If you liked....... Anna and The French Kiss

If you liked....... Anna and The French Kiss

Anna and The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins is one of my favorite contemporary YA books and i wish more people read it. In case anybody has read the book or just looking for new books i hope you get some good suggestions. 

        1) The rest of the books in the series! 

for the longest time after reading the first boo i had no idea that it was series and it took me forever to read the rest of the books. Therefore, before reading any farther go read Lola and The Boy Next Door and Isla and The Happily Ever After

        2) Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

This is another one of my all time favorite books and i highly suggest it for anybody that liked Anna and The French Kiss. 

        3) Afterworlds by Scott Westerfield 

Half of this book is dystopian/sci fi but the other half of it is perfect for anyone that loves to read and wants a good story. 

        4) Cinder by Marissa Meyer

While this story is slightly more sic-fi then contemporary it has a fantastic romance and a great plot line. 

        5) Everyday by David Levithan

The love story in this book, while not one of my favorites, is very good for people that enjoyed Anna and the French Kiss. 

Hope you get ideas for something to read! 

Landline

Landline

Rainbow Rowell

My copy is a... Hardcover
Publisher: St. Martins Press
Published: July 2014

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?

Okay, it is currently 12:30 am and I just finished landline and now….

This is how my night has gone so far:

10-11 pm: Read landline/yell at Georgie in my head(most of the time)

11:30 pm: Finish landline, think okay didn’t like it as much as Fangirl but still really good.

12 am: get into bed, turn off light etc.

12-12:15 am: lay in bed thinking, remember tweet I saw from Rainbow over social media (I believe Tumblr) about some of her other characters being in Landline.

12:17 am: figure out which characters and which part of the book, jump out of bed frantically hitting floor to find lamp switch

12:20 am: re-read that part of Landline

12:45 am: freak out, make a landline playlist, and start this review.

So previous book characters being in Landline was by far my favorite part but it was all around amazing. The thing that surprised me the most about this book was the small

sci-fi element that the “magic” phone added. I couldn’t relate to this book at all (probably because I’ve never had a magic phone or been married…) but I love how the book is almost like fighting against fate. When Georgie starts talking to Neal on the magic phone she has no idea what is going on and as she delves deeper into the magic phone situation she begins to question whether or not her marriage was supposed to happen. I love books that deal with fate, soul mates, and destiny. So the slight part that it played in this book was really fun and unexpected to see.

I guessed the ending fairly early in the book but there were still points that surprised me. At the beginning of the book I did not expect Seth to play such a major role. Seth was almost the villain for me in the book though he didn’t do anything specifically/obviously bad. Seth couldn’t seem to get over the fact that there were other people other than him in Georgie’s life and that he was no longer her main concern. As more details from Neal, Seth, and Georgie’s life were brought to the light it seemed as if Seth was purposely trying to get between Neal and Georgie.

Verdict: 

4 stars!
Rainbow's books continue to amaze me and while i didn't love this book as much as Fangirl it was still amazing

Top 10 Tuesday - July 22

Woo Hooo! I'm doing a top 10 tuesday again! I haven't done one in so long and I am super excited for todays! Top 10 tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Todays topic is 10 characters I'd want on a deserted island. 

1.   Linh Cinder - I would want Cinder with me because she seems really awesome to both talk to and she could fix anything. so if a broken boat washes up on sand she'd be able to get us all off the island. 

2.  Maximum Ride - Maximum ride would be great on the island cause she is a) resourceful and b) has wings so she could fly an find a boat or fly us off the island. but she might ditch us to find the flock..........

3.  Roux - Roux is one of my favorite characters ever. She is just plain amazing. 

4.  Cath - Cath is another of my favorite characters and I would love to talk to her while waiting for Cinder to fix the boat. 

5. Annabeth Chase - Annabeth would be amazing to talk to and she would be able to help Cinder fix the boat. 

6.   Percy Jackson - Percy has water powers which if we were stuck on a desert island would be pretty handy. 

okay thats all I have.... :( 

better luck next time. 

Cinder

Cinder

Lunar Chronicles 1

Marissa Meyer

My copy is a... Paperback

Published: January 2012

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends

Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes and Noble

Summary: Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. 
Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future. (via Goodreads)

After hearing TONS about how amazing this book is I picked it up while I was killing time in a bookstore. I didn’t end up buying the book because I didn’t have any money on me but I ordered it from the library and ended up being fairly impressed by it, although there were parts that bugged me.

To start with the things that bugged was there was very little world building. The concept of “New Beijing” is very interesting but very little of the history of New Beijing and the culture, other than class/race differences was explained. The cast system was never fully explained either. In Cinder's case she became a cyborg in order to save her life and she was considered a lower class. If somebody had a cyborg eye installed because they wanted it would they then be considered a lower class? or if a solider/amputee got a cyborg limb?
 Another problem I had with this book was the cover. While the cover was beautiful it did not represent Cinder at all. First of all, Cinder doesn’t have skin graphs, skin covering her robot arm and leg. Therefore the leg on the cover should be a robot not human/robot leg. Also, Cinder would never wear the red kitten heels featured on the cover. I understand that they are used to help relate the story to Cinderella but they don’t fit the story at all, In my opinion it should have been a boot. Lastly, the story was predictable. The big cliff hanger/end that makes you scream give me the next book now!, (if you need farther examples look at The Mark Of Athena by Rick Riordan, If I Stay by Gayle Foreman, 13 gifts by Wendy Mass, or Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins) I predicted in the first 50 pages. I’m not saying what the event is but the clues were laid out in such a way that your groaning at Cinder to figure it out already!

