Binding 13 (Boys of Tommen, #1) by Chloe Walsh Review

This is a spoiler-free review!

Y'all this book moves at the pace of a snail - I understand that it is a slow burn, but that should not mean that the plot also moves as if it is stuck in time. I kept having to push myself to sit and read this book, and considering I have had it on my TBR two and a half years ago, I would have hoped it was going to live up to expectations. I did not realize that Shannon was 15 years old in this book - it feels very odd to read about a main character who is so young, and I felt as though I could not immerse myself into the story because I was so focused on how young she was - not to mention the constant mentioning of how teeny tiny she was for her age. Yes, I understand that it is important in the story, but it was constant and mentioned no less twenty times in the first one hundred pages - it became repetitive very quickly.

Thank goodness I borrowed this from the library because I simply cannot imagine using my hard earned cash to pay to read over 600 pages of this nonsense. Shannon is literally getting tossed around like a rag doll with her horrible home life and the only person that even remotely tries to do anything is Johnny - even her brother, Joey, is very much aware of what is going on, and yet seems to think that telling her to finally fight back is enough advice to get her through the next few years until she turns eighteen. I have conflicted feelings about Joey - I can understand where he is coming from, but he seems to do the bare minimum when it comes to protecting Shannon. Obviously I know it is not his job to make sure Shannon is safe, but I would have loved a little more initiative. 

Johnny is basically obsessed with Shannon but of course rugby comes first to him, yet he cannot stay away from her. At least he is not obsessed in the sense that he is running around kidnapping her - oh wait, he basically does that in the most loose of terms. You can tell that his infatuation with Shannon has overtaken his mind, but considering his mindset is rugby over everything, you can only imagine how well he handles having a "distraction" around during his most critical time to make the U20s.

Shannon's friends were pretty solid, and considering all of the bullying and harassment she went through at her old schools, I was glad she actually had people in her corner. I thought it was absolutely insane that just because Shannon would be standing near Johnny, there were people who considered her a threat and began to terrorize her. Bella in particular was the saddest excuse for a girl I have ever read and her insecurity was basically flying off the page. Considering Shannon was bullied for being small - and having big eyes? - I did think it was strange that high-school-aged people were still using those characteristics as their bullying points. It felt overused after the tenth mention, but I can see how the author wanted to drive the point home on how severe the bullying was for her at her previous school.

The worst offenders in this book are Shannon's mother and father - I was literally wishing they would disappear every other page. They are hands down some of the worst book parents I have ever encountered and I was perplexed on how they were able to carry on with their lives. It was physically nauseating to see how they treated their own daughter, and I wanted to put the book down by the last few chapters. This is not the worst I have seen, but definitely graphic enough to make me jump back as I turned the pages.

I wish I enjoyed this book as much I thought I was going to - I can certainly see the appeal, but I was expecting a lot more from this first installment, and with over 600 pages, I wanted to see more character development from Shannon. Johnny had his moments and his development after the first half of the book, but it was minimal in my eyes, and it frankly took a scenario that I will not spoil for him to get his act together and have his realization moment.

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Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon Review

This is a spoiler-free review!

Maddy (omg, twins!) has lived her life bound to her home, allergic to the world on the other side of her bedroom window. After tragedy struck her family, herself, her mother, and Carla are her only source of contact inside her home. When a moving truck brings a new family and a new neighbor boy that spike her interest, Maddy begins to wonder even more about the world she has never lived in. With Olly now in her sight, Maddy has something more to look forward to than game nights and online school.

Looking back and understanding that this book was published in 2015, the poetry that Maddy and Olly are writing to each other and reading definitely reflects the Tumblr-era of teens, and reading it now was like getting whiplash. As a teenager, I can certainly see how Maddy was enamored by Olly, but as a twenty-five year old, I was cringing internally. That being said, it was socially relevant at the time, so I am letting this slide.

Olly's characterization was giving major Augustus Waters vibes in the sense that he was just interesting enough to someone who literally has never interacted with more than two people in their lifetime. In all seriousness, he is a teenage boy was a complicated home life that certainly makes him vulnerable, but I was not drawn to him in the way that Maddy was -- he felt more like an idea rather than a person. However, that certainly changed after the second half of the book, and I believe the author did a decent job in exploring his past, along with his current home life.

Maddy's mom.... she takes overprotective to a new level, so much so that I spent the majority of the book constantly aggravated with her decisions and actions. I definitely did not agree with the way she handled a number of situations, and it felt as though whenever Maddy tried to get through to her, it just went in one ear and out the other. Given the tragedy that she has been through, I was trying to give her some grace, but I simply could not justify some of her over the top decisions. Carla was honestly a much more influential figure in Maddy's life.

