Review: "A Week of Mondays"

A Week of Mondays by Jessica Brody
4 out of 5 stars

Have you ever had one of those weeks where every day feels like Monday and you don't think Friday will ever get there? Well, Ellison is having one of those weeks. But it doesn't just feel like a Monday, she's actually reliving that same day over and over again. We're talking the red light ticket, looking like a drowned rat in school pictures, the horrible speech, the allergic reaction, and worst of all, the boyfriend breaking up with her. Every terrible, horrible, no good, very bad thing. And when she wakes up the next day, she is horrified at first that she has to relive all that. But then she realizes she's been given an amazing opportunity. She can fix everything! Most importantly, she can stop her boyfriend from breaking up with her, because that's the big lesson here right? Right.

He grabs my hand and interlaces his fingers with mine. The warmth of his flesh does more to calm me than any song in any of my stupid playlists. I want to live inside those beautiful strong hands of his.

This is a really cute, but predictable book. I'm a sucker for time travel-type books and this one has the bonus of having lots of fun music included in it. Ellie is a big fan of sixties pop and fun playlists like "Psych me up, buttercup!" I heartily approve of this. Want to listen too? I've recreated it on Spotify just for you! Go here to listen. (I've also added it to 8Tracks but unfortunately, with their changes, could not find all the songs.)

So as the book and the Mondays go on, Ellie learns small lessons here and there but obviously not the big one, because her rockstar boyfriend is still breaking up with her at the end of each day. She confides in her best friend Owen each day and he always gives her the same advice: be yourself. Does she listen? No, of course not. Each Monday brings a new Ellie: the sweet girl, the angry girl, the vixen. (Guess which one rockstar liked best?) None of them work.

We all know Ellie will learn the right lesson in the end and everything will work out. But it's the little things in the background that make this book special: her friendship with Owen, helping her little sister fix her own very bad day, finally kicking butt on her VP speech with a little help from The Breakfast Club. 

Have you ever noticed how many worlds there are out there? Infinite. An infinite number of worlds. And they all function separately from each other. Like unrelated specks of dirt floating in the air. Sometimes two specks will collide, momentarily affecting each other, but most of the time they just keep on floating, completely unaware that any other specks exist.

Summer-palooza: 5 Reviews in One!!

I've got so many books to review, to get caught up, that I decided to combine a bunch into mini-reviews. As you can tell, this batch is all about the Summer Romance Formula. :) I purchased a ton of these back in the spring and read them all summer long. It was pretty enjoyable. So let's get going with some reviews, shall we? These are going worst(ish) to best!

Summer of Skinny Dipping by Amanda Howells
2.5 out of 5 stars

I had a hard time getting into this one. I didn't connect with the characters or their story very well and it was very slow in the beginning. Mia is 16 years old and on summer vacation to the Hamptons with her family and aunt, uncle, and 2 female cousins. She thought it was going to be the best summer ever, reconnecting with her favorite cousin and spending all her time basking in the sun. But her cousin is a drunk party girl, her mom & dad are having problems, and she's just gotten dumped by the guy she was "in love" with.

And then, here comes Simon. The strange, slightly too quirky (he quotes The Great Gatsby blegh) guy next door that the cool kids tolerate. Simon, of course, goes after Mia and she rebuffs him at every shot. She starts spending a lot of time alone on the beach at night to get away from her family and, of course, runs into Simon. They start having late night talks and eventually, Mia falls for him. I am glad that the author didn't do an insta-love at least, this relationship definitely grew over time. If you know anything about reading into the clues given, you will know that "something big" happens to the two lovebirds and boy, is it a doozy. No spoilers here, but it will either make you love or hate the book, no in between.

The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller
3 out of 5 stars

Maddie is the typical blonde cheerleader but she has a dirty little secret...she likes comic books. Okay. I am a proud comic book reader and also a girl, so this just rubbed me all kinds of wrong. I don't care what you're reading: comics, 50 Shades, Berenstain Bears, whatever...if you're enjoying it, that's all that matters and NO ONE should make you feel bad for it. And that's why I had to mark this one down a star.

