Review: Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown

Title: Thousand Words
Author: Jennifer Brown
Published: May 21st 2013
Add It: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

Ashleigh's boyfriend, Kaleb, is about to leave for college, and Ashleigh is worried that he'll forget about her while he's away. So at a legendary end-of-summer pool party, Ashleigh's friends suggest she text him a picture of herself -- sans swimsuit -- to take with him. Before she can talk herself out of it, Ashleigh strides off to the bathroom, snaps a photo in the full-length mirror, and hits "send."
But when Kaleb and Ashleigh go through a bad breakup, Kaleb takes revenge by forwarding the text to his baseball team. Soon the photo has gone viral, attracting the attention of the school board, the local police, and the media. As her friends and family try to distance themselves from the scandal, Ashleigh feels completely alone -- until she meets Mack while serving her court-ordered community service. Not only does Mack offer a fresh chance at friendship, but he's the one person in town who received the text of Ashleigh's photo -- and didn't look.
Acclaimed author Jennifer Brown brings readers a gripping novel about honesty and betrayal, redemption and friendship, attraction and integrity, as Ashleigh finds that while a picture may be worth a thousand words . . . it doesn't always tell the whole story.

I actually don’t know why this book has such a low rating on Goodreads since it voiced an important issue that my generation most definitely has: everything is pictured and filmed and instantly published without no shame or thoughts about the consequences. In my opinion, Thousand Words is a great novel for teenagers to read and offers thoughts to grown-ups as well.

“People talked. Let them talk. Nothing I could do to stop them. They knew the thousand words, but they didn't know the rest of the story.” 

The story. Ashleigh is one of the popular kids and has a ton of friends. She’s in the school’s track team, has a very respected family and a great boyfriend. However.. her boyfriend Kaleb is leaving for college soon and all he cares about is spending time with his boys from his baseball team. With a little encouragement from her friends, Ashleigh sends a compromising picture of herself to her boyfriend. This could only make things better. There’s no way that this is the turning point to something horrible, is there?

My thoughts. I found Ashleigh a little hard to connect with but once I did, I was totally rooting for her to get everything worked out in this awful situation. I knew this book was about sexting, but I had no idea how the whole picture would come together. I don’t think Ashleigh was innocent and she provoked the situation a little with her attitude and doubts in some situations, but I think the one who forwarded the picture, was a total d-bag! I’m aware of teenagers showcasing their body very freely, but I had no idea it would ruin a person’s life to this extent. I found this solution to be very realistic though and actually liked that it wasn’t all flowers and candy for Ashleigh, but she, therefore us, had to suffer for acting irrationally and the one who forwarded the message, got what one deserved! It’s never okay to publicly humiliate someone, no matter how angry you are.

What I liked best were the parts where Ashleigh spent time doing her community service. They were educational and showed us different teens with different problems which I found interesting and captivating. Also, Mack—the sort-of-love-interest-slash-friend—was a great change since he was hard to crack. That nut had a tough shell around him and Ashleigh had to twist and shake him to get him to open up a little. Moreover, he wasn’t one of the good-looking swoon-worthy guys. No—he had his secrets and definitely falls into the mysterious category, but he was a total opposite from Kaleb who was a very handsome guy. Point: good looks don’t make for a good personality. Oh, and the way this harmed Ashleigh’s family and friendship with her best friend—it was hard to read about, but by the end made me smile. Trust is hard to earn back and Ashleigh had to earn it as well as give it.

At the end of the day, it was my first ever Jennifer Brown book and I read the interview with her at the end of my e-copy. I love how she said that she wants to basically educate teenagers and give them something to think about and write unconventional stories rather than follow the formula. That is exactly what she did! She most certainly doesn’t follow any trends, but speaks the truth and paints a very painful, realistic picture in front of us. I definitely want to explore some more!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Meet the author

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Summer Lovin' Read-a-thon 2013 Wrap-Up

Hey, lovelies! I hope you all had a great weekend. It's so very sunny outside and unfortunately I got a sunburn. Meh.. It's not all that bad though, I've had worse. I guess that's what I get for laying out in the sun all day even if I use sun cream. The wheather has been superb though--not a cloud in a sky and it totally goes with the theme of this read-a-thon. I had so much fun and I'm looking forward to participating in even more read-a-thons since the first one was a success on my part. I didn't end up reading that much from the list I created for myself, but I read quite a bit nevertheless. You want to know what I read? I'll give you the complete list of day by day and a few thoughts on the books I read.

Day 1: Started Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter. Read to page 117.
Day 2: Started Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown--15% in. Continuing Born at Midnight.
Day 3: Read to 20% of Thousand Words and read to page 220 on Bron at Midnight.
Day 4: Read to around page 300 of Born at Mifnight
Day 5: Read to 50% of Thousand Words
Day 6: Finished Thousand Words. Read two additional novels: Wrong Kind of Love by Amanda Heath and Elite by Rachel Van Dyken.
Day 7: Finished Born at Midnight and started (and will hopefully finish) Breach by K.I. Lynn.

So I ended up reading..

Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter
I ended up liking it a lot. The MC was pretty well-written and even though her constant kissing thoughts regarding the two guys who drooled over her bothered me a bit, I still think Kylie was a decent character. I liked the friendships and the few twists and turns that took me by surprise. I also enjoyed the world-building which was quite different from the usual supernatural world I have come across so far. I think this one will get a decent four stars.

Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown
Another great story for me. It was my first ever Jennifer Brown's book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had no idea sexting would be that big of an issue and Ashleigh's story touched me in a way I didn't expect. I will definitely read more by Ms. Brown. As I gathered from that little interview with her at the end of the book, she writes issue books that are different and really make you think and these kinda books suit me well. Also, her writing is good so yes, definitely an author I'll explore more when I have time.

Wrong Kind of Love by Amanda Heath
Ok, so I read the first book and skimmed parts of it, that's why I haven't marked it as read on Goodreads. I did like the best friend of the MC and the MC's twin brothers though so I knew I wanted to read their book someday. I was rooting for Caden all the way and of course since it's from his and Grace's POV we know that they'll end up together, there's no other option. However, I was so annoyed by Grace that I wanted to sucker punch her at times. She was almost as annoying as Ms. Anastasia Steele. Ugh.. I liked the main idea and Caden was ok, but overall it was meh for me.

Elite by Rachel Van Dyken
This read-a-thon is all about firsts for me as I see. I didn't plan on reading it, but I ended up doing so since I was intrigued. I heard it was about a secret society among our ordinary one and I knew it was a book I wanted to pick up. Ok, so the beginning was a bit awkward. It got better, but again, the MC just ruined it for me. Every time someone said something that wasn't like.. didn't make sense immediately, she asked them if they were high. Wtf? So when I'm in a mood to be silly and say silly things and laugh about them I'm immediately tripping and so is everybody else? I think she was just too dumb. Sorry. The secret society thing was different though and it ended up being a first of that kind (I don't want to give away the society's um.. essence.) so I want to know more and I'll pick up the sequel even if the main character is a tad annoying.

and I'm currently reading Breach by K.I. Lynn as we speak. It's pretty good, but very very VERY steamy. Kinda reminds me of The Crossfire series by Sylvia Day. I know both of the MCs have secrets and I want to know what they are. I can tell that it's not just all adult fiction with the very graphic steamy scenes, but there's a story beneath all that. I hope it'll come out soon though since I don't think I can handle all that steaminess anymore. I need a real story not just an erotic story, you know..

AAAANNDDD that's it for me this week. I'll go and try to finish Breach now and I hope you guys had indeed a great weekend and please stop by to see my review for one of the most intriguing books I have ever read. It'll be up tomorrow and on Tuesday I'll have a giveaway for US/Can peeps so a lot of stuff to look forward to next week:)

Summer Lovin' Read-a-thon Goals

Hey, lovelies! I have never participated in a read-a-thon, but I've always looked at the people participating with a little jealousy in me since it all seems so very fun. Today I saw that Jasprit from The Reader's Den is participating in this read-a-thon and since it takes place throughout an entire week, I'd gladly use the opportunity and try to read as much as possible. I have difficulty with participating in the ones which take up like one-three days of a week since I'm a college student and work during summer and have an internship on top of that so yeah.. I couldn't read more than one book during that time even if I wanted to. Enough about my rambling though. I advise you guys to participate as well since it seems like so much fun (click on the banner above to go to the sign-up page). So you want to know what I'll be reading? Here's the list of the books I'm going to pick from depending on my mood.

The Collector by Victoria Scott | Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter | Until I Die by Amy Plum

Cinder by Marissa Meyer | Clash by Nicole Williams | Dearly Departed by Lia Habel

I have so many unread physical copies so listed above are the books that I'll try to read no matter what, but as it often happens, my reading mood changes quickly and below I have listed books that I'll read if I want to replace any of the books above. Also, if I end up reading all of the ones above, I ccan choose from the ones below :-)

What's Left of Me by Kate Zhang | Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown | Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone

 Incarnate by Jodi Meadows  | Taken by Erin Bowman | The Vincent Brothers by Abbi Glines

Annnd that's it. Any recommendations to me on which I should read first? I can't wait for tomorrow to dive into these pretties. Have a great Sunday!

Book Haul #20

I am going on a book buying ban *__* I realized I have so many physical copies on my shelf to read and let's not even begin to talk about the ones in my Kindle. It's insane! I've received 12 physical books in the last two weeks so I've divided them into different parts and I'll showcase them throughout the weeks to you since otherwise I won't be doing any haul posts. Okay, the drill is always the same -- if you think some of these should be read first than the others, let me know and I'll push them up on my tbr list. Also, leave your links below so I can visit you back :)))

Physical copies

Tiger's Quest (The Tiger Saga #2) by Colleen Houck

Now I have the first two and I'm so so so excited to finally start this series :) Yay!!

Ebooks

Dragonfly (Dragonfly #1) by Leigh Talbert Moore (arc)

Addicted to You (Addicted #1) to You by Krista and Becca Ritchie (arc)

Facade (Games #2) by Nyrae Dawn (cannot wait to read this baby!!!)

The Trouble with Goodbye by Sarra Cannon (arc)

The End Games by T. Michael Martin

A Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown

A huge thanks to Netgalley, AToMR Tours, Krista and Becca Ritchie, Sarra Cannon and Leigh Talbert Moore.

Oh, and dear followers, don't forget to participate in my 100 Followers Celebration Giveaway. Good luck, lovelies!

What did you get this week? Leave your links below and I'll check out your goodies :)

In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by The Mod Podge Bookshelf and Stacking the Shelves is a weekly event hosted by Tynga's Reviews.