BLOG TOUR: Falling to Pieces by Jamie Canosa

FIVE STARS TO FALLING TO PIECES

Jamie Canosa’s Falling To Pieces is a beautiful story of love, strength, hope, and belief in oneself.

I can’t describe how much I absolutely adored Falling to Pieces. This story wrecked me, like completely wrecked me from the inside out. 

 I’ll let my heartbroken messages and Facebook statuses speak for me:

It’s the story of Jade Carlson, a young girl with scars deeper than the ordinary eye can see. Jade deals with the worst kind of hate at school, and due to her low self-esteem, she imagines that everyone is insulting her even if they aren’t. I thought this was an extremely realistic portrayal of someone who deals with bullying and insecurities, because some of the people around her are saying one thing, but Jade is hearing another. Furthermore, Doug, Jade’s douchebag boyfriend doesn’t even try to put a filter on: he puts her down every chance he gets and treats her as subhuman. As though being the odd girl out in school isn’t bad enough, Jade’s Hell continues even after she’s returned home. Whereas home is meant to be a safe haven for most, for Jade, that’s a foreign concept, thanks to her moody, alcoholic, verbally abusive mother.

But once Kiernan Parks waltzes back into her life, he’s a lot more than a knight in shining armor. Kiernan’s goal isn’t to save Jade. He helps her put the broken pieces of herself back together, and helps her start to actually live her life, rather than just go through the motions. He helps rid her of Doug—thank God—and he becomes the friend she’s always needed.

Jade and Kiernan’s friendship and subsequent relationship is a bit out of the ordinary. Kiernan brings light, laughter, and happiness into Jade’s life, even if at first she’s reluctant to accept it.

The two best parts of any story, in my opinion, are:

a) The moment when the characters confess their feelings for each other, and

b) Spectacular minor characters.

In Falling to Pieces, both are in full effect. Kiernan’s mother and his brother Caulder are two minor characters who refused to go unnoticed. Cal stepped in to protect and take care of Jade just like Kiernan did, and his mother is Heaven sent. The two of them make the pieces of Falling to Pieces fit perfectly together. And furthermore, the moment when Jade and Kiernan tell each other their feelings is one of my favorite love scenes ever written. It’s innocent and beautiful, and it shows love in its purest form. Kiernan and Jade’s love story is one for the ages, and I look forward to seeing what happens next.

No matter your age or reading preferences, this is a love story you'll want to reread over and over again.

Personally, I wish that I was able to give Falling to Pieces more than FIVE STARS because this is the first book since my three day read through of Les Miserables at 14 that had me questioning everything I thought I knew about my life. I didn’t just relate to Jade. I was Jade, all through high school, so this book and all of Jade’s experiences made me relive all of mine.

What I looked like during 75% of Falling to Pieces. No lie.

Jamie Canosa is a master storyteller, and she really brought these characters to life in a way that I never thought was possible. She creates beautifully broken female characters who have all the tools to believe in themselves, they just need someone to show them the light, and her male characters are the kind of characters a reader can fall in love with time after time as the pages turn, and bring hope to all who have the pleasure of reading their story. I highly recommend Falling to Pieces to fans of YA, and I will warn to keep some tissues handy, because I rate FtP a Farrah on my ugly-cry scale of 1 to Farrah Abraham.

FAVORITE QUOTES:

·         “Trust me, love can be the most painful thing there is.” –Kiernan

·         “If even one of your brain cells thinks I’m strapping a couple thin slabs of wood to my feet and sailing down the side of a mountain, it must be diseased.” –Jade

·         “Good things do happen, Jade.” Kiernan scooted his chair closer. “It’s okay to have hope.”

·         “You can’t keep hiding from everyone because it’s not just them you’re hiding from. You’re hiding from yourself. And if you keep that up, you’ll start to forget who you really are.” -Kiernan

·         “I hurt.” The answer was simple enough, but it seemed to confuse him further.

“Where do you hurt?”

“My heart.” Alcohol, the great lip-loosener. I wanted to smack myself, but that would have required too much coordination. And effort. “My heart hurts, Kiernan.”

