Tag: romance

Review: My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review3 Comments

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The Garretts are everything the Reeds are not. Loud, messy, affectionate. And every day from her rooftop perch, Samantha Reed wishes she was one of them . . . until one summer evening, Jase Garrett climbs up next to her and changes everything.
As the two fall fiercely for each other, stumbling through the awkwardness and awesomeness of first love, Jase’s family embraces Samantha – even as she keeps him a secret from her own. Then something unthinkable happens, and the bottom drops out of Samantha’s world. She’s suddenly faced with an impossible decision. Which perfect family will save her? Or is it time she saved herself?

Yes. Yes. Yes. This book is such a good debut and such a pleasant surprise! I’ve been a tiny bit peeved recently because I’ve been powering through books on my shelf and I haven’t really been enjoying them as much as I’d like…until this.

Where do I even start? I’m used to contemporaries, and I have a soft spot for them. But this is a contemporary with one hell of a twist. I was enjoying this book, and about halfway through was left wondering what was happening, a little bored perhaps. It was lovely, fluffy…but that was it. I needed more.

Hell, did Fitzpatrick give me more.

““You have to kiss me,” I find myself saying.”

Some people may say the twist was a little too intense for such a fluffy romance, but I am not one of those people. This book really needed the twist to pull it apart from the rest. But it wasn’t just the twist that I loved. For one, this book includes family and friends and such a large cast of characters, but I loved them all and I thought they were all so well built. Everyone played an important role in the story and Fitzpatrick is so good at creating well-rounded characters. I really liked Samantha, and I actually love that she was a rich girl. She challenged the whole rich girl stereotype and proved there is more depth to the spoilt princess we expect.

This book took me through so many emotions. Boredom, slightly, yes. But also love, confusion, tears, happiness, laughter and so much more. I spent some of this book trying not to cry, and other parts bursting out into giggles. It displayed the rollercoaster of Samantha’s life perfectly.

“”Yeah.” He leans closer. “I do.””

So honestly, the best part of this book was definitely the characters, whom I adored. I loved the big Garrett family and the natural way they were represented. I loved George, who came across with traits of aspergers to me, and made him even more lovable. I loved the dynamic between Sam and her mum, because even though it was heart-wrenching, I think it was written beautifully.

My only criticism? The pace. As I briefly mentioned above, I thought halfway through this book that that was it. And later on, I felt the ending was a little rushed. I just think if the twist had happened a little sooner, with the first half of the book being more compressed and the second half having a little more longevity, it would have been absolutely perfect.

★★★★★
4.5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review7 Comments

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Call Me by Your Name is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents’ cliff-side mansion on the Italian Riviera. Unprepared for the consequences of their attraction, at first each feigns indifference. But during the restless summer weeks that follow, unrelenting buried currents of obsession and fear, fascination and desire, intensify their passion as they test the charged ground between them. What grows from the depths of their spirits is a romance of scarcely six weeks’ duration and an experience that marks them for a lifetime. For what the two discover on the Riviera and during a sultry evening in Rome is the one thing both already fear they may never truly find again: total intimacy.

Warning: spoilers ahead! No necessarily large plot spoilers, but discussions of major scenes.

I’m going to have to clear something up -this is mainly going to be a rant. So before I go all negative, I’m going to have to tell you that there is no doubt, this book is beautiful. The narrative is absolutely breathtaking, and reads like a classic. This isn’t always a good thing, but it is emotional, raw and naked. Too naked, in fact, and so pretensions it really p**sed me off, but in the end that is frankly the least of my problems.

Other positives! I loved the Italian setting, it was utterly beautiful. I also liked the characters and I need to mention the discussion between Elio and his dad at the end of the book. It was definitely the most heartwarming part of the entire novel for me and I loved it.

“If I could have him like this in my dreams every night of my life,”

Okay, with that over let’s get to why I’m rating this book 2 stars. For many reasons, this book made me extremely uncomfortable. The worst possible feeling a book can make me, when I turn to reading for relaxation and comfort. I know everyone talks about this, but I have to mention the infamous peach scene. For those who haven’t read the book, Elio has a very intimate relationship with a peach. At this point, I let this wash over me and dismissed it. So what? People have their kinks. And then this happened.

“What a crazy thing this was. I let myself hang back, holding the fruit in both hands, grateful that I hadn’t gotten the sheet dirty with either juice or come. The bruised and damaged peach, like a rape victim, lay on its side on my desk, shamed, loyal, aching, and confused, struggling not to spill what I’d left inside.”

No no no no. And more no. Something that all authors in the entire world should know – never ever refer to a sexual act as rape if you want us to like and relate to a character. What the actual f***.

The book continued to disgust me, with two other scenes I will mention. One, where Elio actually searched for pubic hairs in a bathing suit because he wanted to find them. Another, when he declared to his lover not to flush, because he wanted to not only see his poop but poop on top of it. His lover then kissed him on the lips and rubbed his stomach while he pooped.

I’m sorry but what. This is not romantic. It doesn’t prove how close these two people are, and it is not needed. All of this is creepy, weird and actually made me feel slightly sick.

“I’d stake my entire life on dreams and be done with the rest.”

