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Thursday, January 16, 2014

Stir Me Up {Blog Tour} Review + Giveaway


Stir Me Up
Release Date: 10/01/13
Harlequin Teen


Summary
Cami Broussard has her future all figured out. She'll finish her senior year of high school, then go to work full-time as an apprentice chef in her father's French restaurant, alongside her boyfriend, Luke. But then twenty-year-old ex-Marine Julian Wyatt comes to live with Cami's family while recovering from serious injuries. And suddenly Cami finds herself questioning everything she thought she wanted.

Julian's all attitude, challenges and intense green-brown eyes. But beneath that abrasive exterior is a man who just might be as lost as Cami's starting to feel. And Cami can't stop thinking about him. Talking to him. Wanting to kiss him. He's got her seriously stirred up. Her senior year has just gotten a lot more complicated…
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First off, let me say this: I love food. What does this book have a lot of (besides an all too adorable love story)? FOOD! It is in abundance! Isn't that amazing?! I think so too :D STIR ME UP is an utterly adorable and realistic romance that will leave the reader swooning for more. Got it?

The book starts in the kitchen. Cami has a dream bigger than the stars but is lacking her father's support. What does Cami want? To be a chef just like her dear old dad.

Enter Julian: a too hot to handle, snarky, utterly infuriating war vet who had to come home because of his injuries. Did I mention completely and utterly swoon worthy? From the beginning Julian is an ass, if you'll pardon my language. But it's true! He won't listen to anyone, not even his aunt who is practically his mother. He reduces her to tears when she visits him at the hospital.

And then he meets Cami. Cami won't put up with his crap like his aunt and pretty much everyone else on the planet does. Their initial relationship consists of muffin throwage at the head and gradually makes it way to midnight soup. There's a tiny issue though, Cami has a boyfriend who I hate with the up-most passion.

This book is not just about the amazing romance interwoven into the pages of this novel; it's about believing in yourself. Not self-discovery like a lot of books because Cami already knows who she is: she's a chef. Cooking is was makes her happy; she pours all her emotions into her food. It is about standing up for herself and figuring out what to do with herself after school. Its about standing up for what she wants and clearing her life from what she doesn't. This book, at the very core, is relateable to everyone at some point. Whether it be the romance or the food or the idiotic boyfriend or even the dysfunctional family relationship, everyone can find a piece of themselves in this.

For Julian, it's about accepting the new him, the one with a few less appendages. He has to deal with this emotion that he can't seem to control and is making him do crazy things, like hope.

Sabrina Elkins gave the reader a unique experience with crazy emotions and reasons to hope that don't even make sense. In the end she makes us see a part of ourselves that we didn't know exist and enhance the parts that we already saw. Best of all, she teaches us what hoping and wishing really are. Also that love'll make your dreams make sense or help you make sense of them yourself.

In the end, this book deserves more hype. I would whole-heartedly recommend it to everyone I know.

Final quote: “Julian, I need you. Not in ways you can see. But in ways that I feel. If I’m your life raft, we’re in trouble—
because you’re mine.”



Author Stalker


I am a former journalist who worked for the Los Angeles Daily Newsand other newspapers in the greater Los Angeles area. Prior to this I worked in advertising, writing ad copy for corporate travel accounts and major motion pictures. My first job out of college was as an administrative assistant to an executive chef and a food & beverage director at a Four Seasons hotel. I also spent some time working as a prep cook for Spago in Beverly Hills.

I received my Master's degree in Journalism from the University of Southern California. While in graduate school, I had the privilege of studying fiction writing under renowned author Hubert Selby, Jr., and comedy writing under famed comedian Shelley Berman. I am a past participant of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Summer Writing Workshop.

Raised in the woods of Vermont, I now live in the greater Los Angeles area with my husband and three children. STIR ME UP is my first novel.

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Giveaway
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3 comments:

  1. This looks good, I think I will add it to my list for summer reads at the cabin!

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    Replies
    1. You so should!! It was tooooo amazing :D
      Jackie

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