Sep 22, 2011

A wish. And a stare-fest.

Happy 24th Birthday to this 'Hawaii' singing, wand-swishing, Voldemort-hugging piece of perfection :)






Today I'll just let you stare.


And listen in, if it be to your liking.


Sep 10, 2011

Love Story

She's writing about him. he's writing about her. And everybody is reading between the lines..

For Erin Blackwell, majoring in creative writing at the New York City college of her dreams is more than a chance to fulfill her ambitions--it's her ticket away from the tragic memories that shadow her family's racehorse farm in Kentucky. But when she refuses to major in business and take over the farm herself someday, her grandmother gives Erin's college tuition and promised inheritance to their maddeningly handsome stable boy, Hunter Allen. Now Erin has to win an internship and work late nights at a coffee shop to make her own dreams a reality. She should despise Hunter . . . so why does he sneak into her thoughts as the hero of her latest writing assignment?

Then, on the day she's sharing that assignment with her class, Hunter walks in. He's joining her class. And after he reads about himself in her story, her private fantasies about him must be painfully clear. She only hopes to persuade him not to reveal her secret to everyone else. But Hunter devises his own creative revenge, writing sexy stories that drive the whole class wild with curiosity and fill Erin's heart with longing. Now she's not just imagining what might have been. She's writing a whole new ending for her romance with Hunter . . . except this story could come true.







This was my first Jennifer Echols. And I was SO eager to read her!
And what better way to start than with an older YA that takes place in college where the protagonist is a creative writing major?



I knew this story was right up my alley. And no surprises there, it was :)


Some random facts about Love Story:


It's written in first person past tense. Which was pleasantly surprising, because I'm on a present tense binge almost all the time, so it takes a while to get into the past tense thingy now, but this worked really, really well for me.


Interspersed with excerpts from stories written by Erin and Hunter. And which besides being entertaining also serves the purpose of hinting at the history between these two characters. The stories range from the frivolous and giggly-ish to the dark and serious and very sexy ones to the outright hilarious -- and do a fine job of peeling back layers and layers of their complicated relationship till you're left with the bare bones of it.


The main character has a nose-piercing, which looks just so cool on the cover. Yeah, it sounds a bit cheesy, but I can't help mentioning it.


There's an eclectic mix of characters. And one of them has a fascination with 'cutting heads' :D




Other things:


I have to say, Jennifer Echols does relationships just so, so well. It was complex and unpredictable and at a point I just stopped wondering what might happen and just allowed myself to go with the flow. Friendship and gorgeous chemistry fall into place like a jigsaw and you realise how necessary they both are in depicting a credible love story. And did I tell you how much I loved Hunter? He was SEXINESS. Seriously, I swooned every time he spoke and gah...major crush-in-the-making ;)


And Erin? I fell into her story quick and easy and loved the ride. Lots of things happen in this book. There's family history and domestic complexities and a lot of crazy things which make it rather difficult for these two.


And there's so much snazzy, sexy dialogue between Erin and Hunter it made me giggle and laugh and want to use use them as pick-up lines. Heh.


So, I've heard things being said about the ending. Well, it's ambiguous in the sense that it doesn't exactly tell you what's gonna happen, but there's a lot of optimism and that gives the readers a lot of freedom to think out their own endings. Well, my only complaint is that it happened a little too quickly, but once I got past that, I liked it.


All I can say is that, I'm floored. And I can't wait to get my hands on the other Jennifer Echols books asap.  
If you want a fun-yet-a-bit-serious love story, with the older YA vibe, and drama that makes you giggle and twists your heart a bit, you might want to pick up Love Story.


Want more?
Author website
Goodreads
Browse inside on Amazon


What's your favourite Jennifer Echols book? Or, if you haven't read her, what's your favourite love story?
 
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