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Finding It
Finding It
Finding It
Audiobook8 hours

Finding It

Written by Cora Carmack

Narrated by Simone Lewis

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

Sometimes you have to lose yourself to find where you truly belong . . .

Most girls would kill to spend months traveling around Europe after college graduation with no responsibility, no parents, and no-limit credit cards. Kelsey Summers is no exception. She's having the time of her life . . . or that's what she keeps telling herself.

It's a lonely business trying to find out who you are, especially when you're afraid you won't like what you discover. No amount of drinking or dancing can chase away Kelsey's loneliness, but maybe Jackson Hunt can. After a few chance meetings, he convinces her to take a journey of adventure instead of alcohol. With each new city and experience, Kelsey's mind becomes a little clearer and her heart a little less hers. Jackson helps her unravel her own dreams and desires. But the more she learns about herself, the more Kelsey realizes how little she knows about Jackson.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperAudio
Release dateOct 15, 2013
ISBN9780062303615
Finding It
Author

Cora Carmack

Cora Carmack is a twentysomething New York Times bestselling author who likes to write about twentysomething characters. Raised in a small Texas town, she now lives in New York City and spends her time writing, traveling, and marathoning various television shows on Netflix.

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Reviews for Finding It

Rating: 3.9278350494845355 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Good Book!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    love it
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This one wasn't as good as the previous ones in my opinion but still fabulous.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Kelsey Summers is a rich girl traveling around Europe in an effort to spend her father's money (and get his attention). After she is roofied and saved by hunky Jackson Hunt, he convinces her to travel for adventure rather than just for the partying. I had a hard time liking Kelsey, and Jackson, while nice was kind of a cipher. The ending was about what you'd expect, not very believable or interesting. I did like the descriptions of Terre Cinque and other places in Italy. I've been there and Ms. Carmack did a nice job portraying the setting. But the drama and for no real reason. Thank goodness it's a quick read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A really good read!! Kelsey's story is exciting and heartbreaking at the same time. In an attempt to escape an overbearing and uncaring father and discover who the true Kelsey is, she's traveling through Eastern Europe. While there she meets fellow American Jackson Hunt and a beautiful romance starts. But, Jackson is definitely keeping secrets and those secrets could destroy them.

