BLOG TOUR REVIEW: ‘EVERY OTHER WEEKEND’ BY ABIGAIL JOHNSON

Today’s my stop for the blog tour of Every Other Weekend by Abigail Johnson. Many thanks to The FFBC and Inkyard Press for giving me the opportunity to participate in the tour and for providing me with an e-ARC.

BOOK DETAILS

Book Title: Every Other Weekend

Author: Abigail Johnson

Publication Date: January 7, 2020

Publisher: Inkyard Press

Genre: Young Adult/ Contemporary/ Romance

Format: Uncorrected Proof Copy (e-ARC).

Language: English

Total Number of Pages: 511

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Dysfunctional Families, Divorce, Separation, Abuse, Grief, Sadness, Toxic Family Relations, Personal Loss, Alcoholism, Cheating,

Can life begin again…every other weekend?

Adam Moynihan’s life used to be awesome. Straight As, close friends and a home life so perfect that it could have been a TV show straight out of the 50s. Then his oldest brother died. Now his fun-loving mom cries constantly, he and his remaining brother can’t talk without fighting, and the father he always admired proved himself a coward by moving out when they needed him most.

Jolene Timber’s life is nothing like the movies she loves—not the happy ones anyway. As an aspiring director, she should know, because she’s been reimagining her life as a film ever since she was a kid. With her divorced parents at each other’s throats and using her as a pawn, no amount of mental reediting will give her the love she’s starving for.

Forced to spend every other weekend in the same apartment building, the boy who thinks forgiveness makes him weak and the girl who thinks love is for fools begin an unlikely friendship. The weekends he dreaded and she endured soon become the best part of their lives. But when one’s life begins to mend while the other’s spirals out of control, they realize that falling in love while surrounded by its demise means nothing is ever guaranteed.

Guess who is having a great start to 2020? This girl right here! I read two incredible books back to back and I feel so lucky!

If you haven’t checked out my review of Furious Thing, you can find it here. I highly recommend you read the book!

Speaking of today’s book, Every Other Weekend, a lot happens in the 500 pages. I found the pace to be quite slow but it goes well with the story. Slow burns work really well in YA novels. I haven’t read any books by Abigail Johnson but now I’ll definitely get back to her previous books. I loved her writing style. It’s very simple but hooked me right from the beginning.

Every Other Weekend is narrated from two different point of views. Both Adam and Jolene, the two protagonists, belong to dysfunctional families which results in their close bonding. While Adam’s parents have just been separated, Jolene’s parents are divorced.

They meet and get to know each other on their every other weekend visits to their Dads’ houses which are adjacent to one another. Adam and Jolene share with each other their stories of broken families and even share a laugh together at that.

While Adam is an innocent young boy who hopes that his parents are reunited so that he can live with both his parents, Jolene on the other hand, doesn’t wish for the same for her parents. Adam is hostile towards his father because he considers him responsible for the separation. He believes that his father didn’t value him and his mother and left them to fend for themselves because he didn’t want to complicate his own life. Every weekend at his Dad’s place is difficult for Adam and he tries to suppress his feelings of grief through his connection to Jolene.

Jolene comes from a rich family yet it is ironical that their richness could not salvage her parents’ relationship. Jolene’s father cheated on her mother which caused the divorce. But her mother is no better than her father. Jo has never felt loved by any of her parents and remains almost indifferent to their presence in her life. She is an aspiring director and wishes she could re-edit her life and tune her family relations. Jolene becomes a pawn in her parents’ divorce and she hopes her life would return back to normal.

Both Adam and Jolene have several things in common, out of which, their need for love is the strongest. Since they cannot find it in their respective families, they try to find it in their special bonding. Weekend times in balconies of their Dads’ homes and weekdays spent texting each other. Over the course of the book, their relationship becomes stronger.

I loved the narration and it wasn’t boring at all despite the fact that it’s a pretty lengthy book. Johnson’s writing style kept the story interesting. Both Adam and Jolene were well-fleshed out characters. I loved Jolene’s sarcastic, witty remarks and Adam’s sweet innocent nature. The supporting characters were equally well sketched. There’s plenty of humour scattered throughout the novel which makes it easier to read the book.

I loved Every Other Weekend and would recommend every one to read it. But please do take note of the possible trigger warnings.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Abigail was born in Pennsylvania. When she was twelve, her family traded in snow storms for year round summers, and moved to Arizona. Abigail chronicled the entire cross-country road trip (in a purple spiral bound notebook that she still has) and has been writing ever since. She became a tetraplegic after breaking her neck in a car accident when she was seventeen, but hasn’t let that stop her from bodysurfing in Mexico, writing and directing a high school production of Cinderella, and becoming a published author.

SUPPORT ME!

Show your support by buying me a Coffee or PayPal me or send me a book! I am looking to upgrade my website so, your support would mean a lot to me 💖

WORDPRESS| TWITTER | FACEBOOK |

INSTAGRAM|GOODREADS | PINTEREST| LINKEDIN

Signing off,

 

 

Advertisement