Review: Big Summer

It's been awhile since I've read a Jennifer Weiner novel. I used to read everything but in the last few years, there have been so many other books to read that I somehow missed a couple. I decided this year that I just had to read Big Summer. I am patting myself on the back for that decision. It was an amazing read and one I think all of you should pick up this year.

Here's the synopsis:

Six years after the fight that ended their friendship, Daphne Berg is shocked when Drue Cavanaugh walks back into her life, looking as lovely and successful as ever, with a massive favor to ask. Daphne hasn’t spoken one word to Drue in all this time—she doesn’t even hate-follow her ex-best friend on social media—so when Drue asks if she will be her maid-of-honor at the society wedding of the summer, Daphne is rightfully speechless.
Drue was always the one who had everything—except the ability to hold onto friends. Meanwhile, Daphne’s no longer the same self-effacing sidekick she was back in high school. She’s built a life that she loves, including a growing career as a plus-size Instagram influencer. Letting glamorous, seductive Drue back into her life is risky, but it comes with an invitation to spend a weekend in a waterfront Cape Cod mansion. When Drue begs and pleads and dangles the prospect of cute single guys, Daphne finds herself powerless as ever to resist her friend’s siren song.
A sparkling novel about the complexities of female friendship, the pitfalls of living out loud and online, and the resilience of the human heart, Big Summer is a witty, moving story about family, friendship, and figuring out what matters most.

I'll say right off the bat that there's a twist to this novel that I did NOT see coming. I will say nothing more because I think it's important that you're also blind to it so be warned if you come across other reviews where they start going in depth into certain aspects of the story.

You may have noticed that I've already been flailing about this book on social media but only rated it four stars on Goodreads. I don't have a great answer for why I couldn't give this wonderful book five stars. If I was allowed a half star on the site, you better believe I'd give it. There were a couple of small things that ultimately don't matter but threw off the flow of the story for me and when the flow is wrong, well, it's hard for me to love it. Most of these things dealt with timelines and social media. I had a really hard time figuring out how old the characters were supposed to be (usually not important but in a story like this a character who is 25 is very different to one who is 20 or 35). What didn't help was references to social media in the flashbacks. In one instance, Daphne mentions how on her first day at a new school in grade six her mom was probably posting pictures to her Facebook page. Except...that could not have happened. Yes, Facebook was around then but not for the average user. I don't know why this bothered me so much but it did. Also, the prologue really, really threw me off for a good chunk of the book.

The majority of Part One (there are multiple parts to the novel), was told in flashbacks and it was used to help get the story story set up. You had to understand all of the players before you could really get their motivations. And even then there were some surprises.

Weiner doesn't shy away from the complexities of friendships and how high school can have a lasting impact on some people. The relationship Daphne, Drue, and Darshi (Daphne's roommate and best friend) had at school was one I am sure many females can relate to. Daphne felt privileged that someone like her was being noticed by the popular girls. Drue knew the power she had over people and sometimes played with them, yet could also realize how important her friendship with Daphne was (but that didn't stop her from being a total witch). Darshi, for her part, was the loyal friend who was there for Daphne but was unwilling to put up with Drue's bullshit when she came back around - which was fair but also hard for Daphne to deal with. No one is perfect. That's the reminder that Weiner gives us and it makes me so, so thankful that high school was a relative breeze for me compared to those girls.

I liked Daphne. Really, really liked her. I loved that she was going after what she really wanted - being a plus-size influencer - and was having a great time doing it. She seemed like a fantastic woman that I would love to have drinks with and get to know even more. Personally, I don't know what it's like to be overweight. I mention this because Weiner created a character that everyone can identify with. And, you kind of learn a lesson from it too. She challenges your perspectives and, for me, puts a very real voice that I normally would never hear into my head. It's so necessary and so well done.

Jennifer Weiner has delivered yet another must-read with her latest novel, Big Summer. It's well written, relevant, and full of characters who are real and complicated. Daphne's story will keep you hooked - and surprised - the entire time you're reading it and I think it's one everyone should add to their reading list this summer.

