Book of the Week-52 Reasons to Hate My Father

Yesterday, link you read my recap of the first stop of the Fall Fierce Reads Tour, sale featuring Jessica Brody, Leigh Bardugo, Gennifer Albin and Ann Aguirre. One of the books that I picked up, to support the store and get it signed, was 52 Reasons to Hate My Father…the only YA book that I have NOT read of Jessica Brody’s.

Today I had an immense amount of free time, and gobbled this up in a matter of HOURS. I’ve been reading SO many fantasy and sci-fi books, and ohmygod the amount of dystopian novels that I’ve been reading, that it felt SO good to get back to some good ‘ol fun contemporary novels.

So check out my review, spoiler free as always, of this fun book!

52 Reasons to Hate My Father by Jessica Brody 

13575324

GoodReads / Barnes and Noble / Amazon / Book Depository

Genre:

Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Part of a Series?:

Nope

You May Like if You Liked:

Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler, The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot, Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Age Recommendation:

14+: Only because Lexington’s casual use of alcohol may be a bit much for some kids. Other than that, story wise, its probably appropriate for 12+

Plot Summary:

From Good Reads:

Lexington Larrabee has never to work a day in her life. After all, she’s the heiress to the multi-billion-dollar Larrabee Media empire. And heiresses are not supposed to work. But then again, they’re not supposed to crash brand new Mercedes convertibles into convenience stores on Sunset Blvd either.

Which is why, on Lexi’s eighteen birthday, her ever-absent, tycoon father decides to take a more proactive approach to her wayward life. Every week for the next year, she will have to take on a different low-wage job if she ever wants to receive her beloved trust fund. But if there’s anything worse than working as a maid, a dishwasher, and a fast-food restaurant employee, it’s dealing with Luke, the arrogant, albeit moderately attractive, college intern her father has assigned to keep tabs on her.

In a hilarious “comedy of heiress” about family, forgiveness, good intentions, and best of all, second chances, Lexi learns that love can be unconditional, money can be immaterial, and, regardless of age, everyone needs a little saving. And although she might have 52 reasons to hate her father, she only needs one reason to love him.

The Good:

Normally I write a “The Bad” section but I didn’t do it this time, because I honestly really couldn’t come up with anything. Maybe others won’t agree with me, but this book was perfect, for me, right now. I completely enjoyed it.

Honestly, I loved it. Like I said earlier, literally everything I’ve been reading lately has been sci-fi, paranormal, fantasy, dystopian and I’ve been really needing to read some contemporary lately. Badly. So this is beautiful and much needed. I read it in a matter of a couple of hours, and spent a lot of time laughing.

If you’re ever met Jessica Brody, you can definitely see her own voice in her novels. She makes me laugh, she’s silly, she’s kind of what I imagine myself as in the future, hopefully just going up and being silly and making people laugh.

Her stories have a lightness to them, while still having a great story with good lessons, and addressing real issues. In this novel, she addresses the idea of an absent parent and what kind of effect that has on a kid. She always addresses children born into luxury and what that does to them as well. While we’re watching Lexi struggle with her minimum wage jobs, in order to earn her trust fund, it can be easy for you to want to punch her in the face. Most people reading this book aren’t rolling around in thousands of dollars, able to do whatever they want, and buy whatever they want, whenever they want. I’m the girl who sits at home, watching her shows and working on her blog, while eating a nice bowl of spaghetti-os. So Lexi can be frustrating.

But I think that’s the point. Lexi is a frustrating person in the beginning of the novel. She’s wrapped in her luxurious lifestyle, and is so focused on her “poor me” attitude, due to her mother’s early death and her father’s barely there presence. She doesn’t really see past herself. But the more you get to know her, the more she grows on, and then the more she endears you. I loved Lexi. She had a wonderful sense of humor, and sure, she was a brat, but she learned from experience, the way we always do.

Plus, I just liked the idea of it too. The whole riches-to-rags thing is not a new thing; we’ve seen this story before. But her story was funny and unique and different. Her father forcing her to work a different labor intensive job each week was awesome. It was a chance for her not just to be in another person’s shoes, but in a ton of different shoes. Its a way for Lexi to learn much more about herself and about other people, and I think it was fun. Plus she didn’t lose her money, she just had to earn it, and I think that’s the beauty of the story. It started off as her desire to have her trust fund, but it takes on a life of its own as the story continues.

