Almost Grown-up

Title: Something Like Fate

Author: Susane Colasanti

Contemporary YA

Published May 4th 2010 by Viking Juvenile

Goodreads summary:

Best friends Lani and Erin couldn’t be more different. Lani’s reserved and thoughtful; Erin’s bubbly and outgoing. Lani likes to do her own thing; Erin prefers an entourage. There’s no possible way they could be interested in the same guy.

So when Erin starts dating Jason, Lani can’t believe she feels such a deep connection with him– and it may be mutual. The more Lani fights it, the more certain she feels that it’s her fate to be with Jason. But what do you do when the love of your life is the one person you can’t have?

Review:

I so badly wanted to like this book. The plotline reminded me of a YA version of Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin, which is one of my absolute favorite novels, so I picked this up with not a little excitement.

Unfortunately, I found little to love. At least there was the slight interest in astrology that both Lani and I seemed to share, and enough of an interest to see where the overarching plot and subplots may wind up to make me keep reading, but other than that…

Lani’s style of narration irritated me, particularly when she related instances of dialogue. She presented things as “And then I was like ‘yada yada Jason.’” or “So Erin’s like ____”. Total honesty? Sure, I’ve told a story like that when speaking– as have most people that I know.  But in print, it I find that it reads awkwardly and just distanced me from Lani over and over again.

While I found a lot of the characters flat, none bothered me so much as Jason. I didn’t see what was wonderful enough about him to draw both Lani and Erin, nor did I feel the “amazing connection” that he and Lani were supposed to share.

There was a time when I might have actually liked this book, but I think that I wanted it and its characters to be more complex than they were.

Overall rating: 2/5. Unfortunately, this was just not for me. I believe this one is best aimed for the lower age group of spectrum of YA readers, but I’m still curious about Colasanti’s other work, so I may have to check it out.

Title: The Fault in Our Stars

Author: John Green

Contemporary YA

Published January 10th 2012 by Dutton Juvenile

Goodreads summary:

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs… for now.

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

Review:

This can’t be appropriately called a review. How can I properly review a book that touched me as deeply as The Fault in Our Stars did? I even considered making a special format purely for this book before I decided to stick with the tried and true.

Looking for Alaska was the only John Green book that I’d read before. And don’t get me wrong. I loved it. It was beautifully written and literary and I think I summed it up with the word “wow.” But it didn’t touch me the way that The Fault in Our Stars did. I just– I don’t know how to say it better than other people have said it already. That Jodi Picoult blurb on the front? 100% agree.

I had a favorite quote from this book that I think sums up how I felt about it: “I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, then all at once.” I was falling in love with this book– with Hazel, with Augustus Waters, with how they interpret and describe the world around them. And before I knew it, I was in. There was no getting out of how I felt about the book and the characters and it all culminated in about 100 pages of mascara running down my faces as I huddled in my bed with a tissue and this book.

I always vaguely want to thank authors for writing– because obviously I love to read. But I want to thank John Green for writing something that made me feel ALL THE THINGS.

Overall rating: 5/5. Like my initial 1 sentence Goodreads review said: “John Green gets ALL the stars.”

Title: The Dirt

Author: Lori Culwell

Contemporary YA

Published November 11th 2011 by Booktrope Editions

Summary:

Lucy Whitley cannot wait to get out of Palm Desert. It’s not a place for a frizzy-haired science nerd, particularly when her fashion-obsessed older sister Sloane is the head of a clique of pretty girls who rule the school — and practically the whole town. Fortunately, life is about to change forever. Lucy’s dad is getting re-married, and then she can transfer to a boarding school in Connecticut, escaping all the mean girls and the endless whispers about the Whitley family scandal. Everything is going to be perfect — as long as the wedding goes smoothly.

Review:

The first words that come to mind when I think about The Dirt are “guilty pleasure.”

As the summary details, Lucy Whitley is desperate to get out of the desert and away to an east coast boarding school. But luckily, the home stretch is in sight. As long as her father’s wedding goes smoothly. Unfortunately, things don’t exactly go as planned when the long-lost Whitley sister shows up and spoils the entire wedding and Lucy’s life by extension.

