Book Journey

Morning Meanderings… The Post Where I Am Sick… Oh And I Cry.

Published on March 19, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)13 Comments

Hi! See this picture of me here where I look whimsical, witty, coffee in hard, a glow to my cheeks?

Yeah…

That’s not me today.

Today, I am in the recliner covered in a blanket, surrounded by assorted states of Kleenex, coughing like I really do not need two lungs, and hair that looks like something out of a bad 80’s movie. Yup, that about sums it up.

I am sick.

I guess it was inevitable. All winter long people around me have been taken out for days, weeks even, with some nasty flu bug that does not let go. I pride myself on the fact that I rarely get sick. I snub the yearly flu shot and walk around rarely with a coat… then Friday I started going down hill. While driving to the cities I felt a little tingly (know what I mean?) Saturday morning I woke up with a fever and a cough and a voice that I call “Grover” from Sesame Street.

I blame all this crappy snow and 15 below weather.

Sunday I was up and down, Monday I worked and then faded to the point of cancelling my Monday work out and now I am home here having called in to work for the morning and hoping I can pull myself together by noon so I can go to work for a couple of hours and then run a couple of errands.

At this moment… that idea sounds like a fictional tale.

In other news, I was reading the Shelf Awareness email this morning and read about Lisa Lynch, blogger at Alright Tit. Lisa created the blog after discovering she had breast cancer and her posts reflect an upbeat, and funny look at what she was going through. Always light-hearted, I believe she spoke to other women who also have suffered/are suffering from breast cancer. Her husband and good friend write the current post you see there today letting us know that Lisa lost her fight on March 11th.

Very sad, and did not help my Kleenex shortage over here.

So that is my post. I need to get well. This is a busy week with the Spring Library sale starting on Thursday and I will be helping out after work on Thursday through Saturday. Its going to be fun – and I need to get well. 😀

I have a review to write now and then I think I will relax into my Russian Tea a friend sent over last night saying this was their family “stay healthy” secret. I really should bathe in it.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on March 17, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)31 Comments

Welcome to It’s Monday! What Are You Reading! This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. I offer a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling me how many you visited. **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Under the new and hopefully improved 2013 guidelines, the winner each week will receive a $5 Amazon gift card. This past weeks winner is:

Tanya at Mom’s Small Victories!!!!

Well I was pretty much absent this week. I wasn’t planning on being absent but working hard and playing hard usually means something has to give and unfortunately this past week it was this space here. Bookclub was last Tuesday, Wednesday I was working out with friends, Thursday was wine and horduerves with my cousins, and I was gone over the weekend doing a 7k In the cities and I took my laptop with me but had little time to be on it. Hope fully this upcoming week will be a better turn out. Here is what I did manage to post this week:

The Tale Of Lucia Grandi by Susan Speranza

BIG News from here!

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli (Bookies Review!)

That’s all 😀 This week I am at the Pink concert Tuesday evening (I know.. I know.. so mature of me 😛 ) and then I am helping at the Library book sale Thursday – Saturday so I am going to hope to get in a little reading:

I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current.
So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives. In this ambitious debut novel, fact and fiction blend together brilliantly. While scholars have largely relegated Mamah to a footnote in the life of America’s greatest architect, author Nancy Horan gives full weight to their dramatic love story and illuminates Cheney’s profound influence on Wright. Drawing on years of research, Horan weaves little-known facts into a compelling narrative, vividly portraying the conflicts and struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of mother, wife, lover, and intellectual. Horan’s Mamah is a woman seeking to find her own place, her own creative calling in the world. Mamah’s is an unforgettable journey marked by choices that reshape her notions of love and responsibility, leading inexorably ultimately lead to this novel’s stunning conclusion.

Women-to-women relationships in the workplace are . . . complicated. When they’re good, they’re great. But when they’re bad, they can ruin your day, your week—even your year.

Packed with proven advice from two of today’s leading experts in workplace relationships, this one-of-a-kind guide gives women the tools they need to navigate difficult situations unique to women-to-women relationships—whether with a boss, a colleague, a client, or an employee.

Have you dealt with a woman in the workplace who:

“Accidentally” excludes you from important meetings?

