ARC Book #Review:The Wedding Date by @thebestjasmine

Book Title: The Wedding Date
Author:  Jasmine Guillory |Website| Twitter| Facebook|

Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Romance, Women's Ficiton
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Format: ebook, Paperback

Cost: $15.00

Pages: 320

How I got it: NetGalley

Purchase: Amazon| Barnes & Noble | IndieBound
Publication Date: Jan 30 2018
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Synopsis:

A groomsman and his last-minute guest are about to discover if a fake date can go the distance in this fun and flirty debut novel.

Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn't normally do. But there's something about Drew Nichols that's too hard to resist.

On the eve of his ex's wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend...

After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she's the mayor's chief of staff. Too bad they can't stop thinking about the other...

They're just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century--or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want...

I am so in love with this one.  For a debut author she has done a wonderful job!! I went into this completely blind and fell completely in love, I so didn't want to be at work I needed to finish this as soon as possible.

Not knowing how this was going to go I went in knowing it was supposed to be a strangers to lovers story and I can't tell you how much I loved the book and it's take on this genre.  Written in a way that a woman like me can see herself in the story I was so happy to read it.  Alexa was a fun relateable character who had a lot going on and wanted just a little fun for herself, and Drew as just trying to not look like the loser at the wedding.  Their meet cue was hilarious and made me actually laugh out loud.  I loved Alexa's reaction to realizing Drew was in the elevator because who hasn't done that same thing more than once??

From that moment on I was hooked, the story flew by, unfolding slowly as each character meet more of themselves as well as the other in ways they never thought they would.  I enjoyed that even though race was a factor it wasn't THE factor in their situation-ship.  Race played a part in some ways and it was hilarious to watch Drew come to terms with it several times throughout the book.  I loved that Alexa had the thought that we have all had, it's not the first time we have been the only black girl in the room and we have to be super aware of how we carry ourselves.

I really enjoyed their conversations, their friendships and how fun and funny their respective best friends are.  Alexa has a great group of friends that have her back while also pushing her to be more than she would normally allow herself to be.  I love that she has such a passion for her job, that she's happy in so many aspects of her life but just this one at the moment doesn't bring her joy.  Drew also has amazing friendships and I love that his best friend never let him go down as an idiot.  While he also has a great career, he's afraid of commitment and this are they dating, not dating is she isn't she is girlfriend is throwing him for a loop.

There are moments within the novel that I wish were more fleshed out, as in why Drew had the thoughts he did on relationships.  I wish we also got a bit more background on the sisters and their familial relationship, beyond talking about their parents in the past neither character mentioned them ever again.  While I liked the intimate scenes eventually; I felt at first that it was kind of a half finished scene since we saw the beginning but everything happened off screen then we met back up with them after.  However once you realized it's being told from the perspective of each character and how they are speak is how they share the intimacy.  Alexa had a few flaws in that she liked to jump to conclusions about things and wasn't really mature in her thinking about confronting things head on. She would let things go unchallenged because she was afraid of the answer when more often than not it would solve the issue.  Drew was blind a few times to how his actions could affect her, and even how the words of his friends would really hurt because he choose to be seen as the good guy instead of sharing the full truth.

Beyond those few moments I loved this novel. I got home after I started it at work and told myself I was only going to read a few more pages, next thing I knew it was 130 am and I had finished the book.  I loved it and would highly recommend it. 

 ★★★★☆

RECOMMENDATIONS

If you loved this one I highly recommend other pretend lovers/ Rom-Com books including:

• Delaney's Desert Sheikh by Brenda Jackson
• Rent-A-Dad by Judy Christenberry

Let me know if you have any other recommendations in the comments down below and of course Happy Reading my loves, 

Book #Review: Not If I See You First by Eric Lindstrom

Book Title: Not If I See You First
Author:  Eric Lindstrom |Website| Twitter| Facebook|

Publisher: Poppy/ Little Brown
Genre: Realistic Fiction (YA)
Series/Standalone: Stand Alone
Format: Hardcover

Cost: $18.00

Pages: 320

How I got it: BEA (Book Expo America) 2015

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Publisher
Publication Date: December 1, 2015
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Synopsis:

The Rules: 

Don't deceive me. Ever. Especially using my blindness. Especially in public.
Don't help me unless I ask. Otherwise you're just getting in my way or bothering me.