The obstacles in this book are more high-stake compared to other young adult contemporary romances, given the fact that Maddy could quite literally die if she were to step into the outside world, and it is the thing she wants the most in her life. Olly and Maddy's struggles are so complex and hard for mere teenagers to have to live and deal with, and Yoon did a good job at expanding on their inner thoughts and how they processed their own feelings.

I did see the film adaptation when it first came out in theaters, and I vividly remember my best friend and I sitting in the theater wanting to scream after a very particular revelation was made by Maddy. For those who have seen the film or finished the book, you know exactly what scene I am referring to - my blood was boiling.

If you are looking for a contemporary romance, this hits the marks, while still having the touch of sadness that comes with heartbreak in more ways than one. For fans of All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven who are in search of a happier ending, Yoon's standalone may be for you.

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Dear Evan Hansen by Val Emmich, Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul Review

This is a spoiler-free review! The version I am reading is an ARC -- any changes made for the final publication are not reflected in this review.

I had only heard a few songs from the Dear Evan Hansen Broadway musical, and was not entirely sure what the plot of the musical actually was before starting this book. I knew the basics: Evan Hansen has a broken arm, and he is writing fake emails between him and a student who passed away at his school. That's about it, and I was interested to see where the story went knowing so little going into the book.

Right in the beginning of the book, you feel bad for Evan -- he is a bit of a loner, seems to be under a lot of stress and dealing with a boatload of anxiety, and cannot catch a break. No one speaks to him in the halls unless they are making a snide remark, and as for the people who do talk to him, it certainly is not for his benefit. Jared, the son of one of Evan's mother's friends, basically uses Evan as a pawn to stay in the good graces of his parents. Other than Jared, there really is not anyone that Evan can turn to besides his mother or his psychologist.

This book reads fairly quickly, yet that does not take away from the fact that I was speeding through the story and still felt as though nothing was going on. Information is thrown out to the reader and we are left with bits and pieces of Evan trying to get himself out of a mess he did not mean to get himself into, while everyone else in the story is pushing a narrative onto him. Especially when it comes to Evan -- at least in the beginning -- trying to right the wrongs that have been committed, but he consistently backs out at the last minute and arguably makes everything so much worse than it was before he tried to fix anything.

Jared was pretty funny in the beginning of the book, but as the story went on, his presence became more of a black cloud hovering over Evan, since he was the only one who knew the truth from the very beginning. I found it interesting and pretty strange that Jared would continue to say that he and Evan were never friends despite their history, and yet he was very open to helping Evan build upon this growing lie for a mere twenty dollars and a passing comment to his mom so that his car insurance could be covered.

Alana had way to much pep in her step and a controlling nature that you could spot from a mile away and know that she was going to be a problem and blow things way out of proportion, and that is exactly what she did. I could not stand her any time she came on the page and the way that she treated Evan was so incredibly annoying -- as if he was just a step for her to become more popular at school and for people to know that she exists at all.

You feel so incredibly bad for Connor's family the entire book -- they are just being fed lie after lie as they try to come to terms with Connor's death, and you can tell that his parents, especially his mother, is clinging to this new version of Connor in order to understand what happened. Zoe, Connor's sister, and Evan's friendship to relationship was actually so hard to read because we know all of this information about Evan and what he has been keeping from Connor's family that it makes it seem absolutely unthinkable that he would attempt any form of romantic relationship with Zoe.

By the end of the book, the only character I liked was Zoe -- sure, she has her flaws, but she seemed to be the only one who actually grew as a character and was a genuine person. Even Connor's parents were unbearable at times, and do not even get me started on Jared. Evan grew into this person who seemed to recognize that what he was doing was wrong, but still fed into the attention that everyone gave him, while also struggling with the anxiety he had been battling. Everyone in the school seemed to use Connor's death as a personal gain instead of looking at it as a tragedy and try to grow and understand how to help others.

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Summer Unplugged (Summer Unplugged, #1) by Amy Starling Review

This review contains spoilers for Summer Unplugged. It is currently available for free on iBooks and other ebook platforms.

Bayleigh is boy-obsessed and critical thinking skills-lacking on so many levels. She does so many questionable things in the first five chapters that I felt as though I had whiplash. Bayleigh goes from sneaking out (unsuccessfully) to sending pictures of herself to her "boyfriend" in under twenty four hours, and is shocked that her mother does not approve of her behavior.