Seems intent on taking you down professionally?

Gossips about you with other coworkers?

Makes you look bad by missing deadlines?

Forms a “pack” of mean girls to make your life miserable?

Mean Girls at Work isn’t just about surviving difficult situations. It’s about transforming a toxic relationship into one that benefits and supports both of you.

This book is also for women who engage in mean behavior . . . but don’t know it. After all, who hasn’t gossiped about a female coworker? Who hasn’t rolled her eyes in the presence of a woman she doesn’t like? Who hasn’t scanned another woman head to toe—which is just a nonverbal way of saying, “You’ve just been judged”? The authors provide invaluable advice to the more subtle ways of being mean—even if they’re not intended.

For the record – I do not work with a mean girl… I work with an awesome girl…. I just think the book sounds interesting 😀

I want to read more than this, but I am going to keep it low this week. How about you – what are you reading and how is your reading this time of year? Add your post to the line below where it says click here.

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For those of you who review mainly Middle Grade (MG) and/or Young Adult (YA) reads, please also add your link to this meme as well:

MILKWEED By Jerry Spinelli

Published on March 15, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)4 Comments

Warsaw 1939, a young boy, no more than 8 years old wanders the streets alone, stealing food to survive and sleeping wherever he can feel safe for the night. He knows not who he is or where he came from, and when is asked what he is called honestly replies, “Stopthief” as that is all anyone has ever called him.

When he meets a group of boys who are much like him, they hie our at night in a bombed out barber shop, stealing food by day. People ask him, “Are you a Jew? A Gypsy? A filthy son of Abraham?” He eventually is given a name by the boys he hangs out with, “Misha”. He likes it and the story they gave him as well about his family. The boys watch out for the “Jackboots.” the Nazi’s who come to town to gather up the Jews, and destroy any happiness. Misha would like to be a Jackboot with their shiny boots and big tanks. When he grows up, that’s what he wants to be.

Misha makes a friend with a little girl in town names Janina. She is 6 years old and has lovely things and Misha enjoys visiting her. When Janina and her family are forced to move into the newly created ghetto, Misha thinks it is a game and goes along. When a wall is built high around the ghetto so no one can get out, Misha finds a hole in the wall that he is the only one small enough to use, and he goes out and steels food as he pleases and brings it back in to Janina and her family. But times are changing and the bread shelves are empty, and the ladies with the fox fur who used to be easy to rob with their large boxes of sweets are no longer able to be found.

As Misha leans more about his surroundings and what is really happening, he no longer wishes to be a Jackboot. Not at all.

We chose this book for our Bookies book club read for March. Our plan was to choose a YA book to read as a group. This is the book that was nominated and I found myself thinking this is not what I was considering for YA. Yet, having never read Spinelli before I had no idea what an experience I was in for.

MILKWEED is YA like Book Thief is YA. They are written with a younger reader in mind, yet they are written on important and powerful topics. There is no paranormal activity, no witches or werewolves, or vampires in MILKWEED. Instead, there is young, dirty boy.

MILKWEED is a young orphaned boys view of the Holocaust and the innocence of not knowing what is happening, and never really fully understanding until many years later the full impact of what he had been through. Living in a world where you were shot at, called “filthy pig” and seen friends die, was the only world Misha knew.

Even as I type this I am still in awe of the power of this little book. AT 208 pages, you do not need a lot of time to read it, but I do recommend that you do read it. I will definitely be looking for more of Spinelli.

Bookies Thoughts:

The Bookies had a good discussion over this book. It definitely left us with quite a bit of things to think about as the book focused around the Holocaust, Jewish people, hunger, and the crippling effects of having no hope. For all of us, this was our first Spinelli (speaking for myself, it will not be my last).

We discussed the value of a Holocaust book being written and marketed to 5th – 9th grade. We appreciated the value of a book to this age group on this topic but felt for the younger end they would need a follow-up with a parent to have questions answered as it does not go into much about the reason for the Holocaust or explain much about why people died. Of course this same line of discussion led to the wondering if a generation that has grown up surrounded by violence on tv, at the movies, and in video games would get the book and understand this was reality.

