Source: Audible

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: 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 […]

Review: Love Letters to the Dead

Posted August 25, 2014 / Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Review: Before I say anything and you think three stars means this is going to be mostly bad review – it really isn’t. I liked this book. I just didn’t love it and I found a lot of things that I didn’t connect with. I was so excited about this book; I loved the cover and it had been on my wish list for a very long time. When I saw the low audiobook price, I knew I needed it. I planned to listen for Bout of Books while driving up to spend a few days in Maine. I was able to finish it within 2-3 days thanks to the heavy amount of driving. I’m not sure what I was expecting from this book, but it didn’t really end up meeting them. The thing I really liked about Love Letters to the Dead was the fact that it was written strictly in letters. I absolutely loved this format; it worked perfectly for the storyline. I loved seeing who Laurel was going to write the letter to (she stuck to the same few people) and how she was going to relate her experiences to the dead person’s. The person she wrote to always connected, in some way, to the letter and to her life. That was a really cool touch, especially because they were people I knew and loved too. The book had some amazing quotes that made me wish I was able to highlight on my Kindle. I can see why people described this […]

Review: All Our Yesterdays

Posted August 16, 2014 / Book Reviews / 6 Comments

Back story: Let me first tell you about the funny coincidence surrounding my exposure to this book. I was browsing my Bloglovin feed and came across this post by The Library Canary. Even though I hadn’t read the book yet, I read her post about the author trying to make a sequel but deciding she would be forcing something that wasn’t meant to be. I was like damn, that’s cool of her to go against publishers/contracts and do what is right for her and the book. I was intrigued by the book but was a little skeptical. Time travel is cool, but this sounded a little more sci-fi than I prefer. Anyways, I went over to Audible a few minutes later to see what their Daily Deal was, and THIS was the deal! I couldn’t believe the coincidence and downloaded it ASAP. It was a sign. Audiobook feelings: At first, I wasn’t a fan of the narrator. As the book went on, I realized I liked her more than past narrators because she sounded more mature. Instead of the YA contemporary audiobooks I was used to, this narrator sounded professional and a shit-ton less whiny. BUT hearing her try to make British and Spanish accents made me cringe and want to jump out of my moving car. (Yeah I mostly listened to this on my commutes to work). Jesus. It was rough. Review: This book and storyline was SO COOL. I loved the way it was written. The book switched […]

Review: Since You’ve Been Gone

Posted August 8, 2014 / Book Reviews / 7 Comments

Review: Okay, first let me get out my feelings about audiobooks. I don’t like them. I love the idea of them, but really can’t stand them as I’m listening. They really impact the novel for me. I can’t separate the narrator’s (often annoying) voice from the characters and the story. I want to hear the characters as I hear them in my head, instead of from some actress who thinks she knows what the author intended. I absolutely love being able to “read” while driving or taking a shower or getting ready in the morning. I suffer through audiobooks for that reason alone. I am slowly but surely getting over this aversion, because I find the only way I can “read” two books at once is if they’re in these two different formats. Anyways, in spite of the audiobook, I really enjoyed this one. This has been on my to-read list for a long time. I love the cover and thought the premise sounded really cute. Other bloggers seemed to love this one too, so I decided to use my Audible credit on it. The story follows Emily as she checks of items on the list that Sloane left her. She becomes friends with two people from her school and the girl who works at the pizza shop in the meantime. It was really nice to watch shy Emily come out of her shell and develop her own personality separate from Sloane. As the novel went on, I decided I really […]

Review: We Were Liars

Posted July 16, 2014 / Book Reviews / 13 Comments

Review: Well, I decided to make my first review about a book I didn’t like too much. I have mixed emotions about this book, so let me try to work through them here. I have to admit, I was extremely interested in the book based on the cover. I don’t know who is making all these cool, graphic book covers lately, but I love them. I was fascinated by the small amount of plot-related information that was out there and it kept getting rave reviews, so I decided to try it out. The general plot, without giving anything away, is that a rich family goes to their own private island every summer. The kids play while the adults get drunk. Sounds about right for my family gatherings (minus the private island thing). The book goes back and forth between past summers and the current summer, which surprisingly wasn’t too confusing. The main character loved to repeat the same effing phrases over and over again. If I read “Gatt… my Gatt” one more time, I think my head would have exploded. The writing style was choppy and not what I normally like. She wrote paragraphs that seemed literal but were actually figurative. At one point, she says something along the lines of “my father shot me; my brains were all over the grass,” or some shit. As I’m reading, I was like holy shit this dude just shot his daughter… Oh wait, that wasn’t literal. Unfortunately, this was one of the first scenes […]