Tag: contemporary fiction

Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider | ARC Review

Posted May 26, 2015 in Reviews / 0 Comments

*Thanks so much to HarperCollins and Epic Reads for this review copy! “It’s strange how we can lose things that are still right there. How a barrier can go up at any moment, trapping you on the other side, keeping you from what you want. How the things that hurt the most are things we once had.” I’ll be the first to admit that the “sick lit” trend is not one that generally appeals to me. After The Fault in Our Stars really underwhelmed me, I have tended to stay away from terminally ill teens in literature. Yet when I […]

Making Pretty by Corey Ann Haydu | ARC Review

Posted May 12, 2015 in Reviews / 2 Comments

Making Pretty captivated me by throwing a curve ball at me within the first 70 or so pages that I could not ignore; a plot twist so disturbing that I had to keep reading the book even though there were several things about it that did not work for me. So instead of DNF-ing it, I plowed through 300+ pages of seventeen year old Montana’s narrative to find myself at the end of it feeling a lot of things, though “liking” this book is unfortunately not one of them. While Haydu crafts a story with intensely messy family dynamics and […]

Just One Night by Gayle Forman | Mini Review

Posted April 27, 2015 in Books, Reviews / 0 Comments

“The truth and its opposite are flip sides of the same coin.” I’m so glad I was able to read this series when it was completed, because if not the wait for finding out how Willem and Allyson’s story concluded would have been excruciating. This novella is short and sweet, and finally gives life to that agonizing ending of both Just One Day and Just One Year when Allyson and Willem are finally reunited again. The narrative is told through a third person perspective, which is a little jarring since the previous books were narrated by either Allyson or Willem. […]

Princess on the Brink (#8) by Meg Cabot- Reread Mini Review

Posted April 24, 2015 in Books, Reviews / 3 Comments

*This review will contain spoilers. This is the installment in The Princess Diaries where all of the long standing tensions and plot points really implode. While a lot of readers may see this as a tragic ending to a lot of long-standing features of the series, I found it really refreshing. Sure, Mia’s neurosis is in full force in this book, and she acts pretty immature about certain things, but I actually think beneath Mia’s obsessing she has some really valid points. Mia is faced with the earth-shattering proposition at the beginning of the installment of being in a long-term […]

The Princess Diaries Reread: Volumes 6-7

Posted April 22, 2015 in Books, Reviews / 2 Comments

This is the second installment in my Princess Diaries Re-Read self-challenge in order to prepare for The Royal Wedding, which comes out in June! In this post I’ll be bundling my reviews for books 6, 6.5, 7, 7.5, and 7.75 Princess in Training (6): This book kicks off Mia’s sophomore year, and centers around another one of Lily’s insane plots she drags Mia into (nominating her to be class president against her will…for Lily’s own benefit of course). While I actually liked the presidency plot because it was nice to see Mia grow into herself more and become more confident […]

The Wrong Side of Right by Jenn Marie Thorne- My New Favorite Contemporary Novel

Posted April 14, 2015 in Books, Five Star Reads, Reviews / 16 Comments

“It’s amazing how much one person can change the world, even if they don’t know they’re doing it.” This is the BEST contemporary YA novel I’ve read so far in 2015! I don’t say this lightly. I requested this book on a whim from my library when I saw this novel was being compared to The Princess Diaries (and you all know what a weakness I have for Meg Cabot). The novel follows a teenage girl, Kate, who finds out her absentee dad is a senator, specifically a senator who is running for president. Kate is thrust into the […]

Just One Year by Gayle Forman- Review

Posted April 6, 2015 in Books, Reviews / 11 Comments

“Bravery was doing something dangerous without thinking. Courage was walking into danger, knowing full well the risks.” I knew going in that this wasn’t a “sequel.” And you should too. It’s not a spoiler, but a fact, and it will save you a LOT of frustration if you know that the synopsis is extremely misleading-it does not in fact “pick up” where Just One Day ended, rather it tells the story of the year Allyson spent in Just One Day from Willem’s perspective. Once you’ve accepted that you’re not going to get much in terms of closure, you can […]

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins | Review

Posted March 13, 2015 in Books, Reviews / 13 Comments

“There are some people in life that you can’t get over.” Companion series are my new favorite thing. I love the idea of being able to have distinct, separate stories set within the same universe, and being able to see glimpses of characters from other books in them. It’s like getting to wave to a friend you haven’t seen in a while but miss terribly. Lola and the Boy Next Door is the second installment in Stephanie Perkin’s Anna and the French Kiss companion series, and it did indeed have the unique charm of introducing me to new memorable […]

I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios | Review

Posted March 9, 2015 in Books, Reviews / 7 Comments

“…as if my sorrows and joys had conspired to birth me.” I’ve seen a lot of readers project that 2015 was going to bring a shift in trends toward the popularity of grittier contemporaries, and I’ll Meet You There definitely proves such predictions. This book was darker than I anticipated, following the lives of two teenagers from a dead end town in central California, one a former marine who’s landed back where he started, the other a budding artist with every ounce of determination focused on getting out of the desolate area. This book is not just an extremely […]

Book Buddies Review: Just One Day

Posted February 27, 2015 in Book Buddies Reviews, Books, Reviews / 12 Comments

This month I’m partnering up with Lauren from Bookmarklit for Book Buddies, an every-other month feature where Lauren and I will choose a themed read to buddy read and then get together and discuss the things that stand out! You can see our review in a Q&A format with half posted here, and half on Lauren’s blog! Book Buddy Reviews are usually posted during the last week of the month. This month’s read Just One Day by Gayle Forman. Read the second part of our review at Lauren’s blog here. About the Book Just One Day by Gayle Forman My […]