*An e-galley of this novel was provided by the publisher, Simon & Schuster Canada, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: Social Misconduct

I had high hopes for Social Misconduct. It's by a Canadian author and seemed so very timely in our social media obsessed world. But S.J. Maher's novel really let me down. From a thriller perspective it was interesting and I really had no idea how it would end but the rest? I kind of couldn't wait for it to end.

Here's the synopsis:

Her perfect job becomes the perfect nightmare when a stalker hacks her phone.
Candace Walker is thrilled when she lands a new job at a hip Manhattan tech company and gets a brand-new iPhone. She’s more than ready to move on from creating clickbait ads for weight-loss pills and herbal erection boosters, and is determined to dazzle the startup team she joins.
A week later, though, everything is at risk: Candace is the target of a mysterious harasser and an online smear campaign. She tosses her new phone into the Hudson River, begins hiding out in her sister’s storage locker in New Jersey, and can’t think of a single person she can trust. But Candace hasn’t come this far—and gone to such lengths—to submit to what is happening without a fight.

Let's get one thing squared away right off the hop. S.J. Maher is a man. For reasons that may or may not be valid, I'm not thrilled with the author's and/or publisher's decision to use initials instead of his full name. I think it's the opposite reason female authors would/will use initials when they write sci-fi and other seemingly male dominated genres (hello, J.K. Rowling). Now, where the latter is to hide the female name so boys and men aren't put off by the idea that a woman is writing whatever the genre is (that's another rant for another day), I think this situation is used to capitalize on the "girl thriller" boom (you know, the one that was started by books like Gone Girl and Girl on a Train). The boom is great and has allowed so many women to write - and publish - novels that may otherwise have been ignored because they were women. Females are flocking to these stories that feature flawed and twisted characters. It's great. But. Why did this title have to use initials? This isn't the only book to do this, by the way. Remember that hit The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn? Also a man. Now, I said at the top that I don't know if this is necessarily something to get this worked up about but it's been nagging at me ever since I read the synopsis and then found out Maher is male. Then it kind of got me riled up again when I actually read the book because there were a few too many instances of sexually violent scenes (I don't have examples since I read an ARC and haven't compared it to a finished copy) when they didn't need to occur. I don't think authors need to write only what they know - or what they are, gender wise - but when the thriller is based entirely on a millennial female it might help to, you know, be one. Or perhaps even talk to one so you don't write a stereotypical character who makes other female millennials (i.e. me) roll their eyes. 

End rant.

"But what about the actual story?" is what I imagine you're asking if you even got this far into this review. Well...it was fine. If you took out the character traits and Candace's weird, terrible job and just said Person A is on the run and Persons B+ are missing/dead/involved and then just waited for the revelations as the novel went on, well that might have been OK. I was actually very intrigued by the mystery. I knew things weren't as they seemed but I don't think I could have predicted how it all went down. That is probably why this book got 2 stars instead of only 1.

One more mini rant, and it involves the end but I don't think it's really a spoiler because I'm not going to mention names. Sandy Hook got dragged into this story. I cannot for the life of me figure out why. I'm not American but even I felt like six plus years was too soon to use it as a plot point. An aside: having a character contemplate suicide as an easy way out was...unfortunate. Finally, I wasn't fully aware of what "swatting" was until I read this book but I don't love that it was included either.

I did like that the chapters changed timelines. One followed Candace in present day as she's running from whatever happened. The other jumps back several weeks and starts as Candace gets her promotion and all the trouble begins. The timelines move forward in time until they get all mixed up and you're finally caught up to present day and know what happened to Candace. I know some people found it confusing and they weren't a fan, but I actually enjoyed it. It added to the suspense of not knowing who to trust because you're still trying to find all the info.

Clearly Social Misconduct was not for me. S.J. Maher's novel might be for someone else but it won't be going on my list of bookpusher titles. 

