Whenever I'm in a funk, I return home. This book -- and yes, I swear to the gods it's a book because it is without a doubt one of the best pieces of wWhenever I'm in a funk, I return home. This book -- and yes, I swear to the gods it's a book because it is without a doubt one of the best pieces of writing I have ever read -- is my home.
It's perfect. And I don't say that lightly <3 ...more
And I do not say that lightly. I mean, I literally have such an author-girl crush on this fantastic author that I I AM IN LOVE WITH CLAIRE LAZEBNIK. �
And I do not say that lightly. I mean, I literally have such an author-girl crush on this fantastic author that I read ALL THREE of her YA contemporary novels (all based on Jane Austen novels, by the way) in one day. This is not an exaggeration. My best friend will attest to the fact that I would not let him interrupt me during that period where I surrounded myself by Claire's wit for a full twenty-four hours, reading and re-reading the passages I thought were best.
(And believe me, there are A LOT of them.)
Cutesy novels have the misfortune of getting low ratings because people tend to believe that cute = without depth, and they automatically rate it lower than they would, say, a classic, even though they loved it just as much (maybe even more!) than more intense novels.
And I'm here to say that THAT IS TOTALLY UNTRUE AND UNFAIR AND NOOOOOOOOOO.
Epic Fail, based lightly off Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is everything I could want in a book and MORE. It is heart-warming, and realistic, and hilarious, and fun, and epic, and sweet, and OH MY SWEET GOODNESS, the wit! The banter! The comments from our oh-so-lovable heroine Elise in our oh-so-lovable cast -- they kill me again and again, because she's so sarcastically funny and awesome and realistic that I truly wish I could be her.
(I mean, I admire Tris and Katniss from Divergent and The Hunger Games, but would I want to be them? Maybe I'd want to have their bravery and strength, but their other attributes -- like humor and realism -- can sometimes be lacking. Elise, on the other hand? I want to be EVERYTHING she is. �)
And the part about cutesy novels sometimes lacking depth? SCREW THAT! This book had the perfect about of realistic self-doubt and depth, and it subtly deals with flaws in humanity, and it makes you connect with the cast throughout everything they do, AND it's just... like life, you know? Life isn't perfect -- Elise's certainly isn't -- but the way Claire LaZebnik portrays it is perfect.
You already know how much love I have for witty, hilarious, adorable, fun Elise. But then there's her relationship with her older-by-one-year sister, Juliana (who she calls Jules), and Juliana's relationship with her new super-adorable-likeable-sweet boyfriend, Chase, and Chase's relationship with his best-friend-and-son-of-famous-people, Derek, and Derek's relationship with Elise.
OH MY GOD, THE SWOONS.
The cast? (See above.)AWESOME. The inspiration? (Jane Austen)AWESOME. The storyline? (Elise's mom getting a job at a private school for rich kids that her and her sisters are forced to attend, where all sorts of epic fun happens and let's not forget the cute boys...) AWESOME. The everything? Just awesome, awesome, so incredibly AWESOME.
(You know how we all love Anna and the French Kiss because of the characters and the chemistry and the fun while also managing to be relatable and perfectly imperfect? Yeah, well that is EXACTLY this book. And all of Claire LaZebnik's books.)
I don't care what you say, these three novels are going to be part of my selective few that I'm allowed to lug two hours away into my tiny dorm room when I move to university in September. I MUST HAVE CLAIRE'S WIT WITH ME AT ALL TIMES.
And on a side note, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REMEMBER: Rate books based on how much YOU enjoy them. Justifying your feelings is good, but it is not necessary (especially if you're too busy to write a long-winded review with a million GIFs). But don't say you love a book when you don't, just because everyone else is rating it high. In retrospect, don't say you hate a book if you really secretly love it, just because your Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ friends are ranting about how much of a piece of sh*t it is. (If they're really your Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ friends, I'm sure they'll love you regardless of which side of the fence you stand on in regards to the one book he or she wants to burn in hell.) I have loved a lot of books with low ratings and have hated a lot of books with high ratings, and while I'm still trying to find my own footing, I have learned that being true to what I feel about a book is the most important thing -- even more than being influenced by what other readers say.
(Even when some things that they write seem A MILLION times more in depth and epic than what my seventeen-year-old mind can form. LOL.)
Just food for thought. And more: I really loved this book :)
I do not write reviews anymore. But this had to be written.
