Saving Quinton (Nova #2) by Jessica Sorensen

Nova Reed has come through to the other side and Quinton Carter played a big part in her success. The problem is, since walking away from him, she has no idea where to find him. She knows that he is still out there, drowning in his own pain and addiction, and she is determined to find him and help him.

Try as he might, Quinton can't forget Nova, but he knows that he doesn't deserve her or anything good in his life at all. Quinton has sunk deeper into his addiction and is finding it harder and harder to hold on. When Nova shows up at his door, having followed him to Las Vegas, he finds himself in a constant battle to push Nova away, while wanting to pull her close at the same time. He doesn't deserve her, but Nova refuses to go away.

While Nova desperately tries to convince Quinton to get help, he continues to engage in drugs and dealing, which leads to some trouble for him and his cousin, Tristan. Nova's hope is continually tested as Quinton heads towards rock bottom and she finds herself wondering if she is strong enough to help him. When Quinton finally hits rock bottom, he faces the most important decision of his life: surrender to the darkness for good or move toward the light.

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This book...I have no words for this book. It was HEARTBREAKING and I found myself on the verge of tears almost the whole time. My heart just aches for Quinton. Having seen addiction with my own eyes and watched helplessly as someone I loved slowly destroyed themselves, I totally get Nova's perspective. What I appreciated about this book is that Jessica did not try and sugar coat anything. There was no easy way out, no magical cure. Addiction is ugly and it brings out the worst in people and makes them do things that they wouldn't normally do. Addicts hurt those around them because they can't see or think through the haze. It is a battle to get out of addiction. It is not something that happens overnight and it is a commitment that must be made each and every day. I believe that Jessica portrayed this perfectly. 

I couldn't put this book down and I read it in a matter of hours. Jessica had me from the very first page. After I finished, I didn't have the heart to pick up another book and my thoughts kept wandering back to Quinton and Nova. I was emotionally wrecked. It's been awhile since I have been emotionally destroyed by a book and this one did the job thoroughly. I cannot wait to see what the next chapter holds for these characters. I desperately hope that they will find happiness together.

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Up next in the Nova Series...

Book #2.5: Delilah: The Making of Red

Free novella - release date March 18, 2014

Delilah Peirce: the Invisible Girl. Men crane their necks around Delilah just to catch a glimpse of her bombshell mother. Delilah knows looks of indifference, of friendship-but never of desire.

Then she meets Dylan Sanderson, the impossibly gorgeous guy who thinks she's beautiful. When he looks at her, she feels needed. When he kisses her, her troubles disappear. And when he tells her he will never hurt her, she believes him . . .

Book #3: Nova and Quinton: No Regrets 
Expected release April, 2014

Today is the first day of Quinton Carter's new life. The toxic guilt of his past left him in pieces-but one girl unexpectedly put him back together. Thanks to Nova Reed, Quinton can finally see the world with clear eyes. She's the reason his heart is still kicking behind the jagged scar on his chest. And he would love to have her in his arms every minute of the day . . . but he's not ready yet.

Playing drums in a band and living with her best friends are just some of the highlights of Nova's life. But the best new development? Talking to Quinton on the phone each night. She wishes she could touch him, kiss him, though she knows he needs time to heal. Yet shocking news is on the way-a reminder of life's dark side-and Nova will need Quinton like he once needed her. Is he strong enough to take the final leap out of his broken past . . . and into Nova's heart?

Take a Chance (Chance #1) by Abbi Glines

"Three kinds of women in this world. The kind that suck you dry and leave you with you nothing. The kind that only want a good time. And the kind that make life worth a damn. The last kind...the right woman's the one who gives as much as she takes, and you can't get enough. She's the kind...if you lose her, you lose yourself."

Grant Carter, with his blue eyes and sexy smile, has always been content to keep love at an arm's length. He knows all too well that love gives you the power to break someone. Knowing that he would never be able to love someone and risk losing them, he filled his days with woman only looking for a good time. Until Nan. Nan, Rush's sister, needed him and Grant loves to be needed. He came close to giving his heart to Nan, but learned the hard way that Nan is not the type of woman you fall in love with. Nothing makes Grant regret his fling with Nan like Harlow Manning.