EXCERPT:

“Then it’s your mother. What did she do to you last night?”

     “Nothing.” I gave up the futile attempt at escape I’d been trying to make. The look on his face said he wasn’t letting me go until he got some answers. “She’s never laid a hand on me, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

     Kiernan’s shoulders slouched, bringing him closer to my eye level. “There are different wounds people can inflict on us, Jade. Just because yours aren’t physical doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Just because they aren’t visible doesn’t mean I can’t see them.”

     He always had a way of making my heart melt in the absolute worst way. He reached right inside that locked box like he was the key and smashed it all to pieces. But that box was my safe place, my protection. I needed it.

     “Kiernan…I can’t do this.”

     “Can’t do what?”

     “This.” My hand waved between the two of us. “Whatever it is we’re doing, I can’t. I’m sorry. I really am.”

     I expected confusion, maybe even anger. I was sure Kiernan Parks wasn’t used to being dumped. Especially by the likes of me. But I didn’t get either. I didn’t get anything. He just stood there, watching me until he simply said, “No.”

     “No?”
     “No, Jade. I’m not letting you do this. I’m not going to let you push me away. You’re scared. I get that. Believe me. I’m scared, too. But I can’t let you do this. I can’t stand here and watch you crawl back inside that shell of yours. I won’t give up on you, Jade. Not ever.”

Jamie Canosa is a full time author of YA/NA literature, which she absolutely loves. When she’s not writing or spending time with her family, she can usually be found with her nose in a book. She currently resides in Upstate NY with her husband, and their three crazy kids . . . plus the cat, the bird, and the rabbit.

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Blog Tour Stop: Resisting Atlantis by Jamie Canosa

BLOG TOUR STOP: FIVE STAR FOR JAMIE CANOSA’S RESISTING ATLANTIS

If you follow my blog, you know that Jamie Canosa is one of my favorite authors ever. It was her novel, Fight or Flight that introduced me to the world of indie authors, and I’m damn thankful for it, too.

Every book of hers that I’ve read so far has gone above and beyond all of my expectations. I’ve been an avid reader since I was five years old, and there are very few authors that I’ll say, “They could rewrite the Three Little Pigs on a roll of toilet paper and I’d buy it” about. Jamie Canosa is one of those few.

Her writing style is flawless. I only discovered her last year, and out of all the books that I’ve read of hers, this is the first I’ve read that was written in first person. First person POV + Jamie= me being a happy camper. I LOVE being able to get inside the characters’ heads and see everything in their world exactly how they see it, and this POV was perfect for Resisting Atlantis.

I’d like to point out that I signed up for this blog tour without even reading the synopsis, without knowing a single thing about this book except for the fact that Jamie wrote it. She’s that much of a badass.

SYNOPSIS: What if everything you think you know . . . is wrong? 

Cora is your average college freshman. Battling the evils of boring classes and noisy dorms, her greatest concern is how to attract the attention of the drool-worthy, party-god next door. 

That is, until Kaden comes barging into her life, insisting everything she knows is false. The family and friends she grew up with don’t exist. Her entire past a carefully-crafted fabrication, created to replace the truth. 

Her name isn’t Cora, it’s Cameron. And she isn’t from New York. She hails from Atlantis. Yeah, that Atlantis. Oh yeah, and she’s psychic. 

Crazy, right? 

Except, tall, dark, and out-of-his-ever-loving-mind doesn’t come alone. Trouble follows, thrusting Cameron back into a world she can’t remember and a life she must reclaim if they’re going to make it out alive. 

But there's someone out there who doesn't want her to remember.

Why I gave Resisting Atlantis FIVE STARS:

WOW FACTOR: I couldn’t stop reading. I adored Cora immediately and Kaden seriously could give Jay a run for his money (sorry, Jay, I still love you). From the very first page, I was incredibly emotionally invested in this story. I needed answers to everything, and I would not walk away and put the book down until I got all the answers I needed.

I stayed up all night trying to finish this, and I only gave in to my exhaustion when the words started to blur and I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. This book is that amazing.

