Two Young Adult ARCs from KCP Loft Mini-Reviews

Still behind!  And I think I've only actually done two reviews so far this month, and my goal is two a week.  So yeah, really behind!  Since I got these two books read basically one right after the other, I am going to go ahead and post their reviews together.  Also, these are the first YA book reviews for the month.

Rebel With a Cupcake by Anna Mainwaring:

Genre:  YA contemporary
Published:  April 3rd, 2018
Source:  ARC from publisher
My rating:  3 stars

Unfortunately, for the most part, I was somewhat disappointed with this one.  I mean usually I really like books where the main character has weight issues to deal with.  While there were parts where her feelings and thoughts were identical to the ones I've had at times, there were other parts that I just didn't really care for.  I had a lot of trouble getting into it at first.  It is a British character, so there was some slang in it that I didn't get at first.  I think my middle America students might have issues with that.  And even though I know it was told in first person, and she was a teenager, all the times they had the word "cos" instead of because was annoying, distracting for me as I read.  But that could be because I'm an adult.  Maybe a teenager would be more accepting of it.  Finally, about three-fourths of the way through I finally was feeling for the character.  When she had misread signs that a guy liked her.  I've been there, done that.  Unfortunately for me in real life, there was never that other guy there that liked me that I just hadn't given a chance before.  I did read some of the other reviews that were negative on this, and I have to agree a little on what they said. First off, I don't necessarily get that she was really that overweight.   To be able to just stop eating a lot for a week or two in order to fit into what sounded like a pretty small dress?  Just not sure that she was really that big from the way it sounded.  And it was obvious her older sister had a bit of an eating disorder or problem as well, but it was kind of played off as if that was okay because she was skinny and pretty.  So I'd have to say those kind of things, and the fact that I had trouble really connecting with the main character kept me from liking this one that much.   I would have dropped it to 2.5 stars, except the ending did get me pulled in, and pulled my rating up to 3 stars.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
Jesobel Jones is bold and brash, the daughter of a hand model and a washed-up rock star. Jess sees no need to apologize for her rambling house, her imperfect family, her single status ... or her weight. Jess is who she is. She makes her own cupcakes and she eats them, too. No regrets.

That is, until Own Clothes Day rolls around at school. Jess and her friends dedicate the requisite hours of planning to their outfits, their hair and their makeup for the one day they are free from school uniforms. But a wardrobe malfunction leaves Jess with a pair of leggings split open at the worst spot, and a mean girl calling her the one thing that's never bothered her before: fat.

The encounter shakes Jess's formerly iron-clad confidence, and she starts to wonder if she's been just a little too comfortable in her own skin. When the boy of her dreams invites her to a party, she must decide whether to try to fit in for the first time in her life, or remain true to herself --- whoever that really is.

Debut author Anna Mainwaring is a teacher by day, and her understanding of teenage life shines through on every page. This book is laugh-out-loud funny, and captures teen girl life with all its ironies and contradictions.

Rebel with a Cupcake also explores important questions around body image, fat shaming and self-confidence.

Someday, Somewhere by Lindsay Champion:

Genre:  YA contemporary
Published:  April 3rd, 2018
Source:  ARC from publisher
My rating:  3.5 stars

This was one that I wasn't sure if I wanted to pick up.  The publisher sent it to me without me requesting it, so often I won't read it if it doesn't sound good. But I did pick it up and get sucked into it pretty quickly.  However, it didn't hold up all the way through to impress me as much as I'd thought it would based on the beginning.  I will say that it was a very unique story, even with all the obvious things you have in stories that frustrate me, even while I know they are used in stories to add the drama.  I think this definitely had some surprises in it with what happened with Ben. Things that we weren't really given a clear view of even when we got chapters from his point of view.  Definitely the way it ended was a bit of a surprise, but in what I think is a good way for characters of this age to get a story.  I won't say what happened, because it is worth a read for you if it sounds good to you, and I would want you to discover it naturally as the author intended as reading.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
Dominique is a high school junior from a gritty neighborhood in Trenton, where she and her mom are barely getting by. 

