Blog Tour: The Heartbreak Cure by Amanda Ashby (Review & Giveaway!)

The Heartbreak Cure by Amanda Ashby

Publication Date: December 4, 2017

Publisher: Entangled Teen: Crush

Summary/Cover Image from Publisher's Website: 

How to get over a heartbreak:

Step one: Eat your body weight in brownies.

Step two: Throw yourself into your dreams of becoming a famous writer.

Step three: Beg your (hottie) ex-neighbor to act as your fake boyfriend.

Step four: Skip step three unless you’re ready for some serious fallout.

After being dumped and humiliated over the summer, Cat Turner does what any sane girl would do. She asks bad boy Alex Locke to be her fake boyfriend and show the world (and her editor at the school newspaper) that she's fine. Problem is, the more time she spends with Alex, the more she risks getting her heart broken. For real this time.

Disclaimer: This Entangled Teen Crush book contains a swoony bad boy who will melt your heart, brownies, and witty banter. One, two, or all three might prove addictive...

Review: 

I've read several of Amanda Ashby's books in the past (Fairy Bad Day and You Had Me at Halo), and I've always enjoyed how sweet and fun they are. Therefore, when I heard about her newest release, The Heartbreak Cure, I instantly added it to my TBR. 

The Result? The Heartbreak Cure is as sweet and delicious as a sugar cookie! 

The Heartbreak Cure introduces us to Cat Turner and Alex Locke. 

When The Heartbreak Cure begins Cat is suffering the ultimate heartbreak. She's sad, depressed, and feeling just a tad bit dumb. She's drowning her sorrows in ice cream, writing angry scenes, and watching sappy movies; however, she refuses to let sadness last forever, and instead, jumps full force into a new school year with the help of her best friend and her neighbor turned fake boyfriend. From that moment - when Cat decided to move on - I knew I was gong to like her. I love when characters don't let the bad get them down! Better yet, I enjoyed seeing so many different sides to Cat in The Heartbreak Cure. She was a great friend, an innovative newspaper writer, and a loving daughter; however, I also liked that she struggled at times with saying/doing the right thing, especially when it came to her budding romance with Alex. It added realness to her character. 

Alex, on the other hand, has been dealt the short stick more than once in life; however, there's something about Cat that makes him want to come out of his shell and live again. Alex is the ultimate boy best friend turned love interest. I loved how sweet and tender he was with Cat, especially right after her break-up. He had a heart of gold. Additionally, I love/hated that Amanda Ashby showed the struggles he faced in the book. I loved them because they allowed me to get to know and understand him, and I hated them at times because, gosh, I just wanted him to realize that he could have a happy ending.  

As hinted to above, the plot in this was very sweet. I'm always a sucker for a fake relationship turned real. I thought Amanda did a great job of developing Cat and Alex's relationship, and better yet, I loved that it wasn't the only focuses in the story. It was fun to see Cat's newspaper assignments, Alex's path to redemption, Cat's best friend finding love of her own, Alex's grandmother's meddling ways, and Cat and her mom's Gilmore Girls like bond. 

In all, The Heartbreak Cure is yet another great addition to the Entangled Crush line. However, be warned: you'll be craving brownies the whole way through! 

Grade: B 

The Heartbreak Cure is now out! 

Source: eARC provided by publicist - thanks Melissa! 

Add on Goodreads! 

Buy Links: 

Amazon | Amazon Australia | Amazon UK | Amazon Canada | B&N | iBooks | Kobo

About the Author: 

Amanda Ashby was born in Australia but now lives in New Zealand where she writes romance, young adult and middle grade books. She also works in a library, owns far too many vintage tablecloths and likes to delight her family by constantly rearranging the furniture. She has a degree in English and Journalism from the University of Queensland and is married with two children. Her debut book was nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice award, and her first young adult book was listed by the New York Public Libraryʼs Stuff for the Teen Age.  Because she’s mysterious she also writes middle grade books under the name, Catherine Holt and hopes that all this writing won’t interfere with her Netflix schedule.

Author Links: 

Website • Facebook • Pinterest • Instagram • Goodreads

Giveaway: 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guest Post by Amanda Ashby

As part of Amanda Ashby's Teen Book Scene tour for Fairy Bad Day, I have a guest post by Amanda to share with you all today. So without a further ado...

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My Question:

In Fairy Bad Day the characters are each assigned a specfic area of slaying, so what exactely are all the different areas of slaying involved? In addition, which area would you pick if you were given the chance to? Why?

Amanda's Response:

Oh, great question!!!!! According to Sir Francis and his famous handbook, A Complete and Utter Reference to the Vile and Evil Creatures that have Spewed Forth from the Gate of Linaria and How they Shall be Slain—In Three Volumes (which, by the way is a lot catchier in the original Latin) there are twelve different elemental creatures.

The fire elementals are salamanders, dragons and phoenixes

The earth elementals are goblins, demons and ogres

The sky elementals are fairies, elves and griffins

The water elementals are selkies, sirens and krackens.