    This is a good one and I definitely recommend it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I had fun reading this coming of age story surrounding Kelsey and Jackson. It is a perfect summer read that anyone can get through quickly and enjoyably with a cocktail in hand. Kelsey is the quintessential party girl that wants nothing more than to have fun and to drown her real life in shot after shot of oblivion. That works for a while…until she drunkenly trips over sober, hunky Jackson in a night club in some foreign city.Jackson just wants experience adventure and true feeling out of life, and challenges Kelsey to give his version a chance. Not one to back down, Kelsey agrees to try it out for a week, even though his stipulation is they must keep their hands off one another in the process. As they backpack back and forth across Europe, temptation grows, resolve disintegrates, and secrets come out.Although, it was a little cliché at the end, it didn’t diminish from the story. The author makes it work, and made it hot in the process! A recommended read for any vacation this summer! Received for an honest review.Rating: 4HEAT Rating: HotReviewed By: Daysie W. Review Courtesy of: My Book Addictions and More
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Finding it is the 3rd book in Cora Carmack’s Losing It series. I adore these books!! I actually “read” the first two books in the series via audiobook during my commute. If you don’t listen to audiobooks, you should try it. I am a skimmer (I know, bad Kate!) and I tend to skim books then go back and read the important parts. When you have an audio book, you have to listen to every last word… you miss nothing. It’s a very different experience.
    Oh, I digress. Let’s talk about Fining It now!
    If you have read Losing It, you will remember Kelsey as Bliss’ best friend. Her flighty, funny, slutty, partying best friend.
    What we didn’t see in Losing It was that Kelsey is tired. Tired of her life, tired of being. We catch up with Kelsey as she makes her way through Europe trying to escape her demons through copious amounts of alcohol, putting herself in dangerous circumstances and having meaningless sex. She is pretending to be the girl that doesn’t care about anything, spending daddy’s money and partying her life away.
    After a night of drinking, dancing and making out with a sucking lizard of a man, Kelsey is found by Hunt. He is like a guardian angel. He protects her, gets her home safe and makes sure that she isn’t hurt.
    Hunt is ex-military and is travelling around Europe as well. Somehow he ends up everywhere Kelsey is, and is always cleaning up her mess, protecting her from herself and saving her.
    Eventually Hunt and Kelsey agree to travel together for one week. One week as friends. One week for Kelsey to find adventure before returning to her life in the US.
    Of course in that week, Kelsey and Hunt fight the growing attraction between them. Well, I guess Hunt fights it, Kelsey was ready to give in to it on night one. Hunt keeps putting her off. He wants to just be friends. He gets angry at himself whenever he crosses an imaginary line.
    Know what that makes for? CRAZY sexual tension. If there is one thing that Cora does amazingly well, it is draw out the sexual tension between people for.e.ver. It’s awesome. I was on the edge of my seat for so long waiting for them to just give in!
    And when they do?? WHEW! It takes a whole chapter! That? Was an awesome chapter. Just awesome. It wasn’t explicit, it was just lovely and detailed and…HOT.
    You will fall in love with Hunt, and you will love to see Kelsey becoming a stronger version of herself with him. They both have faults, they both have issues…but together they are better.
    Unfortunately, there had to be something wrong, right? Yeah, Hunt is hiding something. It’s a big something (which I pretty much figured out when they started travelling together) and it has the ability to rip them to shreds. Personally, I get it… I get why he hid it. I also get why Kelsey hit the roof when she found out.
    Read the book to find out if they come through it! (hint, Cora Carmack gives great HEAs! )
    So yes, I recommend this book whole heartedly. Actually, read the whole series (or listen to them!) They are worth your attention!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    ARC received in exchange for an honest review for SMI Bookclub.

    Before I started on the newest installment to Cora Carmack’s bestselling series, I did a re-read of all the ones that came before. Going into Finding It, I was certain that Cade and Max were my favorites and there was no other couple Cora could create that I would love more. Within just a few chapters I realized how naïve I was. With each book, her characters increase with intensity and depth, and this couple takes the cake!

    So maybe, my new “friends” only wanted me for money and sex. It was better than not being wanted at all.

    The unique thing about this series is that for a lot of the timeframe, they take place simultaneously. So while in each book all the characters appear, they are only front and center in their own book. I love being able to get each one’s perspectives. I will admit that going into this, I didn’t expect much out of Kelsey. She seemed like a spoiled rich girl who wasn’t serious about anything in life except having a good time. I am here to tell you that appearances can be deceiving and sometimes the people who appear to have it all together are really the ones falling apart. Some of us just wear our masks better than others.

    You don’t realize how small you really are until you’re faced with something like that. We live our lives as if we’re at the center of our own universe, but we’re just tiny pieces of a shattered whole.

    After graduating from college, having no real direction in her life yet not ready to return home to begin life as a country club wife, Kelsey decides to take a year to explore Europe. Detesting being alone, she shuns nice hotels, choosing to stay in youth hostels instead. She meets new people daily and parties the night away, not caring about the consequences. After a few weeks, she starts to notice a handsome stranger, Hunt. Unknowingly coming from similar backgrounds, they push each other’s buttons relentlessly.

    “The best parts of life are the things we can’t plan. And it’s a lot harder to find happiness if you’re only searching in one place. Sometimes you just have to throw away the map. Admit that you don’t know where you’re going and stop pressuring yourself to figure it out. Besides…a map is a life someone else already lived. It’s more fun to make your own.”

    Coming to the realization that this trip is not at all what she imagined, Kelsey decides to give up and go home. Enter Hunt. He challenges her to give him seven days to help her find an adventure. If she will do that for him, he will kiss her. You may think this is a weird arrangement for a girl who has seemingly slept her across Europe, but she wants Hunt so badly, and he won’t give her what she desires.

