Book Review: How to Love

Title: How to Love

Author: Katie Cotugno

Pages: 389

Genre: Contemporary, Romance

Published: 3rd of October 2013 by Quercus

Source: Self purchased

Synopsis: 

This is a love story. But it’s not what you think. This is not a first kiss, or a first date. This is not love at first sight. This is a boy and a girl falling in messy, unpredictable, thrilling love. This is the complicated route to happiness that follows.

This is real. This is life. This is how to love.

BEFORE:

Reena has loved Sawyer LeGrande for as long as she can remember. But he’s never noticed her, until one day… he does. They fall in messy, complicated love. But then Sawyer disappears from their humid Florida town, leaving a devastated – and pregnant – Reena behind.

AFTER:

Three years later and there’s a new love in Reena’s life: her daughter Hannah. But just as swiftly and suddenly as he disappeared, Sawyer turns up again.

After everything that’s happened, can Reena really let herself love Sawyer again?

Review: this review contains slight spoilers, so read at your own discretion

I believe the most important thing to remember or know about this book, is that it is full of horrific flaws, that you may or may not forgive. I think its about finding a balance between all the terrible and the not terrible within this book.

I feel like people either decide this is a hit or a miss of a book. I somehow fell into the middle of that hit and miss nature, because while I did enjoy this, I knew it wasn't an entirely healthy book, and I will happily mention or point that out. I know why people dislike this book, and believe me I agree with you, but I still liked it.

Time for the actual review.

This book had such an amazing promise, I loved the opening chapters, as you really delve into Reena (who I didn't connect that dots to was actually Serena, oops..). The more this book progressed the less I liked it, but I think that had to do with the self destruction of a certain character, and that character leading another astray.

I think with this book, you really get a good look into how different people function when put in a certain position, and then having that situation flipped and then torn out of proportion.

There are so many things I like and I don't like about this book, so lets make a list:

Bad:

~ The situations that Reena was put in, no thrust upon, when the other party (person) willingly knew that Reena disliked crowds.

~ Sawyer. Like him as a person 100% equaled bad, less so in the after parts. But really, the amount of times I just really wanted to shake him so hard, that he'd puke or something is just incredible. The way he destroyed himself, and then the people around him. What he did to Reena, is just NO. I think rather than Sawyer's name meaning "person who cuts wood", it should be person who destroys families, because he just UP AND LEFT. He did so many horrible things, and he just believes he can get away with every horrible thing he's done in the past after being back in town for a few weeks.

~ Reena's and Sawyer's family and the way they treated Reena in those two years, was just so horrible

~ How Reena changed for Sawyer

~ I think I could continue with more bad, but I don't feel like it.

Good:

~ The fact that Sawyer GREW UP. I think it really did show/provide him with a character arc, I just wish with him growing up, he was less of a meanie.

~ Hannah. Hannah is just a beautiful bundle of toodlerness.

~ Shelby. I want a best friend like Shelby. That is really all you need to know about Shelby, is that she is like so awesome.

~ I liked the ending, though I believe having like a little novella about after the novel would be a really great thing.

~ That Reena and Sawyer were together in the past and the now. Even though they were dysfunctional, you knew they were going to end up together, because really they just fit. Sawyer just needed to grow up.

Overall I think this is a good novel, I enjoyed it, even with all the parts I disliked.

PS: I bought the orange cover, because I looked at it on here, and it looked like a blood orangey colour, and it arrived and its like FLURO ORANGE/PINK, what the hell. Like I am so disappointed by that, but it has like such a pretty spine.

:)

Rating: ★★★★

Howdy

Hello lovely people of the interwebs, I am sorry that I haven't been around in a while, I guess the new year brought a few new things to catch up on within my actual life.

I decided on a few bookish new year resolutions, so I guess these are my goals for the year:

• Read at least 50 books
• Read lots of books I own that I haven't read
• Try to read a book starting with EVERY letter in the alphabet
• Review more books!!!
• HAVE FUN WITH WHAT I READ

Those are basically my bookish goals, what are yours?

