Book Review: You Were Here by Cori McCarthy

You Were Here by Cori McCarthy

Standalone novel

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Release Date: 1st March 2016

Read Date: 21st February 2016

Tagged Under: 2016 read, 2016 favourites, book review, review copy, YA fiction, 5, favourites, romance, contemporary

Check It Out @Amazon, @TheBookDepository, @GoodReads

Book Summary

Grief turned Jaycee into a daredevil, but can she dare to deal with her past? 

On the anniversary of her daredevil brother's death, Jaycee attempts to break into Jake's favourite hideout - the petrifying ruins of an insane asylum. Joined by four classmates, each with their own brand of dysfunction, Jaycee discovers a map detailing her brother's exploration and the unfinished dares he left behind. 

As a tribute to Jake, Jaycee vows to complete the dares, no matter how terrifying or dangerous. What she doesn't bargain on is her eccentric band of friends who challenge her to do the unthinkable: reveal the parts of herself that she buried with her brother.

Book Review

Book Review: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Standalone Novel
Publisher: Delacorte Books
Release Date: 1st September 2015
Read Date: 24th August 2015
Tagged Under: 2015 read, 3, book review, review copy, contemporary, YA-fiction, romance
Check It Out @Amazon, @TheBookDepository, @GoodReads

Book Summary

"My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I'm allergic to the world. I don't leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla. 

"But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He's tall, lean and wearing all black - black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly. 

"Maybe we can't predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It's almost certainly going to be a disaster."

Book Review

Book Review: To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

Series: To All the Boys I've Loved Before (Book #1)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster for Young Readers
Release Date: 14th April 2014
Read Date: 2nd January 2015
Tagged Under: 2015 read, contemporary, book review, 3, YA-fiction, romance
Check It Out @Amazon, @TheBookDepository, @Goodreads

Book Summary

Lara Jean keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. 

They aren't love letters that anyone else wrote for her, these are ones she's written. One for every boy she's ever loved - five in all. When she writes, she can pour out her heart and soul and say all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly Lara Jean's love life goes from imaginary to out of control.

Book Review: Reason and Romance by Jenn Young (Book Tour)

Reason and Romance by Jenn Young

Series: River Valley (Book #1)

Release Date: 9th December 2014

Read Date: 14th December 2014

Tagged under: 2014 read, 4, review copy, contemporary, romance, YA-fiction

Check it out @Amazon @GoodReads

Book Summary

Being stuck in the godforsaken desert is Adrian Blake's worse nightmare come true. Senior year is all about making fun memories. It's not about starting over at a new school and navigating a new Brady Bunch family. It's really not about living with a sexy, arrogant would-be stepbrother who knows how to push her buttons. 

Alex Montgomery is the very definition of a player. The only thing he commits to is a one night stand. He's exactly the kind of guy she hates. When she sleeps with him, it's the biggest mistake of her life. Now she can't stop thinking about him. Not at school. Not at home. 

But sometimes the best mistakes are the ones that you make over and over again...

Book Review: Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Standalone novel

Publisher: St Martin's Press

Published date: 26 February 2013

Read date: 21 November 2014

Tagged under: 2014 read, contemporary, new adult, romance, book review, 4

Check it out: @Goodreads @Amazon @The Book Depository

Two misfits... One extraordinary love.

Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough... Eleanor. 

Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises... Park. 

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds - smart enough to know that first love almost ever lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

Book Review: Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

Series: Anna and the French Kiss (Book #3) but can be read as a standalone
Publisher: Dutton
Release Date: 14 August 2014
Read Date: 23 August 2014
Tagged under: 2014 read, 2014 favourites, contemporary, YA-fiction, romance, 4
Buy at: Amazon, The Book Depository

Loves ignites in the City That Never Sleeps, but can it last?

Hopeless romantic Isla has had a crush on introspective cartoonist Josh since their first year at the School of America in Paris. And after a chance encounter in Manhattan over the summer, romance might be closer than Isla imagined. But as they begin their senior year back in France, Isla and Josh are forced to confront the challenges every young couple must face, including family drama, uncertainty about their college futures, and the very real possibility of being apart. 