Honestly guys. The wit. The banter. The adorableness. I CAN'T EVEN EXPLAIN. Just know that Claire LaZebnik is LOOOOOVEEEEEE. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVEEEE <3
Honestly guys. The wit. The banter. The adorableness. I CAN'T EVEN EXPLAIN. Just know that Claire LaZebnik is officially one of my fave authors! <3333333333333333333...more
ABSOLUTE LOVE FOR THIS SERIES. And I've been *hush hush* Team Graham from the beginning. Reid is awesome, but awesome for Emma? He honestly can't evenABSOLUTE LOVE FOR THIS SERIES. And I've been *hush hush* Team Graham from the beginning. Reid is awesome, but awesome for Emma? He honestly can't even compare <3
I seriously finished this whole series in two days. THAT is how awesome it is.
(I have a secret love for celebrity book boyfriends. Shhhhhh.)
I absolutely LOVED this one! I loved the story, and the characters, and the forgiveness, and the realism of it. Linda Kage is quickly becoming one of I absolutely LOVED this one! I loved the story, and the characters, and the forgiveness, and the realism of it. Linda Kage is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors... Hell, I think she may already be one! x) <3...more
This is seriously one of those books that make you love love, hate hate, and understand things that don't make any sense but just ARE. Seriously, absoThis is seriously one of those books that make you love love, hate hate, and understand things that don't make any sense but just ARE. Seriously, absolutely, completely AMAZING! �...more
Evan Cosette has a secret: She's also Rylan Willow, the top model for East Park Exposed, her univeRating: AWESOME. EPIC. FUN. SEXY. (Also: 4+ stars!)
Evan Cosette has a secret: She's also Rylan Willow, the top model for East Park Exposed, her university’s underground and insanely successful erotic magazine, to help pay for her tuition. The stage name and the magic of disguises keeps her low-key as she tries to live her peaceful double life (because how could her classmates take her seriously as a bio major when they've all seen her half-naked?) -- and it's all working out perfectly... until Dallas Whitley. Not only is he her new student professor, but he's also her new partner for the co-ed spread.
Yikes.
There's fun and then there's funtastic -- and let me just say that this book is funtastic times a million and two with sexy-sweet swooning and a very, very root-worthy pairing I absolutely love to death!
Exposure is another one of those surprise gems that seriously have me wishing I had enough time to read and re-read it over and over again. The chemistry between Evan and Dallas (and evidently Rylan and Dallas) are off the charts; the banter between them is quick, witty, and totally fun -- just the way I like it. And even the side characters (like Britain!) are totally fun too!
Is this NA? Probably not LOL, despite the fact that they're in college. Some of the scenes are crazy steamy to the extreme, but it's mostly just foreplay and seriously epic chemistry from Dallas and Evan's photo shoots together. But trust me when I say that you'll be dying to just shove them together into a relationship with more than work!
Exposure may not be perfect -- there were quite a few grammar mistakes and such, but nothing that took too much away from the story (and that's coming from a very picky English girl) -- but I'm giving you the double thumbs and toes up to get your hands on this ASAP! Because aside from that little tidbit, this book is definitely falling near the top of my favourite NA reads! It's sexy and fun and quite possibly one of the easiest books to read in one sitting.
Plus, I promise you're going to love Dallas. Mimi's honour ;) <3...more
This was so much fun! I love Bliss Edwards. She's awkward. She's hilarious. She's so adorably childish. She's amusing. She's quite the drama queen. ShThis was so much fun! I love Bliss Edwards. She's awkward. She's hilarious. She's so adorably childish. She's amusing. She's quite the drama queen. She's sweet. She's ridiculous. And she's totally endearing.
She's me.
Except she gets an amazing British boy named Garrick and I get high school boys who still insist on pulling my hair. How does that work? ...more
It's almost two in the morning and I AM BAWLING MY EYES OUT. Going into this book, I knew it was going to play with my tear ducts because of the summaIt's almost two in the morning and I AM BAWLING MY EYES OUT. Going into this book, I knew it was going to play with my tear ducts because of the summary and reviews, but I didn't expect to love the characters and the story and the everything SO DAMN MUCH.
Ohmygoodness. I can't even find words. I thought it was going to be just another contemporary story with a sad twist, but I was SO SO SO wrong, because I ended up falling HEAD. OVER. HEELS. The characters were so fun and fleshed out, and the chemistry between everyone had me grinning like an idiot. I swear I couldn't stop giggling like a school-girl for the first eighty percent of this book and I was constantly stunned by how real, how fun, how natural and amazing and adorable and cute and sweet and super-sexy that Lacey Weatherford made this!
Chase... Oh my swoon, I didn't expect him to be SO HILARIOUS. His wit, his snark, his attitude, and his cockiness, coupled with all his dorky-cute traits that he used to woo Nikki, made him one of my favourite book boy characters ever! I know I'm a sucker for bad boys, and maybe Chase was misunderstood by his family and his classmates to be one at first, but the banter and wit was so natural, and his quirky, swoon-worthy grins practically leaped off the page. I didn't blame Nikki for succumbing to his charms. Despite first impressions, he was never a jerk. He was just... everything you could ever want in a REAL boy.
