Manga Review: MeruPuri, Volume 2, by Matsuri Hino

5 of 5 Stars

Publisher: VIZ Media

Goodreads Synopsis:

After Aram's elder brother Jeile fails to lift the spell on him, Aram is forced to stay with Airi. Meanwhile, an unsuspecting Airi recites Aram's full name in front of the mirror and is magically transported to Astale! But to Airi's dismay, the citizens of Aram's kingdom give her the cold shoulder. What do they know about her secret bloodline...?

Review:

In this volume, Aram has to go back to Astale, the kingdom through the mirror that he's from. He doesn't want to go, and so he protests and puts it off and refuses, but Airi talks him in to going back. They're both upset about it, but he goes. And then Airi end up saying his name and going through the mirror and into his world.

Lei, through all of this, and through most of the book, is against them. He doesn't think it's a good idea, and he lets them know this. Aram likes Airi, and he doesn't hide it from anyone. Airi is struggling because she likes him but doesn't want to like him, mostly because he's so young and from a different world, and this does not match up with her ideal. And Airi's however-many-great's grandmother was a traitor of Astale however many years ago, and so no one in Astale will accept her.

Anyway, she gets sucked into the mirror and stick in Astale, and then thrown out of the castle while trying to find Aram, and then gets to the festival thing that is being held, which is the reason that Aram had to go in the first place, and Aram sees her when she yells at him and he picks her up and the elders all protest. And she finds out that Aram is arranged to be married to a girl that is his original age. And she gets to taken to this court thing where the elders all decide that she's a traitor and should be thrown into the eternal prison, but then Aram breaks in and she kisses over his heart and cheek to turn him back to little Aram and thus vows to marry him, creating a mark on his chest, which saves her from prison. All while in her pajamas.

She doesn't know what to do about this whole marriage thing, as she can't wrap her mind around it, but then Aram talks to her, and kisses her chest, making a mark over her heart. Which is all very cute and sweet.

They get sent back to Airi's world after that. Where she goes to school and Raz, Aram's cousin, transfers, and then Aram transfers there. As well as Jeile starts as a teacher, and Lei does as well. They go on a school trip, seaside school, at the beach and all that. There are some awkward moments where Aram turns from big to little and then little to big. Raz keeps causing trouble for them, as does Nakaoji, and Lei doesn't like Airi much. And the volume ends with Airi and Aram hidden in a closet, Aram only in a towel and them almost kissing, as someone is opening the door.

I'm still having a hard time with Aram's age, because I believe it is mentioned in one of the sidenotes, that he's in around second grade. That is just way too young. But I still love them together, so I'm struggling to accept this.

Also, I love Matsuri Hino's artwork. It's very pretty and well done. Although there are some scenes, or just some panels every once in a while, that looks like she didn't go back and edit them fully. But aside from that. And I like that her characters all look different. I've read some of her other stories, and the characters don't all look the same; they have differences, so you can easily tell them apart.

I still love this series, even after all this time. I'm noticing different things about it now, but I still love Aram and Airi's relationship. I'll probably be posting the review for the next book soon, but I'm trying to not put them all up at the same, while also wanting to read them all at once.

Review: I Now Pronounce You Someone Else by Erin McCahan

4.5 of 5 Stars

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books (Scholastic)

Goodreads Synopsis: 

Here Comes the Bride — If She Can Pass Chemistry.Eighteen-year-old Bronwen Oliver has a secret: She's really Phoebe, the lost daughter of the loving Lilywhite family. That's the only way to explain her image-obsessed mother; a kind but distant stepfather; and a brother with a small personality complex. Bronwen knows she must have been switched at birth, and she can't wait to get away from her "family" for good.
Then she meets Jared Sondervan. He's sweet, funny, everything she wants — and he has the family Bronwen has always wanted too. She falls head over heels in love, and when he proposes marriage, she joyfully accepts. But is Jared truly what she needs? And if he's not, she has to ask: What would Phoebe Lilywhite do?

Review: 

I love this book. I love it so much. Everything about it, really, even the parts that almost made me cry. (Which is something of a feat, I will admit, because I don't cry easily.)

