Want (Want, #1) in InkSpell Publishing

Mar 07, 2012 Lisa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: z-2012, inkspell

I just finished reading an ARC copy of Want by Stephanie Lawton. I stayed up until 2 this morning unable to put it down. I thought about it all day and rushed home after work to finish reading it. It’s been some time since I’ve been so compelled by a book that I was unable to put it down, so I’m thrilled to share this review with you.

The main character in Want is Julianne, a complex, interesting and immensely talented seventeen-year-old. She faces a horrific home life, the psychological impact o ...more

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Mar 14, 2012 Aubrie Dionne rated it it was amazing

A powerful masterpiece, exploring tough issues, sweet love, and high stakes…

Julianne has worked hard her entire life, practicing her piano to get into New England Conservatory, to leave behind the abuse, depression, and dysfunction of her southern home. When her teacher falls ill, she meets Issac, his young nephew and a recent grad of the same school she desires so much. The only problem is, she starts to desire Issac as well. His brooding mystery lures her in. She’s not the only one with psycho
A powerful masterpiece, exploring tough issues, sweet love, and high stakes…

Julianne has worked hard her entire life, practicing her piano to get into New England Conservatory, to leave behind the abuse, depression, and dysfunction of her southern home. When her teacher falls ill, she meets Issac, his young nephew and a recent grad of the same school she desires so much. The only problem is, she starts to desire Issac as well. His brooding mystery lures her in. She’s not the only one with psychological problems.

As a professional musician that once auditioned at the New England Conservatory myself, I found this story to be very interesting and very real. The main character, Julianne is moody like your average teenager, but as the story progresses, you start to learn why. She has some big problems: an abusive mom, a distant dad, an urge to cut her arms to feel pain and release, and the possibility that she’s inherited her mother’s psychotic traits. She is a very brave girl who stands at the edge of an abyss. Only music can save her, but can she overcome her emotional difficulties to become a great pianist, or will it all end in a tragic train wreck?

Issac is a mystery that I kept turning pages over to solve. Why did he leave the prestigious music scene in Boston? How does he feel about his new student, ten years his junior? When the truth finally comes out, it’s shocking! Boy, did it keep me reading. Phew! The relationship between Julianne and Issac is tumultuous, yet they can teach each other so much. As Mr. Cline puts is so eloquently when talking to Julianne, “You are the student he needs and he is the teacher you need.”

Dave is another story, so sweet, hilarious, if not a little potty mouthed, and always there for Julianne. I wondered if she’d ever see him for who he really was. The love triangle kept me turning page after page! I had no idea how it would turn out until the very last page, which shows how good a writer Stephanie Lawton is.

Want by Stephanie Lawton is a powerful masterpiece of a story exploring tough issues, sweet love, and high stakes; a whopper of a coming of age novel.
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Apr 17, 2012 Rebecca Hart rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Let me start by saying this book was absolutely nothing like what I expected when I sat down to read. I have read a fair share of YA books, but WANT is miles above anything I have read from this genre lately.

Stephanie Lawton presents us with a southern world, steeped in tradition and dark secrets. The MC, Julianne is flawed and "real" and I was rooting for her from page one. What a wonderful departure this was from the usual perfect life, beautiful flawless MC's present in so much of today's YA ...more

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Apr 08, 2012 Majanka rated it it was amazing

Book Review published here: http://www.iheartreading.net/book-tou...

Want is a rollercoaster of emotions. Trust me, you don’t want to read this book while you’re on the train back home, and a myriad of strangers is glancing at you and wondering why the heck your face looks like you’re experiencing a bazillion emotions at once. A powerful and strong novel, filled with a wide variety of characters, strong emotions against a southern setting, this is young adult contemporary romance at its best. You Book Review published here: http://www.iheartreading.net/book-tou...

Want is a rollercoaster of emotions. Trust me, you don’t want to read this book while you’re on the train back home, and a myriad of strangers is glancing at you and wondering why the heck your face looks like you’re experiencing a bazillion emotions at once. A powerful and strong novel, filled with a wide variety of characters, strong emotions against a southern setting, this is young adult contemporary romance at its best. You don’t want to miss out on this book, believe me.