Plus, cute guys, come on. Luke is adorable, and he is so straight and moral and hard working and it reminds me of my boyfriend, who I had to smack a couple times in the past six years in order to have a little bit of fun. Luke and Lexi have influences on each other, and its so fun to watch their friendship unfold.

Rating:

5 out of 5 Stars

Recommended or Not?:

Definitely. I have loved all of Jessica’s books and I hope I’ll find time soon to dive into her adult novels as well. She has a great way of telling a story, and weaving humor and fun into it as well. Her novels are easy, fun reads that can put a smile on your face, and cheer up your day. If you’re looking for a break from all the “feels”, this is a great book for that.

*       *       *       *       *

I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Book of the Week! Make sure to check this book, and others, by Jessica Brody soon!

So much awesome is coming soon: NaNoWriMo, book reviews for Jennifer Armentrout’s Sentinel and Marie Lu’s Champion, and even a couple of interviews! Super excited!

Happy Reading Everyone!

Happy Halloween!

I just wanted to write a quick post to wish you all a super Happy Halloween!

Today is the day where we can dress up and be awesome and no one will give us weird looks. Mostly.

I am writing this at about 2 am, sickness and I haven’t quite decided what I’m going to wear yet. I’m either going Shadowhunter black with runes OR I’m just going to throw my Ravenclaw stuff on and call it a day. I love Halloween so I hope I see a ton of cool costumes tomorrow.

AND I want to see all of YOURS too. So please Tweet me or share on Facebook, or email me at whatanerdgirlsays [at] gmail [dot] com, because I want to see them. I’ll do a special Halloween post and share them with all the followers!

I just wanted to remind you guys of the most important thing about Halloween!

Well, the TWO most important things.

The first one is…be careful and be safe! Halloween can make some people kind of crazy. Be aware, don’t drink and drive, call a cab, don’t eat candy thats already opened, don’t go to houses that aren’t lit, all of that safety stuff. Please all of you be absolutely careful this Halloween, and every Halloween.

And the second thing is…HAVE FUN! Make it the best Halloween ever, at least until next year!

Happy Halloween guys!

Sara, Christina Marie and Kat

Fierce Reads Tour Kicks Off in San Diego!

Yesterday was another epic author event under the belt for me, viagra 40mg down at Mysterious Galaxy for the first stop of the Fierce Reads Tour.

This fall Fierce Reads tour features authors Gennifer Albin and Ann Aguirre, what is ed with Jessica Brody and Leigh Bardugo as special guests.

Now, I’m already quite familiar with Jessica and Leigh. I mean, when Jessica Brody tweets you because she saw that you were interviewed in the CBS interview with Cassandra Clare, that’s pretty awesome. Jessica is the author of several contemporary YA novels, like My Life Undecided and The Karma Club, and the Unremembered trilogy, with a sort of Bourne identity storyline but with a kickass girl and a hot guy. Can’t deny that one can you?

Leigh Bardugo is the author of Shadow and Bone, and Siege and Storm, following the story of Alina Starkov in this immense and dark fantasy world, who finds out she has special powers and must be taken under the wing of the mysterious Darkling in order to learn them.

Gennifer and Ann are new authors to my ever growing list. Gennifer writes a sort of fantasy-dystopian where girls called Spinsters literally weave the reality of the world on looms. I just bought the first book of Ann’s trilogy, but I’m very excited to dive into it.

Authors at Fierce Reads

The adventure getting to Mysterious Galaxy was super fun, with my friends Cassandra, and Sylvia from FanGirlFeeels, and when we got there, I was SO happy to be there! I enjoy meeting authors and I love Mysterious Galaxy. They are such fun indie bookstores and they’re great. The authors had arrived at the same time, and both Jessica and Leigh said enthusiastic hellos to myself and to Sylvia, and thanked us for driving to see them.

Fierce Reads Books

The event was SUCH a blast. I already knew that Jessica and Leigh were super fun to meet. Each one of them has their own brand of humor, and I always have such a great time with their events. Add in Ann and Gennifer and it was literally a laugh fest the entire time. Seriously, I swear I want to be an author just to hang out with these super cool ladies. I was literally laughing, with a little bit of tears, every time they were talking. This was the first stop of the tour, and I know that the rest of the stops are going to be just fabulous, because they obviously have a fun and awesome chemistry going on.