    That was where it started. Those soft touches. Each one pulled us a little closer. Each one gradually smudged that imaginary line between us. And soon, the pull between us wouldn’t just erase that line. It would obliterate it.

    Immediately it because glaringly apparent that there was a magnetism between these two that rivaled all other couples. Despite how hard they each tried, how much they pushed each other away, they were drawn together like moths to a flame. Kindred spirits, they each had a heartbreaking story that unfolded throughout this journey. The only thing that would have made this story perfect for me is if it was told in dual POV. I LOVED that about Faking It, and was really hoping for the same with this book. That being said, as our couple fell in love, I fell right along with them. They have a novella coming soon, and I cannot wait to see what happens with them next. Top notch, heartbreaking, soul searching 5 star read for me!

    When you love someone, really love someone, it’s a lasting mark on your soul. There’s a lock on your heart that you’ll carry with you always. You may lose the key or give it away, but the lock stays with you all the same.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    So THIS is what the buzz for Cora Carmack's books is all about. Finding It is the third book in the Losing It series but it reads fine (more than fine!) as a standalone novel. The previous books are completely unrelated stories that just revolve around Kelsey's friends.Simply and shortly put: I. loved. this. book.Now onto my long, possibly incoherent, and certainly unrestrained review. You've been warned.Even the glamor of traveling through Europe alone and her daddy's limitless credit cards can't get Kelsey Summers out of her post-graduation slump. All the parties, the booze, the hot boys... they're distractions, but they're meaningless to her because she doesn't know what's wrong in her life. She's extremely privileged—blessed, even, with her Barbie-doll looks, theatre degree, and friends back home who love her—but she's unhappy, and what makes her unhappier is she doesn't know why. The bottomless, passionless pit she falls into can't be all there is to life, can it?Then she meets the piercing eyes of a handsome stranger in a bar, and her world is turned upside-down. Life may not have been pretty before, but it also wasn't scary until ex-soldier Jackson Hunt came around... scary because for the first time in her life, she's met someone who ignites something inside of her—someone who makes her want to bare the parts of herself that she thought she had long buried and thrown away.Someone who threatens to love her even after discovering her secrets.Carmack's gift for crafting the most flawed—and thus beautiful—of characters, is stunning. HUNT asdfasl;dflkasf I can't even begin to tell you how hard I fell for him. He is intricate in all of his worries and insecurities and mistakes, and the way I feel about him constantly alternates between I-love-him-so-much-he-is-perfection and fuck-fuck-fucj-why-is-he-fictional?!?! He's that kind of character. Kelsey is fun and flirty, and although she's a bit reckless and a bit irresponsible, she's mischievous, cunning, and absolutely divine; I loved her. She isn't a perfect narrator, but she's complex: a golden girl with an exquisite depth and charm to her that make her so real. She's always been the confident girl, the pretty girl, the one that was never afraid to be bold or brash or independent, but that might just be a role she's always played—a bit too well. And when Hunt slowly, agonizingly breaks through her thick skin only to reach an overwhelming, brilliant fire, he discovers this tendency to slip on the playful party-girl mask to cover up her worst of secrets and most worrisome of fears.Both scarred and both searching, Kelsey and Hunt set off together in Europe without so much as a proper introduction, but that's what adventure is—it's taking risks—and that's what love is: it's putting your heart out there. Hunt's battle with self-control and Kelsey's battle with self-acceptance align just so they both recognize the hollows that need to be filled within one another. Their pursuit of a stormy, emotionally draining, but completely worthwhile relationship is invigorating, and it entails a flittering hope that maybe, just maybe, they might be able to teach each other to feel once again.Kelsey and Hunt's voyage is both gorgeously scenic of Europe, and sweepingly romantic, which expertly demonstrate the magic of travel and the necessity of companionship. As walls begin to break down and an initially strained relationship softens, the pure tension—both emotional and sexual—will make your heart flip and tumble and dance and sing.The romance in Finding It is really something else. It's so hard to find such a realistic—such an ugly but still glimmering—relationship in new adult fiction: complex, soul-searingly