Friday 30 May 2014

Review + Author Interview + Giveaway: Rain (Rain #1) by Christie Cote




18522639
Title: Rain 
Author: Christie CoteSeries: Rain 
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Publication date: May 6th 2014
Pages: 188 (Paperback) 
Author links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Google + | Pinterest | Amazon | Review Blog
Buy links: Amazon





Taylor Sullivan took her life for granted until she received news that would changer her life forever. In a state of denial she met Kyle, who didn't end up being what she expected. She wasn't able to escape her new reality, but with his friendship, just maybe she could survive it.



When Christie approached me with a request to read her book I did not really know what to expect. The short description was rather vague but it sounded mysterious of me to accept. And I am glad that I accepted her request! Otherwise I would have missed the chance to read this lovely book.

We meet Taylor at the moment that her entire life is turned upside down. Nothing is and never will be the same again in her life. Through this events she learns who her real friends in life are and that nothing is ever what it seems. Taylor had to endure some things that I can never imagine myself going true and I hope that I will never have to, and I hope you guys won’t have to either. But what was remarkable was that Taylor all took it so well. She knew she had to be strong, not only for herself but also for the people around her that loved her. That’s probably why I felt an immediate connection with her. She was incredibly strong and down to earth. The decisions she makes throughout the book might not always be the smartest but that’s life. Sometimes all is good and the next moment all you can see is bad things. And Taylor experiences the good-bad alternation in a heartbreaking way.

And then there was Kyle. Where should I began to tell how amazing this guy was? When he met Taylor she was a stranger but that didn’t take away that he wanted to take away her pain. Let her forget all the bad things that were happening to her at the moment, even if it was only for a short while. He stood next to her during her darkest moments, never giving her up like others did. Even though he only just met her. Everyone should have someone as Kyle in his life. His kindness towards others is one of the reasons I like him so much. But he also has a great sense of humor and his music taste is terrific.  While reading Rain I wished that I could have the playlist he made for Taylor. So many great songs! But I felt like we didn’t know him at all, except from the time he spent with Taylor. The author didn’t mention anything of his past while it’s clear that he has one. But I suppose that we will get that background in the next book, at least that is what I am hoping for.


Rain was a lovely read. It had the right amount of drama, romance, friendship and heartache. Since this was the author’s first book I can’t wait what she will have next in store for us!  


Author Interview


Q: What inspired you to write this book?
A: I had to start a new story for a fiction writing class, so I thought about the subject matter and then a scene came to me with Taylor and rain. The image of rain was very strong, and that one image is what started it all. I got into the story and couldn’t stop writing until the book was complete.

Q: Are experiences based on things that happened in your life or on someone you know?
A: Most of the book is just fiction, but there are some little things here and there that are from my life, mostly little conversations and stuff like that.

Q: How would you describe your main character in 5 words?
A: Thoughtful, Intelligent, big hearted, strong.

Q: What’s your next work in progress?
A: Before the Rain, the next book in the Rain series.
Blurb:
Kyle Thorne was a stranger, harboring secrets every waking moment, haunted by them every time his guard was down. He moved in with his dad in the hope of escaping his dark past. That proved to be difficult when a piece of that past showed up at his front door, jeopardizing his new beginning and his relationship with Taylor—the one person who made him want to expose all of his secrets.

Q: What’s your favorite dessert?
A: Cheesecake.

Q: Pants or dresses?
A: depends on the season and weather. When it is nice out and warm, I enjoy wearing dresses, otherwise I’m usually wearing pants.

Q: What is one silly fact about you?
A: In middle school, I once superglued myself to a friend so we wouldn’t be separated in class.

Q: What got you starting on your writing journey?
A: Hmm. I suppose it started shortly after I became obsessed with Lurlene McDaniel books. Her stories fascinated me and I always wanted to learn more about the subject. A year or so after I discovered her books, I began writing stories of my own, wanting to write like her.

Q: Why should everyone read Rain?
A: Because the characters are relatable, even if you haven’t experienced some of the things they are going through. It is a story that also brings some awareness for an illness that happens to a lot of children.

