me. This story made me laugh, it made me smile and it made me cry. And I loved every single moment of it.

All It Takes by Sadie Munroe

Title: All It Takes

Author: Sadie Munroe

Publisher: Self-Published

Release Date: June 30, 2015

Source: ARC from NetGalley

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Kobo

Nineteen-year-old Star Collins never intended to return to her hometown, Avenue. That part of her life ended when she was nine years old, and child services took her away from her hoarder mother. Her mother chose her stuff over her daughter. That part of her life was supposed to be in the past.

But her mother has just passed away and Star finds herself giving up her summer to quietly clean out her old home. She just wants to sell it and move on with her life. However, things aren’t going the way she planned. With her dyed-black hair and tattoos, she’s attracting almost as much attention from the small town residents as Ash Winthrope, the guy who was just released from prison.

All Ash wants is a chance to start over. He screwed up and he knows it, he’s going to have to live with the guilt for the rest of his life. But he’s stuck in Avenue until his parole ends, and no one, not even his own parents, wants anything to do with him. Nearly out of money and completely out of options, Ash takes the only job he can, helping Star haul stuff out of her mother’s house.

Neither of them expects anything to happen between them, or for their lives to change. But sometimes meeting the right person is all it takes.

You know those books that you haven’t heard anything about until someone recommends them to you? Then you read them, not really knowing what you’re getting yourself into, but quickly realize that the book should have been on your radar all along? Sadie Munroe’s All It Takes was totally one of those books.

Star has spent the better part of her life not thinking about her past, about the mother who chose all her stuff over her daughter when child services came to take her away. But now that her mother has died, Star is forced to go back to her hometown of Avenue to empty her hoarder mother’s house. What Star thought was going to be an easy enough task turns out to be a whole lot more than she bargained for. And the only person willing to help her is Ash Winthrope, the only guy in town who is attracting as much attention as she is. Ash doesn’t want the attention he’s getting. All he wants after having spent the last five years in prison is to start over. He screwed up, he knows it and he wants to move past it, even if he will have to live with the guilt for the rest of his life. But Star is willing to take a chance on him. Neither of them expects anything to come out of their summer hauling crap, but sometimes you find the right person in the most unexpected place.

I honestly hadn’t heard of Sadie Munroe’s All It Takes until it was recommended to me by a friend on Goodreads. Usually, I’m pretty well aware of what’s coming in the world of New Adult literature, but this one had completely escaped my notice. But then I saw that the book was on NetGalley and I figured, why not? It sounded like something I would be into and it had been recommended to me, so chances of me liking All It Takes were pretty high. So what was the verdict, you may be wondering? I totally loved All It Takes. It was so interesting to read a story about hoarding, a subject I find you don’t necessarily see that much in books (or at the very least, not the ones I’ve been reading), seeing how it affects everyone in the hoarder’s family. But that was only one aspect of the story. All It Takes was also about acceptance: about accepting yourself and your past and moving past it. About not letting your past define your entire present and future. And that’s because Ash and Star definitely had more to deal with than the average person, and they had a long way to go when it came to a acceptance at the beginning of the story.

I have a lot of admiration and respect for Star. I mean, to go everything she had gone through and come out of it all the way she did takes a lot of strength. And to the outside world, she mostly showed that strength, but she was also incredibly vulnerable. Because underneath the surface, she was afraid of becoming her mother, of ending up alone with only piles and piles of stuff around her. As a reader, it was interesting to see the juxtaposition of that strength and the vulnerability. But she had some people in her life who were there to help her, some of them completely unexpected. And that’s where Ash came in. For so much of the book, I wish Ash could see himself the way Star saw him and the way I saw him. Yes, he was someone who made a mistake and he had to suffer the consequences. But he recognized that he made a mistake and he wanted to move past it. But no one would let him. And i wanted so much for him to be able to get his fresh start, for him to be able to move on with his life even if he still had to live with the guilt of what happened on the night of the accident. And I just loved seeing Ash and Star together, that easy friendship they had before they became anything more. They were just two people who needed that one person that would change their lives and they found that in each other.

