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My Review on 99 Days

Okay If you have read The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy by Jenny Han or even just my review on the books you will see that 99 Days has a very similar sub plot. Basically, they both consist of a love triangle between a girl and two brothers who have been like family their whole lives. 99 Days is my first Katie Cotugno book, but I have others on my list from her. I will say though I have developed a love hate relationship with this book.

The book’s main character is Molly who has just returned to her hometown from a year of boarding school following her love life being spewed out onto the pages of a novel written by her mother. This whole book is written as the chapter counting down the days Molly must be in her hometown before she can run off to Boston for college. She starts the days hiding in her childhood home eating Red Vines and watching Netflix documentary hiding from the town and when she finally ventures out she finds out just how much people dislike her in her town, but she also runs into Gabe her ex boyfriend’s older brother who she just happened to sleep with when they were on a break. As the days go on her and Gabe begin to have a fling leading up to Gabe admitting he has always loved her even when she was with his brother. Then enters Patrick who is Molly’s ex and Gabe’s brother and the one who found out about Gabe and Molly’s relationship from a People magazine story about Molly’s mother’s novel. As the weeks go on Gabe starts to pull Molly back into the life of their hometown convincing her to go out and make friends. Gabe and Molly’s relationship eventually push Molly and Patrick is into a weird state and the characters just begin this cycle of just hurting one another. Which brings me to my grievances about this book.

First, yes, Molly and Gabe slept together and they kept a secret for a year even after Molly got back together with Patrick who later found out about it in a book written by Molly’s mother, but their was SUCH a double standard on Molly that Gabe did not have. Everyone blamed Molly for wrecking things, but it was equally Gabe’s fault, but supporting characters did not see it that way and treated Molly horribly even keying her car. Second, as we learned more about Patrick and Molly’s past it is easy to see that towards the end of their relationship Patrick was gaslighting the heck out of Molly and manipulating her. My favorite thing about this novel is that after thing blows up in Molly’s face, she ends up finally choosing herself and not ending up with either brother which I really did not expect.

★★★/★★★★★

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My Review on Suite Scarlett

I picked up this book at a used bookstore for a couple bucks and thought it would be a quick read just to pass time. I had never heard of the Scarlett series, but I had heard of Maureen Johnson the author of this book because I have the Truly Devious series of hers which is on my to read list. 

The main character of this book is of course named Scarlett and she lives in an art deco hotel owned by her parents with her two sisters and older brother. The book begins on Scarlett’s fifteenth birthday where she is given the key to a hotel suite that is now her responsibility a tradition based down to all the siblings when they turn fifteen, but on her birthday she also finds out that her parents are basically broke and they need her to work at the hotel. She also finds out that her parents are giving her older brother three days to get an acting role or else he must give up his dream and go to culinary school. Then the book drags, and the plot does not really start until a woman checks in at the hotel. This woman ends up enlisting Scarlett’s help to write her life story and puts on a production of Hamlet which Scarlett’s older brother is given a part in. Though the play Scarlett meets Eric who is also acting in the play they have a thing going on, but other than that I can honestly say the plot was a BORE. 

As this is my first actual introduction to Maureen Johnson, I would have hoped for more due to the fact of hearing great reviews on her writing in her other books, but this book for me just was not it. I tend to enjoy books written from the first-person perspective, but this book was confusingly at time third person. I also feel as though Johnson did not take the time to give us background on who Scarlett is and what makes her tick. I can honestly say I know more about the supporting characters then Scarlett herself. Another gripe is the fact that Scarlett just turned 15 and she is romantically involved with a 19-year-old, uh I think that was too far and could have been easily someone closer to her own age. Another thing with their relationship was it was too quick of an attraction I may have a bias towards a slow burn kind of thing, but this was almost love at first site for Scarlett. Overall, this book was a letdown and will not be staying on my shelf. 

★/★★★★★

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My Review on Everything, Everything

I know this book came out in 2015 and yes, it has been sitting on my bookshelf since then, maybe 2016, but a recent book shelf clean out to make room for new books has plagued me with getting rid of some of my collection. This is one I have decided to read and then get rid of after. I do not know why my last three book reviews have been heavily plotted around illness and death, but I promise next time will be more upbeat, but for now let us talk Everything, Everything.

