Book Review: A Long Way From You - Gwendolyn Heasley

Author Website: Gwendolyn Heasley
Form: eBook
Genre: Young Adult - Fiction, Romance

Synopsis (from Goodreads): For too long, Kitsy has had to satisfy her dreams of becoming a real artist by giving her friends makeovers before prom. So when her best friend Corrinne's family offers to sponsor her for a summer art course in New York City, Kitsy bids a temporary good-bye to Texas to say hello to the West Village.

Between navigating the subway and the New Yorkers--namely, the Art Boy who has a nice trick of getting under her skin--Kitsy knows that this summer is going to be about a lot more than figure drawing.

My Review: 

A Long Way From You was an impulse library ebook decision I made when I was bored and looking for a nice simple young-adult romance to read.  Something simple and easy, not a lot of fighting off demons or time travel or any of that kind of thing, just a laid book about a boy and a girl.  It never does work that way, does it?

That is not to say that A Long Way From You wasn’t a simple easy-going book, because for sure – it was.  However, the romance was minimal (which is surprising considering the title), but that’s okay.  Regardless, this book was pretty great.  Kitsy, small-town Texas girl, is awarded a chance to spend a month in big –town New York on a sponsorship from her friend’s parents, as a thank you for being such a good friend to Corrine during her time in Broken Spoke.  This sponsorship is for a prestigious summer art program – the entire concept is a dream come true for Kitsy.  Except for the part where she has to leave her younger brother at home with her alcoholic mother, who doesn’t seem to understand the concept of taking care of her children.

So at first, I thought this book was going to be all big parties and super hot super models and that kind of craziness the entire way through.  It started off that way, at least.  Corrine seems to be really, really into her money and lifestyle, to a fault, and she seems to be trying to suck Kitsy into the scene as fast as she can.  Thankfully, Kitsy sticks to her guns and really doesn’t lose herself to the high life.  She does, however, lose herself in the big city life, literally and figuratively.  Kitsy has almost always been the caregiver, and the one who just makes sure everything is running smoothly, and everyone is happy.  But here, on her big adventure, I think she veers a little bit left of center when attempting to do something for herself.  Thankfully, Kitsy is a strong character, and is able to find some perspective.  Just at the moment where I was grabbing my head and screaming (mentally – can’t have everyone thinking I’m crazy) ‘What are you doing??? What about this perfectly good guy back home, and what about …..” Kitsy gets a clue, and drives her life back into an amenable, and quite honestly, a realistic place for a High School senior’s  life to be.

In the end A Long Way From You, though it has it’s share of craziness, wild parties, and a few heart thumping boy moments, this book was a very happy, satisfying book to read.  I love how Kitsy is able to put her life into perspective, and find out who she really is.  So while I may not have gotten the romance that I was looking for, I did get the feel-good happiness that comes with that kind of book anyway.

Morningstar Farms Veggie Burgers - Reinvented

I was pretty excited about getting the opportunity to participate in the MorningStar Farms Veggie Burger campaign through Bzzagent.com, not because I wanted to try veggie burgers, but because MorningStar is a brand name that my family and I already love and turn to whenever we are going to be attending a cookout or if we just are looking for a burger.  We've been a vegetarian family for nearly a year now, so we've had lots of opportunity to try MorningStar's many varieties of veggie burgers.  What we never had done prior to this campaign was branch out and use the veggie burgers as anything other than...well, veggie burgers.

That is until last night.  Typically when we have spaghetti now, we just have noodles and sauce.  I might add some plain black beans to "beef it up" so to speak, but I'm the only one in the family who does that.  Last night I decided to use the MorningStar Spicy Black Bean Burgers as the "meat" of our meal.  All I did was throw the veggie burgers into the frying pan, and started chopping away.  Before I knew it, the burgers looked a lot like regular ground beef that you would use in spaghetti. 

Next, I proceeded as usual - and walla, you have Spicy Black Bean spaghetti!  The veggie burger added a little extra spice to the meal; lots of flavor.  But my favorite part was - as I was was grinding the veggie burgers up, I could really see the ingredients used - whole black beans, corn and rice were all very recognizable in the frying pan, making me feel even better about the quality of food that MorningStar used.

Here's Azalyah getting ready to try her Black Bean spaghetti!

And Elijah's A-okay approval (sorry for the blurry shot!)

Product Review: Green Mountain Coffee

Another great buzz campaign from BzzAgent, I was super excited to try Green Mountain Coffee.  Why, you ask?  Because I really love coffee.  I haven't had any at home for a while, because I have a tendency to drink what is provided for me at work (work sludge, as I call it) so there didn't seem to be any point in buying in, know what I mean?

Well, let me tell you, when you are drinking something nicknamed, "work sludge," anything boiled shoes might taste good.  So Green Mountain Coffee was a pretty tasty treat!  However, I was kind of hoping for something a little extra special.  It was a nice bold morning coffee, but in all reality in the end it was just coffee.  It wasn't until I got a tip from a friend to add a little bit of cinnamon to the top of the grounds that transformed the coffee into a decent coffee into an excellent coffee! 

But what makes Green Mountain Coffee more than just an every day normal coffee isn't the cinnamon added, but their purpose.  Green Mountain Coffee is Fair Trade Certified.  If you're anything like me, you can derive what that could possibly mean by the title alone, but haven't actually heard of the term before.  So let me tell you what it means to be fair trade certified.

Fair Trade:

• helps farmers get a fair price for their beans
• improves working conditions
• assists in protecting the environment
• supports community development with projects resulting in new schools, roads, health clinics and safer drinking water.*

So in all, by choosing to purchase your everyday morning coffee from Green Mountain Coffee, you are helping not just yourself wake up and boost your day, but you're helping many others across the planet as well.  And if you need an extra kick, add a little cinnamon for flavor, or perhaps ginger, or maybe chai spice?  The options are endless.

