March 11, 2013

Blog Tour: Dear Cassie by Lisa Burstein – Review, Interview, and G!veaway

Welcome to our tour stop for

Dear Cassie by Lisa Burstein

presented by Entangled Teen!

We are so thrilled to have Lisa stop by the blog for quick Q&A
Check out our thoughts on the book, and
be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

What if the last place you should fall in love is the first place that you do?

You’d think getting sent to Turning Pines Wilderness Camp for a month-long rehabilitation “retreat” and being forced to re-live it in this journal would be the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.

You’d be wrong.

There’s the reason I was sent to Turning Pines in the first place: I got arrested. On prom night. With my two best friends, who I haven’t talked to since and probably never will again. And then there’s the real reason I was sent here. The thing I can’t talk about with the guy I can’t even think about.

What if the moment you’ve closed yourself off is the moment you start to break open?

But there’s this guy here. Ben. And the more I swear he won’t—he can’t—the deeper under my skin he’s getting. After the thing that happened, I promised I’d never fall for another boy’s lies.

And yet I can’t help but wonder…what if?

Dear Cassie by Lisa Burstein
Publication Date:  March 5, 2013
Publisher:  Entangled Teen

Available for Purchase:
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I couldn’t find a trailer, so here’s a song!
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** This title was provided to us by the Publisher for an honest review.
We were in no way paid for our opinions **

Dear Cassie by Lisa Burstein was a book that I totally didn’t expect to turn out the way it did.  Full of angst and pain and where the message is one that, although not everyone may have gone through what Cassie has gone through, most everyone will have a deep, dark secret where they need to find the ability to forgive themselves.

Prom is supposed to be one of those events in everyone’s lives that should be filled with memories that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.  Unfortunately for Cassie, the memories she holds for that moment, and the weeks after are ones that will haunt her for the rest of her life.

Thanks to her supposed best friends Amy and Lila, Cassie has been accused of being in the possession of a large amount of marijuana.  What started out as a retaliation against the boys that were supposed to be their dates to the prom, who ended up ditching them, a plan that was not Cassie’s idea turns ends up being the burden she has to deal with on her own.  With Amy pointing the blame all on Cassie, and Lila running away from the situation, Cassie has been sentenced to 30 days of rehab at Turning Points.

30 days of roughing out in the wilderness with a group of other delinquents with problem and drama of their very own.  Among this rag tag group of misfits, Cassie finds some semblance of friendship from Troyer, a girl who has decided not to speak and communicates by way of a pad of paper.  And for some reason unknown to Cassie, a boy named Ben is vying for her attention.  But will someone as broken as Cassie be able to allow anyone into her heart, and will she find it in herself to forgive herself for the decision she had to make all because she decided to give her heart to a boy, once upon a time?

Dear Cassie by Lisa Burstein is one of those reads where in the end, you walk away with a deep message that most everyone can relate to.  It was difficult to read the pain and suffering that Cassie carried inside her, and is unable to communicate it with anyone.  Afraid that everyone will see her the way she sees herself.

My heart went out to Cassie as she described the lack of parentals in her life.  A mother is pretty much an alchoholic, and a father who is constantly called away for another tour in the army.  All that Cassie has left to rely on is her brother, and he’s the only one who knows about her dark secret.  Actually, him and that loser Aaron that was a huge part of her pain.

I had an ache inside of me when I was reading about the ordeal that Cassie had to go through.  When she had she freak out in the infirmary and the reasoning behind said freak out.  Sights and smells are a huge trigger for memories and no wonder the darkest memory she has immerged while in there.

I understood all the hate, anger, and angst that Cassie had pent up inside of her, but as I read the book, there were times where I was really annoyed with her.  I can understand the difficulty in letting anyone in on her inner most thoughts and secrets, but the way in which she pushed everyone away was infuriating.  Especially when it came to Ben.  Yes, she was obviously jealous with Nez’s incessant talk of “hooking up” with Ben, so why didn’t she change her attitude towards him them?  Why keep pushing him away?

And it kind of blew my mind how, in a matter of weeks, Ben has this undying affection for Cassie.  Especially after the crap she kept giving him.  I couldn’t grasp why he kept trying!  And the way in which Cassie and her “best friends” Amy and Lila would talk to each other?  Specifically Lila and Cassie?  It didn’t sound like friendly banter to me.  It sounded more like these girls really shouldn’t be friends.  I don’t go around calling my friends “bitch” every chance I get.

Other than those really minor things, Dear Cassie is a read that will burrow deep within the readers mind.  One where, once your done reading, you sit back and reflect on what you just read.  Fans of a darker contemporary read with a lot of angst will really enjoy Dear Cassie by Lisa Burstein.

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About the Author:

Lisa Burstein is a tea seller by day and a writer by night. She received her MFA in Fiction from the Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University and is glad to finally have it be worth more than the paper it was printed on. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her very patient husband, a neurotic dog and two cats. Pretty Amy is her first novel. She never went to her senior prom.

Connect with the Author:  Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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