The Sweet Gum Tree by Katherine Allred

The Sweet Gum Tree by Katherine Allred
Source: bought Kindle copy
Publisher: Ellora's Cave
Publication Date: May 12, 2005
Age Genre: adult (not graphic)

Sweet tea, corn bread, and soup beans—everyday fare for eight-year-old Alix French, the precocious darling of a respected southern family. But nothing was ordinary about the day she met ten-year-old Nick Anderson, a boy from the wrong side of town. Armed with only a tin of bee balm and steely determination, Alix treats the raw evidence of a recent beating that mars his back, an act that changes both of their lives forever.
Through childhood disasters and teenage woes they cling together as friendship turns to love. The future looks rosy until the fateful night when Frank Anderson, Nick's abusive father, is shot to death in his filthy trailer.
Suddenly, Nick is gone—leaving Alix alone, confused and pregnant. For the next fifteen years she wrestles with the pain of Nick's abandonment, a bad marriage, her family and friends. But finally, she's starting to get her life back together. Her divorce is almost final, her business is booming, and she's content if not happy -- until the day she looks up and sees Nick standing across the counter. He's back…and he's not alone.
Once again Alix is plunged into turmoil and pain as Nick tries to win her love, something she resists with all her strength. Only one thing might break the protective wall she's built around her emotions—the truth about Frank Anderson's death. But when that truth comes out and those walls crumble, neither Alix nor Nick is prepared for the emotional explosion that could destroy as well as heal.

You are my roots. Wherever you are would be home to me.

I'm not sure where you start this review. Maybe I should kick it off with saying how shallow I am for putting this book off for so long just because I kind of hate the title and cover, even though I knew how recommended it came.

I know how wrong I was now. Because The Sweet Gum Tree... The Sweet Gum Tree is something else.

The story spans approximately 26 years, telling the epic love story of Nick and Alix through Alix's eyes. She's the one telling the story, from her position in the present, narrating it with an honest and raw voice, sprinkling everything with premonitions, warnings and second thoughts of what's to come.

That added a lot to it, in my opinion. It kept tensions high, kept the suspense in a completely opposite way than normally - you wondered not what's going to come (because you know from the get-go it was coming, and you know it was bad), but how it's going to go down. And why.

"No one should have to go through life with only half a heart," he whispered.

The Sweet Gum Tree is an emotional roller-coaster. You jump from laughter and joy to tears and sadness. You are forced to watch two people who are made for each other, who have always loved one another, break apart. Break down. And sometimes, the book completely blindsides you.

The biggest slap to the face made me cry. There was no warning, no preparations. One minute everything is fine, and the next... it's not. Alix didn't prepare us for that one--maybe she couldn't, maybe it was too hard to even hint at--and I was filled with grief. I didn't expect that, but I loved that it was told this way.

You can't turn love on and off like a light switch, no matter how hard you try. All you can do is wall it off, one brick at a time, until you've created an impenetrable fortress around your emotions. And once that fortress is built, you camouflage it so well that even you can't see it anymore. 

I felt like this book didn't try to make me an emotional mess. If that happened, it was just a byproduct. This book told a story that felt completely real and honest.

Maybe it was the characters - Alix, Nick, her mom, the Judge, her aunts, her best friend, Hugh... they all felt like real people. They spoke like real people, they acted like real people, and they had the chemistry of real people - for better or worse. I laughed and I cried with them, rooted and admonished them. I loved them all.

I highly recommend this love story, for anyone who loves a good romance. For anyone who's tired of insta loves and baseless loves. For anyone who wants a book that will shake his emotions, but without having to feel like that's all the book does.

"She died a long time ago and she's never coming back. That's the way I want it. She was a naive child who thought love could solve anything, who believed in happily-ever-after endings, and that justice and honor always win out. She believed in the integrity of others and never questioned their motives. She didn't stand a chance and she's better off dead."

   Nitzan★

Who Wore it Better: City of Bones

Who Wore it Better is an original meme I brought with me from Drugs Called Books. In it, instead of discussing fashion or cloths, we discuss book covers from different countries, and who has the best cover. The meme is co-hosted with the lovely Amanda from The Book Badger and will be featured on her blog every other week, so check her out as well!  

