Review for Exile (Exile #1) by Kevin Emerson

TITLE: Exile
SERIES: Exile #1
AUTHOR: Kevin Emerson
PUBLICATION DATE: April 29, 2014
PUBLISHER: Katherine Tegen Books
PAGES: 320 pages
FORMAT: E-ARC
SOURCE: Publisher via Edelweiss
RATING: 4 bows

Catherine Summer Carlson lives her life as two separate people. At home, with the parents, she’s Catherine. Catherine is the bright straight-A student on track to be the next big shot lawyer in her family. But elsewhere, she’s Summer. Summer is a music junkie who excels at managing bands and has no interest in being a lawyer. She’s recently been dumped by her band, Postcards From Ariel, due to an actual record label picking them up. She’s on a mission to find a new group to manage and she knows she’s hit gold when she finds Caleb Daniels singing and convinces him to start a new one. Falling for Caleb is the number one wrong thing to do as a manager but she can’t help herself. Then Caleb reveals a secret about his long-lost father and things get really interesting. Suddenly she’s right in the middle of some else’s mystery. She knows that she needs to be on her professional best, but sometimes ignoring your heart is difficult to do and you’re head will just have to live with the consequences. Can Summer sort out her life (as well as the band’s) or is everyone doomed to failure?

I’ll be completely honest. A big reason I downloaded this was because of the pretty cover. I read the synopsis and it sounded great (I love books about music), but it was that gorgeous, simplistic cover that really grabbed me. I also loved the idea of a male author writing a female perspective. In YA, it’s mostly girls. Female authors writing mostly female characters. Female authors sometimes writing male characters, which is always a crapshoot because some female authors can’t capture that male voice. It’s always fascinating to read a male writing as a female because it’s like “so, this is what they think of us, huh?” kinda vibes. I have to say that Emerson did a great job capturing the female voice. Many times when authors write outside their gender, it feels like a female trying to do a male voice or vice versa, but Emerson is not guilty of this.

Summer is a complex character. It’s easy to sympathize with her because her band literally abandoned her after they signed with a record label and that includes her boyfriend, the frontman. Her love for music was something I could instantly relate to. I’ll never be in the music business, but I totally get that need to disappear into the perfect song. She’s smart and driven and completely determined to live out her dreams in the music industry, even if she can’t bring herself to tell her parents that piece of information. She’s also unfailingly human, making judgement errors and having insane moments of jealousy when other girls come on to Caleb. It really rooted her down to Earth.

I liked Caleb a lot, but sometimes I wasn’t exactly a huge fan. He does some stupid things and treats Summer badly at moments when she really doesn’t deserve it. I get that the guy is going through a lot and he’s having a difficult time, but there are moments when other girls are blatantly flirting with him in front of Summer and he does nothing to reassure this girl who has already been dumped by one rocker boy who gained fame. He also shuts her out sometimes and that bugged me too. It was clear that he was a good guy, but his inner asshole shone through more often than I would like and the older I get, the more anti-asshole I become.

This was a compulsive read, with that just-one-more chapter addictive quality that we all look for in a book. I only had a few issues with it. The first one being that the dynamic between Summer & Caleb was very insta-lovey. They meet and then they are dating and serious almost immediately afterwards. It kinda throws you off. I do think that attraction happens immediately, but there was no dating period, just an immediate this is my girlfriend and the manager of the band I’m going to create thing. Then there was the fact that Summer feel into a similar situation that she has already been in. She was already the girlfriend/manager of a band and that didn’t end well. Why would she jump back into the same situation? She has a few reservations, but she didn’t really even hesitate before dating Caleb.

All things considered, this novel is pretty awesome, and I am impatiently awaiting it’s sequel. Summer is a pretty awesome heroine, especially because of her imperfections. The plot and writing keep you going and wondering how exactly the light mystery will play out and if Caleb’s band will be successful. If you love contemporary YA, books centered around music, or even just YA fiction, this is for you. Give it a try and you won’t regret it!