Ben is a musical prodigy from the Upper East Side, a violinist at a top conservatory with obsessive talent and a brilliant future.

When Dom's class is taken to hear a concert at Carnegie Hall, she expects to be bored out of her mind. But then she sees the boy in the front row playing violin like his life depends on it --- and she is transfixed. 

Posing as an NYU student, Dom sneaks back to New York City to track down Ben Tristan, a magnetic genius who whisks her into a fantasy world of jazz clubs and opera, infatuation and possibility. Each sees something in the other that promises to complete them.

As Dom's web of lies grows, though, so does Ben's obsessive need to conquer Beethoven's famous Kreutzer Sonata. But Ben's genius, which captivates Dominique, conceals a secret, and the challenges of her life may make it difficult to help him.

Alternating perspectives and an unreliable narrator create suspense and momentum, romance and heartbreak. Author Lindsay Champion's deep roots in theater and music are evident on every page --- structured like a sonata with hints of West Side Story, her debut novel hits all the right notes.

Review: Kiss Me in New York by Catherine Rider

Book info:

Title:   Kiss Me in New York 
Author:  Catherine Rider
Genre:  YA contemporary romance
Release Date:  October 3rd, 2017
Publisher:  KCP Loft
Source:  ARC from publisher for honest review
My rating:  5 stars

Synopsis:
It's Christmas Eve at JFK in NYC.

Charlotte is a British student, waiting for a flight home after the worst semester of her life. Anthony is a native New Yorker, surprising his girlfriend at the airport after three months apart. Charlotte has just been dumped, and Anthony is about to be dumped, right in the middle of the holiday crowd. 

Charlotte's flight is canceled when a blizzard blows in, and Anthony can't bear to go home. So, they set out into the city together, clutching a book Charlotte picks up in the airport gift shop: Ten Easy Steps for Getting Over Your Ex. For this one night, they'll focus on healing their broken hearts ... together. 

Step-by-step, the two struggle to put the past behind them. But the snow is so enchanting, and the holiday lights are so beguiling, that soon their shared misery gives way to something else. Soon, they're not only over their exes --- they're falling for each other. 

Then a subway ride splits them up by mistake. Will they reunite before Charlotte's flight leaves New York forever?

My Review:
An adorably sweet story!  One of my favorite types of romances is when we got both points of view, every other chapter basically.  And this book does that perfectly.  The fun part is when at the beginning you think Charlotte has met Anthony, and you're like, wait, not that guy, right?  It made me happy to know that wasn't Anthony. Even though Anthony wasn't really my favorite at first for how he acted toward her.  But you had to give him a break, I mean, he'd just been dumped, very publicly.  

I loved how the story followed the two as they tried to complete each step in the book about how to get over a break-up.   I adored the "mistake" they made.  There's also a theory that Anthony has about dreams and alternate realities/universes that makes so much sense to me!  The whole explanation, yeah, I get it, and I like it!  Since I remember my dreams so vividly, it made me see them differently when I woke up the last two days since I finished the book.  It was also fun to read about the different places in New York City and remember the ones that I've actually had the chance to visit in person.

 

Cover Characteristic: New York City

The Cover Characteristic meme is hosted at  Sugar and Snark.   Here are the guidelines:

Each week we will post a characteristic and choose 5 of our favorite covers with that characteristic. If you want to join in and share your 5 favorite covers with the weeks particular characteristic, then just make a post, grab the meme picture (or make your own) and leave your URL in Linky (so we can visit).
You don’t even need to participate, just stopping by and saying hi would be great! Don’t forget to stop by the other participants!

I had so many choices for this.  But since I've done a skyline post before, I wanted to do other types of NYC covers/scenes.  So here are 5 in no particular order.

1.

2.  For this I picked two books in a series that show individual locations in NYC.

  3.

