Review: Paintbrush by Hannah Bucchin

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This was a sweet YA contemporary. The kind of book that ends on a positive note and makes you smile at the end. It was cute, and I enjoyed it.

Mitchell and Josie have known each other sense they were young. They both grew up in a hippie community called Paintbrush. They were close friends when they were younger, but as they grew and entered public school they sort of drifted apart. As they complete their last year of high school, unexpected life situations bring them closer and they become more than friends.

One of my favorite things about this story was the community. The entire concept of Paintbrush was interesting. A woman created a place where people who don’t have a home or anyone who wants an escape could come and live. It is a welcoming and closed knit community with interesting people.

One major thing that bothered me was the format of the ebook. It was a little hard to read. The problems with the format could have been caused by my Kindle so it didn’t impact my perspective of the book.

Characters:

One thing that I found that was interesting about Mitchell and Josie were their desired life paths after high school. Mitchell wanted to leave Paintbrush, and Josie wanted to stay to help her mother with her sisters. That brought an interesting dynamic to their relationship. It didn’t add unnecessary drama, but instead it made it seem more real. As a whole, their relationship was great. And I enjoyed seeing them slowly become more than friends.  

Although, I enjoyed Mitchell and Josie, I wish there would have been a little bit more to their characters. There were so many things that could have been explored with both of them. I don’t want to say they were flat or two dimensional characters, because they were not. They just are characters that will not leave an everlasting impression.

Final Analysis

Paintbrush is a sweet read that isn’t over dramatic. The romance is adorable. And the ending is hopeful.

Review: Ninja Girl by Cookie O’Gorman

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This was a decent book. It definitely had its cute and innocent moments.  The pacing was nicely done, and it was a quick read. It seemed like a story that would be adapted as a Disney Channel Original Movie. The plot of the book is that a regular girl becomes a bodyguard for a politician’s son after his family receives threatening letters.

However, it would have be tamed a little. It leaned more towards PG-13 at times. It does include several clichés but they are not too overwhelming or frustrating.

The book does sway away from the main plot and tries to develop subplots. But that does not really work, and in the end ends up lessen the main plot and it doesn’t seem as grand as it should be. The other plot points feel unnecessary. For example, the whole pretend dating someone to make the other party jealous plot, is over used and did not fit in this story.

Characters

The characters were decent. However, at times they did feel immature. It was a little frustrating that most of the characters were unaware that girls could do certain things. There were many times where Snow or the other characters made comments like “I/she may be a girl but she/I can do…”

Snow was an amazing fighter, and that was interesting to read. There are very few YA books where the female saves the male, so it that was great to see displayed in this book. Ash was a little annoying at times.

There were several instances in the book where Snow would do the smallest thing, and Ash would think “I’m so turned on” or “that’s so hot.” For example, he held her hair while she was puking in a dark alley and was instantly turned on. Also, his nickname for her got old extremely fast. It was worth mentioning, that he was a good and sweet guy.

The romance between the two were cute. And I really enjoyed the banter between the two. I do wish that the bodyguard/client relationship would have been explored more. There were really few scenes with Snow actually being his bodyguard. They usually talked about her job.

Also, the romance did not feel super instalove. Yes, they were immediately attracted to each other and developed crushes fast. However, it was still very much a blossoming relationship.  

Final Analysis

Ninja Girl isn’t a bad book. The characters are interesting enough to keep reading, and the clichés won’t give you a headache.

Review: Last Semester by Corine Mekaouche

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There is not really much to say about this one. It was extremely disappointing and underwhelming. It took a lot of patience and sighs to finish this one. I finished the book with so many unanswered questions.  It has a very good description that makes it sound interesting.

However, once you dive into the book you find that it truly does not deliver. And I’m honestly not trying to be rude, it just wasn’t the best thing I’ve read. But it also wasn’t the worst.

The problem was that it was a frustrating read filled with entitled immature characters. They are all at least 21 years old. As a 22-year-old myself, I would figure that they would have a higher maturity level.

