Review: I’m Not Her by Janet Gurtler

Title: I’m Not Her

Author: Janet Gurtler

Release Date: May 1, 2011

My Verdict: Even though I had some issues with it, I really enjoyed this story.

Synopsis: ” “For the first time in my life, I didn’t feel envy…” Tess is the exact opposite of her beautiful, athletic sister. And that’s okay. Kristina is the sporty one, Tess is the smart one, and they each have their place. Until Kristina is diagnosed with cancer. Suddenly Tess is the center of the popular crowd, everyone eager for updates. There are senior boys flirting with her. Yet the smiles of her picture-perfect family are cracking and her sister could be dying. Now Tess has to fill a new role: the strong one. Because if she doesn’t hold it together, who will?“

I’ve been in a serious rut with my reading.  I was picking up books but they just weren’t sticking.  I needed something light and contemporary, without any expectations.  This caught my eye at the library, and since it was not a title or an author I had heard of before, it was a good candidate. It was engaging  enough to get me out of my rut, and now I’m ready to read!

While there were certain aspects of this book that didn’t quite work for me, there were a lot more that did.  Tess is dealing with the recent cancer diagnosis and treatment of her older sister, Kristina.  She is left with a huge emotional burden, as she is the only member of the family who isn’t shutting down in the face of hardship.  Her father is checked out completely, choosing work as an excuse to avoid being there.  Her mother, who has seemed to live vicariously through Kristina, is unsure how to adjust her life to the new circumstances.  Both parents fail to see the impact that everything is having on Tess, and really just prove to be absent in their own different ways throughout the course of the story.  The elements of this narrative are all very strong in that respect.  There is a lot of room for emotional depth, and while I feel that it is explored in certain ways, it falls short somewhere.  

The overlying theme of this story is how Tess, as the sister of the girl with cancer, does not seem to be given her own time to grieve. Neither her family nor most of her school community, seem to acknowledge the fact that while she doesn’t have cancer, she is still dealing with exceptional pain.  She is left with a lot of guilt, because she has it easy, she doesn’t have cancer, she doesn’t have to deal with chemo or a possible lost limb.  Instead she has to watch her sister go through something horrific, and pick up the pieces that her parents are failing to.  She may not have cancer, but that doesn’t mean her life hasn’t changed.  It has, in more ways than she could have ever expected.

There are a lot of boys in this story.  So many it’s not always entirely predictable how it will turn out on the romance front.  I think that is rare in contemporary YA, and one of the strengths of this novel.  The real story here isn’t some great romance, it is a girl dealing with pain in her family, along with finding her self and figuring out where she fits in within her various worlds.  When it comes to the boys there is a good amount of variety.  There’s a bad boy that makes her blood run fast and a sweet protective friend who helps her get through the shifting tides in her school and social life.  Both serve their own purposes but it never feels like it’s a war between them, and it never feels like a love triangle.

At a certain point this story takes a turn, and honestly it just doesn’t feel right or believable to me.  An event takes place that feels abrupt and underdeveloped, and while it should have stirred up emotions, I felt it just didn’t engage me in the ways that I would hope. Overall, I feel that this story has a lot of great components, but there is definitely room for improvement.

For a debut novel from an author I hadn’t heard of, this book shows a lot of promise.  I will definitely be checking out more from Janet Gurtler, and am excited to have another contemporary YA author to add to my list to read.  With all that did work in this novel, I think Janet Gurtler has the material to write some good books, so I look forward to checking out her other titles.

Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Title: Lola and the Boy Next Door

Author: Stephanie Perkins

Release Date: September 29, 2011

My Rating: 3.5/5

Synopsis: “Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit — more sparkly, more fun, more wild — the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood. When Cricket — a gifted inventor — steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.”

Lola was fun, but I am having trouble deciding what rating to give it.  I definitely did not enjoy it as much as Anna and the French Kiss, which I suspected would be the case before reading it. It did have its own wonderful, lovable qualities, I just didn’t find it as engaging and swoon-worthy.

The characters were great, very colourful and lovable, especially the supporting characters.  I loved Anna’s dads, they were so caring and protective.  I also I really enjoyed her best friend Lindsey, in particular her Nancy Drew obsession and the fact that she called Lola Ned.  I’m a sucker for a good Nancy Drew reference, this one made me happy. And I loved to hate Max, what a jerk! Classic bad boy musician. It was fun to see Anna and St. Claire and how they are doing post French Kiss, it was sweet the way they were worked into the story line, as a guide for Lola about what a relationship should be and what love looks like. 

