A Story That Deserves To Be Read // REVIEW: Exit, Pursued By A Bear by E.K. Johnston

Title: Exit, Pursued By A Bear
Author: E. K. Johnston
Publication Date: May 2nd 2017
Publisher: Speak (Penguin Random House)
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: PRH International (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Amazon US || Amazon UK || Barnes and Noble || The Book Depository || Wordery || Kobo || Books A Million || Chapters Indigo || Google Books

Blurb Description: "This story of a cheerleader rising up after a traumatic event will give you Veronica Mars-level feels that will stay with you long after you finish." ~ Seventeen Magazine, Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak for a new generation.
Hermione Winters is captain of her cheerleading team, and in tiny Palermo Heights, this doesn't mean what you think it means. At PHHS, the cheerleaders don't cheer for the sports teams; they are the sports team - the pride and joy of a tiny town. The team's summer training camp is Hermione's last and she knows this season could make her a legend. But during a camp party, someone slips something in her drink. And it all goes black. 
In every class, there's a star cheerleader and a pariah pregnant girl. They're never supposed to be the same person. Hermione struggles to regain the control she's always had and faces a wrenching decision about how to move on. The assault wasn't the beginning of Hermione Winter's story and she's not going to let it be the end. She won t be anyone s cautionary tale.

Actual Rating 3.5 Stars

Before I begin:

Books about rape or any kind of sexual abuse are VERY VERY important reads to me because I live in a culture where victim blaming is widespread and girls don’t speak up for the most part when they are violated.

When I heard about Exit, Pursued by a Bear, more than a year ago I knew I would read it at some point or the other. It had a story that involved rape that hasn’t been handled before specifically one involving pregnancy, the head cheerleader and a date rape drug.

And so, when I picked it up two days ago, I was very excited. The book had its plus points and its drawbacks but let’s break them down:

WHAT I LIKED:

1.       NO VICTIM BLAMING: I wanted to applaud this book when it didn’t go through the whole “the girl was asking for it,” arc because THERE SHOULDN’T BE A QUESTION ABOUT THIS. Nobody who has ever been raped has asked for it and NO MEANS NO. The one time it did come up, it was handled positively and I loved it. I wish the world didn’t victim blame and this aspect of the book made me very happy.

2.       STRONG FRIENDS = STRONG SUPPORT SYSTEM: Another thing was that all of Hermoine’s friends didn’t magically abandon her but STUCK WITH HER at all times, supported her and they were just there for her. Exit, Pursued by a Bear broke the stereotype of “catty” cheerleaders and showed that these cheer teammates and friends were true friends and also a support system for Hermoine.

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER:

1.       THE LACK OF EMOTION IN THE WRITING: Hermoine was raped after the she was given a date rape drug. She was left in a lake to die until she was found. It’s gruesome, it’s horrible that a human could have the capability to do that. I felt violated sitting in the confines of my room but I NEVER felt it from Hermoine. She actually addresses it too – the fact that she couldn’t remember the rape and hence didn’t feel like it happened to her but some other girl WHICH I UNDERSTAND, and it’s definitely a new perspective but it all felt so mechanical to me. I feel like a little more emotion in the WRITING of Hermoine could have gone a long way in this book.

2.       THE BOYFRIEND: Leon McKenna was a POINTLESS character. They were never really serious, it was as if he just existed to create some unnecessary drama. I didn’t understand their relationship while they were together, I didn’t get the reason for his jealousy because it was mentioned briefly in hindsight and I DEFINITELY DIDN’T UNDERSTAND how he could tell people those things about Hermoine. REALLY?

I could never say this was a bad book – it’s a good story that handles a very important topic.

I could never not recommend this book – we should all be reading these books to understand and grow as human beings. So pick up Exit, Pursued by a Bear, or pick up Patty Blount’s Some Boys or Louise O’Neill’s Asking for It – they deserve to be read. The characters are fictional but their stories happen every day to boys and girl around the world.

Go read this book. It deserves to be read. These stories need to be heard. 

E.K. Johnston had several jobs and one vocation before she became a published writer. If she’s learned anything, it’s that things turn out weird sometimes, and there’s not a lot you can do about it. Well, that and how to muscle through awkward fanfic because it’s about a pairing she likes. You can follow Kate on Twitter (@ek_johnston) to learn more about Alderaanian political theory than you really need to know, or on Tumblr (ekjohnston) if you're just here for pretty pictures.