Sadie Munroe’s All it Takes was a complete surprise to me. This was a book I knew nothing about but that I will now be recommend to all my fellow New Adult lovers. 

Anya and the Shy Guy by Suze Winegardner

Title: Anya and the Shy Guy (Backstage Pass #4)

Author: Suze Winegardner

Publisher: Entangled Crush

Release Date: July 14, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Indigo

It’s always the quiet ones…

Anya Anderson doesn’t just need a big break, she needs any break. Living on the streets doesn’t leave a girl many options, so when she scores a gig reporting on the Seconds to Juliet tour, she jumps at the chance to earn enough money to sleep somewhere safe. And the paycheck will get bigger—and keep her off the streets for good—if she can dig up dirt on Will Fray, the irritatingly hot “shy guy” of the band.

Problem is, Will Fray isn’t who everyone thinks he is. In fact, he’s not Will at all. Matt, Will’s identical twin, is actually the guy onstage, reluctantly covering for his brother while he’s in rehab. To make matters worse, Matt’s being shadowed by a cute reporter with troubled eyes determined to get the scoop. On him. And he’s having trouble finding the willpower to keep his distance…

But it the secret gets out, it won’t just be his head on a platter—it’ll be the whole band’s.

I’m afraid I might start sounding like a broken record (pun semi-intended?) when it comes to the Backstage Pass series. But what can I really say, boy bands and romance are apparently all I need to keep me happy. So Suze Winegardner’s Anya and the Shy Guy? Totally loved it.

Being sent to cover the Seconds to Juliet tour is just the break that Anya needs. If all goes well, this could be her ticket to moving off the streets and finally getting her life back on track. But when she joins up with the tour, things aren’t exactly how Anya thought they would be. Instead of covering the whole band, Anya gets assigned to Will Fray, the shy one in the band. Her task? Uncovering all of this secrets. It shouldn’t be too hard, right? Especially considering Will is hiding a pretty big one. Because Will isn’t Will at all, he’s actually his identical twin brother, Matt, presenting to be Will while the real Will is in rehab. But no one can find out, especially not Anya. If people were to find out the truth about Will and Matt, it would mean the end for their family. But the more time Matt and Anya spend together, the harder it becomes to deny the attraction between them. So what happens when you have to expose the secrets of the one person you don’t want to hurt?

Since May, I’ve pretty much been devouring the Backstage Pass series. I’ve loved getting to know each of the different members of the band and the girls in their lives. I’ve loved reading all these stories about people falling in love with a huge tour as the backdrop. It’s been all been a fun story to read. And what I’ve liked about the story is that each of the books goes a little deeper than just the happy romance and the boy band shenanigans. And it was never more true than it was with Suze Winegardner’s Anya and the Shy Guy. Sure, this story was about the romance between Matt and Anya but it was also about the realities of homelessness, and how it’s often circumstances completely outside of the person’s hands that lead to them ending up on the streets. In the case of Anya, in the book, she didn’t want to be on the streets but her family circumstances made it so she didn’t really have much of a choice in the matter. All that to say that it was nice to see the story go beyond the romance and tackle some issues that you don’t necessarily see portrayed all that much in YA books. But that’s not to say that the romance wasn’t great because it absolutely was.

As I’ve already said, Anya, besides being a reporter, was also a homeless teen and it made for a very interesting character. And it also made it so my heart broke for her on more than one occasion while I was reading Anya and the Shy Guy. This girl had all the good intentions in the world but she just couldn’t seem to catch a break when she absolutely deserved one. So it was great to see her finally get that break with the Seconds to Juliet tour. But as much as she wanted her big break, she struggled with getting it at the expense of Will. Well, Matt’s expense which is also Will’s expense and that’s where things got a little bit tricky. Where all the other books in the series were about actual members of a boy band, it wasn’t the case here. Matt was reluctantly going on stage every night to cover for his brother. So at times it was really amusing to read about him struggling with choreography or with lyrics the other boys believed he wrote. And it definitely made things complicated for his relationship with Anya. But at the end of the day, it all worked itself out, and Matt and Anya were absolutely adorable together.