So overall, I am going to watch the movie with the hope of this book being portrayed better on the big screen. I won’t deny that the writing is beautiful, but this book is too flawed and littered with issues for me to enjoy it.

★★
2 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: It Only Happens in the Movies by Holly Bourne

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review4 Comments

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Audrey is over romance. Since her parents’ relationship imploded her mother’s been catatonic, so she takes a cinema job to get out of the house. But there she meets wannabe film-maker Harry. Nobody expects Audrey and Harry to fall in love as hard and fast as they do. But that doesn’t mean things are easy. Because real love isn’t like the movies…
The greatest love story ever told doesn’t feature kissing in the snow or racing to airports. It features pain and confusion and hope and wonder and a ban on cheesy clichés. Oh, and zombies… YA star Holly Bourne tackles real love in this hugely funny and poignant novel.

Firstly, hi on a Saturday! I know I usually post Stacking the Shelves on a Saturday but as I haven’t bought books this week (yay for self control), I thought I would post this. I’m really sorry if this is one-too-many reviews for a week but honestly, if I don’t post this right now I’m going to just have a backlog of reviews as I’m reading quicker than I can post! Which is awesome!

So onto this book, and I had mixed feelings about even buying this in the first place. I remember reading Am I Normal Yet? and finding the voice of the MC a little too young for me, and I was scared about this happening again. But I would say It Only Happens in the Movies had a slightly older feel.

“Love isn’t just a feeling. Love is a choice too.”

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I can see why it has so much praise. It’s just very real in many aspects – romance, friendship, sex, growing up, parent troubles, moving from home..everything.

But I can’t help it, I have these niggles, and I wish I didn’t but I just did. For one, I didn’t like Audrey all the time. She was just so damn angsty and constantly angry, and I know it was because of her circumstances but she’d just like blow up for no reason? It also annoyed me when she didn’t seek help for either her or her mum, even though she knew how much she was going through, she just isolated herself instead. Another really important point I’d like to make is something I read in another review – if the same thing that happened to Harry happened to Audrey at the end of the book, it would be a completely different story.

“And you may not be able to help your feelings, but you are responsible for the choices you make about what to do with them.”

But even though I did have some little annoyances, I actually mostly enjoyed reading this book. It was a little cliche for me, but Audrey was a really strong feminist character who I looked up to and loved her strength. I felt how relatable this book was, and even told my friend about it who had been through a very similar experience to Audrey. I felt like this alone tells everyone how important this book is.

★★★★
3.5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review3 Comments

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When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic. An anomaly in her friend group, she’s the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon.
So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high. It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the people she loves are fighting—especially when she realizes she might love one of them more than she ever intended.

I didn’t think I was going to read this book – I was just unsure that it was my thing as I’m getting older and my reading tastes are developing, but I’m so glad I did! It was a combination of loving The Upside of Unrequited and @bookish_and_proud (shoutout to Becky!) enjoying it that made me finally picking up, and it was definitely worth it.

“Imagine going about your day knowing someone’s carrying you in their mind.”

In some ways, this book was exactly how I expected it to be. It was angsty, cheesy and cliche, but I also loved it. I’m trying to be honest with myself here, and be honest with you guys too, so I’ll just come out with it. I really want to be cultured, and educated, and have an obsession with classics and other  books that will shape me as a person. But I honestly really love a good YA contemporary, so here we are. This book was my guilty pleasure in written form.

First of all, Leah. I loved her, she was so relatable and badass and I really found myself enjoying reading about her character. But I have to say, she was also incredibly…brash? I don’t really know how to describe her, but she really needs to learn to forgive and stop holding so many grudges. I get it, I can be like her as a person too, but sometimes it just annoyed me a little how she seemed to hate people for no reason (*cough* Wells *cough*).

“That has to be the best part of being in love- the feeling of having a home in some else’s brain.”

But that really has to be the only downside of Leah on the Offbeat, because I couldn’t help but love the rest. It’s cliche, but it also has a balance of deep, meaningful stuff which is really true about growing up. But what I really loved about these books was the laughter. I find it really, truly difficult to laugh-out-loud at books, but this one really tickled me. I kept having to stop and recite funny passages to my boyfriend.

On top of it being so funny, it was also so current! I found myself giving a little fist-pump when I saw Troye Sivan was mentioned. It warmed my heart at every single Harry Potter reference. I melted when I saw a reference to Six of Crows. I’m going to have to stop, because I loved this book so much I could go on and on about it, so I will say one last thing – I love how this book is in the same world as Simon vs. and The Upside of Unrequited. And I love how they’re not direct sequels, because there is no pressure to go back and remember what happened in Simon vs!

★★★★
4 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: The Crown (#5) by Kiera Cass

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review10 Comments

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When Eadlyn became the first princess of Illéa to hold her own Selection, she didn’t think she would fall in love with any of her thirty-five suitors. She spent the first few weeks of the competition counting down the days until she could send them all home. But as events at the palace force Eadlyn even further into the spotlight, she realizes that she might not be content remaining alone.
Eadlyn still isn’t sure she’ll find the fairytale ending her parents did twenty years ago. But sometimes the heart has a way of surprising you…and soon Eadlyn must make a choice that feels more impossible—and more important—than she ever imagined.