Q: Anything you want to say to your readers?
A: To keep in mind that it is very much a Young Adult book. The genre has changed a lot and matured in the past few years. Sometimes adults reading young adult, expect more mature content because of how the genre has changed. Taylor is very much a teenager and while she goes through some serious stuff, she is a teenager and has those experiences as well. Can adults enjoy the story? I believe so, as long as they aren’t expecting the characters to be more mature than their age. I do think that teens will enjoy the book, and appreciate some of the messages in the story, even if they can’t relate to everything Taylor is going through.


Giveaway


Also I will be giving away one ebook copy to someone. 
Let me know in the commnets why you want to win this copy!

Author bio 

Christie Cote resides in Vermont with her Husband and their dog. When she isn't reading, writing, or dreaming up her next story, she can be found shooting targets with er bow, drawing or baking. 

Rain is her first book. 

Christie writes Young Adult Realistic Fiction, Fiction, and New Adult novels.

              El

Thursday 29 May 2014

Review: Wall Street West by Cristina Guarneri

18688179Title: Wall Street West
Author: Cristina Guarneri
Publisher: Smith Publicity
Publication date: September 20th 2013
Pages: 178 (hardback)








Beyond the mirrored windows of the citys high-rise buildings; the landscape of a metropolis that holds itself to the outskirts of the Hudson River, leaves a city that set the standard for corruption and overshadowed itself by the darkness of political deception. Behind the thriving neighborhoods of cultural scenery, the sixth borough had become a blanket that was once woven with the challenges of deceit versus ethics. No one knows what tomorrow will bring, but for integrity to preveil, an awakening would need to be brought to the city streets that were once plagued by the mysteries of Wall Street West. 


When the publisher approached me to read Wall Street West I thought why not. It sounded like a good book and I love to help out small publisher and independent authors. And well most of the time they are actually great books that deserve more recognition.

But  I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed by this book. It had a lot of potential but it was like I was reading a draft rather than a completed book. The book was filled with conversations and no background story. It was like you were listening to a conversation between some strangers while you didn’t think anything yourself. No background, nothing. I mean even in a play you get more background then you got here.  And the lack of thoughts of the main character bothered me. Also it was harder to follow the story. There were times that I didn’t understand at all what the main character was talking about or to whom he was talking. The plot tended to make some jumps in time what didn’t make it any easier for me to understand what was going on.

So now you might think why did I give it two stars? Well like I said before it had some real potential. If the author is able to fill it story up a bit with background information and thoughts of the characters and not only conversations than this book can be enjoyable. So therefore the two stars, this book isn’t hopeless. So if the author reads this polish it up a bit and your book will be a lot better!


El



Wednesday 28 May 2014

Waiting on Wednesday #52: Captive (The Blackcoat Rebellion #2) by Aimee Carter



Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. It spotlights books that have not yet been released, but ones that you should pre-order today! This week's book that I am anxiously awaiting is:


Captive
by Aimee Carter

10944842

For the past two months, Kitty Doe's life has been a lie. Forced to impersonate the Prime Minister's niece, her frustration grows as her trust in her fake fiancĂ© cracks, her real boyfriend is forbidden and the Blackcoats keep her in the dark even more than ever. 

But in the midst of discovering that her role in the Hart family may not be as coincidental as she thought, she's accused of treason and is forced to face her greatest fear: Elsewhere. A prison where no one can escape.

As one shocking revelation leads to the next, Kitty learns the hard way that she can trust no on, not even the people she thought were on her side. With her back against the wall, Kitty wants to believe she'll do whatever it takes to support the rebellion she believes in - but is she prepared to pay the ultimate price? 


Why I can't wait
I LOVED the first book in this series, Pawn. And I can't wait to find out what is going to happen next after all the revelations near the end of the book. Also this cover is just gorgeous!

Publication date: November 25th 2014

El

Tuesday 27 May 2014

Teaser Tuesday #23: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan/ Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott


Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading!

To participate all you have to do is:
- Grab your current read- Open to a random page
- Share "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!