Okay, moving on. Maddie is eagerly awaiting the latest issue of her favorite comic and when it doesn't come, she decides to venture into the unknown: a comic book store. She meets cute nerdy guy Logan and he offers to loan her his only copy of the issue and the two start a tenuous relationship. Logan is great and his friend Dan is the typical chubby funny sidekick. It was Maddie I had the most problem with. She lied to her best friends nearly all summer when her relationship with Logan started growing, she sort-of cheated on her boyfriend, and she just didn't grow until the very end. It was a good moment, her "coming out" into the geek world, but I just don't know if it was enough for me to like her.

Summer of Yesterday by Gaby Triana
3 out of 5 stars

This is more of a time travel book than anything, but still has its summer romance moments, so I stuck it with this batch of books. Haley is 17 years old and had hoped to spend her summer with her friends and cute boys, but instead is dragged off to a Disney campground with her dad and stepfamily. I'm kind of surprised they were allowed to use all the Disney info. Haley had a mysterious seizure a few months before so her dad is being extra over-protective and she can't stand it. When she goes off on a scavenger hunt with some new friends her first night there, she discovers another side of the campground: 1982 River Country. Yep, you read that right: she has a seizure while exploring the abandoned water park and it somehow takes her 32 years into the past.

I kind of love time travel books, especially ones that go to the 80s or 90s, because, you know, that's when I grew up. ;) So reading about Walkmans, Jelly shoes, TV Guide, and E.T. brings out the nostalgia factor big time. Haley is understandably freaked out at first but then just decides to take it all in stride. I wait in a rocking chair, watching feathered hairstyle after feathered hairstyle pass me by. I see three rainbow-striped dresses, a dozen boys with socks up to their knees, and lots and lots of headbands on girls. *What* is that all about?

She meets a cute lifeguard named Jason who wears short shorts and runs into her mom and dad as teenagers. She somehow decides it's her mission to make sure they still get together, just like it really happened. Along the way, she falls for Jason, even though there's no possible way for them to be together. And she has some adventures: some scary and some fun. Does she make it back to her present/future? Well, you'll just have to read it and see. Lol...I will say that the ending was my favorite part and made me a little teary-eyed rereading it just now.

What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick
3.5 out of 5 stars

"Other people's stories are their own to tell." And that's how it goes in this book. From the past to the present and back and forth, we find out the true story of the conflict between teenagers Gwen and Cassidy. Gwen is trying to deal with her past as she struggles in her present, taking care of her autistic little brother (who sometimes stole the show), working for a rich old lady all summer, and trying to keep her family together. Cassidy is a "rich kid" making up for his past mistakes in school by being a "yard boy" for the summer. The two teens are forced to deal with their past relationship choices and decide if they want or can even have a future together.

There are a lot of different stories going on here and unfortunately, it sometimes made the book confusing and even drag on a little long. Gwen's cousin Nic and BFF Viv have been together for years and have always assumed they would grow old together, but everything can change in a summer. The difference between the rich and the poor, the locals and the tourists, the good and the bad, is a big part of this story too. Overall, a decent read but not quite on the same level as My Life Next Door.

On the Fence by Kasie West
3.5 out of 5 stars

This book was probably my favorite out of the bunch. It's got the romance for sure, but it also has a family story that will bring you to tears more than once. Charlie is the only girl in a family of 3 older brothers and her dad. Even her best friend and next-door neighbor, Braden, is a guy. So you can probably guess who she falls for right? I don't have to tell you? I knew y'all were smart.

Charlie is a tomboy to the core (playing football with the boys is a normal occurrence) but when she has to pick up a summer job at a frou-frou clothing boutique to pay off speeding tickets, she realizes that maybe being a girl isn't so bad after all. Not that she wants anyone, ever, to find that out. As the summer goes on, it gets harder for her to hide her second life and she starts having late night chats with Braden over their shared fence. (Not on some weird bridge like on the cover.) The two grow closer but also apart somewhat...they can't be that close without their relationship changing and that's terrifying for Charlie. She doesn't understand how anyone could see her as anything but "one of the guys".

