Off the Page ARC Review

Off the Page

Author: Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer

Average Rating: 3.96/5.0

Personal Rating: 5.0/5.0

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Release Date: 19 May 2015

According to Goodreads:

Meet Oliver, a prince literally taken from the pages of a fairy tale and transported into the real world. Meet Delilah, the girl who wished Oliver into being. It’s a miracle that seems perfect at first. Sure, Oliver doesn’t know that you shouldn’t try to open your locker with a dagger or that there’s no such thing as “the ruler” of the local mall. But he also looks at Delilah as if she’s the only girl in the world—the only girl in any world—and Delilah can’t help feeling that being with him is a dream come to life.
 
But not every story can have a happy ending. Because the book wants Oliver back. And it will turn both worlds upside down to get him. 
 
Oliver and Delilah will have to decide what—and who—they’re willing to risk for love and what it really means for a fairy tale to come true.

Purchase Links:

Barnes & Noble  / Amazon / Book Depository / Audible 
 

My Opinion:

I received an Advanced Reader's Copy from the publisher, but in no way does that have an impact on my opinions.

Off the Page is the companion novel to Between the Lines also written by Jodi Picoult and her daughter Samantha Van Leer. If you are interested in checking out my review for Between the Lines you can click here. Off the Page was filled to the brim with humor, events leaving you on the edge of the seat, and maybe even sneaking a little sneak peak at what the next chapter will hold. 

I felt that I was able to connect with the characters, especially Delilah and Oliver, more when I read each of their chapters. Picoult and Van Leer were able to portray the emotions that could occur if all of a sudden your favorite character pops out of the book into real life. In addition to Delilah and Oliver we were able to read from the perspective of Edgar, who is the son of Jessamyn. Jessamyn is the author of the fairy tale Between the Lines in the two book series. Have I befuddled you yet? Sprinkled throughout the novel were also small paragraphs that were thought provoking. They discussed topics like why do we love? Why do we hurt when we lose someone? Why do we hope? I felt these small passages added a great aspect to the novel, because it allowed us to take a step back from the plot and reflect to better connect to how the characters are feeling. 

There was definitely a lot more going on during Off the Page than in Between the Lines. We got to experience Oliver's first day of high school in the real world. We were able to laugh a long with Delilah when Oliver's attempts at ordinary and redundant activities we don't think twice of went astray. We got to go on the roller-coaster that resembled Delilah and Oliver's romantic relationship, and we got to watch another potential relationship between two characters evolve. 

I highly recommend Off the Page to fans of Jodi Picoult, Sarah Dessen, and Meg Cabot. Off the Page is a comedic romance that brings readers back to their childhoods or maybe even more recently when they wished they could live in a book or meet their favorite character in real life. Picoult and Van Leer leave the message in each reader's heart that there is a bit of magic in everything we see and do. 

Swoon Romance YA Wednesdays: Run for the Roses, Secondary Characters, Don't Fall by Rachel Schieffelbein Book Blitz with Giveaway #ReadSwoonRepeat

Welcome to this week’s

Swoon Romance YA Wednesdays!

This week features Rachel Schieffelbein's titles

Run for the Roses, Secondary Characters, Don't Fall!

Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

Abigail Conrad has spent her whole life training for one goal: to win the roses at the Arabian Youth Nationals. She’s given up friends, a social life, and doesn’t have time to even think about guys -- much less date!

Now that she’s headed off to college in the fall, it’s her last chance to be a Youth National Champion, and she won’t let anything distract her from that dream.

Except maybe Chase, the older brother of Abigail's biggest rival. He’s charming, funny, and possibly Abigail's biggest problem. How can she focus on riding when her mind keeps wandering to Chase’s green eyes and confident smile?

With her dream on the line, Abigail had better learn to fight her growing attraction to Chase, or she might end up losing the roses and the guy.

Run for the Roses
by Rachel Schieffelbein
Publication Date: November 2013
Publisher: Swoon Romance

Amazon | B&N

When Mabel's best friend, Amber, drags her along on a double date she finds herself falling for Lance, the obnoxious class clown whom she swore she'd have no interest in. The only problem is, she's not sure if she's really the girl Lance is into, or if, like every other guy she knows, it's really Amber he's after. One thing is clear, if Mabel wants to be the lead in her own love story, she needs to start acting like it.

Secondary Characters
by Rachel Schieffelbein
Publication Date: May 2013
Publisher: Swoon Romance

Amazon | B&N

In which a teenage girl endures the over-protective love of her adoptive mother until she falls for a boy who has her wanting to spread her wings, pitched as a contemporary retelling of Rapunzel.