Bronwen Oliver is the main character. Only she doesn't want to be Bronwen Oliver, she wants to be Pheobe Lilywhite, or Bronwen VanHorn, or maybe Bronwen Sondervan, She doesn't particularly get along with her mother, which is understandable because her mother doesn't try very hard and doesn't like to talk about things. She got along with her step-father at one point but is mostly just a little distant with him now. Her father died when she was little, but she isn't stuck on it even if she misses him. And she sees Jared Sondervan again, who is an old friend of her brother. Oh, and her brother Peter is Jesus, at least in her mothers mind.

Bronwen is trying to find herself, and accept who she is and trying to deal with that her mother won't accept who she really is. I'm a bit more cynical than she is, or a lot, really, but I still felt a connection with her. She's already figured out the relationship thing. You know, the one that says relationships are always good in the first few months, and you don't really get to know a person until that phase is over, and so you shouldn't say you love them until then. In the beginning of the book, she goes through this type of thing with Chad Dykstra, who just wants to have sex with her and so claims to love her. She doesn't fall for it, and I liked that.

She has a best friend, Kirsten, who gushes over everything with her. She's also very wary about Bronwen and Jared's relationship, and she talks about it with Bronwen. It might cause some problems between them, but I still liked this about her. Because she's a really good friend. (And, yea, I'm a bit envious.)

A big thing goes down near the end with Bronwen's Mother and Whitt, her step-father. Her Mother is kind of really terrible. I have a mother somewhat similar, not nearly as bad, but similar in the not listening thing. But I kind of hate her, especially because of what she did to Bronwen and Whitt. Whitt, however, is kind of awesome. He's sweet and he cares and he's funny. And it's not his fault for what happened, it's her Mothers.

Now, Jared. I love Jared. So much. He's so very sweet. And he loves Bronwen. They get along so well, too. The conversation between them is so easy, and he just goes along with all of her jokes and makes his own. They're just so cute together. He holds back kissing her for a while, and he wants to get to know her, and he loves her and wants to marry her. I love him, and I love their relationship. I want their relationship. As well as Jared's family. They care and are fun and love Bronwen like she's their own.

This book is very much about finding love as it is finding yourself. Because Bronwen finds herself, accepts herself, and she falls in love with Jared. There's a part near the end with Jared that almost made me cry, because it's so sad and I love them and they need to be together, but I know it was coming and it needed to happen because they weren't ready. But it's still heartbreaking to read.

The writing in this book is in Bronwen's point of view in the future, so she's talking about it all as she remembers it. It adds to the element of her learning all of these things. It's very smooth and calm and a bit heartbreaking.

I love this book. So very much, as I've already said. I have a bit in common with this book, and I would love to have even more in common with it. (Like Bronwen and Jared's relationship.) I think just about every teenage girls should read this book, it is that good.

Sidenote: One thing that bothered me about this book, was what it says on the back cover/inside flap, about 'if she can pass chemistry', because that's very misleading. School has very little to do with this book. It starts at the end of her junior year, then goes into the summer, and then through her senior year, and yea there's a bit about her going to college. But that doesn't have a whole lot to do with her relationship with Jared. Where she's going to college does, but she's already pretty set on that, and there isn't anything about her not passing. Very little of time is spent with her even at school. The cover is cute, though, even if the books don't have a lot to do with the story.

Review: Where She Went (If I Stay, Book 2) by Gayle Forman

4 of 5 Stars

Publisher: Dutton

Goodreads Synopsis:

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 Juilliard'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.

Review:

I don't know what I was expecting when I started this book. Because there was a sequel, I know that there wasn't a happy ending and I was afraid that it was just going to get worse. So I was happy to find that I liked this book even more than the first one.

I didn't feel a big connection to Mia in the first book, but I felt more for Adam in this one. He's still upset over her and depressed, and I didn't think it was too much. I mean, sure, the part of me that's all for self-love and all that, thinks that he should have moved on a little bit, dealt with it better, but it mostly fits and it was done very well. He didn't seem whiny or anything to me. He was a bit depressing, but I liked it. I like those kinds of characters, though.

When I heard about this book, I imagined something more along the lines of Adam and Mia stumbling upon each other in a subway or something and having one night to try to work out their problems, and I imagined that they would fight and talk and all those things, but I was unsure if it would have a happy ending or not. I was really happy to find that this wasn't the case.

Instead, Mia is successfully being a musician and Adam is not successfully being in the band anymore because of how depressed he's been. It's sad how badly losing Mia hurt him. And Adam finds out that Mia is playing near him, and despite his promise, he goes to watch her play. I hadn't realized that his promise at the end of the first book was going to be taken seriously. To me it didn't seem like either one of them should take it seriously, that either of them would want to fulfill it, so that bothered me. But I see why it was important, and things played out like they did partly because of it. Then there are some awkward moments and painful moments as they try to talk and find themselves unsure how to do it.

