New Adult

Just One Year by Gayle Forman

I waited a long time to read this.

In Forman’s Just One Day, we met Allyson – a fresh high school graduate on a European adventure with her best friend. The student travel company didn’t take the group through Paris, much to Allyson’s chagrin, so when a couple of chance encounters with a seemingly professional traveler (and all-around hot guy), Willem, lead to a chance to go to Paris she can’t pass it up. And that day, even though it was just one day, was magical. But when an accident happens that separates the two before they say their proper goodbyes, Allyson spends a long time looking for Willem again. It’s really, really good. It made me want to go to Paris – and all around Europe in general – even more than I already did.

Now, since the story of Just One Day focused on Allyson, a lot of questions were left unanswered about Willem… and he’s really a fascinating character. In Just One Year, we get to see his side of the whole story. Why he was travelling aimlessly, how he felt about Allyson (though he only knew her as Lulu). Where he goes to look for her. How he restores a broken relationship with his mother. How he grows up and becomes someone ready for Lulu if he finds her.

I really liked this, but I do wish there’d been more of Willem and Lulu together. I mean, because of the ending of Just One Day, we go into this one sort of knowing how it’ll end… or at least that they WILL, eventually, be reunited.  But I really was hoping they’d find each other like halfway through so we could spend time with them together. I want to see them succeed and be in love and all.

That being said, though, Just One Year is beautifully written. It takes a character that was unforgettable but questionable in Just One Day and makes me absolutely adore the person he is – what he’s gone through in the past, what he goes through during the course of the book, and what he sets himself up for in a future with Allyson. Plus, we get to travel to all sorts of beautiful places with him, which I loved. Forman does a great job of making every new location jump off the page.

Overall, I really like this set of books. I do hope Forman has plans for a third so we can really see Willem and Allyson together… or even a companion novel where they show up as minor characters. They become people you care about and want to see again, which says a lot about how well Forman writes them.

Check it out from your local book store or online. You can find it here at Amazon.

(Never) Again by Theresa Paolo

This is a great New Adult title full of swoony romance, college life, and difficult decision making.

Liz is perfectly happy with her group of friends, her somewhat stable boyfriend, and life in general. She had a great high school romance that teenage girls dream of… until her boyfriend, Zach, moved away and eventually just stopped calling, ripping her heart out and ruining her senior year of high school. When he shows up again, all the old feelings of love and pain show up again with him. Liz quickly goes from actually being ok to just pretending to be ok as Zach refuses to go away and let her forget him.

It takes Liz a while to finally realize what the reader knows almost instinctively – Zach let her go in senior year to protect her, not to hurt her. While I definitely wanted to scream at Liz a few times for being so very stubborn and relactant to forgive Zach, I also understood her hesitancy and desire to not let herself be hurt again.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this and recommend it. I’m looking forward to reading more from Theresa Paolo.

Where the Stars Still Shine by Trish Doller

This.

It’s beautiful.

If you were wondering what you should do this weekend, it’s this. Buy it, curl up with some comfort food and a blanket, and dive in.

Callie is a seventeen year old girl that commands attention from page one as you get a glimpse into her life on the run – constant homelessness caused my her mom’s need to run and only enough possessions to fill a small thrift store suitcase. Heartbreaking.

And then a routine traffic violation turns into a life-changing event for Callie and her mom, and Callie is face to face with a father she’d grown up thinking didn’t love her and the sad reality of what life with her mom has been in comparison to what life with her dad could have been.

Through the overwhelming and in-your-face love of a larger than life Greek family, an incredibly hot and somewhat mysterious guy, a rediscovered preschool best friend, and a seriously cute community with a seriously cool book store, Callie is able to find the healing that she needs to move on with the decision she now faces: her mom or her dad?

By the time I finished this (which was on the same day I started because I just couldn’t stop), there were happy tears in my eyes and a good book hangover was in full force. I mean, I don’t give out many five star ratings on Goodreads, but I didn’t even hesitate for this one. I just loved it. And I also really wanted to travel to Tarpon Springs, Florida for some touristy sponge shopping and authentic Greek food.

Trish Doller has set herself pretty firmly on my list of must-read authors with this one. She deals with heavy topics in this YA/NA novel without making it depressing. She writes a raw, swoony romance that feels real, yet isn’t the saving grace of the protagonist – the romance isn’t what makes Callie ok, it just plays a part. That’s refreshing.

From the cover to the first page to the author’s notes in the end (which, honestly, I usually skip but didn’t this time), Where the Stars Still Shine is enthralling and charming and beautiful.

