The Forever Girl by Jill Shalvis (Review and Giveaway)

 

Can true love stand the test of time?

Maze has traveled to Wildstone to be the maid of honor in her estranged best friend / foster sister Caitlyn’s wedding.  Caitlyn’s parents had fostered children and Maze, Walker, and Heather had become part of the family.  After a terrible tragedy, Caitlyn’s little brother Michael was killed, and her parents were unable to care for the foster children.  The family was broken up, but they share an unbreakable bond.  Caitlyn has gathered them to spend the week together before her wedding.  Maze must confront the demons of her past and realize what is important for her both in friendship and in love.  Will she be able to make a better path forward?

I enjoy Jill Shalvis’s books.  The characters are intriguing with interesting personalities and flaws.  They have gotten a rough start in life, but they must figure out how to move forward with their lives and their relationships.  The Forever Girl does have a great romance story with two prickly characters, Maize and Walker, but at heart, it is a story of family.  Will this family be able to put itself back together after an unspeakable loss and move forward?  I also loved Caitlyn’s story as the red flags were going off as she inched closer to her wedding.  I love how the chapters were from different characters point of view and had a “to do list” for what the character needed to do to try to get them ready for the wedding.  They were usually quite funny.

The Forever Girl is Book #6 in the Wildestone series.  I have also ready books #4 and #5 in the series.  They are all standalone novels with the same setting and some cross over characters.

I also must say – I love the cover of this book.  It really puts me in the mood for spring!

Overall, The Forever Girl is a great contemporary novel with intriguing characters, romance, and family relationships.

Book Source: Review Copy from William Morrow.  Thank-you!

ABOUT JILL SHALVIS

New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental. Look for Jill’s bestselling, award-winning books wherever romances are sold and visit her website, www.jillshalvis.com, for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.

ABOUT THE FOREVER GIRL (a standalone Wildstone novel)

When Maze returns to Wildstone for the wedding of her estranged bff and the sister of her heart, it’s also a reunion of a once ragtag team of teenagers who had only each other until a tragedy tore them apart and scattered them wide.

Now as adults together again in the lake house, there are secrets and resentments mixed up in all the amazing childhood memories. Unexpectedly, they instantly fall back into their roles: Maze their reckless leader, Cat the den mother, Heather the beloved baby sister, and Walker, a man of mystery.

Life has changed all four of them in immeasurable ways. Maze and Cat must decide if they can rebuild their friendship, and Maze discovers her long-held attraction to Walker hasn’t faded with the years but has only grown stronger.

Connect with Jill

Website: http://jillshalvis.com/

Facebook: @JillShalvis

Twitter: @JillShalvis

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jillshalvis/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/jillshalvis/

Tumblr: http://jillshalvis.tumblr.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22370.Jill_Shalvis?from_search=true

 

BUY LINKS for THE FOREVER GIRL:

Amazon

IndieBound

Barnes & Noble

Books-A-Million

Bookshop.org

GIVEAWAY

As a part of the William Morrow Book Tour, I am giving away one copy of this novel. If you would like to win this book, please leave a comment on what interests you about this book.

As part of your comment, you must include an email address. If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner.

For an additional entry, blog about this giveaway or post it on your sidebar. Provide a link to this post in your comment.

I will be using random.org (or a Monte Carlo simulation in excel) to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is only open to addresses in the United States.

The deadline for entry is midnight on Friday January 29th!

Please make sure to check the week of February 1st to see if you are a winner. I send emails to the winner, but lately I've been put in their "junk mail" folder instead of their inbox.

Good luck!

Winner of The Summer Deal by Jill Shalvis

The winner of The Summer Deal by Jill Shalvis is Suko from one of my favorite blogs, Suko's Notebook who left a comment on the blog post on June 11th.  Suko was chosen using random.org and has been notified via email.  She has one week to respond with her mailing address or another winner will be chosen.  Congratulations to Suko!  I hope she enjoys this fun summer novel of sisterhood as much as I did.

Please make sure to check your email and back to this blog when you enter a giveaway.  The initial winner that was drawn did not respond to several emails that I sent so I had to draw a new winner.

