Book Review: Somewhere Only We Know by Cheyanne Young

Somewhere Only We Know
Author: Cheyanne Young
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary
Released: June 15, 2014
Review Source: CreateSpace

Sadie Bradford’s life is one anxiety attack after another. All she wants is to escape life's realities for the summer and hang out with her best friend Aaron. But her grandmother has other plans: Sadie will get a job. Sadie will do volunteer work. Sadie will make new friends - friends without brain injuries that make them forget everything...friends that aren’t Aaron.

While Sadie struggles to survive her anxiety with all these new changes, she finds an escape when she dreams herself into the beautiful world of Isola Fiona. It’s a place that cures memory loss and anxiety. It’s a place where she and Aaron can fall in love.

But after dragging Aaron along with her to her dream world, things take a turn. Every time they return home, Sadie’s anxiety is a little better but Aaron’s memory is still gone. And Isola Fiona may not be much of a dream after all. As Sadie realizes that Isola Fiona is as real as her anxiety, she rushes to change the course of fate and make things right, but she may be too late...

Somewhere Only We Know was a very unique and eye-opening read for me. Sadie, our main girl, suffers from severe anxiety. The only person she feels comfortable around is Aaron, her best friend, who happens to have short-term memory loss. Then Sadie discovers a dream world, Isola Fiona, where things can be better. Where mental illnesses can be cured. Feelings and memories are brought back in this dream world, but in the real world Aaron still doesn't seem to remember.

Like I said, this was a very unique read for me. It goes deeper into mental illnesses than I expected it too. I have a family member who suffers from anxiety and I never really understood it, but as this was an eye-opener, I think I could understand better now. I liked the story, but I loved the characters. They were extremely well developed. *hint* If you check out Cheyanne Young's website you can see where Somewhere Only We Know stemmed from and it is beautiful!

The characters made the book and I love that I had the opportunity to read a great book!

Book Blitz: Summer Alone | Amy Sparling | Excerpt | Giveaway

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Summer Alone
The Summer #1
Author: Amy Sparling
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Romance
Released: October 1st 2014
 

From the best selling author of Summer Unplugged, comes a new series set in the same world. Becca's senior year of high school is approaching and she's tired of being the dorky best friend. Determined to reinvent herself with help from Bayleigh, she plans to spend the summer breaking out of her shell. When Bayleigh gets grounded and sent away for three months, Becca's plans come crashing down before they've even started.

Now Becca is alone and can't even talk to Bayleigh on the phone. Not wanting to miss out on the summer before senior year, she takes a job at the local indoor BMX track. The job is fun, her boss is laid back, and the place is packed with hot guys. One of them just might have a crush on her. This may be a summer without her best friend, but it doesn't mean she'll have to spend the summer alone.

Excerpt

It’s the first day of summer and I’m sitting in my bedroom, still wearing pajamas. It’s pretty much where I can be found any time I’m not in school. If there’s one thing to know about me, it’s the one thing everyone knows about me: My name is Becca Sosa and I am a loser. Or in the words of Trey Sheppard at the senior’s party last week, I am a lame-o dork-o.
I hate insults like that. The ones that are said behind your back, directed to other people as you walk by. The insults you weren’t prepared to hear because the people who say them—Trey Sheppard—are usually nice to your face. It’s one thing to call someone an asshole if they are being an asshole; that’s a trait you have control over, something you can choose to be or not to be. Like when my best friend Bayleigh accidentally dropped a piece of popcorn and it fell on her little brother’s head and he got all confused about it. Then she kept tossing popcorn at him all night, just to mess with him. I told her she was a jerk for doing it. That’s an insult that was deserved, even though she thought it was hilarious.
But lame-o dork-o? I didn’t set out to become the lamest, dorkiest person in the city of Lawson. It’s not like I was intentional about it. Besides, I’m normal. I’m not dorky. I don’t wear thick-rimmed glasses with tape holding them together, or suspenders or orthodontic headgear or something like that. That’s why those are the worst insults. Being made fun of for something that’s just…just you.
The sad thing is that I didn’t realize there were people who thought of me that way. Sure, when your best friend is crazy beautiful and wild in the best way and makes friends everywhere, you kind of expect to be known as the less popular one out of the two of you. But I guess I hadn’t realized how low I actually was on the popularity totem pole.
Bayleigh has always been more popular and more outgoing than me. She’s had boyfriends since we were in sixth grade, back when having a boyfriend meant holding hands before and after school and telling everyone you had kissed when really you hadn’t.
But even with the drastic differences in our personalities and likeability factor at school, Bayleigh has always stuck by me. We met at a daycare when we were four years old, during a time when my stay at home mother had temporarily gotten a job to help pay for Grandma’s nursing home. Bayleigh and I were instant best friends, according to our mothers, and even though I only had to go to that daycare for four months, our moms exchanged phone numbers and we stayed best friends with play dates and sleepovers. I really owe a lot to Bayleigh. She’s the world’s greatest best friend.

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In case you didn't know, Amy isn't my real name. It's a pen name I use to publish books and novellas for teens that have a romantic theme. My real name is Cheyanne Young and I also publish YA books under that name, but they are usually in different genres and for older age groups.

