Full Share by Eliza Freed Blog Tour ~ #giveaway #bookreview

 

Full Share
Eliza Freed
(Shore House, #1)
Publication date: June 21st 2016
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult

Nora Hargrove’s post-grad life includes a horrific entry-level job, a cave of an apartment, and a strict avoidance of all interpersonal relationships. She knows only one thing about herself—she wants to be left alone.

Avoiding her mother’s forced family time, she seeks solitude on her own terms. In a poorly ventilated, overcrowded Dewey Beach rental, she discovers there’s no place to hide. Not from yourself, not from your life, and not from love. This is the story of Nora Hargrove’s full share.

I learned the healing power of a good bloody Mary and a dip in the Atlantic. I kayaked in the dead of night and witnessed the only shooting star I’ve ever seen. I fell in love on a bed made of pallets. I lived.
Life is deep. Dive in.

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Author Bio:

Eliza Freed graduated from Rutgers University and returned to her hometown in rural South Jersey. Her mother encouraged her to take some time and find herself. After three months of searching, she began to bounce checks and her neighbors began to talk; her mother told her to find a job.

She settled into Corporate America, learning systems and practices and the bureaucracy that slows them. Eliza quickly discovered her creativity and gift for story telling as a corporate trainer and spent years perfecting her presentation skills and studying diversity. It’s during this time she became an avid observer of the characters we meet and the heartaches we endure. Her years of study have taught her laughter is the key to survival, even when it’s completely inappropriate.

She currently lives in New Jersey with her family and a misbehaving beagle named Odin. An avid swimmer, if Eliza is not with her family and friends, she’d rather be underwater. While she enjoys many genres, she has always been a sucker for a love story…the more screwed up the better.

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Source: eARC for Honest Review Courtesy of Author and Xpresso Book Tours

Genre: NA Contemporary Romance

Standalone

My Full Share Review . . .

It has been quite awhile since a book gave me a visceral reaction but Full Share did just that.  It left me sad, devastated, yet hopeful and happy.

"You're different, Nora."
"Does that mean fucked up?"
"We're all fucked up. That wouldn't make you different."

Nora Hargrove is lost.  After walking upon a moment that changes her life.  She chooses to just survive and not truly live.  Each moment she goes through the motion of living but doesn't truly live.  To some the moment that shapes her should be irrelevant but to her it shakes her full foundation because she was too young to truly process the complexity of the situation.

"Life is deep, Nora.  Dive in."

After university she got partly adopted by an eclectic group of friends whom they all end up sharing a beach house for the summer.  Some friends are old and others are new to Nora.  There are full shares and half shares.  A full share is when you have one roommate for the full summer and where the half shares have multiple people in their room at different times. 

"They're the wealthy and the poor, the lost and the enlightened, and I love every one of them."

As Nora starts her adventure in Dewey she ends up rooming with Jack Randall whom immediately sparks something in Nora.  At first Nora keeps to herself but little bit by little bit the group starts to bring Nora back to life.  From Tank and his exuberance for life to Heather and her hatred for the world and everyone in between.

"Don't pretend to know me when you barely know yourself."

While Nora is coming back to life she helps to coax a dog Rufus back to the living as well.  I loved the parallel of Rufus and Nora and their journey back to the living.

 "That beach house is making you crazy.  It's changing you."

Every character you either loved or hated but each gave you an emotional reaction of some sort.  At times I was on the verge of possibly not liking Nora but then something would happen that again you could relate to her when you were younger or at least understand her choices.

"How did you know I was alone?"
"Because you're always alone.  Except when you were with him."

 So many highs and lows for this group of friends, but each trial and tribulation helps define each character in some way.

"There's really only one way to look at things.  If you look at them the other way,  you'll make yourself miserable."

 Besides Nora, I fell for both Tank and Jack in each of their own special ways.  Those two just stood out for me within this group and I was rooting for Tank to find his peace and for Jack to finally get the girl.

 "You can't control everything that happens to you, but you can control how you move forward."

 But the more I fell for these two the more trouble was arising and the more my heart was on the verge of heartbreak.  And once that break was complete I was gutted, but as Eliza Freed does sometimes,  she guts you but for the greater good in the big picture.

"Don't break me."
"I won't, Nora Hargrove."

Even though this heartbreak was the breaking point for Nora to move forward or stay in the past, it still killed me and I wish it didn't have to happen but I completely understood it with a heavy heart.

 . . . they wouldn't let me hide here no matter how defiantly I tried.  They were living, and they were determined to take me with them. . . .

 With evolution, it helps to heal the past or at least try and understand it.  With Nora she had to start to be awakened before she could face that challenge, but as she learned it wasn't as big as she made it out to be.

"Nora, you've got to be willing to write your own story,"

But when you are a teenager we don't see things logically and Nora protected herself the only way she knew how.

"And you've got to be brave enough to let someone else hear it."

Now as she grew with the summer we got to see her truly live and blossom they way she was meant to be.

"This summer I learned to fly . . . and to live  . . . and to exist among the stars. . . ."

Each new challenge altered all of them in some way but especially Nora.  

. . . For fifteen weeks, I'd been trapped in a too-small cottage with housemates who were larger than life.  It saved me.

Even though Nora is cold and guarded she's also relatable because she represents a piece of a lot of us that doesn't truly live to our potential and get by by just surviving.  In Full Share,  Nora learns to live and with that living comes so much more.

"So please join me and raise your glasses to the summer, to my summer as a full share."

I first found Eliza Freed with the Lost Series and this is where she captured my heart for her writing and her stories.  When I got the opportunity to read this story I jumped at the opportunity hoping that it would create some of the similar feelings I experienced with the Lost Souls series and that it did and more.  I loved the story and the emotional upheaval that came with it.  I can't wait to read more from this author and this series. 

4.5 Worth the upheaval thumbs up!

  . 5

Lauren