Review and Excerpt Tour with Giveaway: The Impossible Vastness of Us by Samantha Young @AuthorSamYoung @InkSlingerPR

   

From New York Times bestselling author Samantha Young comes a story of friendship, identity, and acceptance that will break your heart—and make it whole again. Order your copy of THE IMPOSSIBLE VASTNESS OF US today!

   

About THE IMPOSSIBLE VASTNESS OF US:

“I know how to watch my back. I’m the only one that ever has.”

India Maxwell hasn’t just moved across the country—she’s plummeted to the bottom rung of the social ladder. It’s taken years to cover the mess of her home life with a veneer of popularity. Now she’s living in one of Boston’s wealthiest neighborhoods with her mom’s fiancé and his daughter, Eloise. Thanks to her soon-to-be stepsister’s clique of friends, including Eloise’s gorgeous, arrogant boyfriend Finn, India feels like the one thing she hoped never to be seen as again: trash.

But India’s not alone in struggling to control the secrets of her past. Eloise and Finn, the school’s golden couple, aren’t all they seem to be. In fact, everyone’s life is infinitely more complex than it first appears. And as India grows closer to Finn and befriends Eloise, threatening the facades that hold them together, what’s left are truths that are brutal, beautiful, and big enough to change them forever…

   

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My Review:

My rating:  5 stars

Samantha Young has been one of my favorite authors since I first read her book On Dublin Street only a little over a year ago.  From that point on I devoured her books, mostly through audio the first time.  One of my all-time book boyfriends, above almost all others - probably top 3, Nate Sawyer, came from her book Before Jamaica Lane.  While I was sent an egalley of this book to read and review for the tour, when I found someone willing to trade a physical ARC, I jumped on that chance since I had to have at least one physical ARC of one of my favorite author's books.  The way she writes both the characters as well as the events in the story always leads to an emotional and memorable read.  If I had not had any other responsibilities, such as work, this is one I would have read in one sitting.  In fact I read it in about 3 sittings, as each time I was barely able to put it down for anything else.  I read the last 100 pages in one sitting, at the park near my house, in my car, where I knew there would be no one to distract me from reading.  And that last part of the book was packed full of tear-jerking scenes, where anyone who had seen me sitting in my car crying might have wondered just what was going on.

I feel all of the characters and most of the reactions were pretty realistic.  There wasn't anything that was way out there, used just to create drama for the story.  Honestly everything that happened was something that I could see happening in real life, or maybe had actually seen happen to others around me, or to myself.  Nothing in the extreme bad things, just the way that people reacted to situations is very realistic to me.  Even the mean girl, yeah, she was kinda a mean girl, and her friends knew it, and would call her on it.  The reaction of people to finding out someone in their life was a different person then they'd been led to believe, that their very best friend had lied to them, well, it was pretty true to human nature.  Young really had a great grasp on real life and how people interact.  I'm so excited to finally have a book by her that I can definitely put in my high school library and share with my students.  Hopefully alerting them to an author they will also fall in love with and pick up every book she writes from now on.

A wonderfully emotional story, showing that it doesn't matter what walk of life you come from, the things you keep hidden about yourself can be the same, and do affect you and the rest of your life just as much as they do anyone else.

Giveaway:

• Signed hardback copy of THE IMPOSSIBLE VASTNESS OF US, Umbrella and Raindrop Necklace and Bubblegum Blue Fuji INSTAX for 1 Winner 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

       

Samantha Young’s THE IMPOSSIBLE VASTNESS OF US – Review and Excerpt Tour

June 19^th

BookWorm221 – Review and Excerpt

Clare's Mad About Books – Review and Excerpt

Joyful Shimmy – Review and Excerpt

Little Red's Reviews – Review and Excerpt

Naturally Nerdy Books – Review and Excerpt

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Book Boyfriends – Review and Excerpt