Leigh Bardugo

All the authors shared a lot about writing, and about their books. I always love coming to these things because I feel like I get wonderful insight to the authors’ books and I also get priceless writing advice, which is always helpful to me. I gobble up all possible writing advice, anything to help keep me motivated and inspired.

Gennifer Albin

They also addressed the sort of controversy and issues going on with Allegiant. Each author sort of agreed that readers have the right to react as they please, but the reactions can be dealt with in other manners. Ann said she knows that not everyone is going to love her book, but she’d hope they wouldn’t bring it to her front yard. Leigh was extremely passionate about it, and said she would hope that readers understood where authors are coming from when they are writing their novel, and that they’re going to write the novel they set out to write. She also said that expressing all those emotions, like hate and anger, won’t change anything so its a waste of time. I liked what Jessica said, that love and hate come from the same place, and you know you’re doing something right if you get either of those.

Jessica Brody

I’ve also learned from these authors that the second and third books were harder to write. Gennifer Albin said that her first book seemed like a breeze to her, but the second one was a lot harder. Both Leigh and Jessica lamented over their third books, and jokingly called Jessica’s third book “stupidly awesome.” Ann talked about the difficulties of having a successful first book, and translating the story and the audience into the second and the third book.

Ann Aguirre

I found that SO interesting. She really explained how each of her books in her trilogy sort of represented something different: the first book was the quest, the second book was the emotions and building of relationships, and the third was the war. I really bought into that, and I really loved it. I’m writing a standalone sci-fi so I’m not frazzled at how to fit all of that into one book. But I thought it was a good way of thinking of it, and its something I’m definitely keeping in mind!

Then came meeting the authors, which is always fun because you get to interact with them, and I’ve gotten to know Jessica and Leigh, we’ve bonded and can joke with each other. When my friend Cassandra met Jessica Brody, she was like “you came with these clowns?!” and I couldn’t stop laughing. But she was extremely helpful with writing tips, and I’m going to be checking out this book called Save the Cat and creating a book bible for my sci-fi book. I’m going to start working on that now!

Lastly, I LOVED talking to Gennifer about Harry Potter and Doctor Who. She had the cutest Doctor Who lunch box/purse thing, and I showed her my Doctor Who tattoo and she was so excited about it, and she was like “I need to get my Deathly Hallows tattoo” and I just held out my other wrist, and she laughed, and was like “You stole all my tattoo ideas!” I love author bonding ;)

Here is all the awesome swag/signed books I got!

Fierce Reads Bag

Signed 52 Reasons Book Signed Crewel Book Signed Enclave Book Signed Fierce Reads Poster

OH! And of course I had Gennifer and Ann sign my poster of writing advice :) Check out what they had to say!

Gennifer and Ann Writing Advice

I also was really stoked to meet one of my followers, Kayla, who is the blogger over at The Thousand Lives. We talk a LOT online, especially about books, and it was her VERY FIRST book event. You can read about her experience here, and I am so glad to have met her IRL and to be part of her first author event experience!

Last night was just the first stop of their tour (they’re in Albuquerque tonight), and there are SO many more stops. Check out this link to find out if they’re coming near you. You definitely do NOT want to miss out!

*      *      *      *      *

Fierce Reads Tour Kicks Off in San Diego!

Yesterday was another epic author event under the belt for me, viagra 40mg down at Mysterious Galaxy for the first stop of the Fierce Reads Tour.

This fall Fierce Reads tour features authors Gennifer Albin and Ann Aguirre, what is ed with Jessica Brody and Leigh Bardugo as special guests.

Now, I’m already quite familiar with Jessica and Leigh. I mean, when Jessica Brody tweets you because she saw that you were interviewed in the CBS interview with Cassandra Clare, that’s pretty awesome. Jessica is the author of several contemporary YA novels, like My Life Undecided and The Karma Club, and the Unremembered trilogy, with a sort of Bourne identity storyline but with a kickass girl and a hot guy. Can’t deny that one can you?