Click here to find it on Goodreads and here to find it on Amazon.

Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols

This review was originally published on She Reads, where I write guest YA/Teen Fiction reviews.

First of all, let’s take a second to love this book cover. There’s not even an ounce of musical talent in me, and yet I look at this and I want to BE that girl. I don’t know what it is, and I don’t even love country music, but… it’s just too cool.

In Dirty Little Secret, Jennifer Echols (who’s quickly becoming one of my favorite authors ever) takes us on a trip to the heart of Nashville’s music scene to watch the heartbreakingly beautiful beginnings of a great romance.

Bailey, an eighteen year old with unbelievable fiddle-playing talent, has been sent to live with her grandfather while her parents tour around with her younger sister, Julie, who was picked over Bailey for a recording contract. As part of Julie’s coming rise to fame, their parents and the recording company have essentially asked Bailey to give up what she loves best – playing music. When Bailey meets Sam, who just happens to be both devastatingly handsome and also the front man of a band in need of a fiddle player, she can’t quite resist being pulled back into the music scene.

The resulting story is a fascinating one full of characters I’d love to spend a week with, enjoying the Nashville music scene and hearing what must be some excellent music. Echols is a master at writing romantic relationships – from the moment the two characters meet each other, discover the chemistry, all the way up until they’re finally actually together – you feel like you’re there with them. Like you’re a part of the story instead of just watching it.

Echols writes romantic dramas (like this one) for MTV Books and romantic comedies for Simon Pulse. She also writes adult novels, one of which is the beginning of a series involving PR agents for celebrities behaving badly, called Star Crossed. No matter which Echols book you pick up, you’ll enjoy it, but I can’t recommend Dirty Little Secret enough. It’s definitely my favorite of hers so far!

Reasons I Fell For the Fat Funny Friend by Cassie Mae (writing under the pen name of Becca Ann)

Several weeks ago, I wrote about the New Adult genre – what it is, what I love about it, what I wish was different about it – and introduced you all to Cassie Mae, author of Friday Night Alibi.

Well, I enjoyed Friday Night Alibi so much that I looked up Cassie Mae’s other titles and was intrigued by this story. Now I’ll say that I usually shy away from stories featuring protagonists that stress about their weight and obsess over it and try to go on diets and are generally annoying and cause me stress as the reader. This isn’t like that. At all.

In this, Hayley (dubbed the funny fat friend because she sets her friends up on dates but doesn’t go on any for herself) holds tight to a crush on her sign language partner, Brody. She knows, though, that Brody has a huge crush on his brother’s ex… so she offers to help him get a date with her even though it will amount to torture for Hayley.

What I really like about this book is that we get to hear Brody’s point of view, which is a breath of fresh air. I don’t want to say too much more for fear of ruining any surprises, because really I liked this that much. It wasn’t your stereotypical kind of overweight girl story, and it had a true and really satisfying depth to it.

I really, really, really recommend this for high school girls and especially any young (or not so young) woman who struggles with confidence in their physical appearance, even if it’s not weight. There was just something really special about watching Hayley come through the story better in the end than she was when it began. It’s available on Amazon here, both in kindle and print editions.

New Adult fiction and one excellent title to start with… Friday Night Alibi by Cassie Mae

A new genre has been created. Young Adult used to cover a broad range of ages, from lower middle school up into college. As we all know, a sixth grader is light years away from a college student in maturity, interests, culture… Having one genre to cover all of those ages was a bit too much.

So, with the ever growing interest in young adult fiction (because it’s awesome), you’ll see some subdivisions branching out. Middle grades and Teen Fiction are fairly self explanatory, but what about New Adult? 
New Adult is the term that is used for books with protagonists and characters in that post-high school but pre-career and marriage time of life. They’re older, more mature, and wresting with very adult issues, but they’re still young. They don’t have everything figured out and they don’t always know where they’re going, but they’re making progress. 
I think this new genre is great. I’ve enjoyed reading a dozen or so new adult titles already, and the issues dealt with in these books are close enough to issues I still deal with in my thirties that I can relate easily to the characters. I think it’s unfortunate, though, that many new adult authors are putting heavy doses of graphic sexuality and foul language in their titles. It reminds me of a child actress going out and thinking she has to do nude scenes in adult movies before she’s seen as fully grown up. It’s annoying, especially when it just seems extraneous in the middle of a really good story. 
One new adult title I can whole heartedly recommend, though, is Friday Night Alibi by Cassie Mae. In this book, we get all of the romance and drama and happy we want, without sex scenes that border on pornographic. I’m looking forward to reading more from Cassie Mae!