Title: All Good Things (The Good Life #0.5 – Standalone prequel to The Good Life)
Author: Jodie Beau
Genre: New Adult Contemporary
Published on 31st January 2014
Blog Tour Organised By: Kelly @ Have Book Will Read
BLURB:
All Good Things…
are wild and free.
This is going to be the best summer ever! Bonfires, pool parties, trips to the beach, throwing her arms in the air while riding down the open road in a convertible – she’s going to do it all.
Roxie has plans. It’s the last summer before college graduation. By this time next year she’ll be living in the “real” world; ie: paying bills, searching for a job that doesn’t require an apron, and maybe even sleeping on a bed that doesn’t turn into a couch. If there’s ever a time to be fun, irresponsible and reckless, it’s now.
But things don’t always go as planned.
Before the summer has even started, Roxie makes a discovery that breaks her heart and shatters her confidence. Her hopes of having the Best Summer Ever go straight in the trash. Forget the beach. Forget the bonfires. Forget summer altogether.
If only her childhood friend, Jake, would let her be. His contagious smile keeps popping up and dragging her to every social event in Ann Arbor. Reluctant at first, his happy-go-lucky attitude becomes an addiction. It isn’t long before Roxie starts to wonder if her longtime friend might be the perfect cure for her heartbreak. This summer might be good after all.
But All Good Things…
must come to an end.
**All Good Things is an NA prequel to the contemporary 2013 release The Good Life. The books can be read in either order, or as stand-alones.**
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18585830-all-good-things
BUY LINKS:
Amazon UK – http://ow.ly/t7V98
Amazon US – http://ow.ly/t7Vls
REVIEW
***Arc was provided by author in exchange for an honest review***
The summer of Roxie and Jake. The summer fling that they didn’t want to end. The two months that changed Roxie and Jake’s relationship so completely. But just like summer, their relationship ended – they went in opposite directions and did not reunite until many years later in Book 1 of The Good Life series.
Just like the title implies – All good things must come to end…but is it the true ending of Roxie and Jake’s story?
Going in to All Good Things, I had no idea the depth of Jake and Roxie’s relationship because I haven’t read The Good Life yet, and I’m actually glad that I haven’t because I was able to see how their relationship began without knowing how it would ultimately turn out.
Jade Odom is a definite book boyfriend. I love the author’s decision to show most of Jake’s point of view in flashbacks. Readers get to experience his feelings for Roxie change from brotherly to feelings of friendship to feelings of lust and then love.
Roxie is a great heroine. I connect with her on a lot of levels. Her sense of control comes from lists and organization, and I am a lot like that. When other people do things that hurt her, she tries to control her reaction by listing ways to ensure it doesn’t happen again, which may seem senseless, especially because Roxie gets herself in the same situation more than once, but it at least gives her an outlet…a way to cope without getting herself into trouble with more reckless acts.
Roxie has always had feelings for Jake, but she kept those feelings “stored in a lockbox.” She never thought that he would feel the same way…even when they start their summer fling, she tries to keep it as light as possible, afraid to ruin their friendship, but in the end, it does exactly that because they are never honest with each other and keep their true feelings bottled up, and even though I know that they find each other again years later in The Good Life, the epilogue is still heartbreaking to read because, in my opinion, they are supposed to still be together.
All Good Things is a “feel good” read. It’s a quick read that sheds light on where Jake and Roxie began. It shows the bond that can be created when friends become lovers. I love that this is not the end of Jake and Roxie’s story. I can’t wait to see how they reconnect in The Good Life.
4 poison apples
EXCERPT
I was a bad drunk. Everyone had that one friend that needed a babysitter when drinking. That was me. I was that friend. Embarrassing, but true.
I didn’t drink often, but when I did, I didn’t know when to stop. It wasn’t because I was a total lush – but I got so uncomfortable around crowds and used the alcohol to loosen up. Sometimes (okay, fine, most times) I got a little too loosened up. On bad nights I ended up fondled by strangers, passed out on a bathroom floor, or carried out of a bar by bouncers. On better nights you’d find me telling a whole group of complete strangers my theory that oral sex was the answer to World Peace. And on no morning-after had I ever woken up and thought to myself, Wow, what a respectable young woman I was last night. Nope. Never.
I’d embarrassed myself on too many occasions to count, and I was hoping not to add another at my own ‘Welcome Home’ party.
“Can you do me a favor?” I asked Jake after my second martini. It was approaching nine, not even dark yet and I was already buzzing.
“What’s up?” he asked from behind the bar.
“Can you please start making my drinks a little weaker? Or a lot weaker? It’s still early, and I’d like to have some of my dignity left in the morning.”
“That’s not going to be very fun for the rest of us,” he said with a straight face. “These people didn’t come here tonight to welcome back their prim and proper weak-drink-drinking friend. They came for the show they’ve learned to expect.”
It wasn’t very nice, but it was funny. I was buzzed enough to laugh at my own expense. “I don’t want to pull out all my tricks on the first night,” I replied. “I need to save some for the next party.”
“No shit, you’ve got tricks now? I should have charged a cover.”
I laughed and shook my head at him. “Can you please just have my back tonight?”
He slid another martini over to me. I took a sip of the noticeably weaker drink and smiled. “Thank you.”
“No problem. I’ve got my money on you keeping your bikini top on until at least midnight. If we work on it together, we can split the pot.”
I sipped my martini and hoped he was kidding.
ABOUT JODIE BEAU
I’m a wife, mom, waitress, book nerd, Chapstick addict, and a really bad driver who still believes in happy endings and can’t walk in high heels. Writing is what I do when I’m avoiding other things…like cleaning.
I once had big dreams of being a Hollywood screenwriter.
But then I met a boy and got distracted.
Three years later we met another boy, this one even cuter.
The three of us are now living happily ever after in the Detroit area. All Good Things is my second novel. And our house is kind of a mess 🙂
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sweetbutsnarky?fref=ts
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6926288.Jodie_Beau
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodLifeList
PLAYLIST
GIVEAWAY
PHOTO OF JAKE NECKLACE IS ATTACHED IN EMAIL
Jodie Beau is giving away an All Good Things “Jake” necklace PLUS signed paperbacks of All Good Things and The Good Life to one winner.
There will also be Kindle ebook sets of both books to two other winners.
All prizes are open internationally.
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