Review: Better than the Movies

Ah, nothing like a book about teenagers to remind you that it has been a long, long, long time since you were a teenager yourself. But I kind of enjoyed that feeling as I read Lynn Painter's Better than the Movies. I felt everything as deeply as if I was 18 again and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

Here's the book's description:

Perpetual daydreamer Liz Buxbaum gave her heart to Michael a long time ago. But her cool, aloof forever crush never really saw her before he moved away. Now that he’s back in town, Liz will do whatever it takes to get on his radar—and maybe snag him as a prom date—even befriend Wes Bennet.
The annoyingly attractive next-door neighbor might seem like a prime candidate for romantic comedy fantasies, but Wes has only been a pain in Liz’s butt since they were kids. Pranks involving frogs and decapitated lawn gnomes do not a potential boyfriend make. Yet, somehow, Wes and Michael are hitting it off, which means Wes is Liz’s in.
But as Liz and Wes scheme to get Liz noticed by Michael so she can have her magical prom moment, she’s shocked to discover that she likes being around Wes. And as they continue to grow closer, she must reexamine everything she thought she knew about love—and rethink her own ideas of what Happily Ever After should look like.

This is the kind of novel Teenage Kaley would have devoured. As it was, Adult Kaley didn't want to put it down either. Painter hit all the right notes of cringey teenage drama, confusing feelings about relationships and growing up, and the sweetness of first loves. I don't know how we made it out of teenagerhood, to be honest. 

I don't love comparing novels but sometimes it's necessary. Liz gave me some Lara Jean (To All the Boys I've Loved Before) and Pippa (Leading Lines) vibes - which I was so here for. There's a bit of a sweetness and innocence to all three that I like for a couple of reasons. First, I was like that too as a teenager. Second, senior year of high school is the last time you really get to be a kid and that's super powerful and full of strong emotions, which is why we love these high school stories so much. So many of us wanted to grow up quickly but, now that we have, there's sometimes a wish that we could go back to when we just had to worry about school and who was crushing on us. As I said, I could see bits of myself in Liz but I was definitely in awe of how she embraced her personality. 

It was hard to read as Liz tried to navigate her senior year of high school without her mom. This is important and I wish the description had mentioned it: Liz's mom died in a car accident when she was in the fifth grade. She's having a really hard time with all of the "last" moments that high school has to offer and can't find a way to talk about it with her dad or best friend. (Side note: Liz is not innocent in the issues that come up with her BFF but I was not impressed with Joss as a best friend but I may have been expecting too much of a teenager.) I can't imagine how hard it would have been to have all these intense feelings as a teen and not know what to do with them.

I absolutely loved all the references to rom coms throughout the book. Did I think Liz was leaning too hard on these movies that her mom left for her? Yes. But grief works in different ways for different people. Each chapter begins with a quote from all sorts of romantic comedies which was too fun. I love the genre (quelle surprise) so understood why Liz was so obsessed but I also understood Wes and Liz's stepmom's feelings on the genre. Some are wildly unrealistic and you just can't suspend your beliefs to make it work. But others? They leave you with all the warm and fuzzies when the credits roll. And that's the kind of feeling Better than the Movies left me with as I closed the book. 

Better than the Movies is a must read for YA readers who love contemporary stories. It's funny and sweet and an absolute delight. Lynn Painter has created a heroine who readers will love and want to root for as she finds her way in the world and discovers that your first love might not be exactly what you expected.

*A copy of this novel was provided by the publisher, Simon & Schuster Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: The Great Godden

After not reading a YA title in over a year, I've read three within a couple of weeks! The Great Godden was first up. Meg Rosoff's novel was published in April but I held onto it, knowing it would be a great summer read. I was right. It was an intense summer for the characters in the novel and I was really invested in how it would all turn out.

Here's the book's description:

This is the story of one family, one dreamy summer. . . . In a holiday house by the sea, our watchful narrator sees everything, including many things they shouldn't, as their brother and sisters, parents and older cousins fill hot days with wine and games and planning a wedding. Enter two brothers: irresistible, charming, languidly sexy Kit and surly, silent Hugo. Suddenly there's a serpent in this paradise -- and the consequences will be devastating.

It's kind of difficult to explain this one - it's kind of like a literary YA. There's plot and characters but it reads at a different...level, maybe, than your average teen book set during the summer. For one, you don't know the narrator's name or exact age. I'm pretty sure they were female and likely about 17, going into their final year of high school. It didn't bother me, exactly, but the curious part of my brain really wanted to know those details! It was also a pretty short novel so the information that was given was important (even though sometimes I was wondering why certain memories were brought up).