Book Review: Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Portes

Title: Anatomy of a Misfit

Author: Andrea Portes

Pages: 336

Genre: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Romance

Published: September 2nd 2014 by HarperTeen

Source:  Self Purchased

Synopsis: 

Outside, Anika Dragomir is all lip gloss and blond hair - the third most popular girl in school. Inside, she's a freak: a mix of dark thoughts, diabolical plots, and, if local chatter is to be believed, vampire DNA (after all, her father is Romanian). But she keeps it under wraps to maintain her social position. One step out of line and Becky Vilhauer, first most popular girl in school, will make her life hell.

Review:

I picked this book up on an ABSOLUTE whim, I was stuck in town for another few hours with nothing to read and decided I’ll just go buy a book, and I did. I chose this book, because the cover is gorgeous, but the thing that originally drew me in was the title. I think growing up and being a teenager you either think of yourself as a misfit or are labelled one.

The opening dedication/author's note, made me decide that this book was going to provide feels, and it did. But not the way I thought it was going to.

There are so many underlying factors that are bad and horrible about this book, that can't really be excused. But I guess since I have never lived nor been to Nebraska I cannot really say what it is like there. But what I now know, is that is a racist sexist state among other things.

This book follows Anika who is a 15 year old girl who is often referred to as an immigrant. Anika is the third most popular girl in school, and that is where she will stay (as she cannot become more popular than she already is, though she can always lose her popularity as is frequently mentioned throughout the novel).

The main thing, I think to keep in perspective with this book is that this is the brain of a 15 year old girl, who most likely has completely different priorities than you do/ or did. Anika is what I’d call self-prioritised, if something is going to risk her popularity she’ll either stop it, conceal it, or say her mum made her do it etc.

Back to the novel. The book opens on a short chapter that is repeated yet altered and elongated throughout the whole novel. It starts with ‘Peddling fast fast fast, this is the moment.’ And you as a reader are thinking WHAT is “this” moment, because you know that this chapter is taking place in the book’s future (a giveaway of this fact, is that the font is italicised), and as the book unfolds and you get more of this future moments snippets, you may realise the direction they are taking or maybe not. I found for me, that these chapters shaped my perception on Anika’s character, because she is clearly trying to reach for something that matters deeply to her and yet is just out of her reach.

For me I really liked the writing style because it did really sound like a fifteen year olds brain and I really appreciated all the likes in there haha. And I do like this book, but there are things that I just don’t like about this book. (Which I won’t get into, since I don’t want to spoil anything).

Personally I think this was a brilliantly chosen book title, because when you think misfit, you don’t automatically think popular. Because misfits have been stereotyped to certain groups of people and sometimes it just doesn’t click that people aren’t always their exteriors.

Anatomy of a Misfit, to me is the dissection of a girl who may seem “popular” from the outside, but contains various layers within, some not as pretty as others. I think it really embodies the fact that everyone isn’t who they seem, and if you only pay close attention or care enough to remove cleverly thought out pieces/layers you will find the actual person.

I am giving this book three and a half stars (it would be more, but alas spoilery reasons). I think it is a great book for discovering the varying types of misfits. And I just enjoyed this book.

One of my favourite parts can be found page 256 of the international edition:

He makes no sense. It’s like he switched gears in like two seconds. Without warning. Like he turned from Prince Charming into a wet noodle.

This part really highlighted to me how not nice some guys are, especially when there are other much worthy boys in the book. *cough* I am not telling you who, go read it!!

PS: My book cover is pealing, like the cover is peeling off, as if it were paint. Is it meant to do this harperteen? 

Rating: ★★★ 3.5 stars

Top 5 Wednesday (one day late, oops)

Top 5 Wednesday is created and run by Mindy and Lainey and can be found here.

