Monday, November 23, 2015

Live Me ~ Celeste Grande ~ Blog Tour


Broken… Shattered… How can you begin to live again when you’ve already been forced to… die? Evangelina Ricci is trapped in a world that’s a never-ending nightmare, a constant ache in which consumes her every breath. Unable to bear the torture any longer, she does the one thing she can to take back control. Run. With her best friend Jace in tow, Evangelina attempts to escape her darkened past by leaving for college and diving head first into an aggressive schedule, determined with everything she is to make a name for herself. There’s only one problem—she can’t run away from the demons she struggles with. The demons that’ll forever be there, locked inside, battering her soul. Hiding behind a flawless façade, Evangelina faces her ghosts until her world is turned upside down, invaded by… him. Blake Turner. Sweet, witty, flirtatious and drop-dead gorgeous, he finds Evangelina at every turn. Scared he’ll uncover the truth she keeps so well guarded, Evangelina tries her best to put on her act, deterring him like she has so many times before—only this guy’s different. He’s relentless. Utterly, absolutely and completely relentless. He sees her and he wants her and won’t stop until she’s his. Will Evangelina succeed in pushing Blake away? Or will he break down her walls and be the person to make her realize life is worth living?

Elizabeth's Review 

4.5 Stars – One of the best books I’ve Read

Review Copy provided by Author

I literally just finished Live Me and the emotional impact of the book required chocolate AND wine. I’m struggling a little bit with what to tell you about this book because I was honestly blown away….
Let’s start with the fact that this is a DEBUT novel. If I had not known that going in, I would be scrounging around looking for Ms. Grande’s backlist because Live Me was that good – I automatically want to look for more from the author.

Live Me focuses on Eva and Blake, college students living in New York City. We know at the beginning of the book that something bad has happened to Eva and she is struggling, but we don’t know all the details. We also know that Blake is attracted to her from the second they meet and he is DETERMINED. Blake is a character that you fall in love with from the moment you meet him. Guys in general can seriously take lessons from this guy about how to be sweet and romantic. For a big chunk of the story he seems too good to be true, but there are just enough glimpses of “normal” that you can like him. Eva is harder to get a grasp on and there are lots of times I wanted to tell her to get over herself and see where things with Blake were going.

There is a push/pull that happens between Blake and Eva and just when it looks like things might go well for them, demons from Eva’s past rear their head. My frustration with Eva reached a peak here because it felt like she was sabotaging her own chance at happiness. Ms. Grande takes readers on a roller coaster with these two characters and when you get to the end of the ride, you automatically want to go again.

My one complaint – Blake and Eva don’t seem like college students to me. There are some aspects where they are very much college students, but their emotional maturity (especially Blake’s) would lend me to expect someone older than 20 or 21. There are some other factors that also seemed out of sync with the college environment, but those issues didn’t detract from the story. Overall, this is a novel that I would have been impressed with no matter who wrote it. Factor in the fact that it is a debut and that makes the impact of the work even more extraordinary. I can’t wait to see what Ms. Grande has for us next.



Where to find Live Me:

Goodreads ~ Amazon ~ BN

Author Bio


Celeste Grande grew up loving words. From an early age, it was easy for her to open her heart through pen and paper and come away with something poetic. She never thought anything more than releasing her emotions would come of it though. A workaholic that can’t keep still, in her ‘real’ life, she’s a Certified Public Accountant who dreams of writing sexy books all day long. When she isn’t working, she’s reading, writing, mommying and being a wifey to the love of her life. She lives in New York, still putting pen to paper and anxiously awaiting the debut of her first novel, Live Me, a new adult romance, in October of 2015.

Author links:
http://celestegrande.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8339067.Celeste_Grande
https://www.facebook.com/Author-Celeste-Grande-753468191345511/?ref=hl
https://twitter.com/CelesteGrande




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2 comments:

  1. Great review, Elizabeth! This sounds like a wonderful read and very character driven too which is right up my alley! Glad you liked it! :)

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  2. Thank so much for sharing and for your amazing review! <3

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