Category: Reviews-Sourcebooks Fire(2011)

Title: Instructions for a Broken Heart
Author: Kim Culbertson
Pub Date: May 2011
Pages: 304
Publisher: sourcebooks Fire

Source: I received an ARC of the book from the publisher for my honest review.

About the book:
Top Twenty Reasons He’s A Slimy Jerk Bastard

Jessa:
To help you get over your train wreck of an EX, I’ve enclosed 20 envelopes. Each one has a reason why Sean is a jerk and not worth the dirt on your shoes. And each one has an instruction for you to do one un-Jessa-like thing a day. NO CHEATING!
Ciao! — C

When Jessa catches her boyfriend, Sean, making out with Natalie “The Boob Job” Stone three days before her drama club’s departure to Italy, she completely freaks.
Stuck with a front-row view of Sean and Natalie making out against the backdrop of a country that oozes romance, Jessa promises to follow all of the outrageous instructions in her best friend’s care package and open her heart to new experiences.

Enter cute Italian boy stage left.
Jessa had prepared to play the role of humiliated ex-girlfriend, but with Carissa directing her life from afar, it’s finally time to take a shot at being a star.

This is Kim’s second YA book. If you remember yesterday I reviewed her debut ya book called Songs For a Teenage Nomad which I enjoyed but I have to say I think I enjoyed this one much more. Instructions For a Broken Heart had my laughing through out the book.

Being a teenager in high school is tough but when you throw in a boyfriend who you discover has been cheating on you is pretty rough and then you are all scheduled to go on a class trip is even rougher because you are basically front row to this new romance that is brewing.

Thankfully for me that never happened in that way for me. There was a guy a liked but he was nice enough to break my heart gently (I see that now but didn’t at the time) but shortly after that he started going out with someone so having to go through my own heart break and to watch this on a daily bases was pretty touch and I wish I had a friend like Carissa then to help me through that process would have been nice.

Jessa is your typical high school student who is dabbling into everything that her school has to offer with all the projects and different clubs she is involved with. As busy as she is she has two amazing friends Carissa and Taylor as well as a boyfriend Sean.

The schools drama club is just about ready to head over to Italy for a class trip but its not going to be as Jenna had hoped it would be because three days before they are scheduled to leave she catches her boyfriend in a compromising position with another girl in drama club called Natalie.

Jenna realizes that this trip will basically be like hell on earth for her and wonders if she should go to Italy but in the end but realizes that Sean can’t take this away from her so she heads out wondering how she will survive the next twenty days in Italy with a broken heart and Sean and his new girlfriend as well.

Carissa comes to her rescue and offers Jenna a package that contains twenty sealed envelopes. Inside each envelope contains a task that Jenna must do over the next twenty days to show her how much of a jerk Sean has really been in their relationship. Little does Jenna know but Taylor is also involved in this and he must make sure Jenna completes each task. Will she be able to complete each task or will it all be too overwhelming for her?

I have to say I loved the idea behind the envelopes because it allowed Jenna to do things she probably wouldn’t do on her own plus in some there was confessions and secrets that Jenna had no idea about. Will these secrets tear apart her friendships?

Eventually Jenna did a 360 turn and realized that she shouldn’t let Sean dictate her life and ruin her trip. No matter how much she hated him I think she realized it was for the best and I think it made her grow as a person.

Title: Instructions for a Broken Heart
Author: Kim Culbertson
Pub Date: May 2011
Pages: 304
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Source: I received an ARC copy of the book for review.

About the book:
Top Twenty Reasons He’s A Slimy Jerk Bastard

Jessa:
To help you get over your train wreck of an EX, I’ve enclosed 20 envelopes. Each one has a reason why Sean is a jerk and not worth the dirt on your shoes. And each one has an instruction for you to do one un-Jessa-like thing a day. NO CHEATING!
Ciao! — C

When Jessa catches her boyfriend, Sean, making out with Natalie “The Boob Job” Stone three days before her drama club’s departure to Italy, she completely freaks.
Stuck with a front-row view of Sean and Natalie making out against the backdrop of a country that oozes romance, Jessa promises to follow all of the outrageous instructions in her best friend’s care package and open her heart to new experiences.

