Tag: adult

Book Review: Royal Wedding ARC by Meg Cabot

Leave a comment

23215471-1Genre: 

Adult, salve Contemporary, treat Romance

Pages: 

 

Part of a Series?:

The finale book of the Princess Diaries series. Keep in mind! The first 10 are strictly YA while this is an adult novel!

Release Date: 

June 2nd, 2015

You Can Find the Book At:

Check your local bookstore!

GoodReads

Barnes and Noble 

Book Depository

Author Website

GoodReads Summary: 

For Princess Mia, the past five years since college graduation have been a whirlwind of activity, what with living in New York City, running her new teen community center, being madly in love, and attending royal engagements. And speaking of engagements. Mia’s gorgeous longtime boyfriend Michael managed to clear both their schedules just long enough for an exotic (and very private) Caribbean island interlude where he popped the question! Of course Mia didn’t need to consult her diary to know that her answer was a royal oui.

But now Mia has a scandal of majestic proportions to contend with: Her grandmother’s leaked “fake” wedding plans to the press that could cause even normally calm Michael to become a runaway groom. Worse, a scheming politico is trying to force Mia’s father from the throne, all because of a royal secret that could leave Genovia without a monarch. Can Mia prove to everyone–especially herself–that she’s not only ready to wed, but ready to rule as well?

My Review:

Getting my hands on this book meant the absolute world to me. The first time I read the first Princess Diaries book was when I was 12 years old. I am now 27 years old so you know how long I’ve been reading Meg Cabot and how much these books truly mean to me. I’ve been trying to get my hands on this book for ages and I legitimately cried when I did.

This book is exactly what I could have ever wanted in a final PD book. I’ve been waiting since I was twelve years old for Mia and Michael to live happily ever and in this book…we actually get to see this happen. It’s like…legitimately a fairy tale coming true! I’ve always loved the two of them together and loved that they managed to end up together in the end…as they should!

But it’s more than that! I grew up with Mia Thermopolis. I’ve always felt incredibly close to her as a character, she’s also felt very familiar and relatable. I’ve always wanted to find my own Michael Moscovitz. I followed her through her awkwardness of high school, figuring out friends and boys and school and all of that. I love revisiting the books but this book was amazing. It was written for us that have been around for years. Mia has grown up and so have I and the rest of the fans. Reading Mia’s diary again, as an adult, with problems that I legitimately understand because we are basically the same age. I loved it. I loved seeing them get engaged and having sex and growing up, renting apartments, doing adult things. It felt so weird but so right.

But I also loved that Mia was still SO Mia. She’s grown up but she’s still also awkward and she still does silly things and freaks out over the small things and I love it. I also love that there were surprises in the story that I didn’t expect and it was awesome. I was both extremely happy and bittersweet while reading this book.

Lastly I liked that we got to meet Olivia, Mia’s sister from Mia’s point of view. I have already read Olivia’s story but it was cool to read it from Mia’s side. Olivia sees Mia as cool and sophisticated and mature during the whole thing while we get to be in Mia’s head while she legitimately is like, what on earth is going on and I’m confused and what the hell do I do? It’s so Mia and I liked every bit of it. There was so much newness in this book, and honestly I thought it was an amazing end to the series. I thought Princess Diaries 10 was great and a fabulous ending but this one was just straight up perfect. I can’t imagine a better book to end one of my absolute favorite series!

Rating: 

5 out of 5 Stars

Book Review: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Leave a comment

18081809Genre: 

Adult Contemporary Fiction

Pages: 

310

Part of a Series?:

Standalone

Release Date: 

July 8th, drugs 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Author Website

GoodReads Summary: 

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it’s been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply — but that almost seems beside the point now.

Maybe that was always beside the point.

Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her — Neal is always a little upset with Georgie — but she doesn’t expect to him to pack up the kids and go home without her.

When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.

That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts . . .

Is that what she’s supposed to do?

Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?

My Review:

I told myself that in the year of 2014, I would read more adult books. Now…I’ve struggled with that but I knew that when Landline came out, I had to read it. There were no ifs, ands or buts. I think Rainbow Rowell is an absolutely fantastic writer, and I knew I had to read this book.

And this book is INCREDIBLE. I don’t think its for everyone, and I don’t think its for everyone who reads my blog. This book is about the deep emotional journey of a long term relationship, and I don’t think that’s something that everyone who reads this blog can relate to. I know a lot of you are young so this may not be the book for you. And that’s okay, put it on your “to-read” for the future. Its a wonderful book, but not for the YA readers that tend to read my blog.