Thank-you to William Morrow / Harper Collins Publishers for allowing me to be a part of this blog tour and giveaway. Thank-you to Jill Shalvis for writing such a good summer novel.  Thank-you to all who entered.  If you'd like to learn more about this novel, please check out my review at this link.

The Summer Deal by Jill Shalvis Blog Tour and GIVEAWAY

Kinsey and Brynn were childhood enemies at summer camp.  Eli was Kinsey’s best friend and Brynn’s secret crush.  The frenemies relationship ended when they were fifteen after Kinsey and Eli did not come back to camp that year.  Time has passed, and the three have been thrown back together again.  Brynn has returned back to her home town after a failed relationship. She knows she can’t stay with her Moms forever so she rents a room from Eli in his house.  Kinsey lives in the home as well as Eli’s half brother Max.  Kinsey has secrets of her own and one that she wants to share with Brynn, but can’t bring herself to do.  What is Kinsey’s secret?  Will Brynn and Eli rekindle the romantic feelings of their youth?

Jill Shalvis writes good characters with flaws and intriguing stories.  I love that for each character, life has thrown them hurtles, and they need to figure out how to put the pieces back together and move on to fulfillment and happiness.  Although there was romance, The Summer Deal was at its heart a story of two women and their friendship.  I enjoyed their journey from frenemies to friends.  All of the characters were great.  I loved that Brynn had two mothers that loved her, but could be embarrassing at times as they smothered her with love.  Kinsey on the other hand has two parents that have been constant disappointments and can’t find time in their day to spend with their daughter.  Understanding their backgrounds is a much deeper way to understand their motivations and actions.  Eli was a great character himself also coming from a broken family, but together with his half brother Max, Brynn, and Kinsey, they are able to create a new supportive family of their own.

The story is told alternately in third person from Brynn and Kinsey’s perspective and most chapters start with a diary excerpt from one other other’s diary from camp when they were kids.  I really liked this format.

Favorite Quotes:

“This is what happened when one fell for a con artist; you lost your perspective and self-trust.  Because everything felt like a mirage now.”

“Sometimes, people keep secrets because it’s easier than the hurt and disappointment that knowing those secrets will lead to.”

Overall, The Summer Deal is a great story of broken characters that are able to pick the pieces of their lives and form new friendships and relationships.  I enjoyed it.

Book Source:  Review Copy from William Morrow.  Thank-you!

ABOUT JILL SHALVIS
New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental. Look for Jill’s bestselling, award-winning books wherever romances are sold and visit her website, www.jillshalvis.com, for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.

ABOUT THE SUMMER DEAL (a standalone Wildstone novel)

Brynn Turner desperately wishes she had it together, but her personal life is like a ping-pong match that’s left her scared and hurt after so many attempts to get it right. In search of a place to lick her wounds and get a fresh start, she heads back home to Wildstone.

And then there’s Kinsey Davis, who after battling serious health issues her entire twenty-nine years of life, is tired of hoping for . . . well, anything. She's fierce, tough, and she’s keeping more than one bombshell of a secret from Brynn -- her long-time frenemy.

But then Brynn runs into Kinsey's best friend, Eli, renewing her childhood crush. The good news: he’s still easy-going and funny and sexy as hell.

The bad news: when he gets her to agree to a summer-time deal to trust him to do right by her, no matter what, she never dreams it’ll result in finding a piece of herself she didn’t even know was missing. She could have real connections, possibly love, and a future—if she can only learn to let go of the past.

As the long days of summer wind down, the three of them must discover if forgiveness is enough to grasp the unconditional love that’s right in front of them.

Connect with Jill

Website: http://jillshalvis.com/

Facebook: @JillShalvis

Twitter: @JillShalvis

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jillshalvis/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/jillshalvis/

Tumblr: http://jillshalvis.tumblr.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22370.Jill_Shalvis?from_search=true

BUY LINKS for ALMOST JUST FRIENDS:

Amazon

IndieBound

Barnes & Noble

Books-A-Million

Bookshop.org

iBooks

GooglePlay

GIVEAWAY
As a part of the William Morrow Book Tour, I am giving away one copy of this novel. If you would like to win this book, please leave a comment on what interests you about this book.
As part of your comment, you must include an email address. If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner.

For an additional entry, blog about this giveaway or post it on your sidebar. Provide a link to this post in your comment.