The main character, Julianne, lives and breathes music. I would go as far as to say that not only is it her greatest passion, it’s also the only thing keeping her alive. Why? Well, because Julianne’s family is about as dysfunctional as a family can get. Her mother is abusive, and this abuse causes Julianne to start hurting herself. Her father chooses to ignore the abuse and most of the problems going on in their family, only adding to Julianne’s despair. Her only solace is music. But when her music teacher grows ill, it looks like Julianne is on the verge of losing absolutely everything, including her music.

But fortunately, her teacher’s talented nephew Isaac becomes Julianne’s new teacher. But it soon becomes clear that Isaac is perhaps just as troubled as Julianne is. He carries with him a lot of secrets and mysteries. He’s the epitome of the proverbial “hot and cold” male: he draws Julianne closer, and then pushes her away. Sometimes he opens up a little, then he closes himself entirely from the outside world. He’s also roughly ten years older than she is, which puts them in an almost impossible position.

While Julianne’s relationship with Isaac is tumultuous to say the least, the reader is quickly thrown into a love triangle. Now, I’m not usually a big fan of love triangles. Alright, who am I kidding…I LOVE love triangles. It’s my secret passion. But not all of them are equally well done. I have to admit that the love triangle in Want is miles above most young adult love triangles. It’s also a very close call, which only shows how good of a writer Stephanie Lawton is. It’s very difficult to write a love triangle without giving away the ‘endgame’ relationship too soon. Mrs. Lawton definitely succeeds in this department – I was biting my nails all the way to the end, hoping, pleading, begging that Julianne would pick the ‘right’ guy.

The second potential love interest for Julianne is Dave, a typical gentleman, and the only one who’s there for Julianne in her time of need. The kind of friend you can always rely on. I loved him as a character. He is the stability Julianne needs in her life, the shoulder to lean on when it all gets too much.

Want is a must-read novel for fans of contemporary romance in general – even people who aren’t a big fan of young adult novels: this book has enough mature concepts to appeal to a mature audience as well. It’s definitely not for younger YA readers, because it contains some very dark and depressing themes. I can’t wait to read more by this author, and I recommend everyone who enjoys a good romance novel that will keep you glued to your seat, to try out Want. I guarantee you’ll be amazed. ...more

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May 19, 2012 Naj rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2012

Want is an unexpected turn into my usual reads. The cover itself is a representation of mixed genres like contemporary, romance, fiction, young adult, and even a small flare of paranormal.

The story itself was dark on a psychological sense. It involves self-inflicted pain, trauma, domestic abuse and the usual heartache. It was also dark in an angsty sense. Romance here was preserved as both bad and good, bad in terms of damaging ones reputation and good in terms of finding the ‘one’.

All the char Want is an unexpected turn into my usual reads. The cover itself is a representation of mixed genres like contemporary, romance, fiction, young adult, and even a small flare of paranormal.

The story itself was dark on a psychological sense. It involves self-inflicted pain, trauma, domestic abuse and the usual heartache. It was also dark in an angsty sense. Romance here was preserved as both bad and good, bad in terms of damaging ones reputation and good in terms of finding the ‘one’.

All the characters are easily distinguished from the other. Juli is our protagonist and she is a brilliant pianist. She’s training her way into this prestigious music school in Boston but her piano teacher, who is old and gray had a stroke and is hospitalized. His replacement is his famous nephew, Isaac. Juli scares me sometimes. Her reactions to everything are unpredictable. She could be throwing things around in this page and shouting in the other. Her self-esteem problem and her constant doubts she has of herself is overwhelmingly annoying, to the point, where I almost stopped reading the book and left it at that. But no, Stephanie Lawton, has written a page-turner. No matter what, you just can’t stop turning those pages.

The only thing I can say about Isaac is that I used to love him but now, I just don’t know what to say about him. The mysterious bad-boy disappointed me and I didn’t see it coming at all.

My favorite character of the book would be Dave. Dave is Isaac’s best friend from Boston and Juli’s newfound best friend. Dave was adorable, sweet and the only good guy in the whole story, the guy who challenged the bad things in Juli’s life with his sweetness and balanced good and evil.

