Blog Tour Stop : Bounce by Noelle August

Summary (from Goodreads) 

Title : Bounce (Boomerang #3)
Author : Noelle August
Publication Date :  August 25th 2015
Publisher : William Morrow
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes & Noble

Playing the occasional club gig just isn’t cutting it for twenty-two-year-old cellist Skyler Canby, who’s trying to support herself and her mother back home in Kentucky. Persuaded by her best friend Beth to accompany her on an audition for the first feature film launched by Blackwood Entertainment, she figures why not? Beth’s a shoe-in for the lead, but maybe Skyler’s newly dyed pink hair will help her stand out enough to score a small speaking part.

Never in her wildest dreams does Skyler imagine she’ll land the lead role or that she’ll have her shoes knocked off her feet by the kiss her audition partner, Grey Blackwood, plants on her—a kiss that feels very real and not at all “acted. ”

After throwing a party that causes thousands of dollars of damage to his older brother’s home, reckless musician Grey Blackwood gets roped into working off his debt on the set of his CEO brother’s newest project. Grey spends his days fetching coffee and doing odd jobs around the studio, but he lives for nights when he performs with his band. He knows if he can stay focused, success as a singer is just around the corner. But that’s tough with a distracting pink-haired girl occupying his every waking thought.

Skyler and Grey have every reason to resist each other. But, like a song neither of them can get out of their minds, they have no choice but to go where the music takes them. 

Personal Thoughts

This series has consistently been amazing for me. With every book, I fell in love with this writing duo's stories and characters. Bounce had a different tone from the two previous books and I was initially worried that it wouldn't live up to all the expectations I had built up, but in the end, Noelle August managed to win me over with their lovely writing style.

The biggest difference in Bounce was the darker tone the book took. Both Boomerang and Rebound had that lighter and fluffier feel to it that Bounce did not possess. To be honest, I was a little bit disappointed at first because the popular NA trope of two characters with angsty pasts is very much prevalent in the book. It's a trope that I'm honestly tired of, but here's the great thing, these two authors were able to actually make me like the way the trope was written. Both Skylar and Grey were at that point in their lives where everything was falling apart and they didn't know what they wanted out of life. I connected easily with the characters because earlier this year, I went through exactly that phase. It wasn't easy and I thought the authors captured that despair and confusion very well.

When we meet Grey, he is just waking up at his brother's destroyed house after a raging party. Grey's punishment? Work for his brother, Adam's, movie production company to make up for the damage he had caused. Grey was no Ethan or Adam for me. He wasn't the confident man that his brother was, but he was goal-oriented and pushed through to achieve his dream. The focus of the book was a lot on his shaky relationship with the woman who raised him, his step-mother. He was also struggling to fit into the Blackwood mold with both his father and his brother being very successful figures in their careers.Grey's passion was music and I loved watching his devotion to music really come to the surface and was rooting for him and his career. Sky too was going through her own set of family issues. Her dad was a traveling musician who often left her mother all by herself for days without any source of income and this was a huge burden on Sky who was herself still discovering what she wanted to do with her life. I felt for her and watching her put so much pressure on herself was really heartbreaking.

Thankfully, Skylar had some amazing female friends that were always there for her. The strong female friendships that had no tinge of jealousy was one of my favorite things about Bounce. I loved how these girls were supportive of each other. I was especially proud of Sky's actress friend, Beth, who loses a movie part to Sky. She was obviously upset about not getting the part, but she never once put down her friend or let jealousy get in the way of their friendship. I need more depictions of such great friendships in my books! It's honestly so heartwarming to read about.

The romance in Bounce between Skylar and Grey was slow and beautifully paced. Those two started off with a steaming kiss at an audition and while the pages were brimming with their intense chemistry, they became good friends before they became a couple. I loved watching the progression of their relationship. Bounce did have a bit of a triangle and I could have done without it, but it's not one that was frustrating or rage-inducing. You knew exactly how things would end relationship-wise and the other guy was more of a small hurdle to their relationship. I did wish that Grey didn't doubt that he was good enough for Sky early on, but given his circumstances, it was easy to see where his insecurities were stemming from. Once he and Skylar were together though, despite it taking a long time, it was romantic and magical and gave me the feels!

I also liked seeing the "behind the scenes" of a movie production. Noelle August showcased both the glamorous and ugly side that can come with a career in movies. We also got glimpses of the previous couples in the series and it made me so happy to see them together and thriving at their relationships and careers.

While Bounce wasn't as light-hearted as Boomerang and Rebound were, it was still a book that I loved because the authors did a fantastic job with the characterization, the romance and the female friendships. I will miss these characters dearly, but Noelle August did them all justice. I hope that we get to read more of this duo's collaborations in the future.

Rating 

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 3/5
Characters : 4/5
Writing : 4/5

Author Biography
NOELLE AUGUST is an anagram for Veronica Rossi and Lorin Oberweger. Just kidding, it's a pen name!

VERONICA ROSSI is the author of the New York Times Best-selling UNDER THE NEVER SKY trilogy for young adults. The books are available in more than thirty countries and the film rights have been optioned by Warner Bros.

Veronica completed undergraduate studies at UCLA and lives in Northern California with her husband and two sons. She is fond of dresses with pockets, fluffy dogs, and cheese and chocolate -- but not together.

LORIN OBERWEGER began her storytelling career by captivating her first-grade class with tales of her summers on a kibbutz in Israel.

Lorin had never been to Israel.

While teacher/parent night put an end to her first experiments in fiction, she’d already caught the bug and eventually made a career of all things story.

As a long-time independent editor and story development guru, Lorin's client successes range from small press publications to major bestselling novels. She's an award-winning author and has also worked behind the scenes as a ghostwriter on a variety of projects. Her work has received starred Kirkus reviews and glowing mentions in The New York Times.

Oh, she did get to see a kibbutz, eventually, and found out she had it pretty much right all along.

Veronica and Lorin met at a writing workshop and just knew they were destined to create awesome things together.

Author Links:
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Giveaway 

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Thank you to Bookslapped for letting me be part of this blog tour and Edelweiss and Williams Morrow for the e-ARC of Bounce.