Thank you Brittany from Space Between the Spines for hosting this awesome review train! She's pretty awesome herself, so I recommend you go check her blog out (and all the other blogs participating in this train because they are awesome too)!
Author: Mia GarciaEdition: Kindle eBookRating: 3 Stars
I don't normally read contemporary books, but I thought I'd give this one a try for a few reasons. The number one reason being that I was invited to this review train (Choo choo!) and the number two reason being the description of the book.
I was sold by the idea of a whirlwind adventure with quite a bit of heartfelt romance set in a city full of rich culture. Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed.
While the New Orleans of the book did have a rich and vibrant culture, pretty much coming off of the page, I didn't think there was enough time taken to really give the city the proper enjoyment it deserved. It's certainly a whirlwind book, and everything happens very, very quickly. The parts of the city that are described particularly well are the streets and the lives of many who live there.
The characters were the biggest problem and this comes back to the pacing. By the end I was invested in both Miles and Julia, but it did take some time. Because things were moving so fast, and since I like to take my time soaking in characters and not have them forced upon me quickly and in a way that makes them feel shallow (even though, as the story progresses, you learn they are not shallow in the least), it was hard to enjoy for a little bit. The side characters did all feel only one step away from stock characters, but that, again, may have just been me dealing with the pacing.
My favorite parts of the novel were the ending (and how everything wraps up), the way that Julia's backstory was chipped away at (and the details therein), and the diversity. I can't say much of the former two, because of spoilers, but they were both executed well and the reveals in Julia's history had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. As for diversity, this is an A+ book. Julia's family is from Puerto Rico and Miles' is African American. I have a bad habit of whitewashing characters in my head when I'm in the thick of a book (it has to do with the community I grew up in, but I'm getting better at actually "seeing" characters) but here I had no trouble. They come off the page as vividly as the setting in this regard, and I really, really enjoyed it.
This is certainly a light read, maybe even good for the beach if you're visiting this year, though I will caution it's not all the back makes it seem. The fast pace detracts from the romance, but in the end it isn't a bad book at all.
The Next Review
Czai @ The Blacksheep Project -- Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver
The Previous Reviews
May 30th -- Genni @ Ready, Set, Read - The Unexpected Everything
May 31st -- Lauren @ Always Me - Future Shock
June 1st -- Laura @ Blue Eye Books - The Summer I Turned Pretty
The Upcoming Readers
June 4th -- Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense - The Distance Between Us
June 5th -- Ashley @ [Insert Title Here] - Rebel of the Sands
June 6th -- Sinead @ Less Reality, More Books - The Square Root of Summer
June 7th -- Ashley @ What's She Reading? - Open Road Summer
June 8th -- Brittany @ Space Between the Spines -- Summer Days and Summer Nights + a giveaway!
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