Featuring cameos from fan-favourites Anna, Etienne, Lola and Cricket, this sweet and sexy story of true love - set against the stunning backdrops of New York City, Paris and Barcelona - is a swoonworthy conclusion to Stephanie Perkins' beloved series. 

Book Review [Sorta spoilery for the first two books. Though again, so is the blurb]

Book Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Source: Anna and the French Kiss
by Stephanie Perkins

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Series: Anna and the French Kiss (Book #1) - all can be read as standalones
Publisher: Dutton Jevenile
Release date: December 2 2010
Tagged under: 2014 read, 2014 favourites, contemporary, YA-fiction, romance, 4.5
Buy at: Amazon, The Book Depository

Paris was not where she wanted to be...

Anna was looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. So she's less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris - until she meets Etienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Etienne has it all... including a serious girlfriend. 

But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?

Book Review [Spoiler-Free]

This book, and Stephanie Perkins in general, have been recommended to me so many times that I finally bowed down to temptation and picked it up. Once I started the book, it was so hard to put it back down. I think I eventually read the book in the span of a day, finishing well into the early mornings (and knowing full well I had to get up early for work).

Yes, it is just that good.

When Anna's father told her he is packing her off to complete her senior year in Paris, she is not pleased. Everything that she knows and loves about her life - her little brother, her mother, her best friend, her potential boyfriend, her job - is back home is Atlanta whereas she is stuck in a foreign country where she doesn't even speak the language. Yet somehow, through her trials and tribulations, Anna manages to pick herself up, make some new friends and meet a seemingly perfect prince charming Etienne St. Clair who has everything - looks, charms, intelligence, and a serious girlfriend. Join Anna as she journeys through a turbulent year of highs and lows and find herself in a completely new country.

In short, this book is simply adorable. The story is incredibly easy to slip into and you feel as Anna does as she battles with the feeling of being utterly alone in a foreign city. She is a well-developed character and everything she does, including going to the bread table instead of facing the French chef, is so plausible - it feels like just the kind of thing a new expatriate would do. (I still remember the day I snuck out of primary school in my first year in Australia and walked all the way to my dad's workplace instead of facing the potential wrath of my teacher because I forgot my pencil case - I didn't realize at that time Australian teachers are not that strict)

And Etienne St. Clair. *sigh* What can I say about him? He's the perfect boy everybody wants to be stuck overseas with. He's friendly, charming and so helpful when you feel lost. I really appreciated the way Stephanie Perkins established the relationship between Etienne and Anna. There is no instant click or love at first sight. The pair spend a good portion of the book as really good friends, each with their own problems. Stephanie Perkins manages the perfect balance between chemistry and that dangerous zone of "unrealistic romance." There are countless beautiful yet understated moments in this book and I won't spoil them - you'll have to read the book to enjoy the experience yourself!

And perhaps that is one of the best features of this book - the ever changing shift of circumstances as the characters all continue to grow and the dynamics of their relationships change. Nothing is straight forward in this book and that's the way it should be - life is rarely easy and march on in a straight line. Despite the fact that yes, this is a very familiar premise, Stephanie Perkins manages to keep everything real and at the same time, interesting.

Overall: 4.5/5

This book definitely lives up to the hype. I think Maureen Johnson, who wrote the praise at the back of the book summarised it perfectly when she stated:

"Very sly. Very funny. Very romantic. You should date this book." 

Book Review: The Temptation of Lila and Ethan by Jessica Sorensen

The Temptation of Lila and Ethan by Jessica Sorensen

Series: The Secret (#3) - all can be read as standalones

Publisher: Sphere / Hachette Australia

Release Date: May 13 2014 (Already released in US on October 22 2013)

Tagged Under: 2014 read, contemporary, new adult, romance, review copy, 3.5

Pages: 320

Buy at: Amazon, The Book Depository

He's everything she never expected

Ella's best friend Lila has always been a good girl who likes pretty clothes and preppy boys. But ever since the first day she met Micha's best friend Ethan, she hasn't been able to stop thinking about him. 

