Blog Tour Review & Giveaway: This is W.A.R by Lisa & Laura Roecker

Today I'm very excited to be part of Soho Teen's blog tour for Lisa & Laura Roecker's new book, This is W.A.R. Thank you, Soho Teen, for choosing me to be part of the tour!

This is W.A.R. by Lisa Roecker and Laura Roecker.

Published July 2nd.
Published by Soho Teen.
Source: Picked up at the Soho Teen booth at BEA.

Goodreads Blurb:
This is W.A.R. begins with a victim who can no longer speak for herself, and whose murder blossoms into a call-to-arms. Enter four very different girls, four very different motives to avenge Willa Ames-Rowan, and only one rule to start: Destroy James Gregory and his family at any cost. Willa's initials spell the secret rallying cry that spurs the foursome to pool their considerable resources and deliver their particular brand of vigilante justice. Innocence is lost, battles are won—and the pursuit of the truth ultimately threatens to destroy them all.

My Review:

If you're looking for a juicy revenge story in the vein of Sara Shepherd's novels, This is W.A.R. is the book you've been waiting on. It brings together four girls who each had a connection to Willa to try and take down the seemingly invincible Gregory family, especially James, who they believe killed Willa. This book has mystery, suspicion, and drama galore. If you love revenge stories, you should definitely check this out.

This is W.A.R is told through a combination of standard present day narration and flashbacks. The flashbacks provide glimpses into the night of Willa's death and help to slowly unravel the mystery for the reader. This combination was a great way to keep the revenge story moving while also keeping the reader in the dark about a lot of what each girl thinks she knows. There are plenty of secrets being kept and I thought they were presented well because I was reminded of them as the storyline moves, so I was kept interested and in suspense, but at the same time the secrets were not shoved in my face nor were they blatantly obvious. It was a great mix that really kept the pages turning.

The other point of the novel I found very strong was the narrators. Each of the four girls, Rose, Lina, Sloane, and Madge are very easy to distinguish from one another and all deal with Willa's death in different ways. It was interesting watching them struggle to work together for their common goal and seeing their motivations revealed through each of their personal lives and flashbacks helped to solidify them as deeper characters. They were a very realistic set of teen girls put in an unrealistic circumstance and watching them try to bring these two aspects of their lives together was great. They each brought something different to the table, resulting in a group of girls who normally probably wouldn't have really been friends, brought together over Willa's death to form an occasionally dysfunctional but overall pretty smart and solid team. There were high stakes and dangerous decisions and I thought these girls handled them impressively while still facing some consequences like true teenagers.

Overall, this was a tense and mysterious novel with a frustratingly slippery target and four very different girls struggling to take him down. It was an excellently wrapped up standalone and is a perfect summer read for when you need something darker and more suspenseful than a contemporary love story.
4 stars.

About the authors:

Lisa and Laura Roecker are sisters-turned-writing partners with a passion for good books, pop culture, and Bravo programming. Not necessarily in that order. A prepubescent obsession with Lois Duncan and their mother's insistence that they read Men Are Just Desserts inspired This is WAR. The sisters live in Cleveland, Ohio, in separate residences. Their husbands wouldn't agree to a duplex. Cyberstalking is always encouraged at lisa-laura.blogspot.com and @landlroecker on Twitter.


Join the WAR!
Lisa and Laura Roecker, along with Soho Teen, are running a special campaign for the release of This is W.A.R. Preorder the book from any of these online retailers and you'll be entered to win your very own key necklace just like the ones the four girls get in the novel.
Preorder and enter here: Amazon, B&N, Kobo, iBooks, BAM.

Or, if you preorder from a select group of indie bookstores or reserve it from a select group of libraries they've teamed up with, the first ten people automatically get one of the necklaces! Check out the list of participating indies and libraries here: http://www.thisiswarbook.com/#%21page-5/c12qm

Check out more info about the giveaway here: http://www.thisiswarbook.com/#%21page2/cjg9

Now for my tour stop giveaway!
Soho Teen has kindly sponsored a giveaway of one copy of This is W.A R. for a lucky US or Canadian resident. Enter in the Rafflecopter below. Good luck!

Some Rules (aka the not so fun but important part):
~ This giveaway is open to residents of the US and Canada only.
~ No P.O. boxes.
~ Must be 13 or older to enter.
~ Winner will be chosen randomly and contacted via email. The winner has 48 hours to respond to my email, otherwise they forfeit their prize and I will choose another winner, who must abide by the same rules.
~ Neither Soho Teen nor I are not responsible for lost or damaged packages.
~ No cheating! In this case, I have the right to disqualify entries as I see fit.
~ By entering the giveaway, you are agreeing to these rules.

a Rafflecopter giveaway