Friday, March 24, 2017

Blog Tour ~ A Boy Worth Knowing by Jennifer Cosgrove ~ (Reviews + Giveaway)

Title: A Boy Worth Knowing

Author: Jennifer Cosgrove

Publisher: NineStar Press - SunFire Imprint

Release Date: March 20

Heat Level: 1 - No Sex

Pairing: Male/Male

Length: 62200

Genre: Romance, Young Adult, NineStar Press, LGBT, gay, bisexual, romance, young adult, contemporary, paranormal, coming of age, ghosts, family drama, high school, bullying

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Synopsis

Ghosts can’t seem to keep their opinions to themselves.

Seventeen-year-old Nate Shaw should know; he’s been talking to them since he was twelve. But they aren’t the only ones making his high school years a living hell. All Nate wants is to keep his secret and keep his head down until he can graduate. That is, until the new boy, James Powell, takes a seat next to him in homeroom. James not only notices him, he manages to work his way into Nate’s life. But James has issues of his own.

Between dead grandmothers and living aunts, Nate has to navigate the fact that he’s falling in love with his only friend, all while getting advice from the most unusual places.

Ghosts, bullies, first love: it’s a lot to deal with when you’re just trying to survive senior year.

Excerpt

A Boy Worth Knowing
Jennifer Cosgrove © 2017
All Rights Reserved

I loved autumn mornings.

The October air was just cold enough to set my lungs on fire, my breath visible in clouds of condensation, forcing all of the crap clogging up my head into the recycle bin. Bonus, I could pretend I was a dragon. Nothing could touch me; my morning run made everything go away, lost in miles at a time. Down an isolated country road.

Everything changed when I was twelve, and not for the better. That was when I started running. Five years of road I’d put behind me. My mom worried about me the first time I took off alone. Well, when she used to worry about me. I wished she was more worried about the reason I was running instead of the fact I was doing it down an empty road.

I turned the corner about a mile after leaving home, and that was when I saw him. Samuel was always lurking among the sunken headstones. Most people had no clue there used to be a cemetery out there. Looking closely, some of the stones that made up the foundation of the chapel could still be seen. No one else ever paid that much attention to it. Samuel glared at me as I got closer. He was a surly one.

My life was like the horror movies I loved. I talked to the dead. Well, technically dead. They were really spirits, or whatever. Whatever was left behind when people died. And they talked to me, for some reason. There was nothing like sitting in math class and having a ghost whisper in my ear while trying to take notes.

It happened all the damn time. I didn’t know how to handle it at first. And no one wanted to hang out with the crazy kid in the back of the room, muttering away to himself. I got used to it. Really. And the lack of a social life helped me get all of my homework done on time; all of the teachers loved me. That was good. Talking to ghosts wasn’t all bad.

I waved at Samuel as I ran by the cemetery. He shook a fist at me in return. Samuel wasn’t evil or anything, just grumpy. Couldn’t blame him, though. I looked him up one time and found out he’d died in the late eighteen hundreds. The cause of death on record was a heart attack. But Samuel told me his brother-in-law had poisoned him because he wouldn’t sell him his prize mule. I had no clue what was so special about that mule, but his brother-in-law evidently thought it was worth killing him over. I’d have been pretty surly myself.

Past the forgotten cemetery, a few miles to the McGregor farm, and then I’d swing around for home. Yes, I said McGregor farm. Small-town life— I couldn’t have made this stuff up if I’d tried.

There was another house just past the farm where I had to watch out for their beast of a dog. Dogs weren’t huge fans of mine. My Nana had a theory they could sense a bit of whatever it was that let us chat with those who’d “passed on.” I had no idea how that was even possible, but cats loved me, so yay.

Speaking of which, Aunt Susan’s overly fluffy cat waited by our mailbox. Arthur did that every time I went out for a run. He would sit there and then fall in behind to follow up the driveway until we got to the house. Then, it was a shady spot on the porch in the summer or, if it was cold like that day, into the house in front of the fireplace. I loved predictability.

The house used to be my grandmother’s. It was a standard farmhouse, old and creaky just like dozens more all around us, and it could have stood a little paint. But we called it home, and we liked it. It became Aunt Susan’s home. It had been left to her after Nana died, since my mom already owned one. It was a little out of the way and a long drive to the hospital where my aunt worked. But it was paid for, and that meant a lot.

