Shannon McCrimmon

This is a VERY sweet book. I generally don't go for YA books, but this one is a good read. Evie has a lot of resentment built up inside her. She still can't forgive her mother for leaving. I don't think she completely understands her father--his love of the land, the cattle, and his love for the carnival. Evie hates the carnival, until she meets Finch. (Isn't it nice when a cute guy just suddenly changes your perspective?) I love her best friend, Katie. While Katie did make some mistakes (ex. Todd), her circumstances helped her to grow up.

All in all, this would be a fine book for anyone to read. But I'm just not sure it's really ideal for my personal library, and that's okay.… (mere)

In Kiss Me Hard Before You Go, Evie Barnes is the daughter of a dairy farmer who's always looking for another way to supplement his income. Gray Barnes takes full advantage of the hundreds of acres he owns, bringing in extra money with a rollerskating rink and by allowing a circus to take up residence at the edge of his property for five weeks each summer. Evie, however, doesn't see the draw of the circus. The sounds, the smells, the hordes of people - all of it annoys her. Her father gives the carnies strict orders to stay away from his daughter - all the better, Evie thinks, since she barely tolerates them anyway. But when Finch Mills, the carnival's handyman, worms his way into her heart, she begins to realize that there's no basis for her deep-seated dislike of the carnival.

First things first, I had Summertime Sadness playing on repeat in my head the entire time I read this book.



So, onto the real review.

I can't say anything about this book without mentioning the persistent grammatical errors throughout - multiple errors in each chapter. I wondered if I'd accidentally been sent an uncorrected proof, but in the acknowledgements, McCrimmon thanks her editor. Honestly, if I were that editor, I would be ashamed to have my name associated with this book. Common mistakes in this book were the incorrect use of your/you're, too/to, its/it's, so on and so forth. Plurals were indicated with apostrophes. It was painful. I had to subtract a star for that alone.

The story itself is fine - it's a sweet, innocent romance and a very quick read. There are quite a few subplots, many of which are never quite resolved. It's neither terrible nor amazing, just somewhere in the middle. I wasn't disappointed, but given the many glowing reviews, I was hoping I would like it a little more than I did.… (mere)

The instant you set your eyes on the cover of this amazing novel, you are hooked. The image of the innocent farm girl with the carnival as a backdrop immediately catches your attention. The cover and the quirky title hint at a sexy romance novel but the reader will be pleasantly surprised. Few authors are able to grab a reader’s attention through book covers and titles and also hold the reader’s interest through the entire book. By transference of thoughts and emotions of the main character into your mind, Shannon McCrimmon is able to do in Kiss Me Hard Before You Go.
Kiss Me Hard Before You Go is a novel of first love, friendships and families. Through her descriptive writing, the reader becomes the characters in the story and at times being able to imagine the smell of the fresh mown hay, cigarette smoke, the buttered popcorn and the cotton candy. Her characters are so believable you feel the emotions, the love, the sense of family that keeps Evie from leaving her farm life behind and striking out in search of new adventures even though that is what she longs to do.
Ms. McCrimmon is able to successfully hide some of life’s little lessons deep within the story, never preaching the lessons but in the end, you uncover her hidden thoughts and concepts and the quirky title takes on a meaning.
Evie, the innocent farm girl is not your normal teenager. She is a loner as so many country farm girls are and Ms. McCrimmon captures her personality perfectly with just the right blend of Southern charm and sassy country attitude. She longs for the day she will leave the farm and make her own start in life but she knows that her father would like her to stay and run the farm. She doesn’t understand why he works so hard to keep the farm going, leasing the land to the traveling carnival during the summer months. There are others in the town who prefer that he wouldn’t do that, bring such undesirable people into their quaint, quiet town. Labeled “carneys”, they are thought of as drunks, thieves, gypsies, dirty and smelly , not at all to be trusted but the author shows not all carneys are bad people and there are good people among the bad in all groups of people from all walks of life. She is able to portray the life of a carney with exact detail, the ridicule, stares, name calling and abuse and to show that people can rise above evil words and deeds and are capable of love, friendship and trust.
Evie soon learns how greed and the cruelty of others can turn your world upside down. And how love, true friends and family, whether blood relations or not, can give you hope and make you feel safe.
The story takes many twists and turns but with every turn, the author captivates your attention and keeps you wanting more of Evie, Finch and the other loveable characters in this story.
Throughout this book you will cry, you will laugh, and want to let people know just how you feel and what you think because YOU experience everything the characters do just as if you had been transposed into their world. And they capture your heart and leave you longing for more of Evie, Finch and their ”family”.
This is an awesome book from cover to cover. A good read for a summer afternoon – the best time to smell that fried dough!… (mere)

Nice sequel. Finn works in her grandfather's diner, deferring college for a semester. And despite loving the work, she goes to school and finds out that it's not what she had in mind. Grandpa dies at the end of the semester, so she heads back to Graceville to live with Nana - and during the summer, with help from her friends, reopens the diner. In the end, she finds her true calling when the diner accidentally burns down. She decides to go into business as a bakery/cafe and marry her true love, Jessie… (mere)