What are some of the best book you've read that handle rape or sexual abuse? I'm always looking for more books that take it on well and I'd love your recommendations!

Have you read any other of E.K. Johnston's books? What did you think of them. 

I can't wait to hear from you!

A GOOD, Not Great Book // REVIEW: Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner

Title: Goodbye Days
Author: Jeff Zentner
Publication Date: March 7th 2017
Publisher: Crown Books For Young Readers
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: eARC from the Publisher via NetGalley (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Amazon US || Amazon UK || The Book Despository || Wordery || Foyles || Waterstones || WHSmith || Kobo || Books A Million || Chapters Indigo || Google Books

Blurb Description: Carver Briggs never thought a simple text would cause a fatal crash, killing his three best friends, Mars, Eli, and Blake. But now Carver can’t stop blaming himself for the accident and even worse, a powerful judge is pressuring the district attorney to open up a criminal investigation.  Luckily, Carver has some unexpected allies: Eli’s girlfriend, the only person to stand by him at school; Dr. Mendez, his new therapist; and Blake’s grandmother, who asks Carver to spend a “goodbye day” together to share their memories and say a proper farewell. Soon the other families are asking for their own goodbye day with Carver—but he’s unsure of their motives. Will they all be able to make peace with their losses, or will these goodbye days bring Carver one step closer to a complete breakdown or—even worse—prison?
“One of the most stunningly heartfelt, lump-in-your-throat novels I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. Hold on to your heart: this book will wreck you, fix you, and most definitely change you.” —Becky Albertalli, author of Morris Award winner Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
“Tender, honest, moving, and lyrical. His characters live and breathe. Ahh, lucky me. Lucky us. Zentner is the real thing.” —Benjamin Alire Sáenz, winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and Printz Honor winning author of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

It’s Monday Morning right now. I finished this book over a day and a half ago, but I haven’t been able to organise my thoughts about it, and so I just decided to pour them all out onto my review

·         Goodbye Days was EASILY one of my most anticipated reads of the year. I ADORED Jeff Zentner’s The Serpent King and all the heart break and hope it made me feel, and I was so excited for what he would do with Goodbye Days.

·         That being said, I REALLY REALLY wanted to enjoy Goodbye Days. I think Jeff is an AMAZING person, I love his writing style and this book IS THE PERFECT SET-UP FOR HEARTBREAK.

·         I lost a friend recently. We weren’t ‘best’ friends by any means, but we were friends, and his death was so senseless and so reckless and it just shocked me that life could end that easily, and I really wanted to feel something with this book as the protagonist loses his THREE best friends.

·         Goodbye Days WAS NOT what I thought it would be. For starters, I didn’t once FEEL that overwhelming grief that I wanted to feel, and that I felt when I heard the news about my friend. The book fell TOTALLY flat in this aspect, and more than feeling the grief, the main focus of this was getting back to ‘normal.’ It’s just how I felt – maybe not AS much with Carver, but definitely with Jesmyn.

·         Another thing I couldn’t wrap my head around was Carver and his dead best friend’s girlfriend – Jesmyn. I would have liked them as friends, I REALLY WOULD HAVE, but I KNEW that he was developing feelings for her, and this feeling or wrongness settled around me that I couldn’t shake. I liked that they hung out, I LOVED that they had each other for support but it still felt all sorts of wrong to me.

·         I did LOVE two very specific characters in the book – Nana Betsy and Georgia. Nana Betsy was honest and good and kind of an awesome grandmother (I went and gave mine a long hug after) and I FELT HER PAIN. More than anything else, I FELT HER PAIN. It felt like the pain I expected from Carver, but didn’t get. Georgia is Carver’s older sister and she too is all kinds of awesome. They made the book a whole lot better.

·         I also wish we had MORE of The Sauce Crew flashbacks, and less Jesmyn and Carver (The Sweat Crew) because I feel like even AFTER the Goodbye Days for each of them, that I BARELY KNEW THEM, And HOW DO I FEEL SAD FOR PEOPLE I DON’T KNOW?

