Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway: Wake by Abria Mattina

Book Review + Giveaway

Hey!! Thanks for stopping by! This tour is brought to you by: Full Moon Bites Blog Tours. Don't forget to fill in the rafflecopter below for your chance to win: An eBook copy of Wake by Abria Mattina.

Wake
Amazon | AmazonUK | Epub book | BN | LuLu (Paperback) | More Formats Listed Here |
Author: Abria Mattina
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, 759 pages
ASIN: B005OMWXZE  

SUMMARY:

Eighteen isn’t too young to run your life into the ground, but it’s not too old to fix it, either. The desire for change drives Willa Kirk from St. John’s, Newfoundland back to her hometown of Smiths Falls, Ontario, away from her mistakes and the place where her sister died. She’s looking for a place to settle and rebuild, but Jem Harper just wants to get out of town, back to the life he knew before cancer. By letting the tragedies in their lives define them, they are both dying a little more every day. Welcome to the wake.

MY REVIEW:

Having gone through such trials and tribulations at such a young age is tough stuff. Jem Harper is in remission from cancer and his only friend in this new town is his little sister Elise. That is, until Willa Kirk walks into his life and turns his world upside down. Both coming to terms with who they are and living life as best as they could, both Willa and Jem find themselves in the mist of teenage problems as well as life's problems weighing on their teenage shoulders.

Wow. Where to start? Wake is an amazing book that captures you from the beginning and keeps you turning the page until you realized that you actually read all 759 pages! Wake is pretty lengthy but well worth the read, it captures the environment, emotions, hell, life in general when it comes to cancer patients and the families and friends of those with cancer. From teenage perspectives no less! I felt that Abria Mattina definitely captured these emotions perfectly, pulling you along with Jem Harpers story as well as Willa Kirks. Willa has lost her sister to cancer and her family's dynamic is totally different from that of Jems' loving and very supportive family. Willa's family seems to have taken a real beating when her sister passed away from cancer and has turned their world upside down, which leaves Willa in a state of guilt... I'll stop there, cause I don't want to give any spoilers, but cancer has pretty much torn this family apart whereas Jems family, cancer has made them stronger and brought them closer together.

I liked that this book was fairly easy to read, regardless of the intimidating length. Although, a small chunk could have been tossed out and the book still would have been great. I also liked that this book was in different POV's. We get to see different angels from this story, from Jems perspective as a cancer patient to Willa who has been through this whole cancer ordeal with her sister and then going through it again with Jem. I also liked that Jems character is struggling with who he was before cancer and now that he's in remission, how he wants to be who he was and be able to hang out and party and having a good time with his friends like he used to do, instead of worrying about the consequences on his body the following morning. I loved all the characters in this book, I feel they were all important in portraying different emotions and reactions to cancer, which played out really well as I continued to read. Jems friends wanting him to be who he was before and are either ignoring the fact that he did have cancer and is still recovering, to his parents and siblings who are worried sick but both are struggling with it in their own ways. What I didn't like about this book... gah, nothing? I absolutely loved this book. But again, the length did set me back a bit. 

I would definitely recommend this book. It touches on, pretty much every perspective when it comes to cancer. All the trials and tribulations that comes with it. It's a tough road and this book was a bit tough at times to read, but I think it's definitely worth it. 

MY RATING:

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Abria Mattina works as Production Manager for the Ottawa Arts Review, an eclectic literary journal. Her work has appeared in Ottawa’s The Fulcrum and Canculture Magazine. Her poem “Circus” was published in volume 5.2 of the Ottawa Arts Review.

Abria holds a Certificate in Publishing from the New York University Summer Publishing Institute and a degree in English Literature and Psychology from the University of Ottawa. When she isn’t writing she enjoys travelling, eclectic books, blogging, and baking. She lives with her fiance, Daniel.

Her debut novel, Wake, is about the struggle to redefine life after experiencing cancer and caring for an ill loved one.