So yay, this book is better? This series improved? I mean, looking back on my review of The Heir, not much could have been worse, but I’m very happy to say some of the better parts of The Selection series shone through once again in this book.

I’m very glad to say Eadlyn does improve, thank goodness. She loses at least some of her selfishness even though there were still many times when I rolled my eyes at her somewhat bratty statements that still pop up.

“He smiled. “You are always just Eadlyn. And you are always the queen.”

I guess I could say there was an element of surprise in this book, at least in some more ways than in The One. But saying this, I did know exactly how the book would end. Having spent 4 books getting used to how Cass writes, I kind of guessed what would happen even though the romance just wasn’t really developed. And that’s the disappointing thing, I shouldn’t have known what was going to happen. But it was so damn obvious anyway.

“You are everything to everyone. And infinitely more to me.””

But I have to say it, when Cass goes for the romance, she does it well. There was a few passages that touched my stupid romantic heart so much that I actually shed a few tears. And I couldn’t help but going back to how I felt with the first 3 books in some aspects…because this book is entertaining, easy to read and somewhat enjoyable. I wouldn’t say I liked it like the first 3, but it’s definitely better than The Heir!

★★★
3 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: The Heir (#4) by Kiera Cass

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review9 Comments

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Princess Eadlyn has grown up hearing endless stories about how her mother and father met. Twenty years ago, America Singer entered the Selection and won the heart of Prince Maxon—and they lived happily ever after. Eadlyn has always found their fairy-tale story romantic, but she has no interest in trying to repeat it. If it were up to her, she’d put off marriage for as long as possible.
But a princess’s life is never entirely her own, and Eadlyn can’t escape her very own Selection—no matter how fervently she protests.
Eadlyn doesn’t expect her story to end in romance. But as the competition begins, one entry may just capture Eadlyn’s heart, showing her all the possibilities that lie in front of her . . . and proving that finding her own happily ever after isn’t as impossible as she’s always thought.

Oh my god. Why oh why did this series carry on? I was so happy with the end of The One. I cried for gods sake! We really didn’t need to see 20 years on with America and Maxon’s bratty daughter. Okay, I’ve always heard people complain about narrators being annoying etc, but Eadlyn was another level. She is SUCH A BRAT. She spends most of her time complaining, getting massages, and sitting at a desk. I say sitting at a desk because although this book repeatedly says she is ‘working’, all I know her to do is sit in her room looking through forms from the Selected. All of these books have been about the Caste system and how important abolishing it was, yet all Eadlyn does is talk about how beneath her everyone else is, and how she is the best person in the whole world.

“You can be brave and still be feminine. You can lead and still love flowers.”

She’s selfish, self-centred and she even tries to get her brother to choose between her and the love of his life because she doesn’t want him to go. And SHE IS OBSESSED WITH TIARAS. She’s a princess, she can have all the tiaras in the world, and yet she throws a stupid baby hissy fit when a little girl in the palace (someone who claims is like a sister to Eadlyn), borrows one. When this book claimed Eadlyn’s obsession is like a hobby, I actually snorted with laughter. It really sounded so bratty.

“Most importantly, you can be queen and still be a bride.”

So Eadlyn was definitely the worst part about this book, on top of the fact it wasn’t needed. But at least she kind of gets better, I guess. I mean I started seeing tiny spurts of her good side towards the end of this book, and I’m just hoping the next one will be better and more hopeful.

★★
2 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: The One (#3) by Kiera Cass

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review7 Comments

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The time has come for one winner to be crowned.
When she was chosen to compete in the Selection, America never dreamed she would find herself anywhere close to the crown—or to Prince Maxon’s heart. But as the end of the competition approaches, and the threats outside the palace walls grow more vicious, America realizes just how much she stands to lose—and how hard she’ll have to fight for the future she wants.

I started this book rolling my eyes, and I ended it with tears slowly leaking out of them. I found the first half of this book completely different to the second half, as knowing there was five books I didn’t know how much more I could take.

All I could think of reading those first pages, was I can’t have this repeated for another 3 books. I can’t keep reading about the bitchiness and the indecisiveness. Whenever Celeste was bitchy or the girls fought I just wanted it to all be over.

“Break my heart. Break it a thousand times if you like.”

But the fact I hated this book at the start made the turn-around even bigger than I thought it would be! And when I did fall in love, I fell hard. It turns out, this book turned out so perfect. It wrapped up all the loose ends, it endlessly surprised me, and it had a great ending overall. This book really sounds like the last one of a series right? More on that in my review of The Heir.

“It was only ever yours to break anyway.”

I can’t help it, this series ended up stealing my heart. Of course it wasn’t without it’s faults, which were many at times, but the faults were outweighed by my love. Yes, these books are predictable in a way, but I did end up surprised. And even though these can be a little trashy, they’re so poetic. And I’m embarrassed to say this, but I actually cried a bit when I finished it.

So that proves that even though I didn’t enjoy all of this book, the hopeless romantic in me can’t help but loving it a hell of a lot

★★★★
4 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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