Novel Review: Just Call My Name (I'll Be There, #2) by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Little, Brown

Release Date: 2014

Spoilers?: Light.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

The happily-ever-after of Holly Goldberg Sloan's acclaimed debut, I'll Be There, is turned on its head in this riveting, emotional sequel about friends, enemies, and how those roles can shift in a matter of moments.

Emily Bell has it all. She's in love with a boy named Sam Border, and his little brother has become part of her family. This summer is destined to be the best time of their lives--until a charismatic new girl in town sets her sights on Sam. Now Emily finds herself questioning the loyalty of the person she thought she could trust most.

But the biggest threat to her happiness is someone she never saw coming. Sam's criminally insane father, whom everyone thought they'd finally left behind, is planning a jailbreak. And he knows exactly where to find Emily and his sons when he escapes...and takes his revenge.

The Cover:

Ehh, the cover is okay. It's a little plain, not too eye-catching, and it doesn't quite spark the quirkiness of the story. But it does show an important part of the story, so it's not too bad. It does have a more simple appeal, nothing too romantic or embarrassing.

Review:

This sequel takes us on a bit of a wild ride.

Things seemed to have calmed down for Sam and Emily. But unbeknownst to them, Sam's father has broken out of jail, and he knows right where he's going next.

A new girl shows up here, and she causes some drama for Emily and Sam. Some drama—and then a change for Emily. I like these kinds of friendships, so while it was a bit odd—and Destiny was a weird girl who was not very easy to like for most of this—I didn't mind it in the end. Riddle also makes some new friends and has some new experiences, which is great. He's a sweet boy, and I liked getting to see him grow here.

I really love Sloan's writing style. It feels like someone is watching from the outside, and yet you're also in their head, in a more quirky style than a normal third person. It gives weird little tidbits of peoples lives and reactions, and it jumps to different characters. I really love it, and it's one of my favorite narrative styles, honestly.

I wish I'd re-read the first book before jumping into this one, but I don't think it diminished my experience any. This was still a fun, crazy book to read, and I look forward to reading anything else she releases.

Novel Review: Words We Don't Say by K. J. Reilly

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Genre: YA Contemporary, Romance

Publisher: Hyperion (Disney Book Group)

Release Date: October 2018

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Joel Higgins has 901 unsent text messages saved on his phone.

Ever since the thing that happened, there are certain people he hasn't been able to talk to in person. Sure, he shows up at school, does his mandatory volunteer hours at the soup kitchen, and spends pretty much every moment thinking about Eli, the most amazing girl in the world. But that doesn't mean he's keeping it together, or even that he has any friends.

So instead of hanging out with people in real life, he drafts text messages. But he never presses send.

As dismal as sophomore year was for Joel, he doesn't see how junior year will be any better. For starters, Eli doesn't know how he feels about her, his best friend Andy's gone, and he basically bombed the SATs. But as Joel spends more time at the soup kitchen with Eli and Benj, the new kid whose mouth seems to be unconnected to his brain, he forms bonds with the people they serve there-including a veteran they call Rooster-and begins to understand that the world is bigger than his own pain.

The Cover:

This cover is very fitting. It's a little simple, and not super eye-catching, but I like the usage of words and how it's blurring the background. It signifies how Joel is feeling really well, along with the hint of his unsent texts.

 

Review:

After losing someone, Joel doesn't really talk to people. He doesn't have many friends, he's mostly just going to school and volunteering at the soup kitchen. Wanting to talk to Eli, the girl from the soup kitchen, and yet never saying anything. Instead, he has drafts of texts he wanted to send, wanted to say, but hasn't.

Joel is a good guy, he just doesn't know what to do with himself. He feels alone now, and thus starts his collection of odd people. Eli, who's already there for him. The new guy at the soup kitchen, and the patrons of the kitchen. With the help of his new friend Benji, he starts to finally accept what happened, accept himself, and let himself open up.

There is a twist near the end of the book, and for a bit it felt like it was going in a tragedy direction. I'm happy to say that, while there are serious matters and a serious event, things mostly work out. Joel grows a lot, in good ways. His voice was nice to listen to, as well. He's thoughtful, alone and upset and processing everything still. His texts were fun to follow. And the romance, though not the main focus, was also really sweet.

This book feels like a bit of an underdog, and it kind of stands out for it, to me. It was a good book, and I'm glad I picked it up.

