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401
pp
| 4.16
| 949,028
| Jul 05, 2022
| Jul 05, 2022
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liked it
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I know this is everyone's favorite book of the year, so it makes me sad that I didn't love this one as much as I was hoping to. In the beginning, I lo
I know this is everyone's favorite book of the year, so it makes me sad that I didn't love this one as much as I was hoping to. In the beginning, I loved it and I thought I would give it 5 stars, the writing is gorgeous, I love how we jump back and forth in the timeline, and I love that Sadie and Sam are both complex and flawed characters who don't always make the right decisions.
But the second half of this book dragged so hard for me. It got to be so repetitive and so boring and I was just ready for things to end. This book is less than 400 pages, but it feels sooooo long. I also don't care all that much about video games and the design that goes into them, so those parts of the story also bored me.
I really liked the characters in this story, and the writing was really freaking good half the time and the other half of the time it felt a little pretentious. I guess I loved the characters, but I wasn't the biggest fan of the plot, or the lack of a plot? at times.
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1
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Aug 13, 2022
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Hardcover
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| | | | | 0062840355
| 9780062840356
| 0062840355
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384
pp
| 4.25
| 34,839
| Sep 15, 2020
| Sep 15, 2020
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it was amazing
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So powerful. So moving. I think this is a really important story about things that happen in real life - men in the music industry taking advantage of
So powerful. So moving. I think this is a really important story about things that happen in real life - men in the music industry taking advantage of young girls. This happens everywhere all the time, in every industry, and it’s tragic and it’s heartbreaking and I appreciate this author for writing such a beautiful story and bringing these issues to light.
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1
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Jun 28, 2020
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Hardcover
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| | | | | 006294150X
| 9780062941503
| 006294150X
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373
pp
| 4.10
| 345,818
| Mar 10, 2020
| Mar 10, 2020
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liked it
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I listened to the audiobook for this, and it was not an easy book to listen to. We follows this young woman Vanessa who reevaluates the relationship s
I listened to the audiobook for this, and it was not an easy book to listen to. We follows this young woman Vanessa who reevaluates the relationship she had with her teacher when she was in high school. In alternating chapters we get to see her experience in high school with her teacher Strane and see how he took advantage of her.
I think the main issues I had with this book is that it was too long. There was so much of the middle part of this book that could’ve been cut down, and because of that I feel like this story really started to drag in the middle and I wasn’t very motivated to continue reading it.
But I am really fascinated when it comes to reading about student/teacher relationships and this was no exception. It was sad to watch Vanessa truly fall for him and for him to constantly manipulate her and gaslight her over and over again.
I feel like I can’t rate this higher than a 3 though because I never truly got invested in this story and couldn’t connect with the characters for some reason.
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Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 02, 2020
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Hardcover
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| | | | | 1451642296
| 9781451642292
| 1451642296
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306
pp
| 3.72
| 151,875
| Jul 09, 2019
| Jul 09, 2019
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really liked it
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I listened to the audiobook, and I thought it was fascinating. I know this book is a little controversial right now, but I personally enjoyed it. We f
I listened to the audiobook, and I thought it was fascinating. I know this book is a little controversial right now, but I personally enjoyed it. We follows three different women in this book, and I like that even though this book in nonfiction, it reads like fiction. We get to hear the stories from these three women told from their own voices, which was a great choice on the authors part I think. I think Maggie's chapters were my favorite to read about, and her chapters take up the majority of the book. Maggie was involved in a student/teacher relationship and I found her chapters the most interesting. This book says its about female desire, which it is, but it's about so much more than that I think. There's just something so fascinating hearing about the real sex lives of other women in America and how vastly different they can be. I just enjoyed listening to the audiobook, it definitely held my attention and I think this book has a lot to say.
This is my 100th book read in 2019!!!
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Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 06, 2019
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Hardcover
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| | | | | 1405910216
| 9781405910217
| 1405910216
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328
pp
| 4.11
| 84,977
| Sep 04, 2011
| Aug 16, 2012
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really liked it
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This book was alright. This is our buddy read for Romanceathon which I'm super excited about, this is my second book completed for Romanceathon!
This
This book was alright. This is our buddy read for Romanceathon which I'm super excited about, this is my second book completed for Romanceathon!
This story follows 30 year old Anna, and 16 year old TJ. She is going to be his tutor for the summer, but the plane they are on crashes and they get stranded on an island for 3+ years. This is their story of survival and love. Nothing romantic happens between them until TJ is well over the age of consent, just in case anyone was wondering.
I was fascinated by this book, and I found it to be addicting to read because I HAD to know where it was going next. I didn't really connect with the characters though, like other readers seem to. I never cried once while reading this, which is strange and I swear I don't have a heart of stone, I just never really got emotionally attached to them for some reason. Some of the things that happened on the island seemed a little unrealistic and had me rolling my eyes. (view spoiler)[especially the scene where the dolphins save them from a shark and they wrestle the shark like whaaaaat (hide spoiler)] but it was still a good, interesting story and I enjoyed their romance. I appreciated that the romance was a slow burn, and it took years before anything happened between them. But I think it's unrealistic that someone stranded on an island would care so much about superficial things like shaving their legs haha.
This book actually reminded me a lot of one of my favorites books: Room. Mainly because of the way the story divides in half and the second half of the story feels completely different from the first half. But Room centers on a mother/son relationship while this book centers on a forbidden romance.
The second half of this book definitely started to drag for me, but (view spoiler)[I still enjoyed seeing how their families and the media was reacting to their taboo relationship because that is what I'm here for. (hide spoiler)] I think I realized something about my own personal reading tastes and that is: while I enjoy reading stories that take place on an island, I'm not a huge fan of survival stories. I don't like reading about people struggling to survive and trying to figure out how they are going to make it another ten days. I don't know why - it's just not my favorite thing. But if you enjoy survival stories I think this book would 100% be for you.
