Welcome to my stop on the No Turning Back blog tour
No Turning Back by Casey Peeler
ebook, 305 pages
Published September 25th 2013 by Self
Age Group: Upper YA/New Adult
Series: Full Circle #1
Source: eARC from Author
Summary:
After getting involved with Dylan, the bad boy of the Dixon High Swim team, Charley decides to stay close to home for college. It’s just safer that way. Later, she realizes it’s a mistake, just like dating Dylan. She decides to put the past behind her and leave the small hick town of Grassy Pond. There is only one problem; she makes this decision three weeks before the fall semester begins.
Charley packs up her Honda and heads to Southern College. On the morning she’s about to leave, Cash walks back into her life. He has been her best friend since they were four and is the only one who knows the REAL Charley. She leaves her farm in Grassy Pond with all kinds of “what if” questions.
Charley decides to live her college career to the fullest. She finds a great group of friends, joins the swim team, and meets a guy named Joe. He’s got eyes that make ya wanna melt!
At college, she encounters a new problem. Charley has been away from home for only forty-eight hours before she breaks the two promises she made to herself. Will she be able to overcome her past? Find new love? What will happen with Cash now that he is back in her life? Will she find what she is wanting in Jackalope Joe? How will her first semester of college end? Joe, Cash, or alone?
No Turning Back starts off crazy. There was no introductory get to know the characters part. There was just a very intense start to the story and right off the bat we have someone to hate- Dylan. Most of the book is about how Charley deals with the fallout of what Dylan did to her. Dylan isn’t even in most of the book, Charley dumps him and never talks to him again, but it’s like his presence is everywhere, affecting everything that she does. It’s hard for me to sum up my feelings about No Turning Back because it wasn’t that I disliked the book. I thought it was a well written and interesting story, there were just some aspects of it that didn’t work for me. The tough part is that I can see where this would be a great book for so many people.
Charley was the main problem for me in this story. And I hated that. I am such a character driven reader that when I encounter a main character that I want to like so bad and then I just can’t seem to mesh with, it makes me a little sad. The book is told in first person through Charley’s eyes and sometimes I was a little confused as to her motivations and what she was doing. It seemed choppy in parts, but the weird thing was I didn’t think the writing was choppy, it seemed like Charley herself was. She would make these decisions and I didn’t know why she did. She would just kind of skip some of the steps, which made for a confusing read at times. But I wanted to like her so much. I felt bad for what happened to her before college and I wanted to see so much growth with her as a person. Charley is a sweet southern girl, and I loved the way she was with her friends. I just couldn’t seem to get past the way she was with Cash and Joe. She jumped back and forth between the two of them so many times that I lost count. She would swear up and down that she couldn’t be with Cash but then whenever she saw him she was kissing him and telling him she loved him. And then the next day she would be back at school and with Joe 24/7. Charley started to grow on me as the book went on. I ended up liking her, but I never quite grew to love her. I am holding out hope for her in the second book though.
I loved Cash and Joe. They were both great guys. I didn’t even know which one I wanted Charley to choose because they were both so awesome. I just didn’t want her stringing both of them along until she made her choice. I thought that the two of them and Charley’s school friends, “the Kluf girls”, made the story. They were my favorite part of the book. The girls were hilarious and the guys were always there for Charley. They never let her go through anything alone. They were a bit overprotective at parts, but it was cute. The secondary characters outshone Charley for me in No Turning Back.
No Turning Back is very conversational and an easy read. The language is very informal and I can see a lot of people appreciating that. I thought it was more of a young adult feel than new adult though. While I didn’t love No Turning Back, I can see where it is a book that a lot of people will love. There are two great guys in the story and an interesting plot. And I didn’t see the ending coming at all. It completely took me by surprised and I really liked that. I was kind of just coasting along reading this book liking it, but also feeling kind of meh about it and then that ending came out of nowhere. It made me interested in the second book. I want to know just what everyone is going to go from here with this twist thrown in.
Casey Peeler grew up and still lives in North Carolina with her husband and daughter. Her first passion is teaching students with special needs. Over the years, she found her way to relax was in a good book.
After reading Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston her senior year of high school and multiple Nicholas Sparks’ novels, she found a hidden love and appreciation for reading.
Casey is an avid reader, blogger (Hardcover Therapy,) and now author. No Turning Back (Full Circle #1) is her debut novel releasing September 30th. Finding Charley (Full Circle #2) will release spring 2014.
Her goal is to one day be an author who is recognized nationwide like Jamie McGuire, Colleen Hoover, Tiffany King, and Amanda Bennett.
When Casey isn’t reading, you can find her listening to country music, spending the day at the lake, being a wife and dance mom, and spending time with friends and family.
Her perfect day consists of water, sand between her toes, a cold beverage, and a great book!Connect with Casey:
Blog: http://hardcovertherapy.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorCasey
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CaseyPeelerAuthor
Author Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7106874.Casey_Peeler
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Casey Peeler
Thanks so much for taking time out to review my book! I appreciate it! I have a feeling you will truly understand and connect with Charley in book 2!
Casey
Giselle
I’m the exact same way about the characters is I doN’t like them or don’t connect to them it makes me sad AND it makes the whole book kind of meh. I do like how it starts with a bang though to get you really into it so it’s a shame you didn’t feel it with Charley (I do love her name!). It sounds like maybe she wasn’t very open as a narrator and you couldn’t even tell her motivations. It does sound like an overall enjoyable read, though. Great review, Michelle!
Heidi@Rainy Day Ramblings
It is hard to enjoy a book when you don’t like the characters. I appreciate your honesty. I am so burned out on the same old same old in NA and I think this is one I would have passed on either way.
kimbacaffeinate
Great review Michelle, I do not have to like a character if I understand what motivates them.