Flat-Out Celeste – Jessica Park Flat-Out Celeste is the story of a girl who’s not quite like everyone else. Sometimes she starts to Google “Asperger’s” but can’t quite pull the trigger. At 17, Celeste is looking forward to leaving behind the awkward interactions of high school for the intellectual freedom of an Ivy League education. And then she meets Justin. Justin is a student-ambassador for a California liberal arts school, 3000 miles away from Celeste’s world. He doesn’t save her, but he helps her embrace […]
Because Literally Dying of a Broken Heart Has to be The Worst
Last week I took the afternoon off and treated myself to my favorite local bookstore, tacos, and a quiet afternoon. I had no books in mind while I was browsing, but the second I read the description of this book, I was in. A girl literally dies of a broken heart and then has to navigate the afterlife while watching those left behind cope with her death? It’s pretty much literary crack to me. Brie’s boyfriend Jacob takes her to dinner one night shortly before […]
I’ve been around the world and I-I-I…
The latest book by Jennifer E. Smith is much like the last book I read by her, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. If you enjoyed that one (I did) then you’ll probably enjoy this, too. Travel, chance meetings, lost-loves; this book is a romantic teenagers’ wet dream. The action starts on a sweltering New York City day where two teens, Lucy and Owen, get trapped in the elevator of their apartment building when the power goes out. Once rescued, the two spend the night […]
Dear Kurt, Judy, Amy, Amelia, River…
Love Letters to the Dead was a book I’ve been hearing about for a few weeks now, all good things from people who I respect. When it came out this week I decided to use some of my Amazon Kindle credit and pick it up. I found out pretty quickly I couldn’t put it down. Told entirely in letters, this is the story of a 14-year old girl, her first year of high school, and the shadow of her dead sister. It’s the kind of […]
“‘I just want to break that song into pieces,’ she said, ‘and love them all to death.'”
Eleanor & Park is a book that’s been rightfully reviewed on this site before. It’s a book about first love, first heartbreak, family, and the people that you find that make everything better. I’ve actually read this book before, when it first came out, but last week a friend of mine read it for the first time and I was inspired to read through it again. Fair warning, if you haven’t yet read it (and you should!), there will be spoilers about the ending ahead. […]
Fallen – Angels, Past Lives, and Humans: Oh My!
What’s better than a book about angels? A book about fallen angels. So I think, anyway. Angels typically annoy me with their goody-two-shoes-ness. Fallen is about those fallen ones, but most of the book doesn’t actually involve them. Being the first of a series, this is the set-up book where you’re introduced to the heroine Luce, short for Lucinda. I was hoping for Lucifer, personally, but we can’t always get what we want. This book is really about her and the beginnings of what hopefully turns […]