Leigh Bardugo is the author of Shadow and Bone, and Siege and Storm, following the story of Alina Starkov in this immense and dark fantasy world, who finds out she has special powers and must be taken under the wing of the mysterious Darkling in order to learn them.

Gennifer and Ann are new authors to my ever growing list. Gennifer writes a sort of fantasy-dystopian where girls called Spinsters literally weave the reality of the world on looms. I just bought the first book of Ann’s trilogy, but I’m very excited to dive into it.

Authors at Fierce Reads

The adventure getting to Mysterious Galaxy was super fun, with my friends Cassandra, and Sylvia from FanGirlFeeels, and when we got there, I was SO happy to be there! I enjoy meeting authors and I love Mysterious Galaxy. They are such fun indie bookstores and they’re great. The authors had arrived at the same time, and both Jessica and Leigh said enthusiastic hellos to myself and to Sylvia, and thanked us for driving to see them.

Fierce Reads Books

The event was SUCH a blast. I already knew that Jessica and Leigh were super fun to meet. Each one of them has their own brand of humor, and I always have such a great time with their events. Add in Ann and Gennifer and it was literally a laugh fest the entire time. Seriously, I swear I want to be an author just to hang out with these super cool ladies. I was literally laughing, with a little bit of tears, every time they were talking. This was the first stop of the tour, and I know that the rest of the stops are going to be just fabulous, because they obviously have a fun and awesome chemistry going on.

Leigh Bardugo

All the authors shared a lot about writing, and about their books. I always love coming to these things because I feel like I get wonderful insight to the authors’ books and I also get priceless writing advice, which is always helpful to me. I gobble up all possible writing advice, anything to help keep me motivated and inspired.

Gennifer Albin

They also addressed the sort of controversy and issues going on with Allegiant. Each author sort of agreed that readers have the right to react as they please, but the reactions can be dealt with in other manners. Ann said she knows that not everyone is going to love her book, but she’d hope they wouldn’t bring it to her front yard. Leigh was extremely passionate about it, and said she would hope that readers understood where authors are coming from when they are writing their novel, and that they’re going to write the novel they set out to write. She also said that expressing all those emotions, like hate and anger, won’t change anything so its a waste of time. I liked what Jessica said, that love and hate come from the same place, and you know you’re doing something right if you get either of those.

Jessica Brody

I’ve also learned from these authors that the second and third books were harder to write. Gennifer Albin said that her first book seemed like a breeze to her, but the second one was a lot harder. Both Leigh and Jessica lamented over their third books, and jokingly called Jessica’s third book “stupidly awesome.” Ann talked about the difficulties of having a successful first book, and translating the story and the audience into the second and the third book.

Ann Aguirre

I found that SO interesting. She really explained how each of her books in her trilogy sort of represented something different: the first book was the quest, the second book was the emotions and building of relationships, and the third was the war. I really bought into that, and I really loved it. I’m writing a standalone sci-fi so I’m not frazzled at how to fit all of that into one book. But I thought it was a good way of thinking of it, and its something I’m definitely keeping in mind!

Then came meeting the authors, which is always fun because you get to interact with them, and I’ve gotten to know Jessica and Leigh, we’ve bonded and can joke with each other. When my friend Cassandra met Jessica Brody, she was like “you came with these clowns?!” and I couldn’t stop laughing. But she was extremely helpful with writing tips, and I’m going to be checking out this book called Save the Cat and creating a book bible for my sci-fi book. I’m going to start working on that now!

Lastly, I LOVED talking to Gennifer about Harry Potter and Doctor Who. She had the cutest Doctor Who lunch box/purse thing, and I showed her my Doctor Who tattoo and she was so excited about it, and she was like “I need to get my Deathly Hallows tattoo” and I just held out my other wrist, and she laughed, and was like “You stole all my tattoo ideas!” I love author bonding ;)

Here is all the awesome swag/signed books I got!

Fierce Reads Bag

Signed 52 Reasons Book Signed Crewel Book Signed Enclave Book Signed Fierce Reads Poster

OH! And of course I had Gennifer and Ann sign my poster of writing advice :) Check out what they had to say!