And what he had with Nikki was everything you could ever want in a REAL relationship. Not in a book one where the characters are both so messed up but find love anyways despite going through so much shit together. No, Nikki and Chase together are the most perfect combination of sweet and swoon-worthy, and I swear I died a little every time they grinned at each other because I was fangirling so hard.
YES, if you know anything about this book, you know that tragedy strikes. You know that people cry. (I sure as hell did!) But even if you're not a glutton for punishment like I am (because I love reading tragic books, as long as they're in English and not in the prose of Shakespeare, god forbid), YOU SHOULD STILL READ THIS BOOK. It's quirky-perfect like Anna and the French Kiss. It's mad-adorable like the Gallagher Girls series. It's hilarious-snarky like Pivot Point's genius. It's incredibly touching like Gayle Forman's If I Stay. And it's honestly as much of a MUST as reading The Hunger Games. So many messages, so many great characters, so many quirky lines and hilarious date ideas that I'm sure people will be trying to replicate them in real life all over the place.
Honestly? It's just PERFECT. Exactly what I needed. Exactly what EVERYONE needs to read.
I thought I was over YA -- moving onto NA as I near my twelfth grade graduation -- but I was wrong. I'm back in love with the teen years.
And so I'm bawling my eyes out at two in the morning, and I don't regret a damn thing. :)
Oh. My. WOW! I didn't even have this book on my radar until Krista lured me in with a very eye-catching shirtless GIF, and boy am I gRating: 4.5 stars
Oh. My. WOW! I didn't even have this book on my radar until Krista lured me in with a very eye-catching shirtless GIF, and boy am I glad that she did! This story just blew me away in every means possible, just like the undiscovered gem that it is. (When it definitely deserves to be WELL KNOWN EVERYWHERE!) I am not exaggerating at all when I say that it is without a doubt one of the best NA debuts I've read during my very excessive NA binge.
And that's saying something.
After reading a plethora of dark-dark-dark books, I needed something to lighten my spirits -- which this book did (because the romance is epically awesome <3), but that doesn't mean that it's without its demons. No sirree. Because Amber's past is so awful and heart-wrenching that the feels scream off the charts. Everything that has happened to her... Personally, I don't know if I would've been able to survive it. But she does, despite the remnants of her PTSD which continues to haunt her college life which she desperately wants to enjoy in peace.
As a character, Amber has my complete devotion. Never does she act frustrating or horror-movie-smack-down-worthy or even as awful as she's warranted to be. She's sweet, and she's funny, and she's athletic, and she's fun -- and her relationship with a very sexy Marcus is worth every face-splitting grin I couldn't stop! She hires him to be her tutor-slash-bodyguard, of sorts, but they are both so connected that you know there's no way they can just stay friends... *wink wink nudge nudge*
All in all? Strip away your reservations and prepare to emerge yourself in another sweet, sexy, amazing romance that still manages to bring tons of originality to the table in a genre I thought was starting to get redundant! Tell Me When is anything but predictable.... except maybe for the happy-sexy-swoon moments that we would riot for anyways ;) <3
OH MY SWEET GOODNESS. This was just... so beautiful. Perfect. Painful to read, yet a true not-true love story.
Let me get this straigRating: 4.5 stars
OH MY SWEET GOODNESS. This was just... so beautiful. Perfect. Painful to read, yet a true not-true love story.
Let me get this straight first: Cheating is my hard line. With my boyfriends, I make it clear it's the one thing I won't stand for. If they want someone else, break it off first. If it's a single mistake, that's different. If they want an open relationship, that's different too, although I don't know many girls who would agree to that. I'd rather you be up front about no commitment than lie to me any day at all, no matter how much it hurts.
HOWEVER. The way that Willow Aster writes her story -- first when Ian and Sparrow meet again years after he broke her heart, then traveling back in time to explore the way they fell in love -- it was sort of perfect. The character development is flawless; the prose beatific; the love so bloody true. You can feel everything through Sparrow's heart, and you root for them even when they don't know to root for themselves.
I don't know if I can write a full review for this. I just finished it this morning, after all, and I'm still kind of reeling. But I can without a doubt say that this is one of the only stories that includes some sort of cheating where I truly believe the characters are meant to be together. Ian is just... I LOVE HIM. (I love even more how he calls her Little Bird!) And Sparrow is one of my favourite NA characters from start to finish! And her best friend Tessa -- she's totally me! Love love love them all (except Laila, of course).
This is just what I needed to fall back into reading. :)...more
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