Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Release Date: February 26, 2013
Author Info: Website | Twitter | Facebook
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Age Group: Young Adult
Shelfability: Covet
Pages: 336, 8 hours and 56 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Random House Audio
Interest: N/A
Buy the Book: Amazon

I wasn’t really sure about this one. Then I had the opportunity to listen to the audio book, so I thought why not give it a try. I ended up LOVING IT. I didn’t read the book in print at all, so I can’t really comment on that experience, but if you’ve not listened to the audio book, I so highly recommend it. I’m not an audio book person. I’m really really picky about the narration, thus I start a lot of audio books and end up not finishing them. (This just happened to me recently.) Eleanor & Park was one of, if not the best audio books I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to.

It’s read by Rebecca Lowman and Sunil Malhotra. Rebecca reading the part of Eleanor and Sunil reading the part of Park. You can listen to an excerpt at Random House Audio.

Eleanor & Park is set in the late 80′s. 1986 I do believe, and although I was born in the 80′s this was a little bit before my time, though I knew most of the pop culture references so that made it fun. But don’t assume that you have to be a child of the 80′s to enjoy this novel. I don’t think the story would have worked quite as well in any other decade.

This book had me gasping, crying, laughing, and laughing so hard I was crying. It’s not at all your typical love story. It’s so much more than a love story, I even hate to use the words love story to describe it. It’s more about two teens finding themselves and falling in love with each other in the process.

I didn’t know much about the story line when I started the book and I think I liked it better that way. There was some serious issues that I didn’t anticipate at all, and that’s all I’ll say about that.

There’s been a lot of hype surrounding Eleanor & Park and it’s well deserved. If you’re debating on picking this one up, I can’t tell you enough, DO IT!. Looking forward to more from this fabulously talented author.

New Reads: May 6-12, 2013

Hitting Shelves this Week:

Now in Paperback:

Cover Reveal: Simone Elkeles’ Wild Cards

Woohoo! Simone has a new series coming out! I’m so excited for it! Although I am not very happy about having to wait until October for it to be released!

This isn’t a “normal” cover reveal. I just have one piece of the cover. And three other blogs will be revealing pieces as well. (I’m not sure which blogs those are, or I’d link them here!) The entire cover will be revealed on the Bloomsbury Facebook page on May 10th! Be sure to head over there and check it out! I know I will be!

Here’s a summary for Wild Cards:

After getting kicked out of boarding school, bad boy Derek Fitzpatrick has no choice but to live with his ditzy stepmother while his military dad is deployed. Things quickly go from bad to worse when he finds out she plans to move them back to her childhood home in Illinois. Derek’s counting the days before he can be on his own, and the last thing he needs is to get involved with someone else’s family drama. Ashtyn Parker knows one thing for certain–people you care about leave without a backward glance. A football scholarship would finally give her the chance to leave. So she pours everything into winning a state championship, until her boyfriend and star quarterback betrays them all by joining their rival team. Ashtyn needs a new game plan, but it requires trusting Derek—someone she barely knows, someone born to break the rules. Is she willing to put her heart on the line to try and win it all?

And my piece of the cover reveal:

And of course for all things Simone be sure to like her Facebook Page, head over to her website and stalk her on Twitter:  @SimoneElkeles! And for all things Bloomsbury, you can stalk them on Twitter too: @bwkids!

Dark Days Twitter Chat TONIGHT!!

Join Elizabeth Norris, Kiera Cass, Aprilynne Pike, and Amy Tintera

for a Twitter Chat on Monday, May 6th at 9PM EST! #PitchDarkDays

Get the complete tour schedule here!

True by Erin McCarthy

Release Date: May 7, 2013
Author Info: Website | Twitter | Facebook
Publisher: Penguin Publishing
Age Group: Young Adult+
Shelfability: Acquire
Pages: 238
Format: eGalley
Source: Publisher
Interest: Genre
Buy the Book: Amazon

I had so much fun reading this one!

Rory’s roommates find out she’s still holding on to her “V” card. God forbid you be a college student and a VIRGIN! *gasp* But that’s a whole other issue! ANYWAY. They find out that she’s still a virgin so they pay this mutual friend they have, Tyler, to help her loose her virginity. He’s sort of a bad-a**. And I don’t mean “bad” as in he’s a jerk, because he’s not but he just has that “I’m a really cool dude” vibe. Plus he has tattoos, so that’s another check on that list.

As you know, bad boys cannot resist innocent virgin girls. I making this book sound really cliche for some reason, and it’s really not! Regardless of how the faux-relationship started, it moves way beyond that.

One thing that surprised me right away was the beginning. We have Rory and her two roommates at this apartment. Rory is out in the living room with this guy, who she really has no interest in but she wants him to kiss her anyway. Her roommates are back in the bedrooms doing the deed with a couple guys. One of them which happens to be Tyler. That kind of threw me off. I was like wait… didn’t the summary say that Tyler was the one pursuing Rory? Hmmmm, that’s a first. Maybe I’m a prude but that was just weird. I must have gotten over it though, because I really liked the dynamic to their relationship. They both have some issues, Tyler more so than Rory, but it works for them.

The ending was way to rushed for my tastes. I felt like there was this big build up and then, wait for it, the end. I can look past that since there is going to be, what I assume is, a companion novel.

This would be a perfect read for this summer. Take a relaxing day at the beach and bring Tyler and Rory along. You won’t be disappointed.