I received this ebook from Netgalley and I was so excited! I have always loved Jamie McGuire. To this day Beautiful Disaster is one of my absolute favorite books that I've read. I have yet to read a book from her that I don't love and "All The Little Lights" was no exception. This one was a little bit different than some of her other books that I've read because the two main characters are in high school as opposed to college age. I like YA and NA books a lot though so this didn't matter to me. I fell in love with these two characters and their story from the very beginning. I loved the element of mystery that this story had and it kept me wondering what was going on right up to nearly the end when we finally realize what is REALLY happening at the Juniper. And without spoiling anything, I never saw it coming. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes YA, NA, and especially if you are a Jamie McGuire fan. She never disappoints!!!

This book is quite a difficult one for me to review. I've read other books by Jamie McGuire and loved them but this one just felt a little flat. It's in the category of Adult romance but it's actually a young adult book. It begins with the two characters meeting when they are young and getting to know each other and becoming inseparable friends at fifteen. Elliott has to leave Catherine on the day her father dies and doesn't return for two years. Things have totally changed for Catherine at this stage and Elliott must try to get her to forgive him.

I found this book a little on the boring side and for the most of it, I was confused. We discover that Catherine's mother opened a B&B after her father died and we're given the names and get to meet all the different people that stay there. But there's never an explanation as to who these people are and why Catherine is so afraid of them. That was the main reason I continued reading the book as I needed to find out what was going on in the B&B and what had Catherine so terrified.

When Presley goes missing, a girl that has bullied Catherine all her life, Elliott comes under the spotlight because of his heritage.

I'd say the last 15% of this book was the best and it's where things really got interesting. There's lots of action and the secrets of the B&B are finally revealed. Before that, it just felt a little dry. Nothing really happened and it was more a typical teen romance novel. School, bullying, first love, football games, etc.

I can't fault the writing in this book at all. Jamie McGuire is an amazing writer and creates wonderful characters. I think the main reason for the confusion with this book is that it was categorised as an Adult romance so I was expecting a lot more. This is definitely a YA book.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, but I just didn't love it as much as her previous books.

The story of Elliott and Catherine is sweet--their pull magnetic. And the twists and turns in this book are so unexpected! Loved it.

I was hooked from the start. All The Little Lights, is a clean and fresh romance, with some unexpected twists and quite honestly some pretty chilling events.
I wish that some moments weren't glossed over and or skipped all together, I would have loved to see how certain situations were dealt with, but in no way did it take away from the story.
I will and am recommending ATLL to everyone.

Okay, Jamie McGuire was one of the first contemporary romance authors I fell in love with when I read her novel Beautiful Disaster. So when an opportunity to read an advance copy of her latest novel is upon me, I pounced. Surprisingly enough, this book turned out to be two things. It went from utterly boring to extremely disturbing. Now, even though Jamie McGuire is one of my favorites, I will not sugarcoat this review just because I love her writing.

While I was reading it, there was a really big chance of me plummeting down to yet another dreadful reading slump. And really, who loves reading slumps? No one.

I was in the verge of putting this book down. I couldn't get through that fifty percent mark fast enough. But through those awful days, I thought to myself, will this book be worth it? And boy, was I glad to have finished it.

Writing this review, I still have very mixed feelings about it. The main character, Catherine Calhoun, was so dry. She lacked personality which made it difficult for me to love her. She quoted herself as plain and ordinary and I agree. There was nothing exciting about reading her story from the beginning because I found her dull.

On the other hand, Elliott Youngblood, I can categorize as an ‘okay’ character. He was a really romantic guy but I didn’t really feel any connection to him or to their relationship. He had a steady burn and I admired his loyalty and faith throughout the story. But overall, I think Catherine and Elliott as a couple was just meh.

Since I found the characters underdeveloped, I clung onto the possibility that the plot was good. The build up was definitely slow. For me, I didn't get interesting enough for at least a thirdof the way to finishing it. So really, what made me power through it? Besides the fact that I hate leaving books in the ‘DNF’ category, I had a feeling that this book was hiding some kind of surprise. And in those few days that I struggled with the story, it backfired really bad.

I knew Jamie Mcguire wouldn’t let me down. The plot twist was a big WTF. I had to admit, this book gave me the creeps and I had to put on a rom-com to help me stop thinking about it. That was how disturbing I found it. In a good way. And it was so worth reading. The book just came alive and everything just clicked. Suddenly, everything made sense and then it was over and I was craving more.

So my final verdict is, this book is definitely worth reading if you can get past a slow build up.

This was the first book I’ve read by this author, although I’ve heard a lot about her Beautiful Disaster series before. I received this eARC novel from NetGalley.

