Book Review : Sixteenth Summer

Book: Sixteenth Summer
Author: Michelle Dalton

Publisher: Simon Pulse
Date Published: May 3, 2011
Pages: 320
Source: Galley
Date Read: May 1, 2011

Anna is dreading another tourist-filled summer on Dune Island that follows the same routine: beach, ice cream, friends, repeat. That is, until she locks eyes with Will, the gorgeous and sweet guy visiting from New York. Soon, her summer is filled with flirtatious fun as Anna falls head over heels in love. 


But with every perfect afternoon, sweet kiss, and walk on the beach, Anna can’t ignore that the days are quickly growing shorter, and Will has to leave at the end of August. Anna’s never felt anything like this before, but when forever isn’t even a possibility, one summer doesn’t feel worth the promise of her heart breaking….

Summary Taken from Goodreads

Yani's Review:

This book is sooooo cute and happy! Not that it's a happy story per se, but reading it I was just smiling from ear to ear. It's a perfectly amazing summer story: a realistic tone, while still being cute and a little corny... everything that summer romances are. I got this book through galleygrab, but I didn't have the motivation to read it until I read an awesome review of the book that described it similar to Simon Romantic Comedies (which are some of my guilty pleasures). This book is just as cute but goes a little deeper than most SRM.

What I especially enjoyed about this book was while it was attraction at first sight, things were awkward. Neither said the right thing and they held back comments as to not upset the other. But then once they can actually be themselves around each other, they create a real connection, despite being from two totally different places. Its the kind of love that you don't know how long it will last, but are grateful for it because that person has made you better.

I absolutely love Anna and her snarkiness. She has an awesome voice. And the banter between her and Will is just adorable. I honestly could keep gushing about how cute/adorable/and other synonyms this book is, but let me just end this by saying I enjoyed it so much that I look forward to immediately buying anything else Michelle comes out with in the future.

Ratings:

Plot: 5/5
Writing Style: 5/5
Uniqueness: 3/5
Characters: 5/5

Similar Titles:

Book Review : Paradise

Book: Paradise
Author: Jill S. Alexander

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Date Published: July 5, 2011
Pages: 256
Source: ARC Tour
Date Read: May 16, 2011

Paisley Tillery is the drummer for a country rock band. If they can make it to the stage at the Texapalooza music fest, then Paisley will be closer to her dream of a career in music and a ticket out of her small Texas town.

Drumming and music are what Paisley has always wanted. Until the band gets a new lead singer, the boy from Paradise, Texas. With Paradise in her life, what Paisley wants, and what she needs, complicate her dreams coming true.

Summary Taken from Goodreads

Yani's Review:

Music. Country. Kick-ass drummer girls. Murse (Male Purse) wearing accordion players... well that one doesn't sound as great but let me tell you, it is! If you have read a reiew for this book already you will have seen many people were upset by the ending, and while I did find it shocking and ________ (I am not going to write the other feeling as you will then have clues as to what happens), I understood where it came into play for the story.

I loved this book. So different than other stories and plots, yet at the same time sharing that common message of growing up and learning to find yourself. And that is what the amazing Paisley is trying to do. She is down to earth, chill lover of music type... I just want to be best friends with her and go to listen to her band play. They were awesome. I could literally feel the music coming off the pages!!

The setting was amazing too. Although I am a city girl, I could totally imagine and picture her town -the barn parties and the rodeos- and it just made me want to drive up to Texas and visit all these cool places.

Best part of story = Paradise. He was not your typical band god that would make you swoon, yet he found a way to do that anyways. I mean seriously with a name like Gabriela (which is not really that common with Hispanics, I would know) and the fact that her carries a murse and plays an accordion, I would think total geek! But his self confidence exudes, even through the papers, and I can see why Paisley can't help but be attracted to him.

Again, despite the shocking ending, I really loved this book and even though I wish it didn't end the way it did, I can see why its important to the story. Still WHY? WHY?

Ratings:

Plot: 4/5
Writing Style: 5/5
Uniqueness: 5/5
Characters: 5/5

Similar Titles:

Memorable Quotes:

"I reached into my back pocket. Pulled out my drumsticks. I tossed one into my left hand and twirled the other by my side. Just to let him know I was more than eye candy and the role of band badass was taken." Paisley

Book Review : Invincible Summer

Book: Invincible Summer
Author: Hannah Moskowitz

Publisher: Simon Pulse
Date Published: April 19, 2011
Pages: 269
Source: e-galley
Date Read: April 18, 2011

Noah’s happier than I’ve seen him in months. So I’d be an awful brother to get in the way of that. It’s not like I have some relationship with Melinda. It was just a kiss. Am I going to ruin Noah’s happiness because of a kiss?