Teaser Tuesday #5

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

♥Grab your current read

♥Open to a random page

♥Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week I'm reading Wake by Abria Mattina, Duty & Desire by Anju Gattani & Heaven Should Fall by Rebecca Coleman Here are my teasers :)

I hung back while Cade rushed over. Even from a distance I could hear Elias's gasping, stilted breathing, see him nodding rapidly at the soft things his siblings siad to him. Sweat trickled down his temples in slow, broad droplets. "Mathew's fine," Cade was assuring him. "It wasn't even all that tight."

p. 134

“Let’s see how much of a genius you are and if you can capture

me with your brush.”

Sheetal wiped the bristles clean with a rag. “I don’t want to.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. I don’t want you to either. I just want

to find out if you know every curve of my body the way I know
every curve of yours.” Then he left the room.

p. 134

"Come on, open up. We'll go get food somewhere--I'll take you for ice cream or something." That's the universal comfort food for girls, right?
"Go away!"
She only opens the door when I suggest that we cut classes for the rest of the day and go home early. When Mom and Dad come home they find us on the couch in the den, watching Harry Potter. They take one look at Elise--full Hogwarts uniform, round glasses, wand in hand--and say, "Bad day, sweetie?"

p.49

That's my TT for this week :)

Random Ramblings: Currently Reading #5

Random Ramblings: Currently Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Neyra @ Darkest Addictions Book Reviews every Monday. It's where you talk about the book(s) you are currently reading for the week and whether or not you're enjoying it, how you heard of it, and who recommended it to you.

This week I am reading Duty & Desire by Anju Gattani, Wake by Abria Mattina and Heaven Should Fall by Rebecca Coleman. I know, I know. So many books at once lol. Bare with me :p

Duty & Desire: I am currently 42% done with this book. Gosh *gathers thoughts* I didn't think I was going to like this book and don't ask me why, cause I have no idea lol. Maybe it's the title.. or maybe it's the cover -___- I received this book for review from Holly over @ FMB Blog Tours. So far, I like it. It's about a girl, Sheetal, who was set up to marry a man she didn't want to marry by her parents. So, she left the guy she did love to marry this douche bag (seriously, he's a douche...so far, anyway), just to please her parents. Sheetal is now living with said douche and his weird family and is pretty much forced to abide by their rules and do what they say at all times. How F****'d up is that? It's both frustrating and understandable at the same time. I want Sheetal to rebel and leave his sorry-sack-of-shit ass, but on another level, I totally get that the decisions you make don't only stem from what you want, but what you believe is right based on how you were raised and the cultural background you come from. And I can totally relate to that.
 

Heaven Should Fall: I am currently 37% into this book. I was given this book for review by Alissa Letkowski over @ BookTrib. Again, I'm not too big a fan of the cover, though the little girl is adorable. I just think the cover could have been a lot better. Anywho, I really like this book. It's pretty much realistic fiction. So far, from what I can gather, it's about three different people, Jill, Cade and Elias. Jill is Cade's fiance and is pregnant. Jill dropped out of college and moved into her fiance's family's home (which is total chaos) and sacrificing her education to to go through this pregnancy. While Jill is pregnant, she is also trying to reach out to Cade's brother, Elias, who returned home from the war 3 years ago and is a total monotone state. I can't say too much on that because the story's just now getting deeper into that but, I can tell you that it's good. I can't help but wait to see what Elias is going to do, is he going to snap? What? The only person he's opened up to is Jill. So I'm looking forward to seeing how everything plays out.

Wake: I am currently 10% into this book. This book is about 650+ pages long. I thought I read so much more then 10% lol. >.< I received this book from Holly over @ FMB Blog Tours for review. This book is really good. Seriously, I loved it when I stopped at 2% xD It's about about a boy named Jem who is in remission from cancer (though, he wont say what kind of cancer he has) and a girl named *checks book* ahh, her name is Willa. Geez, you would think I could remember everyone's name if I like it so much >.< Anywho, Willa is a bit of a mystery still. Shes pretty much the only person who talks to Jem like he's a normal person and doesn't look away from him or avoid eye contact with him. Her story still isn't clear, but I gather she's trying to change or running from her past? I honestly don't know at this point. This book has plenty of  banter to go around and it just has me laughing my ass off. 

Well, that's what I'm currently reading :) What are you reading? Do you love it/hate it?