Things I Can't Forget Tour Stop

Today I am beyond excited to be taking part in the blog tour for Things I Can't Forget by Miranda Kenneally.  She has become a fast favorite author of mine and is definitely on my auto-buy list.  My stop will feature my review of the book and also an interview with the MC, Kate Kelly. Read on!

TITLE Things I Can't Forget
AUTHOR Miranda Kenneally
PUBLICATION March 1st 2013 by Sourcebooks Fire
READ March 1st 2013 by Sourcebooks Fire
SOURCE From Xpresso Book Tours as part of the tour

Companion to Catching Jordan and Stealing Parker.

Kate has always been the good girl. Too good, according to some people at school—although they have no idea the guilty secret she carries. But this summer, everything is different…

This summer she’s a counselor at Cumberland Creek summer camp, and she wants to put the past behind her. This summer Matt is back as a counselor too. He’s the first guy she ever kissed, and he’s gone from a geeky songwriter who loved The Hardy Boys to a buff lifeguard who loves to flirt…with her.

Kate used to think the world was black and white, right and wrong. Turns out, life isn’t that easy…

Read an excerpt here.

Note: Mature themes, sexual situations, religious discussions.

Over my time as a blogger I have become a huge fan of Miranda Kenneally’s work. Her stories are sweet, they’re romantic, and she always manages to weave athleticism into them without making them feel like “sports” stories. Things I Can’t Forget became one that I was highly anticipating but I was pretty nervous about it because I was forewarned that it dealt with some hot button issues of mine. Touching quite a bit on religion and abortion, this novel took me by surprise as it was a pretty rough start but as the story wore on I got the Kenneally Feeling and was hooked!

A running theme in this Hundred Oaks series is that the characters overlap; we catch glimpses of characters from the other books. In this one we are Kate Kelly who is a member of Parker’s church. It’s the summer after high school and Kate takes a job working at the bible camp that she frequented as a child. Who else works there? Parker and Will! I was so excited to see that we would be getting a lot of those characters in this one. Parker became a pretty steady character in the story and her storyline of being outcasted by her church became pretty important to Kate’s progression as a character. Jordan and Sam do make their appearances, which was awesome, though they are not a prevalent part of the story.

Kate Kelly started off as someone that I really hated. I despised her judgmental ways and there were many instances where I found myself actually growling out loud at her. She has very strict religious beliefs and at the beginning of the story she tries to impose those beliefs on everyone around her, refusing to even have anyone in her life who doesn’t hold the same ones. I was so mad at her in the beginning and pretty frustrated with how often religion was finding it’s way into the tale but I took a step back and told myself that I was obviously going to go on a journey with Kate and I wanted to see exactly how she changed throughout. In the end, she didn’t exactly come full circle, but as she opened her mind and started accepting people’s faults I really connected with her. She had been raised in a community where everyone held the same beliefs and did what God thought was right, so I can understand why she was the way that she was in the beginning. Watching her come out of her shell and broaden her horizons was pretty amazing and I appreciated who she became and the steps on the road to get there.

Of course there is romance in this tale and I think Matt may have taken over as my favorite love interest in the series. He was funny, he was quirky, he was confident and he was sweet. He wasn’t perfect and he struggled with decisions and accepting people but he was so kind through everything. I loved all the sweet things he did to be closer to Kate, he knew that he was going to have to be pretty patient with her and he accepted it because he knew she was worth it. It was a really sweet love story, that was slow and pitch perfect for the story.

While this one did delve more heavily into religion I did find that the journey Kate went on far outweighed those elements that I didn’t like. This is a sweet story that, I think, fits into the series perfectly. Once again Miranda has weaved in all the beloved characters we could want and written a story that will frustrate you and give you fluttering butterflies in your tummy. If you are a fan of the series you should definitely read this one and if you haven’t started the series yet, hurry up!

Character Interview with Kate Kelly

You seemed to have so many fond memories of Cumberland Creek Camp, I loved reading your memories of your time there. What is your favorite memory from being a camper there?

Getting my first kiss from Matt Brown at the Thursday Night Dance. I was 11 and he was 13. He was an older man!

Andrea gave you a pretty tough time during the summer. How did you stay so calm in the face of all that was happening?

Andrea likes Matt, and Matt likes me. When Matt’s ex-girlfriend dumped him for his best friend, Andrea was there for Matt as a friend when he really needed somebody to talk to. She started to fall for him as they spent more time together. I tried to keep that in mind anytime she acted rudely towards me.

You are a pretty artistic person, when did you start losing yourself in your art?

I’ve been painting and doing arts and crafts since I was very young, but I didn’t start my sketchbook until after I blew out my knee playing soccer senior year of high school. I needed an outlet to deal with the pain and loss of not playing my favorite sport anymore.

Do you have a piece of artwork that you hold most near and dear to you? What is it?

I like to do decoupage, which is basically cutting pictures from magazines and newspapers and using a clear glue to paste them to random objects to decorate them. I took issues of People and Entertainment Weekly, and made a flower vase covered in my favorite movies, TV shows, and movie stars!

Not being able to play soccer anymore must be hard, how long did you play the sport for? What do you miss most about it?

I’d played since I was six years old. I miss running and the speed of the game, not to mention hanging out with the girls on the bus to and from games.

Do you think of yourself as a camper extraordinaire after your summer at Cumberland? What is your favorite technique that you learned?

I still don’t think I’m a camper extraordinaire, considering it still takes me like, an hour to light a fire, but I think I make the best s’mores ever. I like to sneak Reese’s Peanut Butter cups into camp and replace the Hershey bar.

