UK ARC TOUR: Forget You (Jennifer Echols)

After pining for it and visting Jennifer's website twice a day every day to check on updates, I finally had the chance to read Forget You today.

It's bloody awesome.

Now,my review here will tell you how much I loved it, but to keep it short, I loved every single bit of it. Fraught with sexual chemistry and emotionally-charged, it's unmissable. Which is why, I reckon you all should read it early too :) It will be out 20th July, but you wanna read it now, right? :D

Jennifer has very kindly provided me with an advance copy which I will be circulating to UK bloggers for review. It's not as pretty as the real book - which you should also pre-order, by the way, because the cover is beautiful - but it's the inside that counts! :D

I know I have several bloggers interested in the tour from twitter, but I will arrange the order as I get comments for sign-ups. The details of the tour will be as follows:

* Open to all UK bloggers (Are there any EU bloggers interested?)

* The book should be sent out a week after you have received it.

*The review should be posted on your blog within a week of sending out the book.

* No tacking information needed, but could you please get certificate of posting (you can get this for free)?

*E-mail me at dwaynehalim@hotmail.co.uk if you have received the book and I will reply with the next recepient's address. Can you also e-mail me if you have sent it, please?

* Comment with your blog and e-mail address.

That's it! I hope UK bloggers sign up. Forget You really is a beautiful book.

PS. As it is my signed personal copy, please do take good care of it!

Book Review: Forget You (Jennifer Echols)

There’s a lot Zoey would like to forget. Like how her father has knocked up his twenty-four-year old girlfriend. Like Zoey’s fear that the whole town will find out about her mom’s nervous breakdown. Like darkly handsome bad boy Doug taunting her at school. With her life about to become a complete mess, Zoey fights back the only way she knows how, using her famous attention to detail to make sure she’s the perfect daughter, the perfect student, and the perfect girlfriend to ultra-popular football player Brandon.

But then Zoey is in a car crash, and the next day there’s one thing she can’t remember at all—the entire night before. Did she go parking with Brandon, like she planned? And if so, why does it seem like Brandon is avoiding her? And why is Doug—of all people—suddenly acting as if something significant happened between the two of them? Zoey dimly remembers Doug pulling her from the wreck, but he keeps referring to what happened that night as if it was more, and it terrifies Zoey to admit how much is a blank to her. Controlled, meticulous Zoey is quickly losing her grip on the all-important details of her life—a life that seems strangely empty of Brandon, and strangely full of Doug.

I have pined for this book since I first read the blurb. I wanted it so much I visited Jennifer's website for teasers and/or extracts twice a day, every day. So you can only imagine the excitement and the height of expectations I hold for Forget You!

My judgment in five words: Jennifer has done it again!

Forget You is a delicious and a bewitching romance, with a bucketful of sexual chemistry between an endearing heroine searching for answers and a seductively sexy hero who holds the key to it all.  Complex, hugely addictive and ultimately mersmerising, Forget You is an unmissable treat! I found Forget you to be more emotionally-charged, whereas Going Too Far is more psychologically defined. I love love love them both!

Zoey and Doug are both charming characters, brought to life with their respective fears and insecurities. The complexity of their personalities and the demons that shape them - Zoey's family problems and Doug's past - opens the ground for a richly developed set of protagonists. Between Zoey's problems and partial amnesia - forgetting such a consequential night - and Doug's own concerns, they evoke sympathy from readers without forgoing their relatability. I love how Doug is immediately introduced and is prominent in the narrative - I'd like to think that as Zoey's subconscious being extremely aware of him. Around them, secondary characters are equally loveable, with flaws that reflect the imperfections of humanity. Between them, a disarming connection with each other that shatters their defenses.

And I have to add that Doug is unbearably sexy. And sweet. And cute. With or without crutches. Oh heck.

Undeniably, Zoey and Doug are sultry in their own right and are scalding together - the sexual tension between them have reverberated throughout my entire reading experience! Their romance I found was built on an attraction that has long been denied; each attempt at turning away from each other only leads to taking a step towards each other. The contrast between their relationship and Zoey and Brandon's are glaringly obvious, but with a different feel.

Sexy and full of surprises, Zoey and Doug's relationship takes root from a shared past and blossoms to an enchanting tale of of searching and finding. Each of their shared moments are addictive and special, and oh-my-God, so searingly sexy, unmasking qualities of they would not have otherwise discovered in each other. Emphasis here on searingly sexy.

The also setting is adds to the dreamy pair - the lull of the sultry beach in inescapable and welcoming. The unravelling of the twists in the plot is heart-stopping and delivered in short, surprising bursts of revelations. Not to mention that structure of the narrative mirrors accurately Zoey's thoughts and the extent of the the effect her partial amnesia has on her life, especially on her relationship with Brandon and with Doug. And the ending - I wish it was longer! I know I might sound terribly selfish - because even though Forget You is not yet released, I am ready for a sequel!

Five stars, of course!

Forget You will be out 20th July. Don't you forget! :)

*Thank you to Jennifer for my copy. I totally heart you!

Book Review: Going Too Far (Jennifer Echols)

All Meg has ever wanted is to get away. Away from high school. Away from her backwater town. Away from her parents who seem determined to keep her imprisoned in their dead-end lives. But one crazy evening involving a dare and forbidden railroad tracks, she goes way too far... and almost doesn't make it back. 

John made a choice to stay. To enforce the rules. To serve and protect. He has nothing but contempt for what he sees as childish rebellion, and he wants to teach Meg a lesson she won't soon forget. But Meg pushes him to the limit by questioning everything he learned at the police academy. And when he pushes back, demanding to know why she won't be tied down, they will drive each other to the edge - and over...

I was blown away by this novel. It was such a unique read that I was mostly oblivious to every element of change the busy high street around me had undergone. Not even shopping managed to tear me away from this book. It was such a captivating novel.

What I thought the greatest strength of this novel is Echols' heavy characters. Meg and John are one of the, if not the most complex characters I have encountered. Echols' attention to details allows for full attention to her protagonists, a feat not many authors are able to execute. The depth to her characters goes beyond the supercificial and extends on to so many levels. They are well drawn and distinguished without the deprivation of genuine humanity. Best of all, their emotional and psychological intensity makes them a cut above the rest.

Meg's voice was fiercely rebellious and her tone inherently explosive, that combined with the dialogues and exchanges which characterises John in a  completely differently light, comes an inevitable romance that can only be Echols' unique story. Surprisingly, Meg maintains to be a very relatable, very endearing character; one that you may not agree with, but you can never dislike.

My reading experience was one of awe and blind guesses. I found the storyline and pacing different from much of the other novels I have read. The criss-crossing of various elements of the story resulted to a fantastically developed story. There are many twists in the plot that occured at different times - all of which garnered the same shock factor and equal appreciation. I was taken aback and challenged at certain points of the novel; it really was an engaging read.

I found Going Too Far a novel of wonderful surprises and challenging twists and turns, all of which builds this novel to be something of quality. The ending was very satisfactory, much like an account and tangible proof of the lengthy transitions and changes the characters undergo through for and because of each other. Before I forget to mention, Going Too Far is also a novel about a damaged psyche, trauma, fears and inhibitions - its motif include psychological understandings and much more.

I like it so much I even inspected zoomed in on the cover - and I think that little eyebrow piercing is digitally added. :D

Five stars!

PS. Echols' Forget You is coming out in the summer and oh my God, I can't wait!