Blog Tour and Giveaway: Our Song by Jordanna Fraiberg

About The Author
Jordanna Fraiberg was born in Montreal, Quebec, and currently lives in L.A., where she settled after receiving degrees from Harvard and Oxford. A former national squash champion and Hollywood film executive, she now divides her time between dreaming up stories and chasing her toddler. She is the author of Our Song and In Your Room.

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Review
Title: Our Song
Author: Jordanna Fraiberg
Publisher: Razorbill
Released: May 2nd 2013
Pages: 338 (Uncorrected Proof)
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US
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Olive Bell has spent her entire life in the beautiful suburb of Vista Valley, with a picture-perfect home, a loving family, and a seemingly perfect boyfriend. But after a near-fatal car accident, she’s haunted by a broken heart and a melody that she cannot place.

Then Olive meets Nick. He’s dark, handsome, mysterious . . . and Olive feels connected to him in a way she can’t explain. Is there such a thing as fate? The two embark on a whirlwind romance—until Nick makes a troubling confession.

Heartbroken, Olive pieces together what really happened the night of her accident and arrives at a startling revelation. Only by facing the truth can she uncover the mystery behind the song and the power of what it means to love someone.

Am I a great lover of YA romance? No. Did I absolutely adore Our Song? YES. For the first few chapters, I didn't completely warm to Olive - there was something quite detached and boring about her. But after a while she started to come out of her shell, and now that I've finished it, I think Our Song is set to be one of the best romances of the year.

At the beginning of the novel, Olive has just come home after her two-week stay at the hospital. Why? A car accident, something that many are calling a suicide attempt. Isolated as she is shunned by the rest of her school, Olive begins to attend a support group for people who have had near-death experiences, which is where she meets Nick. Despite all the people around her, Olive feels like Nick is the only one who can truly see her; who can understand what she's going through. But Nick is hiding something from her, and as Olive starts to uncover the truth behind his façade, she realises that maybe there is something she's hiding from herself, too.

As I said, Olive wasn't that easy to relate to to begin with. She came across like a spoilt brat, and I guess that essentially she was - living in Vista Valley, she'd never seen the cruel side to life until the car accident. However, once she began to open up and show a different side to her, she instantly became a favourable character. I thought Fraiberg characterised her brilliantly, as even without their own near-death experiences, teenage girls can relate to her and her coming-of-age story. A big amount of teens know what it's like to have rumours spread behind their backs and people suddenly turn against them, and I thought she captured that perfectly.

The secondary characters were also pretty great. Nick - oh my gosh, Nick, I was swooning all over the place! He was a bit temperamental, and did have really sudden mood-swings that could rival some other, er, dramatic characters (Christian Grey, I'm looking at you!), but overall he was a pretty awesome love interest. My favourite character had to be Annie, though - she wasn't in it as much as I would have liked, but I thought she was a nice balance for Olive. Through Annie, you got an idea of what Olive had been like before the accident in a comparison to now. I also hated Derek - jeez, he was just the typical, slimy ex that gave me shudders! Whenever he was around, I was screaming at Olive to run in the other direction because ugh. Not. Nice. He was well-characterised though, especially since he was able to provoke a physical reaction out of me.

The pace was a bit slow for my liking, as it was a tedious journey to get Olive or Nick to give the reader any information. I also think that Olive's priorities were a bit mixed up - she's supposed to be recovering from dying, yet she is obsessed with Derek! And it took her a good long while to realise the fact that he didn't care about her - as a self-respecting female, I just wanted to jump into the story and tell her that she didn't need that kind of guy in her life. I do have one question though - what was the point of the song? The title makes it seem like the book surrounds this mystery song, but it felt a bit forced into the story. However, despite these little things, the plot overall was pretty good, and I did enjoy it.

If you love romance reads along the lines of Pushing the Limits and If I Stay, then I highly recommend Our Song. The characters are beautifully characterised, the plot - although slow - is interesting, and the writing it brilliant. What more could you want in a summer read?
Rating: 4/5

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