Review: More than Friends (Friends #2) by Monica Murphy

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I read the first installment of this series weeks ago, and I must say this one was slightly better. More than Friends was decent. It was a quick read and did not deal with any tough subject matter. Drug and alcohol abuse was briefly mentioned; however, the author did not go in-depth.

In essence, this book is a cliché tale about two teenagers who are attracted to each other. The book features two background characters from the first book. It’s told in two POVs- the majority of the chapters being in Amanda’s. In the span of 320 pages, we see Amanda Winters and Jordan Tuttle grow closer and start to develop feelings for each other. Unfortunately, you cannot have a book without drama and the book ends on an annoying, but fitting cliffhanger.

If you are looking for a fast, instalove, slight commitment this book is for you.

This book felt problematic at times for me. The underlying theme that I have found in both books, is the strong presence of unnecessary girl hate. There were no genuine female friendships. I’ll touch more upon this subject later. But something that I will cover in this section, is the ascendance of girl on girl hate because a girl starts to date a boy that another likes. And in this book, all of the hate came from that.

It was very frustrating that most of the girls in this book were awful to each other because another was dating a guy that she liked. The slut shaming and hatred added nothing to the plot and simply made most characters seem very two dimensional. And quite frankly, it made no sense at all.

Characters

Amanda was a decent character. She gained my respect when she apologized to a girl after slut shaming her. She genuinely felt bad for what she did. And I applaud her. However, Amanda did not really stand out as a main character to me. There was not really any depth to her or to any of the characters. Their motive for acting the way they did felt superficial or nonexistent. I knew very few about Amanda.

In the last book, Amanda was a part of the band; however, after discovering that her boyfriend was cheating with her best friend, she quit. In this book, the summary mentions that Amanda has new friends, a new job, and new interests.

Amanda’s new interest was never explored, unless it was Tuttle or her new hobby as a water girl for the football team. It would have been nice to see her find a new interest, or get back into the band. Also, it would have been nice to see her narrative about her feelings about quitting band. I feel as if that would have been something that was hard for her.

As a whole, Amanda’s narrative felt very unreliable. She was a very nice person; however, because of the constant girl hate if left me wondering if the other characters were portrayed in a fair light. Also, she had conflicting feelings about many characters. This was very prominent with Ryan, Livvy’s boyfriend. I was not sure if she was a fan of him.

Amanda and Livvy’s friendship fell very flat for me. I vaguely remember the first book, so I’m not quite sure how the friendship begun. The main problem I had with the friendship is that it did not feel genuine. That could be because we did not really get any genuine conversations between them. The conversations that did place centered on Ryan, Em (Livvy’s ex-friend who she now hates), and Tuttle.

And also, Livvy was not a nice person, and it felt weird to me that her and Amanda were friends because Amanda was the complete opposite of her. This is very apparent in the scene when Amanda confronts Livvy about her cheating that happened in the last book.

In the book, Em warned Amanda about Livvy’s evil ways, and I could see Livvy turning on Amanda without a second thought. She has did it before with Em, so it makes me very cautious of this friendship.

As a person who loves banter, I enjoyed Tuttle and Amanda’s banter. It was a nice touch to their relationship. A use the term ‘relationship’ extremely lightly because there was so much lack of communication and confusion that I do not think that it fully developed to it’s potential in this book. This is why the cliffhanger is so important to have. Amanda and Tuttle are not ready to have a relationship yet because they still have a few issues to settle. And most importantly, they need to actually talk. No making out, no talking about other people, just having a talk.

Final Analysis

More than Friends is filled with cliché tropes, two dimensional characters, and girl hate. However, it does have potential, if you do not read too much into it.

Review: The Monday Girl by Julie Johnson

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“What if you live your life expecting a romance novel, and get a tragedy instead?”

To describe this book by songs- it is basically Wildest Dreams by Taylor Swift with a side of Hollywood is Not America by Ferras. It’s not an average cutesy love story. Hearts will be broken. This is tragedy; and when the big reveal, happens you’re just as emotional as the main character, because congratulations, you played yourself too.

