Book Thoughts: Fangirl

Title: Fangirl
Author: Rainbow Rowell

I don't even know where to start talking about this book. I loved it.

I've never really gotten into fanfiction, reading or writing; it's just not my cup of tea. And I don't know what it's like to have a sister -- except, well, now I do, because of Cath. And I've never had a random roommate, because I lived with a high school friend my freshman year. But I could feel everything in this book.

The descriptions of Cath's anxiety are just so spot-on. (I actually stored pictures of some of the pages on my phone just so I would have the quotes with me.) Her college is so, so different from mine, but Cath's feelings in a new situation are incredibly relatable anyway.

Plus. Okay. Characters. Love them. They're all so multifaceted (except maybe Courtney, but we don't see her much) -- all of them are flawed, but they all have lovable characteristics, too. Even Simon and Baz, who are fictional characters in a fictional story, felt real. I wanna read the Simon Snow series now! It was super cool getting to see snippets of both the actual stories and Cath's fanfic.

I just. I can't put into words how much I loved this book. I was so sad when it ended because I wasn't ready to leave the characters behind, even though the story had concluded. I could ramble about this forever but I don't want to spoil anything, but if you've read it -- contact me on twitter or tumblr or facebook, or email me, because I would LOVE to talk more about it.

Book Thoughts: Lola and the Boy Next Door

Title: Lola and the Boy Next Door
Author: Stephanie Perkins

I fell in love with Stephanie Perkins' first novel, Anna and the French Kiss (which I'm sure I'll post about at some point), and so I didn't doubt for a second that I would fall just as much in love with Lola. I wasn't wrong.

The stories are very different, and I think I honestly prefer Anna just because she's more like me, but Lola is such a fun and quirky character. I loved reading about her life, and her emotional struggles felt so real. (I won't lie - I cried.)

Also, Cricket! Wow! I love him. Okay.

I liked the way Lola's hot-rocker-boyfriend situation was handled, the way their relationship was portrayed so honestly. Relationships aren't always perfect and don't always last. And they leave emotional damage that can affect future relationships. And they can be hard to leave even when they're not healthy, because when you care about someone, it's easy to justify their flaws. All of that was handled so honestly and it was just excellent.

Also. Okay. Love love love Lola's friendship-enemyship-relationship situation with Cricket. Actually Cricket may be my favorite character in this book. (I mean, obviously I love Anna and St. Clair and they have more than just a passing appearance, but they're not main characters.) But Lola is worth reading just for Cricket, not to mention all the other fabulousness.

One other thing and then I'll shut up: Lola is the pseudo-adopted daughter of two gay dads (her birth mother is one dad's sister, if I remember right) and they play a large part in the story, but the novel is not about how Lola is the daughter of two gay men. It's so refreshing to see a story where homosexuality makes an appearance without the novel being ABOUT that, because that's how life is.

So, yes, definitely read this one, and also Anna and the French Kiss because it's (if possible) even more fabulous.

Book Thoughts: If I Lie

Title: If I Lie
Author: Corrine Jackson

Wow. I skimmed the first few pages of this one just to see what it was about and ended up reading the entire thing. (Also, I bawled like a baby. So many feelings!)

Quinn's from a military town, being shunned because she got caught kissing someone who isn't her active-duty boyfriend Carey, and she can't tell the truth about the situation because she's promised to keep Carey's secret.

Some of the events in this story seemed almost too extreme or dramatic to be real, but that's why it's so powerful. The novel is fictional but the events in it are so real. It's hard to believe the kind of verbal, emotional, and physical abuse people suffer just for being who they are and loving someone other than who everyone expects them to love.

I absolutely recommend it, but wow, have a box of tissues ready.

Book Thoughts: 13 to Life

Title: 13 to Life
Author: Shannon Delany
Series: 13 to Life #1

I really dislike the summary of this book. (I do, however, love the cover - the way the moon is the center of the eye? It's awesome.) The summary makes the book sound completely cliched and stereotypical, and it doesn't really talk about what the story is about. BUT! The story inside the book is awesome.

Jessie, a reporter for her school paper, has taken an interest in the "Phantom Wolves" that were supposedly haunting the nearby city of Farthington. So when she starts seeing wolves - big wolves - in her small-town home, Junction, she's naturally somewhat freaked out. And if that's not enough to be getting on with, she's been assigned the job of showing new-boy Pietr Rusakova around school. Pietr, Jessie finds, is impossibly annoying, incredibly mysterious, and more appealing than he should be. She's drawn to him, but she can't explain why. Instead, she pushes him towards her friend Sarah, who is clearly interested in him. Big mistake, especially because Sarah is showing hints of turning into the ice queen she was before the accident. The same accident that killed Jessie's mother.

It took me a while to figure out what exactly the relationship between Jessie and Sarah was. I couldn't decide whether they were friends or enemies or what, but once I got it, it made sense. And I loved the relationship between Jessie and Pietr -- they don't immediately hate each other, and it isn't love at first sight. It develops somewhat more normally than that, which was a very pleasant change from a lot of YA. I felt like Jessie was really slow to make the connection to Pietr's secret, but that was probably just dramatic irony at its finest, and I loved the awesome new twist on werewolf mythology. But what really made me love this book were the characters.

