So Glad this Book Wasn't Called "Lucky Thirteen"

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

5 beautiful intense disasterful stars!

In one school year more happened to Abby and Travis than any other couple in the history of time.  I enjoy reading books that change people.  In the story Abby meets Travis the man on campus and everyone loves to hate him.  Women flock to him and he takes home any girl he wants whenever he wants.  No phone numbers no commitments, just sex and then on to the next woman.  Abby is not enamored by his good looks and easy attitude, she’s disgusted by his conceded attitude and can’t help but role her eyes at everything he says and does.  She has a past that she’s not about to share with anyone at her new school and only her best friend America knows what she is running from.  Abby knows from the very beginning that she and Travis would be no good together; she knows that her good luck will run out and he will hate her in the end.  This is a beautiful story of love and redemption. 

I loved Travis.  He is chaos walking and I can’t believe how crazy and wild he is.  His confidence is palpable and his love for Abby or his cute nickname for her Pigeon.  I loved everything about the book.  I loved that there was no chapter 13 and I loved digging up Abby’s past with each new turn of the electronic page.  She is such a girl!  She changes her mind and mixes thing up and does the dumbest things and makes the stupidest decisions.  But that is exactly why she is so much fun to read.

I love that McGuire sees the craziness of the sequence of events and has the characters talk about it so we all know that she knows how crazy it is.  

Read this book immediately!  It is romantic and fun and sad and wonderful.  Keep Reading my Friends!      

Can you Ride a Bike?

Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

This is my first Dessen book to read.  I listened to one other and enjoyed it a lot so I put away in the back of my mind to keep my eye out for others.  Well low and behold I found them all at 2^nd and Charles and so I picked up Along for the Ride. 

Dessen has a great way of introducing characters that are easy to read and easier to like.  Auden was a strange bird, I’m not going to lie (why would I?  It’s my blog).  Weirdness aside I cheered her on the entire book.  I wanted her to be happy and was upset when she was upset.  Her mom was very strange as well and I could see why she wasn’t easy to get along with.  Eli was a great male character and I was happy that he had so many secrets for us to find out during the course of the book.  I thought it was funny that she made out with his brother the first night she arrived at the beach, but as we got to know her, we realized that was not her personality at all.

What I didn’t like.  Her dad.  He was written well, but a selfish pig.  I’m glad he had a little salvation at the end.  I would have told him off the first time I saw him ignoring his family.  Boom.

I have ordered a few more of her books off of Paperbackswap.com and look forward to reading them.  They are fun, easy reads that don’t take a lot of time, but are highly entertaining and are especially great when you don’t want to start a series.  Dessen has a way of developing intriguing characters that are easy to read.

Thanks for stopping by!  Keep reading my friends!

Finders Keepers

Keeping Her (Losing It 1.5) by Cora Carmack

After Losing it, we leave Bliss Edwards and Garrick Taylor in happy couple-dom… well, I guess bliss… But of course it can’t stay there, with their recent engagement, it’s time to go to England to meet the future in-laws and Bliss is worried sick about the trip.  Even with Garrick’s constant “distractions” she can’t shake the feeling that the love of her life’s mum is going to hate her.  When the trip starts off with a bang… or maybe I should say crash, all of Bliss’ nightmares come true with a broken vase and a sick gut.  Will Bliss be able to win her future Mother-in-law’s love or is she doomed to live a world away from an evil tyrant.

I loved Garrick and Bliss in Losing It.  It was an enchanting story with (let’s face it) a hot cover to match some pretty hot content.  I didn’t know how much I was going to like Faking It, but it was even better, so I was a little apprehensive to start this Novella knowing that I enjoyed the characters in Faking It so much better than Losing It.    

I liked this novella, it was short and sweet and now I’m looking forward Carmack’s third book, Finding It.  I have high hopes that it will be really good and I’ve already purchased it, but you know my reading schedule always have something lined up. 

If you are into the Losing it Series, then read this novella, it doesn’t stand alone, but it’s a great continuation to Bliss and Garrick’s story. 

Either way, keep reading my friends!!!

Easy to Fall in Love

Easy by Tammara Webber

With recent heart break, Jacqueline Wallace goes to a Halloween party with her roommate and is attacked only to be saved by a stranger.  Then, she see’s that he’s actually everywhere, they even have a class together.  What starts out as a horrible night turns into a life changing moment.

