Blog Tour: You Are The Everything by Karen Rivers

Publish Date: October 30th, 2018
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Series: None
Source: ARC from publisher for honest review

Synopsis:

Can you want something—or someone—so badly that it changes your destiny?

Elyse Schmidt never would have thought so, until it happened to her. When Elyse and her not-so-secret crush, Josh Harris, are the sole survivors of a plane crash, tragedy binds them together. It’s as if their love story is meant to be. Everything is perfect, as perfect as it can be when you’ve literally fallen out of the sky and landed hard on the side of a mountain—until suddenly it isn’t.
When the pieces of Elyse’s life stop fitting together, what’s left?
You Are the Everything is a story about the fates we yearn for, the fates we choose, and the fates that are chosen for us.

My Review:
I've been struggling with this review for days! I want to say so much about it, yet I can't seem to find the right things to say without giving away too much. I feel like the people who have read this already need to get together and chat about it!I will say that from the start to the very end, my emotions took center stage with this book. Each and every page I felt something. Pain during the beginning, sadness and hurt throughout the middle, and angst, mixed with everything else at the end - I couldn't believe the end! I've only read one other book by Karen Rivers and I remember thinking that she had such a unique way of storytelling, and this book almost outshines in the storytelling category. Wow.
Elyse is young, has a best friend who is mad at her, a crush with whom she constantly draws and thinks about, and the need to feel true love at such a young age. She's a lot like us in that aspect. But the things she struggles with throughout You Are The Everything will have you feeling so sad for her. She's clearly going through a lot.
Again, I don't want to say too much about this book because I think it's one you need to read for yourself, and lucky you, if you've stuck around this long and continue sticking around, there's a giveaway at the end of this post!

//Happy Reading!//

Get Your Copy Today!

* Indigo * Amazon.ca * Amazon.com *

Q & A WITH KAREN RIVERS

Question: Was there anyone in your life in particular you were thinking of when writing the characters Elyse and Josh Harris?

Answer: I was thinking about intense crushes, the kind I believe only exist in high school and earlier, the love you feel for someone who you don’t know very well yet, before you know what relationships are truly like, an idealized infatuation type of love.   I had a crush like this on someone who may or may not have looked similar to Josh Harris – I’m still loathe to say who it was!   Even typing this makes me blush! – and I definitely tried to channel that yearning, that intensity of feeling, and the warmth and safety of loving someone unattainable, someone who has never even really noticed you.

Q: If the book were to be adapted as a film, who would you cast as Elyse and Josh Harris?

A: I’d also have to freeze time because both of these actors are probably aging out of playing teens, but Lamar Johnson (also a Canadian!) would be perfect as Josh Harris and Elle Fanning as Elyse Schmidt.

Q. Did you always want to become an author?

A: No, absolutely not.  I don’t think it occurred to me that this was even a possibility, growing up.  I wanted to be a veterinarian, an actor, a doctor, a lawyer, all kinds of other things, but I always gravitated back to writing again.   It’s where I belong.  It’s where my heart is.  There is nothing I would rather do than write, even if it weren’t my job I would do it all the time.  

About the author:

Karen Rivers’s books have been nominated for a wide range of literary awards and have been published in multiple languages. When she’s not writing, reading, or visiting schools, she can usually be found hiking in the forest that flourishes behind her tiny old house in Victoria, British Columbia, where she lives with her two kids, two dogs, and two birds. Find her online at karenrivers.com and on Twitter: @karenrivers.

Follow Karen:
* Website * Twitter * Goodreads * 

Tour-wide Giveaway

The winner will receive 1 copy of You Are the Everything(HC) by Karen Rivers.

