YA Bound Book Tours is organizing a Blog Tour for: A Summer Like No Other (Broken Dreams: Em & Nick #1) and Always Second Best (Broken Dreams: Em & Nick #2) by Elodie Nowodazkij. This tour will run from July 11th to 15th. Check out the tour schedule.
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by Elodie Nowodazkij
Genre: YA Contemporary Romance (novella)
Pages: 125
Release Date: July 30th 2015
Summary from Goodreads:
She’s his best friend’s little sister. He’s the biggest player of them all.
They shouldn’t be together. But this summer’s just too tempting.
Sixteen-year-old Emilia Moretti’s goal for the summer is simple: forget her brother’s best friend—Nick Grawsky—ever existed. It should be easy: He’s spending his summer in the Hamptons, adding girls in tiny bikinis to his list of broken hearts. Guarantee he won’t be telling them they’re like his little sisters. This summer, Emilia won’t stay awake at night thinking about him. She’ll need flawless ballet movements to have a shot at next year’s showcase, and she’s finally ready to search for her birth parents. But when Nick decides to stay in the city, Emilia’s resolve disappears in a pirouette. Maybe it’s the spin they needed to be together. As long as she doesn’t get stuck believing in happily ever after…
Nick is tired of pretending to be the happy, let’s-have-fun guy. His father wants him to change his career from professional dancer to…lawyer. He needs to put all of his focus on dancing to prove to Daddy Dearest he’s good enough to make it big. And he may have a case of the bluest balls in history courtesy of Emilia. She’s off-limits: The bro code with Roberto even forbids the dirty thoughts he has about her. Besides, he’s not boyfriend material. He only has time for flings, for girls who don’t expect much, for girls he doesn’t want to kiss goodnight. He knows he should resist her, but he’s not sure he wants to…
At least for this summer.
It’s going to be a summer like no other.
Always Second Best (Broken Dreams: Em & Nick #2)
Genre: YA Contemporary Romance
Release Date: October 10th 2015
Summary from Goodreads:
Sometimes being first isn’t what you expected.
Seventeen-year-old ballerina Emilia Moretti is tired of always being second best. And she’s going to prove the world she deserves to be first. In her upcoming School of the Performing Arts showcase. In the eyes of her birth parents. And in the heart of the guy she loves. She spends hours rehearsing, hours dreaming about becoming number one, hours imagining how her entire life is about to change. But when nothing goes the way she planned, she’ll need to realize what it really means to be first.
Eighteen-year-old Nick Grawski doesn’t want to follow Daddy Dearest’s rules any longer. He's going to prove he's meant to be a dancer—not a lawyer—and he is not going to stay away from Em just because his father demands it. He needs to show Em that—this time around—he’s there to stay and that he won’t break her heart again. Even when her world goes down to shit, even when he finds out his dad may have been trying to protect him all along, even if being there for one another is harder than falling in love.
ALWAYS SECOND BEST is a novel of hope and heartbreak and broken dreams. It’s a novel about falling in love and discovering that being first isn’t always what matters.
Seventeen-year-old ballerina Emilia Moretti is tired of always being second best. And she’s going to prove the world she deserves to be first. In her upcoming School of the Performing Arts showcase. In the eyes of her birth parents. And in the heart of the guy she loves. She spends hours rehearsing, hours dreaming about becoming number one, hours imagining how her entire life is about to change. But when nothing goes the way she planned, she’ll need to realize what it really means to be first.
Eighteen-year-old Nick Grawski doesn’t want to follow Daddy Dearest’s rules any longer. He's going to prove he's meant to be a dancer—not a lawyer—and he is not going to stay away from Em just because his father demands it. He needs to show Em that—this time around—he’s there to stay and that he won’t break her heart again. Even when her world goes down to shit, even when he finds out his dad may have been trying to protect him all along, even if being there for one another is harder than falling in love.
ALWAYS SECOND BEST is a novel of hope and heartbreak and broken dreams. It’s a novel about falling in love and discovering that being first isn’t always what matters.
