Blog Tour: Finding Felicity by Stacey Kade (Review & Giveaway!)

Finding Felicity by Stacey Kade

Release Date: March 20, 2018 

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Genre: YA, Contemporary 
Source: ARC provided by publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review 

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Felicity meets Fangirl in this contemporary novel about a young woman who must leave behind her fantasy life—inspired by her favorite WB show from the 1990s—and create a real one at college.

Caroline Sands has never been particularly good at making friends. And her parents’ divorce and the move to Arizona three years ago didn’t help. Being the new girl is hard enough without being socially awkward too. So out of desperation and a desire to please her worried mother, Caroline invented a whole life for herself—using characters from Felicity, an old show she discovered online and fell in love with.

But now it’s time for Caroline to go off to college and she wants nothing more than to leave her old “life” behind and build something real. However, when her mother discovers the truth about her manufactured friends, she gives Caroline an ultimatum: Prove in this first semester that she can make friends of the nonfictional variety and thrive in a new environment. Otherwise, it’s back to living at home—and a lot of therapy.

Armed with nothing more than her resolve and a Felicity-inspired plan, Caroline accepts the challenge. But she soon realizes that the real world is rarely as simple as television makes it out to be. And to find a place where she truly belongs, Caroline may have to abandon her script and take the risk of being herself.

Review:

Between 2017 and now I've been seeing more and more books featuring a college setting, and I couldn't be any happier. I wish they were around four years ago when I was starting my freshmen year! 

Finding Felicity is quirky and heartwarming. Stacey Kade perfectly captures the feeling of not only freshmen year but also starting anew. 

When Finding Felicity first begins we're quickly let in on Caroline's big secret: she's created a fake friend group inspired by the old 90s show Felicity to appease her mother. It started innocently enough - her mom was upset that she wasn't fitting in at her new school - but over the last few years it's morphed into something huge: one big fat lie Caroline was hoping she could run away from once she started college. 

I think everyone has felt like Caroline at some point in their lives: feeling the need to reinvent yourself because you don't particularly like who you are. Caroline's always been the quiet girl, the girl most like to fall into the background. Sure, she has acquaintances and club-friends, but she's never found her "group," her second family. As someone who took a while to find their friend group as well, I could definitely relate to that area of her life. Sometimes it's hard to find people you click with, especially when you're in a new setting, and while most of us don't got to Caroline's lengths of reinvention, I feel like readers will definitely be able to relate and understand her overall feelings as well as actions. Additionally, I loved seeing Caroline slowly grow comfortable in her own skin - making friends, engaging in those horrible orientation ice breakers (they still give me the chills to think about four years later!), experiencing her first frat party, and, most importantly, finding comfort in the unknown and unexpected. It had me reminiscing back to my freshmen year of college, and given the realistic feel, I think it will give college bound readers a tease of what's to come. 

In addition to Caroline, a wide variety of other characters were introduced. I found the majority of them to be lovable (with the exception of Caroline's long-time crush who was a jerk), and I enjoyed getting to know them. Out of the bunch, Lexi, Caroline's moody roommate, was my favorite. At first I didn't know what to make of Lexi. She was such a wild card, and not a very nice one at that; however, over the course of the book, she truly grew on me. Like Caroline, she's trying to find her place as well after a tumultuous year, and once again I found her story and voice relatable as well as realistic. 

Finding Felicity is more of a character-driven novel than action-driven, but never once was I bored, or wanting to put the book down for long periods of time. The exact opposite in fact - I read this book in one sitting! As I've mentioned before, I loved Felicity's coming of age. It drove the book at a nice speed, and once again, I felt that the college setting was well constructed as well. While I do wish it would've been a little longer - I felt that the ending came way too soon but then again I wasn't quite read to let go of Caroline and her friends just yet - and even a tad more developed (more info about her friends, her relationship with her parents, etc.) I was happy overall. 

Overall, Finding Felicity is a heartwarming tale of one girl's new start featuring the good, the bad, and the oh-so-awkaward parts of freshmen year. I can't wait to read more by Stacey! 

Last but not least: you don't need to have watched Felicity to understand the book completely. Caroline does a great job of summarizing the key points, and as someone who has never watched the TV show, I wasn't lost one bit. 

4 stars!! 

About the Author:

The daughter of a minister and a music teacher, Stacey Kade grew up reading Harlequin romances on the sly in the basement. Kade is the author of two young adult series (The Ghost and Goth trilogy and the Project Paper Doll series). Her first adult contemporary romance, 738 DAYS, was released earlier this year.

Prior to writing full time, Kade worked as an award-winning copywriter for several Fortune 500 companies. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, Greg, and their two retired racing greyhounds.

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Giveaway

Prize: 1 finished copy of FINDING FELICITY by Stacey Kade
Starts: 3/14
Ends: 3/29

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The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade

Summary from Amazon:

After a close encounter with a bus, Alona Dare goes from homecoming queen to Queen of the Dead. She’s stuck as a ghost in the land of the living with no sign of a “big, bright light” to take her to a better place. To make matters worse, the only person who might be able to help her is Will Killian, a total loser. More than anything, Will wishes he didn’t have the rare ability to communicate with the dead, especially the former mean girl of Groundsboro High. He’s not filling out any volunteer forms to help her cross to the other side, though it would bring him some welcome peace and quiet. Can they get over their mutual distrust—and quasi attraction—to work together? Readers of this spirited paranormal comedy won’t want this odd couple ever to part.

Review:

First off I have to say that I love, love, love the cover of this one! Since for one, it reminds me of summer, a season that I wish would just get here already (I'm writing this review in early days of spring); and for two, the two people on the front definitely look like what I imagined Alona and Will to look like, which is cool.

Anyway, getting to the review aspect of this, I'm not really sure to what to say about this one. Since on one side I really enjoyed it, but on the other I've seen stories done before like this and done better. So pretty much I'll say that The Ghost and the Goth was a solid good read, but far from being a rock-your-socks excellent book that you simply can't get enough of. Though, with saying that, The Ghost and the Goth was overall a fun filled and hilarious look at what happens when you mix a ghost and a Goth together!

The characters were ones that took a while to like, but once you got past the first half of the book they kept becoming more and more likable and finally characters that I ended up loving even with the bad sides to them. Alona at first was someone who while was intriguing because of the past she would only tell slight clues about, she was stuck up and full off herself, but as mentioned above, once I got past the negative parts of her character, she become someone that I admired for her snark and her willingness to help Will. Will I pretty much I always liked, but their were still aspects of him that got on my nerves.

At first look the premise of The Ghost and the Goth sounds fabulous and while it was, the execution wasn't nearly up to par as I would've liked it to have been. Since tied together with a slightly awkward beginning that I felt was trying to hard to be cool and a slow pace for the first half, I have to admit I was a wee bit disappointed. Luckily, as I got further in, everything feel into place and made The Ghost and The Goth a pretty decent read, and showed that Stacy Kade has promise!

And the ending! Oh, how I'm dying to read the sequel now!

Overall, The Ghost and the Goth was overall a fun filled and hilarious look at what happens when you mix a ghost and a Goth together! And while The Ghost and the Goth does have some negative points, it's still a read I highly suggest you pick up just because of the mild half, which was great, and the promise that it showed that this series will turn into something brilliant!
 
Grade: B-

The Ghost and the Goth will be released July 6, 2010.

Source: Publicist at Hyperion. Thanks Hallie, you never cease to send me great books!