Genre: Contemporary

Blog Tour Review: The Revenge Playbook

Posted June 19, 2015 / Book Reviews / 5 Comments

I had a good feeling I was going to love this book, especially when I started seeing some great reviews roll in, littered with my favorite word: FEMINISM. I also was excited about the football plot, although it doesn’t make football players look good. (The football guys in this school were absolute pigs and it was awful.) Add in the concept of “different girls brought together under a common revenge goal” and I was SOLD. I felt a lot of things while reading this book! I didn’t ever want to stop reading because I was JUST as determined as these girls to get back at the football players. These guys were absolutley horrible! (Nearly all of them, at least…) They had awful lists about girls and forced guys to break up with their girlfriends if they weren’t up to their standards. They got away with doing anything they wanted and had major preferential treatment from everyone in the school. I kept thinking of the Amy Schumer “Football Town Nights” video, which I won’t link up here for potential trigger warnings. (Google it, if you’re interested!) Everyone in the town perpetuates rape culture without even realizing it. As this book said, “Rape culture isn’t something feminists made up to be angry about.” I liked the romance in this one, although it wasn’t as important. The main point of the book is revenge against dickhead boys, and that took center stage. The most heavily romance-related ones were Melanie Jane’s and Liv’s points of […]

Blog Tour Review: Jesse’s Girl

Posted June 17, 2015 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments

I love Miranda Kenneally’s books. I just binge read the middle few books in the series (since I previously read Catching Jordan and Breathe, Annie, Breathe out of order) before getting to this one. Although a couple of them (Stealing Parker and Things I Can’t Forget) are more religion-based than I personally enjoy, I still always love and appreciate the characters she writes. The romances are real and fun, the characters have distinct personalities, and the supporting characters also have complexities that get some attention. So, I’m happy to report that THIS BOOK made me so happy and hit the mark for me in nearly every possible way. I never really consider myself to be a big music buff; I don’t spend time seeking out new music or exploring artists. I stick to what I know and love, which is classic rock or 90’s music nearly 100% of the time. I’m not a big 80’s music fan (sorry, everyone!), but Maya still made me extremely happy with all of her musical referenes and her entire personality. I have to say, reading the countless comments about Queen made me incredibly gleeful. I LOVE QUEEN. FREDDIE MERCURY FOREVER. If she was going to be an 80’s girl and I’d be hearing about 80’s music, I’m so glad it was Queen. I do like a bit of country music too, so I was really excited about this book. Maya is Sam Henry’s little sister (so there was a LOT of Sam and Jordan, one of my […]

Musical Memories ft. Just Listen

Posted June 16, 2015 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

When Cristina and I discussed our new mini feature, Book Buddies Ask, we decided to start with the Sarah Dessen novels we both planned on reading or rereading this summer. Our first question debuted over on my review of Saint Anything (and hers!). I decided to reread Just Listen when she told me she was on the blog tour, but am still working my way through it. This post was inspired by the strong musical elements of the novel, as well as some general thoughts about it. “A song can take you instantly back to a moment, a place, or even a person. No matter what else has changed in you or the world, that one song stays the same, just like that moment.” When I read Hannah’s post last week about memories tied to music, I thought it would be a great way to discuss Just Listen. I started spiraling through Spotify and making my own memories-related playlist. I listened to it all day at work and reflected so much on different memories in my life. I don’t think I got much work done, but what else is new. Like her, I don’t really consider myself to be a crazy music person. There are actually plenty of days where I don’t listen to music at all, thanks to my addiction to audiobooks. I will say that there will always be songs that make me crank up the volume when I catch them on the radio. (Namely, most classic rock songs.) Check […]

