To All the Boys I've Loved Before

This book is all secret smiles and childhood friendships, love letters, sisterly bonds, and sweet family traditions. I'm super not-sorry that I cheered when I read that Lara Jean is half-Korean. Jenny integrated it so perfectly into the story-line without it being a big deal. It's a really cute story filled with truths about imagining a boy might like you back, and the scariness of when someone might. It's also about the way life is different when someone you isn't there anymore.. I like that I actually didn't mind who she ended up with or what happened, I was just enjoying the journey. Jenny Han also captured those little high school things so well: girls who spread rumors and seduce boys, creatively sneaking alcohol in, the friends we've had since childhood and are loyal to even though we're completely different people now.. Loving someone you think you'll probably love forever but never being sure.. Not saying 'I like you' back, even if you really do, because girls can be idiots too sometimes. The boys in this book are so adorable and kind and charming in their own way. And the families are faithful and great and, it's a really lovely book. Cute things made me smile: Lara Jean's innocent curiosity and the questions she asks, her adorable sense of style and how I wanted to wear all her outfits and also pick out a dress at that vintage house place, the family baking cookies in the kitchen together, the boys playing with her little sister, the way the sisters like their bananas differently and how that affects their household (the realest thing about family!) and the fact that Josh and Lara Jean jokingly used Harry Potter spells on each other on Halloween. (Obviously I smiled very excitedly and maybe squealed when Josh was dressed as Harry Potter. But I also felt that way when Kitty gives her the love notes Peter wrote and they're so cute.) Lara Jean's sister, Kitty, is so adorable and sassy. I love everyone's automatic love for her and her innocent but fierce love right back. Two great moments: "I told Kitty she was adopted and her real family was in a traveling circus. It's why she took up gymnastics." Bahhaha! "And how could you stop after Chamber of Secrets! The third one's the best out of the whole series. I mean that's literally crazy to me. Do you not have a soul?" Because for real, AMEN SISTA!

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

This book made me want to move to New York and then LA to live as a struggling actor and make friends with quirky people who will then become famous with me so we can take each other to awards shows and be super chilled about it together. And actually, it made me feel like I already have done all those things, because you go on the whole journey with Mindy..

It's similar to I Feel Bad About My Neck, the Nora Ephron book I adored, in that it's a whole lot of essays that explain Mindy Kaling's thoughts on different situations. This ranges from her memories growing up as a child and as someone moving out to New York to find work, to becoming who she is now in the 'celeb' world and with the cool-kids comedy circle. It's filled with honest and true commentary on society, in the most relate-able way. That's what makes it different to me. The Nora book made me want to be Nora, and Mindy's one made me feel like she is me, and I am her. Which I loved.

She talks about how funny her comedy-writing colleagues are, how loyal her friends have been. She explains conversations on the phone with her best friend, that awards ceremony gift bags are lame, and how married couples are ruining it for us single people. She says amazing things like "Is gluten still lame? Is soap cool again, or is body wash still the way to go?" and I actually had to pause for a moment to truly let it sink in when she wrote of her funeral, 'Dress code: chic devastated.' I mean, this girl is.. Just!

It feels real, like Mindy really is just talking to me and telling me these things in her usual cheerful, perky manner (The Mindy from The Mindy Project is the version of Mindy I know, and with whom I believe I would make excellent friends. This book only strengthened our bond, and also my desire to actually hang with real-life Mindy, who is probably way more badass than I could actually handle.) Mostly I love her confidence, and the jokingly intense level with which she's like 'I am Awesome!' because she is, and because that's literally how I talk with my bestie about us.

She's hilarious. Just hilarious. I'm not into reading books that are sold as funny, I'm not into straight-comedic things, but Mindy is my gurl and I wanted to laugh with her like I do when her show is on. And I did. Out loud! At the crazy things she says and her actual brilliance as both a human and a comedic writer. I love the way she sees the world. This book is filled with such clarity about our time, and she's just telling it like she's not Mindy-queen-of-my-heart but just a girl who lives in LA and is looking up at some very cool celebs.

There's sad parts and struggle parts, but it all endears you more to Mindy's strength and coolness. She's worked damn hard, and I'm so impressed by it all. There's pictures from when she was a child, selfies on her way to awards shows, stories from when people were mean to her, and all the pop-culture references I live for. Sidenote: I kind of want all the fake tv-shows she mentions as a joke, to become real.