Girls have always flocked to Ethan - but never princesses like Lila. And until Lila came into his life he never wanted them to. From the outside  the two couldn't seem more different, but somehow they have a connection deeper and more intense than anyone could have imagined. 

Can two people from such dramatically different worlds really have a love that lasts?

Book Review [Spoiler-Free]

The Temptation of Lila and Ethan started off the expected route. Girl from a privileged yet unloved background. Boy from the other side of the town with no real plan in life. Yet somehow, their worlds collide and they realize they have discovered something in each other that they have never expected.

But then Jessica Sorensen took the reader on a journey that was unexpected but magical just the same.

Beauty. Vanity. Perfection. Three words my mother adores. They mean more to her than her husband, her daughters, and life. Without these attributes, she thinks she'd be better off dead.

Lila appears like the perfect spoilt princess on the outside: designer clothes and accessories, perfect complexion with platinum blonde hair. Underneath it all, however, she is hiding some terrible scars. She is under constant pressure from her parents to pick up her game and walk down a path that they deem suitable. With no support from them, and her best friend out of town to pursue her own happiness, Lila is slowly spiraling out of control with her previously hidden habits.

I feel stuck. Trapped in the same place, unable to move. In a life I'm not sure I want, yet I can't seem to figure out how to change it.

Ethan, on the other hand, has his own demons to deal with. Having uprooted himself from his previous life in order to escape the hurt and regret, he still faces reminders from his past. He never thought he would consider a serious relationship - let alone one with someone like Lila. They were friends - some might even consider them best friends - why change the dynamics?

This is very much an emotionally driven story about two broken people from different walks of life meeting and finding solace in each other. Jessica Sorensen delivers very well-developed characters, each with more than their fair share of baggage. As the events slowly unfold and the characters reveal their story piece by piece, you as the reader do become engrossed in their lives and perhaps understand a bit better how they turned out the way they did.

A big theme in this book is about letting go of the burden of the past in order to grab onto the opportunities of the future. And it is clear how these characters' past have shaped their present and why it might be difficult for them to let go. While some readers may roll their eyes and find Lila's problems all first-world, I really did relate with her character and appreciate how psychological neglect and abuse have affected the decisions she made. Yes, some of them are pretty stupid bordering on unrealistic, yet we see or hear on the news people like her in real life all the time. 

Ethan, as well, is such a sweet well thought-out character and I know more than a few hearts will melt as the story progresses. And trust me, there are plenty of romantic scenes to keep readers happy and their hearts aflutter. Warning though, there are some pretty explicit scenes in here that may not be suitable for younger YA-readers. 

Also there are certain adult themes in this story that may upset or bother some readers if they are not forewarned. I felt that is the real letdown of this entire story is that although the issue of sexual assault and rape is repeatedly mentioned in the book, it is never dealt with in the appropriate manner. Maybe Sorensen is trying to raise awareness by showing how poor the general public's perception of this issue is. But nevertheless, this may strike a nerve with some readers.

Overall: 3.5/5

It is a very enjoyable read and I really did relate to the characters. And I really did enjoy Sorensen's style of writing. I think the reason I'm not bumping this story any higher is because while enjoyable, nothing particularly stood out to me to make this an extremely memorable book. I enjoyed it, I'll probably go on and complete the Secret series and I'll recommend it to friends looking for contemporary new adult romance. But it didn't have that wow factor to make it a solid read or make it onto my favourites shelf.

Disclaimer: A complimentary copy of the ebook was provided to me by the author and publisher in exchange of an honest review. The views expressed above are entirely my own and are in, no way, affected by the source of this book.

Book Review: Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski

Source: Don't Even Think About It
by Sarah Mlynowski

Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski

Series: Don't Even Think About It (Book #1)

Publisher: Orchard Books

Release Date: May 1 2014 [Already released in US on March 11 2014]

Tagged under: 2014 read, review copy, YA-fiction, contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, 3

Pages: 338

Buy at: Amazon, The Book Depository

This is the story of how we became freaks...