Thank you for having me!

Miranda's Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Growing up in Tennessee, Miranda Kenneally dreamed of becoming an Atlanta Brave, a country singer (cliché!), or a UN interpreter. Instead she writes, and works for the State Department in Washington, D.C., where George W. Bush once used her shoulder as an armrest. Miranda loves Twitter, Star Trek and her husband.

This post is a part of the Things I Can't Forget Blog tour

Click the tour banner to see all the stops on this tour

Stealing Parker Review

TITLE Stealing Parker
AUTHOR Miranda Kenneally
PUBLICATION October 1st 2012 by Sourcebooks Fire
READ September 18, 2012
SOURCE Gifted from a friend

Red-hot author Miranda Kenneally hits one out of the park in this return to Catching Jordan's Hundred Oaks High.

After a scandal rocks their conservative small town, 17-year-old Parker Shelton goes overboard trying to prove that she won't turn out like her mother: a lesbian. The all-star third-baseman quits the softball team, drops 20 pounds and starts making out with guys--a lot. But hitting on the hot new assistant baseball coach might be taking it a step too far...especially when he starts flirting back.

Miranda Kenneally. Where have you been all my life? Your novels bring me so much joy and you get me so tangled up in your story that I feel as if I am Parker.. or Jordan. I read Catching Jordan a few months back and I can remember sitting down and cracking the first page and being so engrossed in the story that before I knew it I was reading the final page in the very same sitting. The exact same thing happened with Stealing Parker. I curled up in bed at about 8 PM and turned the last page before I went to sleep at midnight. This is such a fun contemporary story with a really good plot and even better characters.

Just like in Catching Jordan we meet a slew of easily likeable characters who are all part of a tight knit group of friends. Through their constant teasing and hilarious inside jokes (I am so going to be using "snorggle" in my vocabulary from now on) you find yourself lost in their friendship and connecting with them on an emotional level. I was quick to like Parker because she was by no means a Mary-Sue. She was a tomboy who could give all the boys a taste of their own medicine when the time called for it. One complaint I did have about her though, is that she could have used a little modesty. Numerous times throughout the story she mentioned how beautiful she was and how she knew all the guys wanted her. I mean it's one thing to know that you're pretty, but c'mon! Her friends were the stars of the show for me Corndog and Drew were hilarious together stuffing their faces and joking around. What was really exciting was that Sam Henry (from Catching Jordan) is on the baseball team (and just as funny as ever I must add) and we even get to see Jordan at a few instances throughout the novel.

Parker made a lot of choices that I didn't agree with, but it made for a really good story. I didn't know that this story dealt with a student/teacher romantic relationship so that took me by surprise (see it's fun to not read blurbs!) Brian was such a selfish guy, and even though it took a while, once Parker realized that, I was really happy with the way that she dealt with it and was happy that she stood her ground. She also deals with a lot of issues at home and church. This books touches on drug abuse, bullying, questioning ones sexuality and all those issues are handled very well.

Now that I have read two of Miranda's novels and had a fantastic experience with both I can safely say that she is one of my favourite authors and I will be reading everything that she puts out!

Catching Jordan Review

TITLE Catching Jordan
AUTHOR Miranda Kenneally
PUBLICATION December 1, 2011 by Sourcebooks Fire
READ June 6 - 7, 2012
 

What girl doesn't want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day out? Jordan Woods isn't just surrounded by hot guys, though-she leads them as the captain and quarterback of her high school football team. They all see her as one of the guys, and that's just fine. As long as she gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university. But now there's a new guy in town who threatens her starting position... suddenly she's hoping he'll see her as more than just a teammate.

I've always had a fascination with high school football. I can remember being young and going to my brothers games, being on the bus driving for the away games and loving all the energy.  I've also always found myself drawn to movies that focus on high school football; The Blind Side, Varsity Blues, and Friday Night Lights (which was later adapted into what is my all time favourite TV show) are some of my favourites. So when I was recommended Catching Jordan by a friend I was very intrigued to see how a girl could be written into this setting as a player, not a cheerleader. I'll admit when I first read the blurb and imagined it in my head, there was no way this story could be realistic and enjoyable, but the reviews told me I was wrong.  I. Was. Wrong. This was such a fantastic story, I loved the characters, I loved the setting and I loved how Miranda Kenneally made it all perfectly plausible.

Jordan had this air about her, she was at the head of her team and she had earned the respect of the men that she played with.  At first I found her manly inner dialogue a little difficult to get into, but as the story went on I really started to love her.  We get to watch her go from the tom boy quarterback to a high school girl struggling with her emotions. She has a lot going on, her NFL star father takes no interest in her pursuing her passion and a hottie shows up and joins her team, vying for her position.  I really liked Jordan she was a character that I could relate to because she was flawed, she didn't have all the answers and she was figuring everything out as she went.

Her love interest, Ty (the fellow quarterback vying for her spot as quarterback) was someone that I think I was supposed to like, but I didn't at all. He was controlling and just rubbed me the wrong way throughout.  I always had these shifting ideas in my head about his possible ulterior motives so I never really bought into their love story.  But Henry? Henry I loved. He was such a funny character and the love he felt for Jordan was so perfect.  There's a part in this book where they get a baby to take care of as part of a school project and I was laughing out loud through the whole thing.  I can't say enough nice things about him!

Miranda Kenneally has taken a setting that I love and spiced it up with a fresh twist. This didn't feel like I was reading the same story chewed up and regurgitated back onto the pages, it felt fresh and new. I highly recommend this one as a great summer read!