March TBR

Okay, so before I even start this post I want to make you aware of the fact I have terrible habit of not following my TBRs. Like at all. Still, I like setting, sometimes unattainable, goals for myself. And hence my split personality-this TBR I probably won’t keep to!

To start of my TBR, a book I’ve been wanting to read ever since it came out January 31 of this year. By Your Side by Katie West just seems like this heartfelt book about love and friendship, and the perfect contemporary to jet-start the spring season. For God’s sake, it takes place in a library! What could possibly be better??

The next book I’ve been dying to read, and will hopefully get to this month, is Slammed by Colleen Hoover. I honestly don’t know much about this book at all, other than the fact it was published in 2012 – can you believe thats already five years ago? This was the first Colleen Hoover book I got mye eyes on, it inspired me to read her other books, so therefore it seems only fair I read the book that got mye eyes up for one of my favorite authors. (Including the rest of the series)

The last book I want to read is I Was Here by Gayle Forman. I bought this book a little over a year ago, and it has been judging me from my shelf ever since. This book is a bit different from the other two on my TBR this month, and in the sense that it talks about suicide and self harm. These are topics not often discussed in the open, and I’m excited to see how this book adresses the issue.

 

As you can see, I’ve decided to only add three books to my list this month. Honestly, I’m not even sure I’ll be able to get through them. The school year is gearing up, work is piling up, and the subjects intensifies. My teaches says the next six weeks will be the most challenging of the year, and my focus will primarily on school and homework these following weeks. Hope you’ll understand!

Review: It Ends with US

I started reading this while on vacation in the Canary Islands, and that probably wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had. By the end of it I was bawling my eyes out, and let me tell you: Not a pretty sight to witness lounging in the sun!

Author: Colleen Hoover

Published: August 2nd 2016

In the book we meet a girl by the name of Lily. She is the daughter of the town mayor and born with a reputation to keep up. This doesn’t mean she’s always had it easy, or prevented her in working hard for her dream. And things are finally looking bright for Lily, she has graduated college, moved to Boston and started her own business. Add Ryle to the picture, a beautiful, charismatic neurosurgeon-  and things couldn’t have looked better. However, around the same time as Atlas, her first love, appears in her life again, everything takes a turn for the worst.  Lily is left having to make one of the hardest decision of her life.

I feel like this is a book best enjoyed if you don’t necessarily know much of the back story, before reading it. Go in at least semi-blind, and just enjoy the hart ache and happiness it brings you.

One thing I must say though, is that I absolutely loved this book. I honestly don’t know what took me so long to read it! It is beautifully written, with a plot and message so heartbreaking and wonderful, I honestly didn’t know what to do with myself afterwords.

If you have read any of Hoover’s previous books, I can tell you this one is a bit different from what she usually writes. For one, the chapters are’t alternating between one female and male protagonist’s POV, but stays focused on Lily the entire time. The content of the book is also a bit more mature and heavy-hearted than her earlier books, and the subject can be a sensitive matter for a lot of people. Nonetheless, I still loved the book to pieces and would recommend it to absolutely anyone!

5/5 stars!

Review of “how to be bad”

…written by E. Lockhart, Lauren Myracle, and Sarah Mlynowski
The book “how to be bad” is a book originally written for teens, not the usual YA I normally read, something I realized shortly after I read it. Had I know before hand, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up. Am I happy I ended up picking it up? I honestly don’t know…
In the book, we meet three different girls: Jesse, Vicks, and Mel, who all have alternating chapters. The only thing bonding them is that they all work at a diner called “Waffle House”, aka. “Awful Waffle”. Jesse and Vicks are best friends, and have been for some time, and then Mel, the new waiter, shows up. Right of the bat, it is clear to see she doesn’t belong with her designer jeans and fancy car. Yet, she ends up going on a road trip across Florida with Jesse and Vicks on one condition, that she pays for everything.

I am not really sure on my feeling towards this book. The beginning was a bit slow, and frankly so was the middle. The end picked up speed a little, but still not enough for it to salvage the rest of the book.
The language of the book was a bit divided, and it may have something to do with the fact that it was written by three different authors. I liked the chapters from Mel’s point of view the best, because they seemed sincere and her character was well thought through. The chapters on Vicks were also pretty enjoyable, and the chapters where her wild characteristics came through were some my favorite parts of the book. Jesse however, I couldn’t stand. I dreaded reading her chapters, not necessarily because they were badly written, but because her character was absolutely awful. She was judgemental, arrogant and cold hearted, and even at the parts of the book where we were supposed to feel bad or sympathetic towards her, I just couldn’t do it.
The plot itself was also flat. The love interest intended for Mel was boring and the roadside attractions they stopped at along the way didn’t add much to the story. (In my opinion)

 

Still, the book was an easy read, and I got through it in a couple of hours. The simple plot made it easy to digest, and I didn’t sit back with an empty feeling afterward like I sometimes do after reading a really good book. Overall, I would recommend it for younger readers, maybe aged 12-15, or someone older looking for a light, easy read.
3/5stars