Novel Review: Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Genre: YA/NA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Simon & Shuster

Release Date: 2018

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

“Smart and funny, with characters so real and vulnerable, you want to send them care packages. I loved this book.” —Rainbow Rowell

From debut author Mary H.K. Choi comes a compulsively readable novel that shows young love in all its awkward glory—perfect for fans of Eleanor & Park and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.

For Penny Lee, high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she’d somehow landed a boyfriend, they never managed to know much about each other. Now Penny is heading to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer. It’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.

Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.

When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to, you know, see each other.

Review:

Penny is finally away from home, in college, and away from her high school life. Sam works at a coffee shop and tries to write, but is currently stuck where he is. Neither of them really know how to interact or what to do with themselves. Penny has a new roommate, and is trying to get away from her immature mother, and Sam is trying to move forward.

This was a really good, solid book. Penny stuck out more than Sam to me; she has a lot going on, what with the drama of her roommate and college, and attempting to grow away from her mother and yet also thinking her mother needs her help in order to survive. The romance was sweet, and both characters are sweet, though Penny is a bit more dramatic. I appreciate where Penny and her mother's relationship went; they have a few issues, but they ended up growing in a really healthy way, I think.

This isn't one of my favorites, but it was a really good read, and I would pick up her next one.

Novel Review: The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins)

Release Date: June 2019

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Emma Saylor doesn’t remember a lot about her mother, who died when she was ten. But she does remember the stories her mom told her about the big lake that went on forever, with cold, clear water and mossy trees at the edges.

Now it’s just Emma and her dad, and life is good, if a little predictable…until Emma is unexpectedly sent to spend the summer with her mother’s family—her grandmother and cousins she hasn’t seen since she was a little girl.

When Emma arrives at North Lake, she realizes there are actually two very different communities there. Her mother grew up in working class North Lake, while her dad spent summers in the wealthier Lake North resort. The more time Emma spends there, the more it starts to feel like she is divided into two people as well. To her father, she is Emma. But to her new family, she is Saylor, the name her mother always called her.

Then there’s Roo, the boy who was her very best friend when she was little. Roo holds the key to her family’s history, and slowly, he helps her put the pieces together about her past. It’s hard not to get caught up in the magic of North Lake—and Saylor finds herself falling under Roo’s spell as well.

For Saylor, it’s like a whole new world is opening up to her. But when it’s time to go back home, which side of her will win out?

The Cover:

I do like this cover. It's simple and cute, looks rather light-hearted. I actually think the contents are a bit deeper than are portrayed here, and it might even be too simple? Which is a weird thing to say. I still like it, though.

Review:

I eagerly anticipate every new book by Dessen. About every other year, I get a new book to devour, which I usually do very quickly. Even though I haven't been reading very many YA novels lately, I still preordered this one immediately, and read it as soon as I could.

Emma lives a nice, rather comfortable life with her father, his wife and her grandmother. But then one summer, plans with her best friend fall through, and her father and stepmother have vacation plans, and suddenly she doesn't have anywhere to go. The crazy suggestion of staying with her mothers family for the summer is thrown out, and she gets the chance to discover a side of herself and her family that she never knew was there.

Emma was comfortable in herself and her life before this, and feels a bit out of place at first. There's this whole culture and family here that she never knew, and that have an impression of her from a time she doesn't even remember because she was so young. She gets to meet these new people, and experience new things. And, of course, there's Roo. The boy who remembers her, but she doesn't remember. Who she has more of a connection with than she realized, as she keeps getting drawn to him.

This was a really sweet story. I like how Emma grew during this, and how she pulled her family together through it; she comes from two very different sides, with different prejudices on both, and she forces them to meet in the middle at one point. Then there's Roo. I mean, come on. With a name like that? Of course he's the sweetest.

It's so easy to fall into Dessen-land, and I love getting to do it every so often. Still one of my favorite authors, and one I will always be following.

Novel Review: Save the Date by Morgan Matson

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: June 2018

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Charlie Grant's older sister is getting married this weekend at their family home, and Charlie can't wait for the first time in years, all four of her older siblings will be under one roof. Charlie is desperate for one last perfect weekend, before the house is sold and everything changes. The house will be filled with jokes and games and laughs again. Making decisions about things like what college to attend and reuniting with longstanding crush Jesse Foster all that can wait. She wants to focus on making the weekend perfect.