ARC Review: Emmy & Oliver

Posted June 15, 2015 / Book Reviews / 12 Comments

I can’t lie when I say I was a bit hesitant going into this one. I enjoyed Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway but wanted a little more. I LOVE how unique the concepts of her books are. She takes a cool plot idea, adds great characters, and gives it a great contemporary feel without being too predictable. Sometimes love isn’t something you say, it’s something you do.” (pg. 75, ARC) This book blew me away. I was utterly addicted to it and needed to know how things turned out. If I could have stuck with Emmy and Oliver (the main characters, obviously) forever, I would have. There were so many endearing moments that just killed me with feels. The main premise is that Emmy’s best friend, Oliver, was kidnapped by his father 10 years ago and the family/neighborhood never really moved on. Suddenly Oliver is found and returning home to his mom, who is now remarried and has two kids. Naturally everything takes some getting used to. Oliver doesn’t remember everyone as much as they remember him, but he does end up falling back into his old crowd of friends: Emmy, Caro, and Drew. The minute Oliver was introduced, I fell in love. Seeing him and Emmy fall back in together had me so anxious and full of love; I just NEEDED them to get together immediately. Emmy was an interesting character because she was constantly hiding things from her parents, like the fact that she applied to college and enjoyed surfing, because […]

Review: Between the Lines

Posted June 12, 2015 / Book Reviews / 10 Comments

This was my book club’s pick for May, which was really the only reason I was motivated to read it! (And even then, I only picked it up a couple of days before the meeting… YOLO). I started a YA book club because there weren’t any near me, and this is what we agreed to read for the first meeting! We thought it would be good for those who aren’t experienced YA readers, since Jodi Picoult is a popular and recognizable adult fiction writer. Soooo, about this book. I have somewhat mixed feelings. I didn’t actively want to sit down and read it that often, but I did find myself pretty engaged as I was actually reading it. The concept itself is probably my favorite part. It’s like Toy Story for books! What happens to the characters in a book when you close it? In this case, they’re all essentially “actors” in the book and lead regular (very different) lives when the book is shut. Delilah reads this book and starts to fall for the main character, Oliver, and he finds a way to communicate with her. The two of them spend the book trying to get him out of the story so they can be together. Pretty cool, eh? Otherwise, the book felt suuuuper young to me. The writing definitely didn’t feel Picoult-esque, and that’s probably because she wrote it with her young daughter, but there were some parts that had me majorly rolling my eyes. A lot of it […]

Review: The Disenchantments

Posted June 10, 2015 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments

Sometimes books are just nothing like you hoped or expected them to be. I saw this one at the library, fell in love with the cover, and decided to give it a shot. I didn’t realize at first that Colby, from the synopsis, was a male, so that was a surprise right from the beginning. A pleasant one! The gist of the story is that Colby is travelling the West Coast with his best friend Bev and their friends Meg and Alexa. They’re in a group called The Disenchantments and are going on a mini-tour for the summer. The plan is that after the summer, Bev and Colby are going to travel Europe for a year instead of going to college. Colby’s in for a surprise when Bev informs him she isn’t going to Europe; she’s going to RISD in the fall. He has to try to manage his hurt feelings (and love for Bev) while continuing with the tour… and she refuses to tell him why she’s not going. Along the trip, they meet some interesting characters and do lots of random things. This summary is pretty much all that happened. I really like books with flawed, realistic characters. If I don’t like them that much, that’s okay with me. I don’t have to like the character to like the book. In this case, though… I didn’t like anyone. I couldn’t relate to anyone. The characters and the plot were not realistic to me; it’s like they were a […]

ARC Review: Even When You Lie to Me

Posted June 4, 2015 / Book Reviews / 10 Comments

If you’re looking for a compelling novel that “explores sexuality – and its boundaries – in a way that’s both searingly honest and sympathetic,” you should probably go elsewhere. That was part of the blurb on the ARC, but I noticed the word “sexuality” was replaced with “relationships” on the Goodreads synopsis. I can see why it was changed, because that word would make a lot more sense. This was a tough one. It was compulsively readable – and really, I couldn’t stop – but at the same time… boring? Not sure how that’s possible, but it just was. I kept racing to see what was going to happen (more like see WHEN things were finally going to happen) but ended up disappointed by the end. This is a classic case of expectations (and a synopsis) leading to disappointment. I expected that this would be a romantic, sexual, forbidden love kind of story. It really was just about COMPLETELY self-loathing and self-conscious girl flirting with and pining over her English teacher. Things eventually get to the point you’re expecting, but it takes foreeeeever and happens way too late in the book to impact me. The main character, Charlie, is totally shy and complains about how ugly she is. This is, of course, off-set by the fact that her best friend, Lila, is the complete opposite. She’s confident, loud, and attractive. Because of course. They had a really weird dynamic; I don’t even know how to explain it. There was so much insecurity […]

