Blog Tour Stop : Lost and Found by Nicole Williams

The Lost and Found Blog Tour was organized by AToMR Blog Tours.

 Hi guys!

Welcome to my tour stop for the Lost and Found Blog Tour. As part of the tour, I'll be sharing with you all my review of the book. You can also scroll down for a giveaway to win some epic prizes. Also, don't forget to check out the rest of the tour stops here!

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : Lost and Found
Author : Nicole Williams
Publication Date : May 7th 2013
Publisher : Self-Published
Goodreads - Amazon

There’s complicated. And there’s Rowen Sterling.

After numbing pain for the past five years with boys, alcohol, and all-around apathy, she finds herself on a Greyhound bus to nowhere Montana the summer after she graduates high school. Her mom agreed to front the bill to Rowen’s dream art school only if Rowen proves she can work hard and stay out of trouble at Willow Springs Ranch. Cooking breakfast at the crack of dawn for a couple dozen ranch hands and mucking out horse stalls are the last things in the world Rowen wants to spend her summer doing.

Until Jesse Walker saunters into her life wearing a pair of painted-on jeans, a cowboy hat, and a grin that makes something in her chest she’d thought was frozen go boom-boom. Jesse’s like no one else, and certainly nothing like her. He’s the bright and shiny to her dark and jaded.

Rowen knows there’s no happily-ever-after for the golden boy and the rebel girl—happily-right-now is a stretch—so she tries to forget and ignore the boy who makes her feel things she’s not sure she’s ready to feel. But the more she pushes him away, the closer he seems to get. The more she convinces herself she doesn’t care, the harder she falls.

When her dark secrets refuse to stay locked behind the walls she’s kept up for years, Rowen realizes it’s not just everyone else she needs to be honest with. It’s herself.

Personal Thoughts

I find that New Adult books are like crack. No matter how overused the plot lines are, I simply can't help but read one when I see one has released. While Lost and Found did not offer anything new in the New Adult subgenre, it went beyond my expectations and I wound up loving it so much that I've decided to put it up in my favorite NA books shelf.
 

I knew what wanting to be anyone else was like. It was a huge waste. A person could try until they gave themselves an aneurism, but we can’t escape the soul and flesh we were given when we were born. The key was accepting that and getting on with your life.

The characters in this book were beautifully fleshed out. Full of life and energy, these were characters that were not only realistic but also incredibly easy to form a connection with. Nicole Williams' strongest point in this book was definitely her intricately crafted characters that were not simply names on paper, but that had multiple layers of complexity. The main character, Rowen, had a troubled past. Multiple boyfriends, poor grades and drugs were part of her teenage years. However, she has a passion for art and wanted to go to an art school, but she doesn't have the cash. So, her mother provides her with an ultimatum : if she spends her summer working at her childhood best friend's farm, she'll pay for Rowen's art school. Rowen's insecurities and fears were legitimate and although at times it frustrated me that she wouldn't stop pushing Jesse away, I understood her position. She wasn't someone who had gotten much love in her life so when Jesse showered her with love worth a lifetime, she found it to be unbelievable and she was scared that she would wind up hurt like always. Being on the farm truly helped Rowen grow as a person and it aided her in conquering her fears.

You know all those people who talk about epiphanies and life-changing revelations? Yeah, I’d been positive every last one of them was full of shit up until right then.

The character that I loved the most was, without any doubt, Jesse. Finally! Finally, we have an NA love interest who isn't a bad boy with issues as well. Nope. Jesse, the gorgeous cowboy, stole my heart away with his kind, loving and caring nature and quite possibly those tight jeans of his. I just loved him so much that my words won't be able to do his character any justice. His personality was a breath of fresh air. He was the sort of character that you cannot help but fall because he said and did the sweetest things ever. Not only did he have a heart made of gold, but he was also supportive of everyone around him. In addition, this book's secondary characters were also all brilliantly written. Each and everyone had their personality that made them realistic and relate-able. I loved the Walkers, Jesse's family. They were a bunch of compassionate people and their quirks made them such colorful characters. They were the sort of family you would love to be part of because they lived in this bubble of happiness no matter what faced them. Rowen's mother, on the other hand, was the complete opposite of  what a mother should be like. God, that woman sure was a piece of work! I seriously would not have minded giving her a punch or two had she been a real life person. I've already said this before, but I'm going to say it again : Nicole Williams created masterful and lively characters in this book and had the book involved simply these characters doing what they do in their daily lives without any plot or twists, I would still have loved it!

What we have isn’t the kind of thing that goes away when we’re separated by time or distance. It will suck not being able to kiss you every day, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make for you to be living your dreams.

The romantic elements in Lost and Found were also wonderfully written. The relationship between Jesse and Rowen was so much more than just an attraction. It was helping your significant other learning to love and in the process, helping them heal. Jesse and Rowen's relationship was intense and I found myself being completely emotionally invested in it. What I loved the most when these two characters were together in a scene was the humorous banter between them. They were both pretty funny characters and when they were together, the reader is granted with lots of humor. Another thing I really enjoyed about Lost and Found was that it was not overly dramatic like many NA books these days. Rowen's past was not all that dramatic and angsty as many other NA main characters and I truly appreciated that, because after a while you get tired of hearing about the terrible pasts and a handsome boy swooping in to save them from their past. While the angsty past was not absent from this book, it's presence was in the perfect dose to make you feel for the main character and not blown out of proportions.

When his mouth covered mine again, it wasn’t so still and soft. It may have started out that way for the shortest moment, but before my eyes closed, Jesse’s lips polished and sucked at mine like nothing I’d yet experienced. In addition to his other forms of divinity, the man was a kissing God.

As you can tell from this review, I really loved Lost and Found. I started it about 2 weeks ago but then had to stop reading it because of mid-terms and all that, but then yesterday when I picked it up, I simply did not want to put it down despite the fact that my eyelids were fighting to close. This is my first book by Nicole Williams, but let me tell you, it's not going to be my last. The wonderful cast, the beautifully written romance and the setting are what made this book a huge winner. Fans of NA, this is not a book to be missed out!

Sometimes we just have to cut off the dead branches in our life. Sometimes that’s the only way we can keep the tree alive. It’s hard and it hurts, but it’s what’s best.” She paused to take a breath. “Don’t let a dying branch take you down with it. Maybe one day she’ll change, but don’t go down with her, Rowen.

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 4/5
Characters : 4/5
Writing : 4/5

Author Biography

I'm a wife, a mom, a writer. I started writing because I loved it and I'm still writing because I
love it. I write young adult because I still believe in true love, kindred spirits, and happy endings.
Here's to staying young at heart *raises champagne glass* . . . care to join me?

Author Social Media Links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nwilliamsbooks

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nwilliamsbooks

Blog: http://nicoleawilliams.blogspot.com/

Giveaway

Prizes :
(1) Print copy of Lost and Found – Open International
(1) Leather cuff bracelet with metal inscription “Love is organized chaos” – Open
International
(1) $50 Amazon Gift Card – Open to countries that can use Amazon

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You guys, if you're fans of New Adult, then I totally recommend you read this book! You will totally love it, especially Jesse the characters, the farm setting and the drama-free romance! Have any of you read the book yet? If you did, let me in the comments below!

A big thank you to AToMR blog tours for allowing me to participate in this blog tour. Be sure to check out their website for more great tours.