Genre: Contemporary

Review: Only Everything

Posted March 16, 2015 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments

I really love the whole set-up of and idea behind this series. Eros, who chooses the human name of True, is Cupid up on Mount Olympus. She falls in love with Orion, who is a god-turned-mortal. Zeus finds out and gets pretty pissed, so he sends her down to earth without her powers and with a mission: she’s supposed to pair up three couples before she can come back home and hopefully save Orion. This is a trilogy, so she pairs up one couple per book. I was initially annoyed that the book had three points of view, but I think it ends up working. Because True has to pair up a couple, it does hear what’s going on in all three people’s heads. All three characters were equally important to moving the plot forward and had their own sets of issues. The three characters had distinct voices and experiences, so it was definitely easy to keep them straight. Katrina’s father died in an accident (which she hasn’t fully come to terms with yet), she has a horrible boyfriend, and her mother doesn’t pay her any attention. Charlie is trying to make friends at school because he’s moved around so much and does everything to try to please his father. True obviously has her own issues because of Orion, getting used to life on earth, and not having her powers to help her make matches. It was funny to see True getting used to life on earth; she didn’t understand basic common […]

Review: Just One Year

Posted March 12, 2015 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

This book was simultaneously exactly what was expected but not necessarily what I wanted. In Allyson’s story, we see her grow and develop into this person who actually has bits and pieces of Lulu in her. She takes more chances and tries to live her life by what she wants to do instead of what her parents want her to do. She becomes a better person and more true to the self she wanted to be. I was hoping that Willem’s story was also transformative (as the synopsis suggests) like Allyson’s. I really don’t think it was. The main point of Just One Year is to show what Willem was doing in the time that Allyson was searching for him throughout that following year. It was exactly what I expected – he travels around like a nomad, hooks up with girls (more on that later), and looks for her in a very half-ass way. I loved learning more about his family, which remained a mystery in the first book, and seeing what made him the way he is – a traveler seemingly without a home. It was awesome to read about the missed connections they had throughout that year. I didn’t like the fact that the two ways Allyson and Willem dealt with their heartbreak was completely different. He couldn’t stop thinking about her but still went out and reacted by sleeping with other girls. In her story, she falls into a depression and it takes quite a lot to get […]

Review: On the Fence

Posted March 6, 2015 / Book Reviews / 9 Comments

Kasie West = auto-buy. I said that after I read just one book by her (The Distance Between Us). When I read Pivot Point, that was further proven to me. Now that I’ve finally gotten around to this one, I can definitely confirm it again. She’s one of my favorites. Her writing style and character development is the best out there (in both her contemporary and paranormal books). I loved the characters in this one from the minute I met them. Charlie, the “tomboy” main character, was poised to learn a lot about “being a girl” when she had to get a job at a boutique to pay back a speeding ticket. NOW, the sentence I just wrote is usually enough to turn me off from a book. I don’t like the tomboy trope, or the one that does anything to support gender norms in such a way. I don’t like using labels like that and/or assuming that because a girl like sports, she can’t wear makeup – and vice versa. This book does start out operating under those assumptions, but completely changes by the end. I wanted to shake Charlie a few times and get her to realize she was being closed-minded, but she was able to do it on her own. It was something I was able to look past and appreciate the character development by the end. Now that the only real “negative” is out of the way, this book was the cuuuutest. Charlie starts out being very anti-girl, […]

