Love and Other Train Wrecks by Leah Konen #Bookreview

Title: Love and Other Train Wrecks
Author: Leah Konen
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Published Date: January 2nd, 2018
Genre: Contemporary, YA
Page Count:368
Format:  Hardcover     

My Rating: ★ ★ ★

Goodreads Summary: 
A twenty-four-hour romance about two teens who meet—and perhaps change their minds about love—on a train ride to Upstate New York in the middle of a snowstorm

One train ride. Two strangers.

Noah is a hopeless romantic. He’s heading back home for one last chance with his first love, whom he broke up with when he went off to college.

Ammy doesn’t believe in true love—her parents being prime examples. She’s escaping from a mom who can’t take care of her to a dad who may not even want her. That is, until one winter night when Noah and Ammy find themselves in the same Amtrak car heading to Upstate New York.

After a train-wreck first encounter between the two of them, the Amtrak train suddenly breaks down due to a snowstorm. Desperate to make it to their destinations, Noah and Ammy have no other option but to travel together. What starts off as a minor detour turns into the whirlwind journey of a lifetime, and over the course of the night they fall in love. But come morning their adventure takes an unexpected turn for the worst. Can one night can really change how they feel about love...and the course of their lives forever? 

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 My Review

"Love isn't the answer, a lot of the time. At least not romantic love. Sometimes, the other kind- the loyal kind- is what really matters."

A snowstorm, a train that suddenly stops for no real reason, and two older teenagers trying to get to where they need/want to be. To me, this sounded like such a fun wintery type of read.

I've really grown to love stories that take place over a short amount of time with two people exploring or getting to a certain destination. 

In this on, we have Noah and Ammy who both are riding on the AmTrack trying to get to different things. 

Noah wants to go and win a girl over and take her out.

While Ammy is trying to make it to her dad's wedding that really isn't a wedding (basically a commitment ceremony). Ammy is also dealing with some things that are happening with her mom and feels guilty about her parents splitting up.  

“It makes me feel free, like I could get lost in the woods and live my best life or something.”     

Noah is so nice and tries to help Ammy, but she was upset still because of everything that was going on at home, so she didn't really care for it. While she wasn't completely rude at times, she also didn't want to tell him where she was going even after they started trying to find a different way to get to their destinations. All Noah knew is that they were going to the same area. With little to work with, and spotty phone coverage for the GPS things go a little wrong, fairly quickly. 

"Captain Obvious is nothing without his lesser-known counterpart, Queen Snark."

Overall I enjoyed this book. I was hoping for a little bit more adventure and fewer secrets. Love and Other Train Wrecks takes place over two days and has many miss adventures. I really liked the friendship that Noah and Ammy were starting to have. They are full both full of snarkiness and banter between the two once they start adventuring. Noah is the take charge one who keeps trying to find a way to get to their destinations. Two failed attempts later due to the snow storm, they end up having to stay in a hotel together. This is where we really start to see Ammy opening up a little bit and finally starting to let out everything she's been holding in that has made her seem so angsty throughout most of the book. 

Things, of course, happen that upset both of them and make them question what they were starting to feel for each other. Will they keep their new friendship? Or will what they discover make them go there separate ways and never talk about it again? You'll have to read it to find out. 

For me I really loved the setting of this book, I love train books, and if you add in snow as well then I am sold. If you know any other books that have those two things please tell me below. 

Blog Tour: Carry Me Home by Jessica Therrien *ARC #Bookreview #Giveaway

Title: Carry Me Home
Author: Jessica Therrien
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
Published Date: September 26th, 2017
Genre: YA, Realistic Fiction
Page Count:356
Format: Kindle

My Rating: ★ ★ ★

Goodreads Summary: 
Lucy and Ruth are country girls from a broken home. When they move to the city with their mother, leaving behind their family ranch and dead-beat father, Lucy unravels.

They run to their grandparents’ place, a trailer park mobile home in the barrio of San Jose. Lucy’s barrio friends have changed since her last visit. They’ve joined a gang called VC. They teach her to fight, to shank, to beat a person unconscious and play with guns. When things get too heavy, and lives are at stake, the three girls head for LA seeking a better life.