I will be using random.org (or a Monte Carlo simulation in excel) to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is only open to addresses in the United States and Canada.

The deadline for entry is midnight on Friday June 19th!

Please make sure to check the week of June 22nd to see if you are a winner. I send emails to the winner, but lately I've been put in their "junk mail" folder instead of their inbox.

Good luck!

Winner of Almost Just Friends by Jill Shalvis!

The lucky winner of Almost Just Friends by Jill Shalvis is Petite who left a comment on the original blog post on January 26th.  Petite was chosen using random.org and has been notified via email.

Thank-you to William Morrow Books for allowing me to host the giveaway and to review the book.  Thank-you to all who entered the giveaway.

Would you like to learn more about the book?  Check out my review at this link.

Almost Just Friends by Jill Shalvis (Book Tour Review and Giveaway)

Piper grew up too soon when her parents were killed overseas.  She moved with her siblings into her grandparents’ home, but they died when she was still in her teens.  She spent the rest of her youth raising her siblings.  Now that their lives are back on track, Piper can finally go to college and fulfill her dream of becoming a Physician’s Assistant.

Her plans go off track when she meets a handsome new man, Cam, who is visiting his father who lives next door.  Cam’s life is off track now that his father has diabetes and his young brother has been killed in an auto accident . . . in which Cam was the driver.  When he meets Piper, he wonders if he can change the direction of his life.

When Piper’s siblings move back in with problems and loves of their own, what will she do?  Are Piper and Cam just friends with benefits or are they more?

I really loved the well-developed characters, setting, and storyline.  I was completely drawn into the story I didn’t want to put the book down.  I liked how the characters and their stories were so realistic.  I also enjoyed that Piper’s brother Gavin got his own same-sex love story and turmoil of his own.  This brought another dimension to the story that you don’t always see.  I was cheering for him and wanted even more of his story.  Piper and Cam’s romance was also a great story of its own and was a great romance.

Overall, Almost Just Friends is an engrossing contemporary story with great characters.  I didn’t want it to end.  Jill Shalvis is my new favorite romance author.

Book Source:  Review Copy from William Morrow Books.  Thank-you!

ABOUT JILL SHALVIS

New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky www.jillshalvis.com, for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.

resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental. Look for Jill’s bestselling, award-winning books wherever romances are sold and visit her website,


ABOUT ALMOST JUST FRIENDS (a standalone Wildstone novel)

characters. Any
Piper Manning’s about as tough as they come, she’s had to be. She raised her siblings and they’ve thankfully flown the coop. All she has to do is finish fixing up the lake house her grandparents left her, sell it, and then she’s free.

When a massive storm hits, she runs into a tall, dark and brooding stranger, Camden Reid. There’s a spark there, one that shocks her. Surprising her further, her sister and brother return, each of them holding their own secrets. The smart move would be for Piper to ignore them all but Cam unleashes emotions deep inside of her that she can’t deny, making her yearn for something she doesn’t understand. And her siblings…well, they need each other.

Only when the secrets come out, it changes everything Piper thinks she knows about her family, herself…and Cam. Can she find a way to outrun the demons? The answer is closer than she thinks—just as the new life she craves may have already begun.

Connect with Jill

Website: http://jillshalvis.com/

Facebook: @JillShalvis

Twitter: @JillShalvis

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jillshalvis/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/jillshalvis/

Tumblr: http://jillshalvis.tumblr.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22370.Jill_Shalvis?from_search=true

BUY LINKS for ALMOST JUST FRIENDS:

Amazon

IndieBound

Barnes & Noble

Books-A-Million

iBooks

GooglePlay

GIVEAWAY 
As a part of the William Morrow Book Tour, I am giving away one copy of this novel. If you would like to win this book, please leave a comment on what interests you about this book.  

As part of your comment, you must include an email address. If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner.

For an additional entry, blog about this giveaway or post it on your sidebar. Provide a link to this post in your comment.

I will be using random.org (or a Monte Carlo simulation in excel) to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is only open to addresses in the United States and Canada.

The deadline for entry is midnight on Friday January 31st!

Please make sure to check the week of February 3rd to see if you are a winner. I send emails to the winner, but lately I've been put in their "junk mail" folder instead of their inbox.

Good luck!