This is for no special reason, but I have decided to make this a friends-only journal. I'm sorry about you getting here looking for anything you found on google or something but after years, I have changed my stand on this.
I'm growing up and making friends, possibly enemies, changing my views... I really don't want anything I write being used against me. And I can't go back and check all of the posts. So they were all changed.
Feel free to add me, though. Leave a comment here if you must, or just send me a PM! I'll probably add you back.
Really, I used to think that it would be cool meeting friends, people finding me for my interests, what I write and all but nowadays that's not the internet anymore. I'm thankful for all of the friendships this blog has brought me (boolafaz, ellyvanhoutenpk, leidmotief etc -alphabetical order ftw! xD) and even those that have already ended. Now I'll ask you to give me a little bit more of your time and talk to me before allowing you to read what I have to say. Don't worry, I don't bite, lol.
The main character in this book is Mark, who has just moved to a new town after taking a year off to take care of his teenager daughter from his failed marriage. Mark is definitely gay and definitely not confident to get out of the closet, much less now his daughter needs ground. However, he meets Patrick and it is almost instant love. Definitely instant attraction, which may be reciprocated. On the other hand, Patrick can't understand Mark's stubbornness in staying in the closet, even though it costs a possibly good relationship between the two of them.
This book has many good discussions surrounding social conscience, and not only problems people need to face due to their sexuality. And I should say I appreciated how each of them was treated. For times I was afraid the tone would come down to a lecture but the author knew how to present well the two sides and reach consensus. The rhythm is also good, events keep happening and the book still doesn't lose breath. I read thirstily until the epilogue and reached the acknowledgment section wishing there was at least a PS. I should note not because there was no ending but because it was that enjoyable. There is a proper ending, and I found it 100% complete.
Also, this is the third in a series I hadn't read before. I felt no need to check the other two stories, although the main characters do make a cameo here. Unfortunately, if you are a fan, their scenes aren't long or important. I think the Robert character wasn't even in a scene but only mentioned. I am sure all the adorable characters featured in this story do compensate for that fact.
I loved every one of them, drunk Barry, such a good friend who is David, boy-or-girl Lex but my favorite was Mark's daughter. At the beginning, when she was shown from Mark's memories only, I was preparing myself for the typical teenager forced to be annoying just so she'd sound her age. Little by little, though, I kept looking forward to her scenes.
This is a lovely story, and an easy read with a good portion of humor, going beyond others of its kind. Absolutely recommended! Being my first time reading anything by this author, I surely will read more from her.
ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange of an honest review. Many thanks to Dudurn for trusting me with the task, being my first time reviewing for them.
This deserves 3.5 stars, actually.
Hope has a problem and she has found a solution. After being the sister of the hockey-star-meth addict of her small town, she can now go to a board school and start a new life away in the city.
Written from two points of view, both Hope's and Eric's, her older brother, this a story about family, dealing with problems and the importance of asking for help. Being a young adult, we find the usual elements, such as friendships, or lack of true friends, getting in touch with ones true identity, dealing with loneliness, finding our true place. The narration from both sides is beautiful and thus touching. Despite Hope's problems center some false friendships at her new school, and bullying, her angst comes from deeper, as the shadow of her ties to her brother ensues.
The content is not gruesome but maybe be called of a strong nature, which includes drugs and sexual abuse, as well as depression. The story is not lighthearted but I wouldn't say it is too heavy all considered. I think the author knew where to stop so we don't get lost in all the possible drama. Just enough for the reader to know she is talking for real. The pace is slow but it never stops. I would say the main theme here is "bonds". Not only family ties but the bonds we make or fail to make along the way.
I think the highlight was the description of how hard Eric had fallen. Sometimes, I thought his situation was presented in a shallow manner, but then the author would present me such a scenario through her words and the objects she would highlight from the background I had to retreat my opinion. That said, I don't think her approach was ideal, however it was far superior from other YA novels around. Also, I have to mention the awesome cover. It tells you a lot from the general atmosphere you will find with so little.
The down point was its pace. I do think that, for someone who has suffered so much deception from her brother, Hope was still too naive. I don't blame the victim but from her life experience, she should know better. Still, I was never mad at her, she was a brave but real girl for me. The pace, on the other hand, had me wondering if the book was really 200 pages and not a thousand. Don't get me wrong, it is still possible to go through it in one seating. A 200-page book could still be a quicker seating. It gets better, both the pacing and the story gets you to stick around after 20 or 30%, especially once you're on the 50% mark. Still, I was glad to read the editor asked the author to sacrifice half her draft, according to her notes.
I recommend it to all YA readers who aren't beaten by slow pace. I will definitely look out for more from this author.
The following review was based on the unrevised ARC of this work, kindly provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest feedback.
Lovely! I confess the summary had led me to believe the book to be a lighthearted chick lit about dancing. While the beginning did have the tone, and while there was a lot about dancing after the middle section, this was a very moving story about a mother trying her best to find herself after a great loss at the same time she still needs to make sure her grieving fourteen-year-old will be okay.
