REVIEW: "13 Reasons Why"- BY: Jay Asher

As I promised, here is another book review!

For "13 Reasons Why," I had fairly high expectations going into it. I had heard from a friend that it was so good and had always meant to borrow it, but never did. So when I got my new Nook from my boyfriend, I wanted to load it up with good books for myself and for the blog. One of the suggestions was this book and I felt why not!

To give a quick overview of this already popular book, it is about Hannah Baker,suicidal girl in high school who recorded and mailed out the tapes of her talking to each of the 13 people that caused her to get to this hopeless place. However, the narrator of this story, Clay Jensen, is one of those unfortunate souls that caused Hannah to kill herself. Clay had a crush on Hannah ever since she transferred to his school, but never had the courage to truly talk to her or start a relationship because of the unfortunate events that created Hannah's harsh reputation. Clay happened to be the ninth person on Hannah's list and he struggles with every story that passes and wishes he could have done so much more and realized that Hannah was so lost.
We follow Clay on the recorded journey that Hannah takes you with the map she left for those select few to follow to the places where these events happened.

My initial reactions to this book even from the very beginning was confused. I never got a good connection to this book. Maybe I am to blame for that one because my reading habits became a bit sporadic, but there was something almost too cliche that it made me build a wall from really sinking deep into the pages.
To be perfectly honest, I don't see the real hype for this book. I can definitely appreciate the messages behind the story and for that I think it is brilliant. It is a good lesson in learning that every decisions you make can effect someones life. It definitely made me more self aware.
However, I don't think the writing was all that fantastic. And maybe it is just me who feels that the writing style greatly affects my opinion of the book, but I definitely can see how this would affect my connection to this book.

I wouldn't say that this book was terrible by any means. I love the concept, even though it might be about something as morbid as suicide. But anything that can teach a lesson and make you think and intrigue you learn more about what is going on in someone's head who has decided to kill herself. I love reading about the inner workings and most personal thoughts in someones mind. That whole concept intrigued me from the very beginning but I just felt that the writing style throughout the book was very obvious and just not as deep as to what I expected.

Either way, I hear this book is going to be a movie and for that I think it is worth a read.
Let me know what you thought of this book or any other books you might want me to read next !

Life Update

Hey!

I've been wanted to write a quick life update post for a little while now.

A lot of life changes have been happening for instance, I graduated college and started working on some new projects! Graduating college was definitely the proudest moment of my life. Sometimes I get upset that I'm not where I want to be in life exactly but I'm working on it everyday and praying that all my dreams come true. Sometimes things in life take time to develop and I'll keep working hard to make things happen. 

In the meantime, I recently get a "freelance" position working with an independent publisher doing book publicity. I'll be working with beside the authors to help them go through all the stages of writing a book and then doing the publicity work afterwards. I'm excited to get this opportunity and hopefully it will be the start I need to launch my career.

I'll definitely be excited to share some of the projects I'll be working on, considering it pertains to books which is obviously what this blog is all about. 

I feel fortunate to get this experience under my belt but I won't stop putting my time into this blog which is like my baby.

Hope you all have a great week and the best start to the summer ! 

Get ready for a new book review coming in the very near future. 

Ciao,

Cheryl 

REVIEW: "To All The Boys I've Loved Before"- BY: Jenny Han

Hello everyone,

Here's another review for you, like I promised. 

I've heard a lot of good things about Jenny Han and I've also heard about her previous books being bestsellers and there was plenty of hype for "To All The Boys I've Loved Before," so it's safe to say that I had decently high expectations...

So, I'd like to say this book was amazing, that it was everything I wanted and more... but unfortunately this is not the case. This book lacks something so trivial and fundamental to any book out there.. an ENDING. 

Nothing and I mean nothing in this world annoys me more than a disappointing book. I just wasted "X" amount of  days or weeks on a book that should be able to a least leave me somewhat satisfied but this book was so pointless I wanted to throw my Nook out the window. 

Now, I can't say the book was entirely bad. It had a slow start and I was trying to give the book the benefit of the doubt through all the cliches and underdeveloped characters. The writing was so elementary that I was wondering if the author had someone else write her other books. Anyways, you have to get through the muddy beginning to get to what you probably truly wanted to get to when reading a YA novel...

Three sisters: Margot, Lara Jean and Kitty are close as sisters can be since their mom died a few years back. Margot took on the mother role and is now going off to college leaving Lara Jean to take over. Kitty was too young to remember their mother so the sisters try to be there for her as much as they can.. To be honest Kitty was the most delightful of all the characters, however maybe too mature for a supposed nine year old. 

Josh, their neighbor and Margot's boyfriend, is heartbroken when Margot breaks up with him before going off to Scotland to go to college. However, Lara Jean has liked Josh for some time and tries to be there for him when Margot leaves. 

However, this is where it gets tricky. Lara Jean has written love letters to every boy she has liked or loved as goodbye letters when she knew it was not meant to be. She stored them in a hat box but then one day the letters were "mysteriously" sent out to all the boys, (Josh and Peter) which leaves Lara Jean traumatized and devises this plan with an old friend Peter to pretend to be bf/gf to keep Josh away and also get back at Peter's ex girlfriend, and Lara Jeans former friend Genevieve.

Are you confused yet? There is a constant struggle to understand who Lara Jean really likes, Josh or Peter. Where the story really picks up is when Peter, the supposed "ladies man," starts to actually fall for Lara Jean when that was against the "contract" of their relationship. I was so into the Peter and Lara Jean relationship aspect that it was actually changing my mind about the book. However, when Josh kissed Lara Jean and Margot find outs and LJ pushes Peter away, all hell breaks loose and then nothing is ever the same... nothing. The book literally ends with Lara Jean making up with Margot and Josh but the whole Peter relationship just goes unresolved even though Lara Jean really wants to be with him. It was just left to the imagination. 

I know this might sound a bit rambled, but I needed to delve more into this story for everyone to understand just how unappealing this book really is. It hurts me to have to write such a negative review but the book has no real conclusive ending and that is just not acceptable to me. I'm not entirely discouraging anyone from reading it, I'm just warning you that you will probably want to scream into a pillow when it's over. You have been warned.

Happy One Year Book Bound !

Hey!

I know I'm a little late, and the official blog anniversary was May 31st, I still wanted to make a special post about this special milestone. One year of blogging is something that I am truly proud of. It means a lot if you, right there at your computer who probably has a million things to do, is reading this post. I appreciate even a second of your time. As I've said before, starting this blog hasn't always been easy but it's pretty much my favorite thing I have ever done. It makes me happy to do something that I love and that is all I've ever wanted. I might not be blog famous but somewhere out there, who ever you are, is reading this and enjoying my blog. Thanks to any who has reached out or commented in any way. Please, feel free to tell your friends and family about the blog, because I promise that I want to make this blog something great.

Starting a successful blog has been a dream of mine for so long, and just writing this means I'm participating in my dreams. A year ago I started to make my dreams happen and everyday I think I'm getting a little bit closer. 

Before I end the post, I wanted to give a brief update on everything that is going on behind the scenes. Currently, I'm reading "To All the Boys I've Loved Before" By Jenny Han. I've heard some great things about this new release and I'm already forming my own opinions on the book. Also for my birthday, I received a new Nook from my boyfriend. (He's the best). So I've been buying new books and I have a few more books in the wing just waiting to be red and reviewed so keep your eyes on the blog because there is going to be plenty to read and interact with. 

So that's all folks ! Thanks so much and always stay book bound! 

Ciao,

Cheryl