Teaser Tuesday[201]: Love Story by Jennifer Echols

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:


• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!



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Love Story by Jennifer Echols

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance
Publisher: MTV Books
Release Date: 2011
Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble.

Goodreads Synopsis:

She's writing about him. He's writing about her. And everybody is reading between the lines.. 

For Erin Blackwell, majoring in creative writing at the New York City college of her dreams is more than a chance to fulfill her ambitions--it's her ticket away from the tragic memories that shadow her family's racehorse farm in Kentucky. But when she refuses to major in business and take over the farm herself someday, her grandmother gives Erin's college tuition and promised inheritance to their maddeningly handsome stable boy, Hunter Allen. Now Erin has to win an internship and work late nights at a coffee shop to make her own dreams a reality. She should despise Hunter . . . so why does he sneak into her thoughts as the hero of her latest writing assignment?

Then, on the day she's sharing that assignment with her class, Hunter walks in. He's joining her class. And after he reads about himself in her story, her private fantasies about him must be painfully clear. She only hopes to persuade him not to reveal her secret to everyone else. But Hunter devises his own creative revenge, writing sexy stories that drive the whole class wild with curiosity and fill Erin's heart with longing. Now she's not just imagining what might have been. She's writing a whole new ending for her romance with Hunter. . . . except this story could come true.

Excerpt:

“The crowd noise died off but Summer was still squealing. Manohar was shouting, ‘Erin Blackwell, I love you and I am sorry for every negative comment I ever made about your lascivious stories.’” (Paperback, pg. 119)

What are you reading right now?

Novel Review: Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: MTV Books

Release Date: 2013

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Bailey wasn’t always a wild child and the black sheep of her family. She used to play fiddle and tour the music circuit with her sister, Julie, who sang and played guitar. That ended when country music execs swooped in and signed Julie to a solo deal. Never mind that Julie and Bailey were a duet, or that Bailey was their songwriter. The music scouts wanted only Julie, and their parents were content to sit by and let her fulfill her dreams while Bailey’s were hushed away.

Bailey has tried to numb the pain and disappointment over what could have been. And as Julie’s debut album is set to hit the charts, her parents get fed up with Bailey’s antics and ship her off to granddad’s house in Nashville. Playing fiddle in washed-up tribute groups at the mall, Bailey meets Sam, a handsome and oh-so-persuasive guitarist with his own band. He knows Bailey’s fiddle playing is just the thing his band needs to break into the industry. But this life has broken Bailey’s heart once before. She isn’t sure she’s ready to let Sam take her there again… 

The Cover:

I really like this cover. I think it's pretty, simple but eye-catching, and gives a good idea of the book. I also appreciate that it focuses more on the music, which is a very important part of the book, and not just the romance. It also has the right instrument, and gives just a glimpse of the romance. I like it a lot.

Review:

I am definitely a fan of Echols at this point. I’ve only read a few, but I’ve been impressed with all of them so far, and I have more to get to, thankfully.

Bailey has grown up loving music and playing it with her sister. But now things have changed, and she isn’t supposed to be doing anything related to music anymore. She’s not even talking to her sister at the moment. And then she meets Sam, who’s in a band with big plans, and he wants her to join. She’s reluctant, she knows she could get in trouble for it, but it’s what she really wants.

Bailey’s parents frustrated me, but I like the way that Bailey finally goes after what she wants, and how her sister is right there for her. There is definitely angst between Bailey and Sam, but it was fun, and I liked them together. I liked seeing the struggle that Bailey went through, I believed it, and it was nice to see how it all worked out.

I really enjoyed this book, and it definitely makes me want to pick up another.

Teaser Tuesday[181]: Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

------------------------------------------

Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher MTV Books

Release Date: 2013

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. BookDepository. Powells.

                            

Goodreads Synopsis:

Bailey wasn’t always a wild child and the black sheep of her family. She used to play fiddle and tour the music circuit with her sister, Julie, who sang and played guitar. That ended when country music execs swooped in and signed Julie to a solo deal. Never mind that Julie and Bailey were a duet, or that Bailey was their songwriter. The music scouts wanted only Julie, and their parents were content to sit by and let her fulfill her dreams while Bailey’s were hushed away.

