Tag: contemporary

Book of the Week-The Last Forever

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The Last Forever by Deb Caletti

18051301

GoodReads / Barnes and Noble / Amazon / Book Depository

Genre:

Young Adult, view Contemporary, dosage Romance

Part of a Series?:

No

You May Like if You Liked:

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen, Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Age Recommendation:

13+

Plot Summary:

From GoodReads:

Endings and beginnings sit so close to each other that it’s sometimes impossible to tell which is which.

Nothing lasts forever, and no one gets that more than Tessa. After her mother died, it’s all she can do to keep her friends, her boyfriend, her happiness from slipping away. And then there’s her dad. He’s stuck in his own daze, and it’s so hard to feel like a family when their house no longer seems like a home.

Her father’s solution? An impromptu road trip that lands them in a small coastal town at Tessa’s grandmother’s. Despite all the warmth and beauty there, Tessa can’t help but feel even more lost.

Enter Henry Lark. He understands the relationships that matter. And more importantly, he understands her. A secret stands between them, but Tessa’s willing to do anything to bring them together—because Henry may just be her one chance at forever.

My Review: 

Deb Caletti is an author that I’ve been reading for quite a few years now, and eagerly anticipate each and every release of hers. This book was no different. I was also determined to finish it quickly because she will be attending the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this weekend and I am so excited to finally meet her! It’s going to be fantastic.

The thing that always impresses me about Deb Caletti’s books is that you would think after 9 YA books (and one adult books), things would start to get repetitive. Predictable. But that isn’t actually what happens. She surprises me every single time I read a book. I read the synopsis and wondered for a moment if I was going to be able to predict the ending or if I might get bored by it.

And I wasn’t at all. Deb Caletti has a way of telling such a familiar, deep story no matter what book it is. She’s such a beautiful writer. She has the ability to write an incredibly well written novel while also making it sound like we are in the mind of a typical teenager. We go through all the feelings that Tessa is going through, while Deb paints a beautiful picture of the story, and that’s what I love about this book. It somehow manages to keep those things that we come to know from capital-L literature and makes it a young adult story with that recognizable young adult voice.

What really got me about this book is that it seems like it would be a romance story, and while there is definitely a part of that, for me, it was a story about family, and the strange ways that you lose it and find it. The way a loss can change you and how to deal with that kind of loss. I seem to be reading a lot of books about loss and grief lately and it amazes me to see the similarities and differences in which a person deals with grief and I think that’s the beauty of it. Tessa is searching for her mother in something, and she holds her mother close in a little plant named Pix that her mother has left behind for her.

The story of Pix and the fight for the plant’s survival is a huge part of why I couldn’t stop reading. Tessa is obsessed with this plant, but its gaining her friends, its opening up a relationship with her grandmother, and its giving her purpose after the loss of her mother. She is able to find her mother in that plant and both hold onto the memories of her mother while also moving on into a new chapter of her life.

The relationship between Tessa and Henry in the book is unexpected and interesting to read about and I loved watching it from beginning to end, unsure of where it would end up. They both learn so much from each other, and its unlike most relationships that we see in a YA novel and I love that. I love seeing a unique take on romance, and friendship and family.

The Last Word

You can never go wrong with a Deb Caletti book. She has 9 of them out there, and I honestly don’t think any of them are a bad place to start. The Secret Life of Prince Charming and The Nature of Jade are my two favorites but this is another winning novel from Deb Caletti. She captures a beautiful story of handling grief and moving on, and find purpose. I can’t wait to meet her this Sunday and tell her how much I loved this book!

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Zac and Mia Book Review

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Zac and Mia by A.J. Betts

15757486

   

This review is based an advanced reader’s copy given to me by the site, ask Edelweiss, page in exchange for an honest review. This had no influence on the integrity of my review. Thanks to Edelweiss and HMH Kids for this book. 

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

The last person Zac expects in the room next door is a girl like Mia, angry and feisty with questionable taste in music. In the real world, he wouldn’t—couldn’t—be friends with her. In hospital different rules apply, and what begins as a knock on the wall leads to a note—then a friendship neither of them sees coming.

You need courage to be in hospital; different courage to be back in the real world. In one of these worlds Zac needs Mia. And in the other Mia needs Zac. Or maybe they both need each other, always.

This book is already available in bookstores in Australia and New Zealand. It will be hitting bookstores in the United States, Canada, Germany, Russia, Italy, Brazil and Turkey throughout this year.

My Review:

It took me awhile to get into this book, and I think that was my one only problem with it. It took awhile for me to really care. I loved the voice of Zac, definitely, but I think I loved the voice of Mia more and so when we reached the point of view of Mia, I was more drawn into the story. I felt like it took awhile for me to care about both of them. When you reach the part where you switch from Zac’s point of view to Mia’s, when you’ve gotten to know both of the characters, that is when I really grew attached to them and the rest of the book flew fast under my fingers.

I must admit that I was a bit reluctant when I received this book to read. Not because I knew A.J. Betts or the synopsis sounded bad, because that wasn’t it at all. It was more like, I really love The Fault in Our Stars but I’m getting kind of tired of it and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to dive into another contemporary romance book about kids with cancer. I wasn’t sure if it would be different or whether I would be impressed or whether this book would just fall into the list of books that I’ve read that haven’t quite made an impression on me.

I was proven definitely wrong. While it took me awhile to become attached the book and the characters, I admired the story that A.J. was building. It wasn’t a romance, not really, and both of the characters felt so real and raw to me, that I couldn’t help but want to know which direction they were going in. There was nothing romantic about the lives either of them were living. They were raw and honest and up front about the lot in life that was handed to them, and I think that’s why Mia stood out to me the most. Mia’s struggle with her cancer and not just the way it attacks her body, but the way it changes her social life, and her standing with her mom, her friends and her boyfriend, just felt so real. In Zac’s point of view, she felt shallow, loud, annoying, I suppose, but in her point of view, she felt vulnerable and emotional and relatable.

What could have been a shallow, been-there-done-that, story of two kids with cancer turned into something much more to me. The characters both change as the story goes in, in ways that you didn’t expect. Both of them have such different ways of approaching what is going in their lives and as their friendship, and yes romantic relationship, deepens, you can see the effect that it has on the other. The book is about hope and hopelessness and fighting and struggling and losing your confidence and will and getting lost on the way to finding yourself. Its a beautiful story of two friends, trying to define themselves outside of what cancer has done to them, and it definitely impressed me. I would definitely recommend picking this book up when it hits your country!

Rating:

4 out of 5 Stars