Waiting On Wednesday: The Last Best Story by Maggie Lehrman

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking The Spine where we highlight some of the upcoming books we can't wait to read!

Emily's Waiting on:

Title: The Last Best Story
Author: Maggie Lehrman
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: August 7th, 2018

Summary: Rose Regnero was a star reporter for her high school paper, destined for a career in journalism, when she abruptly quit two months ago, leaving behind her very-nearly-sort-of-boyfriend and editor-in-chief, Grant. Now she is trying to be normal at her senior prom, with a new boy and new interests, and isn’t looking back.
Grant was totally blindsided when Rose walked away from the Gazette. After all, they’d dedicated their lives to it for the past four years, had even planned on majoring in journalism together at Northwestern—which is why Grant is determined to entice Rose back. But whether it’s really to the paper or to him he’s not entirely sure.
When an alarm is set off at prom and the school goes on lockdown, Grant discovers that someone is loose in the building with a gun. But Rose, caught outside of the gym, knows differently. Will her instincts for a good story win out against her resolve to leave Grant and the paper behind?

After reading the summary for this book, I was intrigued by the fact the Rose quit so abruptly. Right away I wondered if there was a reason for her quitting. There has to be more than just saying you're done and leaving. I love novels like this that have little mysteries throughout. I feel that books like that keep me turning the page. Overall, this seems like a cute, easy read, good for a warm day on the beach (yes I'm aware it's March but a girl can dream). Be sure to leave your opinions below!

What are you waiting on this week? Leave your links so we can stop back!

Book Blitz & Giveaway: Sneaking Out by Chuck Vance!

Sneaking Out
Chuck Vance
(Chased, #1)
Published by: Dunemere Books
Publication date: March 6th 2018
Genres: Mystery, Young Adult

Could you sleep next to a murderer?
Luke Chase—yes, that Luke Chase, a modern hero ripped from the headlines—didn’t mean to get caught up in Mrs. Heckler’s murder. He just wanted to hook up with the hot new British girl at St. Benedict’s, and if that meant sneaking out to the woods after hours, then so be it. But little did he know someone would end up dead right next to their rendezvous spot, and his best friend and roommate Oscar Weymouth would go down for it. With suspects aplenty and a past that’s anything but innocent, Luke Chase reluctantly calls on his famous survival skills to find the true killer.
For fans of “A Study in Charlotte” and boarding school lit, “Sneaking Out” (book one in the “Chased” series) immerses readers in the privileged prep school world, with a mystery that exposes the dark side of life on a residential high school campus.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble

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EXCERPT:

Luke stood up and held out a hand to help Pippa up. He didn’t let go after she rose, and he clasped it firmly as they walked together. It didn’t feel awkward—he’d already held her hand a couple of times. He felt protective. They walked along in silence.
They passed a mailbox, its hinge squeaking in the wind. The wind had picked up a plastic bag, which was scraping along the road, dancing with the fallen leaves. Every noise was amplified.
Luke pulled Pippa toward him to avoid a ditch. It was then that Luke sensed something. He glanced over his shoulder, and saw the flash of someone jump behind a tree. Luke’s muscles tensed. They were being followed.
“Don’t turn around, but someone is behind us,” warned Luke. “On foot.”
He saw Pippa’s neck stiffen. “Who is it?” she whispered.
“Not sure, but let’s speed up.”
They started walking as fast as possible without running. Luke felt as if there was a bullseye on his back. Was the person who was following them crazy enough to do something to harm them? What if he had a gun?
They were about a block away from the nearest streetlight. Luke feared that if they walked under it, they would be completely exposed to whoever was following them. It seemed safer to remain in the shadows. He abruptly pulled Pippa diagonally across the street. They picked up their pace and stayed on course.
“We’ll be able to see who it is when they pass the streetlight,” said Luke.
“Do you think he crossed, too?”
Luke pricked his ears. He could hear a distant tap, tap. Footsteps. “No, he’s on the other side.”
They walked past the streetlight and up about thirty feet before stopping short and turning around. For a split second, they saw a figure bathed in the light, but then it darted to the side. It looked like a man, in a baseball hat. But he was too fast for them. Luke grabbed Pippa’s hand tightly.”
“We need to run.”

Author Bio:
Chuck Vance is a pseudonym for a bestselling writer of both adult mysteries and novels for young adults. Vance attended boarding school in Connecticut and graduated from Columbia University. Vance has lived in New York, Moscow, London, Paris and Los Angeles and is frequently on the move.

Website / Goodreads

GIVEAWAY!

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We'd like to thank the lovely team over at Xpresso for allowing us to be a part of this book blitz and giveaway!