June 20^th

Beware Of The Reader – Review and Excerpt

Books For The Living – Review

Kindle and Me – Review and Excerpt

Melissa's Book Obsession – Review

Read more sleep less – Review

To Be Reviewed Books – Review and Excerpt

June 21^st

A Fortress of Books – Excerpt

Becky on Books – Excerpt

Enjoying life a day at a time – Review

Mustreadbooksordie – Review and Excerpt

MrsLeif's Two Fangs AboutItBook Reviews – Review and Excerpt

SJ's Book Blog – Excerpt

June 22^nd

Actin' Up with Books – Review

Books,Dreams,Life – Excerpt

Fiction Fare – Review and Excerpt

Movies, Shows, & Books – Excerpt

Take Me Away To A Great Read – Review and Excerpt

What Is That Book About – Excerpt

June 23^rd

A Literary Perusal – Review and Excerpt

Adventures in Writing – Excerpt

BJ's Book Blog – Review and Excerpt

Ficwishes – Review

Kimberly's Hot Reads – Review and Excerpt

Read, Write, Design – Review and Excerpt

June 24^th

Ali's Reviews and More – Review and Excerpt

Crazii Bitches Book Blog – Review and Excerpt

Lacey's Love Of Literature – Review and Excerpt

Nose Stuck in a Book – Review and Excerpt

Reading Between the Wines Book Club – Excerpt

Tales of the Ravenous Reader – Review and Excerpt

June 25^th

All Romance Reviews – Review and Excerpt

Book Lovers Hangout – Review and Excerpt

PBC – Excerpt

Ramblings From This Chick – Excerpt

TSK TSK What to Read – Review and Excerpt

With Love for Books – Review

June 26^th

Angie and Jessica's Dreamy Reads – Review and Excerpt

Book Reader Chronicles – Review and Excerpt

Calling All Bookaholics – Review and Excerpt

Liezel – Review and Excerpt

Reads and Reviews – Review

The Readdicts – Review and Excerpt

June 27^th

4 the Love of Reading – Review and Excerpt

ADDICTED TO BOOKS – Review and Excerpt

Lisa Loves Literature – Review

Miss Riki – Review and Excerpt

Peace Love Books – Review

The Inked In Book Blog – Review and Excerpt

June 28^th

Bookalicious Babes Blog – Review and Excerpt

Greyland Reviews – Excerpt

Literary lust – Review

My Girlfriends Couch – Review and Excerpt

Read Love Blog – Review and Excerpt

The Life of a BooknerdAddict – Review and Excerpt

June 29^th

Author Groupies – Review

Blushing babes are up all – Review and Excerpt

Book Enticer – Review and Excerpt

The Book Avenue – Review and Excerpt

The Review Loft – Review and Excerpt

Three chicks and their books – Review and Excerpt

June 30^th

I Read Indie – Excerpt

Shh Moms Reading – Review and Excerpt

The Bookish Introvert – Review

Total Book Geek – Review and Excerpt

Vi3tbabe – Review and Excerpt

Witchy Richey's Booktastic Reviews – Review and Excerpt

July 1^st

Book Babes Unite – Review and Excerpt

Cocktails and Books – Review and Excerpt

Dog-Eared Daydreams – Review

Southern Belle Book Blog – Excerpt

The Fairest of All Book Reviews – Review and Excerpt

About Samantha Young:

Samantha Young is the New York Times,  USA Today  and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of adult contemporary romances, including the On Dublin Street series and Hero, as well as the New Adult duology Into the Deep and Out of the Shallows.  Every Little Thing, the second book in her new Hart’s Boardwalk series, will be published by Berkley in March 2017. Before turning to contemporary fiction, she wrote several young adult paranormal and fantasy series, including the amazon bestselling Tale of Lunarmorte trilogy. Samantha’s debut YA contemporary novel The Impossible Vastness of Us will be published by Harlequin TEEN in ebook and hardback June 2017. Samantha has been nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award 2012 for Best Author and Best Romance for On Dublin Street, Best Romance 2014 for Before Jamaica Lane, and Best Romance 2015 for Hero. On Dublin Street, a #1 bestseller in Germany, was the Bronze Award Winner in the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2013, Before Jamaica Lane the Gold Medal Winner for the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2014 and Echoes of Scotland Street the Bronze Medal Winner for the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2015. Samantha is currently published in 30 countries and is a #1 international bestselling author.  

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Review: Cut Me Free by J.R. Johansson

I am a big fan of Johansson ever since I first read the copy of Insomnia that I won.  When I saw her post about how we could contact her publisher about possible getting an early e-galley of this title, Cut Me Free, I immediately had to contact and see about getting a copy. Then wouldn't you know it, they made it available on Netgalley, and I think maybe on Edelweiss as well.  This is a very intense story.  A lot of emotion in it, and at times a bit tough to read.