The only problem? The weekend is shaping up to be an absolute disaster. There's the unexpected dog with a penchant for howling, house alarm that won't stop going off, and a papergirl with a grudge.

There are the relatives who aren't speaking, the (awful) girl her favorite brother brought home unannounced, and a missing tuxedo. Not to mention the neighbor who seems to be bent on sabotage and a storm that is bent on drenching everything. The justice of the peace is missing. The band will only play covers. The guests are all crazy. And the wedding planner's nephew is unexpectedly, distractedly cute.

Over the course of three ridiculously chaotic days, Charlie will learn more than she ever expected about the family she thought she knew by heart. And she'll realize that sometimes, trying to keep everything like it was in the past means missing out on the future.

The Cover:

This cover is super cute. The image and even the font match with the wedding theme really well, while also showing the quirky nature of what's going to happen in the book. It's definitely eye-catching, and shows what kind of feel the book is going to give.

Review:

Charlie has lived in her own family bubble for all of her life. When her sister's wedding is coming up, and thus all of her family is again in the same house together for the summer, some of her history starts to unravel in her eyes.

There's wedding chaos happening, the brother Charlie has always idolized is home again, the boy she's always had a crush on is suddenly an option now. And then she's forced to start questioning the life she's lead, and what the “cute” family comics her mother writes has actually done to her and her siblings' lives.

I really like the idea of this story. The whole Grant Central Station comic strips is a really good plot to explore, and it's done really well here, too. Charlie has upheld her family in such a specific light all her life, and particularly one of her brothers, that it's a shock when some of those things are revealed to her differently. I really appreciated the way that she's given this information and how she takes it. The whole thing with her crush could have gone one way, and I really liked that it didn't; that's not the moment of revelation to her, at least not in a certain way, and instead a learning experience in a good way instead. That's just one thing she had to get a new perspective on. The rest of the stuff falls into place just right, with the timing it should.

Charlie needed a wake up call, and she gets it. Of course, there's also another boy, a better one.

I really appreciated how this story played out. It could have been done in one way, which I worried about at one point, and I'm glad it went in a different one. It went in a better direction, without using the romance/crush as a crutch and a be-all-end-all kind of thing. The family drama is given its own time, and it's done really well.

Matson has quickly become one of my favorite authors, and another author that I will very quickly pre-order, now.

Novel Review: Only a Breath Apart by Katie McGarry

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Tor Teen (Macmillan)

Release Date: January 2019

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Excerpt.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Bestselling author Katie McGarry’s trademark wrong-side-of-the-tracks romance is given a new twist in the gritty YA contemporary novel, Only a Breath Apart.

They say your destiny is carved in stone. But some destinies are meant to be broken.

The only curse Jesse Lachlin believes in is his grandmother’s will: in order to inherit his family farm he must win the approval of his childhood best friend, the girl he froze out his freshman year.

A fortuneteller tells Scarlett she's psychic, but what is real is Scarlett’s father’s controlling attitude and the dark secrets at home. She may be able to escape, but only if she can rely on the one boy who broke her heart.

Each midnight meeting pushes Jesse and Scarlett to confront their secrets and their feelings, but as love blooms, the curse rears its ugly head…

The Cover:

I think the cover is cute. The font is nice and the image is pretty. Not super eye-catching, but also not very embarrassing. It shows the characters well, I think.

Review:

Jesse and Scarlet were best friends, and they've lived across the street from each other forever, but now they're not. Now that Jesse is dealing with the death of his grandmother and what options he has with the land he's kind of inheriting, and graduation is looming, suddenly Scarlet and him are in each others lives again. Scarlet is attempting to gain some freedom from her controlling father, but there's a lot in her way from doing that. And then there's the weird psychic in town giving them these odd messages and hints.

I really wanted to like this more than I did. Scarlet is dealing with a really bad family situation, and Jesse is dealing with a no-family kind of situation. They know each other, and they know the land, and yet they don't really anymore, it feels like to them.

This book was really just okay. I liked how it wrapped up, and the steps that Scarlet took definitely felt hard and important and realistic. It didn't wrap that situation up in a neat bow, which is realistic to me, however sad it also is. And I also think that Jesse's situation wrapped up in a way that made sense.

It just didn't connect with me as much as I hoped it would. The chemistry wasn't quite there for me. And, honestly, when a magical element is used, I really want more of it. If there's psychic leanings hinted at or talked about, I want them to be real. Not a kind of realistic possibility of a real thing.