I guess Lola was a little harder for me to relate to, but I still really enjoyed her as a character. I liked what she had to say, though it took her forever to come to come to some obvious realizations, and it was fun to see a more quirky, off beat girl have the staring roll, she kind of reminded me of Tibby from the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants.  Cricket was cute, and I definitely liked him, he just didn’t have Etienne’s pure charm.  Though he did have the height Etienne was lacking.

The whole boy next door concept is a classic for a reason, and I tend to love it.  I loved that their windows looked out onto each-other’s, that is a concept taken straight out of my teenage fantasies, which is a bit of an embarrassing over-share, but completely true.

I definitely like Stephanie Perkin’s style, she takes classic concepts and puts her own unique spin on them. I think she will have lots of great stuff for us in the future, I have high hopes for Isla and the Happily Ever After.

Review: The Survival Kit by Donna Freitas

Title: The Survival Kit

Author: Donna Freitas

Release Date: October 11, 2011

My Rating: 5/5

Synopsis:  “When Rose’s mom dies, she leaves behind a brown paper bag labeled Rose’s Survival Kit. Inside the bag, Rose finds an iPod, with a to-be-determined playlist; a picture of peonies, for growing; a crystal heart, for loving; a paper star, for making a wish; and a  paper kite, for letting go.

As Rose ponders the meaning of each item, she finds herself returning again and again to an unexpected source of comfort. Will is her family’s gardener, the school hockey star, and the only person who really understands what she’s going through. Can loss lead to love?”

I LOVED this book.  I felt completely giddy through 80% of the book as if I was actually experiencing what was going on, and found myself grinning non-stop.  Good thing I was in the privacy of my own room at these points.  This was just an adorable book, exactly the kind that I like.  It made me feel good in a Sarah Dessen kind of way.

I’ve mentioned before I seem to be a sucker for books that start on the premise of the main character losing a parent. So, naturally, I was drawn into this one.  Add in the fact that the male lead is the school’s hockey star, and how could I not love it? Classic Canadian girl, I love hockey, and I love hockey players.  It is rare that hockey plays a part in a book, but the fact that it had a role in a book that is all around so ideal for me as this one just makes me overjoyed.

So enough gushing, let’s get down to it.  I love the characters, particularly that the ones you are supposed to like still show their flaws, and the characters that you normally wouldn’t like so much in a book still had some very endearing qualities.  Take Chris, the initial boyfriend and star quarterback, who is just not right for Rose. In most other books, I probably just wouldn’t like this guy, but all through the story, he remains a good guy, who I have a  lot of sympathy for.  On the other side, we have the swoon-worthy leading boy (this is YA, I don’t think I can call him a man), who is wonderful, but he is still flawed, and he messes up.  The characters have different levels to them, it’s not just black and white, which was quite refreshing.  Real life characters aren’t either good or bad with no in between, so it is nice to see that mirrored in fiction.  I also loved all of Rose’s friends.  They were some seriously good friends, the type you would want to have around when you’re going through hard times.

The Survival Kit was an emotional, heart-warming story, that I would recommend to any fan of contemporary YA.  I am surprised to see that it doesn’t have all that many reviews on Goodreads yet, but I feel like with time people will discover it and love it.

I got this one from the library, but it is definitely going on my to-buy list as a new favourite.  It really had all the elements of a good contemporary YA that I love.  Sigh.

Review: Variant by Robison Wells

Title: Variant

Author: Robison Wells

Release Date: October 4, 2011

My Rating: 4/5

Synopsis: “Benson Fisher thought that a scholarship to Maxfield Academy would be the ticket out of his dead-end life. He was wrong. Now he’s trapped in a school that’s surrounded by a razor-wire fence. A school where video cameras monitor his every move. Where there are no adults. Where the kids have split into groups in order to survive. Where breaking the rules equals death. But when Benson stumbles upon the school’s real secret, he realizes that playing by the rules could spell a fate worse than death, and that escape—his only real hope for survival—may be impossible.”

I didn’t know what to expect from this one, I hadn’t heard too much about it. It’s nice to go into a book without any preconceived ideas.  I was drawn in pretty immediately to this one, there are lots of questions thrown out in the beginning as to what is really going on at the school.  I felt very uneasy about the situation that these kids were put in, and I wanted to see how it would resolve. It kept me interested, up until the cliffhanger ending, so I definitely plan on reading the sequel when it is released.

