Review: Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols

Title: Dirty Little Secret
Author: Jennifer Echols
Series: n/a
Publisher: MTV Books
Publication Date: July 16, 2013
Source: from publisher via Edelweiss
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

From the author of the “real page-turner” (Seventeen) Such a Rush comes an unforgettable new drama that follows friends-turned-lovers as they navigate the passions, heartbreaks, and intrigue of country music fame.

Bailey wasn’t always a wild child and the black sheep of her family. She used to play fiddle and tour the music circuit with her sister, Julie, who sang and played guitar. That ended when country music execs swooped in and signed Julie to a solo deal. Never mind that Julie and Bailey were a duet, or that Bailey was their songwriter. The music scouts wanted only Julie, and their parents were content to sit by and let her fulfill her dreams while Bailey’s were hushed away.

Bailey has tried to numb the pain and disappointment over what could have been. And as Julie’s debut album is set to hit the charts, her parents get fed up with Bailey’s antics and ship her off to granddad’s house in Nashville. Playing fiddle in washed-up tribute groups at the mall, Bailey meets Sam, a handsome and oh-so-persuasive guitarist with his own band. He knows Bailey’s fiddle playing is just the thing his band needs to break into the industry. But this life has broken Bailey’s heart once before. She isn’t sure she’s ready to let Sam take her there again…

Dirty Little Secret is only my second Jennifer Echols book -- I loved Such a Rush when I read it last year -- but I think I've already noticed a pattern.  Ms. Echols likes to write about troubled teens who fall in love despite the odds as they work together to see their hopes and dreams come to fruition.  At least, that's what I've gleaned from the two books I've read from her.  I do have several others on my Kindle or on my shelf, but I haven't had time to read them yet in order to further research this theory.  They all sound like great summer reads, though, so maybe I'll be able to make time for them soon.

All theorizing aside, I liked this book.  There are aspects that are certainly relatable:  the sibling rivalry, the over-bearing parents, the hopes for self-actualization.  But then there was that one big issue -- the one that's grated on pretty much every reviewer -- that bothered me.  But then I remember that Grayson in Such a Rush did a pretty despicable thing, and I forgave him for that, so I'm willing to overlook Sam's inappropriate behavior, especially after he made his own (would-be) sacrifice for Bailey's sake.

Another issue I had was that everything in this story happened within the span of a week or so.  Bailey joins the band and falls in love with Sam in record time.  I admit that at that age, everything is all about immediate gratification, which is partly why I could overlook Sam's behavior.  But at the same time, this is the girl who's been feeling nothing for the last year.  The timeline just seemed rushed to me.

At 18, I don't think I would have let my family push my dreams to the wayside.  I felt sympathetic toward Bailey because I know what it's like to have a younger sister who's everything you're not.  Not that we get to see much of Julie until the end of the book, but as Bailey divulges the details of her ostracism from her family, we do get to see a little of how Julie fits into Bailey's current behavior.  I wish we could have seen more interactions with Julie during the book to see that it wasn't really sibling rivalry at all.  Julie's concern for her sister is tangible there at the end, and it pretty much erased all of the nasty thoughts I'd had about her during the course of the novel.  Especially after both girls took matters -- and their futures -- into their own hands.

I really enjoyed the story overall.  It was fun and evocative, and it held my interest, even when I didn't always agree with the characters' actions.  I loved the band dynamic and all the drama that surrounded it.  My husband was in a rock band when we met, and this story made me a little nostalgic for those days.  Because there wasn't always drama, just like in this book...when the performance starts, everything else just fades away.  I think the author really captured the essence of being young and in a band and trying to make it big.

Rating:  

About the author:

Jennifer Echols was born in Atlanta and grew up in a small town on a beautiful lake in Alabama—a setting that has inspired many of her books. She has written nine romantic novels for young adults, including the comedy MAJOR CRUSH, which won the National Readers’ Choice Award, and the drama GOING TOO FAR, which was a finalist in the RITA, the National Readers’ Choice Award, and the Book Buyer’s Best, and was nominated by the American Library Association as a Best Book for Young Adults. Simon & Schuster will debut her adult romance novels in 2013, with many more teen novels scheduled for the next few years. She lives in Birmingham with her husband and her son.

