This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

Title: This is What Happy Looks Like
Author: Jennifer E. Smith
Pages: 416


If fate sent you an email, would you answer?

When teenage movie star Graham Larkin accidentally sends small town girl Ellie O'Neill an email about his pet pig, the two seventeen-year-olds strike up a witty and unforgettable correspondence, discussing everything under the sun, except for their names or backgrounds. Then Graham finds out that Ellie's Maine hometown is the perfect location for his latest film, and he decides to take their relationship from online to in-person. But can a star as famous as Graham really start a relationship with an ordinary girl like Ellie? And why does Ellie want to avoid the media's spotlight at all costs?


My Rating:✰✰✰✰

I didn't really think I was going to like this book as much as I did. It was very sweet, and light, and I enjoyed it.

The writing wasn't amazing and it was told from switching 3rd POV limited of Graham and Ellie. I usually don't like this style but for this book it worked okay. I also liked the page in between chapters usually featuring an email conversation or just some dialogue. I did wish that there was more pages of the actual email conversations of the two rather than it just being mentioned briefly throughout the book.

At first the idea of emailing a stranger back and forth seemed weird, but it was actually cute in this book. I really liked Graham and how sweet he was and Ellie too. I felt like their relationship was more friendly and a little romantic which was nice since most books are just full on romance.



I only had one slight problem which was that it was a little cliché. Some things also seemed a little too perfect, like Graham for example.

What I thought about the end:

I do hope that the two will meet again in the future and will continue their relationship. I loved how Graham tricked Ellie into letting him give her the money she needs for Harvard. (and I liked the whoopie pies)
This was a very nice contemporary read that I enjoyed. It made me happy and hopeful.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Title: If I Stay
Author: Gayle Forman
Pages: 234

Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?

Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.

My Rating:✰✰✰✰✰


This book was very different from anything I've read before and I really liked it. It was emotional and you could really understand what the main character Mia is going through and sympthazie with her. I loved the music and family elements that were always there.

I loved the characters and how the flashbacks helped us understand more about them. They allowed us to really know her parents who were in many of the memories. Also, her grandparents played a huge role and I loved Gran and Gramps. Kim was also such a good friend and I loved how Mia and her had a story of how they became friends.

I ended up liking Adam a lot more than I thought I would. Their relationship wasn't cliché and you could really tell how serious they were about each other. It's not common to find that in most young adult books but I really liked it in this book. Adam just had such a cool vibe and him and Mia were different but I loved them together.

The story itself was great and was a lot quicker than I thought. It wasn't slow or action packed, but it was told through great writing. This book was so good and very emotional.

Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

Title: Love Letters to the Dead
Author: Ava Dellaria
Pages: 327


It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person.

Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to the dead—to people like Janis Joplin, Heath Ledger, Amelia Earhart, and Amy Winehouse—though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating the choppy waters of new friendships, learning to live with her splintering family, falling in love for the first time, and, most important, trying to grieve for May. But how do you mourn for someone you haven't forgiven?

It's not until Laurel has written the truth about what happened to herself that she can finally accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was—lovely and amazing and deeply flawed—can she truly start to discover her own path.

My Rating:✰✰✰✰✰

This book was amazing. I loved it so much and think that more people should pick it up. The writing style was great and the characters were very developed. This story wasn’t a fast paced one but it really had important themes and involved a lot more thinking.

The story is told purely from letters that the main character, Laurel, writes. It starts out as a school assignment but soon she is writing for pleasure to deceased famous stars, telling them her stories about her life. She begins writing to Kurt Cobain because of how much her passed away sister loved him. Ever since her sister, May, passed away, Laurel’s life has never been the same.

I loved how much the sister relationship of Laurel and May played a big role of this book. After May’s death, Laurel feels alone and goes through constant changes, wishing her life was back to normal with her sister at her side. Her mother abandoned her after May’s death, and Laurel is constantly switching where she lives, from her dad, to her Aunt whose house is in the district of Laurel’s new school.

Laurel was a very relatable character that fit the general idea of a shy high-schooler. At first, she has trouble connecting to people but then makes two new close friends, Natalie and Hannah. I loved Natalie and Hannah and I liked how this book showed diversity in their relationship. They were so supportive and kind to Laurel, it made me happy.

The romantic relationship Laurel has with Sky wasn’t the main point of this book and didn’t get in the way of the actual story which I liked. I thought Sky was okay and it didn’t surprise me that they got back together in the end. He didn’t feel as important to me as the other characters did.

This story was a great coming of age book and really focused on family and friends.  It was very different from other books I’ve read which I love. I recommend this to everyone.

Every Day by David Levithan

Title: Every Day
Author: David Levithan
Pages: 322


Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.
There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere. It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.

 My Rating:✰✰✰✰1/2

This book was great and I really enjoyed it. The whole idea was very unique and different.

I really liked A's character even though he's not an actual person. His relationship with Rhiannan is great and I loved how he kept trying to see her.

