Thursday, December 14, 2017

Behind the Bars by Brittainy C. Cherry Blog Tour


When I first met Jasmine Greene, she came in as raindrops.

I was the awkward musician, and she was the high school queen.
The only things we had in common were our music and our loneliness.

Something in her eyes told me her smile wasn’t always the truth.
Something in her voice gave me a hope I always wished to find.

And in a flash, she was gone.

Years later, she was standing in front of me on a street in New Orleans.
She was different, but so was I. Life made us colder. Harder. Isolated.

Caged.

Even though we were different, the broken pieces of me recognized the sadness in her.
Now she was back, and I wouldn’t make the mistake of letting her go again.

When I first met Jasmine Greene, she came in as raindrops.
When we met again, I became her darkest storm.

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Book 1
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By the way, what happened to Todd’s nose?” I asked.

“I broke it,” Elliott said matter-of-factly.

“What? How? Why?”

He shrugged before turning to look out the window. “He called you a bad name.”

“What was it?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Eli,” I started.

He turned my way and locked his hazel eyes with my browns. “Jazz…” He shook his head. “It wasn’t true.”

I swallowed hard, a big part of me certain Todd’s words held some form of truth.

Elliott saw it in me—my fear. He kept shaking his head and whispered, “I don’t feel sorry for you. Sometimes you look at me like you think I feel sorry for you, and I want you to know I don’t. I think you’re perfect the way you are.”

I quietly laughed at him repeating the words I’d told him earlier. A few tears rolled down my cheeks. “I’m a little messed up.”

“I know.” He nodded. “That’s why I like you.”

He went back to staring out the window, and I kept staring at him.

And there it was.

So small, so tiny, so real.

Love.

It wasn’t love, but it was the beginning of it.

I knew I was young, and I knew it was stupid, but in that moment, I began to fall in love with the quiet boy who quietly cared for me. The boy who was scared and still strong. The boy who stood up for me when he was surrounded by reasons not to do such a thing. I hadn’t known much about love. I hadn’t known how it looked, felt, or tasted. I hadn’t known how it moved, how it flowed, but I knew my heart was tight and currently skipping a few beats. I understood the goose bumps covering my arms. I knew this stuttering boy who was sometimes so scared was someone worth loving. He was worth being the first one I gave my heart to.

I knew Elliott Adams was love.

And I was falling into him so fast.




Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Mary☆☆☆☆☆
Jasmine knows all about being pushed to do things she doesn't want to do. At a young age, her mother pushed her to perform. From music to dance to ballet, anything to make it big. But her mother only wants the fame, she doesn't care what Jasmine wants. While Jasmine loves to sing, her mother pushes her to sing pop music while her entire being is calling for her to sing soul music. When she hears a boy playing saxophone on the street corner, she feels it all the way to her bones and she has to talk to the boy to find out what he does to get the music to bring out all those emotions. This is when she meets Elliot and knows she has to have him in her life.

Elliot has his music and his family. He is a skinny boy that gets bullied at school and stutters, so he is a perfect candidate for the bullies to pick on and they have bullied him for years. Elliot has always turned to his music when he needed a pick me up. When he sees the girl on the corner crying over one of the songs he was playing, he has to talk to her to find out what touched her so much. He could tell she had the music in her, but she didn't let it show much.

Jasmine's mother took her to London to get her pop career going, and after six years, she had had enough. She runs away and back home to New Orleans. Where Ray, the only dad she has ever known, and Elliot lives. She has to find her home because home is not a place to live, it is the place where your heart is full.

What has happened in the six years that Jasmine has been gone? Will Elliot still be around and want to see her? Can she find her soul music now that she is back in New Orleans? Can she help Elliot find his way back to her after all the pain he has been through?

Ohmigod, this story was a tough one. It will rip your heart out, but I wouldn't expect anything else from Brittainy C. Cherry. It was absolutely perfect, and I love it. Just have a box of Kleenex handy because you are going to need it, but it is worth every tear you shed.


Mary Jo☆☆☆☆
Triggers: Click HERE to see Mary Jo’s review on Goodreads for trigger warnings

This book is not like any I’ve read in a while. We see two teens who are struggling to make it through the day. We meet them as Jasmine and Elliot are enduring high school. Jasmine is excited because for the first time, her pushy, over-the-top stage mom has agreed to let her attend public school. Elliot is a small kid with glasses who is bullied from sun up to sun down.

As the two get to know each other, a relationship forms that will last a lifetime, not that they know it. In order to protect Elliot, Jasmine allows herself to run with a bad crowd, doing things she's not comfortable with, all to see it fall apart anyway.

When Elliot tries to stand up for Jasmine, he's bullied even more and the school doesn't do anything to help. Jasmine is soon uprooted from all she's known and the boy she loves, and is moved to London to pursue her mother's dream. Elliot's world collapses when his sister dies and he's reborn into a stronger, colder version of himself.

When Jasmine and Elliot meet again as twenty-somethings, you can see the spark is there but Elliot does his best to bury the feelings, because feeling means you have to grieve what you've lost.


Ruthie☆☆☆☆
This is so nearly a perfect 5-star read – it is an amazing story, I just found it a bit laboured at the beginning. I am so glad that I kept going though, because this is a beautiful book. Sometimes a title is good for a book, but in this case, it takes on so many meanings that it really is exceptionally well chosen.

This is no easy read, and it is one of those books that reminds you just how badly your parents can eff you up. Yet equally, how family is not determined by blood, and that we all have choices. I love that – because I strongly believe it to be true, and Ms. Cherry does an excellent job of reminding us of just how choices affect our lives.

From when Jasmine and Elliott meet at 16 to the end, the threads which run through the story, of music, love, loss, and determination, give us a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows. Be prepared to cry, on occasion laugh, and definitely hope.

Cannot wait to see what comes next!



Hi! I'm Brittainy! Join me as we travel through my mind as a Romance Author. This includes such things as my random thoughts, tricks, tips, things I'm learning, things I'm re-learning, things I'm forgetting, and my weird ways of crafting stories.

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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Behind the Bars (Music Street #1) by Brittainy C. Cherry to read and review for this tour.

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