Waiting on Wednesday #6

Title: Thousand Words
Author: Jennifer Brown
Series: N/A
Publisher: Little, Brown
Publication Date: May 21, 2013
Goodreads||The Book Depository

Ashleigh's boyfriend, Kaleb, is about to leave for college, and Ashleigh is worried that he'll forget about her while he's away. So at a legendary end-of-summer pool party, Ashleigh's friends suggest she text him a picture of herself -- sans swimsuit -- to take with him. Before she can talk herself out of it, Ashleigh strides off to the bathroom, snaps a photo in the full-length mirror, and hits "send."

But when Kaleb and Ashleigh go through a bad breakup, Kaleb takes revenge by forwarding the text to his baseball team. Soon the photo has gone viral, attracting the attention of the school board, the local police, and the media. As her friends and family try to distance themselves from the scandal, Ashleigh feels completely alone -- until she meets Mack while serving her court-ordered community service. Not only does Mack offer a fresh chance at friendship, but he's the one person in town who received the text of Ashleigh's photo -- and didn't look.

Acclaimed author Jennifer Brown brings readers a gripping novel about honesty and betrayal, redemption and friendship, attraction and integrity, as Ashleigh finds that while a picture may be worth a thousand words . . . it doesn't always tell the whole story.

Oooh. I very much like the sound of this one! And Jennifer Brown is a really good author, so I'm sure that she can pull it off to my satisfaction. Plus it kind of seems like there might be romance involved-- so I'll be one happy girl! Mack sounds like a boy that I'd like to read about. (;

Music from Beyond the Moon by Augusta Trobaugh

Title: Music from Beyond the Moon
Author: Augusta Trobaugh
Series: N/A
Source: Publisher for Review
Publisher: Bell Bridge Books
Publication Date: April 30, 2012
Goodreads||The Book Depository

She became his soul mate and first love, but can they escape a destiny that was decided before they were born?

In 1920's Florida, an abandoned baby boy grows up under a cloud of mystery, adopted by two strong southern women, who try to protect him from his family's secrets and heartaches. But even their best intentions and deepest devotion can't hide the truth forever. Or soften the fate he must face with the girl he loves.

Augusta Trobaugh's unforgettable novel speaks of loyalty, loss, the difficult choices we make in the name of family, and of courageous hope, each inspired by the fragile and painfully longing music of life, a song that seems to come from beyond the moon.

Music from Beyond the Moon was a book that left me with very complicated and conflicting feelings. For the most part, I really liked it, and I feel that it'll make a mark on the people that read it-- but I can't say that it'll be a good mark. Or a bad mark. One way or the other, they'll remember it. I sure will, because it deals with some tough and taboo subjects. Some that had my gag reflex working overtime-- but we do NOT need to talk about the face I made at one point in this book. (But seriously, if I had a picture it would probably be hilarious.) We need to talk about why  I made that face. But it includes spoilers, so you'll need to highlight in between the brackets if you wanna see it.

{The reason for the face and the gag reflex was Starry and Victor kissing. She was one of the women that raised him, and she's like forty, and she's kissing a 17 year old boy? I was disgusted with her. She was one of my favorite characters before then, but after that I was kind of horrified. Then we have the incest. Which for some weird  reason, doesn't really bother me. They didn't know that they were related, and when Victor found out he left Rebecca. I've gotta give him points for that. Plus it's not like they did the nasty. o_O}

Now that I've told you guys what created "the face", I think that it's time to move on to greener pastures. Like the writing-- it was so vivid, and I really liked the author's voice. She managed to write a book about a boy that isn't told by him. Which I honestly wasn't sure about in the beginning, but I think it added to the depth of our story, because Victor himself never really talked. Fiona, Starry, Glory and Old Man were our main narrators, but we occasionally got a peek into some other characters' minds. Thankfully, the author has a talent for writing multiple points of view, and I never confused myself.

And honestly, I just really adored that the story was told by the people around Victor. Kind of like an old legend, you know? I have so much love for that viewpoint, and for the slow southern honey pacing. But because the pacing was so slow, it brought up another issue. I felt like I had it all figured out by the time the story actually started...and I kind of wish that the story could have started sooner.

All in all, Music from Beyond the Moon was well written and interesting, but the taboo-ness and the slow bits brought my overall rating down.

Love isn't any music from beyond the moon. It isn't mysterious at all. In fact, it's really perfectly simple-- love is an old Victrola with cracked and fuzzy sounding records to play on it, but the songs are familiar.
The songs are the ones we all know. ~ Pg. 154

The Cupcake Queen by Heather Hepler

Title: The Cupcake Queen
Author: Heather Hepler
Series: N/A
Source: Bought
Publisher: Speak
Publication Date: September 17, 2009
Goodreads||The Book Depository

A confection of a novel, combining big city sophistication with small town charm.

When her mother moves them from the city to a small town to open up a cupcake bakery, Penny's life isn't what she expected. Her father has stayed behind, and Mom isn't talking about what the future holds for their family. And then there's Charity, the girl who plays mean pranks almost daily. There are also bright spots in Hog's Hollow-like Tally, an expert in Rock Paper Scissors, and Marcus, the boy who is always running on the beach. But just when it looks as though Penny is settling in, her parents ask her to make a choice that will turn everything upside down again.

A sweet novel about love, creativity, and accepting life's unexpected turns.

First off, I've gotta say that I didn't take notes while reading this book. I usually do, because it helps me put all of my thoughts together and sort them out and such, but this book wasn't very noteworthy. And I knew that it wouldn't be. I chose it because  I was looking for a fluffy, quirky read after my adventures with TFiOS.

And The Cupcake Queen  delivered on that front. It was quirky and cute, with adorably young main characters, but it just isn't very memorable. I'm having a hard time remembering the main character's name. I remember her friends, but not her. OH! It's Penny Lane...(I can't believe  that I forgot that.) So, in spite of my name remember skillz (bwahahaha), Penny was a good character for this kind of book. She was a sweet young teenager, who isn't very sure of herself. But she can make one mean  cupcake! I loved all the descriptions of different cupcakes and the way that Penny described making them.

It was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. I think that was probably one of my favorite parts of The Cupcake Queen.  But I can't honestly chalk it up to that. The character relationships were great! I loved the way that Penny, Marcus, Tally and Blake all interacted together. It didn't ever seem forced at all, and you know what a sucker I am for character relationships. ;)

I also loved the bit of light romance (this is children, people!) that was incorporated into the story. I found Tally and Blake's relationship to be one of the cutest relationships ever. Are they just friends? Are they something more? It was just so...(overused term here, guys) cute.

All in all, The Cupcake Queen  was exactly what I was looking to read today, and I'm glad that it has made it's way onto my shelf.