·         Did I cry? YES. Big fat tears. This was a GOOD BOOK. It was highly emotional (and brought back memories from four months ago when my friend died) and DEFINITELY a good story, that I KNOW could have been better,

I would recommend Goodbye Days – it’s a thought provoking read, but not as much as I would shove The Serpent King into your arms and faces. 3 stars. 

Jeff Zentner lives in Nashville, Tennessee. He came to writing through music, starting his creative life as a guitarist and eventually becoming a songwriter. He’s released five albums and appeared on recordings with Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Thurston Moore, Debbie Harry, Mark Lanegan, and Lydia Lunch, among others.

Now he writes novels for young adults. He became interested in writing for young adults after volunteering at the Tennessee Teen Rock Camp and Southern Girls Rock Camp. As a kid, his parents would take him to the library and drop him off, where he would read until closing time. He worked at various bookstores through high school and college.

He speaks fluent Portuguese, having lived in the Amazon region of Brazil for two years.

Have you read a Jeff Zentner Book? What did you think of it?

Intense, Real, Heartbreaking // REVIEW: Girl In Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

Title: Girl In Pieces

Author: Kathleen Glasgow
Publication Date: October 6th 2016
Publisher: Rock The Boat UK // Delacorte Press US
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: Rock The Boat UK (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon US || Amazon UK || Barnes and Noble || Wordery || The Book Depository || Foyles || Waterstones || WHSmith || Kobo || Books A Million || Indigo || Google Books

Blurb Description: Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At seventeen she’s already lost more than most people lose in a lifetime. But she’s learned how to forget. The thick glass of a mason jar cuts deep, and the pain washes away the sorrow until there is nothing but calm. You don’t have to think about your father and the river. Your best friend, who is gone forever. Or your mother, who has nothing left to give you.
Every new scar hardens Charlie’s heart just a little more, yet it still hurts so much. It hurts enough to not care anymore, which is sometimes what has to happen before you can find your way back from the edge.

It’s hard to describe what a book this deep, dark and intense makes you feel. Truth be told, I’m nothing but a bundle of emotions right now that I’m just trying to shove down so I can write this review semi-coherently.

I’ve had an e-copy of Girl in Pieces for a while now, but for some reason, I could never quite focus on everything going on in this book through the screen of my iPad. And so, when I got my hands on a paperback, I dove right in.

This book is one of the most intense portrayals of a harsh life that I’ve ever seen, but always with a glimmer of hope in the background and I fell in love with it.

”Each aberration of my skin is a song. Press your mouth against me. You will hear so much singing.”

Girl in Pieces opens with a girl lying on the snow in front of a hospital, the red seeping out of her body and into the white underneath her. It will grip you right then, make you feel Charlie’s pain and understand it and leave you reeling.

Some opinions/ thoughts:

1.       Girl In Pieces is a deep, heavy and accurate description of what mental health problems feel like. While it is primarily about self-harm, it also deals with physical and sexual abuse, substance abuse and emotional abuse. It’s an intense book that I needed to keep putting on hold for hours before getting back to it.

2.       This book is authentic. It handles the ups and downs or the ‘good days’ and the ‘bad days’ of mental health and addiction with stark clarity. It also shows the below average standard of health care given to those who need it when they don’t have the financial ability to pay for it.

3.       Charlie Davis is a heart breaking character. She has had a less than ideal life, and my heart ached for all the four hundred pages I was in her head. I’ve never understood a character more, all I wanted was for her to find some kind of love and to be happy. She was unique, living a painstakingly real life in a harsh world and I only want the best for her.

 

    4.       I didn’t get Riley and Charlie. It felt like a bad idea from the start, not to mention the ten year age difference and the fact that Charlie was a minor. I didn’t get it, but I understood where she was coming from. I hated it when, as she put it, made herself smaller for him to notice her. Even the book portrayed it as something that wouldn’t end well, but I did sort of understand why Charlie did it.

   5.       The middle got kind of slow. There’s a sort of lag in the middle when Charlie and Riley are together, when Mike is gone and Blue isn’t there and they’re forming this unhealthy routine between them when I found myself counting pages, waiting for something to happen.

6.       Mike was such a… filler character. I didn’t know what to think of him. I just didn’t. Also, BUNNY? A real name?

I don’t quite know what I’ve even said in this.