The concept of the book kind of reminded me of the Stanford Prison Experiment, which if you don’t know was a psychological experiment done by Stanford University in the 1970s. They saw how people would act when divided into roles as prisoners and guards.  In Variant, you can see the roles that the students take on, some playing roles  that keep others from escaping, are quite plausible given the situation they are in.  Of course, there is more to it than just that.

Variant was a very enjoyable read that kept me hooked all the way through.  It had elements of dystopia, but if you read it you will see that there are other elements involved. It wasn’t over the top fantastic, but it was entertaining, and good enough for me to want to read book two asap.

Review: The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder

Title: The Probability of Miracles

Author: Wendy Wunder

Release Date: December 8, 2011

My Rating: 3.5/5

Synopsis: “Dry, sarcastic, sixteen-year-old Cam Cooper has spent the last seven years in and out hospitals. The last thing she wants to do in the short life she has left is move 1,500 miles away to Promise, Maine – a place known for the miraculous events that occur there. But it’s undeniable that strange things happen in Promise: everlasting sunsets; purple dandelions; flamingoes in the frigid Atlantic; an elusive boy named Asher; and finally, a mysterious envelope containing a list of things for Cam to do before she dies. As Cam checks each item off the list, she finally learns to believe – in love, in herself, and even in miracles.”

I had read lots of great reviews on this one, all saying it was a beautiful emotional story. It was, to a certain degree, but I don’t think I got as much out of it as everyone else did. Part of me thinks maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood for it.

I had very mixed feelings about this book.  On one hand, I really enjoyed it, I was sucked in and read it quickly.  I liked the idea of the plot, and hoped to get lots of tears out of it, but I didn’t.  It’s not hard for a book to make me cry, so I figured a book about a girl who is dying of Cancer was a sure bet.  It got maybe one tear out of me at the end.

Cam is described in the synopsis as dry and sarcastic, but really I just saw her as cynical.  You can’t blame her for her cynicism, given all the bad luck she has been dealt in her life, but I wouldn’t try and call it something that it isn’t. She has developed a hard shell to cope with her impending death, and I really hoped to see more of a break through from her near the end in regards to her relationships with her mom and sister.  We see a bit of that, but not as much as I would have liked.

Her mother is desperate to find a miracle to cure Cam’s seemingly hopeless disease.  In search of this miracle, they go to Promise, Maine, a town that people claim is full of miracles.  I love how her mother and sister are so hopeful, and try to make the best of Cam’s situation.  By looking for a miracle, they are able to provide Cam with new experiences.

Overall, it was certainly worth reading, and I am glad I did, but it won’t be a book that I will come back to again to read over and over. (Though maybe I will give it another try down the line to see if I feel differently the second time around).

Review: The Last Litter Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson

Title: The Last Little Blue Envelope

Author: Maureen Johnson

Release Date: April 26, 2011

My Rating: 3/5

Synopsis: “Ginny Blackstone thought that the biggest adventure of her life was behind her. She spent last summer traveling around Europe, following the tasks her aunt Peg laid out in a series of letters before she died. When someone stole Ginny’s backpack—and the last little blue envelope inside—she resigned herself to never knowing how it was supposed to end.

Months later, a mysterious boy contacts Ginny from London, saying he’s found her bag. Finally, Ginny can finish what she started. But instead of ending her journey, the last letter starts a new adventure—one filled with old friends, new loves, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Ginny finds she must hold on to her wits . . . and her heart. This time, there are no instructions.”

I first read 13 Little Blue Envelopes back when it first came out, and loved the adventurous feel of it.  It definitely ended with a mystery hanging in the air, what was in the last letter.  When I heard Maureen Johnson had written a sequel, I knew I had to read it.  Since it wasn’t too fresh in my mind, I re-read the first one last week and enjoyed it again.

The follow up was satisfying, but had a different feel from the first.  For that reason, I don’t think I liked it quite as much.  Ginny heads back to London when she is contacted by someone who has found her letters. Unfortunately, everything isn’t as it should be, and this guy is trying to blackmail her.  In exchange for the final letter, she has to agree to give him partial profits from the sale of her aunt’s final art piece.  While this was an interesting angle for the new book to take, it felt pretty skeezy, especially when their relationship starts to elevate. Overall, relationships all around have changed.  This was a little upsetting from where the last book ended, but at the same time these things happen.