Anyways, this book was good - I couldn't put it down because I NEEDED to know what happened next so I think that right there says a lot about how much I enjoyed it. I just wish I connected to these characters more than I did.
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1
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Apr 16, 2019
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Paperback
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| | | | | 0440000432
| 9780440000433
| 0440000432
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352
pp
| 3.62
| 2,273
| Aug 02, 2018
| Jan 15, 2019
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really liked it
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3.5 stars Well this was quite an intense book! It follows this woman named Susanna who is a psychologist and she’s taking on a new patient named Adam a
3.5 stars Well this was quite an intense book! It follows this woman named Susanna who is a psychologist and she’s taking on a new patient named Adam and the entire story mostly takes place in one day.
There were two good plot twists that I didn’t see coming, some of the ending got to be a bit predictable though but overall I thought this was a very well-written thriller. This is my first time reading this author but I’ve seen his books around and I’m definitely interested in reading more from him in the future! 😃
Huge thanks to Berkeley for sending me an ARC!
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Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 30, 2018
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Paperback
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| | | | | 1501190075
| 9781501190070
| 1501190075
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320
pp
| 3.89
| 180,530
| Jul 12, 2018
| Dec 26, 2018
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really liked it
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Thank you to Atria Books for sending me an ARC! I love Lisa Jewell's writing. This is my third book from her, and even though this one if probably my
Thank you to Atria Books for sending me an ARC! I love Lisa Jewell's writing. This is my third book from her, and even though this one if probably my least favorite from her so far, I still absolutely love her thrillers.
This one follows quite a bit of characters, we have: Tom: Head teacher of the school. 51 years old and charming, attractive. Nicola: Tom's wife, much younger than Tom. Freddie: Tom's son, takes pictures of people out his window. Joey: Protagonist of the story, 26 years old, Tom's neighbor Jack: Joey's brother who she is currently living with Alfie: Joey's husband, a painter Rebecca: Jack's wife, who is pregnant and works from home quite a bit Jenna: One of the students at Tom's school Bess: Jenna's best friend, she is in love with/obsessed with Tom Jenna's Mom: I can't remember her name, but she is a bit delusional
This book has almost too many characters to the point where it's hard to keep track and you really have to pay attention to whose who. The story opens with Joey, the protagonist and how she's unable to hold down a job and she impulsively married this guy Alfie, and she's moving into her brother Jack's place, where he and his pregnant wife Rebecca live. Then the story revolves around their neighborhood, where Tom who is the head of the school lives with this family, and across the street there is Jenna, one of the students at Tom's school who is the same age as his son Freddie, and Jenna's delusional mother who is always afraid she is being watched.
This story starts with a murder and Joey is accused of it - and then we get to see the events leading up to the murder, which is a pretty standard plot trope in a mystery but I was fine with it. I would recommend trying to read this book in one sitting because when you take time away from it, you start to forget all the characters and who is who. I really enjoyed this book for a few reasons: I love when a thriller starts with a murder and then you spend the novel trying to figure out who was murdered. I love thrillers that center on forbidden relationships, and this one in particular deals with student/teacher relationships, which I find fascinating to read about.
Even though this wasn't my favorite Lisa Jewell thriller I would still highly recommend this to fans of thrillers. It is definitely still a fast-paced exciting read. However, I would recommend Then She Was Gone or I Found You over this one.
Book 3 of the Spookathon is complete!
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1
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Sep 19, 2018
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Hardcover
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| | | | | 1501199110
| 9781501199110
| 1501199110
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182
pp
| 3.06
| 7,245
| Jan 08, 2019
| Jan 08, 2019
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did not like it
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What the fuck did I just read? This book is marketed as a main character becoming obsessed with the actress who lives on her street, but after reading
What the fuck did I just read? This book is marketed as a main character becoming obsessed with the actress who lives on her street, but after reading it - that’s not really what this book is about. I’m actually left wondering what the point of this novel is exactly?? It’s an incredibly boring story that doesn’t ever really go anywhere? By the end I was confused... like how was that the end? That is what the story was building towards? What a let down.
I don’t know what it is with these thrillers and comparing themselves to Hitchcock... This one and The Woman In The Window both do that and I honestly don’t get it.
This book is actually about a woman who is dealing with a divorce from her husband because she can’t get pregnant and she’s really fucked up because of that and sometimes looking through the window and watching the actress and her family. It’s a really lame, mild stalker story. I was expecting it to get a lot creepier or at least not exciting. This main character is also really obnoxious and immature with how she deals with her divorce and she makes a lot of really stupid decisions that just had me rolling my eyes. The only reason I kept reading was because it’s so short and I wanted to see where it would go - but the ending was massively disappointing.
For such a short book I felt like so much of it could’ve still been cut out.. I just didn’t see a point to any of the story to be honest idk. I’m so disappointed because after reading that description I was PUMPED and I thought it might be a new favorite but instead I’m left feeling like I just wasted my time. I don’t mean to be so harsh with a one star rating but I can’t give it any higher than that because I can’t think of one thing I liked about it.
Thank you to Scribner for sending me an ARC!
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1
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Aug 25, 2018
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Hardcover
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| | | | | 1626496617
| 9781626496613
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275
pp
| 3.67
| 3,118
| Oct 30, 2017
| Oct 30, 2017
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liked it
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"Perception always changed the more you learned about a person, whether it be their sexuality, political views, or the way they treated homeless pe
"Perception always changed the more you learned about a person, whether it be their sexuality, political views, or the way they treated homeless people on the street."
