Welcome to our stop on the Better Blog Tour with a 4.5* review and an awesome giveaway!
If you haven't already read the first book in the series, Good, then I suggest you stop reading this and go read it! I can definitely recommend this series.
Click on the blog tour banner above for full details of tour schedule
Title: Better (Too Good #2)
Author: S. Walden
Expected Release: November 19, 2013
Their relationship has been exposed, and now their lives are changed forever.
For Cadence Miller, the fast track to adulthood proves intimidating and frustrating. She’s a little girl lost—abandoned by her parents and uncertain of her future. She doesn’t think she “fits” anywhere. She’s eighteen. She wants to be older. And the result is both comical and heartbreaking.
Mark Connelly will do anything to provide Cadence a stable, loving home—to be her protector. But he’s just as broken and lost, and his heart won’t let go of his past so easily. He knows he must share his secret with Cadence. And he hopes his revelation won't tear them apart. He hopes it will draw them closer, and make their love better.
Teaser
Mark sat in his car staring through the
windshield. Any minute now, Cadence, dressed in graduation robe and cap, would
round the corner with her brother and Fanny. All he wanted was to see her
smile.
He knew her parents didn’t show up.
They made their intentions clear three nights ago when Cadence called home to
speak to her mother. After she hung up, she told Mark she didn’t care that they
refused to attend, but he awoke later that night to the sounds of her soft
cries. She was curled up lying close to the edge of the bed, far away from him.
He reached out to touch her, then stopped. Something told him not to, that it’d
be disastrous if he tried to comfort her. So he left her alone. The next
morning she was bright and cheery and as fake as he’d ever seen her.
He drummed his fingers on the steering
wheel. “Please smile. Please smile. Please smile.”
He thought back to the first time he
saw her really smile. She grinned at him on the side of Highway 28, but it wasn’t
until she sat on a metal bench in the bus parking lot on the first day of
school that he saw a real smile. She giggled about the names she’d been calling
him, revealing pretty teeth with one imperfection. She had a calcium deposit on
her eye tooth. Yeah, he’d noticed. And he recalled feeling like a total creep
for liking it so much.
Andrea's Review
*ARC received in return for an honest review
What can I say? My emotions are all over the place...AGAIN!!
After reading Good I didn't know what to think. Half of me was shouting 'NO!! That's all wrong!' and the other half was rooting for the couple. But, I DID know that I couldn't wait to find out what happened between Mark and Cadence.
Better picks up right where Good finished, hits the ground running and doesn't stop til the end. Once I started reading I couldn't put it down. I even woke up through the night and had to read a few pages as I was desperate to find out what happened next!
Cadence graduates to college and Mark has to find a new job after he loses his job when news of their affair is exposed. Everything seems okay on the outside but they are both struggling with their feelings and to keep their relationship from going under.
As hinted in Good, Mark has a secret from his past that he's keeping from Cadence. He's putting off telling her because he fears she may hate him and leave him for good when she finds out. Mark's also struggling to provide a home for them both and pay for Cadence's college fees since her Dad has seen fit to cut off all financial support as well as emotional support from both himself and her mother.
Cadence is now 18, attending college and trying to fit in. All she wants is to act like a normal 18 year old student but she also wants to be grown up and fit into Mark's world with his grown up friends.
Although he is happy with just the two of them in their own little world, Mark recognises that Cadence is lonely. She misses her mother and misses her best friend Avery, who stopped speaking to her when her parents found out about Mark and Cadence. And she also misses her faith and not being able to attend church on Sundays for fear of upsetting her parents.
Mark tries his best to give her what she needs and encourages her to follow her own path but sometimes, that's just not enough.
Tragedy strikes within her small network of friends and family and certain events see Cadence begin to spiral out of control. Can she stop before it's too late and she loses Mark forever? Can Mark reach out to Cadence in time and save her from the self destruct button she seems so hell bent on pushing?
Better is filled with guilt, secrets and tons of tense, heated, heart-filled emotion. My heart was pounding and my palms were sweaty most of the time as I rode the roller coaster of emotions right along side Mark and Cadence. I laughed, sighed, shouted and cried, oh God I cried!! And let's not forget the hot scenes between Mark and Cadence. Whether they were arguing or making up they damn near blew up my kindle! They certainly turned up the heat, phew!
I found the ending very fitting but I didn't want it to end. At times I wanted to knock their heads together to get them to talk and I wanted to shout at them for the way they were both behaving BUT I really did like them throughout the whole story.
This is not your run of the mill, conventional love story and that's what makes it a great story. I know I'm probably quoting many others when I say S. Walden makes you think outside the box and I, for one, can't wait to read more from her.
Another page turner and a definite must read.
Andrea gives this a rating of...
S. Walden
S. Walden used to teach English before making the best decision of her life by becoming a full-time writer. She lives in Georgia with her very supportive husband who prefers physics textbooks over fiction and has a difficult time understanding why her characters must have personality flaws. She is wary of small children, so she has a Westie instead. Her dreams include raising chickens and owning and operating a beachside inn on the Gulf Coast (chickens included). When she's not writing, she's thinking about it.
She loves her fans and loves to hear from them. Email her at swaldenauthor@hotmail.com and follow her blog at where you can get up-to-date information on her current projects.
GRAND
PRIZE
signed
copies of Good and Better
DJ
Shadow's Endtroducing... CD
$15
Amazon gift card
$15
iTunes gift card
1st
RUNNER-UP
signed
copies of Good and Better
2nd
& 3rd RUNNERS-UP
signed
copies of Better
