Genre: Young Adult

200 Word Review: That Summer

Posted September 24, 2014 / Book Reviews / 6 Comments

I don’t want to say I was disappointed, because that seems a bit harsh, but it definitely didn’t exceed my expectations. Why? The characters – ALL of them – were so selfish. I get that there was (kind of?) a reason for it in terms of the book’s moral, but I just found myself SO sick of their shit. Nothing. Happened. At. All. The book took place over the course of a month or two and literally Haven worked, ran into her sister’s ex, complained about her life, and spent time with her friend. Oh, and there was a random supermodel show that pretty much added nothing to the plot. I’m okay with the fact that this book was only about family issues, but it was just missing the spark of something else. ANYTHING to get some more action. The moral/message of the book was pretty clear and I liked the way it ended. The narrator had the most childish voice. I get that the MC was 15, but holy shit it felt like a 12 year old. Overall, I did like the book. It didn’t blow me away and it certainly isn’t one of Dessen’s best, but I can’t say I regret listening to it.

Review: Second Chance Summer

Posted September 22, 2014 / Book Reviews / 10 Comments

Okay I finished this book less than two minutes ago and am making sure to write this review immeditely. Holy shit. Morgan Matson. Why and how are you so good? I don’t think I can express how much I loved this story. It was so many different things, all amazing and sad and happy at the same time. This is most likely not going to be a very long review because I kind of just only want to sit here and cry. Very few books have actually made me cry out loud, but this book was one of them. OKAY so Taylor and her family head to their lake house, where they haven’t been in five years, because their father only has a few months left to live. Their relationships at the beginning of the book are so strained and everyone is totally separate from one another. Watching their family grow and develop over the summer was just so perfect. Instead of a nice slow burn romance, this was a slow burn family-rekindling. Meanwhile, Taylor is faced with all of the people she left behind five summers earlier. This included her best friend Lucy and boyfriend Henry. Taylor has to make amends for what she did to them when she left. It was nice to see that those aspects were vital to the story, but still felt more in the background. Above everything else, this book was about family. I’m tempted to text my dad that I love him right […]

Review: Breathe, Annie, Breathe

Posted September 18, 2014 / Book Reviews / 8 Comments

Wow. This book was just so much better than I was expecting. So many bloggers were talking about this one a few months ago when it came out and I was pretty uninterested. I’m not sure why, really – maybe just because I fucking hate running? If anything, this book motivated me to take up running and finally get my ass in shape. Breathe, Annie, Breathe was a multidimensional story that really didn’t fall short in any areas for me. Annie loses her boyfriend Kyle about a year before the book takes place and she decides to run the Country Music Marathon in his place. She starts a rigorous training routine and finds herself spending a lot of time with her trainer’s brother. The book takes place over the course of a few months and the romance was a glorious slow burn. I really enjoyed watching the relationship with Jeremiah and Annie develop over time. She was trying to get over Kyle and accept that she needed to move on with her life, while he was coming to understand that his feelings for Annie were different than his usual short relationships. They were constantly teasing each other, having fun, and being competitive; it was a relationship that built from friendship and it felt so natural. It was much more interesting to me than the typical SUPER romantic kinds of stories I normally see in contemporary YA. Aside from the romantic elements, this book was really about Annie working on getting in […]

Review: Eleanor & Park

Posted September 16, 2014 / Book Reviews / 14 Comments

So I read this book right before I decided to start my book blog. As I said up there in the basics section, I saw the book at the store and passed it by countless times. The concept didn’t sound overly interesting to me so I never bothered. I had just lent my John Green books to a friend of mine, who then passed on Eleanor & Park to me. She highly recommended it so I decided to finally give it a go. The story was simultaneously an adorable tale about first love and a story that will break your heart. The love between Park and Eleanor was slowly developed perfectly. Pretty much think of the opposite of insta-love. The two were fascinated with each other at first but they both were mostly just curious. It all started when Park finally tipped his comic book so she could read along with him on the bus. Rainbow Rowell does such an amazing job of bringing the reader into their world and making you really feel for them. You remember all the first love jitters like they happened yesterday. Their story is more than just first love, though, as Eleanor struggles with her home life and Park is unsure if and how he can help. It’s just so heartbreaking. Eleanor & Park follows the two characters as they build their relationship, struggle with issues at home, and navigate high school. The end of the book was fitting but definitely left me wanting more. […]

Review: Open Road Summer

Posted September 14, 2014 / Book Reviews / 10 Comments

Let me get this out of the way quickly: I’m not a huge music person. That sounds weird or stupid, but I’m just not. I don’t mean that I don’t like music or don’t listen to music, because I DO. I really do. I prefer classic rock to the popular stuff on the radio now; I tend to only listen to music that’s from the 60s, 70s, or 90s. Some people have to be plugged into music all day every day, but there are some days I even go without listening to music at all. (That sounds weird because I used to never be that way; I’m pretty sure I can blame audiobooks for that one). That being said, I generally don’t gravitate towards books with music or musicians as a central part of the plot line. It’s not that I can’t relate to it or won’t like it, it’s just a topic that doesn’t jump out to me. Open Road Summer clearly is a book based around music, but it was not what I was expecting – in a very good way. Reagan heads out on tour for the summer with her best friend Lilah, who is a country music star. When some drama unfolds and Lilah’s image is in jeopardy, a child star singer named Matt joins the tour. To me, this was a story much more about friendship than about relationships. Sure, there is PLENTY going on with romantic relationships, breakups, and make-ups, but I think the central […]