* Information derived from the Green Mountain Coffee official BuzzGuide

BOOK REVIEW: Guitar Notes - Mary Amato

Author Website: Mary Amato

Form: eBook

Genre: Young Adult, Fiction, Romance

I found Guitar Notes on the library ebook downloads, and thought the summary sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a shot.  The book was a very quick and easy read.  I read it in about 4 hours total, I think – less than one day.  The chapters move very quickly, especially in the beginning as Tripp and Layla are establishing their connection.  From the beginning, however author Mara Amato traps you into their world.  Tripp is kind of a sad fellow, but as you read you find out that he has many reasons for his emo exterior.  (He’s not exactly emo, but I kept thinking in the beginning – oh boy, a sad troubled teen…).  Tripp has somewhat recently lost his father, and his best friend moved away at almost the same time.  His thoughts and emotions are actually pretty natural in my opinion.  Layla is a very very good cello player who has a lot of pressure from her father to move forward with her career.  Most surprising though, this the pressure that she receives from her “best” friend.  I have a personality a bit like Layla’s, so I can completely understand the desire to tell Annie (best friend) off and try and explain what’s going on inside to her dad – but they are both so driven and involved, it would not be an easy road to navigate.

 

Anyhow, this book moves forward expectedly when notes are left in the practice room at school (I forgot to mention, Tripp plays guitar as his emotional outlet…kind of important to include, yeah?)  What starts out as sniping and smart alec retorts turns into understanding and friendship.  The book has many smiling and laugh out loud moments, but at the heart is just sweet and great. I will say, at the climax I was almost in tears.  I mean, I KNEW this book was going to have a happy ending, but some very harsh things were said and I couldn’t help but feel really bad for Tripp.

 

This book is well written, characters are funny and interesting.  Best of all – this book is in the “teen” section, and it absolutely belongs there.  Very age appropriate and not to hot and heavy, yet I think in many ways it captures the confused emotions and the pressure that some teens face…with a lot of innocence thrown in there.  I liked that.

BOOK REVIEW: Love Unscripted - Tina Reber

Author Website:  Tina Reber

Form: eBook, Netgalley

Genre: Adult Romance Fiction 

What girl at one time or another hasn’t dreamed of randomly catching the eye of their favorite, super-hot, movie star??  This is basically the story that Tina Reber has written. Even if Taryn wasn’t actually dreaming of the dreamy Ryan Christenson, she has definitely caught his eye and affection – this spinning her off into the limelight and razzel, dazzle of the paparazzi, grocery store tabloids and the craze that comes with ultimate fame.

 

Honestly, what Tina has captured is exactly why I do not go ga-ga over movie stars.  I absolutely love movies, and yes, of course I like the way actors look – who doesn’t…but even as a young teenager I really didn’t become star struck.  Okay, I take that back.  I really had a thing for Devon Sawa.  He was a cutie!  Anyhow, just knowing that 1. I never stood a chance, living in the middle of Ohio, of ever actually meeting these people, and 2. The fact that deep down they were just people, continued to keep me grounded ( and still does) about movie stars.  Reading Love Unscripted I was continually brought back to the Twilight craze when the first movie was filming.  I felt so bad for both Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in those early days.  I honestly wouldn’t want to live that way.

 

Anyway, Love Unscripted captured my attention pretty early on.  Taryn’s chance meeting of Hollywood superstar, Ryan Christenson, was entertaining – and the chemistry was great from the very start.  The book continued to keep me engaged – mostly.  Really, over 700 pages of this relationship seemed a bit too much.  All I know is that I was torn between, “is this about done yet?” and “I have got to know what happens…” pretty regularly. 

 

I can tell that this book was a first complete and published novel (at least as far as I can tell by website, etc.) because it is a little bit rough around the edges.  Sometimes the dialogue was a bit flat and seemed….well…scripted.  There is a part where Taryn and Ryan decide to let their relationship “grow naturally,” and I kind of feel like the book could have used a little bit of that as well.  As I said, the story was good, and kept me engaged from the start, but it does get a bit rough to deal with Taryn.  She is a bit of a tough cookie.  She has had a run of bad relationships, and that doesn’t help, but she is suspicious at every corner – just waiting on the other shoe to drop.  (Who wouldn’t, he’s a MOVIE STAR!)  No matter how true it is though, the constant back and forth in the book would make anyone reading roll their eyes along with Ryan, “what, we’re back to this?” 

 

I also had a hard time with her difficulty receiving gifts, and feel that there should have been some kind of impactful big “ah-ha” moment that helped her overcome this…or compromise.  Something. 

 

The good parts – the chemistry between Taryn and Ryan make this book worth the read.  When it’s just the two of them, and no suspicion or anything, they are excellent.  They are both romantic and loving.  Ryan, from the start, is a normal down to earth guy with an awesome job – even a bit shy, which is always endearing.  With the exception of a brief time in Florida, he seems to remain that way.  Both of them just want to love and take care of each other, even if Taryn is a bit unreasonable with her, “I’ll never let them hurt you,” mantra that she continues to repeat.  Silliness is what that is.  Oh well.

 

I feel like I may have been a little hard on this book – I really did enjoy it.  I think that a good portion of my feelings about the parts I didn’t like would have been eliminate if a couple hundred pages of this book was cut out.  Yes, really.  They went back and forth on the trust issue so many times, I’m pretty sure we  (readers) could get the point without it happening so much.  I think that Tina’s writing will get increasingly better as she continues to write and publish books, and I’m looking forward to watch her grow.