Review: Frat Girl

Frat Girl by Kiley Roache
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Dates Read: December 30-31

Melissa's Musings

The sociologist in me loved this book. It features Cassie Davis, a high school student from Indiana, who comes up with an interesting way to earn the first year of a scholarship to a prestigious college. Conduct a social experiment in order to conduct research on culture inside a frat house, social norms within Greek organizations, and potentially disband the frat. What she doesn't anticipate is the far reaching effects, both on her personal life, and the lives of the fraternity brothers.

My own college experience was far removed from Cassie's. I didn't go to any frat parties, I only had a few friends. But I could definitely still relate on some levels. I lived in coed dorms all four years, so there was the general banter between all of us, that's similar to the banter between Cassie and her "brothers".

My sophmore year of college I had a roomate much like Leighton. Complete with Louis Vuitton luggage, and the haughty attitude that said she felt she was much too good to be sharing a room with the likes of me. I endured the riduculous screeching of her sorority sisters when they stopped by our room and I happened to be there. Frat boys sleeping over, and the ridiculous drama that came with too much drinking, (Hers, not mine) Needless to say, I had a single room for the remainder of my college life because the experiences with this roomate were not ones I wanted to suffer through again.

Cassie as a character is probably not too much like me personally, other than studying sociology and gender issues. I'm not a girly girl, and she seems to be one, at least on some level. But I do like her edginess. She stands up for what she feels is right, and doesn't give a fuck about it.

So much so that at one point she almost blows her entire experiment when she bursts out of an interview room to talk to one of the subjects after the recount a painful experience. The researcher in me was thinking "Oh no, what are you doing?!?! The other part was thinking "I probably would have done the same thing.

The author does a nice job of intermixing formal writing, for the research parts of the story, and the parts that deal with some of the heavier subject matter when the characters are discussing feminism, and keeping it real, and genuine. Although I really could have done without the use of the word "fuckbois". That's just an annoying textspeak term to me, but I see why she used it.

As Cassie gets more involved both with pledging, and with her project, you can tell that its going to be difficult to see how this all will turn out. She gets personally involved, which I know would be hard not to do, social experiment or not. But, because of the experiment, her experiences and friendships are based on mistruths.

The "relationship" she has with Connor is stereotypical. He only wants one thing, and turns into an ass when she says no. Her relationship with Jordan is sweeter. Though I didn't find it overly ridiculous, like it could have been. It felt just right.

I also really liked Duncan's character. He's the perfect mixture of a macho football player but someone who also cares about people. Cassie really seems to have an impact on him, as is apparent in one of his last scenes in the book.

The serious subjects of the book are important, and dealt with well. This also gave me some serious laughs. Since this is an ARC, I can't quote directly, because I can't compare with the finished book, but lets just say there is a scene where the frat brothers talk about "laying eggs" that had me laughing pretty hard.

The twist from Peter at the end isn't really one I had expected, but I definitely appreciated it. On the level of the impact of Cassie's influence, and on a personal level, I agreed with what he had to say.

Given that Cassie has to propose a new project each year to maintain her scholarship, I think there's room for Roache to continue with these characters and I wouldn't be disappointed to see more of them, but I imagine it'd be difficult to maintain the quality and keep it fresh like this was.

Does anyone have any college stories they'd like to share? Do you think you might consider reading Frat Girl?

*I won a copy of this via Goodreads Giveaways*

David's Song Blog Tour Stop: Review and Giveaway

Hello Fellow readers!

Welcome to my stop on the book tour for David's Song hosted by, I Am A Reader, Not A Writer. Read on to see my review of the book and also to enter to win $25.00 in Paypal cash or an Amazon gift card.

Tour Schedule

Title:  David's Song
Author: A.R. Talley
Series: David's Song Trilogy #1
Publisher: Author House
Published: November 23, 2010
Pages: 320
Format: PDF

Synopsis:

 Annie only ever really loved two men in her life. One broke her heart, the other married her. Four children and fifteen years later, Annie’s marriage is in jeopardy. Money is tight and her husband questions the very foundation of their relationship. When Annie is unexpectedly given the opportunity to see the young man who broke her heart — a man who is now a megastar in the music industry — Annie is faced with choices. Choices that will determine what is of more value — a second chance at lost love and unfulfilled dreams or commitment, trust, and love built on years of experience. A psychologically subtle, yet compelling tale about how the instinct and need for love overcomes self-doubt and personal inadequacy.  