This book was cute, but nothing really stood out to me. This book should have been a homerun five star book for me because it has a lot of my favorite things: 1) student/teacher romance, 2) forbidden romance, 3) lgbt romance, 4) hockey player character, 5) age gap between the two man love interests. And this book was cute, don't get me wrong. We follows Sebastian Cruz, a puerto rican professor, and Tristan Holt, an NHL player who is going back to college to finish his degree. Tristan is enrolled in his class and they begin to experience a lot of sexual tension between them.
Their romance was cute, but it wasn't necessarily something I'm going to remember. I really enjoyed reading some of Sebastian's lectures about sociology, I found them really fascinating. I thought for a student/teacher romance it wasn't quite as forbidden as I was hoping it would be. It was more like, oh lets just wait to make a move till the end of the quarter and then we'll be fine... which is okay but it was lacking that suspense of them getting caught that I usually love in forbidden romances. Also, some of the sex scenes were a little too kinky for my taste, lol it was making me uncomfortable. But, I loved Sebastian's sense of humor and he made me laugh a few times with quotes like this: "Nothing took his mind off sex like the badly written academic efforts of students who never showed up."
Overall, this book was okay but there was nothing about it that's going to stick with me for very long after finishing it.
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1
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Mar 14, 2018
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ebook
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| | | | | 1508235430
| 9781508235439
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| unknown
| 3.42
| 3,703
| Sep 26, 2017
| Sep 26, 2017
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liked it
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2.5 stars This is the second book I've read from Kate Moretti, and I'll be honest, once again I'm left feeling a bit disappointed. This is a very compe
2.5 stars This is the second book I've read from Kate Moretti, and I'll be honest, once again I'm left feeling a bit disappointed. This is a very compelling mystery about a small town erupting into chaos when blackbirds fall out of the sky. There's so much happening in this story that has so much potential: student/teacher romance that is very controversial, blackbirds falling out of the sky, a family falling apart from the lies. I was very intrigued by all of these characters and the story, but the end result kind of fell flat for me unfortunately. The most intruiging part of the story for me had to be the student/teacher relationship and trying to figure out who was telling the truth and what really happened between Nate and Lucia. Another aspect of the story I really liked is that Alecia and Nate's son Gabe is autistic, and I appreciate the representation of that in this story.
Other than that, this story felt kind fo boring and it was like watching the real story from a distance. The real story is happening with Lucia and her teenage friends, but we get to hear this story through the teachers Nate and Bridget, and it felt like I was watching the actual story from afar. If this story only followed Lucia's character instead of jumping around to other POV's I think the story could have been a lot stronger. I also found it kind of confusing when it would jump around to multiple different POV's and time jump to different times of the year. It was hard to keep track of when exactly everything happened. Also, the writing got very wordy at times and this book is long because of it, it easily could've been cut down by 50 pages or more.
I will say that I did enjoy this book more than her other book The Vanishing Year, but this book definitely still had some problems. I just couldn't get invested in the story and it took me over a week to finish this book! It never takes me that long to read a book... but oh well. It's still a decent thriller even though I'm not really satisfied with the way it ended. (view spoiler)[I was so excited about the blackbirds falling and the whole "Lucia is a witch" aspect of the book and in the end finding out everything was a "coincidence" was really disappointing for me. Also, to find out in the end the affair didn't actually happen and Lucia's friend was the one who killed her... like what was the point then? Of the story following Nate instead of Lucia? The real drama was happening between characters we barely know, and Nate is innocent. I just found the ending to be very underwhelming. (hide spoiler)]THANK YOU TO ATRIA BOOKS FOR SENDING ME AN ARC IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW
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1
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Sep 18, 2017
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Audiobook
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| | | | | 1682309827
| 9781682309827
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350
pp
| 4.10
| 38,150
| Aug 03, 2017
| Jul 17, 2017
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really liked it
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"Music expresses all the things people can't say, but are impossible to keep quiet." There are so many things I loved about this book. I love Vi Keelan
"Music expresses all the things people can't say, but are impossible to keep quiet." There are so many things I loved about this book. I love Vi Keeland's writing, this is my second book from her and she's becoming one of my favorite authors of all time. This book follows Caine West, a professor and Rachel Martin, a girl who works in a bar who also happens to be Professor West's new TA. I love student/teacher romances, it's a guilty pleasure of mine, and this one definitely had those vibes.
I like that music is what really connected them, Caine is a professor who teaches music and he also has a past with music that isn't revealed until later in the story. I was swooning over Caine so hard, especially in the beginning. I will admit I did have some problems with this book towards the end. Throughout this entire book, there's this mysterious back story going on with Caine's character through flashbacks, and I was trying to figure out why and what was going on in those chapters, and I was disappointed when I eventually figured it out. I also wasn't a huge fan of how religious it got at the end, because I'm not really a religious person myself, so I was rolling my eyes a lot at the end. Especially with the repetitiveness of Caine not being able to tell her about some thing and the miscommunication between them was annoying. Like if they just had ONE conversation everything would've been solved. (view spoiler)[I didn't like how they got so religious at the end with the: "God sent you to me" and "you're my angel" and all that. I wasn't expecting it to be so religious at the end so it kind of bothered me. I also thought it was so cheesy that Rachel just so happened to be the little girl in the flashbacks. I wanted to know more about Liam and what exactly happened with him and why he killed himself. But I really loved the scenes with Caine's nieces, and the way he would go so jealous of her relationship with Davis, her ex. I also really loved the sex scene with the music in the headphones. (hide spoiler)]
Overall, I really did enjoy this story and these characters. Caine West is definitely up there on the list of most swoon-worthy male characters. I didn't enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed Egomaniac, but I still really loved it!
