Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Title: Eleanor & Park
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Pages: 320

Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.

Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.

Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

This book was more than perfect.

My Rating:
✰✰✰✰✰

First things first, the characters.

Rainbow Rowell is a queen and she was able to create yet another pair of amazing characters. The diversity in this book was great. Eleanor and Park were so different from each other, and so different from other characters in YA romance books. Their love was so real and fresh and I loved them so much.

I love Eleanor. I felt bad for her at so many times and I really just wanted to hug her. The struggles she faces at home with her family, more specifically her step-dad, really made me want to reach out and help her. The fact that she wasn't thin or skinny, and was pretty average/plus sized, showed that everyone is capable of being loved no matter what they looked like. I loved the way Park described her as "art".

Park was so sweet and I loved him so much. It was great, once again, to see some diversity in books. I actually loved that he was half Korean! Park's dad and mom were great. I loved them dearly both. It made me happy to see that his family was actually quite welcoming towards Eleanor.

I loved watching Eleanor's and Park's relationship start and grow and become this huge beautiful mess.
I loved their phone conversations. I loved it when they were on the bus together. I loved them together. I loved them.

I don't know how Rainbow does it, but her writing and her characters are just so amazing, and love-able.

This book was so heart warming. It made me laugh and cry.

Now with some spoilers:

Park was being so kind to Eleanor when they first met. When he bought the comic books, and they read together, and he made her mix tapes, and they walked to her locker. It was all so adorable. I was squealing when he first held her hand on the bus, that will seriously be a part I will never forget.

This book made me cry. The ending made me really heart broken, and I really wanted Ritchie dead. Park was so caring and his dad was so understanding. I didn't like seeing that Park stopped looking for her. No. I really think that in the future, they will find each other again and their love with continue to grow.

The part where Park fights Steve to stand up for Eleanor really made me happy. Just seeing that Park cared that much for her to get hurt and all really showed what he was like.

I recommend this to every single soul on this planet. Seriously, this book was amazing and has so many great messages. This is definitely one of my favorites.