Review: Twenty Boy Summer

Posted September 12, 2014 / Book Reviews / 6 Comments

This book has been on my radar for a while. The plot of the book follows Frankie and Anna as they embark on Frankie’s family vacation. The girls have been close for their entire lives and Anna is pretty much considered a part of her family. A year before, Frankie’s older brother Matt passes away. The last month of his life, Anna and Matt were secretly seeing each other. Anna’s relationship with him is unfinished when he unexpectedly dies and she is unsure about how to tell Frankie. Frankie comes up with the idea of the Twenty Boy Summer to occupy them during their vacation. This was obviously a somewhat large part of the plot (I mean, it’s the title of the book and everything!) but I didn’t think it was that necessary or relevant. They end up meeting some boys soon after they arrive and the competition sort of fades away. Overall, the story of this book was really amazing. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and exploring how they each worked through their grief. I really liked that it wasn’t as predictable as I expected. I’ve been falling into that trap lately with contemporary YA, where the book happens exactly as you’d think and there’s no mystery to it. The “climax” of the book was really the only part I saw coming. However, I liked the way it was developed and dealt with. Without giving too much away, the issues that normally would be “resolved” in a […]

Review: The Beginning of Everything

Posted September 8, 2014 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments

Review: Dang. Sometimes it’s good going into a book without any expectations. I barely even remembered the synopsis of this book when I started it and never even bothered to check it out. I vaguely remembered that it was about a jock who becomes injured and is forced away to the “misfit” table. Frankly, this wouldn’t be the type of book I would like. I’m a strong believer in hanging out with whoever you want and being friends with people for reasons other than social standing. The summary is a little misleading because Ezra is much more than a golden boy. He was similar to his popular, asshole friends, while also being more intelligent and hating a lot of what they stood for. The beginning of the book is very powerful as it describes how everyone has a tragedy waiting for them that impacts the rest of their lives. It was very well-written and I was interested from the start. As far as characters go, I really liked coming to know the main players in this book. Ezra was an enjoyable character overall who grew a lot through the book. I loved Toby, who he was friends with as a child and reconnects with over at the misfit table. The one character I really didn’t like (aside from the asshole popular kids) was Cassidy. I didn’t like the way nothing was good enough for her, no matter how hard Ezra tried, and how he was constantly trying to be interesting enough […]

200 Word Review: Since Last Summer

Posted September 6, 2014 / Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Review: DAMMIT why wasn’t the first book in this series a standalone? And is there going to be ANOTHER book after this one? Because I don’t think I can deal with that. Things I liked: It was a light, summery, easy, and fast read. Things I didn’t like: The DRAMA and typical YA conflicts/misunderstandings. I could literally predict every single decision the characters were going to make…and I groaned every time because they, of course, managed to make the wrong choice. Utterly predictable. The recurring characters all seemed very different. Obviously the book takes place a year later but seriously? People don’t change that much in a year. It seemed like a lot of the problems were invented or all in their heads. The relationships just didn’t make sense to me, while at the same time being completely expected. I guess they just weren’t developed enough for me. I finished this book pretty quickly and it left such a minimal impression on me. I was so happy after the first book ended and thoroughly enjoyed the story, despite some traditional predictability. After finishing the second book, I couldn’t even remember what happened in half of the story. Oh well. *sigh*

Review: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

Posted September 4, 2014 / Book Reviews / 5 Comments

Review: I finally finished this one and I couldn’t be happier. This book was depressing as shit. Clearly, you can kind of tell that will be the case from the title and the description, but I was still hoping it would be a little uplifting in some way. It TRULY baffles me that so many people loved this book and it has such a glowing rating on Goodreads. I could barely make it through. First of all, I couldn’t deal with the narrator’s voice in the audiobook. I tried to look past it but I just really couldn’t. Then, the first 50% of the book was spent giving a complete play by play of the MISERABLE lives of Ava’s great-grandparents, her grandparents (and their siblings), her mother and father, then finally Ava. She showed up literally over halfway through the book. I guess the description saying it’s a “generational saga” hinted at that, but seriously I wasn’t expecting to not even really meet the main character until that far into the book. Then, once we finally meet her, the story does not improve at all. The description reads: “In a quest to understand her peculiar disposition and a growing desire to fit in with her peers, sixteen-year old Ava ventures into the wider world” …..this just didn’t happen. To some extent, sure, but I was expecting a full-blown exciting quest out into the actual wider world. This book was so exceedingly boring and depressing; I genuinely have no idea why I […]

200 Word Review: Audrey, Wait!

Posted September 2, 2014 / Book Reviews / 5 Comments

Review: In the simplest terms: this book made me smile and I enjoyed it. I wasn’t ever REALLY itching to read it though. Lately, the books I’ve been reading have been addicting and I would try to carve out as much time as possible to read. This one wasn’t exactly the same way and it took me too long to read. Things I liked: It was really cute. I liked the general plot and the way it progressed. There were a few LOL moments. The characters were fun and EXTREMELY well developed. Things I didn’t like: The humor felt forced at times. I wanted to roll my eyes at some of the jokes/conversations. While there were a lot of things that happened, it also kind of felt like nothing was really happening… if that makes sense. The description of the book lists something that doesn’t happen until literally one of the last chapters. I kept waiting for it the entire book and it almost felt like the description had a spoiler for the “big event” at the end. Overall, the book didn’t WOW me but it also didn’t exactly disappoint me. I liked it and am glad I read it.