*An ARC of this novel was provided by the publisher, Simon Schuster Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: Be the Girl

There are a few authors who are on my "I will read absolutely anything they write" list and K.A. Tucker is one of them. She wrote one of my favourite books of 2018 (The Simple Wild, which I reviewed here last year if you missed it) and is gifting us with another book early in 2019. Be the Girl - just released today! - is a little different than anything she's ever written before but it's no less amazing.

Here's the synopsis:

From the national bestselling author of the Ten Tiny Breaths series and The Simple Wild comes a poignant story about a girl trying to change her future while evading her past.
Almost sixteen-year-old Aria Jones is starting over. New postal code, new last name, new rules. But she doesn’t mind, because it means she can leave her painful regrets behind. In the bustling town of Eastmonte, she can become someone else. Someone better.
With the Hartford family living next door, it seems she will succeed. Sure, Cassie Hartford may be the epitome of social awkwardness thanks to her autism, but she also offers an innocent and sincere friendship that Aria learns to appreciate. And Cassie’s older brother, Emmett—a popular Junior A hockey player with a bright future—well … Aria wishes that friendship could lead to something more. If he didn’t already have a girlfriend, maybe it would.
But Aria soon finds herself in a dicey moral predicament that could derail her attempt at a fresh start. It is her loyalty to Cassie and her growing crush on Emmett that leads her to make a risky move, one that earns her a vindictive enemy who is determined to splinter her happy new world.

As I mentioned, Be the Girl isn't quite like any of Tucker's other novels. For starters, she's self-published this one - after years of being traditionally published. That doesn't necessarily make it different than her other books but, to me, that indicates that this was a story that had to be told even if the publishers may not have thought so. The other big thing is that this is a YA novel. It's possible this story could have been told with adult characters but it wouldn't be nearly as good.

Tucker is such a phenomenal writer with an amazing knack at writing deep emotions. That meant this book gave me all the feels - including ones I hadn't really felt since I was in high school myself. Many YA authors can write that angsty, emotional roller coaster that are the feelings of a teenager but there was just something about this book that totally transported me back to my own high school. Maybe because the book was set in a town that was ridiculously similar to my own hometown - also a small town in Ontario, north of the big city of Toronto (though slightly more north than I think this fictional town is supposed to be). I felt this so acutely that I could immediately picture and smell my town's arena when Tucker described the arena Aria was setting foot into. There's a distinct smell to small town arenas and it's one that's hard to explain unless you've been in one.

This book also made me incredibly glad social media didn't exist when I was a teen. In fact, I don't even think Mark Zuckerberg was at Harvard when I was Aria's age. *checks internet* OK, I can't figure out when he started but I'm pretty sure thefacebook officially began the year I turned 17, a year older than Aria. But I digress. Social media is pretty brutal for adults sometimes so I can't imagine the special hell some teens face these days. I was also feeling pretty thankful that I sort of stayed under the radar when I was in high school. I did my best to not attract attention because I was so shy and awkward (which, let me tell you, is not easy to do when you're a six foot tall female basketball player in a school that holds the jocks at the top of the popularity hierarchy). I was lucky that I found my people early on and we had a solid group of friends. But I also wondered, as I read Aria's story and got to "know" Cassie, if I could have been a better person. Probably. I imagine I was never outright mean nor did I knowingly bully anyone but I'm sure there were instances where I giggled with my friends over someone different or ignored someone who was just trying to be friendly. It's a hard thing to think about yourself but that's part of why Tucker's new novel is so necessary. It makes you take a hard look at how you treat others and think about what you could do to be better. To paraphrase Emmett, there's no excuse to be a dick to someone just because they're a little bit different.

You may have noticed I've gone on a lot about the feelings this novel inspires instead of the actual plot. That's because Tucker has woven an incredible tale that I can't talk about too much because I'll spoil it all and you'd be pissed. Trust me. Aria's story is completely hidden at the start and is revealed bit by bit over the course of the novel. And that's the way it should be. So enough about plot!