Amazon * Barnes & Noble

   

Author A.R. Talley April R Talley was born and raised in the Rubber City, Akron, Ohio in 1959. She is the youngest of six children. She attended Brigham Young University for a time, but withdrew to work fulltime for Osmond Productions in Orem, Utah as a member of The Osmond production staff. After a brief stint working in television, she returned to Akron to finish her education. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Mass Media Communications in 1981. April later worked as vice president and part owner of a dance and sportswear boutique. Married in 1982, she is the proud mother of seven children and is deeply involved in volunteer work for her church. April spends her time working on future projects, caring for home and family, and traveling. David’s Song is her debut novel and the first of a trilogy.

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  Praise from reviews on Goodreads.com "Not just your typical romance novel" - Tracy Williams "David's Song is great read that leaves you thinking about the story and pondering your own relationships". - Anna Pavkov "Sucked me in from the 1st page" - Jill Walker "Loved this book . . . could not put it down!" - Dana Vieira

Melissa's Musings:

My Rating: 4 Stars

Source: Received for the purpose of this blog tour in exchange for my honest review

Right from the very first page you are immediately pulled in to this story. You can see right away that Annie and Jeremy's marriage is in some serious trouble. So Jeremy sends Annie off on a girl's week for spring break so that she can recharge her batteries, and come back refreshed. But, is that really all there is to it? In addition to recharging her batteries, might she rekindle an old love connection?

There is the perfect amount of tension between all of the primary characters in this story. It is told from Annie's perspective, and I felt that it was a really nice touch that the story starts immediately in the present, but then drifts into sort of a flashback mode as Annie recalls old memories and weaves it's way through past and present. This was a really nice touch for readers like me who enjoy a lot of backstory.

Annie's character starts out really timid, in both the past and present elements of the story, and it's nice to watch her change, become more bold, take chances and stick up for herself. She's on her way through the journey from ugly duckling to the beautiful swan, in both instances.

There is a bit of a love triangle element to the story, with both David and Jeremy fighting for Annie's attention. This is very well executed, and while love triangles often bother me in stories, this one did not.
 It's clear during their college days that David is Annie's first choice. And I could definitely see why, being that it felt like Jeremy wasn't even really fighting for her (Annie ends up saying as much at one point in the story)

 And while I tried not to be on one side or the other, I really liked the chemistry and playfulness between David and Annie's characters, so I have to admit that I was (and still am) rooting more for David.

David's character is the quintessential rock star. Charming, charasmatic, a persona as a bit of a ladies man. But underneath there is a very sensitive, caring, real person waiting to shine. I have to admit in the first part of the book I didn't like David very much, because of the way he ended things with Annie, but as I read further, he grew on me, and won me over. Probably that charm of his translating off of the page and into my mind, I'd bet. For some reason, I kept seeing David's character as a young Rod Stewart, as I was reading. I cannot for the life of me figure out why, but that's who he seemed like to me.

Jeremy's character is more of wait and see kind of character. He doesn't really do much to fight for Annie, just sort of expects things to work out in a sort of "wherever the chips may fall" kind of way. I started to dislike him somewhat toward the end of the story for some of the things that he did in regards to the situation between himself and Annie, but I don't want to ruin anything so I won't explain any further.

In addition to the romance, there is are powerful plot lines of a marriage in trouble, difficult choices, and whether or not you should listen to your head or your heart. This story works very well as a stand alone story, but I'm thrilled that it is going to be part of a trilogy because I really fell in love with these characters and I want to see where they'll go next.

    Blog Tour Giveaway $25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash Ends 5/15/13   a Rafflecopter giveaway  

Review: Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite *Contains Some Spoilers*

Title: Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite

Author: Lianne Simon

Publisher: Faie Miss Press

Published: September 18, 2012

Format: Kindle

Genre: Young Adult

Pages: 232  pages

Source: Received from the author

 in exchange for an honest review

Read: January 2-3, 2013

In A Few Words: Interesting take on a difficult subject

My Rating: 3 stars

Goodreads:  Add This to Your TBR List

Goodreads Synopsis:

From the heart of an intersex teen, one who must ultimately choose male or female—family or true love—comes the story of a deeply emotional and perilous journey home. This is a young adult novel unlike any other—an authentic portrayal of the issues faced by a child growing up with a sexually ambiguous body.

Jameson can be like other boys after minor surgery and a few years on testosterone Well, at least that’s what his parents always say. But Jamie sees an elfin princess in the mirror, and male hormones would only ruin her pretty face. For him to become the man his parents expect, Jameson must leave behind the hopes and dreams of a little girl. But what is so wrong with Jamie’s dreams that they can’t be her life?