Seventeen-year-old Anya leads a very secluded life in a house on the edge of town with her adopted mother. She doesn't go to school, but instead has a private tutor. Her over-protective mom keeps her so sheltered that she doesn't even have a best friend.

But Anya doesn't seem to mind. She has her books, her photography, and her daydreams, and would do anything to please her mom. Until one day at the library, the only place she's allowed to go, she takes a picture of a beautiful boy.

Before long she's lying to her mom, and sneaking out late at night to meet Zander. But Zander wants more than a secret romance. If Anya wants to be with the boy of her dreams, she will have to risk her relationship with the only other person she's ever cared about.

Don't Fall
by Rachel Schieffelbein
Publication Date: May 2014
Publisher: Swoon Romance

Amazon | B&N

Rachel Schieffelbein grew up in a tiny town in Southeast Minnesota reading books, riding horses, and participating in speech and theater. She is now married with four kids and enjoys reading books, riding horses, and coaching speech and theater. If it ain't broke, don't fix it! She enjoys writing characters she can relate to, ones she would want to hangout with, or fall in love with. She hopes her readers will love them, too.

Connect with the Author:  Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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The Stories We Don't Tell Review!

The Stories We Don't Tell

Author: Melissa Thayer

Average Rating: 4.27/5.0

Personal Rating: 4.0/5.0

Page Count: 120

Publisher: Booktrope Editions

Release Date: 15 May 2015

According to Goodreads:

"Growing up had stolen the truth of us." 

A life worth living is a life worth sharing. Growing up in a small town in Montana not worth a name, that kind of life is not one Nick can manage, let alone comprehend. When fate gives him an existence he can barely recognize, he searches for meaning in the future he wishes existed, and attempts to escape a past that cannot be told, save for in the pages of a faded memory. 

Melissa Thayer's lyrical and poignant debut novel, part confession and part wistful longing, is an incisive look at love and loss, and what remains of a soul that is dashed against the rocky shorelines of hope.

My Opinion:

I received a review e-copy through Xpresso Book Tours, but in no way does that influence my honest opinion for the book.

Let me tell you how long it has been since I have read a book that has made my heart hurt so much...it's probably been since Allegiant, and for all of you who have read Allegiant then you know why. 

The story begins with Nick talking to his deceased mother, so right off the bat you pick up that he cared deeply for her and vice versa. Then Nick stops talking to his mother, and more directs the storytelling to the reader. For an added bonus, we also soon get Emma's perspective along with Nick's on their relationship with each other. 

I grew frustrated with Nick every time he left her behind. I found myself saying out loud that she wasn't going to be there one of these times that he decides to come back and see her. It was almost like those trips were to ensure that she was still there waiting for him, but also to make sure he was still of her whole world.  One of my biggest peeves is when a guy does that. I know it has something to do with making them feel "superior" or "manly" but when you get down to it, it's just plain rude.

BUT. I was so happy to watch how Emma developed as the novel progressed. While Nick turned to drugs, alcohol, and one night stands (he didn't even stay faithful while he was away!!) Emma matured. She slowly came to realize that Nick's behavior of leaving for years and then returning may never end. So, she moved on. Maybe not completely, but she learned how to live her life with a someone who made her truly happy. Someone she could depend on to be there. 

The Stories We Don't Tell is a short read, but a short read full of emotions. You won't find a better rollarcoastar in a theme park. You find yourself cheering for when fate brings them together, and then you find yourself smashing your head against the wall when Nick and Emma part ways. This read will leave your heart in pieces, but with your mind contemplating the concept of love and fate.

Purchase Links:

Barnes & Noble / Book Depository / Amazon

Only Ever Yours Blitz and Giveaway!

Only Ever Yours

 Author: Louise O'Neill

Release Date: 05/12/15 

Publisher: Quercus/Hachette 

Page Count: 398 pages 

According to Goodreads:

Where women are created for the pleasure of men, beauty is the first duty of every girl. In Louise O'Neill's world of Only Every Yours women are no longer born naturally, girls (called "eves") are raised in Schools and trained in the arts of pleasing men until they come of age. Freida and Isabel are best friends.Now, aged sixteen and in their final year, they expect to be selected as companions--wives to powerful men. All they have to do is ensure they stay in the top ten beautiful girls in their year. The alternatives--life as a concubine, or a chastity (teaching endless generations of girls)--are too horrible to contemplate. But as the intensity of final year takes hold, the pressure to be perfect mounts. Isabel starts to self-destruct, putting her beauty--her only asset--in peril. And then into this sealed female environment, the boys arrive, eager to choose a bride. Freida must fight for her future--even if it means betraying the only friend, the only love, she has ever known.

