Chasing McCree by J.C. Isabella

Publisher: Self-published

Format: Kindle Edition

Do you ever get a book and even though you know it’s going to be Ter-ri-ble with a capital T you still start reading it, hoping that it’s not and the craptastic cover keeps taunting you from the front and you hang your head in shame and YET YOU CAN’T STOP READING?! Well, that was the scenario I imagined when I first started reading this book. Requisite play on words book title? God awful cover with the superimposed lower half of a cowboy and a cheerleader? A tenuous overused plot about opposites attracting? It was like some horrible car crash just waiting to happen. And yet…it never did.  People, something must be wrong with me or very right with this author, because this book is GOOD! Way good. I read it in one sitting and even stayed up late to do so.  I feel like I should be ashamed and yet, somehow I’m not. It truly was a good book.

Plot:

Chase McCree hates Florida. After his estranged mother begs him to give living with her a try, he moves there to appease her but misses the ranch he grew up on in rural Montana and can’t seem to fit in at the fancy prep school he’s forced to attend. After years of homeschooling and learning to run the family ranch, the suburban life seems boring and superficial and Chase is counting the days til he can return home.  A chance encounter with drunken cheerleader Briar Thompson is the only bright spot in the whole ordeal.  As the two begin to form a friendship, Chase knows the only thing he’ll miss will be her.  When Briar shows some interest in visiting his real home, Chase offers her a spur of the moment chance to see it in person.  She agrees and the two take a road trip out west.  When they arrive at the ranch, Chase thinks that Briar will hate the kind of life he leads but unexpectedly, she takes to it naturally, discovering a love of the land and a more simple life.  All seems to be going well until a saboteur arrives on the scene and Briar’s parents decide she needs to return home, leaving Montana behind for good. Will true love pass the test of parents and society or will Chase and Briar give in and let other people rule their lives forever?

Review:

You guys should know me by now: if a book is bad, I will tell you all about it.  And like I mentioned earlier, all the signs pointed to this being a baaaad book. But really, it’s not; this was a surprisingly good read.  The main characters were deep and thoughtful with background stories that weren’t overly stereotyped. Usually a boy-girl from different worlds scenario can be pretty heavy handed. There were some instances where the rich prep school kids seemed a bit over the top in their snobbiness and the stetson and Levi’s wearing was a little too much, but overall the fact that they were from different circles seemed highly plausible.  Briar seemed like a character who genuinely was ready for a change. Would a normal 17 year old girl from a rich suburban life really be able to leave it all for an extremely rural ranch in Montana? Ehh, probably not with the ease that Briar did it but nothing about her transition from socialite to cowgirl seemed forced. Plus her character was likeable and sweet and a very good foil for the slow, steady hunk Chase. He’s your basic cowboy but surprisingly mature for his young age.  Add to that some genuine hunkiness, manners, and good morals and you have the perfect hero. He seems larger than life, yes, but when a girl just wants to escape and dream about some beefcake who holds open the door, loves her without make-up, and only has her good interests at heart, well, Chase can come parade through my fantasies cause boyfriend is perfect! The fact that he’s a billionaire only added to his swoonworthy appeal! Seriously, why aren’t there cowboys like him out there in the real world, rescuing girls on a horse in the suburbs? I mean, really, is this too much to ask here? Sigh. Now, as I wax poetic about this book I should point out that while Chase was perfect, the writing was not. For some reason though it wasn’t a turn off. There were a bunch of typos and/or grammar errors but for some reason, they didn’t stick with me like they would normally.  I would get to one and just think, “huh, well, this is just a fun read so…who cares about the incorrect use of their or there? I mean, it doesn’t change the fact that this is good stuff.” And it was, good stuff that is.  It was really fast paced with believable dialogue and some fun situations that make a city-slicker like me swoon.

So based on the following criteria:

How much did I like the heroine: 10. I love Briar! A cheerleader who ditches her snotty friends and rich boyfriend for the chance at real love with a hot cowboy who has manners? Right choice, girl! You made absolutely the right choice.

How much did I like the love interest: 10. Drool! Chase is perfect. No really, perfect and it wasn’t annoying at all: he has survival skills, is gorgeous, tanned, ethical, sweet, thoughtful, stoic, rich…this list could go on and on and on and I still wouldn’t be done with how fabulous Chase is. Why, God, why?! Why don’t men like him really exist? Wahhhh!

How believable is the plot:  8. Okay, okay, the plot was a bit far fetched because no rich girl would ever gladly give up the life she’s known for 17 years for nowheresville but who cares! Can I talk about Chase some more?

How much did I like the writing style/editing/etc: 8. It’s fast, fun, and well written. The dialogue is spot on and you really felt like you were living out this sort of implausible plot.  It was so well written that I didn’t put it down from the moment I started reading. Now that’s saying a lot.

How much did I want to keep reading: 10. I wanted more Chase but it’s very obvious at the end what happens since everything was spelled out for us. But still…can Chase’s twin brother from another mother show up one of these days to sweep me off my feet?

Final Score: 9/10. I loved it, you’ll love it, and all I can say is: buy it! It’s only 99 cents! Get it on your kindle now!

Vintage: A Ghost Story by Steve Berman

Publisher: Lethe Press (January 5, 2008)

Format: Kindle Edition

In high school did you:

-wear black?

-dye your hair an unnatural color (i.e. blue, black, red, pink, etc)?

