Sometimes when you read a friend’s book and want to review it, you’re divided because you didn’t love it. Just ask Jennifer Eaton . . . she hated my first novel, 18 Things. But she’ll tell you it wasn’t because the writing that sucked *wipes forehead* . . . it just wasn’t her thing.
When Jessa Russo sent out an email to organize her blog tour for her new release, Divide, I signed up to review the book right away. I KNEW loving her story wouldn’t be a problem because she’s A*M*A*Z*I*N*G! She could publish a grocery list and I’d buy it 🙂
The Book Blurb:
From senior class president to dejected social outcast, with just the flick of a match.
After accusations of torching her ex-boyfriend’s home are followed by the mysterious poisoning of her ex-best friend, seventeen-year-old Holland Briggs assumes her life is over. And it is. But not in the way she thinks.
As Holland learns the truth about her cursed fate—that she is descended from the Beast most have only ever heard of in fairytales—she unites with an unlikely ally, good-looking newcomer Mick Stevenson.
Mick knows more about Holland’s twisted history than she does, and enlightening as it is to learn about, his suggestion for a cure is unsettling at best. Holland must fall in love with Mick in order to break the spell, and save their future generations from repeating her cursed fate. Having sworn off love after the betrayals of her ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend, this may be difficult to accomplish.
Complicating things further for Holland and Mick, time runs out, and Holland’s change begins way before schedule. With Holland quickly morphing into a dangerous mythical creature, Mick struggles to save her.
Should they fail, Holland will be lost to the beast inside her forever.
My Thoughts:
Jessa didn’t disappoint! She really knows how to get a story under way. I immediately feel in love with Holland and Mick and cared about their happily ever after. There’s the triple D factor: desire, danger, and decision. Jessa nails them all with Divide.
Holland is a girl fighting for her identity, seeking truths about what’s happening to her. She wants Mick, but she’s conflicted because of the beast living inside her. At the same time, she’s recovering from a major heartbreak and betrayal (who isn’t in high school, right?). She’s trying to be good, but she’s lost control of herself. Other issues pop up that create plot twists I never saw coming. The whole time, you’re LIVING each moment as the characters experience it because of Jessa’s flawless writing. It’s a character-driven story and an action-driven plot, and it’s darn hard to pull off both but this book does! I loved the tension woven throughout this YA fantasy/fairytale redux. Every scene is manipulated for maximum impact.
The only thing I didn’t like was the ending. It came too soon, and I wanted to see MORE of Holland and Mick.
If you want to find out more about Jessa, go here to visit her website (she also offers a full line of editing services! My publisher uses her for freelance & as my editor, I can vouch for her!)
DIVIDE: Amazon | Kobo | Barnes&Noble | Goodreads
What else has everyone been up to? I have to say I saw two great movies this past weekend. Friday I rented The Spectacular Now from the Redbox, starring Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller, a coming of age film based on the novel by Tim Tharp. Lovely indie film. Then Saturday the fam and I saw Rio 2. I must admit I wasn’t too excited to see this one, but I laughed more than the 3 kids with us (okay, 4 if you include hubs, hahaha).
Also, now that 18 Thoughts is written, I’ve had time to exercise again! YAY! I met two girlfriends for a six-mile walk on Saturday morning and was able to show them the door I’m convinced leads to Narnia. I’ve never tried to open it, but how cool is this door?!
I’ll be back next week with my IWSG post. Huge hugs to Alex who mentioned me in his A to Z blog post on Monday! Until we meet again, LONG LIVE ASLAN!
Jamie Ayres 
Sounds like a great fairytale retelling. Glad you liked it and thanks for sharing it with us.
Thanks for reading, Natalie 🙂
I agree, reviewing a friends work is hard. I think there is before and after publication review issues and also is the review private or public. If a friend is asking for a critique before they send ms to agent or publisher, then I tend to be very open with my comments. If they are asking for a review after the book is published to go on a website etc, then I’m nervous. What if I don’t like it. I don’t want to post a bad review.
In fact, I never post a bad review for any book whether I know the author or not. My reasoning: I’ve read books where the first time I picked it up, I thought it was junk and tossed it aside. Then a year later, for whatever reason, I’ve picked up the same book and loved it. What if I’d posted a bad review? That would have been very unfair to the author. Hence I post for 3 stars or better.
Yeah, if I can’t give a book 3 stars or higher, I just marked it as ‘read’ on Goodreads and leave the rest blank.
This book sounds super interesting. Congrats on finishing your writing and getting back into exercising! When you finally open that magical door, let us know where it leads, okay?
Will do!
Great that you did enjoy it!
Glad you are exercising again. I bet the warm weather helps.
And happy to feature you!
I live in Florida, so it’s almost toooo hot now, lol . . . excuses, excuses 😉
The triple D factor is good. Sounds like a fantastic read. I’ve seen it around over the last week. Woot! for Jessa.
She has lots of good buddies pimping her book, and it’s paying off 🙂
What? Not enough explosions in 18 Things for our lovely Jennifer Eaton? 😉 I think her response highlights an issue with reviews, which is that EVERY book will have people who love it, and people who don’t care for it. (And that’s perfectly okay!)
Divided sounds awesome though!
And congrats on getting that six mile walk in. Looks like fun. 🙂
Well, there was the marshmallow scene, lol. I told her 18 Truths has a big one, but I think she’s done with me. I don’t think there are any explosions in 18 Thoughts though . . . may need to fix that before it comes out!
The cover is amazing and the story sounds so compelling! Congrats to Jessa.
Yeah, we share the same artist! Michelle does AWESOME covers 🙂
How sweet you are to take a critique so well! But that whole, it’s just not for me thing…it’s so for real! I’ve read books that I KNOW are marvelous books, but they just don’t sing to me. It’s like picking a favorite food, we all have different taste buds.
And speaking of food…can’t wit until Jessa gets that grocery list published 😉
Love how you tied that all together, Elizabeth!
The cover is really nice, and I’ve been seeing this book around.
I see you finally got to hold your book in hand, too, Tania!
That door looks like something from the Storybook Forest in Idlewild Amusement Park in Ligonier, Pennsylvania. It’s been so many years since I was last there, but I have nice memories of it.
I love the color scheme and earth tones on Jessa’s cover. As an amateur artist, that tends to be one of the first things I notice about a cover, how the colors are used.
You’re an artist too? Is there anything you CAN’T do? Seriously, lol 😉
Divide sounds great. It’s a win if you love the book, but if I thought it was so-so I’ll focus on the good parts, if I really didn’t like it I won’t review. Gotta say though that I haven’t read a book by a blog friend yet that I disliked – everyone’s so talented!
I haven’t read one where I hated it, but I have read some that I thought were just okay. Still, it was more because the book wasn’t my thing vs. poor writing 🙂
I’m totally loving that cover!
It is fantastic!!
Oh interesting, loved the review too. And that cover begs me to buy it. Love it.
shahwharton.com
Buy it, read it, ❤️ it!!!
Very nice review. This sounds like a great read. Fascinating cover too. Thanks.