Blog Tour: Kissing in America by Margo Rabb
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Title: Kissing in America
Author: Margo Rabb
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 400 pages, Hardcover
Synopsis:
I loved romances because when you opened the first page, you knew the story would end well. Your heart wouldn't be broken. I loved that security, that guaranteed love.
In real life, you never knew the ending. I hated that.
Sixteen-year-old Eva has never been in love. But when she meets Will, everything changes. With him, her grief over her father's death fades, and she can escape from her difficult relationship with her mother. Then, without any warning, Will picks up and moves to California. So Eva—with the help of her best friend, Annie—concocts a plan to travel across the country to see him again. As they leave New York City for the first time and road-trip across America, they encounter cowboys, kudzu, and tiny towns without stoplights. Along the way, Eva and Annie learn the truth about love and all its complexities.
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When I started reading this book, I thought it would be a cute, lighthearted love story that would be quick and easy to read. Instead of this, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there's actually so much more to it than that. It's a story of friendship, feminism, loss, and all kinds of love.
I admit that for more than 3/4 of the book, I was frustrated with Eva, the main character and with the plot in general. I thought it was silly that someone would go all across the country to chase after one guy or that Eva thought that romance would be able to take away her grief for the death of her father. In fact, I was ready to quit about half-way through but decided to stick it out because I have heard so many good things about this book, and I'm very happy that I kept on reading.
Our main character loves romance novels and believes that her life will play out just like one. She goes all the way to California from New York just for a guy. I admit it sounds like a senseless idea, but I grew to understand that Eva is someone who is desperate and naive. She's reeling from the loss of her father and seeking escape from her overbearing mother who ignore that their father ever even existed. Maybe even then it's not a rational decision, but a bit more understandable one.
The plot is nothing all that special, but the ending and the execution definitely made it worthwhile. In the end, everything that should have happened happened. Eva comes out of this story as a more mature person, one on the road to recovery. And as she matured, so she did her mother and everyone else in this book. It was good to see a book that shows that the greatest love is not romantic love but a parent to their child. A book that shows so much justified development.
All in all, I really liked this book and thought that it was one of the best ones I'e read so far. There were some things that are unrealistic, but it's easy to forget and ignore that because of the hopeful and sweet ending. You may need to reflect on it after to understand it better, but when you do you'll realize that it is in fact a great book. If you want to read something sweet an easy yet meaningful, this is the book for you.
Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran
Made in the USA by Demi Lovato
Right There by Ariana Grande
Human by Cher Lloyd
Hold On for Dear Love by Bridgit Mendler
Sweet Despair by Cher Lloyd
The Love Club by Lorde
Popular Song by Mika
Flashlight by Jessie J
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Margo Rabb's stories have been published in The Atlantic Monthly, Zoetrope: All Story, Seventeen, Best New American Voices, New Stories from the South, New England Review, One Story, and elsewhere, and have been broadcast on National Public Radio. She received grand prize in the Zoetrope short story contest, first prize in The Atlantic Monthly fiction contest, first prize in the American Fiction contest, and a PEN Syndicated Fiction Project Award. She grew up in Queens, New York, and now lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and two children. A complete list of her published work can be found here.
Author Links:
Praise:
“Wonderful . . . Margo Rabb has created nothing less than a women’s map of American mythologies, navigating from Emily Dickinson to Barbara Cartland, from the cowboys of the rodeos to the makeup studios of Hollywood, and from the bottom of the Atlantic to the spacious skies of the USA.” — E. Lockhart, New York Times bestselling author of We Were Liars
“A wonderful novel about friendship, love, travel, life, hope, poetry, intelligence and the inner lives of girls. Margo Rabb writes with compassion and clarity about lives that are worth telling, journeys that need to be taken, peace that needs to be reached. I loved it.” — Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray Love
“That Margo Rabb can write a story so gorgeous, funny, and joyous that is also unsentimental and honest is a testament to her skill and to her heart. I loved everything about Eva and the supporting cast in this beautiful novel.” — Sara Zarr, author of The Lucy Variations
“Rabb eloquently gets grief right in this compassionate, perceptive, and poignant story, deftly leavened with irreverent humor, of a girl in conflict with her mother. Wise, inspiring, and ultimately uplifting-not to be missed.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“With a full cast of multidimensional characters, this novel explores the complex nature of relationships and the many faces of grief and love with equal parts humor and poignancy.” — School Library Journal
“A smart teen’s novel. [The] characters are authentic and complex. Rabb knows the perfect point to interject humor to diffuse a potentially devastating situation—a leavening of sorts to the reality that death and love inexplicitly alter the landscape of a person’s life.” — Booklist (starred review)
“In this indelible coming-of-age story, Rabb seamlessly weaves together multiple narratives. Sprinkled with the poetry Eva reads and writes, this story makes for a hilarious, thought-provoking, wrenching, and joyful quest.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Humor and depth . . . Often entertainingly snarky” — The Horn Book
“It is a marvel and I love every word of it: the carefully structured plot, the memorable characters, the wholly apposite style and tone. It is funny, sad, wistful, wise, and altogether memorable.” — Michael Cart
If you'd like to follow the tour, click on the banner above. This displays the full list of the blog tour schedule. Hope you like the book as much as I did! :)
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