Sunday Special: Book&Song #1 with Aflame by Penelope Douglas

Let's Say It's a... Book&Song! is one of new features here in my blog. Inspired by my habit of interpreting (too much) on any song-lyric and matching it with any story come across in my mind, LSIa-Book&Song! is a weekly feature where I match book(s) with song(s) that make perfect fit!

This is actually my most favorite feature of all 'cause God knows how much I love books and music! Like what the note said above, I will match a book to a song that I think perfectly suits the whole story. In this very first post, I will go with one of my favorite books on NA genre (since, honestly, it's much easier to get an idea from this genre). Book that I will find its song-match today is:

The tables have turned. Now I have the power—and it’s his turn to beg…
Everyone wants to be me.
Maybe it’s the sway of my skirt or the way I flip my hair, but I don’t care. Even though their attention is the last thing I crave, I just can’t stop. I dominate the track, the speed rattles my bones, and the wind and the crowd screams my name.
I’m her. The girl driver. The queen of the race. And I’m surviving—something he thought I’d never do.
They all still talk about him. Did you see Jared Trent on T.V? What did you think of his last race, Tate? When is he coming back to town, Tate?
But I refuse to care too much. Because when Jared does come home, I won’t be here.
Tatum Brandt is gone. I’m someone new.

AMAZON | BOOK DEPOSITORY | ADD TO GR | MY REVIEW

YEP! It's Aflame from Fall Away series by Penelope Douglas. It's my #1 favorite book from the series, which also made it to my Top 2015 Reads! I really love the couple, Jared and Tate with all the ups and downs between them. Used to be childhood best-friends, growing up became nemesis-for-life, then ended up with being lovers. I loved the dynamic of their relationship! And though I felt a little indifferent to Jared on Bully, Penelope succeeded in making me fall for him in this book. Ahh.. talking about it makes me want to reread this book again soon! >.<

Anyway, what song I would match this amazing book with?
Well, it should be what songs. Yes, I have two songs that I think perfectly suits Aflame. Both are from the same singer, even same album, and of course, both are my favorites! What are they? 

  

Go Sam Hunt, go! Sam Hunt Go!

He he, I really love this guy. His voice is so good! It makes me oh-so-melting every time I listen to him. Both songs above are from his album Montevallo and oh boy... these songs just perfectly fit Aflame plot! 

First reason,

Aflame starts with Jared and Tate caught up in bad circumstance that caused them to go separate ways. Jared made a quite fatal mistake and Tate, being Tate, had enough of it and decided to make the table turns. Tate is a badass heroine and girl like her is not one for crying over stupid (sorry, but Jared was that at first) boyfriend. There are scenes of them that perfectly captured by Break Up In A Small Town. I'm not going to say more but if you read the lyric, I could exactly imagine how Jared felt so frustrated seeing Tate, from afar, with the other... I actually laughed when I listened to this song because it's just so them! 

And the second song exactly portrays the second-half of the book! Jared, the sexy, rough, far-from-sweet, and badboy material had to give up his badass label to win Tate's heart back. How it went? Make You Miss Me is exactly how I imagine what's on Jared's mind the entire time he conducted his mission about Tate.

I ain't gonna be that easy to leave

and 
Girl, I'm gonna make you miss me

are so Jared; so full of himself but I'm not even complaining...

Also,

You're cold and hot
You burn out like a match

these lines are perfect descriptions of Tate!

Second reason,

I don't know but everytime I listen to Sam Hunt's song, it would always bring me to scenes on New Adult books. Maybe it's because his songs seems to always revolve around college life's romance (my opinion), like his Cop Car song which narrates certain scene that often being used on NA books.

Third reason,

I don't know about you, but for me Sam Hunt is Jared Trent. You know, built muscled body, sharp jaw, toned abs, seemingly-bad-boy but actually possesses a really sweet heart... He's a real life NA hero and isn't he also definitely a boyfriend material? 

***

That is our first edition of LSIa... Book&Song feature! I hope you enjoy it and agree with my book-song match today. But if you have another song that fits the book better in your mind, I'd be more than thrilled to hear from you! Bye now! :)

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Book Review: Aflame (Fall Away, #4) by Penelope Douglas

Aflame by Penelope Douglas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Get a copy here!

AMAZON | BOOK DEPOSITORY (CD Audio)

Lemme begin this review with,

crying over a window...

I am really having a hard time this week. So many feeling I collected from my reading list this month, especially the last one week. There were books that stole my heart while at the same time blew my mind, there was book that failed my expectation, and there were two my favorite romance series that finally reached an end.