Novel Review: Love, Life, and the List by Kasie West

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: 2017

Spoilers?: Yes.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

What do you do when you’ve fallen for your best friend? Funny and romantic, this effervescent story about family, friendship, and finding yourself is perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han.

Seventeen-year-old Abby Turner’s summer isn’t going the way she’d planned. She has a not-so-secret but definitely unrequited crush on her best friend, Cooper. She hasn’t been able to manage her mother’s growing issues with anxiety. And now she’s been rejected from an art show because her work “has no heart.” So when she gets another opportunity to show her paintings, Abby isn’t going to take any chances.

Which is where the list comes in.

Abby gives herself one month to do ten things, ranging from face a fear (#3) to learn a stranger’s story (#5) to fall in love (#8). She knows that if she can complete the list, she’ll become the kind of artist she’s always dreamed of being.

But as the deadline approaches, Abby realizes that getting through the list isn’t as straightforward as it seems... and that maybe—just maybe—she can’t change her art if she isn’t first willing to change herself.

The Cover:

This cover is super cute. I like that it shows the museum aspect, since it's such an important part, and then the couple and the font is just super cute, all without being too embarrassing.

Review:

For a long while in this book, I really thought it was going in a particular direction, and had accepted that. Which made me conflicted when it went somewhere else in the end—even though that was the direction I originally wanted.

Abby is an artist, and she's trying to get accepted to art school and get her pieces put in an art show at the museum she works at. When she's told that she doesn't have enough experience—enough life experience—she decides to make a list and do some new things, challenge herself a little. Most of her friends are away for the summer, which leaves her with only Cooper, her closest friend and whom she's had a crush on forever.

I typically really like list-related series. They're fun to me and add some interesting challenges/plots for the characters, and I'm a list kind of person. I will admit the list took to the background a bit in this book. It was still fun and made Abby put herself out there, but it wasn't as important as it is in some books.

I also really liked Cooper, and am always a sucker for friends-to-lovers stories. For a really long time it felt like their relationship was going in one direction, because Cooper was fighting it so hard and Abby was still recovering from a failed earlier attempt. But their relationship was so close, and it was clear when they both became jealous, that it didn't make sense for it to end any other way. There was no way that Cooper didn't feel the same way for her, he was insane for thinking otherwise.

West's books are either just okay or a real hit for me, and this one was sadly the former. I did really like parts, particularly Cooper and Abby's relationship. I also liked Abby's parents and family situation, and completely understood when she got upset at what her father did and how her family reacted/let her down. But there were still parts that were just okay to me. This was more fun than not, but not a favorite at this point.

Novel Review: Crossing the Line by Simone Elkeles

Rating (Out of 5): ~2-2.5

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: HarperTeen (HarperCollins)

Release Date: June 2018

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

A high-stakes story of star-crossed lovers from Simone Elkeles, the New York Times bestselling author of the Perfect Chemistry series

To escape his abusive stepdad, bad boy Ryan Hess runs from his tiny Texas border town to Mexico. But his plans to keep his head down and stay out of trouble are shattered the minute he meets the beautiful and totally out of his league Dalila Sandoval.

Dalila Sandoval shouldn’t even know someone like Ryan Hess. The daughter of one of the wealthiest lawyers in Mexico, Dalila is focused on studying and planning for her bright future. Ryan is only a distraction from her dreams, but she’s never felt more alive than when she’s by his side.

Ryan and Dalila are wrong for each other in every way. And yet they can’t resist the sparks that fly when they’re together. But their love is like a flame burning too close to the fuse.

Something is going to explode. Will their love be strong enough to survive? Or will it burn them both?

The Cover:

Meh. It's very typical romance couple. The title is really the only interesting part about it, but still nothing really catches my attention or makes me want to pick it up. Aside from expecting/wanting more intense of a romance.

Review:

I've enjoyed Elkeles' books in the past, quite a lot really. So I didn't expect this, or to feel this way about it.

I will admit that the beginning of this book reminded me a bit of All the Pretty Horses, which is a book I hated when I read it in high school. Most of the book didn't really have that feel, though, once I got into it.

I don't want to spoil how any of this happens, but I will say this book does not have a happily every after. I didn't expect it to go this way for most of the book, even really until the end when it happened. It doesn't happen often, and I really don't care for tragedies. They're not my kind of thing.

