Today is my tour stop for Mutilate My Heart by Emily Godwin. This post will include a review, excerpt and tour-wide giveaway. To follow the rest of the tour, click the banner above to take you to the schedule.
Author: Emily Godwin.
Genre: Contemporary YA Romance (with paranormal elements).
Publication Date: July 9, 2013.
Purchase Links: Amazon ; B&N
Punk rock band Mutilated Arteries has been seventeen-year-old Becca's world (aka obsession) for the last year. When the band schedules a concert in her hometown, she and her best friend Carli are the first ones in line to buy tickets. The night is everything she expects it to be and more, especially after making friends with the new super-cute bassist, Sketch.
Becca's mom warns her not to fall for a rock star because rock stars are always on the road - or they die in a plane crash, like her mom's favorite band did twenty-something years ago. But after the band's tour bus breaks down and they're stuck hanging out in Roizen Hills for a week, it's hard for Becca not to fall for Sketch and his caricature drawings and toxic green eyes.
Becca knows Sketch is leaving as soon as the bus is fixed, and she can't be his fan-turned-girlfriend anyway because of the lead singer's "No Girlfriends" rule. Plus, there's something strange about the guys that Becca can't quite decipher... like how they won't reveal their real names, their always-changing odd appearances, and the guitarist's obsession with blood and zombies. Still, Becca wants nothing more than for Sketch to mutilate her heart...but it just might not be in a way she expects.
Excerpt:
Once we’re firmly planted in the sand, I tell him of the man named Benjamin Bell and the married woman he fell in love with.
They would secretly meet at night in a small area near the lighthouse that was inaccessible unless you knew the way. She knew better than to try to get there by boat. The current was strongest near the rocks, and the waves were monstrous, but their secret path was being guarded by her suspicious, abusive husband and her husband’s drunken friends.
“A storm caused the fog to grow thick that night,” I tell him. “So Benjamin turned the light on in the tower of the lighthouse. The last thing he saw was the waves crashing her boat against the rocks. He stumbled back in shock and fell over the stair railing in the lighthouse. He died on impact.”
“Did the woman die too? Or was it just her boat that crashed?” he asks, never taking his eyes away from mine.
I lie back in the sand and stare at the grey sky.
“I like to believe she crashed with it. If he is a ghost, I hope she’s lurking around here too, so they can finally be together,” I say.
He digs a hole in the sand and places his paintbrush to rest before burying it.
“Maybe years from now, some random person will come to this very spot, and they’ll find that paintbrush, and we can be legends too,” he says and falls back beside me.
My heart beats roughly against my sternum at his words. I don’t know how anyone could seem so perfect, but he does. We lie motionless in the sand until his breathing becomes one with the sound of the ocean.
“Becca?” he says, rolling onto his side to look at me.
“Yeah?” I mirror his image.
He brushes my hair out of my face and places his hand on my neck. I breathe in deeply and say a prayer that the ghosts won’t interrupt this moment like Corpse did last night. Sketch leans forward and rests his forehead against mine.
“Don’t crash,” he whispers.
Review:
I loved the blurb of Mutilate My Heart. I mean, how could I complain about the idea of dating a rockstar in my favourite band?! It was definitely the kind of book that I like to read.
Emily Godwin’s writing was a winner for me. The main story was about Becca and Sketch, and on the side Carli and Corpse. Yet Emily made sure all the other characters like Ink, Nightmare, Banshee and Maddie were never forgotten and even more so, we learnt a lot about them and their personalities too. All the characters meant it could have been quite easy to get confused between them, but Emily made sure that didn’t happen.
Whilst I was hooked throughout the whole book, I kinda felt like more could have happened in the first half of the book. I mean, it was all fun to read but maybe a couple of small twists could have livened the story up even more.
However, there was plenty to love about Mutilate My Heart. From a personal perspective, having read American Girl on Saturn, which was written by Emily’s sister Nikki, I really liked the mention of Spaceships Around Saturn and Sebastian’s Shadow, the bands featured in Nikki’s book.
I also loved Becca’s character in that she was a total fangirl like me but also because she seemed a caring, loyal friend. I wasn’t a massive fan of Sketch. For some reason, I didn’t feel connected to his character like I expected I would. However, I liked his relationship with Becca. I was probably more interested in Carli and Corpse’s kind of relationship as I thought Corpse was awesome.
The paranormal elements of Mutilate My Heart were great. I felt they really made this book stand out and added to the intrigue of the book for people who perhaps don’t just want romance.
Finally, I loved the ending. Like, really loved it. It was the kind of dramatic stuff I felt this book had been crying out for, and it was well worth the wait. Obviously, I can’t talk about it. But you need to read it. You need to read the whole book, even if you’re not a fangirl like me, but then at the end of it, you may well be one.
Rating:
*I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
About the Author:
Emily Godwin is a Young Adult author. She enjoys writing, painting, and sewing her own line of non-evil voodoo dolls. She's a Slytherin, trying to disguise herself as a Hufflepuff, and wishes she could read herself into books.
Connect with Emily: Twitter ; Facebook ; Blog ; Goodreads
Giveaway:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Hi Sophie! Thank you so much for being part of the MMH blog tour! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Emily, you're welcome! :)
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