author Daisy Jordan as a guest blogger here on Acting Balanced on Wednesday! She blogged about Travel as an Escape and more... She also offered a Signed Copy of her new book, Love Means Zero to one of my lucky readers, just for commenting on the post.Today, I'd like to offer you a little of my take on Love Means Zero
and let you know that by commenting on today's post, you will receive a bonus entry into the drawing to win her book on October 23rd! The other bonus is that this book can ship WORLDWIDE, so everyone can enter! All comments on today's post will be added in sequential numeric order to the end of the comments on the guest post, so if there are 25 comments on the guest post, the first comment on this post will be considered #26 for the purposes of determining random order...Now that the housekeeping is out of the way, lets get on with the book:
From the publisher:
A chance encounter in a Rome hotel, two tremendously damaging photographs, and Hilton Joliet’s life is instantly altered. Previously working a dead-end job as an assistant in a portrait studio, she is now a freelance photographer for Game Set Match magazine, “the Us Weekly of tennis,” as she calls it.
Thrown rapidly into a jet-setting life of world-class tennis, the best seats at the best matches, and trailing the hottest young tennis stars and their model and actress girlfriends, Hilton, a former tennis player herself, can’t imagine a more fun job or a better way to jump-start her career while her boyfriend Luke finishes law school.
As Hilton spends more and more time away from home, grows closer and closer to Tanner Bruin—the world-ranked No. 3 player on whom she’s always had a huge crush—and becomes more and more hated by Aubrey Gage—the actress girlfriend of world-ranked No. 6 player Haidin Bayliss—Luke keeps a secret from her that could drastically change their six-year relationship.
It is through Hilton’s discovery of that secret, her love for the tennis tour, and her front-row glimpse into its most high-profile relationships that she starts to see how love doesn’t always mean near as much as she thought it did.
My review;
Without knowing that several of the characters had already met and had history in Daisy Jordan's previous works, I had a hard time jumping into this story... there were a ton of names - people, locations, occupations and more to keep track of in the first few chapters, but once I got a handle on it, I started to see where people fit in, relative to the story and more impotantly, where they fit in relation to each other...
As someone with only a passing interest in tennis, I worried at first, that the story would get lost in tennis related metaphors and terminology, but the tennis was really secondary to the real drama that was unfolding off the court. This book was, for me, more about the paths that relationships take, and the reason people enter and leave them, than about the tennis, photography or any other setting of the novel. Ms. Jordan manages to take a whole group of moderately dysfunctional (read normal) people and create characters you love, and that you love to hate... and then turn it all on its head in a few pages...
I love that this book wasn't just a straight line story from point A to Point B, with a hill in the middle for drama, this story was woven through a whole myriad of landscapes and people to create more realism and more fun than most novels of this genre tend to have.
I would highly recommend that you check out Love Means Zero, and also try to win the Autographed Copy that's available from here at Acting Balanced!
, and also try to win the Autographed Copy that's available from here at Acting Balanced!Remember that all comments (related to this review) will be entered into the drawing for the book, taking place after 11:59 pm on October 23rd.
You can also read more about the author on her guest post!
Disclaimer: I received two copies of Love Means Zero, one for review and one for the giveaway from the author, through Pump Up Your Book, at no cost. All opinions expressed are my own.
, one for review and one for the giveaway from the author, through Pump Up Your Book, at no cost. All opinions expressed are my own.I'm also hopping around to visit other book bloggers courtesy of:
This week's question comes from Christina who blogs at The Paperback Princesses.
"When you read a book that you just can't get into, do you stick it out and keep reading or move to your next title?"
It really depends on why I'm reading the book - if I've picked it up for fun, I'll probably drop it more readily than if I am reading it for review or for a book club meeting... I have found that a lot of books start slow but finish well, so I do try to stick it out...