I had to be quiet going in because Aunt Susan was not a morning person, and the floor squeaked just inside the back door. I was very much a morning person, and I followed the same routine each school or work day. Flipping on the coffee maker, I headed to my room to get ready for school. I got the shower running, since it took a while to heat up in an old farmhouse, and took a sniff to make sure a shower was actually necessary. Oh, yeah. I was gross.

Purchase

NineStar Press - SunFire Imprint | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Smashwords

Three Quick Question for Jennifer Cosgrove author of A Boy Worth Knowing

Do you have any advice for all the aspiring writers out there?

Write! And write some more. Then find someone you trust to read your writing. Go online and find a community if you don’t have a ‘real life’ writing community to fall back on. I have made so many friends through writing and it’s nice to have that support system to vent to or bounce ideas off of.

If you could travel forward or backward in time, where would you go and why?

The easy answer is go back in time to smack Arthur Conan Doyle and tell him to remember the name of one of his main characters consistently. They don’t call him Arthur ‘Continuity’ Doyle for nothing!

The harder answer is that I would like to go forward in time to see how things shake out in the crazy times we live in now. At least then I would know which battles to focus on.

We’ve all got a little voyeurism in us right? If you could be a fly on the wall during an intimate encounter (does not need to be sexual) between two characters, not your own, who would they be?

I hope move/comic book characters count because I would kill for some extra footage of Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson riding around in a tiny Volkswagen Beetle in Captain America: Civil War. Seriously! Three large men riding around in a very small car, that has got to be comedy gold. The awkward silences, trying to make conversation, imagine the possibilities!

4 Stars

I adored this story. I thought Nate's affliction was interesting and entertaining to read about. Most of his interactions with the ghosts were comical and had me laughing out loud. Both Nate and James were sweet and lovable characters. I thought they had an excellent chemistry and I loved the natural progression from friends to more. The pace seemed realistic and believable. There were times when my heart broke for Nate and I wanted to give James a good swift kick in the butt, but I thoroughly enjoyed their story.

Although the story is told completely from Nate's POV, we still get to know James fairly well. The story was well-written, but a bit slow at times. Still, it was a delightful read, with likable and not-so-likable characters, packed with humor, heart and a boatload of teenage angst. Very recommendable!!

*Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie for my reading pleasure, a review wasn’t a requirement.*

4.5 Stars!

I have to say I wasn't so sure about this one at first but a few pages in and I was completely engrossed in the story of 17-year-old Nate Shaw.

Nate is a Social outcast amongst the students at his high school. Considered a freak for talking to "ghosts", he spends most of his time alone counting down the days til graduation. Even his own mother is afraid of him. Currently living with his aunt in the home owned by his grandmother before she recently passed away, Nate has learned how to block out unwanted ghostly interactions. Of course, the upside of seeing spirits is being able to talk to his beloved grandmother whenever he likes.

However, things change for Nate when new student James moves to town. James immediately befriends Nate, not caring that the other students warn him that Nate is a freak. James finds they have a lot in common and for the first time in years, Nate can actually say he has a friend. Quickly, though, Nate realizes two things, first, he definitely likes James as more than a friend and second, James has a very sad spirit attached to him.

As the boys grow closer, Nate struggles with telling James about his gift/curse and their friendship is tested when James gets a girlfriend. Navigating high school was hard before but now Nate finds himself in a situation he's never experienced. Go back to being alone or accept that James and he will only ever be friends.

This book was such a great combination of humor and young romance, coming of age and difficulties teenagers face from their peers for being "different" or unique. There is bullying and the feeling of being alone. There is grief from losing loved ones and learning to navigate relationships.

This may have that paranormal element of seeing and interacting with Ghosts but the story, in general, felt so real and even brought me back to my days in high school (unfortunately). I'm pretty sure most readers will be able to relate to this story in some way and that is one of the things I loved the most.

The writing was fantastic and I am very excited to see what the future has in store for this author. Whether a continuation of young adult or New Adult stories I will definitely be on the lookout for more. I highly recommend this one!

***Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie by the author/publisher for my reading pleasure in hopes of an unbiased opinion, a review was not a requirement.***

Meet the Author

Jennifer has always been a voracious reader and a well-established geek from an early age. She loves comics, movies, and anything that tells a compelling story. When not writing, she likes knitting, dissecting/arguing about movies with her husband, and enjoying the general chaos that comes with having kids.