I didn’t know about Fall Away series until one day around January this year. I picked up Bully simply because I was intrigued by its cover. I had no expectation whatsoever upon that book and it surprised me that the story was so good that it brought up such a sensitive issue of bullying in high school but it was packed in thoughtful plot and bottomlined a reason behind the issue presented from the perspective of the bully himself. Ms. Douglas had such a good writing style that I fell in love with on the first read. This began my journey to read more from this series. Now that I already reach the conclusion book of the series, I feel it’s real hard to say goodbye to everyone in this series. Fall Away might not attract me much at first but I ended up falling in love with it in the process that it took a place on big ten of my best contemporary romance series all the time. This series was one of the reason I loved NA genre.

Aflame became the conclusion of the series where Ms. Douglas presented Jared and Tate couple again this time. After such misunderstanding caused by the hero from previous book (yes, that hero that I used to hate so much for creating all this wide cliff between Jared and Tate but I had to thank for later because that was what started Aflame after all) .

Reading Aflame was like riding a roller-coaster. So many expectation, so many surprises, so many ups and downs but in the end it brought us to an end where we had this huge smile on our face and mind full of memories. My heart was alternated between Jared and Tate. One minute I hated Jared then loved him on the next one. The other time I hated Tate only to feel so much ache for her later on. I realized then that I really couldn’t pick side with this couple.

I don’t do my usual routine (read: write down my version of book synopsis) for this book. Usually I write a synopsis by forming words after words based on my favorite lines from the book that I highlighted during reading. In Aflame, I only highlighted once because I was just too busy burying myself into the story to do anything else. Also, I wanted to be least spoiler by not diving much into the storyline. You can always read the blurb or the excerpt in Falling Away to know more.

I really loved that Ms. Douglas decided to go with Tate and Jared in this book. I didn’t realize how much I missed this couple until I read this. In Bully, I kind of disliked Jared for the bullying he’d done to Tate. This time, I really really liked Jared. Never have I imagined to see the day where Jared would show the sensitive side of him when it came to his feeling for Tate. Tate played the tough role this time pulling anything to prove that there was no more friction between them but it only showed her truest feeling for Jared, the truest feeling of them both. It’s good to see the other couples and how they played important role in bringing them Jared and Tate back together again.

The pace was steady. The plot was filled enough with a little bit of everything: romantic, drama, tension, and of course much steamier scenes. There were scenes that made me cry, laugh, giggle, or just smile widely all at once.

I loved that each story of this series was not the kind of romance where it was rainbow everywhere in their world. I loved how realistic the storyline. I also especially loved every character with all their flaws and strong characterization where no one was mushy or overly dramatic or skeptical. If any, most of them had life-changing moments that directed their personality to a much better way. And when everyone finally got their happy ending, I, too, was happy for them because they really did deserve all that after the whole storm they’d been through.

I learned a lot from Fall Away series. Like never judge people for what they do now, but always, always, try to look deeper behind their façade to know why they do it. Everyone had a reason to do everything in life. Bully and Falling Away, for example, taught me that. I used to hate some of the characters in those books but along the way I learned that they weren’t as bad as I thought. Real life was like that, too. There are always good and bad in everyone. And we couldn’t just value the good and overlook the bad but we have to see them as a whole to shape a better opinion upon them. 

Reading Ms. Douglas’s letter to the reader, I felt so much emotion that I couldn’t express with words. Even though it’s really sad to say goodbye to all these amazing couple, she managed to slip something that put a hopeful smile on my face. For all the love in the world, I do really wish the possibility is high!

If anyone need to read some great, sweet, and sexy contemporary romance, I can always recommend you to pick this series up to your next reading list. Fall Away has so many feels to offer that you’ll crave over and over again!

Love, read, and review,

Cynthia D.

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Book Review: Falling Away (Fall Away, #3) by Penelope Douglas

Falling Away by Penelope Douglas

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Get a copy here!
AMAZON | BOOK DEPOSITORY

Okay, this is my third time of reading Ms. Douglas’ books and this book is the third book of the Fall Away series. I was so damn excited to read this book (as I loved Bully and really loved Rival) but found myself keep holding back because I wanted to be wrapped in perfect emotion before starting the book. I decided to put Falling Away on the top of my May reading list because the timing was perfect. Lately I’ve been swimming in the sea of YA books so I was more than welcome to dive into NA genre.

Sooooo, as always Ms. Douglas mesmerized me with her ability to write romance. I loved how she paid full attention to build each character of her books. I loved that she opted to use the style of revealing things bit by bit to keep readers on the edge of their seats all the time. I loved that whenever she created a twist on the book, she went big on that like every single time. Falling Away surprised me big time with my change of opinions on some characters I’ve met on previous books. This was a story of K.C. Carter and Jaxon Trent. I made some expectations about these two characters but once I finished with the book, I was blown away. I ended up loving the character that I thought I’d hate for sure and disliking the one I thought I’d love. Seriously, I learned my lesson here: 
to never judge people solely based on their present acts, you should know them very well first before making your opinion. 