This book follows the life of Madeline who is eighteen years old and has Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID) meaning she is allergic to hundreds of substances therefore must live in a sterile home with no in person contact to the outside world other than he nurse Carla and her mother. Everything changes when a new family moves in next door. This family includes a teenage boy named Olly. (Sidenote: I have a soft spot for little meet cutes like this.) Olly ends up meeting Madeline via instant messaging and emails and through this her yearning to be outside grows. Madeline witnesses Olly being punched by his father who is an abusive drunk, and, in that moment, she decides to leave her home to help him in response her mother drags her back inside and grounds her. Her mother ends up letting Carla (the nurse) go for not letting her know about Olly and Madeline’s relationship. Eventually Madeline sneaks out the house and gets Olly to runaway to Hawaii with her. In Hawaii they do all the things and profess their love for each. Then Madeline wakes up in pain and must be rushed to the hospital. Once again Madeline’s mother ground her. The big twist of the book comes when the doctor from Hawaii contacts Madeline and tells her that she sees no evidence of SCID, meaning her mother has lied to her and she has been kept away from the world because of her mother’s fear. This really was a good little story and it really did shock me when it was revealed that her mother had been lying to her for her WHOLE LIFE.

While this was a good book I do not think I will miss it off my shelf or be thinking about the story a couple weeks from now. 

Favorite quotes from Everything, Everything

“Maybe growing up means disappointing the people we love.”

“Just because you can’t experience everything doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experience anything.”

“Life is a gift. Don't forget to live it.”

“For the first time in a long time, I want more than I have.”

“There's more to life than being alive.”

★★★/★★★★★

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My Review on The Fault in Our Stars

This another reread for me as I recently decided to clean off my bookshelf in hopes to make room for others. This book landed in a sentimental pile for me because it is one of the first teen fiction/young adult books I ever loved and my first John Green novel, so I decided to read it on last time before donating it. I think almost everyone has some idea about the plot of this book whether it be from reading the book, seeing the movie, or hearing about either.

The book follows seventeen-year-old Hazel and Augustus. The two meets at a cancer support group and once they hang out, we learn that Hazel has thyroid cancer and Augustus had osteosarcoma which led to the amputation of his leg but is not cancer free. The two continue their relationship by agreeing to read each other’s favorite books. (Sidenote: I found this adorable.) After discussing Hazel’s pick Augustus decides to track down the author of the book and share a letter Hazel wrote to get some answers about the ending of the novel.  Then the unexpected happens and the author writes back and states that he will only answer Hazel’s question about the book in person. The two ends up going to meet the author in Amsterdam and they find that he is a drunk who never intended to answer Hazel’s questions. The two then go to the Anne Frank museum and share a kiss. (Sidenote: To this day I find this INCREDIBLY weird, like why are you kissing in a place like that.) I really do not want to give away the whole plot, but eventually Augustus becomes the vulnerable one once his cancer returns. Augustus passes and the author of Hazel’s favorite book ends up at the funeral turns out Augustus demanded he be there to give Hazel the answers to her questions, which eventually he does.

Overall, I think I enjoyed the book more the first time I read it but it did mean a little more to me now with my own fathers cancer diagnosis and the fact that I had a cancer scare at eighteen. I do think I will donate the book because maybe it will be some other preteen girls first.

My favorite quotes for The Fault in Our Stars,

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.”

“You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world...but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices.”

“Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”

★★★/★★★★★

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My Review on Things We Know By Heart

I just want to start this review by saying I LOVED THIS BOOK from the start. This was my first Jessi Kirby book, but I loved the way it was written because it kept me enthralled and only took me three hours to read. I finished this book two days ago and it still has been on my mind ever since. The main characters name is Quinn and at the beginning of the book we find out that Quinn’s boyfriend who she had been with since she was fourteen had died in an accident and had his organs donated. In an attempt to find closure Quinn reaches out via note to the recipients of Trent’s organs. She sends out anonymous letters via the transplant service and gets response and eventually meets the recipients of Trent’s lungs, kidney, and liver. The condition of reaching out this way is that it is completely up to the recipient if they even want to respond. Soon Quinn becomes obsessed with the fact that the recipient of Trent’s heart never responded to her letter. 

So, Quinn learns that a nineteen-year-old name Colton in a nearby little beach town was the recipient using the internet Quinn learns a lot about Colton and his sickness by using Colton sister’s blog. Soon the information becomes too, much to handle and she decides to drive to his town just to get a glimpse of him. She promises herself she won’t make conversation with him, but that all changes when all of a sudden Colton shows up at the coffee shop and she makes a scene by spilling her coffee everywhere and running out the door. Colton follows her outside and as Quinn tries backing out to escape she rear ends a van and bust her lip on the steering wheel. Colton rushes to the driver’s side and tells her she needs stiches and that he would drive her to the hospital he also instructs her to just leave a note on the car she hit. After getting her stiches Quinn leaves and promises herself to never return. 

