Review: Eversea

Title: Eversea [Eversea #1]
Author: Natasha Boyd
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary Romance
Publication Date: June 4, 2013
GoodReads

Synopsis:

An orphaned, small-town, southern girl, held hostage by responsibility and self-doubt.

A Hollywood A-list mega-star, on the run from his latest scandal and with everything to lose.

A chance encounter that leads to an unlikely arrangement and epic love affair that will change them both forever.

When his co-star and real-life girlfriend is caught cheating on him with her married and much older director, A-list hottie, Jack Eversea, finds himself in sleepy Butler Cove, South Carolina. Jack hopes the sultry southern heat in this tiny coastal Lowcountry town will hide him not only from the tabloids and his cheating girlfriend, but his increasingly vapid life and the people who run it. He doesn’t count on meeting Keri Ann Butler.

Keri Ann has relied on herself so long, dealing with her family’s death and the responsibilities of keeping up her family’s historic mansion, that boys and certainly the meager offering of eligible boys in Butler Cove, have never figured into her equation. But fate has other plans. Suddenly face to face with the man who played the movie role of her favorite fictional character, Jack has Keri Ann yearning for everything she has previously avoided … and Jack must decide whether this funny, sassy girl is worth changing his life for, before his mistakes catch up to him.

This was very much a Reid Alexander/Dori Catrell kind of romance. While I loved Tammara Webber’s rendition of superstar turned boyfriend, I seriously loved this book too. There characters were so real and the romance intense. AND THAT ENDING. I JUST. fjdhlfkjahdasjf.

Keri-Ann is a small town girl, orphaned by her parents death and attempting to ignore pressure from the town’s citizens to sell her family’s historical house to the city. Taking turns with her brother, she’s on house protection/restoration duty until he finishes college. However, with the pressure high and the funds and ability low, Keri-Ann can’t do much about the state of her house. Step in Jack Eversea, millionaire actor hiding in the small town after a fallout with his girlfriend. Turns out he’s not a bad handy-man either. The two team up to hide him and to fix up the Butler house to return it to its former glory.

The emotions in this book were on high and I felt every tear, every laugh, and every moment of anger and passion. Every little cue and detail, Boyd got right when it came to her characters expressing how they feel, through the literary body language, dialogue, and narration. I loved that throughout the novel, Keri-Ann and Jack connected so well. They inspired each other to become more comfortable in their skin. The character development in this novel was phenomenal. Keri-Ann was a little lost at the beginning of the book, but as it went on, you could really see her becoming more comfortable in her skin. I loved being on that journey with her. Jack was a big help, as he helped her realize that she has an amazing talent, even if she doesn’t think so. I liked that they brought out the best in each other. Their romance was just … perfect.

Touching on the end of the book… : WHAT. That was my first reaction. My second reaction was that Jack needs to get hit in the head. But that’s besides the point. While I expected a bit of that ending, a large part of it was a huge surprise, but a total twist on Keri-Ann and Jack’s relationship. Definitely brought my attention back around, and made me want to burn through the next book, as well.

Overall, this book was awesome. The writing was great, the characters were realistic and connected amazingly, and the end left me in a state of shock and then anticipation for the next book. Definitely recommend this one. To sign off, can I just mention that the cover for this was beautiful and the detail in that turtle etched on the sea glass is just stunning? Well, I did. And it is. Eversea was a whirlwind of a story, and I can’t wait to read the next book!

Plot: 5/5
Characters: 4.5/5
Writing: 5/5
World Building: 5/5
Cover: 5/5
Overall: 5/5
GoodReads: 4.23/5

eBook provided by Xpresso Book Tours in conjunction with the upcoming Eversea and Forever Jack tour.

Cover Reveal: Raging Star

ERMAGAWD. The cover for Raging Star, the final book in Moira Young’s Dust Land Trilogy, looks AMAZING. I am so stoked for this book (even though I STILL haven’t read the second book… (whoops)) just ’cause the cover looks INTENSE. Haven’t see the cover yet? Check it out:

BEAUTIFUL, no? I will say though, the two things that bothered me about the first paper back cover STILL bothers me: WHY IS THE SERIES NAME LARGER THAN THE ACTUAL TITLE?!? I DON’T UNDERSTAND, and can they get a new quote for the cover? Please? I’m pretty much done with everyone feeling the need to compare one book against another, especially when they’re almost NOTHING alike. Also, putting quotes like that set up expectations, and while that may help with sales, sometimes it works against the book, where people take the book at face value, realize it wasn’t what they were expecting, and then drop it like it’s hot. Which sucks, ’cause this series was pretty darn good when I left it.

ANYWHOOO~

Title: Raging Star [Dust Lands #3]
Author: Moira Young
Release Date: April 15, 2014

Synopsis:

Saba is ready to seize her destiny and defeat DeMalo and the Tonton…until she meets him and he confounds all her expectations with his seductive vision of a healed earth, a New Eden. DeMalo wants Saba to join him, in life and work, to create and build a healthy, stable, sustainable world…for the chosen few. The few who can pay.