The characters actions were off-putting. For example, why was Rob so freaked out about Jo’s tampons? And also why did he open them all and put them all over their yard as an attempt to get her to move out? I get that his girlfriend was the “jealous type” and he was afraid of how she would react when she found that he had a girl for a roommate, but that was extreme. And if I’m being honest, this book was highly extreme and blew a lot of things out of proportion.

Another problem I had was that so many things made absolutely no sense. I’m able to suspend my disbelief, but there are times when you can only suspend so much before you fall off a cliff in head into territory called What the Heck alley.

For example, how did A.J. make it four years of college without flunking out? Money can’t buy everything; especially when most core classes for majors require that you make at least a C in the previous classes. And I’m supposed to believe that he generated enough knowledge to succeed in the future.

This book felt like an over the top comedy show that tried to be relatable and do anything for the laughs.

Review: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

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I watched the HBO limited series before reading the book. And I noticed that there were somethings that the book did better and things that the show did better. The show was amazing and quickly became one of my favorite shows. That being said, I don’t want to ramble on about the show because this is the book review.

Like the show, the book was amazing and is definitely one of my favorite things this year.  It was just so brilliant and such a moving experience. There’s strong female friendship, motherhood, a murder mystery, and humor. And all of these subjects are woven together to produce a great book. Trigger warning: this book does deal with heavy issues such as rape, eating disorders, and domestic abuse.

I wasn’t shocked by the big reveals, because the show stayed 80% true to the book and kept the important things the same. However, I was still impacted while I read because this is an outstanding book. It draws out emotions and manages to pull at your heartstrings. I felt joy. I laughed. And I also felt anger because of how cruel people can be.

It is kind of hard to describe but the book is told in past and present time. The two periods merge at the end of the book. The past includes the time leading up to the murder, which happened at trivia night. The present time are from testimonials for witnesses who were at trivia night when the murder took place. And I must say the testimonials are hilarious. They are kind of unreliable witnesses because they are gossip and try to spin things certain way. But they were definitely one of my favorite things about the book.

Characters

The book mainly focuses on Madeline, Jane, and Celeste. They all have children entering kindergarten. Jane is the new young mom to town. She’s a single mom and sort of a mystery. She’s still haunted by a tragic event from her past and does have a motive for moving to the town.  An unfortunate event at orientation day, makes her and her son, Ziggy, the main focus for unfair and rude gossip.

Madeline is very outspoken and eventually takes Jane under her wing. Madeline had the best one liners; she is so hilarious. One interesting thing about Madeline is her hatred of her ex-husband and his new younger wife, Bonnie. Madeline is also dealing with her oldest daughter, Abby, who she feels is choosing her dad over her.

Celeste and her husband, Perry, are one of the wealthiest couples in the town. Everyone believes they have the perfect life. But their life isn’t perfect. Celeste is dealing with difficult things at home. She doesn’t talk about it to her friends. She seems a little lost. And as the strong progresses, we see her make tough decisions and begin to realize what is actually happening in her life.

The readers get to see their intersecting lives, and also the amazing friendship that they share. And their friendship was not something that could be ruined over petty or unnecessary drama. These woman genuinely were friends and would do anything for each other.

We get to see them rally together and protect one another. It was nice to see positive and strong female friendships portrayed. It was also great to see characters who were not the best of friends still manage to put their past behind them and come together to help one another.

There are quite a few characters in this book. All of the characters were three dimensional. I also noticed that this book depicted different types of women and also different types of motherhood. I thought that was amazing, because it’s what the real world looks like.

Bonnie’s background was not mentioned in the show; however, I do wish that it had been. This is probably one of the biggest things that I believe the book did better.

I have never disliked a fictional character as much as I have in this book. And believe me when I say that the dislike is earned. The individual was extremely awful, and it is sad that there are people in this world like that.

Final Analysis

Big Little Lies is something that I do plan to read again. It’s such an amazing book with real characters who shine but very much are flawed. It has a very satisfying ending, fit with twist and turns and female friendships.

