Blog Tour + Book Review & Giveaway | Love Songs & Other Lies by Jessica Pennington

Love Songs & Other Lies
by Jessica Pennington
Published by: Tor Teen
Publication date: April 24, 2018
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult, Romance
Pre-order Links:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Powell’s

Synopsis:
It’s summer romance and second chances, the songs that stay in your head, and the boy you’ll never forget.

Two years after rock-song-worthy heartbreak, Virginia Miller is looking forward to a fun, carefree summer. Her friends just landed a spot on a battling bands reality show, and Vee is joining them for her dream internship on tour. Three months with future rockstars seems like an epic summer plan. Until she learns she’ll also be sharing the bus with Cam. Her first love, and her first heartbreak. Now Vee has more than just cameras to dodge, and Cam’s determination to win her forgiveness is causing TMZ-worthy problems for both of them. With cameras rolling, she’ll have to decide if her favorite breakup anthem deserves a new ending. And if she’s brave enough to expose her own secrets to keep Cam’s under wraps.

Breaking Vee’s heart was never Cam’s plan. All he wanted senior year was a new life, in a new town, uninterrupted by the tragedy he left behind. Then Vee swept him into a whirlwind of friendship, musical adventure, and a love he didn’t expect or want. Now, he has a second chance to make it right. But things get complicated when ratings-crazy producers, cameramen, and fans are involved. Can he rewrite their love song with the whole world watching?My rating: 

You were the missing lyrics to a song I didn’t even know I was writing.

Both feeling alone, consumed by their guilt, fear and anger, Cameron Fuller and Virginia Miller found comfort and solace in each other. Music became the bridge between the gaps that render a strong note in every lyric of each song they shared making them vulnerable and exposed to something, more than the intensity of a first love high school romance.

But when fear was confused with white lies of wanting to start a new life with zero baggage in a new town where people didn’t know the tragedy of the past, the truth and reality eventually came out. It was too much for Cam to take that he left Vee with her heart broken.

Two years after, Vee’s best friend, Logan, called her to join Your Future X on a tour as a part of the PR and Marketing of their band. Little did she know that the person she least expected to see was part of the same band that she will be working with for the next three months. Could it be possible for both Cam and Vee to rekindle an old flame with cameras and fans swarming them 24/7?

I didn’t understand Cam at first. But as the story progress, I finally knew why he blamed himself for what happened, that whenever something triggered his memory, he got scared. His guilt and pain caused him too much denial that the only way he knew to stay out from the shadows of his past was to run away even if it means breaking the heart of the woman he loves.

On the other hand, Vee is like a guitar, the sound that comes out from it could be loud, bold, fierce but it can also be sweet, calm and gentle. It was so easy to like her character. She patiently waited for Cam to open up because she always cares even if she knew she would get hurt. And in the midst of confrontation, she handled her pain so well and faced her heart breaker fearlessly.

Told in dual timeline and alternating POV, the characters’ pasts were perfectly in sync with the events happening in their present. It flows smoothly and the story just sucked me in like I was a part of Cam and Vee’s tiny imperfect world.

From Your Future X band members, Logan, Anders and Reese to Tad, Nonni and Grace, I love how the bond of friendship was formed or how family was involved in this story. With special mention, I would like to give the best supporting friend award to Logan because he somehow played cupid for Cam and Vee to get back together. As a friend who cares, he knew that he has to do something even if it was in the most awkward possible way.

The ending was powerful and emotional, and more so comforting that I couldn’t stop myself to breathe a sigh of relief. It was momentous where there’s some kind of flashback formed in your head like those happened in the movies when unexpected events just rolled out in sequence because you didn’t know that behind every scene, someone is keeping their promise of looking after you, happy that they’re doing it even without you knowing it.

Jessica Pennington has written a lyrical, fluid story with strong characters and emotions — raw and genuine that they bled on every page affecting readers with all the feels. She was also able to give a glimpse of the true nature of Hollywood’s prominent talent shows behind the scenes and highlight the influence of social media for people to gain a platform of fame.

Love Songs & Other Lies is a summer romance charged with music, adventure and friendship that will make your heart beat out of your chest, filling your lungs with painful memories and putting your ears in a loop of playlist about first love, heartbreak, and second chances.

Thank you NetGalley, Saraciea J. Fennell of Tor Teen and Jessica Pennington for providing me an eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review!

About The Author:
Jessica Pennington is no stranger to the combination of love and drama. She’s a wedding planner, after all. A writer since the age of ten when she sought publication for her poem about a tree—Jessica likes the challenge of finding the humor in a sad situation or highlighting the awkwardness in a romantic one.

She lives in a Michigan beach town suspiciously similar to the one in her books, where she’s currently finishing her second novel, When Summer Ends, out April 2019.

Follow Jessica Pennington:
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr

Want to know who joined the blog tour? Don’t forget to visit these amazing book bloggers to learn more about Love Songs & Other Lies by Jessica Pennington.

April 16
— LILbooKlovers
— Ashleigh’s Bookshelf
April 17
— The Clever Reader
— Tale Out Loud (That’s Me!)
April 18
— Smada’s Book Smack
— BookCrushin
April 19
— My Fangirl Chronicles
— A Blunt Book Blog
April 20
— BookishBitsBlog
— Books. Life. and Everything Else.
April 30
— The Candid Cover
— Belle’s Archive

May 1
— The Cursed Books
— The Heart of a Book Blogger
May 2
— Portrait of a Book
— Vicky Who Reads
May 3
— The Mind of a Book Dragon
— Boundless Bookaholic
May 4
— Claerie’s Tales
— Librarian Laura