To be fair, though, I also didn't really feel much for this book. The characters were okay, but I wasn't all that into the romance, I wasn't even really feeling the chemistry. In the beginning it felt okay, but instead of getting better, the plot just seemed to drag on. They were put in a pretty impossible situation, including where some adults could have helped and instead decided to keep them out of the loop on everything. And how it all wrapped up and the big surprise bad guy (which wasn't terribly surprising) ended up seeming rather unrealistic.

I really wanted to like this book, but I just don't think it was meant to be for me. It had a lot in the way of it, it seems. And I can even, kind of, maybe, see how that ending was okay. But mostly I'm just not happy about it.

Novel Review: Love and Other Foreign Words by Erin McCahan

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Dial (Penguin)

Release Date: 2014

Spoilers?: Light.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Can anyone be truly herself--or truly in love--in a language that's not her own?

Sixteen-year-old Josie lives her life in translation. She speaks High School, College, Friends, Boyfriends, Break-ups, and even the language of Beautiful Girls. But none of these is her native tongue -- the only people who speak that are her best friend Stu and her sister Kate. So when Kate gets engaged to an epically insufferable guy, how can Josie see it as anything but the mistake of a lifetime? Kate is determined to bend Josie to her will for the wedding; Josie is determined to break Kate and her fiancé up. As battles are waged over secrets and semantics, Josie is forced to examine her feelings for the boyfriend who says he loves her, the sister she loves but doesn't always like, and the best friend who hasn't said a word -- at least not in a language Josie understands.

The Cover:

I think this cover is very cute. The font and lettering is fun, and I think it represents the book pretty well. It's very much easy to carry around, too, and doesn't focus too much on the romance, but Kate's curiosity instead.

Review:

This book has one of the most accurate titles I've seen in a while. Josie is extremely smart for her age, is already in college, but she doesn't know what love is. One day, she decides that she needs to understand it. Her sister is engaged to a guy she absolutely refuses to accept, and she can't comprehend why her sister thinks she loves him. So starts her quest to understand love.

Josie goes through a bit of a journey in this book. She starts a relationship with a previous school-dance date, whom likes her a lot, and whom she tries to love back. Then there's her young college professor, who she's convinced she feels love at first sight with. And during all of this, she's fighting with her sister, and her best friend Stu is always there.

I really enjoyed Josie's voice. She's odd, possibly a little autistic, but generally on a different level than everyone else. She can only take so much socialization, she likes things a certain way, and she looks at every interaction with people in a different way. I feel like the real romance took a long time to actually show up, as Josie was so distracted for so long and Stu was just letting her do her thing until she was ready. I also found that really sweet, though, and thought that the ending was really good. The way things wrap up with not only Stu, but also with her sister and her sisters fiance, was really nice. And I really liked her family; they're all very close, and they're always around and doing things together. It was really sweet, but also a lot of fun. The banter was great.

This book was a little slow in its pace, but Josie needed to contemplate and process everything, and she needed to take her time getting to the end. I really enjoyed the characters, though, and it was a lot of fun to read.

Novel Review: The Cresswell Plot by Eliza Wass

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Genre: YA Contemporary, Suspense, Family, Cult-like

Publisher: Hyperion

Release Date: 2016

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

 The woods were insane in the dark, terrifying and magical at the same time. But best of all were the stars, which trumpeted their light into the misty dark.

Castella Cresswell and her five siblings—Hannan, Caspar, Mortimer, Delvive, and Jerusalem—know what it’s like to be different. For years, their world has been confined to their ramshackle family home deep in the woods of upstate New York. They abide by the strict rule of God, whose messages come directly from their father.

Slowly, Castley and her siblings start to test the boundaries of the laws that bind them. But, at school, they’re still the freaks they’ve always been to the outside world. Marked by their plain clothing. Unexplained bruising. Utter isolation from their classmates. That is, until Castley is forced to partner with the totally irritating, totally normal George Gray, who offers her a glimpse of a life filled with freedom and choice.

Castley’s world rapidly expands beyond the woods she knows so well and the beliefs she once thought were the only truths. There is a future waiting for her if she can escape her father’s grasp, but Castley refuses to leave her siblings behind. Just as she begins to form a plan, her father makes a chilling announcement: the Cresswells will soon return to their home in heaven. With time running out on all of their lives, Castley must expose the depth of her father’s lies. The forest has buried the truth in darkness for far too long. Castley might be their last hope for salvation.