There's a lot of change for the narrator and their family, as well as their neighbours. Their younger neighbours are like a super cool aunt and uncle to the four siblings and they're finally tying the knot. That in itself would make for a lot of drama but the Godden brothers showing up throws off their usual summer balance and no one knows how to act or how things will turn out. 

I loved the feeling of summer in this book. It hits all the highs and lows of summers, especially those that are spent at a cottage (I assume, based on the few visits to cottages I've had in my life). There's the long drive out of the city (in this case, the city being London) and the exhaustion and excitement that brings. Then there's the arrival with the whole summer spread out before you with so many possibilities. But summer ticks along as it always does and suddenly there are only a few weeks left before having to go back to normal life. The drama in the story follows that same meandering path with the climax happening just before the end of summer.

I really had no idea how things would turn out. I'm actually pretty sure my jaw dropped when everything came to light. I was proud of how the other characters reacted in the midst of a total upheaval of their lives. Some of them were a bit judgey of a certain character before but when The Thing happened and it all came to light, they realized how wrong they were and worked to make it right. 

The Great Godden was unique and kept me really interested throughout the whole novel. Meg Rosoff is a talented writer and I enjoyed her summer-set YA novel and think a lot of others would as well.

*A copy of this novel was provided by the publisher, Penguin Teen/Penguin Random House Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: Be the Girl

There are a few authors who are on my "I will read absolutely anything they write" list and K.A. Tucker is one of them. She wrote one of my favourite books of 2018 (The Simple Wild, which I reviewed here last year if you missed it) and is gifting us with another book early in 2019. Be the Girl - just released today! - is a little different than anything she's ever written before but it's no less amazing.

Here's the synopsis:

From the national bestselling author of the Ten Tiny Breaths series and The Simple Wild comes a poignant story about a girl trying to change her future while evading her past.
Almost sixteen-year-old Aria Jones is starting over. New postal code, new last name, new rules. But she doesn’t mind, because it means she can leave her painful regrets behind. In the bustling town of Eastmonte, she can become someone else. Someone better.
With the Hartford family living next door, it seems she will succeed. Sure, Cassie Hartford may be the epitome of social awkwardness thanks to her autism, but she also offers an innocent and sincere friendship that Aria learns to appreciate. And Cassie’s older brother, Emmett—a popular Junior A hockey player with a bright future—well … Aria wishes that friendship could lead to something more. If he didn’t already have a girlfriend, maybe it would.
But Aria soon finds herself in a dicey moral predicament that could derail her attempt at a fresh start. It is her loyalty to Cassie and her growing crush on Emmett that leads her to make a risky move, one that earns her a vindictive enemy who is determined to splinter her happy new world.

As I mentioned, Be the Girl isn't quite like any of Tucker's other novels. For starters, she's self-published this one - after years of being traditionally published. That doesn't necessarily make it different than her other books but, to me, that indicates that this was a story that had to be told even if the publishers may not have thought so. The other big thing is that this is a YA novel. It's possible this story could have been told with adult characters but it wouldn't be nearly as good.

Tucker is such a phenomenal writer with an amazing knack at writing deep emotions. That meant this book gave me all the feels - including ones I hadn't really felt since I was in high school myself. Many YA authors can write that angsty, emotional roller coaster that are the feelings of a teenager but there was just something about this book that totally transported me back to my own high school. Maybe because the book was set in a town that was ridiculously similar to my own hometown - also a small town in Ontario, north of the big city of Toronto (though slightly more north than I think this fictional town is supposed to be). I felt this so acutely that I could immediately picture and smell my town's arena when Tucker described the arena Aria was setting foot into. There's a distinct smell to small town arenas and it's one that's hard to explain unless you've been in one.