ARC Review: If Only by Jennifer Gilmore

Title: If Only

Author: Jennifer Gilmore
Publisher: HarperTeen
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Hardcover, 288 Pages
Publication Date: July 31st, 2018

Summary: Before: When Bridget imagined her life at sixteen, it didn’t look like this. She didn’t think that her boyfriend would dump her for another girl. And she certainly didn’t think that she would be pregnant. With just a few months until she gives birth, Bridget must envision an entirely new future—one for her baby. But as she sifts through the many paths and the many people who want to parent her child, she can’t help but feel that there is no right decision. After: Ivy doesn’t know much about her birth mother. She knows that she is now the same age Bridget was when she placed Ivy for adoption. She knows that Bridget was the one who named her. And she knows that fifteen years ago Bridget disappeared from Ivy’s and her adoptive moms’ lives. Ivy wants to discover more about herself, but as she goes to find Bridget, she can’t help but feel that the risks might far outweigh the benefits of knowing where she comes from and why her birth mother chose to walk away.

I received an ARC of If Only from author Jennifer Gilmore in exchange for an honest review, and I'm really glad that I did -- I absolutely loved this book! It had me laughing, crying, and everything in between from start to finish. This is a heartwarming story of love, belonging, and even a strong sense of loss. This book certainly takes you on an emotional rollercoaster, and it does it in all the best ways.

As the summary explains, sixteen-year old Bridget finds herself pregnant and unsure of what to do, and she eventually makes the decision to put her daughter up for adoption. So the first half of the book takes you through Bridget's heartbreak, confusion, and struggle when figuring out what to do and trying to find the perfect family for her daughter.

And then the reader is taken into Ivy's perspective, sixteen years later -- the same age that her mother Bridget was when she put her up for adoption. Ivy, having never really known her birth mother at all, has a desire to know more about her, and maybe even meet her -- which would've been easy if it wasn't for the fact that Bridget completely dropped off the map.

So this book takes you through both Bridget and Ivy's struggles, as well as the struggles of several other characters in the book. (Which I'll talk more about in a little bit.) It's a really emotional, complicated, heartbreaking journey that this book takes you through, that's for sure.

My favorite part of this book was definitely the contemplation of the "if only" scenarios. The book explores several chapters contemplating what Ivy's life would have been like if she had been given to a different set of adoptive parents. It was really interesting to see how many things would be different in those scenarios, and even things that may have stayed the same. There were also a few little cross-references that you had to look out for but made you smile when you found them, like the piano man being ticketed in Washington Square Park appearing in an "if only" scene and also Ivy's present-day life. I just thought that it was really unique and interesting to contemplate what things would be different if Bridget had told differently -- but not in a simple little passing thought. There were entire scenes/chapters dedicated to these "if only" scenes, which I think was incredibly creative, unique, and kept me hooked onto the story from start to finish. 

I also really loved the wide array of perspectives that this book covered! In addition to the chapters contemplating Ivy's potential alternate lives, there were multiple perspectives that were explored throughout this book. Of course, there was Ivy and there was Bridget, but there were also Ivy's adoptive parents, and even another mother who gave a child up for adoption, but I'll refrain from talking more about that chapter at the risk of spoiling it -- but I can definitely tell you that it caught me off guard and I really appreciated it!

(Minor spoilers in this paragraph, so please skip this paragraph if you don't want the book spoiled for you!) The only thing I wished I had more of was an ending -- I wanted to find out exactly what happened when Ivy spoke to Bridget (and if she recognized her), especially if she came all the way to New York just to see her. I know that it was totally an artistic choice not to reveal the actual conversation, so it wasn't an issue of the writing at all, I'm just super nosy and wanted to know because that was something I was really excited to read. But I think that the way the book left off was certainly fitting, I just loved this story so much that I was sad to see it end!

Overall, I absolutely loved If Only. This book took me on an emotional rollercoaster and showed me a side of adoption that I had never considered before -- the struggles and the wondering and all of the things that someone can spend so much of their life not knowing the answers to. And, of course, how one decision can impact everything -- and it contemplates what would happen if you chose differently.

Hats off to If Only -- if this book isn't on your TBR already, it definitely should be!

Review: Bad Romance by Heather Demetrios

Title: Bad Romance

Author: Heather Demetrios
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Hardcover, 368 Pages
Published June 2017

Summary: Grace wants out. Out of her house, where her stepfather wields fear like a weapon and her mother makes her scrub imaginary dirt off the floors. Out of her California town, too small to contain her big city dreams. Out of her life, and into the role of Parisian artist, New York director—anything but scared and alone. Enter Gavin: charming, talented, adored. Controlling. Dangerous. When Grace and Gavin fall in love, Grace is sure it's too good to be true. She has no idea their relationship will become a prison she's unable to escape. Deeply affecting and unflinchingly honest, this is a story about spiraling into darkness—and emerging into the light again.

This book...I just finished it, and I immediately had to write my review while I was still reeling from it and all tangled up emotionally. Because, as emotional (and even sometimes scary) as this book was...this was important. This was something that definitely needed to be said.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. First, I'm going to explain a bit about this book before I go off rambling about all of the reasons it's so important. 

