Frasier Anderson is one of the hottest teenage actors in the
UK, but he’s virtually unknown in the US. Now he’s landed the leading role in a
big-budget Hollywood film that could make him an international star.
So how do you prepare a Scot for a role as a Texas high school student? Embed him in a Texas high school. He only has to follow three rules:
No drama. No girls. And no telling who he really is.
Jenna Wiley is smart, funny, and has a few no-drama, no-dating rules of her own. Her friendship with new kid Ethan Smith is perfect and might even lead to something more. Except for a few things that don’t add up. Like his mom being afraid to have company. Or their house, which is more staged than lived in. Or his sister, whom nobody talks about.
It all comes to a boil when Frasier’s biggest secrets hit the tabloids and the paparazzi swarm Hillside with Jenna in their sights.
Can Frasier convince Jenna that shy, goofy Ethan Smith is closer to real than the image the tabloids have created?
And can she ever forgive him for breaking the most important rule of all? Because for Jenna, when it comes to love and science, the truth is all that matters.
Book 4
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Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team
So how do you prepare a Scot for a role as a Texas high school student? Embed him in a Texas high school. He only has to follow three rules:
No drama. No girls. And no telling who he really is.
Jenna Wiley is smart, funny, and has a few no-drama, no-dating rules of her own. Her friendship with new kid Ethan Smith is perfect and might even lead to something more. Except for a few things that don’t add up. Like his mom being afraid to have company. Or their house, which is more staged than lived in. Or his sister, whom nobody talks about.
It all comes to a boil when Frasier’s biggest secrets hit the tabloids and the paparazzi swarm Hillside with Jenna in their sights.
Can Frasier convince Jenna that shy, goofy Ethan Smith is closer to real than the image the tabloids have created?
And can she ever forgive him for breaking the most important rule of all? Because for Jenna, when it comes to love and science, the truth is all that matters.
Buy Links
Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Amazon Au ~ Amazon Ca
B&N ~ iTunes ~ Kobo
Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team
Erica – ☆☆☆☆
Hickville Crossroads is the fourth installment in the Hickville High series, and can most definitely be read as a standalone with little to no confusion. There are slight mentions of events that happened in past installments, with the characters shown. I hadn't read the series in a few years, not entirely sure if I read book three, but I easily fell into the story from the start.
The premise of the book is an intriguing one. A Scottish actor comes to small-town Texas, to a place called Hickville no less, to practice for a role in an upcoming series. He's to go incognito, learn to speak the dialect, ditch his own accent and pick up a new one, and blend in as if he's a transplant from a few states North.
What I adored the most about this premise is how Ethan Smith (Frasier), his parents had to be in on the charade, Mom struggling the most with the accents and the way of small-town life. It was unexpectedly quirky, humorous, and lighthearted.
Jenna, after getting to know her in past installments, she felt different to me, having her own crosses to bear. Family issues, friends to support, insecurities to feel. Jenna was a well-rounded character who felt/acted/reacted like a real teenage girl. Easy to empathize with Jenna, especially as the novel evolved.
Burnt in the past by a boy, Jenna holds a lot of people at arm's length, so imagine the yummy angst as the boy she lets in isn't who she expected him to be. An impostor, using their town and the people inside it to study a role.
Hickville Crossroads was a solid young adult novel, a good addition to the series overall. I do believe the age demographic is was meant for would appreciate it the most. Young teens – a clean romance that isn't overly complicated for younger readers, filled with cute moments that aren't older than their years.
When reading this genre, it draws me back to when I was that age, but I'm not sure most adults read in the same way. Since this is YA, I judge it based on how a young adult would perceive it. I don't look for the same things a forty-year-old woman enjoys in a novel. I look for the butterflies a young teen feels during her first real crush.
A delightful, lighthearted, age-appropriate, warm and fuzzy novel that brought all the right feels. The shorter length perfect for the demographic, which ended up being a few hours of escapism for this adult who is young at heart.
Young Adult age-range: 12+. Drug-use handled in an age-appropriate, mature manner, which is more teaching moment than entertainment device.
Mary Karlik has always been a dreamer. When she was a teen, she read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and then sat in every wardrobe in her Nanna’s home, trying to open the door to Narnia. She didn’t find it, but she did discover her voice as an author: one filled with her young adult self, and grounded in her roots as a Texan and her Scottish heritage, nourished by obscure Scottish folklore.
You can find her Texas roots in her indie published, YA contemporary romance Hickville series, which has been described as “100% solid storytelling,” and begins with Welcome to Hickville High, a “lovely story about growing up.”
She digs deep into her Scottish roots – there is magic there, she just knows it – for her YA epic fantasy Fairy Trafficking series published by Ink Monster Publishing LLC. Her first book, Magic Harvest, debuted in September of 2018. It reached #1 in 3 categories of YA Fantasy on Amazon. Magic Heist, the second in the series has been described as “a fun twisty read which will never let you guess what will happen next.”
Mary recently moved from the beautiful Sangre de Cristo mountains of Northern New Mexico where she was a certified professional ski instructor to Texas. She loves visiting Scotland where she is currently earning a degree in Gaelic Language Studies at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig in Skye—part of the University of Highlands and Islands system. Mary also earned her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, has a B.S. degree from Texas A&M University, and is a Registered Nurse.
Mary is an active member of Romance Writers of America and serves on a national committee of RWA. She formerly served on the board of the Young Adult Romance Writers of America. She is an active member of the Dallas Area Romance Authors and looks forward to raising a glass or two of gin and tonic with her fellow writers every year at RWA’s national convention.
Connect with Mary
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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Hickville Crossroads (Hickville High #4) by Mary Karlik to read and review for this tour.