This book is a gorgeous and heart shattering rendering of what it is to find yourself and find your place when your biggest enemy is you.

I’ve never read a better, more intense, more real or more heart-breaking book on mental health and hard lives and I could not recommend it enough.

It was absolutely positively fucking angelic.  

Kathleen Glasgow lives in Tucson, Arizona. She likes Tyrion and Shireen, musty old paperbacks from used bookstores that have cats wandering the aisles, cheesecake, coffee, and the Isle of Skye. Visit her on Twitter (@kathglasgow), Instagram (misskathleenglasgow), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/KathleenGlas...) or her website (www.kathleenglasgowbooks.com).

What are some of the best books on Mental Health that you've read?

Have you heard of or read Girl In Pieces? What did you think of it?
I can't WAIT to hear from all of you.

Real, Wonderful, Broken // REVIEW: Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland

Title: Our Chemical Hearts
Author: Krystal Sutherland
Publication Date: October 4th 2016
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: Bloomsbury India
Buy Links: Amazon US || Amazon UK || Amazon IN || Wordery || The Book Depository || Google Play Books || Barnes and Noble

Blurb Description: Henry Page has never been in love. He fancies himself a hopeless romantic, but the slo-mo, heart palpitating, can't-eat-can't-sleep kind of love that he's been hoping for just hasn't been in the cards for him - at least not yet. 
Instead, he's been happy to focus on his grades, on getting into a semi-decent college and finally becoming editor of his school newspaper. Then Grace Town walks into his first period class on the third Tuesday of senior year and he knows everything's about to change.
Grace isn't who Henry pictured as his dream girl; she walks with a cane, wears oversized boys' clothes, and rarely seems to shower. But when Grace and Henry are both chosen to edit the school paper, he quickly finds himself falling for her. It's obvious there's something broken about Grace, but it seems to make her even more beautiful to Henry, and he wants nothing more than to help her put the pieces back together again. And yet, this isn't your average story of boy meets girl. 

“Tell me you believe our lives are anything more than a ridiculous cascade of random chances.”

What if your first love isn’t like how the movies tell you it will be?

What if the first love of your life showed up one random day in oversized male clothing, dirty and with clumps of hair all raggedly chopped up? What if there was no music in the background, an awkward bumping into each other moment with eye contact or one look across a crowded room where you just… knew?

What if “love” is nothing but a chemical reaction in the brain, meant to fizzle out?

What if?

Henry Page has spent his life waiting for the girl of his dreams. He’s never felt anything remotely close to love – or even like – in his life, and is waiting for his movie like moment. And so, when Grace Town walks into his class and barely gives him a second look in her baggy clothes and bad personal hygiene, he doesn’t expect her to be the one giving him butterflies in his stomach or occupying his thoughts in the dark.

And then she gets put onto the editorial committee (consisting of Henry and Grace) of the school newspaper, and a strange bond forms. With their pet fish, Ricky Martin Knupps II, a barrage of sarcastic banter, strange car rides and philosophical talk, Henry experiences what he’s been waiting for, even if it’s not all he dreamed it would be.

But Grace is not all here – she’s broken, a ghost, and only half alive. So what can a half here girl have to give to a boy in love with the idea of her unbroken version?

What if the main character in this particular chemical reaction isn’t worth more than a passing glance in the whole plethora of reactions in the universe – and the brain?

”Love doesn’t need to last a lifetime for it to be real. You can’t judge the quality of love by the length of time it lasts. Everything dies, love included.”

Our Chemical Hearts was NOT what I expected it to be – which was a fluffy romance filled with dramatic pauses and rainbow endings. Instead, Our Chemical Hearts was RAW, filled to the brim with BEAUTIFUL WORDS and soul shattering pain, and I could not be more in love than I am at this moment.

I adored EVERYTHING about this book, including the secondary characters. I LOVED Lola and Murray and Sadie and Ryan and Madison Carlson and the teachers and all the parents, because everything about this book screamed REAL and WONDERFUL and BROKEN and captured the VERY ESSENCE of what it is to be alive and to fall in and out of love.

Not your average book, but something SO MUCH BETTER.

