Novel Review: Stern (The Westmoreland, #27) by Brenda Jackson

Rating (Out of 5): ~2

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Harlequin Desire

Release Date: 2013

Spoilers?: No.

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

Goodreads Synopsis:

From New York Times bestselling author Brenda Jackson, comes a new trilogy starring three Westmorelands who are impossible to resist: Zane, Canyon and Stern. 

Stern Westmoreland never makes mistakes—until he helps his best friend Jovonnie "JoJo" Jones with a makeover…for another man. Now Stern wants JoJo for himself. Their attraction is undeniable and there's only one way to test it: one long, steamy night together as much more than friends!

Look for the other stories in Brenda Jackson's Westmoreland trilogy: ZANE and CANYON. Available now! And don't miss Brenda's 100th book, A MADARIS BRIDE FOR CHRISTMAS, available November 2013!

The Cover:

I actually kind of like this cover. It still goes with the typical adult romance cover, what with the guy being front and center, but he's not half naked, and he actually looks like he could be the main character. And it gives a good feel for it. Not a bad job.

Review:

I haven’t read any of the book in this series, or anything else by Brenda Jackson. I picked this up because it was cheap, thinking it sounded cute and hopefully steamy.

It starts out pretty good, the writing subtle, the characters entertaining. Jojo is in love with Stern, her best friend, and so decides to fall in love with someone else instead. Stern is very oblivious, throughout most of the novel, as his feelings start to develop to more. Jojo is also pretty oblivious, and her inexperience is pushed to the ridiculous.

I actually found the characters all right, and I liked Stern and some of the others. I liked their friends-to-lovers route. I did have a problem with their “practicing” kissing thing, though. That didn’t make sense on any level.

Given that this is such a huge series, I think it's good that the rest of the Westmoreland family wasn't mentioned too much. Since I haven't read any of the other books, their huge family tree was confusing, even given how little they were mentioned at all.

The more I read, though, the more the writing got on my nerves. I don’t know if it changed, or if I did. But it got a little more tell-than-show I think, and more exaggerated, like a teenage girl had written it. And then just some of the language, and the little use of contractions, got on my nerves, as it made it harder to read.

By the time I got to the end, I was happy to be finished with it. I thought about picking up another of her books, but now I don’t think I will.

Novel Review: The Boy Next Door by Katie Van Ark

Rating (Out of 5): ~2

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Swoon Reads (Feiwel and Friends)

Release Date: January 6, 2015

Spoilers?: Some, yes--with ending.

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

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Maddy Spier has been in love with the boy next door forever. As his figure skating partner she spends time in his arms every day. But she’s also seen his arms around other girls—lots of other girls.

Gabe can't imagine skating with anyone but Maddy, and together they have a real chance at winning some serious gold medals. So, he’s determined to keep thinking of her like a sister. After all, he’s never had a romantic relationship that lasted for more than two weeks.

But when their coach assigns a new romantic skating program, everything changes. Will this be the big break that Maddy’s been hoping for or the big breakup that Gabe has always feared?

The Cover:

I actually really like this cover. I think it's very pretty, not too bright or showy, and the image is super cute. I don't know if I think it actually gives a great feel for the book, though the idea behind it is fitting. I think it's just too cutesy for the drama.

Review:

“Because I know what love is now. Love is an intricate filigree band. Complicated but beautiful. Love is three diamonds. For past, present, and future. Love is never giving up even through the Great Depression and two world wars.” (ARC, pg. 342)

I think I have a lot to say about this book. There were some ups… and there were also some downs.

First of all, despite what I say, this wasn’t hard to read. The writing wasn’t too bad, and it went by relatively fast, even with the slow bits. I didn’t hate reading it, even with the faults.

The title is misleading, in my opinion, because many other things could have been used to make it more fitting. Gabe is a huge player, ignores his feelings for Maddy for way too long, and insists on just being her skating partner. None of this make me think of a boy-next-door story. Gave me the wrong impression.

There was a lot of sexual stuff in this book—a surprising amount. There’s mentions of actual sex and a hand job, none of it too graphic, but it's also pretty clear that’s what’s happening. So, I don’t know. Recommended for older/more mature teens.

Which is ironic, given the pretty immature other elements. The first of which is that the school parts, and the other students’ interactions, were very young. They acted pretty close to twelve, maybe fourteen. The other students talk about stuff, and make notes to each other, like they’re in middle school, even laughing at inappropriate words. And then the teacher… She’s portrayed as weak and unable to control her classroom, and then has her students read the plays aloud, and allowing the main characters to kiss during class, because it’s in the play. This is goaded on by the other students, but the teacher makes no mention of it. When that is absolutely not something okay in schools. What the hell?