-believe that the supernatural existed and own a Ouija board, tarot deck, scrying crystal, and/or any other occult paraphernalia?

-have a gay best friend?

If you answered ‘yes’ to one or more of these questions then I’m begging you to BUY THIS BOOK. You won’t be disappointed.

Plot: After being kicked out of the house by his parents for revealing that he is gay, a young teen moves in with his aunt in suburban New Jersey.  He has a penchant for vintage clothing and all things Goth and soon collects a small group of offbeat friends who share those same interests.  They hang out in graveyards, dye their hair fantastic colors, and have spooky candle-lit Ouija board parties.  Yet everything around them is still dismally, painfully normal and they wish for some experience to prove that something exists beyond the mundane. When the teen chances upon Josh, a ghost who haunts an abandoned stretch of NJ highway, he wishes that life would just return to normal.  In addition to Josh, soon all he sees are ghosts at every turn and the violence of their deaths is frightening and shudder inducing.  When Josh begins haunting him, the teen is torn between the attraction he feels for a dead man and the budding relationship he’s forming with a friend’s younger brother.  Josh refuses to share  him though and his visits become malevolent, forcing the teen to attempt a dangerous exorcism that very well may cost him his life.

Review: If, like me, you were one of those misguided and angsty teens who liked to dye their hair and your wardrobe consisted of thrift store t-shirts along with ripped black Chuck Taylors with lots of safety pins, then this book is for you. Heck, I’ll take it a step further. If you were a disaffected teen just hoping to fit in (and let’s face it, pretty much all teenagers fall into this category unless they’re, like, that one magical teen who didn’t get zits, had fabulous fashion sense, and automatically understood their place in the world) then this book is for you too. Steve Berman’s main character is the quintessential teen.  He’s the every man that we can all relate to. He’s nameless and practically faceless in that we never receive an adequate description of him and no matter how close he gets to people, he never quite fits in. Couple that with the fact that he’s gay and that he begins to see ghosts and you get a poor kid that doesn’t stand a chance.  It’s a feeling we can all relate to.  Steve Berman’s writing is really fluid as well, creating a believable situation involving the Gothic teenage element that doesn’t seem morbid or pathetic.  Too often high school angst stories feel schmaltzy or forced but this is spot on.  Even the inclusion of ghosts and the supernatural isn’t odd.  It’s believable.  It’s as if Berman just opened our eyes to the fact that those elements existed not that he was creating them.  The ghosts are tortured souls that mirror the  living teens the main character deals with. It’s all very spooky and gothic and is exactly what I had wished would happen to me when I was younger. But let’s face it: nobody ran into a ghost at the Piggly Wiggly down the street! Boo!

This book is short (too short, Steve Berman, too short!) and sweet but it’s a very compelling read about a teen learning to fit in and accept who he is.  There’s some romance, some supernatural, some coming of age stuff, and ultimately, some transformation of the main character.  Even if the end feels as if it happens too quickly, you’ll love the writing style and the quirky main characters who will remind you of your own high school buddies.

So based on the follow criteria:

How much did I like the hero: 10. Oddly it wasn’t until I started my review that I realized we never learned the main character’s name! Usually that would be obvious and annoying but here it was a moot point. I bet you don’t notice either.  The kid is quirky and gay but not at all as tortured as you’d assume.  His overall moody gothicness never became depressing or eye-roll inducing. Instead he was fun and was willing to do anything.  I like that in a character. He never seemed to realize that boys liked him or to judge people.  He was also very real.

How much did I like the love interest: 10. There’s actually 2! A ghost and an underage sculptor.  Bizarrely I liked them both. Josh was hot and vintage and Mike was a high school kid.  Josh was irrational, violent, and still in love with his lover from the 50s. Mike was sweet and guileless and though afraid of how the main character would react, pursued him relentlessly.  I didn’t know who to pick but come on, how much of a relationship can you have with a dead man?

How believable is the plot: 9. Like I mentioned above, Berman opens our eyes to the possibility of ghosts existing alongside the physical world.  It doesn’t seemed forced or created. It’s as if he were showing us that this other world exists that we had overlooked and it felt 100% believable. The teenage stuff read like my high school diary. It was so true to what adolescent life and dialogue are like that I was surprised to learn Berman is far from his teenage years.

How much did I like the writing style/editing/etc: 10. Berman is a master storyteller.  The plot and action flow so quickly and nothing ever feels forced. Dialogue is perfect, setting perfect, the characters could have been plucked right out of my high school, and there are no grammar/spelling mistakes. Could this be one of the best written and edited books I’ve reviewed? Yes!

How much did I want to keep reading: 10. Be warned. Vintage ends abruptly; however with the ghost exorcised the story is pretty much over so you understand why, but you’ll still be disappointed.  At least there’s an epilogue to give us some closure.  I wanted it to keep going if only to find out what happens between the main character and Mike.  I can only assume they fall madly in love, forge a great relationship, and move to NYC to live out their artsy dreams. Well, here’s hoping at least.

Final Score: 10/10.  It’s so good, guys. You’ve got your paranormal elements and your teen drama all rolled into one. It’s well written and involves a gay protagonist.  All I can do is tell you to read it because you will NOT be disappointed.  Actually go get it, read it, and then tell me all about your experience in the comments.  If you were as tortured as I was in high school, we should definitely be friends.