When Class 10B got their flu shots, they expected some side effects. Maybe a sore arm. Maybe a headache. 

They definitely didn't expect to get telepathy. 

But suddenly they could hear what everyone was thinking. Their friends. Their teachers. Their parents. Now they all know that Tess has a crush on her best friend, Teddy. That Mackenzie cheated on Cooper. That Nurse Carmichael used to be a stripper. Some of them will thrive. Some of them will break. None of them will ever be the same.

Book Review [Relatively Spoiler-Free]

The premise of this book is what immediately grabbed my attention. A whole class of students who are suddenly privy to every thought that comes into your head - it gives a whole new meaning to thinking out loud. Secrets lose their definition. Skeletons in the closet come tumbling out. I was interested to find out how these kids would react to and utilise their telepathic powers. 

It is something we all do without much thought. Every year, with the flu season looming over the horizon, we all line up to get our vaccination. The students in Class 10B did so - some with less enthusiasm than others - but once the needle is in and a band-aid is slapped over the site, they all trickled away from the nurse's office thinking that's the end of it.

Except it wasn't.

Slowly, over the next couple of days, the kids started hearing thoughts from everyone around them. Whether they were benign comments like the tacos might look like cat barf, but they taste really good to serious bombshells such as spilling out the fact that you cheated on your boyfriend over the summer.

This book is a fairly easy read and is obviously targeting the younger end of the YA-market. The narration can be a bit odd but if you read with an open mind, you might find yourself actually enjoying it. For me, I found the we-narration of the book very interesting and potentially one of the highlights of this book. My favourite section is still the opening chapter where as a reader, you're trying to pin-point who's the narrator and then the author hits you with this -

Maybe you think Olivia is telling this story. Or Mackenzie, or Cooper, or someone else in our home-room you haven't met. It could be any of us. But it's not. It's all of us. We're telling you the story together. It is the only way we know how. This is the story of how we became freaks. 

It's how a group of Is became a we.

The book starts out strong and it's highly entertaining journeying with the characters as they all, one at a time, come into their powers. Their reactions are humorous (and juvenile at times, which is why I think the book is geared towards younger readers) and they realize straight away that they must come up with a plan of some sort in order to deal with this. The fact that they come together and discuss things and make decisions as a group makes it feel like a collective effort. 

Amongst all the collective thoughts, the reader never loses sight of the fact that these characters are all individuals that have their own problems to deal with. Mackenzie has to deal with the fact that now every mind-reader in her class knows that she cheated on her boyfriend. Tess is desperate to figure out if Teddy, her best friend who she has been crushing on for ages, likes her or not. 

What prevented me from enjoying the book more is the fact that as the story progresses, the majority of the characters stayed where they are. Apart from a couple of individuals who matured and grew from the experience, the rest were too busy caught up in their own issues. Pi, the ring leader, is sick of being number two in the school and used her abilities to her advantage on a test, yet she gets disgruntled when other telepaths used the same ability on her. There is a lot of how can this help me, revealing an ugly and petty side to having telepathy. In addition, the ending is a bit abrupt, leaving the story open for a sequel. 

Overall 3/5

Overall, it's still a fun easy story. It is not what I expected it to be when I initially started but I enjoyed it nevertheless. I definitely think it's more for an younger audience. 

Disclaimer: A complimentary advanced copy of the ebook was provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The views expressed above are entirely my own and are, in no way, affected by the source of this book.

Book Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Source: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Standalone book
Publisher: St Martin's Griffin
Release date: 10th September 2013
Tagged under: 2014 read, contemporary, chick lit, YA-fiction, romance, 2014 favourites
Pages: 438
Buy at: Amazon

Fanfiction, College, Family and First Love

Cath is a Simon Snow fan. 

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan... But for Cath, being a fan is her life - and she's really good at it. She and her twin, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it's what got them through their mother leaving. 

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere. 

Cath's sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can't let go. She doesn't want to. 

