Book Review: I Want It That Way by Ann Aguirre

August 30, 20141 Comment

Genre:

New Adult, there Romance

Pages:

352

Part of a Series?:

First in the Series

Release Date:

August 26th, 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads Summary:

Nadia Conrad has big dreams, and she’s determined to make them come true—for her parents’ sake as well as her own. But between maintaining her college scholarship and working at the local day care to support herself, she barely has time to think, let alone date. Then she moves into a new apartment and meets the taciturn yet irresistible guy in 1B….

Daniel Tyler has grown up too fast. Becoming a single dad at twenty turned his life upside down—and brought him heartache he can’t risk again. Now, as he raises his four-year-old son while balancing a full-time construction management job and night classes, a social life is out of the question. The last thing he wants is for four noisy students to move into the apartment upstairs. But one night, Nadia’s and Ty’s paths cross, and soon they can’t stay away from each other.

The timing is all wrong—but love happens when it happens. And you can’t know what you truly need until you stand to lose it.

My Review:

I knew, immediately, when Ann Aguirre announced that she’d be releasing a New Adult series this summer with the titles “I Want It That Way”, “As Long as You Love Me” and “Shape of My Heart”, I just had to read it. I mean, come on, the titles are Backstreet Boys’ songs! Beautiful. Plus Ann is such a sweetheart and I want to read more New Adult novels.

I think the most difficult part of reading this novel for me is that new adult and romance are not what I read. I had to remind myself quite often that its a romance novel, so plot points were SUPPOSED to be like that. I mostly read novels where romance is just one of many facets. I kind of liked that this was a learning experience for me. I told myself I would branch out this year and I really am trying to do that.

Once I was able to really understand and approach the book the right way, different from most of the books I usually read, I really enjoyed it. I still think romance isn’t quite my thing but I think I’m open to reading it more often.

Nadia is the first character in awhile, besides Cath in Fangirl, that I really felt an instant connection to and I think that’s because she’s older. I always feel a connection to the characters I enjoy reading but usually they are teenagers and there are some things I’m dealing with in my own life that are so different than a teenagers: college, midterms, jobs, careers, bills, falling in love in a complicated way. Nadia lives such a normal college life, and so it felt so familiar and easy to read her story. I think the rest of the story became so easy to me because of the connection I made with Nadia from page one.

Especially since she drops a couch and rips her jeans on the first page. That completely sounds like something I would do.

But the story of Nadia and Ty is really beautiful, and I think I loved it so much because of the involvement of Ty’s child. It was hard enough dealing with the complications of Nadia and Ty trying to make their romance work, but throwing in the addition of a child just throws everything through a loop. But despite that, I really spent most of my time in the book slowly falling in love with Ty and slowing falling in love with the little boy too.

Plus, there are some seriously fun and good steamy scenes in there. I think there’s a fine art to writing a really GOOD steamy scene and I think Ann has that down so easily. All the scenes felt right and not just there to add more steam (I hate that), and they made me blush, which is always fun while reading. It enhanced the romance between the two main characters, which I loved, and it wasn’t steamy just for the sake of that.

Bottom line, great beginning to the series. I loved that it left off on the two characters that are going to be featured in the next book, enough so that you will be curious and want to read the rest of the series. I definitely can’t wait for the release of the next book!

Rating:

4 out of 5 Stars

Book Review: 100 Sideways Miles (ARC) by Andrew Smith

August 29, 2014August 23, 2019Leave a comment

Finn Easton sees the world through miles instead of minutes. It’s how he makes sense of the world, and how he tries to convince himself that he’s a real boy and not just a character in his father’s bestselling cult-classic book. Finn has two things going for him: his best friend, the possibly-insane-but-definitely-excellent Cade Hernandez, and Julia Bishop, the first girl he’s ever loved.

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Book Review: Love and Other Unknown Variables (ARC) by Shannon Alexander

August 29, 2014August 29, 2014Leave a comment

This review is based on an advanced reader’s copy of the novel obtained through NetGalley at the permission of Entangled Publications. This is in no way had an effect on the integrity of my review. Please note that published novel will differ from this ARC.

Genre:

Young Adult, visit web Contemporary Fiction

Pages:

352

Part of a Series?:

Standalone Novel

Release Date:

October 7th, 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads Summary:

Charlie Hanson has a clear vision of his future. A senior at Brighton School of Mathematics and Science, he knows he’ll graduate, go to MIT, and inevitably discover solutions to the universe’s greatest unanswered questions. He’s that smart. But Charlie’s future blurs the moment he reaches out to touch the tattoo on a beautiful girl’s neck.