I liked this book, but it kind of dragged on a bit, especially the parts about Catherine being bullied. Thank God for Mrs. Mason and she was a good role model for Catherine and I loved how she cared about Elliot.

I didn’t figure Catherine’s secret until she revealed it but I thought it was a cool twist. I thought it was kind of crazy she waited so long to tell Elliot though, so you need to be patient for the big reveal.

Jamie McGuire's newest novel, All the Little Lights, is a story of first loves with aspects of a thriller.

This one was just too long for the content. It was wordy and not in the way I normally like and appreciate. It became repetitive and so much could have been cut out, and you wouldn't have missed it. It talked about Catherine not fitting in, a lot. She didn't really have friends. The popular girls picked on her. Etc. Etc. Etc. It dragged along with hints to something else, until you get to the huge reveal. The plot twist? It happens right before 90%. I knew there was something major; it was the only thing that kept me reading. Then I get there and just... no. It wasn't enough to make up for the lack luster story that promised a 'riveting tale'.

It's a shame about this one.

I was lucky to receive an ARC of All the Little Lights written by Jamie McGuire and due for general public release on 29 May 2018. This has not impacted on my provision of an honest review.

As a fan of the Maddox Brother series and Beautiful Disaster I was excited to read this new release.

This book outlines an initial friendship - leading to romance between Elliott Youngblood and Catherine Calhoun. Both individuals have troubled home lives and this story outlines how this impacts upon their daily lives, relationships with peers and with each other.

Unlike other books by Jamie McGuire I did not feel the passion and intensity with her character or story. Both Elliott and Catherine were awkward verging on boring. I found the plot quite slow to evolve and struggled to maintain my interest which is reflective in the amount of days it took me to read.

There is a large plot twist but readers require to wait until 90% complete to get there. At this point I suspected what could be coming.

This book tackles a multitude of important issues such as bullying, racism, domestic issues, neglect and mental health.

I enjoyed this book however, I have rated it 2 stars due to the pace of the plot. It has been categorised as General Fiction (Adult), Romance. I presume this is due to the issues mentioned above rather than the sexual content which is very minimal.

This is not what I was expecting as a fan of Jamie McGuire however this genre may attract her a new category of reader.

#AllTheLittleLights
#NetGalley

Going into reading All the Little Lights, I have to admit I didn't even read the blurb. As a long time fan of Jamie McGuire I knew I had to read this one. And just wow was I not disappointed at all. I love how different All the Little Lights is from her previous works. This was simply a beautiful and moving book of young love. But that is not all that it was. There is such an air of mystery that surrounds this entire story. It sucks you in like no other and leaves you to digest every detail for clues to what is going on. Which I must say I didn't see it coming but should have. SOOOOO GOOOOD. Catherine and Elliott have this connection from the very beginning. You just get this sense that Elliott wants to protect Catherine and help her anyway he can. Now with Catherine, you get this sense that of secrets and mystery that surrounds her. The love that forms between Elliott and Catherine is so beautiful. I love how their bond is so strong through everything. Families and members of the town may be against them somewhat but they don't let them win. I really don't want to give too much away. I'll just leave it with that this is a phenomenal read. I couldn't walk away from this one if I tried. This is one of those reads that needs to be one clicked like yesterday to read. So go do it.

I have read Beautiful Disaster series by Jamie McGuire...
But this book is nothing like her previous books and turned out to be so unique and amazing!!
Its not exactly romance.. More of YA, Mystery & Romance...
Elliot, visits his uncle and aunt at Oak Creek for Summer to escape his fighting parents... One summer, after freshman year, he becomes friends with Catherine.. They grow fond of each other and become best of friends.. And when tragedy strikes catherine that summer, Elliot is forced to leave her without even a good bye..
Elliot is so determined to get back to her.. However it takes 2 years for him to get back to Oak Creek.. Though it takes him some time to earn her forgiveness, there is something mysterious in Catherine's life that might tear them apart!!
The book started little slow, but i loved Elliot and Catherine... Their friendship at the young age and the love they had for each other was so beautiful.. It was so profound!! And i didnt expect the mystery to be that shocking!!
And that ending was just so beautiful.. Elliot and Catherine deserved it!!!

I was so excited for this. It's been years since I read Beautiful Disaster and I was lookng forward to diving back into the McGuire world. Sadly, this did not give me the same feels. Or any feels.

All the Little Lights was in one word, boring. What started as a nice small town story with two young protagonists with the potential to turn into a good YA/NA book, turned into a small town boring nothingness with a "twist" that did nothing for me, or the story.