Melissa's Musings:

The topic of a person being intersex is a very difficult one to breach as it is a sensitive topic in general. The author does a good job of discussing intersexuality in a mostly neutral way, although Jamie/Jameson's parents clearly want her to be something she's not, and it's obvious that they have issues with her condition. 

They raised her as a girl until she was 9, then moved, cut her hair and tried to raise Jamie as a boy named Jameson. From what I understand, they were told that it would be easier to raise Jamie as a boy, so that's what they decided to do. Also, they were raising Jamie without any doctor supervision for her condition, which seemed really odd.

I feel like a lot of the background is missing, and should have been structured differently. For one thing, Jamie's parents reactions to situations are really harsh. And you don't know their true feelings about when they first found out about Jamie's condition. I think that explaining those feelings would have set the reader up to better understand why Jamie's parents treat her the way they do. 

You also  find out that Jamie was born with one ovary and one testis. Then about halfway through the book, you find out that these were both removed because Jamie had cancer at one point. It seemed odd to just throw that in there and wasn't necessary to move the story forward.

There are some nice quotes about not being able to change who you are, that I found really positive.

The struggle that Jamie goes through with herself and who she wants to be is significant, and can be confusing at times. It was almost like Jamie had multiple personality disorder. There's Jameson, her boy "self" who she pretends to be for her father. Then there's Jamie, which is who she truly wants to be. Then, there's also her sort of third "personality" if you will, "The Elfin Princess". What made me think of Jamie having MPD is the fact that she talks about compartmentalizing Jameson, taking him apart and putting him away. Then she also talks to The Elfin Princess in the mirror, often. It would have been clearer to just have Jamie describing experiences as Jamie and her experiences as Jameson. The Elfin Princess adds an odd element to the story.

There are also a lot of elements in this book that felt somewhat forced. The first being the blatant Christianity. It isn't brought up in a natural manner, and seems to be thrown into almost all of the significant events, which I found unnecessary and distracting.

There's also the fact that several people are just  "okay" with Jamie being a girl. I don't have a problem with that at all personally, I wish more people would be open-minded like these characters. It's just that structurally it seemed like the author went to the two extremes in this respect. On the one hand, Jamie's parents have such a problem with her condition and who she wants to be, to the point that they control and manipulate her. On the other hand, there are several people who just accept her without so much as a word. There wasn't enough conflict to keep things progressing toward the resolution, so it wasn't as significant as it could have been.

There's also a "secret society" of people from the same university that Jamie attends who all have different gender disorders. While the thought of it was nice because it gave Jamie people to talk to, it's completely unrealistic. The fact that these 4 other girls all just happen to go to the same school and somehow found their way to each other just doesn't seem likely at all.

As a character, Jamie isn't very strong. She's easily influenced and manipulated, so it was somewhat hard to connect with her. She also says "you know" at the end of her sentences a lot, to the point where it is irritating. And these were things that were already stated, or implied, so it almost felt condescending. It was things like, "I'm not a boy, you know,"  "We've only kissed, you know"

Overall, the story itself is in need of a little more setup, but I think that for a subject as difficult to write about as this one can be, the author did a nice job.

Shifted Perspective by J. Bridger

Title: Shifted Perspective (Tails of Change #1)

Author: J. Bridger

Publisher: Self-Published

Published: August 28, 2012

Format: E-book/Kindle

Pages: 231

Source: Received From Author

in exchange for an honest review

Read: November 24-25

In A Few Words: Interesting take on shape shifting

My Rating: 3 Stars

Goodreads:  Add this to your TBR Shelf

Goodreads Synopsis:
Caleb Byrne is a bright high school senior who has enough to deal with between college choices, taking care of his single dad, and dealing with his headstrong girlfriend Joanna and an eccentric set of cousins in California. He was managing to get by until the day he woke up a Cocker Spaniel. Even if it only happens monthly and is more embarrassing than painful, the so-called ability is something that he's anxious to be rid of.

He didn't realize his transformations would drag him into a hidden society of canine and lupine shape shifters as well as a family legacy he hates. To make matters worse, after moving to Los Angeles to learn more about his heritage from his Aunt Moira and his cousin Kalista, Caleb now struggles through life-and-death matters. He keeps angering the werewolves in charge of the shifter world, especially Kalista's boyfriend Peter, the Southern California alpha's son, who also happens to be grade-A sociopath. Worse, Caleb's floundering to keep his secret from Joanna.

While his family offers him some support, they may not be enough as Caleb realizes that the rules in shifter society---number one is supposed to be don't kill humans---are not so ironclad. Some werewolf out there is leaving a blood-soaked trail across the Midwest and it might just be with the alpha's blessing...