‘The more you suffered, the more you survived. It shaped people in different ways, and what broke one person could empower another.’ 

(Jaxon Trent; Chapter XX, Falling Away)

K.C. Carter was never one to stray from her neatly mapped life. Growing up, her mother always made sure to keep K.C. on the right path. The careful, free of possible silly mistakes, right path. And that was what she did: taking political science major on college, staying with same-safe boyfriend for five years now, always being a perfect daughter, keeping distance from any potential troubles ―basically keeping herself on the right path.

But ironically it only took one night through one stupid mistake to make her arranged life crumbled down. Instead of in Arizona, K.C. was back to Shelburne Falls tutoring some troubled high-schoolers on her old school all summer with a horror of her tuition being cut off. And if it wasn’t bad enough for her, there was another big hassle next door waiting to jump out any moment.

Jaxon Trent was the picture perfect of guy with charisma. In such a young age, he got everything under control on the palm of his hands. No one wanted to mess with him. For years, he made sure to walk with his chin up and straight to the front without ever looking back. After all he wasn’t a scared kid any longer with bruises all over his body and soul. Nothing could break him apart anymore. Until he realized he still got one weakness of all things, in a form of girl staying next door.

K.C. had known Jaxon for years. He had been constantly watching her every move when they were still in high school. Never once though, Jaxon backed down. If any, he might be even bolder than before towards her. As K.C. tried real hard to fight the temptation which was Jaxon, in the end she could not deny him. Little did she know that Jaxon’s freak of taking control over everything was shaped from past experience that was not any different from hers. Well, him might be even worse. When they finally agreed to stay on each other side, K.C. was finally able to fix her issue with the help of Jaxon who kept pushing her to her limit. But when she tried to push him back to his own limit, he showed the reaction she’d never seen on him before. Something radiated from him, something dark, something awful, something unforgotten and might be unforgivable. Could she help Jaxon to see the light inside his heart eventually? But what most important, would she want to stay after all? What with her raw wounds and Jaxon’s insecurity that capable of not only hurting him but hurting her as well?

Falling Away was great. I loved the plot, the climax, all the unravel secrets hidden behind the layer where the main characters stood in front of. Again this time, Ms. Douglas brought up a real issue of our society which was how parents’ bad behavior shaped and affected the kids’ personality growing up. She put all the real facts onto words of story. And it was kind of sad yet so damn touching when the abused kids―no matter physically nor mentally―tried to mend their souls by pushing each other’s limit points so they could fight their demons together. K.C.’s issue was really awful. My heart sank when I found out that she had been going through such thing all her life, being forced to be someone she wasn’t supposed to. This is something that might happen around us if we look carefully enough. And what with Jax’s issue, it might be even more things like this happened every day in our world. These might be a cliché issues to be presented in a contemporary NA book but I’m personally glad that lots of author decided to keep bringing this issues up so that more people would realize that these very things do happen around us. Child-abusing, physically and mentally, is a very heavy issue that even nowadays it’s still hard to prevent it from happening. I loved that this book showed us that even abused survivors could keep going with their life as long as there was loves keeping them warm every moment. Jax had been through a very rough experience as a kid and it shaped him to have such personality which was enigmatic, control freak, and totally insecure. It’s very fortunate of him to have people he could call family to keep his sanity intact. And when he met K.C. who has been through quite similar thing in the past as him; it made him wanted to be stronger so he could save her. Sadly, he forgot to save himself in the process because saving K.C. meant to give her the best of all. And he certainly wasn’t the best.

This was quite logical but I found myself really frustrated over Jax. It’s really sad, though, because I was hoping I’d love Jax as much as I love Madoc or maybe Jared (after all it’s hard to not comparing each related hero on a series like this). He had a really bad issue of labeling himself as lowest crap that he kept hurting K.C. to make her go away. It happened over and over again that I thought Jaxon was a bit labile in temper. Even until the last chapter, I still sensed of him wanting to take control over everything. It, for me, showed that he wasn’t a hundred percent healed. It kind of made Falling Away had a happy ending but still with a side-note that they had a potential to breaking apart in the future. It made me feel uneasy for them.

I loved K.C. character here so much. I felt bad of hating her during Bully…I loved her strong personality! She amazed me when she decided to take a step standing up for herself especially at the moment when she was being hurt by the only guy she cared for.

‘I guessed we’ve all built ourselves up through sadness, disappointment, and experience. It just happens at different times and in different ways.’

