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Against the Rules (Gamer Girls #2) by Laura Heffernan

Blog Tour Stop : Kate Rock Book Tours courtesy of Kensington Books

Thanks so much to the author, Kate Rock Book Tours, NetGalley, and Kensington Books for the complimentary advanced copy of this book in exchange for honest thoughts, and participation in this book tour. { partner }

BOOK DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS :

RISK EVERYTHING … Holly has taken herself out of the dating game since breaking up with her cheating, thieving ex. She barely notices Marc, who comes into the game store every week, hoping to get her attention. Her friends insist it’s time to take on a new role, to leave Quiet Holly behind and embrace her inner flirt. And on paper, Marc’s great: cute, funny, and a hardcore gamer just like Holly is.

Then there’s Nathan. He’s everything twenty-eight-year-old Holly wants…except he’s also her friend’s father. Absolutely off-limits. But as she and Nathan playtest a new legacy game together, they’re growing closer.

The game is complex and intriguing, and there’s no wat to know how choices will pan out. What seems like a good idea could lead to disaster…or sweet victory. But in gaming, as in love, sometimes you have to roll the dice to take your chance . . .

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW (4 STARS) :

Once again I am writing a review on a second book in a series without having read the first book. Come on, Jennifer, get it together. Right? Right. But, like with my last tour book, the description comes along and it just sounds too fun to pass up, even if I did miss the first part of the story! And once again, I was not disappointed.

Holly is an incredibly fun character, and I really enjoyed getting to spend this time with her. She is nerdy and game-minded, yes, but she is also really smart, and strong-willed, feisty, and she has a fierce love for the people around her. When we first meet her she is in the last few months of reclaiming her life from issues caused by and related to her ex, who is in trouble with the law due to his part in their new business was revealed to be less than upstanding. She’s been having a hard time while trying to get back on her feet, working at her local game shop and having weekly game nights with her friends, and is inspired to start putting herself out there more in the world of dating.

While none of the first few dates go very far, some not even making it through the salad course, I had a really good time getting to read about the dates, especially the really cringe-worthy ones whom she had met online. It felt a little bit like gossiping and sharing bad dating stories with your girlfriends, and let me just say that I was all about it. And while we are on the topic, I loved her whole group of friends at the game nights. They are such a tight knit group, and all getting to share in a mutual love of the game and the competition. Also the game that they are playing throughout the whole story sounds really cool. I am not always a huge gamer myself (I had older brothers, so I can play sometimes, but I grew up mostly watching the games instead), but I wanted to try and join in the game too. Take out? Check. Good friends? Check. Awesome sounding board game? Check. All I’m saying is that I’m upset I don’t get to have game nights anymore.

And yes, we couldn’t talk about this book without talking about the love story. Throughout the story Holly has two main love interests that she focuses on – Marc, who stops by the game shop during her shifts, and sweetly plans dream dates to try and woo our lead; and Nathan, who she has had a crush on for years and gives her enough butterflies to fill her stomach twice over every time they brush hands. He seems perfect (hey, they even already live together) except that he is the father of one of her best friends. Yikes. Her whole internal debate between the two men revolves around how her friend, Gwen, would react if she chose Nathan, worrying she’s breaking some girl-code and that her friend may never forgive her. While I’ve never been in this particular situation I think we’ve all had moments where we worried we might hurt or even lose a friend depending on a choice that we made, and so I found that part of the story really easy to follow and found that I could fairly easily relate to the character. And plus, there’s something about a forbidden romance that just makes it that much more fun to read, right?

Overall this book was really enjoyable, and I wanted to jump right into the middle of this friend group. None of the characters were perfect, which I always think makes for a better and more enjoyable reading experience. And while, yes, the central gaming theme may not be for everybody, I found it different and new and thoroughly entertaining. I will definitely be checking out the next book in the series, Make Your Move, which publishes in December and follows another member of this same group.

This book is publishing tomorrow, October 15, 2019!

LINK TO BUY ON AMAZON :

Posted on by tacklingtbr

Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center

St. Martin’s Press – Review: 3 Stars

Thanks so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are entirely my own. { partner }

The premise and lead character definitely (and quickly) drew me to this book when I first read the pre-publication synopsis – I love a character driven novel, and when it’s being lead by a strong female character I tend to love it all the more. What can I say? I have a type. So a story about a strong, independent, and badass female firefighter finding love and reuniting with her mother sounded like it would be right up my alley. And for the most part I really enjoyed this book, but it was a near miss from “love” for me.