She is sent to spend the rest of the summer with her grandparents and with no phone, which we see her complaining about on every other page. And to get the attention of Jace, the boy next door, she breaks one of her mother’s childhood snow globes and does not even care. Bayleigh is probably one of the most unlikable characters I have ever read since she genuinely thinks she can do no wrong and that she does not deserve anything her mother has done to her.

Bayleigh has known Jace for all of maybe three or four days when she takes it upon herself to delete messages from his ex-girlfriend. I understand that she does not have any consistent contact with her friends or even her mom during the summer, but I do not think she had the right to do that, even if Jace's ex cheated on him.

Of course Ian, Bayleigh's situationship, is a "Can I get a hug?" boy, it totally checks out. When he visits her at her grandparents, he is so annoying and rude to Bayleigh that I was tempted to skip the pages he was on. The relationship between Bayleigh and Jace moved so incredibly quickly I felt as though I missed the entire thing -- it felt so rushed and not in a "love at first sight" kind of way, but in a "we are the only two people our age in this town, so let's make it work" kind of way.

If you are looking for a quick young adult romance read as a filler between books, Summer Unplugged will check that box. As a general disclaimer, the main character severely annoyed me with almost everything that she did. Yes, she is a teenager, but the way she acts towards her mother for doing the bare minimum when it comes to being grounded astounds me.

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Float by Kate Marchant Review

This review does not contain spoilers for Float.

Waverly is spending a month in Florida with her aunt -- a month away from Alaska and her professor parents -- when she is introduced to the brooding boy next door, Blake. She finds herself basically thrown into a new friend group almost immediately and has to navigate their dynamic while adjusting to Florida.

This book is in first person, and since I normally try to stay away from first person POVs, I had to adjust my thinking when reading this book, but it actually reads pretty well in Waverly's perspective and I found myself quickly encompassed in her narrative.

At first, Waverly gives off this "not like other girls" vibe that is not completely in your face, but definitely comes out of the woodwork on occasion. It may be because she is in a new environment and does not know where she stands in sunny Florida compared to the Arctic, but she abandons that attitude about one third of the way into the book. She definitely becomes more of a "girl's girl" throughout the book, and with only a few mildly misogynistic comments about romance books and bathing suits, we really see her grow.

Waverly and Blake's banter is actually pretty well done, and I liked the way that the author would have them banter in front of other people and turn it into some type of game between them -- it really suited the characters and amplified that "enemies to lovers" trope they had going on with one another. They have a lot of cute moments in addition to them fighting over swimming lessons or trying to be discrete in front of their friends.

I really liked the way that the author included Blake's relationship with his father and stepmother, and how we were able to see their dynamic more in depth rather than it just being side commentary throughout the book. It was nice to give the romance a bit of a break to see what Blake was experiencing -- yes, it was from Waverly's perspective, but the author allowed us to see multiple family dynamics as the story progressed and it complimented the romance nicely.

Some aspects of the book are a little cliché -- Waverly's mantra, for starters -- that make you question the book in the sense that it feels like the author wanted to make some things more relatable, but actually just dated the book a bit. Waverly has foot-in-mouth disease, I swear. At the most inconvenient or inappropriate times, this girl will blurt out the most insane string of words I have ever read.

Overall, this was a sweet and quick read that showed a rather quick summer romance blossom between two people who at first could not seem any more different. Waverly was able to form a number of relationships throughout her stay in Florida, and the author wrapped up everything quite nicely in the end.

Float definitely gives off some of the same vibes as The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy by Jenny Han -- and this is me going off of the Amazon series alone, as I have not read the books. If you are looking for a quick, summer beach read, Float is for you.

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The Summer I Gave Up Boys (Book 1) by Kassandra Kush Review

This is a spoiler-free review! This series also consists of Isaiah's Story (Book 2), an accompanying parallel novel to Kaliyah's story.

Kaliyah Simon and Isaiah Winters are in their third year of college when they find themselves sitting next to each other at the airport -- with quick banter and flirtatious rapport, we see a subtle enemies to lovers trope in the distance. Just as luck has it, not only do they reconnect at the airport, they are seated next to each other on the plane ride as well -- what could possibly come from this?

Scorned after her boyfriend cheats on her, Kaliyah has sworn off boys for the summer to focus on herself -- and reading five books a week. With her parents on a tour of Ohio for a month and a half, Kaliyah has the house and pool to herself and just wants to relax, but Isaiah has other plans.