But trouble always follows Lucy. She befriends the wrong people, members of another gang, and every bad choice she makes drags the family into her dangerous world.

Told from three points of view, the story follows Lucy down the rabbit hole, along with her mother and sister as they sacrifice dreams and happiness, friendships and futures. Love is waiting for all of them in LA, but pursuing a life without Lucy could mean losing her forever.

Ultimately it’s their bond with each other that holds them together, in a true test of love, loss and survival. 

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 My Review:

Thank you to Expresso book tours for an e-arc of this book in exchange for my honest review. 

Warning this book contains violence, rape, and drug use.

This was a hard book for me to read and I wasn't expecting that. The struggles that the characters faced were very real and extremely realistically written. Lucy and the Mom's point of view were a real insight into what happens when you struggle with addiction and just want acceptance from those you love.

"My Mantra: keep everyone happy, all the time. Everyone, except me."

The mom we see dealing with an unhealthy marriage and trying to reinvent herself after realizing it just wasn't going to work. This causes her to leave and start a new life with her daughters Ruth and Lucy. It's not an easy road for any of them after that, and it leads to some major consequences for all of them.

"We have no money. No place to go. Worry and dread follow me to work, but I'm always my strongest self when life forces me to be. We'll make it. We have to. 

Lucy, we see her trying to find her place in the world and making choices that weren't the smartest that lead her down a path towards self-destruction. Her story is one that is one that a lot of young people fall into when parents divorce, and are forced into a new environment. Lucy is the main focus for most of the book and because of that it's really hard to like her because of the decisions she made, but by the end, you'll truly care for her and want the best for her. Reading parts of her point-of-view honestly made me sick to my stomach and I had to take a breather a few times and collect myself because of how real it all felt.

"We're always hardest on the ones we love most. We know they'll stand by us through the worst of ourselves."

Ruth's point-of-view was my favorite to read, it was a nice break as she worked extremely hard to get out of the situation she was in and to make a better future for herself. But we also see her deal with the consequences of her mom's and sisters actions and how the effect her life as well. It was bittersweet at times to see how hard so was working to get out of the situation she was in just to be drawn back in because she was needed. I don't fault her for going back and helping I'm actually really proud of her for doing that because it wasn't an easy choice and it meant putting her own life on hold for just the possibility that the other person was going to clean up their act.

"I am her anchor. Her mule to haul the burden. i am her confessional, the forgiver of sins. She has groomed me to love her, and I do, wholeheartedly, unconditionally. Because that's how she loves me."

This book really highlights how easy it is to get yourself into these types of lifestyle when you're not really sure what it is you want. Or when you don't have proper supervision on your children and they have too much free time because you're just trying to make ends meet. Its a struggle that is very real and one that so many deal with.

"When she told me her story, I didn't want to believe her. It seemed made up, but all the pieces were there, sharp and jagged like shards of mirrored glass. All I had to was fit them together."

Carry Me Home won't be for everyone and it's not the easiest read, but I do think it is an important one.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35290299-carry-me-home?ac=1&from_search=true

Purchase: 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Carry-Me-Home-Jessica-Therrien/dp/0998309885/

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/carry-me-home-jessica-therrien/1126630272?ean=9780998309880

AUTHOR BIO:

Jessica Therrien is the author of the young adult series Children of the Gods. Book one in the series, Oppression, became a Barnes & Noble best-seller shortly after its release. Her trilogy has been translated and sold through major publishers around the world, such as Editions AdA (Canada), EditionsMilan (France), and SharpPoint Press (China).

Aside from her Children of the Gods series, Jessica is the author of a kid’s picture book called, The Loneliest Whale. Her award-winning stories can also be found in a published anthology of flash fiction.

Jessica currently lives in Irvine with her husband and two young sons. She is working on an a YA suspense thriller series and a middle grade fantasy series.

Author links:

http://jessica-therrien.blogspot.ca/

https://twitter.com/JessicaTherrien

https://www.facebook.com/jessicatherrienauthor/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5406182.Jessica_Therrien