It's just an AWESOME book that I will read again so often just for those laugh-out-loud moments of brilliance that she so cleverly fills her stories with. Mindy, man! Mindy! She's just cool, and this book is everything. Read it.

A word I learned, and now love to say aloud: pejorative (expressing contempt or disapproval)

The Beginning of Everything

I really enjoyed Robyn's writing! I actually spent a lot of time just being impressed at how well she wrote from a boy's point of view, and also loving her for creating a teenage boy so filled with wisdom and insight, while still being just a typical kid. Not only did she so accurately capture teenage life (to the point of me laughing out loud feeling nostalgic for my corresponding high school memories), she has this magic way of writing a sentence that gives us history into the character's circumstances and showing us how they feel about it having turned out that way, all at once. (Deep breath after the longest sentence ever.) I felt an emotional connection to the very essence of who her characters are, from the start of the book. The literal beginning of everything for me.

The story is filled with cool things, like flash mobs and geocaching and sneaking into university libraries. Ezra loves her in a way that feels true, it feels magic and real and then suddenly, also completely meant to be. I spent two thirds of the book just loving all the characters, and holding my breath hoping I wouldn't have to hate one of them. (It turned out really well for me, it turns out.)

I loved that they all had their own thing. You know the 'supporting characters' by their humor and reactions, and not just their names and hobbies. I love that Cassidy being the mysterious outsider wasn't the biggest part of her place in Ezra's life. She was one of them, and then she wasn't. I loved that the 'nerds' were genuinely doing cooler things than the popular kids. (Um hello, those secret movie nights!) And yes, I always love when a character goes to church, or comes out and it's not a big deal to the story. Because duh.

This is one of the few books since reading Beautiful Creatures and The Wolves of Mercy Falls (Ohhh the feelings of warmth and hot-chocolate love that I have for those books..) where I found myself highlighting parts of a sentences, little phrases.. wisdom and poetry hidden between the narrative. It's such a precious thing, finding a book so wonderfully written, both in the story it's telling and the arrangement of the words it's using. (I collected the prettiness here)

Ps, here's two awesome words I learned from this book (and my trusty Kindle dictionary)
derision (ridicule or mockery)
and unencumbered (free of burden, either literally or emotionally.)

The Naturals

This book, to me.. is all lipstick stains and blood-soaked floors. It's long stares into the eyes of strangers, but feeling like you already know them. It's being intrigued by mysterious boys, and finding safety in others, It's a little bit The Mentalist, with the dark secret murder mystery that both haunts and fuels; and a little bit Rookie Blue, with the newbie divisions and police uniforms, and the little team that knows most of each other's secrets but not all the information behind their hurt. it's not knowing but thinking that you do.

I'd been reading Gillian Flynn books when I started this, so I might have a skewed sense, but I sometimes felt like everything I saw coming.. happened. She was giving clues and I was getting them.. Like in a predictable crime show. And I didn't like that. There were moments of figuring out, what the department is, who to trust, not knowing all her secrets or the choices she'll make. But I don't want to feel like that in a book, I want to always be.. gasping and twisty and excited. BUT THEN!

And this is totally not a spoiler but I have to say DAT PLOT TWIST THO! Damn baby gurl. JLynn you ROCKED it! (I get gansta when I'm tired, but I really did, there were gasps and there were feelings.) And it was totally worth any predictable moments!

This wonderful sweeping romantic gesture after everything happens, that just.. makes me want to.. Yes.

Like, I NEED the next books. NOW! 

The Summer I Turned Pretty

I was excited to read this book, I liked the idea of Belly measuring her life in summers. 
At first when I started this book I was like 'ohhh is this book just a love story, that's it? She has a crush. -That's the book? Meh.' so I stopped, and kept reading my twisted murder books, and books about girls who have secret psycho-analysis skills. But then, this morning I needed sweetness, and this book gave it all to me. 

I like that the boys all love her before she grew up and 'turned pretty' --it makes it all more meaningful, and the feelings more lasting. I liked when the boys asked “Would you rather live one perfect day over and over or live your life with no perfect days but just decent ones?” and I liked that Belly answered that she'd rather have the decent days, so she could keep being hopeful for a best day to come. I especially like that everyone calls her Belly.