Moving right along to the characters...I loved Aria. She's real, she's flawed, and she's trying hard to be a good person. Although, I don't think she really needs to try that hard. It's no work at all for her to be friends with Cassie. Cassie was an absolute joy to read. Her bubbly personality leapt off the pages. On the other hand, my heart broke every time someone ignored or teased her. I am so, so glad Tucker has written a book that features such a gem of a character. Emmett would have made teenage me swoon so I completely understood how Aria was feeling. A cute jock who has a heart of gold? Sign me up. Zach, Emmett's best friend, also deserves so many standing ovations for being such an incredible human.

I've realized this review of Be the Girl isn't exactly like most other reviews I write. But I think K.A. Tucker's novel isn't like most other novels. It encourages discussion and deep introspection and is a book that needs to be read by everyone. Young, old, in between. Everyone. You won't regret the time you spend with Aria, Cassie, and Emmett. You may cry (I did) but this is a story that's going to stick with you for a long time.

Buy Links
Amazon * iBooks * Kobo * BN

Print and audio will be available at a later date.

About the Author
K.A. Tucker writes captivating stories with an edge.

She is the USA Today bestselling author of 18 books, including the Causal Enchantment, Ten Tiny Breaths and Burying Water series, He Will Be My Ruin, Until It Fades, Keep Her Safe, The Simple Wild, and Be the Girl. Her books have been featured in national publications including USA Today, Globe & Mail, Suspense Magazine, First for Women, and Publisher's Weekly. She has been nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance 2013 for Ten Tiny Breaths and Best Romance 2018 for The Simple Wild. Her novels have been translated into 16 languages.

K.A. Tucker currently resides in a quaint town outside of Toronto with her family
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Find K.A. Tucker Online

Website * Newsletter * Bookbub * Facebook Author Page * 

Facebook Reader Group * Instagram * Twitter

*An ARC of this novel was provided by the author in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.* 

Review: Hot Dudes Reading

If you're both a book lover and a social media lover, you've probably already heard of the @hotdudesreading Instagram account. If you haven't, check out that link and get a sense of what the book of the same name is all about. I will wait. *hums tunelessly* Fun account, right? I didn't really think the book Hot Dudes Reading was exactly necessary - until I read it. There's just something about actually holding the book in your hands that made the experience that much more fun.

Here's a description of the book:

Humans of New York meets Porn for Women in this collection of candid photos, clever captions, and hilarious hashtags about one of the most important subjects of our time: hot dudes reading.
Based on the viral Instagram account of the same name, Hot Dudes Reading takes its readers on a ride through all five boroughs of New York City, with each section covering a different subway line. Using their expert photography skills (covert iPhone shots) and journalistic ethics (#NoKindles), the authors capture the most beautiful bibliophiles in all of New York—and take a few detours to interview some of the most popular hot dudes from the early days of the Instagram account.
Fun, irreverent, and wittily-observed, this book is tailor-made for book lovers in search of their own happy endings—and those who just want to get lost between the covers for a while.

Hot Dudes Reading is just that. Pictures of good looking guys reading in various places in New York City. The Instagram account has pictures from other cities but the book focuses on NYC. I liked how they separated the book into chapters based on the subway lines and neighbourhoods around the stations. It makes the book feel like a bit of a love letter to New York City.

I loved the interviews with a few of the Hot Dudes the authors captured on Instagram. The authors (we don't actually know who they are, how many there are, if they're young or old, or male or female) emailed questions to the guys asking what it's been like since they were featured, what their favourite book is, and why they prefer physical books over the digital variety. It was great getting to know some of the Hot Dudes a bit better.