I chose the name Amy Sparling when I independently published my first book, Deadbeat. I wasn't sure if I would keep the pen name at first--I wasn't even sure if I'd keep publishing. But I got incredibly lucky and found a group of young adults who loved my stories and kept asking for more. You guys seriously have made my writing hobby into the greatest part of my life. I will continue writing books under this name as well as publishing books of a different nature under my real name.

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Blog Tour: Motocross Me | Cheyenne Young | Review | 10 Things List

Welcome to our stop on the Motocross Me blog tour for Cheyanne Young. This tour is hosted by Page Turners Blog and full schedule can be seen HERE. 

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Motocross Me
Author: Cheyanne Young
Reading Level: YA
Genre: Contemporary
Released: June 4th 2013
Review Source: Blog tour
Available: Amazon
Goodreads Giveaway for Motocross Me

Summary: (from goodreads) When Hana Fisher moves to the small town of Mixon, Texas to live with her dad, she dreads having to work at the boring pile of dirt he fondly calls a motocross track. But when she gets there, she finds the rinky-dink dirt bike track from her childhood has grown into the most respected racing track in the state.

Now popular by association, Hana endures the pain and sweat of working in the summer heat in order to fit in with a sport she’s growing to love. She gets a real family, a best friend and not just one, but two of the fastest racers trying to win her heart.
When Hana abuses her status as the track owner’s daughter to help the gorgeous Ryan Russo cheat in the biggest race of the year, she risks more than just losing her job. Every good thing in her life is at stake now- her friends, her dad’s trust, and Ash Carter- the kind-hearted racer who may not be as alluring as Ryan, but is proof that nice guys don’t always finish last.

I LOVED LOVED LOVED this book right from the beginning to the end. Have you ever met two boys in your life where your head tells you to be with the handsome rich bad boy but your heart is telling you to pick the unique cute poor boy. But you keep going back to the bad boy when you know you have a future with the unique cute poor boy. 

Well that is what happens with Hana the main character in this book. Hanna ends up having a fight with her mother because her mother is getting married for like the third time again. So they end up fighting and she decides to drive hours to her dads house where she hasn't been in years. She ends up showing up in the middle of the night and she sees her dad and her step mother. But they both take her in and hug her wondering what happened. Hana dad is doing all the work at the Motocross track because he owns it so her step mother suggest that Hana work there during the summer. Well she gets up early in the morning to start working and she ends up having to check in bikers that are going to come and practice to get ready for the race coming up on the weekend. When she lays eyes on Ryan the bad boy handsome man she falls head of heels in love with him. Then all of a sudden she meets this other cute unique guy with dreads named Ash. She doesn't see herself falling in love with him because he has dreads. She starts dating Ryan and he ends up asking her questions about how the track is going to be designed for the championship and wanting to know all of these other details because he wants to win. She couldn't believe she was hearing these things from him. But she still loves him. Then she starts seeing Ash around and he ends up hanging out with her step brother helping with his bike. She realizes he is really cute and can't keep her eyes off him.Hana ends up hanging out with Ash's sister and they become best friends. When Ryan notices Hana talking to Ash and his sister he calls them scum bags and that they are poor and she shouldn't hang out with them. 

I want to keep telling you guys more but I can't. Because you need to read this book for yourself. Every page has great detail and was written so well. I felt like I was hanging out with Hana through the whole book from the beginning to the end. I loved this book and I would read another one by this author. I really hopes she writes a sequel to this book because I would read it in a second. I would love to see what happens to the characters in this story. If she doesn't write another one I will just remember the ending of the book and make up the story myself in my own mind. Don't you love it when you read a book that just sticks with you through your whole life that you can relate to and just want to tell your girlfriend about after you are done reading it. Well this is the book. Go read it....

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10 Things I would tell my Teenage Self

By Cheyanne Young www.CheyanneYoung.com

1. Stop getting bangs! Every time you think you're going to look good with them and then you spend months letting your hair grow out. Stop trying! It'll never happen!
2. Save money. Seriously, you don't need every bottle of nail polish on the shelf…your future self will be happy you saved instead of spent.
3. Spend more time with friends. Go to the movies. Hit up the beach. Have sleepovers. Cherish those moments because one day you'll all be grown up and won't have time for fun things.
4. Get the hell off the computer.
5. Start eating healthy now. It'll save your twenty-something year old self a whole lot of hassle and bad-habit-breaking.
6. Write more. Don't be scared of it. You're talented and you're good enough, I promise.
7. Read more. Seriously. All those books you thought you'd have time for later? There's never enough time. Read every chance you get.
8. Self-worth comes from inside you. Not from a boyfriend.
9. Call your grandma.
10. Live every day like the person you respect most is watching.

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About the Author:

Cheyanne is a native Texan with a fear of cold weather and a coffee addiction that probably needs an intervention. She loves books, sarcasm, nail polish and paid holidays. She lives near the beach with her daughter, one spoiled rotten puppy and a cat who is most likely plotting to take over the world. Cheyanne has a NA book coming out in the Fall titled Not Your Fault.

For more info on Cheyanne check out her  Website/Twitter/Facebook/Goodreads.