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1
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Jun 29, 2017
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Paperback
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| | | | |
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| B071NHHN2Y
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306
pp
| 3.76
| 11,296
| Apr 26, 2017
| Apr 25, 2017
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really liked it
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This is a student/teacher romance that I randomly decided to read, and I enjoyed it a lot! It follows this girl named Remington Stringer who has this
This is a student/teacher romance that I randomly decided to read, and I enjoyed it a lot! It follows this girl named Remington Stringer who has this borderline obsessive-controlling step brother named Ryan who wants to be with her romantically. Then she gets accepted into this fancy school, and her professor Pierce James is insanely attractive.
I really enjoyed the relationship between Remi and Ryan, and I thought it was written very well and the way they interacted was very interesting. Remi and Pierce have a lot of chemistry, and their banter was so hilarious and fun to read. All of their scenes together were great, and I enjoyed both of their characters together. I am just a sucker for forbidden romances.
However, there was one thing that kind of pissed me off because the author was trying to set up this "plot twist" that anyone could see coming from a mile away, and it's honestly offensive when authors think that their readers won't see that coming when it's so obvious. (view spoiler)[The thing about Remi taking so many pictures of them and then Ryan finding the pictures at the end and using them as blackmail. (hide spoiler)] And it was really frustrating seeing Remi making some really bad decisions when you know she's so much smarter than that.
But this was a pretty good student/teacher romance, not only because of the chemistry between Remi and Pierce, but also because of the drama Remi's step brother Ryan added to the story. I love that it takes place in Las Vegas, and I love forbidden romances.
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1
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Jun 16, 2017
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Kindle Edition
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| | | | | 0735211205
| 9780735211209
| 0735211205
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386
pp
| 3.59
| 394,718
| May 02, 2017
| May 02, 2017
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really liked it
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Holy damn, I enjoyed this book. The Girl on the Train is one of my favorite thrillers, so of course I had to check out Paula Hawkin's latest book, and
Holy damn, I enjoyed this book. The Girl on the Train is one of my favorite thrillers, so of course I had to check out Paula Hawkin's latest book, and I was not disappointed. This book revolves around this river where all these women have died over many generations. The one negative I will say about this book is that it follows about eleven different characters, and we get chapters form all their perspectives. Trying to keep track of every character and remembering who is who was not an easy thing to do, and it mad this book very difficult to get into, but the thing I did like about this was that every single character's POV mattered. Some books have a huge cast of characters and it seems pointless, but every character has a purpose in this story, so I liked that.
The story mainly follows Jules, who is the sister of Nel, who died. Nel's daughter is Lena, who was best friends with Katie. We get POV's from both detectives - Sean Townsend and Erin Morgan, and chapters from Sean's wife Helen, and Sean's Father Patrick. There's also the teacher from Lena's school - Mark Henderson, and the psychic, Nickie Sage. There's Louise Whittaker, whose daughter died, and also her son, Josh. And those are only the characters that we get POV chapters from, there are still so many other characters that make up the story.
This story is suspenseful and Paula Hawkins is such a great mystery writer! She knows how to keep her readers interested and I flew through this book in two days. I could not put it down and I needed to know what really happened to Nel when she died. I love all the secrets buried in the past between Nel and Jules and the mystery behind why they lost touch, and the truth about things that happened when they were teenagers. It was all very intriguing and I needed answers and I couldn't put it down! (view spoiler)[I was especially surprised by the rape scene that happened between Jules and Robbie, and the way this book discusses rape and consent is very important! I also was shocked by the student/teacher relationship between Mark and Katie, and that's why she killed herself, it was so shocking I wasn't expecting something like that from this book. I enjoyed watching all of their crazy secrets unravel, it was very entertaining. (hide spoiler)]
The ending of this book was just okay, which I'm assuming is the reason behind some of the low ratings. I mean, it's a good ending, but it doesn't kick you in the gut the way it should. I just expected something a little more dramatic I guess, and the end felt sort of anti-climatic compared to the rest of the story. But, I still really enjoyed this book and it kept me guessing until the last page! This book will be on my mind for a very long time! I will read anything Paula Hawkins writes in the future.
Thank you to Book of the Month for sending me this book for May!
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1
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Jan 26, 2017
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Hardcover
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| | | | | 1501133381
| 9781501133381
| 1501133381
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368
pp
| 3.90
| 26,849
| Jun 27, 2017
| Jun 27, 2017
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it was ok
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Thank you to the publishers for sending me an e-ARC on netgalley. I love K.A. Tucker's He Will be My Ruin and I was so excited when I got approved for
Thank you to the publishers for sending me an e-ARC on netgalley. I love K.A. Tucker's He Will be My Ruin and I was so excited when I got approved for a netgalley ARC! I love romances that involve hockey players, it's a guilty pleasure of mine. Unfortunately, this book was boring as shit. It follows Catherine, a single mother of a five year old daughter, who is a waitress in a very poor town. One night after a terrible blind date, she stumbles upon a car accident and somehow manages to pull this guy (who is twice her size) from the wreckage before the car goes up in flames. Later on, she discovers that she saved an extremely popular well-known hockey player, Brett Madden, who is also the son of Hollywood actress Meryl Price (I know, the name makes me cringe too, it's too similar to Meryl Streep lol.)
I enjoyed the beginning of this book a lot, and I liked the prologue, seeing how Catherine originally got pregnant, and the drama of her sleeping with a teacher. I thought it was so interesting and entertaining. I thought the small town she lived in was described very well, and I definitely felt the desperation for her to get a job and make money.
