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: Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Rating (Out of 5): ~4.5

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: May 2014

Spoilers?: No.

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

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

The Pre-Sloane Emily didn't go to parties, she barely talked to guys, she didn't do anything crazy. Enter Sloane, social tornado and the best kind of best friend—the one who yanks you out of your shell.

But right before what should have been an epic summer, Sloane just… disappears. No note. No calls. No texts. No Sloane. There’s just a random to-do list. On it, thirteen Sloane-selected-definitely-bizarre-tasks that Emily would never try… unless they could lead back to her best friend.

Apple Picking at Night? Okay, easy enough.

Dance until Dawn? Sure. Why not?

Kiss a Stranger? Um...

Getting through Sloane’s list would mean a lot of firsts. But Emily has this whole unexpected summer ahead of her, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected) to check things off. Who knows what she’ll find?

Go Skinny Dipping? Wait ... what?

The Cover:

I really like this cover. I think it's really pretty, in general, but it's also very good for the book. I like that it is emphasizing the friendship, because that's a huge part of the story, if not the main part of it. Plus, on the inside of the dustcover, and the back of it, has different images of the girls, and I love that.

Review:

This book sounded good when I first heard about it, and I’m so glad I finally gave in and bought it.

Emily is the quiet friend, the one who stays in the background and follows along. She’s never really had a close friend, or stood out before. And then she meets Sloane, and they click. Sloane is the loud one, the adventurous one, who pushes Emily to do more. And then Sloane disappears at the beginning of the summer, leaving Emily only a list of thirteen things to do.

I don’t even know how to explain how much I loved this book. Even though Sloane isn’t there during most of the book, the friendship between them is clear. There are memories throughout, how they meet, how Sloane pushes Emily to do more, how they are just there for each other. There’s a point where the two of them have some differences, but through it all, they’re best friends, and they understand each other. And I liked how Emily went along with most of it, because she wanted to, and didn't feel pressured or make a fuss, until Sloane went too far.

While Sloane is gone, Emily has to figure out who she is without her. She has the list of things to do, and she has to grow in order to do them all. She makes new friends, she falls in love for the first time, and she misses her best friend.

Frank Porter is the best guy. He’s super sweet, and he’s immediately on board with Emily’s journey. He’s the shining star of the school, but they’ve never really spoken before. But now he’s home for the summer instead of at camp. He’s the sweetest guy and the best friend, honestly. And I liked that there was his friendship with Collins as well, and how sometimes they needed to be there for each other more. It was sweet.

I liked the whole group of characters, their progression and their differences. That, along with the list, made the entire novel so much fun to read.

Now I want to talk about Emily, and how I got emotional because of her at one point. Near the end, I cried, because I understood her so well. I relate a lot to Emily, and when everything starts crashing down around her, I completely felt it. I cried, and I hurt for her. Which made the ending that much better in the end.

This book was amazing, and I completely loved it. I cannot wait for her next book, because there’s no way I won’t be picking it up.

Review: Real Live Boyfriends: Yes. Boyfriends, plural. If my life weren't complicated, I wouldn't be Ruby Oliver (Ruby Oliver, #4) by E. Lockhart

Rating (Out of 5): 3.5

Publisher: Random House (Delacorte Press)

Spoilers: Very Minor

Goodreads Synopsis:

 Ruby Oliver, the neurotic, hyperverbal heroine of the The Boyfriend List, The Boy Book, and The Treasure Map of Boys, is back!

Ruby Oliver is in love. Or it would be love, if Noel, her real live boyfriend, would call her back. But Noel seems to have turned into a pod-robot lobotomy patient, and Ruby can’t figure out why.

Not only is her romantic life a shambles:
Her dad is eating nothing but Cheetos,
Her mother’s got a piglet head in the refrigerator,
Hutch has gone to Paris to play baguette air guitar,
Gideon shows up shirtless,
And the pygmy goat Robespierre is no help whatsoever.

Will Ruby ever control her panic attacks?
Will she ever understand boys?
Will she ever stop making lists?
(No to that last one.)