Giveaway Details: 

- Canada Only (full rules found in the T&C on Rafflecopter)

- Giveaway ends on Wednesday Nov. 28th @ 11:59 pm EST

- Winner will be drawn randomly through Rafflecopter, contacted via email & will have 48 hours to claim their prize

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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You Are the Everything Blog Tour Schedule:

Nov. 12 – RemarkablyLisa

Nov. 13 – TurningPageBooks

Nov. 14 – FabBookReviews

Nov. 15 – StellarBookBlog

Nov. 16 – TrishaJennReads

Nov. 19 – AdventuresinYAFiction

Nov. 20 – MickeyReads

Nov. 21 – AllThingsChristine

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Book Review: Keep Her Safe by K.A. Tucker

Publish Date: January 23, 2018
Publisher: Atria Books
Pages: 448
Series: Stand Alone
Source: ARC Netgalley from publisher in exchange for honest review

Goodreads Synopsis:

Making a Murderer meets Scandal in this story of police corruption, family secrets, and illicit affairs from bestselling author K.A. Tucker, celebrated for her “propulsive plot twists and searing seduction” (USA TODAY).

Noah Marshall has known a privileged and comfortable life thanks to his mother, the highly decorated chief of the Austin Police Department. But all that changes the night she reveals a skeleton that's been rattling in her closet for years, and succumbs to the guilt of destroying an innocent family's life. Reeling with grief, Noah is forced to carry the burden of this shocking secret.
Gracie Richards wasn't born in a trailer park, but after fourteen years of learning how to survive in The Hollow, it's all she knows anymore. At least here people don't care that her dad was a corrupt Austin cop, murdered in a drug deal gone wrong. Here, she and her mother are just another family struggling to survive...until a man who clearly doesn't belong shows up on her doorstep.
Despite their differences, Noah and Gracie are searching for answers to the same questions, and together, they set out to uncover the truth about the Austin Police Department's dark and messy past. But the scandal that emerges is bigger than they bargained for, and goes far higher up than they ever imagined.
Complex, gritty, sexy, and thrilling, Keep Her Safe solidifies K.A. Tucker's reputation as one of today's most talented new voices in romantic suspense. 


My Review:

Keep Her Safe, a new suspense novel by best selling author K.A. Tucker came out today! As many of you know, I love this author. The talent she exudes in her work is amazing. (Ten Tiny Breaths series will prove this). So obviously, I was happy to get the ARC of Keep Her Safe and provide a review for you all.

Noah Marshall has had an easy life. His mother is the chief of the police department and they live a pretty normal life in Austin. Friends, sports and school are life for him. He is a polite, handsome Texan with a good head on his shoulders. One night Noah's mom, Jackie, in a drunken state reveals some things to Noah that he doesn't quite understand and brushes off but in a flash his life is turned upside down and he comes to realize that it wasn't all just gibberish.

Gracie on the other hand lives in a trailer park where she doesn't know if her mom will make it day to day, or even hour to hour sometimes. Life has been harder for the both of them since Abe, a loving father and husband was murdered on the job on the Austin PD. Gracie is tough and sassy (she has to be to keep her neighbours honest). She takes care of her mom, herself and a stray one-eyed dog. So on the day Noah arrives on her doorstep, all guards go up and Gracie reverts to her protective self. Little do they know that their lives are about to change forever. From that moment, it will bring Noah and Gracie together in ways they never thought possible and will reveal answers to questions neither of them ever thought the need to ask.

Keep Her Safe is written through many POV's. We get Noah, Gracie, Abe and Sheriff Marshall. I love when authors do this, and can pull it off. I love how we get a full 360' view of the story being told. I did find a few of the parts of the book to be predictable early on, but it didn't ruin it for me. I still felt it when K.A. Tucker confirmed in writing what was going through my head.

Keep Her Safe has been listed as a romantic suspense, and yes, there is romance but it doesn't overpower the book. And it's not super gushy romance either. It's a mature, ever developing kind between some pretty awesome characters. There was enough to remind you that you are reading K.A. Tucker. (Again, read Ten Tiny Breaths series!)

While I wasn't a huge fan of K.A. Tuckers thriller, He Will Be My Ruin, I was a tad worried Keep Her Safe wouldn't live up (being it was a suspense novel) but I was wrong. Keep Her Safe was written with more finesse, more"umpf" and way more wow factor in my opinion. And I would happily recommend Keep Her Safe for any fan of K.A. Tucker, any fan of suspense or romantic suspense.