Elliott and Catherine met when they are kids, he's on spring break and there's a lot of bullying and house drama on both sides (a few moments that made me cringe) but it was a nice start. Fast forward a few years after Elliott left, he returns for good and that's when the "real" story begins. Or better yet, takes forever to begin.

The story is so slow that by the time we get to the last shocking part, I didn't even care, I spaced out so many times during the endless school and family every-day-scenes that the last 10% honestly made me roll my eyes.

This is not the first book that deals with this specific mental illness, other books have done it justice, others not so much, this one did neither, it was just a thing that was happening and it got lost in the chapters somehow. I wish the book focused more on Elliott, I wanted more of him, he was such a good character with so much to offer and so much potential for his story that got lost in the drama.

All the Little Lights tried to be too many genres at the same time and it ended up being a mediocre mash up.

Let me start by saying that I'm a massive fan of Jamie McGuire. I went into this and wanted to love it so bad. That is not what happened. I had a feeling like something was missing through the whole story. It was kind of slow. It took me days to read. I am still a fan of Jamie's. I'm looking forward to From Here to You. I'll be reading it when it comes out in Aug.

This is the first book I have read from Jamie McGuire in quite a while, probably since reading the Beautiful series quite a while ago. I remember really enjoying that series when I read it so when I saw her new book, All The Little Lights, I decided to give it a read after the synopsis caught my attention. I found both of the main characters, Catherine and Elliott to be both unique and interesting characters. This book has several different aspects to it including romance and mystery. It also tackled some tough subjects such as family, relationships, bullying, abuse and neglectful parents. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but wanted to give a little bit of insight into the story. I did find Catherine a bit difficult to relate to, which sometimes makes me less interested in a story, but not in this case. Overall, I enjoyed this book and was fairly impressed with how the author wrote about some very difficult issues. It is definitely different from her first series that I read quite a while ago. I will have to go back and read her other books now as well.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC of this book.

From the summary, the cover, the beginning, I was expecting a true summer romance novel that was full of second chances for the main characters, Catherine and Elliott. What I got, however, was a novel full of mystery and suspense that left me rooting for Catherine and Elliott all the way until the last page.
The story begins with the two meeting when they are younger and spending the summer together. Tragedy rocks Catherines family and Elliott is forced to leave her behind. I found this incredibly important to include in the novel as it shows just how much the two meant to one another even in the time spent apart. I'm really glad that McGuire decided to write a few chapters in the past it really allowed me to understand the bond these characters share. When Elliott returns, Catherine is closed off much like the bed and breakfast she helps her mother run. No one is allowed inside of the Juniper and a mystery surrounds it up until the end. I love the bond that Elliott and Catherine share, these are teenagers but they are written in the way that they understand the boundaries around their relationships due to what is happening in each other's lives. Also, I really enjoyed all of the mystery in this novel. There was suspense around most of the plot and I really did not see the ending coming. I was so shocked and impressed with what McGuire wrote that I will highly recommend this to anyone who needs a story with a good twist in it. All of the characters, the details, and the alternating POV's were well described which really drove the plot for me and kept me invested until the very last page.

I loved the first book I ever read by Jamie McGuire which was Beautiful Disaster and everything after that has a hard time following it. This was no exception.

I loved Catherine and Elliott - they had a sweet, caring love story...but this was also a suspenseful and sometimes a "sit on the edge of your seat, don't know what's going on" kind of book. So, why did I only give 4 stars? There were some spots in the book where it got slow it places and I felt it took me out of the book and I started thinking of other things, wanting to do other things and that's never good. However, the mystery surrounding the storyline pulled me in and in those places left me wanting to read more.

This was an awesome storyline of friendship, the differences in ourselves as a society and what happens when people in that society treat you differently because you're different. This showed what the innocence between two people were and how it could change after time and the beautifulness of it. I'd recommend this to anyone that is looking for a book that's about mystery, suspense, love, uniqueness and becoming who you are meant to be.

I was given an ARC copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own and do not reflect anyone else's.

What is it about Jamie Mcguire’s books that I love so much? It’s that they captivate me! I simply can’t put them down until I finish and that’s exactly how it was when reading All the Little Lights.

When Catherine and Elliot met, they seemed to click right away. As young teens, both were dealing with their own problems, yet they became very close and started–what seemed like–an unbreakable friendship. When Elliot is forced to leave town, Catherine is left to fend for herself and as time moves on, she has to find a way to heal. When Elliot returns for senior year a few years later, he’ll do whatever it takes to win Catherine back, but everything is different. They’ve both grown and changed so much. He’s now the high school football team’s star quarterback and seems to have no problems making friends and being popular, while Catherine struggles to make ends meet with feeling like an outcast at school, and maintaining her family owned bed and breakfast. As if their relationship wasn’t complicated enough, Catherine has a secret she struggles to hide and Elliot gets caught up in drama involving a missing student.