This book also made me incredibly glad social media didn't exist when I was a teen. In fact, I don't even think Mark Zuckerberg was at Harvard when I was Aria's age. *checks internet* OK, I can't figure out when he started but I'm pretty sure thefacebook officially began the year I turned 17, a year older than Aria. But I digress. Social media is pretty brutal for adults sometimes so I can't imagine the special hell some teens face these days. I was also feeling pretty thankful that I sort of stayed under the radar when I was in high school. I did my best to not attract attention because I was so shy and awkward (which, let me tell you, is not easy to do when you're a six foot tall female basketball player in a school that holds the jocks at the top of the popularity hierarchy). I was lucky that I found my people early on and we had a solid group of friends. But I also wondered, as I read Aria's story and got to "know" Cassie, if I could have been a better person. Probably. I imagine I was never outright mean nor did I knowingly bully anyone but I'm sure there were instances where I giggled with my friends over someone different or ignored someone who was just trying to be friendly. It's a hard thing to think about yourself but that's part of why Tucker's new novel is so necessary. It makes you take a hard look at how you treat others and think about what you could do to be better. To paraphrase Emmett, there's no excuse to be a dick to someone just because they're a little bit different.

You may have noticed I've gone on a lot about the feelings this novel inspires instead of the actual plot. That's because Tucker has woven an incredible tale that I can't talk about too much because I'll spoil it all and you'd be pissed. Trust me. Aria's story is completely hidden at the start and is revealed bit by bit over the course of the novel. And that's the way it should be. So enough about plot!

Moving right along to the characters...I loved Aria. She's real, she's flawed, and she's trying hard to be a good person. Although, I don't think she really needs to try that hard. It's no work at all for her to be friends with Cassie. Cassie was an absolute joy to read. Her bubbly personality leapt off the pages. On the other hand, my heart broke every time someone ignored or teased her. I am so, so glad Tucker has written a book that features such a gem of a character. Emmett would have made teenage me swoon so I completely understood how Aria was feeling. A cute jock who has a heart of gold? Sign me up. Zach, Emmett's best friend, also deserves so many standing ovations for being such an incredible human.

I've realized this review of Be the Girl isn't exactly like most other reviews I write. But I think K.A. Tucker's novel isn't like most other novels. It encourages discussion and deep introspection and is a book that needs to be read by everyone. Young, old, in between. Everyone. You won't regret the time you spend with Aria, Cassie, and Emmett. You may cry (I did) but this is a story that's going to stick with you for a long time.

Buy Links
Amazon * iBooks * Kobo * BN

Print and audio will be available at a later date.

About the Author
K.A. Tucker writes captivating stories with an edge.

She is the USA Today bestselling author of 18 books, including the Causal Enchantment, Ten Tiny Breaths and Burying Water series, He Will Be My Ruin, Until It Fades, Keep Her Safe, The Simple Wild, and Be the Girl. Her books have been featured in national publications including USA Today, Globe & Mail, Suspense Magazine, First for Women, and Publisher's Weekly. She has been nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance 2013 for Ten Tiny Breaths and Best Romance 2018 for The Simple Wild. Her novels have been translated into 16 languages.

K.A. Tucker currently resides in a quaint town outside of Toronto with her family
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Find K.A. Tucker Online

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Facebook Reader Group * Instagram * Twitter

*An ARC of this novel was provided by the author in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.* 

Mini Reviews: Contemporary YA Edition

Raise your hand if you have a library card. And raise the other if you use it frequently. *looks around* Good. Glad to see many of you using your library. I, like many voracious readers, don't have the funds to buy all the books I'd like to read. Enter my public library. I use it a lot for book club books and any of the YA titles I want to read but don't get for review. This summer I read two wonderful contemporary YA novels that I really wanted to talk (read: flail) about on the blog.

My YA reading is pretty much restricted to contemporary YA books these days and even then it's only a certain few authors that I make the time for (so many books, so little time). I put Morgan Matson's Save the Date on hold as soon as it was available and was anxiously waiting for it to come in. I honestly didn't even know what the book was about (but you can read the synopsis here) but Matson has become an autoread author for me in recent years. I had the chance to go to a meet and greet before her first ever Canadian tour date where my blogger friend Tiff - from Mostly YA Lit - interviewed her. But...I have a new job and only so much wiggle room on asking for time off plus I'm not super close to where the event was happening. *sobs*

This book was pretty much impossible for me to put down and I had it finished in a weekend. It was smart, funny, and genuine - things I look for in almost every book I read. I was completely sucked into Charlie's life and, as is usual when I read YA books these days, I found myself wanting to play the big sister to Charlie and help her figure out her life. I'm the eldest in real life anyway, plus I'm so much older than the teens I'm reading about now, so it's inevitable that I'll start feeling protective of these girls. Even though I wanted to swoop in and tell her what I thought she should do, I knew she had a great head on her shoulders and she'd figure out on her own what the best path for her would be. That's what being a teenager is all about, isn't it? Making your mistakes, learning from them, and growing as a person.