The next day guess who shows up at her front door. COLTON. Quinn hit his van and he does not want anything. Quinn decides the next day to bring him her grandma’s famous brownies as an apology and this turns into them spending the day together. I do not want to spoil too much, but Quinn never discloses her identity and Colton does not share about his past. You can probably guess but they begin to develop feelings for each other and eventually must confront the truth. 

My favorite quotes from Things We Know by Heart  

“But it's terrifying to realize how much of your world is wrapped up in loving another person” 

“We are made of our pasts, and our pains, our joys and our losses. It's in the very fiber of our beings. Written on our hearts.” 

“The days passed, one after another, measured out in an unbroken, never-ending rhythm. Seemingly infinite, but gone in the blink of an eye—like waves crashing on the shore, or the seasons passing. Or the beating of a heart.” 

★★★★★ / ★★★★★ 

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My Review on Tell Me Three Things

Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum was a recent reread of mine that reminded me how easy I fall for cheesy YA contemporary. This is the only book of Julie Buxbaum’s that I’ve read but I love when others use things like email, social media, or text messages to get the story across and Buxbaum uses email. The main character is Jessie and her life is kind of a mess. Her mother died two years ago and her dad elopes with a woman also named Jessie who our Jessie has NEVER met. Due to her dad’s marriage Jessie is forced to move from Chicago where she lives a pretty average live to Los Angeles where suddenly she is pushed into the world of private schools and mansions. 

Jessie begins school and starts to believe her new life and the rest of high school is doomed UNTIL she gets an email from someone named SN (somebody/nobody) offering to help Jessie navigate her new school. As the two begin sharing emails Jessie begins trying to figure who is emailing her. As the emailing continues the two share more personal information and develop feelings by the end there are three suspects for the boy who has been exchanging emails with Jessie. Their names are Liam, Caleb, and Ethan. She secretly hopes (and so do I) that it is Ethan because Ethan has something that the other boys do not and that is shared experience. Ethan lost his brother and Jessie relates so much to him due to that. When SN and Jessie are finally set to meet ALL three boys are at the meeting place so she does not realize who she’s been emailing till the very last seconds of the book. 

Jessie is a really relatable character and I found myself smiling throughout the book. Overall this is a really great book with romance and a little bit of mystery. I definitely will be picking up other books by Buxbaum. 

My favorite quotes from Tell Me Three Things 

“Just because you're strong doesn't mean you shouldn't ask for help sometimes. Remember that.”

“Perfect days are for people with small, realizable dreams. Or maybe for all of us, they just happen in retrospect; they're only now perfect because they contain something irrevocably and irretrievably lost.”

“One of the worst parts about someone dying is thinking back to all those times you didn’t ask the right questions, all those times you stupidly assumed you’d have all the time in the world. And this too: how all that time feels like not much time at all.”

★★★★★ /  ★★★★★

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My Review on The Summer I Turned Pretty Trilogy

Jenny Han is such a big name in young adult romance right now with the popular series To All the Boys I Loved Before, but I thought I would read this series first. Overall, I enjoyed the series even though at times I did find the main character, Belly, annoying at times. The first book really focuses on building the characters and story up and we learn about Cousins Beach and Conrad, Jeremiah, and Belly and their families. Belly and her family have been escaping to Cousins Beach every summer of her life to be with the Beck Family. The Beck Family consists of Conrad and Jeremiah and their mother Susannah. Belly has been in love with Conrad her whole life and this summer Conrad finally makes moves as if he might feel the same way towards Belly. My main irk with Belly’s characters is that at times during the books she really shows her immaturity when it comes to how she deals with stress, friendships, relationships, and her family. Over the summer we find out that Susannah has cancer and only has so much longer to live. Conrad and Belly end up having a short winter fling after their summer at Cousins and break it off and the next time Belly and Conrad see each other is at Susannah’s funeral where they end up getting in a fight. After that they do not speak for a while, they all learn that Conrad and Jeremiah’s dad is trying to sell the Cousins beach house and the group comes together to convince him not to sell. In the process of saving the house we find out that Conrad is in danger of failing out of college and his fate depends on exams he hasn’t prepared for, so Belly and Jeremiah help Conrad to pass his exams. While waiting for Conrad Jeremiah and Belly share a kiss that Conrad ends up witnessing. At this point we move into the third book, We’ll Always Have Summer. Where we find that Jeremiah and Belly have been dating and it comes out that Jeremiah cheated on Belly during spring break and he compensates by proposing and Belly accepts. This irked me SO much because it once again showed Belly’s immaturity. I do not want to give away too much, but by the end of the book Belly has released she cannot go through with the wedding to Jeremiah because she still has feelings for Conrad.  

