Friday, January 29, 2016

Heart in a Box by Catherine Stine Blog Tour



Hi, and welcome to my stop on the tour!! Thanks for stopping in today! You will find info on the book, the author, Catherine Stine, and of course, My Thoughts (cause I love to share!!). Oh, and make sure you check out other stops on the tour for author interviews, guest posts, and lots more fun!


Link to Goodreads:
Purchase Links:
Link to Tour Schedule:
Giveaway Information:  Provided by the Author
The prize pack includes:
A $40 gift card, 2 hand-painted heart-boxes with secret treasure inside, a signed paperback of Dorianna by Catherine Stine, a signed paperback of Heart in a Box by Catherine Stine, a great YA ebook pack of novels: Tiger Lily by Wende Dikec, When Sorrows Come by Katie M John, and Time Runs Away with Her by Christine Potter.
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a Rafflecopter giveaway





Heart in a Box by Catherine Stine
Publication Date:  December 20, 2015
Publisher:  Inkspell Publishing
Each heartbeat leads Joss closer a shocking truth that will change everything.
Joss Olstad wins the fight to switch from her private school to a public high to “find her pieces” she lost when the Indian artist father she never knew died. There, Joss struggles with a slutty friend, who flirts with her new love; Indian Culture Club girls who press her on her past, as well as her stoner mother’s lies back at home.  Armed only with her handmade heart boxes that hold private messages, Joss’s search for identity leads her to a scary industrial section of Queens, and a shocking family secret that changes everything.
My Thoughts: 

The Cover: Such a pretty cover as a young girl looks at a small heart shaped box she holds in the palms of her hands. Treasures appears to be leaking out of the box. I really liked the colorful cover for this book. It gave the feeling of a light-hearted story. But you know what they say-never judge a book by it's cover.

The Plot: Heart in a Box is a story of a teenage girl struggling to be accepted in high school. And oh yeah, to figure out who she is. As if that's not hard enough, she has grown up without any inkling of who her father was and very little details about him or his relationship with her mother. Heart in a Box was a well written story about being brave enough to be who you want to be, while standing strong to what you believe in. And realizing that while you may not know exactly who you are at such a young age, that that's okay. And that our ancestry might be a mystery, but that's okay too. Because it's just as much our experiences and what we learn from them that make us who we are.

The Characters: While I enjoyed the storyline and liked the characters well enough, I felt that, for the most part, they fit into formulas. Joss, our protagonist, was the angsty, 'who am I, why is life so hard?' teenager. Katya, was the loose friend who flirted and messed around with every guy, but realizes the error of her ways at the end of the story and almost at the expense of her friendship with the protagonist. Will is so sweet and perfect that I truly expected to find out he was sleeping with Katya. Or for him to get Joss to sleep with him then break up with her. Trenton was the not too bright football jock, whom I expected to try to blackmail Joss with her secret about meeting Oskar on the beach. There is ever the wacky teacher that our protagonist despises at first, then ends up developing and understanding with and learning from. So while some characters were not as cut and dry as others, as few still left a bit to be desired.


Is it Worth Reading?: Definitely, the storyline was good and did not go as I expected at all. It was an emotional read as our protagonist learned things she had been dying to know forever. And as she learned to accept who she was. I do recommend Heart in a Box to readers of YA Contemporary and give it 4 out of 5 crossbows.





Catherine Stine writes YA and romance. Her novels span the range from futuristic to supernatural to contemporary. Her YA sci-fi thrillers Fireseed One and Ruby’s Fire are Amazon bestsellers and indie award winners. Her YA, Dorianna won Best Horror Book in the Kindle Hub Awards. She also writes romance as Kitsy Clare. Her Art of Love series includes Model Position and Private Internship. She suspects her love of dark fantasy came from her father reading Edgar Allen Poe to her as a child, and her love of contemporary fiction comes from being a jubilant realist. Visit her at catherinestine.com and subscribe to her newsletter for news of releases, workshops and appearances.
Catherine’s website: http://catherinestine.com/wp/


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