I guess the main problem I had with this book is that it's advertised as a romance, but there is zero romance in this book until past the halfway point, and even after that, the romance wasn't written very well in my opinion. This book gets extremely repetitive about Catherine dealing with the drama of wanting to stay out of the news after saving this hockey player, and the press harassing her for interviews and photos, etc. I was skimming through conversations about Catherine wanting to be left out of the magazines and not on the news, and she doesn't want her daughter to be forced into the spotlight, and for her old past to be brought up again. They have these conversations over and over and over again. Like WE GET IT, you want nothing to do with it, and you don't want your name in the news.
This book just follows a really boring repetitive cycle after the accident happens. Catherine spends every minute talking about it, thinking about it, trying to remain anonymous, and it's so repetitive. She just goes to work, plays with her daughter, and talks with her family about her situation. Then once Brett finally makes an appearance in the story, the romance is so cheesy and cringe-y and they start texting each other a lot and I just wasn't really feeling the romance.
I don't know what happened with this one, I wanted to love it but I just couldn't. I'm still willing to give more of K.A. Tucker's future books a chance though, because I think she's a talented writer, this book just wasn't for me.
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1
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Nov 15, 2016
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Paperback
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| | | | | 0091953383
| 9780091953386
| 0091953383
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280
pp
| 3.72
| 108,441
| Oct 12, 2012
| Mar 28, 2013
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it was ok
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"Sex rolled off the man in waves, and I was surprised at how interested I was in learning how to swim." Ehh, this book just wasn't for me. I read this
"Sex rolled off the man in waves, and I was surprised at how interested I was in learning how to swim." Ehh, this book just wasn't for me. I read this because I wanted another good student/teacher relationship book, but this was disappointing on that level and on every other level. Bliss Edwards (what kind of name is that anyways?) is a virgin and she desperately wants to lose her virginity. So of course she finds herself caught in this romance with a young, sexy British guy that has a motor cycle. If that isn't ridiculous enough, just wait until you hear the way Bliss narrates this novel. She's kind of like an Anastasia Steele 2.0 in my opinion.
I will admit, some parts of this book did have me laughing. I have a weird sense of humor. I nearly died of laughter when Bliss was about to have sex and then she's like: "Stop! Cats! Stop!" and then Garrick is like: "Sorry love, did you just say cats?" Ugh it was so funny. I don't know why but it was. I agreed with a few ideas that Bliss talks about, like sometimes life would be easier if she had fewer friends, and how can anybody decide what they want to do with the rest of their life at such a young age. I totally agree. But most of this book is ridiculous. She makes an excuse about having to pick up her cat from the vet to avoid having sex with him and then she literally adopts a cat to avoid admitting to Garrick that she is a virgin. Like what the fuck? And the games of spin the bottle... Like are these characters thirteen or...? I don't know, some of it was so ridiculous. Garrick felt like the cliche, a little too perfect to be real, type of male lead. As it was said in other reviews, he felt like a British person written by an American author. Way too much British slang and references, it was like the author wanted to remind us every 5 minutes that he's British.
The whole book was still worthy of 3 stars until that cliche as fuck ridiculous ending. Warning: spoilers about the ending. So the entire book was just a build up to one sex scene? That's bull shit. This book is advertised as an "erotic" novel right? What's so erotic about one singular sex scene at the very end of the book. The insta-love in this book is so real. After they have sex he asks her to move in, even though in my head I'm thinking they are still getting to know each other. And then this book does the typical epilogue six months later where Garrick proposes to her. Like seriously? Nothing original about this book at all. It's all the same over the top ridiculous gushy insta-love shit you've read about a million times.
I would highly recommend Unteachable by Leah Raeder as an alternative for a really good student/teacher relationship. That is how you write a student/teacher themed book. That is one of the best books I've ever read. This book was pretty bad with a few decent moments, which is why I gave it two stars as opposed to one. Read at your own risk.
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Aug 21, 2015
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| 1476715920
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305
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| 4.13
| 252,998
| Feb 25, 2012
| Sep 18, 2012
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really liked it
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4.5 STARS "Sometimes two people have to fall apart to realize how much they need to fall back together." Warning: Spoilers for Slammed in this review Hol
4.5 STARS "Sometimes two people have to fall apart to realize how much they need to fall back together." Warning: Spoilers for Slammed in this review Holy shit. I liked this one a lot more than I liked Slammed. Will and Layken have grown on me a lot as characters since Slammed. At the end of Slammed I was really curious to see what would happen in a sequel, I mean with neither Will or Layken having any parents left and them being left to raise their little brothers on their own, there's still a story there so I am glad this sequel was made. I loved watching Will and Layken become parent figures to Kel and Caulder and I think it's really sweet to watch them all become a little family. I also loved the addition of Sherry and Kiersten as characters and I grew to like them as much as I liked all the other characters.
I loved the vase of stars that Julia, Layken's mom, had made before she died and I think it's a really unique and creative idea. Since neither of them have any parents she made a cute little jar of parental advice for whenever they needed it. It's just so thoughtful and really was a highlight of this story for me. I love the fact that Layken's best friend Eddie was still in this book a lot, as I loved her character in Slammed and I thought her relationship with Gavin was so cute. I also love how the word "butterfly" was used out of context and more like a cuss word. I was wondering why there was a butterfly on the cover of this book, and now I know. I appreciate the awesomeness. I also now realize why the book is called Point Of Retreat which is adorable and hilarious at the same time.
