A Double Serving of ARC Reviews #4 - The Best Friend Romance Version

Hi Guys! I have with me today two ARC's that I was approved to read, both containing BEST FRIEND ROMANCES! If you don't know yet, there are pretty much my Achilles heel of ALL PLOT POINTS and while both books had aspects I didn't like, the chemistry was SIZZLING and undeniable!

Title: The Museum of Heartbreak
Author: Meg Leder
Publication Date: June 7th 2016
Publisher: Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuester)
Part of a Series?: No, Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: NetGalley
Buy Links: 

Blurb Description: In this ode to all the things we gain and lose and gain again, seventeen-year-old Penelope Marx curates her own mini-museum to deal with all the heartbreaks of love, friendship, and growing up.
Welcome to the Museum of Heartbreak.
Well, actually, to Penelope Marx’s personal museum. The one she creates after coming face to face with the devastating, lonely-making butt-kicking phenomenon known as heartbreak.
Heartbreak comes in all forms: There’s Keats, the charmingly handsome new guy who couldn’t be more perfect for her. There’s possibly the worst person in the world, Cherisse, whose mission in life is to make Penelope miserable. There’s Penelope’s increasingly distant best friend Audrey. And then there’s Penelope’s other best friend, the equal-parts-infuriating-and-yet-somehow-amazing Eph, who has been all kinds of confusing lately.
But sometimes the biggest heartbreak of all is learning to let go of that wondrous time before you ever knew things could be broken

“It happened like this:She fell in love.Everything changed.And just like the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, heartbreak came hurtling at Penelope Marx with the fury of one thousand meteors.”

Let’s be honest, okay?

This book had CHEMISTRY.

This book had CRAZY YET PREFECT CHARACTERS, BOATLOADS OF BAD DECISIONS, INSECURITIES, FLAWED EVERYTHING. 

Not to mention, this had my Achilles Heel plot in all books, ever: The Best Friend Romance. 

And I would have been on Twitter, freaking out, doing a dance, demanding more, if it was not for that ending. That ending KILLED it for me. It was random, abrupt, and most of all, if the book is TITLED The Museum of Heartbreak, and after EVERY CHAPTER started (just a description about one item) with something about the Museum, GIVE ME MORE THAN A FIVE PAGE ENDING, and a TWO PAGE EXPLANATION, because it. Was. Not. Enough.

This book pulls you write in, with all the heartbreak/ dinosaur talk, and it all seems so real, because getting your heart broken sometimes does feel like a meteor is ending your world, and that unquenchable black hole is the worst. 

Apart from the chemistry, and the characters, I loved that "heartbreak" wasn't used in a purely romantic form, but it was heartbreak from fighting with your friends, from fighting with your family, from growing up, and that's so true. How many times have you felt that your best friend was slipping away, or that she likes another friend more than you? How many times have your parents suffocated you? How many times does just life seem to get to you? Because it's always hitting me.  

I’m really disappointed that this otherwise perfect book ended in such an unfulfilling manner, but it really was a GREAT read! Eph and Audrey and Grace and Miles and Pen were GREAT characters, with great stories, and I just wish they were given the ending they deserve.

Points For: EPH+ PEN, Audrey, Grace, Miles, Dinosaurs, Insecurities that define my life, Family, Brilliant Narration, oh and BEST FRIEND ROMANCE!

Points Against: That ending. *dies*

4 stars.

********

Title: We Own The Night (Radiohearts #2)
Author: Ashley Poston
Publication Date: June 28th 2016
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Part of a Series?: Yes, but can be read as a stand-alone!
I Got A Copy Through: NetGalley

Buy Links: 

Blurb Description: "Happy midnight, my fellow Niteowls..."
As a candy store employee by day, and mysterious deejay "Niteowl" by night, eighteen-year-old Ingrid North is stuck between rock 'n roll and a hard place. She can't wait to get out of her tiny hometown of Steadfast, Nebraska (population three hundred and forty-seven) to chase her dreams, but small-town troubles keep getting in the way. She can't abandon her grandmother with Alzheimer's, or her best friend Micah--who she may or may not be in love with.
But for one hour each Saturday, she escapes all of that. On air, she isn't timid, ugly-sweater-wearing Ingrid North. She's the funny and daring Niteowl. Every boy's manic pixie dream girl. Fearless. And there is one caller in particular-- Dark and Brooding--whose raspy laugh and snarky humor is just sexy enough to take her mind off Micah. Not that she's in love with Micah or anything. Cause she's not. 
As her grandmother slips further away and Micah begins dating a Mean-Girls-worthy nightmare, Ingrid runs to the mysterious Dark and Brooding as a disembodied voice to lean on, only to fall down a rabbit hole of punk rockstars, tabloid headlines, and kisses that taste like bubble tea. But the man behind the voice could be surprising in all the right, and wrong, ways.
And she just might find that her real life begins when Niteowl goes off the air.

“Sometimes people are just too big for the places that keep them.”

I read this book in a matter of hours, (Read Fine Print: I read this book in two hours, at 1 a.m. in the night) and while I sped read this fast paced book, I loved some parts and had issues with others.

What I Loved about We Own The Night: 

1. BEST FRIEND ROMANCE: Y’ALL KNOW THIS IS MY ACHILLES HEEL IN ALL COMTEMPORARY PLOTS. I cannot resist it, and I automatically get pulled in. It seemed like Micah and Ingrid really had chemistry, and well, despite the twist ending, it all worked out well.

2. THE RADIO SHOW: The last book I read where a radio show was involved was Sarah Dessen’s Just Listen, and I LOVED HOW DIFFERENT THIS WAS. I loved the random snippets of the show we got, it seemed fast paced to read, but if it was an actual show, I’m not sure I could like it that much. Still, I was reading it. 

3. THE FRIEND GROUP: I LOVE A GREAT FRIEND GROUP, OKAY? It just makes things fun, but I also had problems with this one.

What annoyed me about We Own The Night: 

1. THE DRAMA: I get drama, okay? I REALLY DO. For heaven’s sake, though, stop with all the angst and hating the girlfriend on principle and not talking to you BEST FRIENDS for months over NOTHING. It doesn’t work that way, it was over the top, and felt ridiculously unrealistic.

2. Falling in Love over a Radio Show? We’ve had about seven to ten REALLY SHORT Conversations with the aforementioned blurb – Dark and Brooding – and I get it, okay, there was radio chemistry, BUT HOW DO YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH SOMEONE LIKE THAT. Also, where I’m from, the Radio Jockey DOES NOT SPEND AN HOUR RANTING ABOUT HER OWN PROBLEMS. Like what? It’s the ENTERTAINMENT business, right?! 

3. The Convenient Characters: I love secondary characters, okay? They’re what make a good story great, and We Own The Night’s characters felt so story convenient, you know? They were only there as background for when the MC needed them, or to give the story an extra boost and I SUCKED. 

All in all, quite a fast paced book that had a few issues. Good for a one time read.
3 stars. 
I received an ARCs from Simon and Schuester/ Bloomsbury Childrens via NetGalley. Quotes are subject to my ARC. All thoughts are entirely my own 

What do you think of best friend romances? What is the best kind of romance, according to you? Bad Boys and Geeks? The troubled girl and the happy boy?

What one item would you put in your museum of heartbreak? Would you ever do your own radio show?

I'd have to put in my Seventh Grade Journal, which is filled with ridiculous thoughts on my at-the-time crush and other such CRINGE WORTHY things. HEY. I WAS 12, OKAY?