Review: To All The Boys I've Loved Before

To All The Boys I've Loved Before
Jenny Han
Contemporary 

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.

This never happens to me - usually when I love a book I love it straight off the bat. I also usually never hate a popular, bestselling book - not always in love with it, but usually never hate it. I consider my tastes fairly normal. 

This book tho. 

I couldn't stand it for the first 50 pages or so, and seriously considered putting it down. (THIS NEVER HAPPENS)  Because I'm crazy about not DNFing, I continued. Boy am I happy.

From the second Lara Jean jumps on Kavinsky and I looked up from the book in bewilderment like did she just do that things took a turn for the awesomeness. I loved how funny things were, I love how I grew to care. I hurt for Josh, I hurt for the sisters. I liked how normal and boring our protagonist was, but how her story and life was beautiful and meaning to me nonetheless. I liked how she was Asian, and it was addressed - ahhahh I had never thought about the costumes thing. 

The romance was beautiful. It was slow, it was funny, it was natural. He grew on me, Peter. Totally had me in love with him by the end. My only real point of criticism throughout the novel was that Lara didn't dwell pretty much at all on who sent her letters. I felt that anyone else wouldn't rest until they found out who had done it. 

As for the person who had done it... without spoilers, I felt that that was a drastic move, and frankly an unforgiveable one. Not to mention the cause of Lara and Margo's fallout... the Song girls' ability to forgive each other was truly astonishing. 

THE ENDING. Like with Jenny Han's other books,  I had a bad feeling about where the sequel was going to go so I spoiled it in order to decide whether or not to read it. Fortunately, it seems things will end up where I believe they should be and have decided to continue(:

Soooo recommended.

    

Review: Demigods and Monsters

Demigods and Monsters: Your Favorite Authors on Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series

Which Greek god makes the best parent?Would you want to be one of Artemis’ Hunters?Why do so many monsters go into retail?
Spend a little more time in Percy Jackson’s world—a place where the gods bike among us, monsters man snack bars, and each of us has the potential to become a hero.
Find out:
Why Dionysus might actually be the best director Camp Half-Blood could have

How to recognize a monster when you see one

Why even if we aren’t facing manticores and minotaurs, reading myth can still help us deal with the scary things in our own lives

Plus, consult our glossary of people, places, and things from Greek myth: how Medusa got her snake hair extensions, why Chiron isn’t into partying and paintball like the rest of his centaur family, and the whole story on Percy’s mythical namesake.

When I bought this I thought it was going to be something like The Demigod Diaries or The Demigod Files - some bonus Riordan content. When I realized what it was though, I was a bit diappointed but interested. Behold, my thoughts:

The introduction was really cool to me - it's basically Rick Riordan expressing his amazement that people could find symbolism and deeper meanings in a bedtime story he made up for his kid. Includes interesting quote by Mark Twain. 

Monster Recongnition for Beginners- cute, entertaining. Liked the footnotes. 

Why Do So Many Monsters Go Into Retail? - found this boring, was unable to figure out the concrete claim the writer was trying to make. 

Stealing Fire From the Gods -  well written, but a familiar concept. 

Would You Want to be One of Artemis' Hunters? - a question I (and I bet every other female reader of The Titan's Curse) had thought about a bunch of times. The whole dilemma in one essay.

Dionysus: Who Let Him Run a Summer Camp? - ahhh loved this. Mr. D is my favorite. 

The Gods Among Us - heartfelt. A good and important read.

Percy Jackson and the Lords of Death - some new and interesting comparisons to Maya mythology, and a How To Build A Middle Grade Adventure guide.

Eeny Meeny Miney Mo(m) - oh, admit it. You thought about which godly parent you'd want a million times. This essay confirmed my choice! (APOLLO)

Percy, I Am Your Father - rating of the gods based on their parenting skills. An overlook over the whole series, some very good points. 

As Bad as They Wanna Be - all about Hades and Nico. I loved this! Always thought they deserved more credit than they got. 

The Greek Hero- New and Improved - agreed!

Not Even the Gods Are Perfect- nicely done, but a subject discussed in other essays. 

Frozen Eyeballs - about oracles and prophecies. Had more potential than it lived up to. 

The Language of the Heart - ehhh.

A Glossary Of Ancient Greek Myth - cutely written, actually had a lot of new info there, but I still stopped halfway through because you can only read a list of definitions for so long.

Overall? Not going to excite your middle grader, but if you have a thoughtful fan in mind this might work for them. Rating:

Happy 2016 dear people! So sad I missed December here on the blogosphere, and looking forward to a year filled with happiness and books!

Love, 

Esty

Review: It's Not Summer Without You

It's Not Summer Without You (Summer #2)
Jenny Han
Contemporary romance

Can summer be truly summer without Cousins Beach?

