Book Nerds Across America

Into the Fae (The Gypsy Healer Series, Book 1)

By Quinn Loftis

Blurb:

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Jacque's Review

This series has been on my TBR list for a while.  My sister-in-law, who is 17 years younger and is actually a member of the NA population, asked me what I was reading over spring break.  Of course it was YA (The Coldest Girl in Coldtown), so she began asking me about some other YA/NA books.  She was reading the third book in this series and strongly suggested that I read it.

Bliss Edwards is a theater major and is getting ready to start her final semester in college.  She is still a virgin and made the mistake of sharing this information with her best friend Kelsey.  The two girls set out for an evening of drinking with one mission....to find a guy for Bliss to hook up with.  She could not graduate from college a virgin!

Bliss drinks heavily, but is not interested in any of the guys at the bar.  She decides to use the restroom and sees a guy sitting by himself in the back of the bar reading Shakespeare.  She comments on his choice of reading material and location and then gets to hear his AMAZING British accent.  Garrick and Bliss hang out for a while, but the evening did not progress as planned. (Not that Garrick wasn't willing.)

The next day is the first day of the new semester and Bliss quickly discover that Garrick is not a student, but their newest professor.  He is a recent graduate and was called in to cover for a professor who took a leave of absence.

The story details Garrick and Bliss's secret relationship along with her interactions with her best friends Cade and Kelsey.  Everything would be SO much easier if Garrick weren't her teacher, but they just need to get through the semester.  The characters are all actors, so there is a lot of drama that unfolds.  Cade has had a crush on Bliss for a long time and now the two are cast as the leads in their final play before graduation.  The situation is awkward to say the least.

I absolutely LOVED Garrick.  He is an attractive blond who is charming and very direct.  Oh...did I mention the accent? LOL!!  There is very little room for misinterpretation when it comes to his character.  Bliss on the other had....WOW.  She could have ruined everything with one simple word, CAT.  I know that sounds crazy, but read the book and you will understand.  She over thinks just about everything, is a control freak, and can't give in to her feelings.  The longer she is around Garrick, the move confident she becomes.  Their relationship is not only impacting her personal life, but her "professional" life as well.  She is a much better actress when she isn't so reserved.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait to read Faking It, which appears to be Cade's story after graduation.  I have also requested a copy of the novella, Keeping Her, which is another Bliss and Garrick story told from both of their points of view.

I would like to thank Tammara and her publisher, Penguin Berkley, for the advanced copy of Breakable.  I absolutely LOVED Easy and couldn't wait to read Lucas's story.  

Breakable is told from Lucas's point-of-view with chapters alternated between the past and present.  The "Landon" chapters begin at the time of his Mother's death.  We see what life was like for him through high school up until the time he left for college.  He was struggling with the loss of his mother and did not receive the support he needed from his father or counselors.  We also get to see how his relationship with their long time family friends, the Hellers, developed into the second family he so desperately needed. 

The "Lucas" chapters provide his perspective on the events that took place in Easy.  He really struggled with the moral dilemma of dating a student in a class he was tutoring, but he just couldn't find a way of telling her.  She was the first person he connected with since his mother died and he didn't want to scare her away.

This is an exceptional book and one I would highly recommend to all of my friends.  It is New Adult, so the subject matter is more mature than the YA books I usually read.  Easy was actually my introduction into the world of NA and I absolutely love it.  Cora Carmack is another outstanding NA author that I have discovered.  If you have any other recommendations I would love for you to share them with me.

If you haven't read Easy, I suggest that you read it prior to Breakable.  The books are stand alones, but knowing Jacqueline's story prior to Lucas's will definitely be to your benefit.  They are both exceptional characters and I gave both books 5 out of 5 stars of Goodreads.  If you read one of the books you will definitely want to read the other, so start with Easy.  

Tammara made a comment that there are a couple of secondary characters she is considering writing about.  At the time I had no idea who she could have been referring to.  Kennedy and Buck were the only real secondary characters in Easy and they were not good options in my opinion.  After reading Breakable, I can now see a few characters with potential.  Boyce is my first choice, but Pearl or Melody could be possibilities as well.  If you have read the series, please share your thoughts on possible characters you think she could be referring it

Day 3

Day three was very chaotic with Book Con, but I was still able to get all of the books on my list.  Maggie Stiefvater was very sweet and I found out that she is only planning on releasing four books in the Raven Cycle series.  Book three will be released this fall, so we only have one more year to wait for the final installment!!

Flo is one of the admins for Down with the Capital, a Hunger Games fan site, so we had to participate in the Hunger Games trivia session.  Fortunately it was a team effort because I didn't know any of the answers.  I've read the books and seen both of the movies, but the questions were REALLY specific.  Flo and her other DWTC admin who was in attendance were all stars and won the competition.  They received Book Con t-shirts and a tote bag, but the victory was the real prize.

Thursday

I flew in Thursday morning and headed straight to the Javits. Did not pass Go, did not collect $200, just straight to the show! I really wanted to be there for this:

Now that I had that, I was free to pursue the rest of my schedule. Unfortunately, Jacque ran into some flight trouble (which she will tell you about I'm sure), so I made sure to pick up one of her "must have" books of the day:

Book Title: Craving

Take the New York Times bestselling book and pair it with a perfect cast, a screenplay from one of Hollywood's most respected writers, and gorgeous locales like Vancouver, Baja, and Santorini, and you have The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, the teen girl movie of summer 2005 from Alcon Entertainment and Warner Bros. Pictures!

Flo's Review

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is one of my favorite book AND movie series. I found a deal on this movie companion guide, so of course I snagged it! As far as movie companions go, it wasn't the best -- there were many pages that were just text from the book. What was the point of that? I mean, they matched it up with movie pictures, so I guess that was supposed to be cool? Overall, it was very text heavy compared to other movie companion guides I've seen. Instead of short sentence or paragraph blurbs describing different things, it had three to four pages of a director or designer telling his or her story in detail. That' nice, but I feel like with a guide like this, I am really looking to find out just some neat tidbits about filming and the actors and how the story came to life. A book like this to me should be for skimming and not for deep reading.

So, I skimmed most of the text. It does boast on the cover to have more than 100 exclusive movie photos, and I really enjoyed looking at those. There were also storyboards and quizzes and other fun things. It was colorful and fun to go through. 

On a side note: I hear they are going to make Sisterhood Everlasting into a movie, too? I've got to read that! Has anyone read it? What'd you think?