Book Buddies Review: Just One Day

Posted February 27, 2015 / Book Buddies Reviews, Book Reviews / 5 Comments

Book Buddies is a discussion-style review that takes place with one of my two buddies. (Learn more and see past reviews here) We both read the book and then have a private discussion about it. We post our discussion as a review on the last Wednesday of each month. You’ll be able to see our similar/different opinions on the overall book, characters, writing style, etc. – just like a regular review. The first half our discussion will take place right here, and the second half will be on Cristina’s blog! (Link at the bottom) What made you initially add this one to your TBR and what were you expecting from it? Did it meet your expectations? Lauren: I read If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman and was really captivated by her writing style. I liked the second book in the duology better than the first, but regardless enjoyed her style. I was honestly not THAT interested in Just One Day when I initially heard of it, but there were so many bloggers who said it was pretty life-changing. I ended up asking for it for Christmas and my dad came through. I was expecting the same beautiful writing as I’ve previously experienced from Gayle, but wasn’t sure of much else! She seems to write a lot of different kinds of stories, so it’s hard to draw parallels between all of her work. Overall this book completely exceeded any expectations I did have. I couldn’t believe how swept up I was in the […]

Review: Meant To Be

Posted February 16, 2015 / Book Reviews / 9 Comments

I’m truly not sure how this book ever managed to slip past my radar. Morgan, my amazing Broke & Bookish Secret Santa, gifted this one to me with the recommendation that it was one of her favorites. It wasn’t on my wishlist but she had a feeling I’d like it. AND THIS, people, is why recs are the best. I knew from the literal first paragraph that this was going to be a “me” book. There are certain things in life that just suck. Pouring a big bowl of Lucky Charms before realizing the milk is expired, the word ‘moist,’ falling face-first into the salad bar in front of the entire lacrosse team… Now I will be honest, books with characters who are overly clumsy usually kind of annoy me. Like really, you couldn’t come up with anything better to describe this girl? You’re just gonna have her fall into things all the time? Well, in this book it just worked. It was a part of her charm, but Julia was characterized so much MORE than just being a klutz. She was a book nerd, super smart, funny, snarky… everything I want in a character. I actually saw a lot of myself in her. I want to roll my eyes, but I’m pretty soon they’re going to get stuck in the back of my head, and penis puns are really not worth my permanent facial damage. Let’s talk about the romance though. *happy sigh* I will read hate-to-love romances until the […]

ARC Review: Promposal

Posted February 11, 2015 / Book Reviews / 6 Comments

I have some mixed feelings here. Promposal and I are not friends, but we’re certainly not enemies. There’s nothing really wrong with this book per se; nothing that got my blood boiling. But there also wasn’t really ANYTHING that made me smile, either. It’s one of those books that you read that just doesn’t affect you in any way. “Promposals” are the new phenomenon that involves asking people to prom as if they were proposing marriage, with big/extravagant gestures. These started to become big back when I was in high school and my boyfriend at the time actually did a great job of asking me to dances. We dated for three years so it wasn’t really necessary, but it was still thoughtful and appreciated by me. When I saw this one on Edelweiss, I requested it immediately. I’ve always been fascinated by the different ideas people came up with and was looking for a book full of them. That’s not exactly what I ended up with. The book alternates points of view between two best friends, Camilla and Joshua. Camilla is pining over a boy in class who has never spoken to her, but ends up saying yes to an extravagant promposal from someone else. Josh is in love with his best friend, Ethan, but then Ethan asks him to plan a promposal… for another guy. I enjoyed the two separate (but connected) storylines, for sure, but it was like reading the same thing. The two characters were given absolutely no […]

Review: The DUFF

Posted February 4, 2015 / Book Reviews / 7 Comments

OH MAN. This makes the second book by Kody Keplinger that I read in basically one sitting over the course of one day. I kept trying to put it down and go to sleep but I just couldn’t. Her stories just grab me in a way that makes me want to keep reading and reading until I reach the end. It’s basically a contemporary romance with the addiction level of a mystery/thriller. I had this book on my radar for a while, even before I heard there was going to be a movie. My dad got it for me for Christmas and I’ve been anxious to get started ever since. The Read The Duff Read-a-long motivated me to get my butt in gear after finishing up a few review books. BUT I DIGRESS. I seriously loved this book. I’m not surprised. It has everything I generally enjoy reading in a YA romance book: the banter, love-hate relationship, realistic main character, perfect writing and pacing, great friendships, family relationship building… the list goes on. I’ve found both books I’ve read by Keplinger to include all of these elements, which is why she is my queen. She just has an addicting writing style and compulsively readable storylines. Bianca is given the name “Duff” by the school’s playboy, Wesley. When he comes up to her and calls her that, she throws her Coke in his face. He wants to use her to get close to her friends. The nickname sticks with her for a long […]