Bailey has tried to numb the pain and disappointment over what could have been. And as Julie’s debut album is set to hit the charts, her parents get fed up with Bailey’s antics and ship her off to granddad’s house in Nashville. Playing fiddle in washed-up tribute groups at the mall, Bailey meets Sam, a handsome and oh-so-persuasive guitarist with his own band. He knows Bailey’s fiddle playing is just the thing his band needs to break into the industry. But this life has broken Bailey’s heart once before. She isn’t sure she’s ready to let Sam take her there again… 

Excerpt:

“‘How’s your dad?’

‘Sober.’ Sam held up his hand with his fingers spread.

‘Five days!’” (Hardback, pg. 84)

What are you reading right now?

Novel Review: The Book of Luke by Jenny O'Connell

Rating (Out of 5): ~2-2.5

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: MTV Books

Release Date: 2007.

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Emily Abbott has always been considered the Girl Most Likely to Be Nice -- but lately being nice hasn't done her any good. Her parents have decided to move the family from Chicago back to their hometown of Boston in the middle of Emily's senior year. Only Emily's first real boyfriend, Sean, is in Chicago, and so is her shot at class valedictorian and early admission to the Ivy League. What's a nice girl to do?

Then Sean dumps Emily on moving day and her father announces he's staying behind in Chicago "to tie up loose ends," and Emily decides that what a nice girl needs to do is to stop being nice.
She reconnects with her best friends in Boston, Josie and Lucy, only to discover that they too have been on the receiving end of some glaring Guy Don'ts. So when the girls have to come up with something to put in the senior class time capsule, they know exactly what to do. They'll create a not-so-nice reference guide for future generations of guys -- an instruction book that teaches them the right way to treat girls.
But when her friends draft Emily to test out their tips on Luke Preston -- the hottest, most popular guy in school, who just broke up with Josie by email -- Emily soon finds that Luke is the trickiest of test subjects . . . and that even a nice girl like Emily has a few things to learn about love.

The Cover:

I rather like this cover. I think that it fits the tone of the book all right, and that it prepared me well enough for what I was getting in the book. I like the lowercaps for the title, too. I think it looks nice, and it works okay for the book.

Review:

Emily is forced to move back to her old hometown when her father gets a job transfer.  Her boyfriend breaks up with her that morning, and her father ends up staying behind.  Feeling wounded over everything and trying to go back to her old life, her and her friends decide to make a book about boys for their school's time capsule, only to try it on an actual boy along the way.

I thought this would be better than it was.

Emily and her friends start making a book of advice for boys, and then they decide to use it on Luke, the most popular playboy at their school and see if they can reform him.  Luke just broke up with one of her friends, and they’re exacting some revenge.  Only she starts falling for him.

I didn’t really care for Emily or her friends, or Luke.  I just didn’t grow very attached, and I really didn’t feel the chemistry.  It just read very one-dimensional to me.  Emily was also so stuck in the past—she moves back and wants them all to be exactly like they were three years ago, and it takes forever for her to realize that things change, if she even does.

My biggest problem with the book, though, was the clichéd, childish thoughts they all had on boys.  None of their thoughts were original, but they were all very hypocritical—like guys can’t talk about girls with each other, but girls can talk about guys all they want.  The entire plot line revolving around the book was stupid and shallow.  Then there were snippets of advice at the beginning of each chapter, and I don't think any of it was relevant.

The ending left me very unsatisfied, as well.  After the big fall-out and reveal of their plans, there’s a big fight, and all parties are jerks to each other.  But they make up way too fast.  In one scene, they’re fighting and apologizing and then joking around again.  It felt too fast, with too little resolve.

The writing didn’t keep me interested.  There was way too much words, paragraphs of thoughts, going on and on.  I was bored, and wanted it to be over.