Lennon's Jinx Blog Tour: review and giveaways
Title: Lennon’s Jinx
Author: Chris Myers
Expected release date: January 15, 2013
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Group: New Adult
Tour organized by: AToMR Tours
Sometimes, we don’t get to choose who we fall for.
Lennon spends most of his time raising his little sister Currie while trying to skate through his senior year of high school. He prefers groupies with no-strings attached but finds himself strangely attracted to Jinx, the straight-A student in his choir. Lennon’s curiosity overrules his good sense as he tries to peel away the layers to discover the reason for Jinx’s skittishness.
Jinx conceals the black truth about herself from her friends. She won’t admit to them that she screwed up big time, losing her first love and what she once held most precious.
When Lennon’s band holds auditions to replace their keyboard player, Jinx comes to tryout and almost leaves after seeing Lennon. Despite the fact she despises him, she joins the band to nurture her love of music that will hopefully ease the guilt gnawing away at her.
Like the rest of his band mates, Jinx soon witnesses Lennon battling his infamous father for the custody of Currie. While confronting his pent-up anger at his dad, Lennon exposes vulnerabilities he had no intention of letting any girl ever see, especially Jinx. Their reckless pasts may bring them together or further complicate their already messy lives.
About the author:
Chris Myers
Chris Myers suffers from an overactive imagination. In second grade, Sister Bernice produced Chris's first play about pumpkins mauling and eating children. Apparently, the nuns didn’t catch the underlying meaning. This instantly raised Chris to stardom amongst her peers for the several days off from schoolwork while in production. She spent her high school years writing torch songs for fantasy guys then moved onto writing thrillers and young adult. Chris lives in Colorado with her daughter, her better half, and BeBe, a rambunctious Bichon.
Chris literally has very few photos of herself, even though photography put her through college. Here she is with her sisters and daughter. Chris is the one with the vino.
Chris started out as an art major, then moved to bio-chem, hoping to play Victor Frankenstein as a genetic engineer or messing with people's minds as a psychiatrist. Just as she was about to graduate, she decided being broke for another four to ten years wouldn't work out for her adventurous spirit and traveling. She ended up with an electrical engineering degree then a masters. As it turns out, she should've finished her first novel twenty-five years ago and stuck in the make-believe world where she is happiest.
1/2
I will honestly say I was a bit turned off by Lennon's narration in the opening scene. He came across as cocky and arrogant, his behavior a typical playboy. But--and there's always a 'but' in this type of review--as the party scene unfolded, his actions showed a different person. At that point, author Chris Myers had me. I had to keep reading.
Narrated by both Lennon and Jinx, Lennon, 18, is the parental figure to his precocious younger sister, Currie. He has the mind of a musician and the heart of a nice guy. Jinx also comes from an unhappy home. Her father died, installing in her a love of music, and leaving her mother to struggle to cover his medical costs. The man her mom remarries is horrible, Jinx hates him, but he is not her only problem. She carries a horrible secret she hasn't even shared with her closest friend, Rena. Two seniors, weeks away from graduation, find themselves in the same band and over time, in similar situations, sharing similar feelings for each other.
Lennon's Jinx is a gritty New Adult contemporary. Chris Myers doesn't mince her words or sugarcoat situations. Like Ellen Hopkins, her characters are realistically portrayed with raw language, caught in compromising positions, and the world they live in is the real deal. I liked both main characters and their distinct voices, and the cast of secondary characters from Jinx's best friends to Lennon's friend, Blair, to his Indigo Blues band mates, are also stellar. I also have to single out Currie, what an amazing kid she is for her young age. The parents with their money and drug habits are the baddies here, and the good adults who help out when needed happen to be neighbors.
What I really enjoyed was watching Lennon and Jinx find their ways to each other. Those moments when there's a spark of vulnerability or a 'real' emotion surfaces, are the moments which made this story special. Adding in music and song lyrics simply elevated this contemporary for me. These characters captured my imagination and for the few hours it took to read their tale, I became enraptured of them. Realistic and gripping, Lennon's Jinx is more than a love story, it's a life story. One about perseverance, standing up for one's convictions, letting the right person inside, and allowing oneself time to heal in order to love again. I loved it.
Rating: 4.5
1/2
Cover comment: I loved the story, not the cover. I like the image of the model, but not the fonts for the title or author's name. The tag line gets lost by the placement of the title.
Book source: I received a promotional copy in return for my honest review during a book tour.
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Thanks for reading my book and providing a review!
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