Overall, Want is the type of book that keeps you guessing. The type that makes you believes it’s predictable but its not. It may be from the Young Adult genre, but I’m pretty sure fiction-junkie’s will like this as much as I have. This is a wonderful Debut from a wonderful new author, Stephanie Lawton. I hope there’s a sequel to this. The ending didn’t seem like the end at all.
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Apr 25, 2012 Sasha Summers rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I wanted to take some time and really construct an adequate review for this story. Yes, this is a lovely, layered, heartfelt story but it's something more. Miss Lawton created real characters with real struggles. I don't mean your average teenage angst stuff - I mean big-time, heavy-duty issue stuff. There were times I winced, felt uncomfortable and really upset. Times I wanted to shake Juli and punch Isaac. (Dave I just loved). I wanted to call CPS on Juli's parents... Okay, I'm stopping. That' ...more

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Jul 07, 2012 Majanka rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: romance, young-adult, read-2012

Want is a rollercoaster of emotions. Trust me, you don’t want to read this book while you’re on the train back home, and a myriad of strangers is glancing at you and wondering why the heck your face looks like you’re experiencing a bazillion emotions at once. A powerful and strong novel, filled with a wide variety of characters, strong emotions against a southern setting, this is young adult contemporary romance at its best. You don’t want to miss out on this book, believe me.

The main character, Want is a rollercoaster of emotions. Trust me, you don’t want to read this book while you’re on the train back home, and a myriad of strangers is glancing at you and wondering why the heck your face looks like you’re experiencing a bazillion emotions at once. A powerful and strong novel, filled with a wide variety of characters, strong emotions against a southern setting, this is young adult contemporary romance at its best. You don’t want to miss out on this book, believe me.

The main character, Julianne, lives and breathes music. I would go as far as to say that not only is it her greatest passion, it’s also the only thing keeping her alive. Why? Well, because Julianne’s family is about as dysfunctional as a family can get. Her mother is abusive, and this abuse causes Julianne to start hurting herself. Her father chooses to ignore the abuse and most of the problems going on in their family, only adding to Julianne’s despair. Her only solace is music. But when her music teacher grows ill, it looks like Julianne is on the verge of losing absolutely everything, including her music.

But fortunately, her teacher’s talented nephew Isaac becomes Julianne’s new teacher. But it soon becomes clear that Isaac is perhaps just as troubled as Julianne is. He carries with him a lot of secrets and mysteries. He’s the epitome of the proverbial “hot and cold” male: he draws Julianne closer, and then pushes her away. Sometimes he opens up a little, then he closes himself entirely from the outside world. He’s also roughly ten years older than she is, which puts them in an almost impossible position.

While Julianne’s relationship with Isaac is tumultuous to say the least, the reader is quickly thrown into a love triangle. Now, I’m not usually a big fan of love triangles. Alright, who am I kidding…I LOVE love triangles. It’s my secret passion. But not all of them are equally well done. I have to admit that the love triangle in Want is miles above most young adult love triangles. It’s also a very close call, which only shows how good of a writer Stephanie Lawton is. It’s very difficult to write a love triangle without giving away the ‘endgame’ relationship too soon. Mrs. Lawton definitely succeeds in this department – I was biting my nails all the way to the end, hoping, pleading, begging that Julianne would pick the ‘right’ guy.

The second potential love interest for Julianne is Dave, a typical gentleman, and the only one who’s there for Julianne in her time of need. The kind of friend you can always rely on. I loved him as a character. He is the stability Julianne needs in her life, the shoulder to lean on when it all gets too much.