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Review
This is a two book series that follows Emilia and Nick who are both dancers at the same school. Emilia is adopted and has a brother named Roberto who happens to be Nick's best friend. Emilia, Nick and Roberto have been close friends and hung out together a lot in the past few years. The story is told from two point of views Emilia and Nick and goes back and forth in chapters.
The first book is about Emilia's search for her mother and answers about her adoption. Emilia's adopted father has lost his job so they are also in the process of downsizing. Nick is their to help Emilia with all this change and they start to become more then just friends. In the second book we get a much better look at their relationship as well as Emilia's continued search for answers on her adoption.
The first book is a super quick read that only took me a few hours to read. The story is basically taking place over a short period of time, which is the summer so it moves along rapidly. We do learn a lot of backstory on Emilia and Nick that I think is critical information to know for reading the second book. In my opinion the second book is much more captivating. The story is a lot more complex and again fast moving, but even faster then the first book. The second book spans a longer time period so each character experiences a lot of growing.
Things I loved about the series is all of the changes in relationships that the characters experience. Emilia had a rough time at school with this girl Jen. Jen used to date Nick at on point in the book. Emilia always though that Jen hated her and would be mean to her. Due to a tragedy that happens to Emilia's roommate Jen and Emilia have to room together. In between this time Emilia learns a lot about Jen and they become friends. As they talk things out in the book we learn that Jen is not the person that she seems and Emilia may have been quick to judge her. I love how this friendship grew and the importance of not judging a book by the cover.
Emilia and Nick both grow a lot during the series. Emilia learns everything about her adoption and has to come head first on with all of those feelings. What Emilia learns and in turn does with that information shows how strong of a character she actually is. Nick also does a lot of growing in the book he has learned to stand up to his father.
The ending of the book is amazing! We really get to see the strength in the characters and what the future might hold.
The first book is about Emilia's search for her mother and answers about her adoption. Emilia's adopted father has lost his job so they are also in the process of downsizing. Nick is their to help Emilia with all this change and they start to become more then just friends. In the second book we get a much better look at their relationship as well as Emilia's continued search for answers on her adoption.
The first book is a super quick read that only took me a few hours to read. The story is basically taking place over a short period of time, which is the summer so it moves along rapidly. We do learn a lot of backstory on Emilia and Nick that I think is critical information to know for reading the second book. In my opinion the second book is much more captivating. The story is a lot more complex and again fast moving, but even faster then the first book. The second book spans a longer time period so each character experiences a lot of growing.
Things I loved about the series is all of the changes in relationships that the characters experience. Emilia had a rough time at school with this girl Jen. Jen used to date Nick at on point in the book. Emilia always though that Jen hated her and would be mean to her. Due to a tragedy that happens to Emilia's roommate Jen and Emilia have to room together. In between this time Emilia learns a lot about Jen and they become friends. As they talk things out in the book we learn that Jen is not the person that she seems and Emilia may have been quick to judge her. I love how this friendship grew and the importance of not judging a book by the cover.
Emilia and Nick both grow a lot during the series. Emilia learns everything about her adoption and has to come head first on with all of those feelings. What Emilia learns and in turn does with that information shows how strong of a character she actually is. Nick also does a lot of growing in the book he has learned to stand up to his father.
The ending of the book is amazing! We really get to see the strength in the characters and what the future might hold.
I received a copy of these books from YA Bound Book Tours for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book.
My Rating 4/5
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About the Author
Elodie
Nowodazkij was raised in a tiny village in France, where she could
always be found a book in hand. At nineteen, she moved to the US, where
she learned she’d never lose her French accent. Now she lives in
Maryland with her husband, their dog and their cat.
She's also a serial smiley user.
She's also a serial smiley user.
Author Links:
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This sounds like such a great little series. I love seeing characters grow over the span of a book/series. Also randomly I love the name Emilia - Great review!!
ReplyDeleteI love the name Emilia too! Thank you!
DeleteSounds like a great read, hope I'll have a chance to read it soon!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the opportunity you have given us to win.
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by!
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