Posts Tagged: YA Contemporary

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Blog Tour: Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum – Review

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I received this book for free from Delacorte Press in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Blog Tour: Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum – ReviewTell Me Three Things by Julie Bubaum
Published by Delacorte Press on April 5th 2016
Genres: Contemporary
Source: Delacorte Press
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five-stars

What if the person you need the most is someone you’ve never met?
Everything about Jessie is wrong. At least, that’s what it feels like during her first week of junior year at her new ultra-intimidating prep school in Los Angeles. Just when she’s thinking about hightailing it back to Chicago, she gets an email from a person calling themselves Somebody/Nobody (SN for short), offering to help her navigate the wilds of Wood Valley High School. Is it an elaborate hoax? Or can she rely on SN for some much-needed help?

It’s been barely two years since her mother’s death, and because her father eloped with a woman he met online, Jessie has been forced to move across the country to live with her stepmonster and her pretentious teenage son.

In a leap of faith—or an act of complete desperation—Jessie begins to rely on SN, and SN quickly becomes her lifeline and closest ally. Jessie can’t help wanting to meet SN in person. But are some mysteries better left unsolved?

Hello and welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Tell Me Three Things!! I adored this book. It was just one of those books that makes you feel good. It’s not all fluff and rainbows and all that cute stuff though. There is a lot of depth to it, and things that aren’t quite so easy for the characters, but in the end it’s a book that just made me happy. I loved Jessie getting to know Somebody Nobody. I had a pretty good idea of who it was from the start, but I did keep wondering throughout if I was right. And man did it throw me for a loop at times. Anyways, I liked the honesty in the messages that they sent to each other and also the things that they really didn’t quite want to share. Along with that, I loved the friendships that Jessie formed and how even though she struggled, she really was making it her home.

Jessie is a character that I really enjoyed getting to know. She’s having a rough time with things and she is a bit stubborn, but I get it. She lost her mother and she is empty and hollow from that. Now her dad has gotten remarried to a woman out in LA and they have just moves out there to her fancy house where Jessie knows no one. She misses home, and she doesn’t like going to a fancy school with entitled people, living a lonely life in a huge house that feels empty. With the help of SN (Somebody Nobody) she starts to settle in and even make some friends. SN being the person who she likes and trusts the most. She is quickly falling for him, but she is also falling for Ethan, who is mysterious, but really great to be around. I also liked that her and Theo, her step brother, start to bond too. Jessie is a great person, she’s just feeling a bit lost and not herself. She had so much growth in this book and it was really enjoyable.

I loved the romance aspect of this because it wasn’t just there and easy. Jessie is developing feelings for Ethan as they work on their English project together, but she is also sure she has it bad for SN because they can talk about things like she can’t with people in real life. It’s easier to say things when they are in messages. I loved the three things game that they would play when they would chat online and it helped us to get to know them each a bit better. Jessie is confused by her feelings about SN and Ethan, and then there is also another guy who like her who she wonders if it’s SN. The mystery was a good addition to it all and it the way it’s all revealed is pretty great.

This is an honest book that isn’t always sweet, but is realistic. Jessie learns a lot about friendship, growing up, and life in general. Things are definitely different in LA, but not necessarily bad. It takes a few hard times to learn that even though she left her childhood home, doesn’t mean that she can’t make a new one. She has great friends, great family, and a pretty smart brain inside her head. She just needs to realize all of it. This book was so enjoyable to read and hard to put down. I wanted to know what happened next and who SN really was. (And if I was right all along.) I highly recommend this book to anyone who like reading a feel good book. It will leave you smiling and happy!!

five-stars

5 Hot Espressos

Review: We’ll Never Be Apart by Emiko Jean

Posted by on 11/09/2015 • 4 Comments

I’m always up for a book that is creepy and messes with your head, and this sounded like it was perfect for that. Sadly, it really fell short for me. It’s supposed to be a mind fuck, but it was too predictable. It was supposed to be creepy, but it just wasn’t. I didn’t really like the main character much because she was kind of boring. Even though she is breaking all the rules and is out for murder, she just seemed a bit blah for me. And the love interest… there always has to be one of those right? He didn’t do much for me. He’s the one who is supposed to be all dangerous, but helpful, and really a sweetheart. Yeah, he met all those stereotypes on the…

Audiobook Review: Paperweight by Meg Haston

Audiobook Review: Paperweight by Meg Haston

Posted by on 09/25/2015 • 5 Comments

I really enjoyed this book as much as you can enjoy something about such a topic. I listened to this on audio and at first I was having a hard time getting into it, but the longer I listened, the more the narrator really did fit with the story. She voiced Stevie so well, that I was able to really feel for her and get that emotional impact from the book. Although this book appears to be about a girl with an eating disorder, it was really so much more. This is one of those rare instances when I really don’t like the MC, at least at for most of the book, but it actually made me like the book more.

Stevie is sent away to a treatment center for…

Review: Violent Ends by Shaun David Hutchinson and Various Authors

Review: Violent Ends by Shaun David Hutchinson and Various Authors

Posted by on 08/19/2015 • 4 Comments

This book was really interesting. It’s about a school shooting, and told in twelve different POV’s ranging from friends, other classmates, people who knew people who went to the school it happened at, and even the gun that Kirby used. It was interesting to hear about Kirby from people who knew him in some way or another, or about the event from those who didn’t know him. It’s tragic what happened, and to see how things changed with Kirby. How premeditated it was at the end. It was something he thought about, planned, and was somewhat pushed to. In this day and age where this is a topic that people do worry about, it’s a very important book. I think how it was told was equally important too since we…

Review: Weightless by Sarah Bannan

Review: Weightless by Sarah Bannan

Posted by on 07/21/2015 • 5 Comments

There are plenty of books out there about suicide, bullying, and mental illness. I am drawn to them and love reading them. I think they are important. I think that it’s great to have books on topics like these for people who may be going through similar situations, know someone who is, or just because you like to be able to spread awareness about it. What makes this one different from a lot of the others that I have read is that it isn’t told from the victims POV. It’s not told through the bully’s POV. It isn’t even told by someone outside of the situations POV. It is told by someone who isn’t quite one of the direct bullies, but also isn’t just a random person. In fact, she…

Review: Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway

Review: Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway

Posted by on 03/12/2015 • 18 Comments

If I could describe this book in one word, it would be quiet.

Yes, Emmy & Oliver is something that I would call a “quiet contemporary”. I’m not even sure where that came from, or if it’s a thing, or something I made up on a whim, but I know deep inside that this is the best word for it. I try to think of another description, but there is nothing that fits as this. Emmy & Oliver is meaningful, thoughtful, and like I said, quiet.

How is it so, you ask? I’ve read a number of contemporaries over the years, many of them involving issues and concepts teenagers face during their youth, experiences that mirror our own and lessons that are valuable to us, too. But while that is so, there are times when…