One of the things that bugged me the most was the thing that I usually eat right up in a book like this – the romance. The love story. Don’t get me wrong, I had quite a few swooning moments with the Rookie. But let’s start there – it is very difficult to fully invest in a romantic connection between two characters where one is almost exclusive referred to as “the Rookie,” even by the person that he is in said relationship with. I’m all for nicknames or pet-names galore, but the fact that he had this joking and mocking nickname before they were even fully acquainted, and she continues to use it after falling in love and even up until (spoiler) the wedding. And that was just a little bit difficult for me to fully buy into.

And then the other part of the relationship that was a bit tough for me was how instantly Cassie fell for the Rookie. While I do prefer stories about the relationships that start slowly (either as friends or rivals) and build over time, I don’t have anything against a “love at first sight” type of love. And in all honesty I don’t have any issues character-wise with the Rookie falling for Cassie at first sight. But everything that we know about Cassie would mean that she shouldn’t have that kind of reaction. She has spent her entire adult and young adult life building up these walls around herself emotionally, and while yes I believe that finding herself falling in love with someone would break those walls down, seeing a man that she finds attractive should not immediately affect her as strongly as it does. The man walks into the room on their first day of work and her heartrate immediately quickens, and she all but goes weak in the knees and swoons. Again, I don’t have an issue with love at first sight, but it doesn’t make sense with who we are meant to believe that this woman is. It just didn’t fit for me.

However, now that I’ve been a bit of a downer, overall I did enjoy this book. I liked the character of Cassie and her drive, and I really enjoyed her relationship with her mom (once she let herself have one). While it was really difficult to read about the people in her life letting her ignore her past, when according to her they “just know,” rather than encouraging her to face it, it was really nice getting to see her get to the point of talking about it and therefore being able to come to terms with it.

Even with the issues that I did have, I enjoyed this book and I’m glad that I got to read it. I would recommend it, but it certainly won’t be one of my favorite books of the year. What it did do was make me laugh at times, make me unwilling to put it down at others, and make me want to call my mom.

Posted on by tacklingtbr

When I Was White: A Memoir by Sarah Valentine

St. Martin’s Press – Review: 3 Stars

Thanks so much to NetGalley, the author, and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are entirely my own. { partner }

I knew that I was interested in this book early on before publication, because I love getting to learn about different perspectives and read about experiences that I wouldn’t necessarily have in my lifetime. This memoir definitely fit the bill in that respect. This was a really interesting read, although I will say that it isn’t exactly a fun or easy read. Like, I wouldn’t take it to the beach or anything, but I am glad that I got the chance to read it.

That being said, I don’t think that this will end up being my favorite read of the summer. There was a ton of really amazing detail throughout the entire book, about everything – but at times there was a bit more detail than I really needed about certain aspects of the author’s story and it made parts of the book seem a bit long. Things like knowing exactly what stop she used on the subway, and all of the stops that lead up to it, and the entire layout of the shops and city. While I know that where you grow up and where you go to college tend to have a great impact on a person’s story so I definitely don’t mind a bit of that type of background and detail, but it seemed to me that it took up a good chunk of the book and made it a bit of a slow read for me. It’s completely personal preference, but it just made the book drag a bit for me in some parts.

This story, and the author, are definitely at their best when they’re focused on the human interactions – specifically between the author and her mother, as well as the rest of her family. One of the best things about non-fiction, when written in a truthful and realistic tone, is that you get to see the flaws that everybody has. This author and her family are no exception, but her mom is especially fascinating, and the many conversations that take place between she and the author surrounding her true parentage (both before it is really revealed to her as well as after) are incredibly interesting. I loved getting to see behind the curtain a little bit and get a taste of what those difficult conversations would have looked like.

I will say that if you are a reader who prefers happy endings that are tied up in a bow, this may not do it for you. The author is a strong, independent woman who finds herself through the course of finding who she is, and through becoming in touch with the heritage that she wasn’t sure she shared. And in that fact alone, it is a happy ending. But know that there are still many questions that are left unanswered. For instance, despite all of her research and looking, by the end of the story the author has not met her biological father. But maybe along the way her strength showed her that maybe she didn’t need to after all.

