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Guest Review: Don’t You Wish by Roxanne St. Claire

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*Barbie’s Review

Don’t You Wish by Roxanne St. Claire
Young Adult Fiction released by Delacorte Books for Young Readers on July 10, 2012

When plain and unpopular Annie Nutter gets zapped by one of her dad’s whacked-out inventions, she lands in a parallel universe where her life becomes picture-perfect. Now she’s Ayla Monroe, daughter of the same mother but a different father–and she’s the gorgeous, rich queen bee of her high school.

In this universe, Ayla lives in glitzy Miami instead of dreary Pittsburgh and has beaucoup bucks, courtesy of her billionaire–if usually absent–father. Her friends hit the clubs, party backstage at concerts, and take risks that are exhilarating . . . and illegal.

But on the insde, Ayla is still Annie.

So when she’s offered the chance to leave the dream life and head home to Pittsburgh, will she take it?

The choice isn’t as simple as you think.

I don’t read much YA at all, especially nowadays, because they all seem to have the exact same premise. I only picked up this one up because it was by Roxanne St. Claire, who’s been one of my favorite authors in her other genres, and it wanted to give it a shot. Don’t You Wish really surprised me in a great way, because it seems to be different from the current YA books being published. This books has such a fun, innovative story, with a creative, fast-paced, plot and lovable characters. I devoured it like a beloved desert. I’ve loved every page of this book. It’s been one of my favorite reads this year!

Annie Nutter is supposedly your average girl, as she doesn’t get noticed at school and doesn’t get to hang out with the popular crowd at school. She’s just a band dork who gets made fun of. Annie is really nice and fun, but she’s shy and doesn’t show that much of her lovable personality to the world. At the point where she becomes Ayla Monroe on the outside, yet continues to be Annie on the inside, is where the true beauty of the character lies. Because of this – Annie gets this huge initiative and changes Ayla’s life. A life that would seem to perfect for everyone that wasn’t really living it. It’s like Annie gets the spark to light the fire within [Ayla] and starts to proactively make things better.  And Annie finally stands up for herself. I love that about her.

Then, there’s Charlie, a geeky guy, within a picture perfect world who gets bullied for not being rich enough for the Crop Academy. He befriends Annie as Ayla. Of course, the real Ayla would never have befriended him. Charlie is a key character as it’s his genius that eventually helps Annie figure out her final solution. Charlie is a very authentic, multi-layered character. He’s so real to me, I have a physical image that I associate with him. Charlie is brilliant, and he’s not very trusting of other people. He’s more vulnerable than he appears to be, and it’s very hard for the reader not to wish you had a guy like him when you were in high school. Think *insta-crush*. He’s a really great character, and you can’t help but keep rooting for him and Annie to end up together..

I have to admit, even though Annie has a very nice and sweet best friend in real world, it was the character of Ayla’s “Dumb-Blonde-Friend” Bliss that made me laugh out loud. Bliss was my favorite secondary character. She brought a lot of fantastic humor to the book. I would have liked to see what happened to Ayla’s life after Annie left and Ayla’s real soul returned, as Annie changed so many things, from minute details to relationships with friends, classmates and parents. Perhaps this was the only thing that was lacking in the book for me. The “after” scenes.

One of the best things about Don’t You Wish is that it’s not a depressing, angsty book. This is what separates it from the paranormal YA books nowadays – because as it’s about parallel words, the book does have some paranormal elements. This story is a fun, light-hearted book, that is above all, a very pleasurable read. I recommend it to everyone that loves a really unique story, a good laugh and really interesting characters.

Grade: A+ 

You can read an excerpt here, or buy a copy here.

Guest Review: Barefoot in the Sand by Roxanne St. Claire

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As you can see we’ve got another guest review today! It’s Barbie’s first time reviewing and she’s really nervous, so show her some love please! Also, she’s so cute – she wrote her own back cover copy/book blurb because she felt that fit the book better. So that’s why there are “two” of them.)

Barbie’s Review of
Contemporary Romance released by Forever Romance on April 24, 2012

(Barbie’s Book Blurb)
When a hurricane literally sweeps away the life Lacey Armstrong had always known, she has two choices: keep making excuses and holding herself back, or start anew and finally daring and going forward to realizing her dreams. Having lost everything she held dear, except for the single most important thing in her life – her teenage daughter, Ashley – and realizing none of the material things mattered at all, Lacey starts a journey to make a new life for herself and her daughter, to build her dream of having a bed and breakfast.