Across four sun-kissed, drama-drenched summers at his family’s beach house, Chase is falling in love, falling in lust, and trying to keep his life from falling apart. But some girls are addictive....

Not your typical beach read.

Summary Taken from Goodreads

Yani's Review:

I really wanted to like this book. It seemed like my cup of contemporary tea. But excuse my language here, this book was just fucked up. I don't know how else to explain the lack of cohesiveness, despite that it is coming from, what you can tell, is an amazing writer. At first this book reminded me of the Summer I Turned Pretty, except in the boy's point of view and with less dialogue. It was really honest and sarcastic, different then other books.

Then it just started getting a little too deep, and weird for me. So in short I am just going to write what I liked and what I didn't like, as I have no other way to describe the mess that is in my head regarding this book. (Warning: contains spoilers)

What I liked:

• Felt like I was in the Chase's head - good writing
• talk of college - I could relate to the feeling that in the beginning college was the big dream, the first step into the future and when its done you are just left a cynical mess with dreams dashed by office life reality.
• the plight of the deaf brother - it was really honest who sometimes they resent him and other time adore him
• the ending was beautiful

What I didn't like:

• Chase obssession with his older brother - borderline creepy
• Claude obsession with older brother (Chase) - past the borderline of creepy... I mean she wanted her brother to catcher her 12 yr old self making out with a waitress??
• The Camus quotes - I get it, your inetllectual
• A 20 year old girl having sex wither her pseudo-bf's 16yr old brother
• What type of family splits up their kids permanently when getting a divorce??
• Feels like I am running a marathon with the way the story jumps - ehh writing

Like I said I really wanted to like this book and I did REALLY LIKE some parts of it. And, for the most part, all the negatives had potential to be positives. I  like witty and smart writing, I like deep books about families and dysfunction, and I love brotherly love triangles. But for some reason this book (as a whole) just didn't work for me. I did finish it though just because I really wanted to know how it would end, but I can't lie and say I didn't skip some pages.

(This part added days later)

Looking back now, I have been thinking about this book a lot. So I have changed my review from two to a three star rating. I don't think I would buy this book or ever read it again, but I definitely think it is a book everyone should read and make their own opinions of.

Ratings:

Plot: 2/5
Writing Style: 3/5
Uniqueness: 4/5
Characters: 3/5

Review: Where She Went

Book: Where She Went (If I Stay Book 2)
Author: Gayle Forman

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Release Date: April 5, 2011
Pages: 264
Source: My Kindle
Date Read: April 5, 2011

It's been three years since the devastating accident ... three years since Mia walked out of Adam's life forever.


Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Julliard's rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia's home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future - and each other.

Told from Adam's point of view in the spare, lyrical prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Went explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.

Yani's Analysis:

Please Do Not Read Unless You Have Read If I Stay

I thought I loved Adam in the first book, but I never connected fully until I felt his pain, anger, and frustration in this book. I now understand how Mia's choice affected others in her life. The choice was never the easy part, but you never realized the after would be this hard.

Adam has changed since Mia's accident and their subsequent break up. He is bitter, angry, and all of a sudden superstitious to the point he almost seems a little crazy. At first I was like who is this guy?  What happened to him? And then you learn more and more about what has happened since we last saw Mia and Adam. In a short span of time Adam lost Mia, Mia's family, and his love of music. I feel his hurt,  and I begin to cry for a whole different reason than If I Stay. Frustration and regret can eat a person till all that is left is a hollow shell. That was Adam at the beginning of this book.

A beautiful journey and a perfect companion to If I Stay. Adding both of these books to my favorite shelves.

Ratings:

Plot: 5/5
Writing Style: 5/5
Uniqueness: 5/5
Characters: 5/5

Memorable Quotes:

"Whoever said that the past isn't dead had it backward. It's the future that's already dead, already played out. This while night has been a mistake. It's not going to let me rewind. Or unmake the mistakes I've made. Or the promises I've made. Or have her back. Or have me back."

Enter the Where She Went Here! 

Review: If I Stay

Book: If I Stay (#1)
Author: Gayle Forman
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Release Date: January 1, 2009
Pages: 196
Source: My Kindle
Date Re-Read: April 4, 2011

What if you had everything:

A gorgeous boyfriend who was madly in love with you?
Quirky hip parents who totally got you?
A musical talent that could take you anywhere?
What if your biggest problem in life was choosing which path to take?
Follow your first love--music-- to New York City?
Or stay with your boyfriend, friends, and family?


What if one day, you went out for a drive...

And in an instant everything changed?

