A Bookish Escape: Blog Tour: Sia by Josh Grayson

SIA  

Josh Grayson

Published November 20th, 2013

By Author Self Pub

ARC for review

Summary from Goodreads

When seventeen-year-old Sia wakes up on a park bench, she has no idea who or where she is. Yet after a week of being homeless, she’s reunited with her family. At school, she’s powerful and popular. At home, she’s wealthy beyond her dreams. But she quickly realizes her perfect life is a lie. Her family is falling apart and her friends are snobby, cruel and plastic. Worse yet, she discovers she was the cruelest one. Mortified by her past, she embarks on a journey of redemption and falls for Kyle, the “geek” she once tormented. Yet all the time she wonders if, when her memories return, she’ll become the bully she was before…and if she’ll lose Kyle.

The Ria Sees it

Sia was a sweet read. The flow of the writing was nice and I was intrigued by all of the hardships Sia had to endure. We are introduced to a wide range of characters. It was as though Mr. Grayson was able to pull every type of person and place them in to this story. I was able to relate with the characters even though I didn’t have a great romance with any one in particular. The secondary characters were great and really helped developing the main character. Sia goes a long way and her transformation is a story of hope and second chances.

S-uppression, Sia doesn’t remember who she is. Her mind has blocked all of her memories. As she is confronted with the harshness of the world she develops in to a caring person.
I-nterests, coming closer to the person she was, Sia realizes that she is completely different than she once was. Knowing her past she will fight to correct her future. A part of her doesn’t want to remember who she was. She wants to be better.
A- mission, Sia is set to help others. With her friends and her not-so-friends help, she is determined to make a difference. After much work their efforts don’t go unnoticed. Now the whole community comes together to show their support.

Sia was cruel but she works hard to change that. Her charm and her love for her parents provide what everyone in her life needed. There is some angst and a love interest in Kyle. Though that part was sweet I felt like the story’s main focus was on Sia and her self improvements. I was happy with the way Mr. Grayson ended the story. It was nicely wrapped up. This story has a deeper greater message of how important it is to be kind and offer help to where help is needed.

My Rating

3.5 Park Bench, Pink HotShorts, Soup Kitchen, Vodka Bottle, San Francisco, Vanity Fair, Empty Locker, Soulful Apology, Successful Movie, Fresh Start, New Lives Together filled stars. For a story of second chances and how love can fix the most broken of people this book is for you.

Ro's Take on this Journey

Sia, by Josh Grayson, is the story about a young girl in high school that wakes up on a park bench, and doesn't recognize anything around her. She doesn't know who she is, where she came from, how she ended up on this bench, or even recognize the clothing she is wearing. She realizes she has nice clothes on so she must have money, but she has none on her and no identification. The only thing that gives her a clue is the IPod she has on her with a playlist that says the name, Sia. Sia runs into some interesting characters, and some suspect ones. She almost gets kidnapped by a nice man that offers her food, (she's starving) she accepts, and when she doesn't want to go with him, he locks the doors and takes off with her. She narrowly escapes being sold into sex for hire, and realizes she has to be more careful.

Sia meets a homeless woman named, Carol. Carol protects her, takes her to soup kitchen, and teaches her some life lessons, including life on the streets. Due to getting hit by a car, Sia is found and sent back to her home with her family after a week on the streets with Carol. Sia Holloway finds out that she is rich, snotty, mean spirited, and a spoiled brat. She realizes from the kids at school, and her housekeeper, Beatriz, that she wasn't a very nice person, and that she doesn't want to be that person anymore. This is the beginning of a long journey to finding herself, trying to get her mother help with her alcoholism, and making her father see the new her that cares more for their family being together than their possessions. They are about to lose everything through bankruptcy, and Sia realizes that none of it matters to her after what she has lived through on the streets. Sia also searches out her friend from the streets, Carol, and wants to give back to the community.

Sia goes to the bakery and see's Kyle, the son of the bakery owner. He has witnessed Sia first hand as the mean person she once was. He smells like cinnamon, and she loves it. Her friend makes fun of him and she wonders if she was the same as her friends. He tells her she was worse. Sia really likes Kyle, and he cares for her. She is out to prove to be a new person since she doesn't remember the old her, (and doesn't want to remember either.) She wants to put others first, and this story shows the long road ahead with all of it's twists, turns, and heartache along the way. This was a great Young Adult story with an abundance of life lessons in it.

This story takes the reader on a journey of rebirth and second chances, with lessons on how to right your wrongs once you have been afforded that opportunity. It is a story of real friendship, forgiveness, growing, and teaching others by your actions in putting others first while making each day count. Though it was a little hard at times connecting with the characters, and there was a bit of a lackluster romance, (I would have liked to see more) the relationships were well thought out, concepts delivered, and messages were good. I think this is a great book for young people to learn from, especially that their actions affect others more than they realize.

I give Sia, by Josh Grayson, 4 Frantic, Rebuilding, Changing, Second Chances at Rebirth Stars!

Mikki's View

Sia by Josh Grayson was an interesting read. I have to admit that the blurb caught my attention from the very start. I really wanted to find out how Sia was going to deal with her amnesia. Sia wakes up on a park bench with no memory at all of who she is and how she ended up there. The only thing she knows is that her name must be Sia, since she has a playlist with that name on her iPod. From there she meets many mean people who make this difficult time even more painful to accept. One night, she meets Carol a homeless woman that changes her life. Carol makes her understand many things about life. For one week she's living the life of a homeless person, makes new friends and she starts to understand that not everything in life comes easy. When she suffers an accident and ends up at the hospital, she is reunited with her old life. The one that she can't remember. Once she is released from the hospital, she discovers the kind of person that she used to be. She wants nothing to do with those memories and some of the people she called ''Friends''. The more she knows about her old life, the more she wants to make a difference. With the help of Kyle and his friends she embarks on a journey of self discovery. She will do everything in her power to find who she was really meant to be.

Sia had very hard decisions to make. For a person of such a young age she was very mature about the way she wanted to live her life and what she wanted to do to make a difference. I have to be honest and say that I did not connect with her and Kyle until later on in the story. I really felt the connection once they started working together on a special project. I was a bit disappointed because I really wanted to feel that connection at the beginning of the story when she came back home to her real life. Their relationship was very sweet. Kyle was scared that once she would recover her memory she would forget about him. Sia works hard to make him understand that she is a changed person and that not even the old memories will break the bond that they have created. The secondary characters were very present in this book. They all had a specific role in Sia's transformation. Carol, her parents, her best friends and her new friends made her realize so many things about life. She learned many life lessons from everything that happened to them and to herself.

This is a sweet story about looking at life with a new perspective. Pretending to live a life to please somebody else is never a good thing. You have to be happy with the REAL you. Sia learned that lesson and she helped others understand that as well. I liked the way she helped her parents with their personal problems. It united them has a family. I also loved the friendship Sia and Carol shared. It was really special :)

I give Sia by Josh Grayson 3.5 sweet, enjoyable stars! The author did an awesome job with his first novel.

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About The Author

Josh Grayson was born in Mexico, raised in Massachusetts, and now lives in Martinsville, Virginia. It was his move to the South that stirred his imagination and gave him the courage to start writing. During his free time, Josh enjoys reading, jogging, swimming, and watching YouTube videos.  Josh currently works as a medical driver, shuttling people all over Virginia and North Carolina. He has also worked as a machinist, film sales rep, administrative assistant, and telemarketer (he apologizes if he called you).