Paperback Princess: Letters To Nowhere by Julie Cross Review {Tour & Giveaway}

Thursday, 8 August 2013

Letters To Nowhere by Julie Cross Review {Tour & Giveaway}

10:30 pm | Posted by Unknown

Welcome to my tour stop for

Letters To Nowhere by Julie Cross

I'm so excited to be part of a Julie Cross tour! In this stop you'll find my review of Letters To Nowhere and also a fantastic giveaway courtesy of Author, Julie Cross. Please follow the remaining stops for this tour, schedule can be found by clicking on the event banner above.

Letters To Nowhere

by Julie Cross

Published: August 1, 2013

Genre: New Adult Contemporary

Her family may be shattered, but her dreams aren't...

From the International Bestselling Author of the Tempest series

A Mature YA contemporary set in the tough world of Elite Gymnastics.

Seventeen year old Karen Campbell has just lost both her parents in a tragic car accident. Grief stricken and alone, her gymnastics coach opens his home to Karen, providing her a place to live while she continues to train, working toward a spot on the world championship team.

Coach Bentley’s only child, seventeen year old Jordan is good-looking and charming enough to scare away a girl like Karen—someone who has spent ten times more hours on balance beams and uneven bars than talking or even thinking about boys. But the two teens share a special connection almost immediately. It turns out Jordan has a tragic past of his own, grief buried for years.

As Karen’s gymnastics career soars, her nightmares and visions of the horrible accident grow in strength. She can only avoid facing her grief for so long before it begins to surface and ultimately spin out of control in a very dangerous way. Can discovering love and lust (simultaneously) help with the grieving process or will it only provide a temporary distraction while waiting for reality to hit full force.

Excerpt

“What the hell,” Bentley muttered. “Jordan!”

Jordan’s bedroom door flew open and he stepped into the hallway, grinning at me. “Like it?”

I finally got a glimpse of what Bentley was shouting about. My bedroom furniture had been exchanged for Jordan’s mismatched twin bed and dresser. The twin bed in my new room was covered with the blanket I had been using in the closet. There were no more boxes lying around.

My clothes were hanging in the closet, all of the trophies and various items from my old room were nowhere to be found. I stared at Jordan, my eyes wide. He knew. Something I said the other night must have tipped him off.

“Fix this now,” Bentley boomed. “What were you thinking?”

“It’s all right,” Jordan said. “Karen agreed to this. She lost a bet. I won her furniture fair and square.”

“He’s right.” I stepped into the room inhaling deeply and feeling an overwhelming sense of relief. “A deal’s a deal.”

Bentley shook his head as if to say he had enough to worry about without adding Jordan’s interior design projects to the list. Then he left us to go and chat with Mrs. Garrett downstairs. Jordan came into my room and shut the door behind him.

“How did you know?” I asked immediately. I closed my eyes, breathing in deeply again and smelling something brand new. A new start.

“I came in to tell you something the other night and you were sound asleep in the closet,” he said.

“And then when you told me on the phone, about memories being haunting, I just thought . . . It smells like home to you, right?”

I nodded my answer, afraid to test the steadiness of my voice. I had held so much in since having a panic attack during last night’s workout. Everyone had looked at me like I belonged in the loony bin, so I hadn’t wanted to break down in sobs to add to the rumors. The fact that Jordan had managed to bring my spirits up after that horrible ending to camp was just amazing. I moved closer and wrapped my arms around him, squeezing him in the middle.

“Thank you,” I whispered. This time I had actually said it out loud rather than in a letter I’d never send.

Royal Commentary by Paperback Princess

I was ecstatic to be part of a Julie Cross blog tour. I hadn't even read the synopsis for Letters to Nowhere when I accepted to be a stop in the tour, I have just heard so many fantastic things about Julie's Tempest and Vortex novels that I was more fan-girl crazed about being part of her tour. I'm happy to report that Julie Cross did not disappoint with Letters to Nowhere.

Letters to Nowhere is a beautifully written coming of age story. This book deals with a lot of deep and meaningful themes including death, grief, acceptance, coping and of course living. Letters to Nowhere is an engrossing, emotional read and readers will remember this story long after the last page has been read.

