Hey guys! I am so excited to share the blog tour for The Fragile Ordinary by Samantha Young! The Fragile Ordinary is a new Young Adult Contemporary Romance. It's a heartfelt and beautiful new young adult novel, set in Scotland, about daring to dream and embracing who you are. Order your copy today! And keep reading this post for my review of the book, an excerpt and a giveaway!
Title: The Fragile Ordinary
Author: Samantha Young
My rating: 5 hearts
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Pub. date: June 26th 2018
Publisher: HarlequinTEEN
Synopsis: I am Comet Caldwell.
And I sort of, kind of, absolutely hate my name.
People expect extraordinary things from a girl named Comet. That she’ll be effortlessly cool and light up a room the way a comet blazes across the sky.
But from the shyness that makes her book-character friends more appealing than real people to the parents whose indifference hurts more than an open wound, Comet has never wanted to be the center of attention. She can’t wait to graduate from her high school in Edinburgh, Scotland, where the only place she ever feels truly herself is on her anonymous poetry blog. But surely that will change once she leaves to attend university somewhere far, far away.
When new student Tobias King blazes in from America and shakes up the school, Comet thinks she’s got the bad boy figured out. Until they’re thrown together for a class assignment and begin to form an unlikely connection. Everything shifts in Comet’s ordinary world. Tobias has a dark past and runs with a tough crowd—and none of them are happy about his interest in Comet. Targeted by bullies and thrown into the spotlight, Comet and Tobias can go their separate ways…or take a risk on something extraordinary.
Amazon – https://amzn.to/2qiaGgz
Barnes & Noble – http://bit.ly/2ICsmes
Indie Bound – http://bit.ly/2ouR4VK
Amazon Kindle – http://amzn.to/2EQNQTi
iBooks – https://apple.co/2oomWfd
GooglePlay – http://bit.ly/2BQa5u8
Oh my God. That was such an emotional read. I absolutely loved every moment of it, but it was painful, because I relate so much to Comet. The Fragile Ordinary was such a beautiful, heart-wrenching, heart-breaking story. It will take quite some time for me to get over that, because this book was truly something else.
Comet… I don’t even know what to say about her, because I loved her so much. She prefers spending her time with fictional characters, she’s not great at the social stuff, she’s often left out… But she’s a sweetheart, caring and really sweet. She has some serious issues with her parents, who’ve neglected her her entire life. And she goes through such character development throughout the book! She grew so much, and it was just incredible to get to see. But it was also super painful, and I was an emotional wreck, because Comet is seriously me eight years ago. If it’s possible for a character to be too relatable, Comet was it. Because my heart just broke for her.
The romance was great. I absolutely love friends-to-lovers stories, so of course I loved reading about Comet and Tobias. Seeing them get to know each other, become friends and eventually more than that did stuff to my heart. It was truly heart-warming and I loved it. Comet and Tobias are just so cute together, it’s so obvious how much they care about each other and they’re there for each other and… just super cute. And there’s so much chemistry between them.
The plot was interesting and well-paced, and I really liked it, but I have to say, the focus was more on the characters. While plot is important, what made this book amazing was the characters. They were all so well-developed and layered, and even the secondary characters were important for the story and really well thought-out. They all helped move the plot forward in a really great way.
I also really liked many of the themes in the book. It was serious, and definitely heart-breaking, but I liked it. Bullying, addiction, it hurts to read about, but these are real issues that are important to talk about, so I always get happy when I see them in books. And I loved how the author wasn’t afraid of dealing with these tough subjects and scenes.
Excerpt:
Tobias had offered to spend Christmas Eve with me alone, considering what had just occurred between me and Kyle. Yes, I was devastated by the brief conversation. I was also confused by my reaction, because Kyle hadn’t told me anything I didn’t already know. To hear him confess his own weak will when it came to Carrie, to hear from his own mouth that yes, he did love her more than me and that he’d choose her over me no matter what was painful. I didn’t know if his fears about Carrie’s issues were founded. Maybe. I guess I didn’t know the woman who was my mother well at all. She’d never been verbally unkind to me, though. Her cruelty had always been in her indifference.
Those were my thoughts, going around and around like they were stuck on some twisted, hellish merry-go-round, when I walked into Tobias’s new house.
I tried to focus on Lena. I discovered, however, as I followed her through the narrow hallway of the three-bedroom house in the more affluent area of Porty that Tobias did take after his father in looks. There was a photo hanging on the wall in the hallway of a younger Tobias standing in between Lena and a man I knew must have been his dad. They stood outside a huge white house that reminded me of the wealthy homes featured in John Hughes’s movies. Like Tobias, his dad was extremely tall, broad-shouldered, with fair good looks.
I’d slowed down to look at the photo, and Tobias turned around to see what was keeping me.
“Your dad?”
His eyes flicked to the photo, and I hated the pain that shimmered in his gaze. He nodded and I squeezed his hand.