In a way, I was reminded of the film Mean Girls while reading this. Lucy starts out joining her older sister Sloane’s clique, the PGs (Pretty Girls) as a way to feed information to her best friends, but finds herself sucked in to the cool factor. The clothes! The parties! The schemes! THE MAKEOVER MONTAGE! And you know? Those things were fun. But I’ll be honest that there were a few things I had trouble getting past.

For starters, I absolutely could not connect with Lucy– or any of the characters for that matter. She frequently describes herself as the ugly sister, but at one point she says that she looks a little like Kirsten Dunst, so I couldn’t see how that could be true. There are a lo-o-ot of celebrity references and brand-dropping that I didn’t find necessary and to be honest, they took me out of the story.

And one nit-picky moment? I noticed two paragraphs that were basically the same ones rephrased.

The Dirt was an easy read– very quick at only 205 pages– and I think that it will appeal to fans of Sara Shepard’s Pretty Little Liars and The Lying Game series of books.

Overall rating: 2.5/5. Not really for me, but I can see it appealing to a certain part of the market. It was different from my usual sort of read.

Camp Wordsmith is a weekly venture in which Angel of Mermaid Vision Books, Christa of Hooked on Books, and I post about our work in writing over the past week. We’ll also discuss various issues to do with craft. The goals here are simple. We want to write, so we’re making a public effort before all of our followers and readers to do so. And by the end? We hope to make it a little closer to our dreams of being published.

Week 5
Stage: First draft and planning
Week’s Word Count: 2500
Total Word Count: 8100

I was shooting for 3,000 words again, but still, I’m fairly happy with my progress this week. I had to give in last night and go to bed before 3K. I’m finding that Fridays are by far my most productive days since I know that I have to report in with a word count on Saturdays, so I’m very glad to be a part of this project. Accountability definitely motivates me! I’m getting to a point in my story where I’m growing more excited about it. I’m liking my characters more now, and it feels like the story is coming alive.

Still, while right now the goal is to get words down, I know that there are some things that I will have to majorly reconstruct during revisions. But at least by then, I’ll have a starting point!

I’m sticking with 3,00o words as a goal for the week, especially since I’m going out of town for a few days and I’m one of those people who is SUPER unproductive on a vacation. Check in next week to see how I do!

Check out how Angel and Christa have fared this week!

Title: Why We Broke Up

Author: Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket)

Contemporary YA

Published December 27th 2011 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Goodreads summary:

I’m telling you why we broke up, Ed. I’m writing it in this letter, the whole truth of why it happened.

Min Green and Ed Slaterton are breaking up, so Min is writing Ed a letter and giving him a box. Inside the box is why they broke up. Two bottle caps, a movie ticket, a folded note, a box of matches, a protractor, books, a toy truck, a pair of ugly earrings, a comb from a motel room, and every other item collected over the course of a giddy, intimate, heartbreaking relationship. Item after item is illustrated and accounted for, and then the box, like a girlfriend, will be dumped.

Review:

First off, I would just like to say: PROPS to the design team at Little, Brown who put this book together. It’s probably the old yearbook nerd in me coming out to play, but I spent a lot of time admiring the product itself before setting in to read. I loved everything from the color (COLOR, guys! Color printing is AWESOME and at least for yearbook staffs, EXPENSIVE) illustrations in between each chapter to the thick glossy paper it was printed on to the heft of the book. It was heavy. IT WAS GLORIOUS.

Ahem.

But you probably want to know how the story was, yes?

I was really surprised by how much I liked Why We Broke Up given the fact that I’ve read a lot of so, so reviews for it and I kind of thought the summary sounded melodramatic.

Here’s why I thought it worked:

In a word? Min. The main character, Min, is melodramatic. She has a way of getting caught up in movies and fantasies that she concocts for herself that I could totally relate to. She rattles on about everything that bothers her in her letter in a swirly, twirly tumble of feelings that I can totally relate to.

That swirly, twirly tumble is what I adored. Min just spills over with emotion, with everything that she feels. It’s unchecked and even though you know how this book is going to end, even though the relationship is almost a blink from October to November, it’s an intense one, and you watch it with sympathy. Even if you even think she should never have dated Ed in the first place. You won’t, by the way, think she should. If I can say that I loved the book in a word and it’s Min, I can say I hated Ed in a word and that word is tool.