Enter cute Italian boy stage left.

Jessa had prepared to play the role of humiliated ex-girlfriend, but with Carissa directing her life from afar, it’s finally time to take a shot at being a star.

If you remember yesterday I reviewed Kim’s debut novel Songs For a Teenage Nomad and I did enjoy it but I have to say that I enjoyed Instructions For a Broken Heart more.

Jenna is your typical high school student. She is involved in all kinds of school activities and you wonder how could she possibly have time for a boyfriend, Sean? I think that is exactly what Sean has wondered, how does he fit into her busy life.

With three days to go before the drama club leaves for Italy for 20 days, Jenna things that things are perfectly fine and that Italy will be a blast. Hanging out with her friend, Taylor and being with Sean but little does Jenna know she is about to walk into a situation that will make her think about her trip to Italy and change the way she sees her boyfriend, Sean.

Jenna catches her boyfriend, Sean in a very compromising position with Natalie (another girl in drama club). The world as Jenna knows it has crumbled and she is contemplating whether she should go to Italy in the end because she doesn’t want to be front row and center for this budding romance that will happen right in front of her. Thankfully in the end she decides that Sean and Natalie won’t ruin this trip for her.

Sadly during the first part of the book she has let their relationship ruin her trip. I understand that this would be hard seeing your ex who you caught cheating on you with another girl who just happens to be on the trip as well. She is so focused on them that she isn’t seeing what she is missing. The beautiful sights and scenery of Italy.

With the help of her best friend, Carissa, she tries to make Jenna realize what a jerk Sean has been. With the help of Taylor, Carissa has sent a package to Jessa and inside are twenty number envelopes that Jenna must open daily and complete the assigned task. I think when Carissa was doing this she thought that they way to go was with revenge and setting out to embarrass Sean. Some of the tasks were pretty mean such as pouring a drink over Sean’s head.

Will Jenna be able to complete that tasks?

I think we all wish at some point in our lives we had a friend like Carissa who would make us do something out of the norm to get us back on track.

I really enjoyed this book and managed to read it in pretty much one sitting. I was curious to see what each envelope contained and wondering how Jenna would go about doing each mission. I love how the scenery in Italy was described and hoping one day that I will eventually make it there to see if for myself.

Title: Songs For a Teenage Nomad
Author: Kim Culbertson
Pub Date: August 2010
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Pages: 245

Source: I received a finish copy of the book from Sourcebooks Fire for an honest review.

About the book:
What is the soundtrack of your life?

After living in twelve places in eight years, Calle Smith finds herself in Andreas Bay, California, at the start of ninth grade. Another new home, another new school…Calle knows better than to put down roots. Her song journal keeps her moving to her own soundtrack, bouncing through a world best kept at a distance.

Yet before she knows it, friends creep in—as does an unlikely boy with a secret. Calle is torn over what may be her first chance at love. With all that she’s hiding and all that she wants, can she find something lasting beyond music? And will she ever discover why she and her mother have been running in the first place?

This is Kim’s debut YA novel. When I first heard about the book I wanted to read it because it sounded so good and I wasn’t disappointed either.

I have to say that one of my favorite things about Songs For a Teenage Nomad was all the song references that were made in the book. Callie was a music junkie (just like me) and every chapter started a song title or lyrics or artist name/band. Music is a huge theme behind this book.

Calle’s life isn’t a typical teenagers life. She has been in over twelves places in eight years (she is only in grade nine) and no she isn’t a military kid. Its by her own mother’s doing. Whenever something happens in her mother’s life (marriage, divorce etc) and she needs to leave she takes out the map of California and throws a penny on it and where ever it lands is where they head to next.

So for Calle the only things that remain the same in her life is her love of music, her diskman and her song journal. For Calle its important to document the songs that have impacted her life because each songs reflects a time in Calle’s life.

When Calle ends up in Andreas Bay, California Calle begins to hope that this will be the final resting stop for her and her mom and that they will finally stop running away from the world. Calle has always felt like an outsider because she was always the new girl but being in Andreas Bay Calle begins to let her guard down and she is enjoying school, making friends and possibly getting her first boyfriend too.