Purchase Links:

Amazon / Book Depository 

Advanced Praise for Only Ever Yours 

"Terrifying and heartbreaking, O'Neill's story reads like an heir to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and M.T. Anderson's Feed, and, like those books, it's sure to be discussed for years to come." —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) 

"A dark dream. A vivid nightmare. The world O'Neill imagines is frightening because it could come true. She writes with a scalpel." —Jeanette Winterson 

"An ingenious exploration of gender roles, female identity, and female competition."  —Buzzfeed 

“Unbelievably believable, compelling, utterly riveting... Whilst it is dark, uncompromising and utterly daunting to read as a woman, it is and should be a classic in the making." —Liz Loves Books 

Guest Post
 Hello, 

There are two questions that everyone asks, when they hear that I’m an author.  

1.“Where do your ideas come from? 

This seems to imply that I’m either stealing my ideas from other people (I’m not. I promise) or that I’m likely to run out of ideas in the near future. Both options are terrifying and haunt my dreams now.  
2.Did you always dream of being a writer? 

The second question is easier to answer without breaking out in a cold sweat. No, I didn’t always want to be a writer. I wanted to be an actress although there was a brief period where I thought I might become a nun much to the delight of my grandparents. The joys of a Catholic childhood. While I didn’t harbour any ambitions to become an author, I always wrote. I kept journals from the age of eight, I wrote short stories and incredibly bad poetry as a teenager. Writing was my way of making sense of the world. Sometimes, I have to sit and start to write before I can begin to understand how I feel about something in my life. My opinion is formed through my pen. I studied English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin and it was here, walking on the same cobblestones as Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, and Samuel Beckett did before me, that I decided I would try to make words, beautiful words, my career.
 Life is not always so simple.  

At 25, I started working as a fashion intern for the Senior Style Director at ELLE magazine in New York. There are no The Devil Wears Prada type stories – she was lovely and kind and supportive. Yet I wasn’t happy. Faced constantly with fashion’s obsession with extreme thinness, the anorexia that I had battled as a teenager re-surfaced and I relapsed. It was January 2011. I was sitting in a Starbucks in Brooklyn, waiting for the Q Train to start running again. I was reading a trashy gossip magazine, poring over photos of celebrities with ‘circles of shame’ drawn around their cellulite, stomach rolls, sweat patches. There is a woman sitting near me who is eating a muffin and I am fascinated by her. How can she eat that muffin and seem so carefree? Why is she not having an existential crisis over the calories that are in that muffin? 

I was hungry. I wanted a muffin. But I thought if I ate a muffin, I would get fat. If I ate a muffin, I would have failed. 

Suddenly, a vision flared in my mind. It was bold, bright, beautiful. It was a young girl, standing in her bikini in front of a classroom while an older woman with a bald head was standing in front of her. The older woman had a red marker in her hand and she was drawing circles around the young girl’s ‘fat areas’ while the rest of the classroom chanted FAT. FAT. FAT. I grabbed my notebook and I started writing. 

A world in which girls are bred for their beauty. Why? Because women are no longer able to bear daughters. Their wombs will only accept a male fetus.

 I sat in that coffee shop for two hours, scribbling pages and pages of notes but it wasn’t until March 2012, when I had returned home to Ireland, that I started to write what would eventually become Only Ever Yours. 


I began sending it to literary agents in November 2012 and the reaction was instantaneous. Within a week, agents wanted to see the full manuscript. I had offers from five agents, some of whom were amongst the most well respected in the world. I had offers from a number of different publishers, finally signing with Quercus in May 2013. Only Ever Yours was published in Ireland and the UK in July 2014 and my world has been irrevocably altered. While the awards and the rave reviews are gratifying, it is the reaction from readers that has been incredibly humbling. I receive letters and emails almost daily from women who want to share their stories with me and who want to tell me how my book has changed their outlook on life. That people have connected on such a deep emotional level with my work is something that I dreamed of but could barely hope for.  I truly hope that you enjoy Only Ever Yours. You can find me on Twitter @oneilllo to either message me or to read my increasingly inappropriate ramblings!  

-Louise

About the Author 

Louise O' Neill is from Clonakilty, in west Cork. After graduating with a BA in English Studies at Trinity College Dublin, she went on to complete a post-grad in Fashion Buying at DIT. Having spent a year in New York working for Kate Lanphear, the senior Style Director of ELLE magazine, she returned home to Ireland to write her first novel. She went from hanging out on set with A-list celebrities to spending most of her days in pyjamas while she writes, and has never been happier.