4.

5.

So those are the top 5 I chose.  Have you read any of them?  What do you think of my choices? 

Two Audiobook Reviews - The Hudson Valley Series: Nuts (#1) and Cream of the Crop (#2) by Alice Clayton

So, because I am falling behind on reviews, I thought I would combine my reviews of these two books in this same series into one post.  Let me just say that I have a new author I'm a huge fan of.  Another reason I'm very excited to go to Apollycon 2017 in March!  Of course what first drew me to these books was the total suggestiveness of the covers, but in such a funny way, even if it was pretty much in your face.  Not to mention the titles, they totally crack me up.  I listened to the audiobooks of these, and now I just can't wait to hear what the third book will be, and I know there has to be a 3rd book, because there is one more friend! 

Book 1 Info:
Title:  Nuts  
Author:  Alice Clayton
Series:  Hudson Valley #1  
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Published:  October 20th, 2015
Source:  Digital audiobook download from public library

The main character in the story is Roxie.  When we first meet Roxie, she is a personal chef to many rich people out in California, including a famous Hollywood married couple, that I believe are the characters in the author's Redhead series.  When she has a mishap with one of her snotty clients, and then said client puts in a bad word with all her other clients, except for the Hollywood couple, Roxie's whole personal chef business seems to be over.  Roxie's mother has asked her to come back home to a small town in upstate New York and run the family diner while her mother gets to go be a contestant on The Amazing Race.  Roxie does not want to do it, she is tired of bailing out her irresponsible hippie mother, but doesn't seem to have anything else she can do at this point.  So, she does go home to help her mother out.  Once in town she meets the new guy who runs a local farm, Leo Maxwell.  And from the first moment she meets him, her clumsiness causes the two to end up in very embarrassing positions as she knocks the two of them over.  But the sexual attraction is there, and while Roxie knows she doesn't want anything more than sex, as that is all she really wants since growing up dealing with her mother's many heartbreaks.  Plus, Roxie fully intends to go back to California when her time taking care of the diner for her mother is over.  Leo seems to agree, and be on board with it.  And let me tell you, once they get together, the sex is hot!  

Things I loved:  the author mentioning that Kansas City has the best BBQ, the innuendos, Roxie's fear of bees - bees are assholes, and that Roxie was in love with Almanzo from Little House on the Prairie (me too).  The only thing I wasn't a fan of was the narrator occasionally read in a way that seemed very slow, in parts that I was eager to move along through to get to more exciting parts.  

Book 2 info (only differences from above):
Title:  Cream of the Crop 
Series:  Hudson Valley #2  
Published:  July 12th, 2016
Source: Digital audiobook download from public library

This book has the main character Natalie, who is one of Roxie's best friends from book one.  Natalie's love interest is the dairy farmer from Roxie's hometown, Oscar.  She sees him every Saturday at the Farmer's Market in Union Square in NYC where she lives.   Now, Natalie is pretty confident in herself, and definitely can get a date whenever she wants.  But for some reason, whenever she gets around Oscar, she gets all tongue-tied and blushing.  What I love about Natalie is that she is a big girl, but owns it.  And actually that is part of what makes Oscar attracted to her as well.  In fact, the first time she is really able to talk to him, he tells her what he loved most about seeing her at the Farmer's Market every Saturday, was watching her "great, big ass" as she walked away.  When he first says this to her, you can imagine how it sounds, and how pissed she gets.  Natalie makes sure that she gets Roxie's hometown as an advertising client when it comes up, partly to be with her friend, and partly because of her attraction to Oscar, who is described in the first book as reminding Roxie of a Dothraki like in Game of Thrones.  Since I had just started watching GOT at the same time I was listening to these books, I pictured him like the main Dothraki guy.  While Natalie is a very independent city girl, Oscar is very much a quiet, small town guy.  He not only runs the Dairy Farm that Leo in Nuts is right next door to, he also coaches Little League football in town.  

