Losing Control

Losing Lila by Sarah Alderson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This is a sequel (to the amazing Hunting Lila, if you haven't read it, what on earth are you waiting for?!!), so I don't like to say too much but that these books are by far some of the best I've ever read. The characters are so genuine its hard to believe they are not real people walking around somewhere. Jack, Lila and Alex have some of the greatest relationships, I find myself turning green with envy at times about how strong their bond is. I seem to always be either laughing crying or stifling a scream when reading these. Suki and Nate just do me in, I love those guys and their less than innocent jokes. Everything about these books is masterfully crafted, Alderson's alternate reality welcomes you like a firm embrace had doesn't let you go till ages after the last page. I look forward to rereading these many times over.



View all my reviews

The Ratio of Laughter to Tears

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Songs for this read:


Official Blurb:

 Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. Having missed her flight, she's stuck at JFK airport and late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon-to-be stepmother Hadley's never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's sitting in her row.

A long night on the plane passes in the blink of an eye, and Hadley and Oliver lose track of each other in the airport chaos upon arrival. Can fate intervene to bring them together once more?

Quirks of timing play out in this romantic and cinematic novel about family connections, second chances, and first loves. Set over a twenty-four-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it.

I am such a sucker for daddy-daughter bonding stories. Call me a daddy's girl but this book just ruined me. I cried about every other chapter once Hadley got to London, like a little girl. And not just about how touching Hadley and her dads story was but also for how sad Oliver's was.
This story was just as endearing as it was humorous at times. I loved the witty repartee between Hadley and Oliver and the heartwarming family anecdotes. This book was not what I was expecting but that just added to what a pleasurable and entertaining read it was. I'm sure I'll be revisiting this one again soon.

View all my reviews

A Good Night Rant

Wow I haven't been on here in quite a while. I hadn't even realized how long until just now. I guess I just haven't read many books lately that i felt really deserved a review. Not say I haven't read good books, just not any that I had any real opinions to write about.
      So its ranting time. The time of the blog where I log on and rant about my current personal inflictions without giving away any real details about my personal inflictions. But in the end the internet gets a link, my blog doesn't look abandoned, and I feel a little better getting my thoughts on "paper" and off my chest. So without further ado I give you A Good Night Rant:

As you may have noted in the title of this blog, I am an introvert. A person who happens to enjoy being alone more than large social settings, they find social skills to be things they have to work at a bit more and small talk doesn't come naturally. You may have also caught on the the fact that I am a teenaged girl. I have come to accepting my slightly awkward social persona and more or less bookworm status for a couple years now. This is not to say I am social retarded or don't have friends, just that while I have friends I rarely feel the need to see them outside of school, and while I get by with my social skills just fine I do still struggle with simple small talk like conversations, as I find it to be all fluff. Like I said I have more or less embraced that this is who I am but with college right around the corner it seems to be becoming a touchy subject. 

My parents are both former extroverts. They have since transformed into quite the opposite but they still don't seem to quite understand where I am coming from. As kids both my parents were the types to always be out, as f avoiding home. My mother especially was a bit of rebel against her parents. So they see me and always have to ask why I don't chose to be out. I have tried to ask myself this but the answer always seems to be 1. where would I go? its not like my friends are real partiers, and 2. I honestly have no desire to go out. I don't want to go run into people somewhere. It's not that I don't know how to be social, I just rarely have a desire to go "out" and be around a bunch of people. 