Review: P.S. I Still Love You

Posted June 3, 2015 / Book Reviews / 7 Comments

It’s kind of impossible to review this book. I think my review of its predecessor involved a lot of flailing, since it was easily in my top 2 favorite books last year. I definitely am leaning towards the same type of review… I’ve been staring at this blank screen for a while. I sincerely loved this. It completely met (and probably exceeded) my expectations. There was a LOT of pressure for this book to be spectacular! Everyone and their mother needed to know what happened next with Lara Jean and Peter. Seeing that the next book’s synopsis mentioned a love triangle definitely got some people upset. BUT WE LOVE PETER, WHAT R U DOING LARA JEAN?!?! I admit I was one of those people. But honestly, this book was so sweet and real. I don’t mind love triangles if they feel believable and realistic. I had been in similar situations when I was her age. Love triangles happen when you’re a teenager – they really do. I looooved John and I loooooooved Peter (yes, Peter gets a few more O’s for obvious reasons), so I felt like I was struggling along with Lara Jean. The whole book was just adorable. I’m not sure how else to describe it. As usual, Kitty was my favorite. I love everything about her. After reading a lot of reviews on the first book, many people complained that Lara Jean seemed a bit too young. This didn’t bother me as much in the first book […]

Blog Tour Review: The Summer of Chasing Mermaids

Posted May 29, 2015 / Book Reviews / 5 Comments

The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler Publisher: Simon Pulse Release Date: June 2nd 2015 Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Retellings, Chick Lit The youngest of six talented sisters, Elyse d’Abreau was destined for stardom—until a boating accident took everything from her. Now, the most beautiful singer in Tobago can’t sing. She can’t even speak. Seeking quiet solitude, Elyse accepts a friend’s invitation to Atargatis Cove. Named for the mythical first mermaid, the Oregon seaside town is everything Elyse’s home in the Caribbean isn’t: An ocean too cold for swimming, parties too tame for singing, and people too polite to pry—except for one. Christian Kane is a notorious playboy—insolent, arrogant, and completely charming. He’s also the only person in Atargatis Cove who doesn’t treat Elyse like a glass statue. He challenges her to express herself, and he admires the way she treats his younger brother Sebastian, who believes Elyse is the legendary mermaid come to life. When Christian needs a first mate for the Cove’s high-stakes Pirate Regatta, Elyse reluctantly stows her fear of the sea and climbs aboard. The ocean isn’t the only thing making waves, though—swept up in Christian’s seductive tide and entranced by the Cove’s charms, Elyse begins to wonder if a life of solitude isn’t what she needs. But changing course again means facing her past. It means finding her inner voice. And scariest of all, it means opening her heart to a boy who’s best known for breaking them . . . This book was one […]

Blog Tour Review: Kissing in America

Posted May 22, 2015 / Book Reviews / 7 Comments

I really, really enjoyed this book. I couldn’t put it down. I love when a book can completely set the scene and give me plenty of things to relate to. I’ve been liking the format of “five reasons to read” for reviews sometimes, so without further ado… Five Reasons to Read Kissing in America 1. The Road Trip This is definitely the kind of book that gets me in the mood to travel. I love the idea of taking a cross-country road trip and am absolutely determined to do it someday. I have to say, I wouldn’t enjoy the exact same trip that these girls had, but it definitely gave me some inspiration! The story centers around Eva and her best friend Annie traveling to California. They’re headed to a TV competition for Annie to win scholarship money, but Eva organizes the trip with the purpose of visiting Will, a boy she’s been falling for. I loved reading about the two of them traveling the country, stopping and meeting some interesting characters, and exploring a lot of feelings. I love when books motivate me to get up and DO SOMETHING. 2. The Friendship Annie and Eva had a really strong relationship. I loved that they were both incredibly smart and talked about way more complex things than people their age. Eva made some mistakes, especially at the end, but Annie was always there to listen and help her. I can’t imagine Eva being an easy person to be friends with, but […]