Blog Tour Review & Favorite Quotes: Perfect Couple

Posted January 11, 2015 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments

Review This was a cute read that I finished in a day – not too bad for kick-starting my year of reading! It was an “opposites attract” story, much like what I’m assuming the next book in the series will be, which is always kind of fun. Harper is a unique main character that dresses in homemade retro clothes, who is (at the time) dating Kennedy. I really hated him throughout the book and never understood why she stuck with him for so long. He was obviously the wrong person for her; it was frustrating to see that play out longer than made sense. The premise of the Superlatives series is that when the senior class votes on their superlatives, a ripple effect occurs among the winners. In this case, Harper and the popular football player, Brody, are somehow voted Perfect Couple That Never Was. They find themselves kind of drawn together after the vote and things kind of heat up. I loved watching the two of them develop a relationship and have Harper see that there’s much more to Brody than she thinks. The story definitely got steamy, much like the first book in the series. I absolutely love that Echols writes sex-positive characters and isn’t afraid to show that part of high school. Harper had some great lines (you’ll see below in my favorite quotes!) that supported the feminist aspects of the book. Going against that though, Harper decided to change her retro style and get contacts because […]

Review: A Midsummer’s Nightmare

Posted December 18, 2014 / Book Reviews / 7 Comments

The Story I feel…weird. This is probably an odd start for a book review that I rated four and a half stars. I am trying really hard not to feel somewhat weird about the ending of this book. Sorry to kick this off with major spoilers, but that is truly the only thing I had reservations about. I wish it weren’t the case. ANYWAYS, onto the other stuff! Essentially this story is about Whitley, a party girl who wakes up in the same bed as her one night stand, and later finds out he’s her soon-to-be stepbrother. As the family tries to navigate a summer together, some major relationship-building and breaking happens. This story was much more than just a romance, or a friendship story, or a family-based novel. It was an amazing mix of everything I love in books. The characters were flawed and relatable. The feelings were raw and relatable. The entire book was just so damn relatable. The Characters Main character: Oh man I LOVED Whitley. She was sassy and generally did not care about the haters. She loved tequila, which is what makes her even better . Even at the parts of the book where she was being melodramatic, she was the first person to admit that she was acting that way. Being a flawed character but KNOWING that you are is something I find interesting to read about. I hate the people that think the world is out to get them and refuse to admit that […]

Holiday Review: Ex-Mas

Posted December 5, 2014 / Book Reviews / 5 Comments

I’ve had my eye on this book for a long time, considering how much I love Kate Brian. Up until this year, I never really considered reading holiday-themed books and just never picked this one up from the store. I’m glad I finally did! I sat down the day after Thanksgiving and read it in under two hours. Lila is a popular girl, dating her best friend’s older brother, and about to throw the party of the year while her parents are out of town. Her brother and his best friend decide that they need to venture to the North Pole to save Santa in light of global warming, and Lila is forced to travel with her ex-boyfriend (Beau, her brother’s friend’s brother) to get the boys back before her parents come home. I absolutely loved the road trip that they took. It was fun reading about their mini-adventures and mishaps along the way. The book was predictable, but still had some cute, unique parts. Kate Brian is one of my favorite authors, so I wasn’t surprised that she crafted a well-written holiday tale. There is somewhat of a love triangle, but it was well-done in the sense that you know who she’s going to end up with It was a great story of second chances, both romantically and family-wise. Lila was kind of annoying at first because you can tell that she really had to prove herself and change herself to become popular. I didn’t like that about her […]