Overall the Bookies gave it an average rating. Some found the ending to be not to their liking. And of course, we had food… and lots of choices from the book as in the beginning Misha and the boys he hung around with stole from stores, gardens, and people’s homes, and food was plentiful.

Morning Meanderings…. 7K Eve and Bring Your Own Cheese

Published on March 15, 2013March 15, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)6 Comments

Good morning. 😀 As I look out my window starting at yet more.. yes, you guessed it.. SNOW coming done, I think of my relocation plan…

definitely somewhere year around sunny where bike riding is the norm, and book lovers are seen everywhere from park benches to the beach. *sigh*

A girl can dream….

In my reality, tomorrow in ST Paul I am running my first 7K of the year (yes yes… I know it is snowing….) and as odd as this probably sounds, I am looking forward to it. It should be fun, it will definitely be picture worthy. 😛

Tonight after work I will head to the cities to stay with friends who are also running. Then tomorrow afternoon we will be going to other friends home to enjoy a St Patty’s day get together where we are to BYOC… (Bring Your Own Cheese). LOL…. apparently along with great food, they are going to have a cheese bar. I do not know what a cheese bar is, but I like saying it, and I like the visual of it. being a lover of almost all things cheese, I am in on that deal.

I will be listening to audio during my travels but other than that reading has been at a real minimum this week. It seems like I have filled up every spare moment I have with errands, working out, and hanging with friends (book club was Tuesday, cousins get together was last night. ) Anyhoo.. it is all good.

Laptop will be making the trek with me this weekend so I will be around and hopefully will be posting some long due book reviews. 😀

Any plans for your St Patty’s weekend?

Morning Meanderings… Finally I Share With You The BIG News!

Published on March 14, 2013March 14, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)36 Comments

Good morning! Finally I am able to share news with you that I am soooo exited to share and I hope you will just be excited for me… for us… for our area…. ok you get the picture. 😀

Since last fall I have been stewing around with an idea that stemmed off a larger event that is held in the cities. During a Literary session myself and two other wonderful ladies were working on for a grant for our Local Library, we were having a session on Fundraising. “Ugh” I though… as I really do dislike fundraising…..

Yet little did I know what this man was about to talk of would get my creative juices flowing…

I learned about an event that has went on for now ten years right here in my own state that I had never heard of. It is called Opus and Olives and it is a HUGE literary event that is held as a fundraiser every October for the ST Paul Library.

Well… color me interested.

At that moment I knew I wanted to do something similar on a smaller scale here in Brainerd. So…. (and this is where the sssqqqquuuuueeeeee comes in) I have been working since probably last October on ideas of what to call it, where to have it, what it is, etc… and I can now say out loud the BIG piece fell into place on Tuesday of this week.

Our event will be called Wine and Words and it will be held at a beautiful venue in the Brainerd Lakes area on August 23rd at the Arrowwood Lodge. Not only have they offered us a wonderful venue and price for our event tickets, they have sponsored 5 rooms for us to be able to give to our authors who travel to speak.

Uh huh. 😛

So…. basic layout is, I have the wine being donated during our social time at 5:30 by Cash Wise Liquor (Mark, you rock!) During that time guests will be able to browse the wonderful silent auction (I already have several signed books donated!) At 6:30 a lovely sit down dinner will be had, and at 7:15 we will have 4 authors (this is what I am now starting to work on) will speak a little on their latest book and afterwards they will be available for book purchases and signing. At the end we will have a few giveaway for our attendees including an IPAD.

A good friend of mine who owns Brown Design in Brainerd *waves to Christy!* is donating her amazing skills to designing our logo and brochure. As of last night, Insty Prints in Brainerd (thank you Ron!) has offered to sponsor our printing.

Last night I was up until 2:00 in the morning working on a website for the event. I am new to this whole website stuff but I was having sooooo much fun that I really forgot to go to bed. 😛

So that is the news. Wine and Words has went from an idea on paper to a reality and people are coming forward and helping. I do hope that if you live anywhere near me you consider attending. All proceeds will go to our local library which does so much good for our community.

Website should be for the most part completed over the next week and go live after that. Tickets will be available hopefully at the end of next week as well.

There it is. The news. 😀

I can’t stop smiling….