It used to be that Belly counted the days until summer, until she was back at Cousins Beach with Conrad and Jeremiah. But not this year. Not after Susannah got sick again and Conrad stopped caring. Everything that was right and good has fallen apart, leaving Belly wishing summer would never come.

But when Jeremiah calls saying Conrad has disappeared, Belly knows what she must do to make things right again. And it can only happen back at the beach house, the three of them together, the way things used to be. If this summer really and truly is the last summer, it should end the way it started--at Cousins Beach.

You can read my review of The Summer I Turned Pretty (Summer #1) here. 
It's Not Summer Without You rectified the things I didn't like about book 1- Taylor gets recognized for the bitch she is, no more kids' POVs, Conrad both redeems himself and gets me more pissed with him than I was before. In general, everything get better and deeper in this installment.

For starters, the novel had me crying right off the bat. No spoilers, but it's emotional. And there's all this nostalgia and longing that Belly feels that comes across to the reader very strongly- missing those beautiful summers with the people she loves most, back when everyone was okay. 

This time, the flashbacks are to different points from the past year, telling you the story of what happened between last summer and now. And the best part? JEREMIAH'S POV. Of everyone in the books, he's the one who's suffered the most and is still the nicest one to everyone, good and loving all the time. By far my favorite character.

I was very satisfied with the end. Belly falls from her character development but then gets up again and develops again. Some might not like that, as it has a similar arc to the first book romance-wise, but I found it fitting. In life we swear not to fall into the same trap again but we do- the trick is not to give up, but to get up again. 

However, I understand from the synopsis and the reviews that book 3 is going to screw it all up in the most obvious and predictable way, so I'm stopping here. I liked this ending, it was everything  I wanted to be, and that's that. 

Rating:

Review: The Summer I Turned Pretty

The Summer I Turned Pretty (Summer #1)
Jenny Han
Contemporary romance

Some summers are just destined to be pretty.

When each summer begins, Belly leaves her school life behind and escapes to Cousins Beach, the place she has spent every summer of her life. Not only does the beach house mean home away from home, but her favorite people are there: Susannah, her mother's best friend, and her sons, Conrad and Jeremiah. Belly has been chasing Conrad for as long as she can remember, and more than anything, she hopes this summer will be different. Despite distractions from a new guy named Cam and lingering looks from Conrad's brother, Jeremiah, Belly's heart belongs to Conrad. Will he offer his to her? Will this be the summer that changes everything?

Hey people. It's May and you know what that means.... every high schooler in the northern hemisphere's nightmare. So as you saw for the last two weeks I'll be blogging a less. Also, in between every new book I'm rereading a TMI novel to refresh before City of Heavenly Fire. 

So. The Summer I Turned Pretty. At one point a few years back this series was all the rage. I'm so glad I finally got to read it.. it really was a sweet read. The setting was absolutely gorgeous- a beautiful beach house, hot boys and summer. Also, I loved how Belly already has a long history with Jeremiah and Conrad in the book's beginning because it added depth and believability to the relationships. 

As for the characters, I almost fully approved of Belly. She was smart and sweet, girly but tough. Quite honestly, the only thing I didn't like about her was her friendship with Taylor from back home. Taylor is a bitch and I really didn't see what Belly liked about her. She mainly used Belly during the flashbacks in which she appears. Not to mention, who someone is friends with usually says a lot about a person in my opinion so I really thought that relationship was out of place. Unfortunately, it seems like we'll get more of her in book #2. 

Jeremiah... I love you. I was backing him the whole way. Strong but funny, confident but not cocky unless joking. He was always there for everyone in the book. #TeamJere 

Cam- I relatively liked him, but not especially. I did think it was cool and exotic how he's Japanese and speaks tons of languages. 

And Conrad. Fans of the book may scream at me, but I just didn't get what I was supposed  to love about him. As both Belly and Jeremiah mention in the book, he's been brooding and acting like a jerk. Even in the flashbacks, he had little dialogue. It was more like, Conrad danced me around the room. Conrad laughed and told Jeremiah to... it made it impossible for me to love him like Belly did. 

The ending- was kinda horrible. And not in the it-was-random-and-stupid. As in it was beautifully sad. I hadn't realized when picking up the book that it wouldn't be all light and fluffy so I really wasn't prepared for that. It still was beautiful, though. 

The POV- I didn't love the fact that sometimes the chapters were from age 11 and 14. I didn't want to read from the POV of a kid or read about the characters as kids. It felt unnecessary and kept interrupting the story I was enjoying. Of course, sometimes this arrangement works wonderfully, but not in this case for me. Rating:


Love, 
Esty