The future has never seemed very kind to Charlotte Finch, so she’s counting on the present. She’s not impressed by the strange boy at the donut shop—until she learns he’s a student at Brighton where her sister has just taken a job as the English teacher. With her encouragement, Charlie orchestrates the most effective prank campaign in Brighton history. But, in doing so, he puts his own future in jeopardy.

By the time he learns she’s ill—and that the pranks were a way to distract Ms. Finch from Charlotte’s illness—Charlotte’s gravitational pull is too great to overcome. Soon he must choose between the familiar formulas he’s always relied on or the girl he’s falling for (at far more than 32 feet per second squared).

My Review:

When I saw this title on edelweiss, it immediately caused me to pause. Math things like that always kind of catch my eye because my boyfriend has a bachelors degree in math and he actually likes reading books about math. For fun. I know, he’s weird. But by extension, math things catch my eye too now. Not because I particularly love math but it reminds me of him. I also saw that it was an Entangled publication and immediately hit request. I love Entangled to death.

I love the characters so much. I think characters are the most important part of a novel and that is exactly what brings me into this book. Charlie and Charlotte both seem incredibly real to me. Charlie especially so because even though he’s kind of too smart for his own good and it almost gets irritating, he’s also incredibly genuine. He can figure out these weird crazy math problems but…he can’t figure out how to act around a girl, and he’s still a total teenager. I love that. I also love Charlotte because she’s full of life and full of sass and literally brightens up a room, which is why finding out she’s so ill is such a damper. Seriously. I was like, oh come on, but she’s awesome, she can’t be sick!

What really caught me in this book is that it could just run into other books. Romance is not new. Cancer is not new. Kids with cancer with romance laced into it is definitely not new (The Fault in Our Stars anyone?) What easily could have been a book that I tossed aside because of a simple “been there, done that” was actually proven quite wrong when I pushed past the revelation of Charlotte’s illness and kept reading.

Because there’s so much more to the book. The book is centered on Charlie and while his romance with Charlotte is incredibly important, its also the effect that she has on the rest of his life. She shows him the beauty of other things besides math and science. She unintentionally brings him to his elderly neighborhood, who teaches him so much and leaves an incredible impact on his life. She brings him to her sister, his literature teacher, and helps him develop a new love for reading. And she also brings him closer to his own sister. I think that’s the biggest part of the book that I love. This book could be wrapped up simply as a book about kids with cancer but its so much more than that. Its a book about how much a person can impact our lives in such a short amount of time and how beautiful and sometimes incredibly devastating it is.

Plus, its just funny. I related to Charlotte so much and Charlie reminded me of my boyfriend and their initial runaround each other is just so sweet and believable. They kind of fumble their way through their friendship and more and I loved it. It was more than just about everything going on around them. Their romance was sweet, genuine and addicting and I was rooting for them the entire book.

Basically, it comes down to this: I stayed up until 2 am to finish reading this book. And I had to read it on my phone because my Nook wasn’t charged…which is NO easy feat. But I super enjoyed it and I’m anxious for it to be published so that I can share it with others. It hits bookstores in early October so make sure to get your hands on a copy!

Rating:

4 out of 5 Stars

Rating:

Book Review: Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future (ARC) by A.S. King

August 15, 2014August 12, 2014Leave a comment

This review is based on an advanced reader’s copy of the novel obtained through Little Brown Books at the American Library Association Conference for free. This is in no way had an effect on the integrity of my review. Please note that published novel will differ from this ARC.

Genre:

Young Adult, mind Contemporary Fiction

Pages:

320

Part of a Series?:

Standalone Novel

Release Date:

October 14th, buy information pills 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads Summary:

Graduating from high school is a time of limitless possibilities—but not for Glory, who has no plan for what’s next. Her mother committed suicide when Glory was only four years old, and she’s never stopped wondering if she will eventually go the same way…until a transformative night when she begins to experience an astonishing new power to see a person’s infinite past and future. From ancient ancestors to many generations forward, Glory is bombarded with visions—and what she sees ahead of her is terrifying.

A tyrannical new leader raises an army. Women’s rights disappear. A violent second civil war breaks out. And young girls vanish daily, sold off or interned in camps. Glory makes it her mission to record everything she sees, hoping her notes will somehow make a difference. She may not see a future for herself, but she’ll do everything in her power to make sure this one doesn’t come to pass.

In this masterpiece about freedom, feminism, and destiny, Printz Honor author A.S. King tells the epic story of a girl coping with devastating loss at long last—a girl who has no idea that the future needs her, and that the present needs her even more.

