BOOK REVIEW: NOWHERE BUT HERE by Renée Carlino

Title: NOWHERE BUT HERE

Author: Renée Carlino (Website | Twitter) 

Publisher: Atria Books 

Publication Date: May 5, 2014 

SYNOPSIS

A Chicago reporter in her mid-twenties unexpectedly finds love in Napa Valley when she’s assigned to spend a week with a famously reclusive genius.

Kate Corbin has lost her spark. From the outside, her life seems charmed. She has a handsome, long-term boyfriend and a budding journalism career at a popular Chicago newspaper. But in reality, her relationship is going nowhere, and she’s quickly losing motivation for what she once believed was her dream job. When her boyfriend dumps her unceremoniously, Kate loses all hope of finding love.

With no living family and few friends, Kate confides in her boss. Trusting that the hungry, ace reporter is buried somewhere deep inside, he gives Kate the opportunity to jumpstart her career. The assignment: to interview the famously reclusive R.J. Lawson, a wealthy tech genius who disappeared years ago but recently reemerged as a Napa Valley vintner. The week takes an unexpected turn, however, when Lawson refuses to divulge any information. Desperate for a lead, Kate turns to Jamie, a vineyard hand who shows her the romance of wine country—and stirs her aching heart. But his connection to Lawson is ambiguous, and when Jamie disappears before the end of the week, Kate is left to investigate another story: the truth behind the man who stole her heart.

USA TODAY bestselling author Renée Carlino explored love and heartbreak in her beautifully written debut Sweet Thing, and her newest novel does not disappoint. For fans of Colleen Hoover, K.A. Tucker, and Katja Millay, Nowhere But Here is a stirring and satisfying romance that you won’t want to put down. 

Ramblings. I know, I know. I’ve been gone from Goodreads and the reviewing scene for several weeks already (or is it way past a month already?). Sorry, I’ve just been VERY busy with real life and loads of other stuff on the side. The one that I recently did involves a TV series marathon of Game of Thrones and yes, I did a marathon starting from Season 1 til Season 3. So yeah, for almost 30 hours I was just glued to my laptop trying to catch up with everything for me to be able to watch the new episodes from Season 4. I know that I’m so late with this thing but OH MY GOODNESS, Game of Thrones was sooo good! I love the world building, the story and the characters. But dagnabit if you’re like me who’ll just be catching up with the TV series, please make sure that you don’t get too attached with these characters because … I don’t even know. Phew! ANYWAYS … Let’s get started with this comeback review post!

*INSERT* I need to insert this here because I just find it so funny and omfg the universe is just conspiring with everything right now! Because as soon as I got started typing in this portion of my review … my mp3 player began playing this song called God Damn You’re Beautiful by Chester See. Listening to lyrics of the song, I think it kind of captured some moments/vibe of the book. It’s really fitting for me to be listening to it while doing this!

Immediate thought after reading this book. Dude, this book is such a roller coaster ride and just filled with loads of goings-on! It has a bit of everything – about life, love, relationships, finding your person and on top of that is being able to find yourself all throughout those experiences. I laughed, “awwwed”, swooned because of Jamie, pulled some of my hair out because of Kate and even cringed in some parts of the book because of too much sweetness.

My thoughts. Nowhere But Here is peppered all throughout the book with beautiful and inspirational messages. My ebook copy can attest to that with so many highlighted lines and bookmarked pages in it. I can give you that as my main reason in encouraging you to read this book. Another thing is no matter how drama filled this book is and how cheesy some moments gets, being able to read and witness Kate’s character blossoming as a person was a wonderful sight. And Jamie’s character is just awe-inspiring.

This book has a great setting and I'm in love with how the author wrote about it. It feels like that I was there during those moments wherein she describes every aspect of the place and Kate’s character was exploring the place together with Jamie. I was right alongside with her journey.  Renée Carlino’s description was really rich and vibrant, which will make us, readers, feel like being transported to Napa Valley at that specific time frame.

Can it really take only four days or less for you to fall in love with someone? Situations like this are not that realistic to me. Maybe it's because I haven't experienced it for myself. But seriously, love? You can already love a person the same week as you've met him/her? I just can't fathom it happening. It could've pass as LIKE or even LUST but love ... *shrugs*                But nice save by the author, though. This book feels like that it’s been divided into parts inside my head and the second part til the end of the book kind of saves that element of insta love that was built up in the early pages of the book. There’s this sudden halt that happened in the story due to that twist and gave a breathing room for their relationship to develop within the remaining pages of the book.

Enough with that, let’s talk about the characters. In just a matter of 300+ pages, the shell of a person we’ve met from the beginning of the story transformed into this woman who is now ready to take on the challenges of life. She’s now LIVING life to fullest and without any reservations about love and pain. In the beginning of the book, I’m quite annoyed with Kate and on how she is with relationships. She’s so focused on this idea of her being alone that she tends to forget about all those people who surrounds her. It seems like she neglects them instead of allowing their bonds to grow. Though, that’s also a beauty to witness in the book - on how she opens herself up to these people and form the tightest kind of bond she could possibly every imagine towards those people.

Jamie is hands down a swoon-worthy dude. You’ll swoon for him in almost the entirety of the book because of his gestures and his plot to woo Kate back in his arms. I’m just upset because the focus of the book was mostly with Kate’s character and I would have loved to get to know more about Jamie and his struggles. If only this book was told from both of their character's POV ... 

I had fun watching Kate awkwardly interact with Beth, Dylan and even Ashley. But seriously those moments were all a joy to watch especially her relationship with Dylan. Their light and playful banters, Kate giving Dylan pieces of advice and on just how caring Dylan gets towards her. I would love to have a best friend like Dylan, though. Where could I possible find one? lol

Right off the bat, I knew it! I knew that fdjghdjkfhksd and the whole time I was just waiting for that moment for Kate to correctly guess it for herself! There were just bits and pieces of evidence scattered all over the place for us, readers, to able to pinpoint it and to stand firmly on our hunch. The anticipation for that moment to finally happen was just building and even I already felt the need to shake Kate’s shoulder. So when Poor Katie Kate pieced it together, there wasn’t really an inch of surprise coming from me. I was just like, “Ha! FINALLY!”

Anyways, Nowhere But Here is still an okay read for me. You’ll read about a beautifully written journey of a character who you can possibly relate to. If you’re currently hunting down a book that will possibly stir up your emotions, has a HEA and just filled with sweet moments even if life gives them shit daily, then you might want to check this out.

Rating: 3:5 stars

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