REVIEW: Emancipating Andie

Ever since the one time Andie Weber threw caution to the wind - and paid the price for it - she’s learned that it’s safer and smarter to live life playing by the rules. Now she’s got a great apartment, a steady job, and a wonderful boyfriend in Colin; he’s sweet, stable, and essentially perfect – except maybe for the fact that his best friend is Chase.

Chase McGuire lives his carefree, unstructured life strictly for himself. Dripping sarcasm and oozing wit, he refuses to censor his feelings or opinions for anyone, making no apologies for either and wearing his abrasiveness like a badge of honor. No one has ever gotten under Andie’s skin the way Chase does – and vice versa.

So when Andie and Chase find themselves forced to take a two-day road trip together, they are already dreading an inevitable all-out war. But as the trip progresses, and the undeniable friction that has always defined their relationship slowly begins to wear away their preconceived notions of each other, Andie and Chase discover they both have a lot to learn about life, courage, happiness, and the age-old battle between logic and love.

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Love with your head and you’ll be safe. You love with anything else, you’ll find yourself in big trouble.

I read Priscilla Glenn's debut novel Back to You last year and I loved it. Freaking loved it. There was romance, angst (but not too angsty that I got annoyed) and forgiveness. I was super absorbed into Michael and Lauren's story so you could imagine my delight knowing that Priscilla Glenn had released a new book.

Emancipating Andie is very different from Back to You. Andie is an upright, inflexible and rather rigid girl who lives her life according to the rules. She had a perfect boyfriend, albeit a little boring but he was safe. And that is what mattered. It was actually unnerving to see how much Andie reminded me of myself; she plays it safe, we're content with boring, victims of anal-retentive behaviour and we're both petrified of germs. She meets Chase at a party, and he's everything that her boyfriend Colin is not. Scruffy, impulsive, spontaneous and lives his life YOLO style. After the party finishes, Andie is quite happy to never ever see Chase again.

But when they're forced to take an impromptu road trip down to Florida, everything changes. It is Chase's differences that makes Andie's skin itch, and she gives him a piece of her mind more than once. They have a lot of misconceptions about one another, and Chase enjoys getting under her skin. He is witty, sarcastic and makes no apologies for anyone or anything but funny enough, after the next few days - they realise that there is more to each other than what they initially thought. A shaky friendship forms, and they learn and feed off one another. They learn lessons about love, happiness and doing things for one's self and nobody else. 

“Are you going to put your shirt back on?” she blurted out.

Chase froze, looking over his shoulder at her with the most maddening smile. “Why? Is this bothering you?”

“I just… I mean, what if we get pulled over or something?”

“If we get pulled over, this could only work in your favor,” he said, running his hand over his chest.

Andie tried to stifle a laugh. “My God, you're insufferable.” 

I freaking loved the banter that went on between Chase and Andie. It was hilarious watching Andie act all offended whenever Chase made a comment that was less than polite, and her hatred for swear words haha. But they discussed the most awesome and random things; hitchhikers, chocolate-covered bacon and the appropriateness of names.I personally thought Chase was freaking sexy and arrogant yet oddly insightful and intelligent - and oh my, it is his imperfects that make him an utterly perfect book boyfriend. The chemistry between them two was just off the charts and my thoughts for most of the book was just, "OH MY GOD, JUST MAKE OUT ALREADY."

I would just like to clarify that even though Andie has a boyfriend for most of the book, there is no cheating. I'm glad about that because I'm not a fan of cheating, no matter how well suited the people are for each other. It is rather a clean book (with a few steamy scenes, nothing too graphic though!) and there wasn't any doubt who Mr. Right for Andie was. It was just a question of Andie coming to her senses, realising that there was more to life than what she had always been taught to believe and broadening her horizons. 

I'm not going to lie though; as much as I enjoyed Priscilla Glenn's new book, I didn't quite enjoy it as much as her first one. I was quite ambivalent after I finished reading it, and it didn't make me think for a long time afterwards like Back to You did - in short, it didn't quite have that OMG WOW factor. But this book was still great with a happy ending with a sweet, clean romance with an ending that ties things together nicely.