“Would you like something to drink, Comet?” Lena called from the kitchen. “We have water, Coke, orange juice. Or I could make us all hot chocolate.”
I tugged Tobias away from the photo. There was no need for us both to be a sad, wallowing mess today. “Yes, Mrs. King, hot chocolate sounds lovely.” We wandered into the small, modern kitchen to find her waiting on us.
“I thought I told you to call me Lena.”
“Of course, sorry.” I gave her a smile, trying to ignore the fact that she was raking her eyes over my outfit like she had the last time I saw her.
It was Christmas, so I’d decided on a burgundy long-sleeved thermal with gold sparkles through it, matched with a short burgundy velvet skirt with a dark red tulle underskirt that stuck out rock-chick style from the skirt. I wore thick, black tights and Irregular Choice burgundy suede ankle boots in the Victorian style. They seemed simple until I turned around—they had a huge gold jacquard bow pinned to back of the ankle.
I’d added a bunch of chunky gold bracelets up both arms so I jingled when I moved.
I’d considered toning my clothes down but this was me, and Tobias knew this was me and all that mattered was that he loved me, loud fashion sense and all. Still, I smoothed my hands down my skirt nervously until Tobias captured one of them in his own.
Glancing up at him in question, I found myself caught by the tender reassurance in his eyes. He drew my hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to it while his gaze held mine, and I felt like he was silently reminding me not to worry what she thought of me because he thought I was perfect.
The sound of a throat clearing broke our moment and we turned to find his mum staring at us wearing a huge smile. “Hot chocolate.” She gestured to the mugs in front of us.
Her assessment of my appearance ceased and instead she studied my interactions with her son. In fact, she watched everything Tobias did, and she did it in a way that made me think she missed him. I knew they’d talked and he was attempting to repair the damage to their relationship, but I perceived a wariness in Lena’s behavior. Like she was scared of making the wrong move—one that might cause him to shut her out again.
Those were my thoughts, going around and around like they were stuck on some twisted, hellish merry-go-round, when I walked into Tobias’s new house.
I tried to focus on Lena. I discovered, however, as I followed her through the narrow hallway of the three-bedroom house in the more affluent area of Porty that Tobias did take after his father in looks. There was a photo hanging on the wall in the hallway of a younger Tobias standing in between Lena and a man I knew must have been his dad. They stood outside a huge white house that reminded me of the wealthy homes featured in John Hughes’s movies. Like Tobias, his dad was extremely tall, broad-shouldered, with fair good looks.
I’d slowed down to look at the photo, and Tobias turned around to see what was keeping me.
“Your dad?”
His eyes flicked to the photo, and I hated the pain that shimmered in his gaze. He nodded and I squeezed his hand.
“Would you like something to drink, Comet?” Lena called from the kitchen. “We have water, Coke, orange juice. Or I could make us all hot chocolate.”
I tugged Tobias away from the photo. There was no need for us both to be a sad, wallowing mess today. “Yes, Mrs. King, hot chocolate sounds lovely.” We wandered into the small, modern kitchen to find her waiting on us.
“I thought I told you to call me Lena.”
“Of course, sorry.” I gave her a smile, trying to ignore the fact that she was raking her eyes over my outfit like she had the last time I saw her.
It was Christmas, so I’d decided on a burgundy long-sleeved thermal with gold sparkles through it, matched with a short burgundy velvet skirt with a dark red tulle underskirt that stuck out rock-chick style from the skirt. I wore thick, black tights and Irregular Choice burgundy suede ankle boots in the Victorian style. They seemed simple until I turned around—they had a huge gold jacquard bow pinned to back of the ankle.
I’d added a bunch of chunky gold bracelets up both arms so I jingled when I moved.
I’d considered toning my clothes down but this was me, and Tobias knew this was me and all that mattered was that he loved me, loud fashion sense and all. Still, I smoothed my hands down my skirt nervously until Tobias captured one of them in his own.
Glancing up at him in question, I found myself caught by the tender reassurance in his eyes. He drew my hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to it while his gaze held mine, and I felt like he was silently reminding me not to worry what she thought of me because he thought I was perfect.
The sound of a throat clearing broke our moment and we turned to find his mum staring at us wearing a huge smile. “Hot chocolate.” She gestured to the mugs in front of us.
Her assessment of my appearance ceased and instead she studied my interactions with her son. In fact, she watched everything Tobias did, and she did it in a way that made me think she missed him. I knew they’d talked and he was attempting to repair the damage to their relationship, but I perceived a wariness in Lena’s behavior. Like she was scared of making the wrong move—one that might cause him to shut her out again.
"Endearing and relatable, Comet-the girl who is searching for her place in this world-will shoot through the sky and into your heart.”
— #1 New York Times bestselling author Erin Watt
Thank you so much for sharing! ~Jessica, InkSlinger PR
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