Of course there will be problems.  While Natalie figures it will just be a "fun" relationship, as she's always been like Roxie in the anti-relationship group, feelings start to get involved.  And when Oscar wants her to move to his small town, and leave her life in NYC behind, or so it seems, Natalie's past rears its head and comes between them.  It's not just Natalie's past, but also Oscar's ex-wife.  And how he deals with her is really irritating in some parts.  But in others totally understandable.  

Things I loved:  Natalie loves cheese just like me,  the fact that Oscar calls her "Pin-up", hot sex scenes, and more hilarious scenes and lines.  The part where she gets out of the car when she first runs into Oscar on his farm, and she just runs away.  OMG, I was dying laughing.  Her line about the first time she saw him:  "From the first moment I laid eyes on him, I was dying to lay thighs on him."  This author knows how to write funny dialogue, storylines, and the innuendos are hilarious as well.  However, the one thing I didn't like was some of the way Oscar dealt with things.  Honestly in book 1, I feel like Leo handled everything perfectly, even when the big conflict/surprise came up, the way he was with Roxie was perfect.  But the way that Oscar dealt with Natalie's issues in this one, well, it pissed me off.  And made him not as perfect for me as Leo had been.  But I still loved the story, and loved the two of them together.

As I mentioned before, I NEED to know when the third book is coming out. And I can't wait to hear what innuendo the title of it will be, something to do with hotels?  Not to mention I can't wait to see what they come up with for the cover of it.

If you haven't tried Alice Clayton yet, I'd totally recommend these hilarious, sexy, fun books! 

Review: Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan

Well, first I was lucky enough to get an egalley of this on Netgalley from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group. Then, I found someone willing to do a book trade for this.  I wanted a physical copy because I found out that the author was going to be in town with Cassandra Clare a couple weeks ago.  So that was awesome, and actually what I read. But even cooler, was the fact that for the book tour, they went ahead and brought the published copies of this book to sell to those who attended the event.  Here it is:

I still just read my ARC, and I am keeping my ARC, I had it signed to me. The finished copy that I bought I immediately donated to the school library where I work.  It was so much fun listening to Sarah Rees Brennan ask Cassandra Clare the audience's questions.  I've seen Brennan in action before, back at the RT Convention when it was in Kansas City.  So I knew everyone there was in for a hilarious time.  One of the thing the two authors talked about was how Brennan laughs as she is writing parts that will make her readers cry. And I have to say that she must have been dying laughing as she wrote the end of this book, because I was crying a lot!  As with all of Brennan's books so far, I loved this one.  It started out a tiny bit slow, but in no time, it picked right up and there were the types of characters that I love so much from this author, as well as a very interesting new world that she had created.  The title is awesome, and it was neat to realize it is a quote from a Charles Dickens book, A Tale of Two Cities, which is fitting, because it has definite characteristics that make it a similar story.

The main character is a girl named Lucie.  Lucie is really from the Dark city, the Dark New York, but because of how she went about saving her father from a horrible punishment, she and her father were brought to the Light New York, back to where he came from before he met her mother in the dark city.  The notoriety Lucie got from this whole thing ensured that she was able to go to one of the best schools in town as well.  It was there that she met Ethan Stryker, son of the most powerful men in Light New York.  Ethan isn't like his father and uncle, he is very sweet, and not as much into all the politics.  When we first meet these two, they are coming back to the city on a train from a vacation.  Somewhere along the way, during the night, Ethan is ripped out of the train by Light Guards who are calling him a traitor. Saying they have proof, an eye witness.  Lucie tries to get the guards to back off by telling them just who he is.  But the guards already know who he is, that is why they stopped the train and pulled him off.  Before they can kill him, the punishment for his crime, another person steps off the train, a person who is basically Ethan's twin.

