Badass Bloggettes: Two Roads by L.M. Augustine ~ Blog Tour & Sarah's Review

The only person poetry-loving Cali Monroe hates more than herself is Logan Waters, the geeky kid who lives in the dorm building next to hers.

Ever since Cali's parents told her she would amount to nothing, she has felt entirely inadequate. Friendless and alone, she takes on the mean girl role in hopes it will make her feel better--and Logan serves as the perfect target. He infuriates her with his obnoxiously long lashes, his all too perfect dimpled smile, and his complete lack of personality outside of his intelligence. It doesn't hurt that he's part of the reason her brother is dead, either. So Cali hates him, and he returns the favor. Thus, their prank-filled, insult-driven rivalry is born, and torturing Logan quickly becomes the highlight of her life.

But when Cali's parents set them up on a blind date, she begins to realize Logan might not be as boring as she always thought. He shares her love of poetry, takes a sadistic pleasure in making fun of crepes, and he makes her blush when he calls her smile pretty.

And hey, maybe those long lashes of his aren't that obnoxious after all…

Two Roads is New Adult Romance about finding love, standing out, and learning to embrace who you are. It contains some language and mild sexual content.

Two Roads was a lot different than your typical romance. We aren't watching the journey of two people to find one another and get to know one another. We are watching the journey of two people who have known one another for most of their lives and have grown to hate each other.

"You said that things in life aren't always fair. You said that bad things happen sometimes and there's no stopping them, but that there is no point in worrying about the past and future. You said that how you here pr where you'll end up doesn't matter, which I think you expected would comfort me... You said you could worry about any number of things but the only thing that truly matter is right here, right now, and enjoying the people and the love that you're surrounded with." I take a deep breath. "I just... I wanted to thank you. For saying that."

I've got to be really honest, I didn't really care for Cali. Well, not in the beginning, she was awful. I mean really really awful. And through the book she has her moments of awfulness, but we slowly learn that she is really just trying her very hardest to protect herself from the pain that she lives with every day. By the end of the book I absolutely loved her and I somewhat identified with her as we have had similar experiences and subsequent reactions to those events. Cali was really just a broken girl looking for any way to make the hurt go away.

The truth is, when Logan and I are going at it like this we're in our own little world. It's just us, just me and him, just our insults and our pranks and our twisted, refreshing, perfect and so screwed up had for each other. In a really really really strange way, it's kind of nice.

I loved Logan from the very first second that I met him. As a huge math nerd I thought that everything that he said and did was hilarious. Even when he was being a 'jerk' to Cali, it never felt malicious. He was definitely playing into whatever she wanted so that he could still have a connection to her, no matter how tenuous. Plus, hot nerd, with glasses?? Sign me up!

"Because if someone can constantly be on your mind like that,if they an always make you smile, if they can cheer you up one way or another, the you have to go to them. You have to tell them what they mean to you and then you can go out with them or you can stay friends or you can barely ever talk to them, but you ejnoy yourself, you have fun, and then you hold fast to them and never, ever let them go."

I loved the premise of this book. It was refreshing. Two normal kids who were just trying to get past the hurt and the pain in their pasts and find a new normal. Watching them interact and try to blame themselves for things that were completely out of their hands was pretty hard. I just wanted to slap Cali a little bit and tell her to actually talk to Logan instead of being a royal bitch all of the time.

"You know, when you really think about it, sometimes love is like poetry. If doesn't always make sense and it sure as hell isn't ever simple, but it's always there, and it's in the individual to find it."

I loved all of the poetry. I'm not usually a poetry kind of person, but the way that it was used in Two Roads was great, it made so much sense and completely tied all of the story together. It was very seamless and didn't seem forced, as many times lyrics or poems in a book can.

I love him, and I guess I always have.

I love him.

I love Logan Waters.

And that, I realize is why I've never liked other boys: because the one I really wanted, the one I really loved, had already stolen my heart. And he was here in front of me the whole time.

“Then go to him,” I say quietly, and now I look up to meet her gaze. Her brown eyes are hard and strong, watching me intently. “Go out with him,” I continue. “Or don’t. But don’t let him go. Because if someone can be constantly on your mind like that, if they can always make you smile, if they can cheer you up one way or another, then you have to go to them. You have to tell them what they mean to you and then you can go out with them or you can stay friends or you can barely ever talk to them, but you enjoy yourself, you have fun, and then you hold fast to them and never, ever let them go. Because if someone, just by their existence, can brighten up your whole day, you have to try like hell to keep them in your life.” I take a long breath as soon as the words finish tumbling out of my mouth, a jumble of thoughts and feelings that, for me, couldn’t be more true. I don’t know where they came from other than straight from that goddamn unpredictable heart of mine, and as soon as the words leave my mouth, I know my subconscious has been working on them for a long time.

L.M. Augustine is a YA romance author who is obsessed with writing about dorky teenagers, love, and happy endings. He currently lives in New England, where he spends far too much time reading books and screaming at his computer, and he believes that the solution to the world’s problems can be found in chocolate cake.