It's been a REALLY long time since we last did a Who Wore It Better Post! First I had boot camp, then settled into my life as a soldier... Well, we're back, and that's what's important! :) We're starting this time's WWIB with one of the most well love series on earth right now - the Mortal Instruments! God only knows how we haven't considered it before now...
(I weeded out the extremely ugly ones...)

English One – I really love this cover, always have. I love the colors, the composition, the guy and the city. I love the intricate patterns on the torso, only half visible. I think it's smart they went with depicting Jace - a hot, male chest is more likely to attract the girls than a woman's - even though this book is a lot more Clary's story than his. He would've had a more fitting place on the second/third book, but I can't argue with the reasoning. I also adore the fact it says the series name/number on it. I wish every series did that.

English Two – I've never seen this cover before. I rather reckon it didn't sale well, and that's the reason. This cover could've had potential, if they would've stuck to the illustrated feel of the city. But they didn't. Instead they pasted a face on it. That could've been alright... if they hadn't felt the need to draw on it with a pen. That seriously how it looks. No work was put into making the mark look real, or at the very least a part of the face. The result: yuck.

English Three - I like this one. I like the color, I like the double-city double-reality vibe. Or maybe more like underworld vibe? Like a city underneath our city... it works, especially with the plot taken into consideration. And boy, am I happy not to see any actor's face on it...

Chinese - This one looks like a movie poster. And it makes me think of mysteries and suspense novels, less of City of Bones. But it does look cool, I'll give it that.

German – I like this one. I like the color, the simplicity. I like that it has no model on it, no face. Just this ominous mark above it all.

Polish –  I don't really like this one. I don't like the dark background, I don't like the way they drew Jace (and really, Clary would've been a much more fitting character for the cover in this case), I don't like the font. I do think the artist is talented, but I wish he'd never given Jace a face. 

All around... my favorite is the original one. 

Nitzan★

Tag, You're It!

 Hi guys! Get ready for a tagtastic post with not one, but two tags! I was tagged to both a long time ago, and I do have valid excuses for their lateness, but I figured enough talk and more tagging, so let's begin!

No one tagged should feel obligated to do the tag if you don't want to! 

First, I was tagged by Amanda @ The Book Badger to do the Book Shelf Tag

Book Shelf Tag

1. Is there a book that you really want to read but haven't because you know it'll make you cry?

Hmm... not really. There are books I really want to read but don't because I'm effing scared of them, but none because they'll make me cry. I tend to shy away from ugly-cry-books, so I end up getting into those without even knowing it. Plus, I don't mind crying in books - as long as there's a HEA at the end! (and, okay, even if there isn't. But I get mighty depressed afterwards...)

2. Pick one book that helped introduce you to a new genre
Well, to be honest I'm kind of a creature of habits, and to prove it - there's only one book that comes to mind with this question. It's the book that made me look differently on contemporaries, after years of being really anti about them.
Since childhood, I was of the opinion that "there's no point in reading about Real Life because I effing live in it and its sucks. There's no magic in real life!" Well, turns out, there is magic in real life. I often find it, unsurprisingly, in the form of love and romance, and this book founded my love for this type of "magic".
Oh, wait, I forgot to say which book it is! Silly me. It's My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick.

3. Find a book that you want to re-read
OMG, just one? Dude, I'm a re-reader. I re-read a lot. Just last month (November) I re-read four books. Just 'cause I felt like it.

But if you're asking which books are at the top of my To Re-Read List right at this very moment... Cinder, Harry Potter (but HP is always on that list...), On the Island, Percy Jackson... Do I need to name some more? Because I certainly can.

4. Is these a book series you read but wish you hadn't?
Umm.... not... really? I mean, there are some firsts in series I read and wish I hadn't, because oh my god they made me want to hurt something, preferably the heroine, but I tend to stop with really awful series after the first. I certainly never finish them. What would be the point in subjecting myself to such torture?