Find Jennifer:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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Labels: contemporary, dirty little secret, jennifer echols, music, reviews, simon schuster

Teaser Tuesday #65: The Distance Between Us by Kasie West & Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here are the books we're teasing this week:

Title: The Distance Between Us
Author: Kasie West
Series: n/a
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: July 2, 2013
Source: purchased
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers studies the rich like her own personal science experiment, and after years of observation she’s pretty sure they’re only good for one thing—spending money on useless stuff, like the porcelain dolls in her mother’s shop.

So when Xander Spence walks into the store to pick up a doll for his grandmother, it only takes one glance for Caymen to figure out he’s oozing rich. Despite his charming ways and that he’s one of the first people who actually gets her, she’s smart enough to know his interest won’t last. Because if there’s one thing she’s learned from her mother’s warnings, it’s that the rich have a short attention span. But Xander keeps coming around, despite her best efforts to scare him off. And much to her dismay, she's beginning to enjoy his company.

She knows her mom can’t find out—she wouldn’t approve. She’d much rather Caymen hang out with the local rocker who hasn’t been raised by money. But just when Xander’s attention and loyalty are about to convince Caymen that being rich isn’t a character flaw, she finds out that money is a much bigger part of their relationship than she’d ever realized. And that Xander’s not the only one she should’ve been worried about.

     Xander opens the compartment above my knees and takes out a pair of leather gloves.  As he pulls them on, I can't help but laugh.
     "What?"
     "You have driving gloves."
     "And?"
     "And it's funny."
     "Funny adorable?"
     I shake my head. "If you say so."

-- p. 90

Heh.  I'd probably laugh, too, if some guy pulled out driving gloves when he picked me up for a date.

Title: Dirty Little Secret
Author: Jennifer Echols
Series: n/a
Publisher: MTV Books
Publication Date: July 16, 2013
Source: from publisher via Edelweiss
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

From the author of the “real page-turner” (Seventeen) Such a Rush comes an unforgettable new drama that follows friends-turned-lovers as they navigate the passions, heartbreaks, and intrigue of country music fame.

Bailey wasn’t always a wild child and the black sheep of her family. She used to play fiddle and tour the music circuit with her sister, Julie, who sang and played guitar. That ended when country music execs swooped in and signed Julie to a solo deal. Never mind that Julie and Bailey were a duet, or that Bailey was their songwriter. The music scouts wanted only Julie, and their parents were content to sit by and let her fulfill her dreams while Bailey’s were hushed away.

Bailey has tried to numb the pain and disappointment over what could have been. And as Julie’s debut album is set to hit the charts, her parents get fed up with Bailey’s antics and ship her off to granddad’s house in Nashville. Playing fiddle in washed-up tribute groups at the mall, Bailey meets Sam, a handsome and oh-so-persuasive guitarist with his own band. He knows Bailey’s fiddle playing is just the thing his band needs to break into the industry. But this life has broken Bailey’s heart once before. She isn’t sure she’s ready to let Sam take her there again…

"Five days?" Ace asked, exasperated.  His words moved me more than anything Sam had said.  Sam lived life in a constant state of near-exasperation, whereas Ace rarely showed any emotion at all.  If even he was exasperated with me, I deserved it.

-- 64% of galley

Hmmm...wonder what she did...or didn't do.  :P

What are you teasing this week?  Share it in the comments or leave a link so we can visit!

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Labels: beautiful covers, contemporary, dirty little secret, harper-collins, jennifer echols, kasie west, music, simon schuster, teaser tuesday, the distance between us

Judging a Book By Its Cover #24: A Kid's Perspective on Endless Summer by Jennifer Echols

Okay, so I totally stole this idea from Sara at Forever 17 Books, who got the idea from an article on Babble called Judging a Book by Its Cover: A 6-year-old Guesses What Classic Novels Are All About.  I just discovered her lovely segment, and I immediately requested forced my own five-year-old daughter Katie to provide me with some of her own cover art artwork and then asked her what she thought the book was about.



This week, Katie gave me her take on the following book:

"[I think it's about] a boy and a girl walking to the dock and hugging each other and kissing each other.  And then they looked at the pond."