deep, and painful at its lows, but absolutely dazzling at its highs. Carmack skillfully demonstrates the sharp, unexpected pain of letting someone into your heart after it's been tightly sealed shut, as well as the hopelessness—the emptiness—the young-and-in-love experience when uncontrollable yearnings approach a startling revelation.Carmack's writing is pitch-perfect, as well—another thing I adore! Kelsey is snarky and coy in her narration, but at her most vulnerable points, she doesn't hold back from being perceptive, piercing, and very, very tender. It is tremendously difficult not to sympathize with her—not to fall in love with her, yourself.The stimulating conversations, the lust-driven passion and explosive chemistry, and the turbulent drama will have you aching—aching for a love that has strayed or a personal passion that's been forgotten. When two lost souls—that aren't entirely sure of what exactly they're looking for—take the leap and promise to search alongside each other, there's nothing they can guarantee... just that they might end up finding it together.Pros: Everything... seriously // Distinct, beautifully human, vividly drawn characters // Smoldering romantic tension and chemistry // Fluid plot and heart-wrenching curveball // Hilarious // Light, charming tone, but still gets deep and insightful where it matters // Hunt... oh lord ♥Cons: I may or may not have lost a couple nights of sleep to stay up and keep reading this... but that happens with the best kinds of novels, no?Verdict: Intoxicating, exhilarating, and cathartic in its probing, intimate revelations, this last book in the Losing It series hits it out of the park. Cora Carmack is now an auto-buy author for me. (I just bought books #1, #1.5, and #2, but that still won't be able enough!) We have two deeply flawed, deeply fragile characters who recognize a rare longing in each other; we have haunting pasts and bleak futures that teach us to live in the now; and we have an intensely burning, intensely complicated love story that will steal your breath away... Yup, it's been decided: Finding It is an exemplary new adult romance that all books of the genre should aim to even come close to be. Perfect. Just perfect.Rating: 10 out of 10 hearts (5 stars): I'm speechless; this book is an extraordinarily amazingly wonderfully fantastically marvelous masterpiece. Drop everything and go buy yourself a copy now!Source: Complimentary copy provided by publisher via tour publicist in exchange for an honest and unbiased review (thank you, Harper Collins and TLC!).
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I am a big fan of Cora Carmack's and I just love all her books and the wonderful characters she creates, and she once again delivers an outstanding story in Finding It (Losing It #3). In Losing It, we got to meet and fall in love with Bliss and Garrick, then in Faking It, we got to meet Max and once again see Cade, who we met in Losing It, and fall in love with their story. Finding It is Hunt and Kelsey's story. Kelsey is Bliss's best friend who we originally met in Losing It. While this is a series, each of these books can also be read as a stand alone. Everyone deserves one grand adventure, that one time in life that we always get to point back to and say, "Then...then I was really living."After graduating college, Kelsey decides to backpack across Europe. To everyone else this sounds like a grand adventure, but for Kelsey, she is searching for something, desperate to find out who she is and what she is meant to do while at the same time trying to forget her horrible past by drowning herself in alcohol, men, and partying her way across Europe as she searches for that one great adventure, only to find that the happiness she is searching for still seems out of reach. Kelsey is a very good actress - it's what she went to school for, but what few people realize is that the facade she presents to her friends and those she meets is all an act. In fact, it is to the point that she has a hard time separating the two. Life was easier when you stopped caring, when you stopped expecting things to get better.Everything changes when Kelsey meets Jackson Hunt. Not only is he the hottest man she has ever seen, he causes her to feel things she never has and isn't sure she wants to. He sees her, really sees her, and that scares Kelsey while at the same time makes her want him even more. For Kelsey, Jackson Hunt is an enigma, one she can't quite figure out. He's a Marine, yet there is something mysteriously dark, yet enchanting in his eyes......eyes that Kelsey could lose herself in forever. On top of all that, he doesn't succumb to her attempts to seduce him, which really confuses her and is something she hasn't encountered with men before. Kelsey finds herself opening up more to Jackson Hunt that she has ever opened up with anyone, and when Hunt asks her to spend a week with him as they go off in search of