I am probably sounding like a really loser right now, like some loner who sits in a corner. Well I'm not. I have plenty of friends and people i hang out with at school, the only difference is when I get home I chose to spend that time alone. I am fully aware of what an abnormal teen I am. Trust me I have gotten it all: "old soul", "16 going on 36", "Benjamin Buttons", all of it. But try as I have to be a little more extroverted I find I just end up exhausted and dissatisfied. With college coming up I have always viewed it as a time to not so much reinvent myself but to branch out and more or less force myself into a social word. No better time to do it right? The root of my doubt seems to lead back to my parents. Don't get me wrong I love my parents, they are honestly the absolute greatest. They love me dearly and except me for who I am but they're jokes about how "you have to social in college, remember, hon" can kinda get to me. I know I can be social and even make it in a sorority but the knocks on my personality don't help. Personally I think a forced social environment like a sorority where everyone is kinda together in something could be really good for me, I just wish I got a little support in that thinking. 

The bottom line is I didn't chose my personality, I was never given an option whether I wanted to a easy people person or who I am. I just turned out this way, and I am not going to apologize or try to be the extrovert I'm not. I believe I am the introvert I am for a reason and somehow there is a greater plan for why I don't like to party like a "typical" teenager, and that even though it is harder for me to go out and talk to people and fit into a social group that I will grow and things will work out and that there are people down the road in my life that understand and that connections and bonds and relationships will come easy with, people that i am meant to meet. Somehow I Know this will all work out in the end, and even though I still have doubts and sometimes I question why I am different, I am not ashamed. I know there is a reason, I know there is a plan.

And so ends tonight's rant. As per usual I don't really know if that was where I was intending on going with this rant but obviously it was what I needed to say, for my own sake.  Hope you enjoyed my inner most thoughts, and if not then what are you doing wasting your time, go get a life. Until my next near emotional breakdown, epiphany or book review, good night and peaceful dreams.

Can't Ignore the Boy Next Door

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Songs for this Read: With You Around (Acoustic Version) by Yellowcard, Only Me When I'm With You by Taylor Swift, My Favourite Thing by Tonight Alive

Official Summary: The Garretts are everything the Reeds are not. Loud, numerous, messy, affectionate. And every day from her balcony perch, seventeen-year-old Samantha Reed wishes she was one of them . . . until one summer evening, Jase Garrett climbs her terrace and changes everything. As the two fall fiercely in love, Jase's family makes Samantha one of their own. Then in an instant, the bottom drops out of her world and she is suddenly faced with an impossible decision. Which perfect family will save her? Or is it time she saved herself?

      This is not the typical lighthearted summer read I thought it was going to be. The plot seems a bit tired and used at first, the whole story with the girl who keeps her "wrong side of the tracks" boyfriend a secret and lives in two worlds her friend/family and then her boyfriends world. There was a lot of tension and at times the situations can get down right frustrating, but not in bad way. While I wasn't blown away with the character development,I was impressed by the evolution of the character Tim. I loved seeing Tim grow from this stoned bum to a really lovable character.
        Overall I was pleasantly surprised by "My Life Next Door" it was not a shallow read and had some great twists in the end there. I fell in love with the Garrett family, especially the little ones. In the end there was still some closure I was lacking, there were a lot of issues brought up throughout the book that were never hit again. This probably wouldn't have bothered me as much if the ending hadn't been quite so abrupt.



View all my reviews

Nobody Goes to Mexico to Drink the Water, Anyway

From What I Remember... by Stacy Kramer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

KYLIE: Tijuana WHAT? I should be putting the finishing touches on my valedictorian speech. Graduation is TODAY, and is this a wedding band on my finger.

MAX: It all started with Kylie's laptop and a truck full of stolen electronics. Okay, it was kind of hot, the way she broke us out like some chick in an action movie. But now we're stranded in Tijuana. With less than twenty-four hours before graduation. Awesome.

WILL: Saving Kylie Flores from herself is kind of a full-time occupation. Luckily, I, Will Bixby, was born for the job. And when I found out she was stuck in Mexico with dreamy Max Langston, sure, I agreed to bring their passports across the border -- but there's no reason to rush back home right away. This party is just getting started.

LILY: I just walked in on my boyfriend, Max Langston, canoodling with Kylie Flores, freak of the century. Still, I can't completely hold it against him. He NEEDS me. It's even clearer now. And I'm not giving him up without a fight.

