Books and Sensibility

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Fiction

Strictly Indie: The Coincedence of Callie and Kayden

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A month long dedication to  indie/self-published YA novels

Synopsis: There are those who don’t get luck handed to them on a shiny platter, who end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, who don’t get saved.
Luck was not on Callie’s side the day of her twelfth birthday when everything was stolen from her. After it’s all over, she locks up her feelings and vows never to tell anyone what happened. Six years later her painful past consumes her life and most days it’s a struggle just to breathe.
For as long as Kayden can remember, suffering in silence was the only way to survive life. As long as he did what he was told, everything was okay. One night, after making a terrible mistake, it seems like his life might be over. Luck was on his side, though, when Callie coincidentally is in the right place at the right time and saves him.

Hiding from a traumatic childhood secret, Callie Lawrence was always known as “Anorexic, Devil Worshiping Callie” in high school. But for her freshman year at the University of Wyoming, Callie plans to make a fresh start.  Until she bumps into Kayden Owens, the rich golden boy from high school who  is hiding the daily physical abuse he faces at the fists of his  father. Guided by Callie’s college version of bucket list, they learn together how to heal and love again.

I’m not one for GIFs and don’t usually use GIFs in reviews, but if there is one that sums up this book it is probably this one:

It seems like everybody in this book is hiding, running or suffering from a traumatic past.

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Strictly Indie: Callum and Harper by Fisher Amelie

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 Books and Sensibility’s month long dedication to indie ! 

It’s hard to be in the YA book blogging world without noticing all the upcoming indie novels and novelists. So, to open myself up to  more independent and self published authors, I am   going Strictly Indie for the month of May. I will be focusing on reviewing, discussing and posting about indie novels and even have a few guest posts along the way. 

 

  • Release Date: December 24th 2011
  • Pages: 256 pages
  • Genre: Contemporary Romance
  • Price: $2.99 ebook; 8.99 paperback

Callum and Harper is my first real look into the world of self-published novels. Now, to be honest, I am writing this review 6 months after reading this book and I don’t have many notes, so this review will focus more on my experience with the novel.

The titular Callum Tate and Harper Bailey are a pair of teens who recently aged out of the foster care system. They meet at the Social Services office and told their only option for housing is in one of New York City’s homeless shelters. The story follows the couple as they work, study and struggle to  make a better life for themselves together.

Being my first indie, the writing in this book was better than I expected. Fisher seems to really know ins and outs of New York City and the music scene the characters spend a lot of time in.

The story is told in alternating first person POVs and as I was reading them I would often forget which POV I was reading. Callum and Harper didn’t have the voice distinction. The characters were strong as a couple, but couldn’t hold their own as individuals.

One of the plots in this novel involves a boy from Harper’s past who is a a psychotic killer and starts hunting her down. This plot line felt a little melodramatic at times and  took the focus away from the main story. I wish Amelie had stuck to keeping the story based on the growth of a relationship, the plot that worked great for the first half of the book.

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Book Review : Austenland by Shannon Hale

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Women’s Fiction Review

 

  • Release Date : May 29th, 2007
  • Publisher : Bloomsbury
  • Genre: Chicklit 
  • Page: 208

Synopsis :Jane Hayes is a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but she has a secret. Her obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, is ruining her love life: no real man can compare. But when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane’s fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.  Decked out in empire-waist gowns, Jane struggles to master Regency etiquette and flirts with gardeners and gentlemen . . . the longer she stays, the more her insecurities seem to fall away, and the more she wonders: Is she about to kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?

If you click around, you will notice that I read most of the historical fiction for this blog, so I was drawn to
Austenland when the e-book went on sale.  The continuing fascination, adaptation and evocation of  Jane Austen and her works appears to be endless, and I wanted to check it out for myself. I couldn’t wait to see if a modern girl in a seemingly romantic era would end up as a fairytale or a fluffy disaster.

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