Gennifer and Ann Writing Advice

I also was really stoked to meet one of my followers, Kayla, who is the blogger over at The Thousand Lives. We talk a LOT online, especially about books, and it was her VERY FIRST book event. You can read about her experience here, and I am so glad to have met her IRL and to be part of her first author event experience!

Last night was just the first stop of their tour (they’re in Albuquerque tonight), and there are SO many more stops. Check out this link to find out if they’re coming near you. You definitely do NOT want to miss out!

*      *      *      *      *

What A Nerd Girl Says Celebrates NaNoWriMo with a Twist!

So I’ve learned fairly recently that November is National Novel Writing Month, physician also known as NaNoWriMo.

And I thought, discount wow, symptoms that’s REALLY cool. A whole month dedicated to the writing of a novel.

There’s a whole website for it too, which you can check out here.

However, the more I checked it out, the more that I realized…its just not for me. I don’t really agree with it.

See, the idea of it is to write any entire 50,000 page novel in the span of one month. And I just really understand that. For one thing, I’m a busy girl. It will never take me only a couple months to write a novel. Ever. It just won’t. I have this blog to run, I have friends and my boyfriend. I love going to various events like book signings and movie premieres, and I like watching my television shows. Plus, I’m a full time student and November is a big month, with finals just right around the corner. I can’t risk that kind of crazy haha.

But I also just think the idea of writing a novel in one month is silly. Now maybe you don’t agree with me, and you’re taking part in the official NaNoWriMo and that’s okay! More power to you. But its just not me. I don’t agree with the idea of rushing a novel, and a short one at that.

And okay, I can see you all getting snippy at me. I know that the sort of novel you’re writing can determine the word count that you typically would write. If you’re writing a middle grade, 50,000 probably tends to be on the higher end. If you’re writing a YA, it *could* be okay, but its on the low end, definitely. If its an adult novel, its definitely too short.

Plus…like I said, it just feels WAY too rushed to me. There doesn’t seem to be any emphasis on actually writing a GOOD novel, more just writing to reach the finish line of 50K words. You get a nice little certificate and all of that. But you could literally just write the same paragraph, hell, even the same word, over and over again and that could be counted. There’s no judging. There’s no learning or growing or anything. Its more…who can writing 50K words that show some resemblance to an actual story in a month long period. It just doesn’t seem to be…productive or efficient or really helpful in any way.

Now I’m not insulting it, so I hope the people of NaNoWriMo don’t come after me, but I just don’t really like the idea of it. Its not me, and its not a lot of writers.

But I decided that as an aspiring novelist, as a writer, I couldn’t just ignore the idea. Even though its an internet based thing, I think its a great idea. Even though writers should write, write, write, all the time, any day and any month of the year, a month to refocus and regroup on a novel, and set those goals and meet some goals is a great idea.

So I’ve kind of created my own NaNoWriMo. My goal for November as a novel writing month is to focus on my novel, to set a goal of a certain amount of words that I want to reach and then focus on different parts of writing a novel. I want to test my characters, I want to develop strategies for writing and overcoming writer’s block. I want you guys to get to know my story, and in turn, I’ll become more confident in my own story.

So basically I’m going to spend this month, honing in on my focus on my novel, and getting better at it, and hopefully helping you guys to get better too!

My goal is to be at 20K words by the end of the month, and to have developed most of the story, in my head, or in a plot outline, so that I’ll have direction for the rest of it. I’m aiming on about 80K words, so I definitely think I can do this, and I already have about 5,000 written so let’s see if we can do this.

Throughout the month, I’ll be posting updates on my own novel writing, here and on Facebook and Twitter (so follow me on both!) and I’ll be exploring different strategies, advices and ideas to help get over some of the bumps in the road in writing a novel.

I hope you can join me on this journey! Feel free to write along with me, as I spend the month of November working on my novel and becoming a better writer :)

My Posts for NaNoWriMo

November 1st: Where I Write

November 4th: Meeting the Main Characters of my Novel: Katy, Ash, Madison, Frank, Jennifer, and Razi

November 6th: Best Writing Advice I’ve Been Given

November 8th: Having a Book Bible

November 11th: Character Interviews

November 13th: How to Deal with Writer’s Block

November 15th: Its the Halfway Point! Update, Struggles/Successes!