This story gave me a very different look into white privilege, biracial identity, and other topics that I wouldn’t have had this insight into on my own. And I would recommend it to anyone else who would like to take a closer look at one of the many stories of identity and change and finding who we are, specifically a story that may be very different than ours. Just know that it may be a bit of a long read, so prepare yourself to wade through some lengthy bits of description. And I’m not kidding, probably not a beach read. Preferably read it while sitting by a fireplace with a blanket and a cup of tea or a glass of wine. Trust me, you’ll want to feel cozy!

Posted on by tacklingtbr

Honestly, We Meant Well by Grant Ginder

FlatIron Books – Review: 3 stars

Thanks so much to NetGalley, the author, and Flatiron Books for the early review copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions in this review are entirely my own. { partner }

I finished this book a little while ago, and honestly had been waiting around to review it because I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to say. Did I like it? Love it even? Or was it just slightly missing something for me? And in all honesty, I’m still not quite sure. So here goes nothing.

It took me a long while to really get into this book when I started reading it. Not because I didn’t like it. Even in the beginning I was enjoying the characters (anyone who has read basically any of my reviews now knows that I am obsessed with character driven stories.) But for some reason that I can’t quite put my fingers on, the first half of the novel took me approximately a forever to get through.
I always enjoy when we get to hear a story from the perspectives of different characters, and when you get to see the situations a couple of different ways. However, this book is told from a total of five characters perspectives, which I think may have ended up being just a few too many voices for me. It made it kind of fun for the parts of the book where each character was off doing their own thing, and each chapter was sort of jumping you to a different part of the island, but for the parts of the book where they were all in the same spot and situation, it wasn’t my favorite. In those parts of the story we didn’t get to jump back in time a few minutes and see how the other character felt or saw what we had just read about, at least not most of the times, instead we stayed in the same moment and switched to another perspective right in the middle. Between this and how many characters there were in general, I just found that I almost didn’t have any long enough stretch of time with any one character to care about most of them or their situations. Also, just since this seems to be a previously unknown pet-peeve of mine, one of our key narrators isn’t introduced as such until halfway through the book. I get why she was an important narrator, and I did end up really enjoying her point of view, and I even get why she wasn’t needed in the first portion of the story. But I stand by it – I really don’t like when there is a new narrator introduced that late to the game. I know it happens, and sometimes can be done well. But these are my opinions, and it’s my review, so I’m sticking to it here.

Now here we get to the part of the review where I get to talk about the parts of the book that I really loved, because I promise you that there were a few. First and foremost, the setting of Greece, and how much the book dove into all of the gorgeous sites and history that come along with it. I wanted to immediately jump on a plane, explore some ancient ruins, have a glass of wine or three, and then jump immediately into some clear blue water! Doesn’t that sound perfect right now? But I digress.
I ended up, overall, enjoying the second half of the book better than the first. Whether this is because I was more invested in the characters by then and therefore the jumping around didn’t quite bug me as much, or if the story had gotten going enough that I was more invested and was more invested to see what happened next. And part of it was definitely how busy and crazy my life was while trying to read this during the first round, so definitely take this with a grain of salt. But compared to the first half, the second half completely flew by for me. The only thing that I would say about the ending is that, once I did get fully invested in the characters and their stories, I think I would have liked to get some more information about the choices that they made after “the end.” What I’m saying is, I could have used a Harry Potter style “10 years later” moment, you know? I’m all for a cliffhanger or open ending in case there’s a possibility of a sequel, or more information at a later date, but I’m not sure whether or not I would read a sequel for this particular tale, so I would have liked to get it tied up a little bit better at the end here.
And the last thing that I loved – there are some really beautiful relationships in this book. Not necessarily the romantic ones, but the friendships and the familial relationships that we see throughout the story. There isn’t too much to say about this part, but I just really loved a lot of them.

Overall, I would recommend this book to my friends. It is a really interesting look into the life of a woman and her family, when their lives are seemingly falling apart around them, but possibly falling together instead. This was a fairly fun read, set in a beautiful place, and had a good amount of interesting characters. While I think I’m ready for infidelity (slight spoiler? You learn early on, I’m going to let it pass) to not be one of the main conflicts in such a high percentage of books that I am reading, but there was enough else happening that it didn’t bug me too much. I would just give my friends that I am recommending it to a small heads up before reading it, in case they’re tired of reading about it too. But if it’s something that you don’t mind reading about, or it’s something that you can look past, I think that this is a great choice for a summer read! So pull up a glass of wine and maybe a lounge chair, and then you are all set.