The Tale Of Lucia Grandi by Susan Speranza

Published on March 12, 2013March 12, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)8 Comments

The world thinks me dead, but there is a lot of life left in these old bones, yet. I’ve been absent from the world for a long time. But I’m here. Waiting.

`Lucia Grandi

Born the first day of June, Lucia Grandi has lived a long life. Having just celebrated her one hundred and tenth birthday she is startled when a young female visitor, as Lucia does not receive much company, comes to see her. She is more startled, or perhaps a better word is amused, when this stranger asks if she will share her life story. Having outlived friends, family, and other loved ones, Lucia had seen much in her long life. Still with her wits about her (not sure if that was a gift or a curse) Lucia decided that perhaps she could share her memories… just this once…

And so Lucia does share her life stories, from being an unwanted child from the moment of birth, witnessing a suicide at 3 years of age, difficulty with parents and siblings, running away, sent to a strict Catholic school, and more, Lucia opens up her life to the stranger a chapter at a time….

My love of mixing genres amuse me. In the middle of reading a paranormal YA, a good old-fashioned crime novel, and Little Women, I find my way into The Tale Of Lucia Grandi with a “lets see where this goes” attitude.

Oh… how I amuse me. 😀

Lucia Grandi speaks with a voice of someone I could listen to a long time. (How fun is that to say we can put a voice to writing, a voice I have never heard except for the one in my head I have given to this elderly protagonist). As chapter by chapter unfolded I was more and more memorized by the book. Never heavy, but always interesting, what a life this woman lead!I am finding it hard to put into words the beauty of this writing. Rhythmic comes to mind. Poetic. Resigning. There were quite a few passages that I had to pause after reading, think about how I liked what was said, and then read it again to go even deeper into the meaning. Time and again this happened throughout this read, never distracting, but instead engaging me even more. What a fascinating way to write a book.

Over all, I am thoroughly impressed. I enjoyed this book so much that for several days it became a constant companion everywhere I went so I could get in a few pages while waiting in the car, before meetings started…

Take note – this is called “The Early Years” and we do not hear all of Lucia’s life within this book and I suspect there will be more to come… Yet reader, sigh not, for I believe that by the time you turn the last page of this book, you will have no problem wanting to read the next as well. After all Lucia’s story needs to be told.

I wish to thank TLC Book Tours for providing me with a copy of this book for my honest opinion and for allowing me to spend time with a remarkable woman named Lucia Grandi.

Here are the other tour stops this week so you can see more thoughts on this book:

Monday, March 11th: Becca’s BylineTuesday, March 12th: Book Journey

Wednesday, March 13th: Between the CoversThursday, March 14th: Reflections of a BookaholicFriday, March 15th: Chaotic Compendiums

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on March 10, 2013March 10, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)55 Comments

Under the new and hopefully improved 2013 guidelines, the winner each week will receive a $5 Amazon gift card. This past weeks winner is:

Lexie at Unconventional Book Views !!!!

It was a pretty fair week, I was typically busy but did get in a little reading time. Here is what I accomplished this last week:

Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner

Mater’s Birthday! One year old – rescued from abuse and amazing he was able to have a first birthday!

The Dogs Of Winter by Bobbie Pyron

Two Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt

Distant Shores by Kristin Hannah

Not too bad a week but I do need to pick up my reading again. This week I am reading:

In Warsaw in 1939, a boy wanders the streets and survives by stealing what food he can. He knows nothing of his background: Is he a Jew? A Gypsy? Was he ever called something other than Stopthief? Befriended by a band of orphaned Jewish boys, he begins to share their sleeping quarters. He understands very little of what is happening. When the Nazi “Jackboots” march into the town, he greets them happily, admires their shiny boots and tanks, and hopes he can join their ranks someday. He eventually adopts a name, Misha, and a family, that of his friend Janina Milgrom, a girl he meets while stealing food in her comfortable neighborhood. When the Milgroms are forced to move into the newly created ghetto, Misha cheerfully accompanies them. There, he is one of the few small enough to slip through holes in the wall to smuggle in food. By the time trains come to take the ghetto’s residents away, Misha realizes what many adults do not-that the passengers won’t be going to the resettlement villages at the journey’s end.