This weeks topic is TERRIBLE COVERS.

Please please please remember these are my PERSONAL opinions! For this I am only going to use editions of books I own or have read! (these are also in no particular order).




1. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld. I just don't understand nor like this cover, after loving the uglies cover, I was pretty shocked to pick this up next. This cover is bland, I personally don't think it matches the series very well. Plus I do not like the colour tones they used.




2. Lick by Kylie Scott. I laughed when I saw this cover. It just doesn't have that total New Adult romancey feel to me. Good thing it was on ale at Kobo otherwise I wouldn't have found my guilty pleasure NA series. But back to the cover, yeah I guess you could say this "looks" like the male character, but really it doesn't. This guy does not look like he is some highly sought over rock star to me.




3. Return to Paradise by Simone Elkeles. This is just a hideous cover. After how the previous book ended, I really don't appreciate this cover ONE BIT. Plus that is not a nice shot, it makes this almost "kiss" look gross and awkward, plus I really have no clue why they used a lake as a background..




4. Sprout by Dale Peck. I get that the colour green suits the book (since the guy has like green hair). BUT I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THAT FONT AT ALL. This cover had SO much potential from the cover. The font also looks like someone photoshopped it from somewhere else. I just think this book deserves a better cover, that is this.





5. The Gathering Dark by Leigh Bardugo (AKA: Shadow and Bone). I firstly want to say ALINA'S HAIR IS BROWN. LET ME REPEAT. B-R-O-W-N! I understand the whole "cape" going on, but I think they should have chosen a better colour palette (personally). I actually don't mind this cover, and I believe the only reason its on this list is because of the title.


Have a lovely day :)

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Were Hard For Me To Read

I decided that I would start participating in these challenges (even though I am starting a day late:S)

These challenges are created by Broke and Bookish and can be found HERE. 

September 30th: Top Ten Books That Were Hard For Me To Read (because difficult of book, subject matter, because it was cringeworthy-- however you want to interpret)

LETS BEGIN! (in no particular order):

1: Dirty Little Secret - Jennifer Echols. I found this book difficult to read because of the main male love interest, and the protagonists family (who were just horrible to her). It was written well, I just did not like like the plot or the characters and this made it difficult for me to read. 

2. September Girls - Bennett Madison. I think the main thing that made this book hard to read was how females are written within it. They are all blonde, big boobs big butts skinny everywhere else, and you can't forget to mention that they are all called ho's. 

3. The Gathering - Isobelle Carmody. This was just SO HARD to read. I think it was because I was fourteen, and there was animal torture among other things. This is also the first book I remember crying over. I was so upset, and it is why I will never be able to read another of her books because this destroyed me completely (even though Isobelle is an amazing author). Sorry.

4. Stolen - Lucy Christopher. This was just a really confronting topic, it was crazy and insane but something that is 100% plausible. And that is why I found it difficult to read, because what would I have done in Gemma's shoes?

5. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho. This book is so short, but yet it took me half a year to read. Call me lazy, but I found this book difficult to read and so I would read like 5 pages and would then put it down for another month. In the end I thought it was an enlightening book, but one that was incredibly tough to read. 

6. From Ashes - Molly McAdams. This book. Just no. Read my review if you want to know more. But if there was a book i'd want to drown this would be it.

7. Such a Pretty Girl - Laura Wiess. I think this book, made me realise the police/family/etc aren't always there to help you. And that sucks, and this book sucked (because of the events that occur within it). And when you realise that, that is a pretty painful thing to know.

8. The Burn Journals - Brent Runyon. This memoir was crushing. It was a very fast read, but it was painful to read, yet important to read at the same time. 

9. Life After Death - Damien Echols. I think if I was put on death row for a crime I didn't commit, I may have taken a different route than what Damien took. This book was an eye opener, and sad because it would have been so hard to live more years on death row than you had outside of prison.

10. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger. The first time I read this, it was for school, I was 16, and me and Holden were not two peas in a pod to put it lightly. Therefore it took me a while to read this tiny book. But the older I got, Holden grew on me, and this is now a novel I can appreciate, while still thinking the protagonist complains too much, haha.


So that is it, for my first top ten tuesday, and again sorry its late. 
Have a lovely day :)

September Book Haul

So September is my month of birthday, and I therefore got HEAPS of books.

I got quite a few from my book friends on tumblr, which was so lovely, since I had NO idea.

Books I got as gifts:

• Ruby Red
• Sapphire Blue
• Amy & Roger's Epic Detour
• Masquerade 
• Stardust
• This Song Will Save Your Life
• Stolen
• Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
• Solitaire
• The Knife of Never Letting Go
• The Ask and the Answer
• Monsters of Men

Books I bought and why:

• Since You've Been Gone: I've been wanting to read this book since I started hearing people talk about it, and I can NOT wait to start reading it. 
• The Rapunzel Dilemma: I read the companion novel The Cinderella Moment and enjoyed it, so I wanted to give this one a go also!
• Heir of Fire: Because I own all the other books, and love them 
• A Little Something Different: I was stuck in town for four hours with nothing to read, so I bought this book on a whim (it was an okay read)
• Lux (Beginnings, Consequences, Opposition): I'd been seeing these on tumblr for AGES, and I found out they were being rerelased with these new covers (and bound together), so I decided why not, and I enjoyed them (review to come)
• Anatomy of a Misfit: I bought this because of the title and the cover, the dedication also drew me in. It was also an okay read (review to come)
• Noggin: I saw this at a bookstore, and HAD to buy it, because it has this cover (vibrant blue and yellow = to die for), and it was an amazing book (review to come)
• The Infinite Sea: I bought this because bookworld were having a sale and I own the 5th wave (which I haven't read yet), so I can't wait to get around to these books!
• A Monster Calls: Because I love Patrick Ness, and I wanted to own all of his books, haha.

I think that is all I can really say about my bookhaul, what did you get? 

Book Review: Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang

Title: Falling Into Place

Author: Amy Zhang

Pages: 304

Genre: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction

Published: September 9th 2014 by Greenwillow Books

Source:  EPub ARC from Publisher, now own

Synopsis: 

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.

Review:

I received this arc from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

How do you write a book review for a book you loved? It is tough, let me tell you. 

I really liked how the book opened on Newton's laws, that was an interesting touch! 

I really loved this book, I believe it will be one of my favourites of the year. 

This book tells the story of the day Liz Emerson tries to die. The way the book was written and told was really interesting, as you never knew who the narrator was until the very end. 

The characters within this book, are people you would not always tend to like, but the way they are written and the way their back stories are told, brings a new light and depth to them, that you can't help feeling the emotions they feel. 

I think this is a very important book to read, because the way it deals with the issues raised within it, was well done (I personally thought so anyway). 

I read this book in one sitting, because wow do those pages fly, it was just so engaging. 

Ten Positives:

1. The way this book is told. The narration is lovely.

2. The snapshots. I found these really interesting. 

3. Chapter 2's title: How to save a corpse. I just really enjoyed and loved this title.

4. Liam. He just wormed his way into my heart and made me feel things.

5. Who the narrator is.

6. The writing, it was just so beautifully written. And was just such a lovely read. 

7. I like how the further into the book you got, the more you understood the actions of the characters, as well as their personalities. 

8. That a certain dickhead male got punched in the face. That made me so happy. 

9. Liz. I really liked how complex of a character she was. Turning each page, was like watching a petal unfold from a blooming flower. 

10. The book as a whole. I just loved it. 


Overall this was just an amazing book, and I am so very glad that I read it.

My favourite quote, which can be found on page 259: The worst part of being forgotten, I think, is watching.

Rating: ★★★★★