Cover Art

Endless Summer as envisioned by Katiebug

I actually haven't read this yet -- I bought a copy for a giveaway last summer and snuck in a copy for myself and then never got around to reading my copy -- but I told Katie to pick a book off my shelf while I went to start dinner, and this is what she came up with.  I think she's ready for summer, too.  =)

And I will definitely be picking this up when the weather warms up a bit more.  I loved Such a Rush and I have another of her books due up for review soon.  Jennifer Echols is fast becoming one of my go-to authors for honest and fun YA contemporary novels.

Have you read this book or do you plan to?  What do you think of Katie's guess at the premise?  

Did your little darling create a work of art based on a book this week? If so, be sure to link up with Sara over at Forever 17 Books.

Of note:  This may be Katie's last post for a bit.  I hope not, but with it warming up, it's getting harder and harder to corral her long enough to get a picture out of her.  Maybe we can talk one of Mendy's boys into taking over for a bit.  ;0)

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Labels: cover art, endless summer, jennifer echols, judging a book by its cover, katiebug, simon schuster, summer

Review: Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

Title:  Such a Rush
Author:  Jennifer Echols
Series:  stand-alone
Publisher:  MTV Books
Publication Date:  July 10, 2012
Source:  ARC provided by the author
Purchase:  Amazon | Barnes & Noble

A sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers.

High school senior Leah Jones loves nothing more than flying. While she’s in the air, it’s easy to forget life with her absentee mother at the low-rent end of a South Carolina beach town. When her flight instructor, Mr. Hall, hires her to fly for his banner advertising business, she sees it as her ticket out of the trailer park. And when he dies suddenly, she’s afraid her flying career is gone forever.

But Mr. Hall’s teenage sons, golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson, are determined to keep the banner planes flying. Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business — until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers — and the consequences could be deadly.

I was intrigued by this book the moment I read that the main character wanted to be a pilot.  I’ve never actually flown on an airplane (you don’t need to tell me how weird that is…I’m well aware) but I’ve always wanted to be a pilot.  I actually considered going into the Air Force after high school.  You see, I’m not afraid of flying…I just never had the opportunity because my dad is and so any trip we took when I lived at home had to be made by car.  But enough about me.  You’re here to find out how awesome Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols is, and find out you shall…

Okay, so this is actually my first Jennifer Echols book.  I’ve seen her other titles around, but as you may know, until this year, I wasn’t really a big fan of contemporary novels, YA or otherwise.  But the cover and the synopsis had me sold.  And it doesn’t hurt that the author sent me a signed ARC for review.  I wanted to read this book immediately, but I made myself wait until closer to release date.  But that waiting paid off…I LOVED this book!

Leah isn’t your typical, naïve, or even virginal protagonist.  She’s lived a rough life and she’s very familiar with the ins and outs of doing what’s necessary to scrape by.  She should be, though.  Leah’s mother has practically left her to fend for herself her entire life.  Constantly on the move because of her mother’s questionable financial dealings and rocky relationships, Leah finds it difficult to make friends.  She’s a guys’ girl, the girl who finds it easier to be friends with boys than to deal with the drama that comes from female companionship.  And yet, she finds herself best friends with Molly, one of the most popular girls in school.

Leah keeps Molly at a distance, though.  Because of the way that they met and became friends, Leah feels the need to keep up a tough façade for Molly, and so Molly never really gets to know the true Leah.  But Leah is this way with everyone she encounters, except maybe Mr. Hall.  Once he agrees to give her flying lessons, he becomes somewhat of a father-figure to Leah.  And it’s through her time spent at Hall Aviation that she develops a crush on Grayson Hall.

Oh, those Hall brothers!  It’s so funny yet so honest how all of the relationships in this book develop.  That’s not to say that the relationships are easy and uncomplicated…far from it.  But it’s interesting to watch them unfold.  The characters themselves are engaging, but it’s the way they interact with each other that makes this book so awesome.  If you’re leery of reading this novel because of the promise of one of those dreaded love triangles, let me put your doubts to rest.  Although the intent is a love triangle, it’s not nearly as bad as it sounds.  If that isn’t enough to assuage your doubts, let me just say that the ending will put an end to all of your skepticism.  So, if you’re already forming a team in your head, take it elsewhere.  This is not one of those books.