Then there’s the whole mess with Gabe. He insists on keeping his and Maddy’s relationship a secret until the very end of the book, for absolutely no plausible reason. He talks like he’s going to change that several times, but never actually does anything.

This whole plot reminded me of something I did in early high school (younger than these characters), in a very bad way. It’s just immature and dumb, and I don’t understand why Maddy let it happen. It was dumb of her. And then she has sex with Gabe before he admits to anything, and that didn’t make any sense to me, or seem plausible. I don’t understand why she thought it was a good idea, or why he gave in when he kept insisting not to. That whole thing just didn’t work for me.

And then there were plots that never really went anywhere… There was drama with their friends, Chris and Kate, which I guess stood as an example for Maddy and Gabe of what they didn’t want, but their actual drama and situation never got resolved.

There was a large plot with Gabe relying on Maddy being his partner, that he wasn’t nearly as good as her and if she went on her own, he wouldn’t have anything, since he gave up hockey. That could have been a plot where he grew into his own person, but it never went anywhere. There’s even dual points-of-view, which makes this even more of a disappointment.

Not a lot was explained, also. Pretty much all of the ice skating talk is thrown at you from the beginning, with little-to-no explanation for what any of it means. Given that I know nothing about ice skating, this was hard for me to follow. Especially when it threw in puns in the middle of their talking and thoughts. No explanation for how that worked. Also, Gabe and Maddy have some secret language through flashlights? They blink them at each other through their windows, I guess, and have a cheat sheet that they made when they were little. But we are given no idea how it works, or how they chose what each letter or word means, we are just told what they’re saying. This left me frustrated.

Finally, the ending. There’s a trope near the end of Maddy getting hurt, and that’s why Gabe finally fesses up to his feelings. Then there was the whole drama with Maddy's parents, and how they kept it a secret from her for no real reason. But even throwing that aside, there’s this whole marriage thing. Gabe throws a mock wedding for him and Maddy, and she finds this super sweet. Even though, um, they’re like seventeen? And in high school? And not even actually going out? And then he kind of proposes to her at the end, and this annoys me beyond belief. Jumping that far ahead is ridiculous and not okay, and what kind of example is that?

I don’t even know anymore… I didn’t hate Maddy, even if I didn’t relate to her or like her all that much. Gabe was a bit of a jerk a few times, though sweet with Maddy at the end. There were a lot of missteps with this book, but I didn’t hate it. I definitely thought it would be better, though.

A review copy was provided by the publisher, Swoon Reads. Thank you!

Review: Seth Baumgartner's Love Manifesto by Eric Luper

~3 of 5 Stars

Publisher: Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins)

Goodreads Synopsis:

Seth Baumgartner just had the worst day of his life.
His girlfriend dumped him (at Applebee's), he spied his father on a date with a woman who is not his mother (also at Applebee's!), and he lost his fourth job of the year. It's like every relationship he cares about is imploding, and he can't figure out what's going on.
To find answers, Seth decides to start an anonymous podcast called The Love Manifesto, exploring "what love is, why love is, and why we're stupid enough to keep going back for more." Things start looking up when Seth gets a job at a golf club with his hilarious and smut-minded best friend, Dimitri, and Dimitri's sister, Audrey. With their help, Seth tracks down his father's mystery date, hits the most infamous bogey in the history of golf, and discovers that sometimes love means eating the worst chicken-salad sandwich you can ever imagine.

Review:

 

This book was alright. I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped, but it wasn't bad.

It's about Seth, who is having a hard time. He's a boring guy on his own, but his girlfriend just broke up with him, and he's been seeing his father around town with a woman that is not his mother, and he's had a couple of fights with his best friend, Dimitri. But he's also started a podcast, the Love Manifesto, and has been getting close to Dimitri's little sister, Audrey.

Seth is alright. He's a bit of a jerk at times, but the thing I liked about him is that he learns from his mistakes. This is something that some people don't do a lot, and whenever he does something stupid (which is quite often, really), and it's pointed out that it was stupid, he feels bad and doesn't do it again. Like there was a scene with Caitlin, a girl that Seth is a bit of a jerk to, especially on his podcast, and she gets very pissed off about it. She does something quite awesome, and he feels bad about it. He doesn't even get mad about it. He also isn't too slow. Like he realizes how Audrey feels mostly on his own, and goes to do something about it. He does moan a bit about his father, but that's understandable. He also moans a bit about Veronica, his ex-girlfriend, which was a bit annoying. But she's a bit of a bitch, and I did not like her, so I mostly just wanted him to move on.