Ruth has just lost her partner to a car accident and all she has left is a great debt and their teenager daughter, whose best way to express her own feelings is through dying her hair with non-conventional tones. Having to go back to her parents' house, Ruth needs to also deal with the first love that never was, her depression and the financial hole her partner unknowingly to her dug for then before going.
Sarah Merson has lost her parents when her home was invaded, and only she was able to escape the assailants. After years going from one family to another, having the worst experiences, she was invited to an elite school with an immersion program. This meant she was to live there for two years receiving top grade education, which would increase her chances of getting into college. To make the deal sweeter, she actually enjoys her roommates and feels she can finally trust people for the first time since her parents death.
Now living in New York, Clarissa is in a middle of a crisis now she has lost her dream job at the Daily Post, her entrepreneur and charming boyfriend–okay, it is more like she wishes she had lost that stalker–and can't even pay her back rent or find a job or at least update her parents of her predication. This will catch up to her the very day she musters courage to seduce CCG, a.k.a. the Cute Coffee Guy who works at her former job building, and the Darlings appear for a visit to the Daily Post, prompting her to introduce CCG as her boyfriend and... there is no need to say more.
This book I got from a different site this time. I don't know how requests work and the time I decided to test I was lucky the one title that caught my eyes was free for immediate download. Yay!
RJ is an inconvenient queen bee whose soul is collected by mistake. Unlike others reaped, she is fully aware of her surrounds and will take it to the final consequences to see the unfairness fixed and her life restored. The catch is that such has never been done and the guys in the Afterlife are less than willing to open a precedent, which could cause an upheaval among those who believe to also be entitled to a second chance in life.
The author has merits, she had a very entertaining idea that despite seen a lot on movies and TV series, it is not very frequent on books. And much less a plot twist - hence not saying here what it is about.
I was very glad to be able to review this. So, first of all, I have to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with the ARC, on a read-to-review basis.
In sum, Mercedes lives in a dysfunctional family. Her father left home when she was younger—and named her after a car—, her mother is never really home except to push for unhealthy diets and to give not-very-age-appropriate advices, and the person she used to love used her, fooling her into sleeping with him. When she was thirteen. Thus, she decides to help other girls have a better first sexual experience by teaching their virgin boyfriends how to treat a girl right. She surrounds herself with numbers and formulas, and try to follow logic, patterns. At school, she is friends with the person who wouldn't pry into her secret life, who also happens to be a convict Christian. At home, she refuses to call her mother by name. She also won't accept that her "Wednesday friend" becomes anything beyond a one-day-a-week fun time. For Mercedes, life can be fit in a formula, and if she balances right on one side, she'll know what to expect on the other. She follows her strict rules. Until she doesn't.
The five-virgins pay-forward deal becomes ten going to eleven, and she doesn't even enjoy going through planning the big date prior to the act, or giving detailed instructions. Maybe the last few weren't even virgins but she did enjoy it. Sometimes, not even that but she did agree to it, so she has to go to the end. One day, it is her best friend's boyfriend who asks for her help.
I really enjoyed how the author conducted the organization of chaos Mercedes so desperately tried to force. Mercedes herself was a great character for a third of the book. To be honest, I liked most of the characters portrayed here. Even when they didn't act ideally, I could understand them. Like how Angela doesn't seem to notice much about her friend or perhaps not care, in case she does notice how on the verge of a collapse Mercedes finds herself. I loved Faye in that aspect. She was always there in a very believable manner.
And I'll start my critics from here. I feel the author got lost on what she was going for in the middle of the story. I asked myself many times if this wasn't LGBT because Mercedes friendship with Faye was time and again questioned as a possible physical attraction (and Mercedes being as methodical came to terms rather easily). Mercedes's mom was great. You know, she is responsible for her daughter's state of mind but I was unable to hate her, it was more like a love-to-hate feeling? I found her very charismatic and proof the author is very capable of building antagonizing characters. And then there was Zach. I found him cute from the start but I wasn't sure if I should cheer for them. Especially when he's not even mentioned on the summary.
Now I mentioned it, the summary is almost a spoiler, because the boyfriend, Charlie, only does anything at around 61% of the book. He's also my big no-no. The author recognizes by the ending Charlie seemed to have changed overnight. But why? Indeed, because Mercedes never got close, we don't know much of Charlie but this overnight observation comes from his very own girlfriend. Is he mentally ill? Was there a good reason? I feel the author should have spent more time there instead of villainizing him, black on white. It was a let-down because for 61% I impatiently waited for his proposition to Mercedes, but he wasn't himself by then. Moreover, we didn't need a bad guy for Mercedes's charade to fall through, and we reach the climax. I was biting my nails knowing it would all come down pretty soon. It's obvious the world has too many elements for someone to bring it to a formula—and the book recognizes that. Last, I don't want to spoil it but I didn't like Faye's plan by the end. I don't think it equalizes with what had happened. And I can't criticize this point but neither can I help not liking how the boyfriends were never much of the focus, though I'll give it to the author for at least acknowledging their share of the blame—through Faye's lines, have I mentioned how much I like her?
Summing up, I loved the author's style and would like to read more by her from now. This didn't get a higher grade but I can see her reaching five stars with other stories, Preferably if they are as daring as Firsts. She got me for follower.
boolafaz,