Leah finds herself in a lot of less-than-ideal situations, and the way that she handles herself in them makes me like her even more.  At 18, she’s more of an adult than her mother has proven to be, and with every predicament she finds herself in, Leah grows a little more.  This novel deals with so many issues, good and bad, and it does so without being judgmental or getting preachy about it:  grief and loss, sexual encounters, betrayal, hopes and dreams, and just the general transition from teenager to adult.  Yep…there’s sex in this book.  And it’s not that fade-to-black crap that’s pretty standard in YA novels, either. 

When I say this book is honest and deals with some gritty stuff aside from all the romantical stuff, I’m being completely serious.  I think it’s a great book for young adults and not-so-young adults, alike.  This book really is such a rush, and anytime I had to step away from it, I was counting the minutes until I could get back to it.  Such a Rush is witty and engaging and real, and it is one of my favorite reads this year.  I am now a huge fan of Jennifer Echols and have already snatched up several of her other works*.  Now I just have to find the time to read them!

Rating:  1/2

Book-A-Likes:  Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen, Invincible Summer by Hannah Moskowitz

If you think this book sounds like your kind of read, enter to win a copy on my stop of the Summer Reads Giveaway Hop!

Ends 7/11!!!




*Going Too Far and Forget You by Jennifer Echols are both only $3.99 for Nook and Kindle right now!  Links are beneath the images:

Nook | Kindle

Nook | Kindle

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Labels: contemporary, ebook deals, giveaways, jennifer echols, reviews, simon schuster

Summer Reads Giveaway Hop

I miss having the whole summer to sit by the pool and catch up on my reading.  (Hence, the obscenely large number of books on my shelf that haven't been read yet.)  But the Summer Reads Giveaway Hop hosted by I'm a Reader, Not a Writer and Rex Robot Reviews gives me an opportunity to share a book with you guys that I did have the chance to read and adore.

Okay, so this book doesn't technically take place over the summer.  It's set during spring break, but it does set the mood for how Leah Jones will spend her summer.  ;0)  My review for this book will go up tonight, but I just couldn't wait to share my love for it, so I'm giving away a copy:

Title:  Such a Rush
Author:  Jennifer Echols
Series:  stand-alone
Publisher:  MTV Books
Publication Date:  July 10, 2012

A sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers.

High school senior Leah Jones loves nothing more than flying. While she’s in the air, it’s easy to forget life with her absentee mother at the low-rent end of a South Carolina beach town. When her flight instructor, Mr. Hall, hires her to fly for his banner advertising business, she sees it as her ticket out of the trailer park. And when he dies suddenly, she’s afraid her flying career is gone forever.

But Mr. Hall’s teenage sons, golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson, are determined to keep the banner planes flying. Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business — until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers — and the consequences could be deadly.

This book really was as good as that synopsis makes it sound!  And it releases on Tuesday, just in time for me to give away a finished copy!  All you have to do to enter to win is complete the Rafflecopter form below.  US residents only, please.  Winner will have 48 hours to respond to notification email before another winner will be chosen.  Good luck & happy reading!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And now that you've entered at my stop, check out all of the other awesome giveways on the Summer Reads Giveaway Hop:

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Labels: contemporary, giveaway hops, giveaways, jennifer echols, simon schuster, summer

Teaser Tuesday #11: Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


This week's teaser comes from the following book:

Title:  Such a Rush
Author:  Jennifer Echols
Series:  n/a
Publisher:  MTV Books
Publication Date:  July 10, 2012
Source:  ARC provided by the author

A sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers.

High school senior Leah Jones loves nothing more than flying. While she’s in the air, it’s easy to forget life with her absentee mother at the low-rent end of a South Carolina beach town. When her flight instructor, Mr. Hall, hires her to fly for his banner advertising business, she sees it as her ticket out of the trailer park. And when he dies suddenly, she’s afraid her flying career is gone forever.

But Mr. Hall’s teenage sons, golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson, are determined to keep the banner planes flying. Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business — until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers — and the consequences could be deadly.

My teaser:

"Tell me why," I insisted.
"I can't."  Grayson focused on me and his face was full of concern.  "If I told you, you'd change the way you act around him, and he would know it was all for show." -- p. 214 of ARC

Caught between brothers.  Dare I say swoon?

What are you teasing us with this week?  Share it in the comments!

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Labels: contemporary, jennifer echols, simon schuster, teaser tuesday