A Greater Design

Published:  December 1st, 2014
Blindsided by Love
By: Hilary Rose
Momentum (Pan Macmillan)
ISBN-13:  9781760082109

Caroline has left Forrester Creations, heartbroken after her divorce from Rick.

Ridge senses Caroline's pain, for he, too is reeling from heartache but he is drawn to her spark and her smile.

When Ridge is injured in a wildfire in Malibu Canyon, Caroline returns to Forrester Creations to help them with a fashion fundraiser.

Rick and Ridge begin a battle for Caroline's heart.  But who can she trust?

Review

       Confession time: I have never even seen a single Bold & the Beautiful episode!  I am an ABC soap junkie though, and will occasionally read some stuff about it in my "Soaps In Depth" magazine.  I've been curious about it though, especially considering how much I love Thorsten Kaye and Heather Tom, from their respective terms on AMC and OLTL.  And I admit to seeing that they'd been paired (however briefly) and having my interest skyrocket a helluva lot higher!  Then I saw this book on NetGalley and even though it's more of an alternate path to what's happening, or has happened on the show previously, color me curious.  I have a weakness for unlikely romances.  So I decided to request it and give it a whirl.
       Caroline has left behind her life in California, designing for Forrester Creations, after divorcing her cheating husband Rick.  She still somewhat blames his brother, Ridge, for the downfall of her marriage after he demoted Rick at his position in the company, leading him to seek out his old girlfriend Maya for comfort.  A chance encounter at a restaurant opening in NYC leaves Ridge and Caroline thinking of each other, unexpectedly sharing an attraction.  Then Ridge is a victim of flash blindness (supposedly temporary), after saving his son and his son's friend from a raging wildfire.  Unable to finish his designs for the upcoming fashion show to honor his deceased mother's memory, his sister convinces him to call Caroline for help.  It turns out Rick regrets his mistakes and wants to win Caroline back.  But her feelings for Ridge refuse to be ignored and the connection they're forging is getting stronger and hotter every day.  Will choosing between the brothers ignite a familial war that'll destroy the upcoming event?  Or will playing between the two destroy Caroline's own chance at true happiness?
       I was impressed with how easy it was to dip into the world of The Bold & the Beautiful, with almost ZERO prior knowledge of anything in it, while reading this book.  The relationships are explained and explored without any seriously annoying/boring info-dump sequences - and that isn't always easy to come by in an established universe.  Caroline was a little boring to me, a little too "woe is me" and naieve to be truly interesting.  At the same time, I respected her for not just jumping back into bed with Rick.  It would have been the easier option, especially with her work at Forrester Creations, the strained/bitter relationship between him & Ridge, and the trouble the whole thing could cause her.  Caroline refuses to back down and that's admirable.  I liked Ridge's curmudgeonly tendencies, him being a bit of the strong and silent type.  The heroism and the way he loses his sight was actually not so out of the realm of reality and I liked that it was well-explained, without becoming a Gray's Anatomy textbook.  The romance between Caroline and Ridge was smoking,  I liked them together, they brought out the fun and the challenges in each other and it was beautiful.  I won't say much more, but we do get a happy ending.  For a novella, this was well-structured, enjoyable and made me want to start another Soap Opera committment to go with my General Hospital addiction.  Well done Hilary Rose! :D

VERDICT:  4/5  Stars

*I received this book from Momentum, on NetGalley.  No favors or money were exchanged for this review.  This book was published on December 1st, 2014.*

Can I Have a Shaman Panda?

Expected Publication:  July 11th, 2013
The Theory of Everything
By: Kari Luna
Philomel
ISBN-13:  9780399256264

Sophie Sophia is obsessed with music from the late eighties. She also has an eccentric physicist father who sometimes vanishes for days and sees things other people don’t see. But when he disappears for good and Sophie’s mom moves them from Brooklyn, New York, to Havencrest, Illinois, for a fresh start, things take a turn for the weird. Sophie starts seeing things, like marching band pandas, just like her dad.

Guided by Walt, her shaman panda, and her new (human) friend named Finny, Sophie is determined to find her father and figure out her visions, once and for all. So she travels back to where it began—New York City and NYU’s physics department. As she discovers more about her dad’s research on M-theory and her father himself, Sophie opens her eyes to the world’s infinite possibilities—and her heart to love.

Review

 

     Sophie Sophia sees some pretty wonderful things: shaman pandas in marching bands, lunch ladies singing 'Rock 'n Roll High School' complete with dance moves and famous rockers that give advice.  But these things don't exist in quite the same time/place as Sophie, so sometimes they cause her to do stuff that makes other people think she's crazy (like crowd-diving onto the popular girls at her new schools).  These are the kinds of things Sophie's scientist Dad used to do and the reason that she and her Mom left him, moving away from his episodes.  Now her Mom is getting scared that Sophie might have inherited a mental illness from her Dad.  When she is guided by her shaman panda Walt to seek out her Dad in New York, to try and get some answers, things might never be the same again.  With her friend Finny along for the ride and her Dad's book to give her some clues Sophie just might transform her own life, even if she can't save her Dad from himself.

     This whole book is built on a premise of whether or not the episodes are mental illness or Sophie and her Dad are slipping into alternate universes.  It's a really intriguing concept for a YA novel to try to navigate, especially when there isn't any other paranormal/sci-fi aspect involved and it's just straight contemporary fiction!  Sophie is an interesting girl, with unique fashion sense, a love of mix-tapes (anything analog, nothing digital with the Walkman to back it up!), and how-to lists for every event in life you could imagine.  But I feel like I spent the whole book thinking about how cool she was and not really connecting to her until the ending.  It's like when you meet up with some hipsters in a coffee shop and think they're interesting, but have no clue who they really are as a person.  I did like that she was only fourteen and did act her age for the most part with the romance including a cute boy and a first kiss, instead of the prevalent epidemic of 'virginity loss' making an appearance as in many YA contemps.

     I liked the souvenirs as proof that Sophie really wasn't imagining the episodes, but at the same time they were things so generic that it still left you wondering as a reader.  One of my favorite things about this book was Sophie's relationship with her best friend Finny, who is one of the first people she meets in her new town.  He is understanding, has an awesome sense of style, loves the same stuff as Sophie and goes with her on the quest to find her Dad.  Not to mention he helps her fix things with her cute, almost-boyfriend Drew after an episode almost ruins them.  I want a Finny of my own!  But the best thing for me in this book was shaman panda Walt.  He is wise, hilarious, a great musician and truly wants to guide Sophie the best way possible.  Plus hugging a panda after having an existential discussion with them just makes me want to find a portal into this book so I can do it too.  I did feel like it overreached sometimes, and it definitely wasn't a perfect read.  I felt too disconnected at the end to say that I truly loved it.  Plus Sophie's still unresolved situation with her Dad at the end and her disappointing 'choice' in regards to the inter-universe travelling was disappointing.  It was like when you ditch your imaginary friend because you're too old for them! :(  All in all though, I did enjoy it and would recommend it to people really longing for something different, that don't mind baby-hipster main characters.  Oh and props to Luna for the reference to Noah and the Whale! :)

 

VERDICT:  3.75/5  Stars

 

*I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie. No favors or money were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication is July 11th, 2013.*