I thought this book had a very interesting and complex plot. The story alternates throughout with Elliot’s and Catherine’s point of view. It seems simple, but there are other elements and a lot going on in the background to where you’re left to guess until the end what’s really happening. I didn’t feel like it was too predictable and I was surprised with the outcome. There were a few themes that did remind me of some of my other favorite romance books like The Notebook for an example, but I won’t spoil anything with details. This book deals with many teen struggles including divorce, bullying, racism, neglect, family/peer pressure, mental health, and others.

I thought the characters were unforgettable and I was totally invested! Elliot was everything I wanted him to be including persistent, loyal, courageous, and totally supportive to Catherine. He would do anything for Catherine and puts up with a great deal from her. Both of them want what’s best for each other, but deal with drama and pressure from students and both sides of their families. With that said, I did find Catherine a little annoying sometimes, but I needed to remind myself that with all she’d been through, how she acted was understandable as she was quite confused and dealing with a lot. I liked her strength and appreciated that she stood up for herself and for what was right regarding certain events, especially with the other students in her school. By the end of the book, everything tied together nicely.

Overall, I loved this book. Even though it was different from other Jamie McGuire books I’ve read in the past, I was very pleased and it didn’t disappoint. This is easily a book that can be finished within one sitting, even with its length. I could barely put it down. I do highly recommend this one!

I’d like to thank NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for sharing a copy of this book with me in exchange for my honest review.

5*****

Nicely written YA romance. Elliott and Catherine are meant to be although their journey takes some twists and turns. There's a little mystery here in addition to the love story and that elevated this for me. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Easy read

Both Elliott Youngblood and Catherine Calhoun feel like outcasts and find an easy friendship with each other because of that. But when Catherine needs him most, Elliott is forced to leave town. When he finally returns, he and Catherine are different people. Catherine hasn’t forgiven Elliott for abandoning her, but he’s determined to win back her friendship and her heart.

I don’t know whether to call this book a romance or mystery, but the mystery seemed the more prevalent story line. As far as the romance goes, there is definite chemistry between Elliott and Catherine. I liked them together and watching them grow together as a couple. However, the mystery element is what kept me turning the pages. I read with my brow furrowed trying to figure out what was happening at Catherine’s home, the Juniper. The ending = WOW! I didn’t have a clue THAT was coming! Both the romance and mystery ends are tied up nicely and I closed this book a happy reader.

My first book by Jamie McGuire has left me eager for more. After reading All the Little Lights, I’m going to get to those already on my TBR sooner rather than later.

Posted to Goodreads: For a more in-depth review watch: https://youtu.be/bqvLrbPSic0

Elliott and Catherine have a special connection the moment they met the summer after freshman year but the two are pulled apart by their parents. Now, two years later Elliot is back and will do whatever it takes to get his first love back but is Catherine willing to open her heart to him again?

I have read several Jamie McGuire books and I usually really enjoy them so I was disappointed by "All the Little Lights". The book's description promises the young couple's relationship a challenge that doesn't actually happen until almost halfway through the book which made the pacing feel very sluggish. Also, the surprise twist felt very obvious as well as not at all realistic. I'm sure there are a lot of readers out there that will enjoy this book however, for me, it felt too much like melodrama to be enjoyable.

I received an eARC of this book from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

There's something about Jamie McGuire's writing that just falls flat.
I read BEAUTIFUL DISASTER when I was sick and glued to bed and despite all of her desperate tries to seduce me into liking it, I just kind of scorned both lead characters.

ALL THE LITTLE LIGHTS had a bit of a thriller-ish synopsis. And I was sure I would totally dive into a plot like that, but I must say this one was even more flat than her first one.

I think it's because her characters don't seem to be real people, or at least they don't seem to feel like real people. The dialogue just goes on - more chattery than emotionally building-up to anything - and you just wait for some sort of BAM! but instead, there's a next corner and another set of circumstances and a bunch of dry dialogue.

I've come to realize that I admire Jamie McGuire's business sense much more than her writing. Much like people say about John Green when someone openly asks on some forum...Wait, why are these books so popular, they're so boring and draggy? And usually, one or another person will politely explain that he's purchased the book only because he likes John Green or better - what John Green represents!

Well, it's similar with me and Jamie McGuire.

This book is more for those who like light chick-lit sort of romances, and believe me - don't despair seeing that word <i>tragedy</i> in the synopsis. It's not half as frightening as it sounds at first.

Thank you Netgalley for this copy in exchange for my honest review.