5. If your house was burning down and all your family and pets were safe, which book would you go back in a save?

I can't believe you just asked me this questions. Who does that?! That's like asking which child I would save! Have you no mercy?
I refuse to answer this. On principle.

6. Is there one book on your shelf that brings back fond memories?

Lolz, all of them? You'll have to be a bit more specific with your questions. Every book that I love bring back fond memories of... well, reading it. If you mean memories from my life related to the book, Harry Potter is front center because that series is so integral to my childhood its practically my childhood itself.

7. Find a book that has inspired you the most
Inspired me? Well at long last - an easy one! Harry Potter. Yes, I know, quite the standard response, but HP inspired me to write. Inspired me to read. Inspired me to be a better person. Inspired me to live, when I was going through middle school and spending my time being mostly miserable. HP - I love you ❤

 

8. Do you have any autographed books?
Ohh, yes! Pretty much my most prized possessions; and they were all extremely hard to get, what with me living in Israel. And most of them are not personalized, unfortunately.
Let's see if I can list them all: The Edge of Never and Killing Sarai (J.A Redmerski is an amazing person, sending me personalized copies! ❤), Black Dawn, Redesigned (another awesome author!), More Than Jamie Baker (personalized & she may be the queen of awesome!), Red Hill, Losing Hope, How Zoe Made Her Dreams (mostly) Come True, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, Lola and the Boy Next Door... I think that's it.

9. Find the book that you've owned the longest
Excluding my baby books, that would be my Hebrew versions of the first six books of Harry Potter, which are now in my younger brother's room in the false hope he will be tempted to read them. 

9. Is there a book by an author that you've never imagined you'd read and enjoy?

Before a few months ago, I would have said there isn't - I never read a book I assume I won't enjoy (call it a character flaw). But then I read Bared to You by Sylvia Day. I thought I wouldn't like this book because it's been said in the same sentence as 50 Shades of Grey so often, and I couldn't get past the first page of that book. But I was pleasantly surprised to actually enjoy it!

Tagging...

I'm warning: I am too lazy to check whether you guys already did this, so you might've. 

Faye/Rashika/Aimme @ The Social Potato

Debby @ Snuggly Oranges 

Katie @ Katie's Book Blog

Gillian @ Writer's of Wrongs

Stephanie @ Bookfever

The Book Gif Tag

I was tagged by Stephanie @ bookfever to do the Book Gif tag (a tag I would love to do again and again with different lists! Maybe I should make it a thing? Anywhos, feel free to tag me to it again!)

Basically, you get ten book names, and you have to sum them/your feeling toward them in a gif. So... here goes nothing.

1. The Emperor's Conspiracy by Michelle Diener

2. Torrent by Gemma James

3. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

If I read you in my childhood, I think I would've loved you. But I didn't, and now it's too late. I can't enjoy you anymore!

4. Gone by Michael Grant

It's cool like that ;) You should totes read it!

5. Blood Vine by Amber Belldene

6. Fire and Flood by Victoria Scott

7. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

Yep, I am super scared to read these books! But I will, once the whole series is finished. I'm not torturing myself through deaths of favorite characters just to be stuck on a cliffhanger for years!

8. Murder on Olympus by Robert B. Warren

9. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

So excited to read this book, which hopefully will happen soon!

10. Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Maybe I'll read this, maybe not.

So... this is awkward. I actually haven't read all but two of these books *feels ashamed*. Feel free to tag me again in hopes the next list will be a bit more interesting and I would've read most of them ;)

I'm tagging 

I'm warning: I am too lazy to check whether you guys already did this, so you might've...

Christina @ Christina Reads YA

Kelly @ Effortlessly Reading

Ashley @ Noze Graze

Jesse @ Pretty in Fiction

Becca @ Pivot Book Reviews

My list of books to you:

1. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

2. Cinder by Marissa Meyer

3. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

4. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

5. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

6. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

7. This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

8. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stifvater

9. Ruby Red by Kerstin Geir

10. Being Jamie Baker by Kelly Oram

I would actually love to make this a thing - so tell me about cool tags. I don't think I have to be tagged to do them, so long as I tag others at the end, so don't be shy about it! 

   Nitzan★