As the summary explains, Grace has a very tough home life, with a verbally abusive stepfather and a mother who sees imaginary dirt and allows it to consume her life. She spends a lot of her time being bossed around and taken advantage of, and she begins to feel invisible -- until she meets Gavin Davis, the rocker god and theater star of her high school. And then, slowly but surely, they fall in love, and Grace believes everything is perfect -- until it isn't. She finds herself in a slowly spiraling relationship with Gavin, something she can't get out of, and with each passing day, things get darker and darker, and she finds herself in a place that she isn't sure she wants to be.

This book takes you on an emotional roller coaster from start to finish, and that's what I loved so much about it. It was a bit confusing at first, since the entire piece is technically written to Gavin, so instead of saying his name, she would say things like "You used to do this" or "You said this to me." It took a little bit of getting used to, but I did, I quickly found myself enveloped in the story and unable to let go -- even staying up super late for the first time in ages because I couldn't put the book down! As the story spiraled deeper and deeper, I found myself completely shocked and appalled at the things Gavin did, and it was so heartbreaking and emotional to see how quickly things spiraled. 

My favorite characters in this story were definitely Grace's two best friends, Nat and Lys. They were Grace's voice of reason even when things got dark and she felt that she needed help -- most importantly, even in denial. It was heartwarming to see that among all this chaos, there were two girls that relentlessly stuck by Grace's side and refused to let her experience her problems alone. It made me fuzzy and warm and made me miss my best friends, who I should probably text right now, because I have to let them know that this book reminded me of how much I really love and appreciate them.

I also really liked Gideon! He was sweet and kind and funny and caring and never gave up, no matter how rocky things got. I definitely would've liked to see more of him in the end of the book, but hey, I'm glad I got what we got.

But yeah. This book is just a freaking emotional rollercoaster of thrills and horrors that had me hooked from the beginning until the very end. It was such a powerful story and I'm so grateful for the chance to have read it.

As for what I wasn't a big fan of in the book, I guess I just found it pretty frustrating that Grace was putting up with all of Gavin's shit, especially when he got super abusive and said a lot of things that really weren't okay. But I haven't ever been in a position like Grace has been before, so I can't say for sure that I would or wouldn't have made the choices she did. So there's certainly no judgement coming from me there -- it was just really frustrating and heartbreaking to see how quickly Grace was becoming a shell of her former self, in all aspects of her life -- with her friends, with Gavin, and even at home with her family. (Minor spoilers incoming, so please skip to the next paragraph if you don't want the story spoiled for you!) And when Gavin asked Grace to give up NYU? Or made those stupid rules about who she was/wasn't allowed to see? Or called her a bitch or a slut or a whore? Nuh-uh. I know that Gavin may have been a fictional character (even though Demetrios hinted that he is emblematic of her own abusive relationship that she found herself in during her youth), I wanted to reach through the book and beat the crap out of him, I was so angry. But that was the point. As an objective reader, I was able to see the things Grace maybe couldn't, and it got really frustrating from my objective standpoint. But, like I said, that was the point.

It was frustrating for a reason. The same way it's frustrating to watch someone you love fall down a rabbithole that they either refuse to acknowledge or can't even see. And it was utterly heartbreaking, but then became very, very empowering, as time went on. But you'll just have to read the book to see what I mean about that.

Overall, I really, really enjoyed Bad Romance. I wasn't sure what to expect when I started this book, but I quickly found myself enveloped in a thrilling (and terrifying) story of love, abuse, firsts, friendship, heartbreaks, and struggling to find your way in life even when things get hazy, and you find yourself in a situation that is incredibly difficult to get out of. If this book isn't on your TBR, I'd definitely recommend putting it on it, because this is a powerful story that everyone needs to read. 

(TW: Suicide, MH, depression, self-harm, sexual assault, stalking.)

I absolutely loved I'll Meet You There when I read it years ago (you can read my review by clicking here), and this is another incredibly powerful story by Heather Demetrios that shows exactly how we can find ourselves in tough situations, and how, with the help of our friends and those who care about us, we can push through and fight like hell.

February 2018 Wrap Up!

February is officially over, which means it's time for our second monthly wrap-up of the year! Let's get to it!

In February...

....We did more guest reviews!

We started featuring guest reviews from other readers and bloggers on The Book Bratz (2 or 3 each month) earlier this year, and SO many awesome people seemed interested that we opened it up again for February! If you're interested in guest reviewing for us, head over to the Contact Us tab and shoot us an email! :-)

This month, our guests reviewed Heartless, Reign the Earth, and Here We Are Now!

....We reviewed tons of great books!

This month, we reviewed No Matter The Wreckage, Here We Are Now, Without Merit, Love, Hate & Other Filters, and Snow Falling!

....We gushed over adorable love stories!

February is the month of love, so we celebrated by bringing back one of our favorite posts from last year -- in which we highlighted some of our favorite swoon-worthy reads, which you can check out by clicking here!

So, those are the things we did on The Book Bratz this February! Did you do a wrap up post of your own? If so, comment the link down below, and we'd love to check it out!

What was your favorite thing that we did on the blog this month? What are your recommendations for future posts/reviews? Comment down below and let us know! :-)

Now it's time for March!