In this future world, there are doppelgangers.  These are created by magic, dark magic, in order to save the life of the person they are the exact copy of.  But the doppelgangers are supposedly not good, they seem to have lots of dark magic, supposedly they have all the dark in them that has been taken away from the original to save the original.  The person who stepped off the train to save Ethan is a boy named Carwyn.  Seeing Carwyn, and knowing that they now don't know for sure who is the person that was being traitorous, the guards let both of the boys back on the train, to go back to the city.

Lucie feels such a level of gratitude to Carwyn.  But Carwyn is who he is because of his life, where he's lived, knowing what he knew about his mother and family, the family who left him in the Dark city.  While all of Ethan's family wants him gone.  If anyone sees him it would get out that his father created a doppelganger, something that is very frowned upon.  So first the guards who tried to arrest Ethan disappear.  While the Strykers want Carwyn to disappear, Lucie tries to be nice and show him she is grateful. But in her effort, she gives him a chance to feel normal for a while, by taking off the collar that all doppelgangers are required to wear. The only thing that really identifies him.   Around this time, so many things begin to happen.  Lucie must keep up her front, of who she is, and how she can take care of her dad.  Her dad was almost broken in the cage they used for punishment on him.  But all these things they've begun to feel can be their new normal take a turn for the worse when Carwyn disappears, and people start dying. 

I really loved the two worlds.  I would even love to know more about them.  I would love to go back into the earlier world where Lucie's parents were.  Or learn more about what will happen after the end of the book.  I feel like this is probably a standalone book, and it does end satisfactorily for that.  But the wonderful characters, and the rich world building, made it a story I wanted to keep myself lost in as long as I could. 

The night of the author presentation and signing, they wouldn't let us take our own pictures with the authors, we had to just look for the pictures the professional photographer took.  This really disappointed me with Cassandra Clare, as it was my first time meeting her. And the whole lining up and signature part of the event was very disappointing to me.  Probably because it wasn't my first one of those, and I know how they usually go.  I've even been to ones with either just the library where it took place, and it went find there.  I've been to some with the bookstore that was also a part of the event, and those have been fine as well.  So I don't know just how everything got to be so messed up.  I do have to say there were some people/fans in line that didn't seem to know how to act either, and when the person working in line was being really slow about putting the post its with my name inside my books, the people behind me tried to go around me.  It was very irritating.  I didn't need the post its, the woman was being a pain, I already had the ones I needed, and I had the books arranged by what author they were for. And she wanted me to put all of the books together instead.  Of course once I got up to the front of the line, the way she'd had it was wrong, just like I knew.  Oh well, it was still great to listen to the authors, and get to talk to them for a minute in the line.  Here is my picture as I got to talk to Sarah Rees Brennan.  I'm in the background, you can barely see me.  :-( 

Waiting on Wednesday: Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.   I've actually picked a standalone book this week, or at least it is not a sequel, not sure if it will be the first in a new series or anything.  I picked it by the fact that it is by an author that I just adore, Sarah Rees Brennan.  I loved her Lynburn Legacy series, and I got to meet her at the Romantic Times convention in Kansas City in 2013.  And let me tell you, she is just so much fun to watch and see how she interacts with the other authors and fans.  So I am pretty much into any book she writes these days, and I was thrilled to find this one one Goodreads.  Here is the blurb, which isn't much for now, but enough:

Tell the Wind & Fire is about a young girl called Lucie who lives in a New York very different from the New York we know: the city is torn between two very different kinds of magic, and Lucie’s own family was torn apart years ago by that conflict. Lucie wears magic rings and carries a burden of guilt she can’t share with anyone.

The light in her life is her sweetheart boyfriend Ethan, but it turns out Ethan has a secret too: a soulless doppelganger created by dark magic, who has to conceal the face identical to Ethan’s with a hood fastened by a collar nobody but a Light magician with magical rings can take off… and who introduces himself to both of them by, for reasons nobody can understand, saving Ethan’s life…


Hmm, I think it sounds interesting.  A soulless doppelganger boyfriend?  Magic, etc., New York, two different worlds.  I'm all in, especially for the wonderful characters and dialogue that I know Sarah Rees Brennan will create.  The bad thing?  It's not expected publication until 2016!!!