"By a show of hands," Braden said loudly, "who here would've asked Charlie out in the last six months had they not been given the 'We will kill you if you look at Charlie' speech by the three lugs over there when she turned sixteen?"

Charlie has a lot of growing up to do and she doesn't know how to do it without her mom, who died when she was little. The relationship she has with her dad is good but it doesn't take the place of a mom and when she finds out a secret from her past, it threatens everything she knows.

Charlie "Why are you doing this to me? Why couldn't you just let me figure it out on my own?"
Braden "Because I don't want to see you hurt."
"Unless you're the one hurting me?"
"I'm not trying to, Charlie."

Review: "A Wrinkle in Time"

 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
3 out of 5 stars

I never read this book as a kid. Just skipped right past it. And I can't decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Reading it as an adult left me confused and a little bit jaded. But I honestly can't see how a child could read this with any kind of comprehension of the plot. Since this is considered a classic, spoilers will be free-for-all, so beware if you want to give it a shot yourself.

The story starts out well enough with 15 year old Meg lamenting her high school career, or rather the lack of it. She's considered "weird" because her parents are highly intelligent scientists and her youngest brother (5 year old Charles Wallace) doesn't speak much in public. Meg is smarter than she seems or acts, as is Charles Wallace, but it's not helping them much. On "a dark and stormy night", the Murry family is visited by a strange creature named Mrs Whatsit, who mentions to their mother that the tesseract is a real thing. In case you're not up on your scientific studies, a tesseract is essentially, a wrinkle in time. Don't ask me to explain it further, there's math involved and I'm just not up for that. (This comic by Faith Erin Hicks probably explains it better than me!)

This is about when we get into the strange and unusual. Mrs Whatsit, along with her 2 friends (sisters?) Mrs Who and Mrs Which, take Meg, Charles Wallace, and a school friend of Meg's named Calvin on an amazing adventure thru time and space to save the Murry's father. He has been missing for quite some time and it is up to the children to find and rescue him from Evil, even though they have no idea what they are doing most of the time. There are fantastical creatures, 2 dimensional planets, Mediums with crystal balls, Dark Evil Things, and a planet where every person and thing is perfectly in sync with the next. It is on this planet that the children's father is being imprisoned by IT...a disembodied brain controlling everything around it. Pretty creepy.

Side note: does anyone remember the Galactic Milieu series by Julian May? I loved those books but got grounded (because of bad grades) from reading the last one in 9th grade and now I can't remember if I ever read it. I should pick those up sometime and reread them.
Another side note: was I the only one who got grounded from reading books? Lol...

Okay, moving on. The children free their father but in the process, lose Charles Wallace to IT. He is turned into a pod person and they escape to another planet before IT gets Meg as well. Meg is severely injured when they tesser (you know, move thru time) but is taken care of by the strange creatures on the planet, whom she calls Aunt Beast. I think this was probably my favorite chapter. The gentleness and quiet laughter from Aunt Beast was so refreshing for Meg and me.

"How strange it is that they can't tell us what they themselves seem to know."
"They are very young. And on their earth, as they call it, they never communicate with other planets. They revolve all alone in space."
"Oh, aren't they lonely?"

In the end, it is Meg who goes back to save Charles Wallace and she does so with love. Yep, love is the only thing IT doesn't have. Convenient, right? But that's okay, I still kind of teared up. The 3 children and their father tesser back home, where they are reunited with the rest of the Murry's in the vegetable garden.

"How did all this happen? Isn't it wonderful? I feel as though I were just being born! I'm not alone any more! Do you realize what that means to me?"

Review: "If Only We"

If Only We by Jessica Sankiewicz
3.5 out of 5 stars

I requested this eBook ARC from the author because it sounded really interesting. She's not paying me for this review or anything like that. ;) Okay, let me just say this first-I really enjoyed the story overall. I think it was an excellent first book and I'm totally jealous because I've already given up on NaNoWriMo lol.

Adrienne is at odds with her family and closest friends and she's pretty sure it all goes back to her actions on the day of her high school graduation. When she gets a chance to go back and fix her mistakes, will she be able to or will she just be doomed to repeat herself over and over? I love a good time-traveling book and this was definitely a good one. Adrienne is a likable character and I connected with her story. It's hard trying to make people happy when it conflicts with what would make *you* happy. This book has its serious moments and it made me tear up but it also had some fun, light-hearted passages.