that adventure she's been seeking, she can't refuse. A lot happens during this week and Kelsey finds out as much about herself inside, as she does about the wonderful places they visit. She also finds herself falling for this man who has managed to change her life in such a short time. It's obvious he's hiding something, but Kelsey can't figure out what........and when she does, will it destroy her?I really loved Finding It. One of the things I liked most was that trademark Cora Carmack humor that we originally saw with Bliss in Losing It, which once again shines through in Kelsey's character. Kelsey is a mess, but she's also a lot of fun in the midst of that mess. I really enjoyed watching her find herself and discover who she is and what she really wants over the course of this novel. It isn't an easy journey at all and she has a lot of heartache in the process, but she also experiences a lot of fun, discovers what love really is, and gets the courage to face the demons of her past. Jackson Hunt......swoon.......I think he is my favorite male character so far in Cora Carmack's books. He is hotness personified, mysterious, has the bad boy thing going on coupled with a fierce need to protect, and comes across on more than one occasion as a knight in shining armor with a bit of a dark side. As the story progresses, it wasn't hard to figure out what it was that he was hiding from Kelsey, and even so, the story was still fantastic an I thoroughly enjoyed watching things unfold. The chemistry between Hunt and Kelsey is sizzling and Cora Carmack delivers some really hot romance. The setting of the story was also really beautiful and I loved that part of it as well. I was totally engrossed in Finding It from beginning to end, and Carmack did an excellent job in drawing you into the lives of these characters and their journey. The ending was wonderful also. Cora Carmack has once again delivered an outstanding contemporary romance and I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of Kelsey and Hunt's adventure. Here's some more of my favorite quotes:Tamas didn't waste any time. Like, really....no time. The dude went zero to sixty in seconds. His tongue was so far down my throat, it was like being kissed by the love child of a lizard and Gene Simmons. ..........my traitorous eyes found the guy across the room. If he laughed any harder, he was going to pop a lung. Damn it. I guessed he didn't have any issues understanding my English....."What? No more locals around to carry you?" I turned my head to the side, and my worst fears came true. Soldier Smolder. He was even more gorgeous up close, which was only magnified by his deep voice. And from the sound of it, he was American too. The look on his face was part teasing - part condescending, but his eyes still had my organs doing somersaults. "You remind me of God," I mumbled, then immediately wished I could suck those words back into my mouth. He laughed, "Well, that's a new one for me." I said, "You're awfully pushy, stranger." And kind of dangerous. Who knew stranger-danger could be so hot. Then there were the abs.....sweet baby Jesus, it was like there was a factory with a conveyor belt spitting them out because they just kept coming. I didn't even know where to begin. It was a buffet of well.....buffness, and I was about to be guilty of gluttony. I made a strangled sound somewhere between the wheezing of a fat asthmatic and the squeak of a dog's chew toy. In other words, the noise that came out of my mouth was light-years away from being sexy. There were a few things in this world that I hated.PMS.Pennies.Close talkers.Fran Dresser's voice.People who say fustrating instead of frustrating.And throwing up. Which I had done twice this week. Who doesn't dream about going to Italy? And talk about making it easy to seduce Hunt. If I couldn't do it in Italy, someone should take away my vagina because I didn't deserve it. Now here are a few of the more serious quotes:"I want to memorize the way your eyes clench shut and you bite down on your lip, so that I can sketch your expression through memory. I want to know the exact angle of the way your neck curves, and how many times your heart beats a minute. I want to know everything.""If there's anything I learned with you, it's that one more day was never enough." "But my only excuse is that I'm crazy about you. And life is not worth living unless I'm with you. You're my adventure. The only one I want to have.""I'm going to kiss you, princess. But not now, not when you're telling me to. Not when it's just something you want to check off a list. I'll kiss you when it counts.""You scare me," I said."You have nothing to be scared of. I won't...I wouldn't. I'll help you get to bed, and then I'll leave, get another room."He thought I didn't trust him...that he might do something."Not that. I don't think that.""Then why do I scare you?""Because I don't want you to see.""See what?""Me."