Jack’s choice is clear: to fight DeMalo and try to stop New Eden. Still uncertain, her connection with DeMalo a secret, Saba commits herself to the fight. Joined by her brother, Lugh, anxious for the land in New Eden, Saba leads an inexperienced guerilla band against the powerfully charismatic DeMalo, in command of his settlers and the Tonton militia. What chance do they have? Saba must act. And be willing to pay the price.

Cover Reveal: Rebel Heart

Title: Rebel Heart [Dust Lands #2]
Author: Moira Young

Synopsis:

It seemed so simple: Defeat the Tonton, rescue her kidnapped brother, Lugh, and then order would be restored to Saba’s world. Simplicity, however, has proved to be elusive. Now, Saba and her family travel west, headed for a better life and a longed-for reunion with Jack. But the fight for Lugh’s freedom has unleashed a new power in the dust lands, and a formidable new enemy is on the rise.

What is the truth about Jack? And how far will Saba go to get what she wants? In this much-anticipated follow-up to the riveting Blood Red Road,” a fierce heroine finds herself at the crossroads of” danger and destiny, betrayal and passion.

And, alike to the Legacy of Tril, the name of the Series/Trilogy overshadows the actual title of the book. I can barely see ‘Rebel Heart’, like c’mon!

Release: October 30th 2012

Review: Blood Red Road

Title: Blood Red Road [Dust Lands #1]
Author: Moira Young

Synopsis:

Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That’s fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba’s world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back.

Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba is lost without Lugh to guide her. So perhaps the most surprising thing of all is what Saba learns about herself: she’s a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.

If you follow my day-to-day blog regularly, or my Goodreads, even, you’d know that I started this book way back in April. I heard so much about this book. My friends were raving about how good it was, how it was better than The Hunger Games. So I read it (or well, started it). I got to page 108. Ironically, I stopped after I had completed the boring part of the story. Then, yesterday night, I restarted from page 1. This time, I made it to the end (I finished it this afternoon). I have to say, due to my high expectations, they fell kind of short.

Saba is your stubborn, pain-in-the-butt female lead who does not trust anyone who isn’t her twin brother Lugh. She hates her younger sister, and doesn’t like to accept help. The book started out and I was instantly like “I hate Lugh and Emmi, Saba’s cool” then came the middle “Saba’s alright, Emmi’s not too bad either… I like Jack” then came the end “HOLY HELL SABA YOU’RE SUCH A WASTE OF TIME! LISTEN TO YOUR SISTER AND JACK FUUU–” But then, at the very end I liked her again… though I also liked Emmi too. And loved Jack~ haha. I don’t know if Young wanted me to feel so at a loss with her characters once I finished the book, but that sums ’em up, pretty well. The change in the characters throughout the novel was astounding. It was interesting to see, and I like that I ended up liking most of her character.

Honestly, the action doesn’t start until she meets Jack… Well, actually, it doesn’t start until a little bit after.

The thing about this book is that everyone has varying opinions. I personally liked everything after page 160 something. Comically, that’s when I started hating Saba a little bit more each turn of the page, but then Jack kept getting better so it kind of evened out. On the other hand, my sister liked the beginning to when they meet up with the Free Hawks. Then she got bored until the climax of the novel (like page 340 something). It depends on the person, of course. But doesn’t it always?

Although Saba drove me insane, I liked this novel. The language of it… well that was hard to get past ’cause it was relatively irritating. Unique, but mildly irritating. (You’ll see in the quotes). Conversely, Young managed to still create this world that captivated me. She invented machines and creatures that added to her plot. She made a world in which no one was really safe, not even the crazy King. So even though this book was absolutely maddening, there was something about it that kept me reading (the second time around).

Plot: 5/5
Characters: 4/5
World Building: 5/5
Writing: 4/5
Cover: 4.5/5
Overall: 4/5
GoodReads Rating: 4.04/5

Quotes:
Ever heard of the rule of three? he shouts as we run.
No!
If you save somebody’s life three times, their life belongs to you. You saved my life today, that makes once. Save it twice more an I’m all yers.
-Jack and Saba

Marry me, he says. I got all my own teeth, I wash twice a year an I’ll cut you in fer half the business here.
-Ike

I’m sorry, I says.
Fer what? he says.
Fer always bein … you know … so-
Ungrateful? he says.
Yeah, I says.
Ornery?
I guess so.
Rude? Pig-headed? Violent?
I ain’t violent!
Oh yes, you are. Very. But I like that in a woman.
I laugh. Yer crazy, I says.
I was fine till I met you, he says.
-Saba and Jack

Lugh got born first. On Midwinter Day when the sun hangs low in the sky.
Then me. Two hours later.
That pretty much says it all.
Lugh goes first, always first, an I follow on Behind.
An that’s fine.
That’s right.
That’s how it’s meant to be.
Because everthin’set. It’s all fixed.
The lives of everybody who’s bin born.
The lives of everybody still waitin’to be born.
It was all set in the stars the moment the world began.
-Saba