The Cover:

The cover I have is the one above, which I really like. I think it focuses on the creepy aspect, and I like the dead leaves and the font of the title. I really like it, and it's largely what caught my attention. There's a new cover now, which I think is okay, and perhaps focuses on the brightness of the ending, but I think I prefer the first one.

Review:

Castella lives with her five brothers and sisters, in a house with her father and mother, and they live under God, as their father dictates. They were home-schooled until recently, when they were discovered and forced into public school. At school, they're the freaks, who aren't really allowed to socialize or join anything, and are under strict rules at all times.

Lately, Castella has started wondering about what's beyond, about what it would be like if she were free. And once a person starts thinking that, there's no going back. Especially when their father starts getting more strict and more crazy.

It's obvious there's something wrong with their father, and mother, from the very beginning. And craziness like that bleeds, it spreads, and when you're being forced to accept something as truth, it's hard to distance yourself from it.

This was a very disturbing story, from the very beginning. We discover what their fathers rules are, how they're supposed to live and be with each other only, and the things they do every day and are punished with. It's all very cult-like and disturbing.

I think the way it played out made a lot of sense. Castella was seeing other options, but when you're brainwashed like that, abused like that, it's hard to move beyond it. Her siblings weren't quite seeing what she was, and the secrets they discover, are what forces them to. I think her interactions with the other kids at school made sense, too. They were all freaks, and even though she starts getting along with a boy there, it was actually good he didn't end up being her hero. It would have been unrealistic, but also, she needed to learn that she had to do these things on her own. She was the only one who was going to save herself.

I really enjoyed this book. It was dark and disturbing, and frustrating at times, but it was rather realistic. And the ending was really sweet, I'm happy with how it seemed to have turned out.

Novel Review: Me Before You (Me Before You, #1) by Jojo Moyes

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Penguin

Release Date: 2012

Spoilers?: Light.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

 

Goodreads Synopsis:

The New York Times bestseller, soon to be a major motion picture; US release on June 3, 2016.

They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose . . .

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.

Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

A Love Story for this generation, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?


From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Cover:

My copy of this book was the movie cover, which I actually think is super cute. I don't usually care for the movie-version of book covers, but I do really like Emilia Clarke, and I think they look super cute as the main characters. The original covers are also really pretty, with big lettering of the title, and the colors used are pretty and fitting. I like how both covers are relatively simple and sweet.

Review:

Even though this is a very slow-burn, family-oriented story, it kept my interest from the beginning. Louisa is an odd girl, as everyone likes to remind her. She's quiet and thoughtful, but cheerful and wears odd clothing. She isn't afraid of being herself, though. The only point that bothered me about her, was how picky she was being about what job she got, despite needing one very badly. She also makes a very cringey scene at one point, at the horse race.

After losing her job, and since she lives with her family and is trying to help pay the bills as the only other person with a job, she has to get another one quick. She ends up being the caretaker of Will, a very rich previous-businessman, who's been paralyzed below the neck. He's angry, and sarcastic, and he doesn't want anyone's help or kindness. He also wants all of this to end.

I was afraid this was going to have a bad ending from the very beginning—and was pretty sure it would—but it still hurt. Louisa grows closer to Will as he starts wanting to open her world. She's been in this small town most of her life, and doesn't really consider going other places. She hasn't wanted to, or has been too afraid. He wants to change that, because he knows there's amazing things out there, even though he doesn't think he can enjoy them anymore.

This dealt with a rather dark, controversial topic, which surprised me. Part of me hates how it all ends—a big part, because it's awful and unfair and I hate it—but, I also sympathize. Will is constantly in pain and always on the edge of being even more terribly ill, and will always have to rely on someone else. He used to be extremely active and adventurous, and he doesn't want to be stuck in a chair his entire life. I get it, and it's his life, his right. It's still awful, though.

I really loved this book, honestly. Louisa and Will don't even really get to start a real romance, and yet their connection is strong. And it's awful. I haven't cried as hard at a book, ever, I don't think. I was practically crying my eyes out, for like an hour, as I read the ending. It's gut-wrenching, in ways I didn't expect, a lot more strongly than I ever expected.

I kind of don't want to read the next book, because I think this one was so good on its own, that I don't think it needs more, and I don't want to ruin it. But I also really liked these characters, and so I might pick up the next book to follow them further anyway.