Will Grayson, Will Grayson
by John Green and David Levithan

17208924

"Like, do you believe that peoplees attudes can change? One day they wake up and you realize something, you see something in a way that you never saw it before, and boom epiphany. Something is different forever. Do you believe in that?" (p.128)



Heartbeat 
by Elizabeth Scott

17258743

""You're my best friend," she says. "That hasn't changed. And I get that you need to not talk about your mom and your brother all the time and it's not awful for me to talk about Roger. But you don't have to go to Caleb Harrison to talk about stuff. You never would have done that-- "" (p.181)

El

Monday 26 May 2014

Review: Epiphany by Steve Lee

Title: Epiphany
Author: Steve Lee
Publisher: Smith Publicity
Publication date: August 8th 2013
Pages: 328 (paperback) 





Just outside a small town in America's heartland, a young Iowan farm boy, Josh Peterson, finds his life turned upside down by an odd series of reoccurring dreams. Suddenly caught in a violent assault, Josh watches as two mysterious figures from these dreams abruptly appear to intervene in his behalf. In one inexplicable moment, these men somehow suspend reality, and in the process, rescue him from certain death. 
In the years that follow, Josh struggles to understand what happened that day, and the meaning of the dreams that somehow come to shape his life. In time, he finds these images connect him to a people who once lived centuries earlier, and who were themselves rescued by these same men.While he wrestles with this, a cascading chain of gobal events begins to unford around him, paralleling the tragedies he's witnessee in his dreams. 
Created by the arrogance of man, this crisis quickly begins to unravel the fabric of civilization, tracing out the now familiar pattern of 'Rise and Fall' - even as an unseen force lingers at the edge of perception, drawing Josh through an event anticipated eons in advance. 
This as civilization itself teeters on the lip of an abyss. 


As long as Josh remembers he has this dreams. Nothing unusual you would think, everyone dreams. But Joshes’ dreams are different, somehow they  feel more real.  All his dreams are set somewhere in the past, during the Roman Empire or during the Middle ages, all in different parts of the world. His dreams become all the more real when he two of the people that occur in all his dreams come into his life and appear to be real. Except are they human or something supernatural or are they just in his imagination?

The story was not what I expected originally but  the it was well written and I enjoyed reading it.  Still it felt like it was a book for the thinkers among us. There were a lot of questions I had throughout the book and you had to be careful to connect all the right dots. But when I finished the book I had to admit that the author definitely had some good point, throughout time people have destroyed there worlds like the Roman Empires without realizing they were destroying it. And if we aren’t careful this might happen again to us, only it will be more disastrous. 

But the book also shows that there is always hope, or society may rise or fall but in the end we will always make it back. Maybe this once we will learn from or past mistakes and open our eyes to see the reality of our world as it is. It’s never too late to change for the better. In the end we all need to help to build a better world for everyone.


This is an ideal book for everyone who is looking for a book that will make you think about things you otherwise never would have thought about. 


El


Sunday 25 May 2014

Stacking The Shelves #38


Showcase Sunday's/Stacking the Shelves aim is to showcase our newest bookNes or book related swag and to see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, bought in bookshops and downloaded onto eReaders this week. This Sunday meme is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea and Tynga's Reviews:

For review


21857517 21857530 21857722


Won 

18759920


El


Wednesday 21 May 2014

Waiting on Wednesday #51: Winterspell by Clair Legrand



Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. It spotlights books that have not yet been released, but ones that you should pre-order today! This week's book that I am anxiously awaiting is:

Winterspell
by Claire Legrand

18475593

The clock chimes midnight, a curse breaks, and a girl meets a prince... but what follows is not all sweetness and sugarplums.

New York City, 1899. Clare Stole, the mayor's ever-proper daughter, leads a double life. Since her mother's murder, she has secretly trained in self-defense with the mysterious Drosselmeyer. 

Then, on Christmas Eve, disaster strikes. 

Her home is destroyed, her father abducted - by being distinctly nothuman. To find him, Clara journeys to the war-ravaged land of Cane. Her only companion is the dethroned prince Nicholas, bound by a wicked curse. If they're to survive, Clara has no choice but to trust him, but his haunted eyes burn with secrets - and a need she can't define. With the dangerous, seductive faery queen Anise hunting them, Clara soon realizes she won't leave Cane unscathed - if she leaves at all.

