The Trouble With Destiny: Interview + Giveaway

Today I'm excited to have author Lauren Morrill stopping by the blog as part of the promotional tour for her newest release, The Trouble With Destiny. Lauren was nice enough to answer a few questions for me about music, chocolate and her protagonist Liza, so I hope you guys enjoy the interview! Be sure and check the bottom of the post too for all the details on a fantastic giveaway:)

If Liza’s band was to accompany you on a promotional tour for The Trouble with Destiny, what song would they play as your introduction at each stop?

“Friends in Low Places” by Garth Brooks, which has a moment in Destiny. And because it makes me think of my own high school experience growing up in east Tennessee (where Liza and her friends are from as well!).

It’s midnight chocolate buffet time on the Destiny. What are the three delicious goodies you go for first?

Brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and a chocolate croissant.

Liza is an extremely organized young woman. If she were to see the bits and pieces of your current work in progress (notes, outlines, etc.), would she nod in approval or suddenly develop a nervous tic and want to show you all the ways she could help you?

She would LOSE. HER. MIND. Right now I’m basically drafting by opening up the document and dropping in a paragraph in chapter 3 or a sentence in chapter 9. One of my chapters is just called “last few chapters,” while another is called “somewhere in the middle.” I’m not a linear writer!

If you could book a cruise tomorrow, where would that boat be headed?

I want to take one of those European river cruises, where you stop in different countries. As much as I enjoy reading a book on a beach, I’d love to do some awesome historical tours of castles and museums.

Let’s play Two Truths and a Lie, Destiny-style. Please share two crazy, fun, or embarrassing things that actually happened while on board and one tall tale. (We’ll just have to read to find out which is which ;-))

—One character kisses Liza, and immediately after, another character punches him in the face.
—Demi and the Athenas are performing a medley of boy-band hits when a pipe bursts overhead and douses the stage and the performers, who never stop singing.
—An accidental mixture of Dramamine and Benadryl has Liza passing out in her nemesis’s closet.

Thanks so much Lauren!

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THE TROUBLE WITH DESTINY

It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey...

With her trusty baton and six insanely organized clipboards, drum major Liza Sanders is about to take Destiny by storm—the boat, that is. When Liza discovered that her beloved band was losing funding, she found Destiny, a luxury cruise ship complete with pools, midnight chocolate buffets, and a $25,000 spring break talent show prize.

Liza can’t imagine senior year without the band, and nothing will distract her from achieving victory. She’s therefore not interested when her old camp crush, Lenny, shows up on board, looking shockingly hipster-hot. And she’s especially not interested in Russ, the probably-as-dumb-as-he-is-cute prankster jock whose ex, Demi, happens be Liza’s ex–best friend and leader of the Athenas, a show choir that’s the band’s greatest competition.

But it’s not going to be smooth sailing. After the Destiny breaks down, all of Liza’s best-laid plans start to go awry. Liza likes to think of herself as an expert at almost everything, but when it comes to love, she’s about to find herself lost at sea.

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Indiebound | iBooks | The Book Depository

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LAUREN MORRILL

Lauren Elizabeth Morrill is many things, including, but not limited to, a writer, an educator, a badass roller derby skater, a former band nerd, an aggressive driver, and a die-hard Mac person. She also watches a lot of TV, eats a lot of junk food, and drinks a lot of Coke. It's a wonder her brain and teeth haven't rotted out of her head.

Lauren is the author of Meant to Be, Being Sloane Jacobs, The Trouble With Destiny, and the forthcoming My Unscripted Life (October 2016), all from Random House.

Website | Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

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GIVEAWAY

One winner (US or Canada Only) will receive a Lauren Morrill prize pack of signed copies of all Lauren's books and swag!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Being Sloane Jacobs

BEING SLOANE JACOBS
Lauren Morrill
Contemporary Young Adult
352 pages
Delacorte
Available January 7th
Source: eARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Meet Sloane Emily Jacobs: a seriously stressed-out figure-skater from Washington, D.C., who choked during junior nationals and isn’t sure she’s ready for a comeback. What she does know is that she’d give anything to escape the mass of misery that is her life.

Now meet Sloane Devon Jacobs, a spunky ice hockey player from Philly who’s been suspended from her team for too many aggressive hip checks. Her punishment? Hockey camp, now, when she’s playing the worst she’s ever played. If she messes up? Her life will be over.

When the two Sloanes meet by chance in Montreal and decide to trade places for the summer, each girl thinks she’s the lucky one: no strangers to judge or laugh at Sloane Emily, no scouts expecting Sloane Devon to be a hero. But it didn’t occur to Sloane E. that while avoiding sequins and axels she might meet a hockey hottie—and Sloane D. never expected to run into a familiar (and very good-looking) face from home. It’s not long before the Sloanes discover that convincing people you’re someone else might be more difficult than being yourself.

MY THOUGHTS
Being Sloane Jacobs is a quick and easy read, one of those perfect in-between books that gives us a breather from darker and more emotionally challenging stories. This is a tale best approached with all skepticism and disbelief shelved in favor of allowing the more simplistic desire to simply be entertained rule, the lives of both Sloane Jacobses kept quite superficial despite difficult family situations that could have easily provided enough conflict to see their lives written into two separate books rather than detailed for us simultaneously. There are some extremely cute moments that split our cheeks with a monster grin, Ms. Morrill’s sense of humor an overall highlight, but it’s not always enough to keep the nitpicky reader in us at bay.