Author Links:

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

GIVEAWAY (US ONLY): Enter for a chance to win a finished copy of Only Ever Yours!

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Out of Control Blitz and Giveaway!

Out of Control

Author: Sarah Alderson 

Published by: Simon Pulse
Publication date: May 12th 2015
Genres: Thriller, Young Adult

According to Goodreads:

A girl looking to escape her past in New York City ends up on the run from a dangerous conspiracy in this sizzling, high-stakes novel.

When seventeen-year-old Liva came to New York City, all she wanted was to escape the painful memories of her past and finally find a fresh start. Her hopes for a new future were dashed the moment she became the sole witness to a brutal murder. When she’s taken into police custody—supposedly for her own protection—she realizes something isn’t right, but it’s too late. Soon, bullets start flying, and Liva realizes that she is not just a witness, but the target—and she needs to escape before it’s too late.

With the help of a sexy car thief that she met at the station, Liva manages to get away from the massacre unharmed, but now the two of them are alone in New York, trying to outrun and outwit the two killers who will stop at nothing to find them. Liva and Jay are living on the edge, but when you’re on the edge, there’s a long way to fall.

Excerpt:

The boy snatches the key from my outstretched hand and jams it into the tiny hole. The cuff springs apart, freeing him. Instantly, he throws himself on top of me. ‘Get down!’

A bullet smacks itself into a filing cabinet just behind us as we tumble to the ground. His chest presses down on mine, my face is buried in his shoulder. Quickly he rolls off me and pushes me towards a desk. I scoot underneath it, banging the side of my head on the sharp metal corner of a drawer unit. I let out a cry. ‘Shhh.’ His hand clamps over my mouth. I tug his arm away. ‘What’s going on? What’s happening?’ I whisper.

Before he can answer me, the shooting stops and a silence falls that is even more terrifying than the gunfire. The boy and I both freeze, staring at each other unblinking, just a few millimetres between us. Together, enclosed in the tight space beneath the desk, we strain to listen, and over the radio static and the whir of the air conditioner overhead, I pick out faint cries coming from somewhere in the distance; the unnatural keening howl of a wounded animal.

The boy shifts his weight. His back is pressed to one cabinet, his feet to the drawer unit. Carefully, he peers around the edge of the desk then ducks quickly back, breathing fast. A bead of sweat trickles down the side of his face. ‘Shit,’ he murmurs, resting his head back against the cabinet and closing his eyes.

‘Wh— ’ I begin, but stop when I hear the sly creak of the door being pushed open. A boot crunches on glass. The boy’s eyes flash open and lock on mine, holding me in place, silencing the scream that has risen up my throat and is threatening to tear free. My legs begin to shake from holding still in a crouching position. The boy’s right hand squeezes my knee hard – another warning, his eyes wide and burning fiercely into mine, telling me: Do not move.

Something topples off a desk on the far side of the room and, over the boy’s shoulder, through a gap between two filing cabinets, I glimpse the back of a man’s leg. Whose? Is it a cop? Where is everyone else? What happened to the cops who ran out into the corridor?

No. I shut off the thought, not wanting to go there.

The man in the room is standing stock-still with his back to us. What is he doing? I can’t see. He’s facing the wall – the chalkboard with all the homicide cases listed on it. The seconds seem to extend into whole hours, days, centuries, and I’m holding my breath and the boy’s hand is still squeezing my knee and my heart is bursting, literally bursting, as though too much blood is pumping through it. My leg muscles are on fire and, without warning, my foot slips. Not far. But it bumps the edge of the desk. The man spins instantly in our direction. The air rushes from my lungs and the boy shifts beside me, a single word that I don’t catch, falling from his lips like a dying man’s prayer.

The man starts to head in our direction, is almost on us, when someone somewhere else in the building shouts something that’s instantly swallowed in a storm of gunfire and the man rushes out into the corridor.

The boy darts his head out and then he’s out from under the desk and reaching for me.

‘Move!’ he says, pulling me to my feet.

Purchase Links:

Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Book Depository 

Meet the Author!

Having spent most of her life in London, Sarah quit her job in the non profit sector in 2009 and took off on a round the world trip with her husband and princess-obsessed daughter on a mission to find a new place to call home. After several months in India, Singapore, Australia and the US, they settled in Bali where Sarah now spends her days writing by the pool and trying to machete open coconuts without severing a limb.

She finished her first novel, Hunting Lila (winner of the Kingston Book Award), just before they left the UK, wrote the sequel on the beach in India and had signed a two book deal with Simon & Schuster by the time they had reached Bali.

A third book, Fated, about a teenage demon slayer, was published in January 2012.