There were elements of the book that I liked, but overall, it just didn’t have the same adventurous feel as the first book.  Where before Ginny was on a journey of self discovery, where she needs to be spontaneous and depend on herself, in this one she was forced to go on a journey because of someone’s need for money, where he is controlling the trip.  She does end up gaining a lot from the trip still, but it just wasn’t the same.

There were, however, some highlights, I especially love the dynamic between Richard and Ginny, and I liked to see that they were keeping a relationship and accepting each other as family.

So, while it was still a good read, it wasn’t as fun and adventurous 13 Little Blue Envelopes.

Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Title: Anna and the French Kiss

Author: Stephanie Perkins

Release Date: December 2, 2010

My Rating: 4.5/5

Synopsis: “Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris – until she meets Etienne St. Clair: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he’s taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home. As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near – misses end with the French kiss Anna – and readers – have long awaited?”

After re-reading 13 Little Blue Envelopes yesterday, and feeling some serious wanderlust, I was happy to have this at the top of my to read pile to keep the European adventure theme going. While the title of this book nearly put me off (french kiss made it seem a little flakier than it was), the countless rave reviews I have come across told me I needed to give it a shot.  And when I thought about it, a YA novel set at a European boarding school is exactly my kind of story.  The reviews were right, and I loved it.  This was a very fun read, with an adorable girl meets boy story line.

This book makes me want to go back in time and insist my parents send me to a foreign boarding school.  Once I am done writing this I am going to strategize ways to escape to Paris with no money and start some crazy self-finding adventure. Or to England to find a boy with a cute accent. Beyond the seriously romantic setting, the things I loved about this book were the characters.  They seemed so normal and real.  I found Anna to be very easy to relate to in the way that she processed her thoughts and didn’t take herself too seriously, Stephanie Perkins did a good job finding humour in the mundane.  St. Clair was adorable, but I think his flaws were what made him most endearing, and different from a lot of leading men (er, boys).  Here was this guy who was pretty much perfect in the eyes of the protagonist, but really was just as self-doubting and unsure as anybody.  Even though he had girls fawning over him on a regular basis, he never let it get to his head. The two of them were so adorably awkward trying to figure things out.

I really enjoyed this one and look forward to reading Lola and the Boy Next Door, as well as her future releases!

Review: Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler

Title: Twenty Boy Summer

Author: Sarah Ockler

Release Date: June 1, 2009

My Rating: 2.5/5

Synopsis: “According to Anna’s best friend, Frankie, twenty days in Zanzibar Bay is the perfect opportunity to have a summer fling, and if they meet one boy every day, there’s a pretty good chance Anna will find her first summer romance. Anna lightheartedly agrees to the game, but there’s something she hasn’t told Frankie–she’s already had her romance, and it was with Frankie’s older brother, Matt, just before his tragic death one year ago.”

I was hoping to connect with this story a little more than I did.  With Ockler’s new book Bittersweet coming out this week, I took a look through her other books on her shelf at the store, since they did not yet have Bittersweet in stock. Looking at the title, I was not drawn in, it sounded a little more flaky than what I would want, but reading the back cover I realized the title was slightly misleading.  This wasn’t just a story about hooking up with boys at the beach, there appeared to be a bit more to it.  Anna is struggling with keeping a secret that has been eating her up for the past year.  Her best friend’s brother/ best-friend-that’s-a-boy died shortly after they elevated their relationship, but before they had a chance to tell anyone, and Anna has been trying to decide whether or not she can give up her secret.

After realizing there was more to this book, I was very interested to read it. It was very readable and well written. Sarah Ockler seems to have a way with words, and I would definitely be willing to give her another try with her other books.  That said, I didn’t really love this one, and I can’t quite say why. I think maybe I had difficulty connecting with the mentality of the two girls in this story.  I sympathised with them, but never really am able to get behind characters on a quest to lose their virginity just for the sake of it.  Frankie was a difficult character to like, even though I felt for her.  She was grieving the loss of her brother in a way that made her into a different person, and that person was not someone I could relate to.  Anna was much more down to earth as the protagonist, but she still let Frankie influence her into doing things she wouldn’t normally do.  I guess what I was lacking with this story was the real ups and downs that I was looking for.  From a story with this type of plot, I would usually expect to connect more with the characters and feel what they were feeling, high highs and low lows, but that just wasn’t the case here.

