Come Back to Texas (Review)

Hi there!

Happy New Year! What better way to kick off 2015 than with a review? I hope this coming year is a good year for you, and one you can enjoy. I had a pretty good year last year and I am hoping to do the best in everything I do this year round. But most of all I want to be happy. Have you got any resolutions?

Title: Come Back to Texas (Twelve Beats in a Bar #1)
Author:  

K.K. Hendin
Publisher:  Self-published
Published Date:  17^th August 2014

Rating: 4.5 Stars

*Thank you to the Xpresso Book Tours for the review copy*

Synopsis:  Everyone thought we’d be the ones who made it through high school. The ones who’d get married and stay married forever. The example of how young love can work.

We thought so, too.

Too bad life had other plans.

It’s been three years since Hayley and Nate broke each other’s hearts. Three years, and a lot has changed. Hayley’s a freshman in Bushwick University, and the only things keeping her sane are stress baking, and her a cappella group, Twelve Beats in a Bar.

Nate’s a Marine, stationed in Afghanistan. The only thing that’s keeping him sane is the last picture he has of him and Hayley, and the hope that maybe when the hell of deployment is over, he can find her again and apologize.

One explosion will change everything.

When a bomb kills all of Nate’s unit, leaving him missing a leg and eyesight in one eye, he’s sent back home to Texas. Texas, where he loved Hayley more than he could possibly imagine ever loving anyone else.

With seemingly endless amounts of free time and needing something to distract himself, Nate starts making YouTube videos, imploring Hayley to come back to him, and come back to Texas.

Hayley’s life is wrapped around the Beats, making sure she doesn’t flunk out of biology class, and babysitting Ohio’s smallest monster, Brandon. She doesn't want to admit it, but she misses Nate more than anything.

It’s too bad she doesn’t know just how much he misses her, too…

Review: I think whether or not you like this book really depends on what kind of reader you are. Being a character driven reader, I know this is something I would love. But some other readers may find it draggy. 

A capella group meetings.

I loved Hayley as the main character. I loved her voice and how it really shone through Hendin’s writing. I thought her character was awesome and even though she was having a hard time getting over Nate, she was trying her best. It wasn’t easy being the poor girl who finally had a chance to break out of the ways of her family – because there was a lot of pressure on her to do well. And even though she wanted to do well, it was hard for her to focus on much when her heart was still breaking.

Then we have Twelve Beats in a Bar, and they are an a Capella group who sing together and found each other at the university. Even though they weren’t the main focus of the novel I liked all the secondary characters here. They were each unique and it was easy to see this. I think that future books will be told from one of the other girl’s perspective and I would very much like that idea. Oh, and one of the girls is called Olivia so this book obviously gets bonus points for that.

When it comes to plot it was mostly about the breakup. We got to see flashbacks from the start of their relationship until the end, and the reasons which led to the break up gradually become clearer. And we’re also seeing the present tense where Hayley and Nate are separate. And I will tell you, in the beginning of the book Hendin uses the chapters to build suspense. You will see what I mean if you read it ;) There isn’t much of a plot apart from the love story, so if you don’t like no plot twists or stories that drag a little, this might not be for you.

Nate was a guy I liked. In the first few chapters we see him he swears far too much, and that put me off a little. But he grew on me, I guess ^^ The themes in this book are about death, war and love. I thought Hendin did a great job with the theme of death most of all. Seeing as I myself have lost someone close to me I could easily relate.

I am looking forward to the novella which tells Nate’s war story in more depth!

 

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Olivia’s Question: Have you ever gone through a difficult break up?

Olivia-Savannah x