To give a quick summary of the book- Kat is a 22 year old who was forced to act by her mother. Her life is definitely not as glamorous as many make Hollywood out to be. She has yet to make it big. After being discovered by Wyatt Hasting, a movie producer, while leaving an audition, Kat is offered the role of her life. A starring role based off her favorite book. The only problem, Grayson Dunn is also starring in the movie. The Sexiest Man Alive and also the guy she met many years ago.

I liked this book. It was entertaining, and I was immediately sucked in by the beginning. There is something intriguing by ending the prologue with the passage:

“If you meet me on the street you should hurry on without a backward glance, and later when you climb into bed beside a happy girl with simple thoughts and stroke her perfect hair with fingers that are still shaky from our near-miss, you can whisper that you had a brush with death today, darling, and somehow lived.”

I appreciated all of the twist and the turns. It is definitely not predictable and that ending will leave you speechless with your jaw on the ground because it’s going to bring so much drama into the next installment. And it’s going to be interesting to see how well that all plays out.

Hollywood is fascinating to me, so it was interesting to see Julie Johnson’s take on it. It was present, but it did not really feel authentic. The movie aspect of it did not really stand out as much as I had hoped. Because I’m interested in Hollywood, there were some minor details that I felt were left out about the movie.  

Although, we sort of got to see the effects of instant stardom on the main character, I would have liked to see more. Especially more of the emotional side, considering the main character was a little hesitant about acting in the beginning.

Characters

I liked Kat. She is very flawed and is in dire need of a hug. Her relationship with her mother is semi prominent in this book, and it is so tragic. It will pull at your heartstrings because her mother is not the greatest.

I really enjoyed her narrative. It was sarcastic and fun. It was also dark, because you can feel her pain. She’s hurting, and she’s broken. And I think that almost everyone could see a little bit of themselves in Kat.

One main problem I had is that Kat was deemed as this great actress; however, I did not really feel that while reading. It felt like a lot of telling and not a lot of showing. For example, Wyatt or Grayson would comment about how great Kat was, but the reader would never get to see that side of her.

I loved Wyatt! His pet name for Kat was a little annoying, but from the beginning you could tell that he was the absolute sweetest.

This book is only in Kat’s POV, so we don’t necessarily see what the other characters are thinking and feeling, we only have to go by Kat’s perception of them. And from the material given, Grayson was a bit of a mystery. He’s also the typical arrogant and charming love interest. I felt like he was dealing with some serious issues like Kat was. I loved that he wore socks with little animations on them. That was adorable!

Final Analysis

The Monday Girl is a story that most can relate to. It’s heartbreaking and emotional with many twist and turns. The main character is definitely flawed and very much strong.

Review: The Hidden People by Allison Littlewood

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The Hidden People is a new, refreshing, but also highly invigorating trespass into the world of the Fair Folk. A topic that has been rarely grazed upon in contemporary lit got a new fire stoked in this fine tale and comes highly recommended.

Albert's cousin Lizzie is murdered by her husband, a man apparently delusional enough to believe his kind hearted, demure wife to be a changeling send by the fairies to hide her own disappearance. Albert is deeply hurt at this revelation, as he had had a very peculiarly charming one meeting with cousin and was taken aback by her, so he decides that he will handle the funeral preparations. The village is not anything like the modern London he knows intimately and finds that our very quickly.

Although the language can be extremely dense at times- which unfortunately made me slow to start on it- it is a lovely, plot powered tale that will no doubt engage readers of all kinds. Albert's infatuation with his cousin (after one meeting) is also fairly suspect and cringey, but it was historically apt, so I'll let it go.

Plunged into a very folklore entrenched environment and aghast by these villagers' mindless superstitions, Albert finds himself treading a fine line between reality and myth, and it's not a simple line to understand. Things end up really taking a turn. This tale is one of fancy, fear, and family. And maybe even fairies.

Review: Ripple by Heather Smith Meloche

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I purchased this book on a whim. I had only barely read the summary. So I went in completely blind with low expectations. I am surprised that I liked it. First in foremost, this book was extremely dark. It deals with heavy subject matter such as alcoholism and schizophrenia.

It was almost hard to read at times, because I felt like I was on the verge of tears and the tension was almost overwhelming. After I would finish a chapter, I felt like I needed to go watch a silly YouTube video to lift my spirits. The writing really showcased the characters’ unhappiness, and transports the readers into a dark place. It did a great job of illustrating everything that it encompasses.