If you’ve looking for a book that will haunt you long after you’ve put it down, welcome to Our Chemical Hearts.

A MASTERPIECE.

What is the most beautiful quote you've ever read? What is your favourite YA Contemporary Novel?

I can't wait to hear your thoughts about Our Chemical Hearts!

A Beautiful Story// REVIEW: Never Gone by Anusha Subramaniam

Title: Never Gone
Author: Anusha Subramaniam
Publication Date: September 7th 2016
Publisher: Penguin Random House India
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: Penguin Random House India (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Flipkart || Snapdeal || Infibeam 

Blurb Description: Siddharth and Veera have a connection they refuse to acknowledge. There is more to Kavya than her snooty social-butterfly act. Mahir is the heartbroken heartbreaker. Aslesha has built all her friendships on a foundation of lies. Nikhil has spent his entire life learning how to shut people out. All Aakash wants is a second chance. And then there's Ananya. The one who was born to raise hell and change the world. 

“You broke my heart but made sure that I didn’t cut myself on the pieces. You left me feeling lonely but made sure that I was never alone.” 

Imagine yourself sitting in the cafeteria, or in class, every day, rolling your eyes at the silly antics of your friends, laughing and not saying the things you really want say because well, there’s always tomorrow, right? Time is on your side.

But what if isn’t?

What if you couldn’t say all the things you wanted to say to someone and make the apologies you wanted to make? What if your time was up?

Told in seven alternating viewpoints of teenagers in the same social group, dealing with the death of one of their own, Never Gone is the Indian YA Contemporary you’ve been waiting for.

Truth be told, I went into this book with little to no expectations. I’d tried other debut Indian authors trying to recreate Indian School Life, and they’d failed. And Anusha Subramaniam, managed to surprise me in the SECOND CHAPTER.

There were so many things I loved about this book, especially the emphasis it put on friendship and doing things in the NOW, not waiting for an unpredictable future. I adored the road trip to the beach house and the wedding and of course, finishing all the items on their friend’s bucket list. There were a lot of times when I was reminded of my school days (they’re not that long ago, only a couple of months but still) and it felt very spot on to what different teenagers face in their lives.

 My favourite thing about Never Gone was Aakash and Ananya, and the dynamic between them. I loved this friendship turned something more and all the stories we heard were either swoony or hilarious and I loved them ALL.

There were a few things that annoyed me a little, like:

a)      The dialogue was so awkward in some parts

‘MAHIR!’ Niharika (predictably) shrieked. ‘You watch. I will make your last year at school hell. No one will speak to you. You do not want to cross me!’

That it made me want to cringe. In a book exploring some pretty deep stuff, some of it seemed superficial, unneeded and artificial. Then again, for a sixteen year old author, this was a pretty good book.

b)      The Ending, after a pretty realistic book was so perfectly rounded out, with a new love interest for EVERYBODY, and everyone professing undying love to each other made me want to roll my eyes. After a fairly realistic book, this UNREALISTIC fairy tale like ending was a little off-putting.

In a nutshell, Never Gone is a beautiful story of friendship, first love and moving on that you should definitely pick up! 3.75 stars!

One of the country's youngest published authors, Anusha Subramanian was only twelve when she wrote her first book, Heirs of Catriona. Her hobbies include reading, binge watching television shows and writing, of course. Why wait for someone else to do it when you can write your own fairy tale, right? You can connect with her on twitter @AnushaS_.

What was the last diverse contemporary novel you read? What is your favourite romance trope in contemporary novels - the best friend/ the bad boy/ the nerd and the popular girl or the manic pixie dreamgirl?

I can't wait to hear your thoughts and preferences!