Roo has lost most of her friends. She’s lost her true love, more than once. She’s lost her grandmother, her job, her reputation, and possibly her mind. But she’s never lost her sense of humor. The Ruby Oliver books are the record of her survival.

Review:

This was pretty good. It's been a while since I read the last one, so I was thinking I should re-read them, but it sums things up pretty easily within the book, so it wasn't hard to remember what had previously happened.

This series is, pretty shamelessly, a drama-filled, teenager-y, girl read. It's fun, and pretty light, and easy. And it's just generally good.

Ruby (or Roo, as her friends call her) is witty and over-thinks everything, and is boy-obsessed, even though she has terrible luck with them, and has a special love for sweets and girl-y lingo and giving people fun notes. She has panic attacks and sees a therapist because of it. And she tends to try to ignore things and be subtle about them instead of face them and be blunt, which is what she should be (this was a bit frustrating at times, actually). Her mother is always trying something new and becoming obsessed with it and never listens to anything Roo or her father says. At times, it's funny, but it's ridiculous how much she doesn't seem to care how her daughter or husband feels. And then her father gets depressed in this book, which is understandable but a little crazy (and, yea, funny).

In this book, Roo continues having problems with her friends and boys. I think that her friends are a little lame. Or, her old friends are lame. Meghan is pretty cool, even if she's a little oblivious, especially when it comes to love. Although, her outlook on it is also a little uplifting. I really like Finn, he's the sweet, good-boy type, and they are cute together. Hutch, with his music obsession and general odd-ness, is awesome, even if we didn't get to see much of him in this book since he's away in Paris.

Nora redeemed herself a little, but what she did before, and her timing, was very not cool of her. And Kim and Cricket, her old friends, made me dislike them even more. But I don't think what happened at the beginning of the series was all Roo's fault, and it's just totally lame that they all ruined their friendship over a boy. The whole situation was messy and immature.

That's one problem that I had with this book. They all seemed a little too immature for seniors. They might not be too far off, but still just a little. They acted a little more like freshmen or sophomore's or something. (But I could be wrong, since the immaturity of high schoolers astounds me sometimes.) Also, they 'fall in love' way too easily. All of them do.

The one part of the book that shows that they are all seniors, is that they are thinking about college. Roo doesn't dwell on it much, as she already has an idea of what she likes and where she wants to go. (Although I wondered how exactly she was supposed to pay for the schools that she mentioned, since they are out of state for her, expensive, and she's on scholarship. I guess that part of how? It doesn't really expand on this, explain it, but I guess that wasn't really a big part of this book. But still.) She does work on the video she wants to send to the colleges though, since she wants to be a filmmaker. This part of the book was fun, as I liked reading the little conversations as she taped them and questioned them about certain things. Like those, I also like Roo's lists (which don't always seem to have a list-like feel to them, but are still fun) and notes at the bottom of the page (especially these. They are actually, possibly my favorite part of this series).

The boy that Roo is having some problems with in this book (not really unlike the previous ones), is Noel. Noel has asthma that he ignores (which I totally relate to), and he's baked her cookies, and he obviously likes her, and he wants all of her updates. He's supposedly her Real Live Boyfriend (which she explains in the book), only then he starts not really acting the part, which makes her insecure and wonder and panic. And then some stuff happens with Gideon (who is Nora's older brother). Gideon is nice and in college, and I actually like him, but Roo keeps thinking about Noel, and her and Gideon just don't seem to connect the way they should. And then we find some stuff out about Noel, which explains the way he's been acting. (And [Spoiler!] the ending was pretty good, which was nice.)

This was pretty good. I believe it's the last in the series, which I didn't know until I read a review of it, and I guess I'm glad it is. If it was much, or any, longer, then it would seem even more dragged out with drama than it already is. It was good, but, you know... drama can seem to go on way too long. This series wasn't too bad with that, though, which is good. It was mostly a fun and easy book to read, which is what I needed at the time.