What if suddenly all the other choices were gone?

Except for one--the only one that truly mattered?

What would you do?

A sophisticated, layered, and heart achingly beautiful story about the power of family and friends, the choices we all make—and the ultimate choice Mia commands. Summit Entertainment has rights to 'If I Stay' for the movie. (This is my favorite of all the If I Stay synopsis)

Yani's Analysis:
If I Stay is a powerful moving novel unlike anything you have ever read. There have been other emotional novels, but Gayle is the master of bringing you inside the mind and memories of her characters.

Last time I read this book was more than a year ago. I am reading it now to remind myself the details before I start Where She Went, but its funny how much I remember. A couple of pages in and it all starts coming back and I am dreading the emotion I will feel once I flip this page. Mia’s pain, her family’s pain, Adam’s pain… I will always remember. That’s how great of a writer Gayle Forman is. Mia, her family and friends, are no longer characters in a book. They are people that have been struck by tragedy, and as I read I grieve with them,

Mia’s family is one of my favorite literary families. They are not just blood. They are one unit. So you can imagine the pain Mia feels being separated from them. When I picture Mia and her family, they couldn’t be more different, but they have so much love between them.

And Adam, oh Adam, his love for Mia isn’t instantaneous. It grows from a mutual love for music and admiration. I love that the romance wasn’t perfect, it was sweet and genuine. And the way he interacts with her family, I need a guy like that in my life.

As if I didn’t love the story enough, the writing is what seals the deal. This is a unique story, but it wouldn’t be what it is without Gayle’s writing. It is witty, super smart, and haunting. She creates images using words and not because she describe every little detail. She creates images of human emotion and that connects with the readers the most.


Ratings:

Plot: 5/5
Writing Style: 5/5
Uniqueness: 5/5
Characters: 5/5

Similar Titles:

Other Memorable Quotes:

"We are like Humpty Dumpty and all the king's horses and all the king's men cannot put us back together again."

Enter the Where She Went (Sequel to If I Stay) Here!

Review: Between Shades of Gray

Book: Between Shades of Gray
Author: Ruta Sepetys
Publisher: Philomel Books
Release Date: March 22, 2011
Pages: 352
Source: ARC Tour 
Thanks Good Golly Miss Holly
Date Read: April 4, 2011

Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously—and at great risk—documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.

Yani's Analysis:
After I wrote this review I realized it was less of a book review and more of a discussion. Either way my thoughts where brought on by this book: the topic, the characters, and the writing. So I am leaving it at that.

When I was younger we read the Diary of Anne Frank in school and I became obsessed that such evil can exist in this world. I began to read anything WWII related: After the War Carol Matas, Number the Stars Lois Lowry. I even made my parents take me to the Holocaust museum in New York. Yes, my obsession was frightening, but I didn't want to ignore human cruelty, I wanted to learn all I could about it. Humanity is so complex.

The moment I heard about this book the comparisons began. It is hard with books with topics such as these to fictionalize and create realistic and relatable characters, but Ruta did just that with the main character Lina. Told in present tense with certain paragraphs about the past and reference to the future being brought up... Like when she is taken and she says she didn't realize that would be the last time she looked in a mirror for almost a decade. That moment I was affected and by page 31 I was crying.

It's funny how so many books now are based on possible future evils, dystopian and sci-fi, that society or the government causes and we just forget that humanity has let this evil occur before. I don't mean for this to be a political discussion, but this book reminds me that history repeats itself. And while we read these dystopian books for fun, a little part of me always thinks which one will be out future? And even in these worlds where evil occurs there will always be people like Lina, who fight to keep themselves human, even when other do not act that way.

That is the power of books such as these, we find truth and comfort that even in a time as this, there are those that risk everything to help one another. I really enjoyed this book, it was a little slow, but every second was powerful and heart wrenching. You don't hear much of the plight of Stalin's victims, usually its just Hilter's victims and that is a shame. Thank you Ruta for giving the world this book.


Ratings:

Plot: 5/5
Writing Style: 5/5
Uniqueness: 5/5
Characters: 5/5


Other Memorable Quotes:

"I pictured a rug being lifted and a huge Soviet broom sweeping us under it."

Review: We'll Always Have Summer

Book: We'll Always Have Summer (Summer #3)
Author: Jenny Han
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Release Date: April 26, 2011
Pages: 288
Source: Netgalley
Date Read: March 28, 2011

Summary 1:

Belly has only ever been in love with two boys, both with the last name Fisher. And after being with Jeremiah for the last two years, she's almost positive he is her soul mate. Almost. Conrad has not gotten over the mistake he made when he let Belly go even as Jeremiah has always known that Belly is the girl for him. So when Belly and Jeremiah decide to make things forever, Conrad realizes that it's now or never--tell Belly he loves her, or lose her for good.

