Review: Calling California by J.P Grider

Synopsis
Cali Parker is poor. She has a lot on her plate - her father is dying, she's working to help pay the rent, and she's two-years behind in college. Griffin Brooks is rich. He has not a care in the world - he's acing his engineering courses, his hobby is restoring his fifty-thousand dollar classic car, and he has a different girl on his arm every week.
When Cali sees Griffin on her first day of class, she's immediately smitten and thinks she's found the perfect guy. When Griffin sees Cali at the bank, he immediately forgets the blonde he was with that morning. Then they meet, and their worlds collide.
Cali doesn't belong in Griffin’s world, and he doesn't understand hers. But just when Griffin convinces Cali that their two different worlds can blend, a secret is revealed that tears them apart.
Is their love strong enough to bring them back together, or will their worlds drift further apart?

Review
This novel follows the formula for YA fiction; it's full of teenage angst (to the point where I found myself skim reading huge chucks just to get through it) with a 'rich-boy poor-girl' standard plot, but the characters are a lot more three dimensional than I've found in other books in the genre. The flashback at the beginning of the book was a nice touch, and the 'secret' was a twist that I definitely didn't see coming! Cali is a troubled soul to say the least, and I was almost shouting at her at times to stop being so proud and accept Griffin's help. As for Griffin, well he was just all kinds of perfect! Although I have to admit that I find his change of character - changing from a self confessed skirt chaser to a one-woman-man in an instant- a little hard to believe. I've noticed a running theme in YA fiction of music, all of the stories seem to have a soundtrack of some kind -an idea which I love- and in this case it was classic rock. The choices of songs complimented the characters and their situations perfectly, and I was even introduced to a few songs that I hadn't heard before. I'd love to know what happens to Cali and Griffin in the long run, and given that the book is subtitled Hunter Hill University #1, I'm hoping that we're going to get a sequel of some kind! 3/5 stars.

*I received a free e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*


Comments

  1. jirrinereads13 August 2014 at 10:50

    Sound like fun. I am more into contemporary lately so this might be nice to check out :).

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Feature and Follow Friday: Featured Blogger!

Image
Feature and Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read . And guess what... I was lucky enough to be chosen to feature this week! So welcome one and welcome all, take a look around! This week's question: post a photo of your favourite coffee mug. I haven't really got many mugs that mean much to me, but my mum got me this one for my twenty first birthday. It sits by my bed so it's the one that I always use when I'm reading. The poem on the side reads " A mug to keep for years to come, to remind me of when I was Twenty One ." So cute! Interview Questions: When did you start blogging? I started blogging last December. I graduated from university with an English Lit and History degree last summer, and after leaving I found it odd no longer writing about the books that I was reading. I found myself keeping notes, which gradually turned into reviews, and the idea of starting a book blog just popped into my head one day. Little did I know ...
Read more

Top Ten "Gateway" Books/Authors In My Reading Journey

Image
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish . This week the theme is Top Ten Gateway Books. I really loved this topic as it made me look back over my relationship with reading, from learning to read to studying English Literature at university. Reading has always been an important part of my life, and on reflection there are a number of books that mark turning points in my reading journey.  1) Roger Red Hat - Sheila K. McCullagh The first point in any reader's journey is learning to read at school. I learnt with what Google tells me were called the One Two Three and Away collection of reading books, but I've always known them as Roger Red Hat, Billy Blue Hat, Jennifer Yellow Hat etc.  I remember around ten years ago a friend whose mum used to be a teacher found the books in her attic and we re-read them all in an afternoon. 2) The Tale of Mrs Tiggywinkle - Beatrix Potter A childhood staple. Family visits to the Lake District, The World of Beatrix...
Read more

Review: Victoria by Daisy Goodwin

Image
I've always been very interested in the life of Queen Victoria. It's hard not to be when you're named after her! So it was with some delight that I discovered ITV were making a television series all about her early years, penned by the wonderful Daisy Goodwin. Despite my initial frustration to discover that the majority of the series was filmed within an hour's drive of my house and I knew nothing of it, I was glued to my screen every night for the eight week duration (Captain Poldark had to wait for iPlayer). So when I heard that Daisy had written a novel to accompany the series, complete with extra scenes, well I headed straight online to pre-order it. The cover is beautiful and perfectly fitting, and I dived right in as soon as it arrived. "In June 1837, the eighteen-year-old Victoria wakes up to find that she is Queen of the most powerful nation in the world. But will she be queen in her own right, or a puppet controlled by her mother and the sinister Sir John ...
Read more