The Sound, a thriller romance set in Nantucket, was published in August 2013 and this was followed by the critically acclaimed Out of Control in May 2014.

She also writes New Adult romance for Pan Macmillan (UK) / Simon & Schuster (US) under the pen name Mila Gray.

You can find Sarah on facebook and at www.sarahalderson.com or follow her blog at www.canwelivhere.com

Author Links:

Author links:

http://sarahalderson.com/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4573983.Sarah_Alderson

https://www.facebook.com/sarahjalderson

https://twitter.com/sarahalderson

GIVEAWAY (International): Enter for a chance to win a signed copy of Out of Control + The Sound and/or $25 Amazon gift card!

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Twelve Steps by Veronica Barles Blitz and Giveaway!

Swoon Romance YA Wednesdays: Twelve Steps by Veronica Bartles Book Blitz with Giveaway #ReadSwoonRepeat

Welcome to this week’s

Swoon Romance YA Wednesdays!

This week features the

Twelve Steps by Veronica Bartles!

Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

Sixteen-year-old Andi is tired of being a second-class sibling to perfect sister Laina. The only thing Andi’s sure she has going for her is her awesome hair. And even that is eclipsed by Laina's perfect everything else.

When Andi’s crush asks her to fix him up with Laina, Andi decides enough is enough, and devises a twelve-step program to wrangle the spotlight away from Laina and get the guy.

Step 1: Admit she’s powerless to change her perfect sister, and accept that her life really, really sucks.

Step 4: Make a list of her good qualities. She MUST have more than just great hair, right?

Step 7: Demand attention for more than just the way she screws things up.

When a stolen kiss from her crush ends in disaster, Andi realizes that her twelve-step program isn’t working. Her prince isn’t as charming as she'd hoped, and the spotlight she’s been trying to steal isn’t the one she wants.

As Laina’s flawless façade begins to crumble, the sisters work together to find a spotlight big enough for both to shine.

Twelve Steps by Veronica Bartles
Publication Date: March 25, 2014
Publisher: Swoon Romance

 

As the second of eight children and the mother of four, Veronica Bartles is no stranger to the ups and downs of sibling relationships. (She was sandwiched between the gorgeous-and-insanely-popular older sister and the too-adorable-for-words younger sister.) She uses this insight to write stories about siblings who mostly love each other, even while they’re driving one another crazy. When she isn’t writing or getting lost in the pages of her newest favorite book, Veronica enjoys knitting fabulous bags and jewelry out of recycled plastic bags and old VHS tapes, sky diving (though she hasn’t actually tried that yet), and inventing the world’s most delectable cookie recipes.

Veronica is represented by Jessica Sinsheimer of the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency, LLC

Connect with the Author:  Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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The Wrath and the Dawn Blitz and Giveaway!

HTML Post

I am so excited that THE WRATH AND THE DAWN by Renée Ahdieh releases today and that I get to share the news, along with a special introduction from Renée herself!

If you haven’t yet heard about this wonderful book by Author Renée Ahdieh, be sure to check out all the details below.

This blitz also includes a giveaway for a signed copies of the book and some beautiful book inspired scarves, courtesy of Renée, Penguin Teen, and Rockstar Book Tours. So if you’d like a chance to win, enter in the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.

A letter from Renée Ahdieh.

There are not enough words to express how thrilled I am to share THE WRATH AND THE DAWN with you! From the moment I typed the first word, I felt connected to Shahrzad and her world in a way that carried me through the long process of publication to where we are today. 

Everything about this process has been a dream come true, and hope you love my book half as much as I enjoyed writing it. In celebration of release day, I'll be giving away a signed, first edition hardcover of the book, as well as a gorgeous scarf . . . or two!

Always remember to make it a story worthy of you!

Renée

About The Book:

Title: THE WRATH & THE DAWN

Author: Renée Ahdieh

Pub. Date: May 12, 2015

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Pages: 388

Find it: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Goodreads

A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights

Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi's wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.

She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all. 

About Renée:

Renée lives in North Carolina (Go Heels!) with her husband Victor and their dog Mushu. Her YA fantasy novel, THE WRATH AND THE DAWN, will be published on May 12th, 2015. In her spare time, she likes to cook, dance salsa, and wreak havoc on the lives of her characters.

She’s also a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, as well as an active member of theScience Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America.

WEBSITE| TWITTER | FACEBOOK | GOODREADS | TUMBLR  |PINTEREST | INSTAGRAM

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive a hardcover of THE WRATH AND THE DAWN and a beautiful book inspired scarf (IMAGES BELOW)! US Only.

Ends on May 22^nd at Midnight EST!

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