I really enjoyed getting to read Matt (though it technically should have been Will’s, I guess) and Anya’s story in Suze Winegardner’s Anya and the Shy Guy. I’ve loved getting to know the boys of Seconds to Juliet and I can’t wait to read all about Nathan in Erin Butler’s Abby and the Cute One.

Letters to Zell by Camille Griep

Title: Letters to Zell

Author: Camille Griep

Publisher: 47North

Release Date: July 1, 2015

Source: From Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Everything is going according to story for CeCi (Cinderella), Bianca (Snow White), and Rory (Sleeping Beauty)—until the day that Zell (Rapunzel) decides to leave Grimmland and pursue her life. Now, Zell’s best friends are left tow wonder whether their own passions are worth risking their predetermined “happily ever afters,” regardless of the consequences. CeCi wonders whether she should become a professional chef, sharp-tongued and quick-witted Bianca wants to escape an engagement to her platonic friend, and Rory will o anything to make her boorish husband love her. But as Bianca’s wedding approaches, can they escape their fates—and is there enough wine in all of the Realm to help them?

In this hilarious modern interpretation of the fairy-tale sorties we all know and love, Letters to Zell explores what happens when women abandon the stories they didn’t write for themselves and go completely off script to follow their dreams.

I am always game for anything to involving fairy tales. I may be in my twenties, but I will never get tired of fairy tales in any form, whether the originals or re-imagined versions. So when I was approached to review Camille Griep’s Letters to Zell I was totally interested. And reading about these new versions of fairy tale princesses I know and love turned out to be a lot of fun.

Bianca was so close to being done her Pages and finally being able to live her life the way she wanted. No more having to do what the Godmothers wanted her to do, all she had to do was marry her best friend and it would all be over. But then Zell had to go and leave Grimmland to follow her dream, throwing everything of course. Now CeCi wants to chase her own dreams of becoming a cook and Rory is determined the make the most of the hand she’s been dealt and finally make her husband fall in love with her. And Bianca, well, she would do anything to avoid her impending wedding. But tempting fate in Grimmland never ends well. 

Letters to Zell was pitched to me as being for fans of Once Upon a Time. As a lover of the show, I was all over that and excited to see what Camille Griep would do with stories that have been retold more than once. And let me just say that this is not the Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty I remembered from when I was a kid. But that was more than okay with me because this was more than a story about fairy tale princesses. Letters to Zell, beyond making me smile, laugh and cry, also made me think a lot about the idea of happy endings. Everyone kind of takes for granted the happy endings that come with fairy tales, and in a way, it’s what we all hope to get in our own lives. But what happens when happy endings aren’t everything they’re cracked up to be. From the outside looking in, they often seem pretty good, but that’s often not how it is when you’re the one getting the supposed happy ending. And that’s exactly what Letters to Zell showed. It showed what it’s like when you don’t like your life but decide to do something about it. That those happy endings don’t come easy and you often really have to work for them. And ultimately, that happy endings are endings so much as they are being happy with the life you are living is. Seeing all of this though fairy tales was even more interesting because they’re stories we’ve all taken for granted and just accepted that they are the way they are, when in reality we should be questioning them. 

Remember when I said that this wasn’t about the Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty that I remembered from when I was a kid? That was true in so many ways and it made Letters to Zell that much more fun to read. I mean, who wouldn’t want to read about a Snow White who curses every other sentence and may or may not be bisexual. Because that was definitely a thing that happened in this book. And that’s just Snow White. Sleeping Beauty was hilariously always tired, constantly needing a nap. Until she discovered coffee and then that changed. And Cinderella just wanted to be a chef but good old Prince Charming just wouldn’t have it because he’d taken her out of a life that would lead to her always serving other people. But she wanted to cook, damn it. So yeah, Bianca, Rory and CeCi were fun. But things weren’t always so fun for them. There were moments when the tory took unexpectedly dark turns but it worked well within the context of the story. And to offset it all, there was a trip to Disneyland and that was just hilarious.

