BLOG TOUR: ARC REVIEW Tastes Like Winter by CeCe Carroll

Title/Series: Tastes Like Winter
Author: CeCe Carroll
Publisher: CeCe Carroll
Expected Publication: September 16th 2014
Format: eBook | Pages: 300
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Source: Author for blog tour
★★★★ (4/5) Stars!

CeCe Carroll | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

When home no longer feels like home - where can you go?

When your best friend won’t listen - who can you turn to?

When love makes you feel weak - how do you protect your heart?

With constant fighting at home, Emma decides working at High Street Books and practicing avoidance is the best method to save her from more heartache.

She doesn't expect to meet Jake, the shop owner’s nephew, who makes her stomach do crazy things.

But Jake is intent on pushing her away, and Emma must ask herself: 

Is he scared? Or is he hiding something?

Tastes Like Winter is a story of love, family, and friendship and,

when everything is uncertain, trying to figure out where you fit in.

I received a copy of this book from the author for a blog tour in exchange for an honest review. In no way did this sway my review or my rating!

You know how you come across those books that really toy with your emotions? They bring you up and then back down over and over again? They make you smile, they make you tear up and sometimes they even make you angry? Tastes Like Winter was one of those books for me. From this debut novel I can already tell that we can expect good things from CeCe Carroll in the future.

Emma's character was a lot like looking back at my teenage self. She was very real to me. A lot of what she went through at home with her parents was pretty close to identical to what I did with mine. So it was easy to just slide into her shoes and understand what she was going through. 

Jake was a hard one for me. I started out really liking him. He was all mysterious and sort of closed off and that intrigued me. I wanted to know more about this guy. The more you find out though, the more you realize he's a big mess. I always seem to like the messy ones the best. Sure, like Jake, they frustrate me at times beyond all reason. But I rarely give up on them and root for them to the end and they're the ones that stay with me the most after all is said and done.

There was a constant push and pull with these two. I never knew from one chapter to the next if I was rooting for them to happen because they would be so freaking cute if they did. Or if I just wanted them to work out their stuff and call it good. It's so bittersweet. This book really grabbed hold of my emotions and didn't let go after I was finished reading. It left me thinking about it for days. I'm looking forward to seeing what's going to come next from CeCe. I'm not sure my emotions are but they'll have to learn how to deal.