Harlow is the type of woman you fall in love with, and Grant finds himself completely taken in by her. The problem: Harlow is Nan's half sister, and Nan hates her. Their budding relationship comes to a halt after Grant races back to Rosemary, upon learning of of Jace's death. A few months later, Harlow finds herself living in Rosemary Beach in a house with Nan for the next nine months while their father is on tour. She wants nothing more than to just keep her head down and avoid Nan, but when Grant walks out of Nan's bedroom in nothing but boxer briefs, she can't help but feel betrayed.

Grant is determined to get Harlow to forgive him. The more time he spends with her, the harder it becomes to resist giving her his heart. As Grant and Harlow fall deeper and deeper, Harlow realizes that she is not being fair to Grant, because she has secrets too. As those secrets come to light, Grant and Harlow will need to decide if it is worth taking a chance on each other.

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Abbi delivers another great installment of the Rosemary Beach series. I have loved Grant as a character ever since Blaire pulled her gun on him in Fallen Too Far. I was so excited when Abbi announced that he was getting his own book and I was so relieved to find out that he wouldn't be ending up with Nan. She is just too horrible for words and Grant, while not perfect, is way too good for her. He's a guy and he got sucked in. I don't like it, but I can forgive him for it. I love Harlow. She is super sweet, but at the same time unexpected.

I was hoping that this book would be a little more angsty. It just didn't have the same level of torturous drama that the other books in series had. Sure, there are some unexpected surprises, but the cliffhanger wasn't as dramatic as I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, it was enough for me to be waiting impatiently until July when the sequel comes out, but it wasn't as shocking or unexpected as some of the other cliffhangers. This book does fall a little short when compared to the others in the series, but it is still an amazing read. It is worth taking a chance on.

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Grant and Harlow's story continues in One More Chance - expected publication July, 2014

Grant Carter did everything in his power to convince Harlow Manning that he was a good guy. More than a smooth-talker and someone she could trust. He had to overcome his reputation as a playboy, and his history with Harlow's half-sister, Nan, a woman with a reputation of her own.

Harlow had taken the chance, falling hard and fast for the guy who thrilled her with his all-consuming desire. After a lifetime of avoiding bad boys like Grant, she had opened herself to the possibilities of love...

But a life-changing secret has torn them apart, and now Grant and Harlow must decide if they have enough fight to make it work - or if the pain of betrayal has permanently destroyed their future.

Seeking Her (Losing It #3.5) by Cora Carmack

Seeking Her is a prequel novella to book three in the Losing It series, Finding It, and gives us a peak into the mind of Jackson Hunt. A former soldier, Jackson needs a job and to find a sense of normalcy if he is going to avoid falling back into his destructive patterns. He is hired by Kelsey Summers' father to follow Kelsey around as she travels abroad. The only catch is, he doesn't want her to know she is being followed.

As Jackson follows her from a distance, he can't help but be drawn in by her. Kelsey is vibrant, fun, reckless, but she is also sad. As she begins to fall into some of the patterns he suffered from years ago, Jackson can't stop himself from stepping in and coming to her rescue.

I love Cora Carmack's writing. She creates down to earth characters who are believable and I love the awkward and hilarious situations they find themselves in. I loved Finding It, and loved Jackson and Kelsey's love story. Of course, I jumped at the chance to get more of the story from Jackson's POV. I love stepping in the heads of my book boyfriends! In fact, I find that I often prefer their POV.

To be honest, this novella left me wanting a little bit. While I enjoyed it, I really wish that I had read it before reading Finding It. I'm not sure that it really adds anything to Jackson's character, and I think that if I had read it before, I would have liked it better. Because I already knew what happened, there just wasn't anything new or exciting. I think I would have preferred a follow up like Bliss and Garrick, rather than a prequel. Having said that, it was an enjoyable read and if you are a fan of the series I definitely think it is worth your time to read.

Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin

At the heart of Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale is the love story between Peter Lake and Beverly Penn. Peter Lake is a simple, uneducated thief, who also happens to be a master mechanic. Beverly Penn is the daughter of one of New York's leading newspaper owners and is dying of consumption. Peter and Beverly's paths cross when Peter decides to rob Beverly's Upper West Side mansion. It is love at first sight for them, and their love with not only change their lives, but time itself.

This is a hard book to sum up. It is a beast of a book and it took me a month to get through its close to 800 pages. The language is dense and descriptive, overly descriptive at time, but also beautiful. The language will probably be a hang up for some with this book. While I don't mind verbose writers (to a certain extent), even I felt like I needed a machete to hack through the wilderness that was the language of this novel. While I never found the descriptions to be redundant, they were a bit overkill at times. It is not always necessary to take two pages to describe something, when it can be accomplished in a paragraph or two.

"The plans for the city were drawn on the same table as the plans for war. It promises nothing, and yet it can be inimitable generous."

On the other hand, there were some descriptions that I appreciated, especially when it came to the portrayal of New York City. Growing up in New York State, I spent a lot of time in the city. It is one of my favorite places in the world and it has always had a magical quality to it. While NYC is the setting of this novel, it comes across as a living, breathing character and it is an integral part of the story. Because the language is dense, this is not a quick read and I found myself having to reread passages at times to understand. Yet, there were many passages that were rather profound and had me stopping to consider them.

"No one ever said that you would live to see the repercussions of everything you do, or that you have guarantees, or that you are not obliged to wander in the dark, or that everything will be proved to you and neatly verified like something in science. Nothing is: at least nothing that is worthwhile."

This book also has a lot of moving parts which made the story hard to follow at times. It reminded me of the show Once Upon a Time. There are lots of characters, each with their own stories, that still somehow fit all together. Because there were so many characters and the story switched back and forth between time periods, it was confusing at times and I was somewhat concerned about whether or not it would all come together in the end. There is a magical, fairly tale-like quality to this novel. There are amazing adventures, great feats, wondrous happenings, and a sense of destiny. At times I was able to lose myself in the story, but not as easily as other novels. This one definitely requires some thinking.

"The beauty of the truth is that it need not be proclaimed or believed. It skips from soul to soul, changing form each time it touches, but it is what it is, I have seen it, and someday you will, too."

My biggest issue with the novel is it's non-ending. It is one of those books where the author leaves it up to the reader to decide what happens in the end. I am not a big fan of books that end this way, especially after plugging my way through almost 800 pages. While some may like this, I don't. It actually really annoys me. I want to be told what happens in the end and it better all end happily, in my opinion. Books that end like this always feel unfinished. 

In the end, I would say that I liked this novel, but didn't love it. I picked this novel up because I wanted to see the movie, but having read the book, I'm glad that I didn't pay to go see the movie in the theaters. I am not sure how they managed to adapt this novel for the big screen, but I have a feeling many changes were made. This book requires a commitment. I had hoped that maybe it would become a favorite of mine, but that did not happen. I think this is a one time read for me and don't see myself returning to this one.

Chronicles of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

When Bayardo San Roman returns his new bride, Angela Vicario, hours after their wedding, her disgraced family demands that she name her first lover. Her twin brothers set out to kill Santiago Nasar for the shame he has brought to their family. There is no evidence to support Angela's claim, in fact, nobody can remember ever seeing Santiago and Angela together. The twins make no secret of their plans to murder Santiago, and yet no one in the town intervenes to stop the murder from happening. In the end, Santiago ends up dead, leaving more questions than answers.

This was an interesting novel for me. It has a very journalistic style, and the story is told in a very straight forward manner. The facts are laid out with little to no emotional commentary. It reads more like a newspaper article or crime report than a novel. Although it is clear from the beginning what was going to happen, this book leaves more questions than it answers. I found it interesting that no one intervened to save Santiago, especially when there were questions surrounding the validity of Angela's claim. In fact, other than her saying it was Santiago, there seems to be little evidence that her claims are true.

