Teaser Tuesday[202]: Through to You by Lauren Barnholdt

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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Through to You by Lauren Barnholdt
Genre: YA Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: 2014
Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Opposites attract—and then complicate—in this romantic, relatable novel from the author of Two-Way Street and Sometimes It Happens.

It starts with a scribbled note in class: I like your sparkle. Harper had casually threaded a piece of blue and silver tinsel through her ponytail in honor of school spirit day. And that carefree, corny gesture is what grabs Penn Mattingly’s eye. Penn—resident heartbreaker of the senior class. Reliably unreliable. Trouble with a capital “T.” And okay, smolderingly sexy.

Harper’s surprised by Penn’s attention—and so is Penn. The last thing he needs is a girlfriend. Or even a friend-with-benefits. The note is not supposed to lead to anything.

Oh, but it does. They hang out. They have fun. They talk. They make out. And after a while, it seems like they just click. But Penn and Harper have very different ideas about what relationships look like, in no small part because of their very different family backgrounds. Of course they could talk about these differences—if Penn knew how to talk about feelings.

Harper and Penn understand their attraction is illogical, yet something keeps pulling them together. It’s like a crazy roller coaster—exhilarating, terrifying, and amazing all at once. And neither knows how to stop the ride… 

Excerpt:

“‘Harper?’ I ask. ‘Do you want to talk to me?’
She bites her lip, and I can see her considering. Then, finally, she shakes her head.
I’m surprised to find that it cuts through me like a knife.” (Hardback, pg. 104)

What are you reading right now?

Wishlist Thursday[12]: Right of Way (Companion to Two-way Street) by Lauren Barnholdt

Right of Way (Companion to Two-way Street) by Lauren Barnholdt

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Simon Pulse)

Publish Date: July 9^th, 2013

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

Goodreads Synopsis:

Can a road trip repair a romance gone wrong? Find out in this standalone companion to Lauren Barnholdt’s Two-way Street.

Here are Peyton and Jace, meeting on vacation. Click! It’s awesome, it’s easy, it’s romantic. This is the real deal.

Unless it isn’t. Because when you’re in love, you don’t just stop calling one day. And you don’t keep secrets. Or lie. And when your life starts falling apart, you’re supposed to have the other person to lean on.

Here are Peyton and Jace again, broken up but thrown together on a road trip. One of them is lying about the destination. One of them is pretending not to be leaving something behind. And neither of them is prepared for what’s coming on the road ahead…

Why?:

I’ve read several of Barnholdt’s books and enjoyed them; the first in this series was my first of hers, and my favorite, so I’m looking forward to reading it. I should probably re-read the first book, since I don’t remember the main character in this one at all, but I don’t know if I will. Either way, I’m looking forward to reading it.

Review: Watch Me (Previously known as Reality Chick) by Lauren Barnholdt

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Simon Pulse)

Spoilers?: Minor

Goodreads Synopsis:

 She thinks she has nothing to hide…

Ally has everything under control. She’s about to move into a house full of strangers and have her life broadcast to the world, but as long as she still has her long-distance boyfriend, Corey, nothing can go wrong. Nothing, that is, until Ally starts spending time with her housemate Drew, the hot and sensitive guy who always seems to be around when she needs someone the most.

As suspicions and lies start pulling Ally and Corey apart, she’s not sure if she can trust anyone, not even herself. Ally is about to learn the hard way that life is what happens when everyone is looking, and it doesn’t always capture her good side….

Review:

I've read two other books by Barnholdt, and enjoyed one more than the other. And still enjoy that one over this one. (It was Two-Way Street, and am I excited for the companion novel? Yes!) This one wasn't bad, though. It was probably better than the second one I read, but not amazing.

Watch Me is about Ally, who is starring in a reality show with other college freshmen. She has a boyfriend of two years, who is going to a different college in another state, but believes they'll stay together. She starts growing closer with her roommates, two of which are girls, and one of the two boys, while growing a little distant from her boyfriend. And, of course, learning to deal with a camera always following her around and not knowing what is going to be shown on television, while also trying to make other friends.

Ally was alright. She wasn't dumb, but was a little naïve, and not one of my favorite characters. I did like her gay best friend, Grant, and I liked her girl roommates. I also liked Drew, the nice boy roommate, and thought things moved along nicely between them, especially with how things were at the end. The ending of the book was good, though, what with none of them jumping into anything, just taking it all slowly.

Her boyfriend, Corey, I think could have been nicer. He started becoming a bit of a jerk, and I don't think the cheating thing was really expanded upon as much as it could have been. But maybe that was because, at that point, it just wasn't as important to her anymore as everything else? And James, her other boy roommate. He was a jerk, and I was thinking that we would see some actual likable things about him, but we didn't. Which is alright, I guess.

I like how Barnholdt wrote out with the Then and Now parts, but feel that I would have liked having multiple points-of-view. With only being in Ally's head, it made it seem like the whole show was about her, but there were several other people cameras on them, and I would have liked to know what they were doing and taking things.

I liked seeing what Ally thought in the present, as opposed to during the filming, but it made everything seem worse than it was. For certain points, like when she was being dramatic, it was nice, but other times only made it seem more ominous than was needed. The beginning, for instance, made it seem like some big tragic thing was going to happen, but it didn't. There was some drama, but not as much as it made it seem like there would be.

And, while I do like Barnholdt's writing, which makes her books easy to get through and interesting, it's a little repetitive. She used phrases/words like 'I mean' and 'sketch' several times, which bothered me a bit. And she uses a bit of stereotypes in her stories, what with being popular and not and making that into a big deal with her characters and the people around them. She uses it in a couple of her books, not just this one, which bothers me a bit.

I did enjoy the book, though. It wasn't amazing, but it was good, and I am planning on reading her other books.