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A YA novel about a girl who loses her mom and then her dad remarries a woman who lost her husband and has a son so they move from Chicago to LA and she has to assimilate to all the changes in a school full of new people who are not big fans of her. Until a secret boy starts emailing and texting her and they start connecting through shared loss. Beautiful story.
This is a quiet, slow moving coming of age story about grief. There’s some modeling but really it’s mostly about grief and finding your way to yourself. I loved it.
3.5 stars I read Brenner’s “Drawing Home” a while back and this book gave me the same feeling of immediately being swept up and lost in someone’s world with characters that are interesting and all lovable in their own way. A perfect summer book, for me.
3.5 stars Liked this romance between two women, Delilah and her sister’s best friend. Interesting, fun and layered characters with some family drama thrown in.
Really well-done story about Georgie who goes back home to where she grew up to briefly collect herself after losing her job. She discovers her middle school dream book where she’d written down all the things she and her best friend were going to do and decides this is the perfect task for her as she figures out what to do next in her life. Thrown together with the older brother of her high school crush, she forges ahead and tries to find a way back to herself. This story is filled with interesting and layered characters who surprise you in delightful ways and worm their way into your heart. Loved the time I spent with it. with gratitude to Kensington and edelweiss for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
This book was sad. Too sad. I put off reading it for a few days and then dove in and I am not sure I should have. It’s about two sisters. The main character’s sister keeps trying to die and she keeps trying to stop her. It’s hard reading.
This book was sad. Too sad. I put off reading it for a few days and then dove in and I am not sure I should have. It’s about two sisters. The main character’s sister keeps trying to die and she keeps trying to stop her. It’s hard reading.
Chloe Liese’s books are full of textured and real characters who care deeply, manage to surprise you and worm their way into your heart. This one was no exception even though I do think some bits were wordier than needed.
3.5 stars I really dislike it when book blurbs mention well-loved, well-read books in order to get you to buy a book. I feel like it pre-biases the story. I understand why they do it (it’s a quick way to tell if this book is your cup of tea) but the thing is, there’s so much more to a book than it’s plot. Every book about time travel and love is not the same. Every book that happens non-linearly is also not the same. For me, what matters most when I compare books is how they made me feel. How were the characters developed. Did the love feel the way it feels in a different book? Did you find yourself cheering for them in the same way, did you find yourself mourning the same way? When you compare it to another book on some of the plot elements alone, you’re losing me before I even read your book because what if the feeling is different (but also lovely?) Now I don’t like this book because you promised me something and delivered me something else. And that’s a shame. All of this is to say that I don’t think this book felt like “Time Traveler’s Wife” or “Oona Out of Order” for me. It was quieter than both and yet it still was a lovely book on its own. For me, the biggest element of this book was not the time travel or the love between the two characters, it was the mental health and anxiety that the main character was grappling with and how she got in her own way so often and made her own life harder than it had to be. Her growth in this story, and her ability to both trust herself, trust her strength and put herself forth is the best part of the story in my opinion. This is the story about a woman who meets her future husband by way of a magical phone text exchange. I didn’t really care about the logistics of time travel as some might have, it’s so not the point of the story. I loved both of the characters but I did think the story lacked a bit of texture and depth. I wanted to understand more about why her dad was the way he was. Ewan seemed too nice and perfect almost. I wanted to know more about him, too. I loved the premise of the story and how the character changed multiple times as a result of what she knew. All this is to say, I really enjoyed my time with this story and the characters and the story drew me in. I look forward to reading more of this author. With gratitude to netgalley and Alcove Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
When the library emailed me saying this book was ready, I put the book I was listening to on hold to switch to this one because I’d been waiting for it for so long and I wanted to see if it was as good as I’d hoped it would be. I think the book was beautifully written. The premise is interesting and could have been taking ten different ways and could have been executed in ways that fell short. But this author focused on how the value of a human life is not about its length. It reminded me of the quote by Diane Ackerman “I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” It’s not just the length that matters even though we tend to focus on that more than anything else. The book also is about human connection and how our lives intersect and have a way of intermingling. How people can rely on each other. How there’s always people who bond through adversity and those who use fear to take advantage of the situation for their own gain/power. It was quite the read.
For reasons unclear to me, it took me a long time to read this book. I checked it out of the library over twenty times before I finally sat down to read it. I tried listening on audio and decided it was never going to work out, so I read the book and I am glad I did. It was beautifully written and what a journey to read. Madeline Miller is a talented writer and it absolutely shows in this beautifully told story of Achilles and the Odyssey.
4.5 stars I haven’t read YA in a long time but this was a fast and involving read. So much angst. Drew was my favorite character. He surprised you. He grew. He was funny. |
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