So, how about you, what are you eagerly anticipating this week?  

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Places That Books Have Made Me Want To Visit

Top Ten Tuesday is sponsored by The Broke and The Bookish.  This was such a fun sounding idea when I saw it on the 7th, I started planning ahead!  And honestly, when I name the places, I will have to name several books.  So, I've decided instead of putting pictures of the books, I'll put a picture of the place (if I can find one), and then just list the books below it.  So here we go.


1.  New York City



 Okay, really I've wanted to see all of NYC, so many books talk about it, as well as movies and tv shows.  But I chose two specific spots to start.  The first picture is of Belvedere Castle, which is in Central Park.  I first learned of that by reading Spellbound by Cara Lynn Shultz.  Now, the 2nd building is not what I thought it was.  I thought it was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory building where they'd had the horrible fire in 1911.  And you have to give me a little break on that, the building is a triangle shape.  But I was informed by my friend Cara Lynn Shultz, that is not the building where the fire took place, this one is called the Flatiron Building.  I had read a few books on the fire though, most specifically one called Lost by Jacqueline Davies.  I did get to see both of these buildings the first time I went to NYC to visit my sister when she first moved there about 3 years ago.  But there are still so many other places to visit in NYC that I haven't yet.

2.  Paris

One specific place is the catacombs.  Up until recently, I never really cared if I got to visit France.  Sure I knew about the Eiffel Tower, but I didn't really care. Then I read Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly and was immediately intrigued.  Other books I've read that make me rethink my decision to go to Paris are Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins and Die for Me by Amy Plum.

3.  Poland/Germany



I don't know if it was from studying World War II and the Holocaust in school, or from reading The Diary of Anne Frank, but I really want to go visit those places and just see.  For one thing, in the pictures of Anne Frank's hiding place that I saw in Anne Frank:  Beyond the Diary, I am just completely shocked that they weren't found sooner. I know this is kind of a depressing place to want to visit, but it is something that I want to do one day before I die.  I feel it is something very important and worth seeing to commemorate those who died.

4.  New Orleans

Now, I have read a lot of books set in or around New Orleans.  And while of course I want to visit Bourbon street and that kind of stuff, one place in particular I'd like to go is the cemeteries, especially the one where the voodoo queen is supposed to be.  Books that have made me want to see the haunted side of New Orleans include Ruined and the other books in that series by Paula Morris,  as well as the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris (although to be honest I saw the first season of the tv series before I read the books.)

5. Maine

Because of probably every single book of Stephen King's, and how they're set in Maine, I want to visit the state some day.  And how cool would it be to go by his house as pictured above?

6.  Ireland

I don't know that it was a book that first made me want to go here, especially to see the Blarney stone, which is near the Blarney House pictured above.. I think it was probably a combination of movies, and just hearing and loving the Irish accent.  I kind of want to go just in hopes of finding and falling in love with a cute Irish guy.  One of my favorite authors, Sarah Rees Brennan, is from Ireland, and when I told her my hope of finding an Irish guy, she joked and said maybe she'd introduce me to one of her brothers.  I'd list two books that specifically make me want to go to Ireland.  First is Scarlett, by Alexandra Ripley, the unofficial sequel to Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.  The 2nd one is Herself by Leslie Carroll.

7. London/England
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So the first picture is the Tower of London, where Anne Boleyn was held, and also where many beheadings took place.  There are several books that have made me want to visit this part of London:  Transcendence by CJ Omololu, The Missing Series by Margaret Peterson Haddix, and The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory.  The 2nd picture is a make believe place from the book Austenland by Shannon Hale.  I think it would be so much fun to go somewhere where you had to dress and act and eat like people from that time period.  

