Today on Novels On The Run I have my stop on the Saving Ben blog tour with my review and a giveaway to enter.
Saving Ben by Ashley Farley
Publication date: January 31st 2013
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Mystery
Synopsis:
Life is sweet for Katherine Langley. A freshman at the University of Virginia, she is free from the drama of her parents’ dysfunctional marriage and ready to focus on studying to become a nurse. Her brother, Ben, belongs to the hottest fraternity on campus, and her new roommate, Emma, is beautiful and charming, a party girl whose answer for a hangover is happy hour. She is also a psychopath.
When Katherine’s obsessive-compulsive overprotective brother succumbs to Emma’s charms and falls dangerously off-track, Katherine must save Ben from himself. Lives are threatened and someone disappears on New Year’s Day. The only evidence left: a single set of footprints in the snow.
From the university campus to a cozy cottage on Carter’s Creek, Virginia, Saving Ben is a haunting tale of love and loyalty, anger management, substance abuse, and betrayal.
BOOK REVIEW by Michelle: 4 BEN STARS!!
I got to say I am in two minds about this book. It was a great debut book for Ashley. I thought it was well edited and the story flowed well. The cover is stunning. Love it.
This is a story about a brother and sister who have parents who are more or less living in their own world. Sometimes a selfish world. Ben and Katherine aka Kitty attend the same college. Ben being the older, he is twenty one. Ben is protective of Kitty when it comes to college boys, and guys in general.
It doesn’t take long for Ben to find himself in a tangled web with the manipulative and at times sinister, Emma Stone.
Emma will be guaranteed to make you see ‘red’. You can tell where this biaatch is headed. She is not a good sort to get mixed up with. Unfortunately, she is Kitty’s roommate.
We watch Emma worm her way into Ben’s life and toss him about like trash emotionally. Sometimes there is no hope for a guy when he falls for the wrong girl. Emotionally he is doomed to follow almost like a lamb to the slaughter. Guys think with their dick. Not with their head.
We watch Kitty wake up to her roommates manipulation and Ben’s best mates, Spotty and Reed are on it too. But how do you tell somebody you love, get through to them when they see only what they want to see?
Drinking and partying and drug use pull Ben under and Kitty has to sit back and watch it happen. Her parents are no help, and Spotty and Reed almost have a bro code where they don’t get involved.
To sit back and watch one person be so damaging to a life that had everything going for it, is not something Kitty will do in the end.
Time to save Ben.
Emma is playing a dangerous game, one that will backfire on her and Kitty must go all Nancy Drew to save her brother.
I’m not a huge fan of reading about a black widow style of character. I find them stressful reads, but Ashley handled it well.
Emma is playing a dangerous game, one that will backfire on her and Kitty must go all Nancy Drew to save her brother.
I’m not a huge fan of reading about a black widow style of character. I find them stressful reads, but Ashley handled it well.
I am not familiar with rush and pledges when it comes to sorority, to me it sounds like a pain in the ass having to prove yourself and get all stressed about a group wanting you.
Sometimes I felt like I wasn’t connecting as well as I should be with the characters.
I really like Thompson. He felt like a real person in this story who you could trust and he connected with me pretty quickly.
I really liked Archer too. She is a great sub character.
Abigail I thought was a great tormented character. Yabba had issues that were very real and deep and ...sad.
I think I enjoyed the latter part of the book more as I felt the pace picked up and the characters had more energy.
A book with heartache, betrayal, drugs, partying and loss, that should never have happened. In life some of us hurt more on the inside than we are willing to share and that can be our downfall. The damage left behind for the family members can often be so hurtful that it is hard to come back from.
I have watched drugs ruin a guy I knew, we could all see where it was headed, it was only a matter of time. We watched his parents try everything they could, but it was never going to be enough. It ended up quite sinister his life, until he had no life left. He felt he had only one way out. And sadly , he took it.
This is a tragic read in parts with a time to repair damaged relationships, and to move forward in life, some bumps in the road are bigger and more challenging than others.
Sometimes we can fight the battle and win.....sometimes we can fight and fight.... and everybody loses.
Michelle
AUTHOR BIO
I wrote a novel, SAVING BEN, in honor of my brother, the boy I worshipped, the man I could not save. It’s not a memoir, but a story about the special bond between siblings.
I'm a wife and mother of two teenagers. I have lived in Richmond, Virginia, for seventeen years, a city I love for its history and traditions. Personal experience with my brother inspired me to become involved with the leadership symposium in my son’s school where I’ve helped bring in speakers to raise parents’ awareness of the alcohol and drug problems children face. When I’m not steering volunteer committees or working on my next novel, I can be found swimming laps or playing tennis.
Links:
Website: http://ashleyfarley.net/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashleywfarley
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AshleyWFarley
I love this -->Sometimes we can fight the battle and win.....sometimes we can fight and fight.... and everybody loses.
ReplyDeleteI'm PMS-ing so maybe that's why I'm going emo but this rang a clear and loud bell. Thanks for hosting this giveaway!
PMS-ing will do that to ya :) You are most welcome Matey :D
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