Despite all that there were many parts of the book that I enjoyed. I have not been able to find a dystopian novel with a strong plot in a long time, making this book a very nice break from the contemporary fiction I’ve been reading. Another part of the book I liked was the fact that while there was a love interest the story focused more on species/racial problems instead of the love interest. In my opinion this story read more like a prequel then the first installment in a trilogy.

Rating:

3.5 stars

This was a great dystopian book to read, the writing was much better than the other dystopians I have read recently. However, some elements(world building, characters, etc.) missed the mark for me. 

Where She Went

Where She Went

Gayle Foreman

My copy is a... Paperback

Published: April 2011

 Publisher:  Dutton Juvenile 

Summary: It's been three years since Mia walked out of Adam's life.
And three years he's spent wondering why.
When their paths cross again in New York City, Adam and Mia are brought back together for one life-changing night.
Adam finally has the opportunity to ask Mia the questions that have been haunting him. But will a few hours in this magical city be enough to lay their past to rest, for good - or can you really have a second chance at first love?

Note: This is a review for a sequel, so there maybe spoilers for the first book

When I finished If I Stay I freaked NEEDING to know what happens next. I called my local bookstore but they had to order it so with a reigned sigh I ordered it and waited. Then it came in and my mom yelled at me for reading it in less than 4 hours. The beauty of this book is amazing I loved seeing Adams POV and seeing what he thought of Mia, that day, her family, and everything else. It is only hinted at how popular Adam’s band was becoming in If I Stay but I loved seeing how huge they had gotten and how the dynamics had changed over the years.  In If I Stay Adams band was very close but once they become famous the band began to drift apart to the point where it was no longer functional.

The chance of Adam stumbling upon one of Mia’s concerts on his day off reminded me of Just One Day. I love reading books with an aspect of fate, an idea that no matter what happens in life there are certain people you are destined to meet and they will have an impact of some kind on you.

Another aspect I loved about the book was that both Adam and Mia were open to reconnecting despite the fact that they had ended on bad terms and had not talked in many years. It would have been easy for Mia to not want to see Adam because of the connection he has to her family but she welcomed the opportunity to see him. Throughout the majority of the book I feel as if Adam and Mia were trying to find the correct words to tell each other how they feel without showing how much pain the other had caused them.

Verdict

4 stars this book was the perfect follow up/ending to If I Stay

Quotes:

“…You’ve obviously got your theory so don’t let the truth get in the way”  -Pg. 18

“Vanessa mock shudders the way you do when you talk about someone’s misfortunes that have nothing to do with you, that don’t touch you, and never will”

- Pg. 21

A Mad, Wicked Folly

A Mad, Wicked Folly

Sharon Briggs Waller

Published: January 2014

Publisher: Viking Juvenile 

My copy is a.... Library Book

Goodreads

Summary: Welcome to the world of the fabulously wealthy in London, 1909, where dresses and houses are overwhelmingly opulent, social class means everything, and women are taught to be nothing more than wives and mothers. Into this world comes seventeen-year-old Victoria Darling, who wants only to be an artist—a nearly impossible dream for a girl.            After Vicky poses nude for her illicit art class, she is expelled from her French finishing school. Shamed and scandalized, her parents try to marry her off to the wealthy Edmund Carrick-Humphrey. But Vicky has other things on her mind: her clandestine application to the Royal College of Art; her participation in the suffragette movement; and her growing attraction to a working-class boy who may be her muse—or may be the love of her life. As the world of debutante balls, corsets, and high society obligations closes in around her, Vicky must figure out: just how much is she willing to sacrifice to pursue her dreams?

Seeing as the last review I wrote for Lola and the boy next door was a lot easier to write in this form lets try it again!

Characters

Vicky was confused and trying to figure out how she would become an artist but that wasn’t done by making her overly emotional and whiny. Instead she accomplished things herself, she tried different strategies without closing any doors on herself.

History

I am a total sucker for any book with interesting history (especially the women’s suffrage or WWII).  The aspect that this book was placed in London, not the US, was a interesting change compared to the other history books I’ve read. Comments than men would make to Vicky were unbelievable that the majority of society thought that way.

Storyline

The storyline in this book was perfect. There plenty of elements interacting with each other that it didn’t seem overly long. Vicky had enough wit that some parts were funny but she was navigating how to live in a world where the rules of society are changing and the rules that applied to her mother and the rules of her mother’s society are mixing with the rules of the lower classes.

Verdict

4 stars

This is a great book to read if you are interested in this time period.