Racing Savannah Blog Tour: #Review, #GuestPost & #Giveaway!

Racing Savannah (Hundred Oaks #4) by Miranda Kenneally

Published by: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication date: December 3rd 2013
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult

Source: Provided with an ebook from the publisher for an honest review. 

Synopsis:

They’re from two different worlds.

He lives in the estate house, and she spends most of her time in the stables helping her father train horses. In fact, Savannah has always been much more comfortable around horses than boys. Especially boys like Jack Goodwin—cocky, popular and completely out of her league. She knows the rules: no mixing between the staff and the Goodwin family. But Jack has no such boundaries.

With her dream of becoming a horse jockey, Savannah isn’t exactly one to follow the rules either. She’s not going to let someone tell her a girl isn’t tough enough to race. Sure, it’s dangerous. Then again, so is dating Jack…

Purchase: Amazon | B&N

AUTHOR BIO

Miranda Kenneally is the author of CATCHING JORDAN, STEALING PARKER, THINGS I CAN'T FORGET, and RACING SAVANNAH. Her fifth book, most likely to be titled BREATHE, ANNIE, BREATHE, is coming out in July 2014. She enjoys reading and writing young adult literature, and loves Star Trek, music, sports, Mexican food, Twitter, coffee, and her husband.

Author Links: Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook

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REVIEW

I am seriously so smitten with this series...and with each book I grow to love it more and more! :D While I loved the three previous books, I definitely have to say that Racing Savannah is my favourite so far!! :D I absolutely LOVED IT!!!

Savannah was an AMAZING narrator!!! I loved that she was so true to herself, and that she knew that even though she was poor, she still had value! Too many heroines...and people in real life, too, don't value themselves enough, but Savannah definitely didn't have that problem, and I totally loved her for it. I was so proud of her throughout this book, and I absolutely loved that she stood up for herself the way that she did. Savannah is one of those characters that you just have to love, not only because she's an amazing person, but also because she's the kind of person we all should aspire to be more like. I really hope that we see more heroines in YA like Savannah because she's fantastic.

Also, I absolutely loved Savannah's relationship with the horses! And of course, I loved her relationship with Jack, too. ;D Sometimes the boy got on my nerve, but like I said, I was proud of Savannah, and in her interactions with Jack, she definitely made me proud...Jack did in the end, too. All in all though, I loved Jack...and if I were Savannah, I would've been smitten with the charismatic cowboy, too. ;D I honestly just loved the characters in Racing Savannah, they were great! I really enjoyed getting to know them, and I loved getting to see the siblings of a few of the previous characters growing up, it was pretty neat.

Racing Savannah actually takes place a few years after Things I Can't Forget, but we did still get to see our favourite characters from the previous books, they're just a little bit older...trust me though, you will LOVE that you get to see them! I was totally giddy and squeeing when I saw what the characters were all up to. ;D

Overall, I absolutely LOVED Racing Savannah! It's my favourite in the Hundred Oaks series so far, and I thought that Savannah was an amazing heroine! She was strong, funny, and just all-around awesome! I think she's one of the best YA heroines out there, and I loved reading her story. I can't wait for more from Miranda Kenneally because the Hundred Oaks series just keeps getting better and better!

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GUEST POST

I asked Miranda why she chose to make the Hundred Oaks series a companion series rather than just following one narrator, and here's what she said:

Thank you for having me on your blog today! I’m honored.

Why did I choose to write companion novels rather than a series? That is a great question. I have to be honest. I never set out to write companion novels. When I first wrote CATCHING JORDAN, I knew it was a standalone novel. I kind of had an idea of what happened to Jordan and Henry when they went to college, but I never wanted to write that story. The thing about sequels is that there has to be drama, and in order to find drama, I probably would’ve had to break up Jordan and Henry or give them some impossible problem. With good books come great dilemmas. (That sounds like something a literary Spiderman would say, eh?)

Even though I’ve gotten about a gazillion emails cursing me for not writing a CATCHING JORDAN sequel, I didn’t want to mess with Jordan and Henry’s happiness over the course of 300 pages, and I honestly doubt my readers ultimately would like that either.

So how did I get started on companion novels… Well, several months before CATCHING JORDAN was coming out, my editor told me she wanted more books from me. I had already started writing STEALING PARKER, but it was set in another town in Tennessee, at a totally different school. But as I kept moving through the story, characters from CATCHING JORDAN just showed up! I know that sounds ridiculous, but it’s true. The same sort of thing happened when writing CATCHING JORDAN. I had intended for Ty and Jordan to get together, but Sam Henry would just not go away. He kept showing up in scenes and then I realized he was there to stay.

I’m really glad my books have turned out as companions. I love expanding on the same town and meeting new characters along the way.

I hope you guys enjoy reading about Savannah and Jack, who live on an estate right next to Will Whitfield’s (Corndog from Stealing Parker) in RACING SAVANNAH.

Some other companion novels I enjoy are Sarah Dessen’s, and Karen Marie Moning’s Darkfever/Iced companion series. I can’t wait to read Huntley Fitzpatrick’s companion novel to MY LIFE NEXT DOOR.

What companion novels do you guys like?

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GRAND PRIZE GIVEAWAY

Prize (open to US and Canada only): 

--A pair of Ralph Lauren riding boots. Or another pair of boots at equal or lesser value.
You can see the boots here. :)

TO ENTER FILL OUT THE RAFFLECOPTER BELOW:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can find the rest of the Racing Savannah Blog Tour HERE.

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What do you think?

Did you like Miranda Kenneally's guest post?

And did my review make you want to start this series if you haven't already?

And if you haven't started it yet, why not?! It's amazing!!