Inspired by The Nutcracker, Winterspell is a dark fairy tale about love and war, longing and loneliness, and a girl who  must learn to live without fear. 


Why I can't wait: 
This books sounds amazing. I love fairy tales and this one has a darker edge which I love. Also The Nutcracker is great, so I can't wait to read what the author made of it. 

Expected publication: September 30th 2014

El 



Tuesday 20 May 2014

Review: Moonless (Maiden of Time #1) by Crystal Colier

17876692Title: Moonless
Author: Crystal Colier
Series: Maiden of Time
Genre: fantasy, YA
Publisher: Raybourne Publisher
Publication date: November 13th 2013
Pages: 323 (paperback)




Moonless is Jane Eyre meets Supernatural.

In the English society of 1768 where women are bred to marry, unattractive Alexia, just sixteen, believes she will end up alone. But on the county doorstep of a neighbor's estate, she meets a man straight out of her nightmares, one whose blue eyes threaten to consume her whole world - especially later when she discovers him standing over her murdered host in the middle of the nigth.

Among the many things to change for her that evening are: her physical appearance - from ghastly to breathtaking, an epidemic of night terrors predicting the future, and the blue-eyed man's unexpected infusion into her life. Not only do his appearances precede tragedies, but they are echoed by the arrival of ravenous, black-robed wraiths on moonless nights.

Unable to decide whether he is one of these monsters or protecting her from them, she uncovers what her father has been concealing: truths about her own identity, about the blue-eyed man, and about love. After an attack close to home, Alexia realizes she cannot keep one foot in her old life and one in this new world. To protect her family she must either be sold into a loveless marriage, or escape with the man of  her dreams and risk becoming one of the Soulless.


I have always had a fascination for time Jane Eyre was written, something about that time is just really interesting. Maybe it’s the way people interacted back then I don’t know it’s just fascinating. So when the author approached me with the request to read her book and I saw Jane Eyre in the short description I was immediately excited.

Alexia is a plain, everyday girl except of the dreams she has. Only they are not really dreams but more visions… visions of dying people.  She can cast her dreams away as just that dreams, that is until she meets the blue eyed men that occurred in her dreams in reality. From then on she only has questions, questions that are answered with even more questions.
From the moment the blue eyed men enters her life Alexia and the world around her completely changes. The author explained well what Alexia was going through, she described it vividly and it was if you could see all the changes before you.
Piece by piece the mysteries of this book were revealed. Together with Alexia we learnt the truth about the world and herself. It was really fun seeing the developments in this story.

The men with the blue eyes, I am not going to say his name you will have to find it out just like Alexia,  is the biggest mystery of all. And after finishing this book I feel like I still don’t really know him, that was the only disappointing thing in this book. Alexia falls in love with him, but she actually doesn’t know a thing about him. So I don’t understand how she can love him. But anyway other than that he’s a mystery this guy is pretty swoon worthy. He’s protective, kind and caring. If you add the mystery it’s easy to swoon over him.

This book is full of action and it doesn’t bore you for a minute. It’s packed with mystery, twist and turns, revelations and so much more. I can’t wait till the next book in this series comes out!


El


Top Ten Tuesday #29: Top Ten Books About Friendship


Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Broke and Bookish. This weeks is: 
Top Ten  Books About Friendship 

22188 4271 15923724 345627 16132873 17188744 21816196 3 3682 17925212

El

Sunday 18 May 2014

Stacking The Shelves #37


Showcase Sunday's/Stacking the Shelves aim is to showcase our newest bookNes or book related swag and to see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, bought in bookshops and downloaded onto eReaders this week. This Sunday meme is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea and Tynga's Reviews:

For review: 

15804395 18001673 18777181


Edelweiss: 

18629799


El

Thursday 15 May 2014

Review: Me Since You by Laura Wiess

12989100Title: Me Since You
Author: Liesa Wiess
Genre: contemporary, YA
Publisher: MTV books
Publication date: February 18th 2014
Pages: 368 (paperback) 






Are there any answers when someone you love makes a tragic choice?

Before and After. That's how Rown Areno sees her life now. Before: she was a normal sixteen-year-old - a little too sheltered by her police officer father and her mother. After: everything she once believed has been destroyed in the wake of a shattering tragedy, and every day is there to be survived. 