My favorite quotes from The Summer I Turned Pretty Trilogy

“Would you rather live one perfect day over and over or live your life with no perfect days but just decent ones?”

“It’s hard to throw away history. It was like you were throwing away a part of yourself.”

★★★/★★★★★

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My Review on Paper Towns

I want to start this review with two comments. I know that John Green is a very popular young adult author, but to be honest I have never really connected that much with his works and sometimes find them to be a little cliché and overhyped. The second thing I would like to state is that I actually saw the movie adaption of Paper Towns first and can for sure say when I finally got around to reading the book can say the book is SO much better than the movie. Now onto the review. 

This book is written in three parts. The first part was by far my favorite. I found it the best because of the way Green introduced the characters. We meet Margo and Quentin. We learn that Margo is a mystery and Quentin is obsessed with the mystery of Margo. One-night Margo climbs into Quentin’s window and sweeps him into a night of revenge. Margo end up leaving clues for Quentin and then goes missing after that night of revenge which sends the last few weeks of Quentin’s senior year into a whirlwind adventure. This journey leads them to an abandoned mini mall, and they learn that Margo had been plotting this route while also learning about her obsession with “paper towns”. He then searches all the “paper towns” of Florida in search of Margo, but to no luck. Quentin goes through the motions of school, but still cannot get his mind off Margo. Quentin finds a clue on a website ran by his friend. The clue gives Margo’s location, but under the stipulation that she will only be there until May 29th at noon, so Quentin only has twenty-four hours to get to the paper town Margo is in. Quentin and two of his best friends and one of Margo’s friends skip graduation and set on a road trip from Florida to New York to get to Margo. When the group finally gets to Margo, she explains herself and surprisingly invites Quentin to go to New York City with her. The best part of the book is when Quentin denies Margo’s request and expresses that going with Margo would be staying in his own Paper Town the Paper Town of Margo and in the end go their separate ways. I enjoyed that Green let Quentin be free of Margo after his obsession with her. 

My favorite quotes from Paper Towns  

“It is so hard to leave—until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world.”

“It is easy to forget how full the world is of people, full to bursting, and each of them imaginable and consistently misimagined.”

“As much as life can suck, it always beats the alternative.”

★★★/★★★★★

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My Review on Words in Deep Blue

Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley is one of my favorite young adult novels I have read in a long time. Rachel and Henry used to be best friends, but they have not seen each other in three years. Henry does not understand why their friendship fell apart, but Rachel knows that she could not stay friends with Henry after he ignored the letter she left him professing her love for him and distaste for his current girlfriend before moving. Henry’s family owns a local bookstore with a letter library were patrons can write notes in the books and leave letters, which is where Rachel left her note to Henry on the page of his favorite poem. After Henry never brings up the letter Rachel assumes the worst and stops communication for three years. When Rachel’s brother Cal tragically drowns, she moves back to the town she and Henry grew up in and begins to work in Henry’s parents’ bookstore cataloging the letter library. While cataloging the library she grows closer to Henry and his family, old friends and slowly comes to terms with the loss of her brother. Something I really grew to love about the letter library is that Rachel finds out Henry’s sister has been writing notes to a mystery boy who she admits she is in love with, that mystery boy turns out to be Rachel’s brother Cal and now Rachel must navigate how to break the news about her brothers passing, we see a huge transition when it comes to Rachel telling people about Cal because when she first moves back she lies and says he is off at school and then slowly has the reveal to people she loves that he actually passed. I do not want to give away too much, but this book had me crying. Crowley’s writing makes it so easy to envision the characters and feel a part of the story one way she does the is by switching the point of view between Rachel and Henry. You begin to love these characters and feel proud of their personal growth and journey throughout the book.

I really felt a connection to the main character Rachel because she is going through the loss of her brother and navigating the world without him. My father was diagnosed with terminal cancer back in December, so I cannot imagine how life will be when he is gone.

My favorite quotes from Words in Deep Blue

“If they were just words, people wouldn’t fall in love because of them…”

“But I don’t believe that the future gives us signs. I think that we look back and read the past with the present in our eyes.”

“We are the books we read and the things we love.”

★★★★/★★★★★