There are several instances where others could have intervened and prevented the crime from happening, and yet they don't. What was puzzling to me about these instances was that the reasons for their lack on interference are silly when two men are running around with knives, clearly content to carry out a murder. Santiago is not painted as a bad man, someone who people would be glad to see get his comeuppance, yet no one intercedes on his behalf.

This was an okay read for me. I found the style and story intriguing, but I was left indifferent in the end.

This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff

This Boy’s Life is a memoir about a young boy growing up in the 1950’s. After his parents’ divorce, Toby finds himself constantly on the move as he and his mother search for the better life that always seems to elude them. Through this heartfelt and often humorous narrative, Toby recounts his adolescent search for identity, while regaling the reader with stories of his wild schemes.

This is a re-read for me. I first read this book when I was a senior in high school and find myself in one of life’s many full circle moments as I read it again in preparation to read it as an English teacher with my high school seniors. I enjoyed this book the second time around as much as the first. Toby, a.k.a. Jack, is a great character that is easy to relate to. He is precocious, hopelessly naïve at times, and consumed with the confidence that only comes with youth.

"When we are green, still half-created, we believe that our dreams are rights, that the world is disposed to act in our best interests, and that falling and dying are for quitters. We live on the innocent and monstrous assurance that we alone, of all the people ever born, have a special arrangement whereby we will be allowed to stay green forever.”

The story perfectly captures that awkward period between childhood and adulthood, where we all think we have things figured out, when in reality we know nothing and are just beginning to discover who we are. While Jack’s childhood is somewhat unconventional, there are universal elements that ring true for us all – the quest to define ourselves, to experiment with new things and identities, the need to find acceptance while remaining unique, etc.

The book is funny, at times poignant, and is an enjoyable read from start to finish.

Night by Elie Wiesel

Night is an extremely powerful narrative, despite its diminutive size. Elie recounts his story as a survivor of the Holocaust, a genocidal campaign carried out by the Nazis under the leadership of Hitler during World War II. Elie finds himself the lone survivor of a journey that would take him from his small town to the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Buchenwald. Along the way, he finds himself questioning everything he thought he knew, including his faith in God.

This is not an easy book to read, and it is far from an enjoyable read. It is an important narrative. I have read many Holocaust survivor stories. I have always been fascinated by this horrific event, which probably sounds a little strange, but it is true. It is a prime example of humanity at its worst, but at the same time, there are examples of hope, kindness, and goodness. I think it is this juxtaposition of the opposite sides of humanity that fascinates me.

For anyone interested in the human psyche, I think the Holocaust is a treasure trove of things to explore. I am always intrigued by how humans respond when faced with such unimaginable things. Why do some give up, while others fight? How do some hold on to hope and faith, while others lose theirs forever? How does one man get the power to bring such destruction to the world? How do others let it happen? For the survivors, where do you go from there? How do you rebuild your life after it has been shattered so completely? So many questions that have no easy answers.

One thing that always strikes me when I read Night is the denial. Despite the warnings and the ever increasing restrictions on their freedoms, many Jews refused to believe that it could get worse and chose not to leave when they had the chance. I am by no means judging these people. I can't even imagine how I would respond if I was in their shoes. Who could ever have imagined how far Hitler would go to create his vision of the perfect world? Who knew that he would get so close to doing it? To me, the denial speaks to a greater belief that many of us hold - that at our core, humans are inherently good. That in the end, good will triumph over evil.

“For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”

It has been said that narratives such as Night should not be taught. That the only way to move forward is to put the past behind us. I think this is a common adage. If we put a horrific experience behind us and don't think about it, then we can move on. I disagree with this train of thought wholeheartedly. Stories like Night need to be told over and over again, especially when genocides are still occurring in the world today. If we do not continually hold these stories up as a mirror, then it is all too easy to ignore and brush aside the fact that these events DID happen and CONTINUE to happen.

I give this book 5 stars, not because it is enjoyable, but because it is a powerful and important narrative. I would also highly recommend picking up the other two books in this trilogy.