Anyway, while Emma longs to follow in her mom’s footsteps and become a dragon slayer, I think if I had to choose one, I would prefer to fight an earth elemental like a goblin or an ogre. Sure you need to be strong and fit to slay them but at least they can’t burn you like the fire elementals and your skin doesn’t get all water logged, like when you’re slaying water elementals, oh and you definitely can’t get glamoured like with the sky elementals.

On the downside, fighting earth elementals does involve a lot of running since ogres are mighty fond of throwing heaving objects such as trees at people, and if you’ve ever been hit by an ogre-thrown tree, you’ll know that it’s not something you want to happen on a regular basis. In fact, now that I think about it ogres also like to eat your eyeballs if they catch you, which really doesn’t sound very nice, so I’m starting to think that I maybe I should just fail all of my slaying exams and then I could stay home where it is nice and safe!!!!! Plus, despite the fancy footwear Emma is wearing on the cover of Fairy Bad Day, everyone knows that you can't fight elementals in heels and I'm not so sure that I'm a big fan of sensible shoes!!!!

~~~

Thanks for stopping by Amanda, and I have to agree that while fighting ogres would be fun, there would be plenty of downsides as well. :)

To find out more about Fairy Bad Day and Amanda, be sure to check out her website here.

This tour is also a scavenger hunt. Be sure to visit each of the stops on the blog tour and collect the bolded letter at the bottom of the post. On June 25th, you will have the opportunity to enter the word you created from the mixed up letters on Amanda's blog (http://amandaashby.blogspot.com/) to win a fun prize pack. The pack includes a signed copy of Fairy Bad Day, some candy, and cute cell phone charms.

My letter is S. 

Fairy Bad Day by Amanda Ashby

Summary/Cover Image from Publisher's Website:

While most students at Burtonwood Academy get to kill demons and goblins, fifteen-year-old Emma gets to rid the world of little annoying fairies with glittery wings and a hipster fashion sense. She was destined to be a dragon slayer, but cute and charming Curtis stole her spot. Then she sees a giant killer fairyÑand it's invisible to everyone but her! If Emma has any chance of stopping this evil fairy, she's going to need help. Unfortunately, the only person who can help is Curtis. And now, not only has he stolen her dragon-slayer spot, but maybe her heart as well! Why does she think it's going to be a fairy bad day?

Review:

If you are looking for a fun, feel-good type of read, look no further because Amanda Ashby’s Fairy Bad Day is the book for you. Full of frilly entertainment, delightful romance, and plenty of intense fight scenes, this book is nothing short of addicting.

Fairy Bad Day starts the day Burtonwood Academy’s sophomores are receiving their slaying assignments, and for Emma Jones, this is no biggie, as it’s basically a given she’ll be given the assignment she’s been working towards since she was born- dragon slaying. Much to her surprise and horror, her precious assignment is given to Curtis Green, leaving her with fairies, tiny, annoying fairies- an assignment no one has been giving before, not because it is dangerous, but because killing fairies is laughable on so many levels. However, she is not settling for this because if she does one thing, it will be to get her assignment changed, but the problem is she is seeing a killer fairy on campus, and everyone else…is not. Except for Curtis, but she cannot recruit him to help, can she? Better yet, will she ever get her assignment changed? Moreover, what happens when she starts liking Curtis? Will everything turn out okay? Only time and more pages can tell in this fast-paced addition to YA contemporary fantasy.

Emma Jones was a character I liked from the start. Witty, smart, and unbeatable, there truly was nothing not to love about this girl. It was always fun to see her slowly embrace her fairy slaying destiny because not only did it cause some funny moments, but it also lead to much character growth on her end. Better yet, I adored her friendship with Curtis. Curtis is the typical “hottie” with a heart of gold, though he still had plenty of secrets, which will keep any reader guessing as to what they exactly are. I also loved the banter between Emma and her two best friends, Lonni and Tyler. However, I have to admit, I would have loved some more development into each.

With paranormal novels these days, it is either a big hit or a big miss. Thankfully, Fairy Bad Day landed somewhere in the middle, closer to the big hit rather than the miss, because while Amanda put a great, unique spin to fairies, I still found this book to be a bit clichéd at times, especially when it came to Emma’s past. However, given the many twists and turns, as well as the stellar fighting scenes between Emma and a certain rouge fairy, there was not much room to complain.

Ashby’s writing was also decent. I remember reading and adoring Amanda’s first book You Had Me at Halo and with this one, her writing and world building has defiantly approved. The only aspects I was not too wild about where the lack of development into secondary characters as well as the fact that the story was told in third person. However, with the later, I do admit to be a stickler for first person, so that is probably why I felt the way I did.

In all, with reading Fairy Bad Day is the perfect way to start your summer season, thanks to not only its June release date, but also its fun contents as well as action. I am unquestionably looking forward to reading more by Ms. Ashby.

Grade: B

Fairy Bad Day is now out!

Source: Publisher for Teen Book Scene tour

*This post is in conjunction with the Teen Book Scene tour for Fairy Bad Day. To find out more about this tour as well as others click here.*