Book Freak: Two Roads by L.M. Augustine - Blog Tour, Book Review, Giveaway

19 January 2014

Two Roads by L.M. Augustine - Blog Tour, Book Review, Giveaway

Title: Two Roads

Author: L.M. Augustine

The only person poetry-loving Cali Monroe hates more than herself is Logan Waters, the geeky kid who lives in the dorm building next to hers.

Ever since Cali's parents told her she would amount to nothing, she has felt entirely inadequate. Friendless and alone, she takes on the mean girl role in hopes it will make her feel better--and Logan serves as the perfect target. He infuriates her with his obnoxiously long lashes, his all too perfect dimpled smile, and his complete lack of personality outside of his intelligence. It doesn't hurt that he's part of the reason her brother is dead, either. So Cali hates him, and he returns the favor. Thus, their prank-filled, insult-driven rivalry is born, and torturing Logan quickly becomes the highlight of her life.

But when Cali's parents set them up on a blind date, she begins to realize Logan might not be as boring as she always thought. He shares her love of poetry, takes a sadistic pleasure in making fun of crepes, and he makes her blush when he calls her smile pretty.

And hey, maybe those long lashes of his aren't that obnoxious after all…

Two Roads is New Adult Romance about finding love, standing out, and learning to embrace who you are. It contains some language and mild sexual content.

Cali Monroe is…

But deep inside…

She made it her mission to hate her nerd ex-friend Logan Waters who happens to live in the dorm building next to her.

Cali suffered a deep sense of loss when she lost her brother, and ever since then, her parents have been pestering her to follow their footsteps and become an engineer. It didn’t help when they don’t support what she really loves on doing – which is writing poetry. For them, it wasn’t good enough. Her self-esteem spiraled down into drain, and what she does to at least cover up her feeling of inadequacy was to become one of the mean girls.

She hope getting into the mean girl role would make her feel better, or make her feel at all. The dread and the emptiness that was left by her brother’s passing was too huge to ignore. She chooses Logan as her perfect target. But Logan wouldn’t go back down. Instead of ignoring her, he fights back. They have a long-standing prank-filled, insult-driven rivalry that becomes the highlight of their days.

Then Cali’s mom sets her up on a blind date – with Logan. He surprisingly shares her love of poetry, and drives her more and more insane as he invites her to go with him on the poetry convention. It was then she realized, there was more to this nerd that what he really lets on...

I feel sad for Cali, especially when she decided to take the mean-girl role. The death of her brother and the nonchalance of her parents were hard on her. But her love and passion for poetry was admirable. Despite the fact that she knew a career in what she loves may drive her penniless, she was eager to fulfill her dreams. Not just to spite her parents – but because she loved doing it.

I wish I can get inside Logan’s brain – he’s a good sport. He accepts her pranks, but returns the favor – but none of it to the point of really hurting them both physically and emotionally. It seems that they were looking forward what the other might have in-store for the day.

Their pranks were driving me insane. Both of them were just geniuses in driving each other crazy. But as the old adage says – there is a thin line between love and hate. The problem is though – Cali knew that Logan was keeping something from her with regards to Ben, and she wanted to know that secret. I don’t think she’ll ever let him in without Logan disclosing what it is. Question is, once she knew it – will she be able to give him a chance?

It took a while, a lot of pranks, some sexual tension, an emotional confession and a whole lot of poetry before these two came together. Nevertheless, Two Roads was a great read. I couldn’t put it down, I was waiting when would these two people, most especially Cali would realize that after all the craziness they have made each other experienced, both of them would still travel that one road they were meant to – the road to love.

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“Then go to him,” I say quietly, and now I look up to meet her gaze. Her brown eyes are hard and strong, watching me intently. “Go out with him,” I continue. “Or don’t. But don’t let him go. Because if someone can be constantly on your mind like that, if they can always make you smile, if they can cheer you up one way or another, then you have to go to them. You have to tell them what they mean to you and then you can go out with them or you can stay friends or you can barely ever talk to them, but you enjoy yourself, you have fun, and then you hold fast to them and never, ever let them go. Because if someone, just by their existence, can brighten up your whole day, you have to try like hell to keep them in your life.” I take a long breath as soon as the words finish tumbling out of my mouth, a jumble of thoughts and feelings that, for me, couldn’t be more true. I don’t know where they came from other than straight from that goddamn unpredictable heart of mine, and as soon as the words leave my mouth, I know my subconscious has been working on them for a long time.

L.M. Augustine is a YA romance author who is obsessed with writing about dorky teenagers, love, and happy endings. He currently lives in New England, where he spends far too much time reading books and screaming at his computer, and he believes that the solution to the world’s problems can be found in chocolate cake.