Maybe I loved the book because she reminds me of myself. I have the very same sort of momentos of boys that I liked and even kind of “dated,” but I wasn’t brave enough to let them go, holding onto them for the day that I can look back and smile.

If you’ve ever thought about writing that long “screw you” letter to your ex, you might enjoy this one. God knows I did.

Overall rating: 4/5. I didn’t expect to be as glued to the pages of Why We Broke Up as I was. But I started and finished reading it in almost one sitting, even dragging it into the kitchen while I got my dinner ready.

Title: Catching Jordan

Author: Miranda Kenneally

Contemporary YA

Published December 1st 2011 by Sourcebooks Fire

Goodreads summary:

What girl doesn’t want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day out? Jordan Woods isn’t just surrounded by hot guys, though – she leads them as the captain and quarterback on her high school football team. They all see her as one of the guys, and that’s just fine. As long as she gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university. But now there’s a new guy in town who threatens her starring position on the team… and has her suddenly wishing to be seen as more than just a teammate.

Review:

Helloooooo protagonist that I loved. You hear that Jordan Woods? I love you. I want to be your best friend. We can braid each others hair and do our nails– erm. I mean we can drink Slurpees and you can try to teach me about football. And we can even curse like you so love to do. Please continue being awesome.

Jordan Woods is used to being one of the guys. She plays football, she’s an All-American player, and the captain of her team. Her best friends are all boys. Her dad, an NFL player, is the only one who doesn’t seem to get who she is: a serious athlete. He wants her to be a lady. And Jordan’s never had any urge to do that girly stuff like dress up until a new guy joins the team.

And I was right there with her at first. Ty is gorgeous and sweet and is paying attention to Jordan in a non-douchebaggy way. He’s ignoring the mean cheerleader that gets a kick out of bad-talking Jordan. And he treats Jordan like the great player she is. He was winning me over just as surely as he won her.

But then… can I just say that I totally saw this love triangle coming? But I could not have been happier about how it went. Oh HENRY. I could have cheered (erm– thrown a Hail Mary? I don’t know enough about sports to make jokes like these). I had a big stinking crush on him. I thought for a while that Jordan would just stick with Ty, but love that she turned to her biffle in the end. Though, if I’m honest, I didn’t think making Henry into a manslut was an utter necessity.

Jordan has real and enduring friendships with her teammates, which I also loved. Yes, Henry’s a bit of a stinker part of the time for obvious reasons, but JJ and Carter are awesome guys and totally realistic. Plus, Jordan manages to finally connect with some girls as well.

The storyline outside of the immediate team was also wonderful. Jordan is trying to prove herself to her dad and the collegiate football community. She wants them to see that she is more than just a gender label, grows to be more than a player and finds outside interests, and it all comes full-circle to an ending that gave me the warm fuzzies.

Overall rating: 4/5. A wonderful contemporary read that made me eager to keep reading. I can hardly wait for the companion novels.

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and allows book bloggers to spotlight releases that we are greatly anticipating.

This week, my Waiting on Wednesday pick is:

Seraphina

by Rachel Hartman

Goodreads summary:

Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty’s anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.

Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen’s Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.

Why I’m Waiting on it:

A little song for you, dedicated to fantasy: “I love you, always, forever. Near or far, close and together. Everywhere, I will be with you–”

–Ahem. Yes, I am a fantasy lover. And Seraphina has been blurbed by one of my ALL-TIME FAVORITES.

That’s right! Tamora Pierce.

Even if Pierce hadn’t blurbed it though? I think it sounds A-MAH-ZING.

Seraphina’s expected publication date is July 10th 2012 by Random House Children’s Books.

What are you Waiting on?

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. It’s a fun way to get to know fellow bloggers while simultaneously enjoying the fun of a list! And what’s more, a list about BOOKS! What could be better?

January 31: Top Ten Books I Think Would Make Great Book Club Picks

Hooray! I’m actually in a YA book club so all of my picks are from that genre, but this week’s topic just made me happy (and Ryan did too of course). I hope I really do get to discuss these books with them someday.

1. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher- This book really makes you think about how you treat people and interact with them. I think it’s something everyone should read despite the sensitive subject matter.