Dimitri, his friend, was alright. He's not a big jerk or too stupid or anything. But his sister Audrey, is quite awesome. The conversation between her and Seth was nice, and there's a sandwich thing that she does to him, which is kind of brilliant. And I did like her and Dimitri's relationship. And Kevin, a guy that she knows, was really interesting. Weird, but interesting.

Seth's father does something in this book, which I'm not going to explain in depth, but it's really bad of him. It's not what I was expecting, but it's not too much better, really. And I don't really believe him, either, or believe that nothing would happen between them. And it was sucky of him, and Seth's mother, for not telling Seth earlier.

One thing that really bothered me about this book, was the golf. This is probably just me, because I hate sports, of almost any kind. And there's several scenes in this book that are focused on golf, and I did not enjoy them.

There wasn't anything spectacular about the writing, it was fine. Also, Seth does podcasts, and parts of them are included in the book. They were interesting, and mostly just Seth talking about what's going on his life. And it gives a bit more insight to what he's thinking, since the book is written in third person.

So, I didn't love the book, but it was alright.

Review: The Loser's Guide to Life and Love: A Novel by A.E. Cannon

~3.5 of 5 Stars

Publisher: HarperTeen

Goodreads Synopsis:

Ordinary, boring Ed works a loser summer job at Reel Life Movies, where he doesn't even have his own name tag. He's stuck with "Sergio." Ed's only consolations are his two best friends. Shelving DVDs isn't so mind-numbingly dull with Scout cracking jokes, and after hours Ed hangs out with the superbrain, Quark. Life starts to look up when the girl of his dreams saunters into Reel Life. Ed knows he doesn't stand a chance . . . but maybe, just maybe Sergio does. All he has to do is pretend to be a smoldering Brazilian stud for the rest of his life. Simple, right? But . . . Ed's new dream girl has her own secrets, Scout wants to be more than Ed's best friend, and his buddy Quark wants Scout for himself.
Star-crossed crushes make for hilarious misunderstandings as Ed guides his life toward disaster in this fresh, contemporary twist on Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream.

Review:

The synopsis of this book makes it seem like it's all about Ed, but it's not. It's also in Scout's point of view, and has some little bits in Quark and Ellie's point of view. I really liked how it was done.

The book's about Ed, who wears a name tag that says Sergio at a movie store, and he works with Scout, his best friend. And his other best friend is Quark. And then Ellie comes to town for the summer, and she thinks his name is Sergio, and he thinks she's beautiful.

First, Ed. Ed is alright. He's a bit self-centered, and while very funny, patronizes Quark too much for my liking. And he's very oblivious to Scout throughout a bit of the book, but not too much. But he lies to Ellie, and that's not cool. But, like I said, he's funny, and he feels bad about it, and tries to fix things. He also wants to make movies, and he thinks up movie scenes several times throughout the book, and while not hilarious, they are entertaining.

Scout, who's name is actually Aurora Aurelia Arrington, is his best friend. She's a tomboy, and has always been one of the guys, but she's also a closet romantic. She likes 'screwball comedies', and she is embarrassed about reading Regency romance novels. And while wanting to hate Ellie, she can't. I actually liked her point of view a bit more than Ed's.

Ellie is staying with her aunt and her husband for the summer, to work with a voice coach, and to try and get over her ex-boyfriend, who cheated on her. We get letters in her point of view, letter that she sends to her mother and grandmother back home, and letters that she wants to send to the college boy who cheated on her. She's hurt, but she's still very sweet, to Ed and to Scout.

And, Quark. His name is actually Quentin Andrews O'Rourke, but is called Quark for short. He studies the moon, and the sky, and researches things, and is awkward and smart and tall. And when he decides he's fallen in love, he reads three romance novels for research. He's very quirky, and a bit adorable. And he's one of Ed's best friends, and they are close, but they still fight at times. (Boys are so weird.) And Ed especially gets on his nerves at times, which I understand, and Quark is even a little awesome at one point in the book about it.

Also, all of their families are cool, but we get the most time with Ed's. His little sister insults him almost every time she sees him, and his mom makes lots of jokes, all in good fun. Quark's dad seemed nice, as did Scout's mom, and Ellie's aunt and her husband. And the movie store that Ed and Scout work is pretty cool. They were awesome outfits, and work with T. Monroe, who is full of worry, and Ali, their boss.

I liked how the book is put together. There are chapters for Ed, and Scout, and lab entries for Quark, and e-mails/letters for Ellie, and it's also separated by days, from June 12^th to the 22^nd. And when in the chapters for Ed and Scout, it's a little like diary entries, because they are told as the characters are thinking over the events later, and there are points when they ask rhetorical questions, like to an audience. While the questions bothered me a little, I still liked it for the most part.