But that being said, Rainbow Rowell made me cry so much while reading this book. This is not a particularly sad book and the ending is not heartbreaking or sad but she has a way of writing a relationship that feels so real. Like when I read “Fangirl”, there were so many moments when I just wanted to scream “Yes! Yes, exactly. You know exactly how I feel.” She writes so real, so genuinely and in such a familiar way, that its easy to get caught up in the stories of this characters.

Georgie and Neal have been together for quite a long time and their marriage, their relationship, is showing that strain. They hardly see each other, the affection seems to be gone, and its a daily struggle to keep their relationship going. When Georgie somehow is able to dial into the past and talk to Neal as she knew him in the beginning of their relationship, she remembers all the things she loves about Neal and the reasons they’ve been together for so long, no matter the bad. And its so true, and real to a relationship. There’s up and downs, and struggles and there are things that bring you down and sometimes you don’t think that you can pull yourself up. Its not always love and rainbows and butterflies. Relationships are hard work and she completely captures that in this novel.

But what she also captures is the hope as well. Yes, there are hard times. Yes, there are times when you’re struggling to keep it together and you’re not sure if you can keep fighting the fight and you wonder if you should just let it go, but then there’s hope too. There are reasons you got together, reasons you love each other, and you have to remember those to push through those hard times. She gives the reader hope, hope in all their relationships and I really love that.

What makes this a great novel is that its a very human story. Its not necessary full of action or a ton of plot but its full of character development and love and friendship and struggle and hard work. Its all told in the story of these two people and their relationship and their fight to keep it together. She makes it so real and so relatable and if you’ve ever experienced anything like this in your life, its going to touch you in so many ways. I found myself crying because it felt good to know that I wasn’t the only person in the world who felt these struggles or felt these emotions and even though its fictional, it helped me to not feel so alone.

Rating:

Book Review: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Leave a comment

8909152

   

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

“Hi, malady I’m the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you . . . “


Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It’s company policy.) But they can’t quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lincoln O’Neill can’t believe this is his job now- reading other people’s e-mail. When he applied to be “internet security officer,” he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.

When Lincoln comes across Beth’s and Jennifer’s messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can’t help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.

By the time Lincoln realizes he’s falling for Beth, it’s way too late to introduce himself.

What would he say . . . ?

My Review:

I honestly am beginning to think that Rainbow Rowell can do no wrong. She amazed me with Eleanor and Park and absolutely blew my mind with Fangirl and she made me fall in love over and over and over again with Attachments.

I made a resolution this year (part of my ten bookish resolutions) that I would try to read more adult books. Well, here it goes world: an adult book. Okay, its a little bit cheating because its by an author whose YA books I adore but whatever, it totally counts.

I was really excited to read Attachments because it kind of reminded me of Meg Cabot’s Boy series (The Boy Next Door, Boy Meets Girl, Every Boy’s Got One) because those books are written all in email, instant messaging, journals, etc. I love those books so I was happy to dive into this book.

And I LOVE IT. I love this book so much. I love the balance of characters. Beth and Jennifer are only seen through their email interactions. We get nothing else from them except for their emails, and yet, we really get to know them. You get such a good view of their characters, their personalities and their lives just from their emails and I give mad props to Rainbow for accomplishing that. That is no easy feat.

Then we get Lincoln’s point of view, which is normal third person (past? I can’t remember), and, not only do we get his life and his story, but we get our impressions of Jennifer and Beth through him as well. It is a story of three characters told through emails and the narrative of one character and it works so beautifully. Lincoln is an incredible character, real and honest, and I can’t help falling in love with him, and falling in love with Beth with him.

What I really love, and what I’m probably missing out on by reading all YA all the time, is the very real adult issues going on in this book, the sort of issues that I’m starting to go through as an adult: the pressure to get married, the pressure to have kids, the pressure to find a ‘real’ job, the pressure to move out on your own, that sort of thing. I felt like I had something in common with all the characters, and it felt so real to me. I will continue to love YA as my baby but I must admit it felt so good to read about characters closer to my age, going through the sorts of things that I am going through now. It felt very real to me.

Attachments is a beautiful story of growing up, growing up as an adult, and finding love in the strangest of places. It made me laugh, it made me tear up, and it made my heart flutter with the cute love story. You’ll definitely enjoy this book and I so highly recommend it.

Rating:

5 out of 5 Stars