8.  Laura Ingalls Wilder homes

 

I loved the tv show Little House on the Prairie, but never read the books.  By the time I "discovered" them, I was really too old to read them.  I tried to, they were just so simple that I was bored quickly.  But I still would love to take a summer and travel the country and see them.  I've visited the one in Missouri.  Above are the one in Kansas, Wisconsin, and finally Minnesota, Walnut Grove that I remember the town in the tv show was named.  Besides the tv show making me want to go there, I also read The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure.  

9.  Jurassic Park

Okay, I've always been fascinated by dinosaurs.  So if there was a real Jurassic Park, where they really had control of the dinosaurs, I'd be all over that!

10.  Area 51

Another thing I've been fascinated with is UFOs and aliens.  There are many, many books that talk about Area 51, as well as movies and tv shows, but there are two main books that sparked my interest, Strangers by Dean Koontz, and (obviously) the Area 51 series by Robert Doherty.

Those are my top ten places I want to visit.  Where would you go after reading some of your favorite books?

Review: Starry Night by Isabel Gillies

Okay, I try not to read reviews until I'm either done with, or almost done with a book.  And can I say that I am shocked by the negativity this book is receiving?  I was very lucky to get an ARC of this at BEA, and after reading it, let me say how glad I am.  I loved it.  And so while I normally don't post my whole reviews on Goodreads anymore, I will be copying and pasting this one to give some people who do look at reviews another opinion on this book.

I am not normally a contemporary fiction person, but lately I've found a few, such as this one, that I just fell in love with.  I'm going to give a quick summary of the story, then I'm going to go through and kind of refute all the bad points I've seen in reviews, as well as list anything that I thought was a positive outside of those.

The main character is Wren.  She has a group of friends who were all born about the same time, and their parents were all in a book club together.  The friends include 3 girls: Reagan, Farah, and Padmavati, or Vati for short.  And one boy named Charlie.  Wren has an older brother named Oliver, and a younger sister named Dinah, who has her very own cooking show filmed in their home.  Reagan's parents are divorced, and she gets left alone a lot.  Farah's parents seem to be gone a lot too, and Farah is into older men, well, the 20 year old camera guy on Dinah's show at first.  And Vati has had a crush on Wren's brother Oliver for as long as anyone can remember.  Wren is a unique girl, she is 15, very artistic, but also has dyslexia and ADHD.  The story begins the night of a gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, you might know this from the Gossip Girls show as the steps they are always hanging out on I guess?  (That's what my sister who loves the show tells me).  Wren's father is the curator of the museum, and so he is in charge of the gala. This is Wren and her friends' first time getting to go to one of these, so they are all dressed up to the nines, and there is a feeling of magic in the air.  And this is the night that Wren meets Nolan, a new friend of her brother.  And the sparks fly.  It's like love at first sight.  And everything seems perfect.  But we do know from the narration at the beginning that there will be heartbreak, so I just held on to the feel good for as long as I could.  There is friction at the beginning when on that same night, Reagan is seen going off with Oliver, which breaks Vati's heart.  And Farah makes a connection with one of the star artists that is there, a man in his 30's.  Wren decides to leave the gala with Nolan to go see a friend of his at a club somewhere in the city.  This leaving the gala leads to bit drama with the family, as Wren is grounded until Thanksgiving.  But Nolan doesn't give up.  He meets her at school, and gets her brother Oliver to help give them extra time after school.  And he even comes back to the house at one point, and tries to explain how it was his fault, to try to take some of the blame off of Wren.  Nolan seems like such a great guy.  He helps with the Vati and Oliver situation.  And when Farah seems maybe in over her head with this older guy, he helps them stage an intervention.  I won't tell you how the heartache happens, just that it is definitely sad, but probably very realistic.

Now, here are the things I saw people complaining about.  1.  The characters just seem so young.  2.  A description "root beer brown Michelangelo eyes" is making people roll their eyes. (Whatever color they may be).  3.  The writing style was bad?  4.  (In total opposition to the first point)  The way these 15 year olds were so casual about sex.  5.  Giving up your dreams for love.