(K.C.; Chapter VIII, Falling Away)

And that moment when she chose to stay at the lowest point of her beloved one, God, that scene was so beautiful. I was in total awe of her that time. It’s really good to pair this couple together. Jaxon helped K.C. to bring her ‘wild’ out. And now the ‘wildness’ K.C. had would teach Jaxon to lose his some over control. That’s exactly what a relationship should give to you!

‘[…] And relationship are supposed to make your life better. You don’t drag each other down. You hold each other up.’

(Chapter XXI, Falling Away)

I loved this book but it’s quite hard to relate with Jaxon (I understand his past but he made it difficult for K.C. to save him whenever he was having his weak moments, also what he said to Jared about Tate was quite mean…). The ending which had a sense of possible threat to them in the future made me not fully relief when I reached the last page. I’ll settle with 4.5 stars, though, because I just loved K.C. and Ms. Douglas :)

Love, read, and review,

Cynthia D.

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Book Review: Bully (Fall Away #1) by Penelope Douglas

Bully by Penelope Douglas

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Get a copy here!
AMAZON | BOOK DEPOSITORY

This is my first time reading Penelope Douglas’ writing. I heard a lot about this Fall Away series but never really thought of picking the books up until last month when I was in challenge to read some book from authors whose writing I’ve never read before. I chose this book as one of the tbr candidate because of the cool cover. Well, I kind of have a thing for silhouetted photography…

So my opinion is, I pretty satisfied of my choice. Even though I was a bit raising eyebrows when I began to read the book because of the issue pulled here was something that I always hate in real life: Bully. Well I know it would be about that (the title screamed so) but I just never really knew about bullying that is done by opposite gender. I was a bit worried that it would involve something physical, because if it was I surely would put this down right away. But of course Ms Douglas knew better than to issued such extreme act of bullying. And damn if it didn’t surprise me, but Bully just proved me that even this theme of story could pull the right heart string of people if written through a thoughtful plot.

Tatum Brandt never knew why in the world the only best friend she ever had hated her. She never knew when it started. She never knew why it started. All that she knew for sure was the summer before freshman year that they spent away from each other had something to do with it. Everyone knew how inseparable they used to be before. Playing, laughing, crying ―all done together, comforting each other and the adjoined tree to help some sneaky sleepovers. They were things that forever etched on Tate’s mind. But there was one eighty degrees differences standing between them now. The funny Jared Trent, the soft-hearted, the nicest boy, her childhood hero Jared was no longer there. Tate didn’t know where he had gone. Was he lost his way during that one mysterious summer? Jared who stood up in front of her with all his sour expressions, cocky smirks, heartless acts, and sharp insults was no longer her best friend. It should be easier if Jared acted like this to everyone, but no, he preserved those to Tate only. Only God knows why.

Bracing herself to survive this year, Tate knew better not to attract more ‘devil’ acts before her departing to France for a good one year. But everyone had their limits, even the weak Tate. Showing him she actually had limit that night should have taught Jared to back down. But a year later when she came back, apparently that didn’t quite kick some senses on his brain. But the ‘Tate now’ was determined to set a clear line to Jared’s stupid bullying acts. He could keep going for all she cared, but she wouldn’t be the weak Tate anymore. Now it’s time for him to deal with the coming storm.

Jared Trent never knew that she would turn out like this once she’s back. He didn’t know whether to like the change or not. But at least this new version of Tate was easier to deal with than the one who always chose to back off and gave her a confused pleading stare. He could deal with the fierce Tate much better. But as things went on and on, before they realized things had shifted into something that caught them unguarded. The table was turned and with the push from Tate’s touching monologue during class, Jared was left thinking back all the years of bully and that one summer that made their friendship fell apart. 

Could something that once damaged make its way to heal again? 

But more important, would it want to be healed again?

It was hard to decide what I feel about Jared’s character when I read this. I never meet a bully before, moreover a guy bully whose object is a girl. But at some points, Ms Douglas showed us that Jared after all is a human who has a reason behind his act. And somehow I kind of understand what he felt. How something could change one’s life and demeanor totally fascinate me. In bullying, there’s always a kind of ‘domino’s effect’ on it. How Jared became a bully, how Tate later became ‘a bit’ like a bully, these reasoning was quite understandable for me even though still I don’t accept the act at all.

Meanwhile, I loved Tate’s character. It is always good to see a girl stand up for herself from the harms on her surroundings. And the monologue she’d done in front of class was enough to make my heart totally ache for her. It was heartbreaking. And once again somewhere around the flashback of their childhood, I cried again. Kiddo Jared was so adorable and lovely… something he said when they visited cemetery kept ringing in my head. It is so simple yet so wise.

“They don’t want you to be afraid of them. They just want to be remembered.”

-Jared Trent-

This is, I know, going to be a good start for me to continue reading another book of Penelope’s. I hope that the next book on this Fall Away series that I’m going to read will be this good :)

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