My Review:

In true AS King fashion, I was absolutely blown away when I read this book. Literally and completely blown away. She is able to tell such a bizarre and unbelievable story in such a beautiful and relatable and addicting way. I can’t stop thinking about this book and I actually read this last month. There are so many parts to this book and that’s what makes it so good. It reminds me a bit of Andrew Smith’s Grasshopper Jungle but minus the horny, hungry grasshoppers taking over the world.

In the world of Glory O’Brien, she’s graduated from high school, with no set plans past that. She doesn’t know if she wants to go to college, what she wants to do with her life, anything. She struggles to figure out who she is while also being there for the people around her. She has an insufferable best friend, who drives her absolutely crazy but she also feels love and loyalty for. There’s her father, who has sort of fallen apart since her mother’s death years ago. Lastly there’s the actual death of her mother, which she’s never truly mourned the death. These are all such real problems, and they come off the page effortlessly.

AS King has a way of capturing humanity, their emotions, and problems and lives so well that it reads like this. Her line at ALA was easily one of the longest ones that I was in and there is a reason for that. She’s an incredible writer and she captures her characters so that they feel so real and genuine. Sometimes its less about the story and more about the internal story of the character and I think that AS King is just perfect at that.

But there’s also the secondary part of the story, the out of this world but so familiar story. Glory suddenly can see the future and what she sees is absolutely horrifying, not just to her but to me as well. The United States falls to pieces and is broken apart by civil war, and states seceding and the rights of women are stripped over and over and over again. What seems to be unbelievable, fantasy in this book is a glaring reality at what happens every day in our laws and in our world to women, not just in this country, but all over the world. AS King offers up a scary potential reality and its absolutely horrifying and frightening. She calls attention to the way things are now and what direction they could be heading in.

All in all, simply put, there are not enough words to describe what an incredible writer and storyteller that AS King is. She writes unbelievable deep, genuine characters and incredible stories, unique and memorable. Her books stand out every single time that you read them, and I definitely recommend putting in your pre-order for it, or reserving your copy at the library. Trust me, you will definitely not regret it!

Rating:

5 out of 5 Stars

Book Review: Falling Into Place ARC by Amy Zhang

August 14, 2014August 12, 2014Leave a comment

This review is based on an advanced reader’s copy of the novel obtained through Greenwillow Books at the American Library Association Conference for free. This is in no way had an effect on the integrity of my review. Please note that published novel will differ from this ARC.

Genre:

Young Adult, side effects Contemporary Fiction

Pages:

304

Part of a Series?:

I believe this is a standalone

Release Date:

Sepetember 9th, 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads Summary:

On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton’s laws of motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road.

Why? Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world would be better off without her? Why did she give up? Vividly told by an unexpected and surprising narrator, this heartbreaking and nonlinear novel pieces together the short and devastating life of Meridian High’s most popular junior girl. Mass, acceleration, momentum, force—Liz didn’t understand it in physics, and even as her Mercedes hurtles toward the tree, she doesn’t understand it now. How do we impact one another? How do our actions reverberate? What does it mean to be a friend? To love someone? To be a daughter? Or a mother? Is life truly more than cause and effect? Amy Zhang’s haunting and universal story will appeal to fans of Lauren Oliver, Gayle Forman, and Jay Asher.

My Review:

The synopsis reads: for fans of Lauren Oliver, Gayle Forman and Jay Asher. I’ve admittedly never read Jay Asher, but I’ve read everything by LO and GF and you can definitely tell that Amy was influenced by them. The novel reads as a cross between Lauren Oliver’s Before I Fall and Gayle Forman’s If I Stay. Because of this, I had a struggle to read through the entire novel. It felt like a sort of “been there, done that” plot line and I struggled to keep reading the book. The flashbacks, the coma, that sort of thing, all sort of felt like the previous two books I mentioned. If I Stay and Before I Fall are both favorites of mine so it just felt too close to me to make an impact.

I think what would have made this a stronger book is a stronger main character. In Before I Fall, Samantha is popular and hated, even though she doesn’t want to be and I felt that sort of connection with Liz as well. But Liz didn’t jump off the page nearly as well as Sam did so it felt hard to connect with her. She felt cruel, really truly cruel, and it was hard to connect with her when she started to pull back, when she felt bad. It wasn’t really toward the end, when I started getting flashbacks into the minds of some unlikely characters (trying to be as spoiler free as possible), that I finally seemed to feel for Liz.

What I do think is strong about this novel are two things: Amy’s writing and the beginning sentence.