RATING: 4/5 stars

REVIEW: A Song for Julia (Thompson Sisters)

Everyone should have something to rebel against.

Crank Wilson left his South Boston home at sixteen to start a punk band and burn out his rage at the world. Six years later, he’s still at odds with his father, a Boston cop, and doesn’t ever speak to his mother. The only relationship that really matters is with his younger brother, but watching out for Sean can be a full-time job. The one thing Crank wants in life is to be left the hell alone to write his music and drive his band to success.

Julia Thompson left a secret behind in Beijing that exploded into scandal in Washington, DC, threatening her father's career and dominating her family's life. Now, in her senior year at Harvard, she's haunted by a voice from her past and refuses to ever lose control of her emotions again, especially when it comes to a guy. 

When Julia and Crank meet at an anti-war protest in Washington in the fall of 2002, the connection between them is so powerful it threatens to tear everything apart.

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Just Remember to Breathe was the first book I read by Charles Seehan-Miles and it was pretty good but oh my God, A Song for Julia blew me away. In Just Remember to Breathe, we were introduced to Julia's sister Alex who briefly mentioned Julia and Crank in passing but in A Song for Julia, we get to see Crank and Julia's story. (Note: Just Remember to Breathe and A Song for Julia are part of a series though they definitely can be read as stand-alone novels and in any order).

“Is there any hope for a future between a pit rat and a Harvard girl?”

Julia Thompson, the eldest daughter of an ambassador, had always been one to keep others at arm length.   Having a father in Foreign Service meant she had to move around all her life to many places; Brussels, Beijing, Washington DC, San Francisco and Boston to attend college at Harvard. We see that Julia is an emotionally vulnerable girl straight away; she's been duped by someone she thought she was in love with, she's been betrayed by her best friend and her parents are emotionally distant, especially her mother. 

The closed-off Harvard girl meets the wild South Boston boy, Crank Wilson, who is a musician, at an anti-war protest. Crank has a whole load of emotional baggage as well, a teenage brother with Aspergers Syndrome, parents who pretend not to love each other but secretly do and a whole bunch of female groupies to last him a lifetime. At their very first meeting, it's a moment of lust/intrigue that sizzles between Crank and Julia but at the end of the night, they go their separate paths, believing that they would never see each other again until fate intervenes and they meet each other again in a totally crazy situation.

Julia is reluctant to let Crank close due to her inner demons of the past and the potential political scandal it could bring upon her wealthy family. Their relationship is full of angst (and I usually hate angst, Twilight - I'm looking at you!) but I loved Crank's resilience and despite Julia maintaining that she had no feelings towards him, I loved that he didn't give up and still cared for her, no matter what.

I like that this book didn't have disappearing parent syndrome and that on both Crank and Julia's behalf, both sets of parents are addressed. Julia's relationship (or lack thereof) has a huge impact on how Julia presents herself, especially following that scandal with a seemingly perfect British boy in Beijing, when she was only fourteen years old. Crank's relationship with his parents is a little different, his father is a tough South Boston cop with whom he spars with occasionally but has his best interests at heart while his mother is a totally different story. 

One thing I also really appreciated about this novel is that the author touched on the topic of Aspergers Syndrome and you know how disabilities are rarely touched upon in novels, especially in the Young Adult/New Adult fiction world. Crank had an amazing relationship with his seventeen year old brother Sean, who suffers from Aspergers Syndrome and it was so incredibly sweet with how loving he was of his brother, despite his brother not being able to communicate back very well. We see Sean's inner struggles within in how he wants to be perceived to other people and I just loved the part in where Julia and Sean confided to each other about their issues - it was an incredibly poignant and touching moment - which blossomed into a genuine friendship between Julia and Sean.

This was a fantastic book and for anyone who is interested in reading a good book that deals with real issues, non-insta love and a whole lot of emotional baggage, this book is for you!

RATING: 4/5 stars.