17 year old Karen Campbell, elite Gymnast has just lost both her parents in a tragic car accident. An unexpected turn of events has Karen moving in with her gym Coach, Coach Bentley, and unknown to Karen at the time, his teen son, Jordan. Trying to deal with her parents death and all the other trials that are thrown her way, Karen starts to write letters to her parents and everyone else in her life, in a notebook, a coping mechanism, a way for her to feel like her parents are still around, but letters she will never mail, they will never read, but it makes Karen feel better.

Letters to Nowhere has a wonderful cast of characters and the book is so engrossing because of the characters interaction and the way they all dealt with each other. Karen is a strong and likeable character, I love the letters that she was writing to her parents and other characters in the novel, it was enjoyable to read her thoughts and feelings with no boundaries or filter. I felt so emotionally distraught for what Karen was going through, at 17, already dealing with all the normal grief of a teen girl, then the loss of her parents and then on top of that her self expectation along with others expectation regarding her gymnastics career, she's got her plate full. Letters to Nowhere shows us Karen's growth as she tries to work through her grief, pain and then eventually to acceptance and moving on and starting a new fresh life.

…"Go talk to her. You know you want to."

He shrugged. "Maybe I will."

I waited for several seconds and Jordan's feet stayed planted to the same spot. "That was anticlimactic."

Jordan is Coach Bentley's son and I really enjoyed his character, he's a typical teen boy but at the same time he's very perceptive. He's also kind, sweet and I love all the small but wonderful things that he did for Karen to help her with the loss of her parents. I don't think that Karen would have made it out quite so well without Jordan's help.

He looked mildly amused with my obvious distress "The bathroom's all yours, Karen." As I started to turn away, he added, "Just don't mess with those magazines under the sink."

My eyes widened. Jordan laughed and looked down at his notebook again. "Kidding."

I let out a breath before walking away.

"I removed all traces of porn this morning before you got here," he said to my back.

Karen and Jordan's relationship growth is definitely one of the positive aspects of this novel, unlike other YA novels of late there was no instant love here. Karen and Jordan's relationship grew in a steady and realistic pace and being a reader you truly feel the emotions that they were going through and the gradual feelings they felt for each other. I was swooning about this relationship and they're definitely one of my favourite couples, this is the type of relationship I'd love to have, one that is based on friendship.

"Well you were safe and boring. Maybe you aren't anymore," he conceded. "I take it back. Karen Campbell is a wild-ass risk taker. She should be riding a Harley through downtown St Louis."

Letters To Nowhere has such an original concept with Karen's letter writing. I absolutely loved that part, and whilst the entire chapters aren't all letter-based, I really enjoyed the letters, it really showed me Karen's state of mind without any filter, whereas her dialogue between other characters were somewhat filtered to what she wants to tell them. The letters gave me an inner understanding to Karen's current state of mind. I love, love, love the letter aspect of this novel and being such a different concept or way to get the point across this could have gone terribly wrong but Julie incorporated Karen's letters brilliantly. Looking forward to Julie's upcoming novels, she has fast become one of my "default" Authors. "Default" Authors is when I purchase all their books, not even reading book description, just because I love their writing and previous work.

About The Author

Julie Cross

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

I live in central Illinois with my wonderful husband and three kids currently between the ages of 7 and 12 (the kids not the husband). My writing journey began in May, 2009 with a short story in a notebook.

Within a year, I had written seven (some good some God-awful) young adult novels. Not being a college graduate and having spent the previous fifteen years teaching gymnastics and working as a YMCA Program Director for Recreational Gymnastics, professional writing wasn't in my plans. Not even close. But ever since the day I started that short story, I haven't been able to stop. It was love at first sight.

After about a year of writing, I had a three book deal with St. Martin's Press, and a film option with Summit Entertainment. Crazy, right? I know. It wasn't until August of 2011 that I quit working full time in order to be at home with my kids more and of course, write more. My young adult time travel debut novel, Tempest, released on January 17, 2012. The rest of my personal story remains unwritten.