Welcome to my stop on The Promise of Amazing blog tour hosted by The Fantastic Flying Book Club!
You can follow the full tour HERE!
You can follow the full tour HERE!
Release Date: December 31, 2013
Publisher: Balzar + Bray
Pages: 384
Genre: YA Contemporary Romance
Source: Netgalley
Purchase: Amazon
Haunt Author:
Wren Caswell is average. Ranked in the middle of her class at Sacred Heart, she’s not popular, but not a social misfit. Wren is the quiet, “good” girl who's always done what she's supposed to—only now in her junior year, this passive strategy is backfiring. She wants to change, but doesn’t know how.
Grayson Barrett was the king of St. Gabe’s. Star of the lacrosse team, top of his class, on a fast track to a brilliant future—until he was expelled for being a “term paper pimp.” Now Gray is in a downward spiral and needs to change, but doesn’t know how.
One fateful night their paths cross when Wren, working at her family’s Arthurian-themed catering hall, performs the Heimlich on Gray as he chokes on a cocktail weenie, saving his life literally and figuratively. What follows is the complicated, awkward, hilarious, and tender tale of two teens shedding their pasts, figuring out who they are—and falling in love.
Wren works for her mother helping cater weddings. While at work one night, Grayson Barrett chokes on an appetizer and she gives him the heimlich maneuver and saves his life. After that Grayson is a bit obsessed with her and wants to be with her. Wren feels average and isn't so sure of his feelings. Her friends Maddie and Jas have been trying to get her to move on from her last breakup.
Grayson has a bit of a troubled past. He was expelled and some of his friends want him to get back into some of the bad things they were doing. Grayson makes it his mission to find Wren and thank her for saving his life. He likes her but he wants to at least be friends. I felt like he went a bit far with putting himself in her path but I know I've heard lots of similar stories about how real life couples met. My grandfather actually did something similar with my grandmother. He just saw her and knew he wanted her so he would show up at her house even when she had a date with another guy.
Wren finds Grayson hot and begins falling for him really fast as well. I didn't feel like it was insta-love until they did started saying the L word a little too soon for me. But teenagers do feel things strongly. I feel like this probably will be a book for the actual young adult crowd. It felt a little young and cheesy at times but I still enjoyed myself reading it. They were a cute couple even though it progressed a bit quick for my tastes. I also enjoyed Wren's best friends.
The book feels like a very strong romance and most of the plot surrounds that. There was also some back story about Grayson and he gets pulled into his troubled past. I felt like that plot point was really built up and then it resolved in kind of an easy way. One of his friends, Luke, kept insisting he come back and I never really figured out why. He kind of let it all go at the end and moved on and I didn't understand why he wouldn't just leave Grayson alone to begin with. It seemed like Luke's purpose was just to cause tension between Wren and Grayson. The ending does wrap everything up nicely. Overall it was a cute romance and I enjoyed it.
"Are you stalking me or something?"
"Ha...Well, I'd rather think of it as strategically putting myself in your path so we can be friends...But if you want to call it stalking, okay."
"So if I had said, I've got a key to the cottage; we can be alone, you would have said, Sure, let's go?"
"I'd go anywhere for you, Wren." he whispered.
And then he kissed me.
"I want to be with you. Period."
Rating: 3/5
Robin Constantine is a born and bred Jersey girl who moved down South so she could wear flip-flops year round. She spends her days dreaming up stories where love conquers all, well, eventually but not without a lot of peril, angst and the occasional kissing scene.
Her YA debut, THE PROMISE OF AMAZING, will be released in 2014 by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
~Giveaway~
Hi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your honest and lovely review. And thank you for being part of the FFBC Team :)
- Patri
I think we felt very similar about this one Jennifer, it was cute but not mind blowing.
ReplyDeleteGreat review!
Enjoyed the excerpt and romance is always an easy relaxing story to read
ReplyDeleteI haven't read this yet, but agree about the insta-love thing. Teens DO tend say it rather soon to each other, so I usually don't have a problem with that. This sounds like a cute book.
ReplyDeleteI could use a cute read. I've been reading some dark contemporary lately. I love it, but I think it's starting to affect me haha. I've been hearing good stuff about this overall. Cute but nothing too special. I still want to read it for myself. That cover is just so amazing.
ReplyDelete