Review: Bay Song by Noelle Adams

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If you are a fan of Noelle Adams, Bay Song is not something that is similar to what you would think she would come out with. It’s deeper and darker at times but really pushes the reader to a place that demands empathy and patience for a character worth rooting for. The emotional journey of the characters, one on the cusp of her conscious exist breaking and the other searching for an inner truth to validate his self identity find crossing paths where the truth sets them free.

Holly is in her early twenties. She hasn’t exactly had the ideal life. The origin of her existence is rooted in tragedy and that painful reminder has affected her life, crippling her emotionally and socially. She was never around people and the only reality she had was the world that existed between herself and her mother. Her mother suffered tremendously which affected the quality of life for them both. She had a brief time where life seemed to be heading in a better direction until her mother left which changed her life forever. She had chose to live a life in recluse and cut off the world with little to no contact unless necessary until one day she met Cade.

Cade is the hometown person who made it big but is on a downward spiral of his career looking for a chance to redeem his former success. Returning home to find some inspiration, his next book is a make or break. One day after noticing Holly, his natural investigative curiosity sparked knowing there was something behind her that he wanted to know more about, which he felt would be the idea for his next book. Not knowing what lies beneath the surface, the more he uncovers, the deeper he falls for the story which unearths unexpected consequences that potentially change their lives forever.

Overall, there were moments that were predictable but that came out of the trajectory of the emotional development of the characters. I think when you have characters like Holly and Cade, there is an expectation of certain things to happen based on the scenario but then there is a shift that propels the interest for the reader in another direction which makes this unexpected that makes you want to read more.

This was definitely a unique plot that really gives a compelling story with deep, rich characters that really grab your attention. The pace of the book was just right. Patience for answers is the key because I wanted to know certain things earlier but when I got those answers, it was the right time which made the book better. I really enjoyed this one and applaud Noelle for doing something different, showing her versatility as an author which I really appreciate. I hope she makes another book captures such depth as this one.

Review: Revelry by Kandi Steiner

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I purchased this book without reading the summary. I had read previous books by the same author, and I really enjoy her works. She is a good writer and creates brilliant flawed characters and romances. And just like all of her books, I would recommend this one. One thing that I enjoy about Kandi Steiner’s books is that they feel new and exciting. They generate emotion and are not forgettable.

Revelry was a good book; however, it does not live up to its predecessors. It’s a forgettable book, and a big part of that is because it felt familiar.

Recently divorced, Wren leaves city life to attempt to find herself in a small mountain town. She meets kind people as well as a broody mysterious man. The two are draw together and eventually start to develop feelings. They also begin to trust each other enough to reveal their past to each other. There’s some added drama to keep the story moving and even a few emotional moments.

I feel like this premise has been done several times in New Adult fiction. And because of this it felt predictable and this novel didn’t really stand out. The author did not add any new threads to this tiring narrative.

Another issue I had is that there was a lot of telling rather than showing. What I mean is that conversations between characters were summarized instead of the reader getting to experience those conversations take place.

I did think that the pacing was nice. It never felt like it dragged on, or moved too fast. Another thing I enjoyed is that it was interesting although this story had been told many times before. I was never bored.

Characters

Both Wren and Anderson felt familiar. I had seen these types of characters before in many other books. However, they were enjoyable and likeable. Both had their own issues that they were dealing with, and it was great to see them come out on top.

I did enjoy that they both communicated well with each other. Miscommunication was not a big issue for them. And they also had great chemistry and were cute together. While reading, I never thought that these two characters didn’t belong together.

There were a lot of supporting characters. I wish that they stood out more. They were very prominent in Wren and Anderson’s journey; however, they seemed to fade in the background in the book. They were forgettable.

Wren and Anderson spend a lot of time speaking about the past, and it left little room for the future to be discussed. The moving on aspect was lost because they were both trapped in the past. They did eventually develop, but it was close to the end.

Final Analysis  

Revelry is a good read, but if you’re looking for something new and fresh it doesn’t deliver.