November 18th: Writing Inspirations

November 20th: Character Playlists

November 22nd: Free Write: My Characters Celebrate Thanksgiving

November 25th: Meeting my Characters in Artwork

November 27th: Setting up and Meeting Goals

November 29th: My Experience with NaNoWriMo

November 30th: Excerpt from my Novel…So Far

*      *      *      *      *

Happy Writing Everyone!

Crewel Book Review

Crewel by Gennifer Albin

11556960

 

 


You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

Incapable. Awkward. Artless. 
That’s what the other girls whisper behind her back. But sixteen-year-old Adelice Lewys has a secret: She wants to fail. 

Gifted with the ability to weave time with matter, abortion she’s exactly what the Guild is looking for, tadalafil and in the world of Arras, try being chosen to work the looms is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also means the power to manipulate the very fabric of reality. But if controlling what people eat, where they live, and how many children they have is the price of having it all, Adelice isn’t interested.

Not that her feelings matter, because she slipped and used her hidden talent for a moment. Now she has one hour to eat her mom’s overcooked pot roast. One hour to listen to her sister’s academy gossip and laugh at her dad’s jokes. One hour to pretend everything’s okay. And one hour to escape.

Because tonight, they’ll come for her.

My Review:

I am truly amazed at Gennifer Albin’s world building skills in this novel.

World building impresses me so much. Its one thing to be a good writer, but its another to be able to build a world, and make it so incredibly real. I have always admired writers that are able to do that and this is exactly what makes this book so good. Its only part of it, but its a huge part of it.

She creates this world that can seem kind of familiar to ours but it isn’t. The world is hanging by a thread literally. Without the talents of the women (Spinsters) who weave the world, like food and weather, life and death, the world of Arras would literally cease to exist. They hold the power and yet…they have no power, no control. They are regulated, and trained and are hidden behind elaborate dress and make-up. Its so beautiful, and scary at the same time. She builds this world that could potentially be beautiful and enviable. The idea of beautiful threads on a loom, woven together to create and destroy is breathtaking. Being revered, and primped to look beautiful, every single day. But its also incredibly scary. The control they have over human life and death, in form of mere threads is so much power for any one to have, and that’s why the control of Arras is so dramatic.

I’m not going to lie, though. I’m a little confused. The world can be a little daunting, the idea of weaving the existence, and Adelice’s power. Sometimes, I had to read a page over again, to sort of understand what that was going on. You have to be really able to picture the world that Gennifer creates, in order to understand it. I’m planning on reading it again; now that I’ve absorbed the story, I can focus on the world and understanding it more clearly. Its a little confusing and daunting so if you’re not into worlds that are unfamiliar, I would avoid it. This is not for the occasional dystopian/fantasy reader. It works definitely if you’re used to being thrown into fantastical worlds.

But I honestly loved it. I think that she makes her world so real. While the world can be daunting, and the weaving ideas can be a little confusing, the story is easy accessible. Adelice has the same sort of worries and problems that other characters have, and that we can relate to. She’s worried about her little sister, Amie, and is immensely protective of her. She’s headstrong, afraid to give up her will so easily, not when her parents fought so hard to keep her from becoming a Spinster-a special title for those gifted with weaving. She is confused, by her own beauty and her own sexuality and her attraction to two incredible boys, when she hasn’t been allowed near boys for her whole life.

Plus she’s so confused. She doesn’t know who to trust, and she can barely trust herself and her own powers. Every move that she makes is in order to keep herself safe, and in order to find out what happened to her sister, but she makes enemies at every turn, and its difficult for her. She’s only sixteen years old. She’s so young and unsure. You’re connected to her so fast, from page one, when you realize how scared and unsure she is. But the reader can see a strength in her, so you keep turning the pages, hoping that she’ll figure things out.

The sequel to the novel, Altered, will be releasing TOMORROW, and I can’t WAIT to read it. Its going to be absolutely wonderful, and I can’t wait to see where else in this world that Gennifer takes us. This first novel really captivates the audience, and I’m grateful that I only have to wait a couple days!

Rating:

4 out of 5 stars

*      *      *      *      *     *

Starting tomorrow, Gennifer Albin will be on the Fall Fierce Reads Tour with Ann Aguirre, and guests, Jessica Brody and Leigh Bardugo. Check out this link to see if they’ll be heading your way!