First off, Amy’s writing is incredible, especially when you stop to think that she’s a teenager. I am still learning to make my writing better and better as I write more but I would most definitely have not published my writing as a teenager. I’ve had to write more and get better as time went on. I think Amy will be the same. But already at such a young age, she is able to write very beautifully, and in a very compelling way. I think that as she learns more and strengthens her story telling, she’s going to be a force to reckon with.

I also think her opening line is just absolutely incredible. That line in its own will be the one that captures you.

On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton’s laws of motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road.

There is so much about that that immediately pulls you in and immediately makes you want to read the rest and so I think she has that going for her. You can immediately get sucked into the story just by reading that line and I do think fans of Gayle and Lauren will enjoy this novel. I struggled with the similarities between those novels and Amy’s but I think she’s a strong writer and will only become stronger as she develops more skills.

Rating:

3.5 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Exile by Kevin Emerson

August 13, 2014August 12, 2014Leave a comment

Genre:

Young Adult, find Contemporary Fiction, nurse Romance

Pages:

320

Part of a Series?:

The first of a two part series

Release Date:

April 29th, what is ed 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads Summary:

Catherine Summer Carlson knows how to manage bands like a professional—she’s a student at the PopArts Academy at Mount Hope High, where rock legends Allegiance to North got their start. Summer knows that falling for the lead singer of her latest band is the least professional thing a manager can do. But Caleb Daniels isn’t an ordinary band boy—he’s a hot, dreamy, sweet-singing, exiled-from-his-old-band, possibly-with-a-deep-dark-side band boy. And he can do that thing. That thing when someone sings a song and it inhabits you, possesses you, and moves you like a marionette to its will.

Summer also finds herself at the center of a mystery she never saw coming. When Caleb reveals a secret about his long-lost father, one band’s past becomes another’s present, and Summer finds it harder and harder to be both band manager and girlfriend. She knows what the well-mannered Catherine side of her would do, but she also knows what her heart is telling her. Maybe it’s time to accept who she really is, even if it means becoming an exile herself. . . .

My Review:

I absolutely adored this book. I met Kevin Emerson when he did a book signing with Kiera Cass a few months ago while she was on tour promoting The One. His book sounded pretty cool, he produced music to go along with it, which is awesome, he played some music at the book event and he had a sonic screwdriver during the entire event. That, in my mind, was enough for me to want to grab this book.

Unfortunately I was unable to pick it up that night but I did eventually pick it up and I read through it very very quickly. I loved the simplicity of the story, the love of music, the band atmosphere, and the ambition and determination of all the characters. I could be incredibly biased. The main character is a band manager/band girlfriend. I’m not a band manager, nor would I ever be something like that because the idea of wrangling four to five guys together sounds truly awful. But I have been a band girlfriend. My first boyfriend was in a band, my second boyfriend was a musician and my current boyfriend and love of my life has been in a band and is a musician. I’m THE band girlfriend, it feels like.

So the story between Summer and Caleb…it felt familiar in so many ways. The struggle to be with an emotional musician, with high ambitions, without adding all the other drama in…that is so familiar and it read so familiar on the page. Their relationship seemed very real and genuine and I think that’s what makes it such a good story. They have a give and take, the good and the bad. Caleb struggles to keep Summer different as a girlfriend and a manager. Summer struggles to actually be the manager and a girlfriend. Dating a musician, a cute musician whose the lead singer, so naturally brings girls to them without even really having to do anything? Yeah, not easy, and all of this is wrapped up into the story and it feels so real and beautiful.

I think that Kevin Emerson has a way of writing a beautiful and genuine love story while also writing a story about a little band with big dreams, and I think that’s something that everyone can relate to. Everyone has big dreams, dreams that seem so big and encompassing that they’re overwhelming and huge and they seem like they will never come true. Its a story of a band trying to make it, and when they learn something about one of their members that could make them huge, easily, its more than that. Its a struggle between wanting to make it big but wanting to do the work themselves, wanting it to be about them and their music and I just loved every single bit of it.

What really gets anyone about this book is that its about music and love, and I think these are two things that anyone can relate to on some level, especially music. Music is something that transcends everything. Everyone likes music, and they like different music and they like music for different reasons. The music jumps off the page and grabs you in and the fact that there is actual music that goes along with the book just makes it that much better.

I honestly definitely recommend it. In a YA world where fantasy, science fiction and dystopian are ruling the shelves (not that there is anything wrong with it, says the aspiring science fiction writer), it is nice to immerse yourself in a romantic, emotional story about a girl and a boy and a band. Its a quick read, its fun and swoon worthy and I think that you all will like it very much.

Rating:

4 out of 5 stars