While the novel is, in my opinion, fast-paced, it’s done so well that I could pretty much forget about the fact that Cora/Cam’s life is uprooted almost immediately after she ‘meets’ Kaden.

CHARACTERS:

Cora/Cameron: I have to admire Cam for the fact that even though she’s force to question everything that she thought she knew about her life and her world, she trusts Kaden implicitly. She’s not naïve, because really, who trusts someone they don’t even know and lets them pull them out of their world and into another? Her heart knows Kaden, and that’s good enough for Cam—which is good enough for me.

Kaden: Kaden has my heart. This guy is perfect, protective, and willing to keep Cora/Cam from getting hurt at all costs. He’s incredibly sweet, caring, and all-around one of my favorite leading men of all time. He’s so dedicated to helping Cam to remember, and fighting for his cause. On a scale of 1-Jay, Kaden’s about a 9, which is pretty damn close to Jay (sorry, I can’t help but compare these two, as they’re so much alike in my eyes).

PLOT: Resisting Atlantis is one of those novels where mystery keeps you going. From the very first page, all that I had was unanswered questions, and that drove me to read until the last page.  Cora is confronted by Kaden, who claims that she isn’t who she thinks she is. Wait, WHAT? You confused yet? So was I, but let me reiterate something: Jamie NEVER disappoints.

As the story progresses, each question that’s swimming around in my head gets answered, one by one, and each answer shocks me more than the one before.

Atlantis is a setting unlike any other. In a world outside of the human world, Cameron begins to find out that Kaden is right, and her entire life is turned upside down. Her memories are fabricated, and she remembers nothing of her old life, while Kaden remembers all of it, and he makes it his mission to help jog her memory.

Thrust into a world she doesn’t remember, Cameron finds out she is part of the Resistance, helping stage a revolution against ‘evil’.

The plot is amazingly well-crafted, and every word that Jamie writes will keep you invested in Kaden and Cam’s story up until the very end.

FAVORITE QUOTES:

“I know I’m asking a lot. And I know they screwed with your head.” Kaden steps closer, blocking the horrifying view until all I see are his amber eyes staring into mine. I swear they radiate a warmth I can feel. “So make this decision with your heart. Do. You. Trust me?” –Kaden

“You’re tired.” It isn’t until Elias sets a hand on my shoulder that I realize just how sweaty I’ve gotten. Gross. “You can’t focus when you’re this tired. Let’s call it quits for today. We can try again tomorrow.” -Kaden

Oh goodie, something to look forward to. –Cam

“She needs me.” It’s very simple from where I’m standing. Cam’s upset and it’s at least partially my fault, which makes it my job to make it better. -Kaden

Strong? He thinks I’m strong? There are a lot of things I might label myself—clueless, afraid, and useless chief among them—but not strong. That’s what I wish I was.  –Cam

“You’re not alone, Cam. You’re surrounded by people who care about you.” He gives my fingers a light squeeze. “And I’m here.” –Kaden

EXCERPT:

I can’t shut my mouth on the truth-vomit fast enough. Her eyes bulge and I know it’s too late to reach out and shove the words back down my throat.

“From where?”

I consider backpedaling for about half a second, but they’ve taken the truth and hidden it from her. I won’t be guilty of doing the same. Dropping my forehead into my hands, I prepare myself for the reaction I’m about to earn. “I realize this is going to sound . . .”

“Crazy?” she supplies, and I nod miserably into my palms.

I have to force my head up to face her. “I can prove it.”

“That you’re crazy? Task accomplished.” There’s a glimpse of the girl I know and it gives me hope. They may have altered her memories, but she’s still the same person underneath.

I highly recommend RESISTING ATLANTIS to anyone who will listen. Jamie has outdone herself this time, and I can't wait to read more from this amazing author!

Author Info:

Jamie Canosa is a full time author of YA/NA literature, which she absolutely loves. When she’s not writing or spending time with her family, she can usually be found with her nose in a book. She currently resides in Upstate NY with her husband, and their three crazy kids . . . plus the cat, the bird, and the rabbit.

Author Links:

FB- https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJamieCanosa

Blog- http://jamiecanosa.blogspot.com

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