There were a few scenes in Part One, particularly with Vaughn that just kind of bothered me and seemed a little melodramatic, which is why I didn't give it a 5 star rating, but other than those cheesy scenes, this book was amazing. By Part Two I was reading through this book so fast because it got so intense and I needed to see how it would end. The ending of this book had some of the cutest scenes I have ever seen from a Colleen Hoover book (and I've read almost all of them at this point so it was damn cute.) Overall, I'm really impressed that this sequel was as good as it was. I wasn't even initially planning on reading it, but I saw it at Barnes & Noble on the Bargain rack for only four dollars! I couldn't resist and I am so freaking happy I decided to get it. Now I'm obviously going to have to read the third one. Will and Layken are easily becoming one of my favorite book OTP's. And Colleen Hoover has become one of my all time favorite authors. She's just the best.
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1
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Apr 05, 2015
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Paperback
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317
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| 4.16
| 385,865
| Jan 04, 2012
| Jan 05, 2012
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really liked it
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I think it's safe to say I'm on a Colleen Hoover kick this month. Even though I didn't enjoy this book as much as Ugly Love or Maybe Someday, I still
I think it's safe to say I'm on a Colleen Hoover kick this month. Even though I didn't enjoy this book as much as Ugly Love or Maybe Someday, I still really love this book too. The only gripe I have about this one is that sometimes I thought the characters were a little immature at times with the way they handled things, but other than that I really did love it. This was quite an emotional story even though I didn't feel as connected to these characters as the characters in her other stories. (If that makes sense.)
Our main character Layken (love that name btw) and Will meet when Layken moves across the street from Will in Michigan. She moved there because her father passed away and her Mother could not afford the house that they lived in in Texas anymore. I liked Layken for the most part, at times she could be annoying but she had been through a lot recently so I understand her actions. I really did enjoy Will's character too, even though he was also confusing at times. I've never really been a huge fan of poetry, especially slam poetry, but this book definitely changed my opinion on that. I got so absorbed in the poems these people were reciting and the passion that goes with slam poetry was beautiful and amazing. I loved Eddie as a side character and I have so much respect for her, knowing all that she's been through. These characters all felt very real and that's what I lied most about them. I loved all the words of wisdom Layken's Mother always had to say and I appreciated how protective she was of Layken. I just really love and appreciate how easy Colleen Hoover books are to read and to get into. It makes reading a lot more fun that way. I can't really say anything else without giving spoilers so this next part of my review contains spoilers.
SPOILERS BELOW The very first slam poem about the heart beating and the blue sweater literally took my breath away. I've never been into slam poetry but that is some powerful shit right there. When we find out that Will is Layken's teacher I was honestly surprised because I was not expecting this to be a teacher-student relationship type of book, but it didn't turn me off from it. In fact, I really like student teacher relationships if they are done right. However, their relationship did not feel as forbidden as it should have. I have read a lot of books that deal with this subject matter a lot better in my opinion, and that's the only reason I knocked off a star in my rating is because I didn't like it as much as other student-teacher relationship books. For example "Unteachable" by Leah Raeder is easily the best student-teacher relationship novel I have ever read and that really felt like a forbidden relationship and was handled appropriately and realistically. Another example is "Loving Mr. Daniels" by Brittainy C. Cherry which also handles the teacher-student relationship very well and is a beautifully written novel.
Anyways, I was extremely surprised when it was revealed that Layken's mother had cancer. I honestly wasn't expecting that and was extremely saddened by it. I could not imagine what it would be like to lose both of your parents within the same year, not to mention moving to a different state, and taking on the full responsibility of a nine year old brother. It's ironic that Will lost both of his parents and had to take on the responsibility of his little brother and then the same thing happened to Layken. I thought that was a little too convenient for it to seem realistic but I don't know maybe that's just me. I really liked how strong Eddie was and I loved the scenes with the Pink Balloons at her birthday party, that was so sweet and it was the perfect emotional touch. I enjoyed the last couple of chapters with the slam poetry between Will and Layken going back and forth as they confess their love for each other, even though it was kind of cheesy. I loved Will's poem about not wanting the ocean, so he'll take the lake (referring to her name, so cute).
Overall, I liked this book, just not as much as her other books. Will and Layken were okay as characters even though I had some minor problems with both of them. I enjoyed the relationships with their family and their friendships and I just really love Colleen Hoover books.
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Mar 12, 2015
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ebook
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310
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| 4.19
| 37,563
| May 10, 2014
| May 11, 2014
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it was amazing
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Well, holy hell I really liked this one. I don't give out 5 stars that often and I usually have a habit of picking apart books with things that I find
Well, holy hell I really liked this one. I don't give out 5 stars that often and I usually have a habit of picking apart books with things that I find annoying, but I really loved this one. Was it perfect? No. But I felt emotionally attached to every single character and that is a rare thing for me. I also cried like ten times, which is also a rare thing for me. I think I felt especially attached to this book because my name is Gabby, and our main character Ashyln has a twin sister named Gabby who dies and the book is about her dealing with the death of her sister. I have never read a book that used my name in it before so this was a new experience for me. Another ironic thing is that my Mom's name is Kim, and Ashlyn and Gabby's mom is also named Kim. Weird right? I think that's so awesome. Me and my sister are really close, we are literally best friends. So this book strung an emotional chord for me with that aspect because I can not imagine living in a world without my sister. I wouldn't want to.
I just read the book "Unteachable" by Leah Raeder in October, which is also a book about a student/teacher relationship and a lot of people compare this book to that one. I have to agree that they are actually really really similar at times. However, I do prefer Maise from Unteachable as a protagonist than Ashlyn, but that doesn't mean I didn't like Ashlyn. I actually really liked Ashyln and I could relate to her a lot.
