Mini Reviews #1
Sometimes I read books that I either don't feel strongly enough towards to write a review, don't have the time to write a review, or don't feel like a review could adequately explain my feelings towards. Those books just kind of sit around, usually with me wondering how to review them. But then I saw this post from Danielle @ Love at First Page and this post from Amy @ Tripping Over Books, and I thought "Well, duh. This is what I should be doing." So it will be what I'm going to do. Thank you, ladies, for the idea! Without further ado, here's my first round of mini reviews!
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Publication Date: May 13th, 2014
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Part of a series? Nope!
Buy links: Amazon - Barnes and Noble - The Book Depository
A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.
We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.
Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.
We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.
Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.
I picked this book up because of the hype, not gonna lie, and I can definitely see why people liked it. It just wasn't for me. It read kind of like a soap opera or a more sophisticated version of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. I didn't really like the characters (I honestly can't remember more than the MC's name right now, and I read it a week ago.) and wasn't really interested until the last half. The writing was really beautiful, though, and the ending, was totally "WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED?" worthy.
To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
Publication Date: April 15th, 2014
Rating: 3.5-4ish/5 stars
Part of a series? I believe it's going to be a duology! Book 2, P.S. I Still Love You, is coming this year.
Buy links: Amazon - Barnes and Noble - The Book Depository
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.
This book was SO hard to rate. The first part is a 3, the middle progresses into a 3.5, but I think the last 3oish pages are 4 star pages. Overall though, I wanted to like this much more than I actually did. I mean, the premise sounds awesome and adorable, but I wasn't getting those vibes until the last half (the first half felt kind of MG to me, and I'm not really into that). I didn't like Lara Jean for a while, but I did like the sibling relationships. Also Peter. I did really like Peter, and I thought the ending was super cute. And racial diversity! I approve of YA with Asian MCs. A+ for that. So yeah, there were things I liked and things I didn't, so I'm on the fence about this one.
Point of Retreat by Colleen Hoover
Publication Date: February 25th, 2012
Rating: 3/5 stars
Part of a series? Yup! It's the second in the Slammed series.
Buy links: Amazon - Barnes and Noble - The Book Depository
Layken and Will have proved their love can get them through anything; until someone from Will’s past re-emerges, leaving Layken questioning the very foundation on which their relationship was built. Will is forced to face the ultimate challenge…how to prove his love for a girl who refuses to stop ‘carving pumpkins.
Maybe I screwed myself over with this one, but I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. I read Point of Retreat (which is book two in the series) first because I'm so used to NA series where each is its own individual story, so I didn't read into this one before I bought it. In my defense, it was only two bucks on Book Outlet. Anyway, maybe if I read Slammed first, I would have liked this one more but probably not. I can't really explain it, but the main characters, Lake and Will, didn't feel real to me so I had a hard time trying to relate to them. I found myself liking the secondary characters a lot more. Overall, the plot was interesting enough and it was emotional at times, but it didn't grip me. It just wasn't a "me" book.
Have you read any of these? What were your feelings?
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