Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Blog Tour: Book Review: Patch Up by Stephanie Witter


Patch Up
Author: Stephanie Witter
Check out on Goodreads!
Purchase on Amazon and Barnes and Noble


Synopsis: Skye followed her long time boyfriend to Seattle for their first year of college, but he dumped her after only a week. The relationship brought only pain and destruction in Skye's life, and yet, she can't bring herself to open up and live her life.

"What if I am already broken into pieces?"

She hates to be touched, hiding under her oversized shirts and behind her wild frizzy hair. Even her bubbly roommate can't reach her. And yet ...

"I'm the guy who knows how you can hurt so much that your insides feel like they're cut and bleeding."

The tall, handsome, and tattooed TA in her psychology class changes everything when he literally collides with her and confronts her. For the first time in a long time, she wants to try and open up to this guy whose dark, intense eyes can't hide his own pain despite his dazzling smile getting to her.

However, just when she's starting to live again, her ex-boyfriend comes back, breaking her time and time again, making it all the more complicated.

She wants to fight for herself and for this building thing with the TA, even when he pushes her away, but can two broken people patch each other up?

"I never thought colliding with someone could change lives, but it is possible."

**Due to some shocking scenes, this novel is for readers of 18 and up.**
Brought to you by TeamNerd Reviewer Bridget Strahin


Review: Patch up is told in the view point of Skye Walker, a college freshman who follows her high school boyfriend to Seattle for college but then during their first week, he breaks up with her. Like, bam! "I don't like your co-dependent face anymore!" What a sleaze ball. So fast forward to winter semester and she still can't get over what he did to her. She's crushed, sensitive and broken. She doesn't even participate in social gatherings because she's afraid of running into her douche bag ex, it's all very tragic really. And every time she has the misfortune of running into him, he's either physically or verbally abusive to her.
Enter Duke Awesomepants (that’s not really his last name) He's a smexy TA in her Psychology class with a carefully guarded past and a guilty secret. She accidentally runs into him on the first day of the semester and it's on from there. He's irritatingly curious about her and why she's so depressed. She pushes him away countless times, pretty much tells him to go screw himself every time they're in the same room together, but he never wavers.   It's all 'broken boy wants to fix broken girl because she reminds him so much of himself'.
The whole concept of this book drew me in, obvs because I wouldn't have read it otherwise, but the execution killed me. I thought Skye was whinny and boring and a terrible decision maker. There were parts of the story that worked for me though, like how she found Duke in the cemetery mourning his dead girlfriend and he pushes her away because he's vulnerable and scared. He may be hot and seemingly together, but he's screwed up by guilt, flawed, I just ate it up. I like how these two broken people are trying to keep their heads up and move on with life when in reality they just want to drown in their sorrows, it says a lot about who these two people really are.  
BUT and this is a big one that made me quite angry, Sean (the douche bag ex) is abusive, he straight up hits Skye around like a dang rag doll and she NEVER tells on him. But then Duke finds out and he doesn't go to the authorities, he just interrogates her and yells at her to not make excuses for Sean. He should have gone to the cops or her parents himself. Instead the book draaaaags on leading to the climax when everyone is like, *shock face* "I can't believe it!" I was SO mad about this.
In the end, the big moral of the story is that domestic abuse happens to everyone and NO ONE should stay quiet about it. I mean, that's what I hope the moral is. I'm not even kidding guys, if Sean were a real character, I would beat him. No joke, he would never look at a woman the same way again because I would destroy him. He's a bully and a jerk face and the author did a really good job creating her villain. But I didn't feel the same way about her ability to create Skye. Like, I know what the author was trying to do here, I get it, and I can appreciate her for it, but I just couldn't connect with Skye or her constant excuses and thought process and that's why I only gave Patch Up 3 stars.

SNEAK PEEK
(The first meeting)
Without paying attention to my surroundings, I turn to my left to walk toward the row closer to the door where a seat is available. I take a step and collide with a hard body, almost toppling me over on the ground for the second time in less than an hour. A strong hand grips me firmly by the forearm. My body stiffens and my breath catches in my throat. It’s as if I can’t move besides yanking my arm free without looking up to see who I collided with.
“Are you all right?” he asks me in a deep and calm voice.
My eyes wander from my red Converse to his dark boots. I have to calm down. I’m being ridiculous. Calm down. I take a deep breath and look up slowly. Long, muscled legs in beat up dark blue jeans, an old black leather jacket open over a dark grey V-neck sweater that showcases an impressive tall body with broad shoulders and finally, longish and messy black hair, perfect straight nose, full lips, high cheekbones and expressive soft dark eyes that lock with my bluish-greyish ones. He looks older with his goatee perfectly trimmed. A perfect hot mess many girls would say. I’m just intimidated by this stranger, though.
“I’m fine,” I reply, my voice even. I push away some of my untamed locks and curse my auburn frizzy hair that is always all over the place.


About the Author: Stephanie Witter is a French dreamer. She started English at three and fell in love with the language. Always with a book - or two - close by, she soon started reading in English when she couldn't wait to see Harry Potter translated in French. After a while, reading wasn't enough and she started writing young adult and new adult contemporary novels always filled with drama. Now she hopes to translate English novels in her mother tongue as her everyday job. By My Side is her debut novel.

Where You Can Stalk Stephanie!


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