That’s when Clay Walker, a young, sexy architect comes into her life and sees in her land a great project opportunity to build a beautiful resort on the beach. The chemistry between Lacey and Clay is real and instant, and, in the process of helping Lacey rebuild her life, Clay ends up doing some life-building of his own.

I have to start by confessing I was surprised by how I just I absolutely loved Barefoot in the Sand, even though Roxanne St. Claire ventures from romantic suspense (which is my preferred genre), to contemporary romance. With a new beach setting! Having been a fan of the author for a long time and devoured all her thrilling books, I was a bit afraid this one was going to have a slower tempo and the lack of crimes, chases, and general action was going to put me off, so, I was pleasantly surprised to find that he tempo isn’t slow at all. The characters are well developed and very real and there’s more action involved at building a resort and getting a happily ever than one would think.

Lacey is a single mother of a teenager, and their relationship is what you would expect: full of love, spats, loving words, secrets and eye rolling. All the decisions she’s made in her life, since she’s become a mother, have been about what’s best for Ashley, and, in this book, she goes through a process of self-discovery, as her daughter is growing, figuring out that it’s just about time she thought of herself, too. It makes her very… human. With the loss of her house, she sees the opportunity of finally making her dreams come true, but she needs to get rid of the excuses she’s always made and stop letting fear paralyze her. I think that makes her very relatable, as she tries to balance the reason and emotion and move forward with her life. The best thing about Lacey is just this, that is very, very real.

She doesn’t go through this process alone, though. As soon as they hear Lacey’s in trouble, her very best friends in the world, Jocelyn, Zoe and Tessa, catch the very first plane to Florida to be by her side during the hard time. And, OhMyGosh, how much FUN they are. Again, the biggest thing about them is how real they are to me. They have their own personalities: be it cracking the sex jokes, being private and collected, not liking secrets… that they could be any of us girls out there. At the same time that they’re brilliant, unique and I want them to jump off the book and become my best friends.

I couldn’t help but fall in love Clay at first sight. He’s not just funny, smart and sexy, he’s also caring, he has a sense of justice, the spirit of a fighter that won’t give up. Neither when it comes to building a big resort in the beach of Mimosa Key, nor when it comes to being with the woman he loves. As he helps Lacey overcome her fears of love and intimacy, he realizes he needs to take down his own emotional walls before he can open up for love himself. The romance is well paced – it doesn’t happen too slow nor too fast – the conflict is well timed with the development of the book and, overall, I think every aspect of it was very well done. Clay grows a lot during the book, he starts out boyish, and grows into a fine man. I think he and Lacey grow together.

Honestly, I don’t have a single thing bad thing to say about the book. Maybe, I wish there were more scenes with the girls – Jocelyn, Zoe and Tessa – I think they’re fun and brilliant and give the book a lot of life. But the book can’t be 800 pages long. Overall, though, it’s a great, great book!

I admit, I was never much of a fan of contemporary romance. I’m a big fan of romantic suspense and I didn’t think books could be much fun without blood and guts and dead bodies in it. But, Barefoot in the Sand showed me a book can be just as great even without the gore. So, I recommend it to everyone.

Grade: A+
Publisher’s Back Cover Copy

When all you hold dear is taken away . . .

When a hurricane roars through Lacey Armstrong’s home on the coast of Barefoot Bay, she decides all that remains in the rubble is opportunity. A new hotel is just what Mimosa Key needs, and Lacey and her teenage daughter are due for a fresh start. And nothing, especially not a hot, younger architect, is going to distract Lacey from finally making her dreams a reality.

A second chance is the only thing you have left.

Love has already cost Clay Walker everything. And if he’s going to have any chance of picking up the pieces of his life, he needs the job as Lacey Armstrong’s architect. What’s not in the plans is falling for the headstrong beauty. Her vision of the future is more appealing than anything he could have ever drafted for himself. Will Clay’s designs on Lacey’s heart be more than she can handle, or will she trust him to build something that will last forever?

You can read an excerpt here, or buy a copy here.