The book isn't very long, either, so it moves along at a steady pace. Meaning you don't have to wait till the end of the book for all of the action, although the ending is pretty satisfying. While the swoon wasn't amazingly high, that didn't bother me too much. And, besides the characters, the comedy aspect definitely kept me interested. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book, and how much different it was than I thought it would be. I was expecting more of an average, boy comedy book, but it had more variety, and while some things were obvious, it was still really good.

Review: I Now Pronounce You Someone Else by Erin McCahan

4.5 of 5 Stars

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books (Scholastic)

Goodreads Synopsis: 

Here Comes the Bride — If She Can Pass Chemistry.Eighteen-year-old Bronwen Oliver has a secret: She's really Phoebe, the lost daughter of the loving Lilywhite family. That's the only way to explain her image-obsessed mother; a kind but distant stepfather; and a brother with a small personality complex. Bronwen knows she must have been switched at birth, and she can't wait to get away from her "family" for good.
Then she meets Jared Sondervan. He's sweet, funny, everything she wants — and he has the family Bronwen has always wanted too. She falls head over heels in love, and when he proposes marriage, she joyfully accepts. But is Jared truly what she needs? And if he's not, she has to ask: What would Phoebe Lilywhite do?

Review: 

I love this book. I love it so much. Everything about it, really, even the parts that almost made me cry. (Which is something of a feat, I will admit, because I don't cry easily.)

Bronwen Oliver is the main character. Only she doesn't want to be Bronwen Oliver, she wants to be Pheobe Lilywhite, or Bronwen VanHorn, or maybe Bronwen Sondervan, She doesn't particularly get along with her mother, which is understandable because her mother doesn't try very hard and doesn't like to talk about things. She got along with her step-father at one point but is mostly just a little distant with him now. Her father died when she was little, but she isn't stuck on it even if she misses him. And she sees Jared Sondervan again, who is an old friend of her brother. Oh, and her brother Peter is Jesus, at least in her mothers mind.

Bronwen is trying to find herself, and accept who she is and trying to deal with that her mother won't accept who she really is. I'm a bit more cynical than she is, or a lot, really, but I still felt a connection with her. She's already figured out the relationship thing. You know, the one that says relationships are always good in the first few months, and you don't really get to know a person until that phase is over, and so you shouldn't say you love them until then. In the beginning of the book, she goes through this type of thing with Chad Dykstra, who just wants to have sex with her and so claims to love her. She doesn't fall for it, and I liked that.

She has a best friend, Kirsten, who gushes over everything with her. She's also very wary about Bronwen and Jared's relationship, and she talks about it with Bronwen. It might cause some problems between them, but I still liked this about her. Because she's a really good friend. (And, yea, I'm a bit envious.)

A big thing goes down near the end with Bronwen's Mother and Whitt, her step-father. Her Mother is kind of really terrible. I have a mother somewhat similar, not nearly as bad, but similar in the not listening thing. But I kind of hate her, especially because of what she did to Bronwen and Whitt. Whitt, however, is kind of awesome. He's sweet and he cares and he's funny. And it's not his fault for what happened, it's her Mothers.

Now, Jared. I love Jared. So much. He's so very sweet. And he loves Bronwen. They get along so well, too. The conversation between them is so easy, and he just goes along with all of her jokes and makes his own. They're just so cute together. He holds back kissing her for a while, and he wants to get to know her, and he loves her and wants to marry her. I love him, and I love their relationship. I want their relationship. As well as Jared's family. They care and are fun and love Bronwen like she's their own.

This book is very much about finding love as it is finding yourself. Because Bronwen finds herself, accepts herself, and she falls in love with Jared. There's a part near the end with Jared that almost made me cry, because it's so sad and I love them and they need to be together, but I know it was coming and it needed to happen because they weren't ready. But it's still heartbreaking to read.

The writing in this book is in Bronwen's point of view in the future, so she's talking about it all as she remembers it. It adds to the element of her learning all of these things. It's very smooth and calm and a bit heartbreaking.

I love this book. So very much, as I've already said. I have a bit in common with this book, and I would love to have even more in common with it. (Like Bronwen and Jared's relationship.) I think just about every teenage girls should read this book, it is that good.

Sidenote: One thing that bothered me about this book, was what it says on the back cover/inside flap, about 'if she can pass chemistry', because that's very misleading. School has very little to do with this book. It starts at the end of her junior year, then goes into the summer, and then through her senior year, and yea there's a bit about her going to college. But that doesn't have a whole lot to do with her relationship with Jared. Where she's going to college does, but she's already pretty set on that, and there isn't anything about her not passing. Very little of time is spent with her even at school. The cover is cute, though, even if the books don't have a lot to do with the story.