****Thank you to Katherine Tegen Books for providing me with an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review****

Review for Touch (Denazen #1) by Jus Accardo

TITLE: Touch
SERIES: Denazen #1
AUTHOR: Jus Accardo
PUBLICATION DATE: November 1, 2011
PUBLISHER: Entangled Publishing
PAGES: 284 pages
FORMAT: Book
SOURCE: Purchased
RATING: 4 bows

Adrenaline junkie Deznee Cross was minding her own business walking home one night when a mysterious stranger literally falls at her feet. This, she is certain, is a gift from whatever gods exist because it is the perfect opportunity to piss of her father. Nothing would make him angrier than to come home and find his daughter home alone with a total stranger. But the longer she spends in Kale’s presence, the more she thinks there is something off about him. She’s completely right. He is a Six, which is this novel’s way of saying he has supernatural abilities. He’s specialty? Death touch. One touch from him and anything living dies and literally dissolves into dust. Even better? He’s escaped from a secret compound that uses him and those like him to do their dirty work and her father, Marshall Cross, just happens to be the ringleader. Denazen Corporation isn’t a law firm as she has always believed. They seem to be the home office of evil incarnate and they are hellbent on getting Kale back. He’s one of a kind and they’ll be damned if they loose him. Can she keep Kale safe or will she be a casualty of his recapture?

Dez was a girl I loved almost instantly. She’s tough and cool and completely confident. YA doesn’t have may confident female characters. We get too many Bella Swan girls who are just so “ugly” but yet every attractive guy in a ten mile radius lines up to try to win her heart. I’m not the most confident person myself, but it’s great to read about someone who is. She knows exactly who she is and she refuses to compromise that person for anyone. This is me, take it or leave it kinda of attitude that instantly had me rooting for her. Her determination to irritate her father was an intriguing idea for me. Most teen girls would be a weepy mess if it was obvious that their father doesn’t really care for them. Not Dez. She takes it in stride and figures she’ll just keep him continually pissed off so he is at least aware of her presence. She’s just a bad-ass. How can you not love a girl who intentionally skateboards off a roof within the first chapter?

Then you have Kale…adorable, deadly Kale. This is a guy who has never been outside Denazen before. He’s fascinated with everything and his fascination was incredibly endearing. He doesn’t understand the outside world beyond the tiny sliver he has been granted and because of that it’s hard not to sympathize with him. Plus there is the whole my touch kills people thing. It’s not something he knows how to control. It’s simply what happens. Even if he just accidentally bumps into someone, skin to skin contact is deadly. Can you imagine having to live with that? Can you imagine having to live with the knowledge that you’ve killed people accidentally. Or worse, that you’ve done it on purpose because Denazen commanded you to? I don’t even really want to think about such a life. It’s not hard to see why Dez falls so hard for him.

Then you have jackass Alex, the other point in the late-blooming love triangle. I’m not a fan. Even if he didn’t do the bad thing he does at the end, I wouldn’t be a fan. This is a guy who had Dez’s love and he intentionally fucked it up. He cheated and he knew she’d find out and that it would break her heart. What the fuck kind of person does that? There were others ways to accomplish the goal you had in mind. And now? Dez is almost over you and you decide to pull this shit? Dude, Let. It. Go.

This is a fast paced little novel that keeps you guessing until the end. It’s exceedingly well-written and addictive. Once you get about 50 or so pages in, it’s impossible to put down. You have to know what happens next. Does Kale get captured? What is Dez’s secret? Why the hell is Dez’s dad such a jackass? DO KALE AND DEZ END UP TOGETHER?!?!? You find out all those answers and more. It gets 4 stars instead of 5 because love triangles annoy the fuck out of me. Seriously, that particular plot devise is unnecessary. It actually plays into the plot and story pretty well, but that doesn’t change the fact that I hate them. It also has a mild cliffhanger….or maybe I just think it’s mild because the next book is already out and I continue on the story as soon as my copy arrives in the mail.

The other small issue I had was that it was almost too fast paced. You don’t get a minute to catch your breath and digest what’s happening until it’s over. On the one hand, that keeps you incredibly interested, but on the other, dude, breathing is kinda important. You’re just hit with one event after the next with no space in between to really absorb how what’s just happened will affect the plot. If anything, it’s a good probably to have, but still, I almost wished it was slowed down just a twinge.

I’ll admit that one of the reasons I wanted to read this was because it’s the novel that Katy gushed about in Obsidian. At least, I’m pretty sure it is. Either way, that perked my interest and the description did the rest. This novel has lovable characters, an intense plot, and sizzling romance. What more could you want?