Monday 13 January 2014

Review & Giveaway ~ Chasing Forever Down by Nikki Godwin.


Today is my stop on the Chasing Forever Down tour, hosted by Oops! I Read A Book Again. My 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.

Title: Chasing Forever Down (Drenaline Surf #1).
Author: Nikki Godwin.
Genre: Contemporary Young Adult.
Publication Date: March 14, 2013.

Purchase Links: Amazon ; B&N ; Smashwords

After seventeen-year-old Haley Sullivan meets a mysterious stranger who plays by his own rules, she's more than determined to learn every trick of the trade from the master himself. But her dream-chasing mentor disappears after that night, and according to the local newspapers, he's been dead for years. Knowing he's very much alive, Haley enlists best friend Linzi to join her on a scavenger-hunt-style road trip that ultimately lands them in the surf town of Crescent Cove, California. Mystery guy is no mystery here, though – he's Colby Taylor, the west coast's biggest professional surfer.

If Haley wants to talk to the wave rider again, she'll have to get past his four intimidating bodyguards who are highly skilled in the business of sending starstruck fangirls back to where they belong. Haley is up for the challenge if it means chasing her dreams and escaping the perfectly corporate future that's been planned for her. But dealing with these bodyguards isn't exactly what Haley imagined it'd be. Sure, being thrown off a jet ski sucks, but falling in love with one of them might just be worse.




Excerpt:

I recount pieces of last night for Mom when I get home, leaving out the part where I snuck off with a stranger, and drill her on the families with college-aged sons. She digs out the last edition of the “corporate yearbook” and wishes me luck on finding him. Even if he’s in this book, it’s five years old and may fail me. Still, this is my only option right now. As I thumb the pages, I realize the A’s are unpromising, full of daughters and much older children. The B’s provide the same results until page twenty-seven. Burks.

He’s not the same disheveled emo-boy-wannabe from last night. He’s well dressed. And blonde. But his face is the same, down to the cheekbones and his jaw line and the way his smile does that crooked thing where it’s a little higher on the left side than the right.

I fold the corner of the page and slam the book shut. I can’t get downstairs fast enough to ask my mom. She’s standing at the stove when I burst into the kitchen.

“What do you know about the Burks family?” I ask.

I drop the book onto the table and flip back to their page, hoping the visual aid may help Mom with details other than what company the family owns or how big their house is. She doesn’t walk over to the table, though. A reminiscent gaze sweeps her face, and she says, “Oh, they’re nice people.”

That tells me nothing. “What about their son, Spencer?”

She turns toward me, sad-eyed and nostalgic.

“Spence,” she says. “They always called him Spence.”

“It’s him,” I say, pointing at his picture. “This is the guy from last night.”

This gets her to the table. She stares at the picture for what feels like too long, and I wait for her to say something, anything.

“Sweetie, there’s no way the guy you met was Spence Burks,” she finally says.

I shake my head. “I’m a thousand percent sure it was him.”

Mom shakes her head back. “It’s impossible, Haley. He died three years ago.”

Review:

Nikki Godwin is one of those authors that transport you into world you just don’t want to leave. Chasing Forever Down begins with the search for an apparently dead guy who Haley is sure she met the night before. However, the actual story is much more than that as it provides you with fun, friendship and romance in a feel-good manner which young readers should enjoy.

As much as I liked the premise of Chasing Forever Down, there was a part towards the middle of the book where I was just a little lost with it all. I think I was struggling to keep up with the mass of characters – other than Haley, Linzi and the Hooligans, there were still a lot of other characters and I think I lost track of some of them and got confused when they were re-introduced.

Carrying on with the story, though, there was a moment when everything just clicked and I could follow the story better. This was when I really started to like the characters of the Hooligans, A.J especially. All the characters were very individual and Nikki did a great job in building their personalities and friendship. I don’t think there is one stand-out character in this book that will be the favourite for a lot of readers because they were all made so distinctive that each reader would be able to find a different one to relate to. Miles was another one of my favourites too.

Chasing Forever Down was full of the unexpected for me. I expected the mysterious stranger namely Colby Taylor to be involved more, but I didn’t mind that he wasn’t because I grew to love the story for what it was. I really enjoyed the ending and I’m looking forward to book two in the series. It feels like the ideal read to just sit and relax and finish the day with a smile on your face.

Rating:
*I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review also posted on Goodreads ; Amazon UK ; Amazon


About the Author:

Nikki Godwin is a Young Adult/New Adult author from the southern USA. She is a city girl who can't live without Mountain Dew, black eyeliner, Hawthorne Heights, and candles from Bath & Body Works. When not writing, she's not-so-secretly internet-stalking her favorite bands. She may or may not completely love One Direction.

Connect with Nikki: Blog ; Twitter ; Facebook

Giveaway:

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2 comments:

  1. Hi Sophie! Thank you so much for being a part of the CFD tour & for the review! <3

    ReplyDelete

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