One major problem I had with the dialogue as a whole was that it was lacking. It felt a little artificial, which decreased the emotional value of it a little bit. When characters were speaking, their voice was not as powerful as it was in the internal monologue.  

Characters

The premise of this book is that Jack and Tessa both engage in risky behavior which has sort of a ripple effect on those closest to them. They both have not so pleasant lives. Jack is lying about his mother’s health and doing everything he can to keep it a secret. And Tessa is feeling the pressure from her Grandma to succeed and her alcoholic step-father’s disapproval.

Both characters are not your average likeable main characters. Both characters were flawed, and I think that stood out to me the most.

There are times when I really did not care for their choices or them. For instance, I was immediately conflicted about my feelings toward Tessa in the beginning. Since it was the first page, I didn’t really know her, so her cheating instantly rubbed me the wrong way. However, as I begin to read, I started to understand her more. Granted, I still do not agree with her choice. But she is human and humans make mistakes. And I realize that she was at an extremely difficult time in her life.

No offense, but Jack was a little annoying at times. His pranks did not bother me. His constant habit of saying something that causes the other person to question it, and him admitting that the first thing he said was a joke. There were too many times where this happened.

I liked the buildup of the relationship. I think Jack and Tessa really balanced each other out and brought out the best in each other.

Final Thoughts

Ripple is a heartbreaking tale of two flawed teens who are doing the best they can and manage to fall into self-destructive behavior. The storytelling is very dark; however, it’s worth a read.  

Review: Shatter Me Series by Taherah Mafi

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4.5

It is hard to review this series book by book considering that each book is a piece of a puzzle, and when you combine them and view it from above it paints a beautiful, complete photo. What I mean is that if you look at the individual books and analysis certain characters and developments you would be frustrated. You have to look at the bigger picture, which is resolved or finished in the last book.  

This will probably be extremely confusing, however, I will do my best to review this entire series without spoilers. I have not read the novellas, so I am strictly talking about the three main books in this review.

This series has an interesting premise. Juliette, the main character, cannot be touched. If an individual touches her, they could die. And as the series progresses we see Juliette in many dangerous situations, involved in a love triangle, and have incredible character development.  

Each book is a stage in her life, and if I am being honest the series gets better as the books come. Overall, the series was not that bad. I read the majority of the first book and the entire second and third in the span of one week, so it was definitely interesting enough to not stop reading.

The first book was my least favorite, and I think the last was my favorite. I really was underwhelmed with the first book and only continued the series because I had read spoilers and wanted to know how everything turned out that way in the end. The first book started off slow, and I felt like explanations were given out a little too late and it focused too much time in the prison/asylum cell.

The second book improved a lot. Again, it started off slow. However, you can really begin seeing Juliette evolve as a character. This had a lot of relationship drama and the love triangle started to really form here. Also, you and Juliette are introduced to a completely different perspective on the events in the first book. You find out that Juliette might not have been a reliable narrator in the beginning. That was an interesting and great revelation.

The third book was fun, and it was great to see how much each character has changed. There was little too much relationship drama for me and I wish that it had been cleared up sooner in this book. There was not as much action as I had hoped and the ending was a little disappointing and anti-climatic. There were a lot of things that were left unanswered. For example, how did individuals get their powers? Also, what age did they get their powers?

Writing

The series had an interesting writing style. It was poetic. I listened to most of the first book on Audible, so hearing the words spoken aloud in this poetic and smooth manner was an experience. However, I am very conflicted about the writing style as a whole. Although it was poetic and creative, it felt repetition and annoying at times.

There were so many metaphors. It was almost overwhelming. It was definitely frustrating at times because some metaphors felt weird and did not really make any sense. And I felt isolated as a reader because I did not really understand why the character was referring to an object in the matter that she did.

Another problem I had is that certain words were repeated. Again, I listened to this on Audible so it was frustrating to hear the narrator repeat the phrase “I am not insane” over 30 times. Although there were some times that the repetition made for a great rhythm, I would much rather not have them.