Belly's mom has the greatest friendship with Susannah. It's just, it's everything. My heart broke when she said “Best friends are important. They're the closest thing to a sister you'll ever have.” They're the perfect pair, so balanced, and they're such a great support system for each other.

It's filled with summer moments, and stories of that bond you create growing up with boys.. Memories that made me giggle, and wish to be on summer holiday again, and meeting a cute boy at a bonfire (Who I pictured as Dorrit's new boyfriend) It's filled with flash backs to all the years before, all the reasons for nicknames and moments we don't talk about anymore.

It's all the happy moments of having a crush, the beauty of family. Inside jokes over the years, beach parties, old music. A kind of montage of old photographs, evenings of laughter and screaming at siblings. It's really happy, and sometimes disappointing.. Like summers at the sea can be.

And it ends hopefully, so I'm excited to read #2.. 

The Evolution of Mara Dyer

This book was a lot more 'Ohhh my wordd I love Noah!' Like, he's everything. But not in a silly way, he stands by Mara and it means the world. He is her rock, they trust each other. I like their relationship a lot, because it never seems too-soon or co-dependent, and it never seems teen-dramatic, even though it so easily could be. Michelle created them so perfectly, as individuals and for each other. And somehow she never loses that passion and chemistry between them. I might say it was even a little sexy..

This story, gahhh I loved it even more than the first book. It's.. Thrilling! And captivating. It's filled with twists and turns and chapters that end with me holding my breath (sometimes because I hope she gets to kiss Noah, and sometimes because MAJOR PLOT TWIST that I most definitely did not see coming.)

Michelle Hodkins takes you on this journey where, again you don't know whether Mara is actually getting more delusional or if her circumstance really is getting more twisted. It's exciting mostly because everything we read unfolds as Mara sees it and she is so lost and confused while she puts the pieces together. It's a beautiful story of trust and deception and passion and desperation. And mmm I do love the tragedy, the reality of psychiatric care and the supernatural aspects that Michelle so finely weaves into the book. I'd want to call it a psycho-thriller. Yeah. Is that a genre? That's what it is!

I'm being vague about the plot on purpose, because watching it unfold is most of the fun. It reminded me of The Lovely Bones every now and then, just because of how frightened I was sometimes. And again, felt like Gone Girl, with the second-guessing and not-knowing. She has flashbacks that were fields and carriages and rituals and old languages, that remind me of Reign. But also, and especially near the end, it felt a little like Dollhouse, or Catching Fire, where you begin to think someone is messing with her but you just can't figure out who or why or in which parts.. IT'S THE BEST!

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

(Fun intro fact: This started off intriguing and then it just got way too.. accurately PTSD for me. It was too close to home and too realistic for me to continue, and so I stopped reading it for a while. When I came back to it, I was so happy I did! I found the accurate portrayal to be beautiful and true and, an important part of understanding what Mara is going through.)

This book is thrilling and fun, there's a gorgeous British bad-boy-with-more-going-on-than-everyone-else-sees (how can you not love) and there's a complicated situation that Mara is trying to figure out. It was kinda cool that I had just finished Gone Girl, and started reading Stephen King's 'Carrie' at the same time as this one, because it's got aspects of both.

-You have no idea what's real and what's not, and there's an important and urgent mystery to be solved while making sure that, to the prying eyes and public, you look like everything is fine. And then, there's this potential supernatural aspect that you're wondering about while Mara discovers more of the real story and wonders deeper into what's been happening since the accident.

There's a moment, about three-quarters into the book where it's like 'Um, really Michelle? Unneccesary. Aligators, really? Why you gotta do me like dis.' BUT THEN IT ALL MAKES SENSE AND IT'S AMAZING. Seriously, just keep reading. All the twists that may have felt annoying with other characters or in another book, just WORKS in this one. So well! Cassie Clare is right, it is haunting and dreamlike.

This book was fun to read, a true adventure of love and fear and "whattt is happening?!" In her acknowledgments, Michelle Hodkin thanks some of my favourite authors for their support (*fangirls a little.. keeps reading*) and then ends with 'I can't wait to share what happens next' and I WAS LIKE BUT I NEED TO KNOW NOW MICHELLE! I'm lucky it's already out, I rushed to get the second one immediately, it's that good.