Our book club read for March.

Alcott’s story begins with the four March girls—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—sitting in their living room, lamenting their poverty. The girls decide that they will each buy themselves a present in order to brighten their Christmas. Soon, however, they change their minds and decide that instead of buying presents for themselves, they will buy presents for their mother, Marmee…

You know the story… this is a read along over at Fizzy Thoughts for March.

When someone you love vanishes without a trace, how far would you go to get them back?
For ex-FBI profiler Pierce Quincy, it’s the beginning of his worst nightmare: a car abandoned on a desolate stretch of Oregon highway, engine running, purse on the driver’s seat. And his estranged wife, Rainie Conner, gone, leaving no clue to her fate.

Did one of the ghosts from Rainie’s troubled past finally catch up with her? Or could her disappearance be the result of one of the cases they’d been working–a particularly vicious double homicide or the possible abuse of a deeply disturbed child Rainie took too close to heart? Together with his daughter, FBI agent Kimberly Quincy, Pierce is battling the local authorities, racing against time, and frantically searching for answers to all the questions he’s been afraid to ask.

One man knows what happened that night. Adopting the alias of a killer caught eighty years before, he has already contacted the press. His terms are clear: he wants money, he wants power, he wants celebrity. And if he doesn’t get what he wants, Rainie will be gone for good.

Sometimes, no matter how much you love someone, it’s still not enough.
As the clock winds down on a terrifying deadline, Pierce plunges headlong into the most desperate hunt of his life, into the shattering search for a killer, a lethal truth, and for the love of his life, who may forever be…gone.

That’s whats on for this week. What are you reading? Add your post to the line below where it says click here.

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For those of you who review mainly Middle Grade (MG) and/or Young Adult (YA) reads, please also add your link to this meme as well:

Distant Shores by Kristin Hannah

Published on March 10, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)5 Comments

Elizabeth Shore used to love to paint and was considered to be possibly good with a little direction and training. Yet, at a young age Elizabeth met and fell in love with Jack and dreams of painting went to the wayside as they raise two beautiful daughters, and follow Jack around to wherever his sports career will take them.

When the girls are raised and off to college, Jack struggles to keep his career afloat and when an opportunity to jump-start that career is offered, Jack jumps at the chance to take it, once again disrupting their lives for his needs without consulting Elizabeth first. No longer having the buffer of her daughters, and worrying about her ailing father, Elizabeth decided enough is enough. She is tired of feeding Jack’s ego while her dreams wash away. While Jack goes on and on about what HE wants and what HE needs… Elizabeth wondered if he even has a clue of what she would like or need.

Elizabeth decided its time for her to find the woman she lost within herself and asks Jack to move to New York without her for his career while she takes time away. She goes to their isolated beach house to discover a wonderful womans groups, a link to painting again, and a connection with her step mother she never had before.

Finding herself seems to also open doors to discovering who she is without Jack and leading up to doors opening before her she never dreamed were there and the ultimate decision of choosing a life with or without Jack.

Kristin Hannah has a formula in her writing of couples and families in crisis, separating and them finding happiness again. Yes it can be predictable, but you know what? It can also be fun. Hannah’s characters jump off the pages and I truly felt for Elizabeth’s loss of identity and she for years spent time in her husbands shadow.

What I liked about this particular book is that you do not only get Elizabeth’s side, but Jack’s too. I liked reading that Jack was surprised when the woman he has loved all his life stands up and says “enough”. I liked watching his reevaluation of his life and decisions as well, coming to the ultimate decision that could either make or break his connection to his wife.

Distant Shores is a lovely read of love and loss and the possibility of starting again. Its beautifully written, engaging, and filled with hope.

Morning Meanderings… .Getting DUMPED (on)!

Published on March 10, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)29 Comments

Good morning. 😀 If I were a grumbly sort this would be just the occasion to pull out the grumbles. GAH. SNOW.

Yet another 8,9, 10 inches fell between yesterday afternoon and late last night.