2. Looking for Alaska by John Green- Does it sound too pretentious to say that John Green is one of the great literary voices of our generation? TOO BAD. He is and Looking for Alaska showcases that beautifully. I have a strong suspicion that if I’d managed to get around to reading The Fault in Our Stars it would have made this list too.

3. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins- Full disclosure… I mostly want to squeal over Etienne with the girls in my book club because they are SUCH a fun group and I think we’d have an awesome time talking about the wonderfulness that is Stephanie Perkins’s writing.

4. The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen- Oh this book just does things to my heart. I think the theme of grief is a really powerful one in this novel but Dessen gives you a swoony boy and funny moments to boot. We wouldn’t have any shortage to of things to talk about.

5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins- Granted, discussion on this book and series has basically been done to death, but I don’t think I’d ever run out of questions to ask and things to discuss in it.

6. The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson- A fantasy book that has the key to my heart, I think The Girl of Fire and Thorns has a wonderful main character who experiences amazing growth and gets comfortable and powerful in her own skin. Body image is a powerful theme in this one.

7. Divergent by Veronica Roth- Love for this book. Tons. Tris has to constantly strive to prove herself in the Dauntless faction. In the end, it’s clear that she’s not just daring, which is where the emphasis seems to be, but she has true bravery and I don’t think that the two should be confused.

8. Cinder by Marissa Meyer- Meyer takes the old version of Cinderella and turns it on its ear in this sci-fi retelling. Cinder doesn’t need a man to save her because she’s bad-ass enough on her own to do it herself. Feminism FTW.

9. Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce- Another fairy tale retelling (I’ve a bit of a fondness for them). But it’s not just a fairy tale retelling. It’s not even just a fairy tale retelling with werewolves. There are themes of love and family and the question of loyalty to sisters to consider as well.

10. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld- Holy shnikeys. Another dystopian makes my list (what a shocker). But Westerfeld has an amazing society built into this series. The idea that everyone undergoes a mandatory operation to make them “pretty.” The idea that our society (we are the “Rusties,” after all) essentially destroys itself. Are we heading down those roads? I think it could spark some really interesting discussions.

Which books do you want to talk about with your book club?

Title: Carrie Goes Off The Map

Author: Phillipa Ashley

Adult romance

Published December 1st 2011 by Sourcebooks Landmark

Goodreads summary:

Carrie Brownhill, recently dumped by her fiancé, is determined to get away from men forever. Yet she finds herself stuck in a VW camper van careening through the English countryside with the intriguing Matt Landor, MD, and he seems to be just what the doctor ordered for a broken heart…

Review:

Romantic comedy and chick-lit used to be my genres of choice, so I’m not sure exactly how I let it become so long since reading my last one. I’m not about to hop off the Young Adult train, but Carrie Goes Off the Map was a nice change from the usual.

Carrie is all set to get married to her fiance, Huw. He, unfortunately, has different ideas and dumps her on the night of his stag party. Months later, Carrie hears that Huw has rebounded quite easily and is getting married– that very day. So she hatches a plan for a getaway on a camper trip, though Huw’s old friend Matt wasn’t who she originally planned to bring along.

Phillipa Ashley has a terrifically funny voice. I found myself giggling out loud at Carrie, her antics, and her nicknames for people and at Matt’s behavior– there’s one scene when he’s shouting at the television in particular that stood out in my mind.

Also, confession time? I have a total weakness for romances where a character is obviously trying to fight off an attraction to another and Carrie Goes Off the Map fits the bill in that respect. Matt’s a pretty stand-up guy: a sexy doctor (rawr), but he saw Carrie in one of her worst moments and she seems to determined to hate him. I loved when she finally gave up on that. Yes, romantic comedies can be a bit predictable, but who doesn’t enjoy the ride of a romance?

I really liked how both Carrie and Matt don’t want to jump into a relationship to start off. Okay, I suppose really I liked that Carrie didn’t jump into one. Matt’s a little bit more of a “wild stallion” (and yes, I am as much in disbelief that I tried to pull off using that term as you are.). Carrie just got out of a really serious relationship, and she understandably explores some options first.

Overall rating: 4/5. Overall, a romance that left me grinning with the added bonus of Brits. I’ll be happy to explore more by Phillipa Ashley in the future.