Review: Tanya Tania by Antara Ganguli

Title: Tanya Tania
Author: Antara Ganguli
Publication Date: July 9th 2016
Publisher: Bloomsbury India
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: Bloomsbury India (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Flipkart || Amazon IN

Blurb Description: Last night there was a snowstorm that made my window disappear. I woke up gasping at the heater. This is my first letter in three years. First letter since I left Pakistan. First letter since Nusrat. 
Tanya Tania is a story about two young women coming of age in two countries that are coming of age. Tanya Talati in Karachi and Tania Ghosh in Bombay, daughters of college best friends, write to each other of what cannot be said to anyone else: a mother who has gone from quiet to silent, sex that has become a weapon, a servant with unforgettably soft hands and a country beginning to play with religion. When Tanya's brother receives a kidnapping threat, she sets in motion what no one could have predicted, least of all Tania, who finds herself alone in a forbidden bazaar in Bombay, listening to the sounds of a riot torn city coming closer and closer and closer . . .
Written in letters that span six years, Tanya Tania is a story of what it means to be between childhood and adulthood at a time when two countries are struggling with what it means to be Indian and Pakistani, rich and poor, confident and lonely. A story of love between girls, between families and between countries, Tanya Tania, is, at its heart, a love story about what it means to be human.

"I want to make something of my life, Tania. I’m not yet a whole person but I’m trying to be. That must mean something.”

I’m Indian. My grandparents moved from the region of India that is now called Pakistan during the partition in India into India and Pakistan.

Pakistan was the country the Muslims demanded for their own religious freedom, and the Hindus along with others following different religions that happened to be living in their promised region were sent out. My family was one of these families.

Reading Tanya Tania was like learning all about my history; all about how different and yet how similar my life could have been, were we still living there. That sounds selfish, now, so how about I stop talking about me and start talking about what this book is ACTUALLY about.

Tania Ghosh lives in Mumbai, with her rich family, boy and popularity problems. Her boyfriend doesn’t publicly acknowledge their relationship, her best friend is a mute girl who also happens to be hired to wash her clothes for her and her parents never seem to do anything but fight and want her to be her older brother.

Tanya lives in Pakistan, but her entire life is about the day she leaves, and goes back home. College in America, that’s the dream. Harvard. In the meantime, she is trying to cope with her mother that fades away more every day, her twin brother and father that are always absent and refuse to acknowledge that there is anything wrong, her boyfriend doesn’t care, and everybody around her is receiving death threats.

Tanya Tania is all about two teenage girls, and their journey into adulthood.

For there is nothing simple about GROWING UP anymore; nothing simple about growing up female in countries where feminism is oppressed. There is nothing simple about growing up in a world where what SOCIETY tells you you’re supposed to do is more important that what YOU want to do.

Tanya Tania is a story, told through a bunch of letters to explain the complex lives of two ordinary girls, and it is GORGEOUS.

It is everything you might be going through, it is everything you might go through in the future, and it’s told in a SUCH heart-warming, you will forever want to stay immersed in there two lives.

What I LOVED about Tanya Tania:

1.       ALL THE DEEP THINGS: EVERY SINGLE PAGE OF THIS BOOK HAD SOMETHING DEEP GOING ON. Depression, Sex and Consent, RELIGION, Standing Up To Your Parents, How Much It Matter If People Like You, AND EVERYTHING WAS HANDLED GORGEOUSLY. I was particularly happy with how much sex was talked about in this book – about what sex means as a teenager, the pressure to JUST GET IT OVER WITH, and how it’s always the GIRL that is the slut when it all comes out.

2.       THE HONEST VOICES: Tanya and Tania had these unflinching voices, raw voices that embodied the thoughts of all teenage girls when it comes to boys, sex, college, parents and just what to do with themselves. It felt like I was reading something I would write on a piece of paper, and I LOVE THAT FEELING.

What I Didn’t Love about Tanya Tania:

1.       That Abrupt Ending: I know this is a story about LIFE, and that the ending of this book shouldn’t have been tied up in a pretty bow, BUT I REALLY NEEDED IT. It felt like all Tanya had accomplished was that she managed to move away and live the American Dream, but nothing about her PERSONALLY had been resolved. She never spoke to her parents about being the invisible one, never spoke to her brother about any of it. It was heart-breaking and she deserved a better ending.

2.       The Names: AGAIN, I know, a symbolic/ publicity stunt, but for the first few letters, I WAS SO CONFUSED about which girl was writing to which. SIGH.

All in all, a book DEFINITELY worth your time, with the most unflinching thoughts on what it is to grow up today.

4 stars!

What books accurately represent your country or religion? I'm dying to read more books that accurately give me insight into different cultures, and I'm looking for recs!

ALSO, which books have helped you through a hard time? 

Please do link me up! I'll be catching up on comments this weekend!

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?