Things I loved about this book: 1) I absolutely loved Daniel and Ashlyn's obsession with Shakespeare. It was adorable and I love things like that that make a couple unique and memorable. 2) I love the fact that Daniel is in a band called "Romeo's Quest" because that's an adorable Shakespeare reference, and I love how each chapter started with lyrics from his band. That's so cute and creative. And the lyrics are cute as hell. Just look at this one: "Forever always scared me because it never came. I lost all sense of fear when she whispered my name." Is that not the most beautiful thing you've ever read? And also this one: "The world spins faster, yet she slows down time. I don't know how but I need her to always be mine. I lost her due to mistaken roads, I lost her due to secrets untold. I lost her and in turn I lost myself. So someone help me on this quest to find, finding, finding, fining, My Juliet." So cute! Again they throw in the adorable Shakespeare reference! 3) The writing style in this book is absolutely beautiful. At times it had me bawling my eyes out, and at other times I was laughing so hard I was crying. 4) Ryan's character is my favorite and he's absolutely hilarious. Randy had some really funny moments too. 5) I love the fact that this story never got boring for me, something was constantly happening and it never got dull. There was a couple plot twists that I really wasn't expecting and one huge plot twist that had me bawling my eyes out (again.) 6) I love the idea that Gabby wrote her sister a bucket list when she died and with every item she completed on the bucket list, Gabby wrote a letter for Ashlyn and she wasn't allowed to read the letter until she completed the task on the bucket list. This is the thing I will probably remember most about this book because it is so sweet. Gabby knew her sister would be broken and wouldn't want to experience new things ever again, so she wrote a list of things for her to do to bring her back to life, and she knew her sister would do them just so she could read a few of her sisters words. So heart touching. 7) I love how Ashlyn calls things her "golden" when it's her favorite. She says: "Everyone has a golden. It could be anything - a song, a book, a pet, a person. Anything that makes you so happy your insides cry of pure joy. It feels like you're one drugs but it's better cause it's a natural high. I think this book is my golden. And I love Daniel's obsession with the "double double" with everything because it reminds him of his Mom. 8) Because of quotes like this: "You're the reason people believe in tomorrow. You're the voice that scares the shadows away. You're the love that makes me breathe." And the completely relatable quotes like this: "Being a teenager is a curse and a gift. It's the age where fairy tales cease to exist and Santa isn't real, but parts of our heart want to say 'what if..'. It's the time where you feel everything but everyone claims you are just overreacting. You and the guidance office and society throw out strong questions that we teens have no clue ho to answer. Who are we? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Who do we want to be? The most frightening thing to me is picking a study, choosing a life path to follow at such a young, naive age. No one knows who they are at our age. No one has a damn clue where they will be in five years." That's not even the end of that amazing quote but I don't want to spoil anything. I relate to this so much because just last year I was stressed out so badly over trying to figure out what to study and what I wanted to do with my life and I'm so glad that a character has finally had the same problems. I completely agree that it is ridiculous that everyone expects teenagers to figure out what they want to do with their lives. 9) I love how Daniel and Ashlyn have both experienced so much loss in their life and that's what makes them connect in the first place. They literally bring each other back to life, and that's beautiful.
As you can see, I really really loved this book. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough for me. The only complaint about the book that I have is that the ending felt a little rushed, and it was wrapped up in a too "neat and perfect bow" as you would call it, but other than that I really son't have any complaints. This was a beautiful story about love and loss and finding yourself. It's definitely one of my favorite books of the year and of all time.
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1
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Nov 27, 2014
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ebook
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| B00E6VENSE
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268
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| 3.75
| 23,186
| Jul 27, 2013
| Jul 26, 2013
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liked it
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So I just finished my reread of this book, and while I still loved some of this book, I disliked some of it unfortunately. I first read this book five
So I just finished my reread of this book, and while I still loved some of this book, I disliked some of it unfortunately. I first read this book five years ago, and I think my reading tastes have changed a little since I last read this. This book has absolutely gorgeous writing, as you can see from some quotes below from the first time I read it. It has some of my favorite book quotes of all time, but unfortunately I didn't really connect with the characters as much this time around. I love the fact that these two charters are obsessed with movies and that he is her film teacher and she's going to school for film. But other than that I thought Maise was kind of a bratty, obnoxious teenager most of the time. And I feel like this couple just gets together right away and then it's just sex scene after sex scene with no real plot happening. Of course there's the looming threat and forbidden aspect of the student/teacher romance, but besides that there's not much else happening. It makes me sad that I didn't enjoy this as much the second time because this was a five-star all time favorite book of mine when I first read it, and now I think this book is okay. I think the main reason why I loved it so much the first time I read it is because of the writing and the movie obsessed characters, but now that I went into it already knowing that and expecting it to be great I found the characters and story to be kind of boring.
ORIGINAL REVIEW: "We have no age. We exist outside of time. We're timeless." Oh my gosh aslkjalksda. This book was amazing. This is the 2nd student/teacher relationship novel I've ever read and I am so impressed. Maise is extremely likeable and surprisingly mature, strong headed, smart, funny and witty and I loved reading from her point of view. There's something really genuine about the way she handles things. I knew I would love this story from this quote in the very first chapter:
"I'm not going to do the whole roller coaster/falling in love metaphor. I didn't fall in love with him up there. Maybe I fell in love with the idea of love, but I'm a teenage girl. This morning I fell in love with raspberry jam and a puppy in a tiny raincoat. I'm not exactly Earth's top authority on the subject. But when we crested the first peak and the world sprawled beneath us like a tangled-up string of Christmas lights and then we plunged toward it at lightspeed, the guy and I reached for each other's hands spontaneously and simultaneously. And I felt something I've never felt before. You can call it love, or you can call it freefall. They're pretty much the same thing." [image]
This book is written so lyrically and beautifully, I fell in love with it immediately. I like the fact that she met Evan at a carnival before the school year started so it didn't seem completely forbidden. I enjoyed their relationship so much and I really think they're adorable together. The age difference didn't phase me one bit. I also like that their relationship seemed realistic and that they were extremely careful (for the most part). I liked Wesley and thought he made a perfect best friend character to Maise. I liked reading about the scenes between Maise and her awful druggie mother, and I couldn't believe the shit her Mom put her through. Maise was forced to be the parent with her Mother, which is really sad, but it also made her character really deep and mature for her age, which is probably the reason why Evan liked her so much. I love how Evan would say things like "I can't hold on to you. You're like that shooting star. Just a trail of fire in my hands." I also love the fact that he is her film teacher, and it's ironic cause I'm actually taking a film studies class at my college right now so it couldn't have been better timing for me to read it. I understood every single movie reference thanks to that class. Maise also mentions Donnie Darko and I got so excited because that's one of my favorite movies of all time!
