Blog Tour: Review & Giveaway Uses for Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt

Welcome to my stop on the Uses for Boys Blog Tour hosted by Itching for Books Tours. Click HERE to check out the full blog tour schedule.

                           Uses for Boys

                                                         by Erica Lorraine Scheidt

 Anna remembers a time before boys, when she was little and everything made sense. When she and her mom were a family, just the two of them against the world. But now her mom is gone most of the time, chasing the next marriage, bringing home the next stepfather. Anna is left on her own—until she discovers that she can make boys her family. From Desmond to Joey, Todd to Sam, Anna learns that if you give boys what they want, you can get what you need. But the price is high—the other kids make fun of her; the girls call her a slut. Anna's new friend, Toy, seems to have found a way around the loneliness, but Toy has her own secrets that even Anna can't know.

Then comes Sam. When Anna actually meets a boy who is more than just useful, whose family eats dinner together, laughs, and tells stories, the truth about love becomes clear. And she finally learns how it feels to have something to lose—and something to offer. Real, shocking, uplifting, and stunningly lyrical, Uses for Boys is a story of breaking down and growing up.

Paperback, 240 pages

Release Date: January 15th 2013 by St Martin’s Press

(MY THOUGHTS)

Uses for Boys was not an easy novel to read, but it is one that touched my heart deeply for Anna. Because Anna's story is very true for some of today’s teen girls (and boys). So I will definitely say don't go into this book with fluff story on your mind. If you can't handle the hard, dark truth of what some teen girls lives are like today, then please don't read Anna's story. And I say that because I believe author Erica Lorraine Scheidt deserves to be praised for her writing of Anna's story and respected for telling the dark, ugly truth of what some teen girls lives are/could be like (not by their choice, but because of what they’re born into), with hope that they too will rise above this kind of lifestyle.

Anna has a family. That's the story she would tell herself, but that story is over for Anna when she turns six years old, and by the time she’s thirteen, boys have become her family. By the time Anna turns sixteen, she has already lived a hard life, but Anna will be one of the lucky ones. Her hard life has taught her the truth about love, family, and life, and that she is strong.

Anna is the main character and I adore her. I also loved Joy and Sam too, but there is another character that I fell in love with; Josh. Josh broke my heart. I can’t say any more, because I don’t want to spoil it for you, just that Josh really pulls at my heartstrings.

Uses for Boys is a book I fell in love with, because life is not perfect, and for some it's pure hell. I think even though Anna's story is fiction, her story is also can be very true for some teens in our world today and like Anna, I hope if they read this book they too will go forward. I recommend Uses of Boys as a dark brutal look at life's hardness, but also a story about hope and courage too. Uses for Boys is a beautiful break your heart read. 

Break my heart swoon for Anna and Josh:

“And then he hugs me. Really hugs me. Like he thinks that there's only one of me and I'm special and I'm enough for him. Like he doesn't need anything else. Like he was alone and then I came along.”

                                 Pre-order Uses for Boys at:  Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Author Spotlight:

When Erica was a kid all she did was write. She dropped out of high school and attended the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University where she was surrounded by writers and artists.

But then, in Erica's early twenties, she got a job. She worked hard at that job for 15 years and didn't write a word.

Then this happened: Erica walked into a bookstore and bought two books by Francesca Lia Block. No particular reason, she just liked their covers. Then Erica read everything Francesca wrote. She read all the YA she could. She still does. Erica think's the world that happens between 13 and 17 is everything.

She quit her job. Studied writing. And then spent three and a half years writing Uses for Boys. Now she's working on a new novel and it's like falling down a hole. Writing her first novel taught her nothing about writing the next one.

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