★Love Exactly (Sticks & Stones 1) By Cassandra Giovanni • Review, Excerpt & Giveaway ★

Emma Walker was a writer who'd lost herself to someone else's anger--who had given up on ever feeling like herself again.

Evan Levesque was a rock-god--the one all the woman wanted, but he'd never gotten used to the loneliness between the stage and real life.

With just one cup of coffee they'll begin a journey of self-discovery at each others sides, but can Emma handle Evan's fame while dealing with her own demons? Emma's checkered personal past, a bad relationship that haunts the edges of her memories, threatens to make everything implode on them when Evan takes matters into his own hands.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but your words...they'll destroy my soul--Can Emma handle being put back together and facing who she's become because of it?

★★★★ BEAUTIFUL STARS!

Sugar, spice and almost everything nice! Love Exactly is an absolutely refreshing and sweet read. This book will take you away from those dark and emotional reads filled with angst and heartache and take you on a beautiful journey of self discovery, acceptance, and true love, that all begins with a cup of coffee and the question what is love, exactly?

Emma walker is a 23 year old aspiring writer / photographer that has lived the past five years alone and harboring feeling of fear, guilt, and anger because of an abusive relationship that she found herself in during high school. Emma had hopes and aspirations but those dreams were crushed early at the hands of a manipulative teenager that slowly broke the girl that once existed and made her into the Emma that she is today. One that is anything but happy with her job at the local paper covering sporting events at the surrounding high schools and living in her parents basement because her college degree has basically gotten her nowhere.

" Bruises fade, but the words...they continue to sting long after their mark has left...I could battle through the physical pain- I could even fight back, but the words...those are what decimated me"

Evan Levesque on the other hand has had everything in spades. Signing his first record deal at the age of sixteen, and keeping his band Red Moon together for the past fourteen years he has had more money, fame and power than he has known what to do with. Anything he desires he could have, but living in the limelight for so long also has it's disadvantages- especially for someone who isn't your typical bad boy rock star. That's why when Emma clumsily bumps into him spilling her disgusting gas station coffee everywhere, he is instantly smitten by the down to earth beauty in front of him and can't resist the urge to get to know her better over a decent cup of coffee. But what neither of them expect is that with just one cup they will begin to build a realistic and beautiful relationship that they both have been longing for.

Evan and Emma are wonderful, they definitely are opposites but have been written to accompany each other beautifully. Even though they are both at different points in their lives the connection they share right off the start is written so tastefully that once you begin on this journey with them you won't want to stop. Evan is the complete opposite of bad boy rocker, he has been around the game for a long time and has realized that there is truly nobody that he has met who has been worthy enough of his feelings, hidden truths and most importantly love, until he met Emma...The one girl that didn't fawn over him or leave a puddle of drool in his wake, but someone who engaged him in conversation and treated him like he was was anyone else... not a idol that deserved to be worshiped.

"You know who I am then?" he asked lowering the cup

"I nodded in response, trying to gauge his reaction- did he really believe I didn't know who he was?"

"Why did you act normal and not squeal and stop breathing?"

"I let out the breath I had been holding and laughed. 'Seriously?... you're still a human being-God of pop-rock or not"

The pace of this read was perfect, nothing felt like it was rushed and there were also no parts that I found to be dragged out and boring. Their friendship begins that day over coffee but their relationship develops through phone calls and texts while Evan is away on tour for months on end with brief visits whenever he can get away. That's what I really loved about this book even though Evan was a famous musician and Emma was the definition of normal their interactions were real, their relationship developed at a real pace, and they fell in love with each other slowly while finding out the good the bad and the ugly.

They aren't perfect, and definitely have some bumps along the road but the problems they face are dealt with right away, with common sense (most times) and don't leave you feeling hopeless, but rather have you turning the pages with a sense of promise in the level of understanding they have in one another and the knowledge that neither is willing to let anything or anybody get in the way of what they have built.

In closing Love Exactly is a very well written, relatively light and easy read that I fell in love with from the very first pages. It's an inspiring story about two people that have each traveled down a different path and each suffered in life but through a chance encounter find hope, peace, and trust in each other, and slowly with patience and time turn their shared loneliness into a beautiful love story.

And to answer the question that I'm sure you all have does it end in a cliffhanger? I would say no, for me it was more of a happy for now kind of ending. But with that being said I think they may be in for some turbulence in the next book...

Excerpt from Chapter 1

Evan shrugged as he grabbed our drinks and headed in the direction of the lounge area. He sat down in a love seat and nodded for me to join him before handing me my coffee.

"Welcome to Heaven on Earth," he toasted before taking a sip.

I took a sip before pulling my knees up to my chest and turning so I was facing him.

There was a crooked grin as he looked over the top of his coffee at me. “So what’s it like being Lois Lane?”

I looked down at my own cup as a smile I couldn’t prevent spread across my lips. I glanced back up at him as I answered, “I don’t get to work with Superman, but I get to cover stuff like Mister Whiskers being stuck in a tree, the newest cookie flavor at Betty’s Baker, and of course, the basketball games.”

"What did you really want to be?" he asked as he leaned back in the chair with his eyes searching mine. It felt like he really cared even though every part of me cried out for me to believe otherwise because of who he was.

"I wanted to write young adult novels—I wanted to be the next Stephanie Meyer...a best seller over night and rich as all hell—to just do what I loved."

"Meyer is a lot older than you. You still have a shot at that."

"Yeah..."

"Besides being rich as hell isn't all it's cracked up to be...it's hard to make real friends that way."

"I could understand that."

"So who stomped on your hopes and dreams? Some big shot agent?"

I shrugged. "Let's put it this way, I spent forty grand on a school loan that amounted to nothing...I used to be afraid to say that my degree was useless...because then I would be saying it didn't teach me how to write—"

"It didn't though; it’s just like no one could teach me how to really write music."

"So you had no formal training?”

“I had a little—just like you, but it never seemed to matter… either I was a musician or I wasn’t—simple.”

“I wish it was that easy with writing,” I said with a sigh, my fingers tapping the top of my coffee.

“Why isn’t it?”

“The publishers didn’t give a crap about my degree, but they wouldn’t listen to me without it.” I shook my head. “I read an article once that said to be a best seller you need to sleep with a publisher. That didn’t really appeal to me, though.”

“I can’t even tell you how many people have asked me who I slept with to get where I am. I was freaking sixteen—I’d never even touched a bra before!”

As I started to laugh my cell phone began to ring out one of his songs. I gritted my teeth together as the blush rushed up my chest and to my face. "Oh, this is embarrassing," I muttered as I fumbled to shut it off.

When I looked up our eyes met; his were narrowed over the top of his coffee, paused in half-way to his mouth.

"You know who I am then?" he asked, lowering the cup.

I nodded in response, trying to gauge his reaction—did he really believe I didn't know who he was? Maybe that was why the shock and awe he instilled in the barista agitated him.

"Why did you act normal and not squeal and stop breathing?"

I let out the breath I had been holding and laughed. "Seriously? I don’t do that. You're still a human being—God of pop-rock or not."

"I wouldn’t refer to myself as a god," he retorted, rolling his eyes.

I took a sip of my coffee and nodded towards the girl still trembling behind the counter. She was holding her permanent marker as if she wanted to ask but knew she shouldn't.

"I think she’d disagree," I teased.

"Ugghh..." was his deflated answer.