G932 Book Review of First crush Last love by Elizabeth McKenna
Author: Elizabeth McKenna
ISBN: 9781548371739
Publisher: 2017
Type of book: First crushes, second chances, domestic abuse, 1980s, 1990s, homosexuality, high school, friendship, high school reunion, marriage, stalking, child abuse
Year it was published: 2017
Summary:
Remember your first crush? How your heart raced and your cheeks flushed whenever you saw him? Jessie Baxter does, and it’s happening again. Ten years ago, despite her best efforts, Lee Archer wanted to be just friends. Now, he wants more, but Jessie's still recovering from a psycho ex-husband. Can she learn to trust again and make her first crush into her last love?
Elizabeth McKenna’s latest novel will have you remembering the angst of high school, the grief of a failed relationship, and the happiness of true love.
Characters:
Main characters include Jessie, Lee Archer and Billy. Other characters such as Jessie's and Lee's best friends are there, but they are more as background noise rather than as people. At first Jessie is a young woman that has a crush on Lee Archer and also has goals when it comes to journalism. She seems to also suffer from low self-esteem and hates to see herself in a friend-zone. Lee Archer seems to have his own issues when it comes to romance and commitment and he often can't see the good thing in front of him. However when he does get past his hangups, he becomes a sweet and romantic guy. Billy eventually becomes Jessie's husband and for me he seems to be in the vein of a cardboard stereotypical villain rather than someone sophisticated. No one deserves to go through what Jessie went through, but I guess I expected there to be more sophistication from Billy.
Theme:
Don't give up on love
Plot:
The story is written in third person narrative from Jessie's and Lee Archer's points of view, each chapter spanning a month, or a day of the week as in the case of the third part. Personally for me, the first two parts are best described as disjointed, and its unfortunate that some of the events that happened in previous month weren't mentioned in next month. For example, in one month, Jessie's fiancee forces her to buy and wear a dress that she doesn't like in order to meet his family: however, in the next chapter, that particular event is not mentioned. What I am trying to say is that I felt more as if I didn't see the characters grow up and change, and only got information second-hand rather than first-hand. One other thing I wasn't comfortable with is the handling of homosexuality. I love reading and reviewing books that represent diversity thus I have nothing against homosexuality, but I just feel as if Jessie's brother wasn't handled well and I don't really get to know him beyond that label, I'm sad to say.
(From iRead Book Tours)
Buy the Book:
Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble
CreatespaceAdd to Goodreads
Meet the Author:
Elizabeth McKenna works as a full-time technical writer/editor for a large software company. Though her love of books reaches back to her childhood, she had never read romance novels until one Christmas when her sister gave her the latest bestseller by Nora Roberts. She was hooked from page one (actually, she admits it was the first love scene).
She had always wanted to write fiction, so she combined her love of history, romance and a happy ending to write Cera's Place and Venice in the Moonlight. Her short story, The Gypsy Casts a Spell, is available for free on her site http://elizabethmckenna.com/. She hopes you will enjoy her first contemporary romance novel, First Crush Last Love, as much as others have enjoyed her historical romances.
Elizabeth lives in Wisconsin with her understanding husband, two beautiful daughters, and a sassy Labrador. When she isn't writing, working, or being a mom, she's sleeping.
Connect with the author: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram
Opinion:
I expected a bit more from the story than what I got, and I'm sorry to admit that I ended up being disappointed by it. The story did have relevance and it does present hope to people who have been in the main character's situation, but quite a number of things bothered me, one being that what I felt would have been relevant events are left out of the story, and the secondary characters need to be worked on more, in particular the villains of the story. The story can be read in just a few settings and the last part, when it takes place in 1994 is sweet and its where the author does shine.
This is for iRead Book Tours
BOOK TOUR SCHEDULE:
Oct 16 - The World As I See It - review / giveaway
Oct 17 - Working Mommy Journal - review / giveaway
Oct 18 - Books, Dreams, Life - book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
Oct 20 - Amie's Book Reviews - review / giveaway
Oct 21 - Library of Clean Reads - review / giveaway
Oct 23 - Cheryl's Book Nook - review / giveaway
Oct 24 - Books for Books - review
Oct 25 - My Reading Journeys - review
Oct 26 - Haddie's Haven - review / giveaway
Oct 27 - 3 Partners in Shopping - book spotlight / giveaway
Oct 27 - Tragically Dull Adventures of an Almost Librarian - review
Oct 30 - Svetlana's Reads and Views - review
Oct 30 - Divas With A Purpose - review
Oct 31 - The Autistic Gamer - book spotlight
Oct 31 - Olio by Marilyn - review / author interview / giveaway
Nov 2 - Jessica Cassidy - review / author interview / giveaway
Nov 2 - The Pen and Muse - book spotlight / giveaway
Nov 3 - A Soccer Mom's Book Blog - review om giveaway
Nov 3 - bookmyopia - review
Nov 3 - Celticlady's Reviews - book spotlight
Nov 3 - Kristin’s Novel Café - review / giveaway
TBD - Rockin' Book Reviews - review / giveaway3 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
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