Their relationship, as they start talking and start moving on from it, is so sweet. They're much more mature in this book, and they need t move on from some things and they do. They're so very sweet to each other and cute together. They belong together, and they know it. I loved seeing them together in the present in this book. There should be more couples like this in books.

The writing was pretty much the same from before. It flows easily and it keeps me compelled to read more.

The ending is very fitting to the story. It's showing that they are going to work things out and are going to stay together no matter what happens. And Adam does a bit of growing, as well. I liked that he went to go talk to his band with Mia, and that it shows us that he did work that out, instead of leaving it open to our interpretation.

This book was fantastic. It was definitely better than the first one.

Review: Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

4.5 of 5 Stars

Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.

Goodreads Synopsis:

The thrilling conclusion to #1 bestselling Shiver trilogy from Maggie Stievater
In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. In Linger, they fought to be together. Now, in Forever, the stakes are even higher than before. Wolves are being hunted. Lives are being threatened. And love is harder and harder to hold on to as death comes closing in.

Review:

The prologue of this book was misleading. It's in Shelby's point of view and it made me think that she was adding even more character chapters. I was confused at first, but glad when I realized that this isn't true. After that chapter, it's Grace's point of view. And we find out that she's been a wolf for a while, and Stiefvater is practically teasing us as we wait for her and Sam to get to see each other. And then in Isabel's chapter how long it's been since the end of the last book, and that apparently she hasn't been talking to Cole either. And we find out that Cole has been leaving her messages that are funny and sad. And Sam has been dealing with Cole and with trying to find out how to fix and find Grace while missing her.

I love all of these characters even more now. They are all so different from each other, with their own voices and problems.

Isabel is harsh at nature, and she's trying to resist Cole and deal with her family. We see her get closer to her family some, mostly her mother, while staying away from her father until she decides to stick up for the wolves. And I love seeing her fall for Cole, and get emotional over him as she tries not to. I like also that she doesn't put up some huge wall between them or do some big denial thing, she just tries to stay away from him and reverts to being harsh.

Cole is still dealing with Victor's death and his family, and slowly finding that he doesn't want to lose himself completely. It's nice seeing him become not so self-destructive as he finds that he prefers being Cole to being Wolf. And his attraction to Isabel is nice. He doesn't seem to think about it a lot, and instead we get all the scenes in her point of view, but it's obvious how he feels by what he does around her, and he's always the first one to make a move.

Sam is such a sweetheart. He has to deal with Beck and how he might not know him as well as he thought, and with Grace. We get most of the romantic moments in his point of view, which is just so cute. He thinks about her so much, missing her and wanting her, and it's so obvious how much he loves her. And he gets so embarrassed around her, it is so cute.

Grace is dealing with her parents and friends and being a wolf. I like that her parents take a role in the series, because parents don't as much as they should sometimes, but they are just so unreasonable sometimes. Mostly her dad. It's good that she's standing up for herself, it's nice to see how she's grown up from running away from them.

I just love the romantic aspect of the book. It's obvious how much Sam and Grace love each other, and it's so sweet and true. There isn't a lot of actual kissing, at least, not enough of it for me, but with how Sam and Grace are affected by each other and how much they think of each other, definitely ups the swoon for me. They're just so cute together.

There's some swoon between Isabel and Cole, but they're kind of a side story to Sam and Grace. There's still definitely an attraction, and obviously something growing between them even more than the last book. There's also a bit of kissing, which is cute, and also not enough to sate me. There's seemed more of a relationship still growing, whereas Sam and Grace's was already there and obvious.

I'm a little skeptical to how the scientific parts were explained, and how the supposed mostly-cure works, but I'll live with it. And the ending is a little open. It doesn't give as much closure to everything as I'd have liked. I'm going to forever believe that it worked for Grace and her and Sam live happily ever after, or at least mostly. And that Cole followed Isabel, if maybe after a while as they talk long distance, because I don't want them to separate and believe they wouldn't be for too long. I do believe, though, that the relocation would have worked.

Despite it being open, I do think it's a pretty good ending and I rather enjoyed the book. Even if I'd have liked some more kissing scenes, or just more scenes between them all later. Because I love the characters so much.