I would like to point out that the writing style changed as the story progressed through the three main books. In the series, especially the first book, words and phrases that Juliette is afraid to say are crossed out. As she progresses and evolves the crossed out words and phrases decrease. I thought that was an interesting way to show character development in a real way.

Characters

Juliette was extremely frustrating in the beginning. I was not the biggest fan of her. I did not really understand her decisions and her actions. However, if you compare Juliette in each book, it is interesting to see how much character development she went through. It was small in the books, however, as a whole it is grand. She is a completely different person and props to the author for showing that journey and actually taking the time to craft it in a way that shows every obstacle that made her who she is in the end.

I was indifferent about Adam. Him and Juliette’s relationship felt super instalove. And also, we are shown this different side of him in the third book which sort of ruins his character.

There is a love triangle. It could have been done better without ruining a character. I won’t mention the other guy involved in the triangle because it is sort of a spoiler. And I must say that that I applaud the author. The other guy was awful in the first book, however, because everything is not as it seems we learn things about him and see him in a new light.

I will say that this book lacked female characters. Juliette was basically the only female character. There were others, but their parts were small and they were extreme background characters. We did not really know much about them.  

Final Analysis

The Shatter Me Series is not perfect by any means. The main character is frustrating in the beginning, and the writing is beautiful yet it does get annoying at times. However, it does offer a journey that spans through the whole series complete with twist and turns and overall great development in the end.

Review: The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

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I’m crying. That should be an indication of my feelings toward this book.  If actual words are needed, I would say that this book was beautiful, emotional and for lack of better descriptive words great. To be honest, I was not sure how I would feel about this book at first. This was my first book by Nicola Yoon. My friend had mentioned that her book, Everything Everything, was good, however, it felt very unrealistic and a little disappointing. So I went into this book with really low expectations, and I expected everything to feel rushed, unrealistic, and super instalove since I assumed that the book would be taken place in a day. I was only right about one thing. The book did take place in a day. I was wrong about everything else.

This book was every bit of beautiful as it was heartbreaking. I was not expecting this book to impact me in the way that it did. I felt all the emotions.

This is not your average cutesy YA love story. There are so many tough subjects (prejudice, deportation, etc..) involved here. To give a clear glimpse of what is going on in here- the main character, Natasha, and her family are being deported back to Jamaica in 12 hours.  Natasha’s whole life is about to change because of her father’s mistake.

Natasha so desperately wants to stay in the United States so she goes on a mission to make that possible. While on her mission, she meets Daniel. Like Natasha, his life is far from perfect.

This was mentioned earlier, but everything in this book happens in a day. Which was amazing because so much stuff happened and there was so much development-romantic and friendship- between the two main characters. Everything was paced well and nothing was overwhelming or rushed.

I am in awe with how much depth this story had. It really pulled at my heartstrings because you could feel Natasha’s emotions and strong desire to stay in the United States. And you could also feel Daniel’s pain surrounding his relationship with his brother as well as his parents. It very much felt raw and was explained very well so it all made sense.

Characters

I admired Natasha. She was such a great main character and you can’t help but root for her. You want her to get her happy ending because she deserves it. Her POV was interesting and stood out because of her thought process. Natasha is very much a fan of science and numbers. She is a very rational person. There was a correlation between her inter monologue and her speaking voice. Everything felt connected.

Daniel was amazing as well. He was a dreamer. I really enjoyed that both of these characters were extremely different but somehow worked well together. The chemistry was very much alive. They were adorable. And it was an added bonus to actually see them bond and develop this strong relationship in less than 12 hours. They really get to know each other in the limited time that they have.

Their love story did not feel as instalove as I thought it would be. I think Daniel explained it well when he said something along the lines of that it was not love at first sight, however, it felt like he could see himself falling in love with her.

I think that it is worth mentioning here, that there were also POVs of other characters in this book. I found that interesting because they were not the main focus, however, their story somehow as connected to Daniel and Natasha and it needed to be included. It worked very well and did not take away from the two main characters. Also, it added extra emotional scenes especially Irene’s POV.

Final Analysis

The Sun is Also a Star is about many important subjects including fate, destiny, however, the one that stood out the most is the overlying theme of hope. It was definitely an emotional and beautiful read and is an important story that needs to be told.