Both girls are likable with engaging points of view that are easy to follow, but as mentioned above, we never have the opportunity to dig deeper with either of them, left as simple observers of their lives rather than feeling like active participants. Sloane Emily’s family situation is a fairly typical representation of a perfect façade masking a crumbling interior, her family slowly falling apart even as their happy faces and pleasant family dinners indicate otherwise, but despite the familiarity we still find ourselves exceedingly curious, wanting the chance to chip away at those brittle smiles to see what the downward turn is hiding underneath. Sloane Devon’s family situation, while undeniably painful in and of itself, isn’t quite as intriguing as Sloane Emily’s, though again we still can’t help but want a closer look at that dynamic and its correlation to Sloane Devon’s issues in the beginning.

There are romances for each of the girls, but aside from providing a few sweet moments, they’re not given any depth, relegated to brief kisses and then the predictable big misunderstandings before everything is wrapped up quickly and neatly. Those like me who crave the happily ever will no doubt be satisfied with the end, though we are left wishing the means by which we got there had a bit more substance. All in all, Being Sloane Jacobs leaves a bit to be desired in terms of character development, but Ms. Morrill’s writing style flows well and keeps us turning the pages, ensuring we’re having fun reading even if we’re not committing this story to treasured memory.

Rating: 3/5

Find Lauren

Website • Facebook • Twitter • Goodreads • Amazon

This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: Meant to Be

MEANT TO BE
Lauren Morrill
Contemporary Young Adult
304 pages
Delacorte BFYR
Available November 13th
Received from publisher via NetGalley for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Meant to be or not meant to be . . . that is the question.

It's one thing to fall head over heels into a puddle of hazelnut coffee, and quite another to fall for the—gasp—wrong guy. Straight-A junior Julia may be accident prone, but she's queen of following rules and being prepared. That's why she keeps a pencil sharpener in her purse and a pocket Shakespeare in her, well, pocket. And that's also why she's chosen Mark Bixford, her childhood crush, as her MTB ("meant to be").

But this spring break, Julia's rules are about to get defenestrated (SAT word: to be thrown from a window) when she's partnered with her personal nemesis, class-clown Jason, on a school trip to London. After one wild party, Julia starts receiving romantic texts . . . from an unknown number! Jason promises to help discover the identity of her mysterious new suitor if she agrees to break a few rules along the way. And thus begins a wild goose chase through London, leading Julia closer and closer to the biggest surprise of all: true love.

Because sometimes the things you least expect are the most meant to be.

MY THOUGHTS
Meant to Be is a story we pick up knowing exactly how things are going to play out between the characters in the end, but it is that very predictability that draws us to it in the first place. Julia’s story is safe; one with a familiar plot arc we know is going to increase the number of laugh lines around our eyes and cause our cheeks to start twitching thanks to the permanent grin splitting them for the duration of our reading experience. It’s the perfect comfort read, with humor ever-present as a result of Julia’s various ineptitudes and Jason’s outrageous attention-garnering behavior, and while we can’t help but sit back and shake our heads at Julia’s obliviousness to the nature of Jason’s outlandish antics, we’re also able to understand that our view from the outside looking in is unimpeded by the confusion and warring emotions clouding Julia’s vision.

Julia is an adorable klutz of a heroine, her social butterfly’s wings so underused they’ve begun to atrophy, leaving her often clueless and floundering when she’s forced to interact with those around her. Her romantic idealism is endearing, the concept of a “meant to be” and her unwavering belief in a perfect relationship consisting of only love and laughter perhaps a bit naïve, however, it’s easy to get swept up in her search for a dream when it’s so glaringly apparent how desperately she wants to turn the ethereal and intangible into something she can physically wrap her arms around. Sometimes the death grip she maintains on her notion of perfection can wear on us a bit, particularly when we she remains stubbornly blind to what Jason is practically screaming at her with his body language, and she allows herself to be highly susceptible to suggestion–often believing things without much prompting and suddenly finding herself jumping to the wrong conclusions. Despite her flaws though, she’s charming and lovable, and by the end we want nothing more than for her to find that elusive happiness.

Jason is a character who based on the synopsis we think might easily get on our nerves, his over-the-top behavior something that has the potential to test our patience after only a short time, but because it’s so obvious to us what he’s trying to accomplish with Julia, we instead find ourselves encouraging his each and every move. Because Julia’s nose is almost permanently stuck in one of her many guide books to the wonders of London, we more than understand why Jason feels the need to up the ante whenever he’s dealing with her. His desire for her to actually see him rather than simply notice him is something we can practically reach out and touch, and the weight of his disappointment when she misinterprets the situation or disregards him in general is crushing, our stomachs plummeting every time he shuts down before gearing back up to try and break through her fairy tale fog in the hopes that, this time, her heart will see what her eyes so clearly do not.

Overall, Meant to Be is a joy to read, a light story full of humor and misunderstandings that leaves us with a broad smile just as we knew it would when we first cracked the spine.

Rating: 4/5