**This was the back deck yesterday afternoon when it started to snow really big quarter size flakes.**

**At 6:00 am this morning this was my driveway.**

6 days out now from the 7K in the cities. Seriously… should I run in snow boots? 😯

In other better happier news… a few books arrived this week:

So what craziness awaits me today? Well shoveling for one. While Al is plowing I need to get snow odd that back deck before my dogs can just leap over the railing. At some point there is talk of it turning to rain and at that point the snow will freeze and it will be even a bigger mess.

I have church this morning, I think the gym this afternoon, and an early “healthy eating” get together where I still need to figure out what I am going to bring. I am doing a main dish for about 18 people.

How are things in your corner of the world… please share with me sunshine and green grass and temperatures over 30 degrees…. I need the encouragement. 😀

Two Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt

Published on March 9, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)9 Comments

For a while, Jordan and Courtney were the unlikely “it” couple in High School. For a while things were going well, and for a while they even looked like they were going to make it, even planning to go to the same college. And it was working.

For a while…

Then Jordan meets a girl on the internet and suddenly, Courtney is dumped.

Two weeks later, the college road trip Jordan and Courtney had planned is happening and since no other arrangements had been planned, the two are forced back together for the drive across country for orientation. Courtney is hurt and doing her best to hide it, and most surprising of all, Jordan is struggling with deep pain because he does still love Courtney, and he never wanted to break up…

Jordan has a secret one that is ripping him apart and it has everything to do with why they broke up and nothing to do with another girl (and no for you quick thinkers out there, it doesn’t have to do with another boy either. 😉 ) Jordan has been forced to break it off with Courtney and if he told her… she would hate him…. and that, as painful as this is, would even be worse.

Overall I really liked Two Way Street. The storyline was interesting, two teenagers who had been dating and recently broke up but are now on this planned a while back road trip to their college. The fact that they are put together in the truck for the long drive is interesting enough, the story behind the scenes of why they broke up and only one of them knowing that reason makes it reach for the next level.

Twists and turns, I like Jordan a lot who is trying to do the right thing but as we all know, at times when we try to spare feelings and “do the right thing” we weave an even bigger mess. I like Courtney too but not as much because she is a bit too dramatic and a bit too whiny and yes, yes I know… she is a teenager.

SPOILER- I have to give out a “Creepiest character” award to… (scroll your mouse over the following text if you want to know: Courtney’s dad. Seriously – a bit too involved and the over-calling to Jordan is uber controlling in a way not cool way.

The over all story was good, it kept me engaged and it kept me in my car after I had pulled into the garage so I didn’t have to shut it off (always a good sign). Two things however stand out to me about this read. One was that for a 2010 book, they constantly mentioned My Space. My Space? I have never used My Space. Does My Space even exist any more? AND – the overuse of the word : hooking up. Yes, hooking up. I don’t mind the word, I even get the word, but seriously… I wish I had the book version just so I could count how many times it was used. I would guess close to 100 times and I am not kidding. “Then they were hoping to hook up”, “Next thing you knew they were hooking up”, I hope he didn’t expect me to hook up”, “It was cool that they hooked up”… and so on and so on. It actually became a game in the car for me. Every time they said it on the audio I would repeat it by yelling “HOOKING UP!” *please note, I am usually in my car alone so therefore did not give any passengers heart attacks with my spontaneous yelling.

Seriously though, I did enjoy the book and had fun listening to it.

Bonus note: Why I think the book may be better than the audio:

As an audio lover, I am always bragging up the many virtues of audio. However, as any audio lover knows, occasionally an audio does not 100% work for all books – it can be book subject, it can be book topic, and yes, it can sometimes be that the narrator was not the best choice for the book.

Narrator Cassandra Morris has a wonderfully youthful and girly voice. If you look at the list of books she narrates I am sure she adds a great voice to them. For this book however, If anything her voice struck me as a little too young for college age students. The hardest thing for me was that Cassandra’s voice did not change between the alternating chapters being told from Courtney and Jordan’s perspectives. The Courtney parts were fine, but when Jordan was being narrated and talking about hooking up (HOOKING UP!) with girls or checking out someones skirt, it would kill my train of thought because I would have to remind myself that this was Jordan… the boy…. . I had to pay close attention to when the chapters alternated too as occasionally I would miss that we had switched from Courtney to Jordan and suddenly the conversation would throw me again.