The main character is 17 year old Piper. At least she thinks she's 17, and she thinks her name is Piper, or it was. She starts the story by asking for a new identity, which gives her the name Charlotte.  Charlotte is on the run from her abusive parents, that she called The Mother and The Father. And it is not just that she's running to escape being abused.  She doesn't have to worry about that anymore, because she killed them when she was leaving.  She finally couldn't take it anymore when her younger brother Sam died because of them.  So now she's in a city and looking to disappear.  Piper never went to school, but she tried her best to teach herself with books and things her grandmother had given her.  Her grandmother tried to help her, until again Piper's parents left her to die from her cancer.

Piper/Charlotte goes to someone she's heard is the best for help.  And he just happens to be a pretty attractive boy named Cam.  Charlotte isn't big on people touching her, she's just barely used to being out in the open with lots of other people around. And she's still very paranoid that maybe her father didn't die, and maybe he is after her.  Cam helps her out with a new identity, and he wants to help her even more.  But she doesn't want to let him.  While she is out getting her new apartment, she sees a little girl that she can tell is dealing with abuse like she was.  And in her head, the voice of Sam, tells her that she has to help the girl.  But in helping the girl, Sanda, while she may be doing something to help quell her feelings of not being there to save Sam, she also may be letting another bad person into her life.  She sets the apartment on fire after knocking the guy out, and while she assumes he dies in the fire, again like with her father, she doesn't know for sure.

And the reason she thinks someone is still out there?  She starts getting little notes, and someone tries to break into her apartment.  The notes and other things left in her apartment seem to be only something a person from her past could leave because they are things that very few people would know.  So Charlotte must learn to be her new self, take care of Sanda, and deal with Cam and his seemingly supportive personality that is intrigued by her.

This is a very intense read.  The beginning was kind of hard to read, as you got to hear about some of the things Charlotte/Piper went through.  How her life was, and then finding out what Sanda has gone through, and feeling so sorry for this little girl.  You want so bad for Cam to be able to help her out, but it is easily understandable to see why Charlotte acts the way she does.  Even though as I read I kept saying in my head, try to trust him, just try!  This is a very realistic fiction with a very important theme, one that unfortunately is probably more true than any of us outside this type of a situation may know.

While you're here, don't forget to enter my 5th Blogoversary Giveaway, just click on the picture below.

And I also have a sign up for a Blog Hop and my September is for Sequels Challenge for you to sign up for with the buttons below.

Review: Docket No. 76 by Arita M. L. Bohannan

I received a copy of this book from the author, well her husband actually, who I was friends with in college, in exchange for an honest review.  This is her first published novel, I'm not sure if she's written much in the past or this was her first attempt.  While it isn't the type of book I really read these days, as you know my blog followers, I mostly read YA lately.  But it wasn't a bad read at all.  It was a quick read, it flowed pretty naturally.  For a first time book I was pretty impressed!  Something I do complain about a lot is when the conversation and writing in the story sounds like someone is trying to write a formal paper for an English class in school.  This one didn't start out like that at all!  There were a few times towards the end that I kind of noticed it, and I notice that because it makes it not roll smoothly in my head as I'm reading it.  Does that make sense?  But it didn't do that at all until the very end, and so I was really into it and enjoying it by then, enough that I could ignore it in order to find out how it was going to end.

The main character is an Assistant District Attorney in New Orleans named Sandra Morgan.  But the story actually starts with the aftermath of the crime.  A young girl named Dori has been found by a family friend with duct tape on her wrists and she is bleeding and passed out.  This family friend is named Lee Lawson.  He is a well respected man in the town, but the fact that he is found holding the little girl, he is immediately the first suspect.  At least to the lead detective on the case, Detective Curtis, he is the first suspect.  But he rules him out after speaking with him, and even after meeting with the parents and seeing how they react to him.  Soon someone else is caught, a man named Gurganus.  His DNA is on the duct tape, and there are even fingerprints found.  When Sandra goes to the first hearing, and sees Gurganus for the first time, it brings back immediately what happened to her as a child, in such a personal way, because Gurganus is the man that assaulted her.  Only he got away with it, because she was too scared to speak at the trial when she was supposed to be testifying.  But she was a little girl, so while anyone would understand, she blames herself, especially knowing now that he has probably continued doing this to other little girls, including Dori. So we get to go through the case with them, and see how the judge will rule.  And based on that ruling, how will the rest of Sandra's life, as well as Dori's life, be affected?