There were some great secondary characters too. Stepsister Kaitlin was sweet but a little underdeveloped to me. I couldn't figure out her age until about halfway thru the book and I wanted her to have a little more personality. I would have loved to hear more of her story. Lindsay, Adrienne's BFF and cousin, was the perfect amount of outspoken sassiness and caring individual. And then there's Chevy, the boy. Excuse me..THE Boy. :) I liked Chevy, he was totally swoon worthy. He was equal parts serious brooding boy and fun-loving karaoke dude.

There was really only one big thing I didn't like about the story. Adrienne is being pushed into becoming a nurse by her mom, following in her footsteps. I get that. But I don't get the big push to find a new career immediately after she decides to not go the nursing route. She starts looking for careers online and when Lindsay suggests she start sewing and make a business out of that, Adrienne jumps on it and just assumes that it's all going to work out. Why couldn't she just go to college and do her basics and decide in a year or two what she wants to focus on? That's what most people do. It just didn't ring true to me.

Also, a small thing, but the writing seemed a little forced at times and some of the conversations didn't sound natural. "I intended to do so but, for some reason, I was possessed to keep it." That just doesn't sound like an 18 year old boy to me. But honestly, I think that will just become better with practice and more books. And I really hope there are more books to come. :)

Review: "The Future of Us"

The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler
3 out of 5 stars

I had this crazy long dream this morning that I traveled back in time to high school but still had all my knowledge of the future/present. It was really weird, I was able to change all kinds of things. Maybe I was thinking of The Summerhouse before I fell asleep or something, I don't know. But anyway, I thought it would be a good time to review this book, since it's kind of connected. Plus, it's next on my (long, long) list. :)

It's 1996 and Emma & Josh are next-door neighbors, former best friends. Josh gives Emma a free AOL CD he got in the mail for 100 hours of free Internet and Emma logs on to her Facebook page. Except Emma doesn't have a Facebook page, Facebook hasn't even been invented yet, and the Emma on her page is 15 years older and deeply unhappy. Sounds like an interesting premise right? I was really looking forward to this book when I first heard about it. I mean, how many of us are totally addicted to our Facebook now? I know I am. I've already checked it like 4 times just writing this much of this review lol.

This book started out really good. Lots of great flashbacks to 1996. I'm the same age as Emma & Josh now, so I was 16 also in 96. Ugh, that was a long time ago. (FB check=5) It was great to read about all those things from then like Walkman's, VCR's, Dave Matthews Band, Wayne's World. And remembering aaalllll the AOL CD's we used to get in the mail (we used to try to think of fun crafts to use them for) and the god-awful long time it took to actually dial-up to the Internet. Lol...I think if you were around in the 90s, you will enjoy this book for the most part. But younger teens and kids in the future I think just won't get it. If you remember when Pluto was a planet...

I flinch. What the hell happens to Pluto?

Okay, aside from the nostalgia factor, which really saves this book, we have the story of Emma & Josh. Emma was very hard to like. She was pretty shallow, only concerned with what great husband her future self had. When she finds out he's not all that great, she decides to change things. And keeps changing things, a growing chain of events that could potentially screw up her future forever. Josh, on the other hand, is perfectly happy with his future and doesn't see any reason to change things. (FB check=6) They're both only interested in who they end up with and it comes across as very narcissistic. I mean, if you were able to log onto your FB 15 years ago, wouldn't you be checking every single person you've ever come in contact with?? I do that now, sometimes! Not to mention: sports teams, politics, bands, movies, everything in your "Likes" page, etc...and just to have fun, let's take my music & movie/tv likes and see how they compared to 1996.

Let's see...Toy Story, Dazed & Confused, Young Frankenstein, Camp Nowhere, Buffy, Foster's Home, Roseanne, & MXC...not bad. Music: Joan Jett, Mozart, Beastie Boys, Nirvana, GNR...16 year old me would have approved I think. :)