Every time Joss Jackson comes out with a new book, she is kind enough to run a Virtual Book Tour for those of us who don’t live near her in Georgia. This means that she goes to a local (to her), indie bookstore and signs a ton of books that all of us wonderful internet people have ordered.
How can you participate in the VBT and get one for yourself? Just go here and check it out.
Wait, what? You want to know why you should get this book? Well, Joshilyn Jackson wrote it, so that’s pretty much the only reason you need.
The main character of The Opposite of Everyone is Paula Vauss, and if you’ve read Someone Else’s Love Story, then you’ll want to hear more from Paula. If you haven’t read SELS, then read my GoodReads review of it right here:
I never felt comfortable while reading this book until the very end. This is fitting; this is right. None of the characters are fully comfortable with each other (or, let’s be honest, even with themselves) either. And that’s perfectly okay, because this book isn’t about fitting in, but about finding the right fit. Shandi Pierce is struggling through figuring out what has even happened in her own life, forget about trying to figure out what’s going on in someone else’s. Her parents are long-divorced but still in a tug of war that has long stretched Shandi out of shape, so much so that the addition of her son Natty just seems like another piece of rope to add to the war. She isn’t even sure whom or what to believe in, let alone what’s going on.
Destiny doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone, and in a novel that is about that ever-perched thing with feathers, it certainly doesn’t mean what everyone seems to think it does. Hope is more than destiny, and sometimes it means jumping and finding out where you fall. And sometimes, again, where you fall isn’t remotely close to where you were aiming.
I just wasn’t sure whom to root for in this story. The person you want to root for, you just aren’t sure about, and the person you aren’t sure about, you kind of wonder if you should be rooting for instead. And the big epiphany you just had? We learn that sometimes, just sometimes, that epiphany isn’t the one you should be having, but it’s so overwhelmingly breathtaking that one could ruminate on it for almost too long without realizing the real epiphany is about to hit you in the face.
And then it all hits you and you realize that Joshilyn Jackson has done it again. And you love her and hate her all at the same time, but mostly you just wish the book wouldn’t end.
You don’t have to read SELS before picking up TOoE, but I encourage you to do a Joss-binge and read all of her books before the newest one comes out in February. You may end up shaking your fist at Joss time and again, but you’ll never regret taking the time to read one of her books. SELS has been my favorite so far, but I’m pretty sure that TOoE is either going to be a close second or just replace SELS all together–and I can’t wait to find out!