Don't be weird. Seriously, other than having my eyes closed all the time, I'm just like you only smarter.

Parker Grant doesn't need 20/20 vision to see right through you. That's why she created the Rules: Don't treat her any differently just because she's blind, and never take advantage. There will be no second chances. Just ask Scott Kilpatrick, the boy who broke her heart. When Scott suddenly reappears in her life after being gone for years, Parker knows there's only one way to react-shun him so hard it hurts. She has enough on her mind already, like trying out for the track team (that's right, her eyes don't work but her legs still do), doling out tough-love advice to her painfully naive classmates, and giving herself gold stars for every day she hasn't cried since her dad's death three months ago. But avoiding her past quickly proves impossible, and the more Parker learns about what really happened--both with Scott, and her dad--the more she starts to question if things are always as they seem. Maybe, just maybe, some Rules are meant to be broken.

I absolutely loved this book. I cried, I laughed, I was enlightened by this book.  I mentioned before that I have Keratoconus and how it affects my reading and my life (See here if you haven't seen the post yet).  As I read this book I realized how much more of my life will change if I do go blind, I never realized how much of conversations take place with just our facial features and out emotions being read by others.  It's been a while since I have read a book with a female character who is blind.  These books always hit me harder than others and reading this one was so good and so emotional. I highly recommend it because she is such a wonderful character to read, And she had great character relationships and she grows so well and has awesome well rounded friends and even makes more friends as the story progresses.

I totally loved the lead character, she was brash, funny, witty, ballsy and oh so real.  She grieved and she was so raw with what she was feeling and thinking.  I loved that this book had a love interest but it wasn't about falling in love, it was about finding your way in the world when you realize that no matter how independent you think you are, you still rely on the world and it's common decency when you have a disability.  I loved as the character went through the year she realized that her being blind physically was also causing her to be blind emotionally as well as figuratively.  Because she couldn't see the looks others gave her, she just busted into lives with or meaning to or understanding how her words were taken.  She never saw the reactions, she only heard those that were loud and made for her to hear, but the hurt expressions those she never saw, and you understand how she's also excluded by those who want to carry on without her knowing everything as well.  

I loved that she was shown that her rules while they may protect her, they also imprisoned her as well.  I loved the progression of growth for her, her new friendships, the old friendships rekindled, the adults in her life that she has to train to treat her right and her own personal understanding as she realized that she was missing out on so much because she wasn't willing to change a little.  I learned so much about how the blind navigate the world and how different it can be for each person.  I loved the talk about the special Olympics, especially because she is a runner which I was in high school and this made me love her even more.  The scenes where she is running and you realize so much of who we are is tied to sight, and how much we need others to not be there to harm us, especially when she was running in the small park by herself. When the teacher approached her just like her the hair stood up on the back of my neck, because in that moment we realized just how vulnerable she truly was.  And this is when she begins to understand her world wasn't how she knew it.

This story was extremely emotional and yet so good, no crazy high school drama, just the regular student body stuff and yet, it was written in a way that made you feel as if you were their and apart of the student body.   I loved that she had so many great friends, and wasn't just a 'loser' nor the 'special butterfly'.  She was just real and I loved it so much.  I couldn't put it down.

I highly recommend, not just because the characters are diverse, but because they are well written and the story is engaging adn because we finally get to have a character who is and isn't special.  And when you read it you will understand what I mean by that.  I would have totally loved to have been her firend in high school or college, she is pretty kick ass.

 ★★★★★

This is going on my top favorites of 2015 list, I hope you will read it and enjoy as much as I did, if you've read it why not share your reaction down below, and as always my loves, 
Happy Reading