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.

Wishlist Thursday[119]: The Boy Most Likely To (My Life Next Door, #2) by Huntley Fitzpatrick

The Boy Most Likely To (My Life Next Door, #2) by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Dial Books

Release Date: August 18, 2015

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

Goodreads Synopsis:

A surprising, utterly romantic companion to My Life Next Door—great for fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han 

Tim Mason was The Boy Most Likely To find the liquor cabinet blindfolded, need a liver transplant, and drive his car into a house

Alice Garrett was The Girl Most Likely To . . . well, not date her little brother’s baggage-burdened best friend, for starters.

For Tim, it wouldn’t be smart to fall for Alice. For Alice, nothing could be scarier than falling for Tim. But Tim has never been known for making the smart choice, and Alice is starting to wonder if the “smart” choice is always the right one. When these two crash into each other, they crash hard.

Then the unexpected consequences of Tim’s wild days come back to shock him. He finds himself in a situation that isn’t all it appears to be, that he never could have predicted . . . but maybe should have.

And Alice is caught in the middle.

Told in Tim’s and Alice’s distinctive, disarming, entirely compelling voices, this novel is for readers of The Spectacular Now, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and Paper Towns.

Why?:

I have been excited for this book as soon as it was announced, and I wanted it even before then. I loved all of the characters from the first book, it’s one of my absolute favorites, and I definitely wanted these two to get their own stories. I already plan on getting any book that Fitzpatrick releases at this point, but I am so excited for this one. I can’t wait to see them all again, to be back in their world. I can’t even believe it’s almost here already. I’m planning to start it as soon as it arrives.

Oh god I can’t wait.

Wishlist Thursday[51]: What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick

What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Dial Books (Penguin)

Release Date: April 15th, 2014

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

Goodreads Synopsis:

From the author of My Life Next Door comes a swoony summertime romance full of expectation and regret, humor and hard questions.

Gwen Castle's Biggest Mistake Ever, Cassidy Somers, is slumming it as a yard boy on her Nantucket-esque island this summer. He's a rich kid from across the bridge in Stony Bay, and she hails from a family of fishermen and housecleaners who keep the island's summer people happy. Gwen worries a life of cleaning houses will be her fate too, but just when it looks like she'll never escape her past—or the island—Gwen's dad gives her some shocking advice. Sparks fly and secret histories unspool as Gwen spends a gorgeous, restless summer struggling to resolve what she thought was true—about the place she lives, the people she loves, and even herself—with what really is.

A magnetic, push-me-pull-me romance with depth, this is for fans of Sarah Dessen, Jenny Han, and Deb Caletti.

Why?:

I am so, so very excited for this book. I read Fitzpatrick’s first book, My Life Next Door, last summer, and it is one of my absolute favorite books (and I might have to go re-read it again). I haven’t even read all of the synopsis for this book, because it’s an automatic buy for me, and I am super, super excited to finally read it. I know it’s going to go by way too fast (I’m probably going to read it in a day, because I won’t be able to help myself), and then I’m going to have to wait at least a year for her next book, and the waiting sucks, but still. I cannot wait to get my hands on this book.

Also, the cover is just adorable. I’m excited to see what it actually looks like in person, too.

What are you looking forward to reading?

Novel Review: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (Between, #1) by April Genevieve Tucholke

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Dial (Penguin)

Publish Date: August 15th, 2013

Spoilers?: No.

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

Wishlist Thursday. Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

You stop fearing the devil when you’re holding his hand…

Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town… until River West comes along. River rents the guest house behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard.

Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something more?

Violet’s grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who takes naps in the sun, who likes coffee, who kisses you in a cemetery... who makes you want to kiss back.

Violet’s already so knee-deep in love, she can’t see straight. And that’s just how River likes it.

Blending faded decadence and the thrilling dread of gothic horror, April Genevieve Tucholke weaves a dreamy, twisting contemporary romance, as gorgeously told as it is terrifying—a debut to watch.

Something Specific:
Quotes:

• "'You stop fearing the Devil when you’re holding his hand.’” (Hardback, pg. 1) This is the first sentence of the book, and the one most advertised, but I do like it.
• "I was pretty stupid, when I was younger.” (Pg. 109)
• "There was something about sleeping next to a person that was…dangerous. More dangerous than sleeping with a person, maybe.” (Pg. 117)
• "Freddie once told me that I was the worst sort of stubborn—because I wasn’t stubborn at all. I was patient. Patient, but determined. A stubborn person could be distracted, or tricked. But not me. I just held on and on and on, never giving up until I got my way, long after everyone else stopped caring.” (Pg. 127-128)
• "'It’s easier to forgive someone for scaring you than for making you cry.’” (Pg. 157)
• "Freddie often told me that you’ve got to be happy when you can, because life won’t wait for you to take the time.” (Pg. 359-360)

The Cover:

I rather like this cover. It's just so pretty, and the font on the title looks so nice. It's also mostly fitting, and the feel of it is very nice. I don't think the cliff really has anything to do with the book, but the ocean does and the trees give a good idea to the setting. The couple doesn't look as good close up, but it's still overall very pretty.

Review:

I had very high hopes for this book, and was rather disappointed with how it turned out.

I was expecting very paranormal romance, but with a twist, with an actually dark love interest, possibly with some violence or horror-esque elements but nothing too bad. And it was those things, I suppose. But it was also slow, a little boring at times, and I didn’t connect with any of the characters.

I read this book in two parts. The first time I read it, I got about 100 pages in, and I was not enjoying it even a little. I had to force myself to read ten pages, I wasn’t liking it so much. The second time I picked it up, though, I found it a lot easier to get through. It still wasn’t very exciting, and I was still very iffy on the characters, but it wasn’t torture to finish a chapter.

The premise sounded really good. The start of the book was intriguing. I liked the town that they lived in, the ending was intriguing, but I think my biggest problems were the writing and the characters.

I didn’t really care about Violet. I kind of understood her reasoning behind her feelings for River, but I also kind of didn’t. I guess it kind of worked for her character, but I had a problem with him. Because he’s always lying, not telling anyone anything, going around the questions, and then distracting Violet by kissing her or literally sleeping with her, and she just let him do so. There was a reason for some of it, but other times, like when he wasn’t touching her, she should have said no.

I think I wanted to like River, but I couldn’t stand his lying, and how he was always doing something bad and getting away with it and not seeing anything bad about it. I just didn’t really like him, even if I understood that Violet did.

Then there was Sunshine, Violet’s friend, who was just kind of a jerk. The only reason I didn’t have a problem with their ‘friendship’, I think, was that it seemed like Violet knew Sunshine wasn’t really a good friend. But then again, Violet called her her best friend often, and went to her house a lot, as if she actually were. Their friendship didn’t really work for me, either way, because Sunshine was a jerk.

Violet’s brother, Lucas, I kind of liked. He needed to grow up some more, mature a whole lot, but he did get a bit better by the end of the book. He just needs to get past his jerk façade, I think.

The writing of the book was slow, didn’t grab me at all. That, and the setting, did remind me of Maggie Stiefvater a lot, particularly from the Scorpio Races, only a lot less enticing and pretty. So, not as good. 

I wasn’t very impressed with this book, and was happy when it was finished. I don’t know if I’m going to be picking up the second book. I would have said no, but since this book did get better and I’m slightly intrigued, and since the second book is the last one (it is, right?), it’s possible. Unlikely, but possible.