...

This is everything you could wish for out of teen read. The perfect book to whip through at the beach or by the pool. It's witty, cunning and just crazy funny in general. Not to mention how relevant it is, any one who has been through high school can relate to this book in some way or another. It's got a rapid fire speed plot line that doesn't give you time for air, let alone to get bored with it. And each escapade is more outrageous than the last. If the description given above doesn't peak your interest enough to want to pick this book up right away, then you're reading it wrong and should try again.



View all my reviews

"Dedication Takes a Lifetime but Dreams Only Last for a Night"

Dreamless by Josephine Angelini

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Songs for this read: Simple Distance by The Workday Release, Falling to Pieces by Junior Doctor, Running From Lions by All Time Low, When I Go Down by Relient K

Sequels in a trilogy always tend to be the ones that mess the most with ones emotions. And never in a good way. Because of this they are given a bad name and notorious for being readers least favorite of a series. And usually with good reason. The middle book is always where the author decides to mess with everyones heart strings and keep the two favorites as far apart as possible so it seems hopeless. Or even worse, insert a love triangle. Yeah who would really want to read that? Deeeepressing. And while I must say I am guilty of holding grudges against certain middle books for these exact reasons, I think it's important to focus on the vital role a middle book plays in the overall plot arc of a trilogy.
As a middle book, Dreamless is more or less obligated to involve At least some of the story elements mentioned above. I used to believe trilogy authors did this simply to keep readers holding on to the next book to see if the lovers would get back together because they had some idea in their head that readers ultimately get bored seeing the couple happy and functional. Don't get me wrong in a sense this theory has complete credibility but this alone isn't enough.
While reading dreamless I realized just how much crucial character and plot development occur in the story line of the second book in a trilogy. While it is all being set up in the first and resolved in the last, the middle is wear you really find out who these people are. And that is why so often something huge drives the couples apart. Not purely to keep readers biting their nails but to let's them get to know the. Characters separate of each other. To get readers to love the characters as individuals that then make up a duo (hopefully) in the next installment.
Ok I really didn't set out to write all that but it just started flowing on the keyboard. Tying this back to this great book I read, dreamless does a great job establishing really just where all the game pieces lie in this plot. The mysteries of the first book are expanded and the epic battle royale has been properly introduced,
The love triangle is in full force and sides have been marked like lines in the sand. And while the second book curse succeeded in making me hurt for Helen and Lucas being so distant, you know the book is a keeper when you don't want to kill the girl when she isn't with her boyfriend. It is a rare thing these days ( at least for me) to find a book where you genuine like the heroine and don't just out up with for her boyfriend.
It's still a middle book so I'm not going to tell you I am in live with this book. But I will say I wasn't disappointed and that I just know the finale will be even better than both the first two combined.



View all my reviews

What is this, Middle School??

This is your typical teen girl confused, mindless rant. Last week I went to a school baseball game to see some friends on the team. Had some brief encounters with some of the other players, nothing to write home about. Next thing I know that night one of my friends texts me asking me what I think of one of the guys on the team. I barely new the guy, just met him that day. But my gut instinct was he wasn't my type which is what I told her. She of course then tells this kid that. Honestly I have Zero interest in the kid but I was like what the hell i'll make the guys night and text him. Well that was ok, boring as crud but ok. Until i get a text the next morning "mornin'". Woahhhh there buddy, no body signed up for good morning texts here. Back up that relationship train. In fact get rid of that train, you are making this way more than it needs to be. So now i must put up with the most boring, pathetic flirtation I have ever had to deal with. Well, second most pathetic, but tops to the boring. Its like middle school all over again but wayy more awkward because i thought we were all past this stage by now. Why is it so easy for me to hook the guys that im not interested in, yet so much work to get attention from the ones I want to hook??? Questions that plague the teenage mind. or at least mine. FML.