Tammara Webber wrote a fantastic book.  The characters are compelling, the story is great, and I couldn’t put this book down.  There was a lot going on in the story, I felt bad for Jacqueline for everything that took place in this book.  She was a strong character, I would have fallen apart at every turn, but Jacqueline never gave up even when it would have been easier to do so.  Sometimes her roommate Erin had to kick her in the pants to get her going, but what are friends for?

Webber wrote a book with some great character development.  I loved Erin, she was a great character.  She was a great friend to Jacqueline and helped her through a horrible time.  I also loved Landon.  I enjoyed the back and forth emails and how they got to know each other without ever meeting.  I enjoyed how he and Jacqueline got along so well and were able to connect.  I got to where I anticipated his next email just as much as she did.    

I’m glad that Lucas didn’t give Jacqueline too hard of a time about google-ing about his mom.  I think everyone google’s now these days.  I was worried that Lucas would take that information a little out of hand, but it ended up fine.

The love story in this book was great.  I wasn’t surprised in the least by anything that happened, even though I should have been.  I still loved it and was glad that I read it.  This is a beach read, it reads quickly and easily.  I enjoyed it very much.

Thanks for dropping by!  Keep Reading my Friends!    

Finding What Daniel Didn't Know he Lost

Finding Cinderella (Hopeless 2.5) by Colleen Hoover

I absolutely love the Hopeless series.  To me there aren’t many characters with as much depth as Sky and Holder.  I loved their past, present, and the thought of their future.  So when Colleen announced that she was giving her fans Finding Cinderella a Novella for free I was shocked and amazed.  Something that would have made her some good money she gave as a gift, so she didn’t just save me a few bucks (what’s the going rate on an excellent Novella? $1.99, $2.99?) but she gave up thousands of dollars for her fan’s and I appreciate her sacrifice and I feel the love.  I feel bad for even asking her, but Colleen, I would love some more story from Daniel’s perspective.  He is a great character and with his spunky attitude and fun sides it was good to see his serious sides as well. 

Colleen can turn a story on you quicker than you can believe.  When I think a story is going one way, she flips it (and me) upside down and I can hardly believe that so much has changed within a few pages or sometimes within a paragraph.

Daniel is an excellent character, he does some of the craziest things in Losing Hope and like I said before I enjoyed hearing from his perspective.  I loved that he couldn’t come up with a nickname for Six.  That was a great thought process. 

I can’t really go into what I liked about the short story because spoilers are the worst!!!  So you will just have to download the 105 page novella and read it ASAP… you have no excuse, it’s free!  Keep Reading my Friends!

South Side Story

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles

Brittany Ellis is not only from the North side of town, she is THE northsider!  She is not only on the pom pom squad, she’s the captain, and she doesn’t only date a football player, she is dating the quarterback and they are the golden couple and have been for years.  It’s Brittany’s senior year and she is going to have the best year of her life, until she meets Alex. 

Alejandro “Alex” Fuentes is from the South, he is also a gang member in the Latino Blood.  He considers himself a good guy because he only picks up the money, he never deals drugs.  When Brittany and Alex become unlikely chemistry partners, they not only have to learn to work together, they have to learn how to understand each other.  While they both seem oddly drawn to each other, a fateful night puts them together in a non-school event and they learn a lot more about each other.  Will they be able to overcome the racial and social differences to find love?

This is the quintessential young adult story of West Side Story or even going further back, Romeo and Juliet.  Star crossed lovers that cannot be accepted in either lives.  It’s pretty same ole same ole, but it was a fun story. 

I did not like the Spanish in the book.  I think there are more creative ways to show that Alex’s family and friends speak Spanish.  The interspersed random Spanish was not the best way. 

At the end of the book I was kind of hoping it went the Romeo and Juliet way and at least one of them would die, at least I would have had some type of emotion about the book, but at the end I finished and felt nothing.  I wasn’t happy or glad it was over, just finished.

Do I recommend this book?  Probably not.  It has some pretty intense subject matter for some high schoolers (call me naive) like drugs, sex, and language.  Then there was a lot of content that made it too immature for an adult audience.  Anyway, not the best but not the worst. 

Keep Reading my friends!