Mundie Moms

Friday, August 17, 2012

Easy by Tammara Webber

Publisher: Tammara Webber
Release Date: May 24, 2012
Source: Purchased
Rating: 5 stars -- I loved it!

Synopsis: A girl who believes trust can be misplaced, promises are made to be broken, and loyalty is an illusion. A boy who believes truth is relative, lies can mask unbearable pain, and guilt is eternal. Will what they find in each other validate their conclusions, or disprove them all?

When Jacqueline follows her longtime boyfriend to the college of his choice, the last thing she expects is a breakup two months into sophomore year. After two weeks in shock, she wakes up to her new reality: she's single, attending a state university instead of a music conservatory, ignored by her former circle of friends, and failing a class for the first time in her life.

Leaving a party alone, Jacqueline is assaulted by her ex's frat brother. Rescued by a stranger who seems to be in the right place at the right time, she wants nothing more than to forget the attack and that night--but her savior, Lucas, sits on the back row of her econ class, sketching in a notebook and staring at her. Her friends nominate him to be the perfect rebound.

When her attacker turns stalker, Jacqueline has a choice: crumple in defeat or learn to fight back. Lucas remains protective, but he's hiding secrets of his own. Suddenly appearances are everything, and knowing who to trust is anything but easy.

I'm sure you guys are familiar with this scenario. One minute you're happily attacking your TBR pile and you're feeling mildly successful and the next minute you're getting a text, seeing someone else's review and a tweet or two about this Drop Everything, Must Read Book. If you're like me, you ignore those. But something kept drawing me into Easy's synopsis.

Okay so here's the deal, I loved college. I loved the struggle of finding my adult self while trying to negotiate the hell hallowed halls of Academia Land. Tammara brings this struggle to life while tackling a tough subject -- date rape. And that is a subject I normally stay away from reading because it simply hurts my heart. However, it's an important subject and one that has staggering statistics attached to it. According to crisisconnection.com, there is a rape on an American college campus every 21 hours.

You should all know me by now, there has to be character growth in order for me to lovelovelove a story. Jacqueline is such a wonderful character -- to go through her pain, her acceptance of what happened to her and keep her determination to right a terrible wrong -- made me want to jump up and hug her. Yes, I know she's fictional and yet, that's exactly what I wanted to do.

Tammara also gives Jacqueline a great supporting cast of secondary characters. I won't go on about them (because of spoilers), but their growth provided Jacqueline (and yes, me) with a comfort level that things will change but perhaps they change for the better.

And oh yeah, you're waiting for it...so umm, Lucas. He zoomed onto my Favorite Fictional Boys List with that motorcycle and tattoos of his. What did I like about him? Can't tell you. Spoilers. I'll add that he's very complex. ComplexBadBoys? They should stand on the shelf next to my HotBoyswithSwords.

This is labeled on goodreads as a "Mature Young Adult/New Adult" book. The story is realistic, hopeful and yes, sensual/romantic (which sounds wrong given the subject matter, but please read the book to see why I labeled it just that). I give Tammara and "A+" for making my summer doldrums go away.

TOR's First YA Twitter Chat and Mundie Moms Mentioned In Publishers Weekly


There are times that I'm glad MMs Founder, Katie B., is on vacation this week. One of those times is now, because Katie would never toot her own horn and I get to do just that.

TOR Teen and Katie did a twitter chat yesterday that was so successful that Publishers Weekly noted it in their post here.

Here are the highlights:
  • For the Girls’ Nightmare Out chat, for example, “one of our children’s/YA editors, Susan Chang, is a big fan of the Mundie Moms blog. She he had the idea to ask [the blog’s founder] Katie Bartow to join us.”
  • Bartow introduced each author at 4 p.m. on Wednesday (Marta Acosta, who was caught in traffic, chimed in at 4:14 p.m.: “I’m here!), and asked a series of questions directed both at all three writers and at each individually. For example, she called Acosta’s poetry-reciting character, Mary Violet, “delightful,” and asked whether she was based on anyone. Acosta answered, “Mary Violet is fun, isn't she? No, she’s not based on anyone. She just showed up complete. I’m writing a series for her. In the Mary Violet Mysteries there will be lots of crime & poetry!”
  • Later, fans had the opportunity to ask their own questions, querying the authors on such subjects as what the term “YA” means to them (Desrochers: “Fiction that involves self exploration and other teen issues. Not all teen character based bks are YA”) and how much they write per month and whether they work on more than one project at a time (Blake: “I never have more than one WIP. Head would explode. In a good month, I can do 10–20k”).
  • At the end of the hour-long chat, Bartow thanked all the participants and directed fans to Tor’s Web site for tour details and for information on a sweepstakes giveaway: copies of all three authors’ newest novels plus book jacket iPhone skins.
Here's the really fun stat:
  • Wednesday's teen chat, like its predecessor, proved to be one of the publisher's most successful, with 332 tweets generating 2,639,388 impressions, reaching an audience of 278,384 followers within 24 hours.
HolyShmoly! Those are some numbers! Katie and the TOR team have to be proud of that. Many thanks to all of you, Mundie Moms who jumped on and participated. Don't forget to check out the tour stops to see if there's one near you.






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