Okay, first, the characters, for the most part, are 15.  Now I'm going to address points #1 and 4 above because they so obviously go together.  I have to say that I loved the characters. I felt they were perfect representations of that age.  Yes, I'm 41, so what do I know?  Well, I remember that age.  I also work in a high school, and see kids that age every day.  I like how innocent they seemed.  In fact, I remember being like that at that age, only without the boyfriend to fall in love with.  So, we can't have it both ways, they are either too young, or they're too old acting?  Which is it?  I think the point of how the sex was brought up shows the difference in kids that age.  Some 15 year olds are much more experienced, and some are less.  Even back in the 80s when I was that age, it was like that.  Watch the movies from that time. Sixteen Candles?  And Farah, while she acted all cool, and like the older man was no big deal.  When the intervention took place, I think it was so honest and accurate how she responded.  And Wren thought once a month was probably normal, although when she would be near Nolan, she thought she might want to have sex more often.  Wow, have people never felt that way about a guy they were around when they were first in love?  I have.

Number 2 point, the descriptions.  Okay, maybe I was just reading for the story mainly, but I don't even know where the root beer brown eyes part was.  I didn't even notice it.  I have seen so much worse description.  (Fifty Shades of Grey anyone?)  All the descriptions fit in well with the book for me.  None stood out so horribly for me.  Again, as I mentioned earlier, maybe because I knew the heartbreak was coming, I wanted to hold on to those sweet bits as much as possible, and it made them even more sweet, no matter how eye-roll inducing they may have been for others.

Number 3 point.  I don't think the writing was bad, as I said, I was hooked. BUT, I will totally agree with the bit about not using contractions. That is one thing that always bugs me. When you write dialogue, ESPECIALLY in a teen book, it won't flow easy as I read if it doesn't sound like normal speech.  Here is an example:  "I do not know why this is happening."  In real every day speech, it would be "I don't know why this is happening."  Such a simple change, but one that really does make a difference when reading.  So I'll concede on that bit, but not that the writing was bad.  But then people say the writing is bad for Twilight too, and those books sucked me in, so I think sometimes "bad" writing may all be in the eye of the beholder (or reader as it may be in this case).

And the final point, giving up dreams for love.  Yes, it is extremely stupid to do that!  And yes, it made me so mad when it happened.  BUT, unfortunately it really does happen.  And so to be realistic fiction, it fits.  And did the character learn a lesson from it?  Yes.  And like in real life, was there no happy solution to make everything go back to being perfect?  No there wasn't.  So, while it sucked to see the character do that.  No one thought it was okay other than her.  Everyone told her it was wrong, and like a normal 15 year old girl, she felt she knew best, and followed her heart.  Which was wrong, and honestly, the heart often is unfortunately.  In fact, this bit even reminds me a bit of If I Stay, where a more smart choice was made, choosing to do the music, and not to just stay with the boyfriend.  And while in If I Stay, everyone knew what was the right thing to do, is that always that realistic?  And the ages are different of the characters too I think.

So again, I loved this book.  I loved the New York City parts.  I know some people fussed that it was all about "privileged" children and the places they would go.  But, the subway stations and streets that were talked about, I've been to those when I visited my sister in NYC.  And we are not privileged in any way, shape, or form. And when they talk about private schools, well one of my favorite authors that I've gotten to know talks about what school was like for her, and so some of that seems like normal NYC to me as well.  My sister probably was even getting annoyed with me when I would text and ask her about some of the places in the book, as I tried to picture them in my head and if I'd been there, or if I would know where they were if I went back.

If all the points I made, or the negative reviews made could be problems for you, then maybe you might not read it.  But I think it was a very good book. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 was for my one complaint. 
  
I completely forgot to include my picture with the author from BEA!!  So here it is!

Me with Isabel Gillies

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