I am so happy to have been told all about Camille Griep’s Letters to Zell. Had I not been offered this book for review, I never would have found out about it and that would have been a shame. Because this story took everything I knew about fairy tales and flipped it on its head. And I loved it.

Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone

Title: Every Last Word

Author: Tamara Ireland Stone

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Release Date: June 16, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

If you could read my mind, you wouldn’t be smiling.

Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can’t turn off.

Second-guessing every move, thought, and word makes daily life a struggle, and it doesn’t help that her lifelong friends will turn toxic at the first sign of a wrong outfit, wrong lunch, or wrong crush. Yet Sam knows she’d be truly crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls in school. So when Sam meets Caroline, she has to keep her new friend with a refreshing sense of humor and no style a secret, right up there with Sam’s weekly visits to her psychiatrist.

Caroline introduces Sam to Poet’s Corner, a hidden room and a tight-knit group of misfits who have been ignored by the school at large. Sam is drawn to them immediately, especially a guitar-playing guy with a talent for verse, and starts to discover a whole new side of herself. Slowly, she begins to feel more “normal” than she ever has as part of the popular crowd…until she finds a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear.

For the past few years, I keep meaning to pick up one of Tamara Ireland Stone’s books, but somehow it never seems to happen. I don’t know why because they all sound like books I would genuinely enjoy. Having now read Every Last Word, I can officially say that I was right and I should have been reading her books all along.

Samantha has become really good at faking normal. If you were to meet her on the street, she would seem to be just like any other girl in her junior class. But underneath the surface and the seemingly flawless exterior, Sam is constantly battling her thoughts thanks to Purely-Obsessional OCD. Because of it, Sam finds herself questioning every thought and decision, constantly afraid making the wrong one and everyone finding out her secret. But then Sam meets Caroline, a girl who introduces her to Poet’s Corner, a secret poetry club that meets in a hidden room. There, Sam feels comfortable for the first time in a long time. And there, Sam also meets AJ, a boy who brings out a whole new side of her and who makes her feel “normal” in way she hasn’t in a long time. But just when she thinks she might finally be able to handle her thoughts, Sam realizes that she should have been questioning her sanity all along.

So here’s the thing, I’ve been wanting to read Tamara Ireland Stone’s books since I first heard about her debut, Time Between Us. But have I actually read any of her books? No. Well, I guess that’s not really true anymore now that I’ve read Every Last Word, but you get what I’m trying to say. Long story short, I’ve been wanting to read her books and now I’ve read one. And I’m happy I did because it’s just confirmed that I need to go back and read her other books. Every Last Word was somewhat different than I thought it was going to be. I mean, I had a pretty good idea of the general story just from reading the synopsis and I could make some educated guesses about what might happen based on that, but there are some parts that I never really could have seen coming. But it would be hard to talk about that without potentially spoiling key parts of the story. So instead, I’ll just talk about the Purely-Obsessional OCD aspect of the story. I found it really interesting to read about this type of OCD. It’s not really something I had heard about before picking up Every Last Word, but now I would be interested in learning more about the disorder. And a lot of that ultimately had to do with seeing Sam struggle with it, and seeing how much it impacted her day to day life.

My heart went out to Sam the whole time I was reading. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to have your whole life taken over by thoughts you have no control over. Every little thought had the potential to send her into a spiral she can’t stop. Her struggle with her thoughts was downright painful to read at time, but it made her and her disorder feel that much more real when I was reading. I wanted nothing more for her than to be able to gain some sort of control over her thoughts and when she started getting “better,” I was totally cheering. And I was also cheering for her relationship with AJ because it was adorable. I loved how relaxed she was able to be with him, how she didn’t find herself overthinking every little thing. And AJ himself was adorable. And what I liked best about him was that he himself wasn’t perfect. He had his own issues he had to deal with and because of that he wasn’t trying to change Sam, he was just there to support her in any way that he could. And have I mentioned that they were adorable together?

I loved reading Tamara Ireland Stone’s Every Last Word. It was a story that opened my eyes to a disorder I didn’t really know was out there while still being a story filled with the kind of romance that i love. If this one has been on your radar, definitely read it.