Want is a must-read novel for fans of contemporary romance in general – even people who aren’t a big fan of young adult novels: this book has enough mature concepts to appeal to a mature audience as well. It’s definitely not for younger YA readers, because it contains some very dark and depressing themes. I can’t wait to read more by this author, and I recommend everyone who enjoys a good romance novel that will keep you glued to your seat, to try out Want. I guarantee you’ll be amazed. ...more

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May 12, 2012 Mindy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: dream-reader-dreamer2229-blo

This was a hard book for me to read. I have worked for many years with abused children and the main character in this book is abused and that made it very difficult to read. On the other hand, it was also about triumphing over your past and problems. I think my biggest issues was that I wanted the abuse to be reported and someone to say, “Yes that was wrong. You didn’t do anything wrong, it had nothing to do with you, I’m sorry this happened to you.” I didn’t feel that the father took responsibi ...more

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May 20, 2012 Laurie Treacy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2012

Music, romance, mystery, all packaged together with a visually stunning cover. When I first read the blurb for Want, I figured what more could I ask for? After reading this book in one mandatory because I have to see what happens next sitting, I realized this contemporary upper YA was much more than what the blurb describes. So much more.
"If you want vampires and werewolves, faeries, fallen angels or zombies, you won’t find them here. I know a real-life monster. She drains the life out of me and Music, romance, mystery, all packaged together with a visually stunning cover. When I first read the blurb for Want, I figured what more could I ask for? After reading this book in one mandatory because I have to see what happens next sitting, I realized this contemporary upper YA was much more than what the blurb describes. So much more.
"If you want vampires and werewolves, faeries, fallen angels or zombies, you won’t find them here. I know a real-life monster. She drains the life out of me and tears at my flesh with words and fingernails that sink deeper than fangs ever could. I’m not her only victim, just her favorite."
Whoa. I read that opening paragraph and knew this was going to be an intense read. Julianne spoke to me with her honesty and I quickly invested in her character's passion for music, her spunk, her desire to leave the small confines of Southern town living along with a troublesome mother for college life at a prestigious music school. Her mother, already exhibiting strange behavoir, worsens when Juli's older brother R.J. leaves for college the year before. In that time frame she has to deal with her mother's erratic outbursts, usually all alone since her lawyer father works a lot.

After her beloved music teacher, Mr. Cline, suffers a stroke, he tells Juli not to worry. He has procured another music instructor for her. When Issac Laroche enters her studio he is nothing like she expected. Handsome, talented, a graduate of the New England Conservatory--the same school she is preparing for a shot at auditioning to--he seems to stand for everything she aspires to be. Or maybe not. Moody, aloof, cold, the temperamental artist is not always easy to get along with and there are murmurs of gossip Juli catches hold of.

Still, Juli finds herself attracted to Issac and he occasionally shows signs of letting her in. When he introduces her to some of his college friends who show up in Mobile, Alabama for a visit, she finds the personable Dave charming. Dave is also accomplished and wants to her her play a piece by Rachmaninoff, which she does, and he is impressed. Could it be her new teacher is actually interested in her? Or is this seventeen year old girl only fooling herself?

Want is an emotionally complex and layered novel. Juli has so much to contend with--her abusive mother to cutting herself just to be able to feel or be in charge, while conforming to the standards of upper class Southern society--when Issac enters her life she sees a chance at being desired for herself and appreciated for her talent. This was a refreshingly different contemporary and I enjoyed all of it: from the Southern setting to the role of music and how it was a way for Juli to express herself but also a crutch to hide from the world. I became a cheerleader for Juli, rooting her on through the various paths and bumps her life takes. Watching her make mistakes, get knocked down, perservere, only to have her heart broken then see her determined spirit take over made Juli an incredibly real character.

Stephanie Lawton's writing was fluid, poignant, and the pacing never wavered. Even the secondary characters, especially Dave, were well crafted. The one drawback I felt when reading were the ages of Issac and Dave. They were men at 27-29 years of age and Juli was 17. Though the age difference was mentioned I still felt iffy with the prospect of their relationships with a teen (until the ending which I thought the author concluded well enough to silence my concern).

Want was a gripping emotional rollercoaster ride that had me laughing, crying, cringing and hoping Juli would finally attain what she wanted out of life. I have finally found a satisfying, realistic ending that made me smile. I loved it! (http://www.readergirlsblog.com/2012/0...) ...more

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Jun 13, 2012 Annabelle Blume rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

If I could give this book TEN stars, I would. A stunning tale of a young woman's struggle to survive in the midst of her Mother's mental illness and the toll it takes on her own mental health. Add in the temptation that comes with a gorgeous older man as a piano mentor and you've got a story that grabs a hold of your mind and your heart from the very first page.
This is a book that can't be missed. ...more

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