The Canadians in the crowd will definitely understand me when I say the cartoon Charlie's mom drew totally reminded me of For Better or For Worse, a strip by Lynn Johnston that I was obsessed with growing up (seriously, I still have the book collections). Charlie's mom's strip Grant Central Station, like FBorFW, shows the characters aging in real time. Plus, there were older siblings and a much younger sibling (or siblings) in both, and a dog. I clearly was on the right track because this came up during the event I missed and Tiff, with her amazing recap, mentioned it. LOVE.

Finally, I loved that this book was about Charlie and her family (as well as a little bit about her friends). The boy troubles were totally realistic because, hello, she's 18 and interested in boys so of course they're going to come up in her life. But they weren't the point of the story. She very much was figuring out herself and her place in her family and the world in general. The love story was secondary (but no less welcome).

   *   *   *   

I also try to make time for really great books I wouldn't necessarily read when bloggers I trust can't stop talking about them. This time it was Ginger (of GReads!) flailing about Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian. (Synopsis is here on Goodreads) I wholeheartedly trust Ginger's opinion so on the reserve list it went and I happily dived in when it arrived. And oh - how sweet it was!

These novels were actually quite similar (which is kind of fun/odd because the two authors are friends). Both stories featured smart, funny, sort of shy girls who had just finished or were finishing high school and were looking forward to their next step - college. Every summer I always find myself thinking of the year I was getting ready to go to university and how much of a big deal that summer was. I had some major changes that year, just like Amelia and Charlie. I finished high school, was finishing my final summer at the library where I had worked all through high school (and wanted to work at since I was little, just like Amelia with the ice cream shop), and I started dating someone new even though he was staying behind for another semester and I was moving 2+ hours away. (Spoiler alert: we're still together 13 years later.) That summer between high school and university/college is just so magical and I really, really love reading stories set during that time - especially when they're so amazing. Stay Sweet was great and I am SO GLAD I made the time to read it.

I'm a big ice cream fan (Revelation: I don't know if I can fully trust anyone who isn't...) but I also try to make sure I only eat really good ice cream. I could totally identify with the popularity of Meade Creamery and found myself constantly comparing it to a local ice cream shop I was introduced to a year or so after moving to the area I'm in now - Avondale Dairy Bar. Not only do they both have the family run business feel but I pretty much only see teenagers working at Avondale and most of them are girls, just like at Meade Creamery. I adored that only girls were allowed to work at the ice cream shop and couldn't get enough of Amelia describing how they all helped each other out and the older girls were like another set of older sisters for the newbies. It was also feminist AF and I loved one scene where Grady says Amelia is being bossy and she totally calls him out on it and tells him he's being rude. He immediately apologizes. (Also - I'm writing this almost a month after reading it so I'm kinda paraphrasing.)

I really loved Amelia - probably because she reminded me a lot of myself at that age. Only she's way more confident than I was and had a better sense of her future than I did. (Hell, than I do now at 31.)

Overall, these two books are MUST. READS. for your summer. Or fall. Or holiday. Just read them. And gift them to all the teens in your life because every reader needs to meet Charlie and Amelia because they are absolutely amazing characters. And suddenly I'm craving ice cream...but what else is new?

Review: What Light

I haven't read Jay Asher's other novels (Thirteen Reasons Why, The Future of Us) so when I heard about What Light wanting to read it was based on the synopsis alone. In its favour? It's a contemporary YA (pretty much the only YA books I'll read these days) and it's set at Christmas! Plus, the cover is freaking adorable.

Here's the synopsis:

Sierra's family runs a Christmas tree farm in Oregon—it's a bucolic setting for a girl to grow up in, except that every year, they pack up and move to California to set up their Christmas tree lot for the season. So Sierra lives two lives: her life in Oregon and her life at Christmas. And leaving one always means missing the other.
Until this particular Christmas, when Sierra meets Caleb, and one life eclipses the other.
By reputation, Caleb is not your perfect guy: years ago, he made an enormous mistake and has been paying for it ever since. But Sierra sees beyond Caleb's past and becomes determined to help him find forgiveness and, maybe, redemption. As disapproval, misconceptions, and suspicions swirl around them, Caleb and Sierra discover the one thing that transcends all else: true love.

I will read pretty much any Christmas book that even hints at a romance but most of the time (almost always, in fact) they're adult novels. Sometimes Christmas books hardly mention the holiday and sometimes it's all Christmas, all the time. What Light was a perfect balance and had just enough Christmas spirit. 