"It seems like the whole world has figured out how to be happy, but no one's letting me in on the secret."
Hiyam was the perfect "mean girl" that I loved to hate. The ending of this book was hard to predict and I was genuinely surprised several times throughout the last few chapters. Not only is this book funny, but it's also sexy, and charming, and intense, and dramatic, which are all qualities that I love in books. I also like how she wrote some scenes using "fast forward" and then she'd describe what happened that day very briefly, then she'd say "press play" and it would start her scenes with Evan again. Then she would say "faster" and it would briefly describe the last few weeks in motel rooms with him, then it would "press play" again. I just thought that was a cute and creative style of writing.
"That's all life is. Breathing in, breathing out. The space between two breaths.."
I could go on and on with quotes that I highlighted as I was reading. I loved the writing style so much. I love that it was written in past tense, like for example when she said "and we lived happily ever after... until the next morning." It's all written as if she is telling you this story years after it took place which I really loved. Also, Evan's character was just really adorable and sweet and caring, and also very sexy all at the same time. He's the ideal male love interest and even though he has a dark past of his own, he doesn't let it affect him in the present, which I really admire. I especially love when Evan says:
"For a long time before I met you, I felt my life was this kind of test. I was in deep,cold water, swimming for shore, and my arms were getting tired, my skin numb. On the shore was everything I thought I wanted: a better job, a house, a family. But I could barely keep my head above water. Eventually I stopped seeing the shore, Only cold dark blue, in all directions. I know it's cliche, but when I met you, my eyes opened. I looked around, and realized that I could stand up whenever I wanted. There was firm ground underneath my feet. That shore in the distance was an illusion. I was already somewhere beautiful." [image]
The ending might seem cheesy to other people but I thought it was absolutely perfect. (view spoiler)[I love the way it ending like a movie. It's so creative and unique and I fucking love it. It says: "The camera zooms in on the shine of an eye, the tremulous quiver of a lip. He's smiling but his eyes are wet. She's crying but her heart is infinitely light. Background noise recedes. Music fades in, swelling. Spontaneously and simultaneously, they reach for each other's hands." I'm a lover of movies and I personally think this was the best possible way to end this story. I absolutely adore this ending. (hide spoiler)] I really, really loved this one. Way more than I was expecting to. I'm adding it to my all time favorites. I will read anything this author writes.
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2
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Sep 01, 2014
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Kindle Edition
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| 9780987534385
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309
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| 3.71
| 3,866
| Dec 17, 2013
| Dec 19, 2013
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really liked it
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This book was cute, but it was kind of predictable in some chapters. I finished this book within a few days, and overall I really enjoyed Dalton and W
This book was cute, but it was kind of predictable in some chapters. I finished this book within a few days, and overall I really enjoyed Dalton and Wrenn's relationship. This was the first teacher-student romance book I've ever read, but it didn't really feel as "forbidden" as the author probably wanted it to. I mean he was winking at her in class and staring at her the entire period and defending her in front of the other girls. He was making it so obvious that something was going on between them. I mean, hell they even showed up at each other's places and they both lived on campus. How did the students/staff or anyone else not see them?
The things that bothered me the most about this book is that there are some serious grammar (and other) errors in this book and it makes me wonder if anyone even edited it? For example, near the beginning of the book, Dalton says "There is a balance of power thing to consider" instead of "there is a balance of powerful things to consider". And then a few pages later he says "You'll be finished before know it" and the author left out the word "you". Then in the first line of Chapter 15, it says "The more time I spent with Wrenn, the more I liked her the more I liked her." and it literally repeats the same thing in the sentence twice. I know these are tiny errors but it really bothered me and I kept noticing them throughout the book. These are only 3 errors of many errors I saw throughout the book, and that really bothers me when a book is not carefully edited.
Besides that, there was also some parts that were totally unrealistic. (Spoiler alert) The fact that him having a relationship with a student never went on his record is ridiculous and unrealistic. And also the part where Wrenn finally tells her aunt about them and her reaction isn't nearly as angry as it should be. I mean her aunt is his boss, and she just found out he's with her, (and she has to know Dalton has been sleeping with her) and she hardly even freaks out and she just accepts it very quickly, which bothered me a lot because in reality, she would've fired him and probably forbidden her from seeing him. I would've liked to see the aunt be a little more upset over this because her reaction was very anticlimactic. The only part that was realistic is when Dalton is diagnosed with the disease at the end, because if he didn't get diagnosed and it turned out negative, I would've cringed at how unrealistic it would've been, so I was happy at least something felt realistic.
I did really enjoy the story of these two, and it was sweet, and it's a quick and easy read. I admire Wrenn's strength and her ability to move on from the past. I liked their obsession with horror movies; that was a cute and interesting thing for them to have in common. But the grammar errors and the unrealistic scenes and reactions were enough for me to not give this book a 5.
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1
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Jan 25, 2014
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Paperback
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