I did find myself wondering if any of the photos were staged or what kinds of permissions were needed to publish this book. There are all sorts of blurry lines surrounding social media and what's free domain (and I absolutely do not pretend to know any of the rules) so I wasn't sure if the authors had to only use pictures of the guys they had heard from or if they could use any of the pictures they feature on the Instagram account. One of the reasons I got thinking about this so much is because some of the photos include other people in the background and all of their faces are blurred out. Does anyone have a legal or behind the scenes reason for why that'd be the case?

I read an ARC so it was a soft cover copy with black and white photos. I'm definitely going to check out the finished book when it's out in the wild (it's to be published today by Atria Books!) to see it in all its hard cover, coloured glory. Imagine how hot the dudes will look in colour in an actual book!

I absolutely loved the captions on these pictures. The authors toe the line between hilarity and propriety really well. Some may find the book sexist and, in a small way, it kind of is but it's coming from a really good place. The authors are celebrating really good looking men who are reading actual, physical books in public. As a book girl, I know this to be a rare thing. And, let's be honest, I thoroughly enjoy the eye candy. But back to the captions. They are clever and tongue in cheek and so so good. Because I want to get this review up before I have the chance to check a finished copy, I'll share a recent-ish pic from their Instagram page so you can get an idea of how amazing the captions are. And how hot the dudes are, too!

It takes a bad boy for life to make a winter coat look sexy, but this Puff Daddy might have what it takes to hold me down. They say it’s all about the Benjamins, but with a face like that, I don’t care what his name is. Be it Elmer, Ned or Dennis, I promise I’ll scream it out loud as I’m #ComingHome #HotDudesReading #HDRFangram

A photo posted by Hot Dudes Reading (@hotdudesreading) on Feb 18, 2016 at 9:44am PST

Hot Dudes Reading is a perfect gift for your bestie (and yourself). I giggled throughout the book as I mentally took the subway through New York City with the authors and Hot Dudes. I know you may think the book isn't worth it when you can just look at the Instagram account but the interviews with some of the guys add a little something, as does actually being able to flip the pages of a physical book. Does anyone else love the Instagram account? Do you think you'll pick this one up?

*An ARC of this book was provided by the publisher, Simon & Schuster Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: The Knockoff

Looking for the next The Devil Wears Prada? Authors Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza have you covered. Their new novel The Knockoff is a hilariously addictive novel that is similar to Weisberger's but with its own twist on the world of fashion magazines. It's such a delight to read!

Here's the synopsis:

An outrageously stylish, wickedly funny novel of fashion in the digital age, The Knockoff is the story of Imogen Tate, editor in chief of Glossy magazine, who finds her twentysomething former assistant Eve Morton plotting to knock Imogen off her pedestal, take over her job, and reduce the magazine, famous for its lavish 768-page September issue, into an app.
When Imogen returns to work at Glossy after six months away, she can barely recognize her own magazine. Eve, fresh out of Harvard Business School, has fired “the gray hairs,” put the managing editor in a supply closet, stopped using the landlines, and hired a bevy of manicured and questionably attired underlings who text and tweet their way through meetings. Imogen, darling of the fashion world, may have Alexander Wang and Diane von Furstenberg on speed dial, but she can’t tell Facebook from Foursquare and once got her iPhone stuck in Japanese for two days. Under Eve’s reign, Glossy is rapidly becoming a digital sweatshop—hackathons rage all night, girls who sleep get fired, and “fun” means mandatory, company-wide coordinated dances to Beyoncé. Wildly out of her depth, Imogen faces a choice—pack up her Smythson notebooks and quit, or channel her inner geek and take on Eve to save both the magazine and her career. A glittering, uproarious, sharply drawn story filled with thinly veiled fashion personalities, The Knockoff is an insider’s look at the ever-changing world of fashion and a fabulous romp for our Internet-addicted age.

The Knockoff  (known as Techbitch in the UK and, I think, Australia) was one of those books that I enjoyed more the more I read. I found this novel a bit hard to get into, in part, I think, because I had some issues with the way the story was being told. Imogen is the main character but every once and awhile the story is told from another character's point of view. It was a bit jarring and it threw the flow off a bit. I liked having another side of the story explored but it just kind of hopped around with no real sense of whose POV we'd see next. I also sometimes felt it was very clear there were two authors...it's hard to explain but it goes back to the flow and there were times everything just felt a little off.