Kaliyah definitely gives off very mild "not like other girls" vibes, with her neon nail polish and throwing her long hair into a messy bun before going on a run in the heat, but I tried not to hold it against her -- she did just find out that her boyfriend was cheating on her after all.

She is a little too relatable on the book-buying front -- my TBR pile also seems to be never-ending and yet I keep buying books to add right to the top. At some points, it is hard to tell what Kaliyah is actually like as a person, because we see her either in stolen basketball shorts belonging to her ex-boyfriend, sitting in the house by herself, or throwing a hug 21st birthday party where everyone who is everyone seems to be there. Her character just seems a little inconsistent in who she is and who her friends are.

A quick and fun read, this novella is great to set the mood for summer for some light beach reading or a palette cleanser between books. There are references to modern day music from the early 2000s/2010s that date when the story is taking place, but they aren't in an abundance that would drive you crazy. The story is fast-paced and we come to a definitive conclusion by the end, open to the possibilities of what the summer has created for Kaliyah and Isaiah.

This book is available for FREE on iBooks and other e-reader platforms. You can add The Summer I Gave Up Boys and Isaiah's Story on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

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People Kill People by Ellen Hopkins Review

 

This book contains discussions of gun violence, death, attempted suicide, and sexual assault - reader caution is advised. Mild spoilers for People Kill People are mentioned in this review.

I have to say that I already was a fan of Ellen Hopkins' writing and poetry, and this book did not disappoint. When it comes to approaching such a topic, Hopkins is able to derive emotion where many would see just an inanimate object. The structure of the book works very well in order to take breaks from one character's story to another, while also including breaks that allow the reader to digest what they just read and apply it to the broader issues of gun control and violence in today's society.

It is an unfortunate time in our society that I read this book as mass shootings continue to skyrocket in the United States, with white supremacists using guns and violence to cause terror among communities. There is no excuse for using such violence in our world, and we should be speaking up against these individuals that use their unnecessary hatred to inflict pain onto others and take lives. Hopkins does an excellent job showing the consequences and heartbreak that gun violence brings upon to not only the people directly effected by these disgusting acts, but to the communities and overall population in which they occur.

The change in POV between the select characters shows an interesting dynamic on the mentality that they all hold on political views and attitude towards gun use and ownership. We are shown atrocious, bigoted views of several characters, while transitioning to the acceptance and hope from other characters, many of which who have been directly effected by gun violence or sudden death. Characters that begin with alt-right views begin to question their beliefs towards the end of the book, but only when they are finally confronted with the realization that arguments and violence will get them nowhere. Ashlyn has such an extreme mindset, that is riddled with alt-right ways of thinking, and when she finds herself arrested after pepper spraying a number of people at the rally, she begins to question why she is has this mindset and how this will play out.

Other characters we see experience traumas that are not directly related to gun violence, but allow them to use their experiences to work towards fighting against hatred -- Noelle was in a serious car accident, and begins to use her energy towards fighting for immigrant rights, through the encouragement of her sister. We see Cami, after being involved in the robbery at Denny's and her arrest for marijuana, begin to fight for herself, her child, and her life at the age of 19-years-old as she begins to confront the fact that her life is not going in the path she she saw for her and her family. Rand, Cami's husband, has experienced a brutal sexual assault, as we see how it impacts him and how he begins to view his relationship and his worries that Cami is slipping away from him -- just as Daniel begins to believe that Grace is going to leave him once she begins to spend more time with her sister and build a better relationship with her.

The absolutely heartbreaking reality of children getting ahold of a poorly contained gun, resulting in an accidental death haunts the ending of this book. So many stories in the news detail the unfortunate deaths caused by parents not properly locking up firearms, and in combination with curious children, lead to tragic deaths, many of which are of children themselves. Hopkins provides readers with resolutions for nearly all characters -- some of which are left uncertain, but are shown how acts of violence forever impacted their lives.

I highly encourage everyone to read this novel -- Hopkins is able to show the realities of what gun violence, among other atrocities, does to individuals and how mentality can change once something is experienced first-hand. Despite this being fiction, this is a major reality for so many people, especially in the United States, that has constantly impacted society and government response. These scenarios are very much a reality in today's society, and education on gun reform and public action are some of the many ways that our communities can work together in order to make our lives safer. No one should ever have to experience the grief of losing a loved one by firearm misuse and hatred -- we must come together and find a way to ensure that this stops from happening.

To those who have been impacted by gun violence and bigotry, I send my deepest sympathies and urge everyone to be aware of what is happening in your country. Violence is never the answer, and we must hold people accountable for these disgusting acts of violence.

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