Thursday, June 13, 2013

*Blog Tour* Denise Grover Swank's REDESIGNED - Review + a Visit from REED! + a GIVEAWAY!


Hi readers! I have SO SO much to share with you today! a Review, a guest post from the main character in Redesign, the sexy and handsome REED! PLUS an incredibly awesome GIVEAWAY!
*Phew* so let's get right to it, shall we?


*Spoiler-Free* REVIEW: Redesigned (Off the Subject #2) by Denise Grover Swank
Publication Date: June 10th, 2013
*DISCLOSURE: ARC was provided in exchange for a fair and honest review

Redesigned (Off the Subject #2)
by Denise Grover Swank
Publication Date: June 10th, 2013
Genre: New Adult Contemporary

Synopsis:
While fashion design major Caroline Hunter may have been born economically unlucky, in college, she’s been lucky in love. Until her senior year at Southern University. She’s gone from a serious long term boyfriend to a string of crappy dates.

Then she meets mathematics grad student Reed Pendergraft.

Reed is everything she’s not looking for. Serious. Headed for a low paying university job. Boring. Caroline spent the first eighteen years of her life wondering where her next meal was coming from. She sure wasn’t getting trapped in that life again with a man living on a professor’s salary.

An encounter with Reed in a club proves she might have pegged him wrong. He brings out a lusty side she never knew she had. But just when she’s about to give in to her hormones, Reed makes a fool out of her.

When she shows up for the first committee meeting for Southern University’s Fall fashion show, a fundraiser for underprivileged kids, Caroline’s horrified to discover the insufferable Reed is the committee chairman. While she refuses to tolerate his totalitarian rule of the committee, she’s not sure she’ll survive the month with her heart—and her pride—intact. Just when she thinks she has everything figured out, she finds that her entire life has been redesigned, thanks to Reed Pendergraft.


My Thoughts:

Redesigned is the story of Caroline Hunter, the hard working design student who grew up in poverty and is determined never to look back, never to face those same hard times again. Haunted by the memories of an unsupportive family, the days without food, and the meager supply of salvaged clothes, she decides that she must find a man who will be financially stable to ensure that her future family won’t be a reflection of her past. And hopefully, she can find love on the way as well.

Enter Reed Pendergraft, the handsome and quite socially awkward Mathematics graduate student. He’s not what Caroline was looking for, with his undoubtedly mountainous amount of debt and low earnings potential as a teacher, but yet....she just can’t stop herself from being drawn to him over and over again.

I stop at the bar and order another Seven and Seven when I feel him behind me. How can I know it’s him before he even says a word? But I do. It’s as though my body is tuned into his, a frequency that no one has ever come close to matching.


Now, although this book’s premise seems to sets things up on a superficial level, Caroline is not a gold digger, and Reed is not the math nerd. Both characters are developed with so much depth and care, it was truly a joy to experience. They are both nuanced with their own strengths and equally so with their flaws. I loved them all the more for it.

Both Caroline and Reed are shielding their hearts and their pasts from one another and as we get to know them, as they get to know each other, it is such an emotional and rewarding experience. The question then becomes whether they will be able to reveal enough of themselves and redesign all that they thought they knew in order to give themselves a real shot at a future together.

They say it's better to have loved and lost than never loved at all. Whoever made that shit up obviously never loved Reed Pendergraft.


(Oh, Reed...I love Reed.....)


Though Redesigned is the second novel of the Off the Subject series, it does well as a stand alone. But once I finished it, I rushed out to buy the first book, After Math, so fast that your head would spin! And then Denise’s other series. Now I am a Denise fangirl for life.

To Denise,

The Final Verdict:

Redesigned delighted and surprised me. Denise Grover-Swank successfully crafted a story filled with humor, intense sexiness, some heartbreak, and a whole lot of happily ever after. Caroline and Reed are such engaging characters who bounce so much sexual tension off of one other that my Kindle was practically burning up! Add in heartwarming moments from Tucker and Scarlett from After Math....and all in, it’s a recipe for success.