If she had known, on that Friday in March when she cut school, that a random stranger's shocking crime would have traumatic consequences, she never would have left campus. If the crime video never went viral, maybe she could have saved her mother, grandmother - and herself - from the endless replay of heartache and grief. 

Finding a soul mate in Eli, a witness to the crime who is haunted by losses of his own, Rowan begins to see there is no simple, straightforward path to healing wounded hearts. Can she learn to trust, hope and, believe in happiness again? 


Me Since You was so sad but also so moving. It is really eye opening. Laura Wiess captured the grief Rowan and her family had to go through well. And she showed beautifully how each person reacts different to the same situation.

 The first couple of chapters didn’t start that unusual. We get to meet Rowan, a normal teenage girl, who skips a day of school with her best friend in order to hang out with some senior guys. But Rowan could never have imagined that this single decision would cause a ripple effect that would change her family forever. The real tragedy doesn’t occur till we are a quarter in the book. This way we can see better the kind of impact it had on Rowan and those surrounding her, the before and after.

After the unthinkable happened Rowan is on a rollercoaster that only seems to go downwards and she doesn’t know how to make it stop. She even doesn’t know if she wants it to stop. Together with Rowan we pass all stages of grief: numbness, sadness, anger and forgiveness. Nobody seems to understand her. Why can’t she move on, after all it has been months since it happened. It’s a real eye opener, as an outsider you never know what is going on in people like Rowan’s life. But know you kind of get to see it.

This book wasn’t all sadness. There were also happy moments in it. There was young hopeful love and friendship. But most of all this book is about moving on and finding the light in the dark. In the end Rowan find her own way to get her rollercoaster back up. And the character growth was amazing, it’s impossible not to mature after what Rowan went through but still.


Me Since You was an amazing book about overcoming grief. It shows that there will always be light at the end of the tunnel no matter how dark it might seem at the moment. 


El


Wednesday 14 May 2014

Waiting on Wednesday #50: Witch Hunt (Witch Finder #2) by Ruth Warburton



Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. It spotlights books that have not yet been released, but ones that you should pre-order today! This week's book that I am anxiously awaiting is:


Witch Hunt
by Ruth Warburton 

20320441

London, 1880. Eighteen-year-old Witch Hunter Luke Lexton has failed his inition into the Malleus Maleficorum - the secretive brotherhood devoted to hunting witches. Instead of killing the witch he picked from the Book of Witches, he has committed the worst possible crime: he has fallen for her. 
Sixteen-year-old witch Rosa Greenwood has failed to secure her struggling family's future by  marrying the handsome, cruel, rich and powerful Sebastian Knyvet. Instead she has set fire to his factory and brought disgrace on her family. Now together they are on the run - from Rosa's ex-fiancĂ© and from Luke's former brothers  in the Malleus. As they flee across England, and with the danger of their past catching up to them.. can they overcome their differences? Can a witch hunter ever find love with a witch girl? 


Why I can't wait
 I know that many people found the first book in this series Witch Finder average at the best but I really enjoyed it. And after what happened at the end of Witch Finder I can't wait to find out what's going to happen next to Luke and Rose.

Publication date: June 5th 2014

El

Tuesday 13 May 2014

Teaser Tuesday #22: Wicked Sense (Singularity #1) by Fabio Bueno


Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading!

To participate all you have to do is:
- Grab your current read- Open to a random page
- Share "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!


Wicked Sense 
by Fabio Bueno


15980406

"The uniqueness of my car is a huge problem. Parking it on the street as if I'm in some bad cop movie is ridiculous. My Volvo calls attention anywhere. Also, I can't figure out how the cops pull that off. It's clear that a stranger sitting in a car for hours will make residents call 911." 
(p. 189 ebook) 

El

Monday 12 May 2014

Book Blast + Giveaway: Love, Lucy by April Lindner



Title: LOVE, LUCYAuthor: April Lindner
Genre: Contemporary, YA
Publisher: PoppyRelease date: January 27, 2015

Author links: Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Goodreads
Buy links: Amazon | The Book Depository





While backpacking through Florence, Italy, during the summer before she heads off to college, 17-year-old Lucy Sommersworth finds herself falling in love with the culture, the architecture, the food...and Jesse Palladino, a handsome street musician. After a whirlwind romance, Lucy returns home, determined to move on from her "vacation flirtation." But just because summer is over doesn't mean Lucy and Jesse are over, too.