Now that they're going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn't want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She's got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend; a fiction-writing professor who thinks fanfiction is the end of the civilized world; a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words...and she can't stop worrying about her dad, who's loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

 

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

Review [Spoiler-free]

I've heard so much good things about this book that I've been dying to read it for ages. But with so many books on my currently-reading & TBR lists, I didn't get around to it until now. And oh my goodness, it's amazing. 

There are some contemporary young adult books that I read because they are light and fun. There are some I read so that I can live vicariously through the characters, knowing that my university days weren't like that but wouldn't it have been fun if they were. And then there's this book - which just gets me on so many levels that while reading it, I felt like I have been literally living a life similar to Cath's. 

Like Cath, I had to make some pretty big changes in order to attend university. I was 17 and alone in the country with my parents halfway around the other side of the world. Like Cath, I literally spent most of my high school spare times reading fiction and then, whenever the mood struck, reading and writing fanfiction. The move to university seemed daunting and there were days where all I wanted to do was go back to my room in my shared house, curl up with a good book and just ignore the rest of the world for awhile.

Cath Avery, for me, is a soul sister I never knew I had. She just feels so real. Everything she thinks and do are just so relatable. If you've ever had an awkward moment or incident in your life or if, like me, you're just socially awkward in general, then you would definitely feel like you share a kindred spirit with her too. Cath is not perfect - she freaks out sometimes, she makes bad decisions sometimes and she lets people walk over her or degrade her and her interests without retaliation. If you tell me that you've never done any of those things in your life, there is no way I would believe you. 

As I progress through this book, I literally get sucked into Cath's world and it almost feels like I'm living her every step. This is not a book filled with tension and drama yet its simplicity is part of its charm. In Fangirl, obstacles and bumps are thrown in at random - just as how life works. Things happen to Cath along the way and you observe her deal with it in her own manner. Sometimes it isn't the right way. Sometimes her decisions aren't exactly the smart ones. But then again, Cath isn't going to change magically overnight and neither are any of us. Through examining her and her life, I can't help but identify some of those similar quirks and tendencies in myself.

And the romance! I won't spoil you regarding the who, the when, the how etc. because I think this is a really good example of how good romance can be set up without a) being the entire focus of the story and b) without being insta-love that it feels like it would only happen in books. I think possibly the best word I can use to sum up Fangirl is that everything about it is just so real. You read this and bask in the feels and you know that this could happen in real life.

However, there are a couple of minor issues I did have with the book that prevented me from giving it a perfect score. While I do enjoy reading and writing fanfiction (perhaps not to the same degree of success as Cath but at times, certainly to similar degrees of enthusiasm), Cath's particular love of Simon and Baz (the two guys in her thought bubble on the front cover) is one aspect of fandoms that I still struggle to get into/comprehend. I don't have issues with it or homosexuality, but just like in Harry Potter how I fail to identify a romantic link between Sirius & Remus or Harry & Draco, I come across such fanfiction works and I just can't see how these pairings would fit into the canon universe. So when Cath went gushing about Simon and Baz, those are the only moments I felt like she was talking in a foreign language to me. But then again, that's fandom for you - you can move the characters around and play with them however you like.

While on the subject of fandom, I'm not sure I'm 100% comfortable with Rowell's depiction of what being a fangirl is. Cath's comment about how, sometimes, in some ways, she writes better than the actual author. That comment, no matter how padded it was with Cath's admiration for the author of the original work, just grates me a little bit. Another aspect was something that happened in the book with her professor who, as you can tell in the book summary, isn't a supporter of fanfiction. Without going into it in too much detail, I just can't see any professors being as lenient as Cath's.

However, these issues are such minor aspects and didn't detract from my enjoyment of this book at all.

And the ending! Everything came neatly together without being fairy tale perfect. It was absolutely heartwarming, seeing how Cath has progressed through her freshman year and grown in the process. The subtlety with which Rowell summed up everything is something I really admired about this book.

Overall: 4/5

I absolutely love this book. As soon as I finished the last page, I knew this will very likely become one of my 2014 favourites. I highly recommend this to pretty much everyone.