Melissa's Musings:

This is an interesting take on shape shifting. I don't think I've ever read a story where the main character shifted into a cocker spaniel. I have to admit that at first  I thought this was really strange. I just couldn't wrap my head around shifting into a dog. I know that werewolves aren't that far of a stretch, but a cocker spaniel was just...different.

I was slightly disappointed that there wasn't more backstory about Calebs' mom, and her leaving them. That's just a personal preference of mine though, I'm always curious about the characters' backgrounds. Even though I was hoping for more of their background, I see now how not explaining it works well to set up the story and leave Caleb wondering about his shifter heritage.  

The writing flows easily for the most part. There are a few patches where the wall is broken and instead of speaking in character, as Caleb, the author seems to be speaking directly to the reader. Sometimes this can work, but in this case it breaks the flow slightly.

There are a lot of nice touches in the details, regarding the shifting and Calebs' abilities. When Joanna starts having seizures, Caleb has times when he realizes when they're coming and helps her through them. 

The romance between Caleb and Joanna is sweet, and definitely realistic, not insta-love. I thought for a second that there might be a love triangle between Penny, Caleb and Joanna, but thankfully there's not. Though, now that I'm thinking about it would be unusual in some ways because most if not all love triangles I've read lately have involved a girl and two guys, so it would be interesting to see a love triangle from a guys' perspective. That being said, I hope that doesn't happen. Penny and Caleb's relationship is perfect as is: friends/working partners.

Overall the story is good. It's well paced and has just enough detail to leave you guessing.  I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a unique twist on shifter stories.

ARC Review: With Honors by Grace Wen

Title: With Honors

Author: Grace Wen

Publisher: Musa Publishing

Published: June 29, 2012

Format: ARC/PDF

Pages: 35

Source: I received a copy from the publisher
in exchange for an honest review
Read: October 19-20, 2012
In A Few Words: High Pressure  story
My Rating: 3 stars
Goodreads: Add This to Your TBR Shelf

Goodreads Synopsis:

Melinda is an engineering honors student with a secret: she's cheated on every lab assignment since her junior year. She thought she'd gotten used to sacrificing her own dreams for her parents'. Going to the school they chose and majoring in what they wanted seemed like a fair price to pay for family harmony. If she switches majors, she's on her own.

But as her senior year ticks by, Melinda realizes she can't keep trying to be someone she's not. She knows her first job after graduation will expose her for who she actually is: a fraud. As Melinda prepares for life in the real world, can she find a way to live with honors?(less)Melinda is an engineering honors student with a secret: she's cheated on every lab assignment since her junior year. She thought she'd gotten used to sacrificing her own dreams for her parents'. Going to the school they chose and majoring in what they wanted seemed like a fair price to pay for family harmony. If she switches majors, she's on her own.

But as her senior year ticks by, Melinda realizes she can't keep trying to be someone she's not. She knows her first job after graduation will expose her for who she actually is: a fraud. As Melinda prepares for life in the real world, can she find a way to live with honors?

Melissa's Musings:

I recently reviewed another book by Grace Wen, An Imperfect Wife. 

In With Honors we meet Melinda, a girl who's stuck at an engineering school, yet hates engineering and doesn't even seem to understand it all that well. She's stuck there because her parents have dictated her life and she refuses to stand up to them because they will cut her off financially. So, she sticks it out nearly 4 years with a major that she hates.

Since she doesn't do so well with the subject matter, she befriends a guy named Rob. They work out a deal with each other. He'll do all the lab work if she writes up their lab reports. So, she essentially is cheating her way through school and not understanding anything.

I do like the dynamic between Melinda and Rob. They get along really well, and its' not a forced friendship. Which is exactly what Melinda needs since her family is really strict and puts a lot of pressure on her. Yet they don't help her or listen to her when she tells them what she wants. How nice of them. But, I can't say that the blame is all on them. It's up to Melinda to change her life.

She finally wakes up to reality one day and is made aware that she absolutely hates what she's doing. With Rob's encouragement she decides to change her major. She's really excited, and motivated, making plans to figure things out financially,  but when it comes to telling her parents, there's nothing, yet again.

I had the same problem with the last book I read by Wen. The overall story is nice, but the ending leaves me really frustrated. I don't know why these characters get motivated and seem like they're really going to make changes in their lives, and then at the last second, or I guess in this case, the last line, they chicken out and let things continue being miserable for themselves.

I'd recommend this to anyone who's looking for a quick read.