If It Makes You Happy Blog Tour Review + Giveaway

It’s almost summer and for me that means YA Contemporaries! Check out my review of If It Makes You Happy by Claire Kahn and enter in the giveaway to win your own copy!

Thank you to Xpresso Book Tours for letting me participate in this YA Contemporary blog tour!

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About the Book

 

Title: If It Makes You Happy
Author: by Claire Kann
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: June 4th 2019
Genres: Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance,Young Adult

Synopsis

High school finally behind her, Winnie is all set to attend college in the fall. But first she’s spending her summer days working at her granny’s diner and begins spending her midnights with Dallas—the boy she loves to hate and hates that she likes. Winnie lives in Misty Haven, a small town where secrets are impossible to keep—like when Winnie allegedly snaps on Dr. Skinner, which results in everyone feeling compelled to give her weight loss advice for her own good. Because they care that’s she’s “too fat.”

Winnie dreams of someday inheriting the diner—but it’ll go away if they can’t make money, and fast. Winnie has a solution—win a televised cooking competition and make bank. But Granny doesn’t want her to enter—so Winnie has to find a way around her formidable grandmother. Can she come out on top?

Find it Here:

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | iBooks | Kobo | Google Play

 

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REVIEW

I enjoyed this YA Contemporary about family and friendship. Winnie is spending another summer working at her granny’s diner before she heads off to college to study hospitality so that she can one day inherit the diner!

Likes

This small town reminded me a lot of Stars Hollow with it’s quirky town festivals where the whole town comes together to put on a big to-do! It’s called Misty Haven and if that doesn’t give you those Gilmore Girl vibes than you’ve gotta watch the series again! Winnie gets picked to be Misty Haven’s Summer Queen which is a complete surprise because she didn’t even enter. This sudden turn of events causes tension between her partner, Kara, and the boy she’s not quite sure of.

Kara and Winnie’s relationship is one that I’m honestly not familiar with, and hadn’t heard of before reading this book. I didn’t have to google the definition of “Queerplatonic” and I’m still unsure I know exactly what it means. It made the relationship between Winnie and Kara and Dallas very unique. It also makes me curios to learn more about it.

I really enjoyed the relationship between Winnie and her younger brother. It’s a combination of the older sister protecting the younger brother but in reality it’s more like he’s always there to support her in more ways than she’d realized. He goes where she goes but it’s not in the annoying way that you usually see between siblings. He genuinely enjoys being around her, even if he doesn’t really care to visit Misty Haven every summer. Sibling love is the best!

Dislikes ( Possible Spoilers)

I did struggle with a Winnie’s relationship with her cousin Sam and especially with her granny. Sam doesn’t seem to understand where Winnie is coming from when it comes to things like how she feels about herself. Sam’s character was really shallow but it was as if she was supposed to come off naive as an explanation for that. I struggled with it.

I did not like Winnie’s granny at all and felt disappointed that the relationship doesn’t really get any better. It was frustrating at times and I felt that the tension got to be a bit too much for me. I felt that the motives behind their constant back and forth just weren’t really ever defined enough for me to be invested in it.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Claire Kann is the author of LET’S TALK ABOUT LOVE and an award-winning online storyteller. In her other life, she works for a nonprofit that you may have heard of where she daydreams like she’s paid to do it. Find out more by visiting her website: www.clairekann.com (and while you’re there, tell her about your cats. She loves cats. A lot.)

Author links: 

Website | Facebook | Twitter

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 GIVEAWAY

Prize: Print copy of If It Makes You Happy

Tour-wide giveaway (US/CAN)

Rafflecopter Link HERE

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FOLLOW THE TOUR

June 3rd
–Bookcheshirecat >> Review
–Kait Plus Books >> Interview
–The Book Dutchesses >> Review
–Becca Leighanne >> Review
–Young Adult Media Consumer >> Review

June 4th
–Firstbooklove >> Review
–MOCHA GIRLS READ >> Excerpt
–Lisa Loves Literature >> Review
–The Candid Cover >> Review
–Treestand Book Reviews >> Review

June 5th
–I’m Into Books >> Guest post
–BookCrushin >> Guest post
–Utopia State of Mind >> Review
–Adventures in Writing >> Excerpt

June 6th
–Books and blends >> Excerpt
–Actin’ Up with Books >> Review
–Twirling Book Princess >> Review
–Smada’s Book Smack >> Interview

June 7th
–The Clever Reader >> Review
–The Heart of a Book Blogger >> Interview
–The Reading Chemist >> Review
–Bookish Wisps >> Excerpt
–Lindsey Reads >> Review
–Let’s Fox About It >> Review