Belly will have to confront her feelings for Jeremiah and Conrad and face a truth she has possibly always known: she will have to break one of their hearts.

Summary 2:
It's been two years since Conrad told Belly to go with Jeremiah. She and Jeremiah have been inseparable ever since, even attending the same college-- only, their relationship hasn't exactly been the happily ever after Belly had hoped it would be. And when Jeremiah makes the worst mistake a boy can make, Belly is forced to question what she thought was true love. Does she really have a future with Jeremiah? Has she ever gotten over Conrad? It's time for Belly to decide, once and for all, who has her heart forever.

Yani's Analysis:
I was so excited to start this book as soon as I finished It’s Not Summer Without You, not just because I wanted to see what would happen with Belly, but also the rest of the summer gang. The book is set two years later and this whole time Jeremiah and Belly have been together, as a real couple. It opens up with them in their normal everyday lives at college and you can just see how well they work together. In fact you almost think Conrad, Who? And then as the summary says, secrets are revealed with all of culminating in a proposal!!

Belly is older, but still has this “youngness” I don’t know how else to describe about her. She believes that because she truly loves Jeremiah that it will work out. Like so many young girls that get married she has only thought about the good. Her mother won’t accept the wedding and Belly leaves her home and moves into Cousin’s beach house till the wedding. Only problem, that is where Conrad’s currently living.

I have to say I was surprised by this book. I loved the ending, and that wasn’t really the surprising part, but I really thought the way it was set up would be filled with drama and fights and broken hearts. Instead everything was handled realistically and maturely. Also Belly best friend Taylor was just amazing in this book, standing up and supporting Belly threw it all. They really grew up in this book and it was an incredible journey to read about.

While there were some things that bothered me, the ending was perfect for me. I left the book feeling really happy and hopeful. I wish that I could read more about Belly, Jeremiah, and Conrad’s futures. Maybe Jenny will return to their lives in the future.


Ratings:

Plot: 5/5
Writing Style: 5/5
Uniqueness: 4/5
Characters: 5/5

Similar Titles:

Endless Summer is two books in one and if you liked The Summer I Turned Pretty, I think you will definitely enjoy this lighter (romantic comedy) type novel. I love summer love novels and Hailey Abbott know how to write those well too.

Other Memorable Quotes:

Review: It's Not Summer Without You

Book: It's Not Summer Without You (Summer #2)
Author: Jenny Han
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Release Date: April 27, 2010
Pages: 288
Source: Kindle Purchase
Date Read: March 28, 2011

Summary:

Can summer be truly summer without Cousins Beach?It used to be that Belly counted the days until summer, until she was back at Cousins Beach with Conrad and Jeremiah. But not this year. Not after Susannah got sick again and Conrad stopped caring. Everything that was right and good has fallen apart, leaving Belly wishing summer would never come.But when Jeremiah calls saying Conrad has disappeared, Belly knows what she must do to make things right again. And it can only happen back at the beach house, the three of them together, the way things used to be. If this summer really and truly is the last summer, it should end the way it started--at Cousins Beach

Yani's Analysis:
This is one of the only series that the second book is actually better than the first. It is one year later and our favorite characters have grown up (or are more grown up then last time at least).

I thought I wouldn’t enjoy the book since most of it wouldn’t take place at the cousin’s beach house, but I loved it. The story still consists of the past and the present being woven together, but Jenny adds another narrator, Jeremiah. It was amazing seeing Jeremiah’s view on events that happened in the last book and the things currently happening. Also we get to see Belly and Conrad finally together, however it was very brief.

Now at this point I felt like I knew who Belly loved more, but I didn’t have a particular stand on who I felt she should be with. In most books, (except Nightshade) I’m always on the team that ends up with the girl, not because I like being right (although I do), but because I can tell who the real true love is. And while for myself I might like someone different, why shouldn’t the main character be with the one she really loves.

I love these summer books, because while most summer books are only about happy tales and good times. These summers are about hope, family, friends, and true love.

Review of the next book We’ll Always Have Summer: Tomorrow!

Ratings:

Plot: 5/5
Writing Style: 5/5
Uniqueness: 4/5
Characters: 5/5

Similar Titles:

Endless Summer is two books in one and if you liked The Summer I Turned Pretty, I think you will definitely enjoy this lighter (romantic comedy) type novel. I love summer love novels and Hailey Abbott know how to write those well too.

Other Memorable Quotes:

"Happiness is a Slurpee and a hot pink straw."