I see potential to enjoy Ockler’s writing in other books, and hope to have more of a connection with Bittersweet. Overall, it was a good concept of a story, good writing, but I just didn’t connect like I would hope to.

Review: Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Title: Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour

Author: Morgan Matson

Release Date: May 4, 2010

My Rating: 5/5

Synopsis: “Amy Curry thinks her life sucks. Her mom decides to move from California to Connecticut to start anew—just in time for Amy’s senior year. Her dad recently died in a car accident. So Amy embarks on a road trip to escape from it all, driving cross-country from the home she’s always known toward her new life. Joining Amy on the road trip is Roger, the son of Amy’s mother’s old friend. Amy hasn’t seen him in years, and she is less than thrilled to be driving across the country with a guy she barely knows. So she’s surprised to find that she is developing a crush on him. At the same time, she’s coming to terms with her father’s death and how to put her own life back together after the accident. Told in traditional narrative as well as scraps from the road—diner napkins, motel receipts, postcards—this is the story of one girl’s journey to find herself.”

First let me start off by saying I seem to be drawn to books where the main character is getting over the loss of a parent.  The Truth About Forever is my very favourite by Sarah Dessen, and I loved Jessi Kirby’s Moonglass.  Heck, I guess you could even count Harry Potter in that category. I love the tragedies, I like to take my books with a side of tissues.  So when I discovered that this fun, road trip story was also a moving past the pain of losing a parent, I knew it was promising.

Also to note, while it was sitting at the top of my goodreads list, I was browsing for other books to read and came across Morgan Matson’s next release, Second Chance Summer, without knowing she also wrote this.  I read the summary and thought it looked awesome, only to discover it was not yet released. So I tried to see what else she had written, much to my surprise, it was already on my list.  I took that as a sign I needed to get Amy and Roger immediately, and so I did.

I was not disappointed.  I loved the dynamic between Amy and Roger, and had a lot of fun with the scrap-book element of the book.  I particularly loved their “Hike-u” conversation.  I thought these pieces helped illustrate the progression of their relationship in a fun way, that we may have not otherwise been able to see.

Amy needed to get past a huge amount of guilt through the novel, and the road trip was the perfect way for her to do that.  She had to spend days in a car with one other person, which is a sure fire way to get to know someone. Roger helps Amy get past her guilt, and helps her to realize that she needs to work on her grief, instead of keeping it all inside.  Amy is able to realize that she needs to be open with her mother and brother about what they are going through.

This book had everything I look for in a contemporary YA read, it was a feel good story with good character development, all with the fun backdrop of a road trip. I was seriously craving my own road trip after this one.

Review: Catching Jordan, Miranda Kenneally

Title: Catching Jordan
Author: Miranda Kenneally
Release Date: December 1, 2011
My Rating: 3.5/5

Synopsis: “What girl doesn’t want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day out? Jordan Woods isn’t just surrounded by hot guys, though – she leads them as the captain and quarterback on her high school football team. They all see her as one of the guys, and that’s just fine. As long as she gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university. But now there’s a new guy in town who threatens her starring position on the team… and has her suddenly wishing to be seen as more than just a teammate.”

I saw the great reviews on goodreads, and thought it looked right up my alley. It looked fun, light, and I loved the concept of it focusing on not your typical heroine, a female football captain.

I had mixed feelings reading this book.  Overall, I enjoyed it.  It was fun, I liked the characters, and I liked the plot.  The big drawback for me was the dialogue.  I found a lot of it to be forced and awkward, not natural.  I think in trying to make her sound like ‘one of the guys’, the author added in a few to many “bros”.

I liked Jordan as a character, though I thought she was sometimes to hard on other characters.  I liked the focus on her relationship with her father, and while I understood her reservation as he tried to break the ice, I thought she was a little harsh on him when he was clearly trying to change things.

Jordan had a lot of difficulty being friends with girls, and while I think it is very important for girls to have girl friends, and generally steer clear of girls who are incapable of having healthy relationships with females, I could completely see why Jordan was forced into this situation.  She had some bad experiences with girls, but was finally able to break that wall down, and see that not all girls are evil.

All in all, I loved the story, while I didn’t always love the writing.  I hope to see the dialogue improve for Kenneally’s next go, but the story was enjoyable enough to make up for it, and keep her on my to-read list for the future.