I also really liked the diversity of the characters that A went into and that David Levithan wrote about. They were different in gender, sexual orientation, race, and much more.

David Levithan was able to bring up so many questions about humanity and what really does make a person a person. It was very thought provoking.

The ending was very realistic since it would be extremely hard for them to keep seeing each other. I can only imagine how much adapting Rhiannan had to do. Things are definitely left unanswered and loosely wrapped at the end at I was truly left wondering. There will be a sequel to this but I am not sure if I would read it since I did think the ending was great.
  

Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Title: Since You've Been Gone
Author: Morgan Matson
Pages: 449

 

It was Sloane who yanked Emily out of her shell and made life 100% interesting. But right before what should have been the most epic summer, Sloane just...disappears. All she leaves behind is a to-do list.

On it, thirteen Sloane-inspired tasks that Emily would normally never try. But what if they could bring her best friend back?

Apple picking at night?
Okay, easy enough.

Dance until dawn?
Sure. Why not?

Kiss a stranger?
Um...

Emily now has this unexpected summer, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected), to check things off Sloane's list. Who knows what she'll find?

Go skinny-dipping?
Wait...what?

 My Rating:✰✰✰✰✰

 

Since You’ve Been Gone was a great summer book all about friendship and getting out of your comfort zone. The story follows Emily Hughes who has a tough time coping on why her best friend, Sloane, disappeared at the beginning of the summer. Days later, Emily finds that Sloane had sent her a list with things to do, all of which are out of Emily’s comfort zone and things she wouldn’t normally do, especially without Sloane with her. But she decides to take on the list anyway, thinking that it will lead her back to Sloane.

I loved this story and the theme of friendship and self development. The Emily at the beginning of the book is very different than the one at the end of the book. She was very relatable and felt like a real shy character.

 It was very fun reading about each thing she did and I even felt her accomplishment as she crossed of each thing. Each time she did a task, it was like a part of her shy shell fell off and she was becoming her own person. Some of the things on the list were crazy and she was very bold to do them, such as kissing a stranger and going skinny dipping.

I was so happy that she managed to find her own friends and make good relationships with new people. Frank was so nice and sweet and he was always there for Emily and helping her out. He seemed a little too perfect but still seemed like a good character. Collins was very outrageous and random and Dawn was a nice friend that Emily was able to talk to. They all had a great relationship and they helped Emily a lot with her list.

I really liked Morgan Matson’s writing and the flashbacks that explained some of the things in this book (for example; Penelope) really helped and it allowed us to see just how close of friends Sloane and Emily were. It was clear that she needed to be more of her own person since she always depended on Sloane. I was very happy with the ending and I hope that they all with remain friends afterwards.

I did enjoy this book and it did make me want to accomplish more things in the summer. This book was all about taking risks and living life to the fullest.

Four: A Divergent Collections by Veronica Roth

Title: Four: A Divergent Collection
Author: Veronica Roth
Pages: 208

Two years before Beatrice Prior made her choice, the sixteen-year-old son of Abnegation’s faction leader did the same. Tobias’s transfer to Dauntless is a chance to begin again. Here, he will not be called the name his parents gave him. Here, he will not let fear turn him into a cowering child.

Newly christened “Four,” he discovers during initiation that he will succeed in Dauntless. Initiation is only the beginning, though; Four must claim his place in the Dauntless hierarchy. His decisions will affect future initiates as well as uncover secrets that could threaten his own future—and the future of the entire faction system.

Two years later, Four is poised to take action, but the course is still unclear. The first new initiate who jumps into the net might change all that. With her, the way to righting their world might become clear. With her, it might become possible to be Tobias once again.

My Rating:✰✰✰✰✰

This book made me feel so many things and gave me this strong nostalgia for the Divergent trilogy. This book features the short novellas told from Four's point of view from when he was younger up until the time that Divergent takes place. This review won't be too long and won't have any traces of spoilers since I don't have much to say other than how much I loved this book.

I loved this book so much and it gave me so many feels. Reading about a young Tobias and what he had to go through really hit me hard and I couldn’t help but think of Tris who would be making the same transfer two years later. He seemed so innocent and I loved how this book showed his development and growth.

Of course the writing was great, just like Veronica Roth’s style. I really felt like I knew Four more and am so happy that I do. This book gives us a more understanding of his past and what really went down before Divergent took place. There were connections to Divergent and I loved how Veronica did that.

I’m really happy that this got to be a book and I can’t wait for what Veronica has next for us. <4

Bout of Books 11.0 Read-a-Thon TBR

 

Hello everyone! This will be a quick blog post announcing that I will participating in the Bout of Books 11.0 Read-A-Thon! For more information, click on the link in the blurb below to visit the Bout of Books blog so you can sign up as well! :

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 18th and runs through Sunday, August 24th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 11 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

 

I am very excited for this read-a-thon! Let me know if you are participating! :D