Welcome to my stop of the 'Clayton Falls' series of books 'Derailed' and 'Veer'. I hope you enjoy my thoughts on two books I really did enjoy.
by Alyssa Rose Ivy
Published: September 2012
When you're lost, sometimes the only place you can go is home.
Broken over the death of her fiance, Molly leaves law school to return to her childhood in North Carolina. Expecting to lay low until she can figure out what else to do with her life, she finds herself in the arms of her high school sweetheart, the boy who represents everything from the past she tried to leave behind.
Looking for an escape, she instead finds a way back to the girl she almost forgot existed and a future she never dream possible.
My Thoughts
Sometimes you can't let go of the boy you left behind.
Derailed was a sweet romance filled with hope, grief and denial. It tells the story about a girl who returns home to find herself after her fiance dies. There was something so lovely and yet terribly sad about coming to terms with grief and the past. I loved the sense that Molly could go home again and find the thing that had been missing all along - contentment.
The story line is simplistic, and even though I've read the same similar story line over and over again, there's no doubting that it's always done differently - such as it has been with Derailed. In some ways, I feel like I'm returning to my roots with books like these. I cut my teeth on them.
The characters were delightful. There wasn't a character I didn't like, even though there was a sort of love triangle going on. I can't say it was a convincing one because I knew right from the start who she would end up with. -sigh- I'm having a real problem on knowing just what to write in case it reveals something you would rather read about. Anyway, Molly was very human in the fact that she had issues she had to deal with before she could move on with her future and that included her father, her dead fiance and Ben - the main male character.
Ben was a character who was hard for me to understand. His reactions to things was so different then what I would have imagined they would be. Maybe it represented his maturity from days gone by. I honestly don't know. Actually, when I think about it, perhaps there is a sense of unpredictability in this book.
The characters' relationships with each other reminded me of a real community. The friends hang out at bars, gossiped about the opposite sex, dated, fought, made-up and had each other's backs when needed. Maybe the writing wasn't as prosy as some other books I've read, but there was enough of it that it gave me a sense of what the characters were feeling.
Overall I have to say that if you're looking for a complex, thought-provoking book, well, I wouldn't say you've found it here, but if you're looking for a light read and something that will make you roll your eyes, smile, sulk and go 'awww' then this is definitely the right book for you.
I would recommend this to anyone who's a hopeless romantic.
Now for my rating:-
Three out of five wands.
Free until the end of the tour on Kindle!
by Alyssa Rose Ivy
Published: November 2012
Only when you let go can you learn to live.
Between the death of her mother and pushing through law school without her best friend, it's been a tough year for Becca. Needing a break from Boston, she moves to a tiny coastal North Carolina town for a relaxing summer. After bumping heads repeatedly with a local cop, she realizes her summer will be anything but quiet.
Three years after a career ending injury ruins his chance to play Major League Baseball, Gavin has a distrust of northerners and lately girls in general. He wants nothing to do with a girl who is only in town for the summer.
When the two give in to their impossible attraction, they realize that they may just have found the key to freeing themselves from the ghosts of their pasts.
My Thoughts
Sweet, enchanting and very lovable.
You know how you read companion novels and you never think it's going to be as good as the very first book? Well, I enjoyed this book maybe even more than I did the first one. Sure, there's that cheesiness that comes with romance novels, but that's what I love. It's like my brain went 'ahhh' when I read this. There was no trying to decipher what the author meant, where the plot was heading, or even trying to guess who the bad guy was - there was simply the feeling of relaxing into a story where you didn't have to think. Now, that may sound as if it's bad, but it's not. Sometimes the best treat in the world is a simple one or, in this case, a simple book.
Gavin's story was wonderful and it gave me a much better understanding of his character. Gavin, who I first met in 'Derailed'. Who would have thought that underneath that flirty exterior there could be such a stubborn, yet stupid ass? And, yet such a romantic one as well. I learned so much more about him in this book and his story broke my heart in some places, just like Becca's did. How she ended up so well-adjusted I don't know.
Escaping back into the community of Clayton Falls was nice. I really enjoyed reading about the same characters I had read about in the first book and some I hadn't met yet. There was a real sense of coming home again.
Although I have to say that the flow of this book was, as a musician might say, pitchy. Sometimes it flowed exactly right, but there were some places when it moved too fast and where the story should have been drawn out more. Even thought I liked this book, I felt it would be so much better than it had been.
Anyway, I feel pretty much the same way about 'Veer' as I did 'Derailed'.
I would recommend this book, once again, to anyone who's a hopeless romantic - like me.
Now for my rating
Three out of five wands
Links to Buy
Alyssa Rose Ivy is a Young Adult and New Adult author who loves to weave stories with romance and a southern setting. Although raised in the New York area, she fell in love with the South after moving to New Orleans for college. After years as a perpetual student, she turned back to her creative side and decided to write. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and two young children, and she can usual be found with a cup of coffee in her hand.
This book tour was presented by Giselle at Xpresso Book Tours
Thanks so much for reading and reviewing Derailed and Veer! :)
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome :)
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