I went into reading this one expecting Imogen to be like Miranda Priestly. Personality-wise, Imogen is nothing like the aforementioned Devil. She's actually a nice person, someone you want to work for not just because she's a smart, savvy businesswoman, but because she's so lovely. I totally fell in love with Imogen. I liked that Sykes and Piazza made her so relatable, even to me, a twentysomething. I couldn't relate to Eve because, well, she's a psychotic bitch (and that's kind of the whole point to Eve...she's a hilarious parody and totally nuts). Imogen tries so hard to keep up with the tech world and does pretty well for someone who had had her head in the sand. It was actually pretty fun to read as she discovered Twitter and Instagram (she fails at one and is obsessed with another) and learned how to use them properly.

The Knockoff isn't a book about romantic relationships or family. It's about careers and the workplace and I found it refreshing. Bonus: the American/Canadian cover totally nails that feeling. I would have been upset if the designers had made it light and feminine. The UK cover is a bit softer but the title, Techbitch, creates a nice contrast.

Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza have written such a fun novel. The Knockoff should be put in everyone's beach bag (or on their ereader which will then go in their beach bag) because it is a book you need to read this summer. The characters are both relatable and extreme and the glimpse into the world of fashion is awesome. Check this one out and let me know what you think!

*A copy of this novel was provided by the publisher, Random House of Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Guest Post: Anne Kemp

Welcome to another stop on the Rum Punch Regrets tour hosted by CLP Blog Tours! Today author Anne Kemp was kind enough to stop by Books Etc. with a guest post. Anne writes a blog and a column along with fiction so I was curious to see what she thought about each type of writing. I hope you all enjoy this post as much as I did!

When I focused on writing again, after a many-year hiatus, I never thought I would end up wearing so many different hats. Some days it’s a precarious balancing act, but it’s worth it. With social media and the internet having created a society where we need to know now and get our information justhisfast, writers in 2012 have more on their plates these days than just penning a book.

Me? I write the Abby George Series, I have my column, Anne In Progress, and run a blog…well, I actually run three, but who’s counting? Each format offers something different not only for me but for readers as well.   

They offer options. 

I think that’s why I like switching up and wearing so many other hats. How can anyone like “just one?” In my life, it’s all about options. I guess it’s something I want other people to revel in as well. I can commit to writing a full-length novel because I know I have a story that just has to get out of my system, or I can sit down and crank out (that’s a technical term, by the way) a column for my readers. If I have small bits of information I want to get across or share, I can create a blog post around a topic and use that platform for spreading the word.

Is it frustrating? Sometimes, yes. There are days I’d rather just work on my book, and honestly if I could just dream up blog post ideas all day and not always write them, that’d be swell, too. However, in the end? I love writing. It’s mine and everyday I wake up and I have the option to write whatever I want. At any given moment, all day long. Even to-do lists.

I also love social media because (again) we’re faced with options. Options for marketing ourselves to an audience much bigger than we ever imagined, options for different outlets and platforms of social media and outreach. For instance, I really love Twitter, crafting a tweet and getting it out there. Sometimes when I go to post on Facebook, I get stumped.  In steps Twitter! Or maybe I have a photo that works well with my mood, but I don’t want to make a big deal out of it. I’ll use Instagram. Don’t even get me started on that rabbit hole they call Pinterest – love it! 

See? Options.  

That’s all a girl truly needs. I love the days when I feel like I’m juggling precious china plates; prepping a blog, organizing my tweets to go out, answering folks on Facebook and outlining my next book. Multi-tasking in the midst of something you truly love, in the midst of balancing your passion, is the most priceless experience ever. And I’d take that option over never being able to write again or having to pick just one.

Cause I like having the option.


And in case you missed it - my review can be found here!