Review: I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Received: Publisher
Publication Date: February 3rd 2015
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Point of View: 1st Person & Alternative
Recommended Age: 13+
Genres & Themes: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Military, Disability, Family, Friendship, Real Life Matters

BLURB:

If seventeen-year-old Skylar Evans were a typical Creek View girl, her future would involve a double-wide trailer, a baby on her hip, and the graveyard shift at Taco Bell. But after graduation, the only thing standing between straightedge Skylar and art school are three minimum-wage months of summer. Skylar can taste the freedom—that is, until her mother loses her job and everything starts coming apart. Torn between her dreams and the people she loves, Skylar realizes everything she’s ever worked for is on the line.

Nineteen-year-old Josh Mitchell had a different ticket out of Creek View: the Marines. But after his leg is blown off in Afghanistan, he returns home, a shell of the cocksure boy he used to be. What brings Skylar and Josh together is working at the Paradise—a quirky motel off California’s dusty Highway 99. Despite their differences, their shared isolation turns into an unexpected friendship and soon, something deeper. Continue reading

Review: Rites of Passage by Joy N. Hensley

Rites of Passage by Joy N. Hensley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Received: bought
Publication Date: September 9th 2014
Publisher: Harper Teen
POV: 1st person & female
Pacing: slow
Genres & Themes: YA, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Military, Romance.

BLURB:

Sam McKenna’s never turned down a dare. And she’s not going to start with the last one her brother gave her before he died.

So Sam joins the first-ever class of girls at the prestigious Denmark Military Academy. She’s expecting push-ups and long runs, rope climbing and mud-crawling. As a military brat, she can handle an obstacle course just as well as the boys. She’s even expecting the hostility she gets from some of the cadets who don’t think girls belong there. What she’s not expecting is her fiery attraction to her drill sergeant. But dating is strictly forbidden and Sam won’t risk her future, or the dare, on something so petty…no matter how much she wants him.

As Sam struggles to prove herself, she discovers that some of the boys don’t just want her gone—they will stop at nothing to drive her out. When their petty threats turn to brutal hazing, bleeding into every corner of her life, she realizes they are not acting alone. A decades-old secret society is alive and active… and determined to force her out.
At any cost.

Now time’s running short. Sam must decide who she can trust…and choosing the wrong person could have deadly consequences.

Continue reading

Review of The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

description

”I’m not sure what I should put for an address. Like I said, I just got to town and I’m staying at the Holiday Motor Court. I could also use my mom’s mailing address in Colorado. Which would you prefer?”
”Colorado?”
”Yeah, I know. Kind of far from here.”
”What brought you to Hampton?”
You, he thought. I came to find you.

description

Nicholas Sparks has his reputation of writing the most popular and some quite beautiful/original love stories. Of course, The Lucky One was no exception. There were some elements I was annoyed about because they seemed too similar to his other books but, in general, it was a very nice read. For example, Beth’s little 10 years old boy, Ben, reminded me A LOT of the other nice little boy in The Last Song (and I’m really not talking about in the movie but in the book) which, if you haven’t read it, is a wonderful book. Also, the marines, army. «—- Dear John! At least, Thibault doesn’t have the same personality as John so it’s wasn’t like I saw him instead of Thibault while reading.

The pacing is very slow. Beth and Thibault are actually meeting each other after about 65 pages only, but the fact is that those pages were kind of long. There were many descriptions and psychological thinking when I wanted more dialogs and well… romance. Although, as we all know, Nicholas Sparks likes to write about the characters background and really want to make us connect in a way to them so, yeah, many descriptions. At first, it bored me but, after those 65 pages, it all goes well and the reading begins to feel nice and enjoyable.

Beth is a good girl, someone I actually related to because she didn’t date many guys or slept with many either. She was married to a man that she divorced off because, let’s face it, he was not the good, stable kind of man, especially as a husband and dad because they did have a kid together. I’ll say it and it’s true, he’s a pervert. The type of pervert that takes pictures of naked woman whenever he gets the chance to, when he is in reality a police officer! He’s one of those persons that make you think, what is wrong with the world and how could some adult do that?! There is no need for me to say it obviously, but I hate that guy (named Clayton.)

Thibault is sweet! And funny, easygoing, calm. The perfect man. The problem is…he’s just too nice. He is perfect but perfect doesn’t exist in reality (for me) and I couldn’t believe in him as much as I wanted to. He was likeable, yes, and a great character, yes, but this contemporary was just so…unrealitic to me. Like, how could this possibly happen? How could someone, in the army, find a picture with a woman which becames his lucky charm and he decides to find (and will find) that woman in question. Plus, that the woman in question is single… It could, maybe, but I can’t/don’t believe it. I enjoyed reading it though and will keep reading other books by Nicholas Sparks because they’re cute and bring different emotions out of me. Though it is not my favourite (Dear John is for now.)

The romance is wonderful, as always.

I would recommend this book but, if you have the choice between let’s say…The Last Song, Dear John and The Lucky One, in your place, I would personally choose Dear John then, The Last Song, and then The Lucky One.

Happy reading!

View all my reviews on Goodreads.

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