In regards to boyfriends there is two boys involved, Sam and Elie. I didn’t like the relationship between Calle and Sam and wanted to go in the book and tell her so because Sam wasn’t the guy for her. He treated her like crap and she went back time and time again. I know its hard when you like someone to see what they are really like and no matter what anyone tells you, you don’t see that. Isn’t it funny how what we ever really need is right in front of us?

Being a mother my heart went out to Calle because that is what she needed a mother who would put Calle first and not herself. Calle’s mother was constantly running away from her problems and secrets. She never told Calle anything about the past no matter how hard Calle tried to ask her. Personally I think Calle should have known what was going on.

Sadly it takes Calle to snoop and discover things to make her mother talk but even then her mother was more upset at the fact that she was snooping and going through her things then telling her daughter the truth. Will she eventually tell Calle what she wants to know?

I loved how at the end of the book Kim tells the reader how they can make their own song journal. Personally for me whenever I hear a song it brings me back to certain events in my life that I will always cherish.

Some of the songs that are a part of my Song Journal are:
~Don’t Stop Believing by Journey
~Girls Just Wanna Have by Cyndi Lauper
~I knew I loved You by Savage Garden
~Perfect by Pink
~Empire State of Mind by Alicia Keys and Jay Z

What is the songs that bring back memories for you?

Title: Are You Going to Kiss Me Now?
Author: Sloane Tanen
Publisher: Sourcebook Fire
Pub Date: April 2011
Pages: 368

Source: I received a finished copy of this book from Sourcebooks Fire for my honest review.

About the book (from the back cover):
Being marooned on an island somewhere off the coast of Madagascar with five celebrities sounds romantic and glamorous, right?

WRONG.

You couldn’t find people with fewer survival skills if you tried. Seriously. Cisco may have centerfold abs, but he can’t even spell SOS. At least super sexy Jonah seems to have a clue (too bad about the purity ring). If I’m stuck here much longer, these self-involved head cases might drive me crazy- assuming they don’t insult each other to death first. Its like a group therapy edition of Survivor.

At this point, I’m pretty convinced that all celebrities should be caged in Hollywood and confined to the pages of US magazine. And, BTW, if you’re there, God, it’s me Francesca, and I really want to go home.

HELP!

When I first heard about this book I was dying to read it because honestly who has never thought about being stranded on a desert island with a celebrity? Over the years I have to say my list has changed dramatically about who I would love to be stranded on a deserted island with.

Who would you pick? I think right now hands down it would be Enrique. Need I say more?

(This was taken June 2007. It happened so fast that I wish we could have gotten a better picture but the people working with Enrique were in a rush to get him out.)

Thankfully Francesca is doing exactly that and she thinks its going to be a blast but quickly realizes its nothing like she thought it would be because all she wants to do is go home after a few hours being stranded with these people.

Francesca is your typical high school student who loves her technology and anything to do with celebrities (magazine and all). Life for Francesca isn’t easy her father has left the family and living with his new girlfriend. One he soddenly informs her that they will be having a baby. This isn’t what Francesca wants to hear. She is upset and heart broken.

Having run away from her father, Francesca heads to her BFF Jordan’s house. Jordan has to go and do her SAT test but leaves a little package for her which consists of tabloid magazines and a seventeen. Flipping through Seventeen she stumbles upon a contest that allows the winner an all exclusive trip with five celebrities. Thinking she has nothing to loose and the chances of her winning of slim to know she write her essay and quickly sends it off.

When a phone call comes informing her she win, Francesca is excited figuring this is exactly what she needed since her life has been turned upside down. Before she can bask in the glory of the win she is wisk away to Madagascar to help promote literacy in children. Sadly the group doesn’t make it there. They land on a desert island. Loosing everything they own.

Cut off from the world the group quickly realizes that the odds of being found are slim to none but keep up their hopes that someone will realize they are lost. Will they be found before its too late?

I really enjoyed this book and couldn’t help but laugh at different times throughout the book. It was nice to see that a girl who is funny and awkward try to make the best of a worst situation and the gradually seems to fit in and become one of the crowd who ends up becoming friends with them.

I am looking forward to discovering Sloane’s other books because I heard that they are really funny.