Rating:




About the Author: 

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Denise Grover Swank was born in Kansas City, Missouri and lived in the area until she was nineteen. Then she became a nomadic gypsy, living in five cities, four states and ten houses over the course of ten years before she moved back to her roots. She speaks English and smattering of Spanish and Chinese which she learned through an intensive Nick Jr. immersion period. Her hobbies include witty Facebook comments (in own her mind) and dancing in her kitchen with her children. (Quite badly if you believe her offspring.) Hidden talents include the gift of justification and the ability to drink massive amounts of caffeine and still fall asleep within two minutes. Her lack of the sense of smell allows her to perform many unspeakable tasks. She has six children and hasn’t lost her sanity. Or so she leads you to believe.


And now, NOW, I'm SO excited to have REED here for a guest post! I know you don't want to hear from ME anymore, so Take it away, Reed!




The moment I laid eyes on Caroline at Scarlett’s courtyard party, I knew I had to meet her. She had a confidence most college girls don’t possess and she was gorgeous. However, the only guy at the party she was paying attention to was Dylan Humphrey. I admit, I handled our first meeting badly. I was nervous. Even though I’d outgrown my teenage lankiness during my undergrad years, part of that guy still lives in my head. I was certain a woman as beautiful as Caroline wouldn’t give me the time of day. She didn’t, but not for the reason I expected.

When people see Caroline and find out she’s a fashion major, they expect her to be a self-centered girl with fluff in her head. They couldn’t be more wrong. I’ve come up with a list of five things most people don’t know about her.

1. Caroline can sing, but she’s too self-conscious to sing in front of other people. The first time I heard her was in the shower and when I commented on it, she stopped and refused to sing more. It took several weeks before she would sing again. She’ll sing in front of me now, but only me. Every time she sings, I consider it a gift.

2. She hates people messing with her toes. She refuses to get pedicures in a salon because of her phobia. If I want to get her riled up, I only have to pretend I’m going to touch her toes and she starts screaming.

3. She has a huge crush on Benedict Cumberbatch. She hates Star Trek but wanted to see the latest movie because she had to see him. Caroline was worried I’d be jealous, but I told her all that matters is that she goes home with me. She loves him so much she’s watched both seasons of Sherlock three times.

4. When we have sex, she has this little sound she makes when she’s close. It’s part sigh, a little part of a soft moan. When I hear her make that sound, I nearly lose it myself.

5. Her favorite time of day is after we go to bed, and she’s lying in my arms as we share about our days. She looks up at me with a look of such happiness and contentment I feel like the luckiest man in the world. I live to make her happy and in those moments, I know that I’ve given her something no one else ever has.







GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


This blog tour is brought to you by the FAB:





all the best, dear readers!


10 comments :

  1. Thank you so much for being part of my blog tour! I LOVE your review! I'm so happy you liked Redesigned!

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    1. Thank YOU Denise for writing such an incredible book! 1 *heart* Reed forever! ;)

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  2. I want to read it because it sounds good and the reviews are good

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  3. I wish i had your eloquent way of wording. I could never make my review sound so nice and it really does do the book justice...I love DGS and Redesigned is, my favorite of all of her books.

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    1. THANK YOU. this is just about the nicest comment I have ever received. And so very very appreciated after my long night last night of berating myself for how poorly written I felt this review was. I felt like I just couldn't give this book all the verbal love that it deserved!

      This is definitely one of my favorite books this year! =)

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  4. I've already read After Math and Redesigned. I am a HUGE fan of Denise. She is awesome! I love her writing. She definitely knows her audience and knows how to transport a reader into the story.

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  5. I want to read it because it sounds awesome. Great review!!!

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  6. Wooo! Loved this! I'm so glad you went back and read After Math too! I do love Tucker also! But Reed.... <3

    Jessica@Lovin' Los Libros

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  7. Loved hearing from Reed!! Loved both of the books!

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  8. I am hoping the same best effort from you in the future as well. In fact your creative writing skills has inspired me. get instagram likes famoid

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