I could totally see this as an episode of some tv court drama.  It was a pretty quick case in a way, with the amount of what happened in the book, so it would definitely fit on an hour long show I would think.  I think the descriptive language used in the book was great, you knew exactly what people looked like, and you could tell the author really knows New Orleans by the way she described it.  I did have a few times that it made me smile as I was reading. The character Lee Lawson, well his last name is that of one of the author and her husband's friends, a guy that I also know.  And the way he was described in the story fit a lot of the same characteristics as the actual person.  So it was fun to see some of the personal things in the story as well.

If you're looking for a quick lawyer type of story, this will be a good read for you.  If you want to buy it, you can get it from Barnes and Noble HERE.  And this also again inspires me to get going on my novel and get it done!!

Gateway 4: Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas

I had seen this book at the store and thought it looked interesting. And it was good. I can see that teens would enjoy it, even if I was left somewhat just okay with it. This is the story of Anke and her family. Her father is abusive to her older brother and sister, but doesn't really do much to her, in fact, as the title says, it's like he doesn't even see her. And while she knows what he does to her siblings, sees the bruises, hears him in her sister's room at night, she sometimes feels this means he loves them and not her. She decides to try out and makes the school volleyball team, she's so tall, she's a shoe-in. Her father tells her competition is not good, but doesn't ever actually forbid her, and as always, doesn't turn on her and hurt her in any way for it. No one in the family says anything to try to end this. Until the day that her father does turn on her.

The book is written in poems, reminiscent of the Ellen Hopkins stories, Crank, Glass, etc. So I can see it being a very popular book with kids.

Confessions of a Praire Bitch by Alison Arngrim

Like many others my age, I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie in syndication reruns during the summer when I was younger. Nellie Oleson was the character you loved to hate, but you just loved the episodes when she was in it. This is the biography of the actress, Alison Arngrim, who played Nellie. It started out of course with her life before anything to do with the show. It was so neat to read about her parents and what characters they were. It was sad to read about the sexual abuse she endured from her older brother.

Then we get into the time on the show. I had heard that Michael Landon wasn't quite the "perfect" guy he played on the show of course, not that he was a horrible guy or anything according to Arngrim. To hear he was really kind of a short man, and that he was a practical joker, was just so interesting. I enjoyed reading about the friendship between Arngrim and Melissa Gilbert who I just recently saw perform as Ma in the Broadway show Little House on the Prairie at Starlight theater here in Kansas City. I was intrigued to read that Melissa Sue Anderson wasn't quite as friendly and nice as her goody goody character of Laura's older sister Mary on the show. In fact, if she has a biography, I'd be interested in reading it to hear her side of the story.

I do remember when the man who played Percival, Nellie's husband on the show, passed away from AIDS. I remember how active Arngrim had become in AIDS work at that time. But that's not all. When she talks about how there was actually a law that gave incest a break, I was shocked! Amazing to me that anyone ever thought that was okay. The organization was called Protect, and it started basically with one man fighting one state's law from his car with his cell phone. Arngrim became the face and spokesperson for continuing this work in the state of California. And she got this horrible thing overturned. If you're interested in helping this group out, you can go to http://www.protect.org/.

Arngrim has a humorous voice in her biography and it was a quick read that I wanted to pick it up and read during commercials so I got through it quickly once I had some time to read. It is also my current book recommendation at Barnes and Noble, we just need to get a few more ordered in. I was excited to hear last night that my last book rec, Gone by Michael Grant had been a huge seller. Not sure if that's because of me or not, although I do know one friend I teach with had purchased it because of me, it's still cool to hear.

Now not sure what to read next. I want to check out the Passage by Justin Cronin, but I feel like I should go ahead and read my classic, Les Miserables. But then, not sure if my brain is ready for it. Maybe I'll pick up another fun read till I go into the store again to check out The Passage.