About the author


April Lindner is the author of three novels: Catherine, a modernization of Wuthering Heights; Jane, an update of Jane Eyre; and Love, Lucy, due out in January, 2015. She also has published two poetry collections, Skin and This Bed Our Bodies Shaped. She plays acoustic guitar badly, sees more rock concerts than she’d care to admit, travels whenever she can, cooks Italian food, and lavishes attention on her pets—two Labrador retriever mixes and two excitable guinea pigs. A professor of English at Saint Joseph’s University, April lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons.

Giveaway

A $15 Amazon eGift Card to ONE winner.
Ends May 26th at 11:59 p.m. Pacific.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guestpost

The Top Ten Things I Love About Italy
By Lucy Sommersworth

10.  Train stations.  They make my heart beat a little bit faster.  I especially love the departure signs lit up with the names of exotic cities.  They make me want to pick a destination at random—Venice or Milan or Naples, basically any place I’ve never been before—and just jump on, trusting that some kind of wonderful adventure will be waiting for me when I hop off.  I would do it too except for the fact that Charlene, the friend I’m traveling with, likes schedules and order.  I could never talk her into doing something that reckless.
9.  The language.  Italian is so lush and musical.  Not that I can speak it, exactly.  I took Italian in high school, and I can remember just enough to say basic things like excuse me and I would like the Spaghetti Bolognese, please.  But even just reading the street signs out loud makes me feel like a different version of myself—more worldly and glamorous.  And even the most ordinary words, the ones that mean ATM or supermarket—sound glorious in Italian.
8.  Italian men.   What can I say?  I’ve always had a thing for dark brown eyes.
7.  Window shopping. I could do it all day long.  Window displays are different in Italy, quirkier and more colorful.  I especially love the sparkling little jewelry stores on the Ponte Vecchio, the funky clothing store displays, and store windows full of colorful, exotic treats—marzipan fruit, and candied rose and violet petals.



6.  Sidewalk cafes.  Nobody minds if you linger forever over a single cappucino, just soaking in the atmosphere and watching the people pass by. 
5.  Gelato.  After a few hours, walking around Florence can make a person exhausted.  Luckily, wherever you turn, there’s a glass storefront gleaming with refreshing gelato—a miniature rainbow-colored mountain range of it: raspberry, mango, lemon, dark chocolate, hazelnut, pistachio—and all of it amazing.
4.  Street Performers.  Though Charlene insists they’re just begging and we shouldn’t give them our money, I can’t help myself.  I love them all: street musicians, the people who draw chalk masterpieces in the street, the folks who dress up as statues and pose for tourists.  I’ve even got a soft spot for mimes!



3.  Riding on a Vespa.  Please don’t tell my mom, okay?  She would have a panic attack if she knew.
2.  Pretending I’m Audrey Hepburn.  Roman Holiday is one of my all-time favorite movies, and the reason I wanted to go to Italy in the first place.  Audrey Hepburn plays Princess Ann, who has grown deathly bored with having to give speeches and act stiff and regal.  On a stop in Rome she runs away, and wanders through the city pretending to be a commoner.  Of course she falls in love with Gregory Peck.  Like her, he’s pretending, acting like a nice, ordinary guy who just wants to show her around Rome, when really he’s a reporter with ulterior motives.  He recognizes her, and plans to write a tell-all story about her for his newspaper.
I won’t spoil the ending.  I’ll just add that if you’re planning a trip to Rome, you need to see Roman Holiday first.  And then, if you happen to meet a gorgeous, dark-eyed stranger, maybe you can get him take you on a Roman Holiday tour, and you can pretend to be Audrey Hepburn the way I did.
1. The amazing people I met along the way.   Swapping stories with other backpackers about our travels and misadventures.  Vacation flirtations with dark-eyed strangers.  And, just maybe, experiencing a real summer romance.

El