Friday, June 29, 2018

Blog Tour: Review, Excerpt + Giveaway- My Crunchy Life by Mia Kerick


My Crunchy Life

Genre: YA Contemporary - LGBTQ
Release Date: June 26th 2018
Harmony Ink Press


Summary:

John Lennon fought for world peace, but sixteen-year-old hippie hopeful Kale Oswald’s only made it as far as tie-dying his T-shirts with organic grape juice. Now he’s ready to cement his new hippie identity by joining a local human rights organization, but he doesn’t fit in as well as he’d hoped.

After landing himself in the hospital by washing down a Ziploc bag of pills with a bottle of Gatorade, Julian Mendez came clean to his mother: he is a girl stuck in a boy’s body. Puberty blockers have stopped the maturing of the body he feels has betrayed him. They’re also supposed to give him time to be sure he wants to make a more permanent decision, but he’s already Julia in his heart. What he’s not sure he’s ready to face is the post-transition name-calling and bathroom wars awaiting him at school.

When Kale and Julian come face-to-face at the human rights organization, attraction, teenage awkwardness, and reluctant empathy collide. They are forced to examine who they are and who they want to become. But until Kale can come to terms with his confusion about his own sexuality and Julian can be honest with Kale, they cannot move forward in friendship, or anything more.  


Excerpt: 



REVIEW: 


After reading It Could Happen and The Weekend Bucket List, I was really looking forward to reading author Mia Kerick's My Crunchy Life as I loved the author's previous works, and was looking forward to seeing what she had in store for readers this time. When I read the summary of My Crunchy Life, I knew it would be an interesting and pleasant read, and that's exactly how it turned out to be. 

Julian and Kale go to the same high school but never really meet until they bump into each other at a human rights organisation that helps create social awareness and lets people be. Julian is a biological male transitioning into female, while Kale is trying to figure out his chosen hippie lifestyle. When the two meet, some sparks fly all right, but there's so much they figure out about themselves and that was incredible to see. 

The most relatable and prizewinning part of young adult novels is the stress on family which played an important role in My Crunchy Life. Julian's mother works day and night to make sure her child's journey into the world is as easy and safe as it could be, while Kale's dad welcomes his nephew Hughie into his house and home with open arms. Neither of family is perfect, and that's what makes it super real and understandable. 

This is not a typical young adult high school drama novel, at least not completely. There is so much more to it than just friendship and romance. It's about the difficulties of life and how even the smallest incidents make someone lose all the confidence and faith that they have, but at the same time, it's about how even smallest positive and helpful voices help make it better. For a YA novel, it's very deep and raw yet fun and relaxing as its a short read sprinkled with humour. 


As always, author Mia Kerick's writing is meticulous. Her focus on her characters and what they are going through is what I love most about her books. Sometimes, I really don't care what a school or room or coffee shop looks like, I just want to know what's going on in the minds of the characters I eventually fall in love with as I read about them. Mia Kerick does just that, and she does it so well. 

I would definitely recommend this book to fans of YA LGBT reads. It is totally worth it. 

*Note: A copy of this book was provided by YA Bound and Mia Kerick in exchange for an honest review. We thank them.


About the Author:



Mia Kerick is the mother of four exceptional children—all named after saints—and five nonpedigreed cats—all named after the next best thing to saints, Boston Red Sox players. Her husband of twenty years has been told by many that he has the patience of Job, but don’t ask Mia about that, as it is a sensitive subject.


Mia focuses her stories on the emotional growth of troubled men and their relationships, and she believes that sex has a place in a love story, but not until it is firmly established as a love story. As a teen, Mia filled spiral-bound notebooks with romantic tales of tortured heroes (most of whom happened to strongly resemble lead vocalists of 1980s big-hair bands) and stuffed them under her mattress for safekeeping. She is thankful to Dreamspinner Press for providing her with an alternate place to stash her stories.

Mia is proud of her involvement with the Human Rights Campaign and cheers for each and every victory made in the name of marital equality. Her only major regret: never having taken typing or computer class in school, destining her to a life consumed with two-fingered pecking and constant prayer to the Gods of Technology.

Contact Mia at miakerick@gmail.com.
                                     
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2 comments:

  1. Thank do much for this wonderful post and for reviewing My Crunchy Life! Your support is appreciated!

    ReplyDelete


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