Jessie can be a bit slow at times, but she's a wonderful protagonist. Personally, I would have liked to see more of her best friend, Amy. And Sarah...I'll be interested to see what happens with her in the second book. Weird Wanda, Jessie's dad's girlfriend, makes another interesting addition to the novel, and Pietr's whole family is just wonderful. Max cracked me up so much, and I would love to hang out with Catherine sometime. And then, of course, there's Pietr. Add one more name to the list of "Amazing Fictional Guys." He's sweet, he's protective, he has a sense of humor, he's not a stalker (unlike too many YA guys now), and he's just overwhelmingly real. I love Pietr. And Jessie. And the two of them together.

Parts of the novel were predictable, other parts were a little confusing, but it was absolutely worth reading anyway. J'adore this novel. (Someone check my French? I take Spanish.) It was excellent and wonderful and lots of fun, and I cannot wait to read the sequel, Secrets and Shadows, which I believe comes out in February. 13 to Life was engaging, funny and dark in equal measure and in all the right places, and I just loved it. Well worth your time!

Book Thoughts: Delirium

Title: Delirium
Author: Lauren Oliver
Series: Delirium #1

This book. Oh my goodness. Once I started, I couldn't stop reading. I loved it. I really, really did.

In a lot of ways, Delirium is what you'd expect from a dystopian novel. I feel like if Matched and Birthmarked had a child, it would almost-not-quite be this. But I don't mean that in a bad way -- there are certain things that all dystopians have, just as trademarks of the genre, and for what it's worth, I thought Delirium did it very well. Despite the fact that it reminded me of both of those other novels, it is definitely a story all its own.

Lena is seventeen. In ninety-five days, when she turns eighteen, she will get the cure -- the cure for the amor deliria nervosa. Love, the disease that kills you when you have it and when you don't. But then she meets Alex, and everything changes. She's been infected, badly infected, but she's happy that way.

I loved the characters. Lena, Alex, Hana... I want to be their friend. I loved the little things that made them human. Yes, Lena is scared of rebelling. Her fear makes her real, and her courage makes her a heroine worth reading about. I love the development of the relationship between Lena and Alex. I love the friendship dynamic between Lena and Hana. I loved the history, too. The clips from The Book of Shhh at every chapter, the story of how society came to be the way it is, and the personal history, too -- the story of Lena's family. So much awesome packed into 440 pages.

The story kept me turning pages to see what would happen next. And by the end, I knew what was going to happen -- I had figured it out, but I had to keep turning pages because I had to know for sure if I was right. Obviously I'm not going to tell you what that ending was, because that would be terribly spoilery of me, but I will say that I was right. But the fact that I could figure out the end, that it wasn't entirely unpredictable, didn't lessen the story at all. In fact, I think maybe the [insert non-spoilery word here, because all the ones I can think of are spoilery] of the ending just made me love it even more.

I'm going to stop talking now, because I feel like I'm going to say something spoilery by accident if I don't. So I will leave you with three things: 1. Delirium made me go read some poetry. (I love when books give me good poetry to look up.) 2. I want Pandemonium nowww.... And 3. Go read this book right now. Please and thank you. :)

Book Thoughts: Heist Society

Title: Heist Society
Author: Ally Carter
Series: Heist Society #1

I read (and fell in love with) Ally Carter's newest book, HEIST SOCIETY, this afternoon. The writing style is quite different from her (equally awesome) Gallagher Girls series; it's in third person, not first, and while the Gallagher Girls audience would certainly appreciate it just as much, I feel like it's aimed at and appeals to a wider and maybe a little bit older audience.

HEIST SOCIETY follows the story of Katarina "Kat" Bishop, a fifteen-year-old girl who comes from a family of thieves. She's been helping her dad with heists for as long as she can remember, but now, Kat is walking away from a life of crime. She's conned her way into one of the country's best boarding schools, and she's done with thievery. At least, that's what she thought.

When five valuable paintings go missing, Kat's dad is the entire suspect list. Interpol is watching him closely...and so is the man who the paintings belonged to, Arturo Taccone. Taccone is even more dangerous than Interpol, and if Kat is going to save her dad's life, she's going to have to do the craziest thing she's ever done. With a little help from her friends, she's going to have to steal the paintings back.

Kat is a wonderful character - as are Hale, Gabrielle, and the rest. (Hale may have a place in the lineup of Amazing Fictional Guys now. More on that later.) All of them are so real, the story is just so engaging, bits and pieces are laugh-out-loud funny and other bits have you sitting on the edge of your seat thinking "AHH!" I would definitely recommend this book.

Book Thoughts: Dash and Lily's Book of Dares

Title: Dash and Lily's Book of Dares
Author: Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

This is one of my favorite holiday novels. Dash and Lily both live in NYC at Christmastime... but other than that, their lives are entirely different. What brings them together is a small local bookshop and a red notebook.

As they pass the notebook back and forth, leaving each other dares and challenges and slowly learning more about each other -- and about themselves, as they go through ridiculous shenanigans they would otherwise never go near -- they develop a friendship that is beautiful to watch and affects these two completely opposite characters so incredibly.

The question is, will their friendship last when they meet in person?

Told in alternating POVs, this novel is adorable and sweet and clever and funny and everything that is good about the holiday season (whether you celebrate Christmas or not). Definitely read this one if you get a chance. You won't regret it.