What helped a lot with the holiday spirit was that Sierra's parents own a tree farm and they sell their trees in California for a month or so before Christmas. They're such an integral part of Christmas for so many people and they absolutely love it. It sounds so cheesy, that they really look forward to seeing who their trees go home with every year, but I absolutely love that sentiment. The family isn't just trying to sell trees for a profit (in fact, Sierra thinks this Christmas might be the last one they are able to sell at their lot), they're trying to supply families and individuals with one important part of Christmas. 

I struggled a lot with Caleb's past and how I felt about it. I completely understood why all the parents in the story were concerned (is that a sign that I'm an Adult? Identifying with the parents in YA novels?) but I could also see why Sierra wasn't at all concerned. She felt that she could see the damage it had done to Caleb and how he was still trying to make up for it. But, once you met the other person involved in the event from the past (no spoilers here, folks!), you realize that it should be a non-issue at this point. Now, a few days after finishing the book, I think I've settled on feeling like Sierra's parents...concerned but with trust in Sierra to make sound decisions. 

What Light is one of those YA novels that adults can totally read and love (hello, I was thrilled with it) but there are those few moments that had me smiling and thinking, thank god I'm no longer a teenager. Heather, Sierra's BFF in California, is so distraught with her boyfriend situation (he's just so dull!) that she's determined to break up with him after the holidays. Grown women don't always know what they want in relationship but there's a certain adoreableness (yes, I'm making up words here) to this particular dilemma because Heather is still so naive. It was actually kind of a sweet reminder what it really was like to be a teenager in love. But no. I do not want to go back to being 17!

Jay Asher's latest novel is exactly the book to pick up this season if you love sweet and real Christmas stories. What Light is an easy read but it will make you feel a little bit of everything - happy, sad, nostalgic, romantic. The Christmas spirit is in every single one of these pages and I adored that. It's definitely a book for the Christmas and book lover in your life (and I won't tell if that's you!). 

*An ARC of this novel was provided by the publisher, Penguin Random House Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: In the Unlikely Event

I have a bit of a confession to make...I didn't read a ton of Judy Blume books growing up. At least, not that I can remember. That didn't stop me from being excited about her new book though. She is a legend. In the Unlikely Event lived up to the hype, in my opinion, and is one book you'll want to get your hands on this summer.

Here's the synopsis: 

In 1987, Miri Ammerman returns to her hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey, to attend a commemoration of the worst year of her life. Thirty-five years earlier, when Miri was fifteen, and in love for the first time, a succession of airplanes fell from the sky, leaving a community reeling. Against this backdrop of actual events that Blume experienced in the early 1950s, when airline travel was new and exciting and everyone dreamed of going somewhere, she paints a vivid portrait of a particular time and place—Nat King Cole singing “Unforgettable,” Elizabeth Taylor haircuts, young (and not-so-young) love, explosive friendships, A-bomb hysteria, rumors of Communist threat. And a young journalist who makes his name reporting tragedy. Through it all, one generation reminds another that life goes on.

I think the only thing that would bother some readers is the number of points of view we get in the book. Miri is our heroine but each chapter features several different characters. Some, like Christine and Mason, have their perspective shared more often. But others may only get one chance at providing their POV. Once I got used to the way the story was told, I started to enjoy it. Except when I realized that, like I said, some characters are only featured once and that sometimes meant they were on one of the doomed flights. It's hard to read but it's an effective way to tell the human side of the story.

I enjoyed that this book was a historical one for me (I actually wasn't even quite yet born at the time of the "thirty five years later"!). Early 1950s America is not really a time period I'm familiar with since I'm Canadian and didn't pay nearly enough attention in history class (ever wish you could tell your younger self to smarten up?) to remember what it was like it my own country in 1951 let alone another. I liked that it was historical in the sense that it was a great story that just happened to be taking place in another era. I didn't find any of those moments where I was obviously supposed to be learning or needed the author to over-explain something that modern me just didn't get. Maybe that was due to the fact that it's recent history and quite similar today's world. 

What I liked especially was that, amid all the plane crash horrors and everything else, Miri was going through the same things and having the same feelings as all teenage girls have. She's having the rush of feelings that accompany your first love - the giddiness, the insecurity, the "how am I supposed to be feeling and acting?" questions - that all of us should be able to identify with. She's also learning how to deal with situations as an adult - how to analyze them and how to think for herself and come up with her own opinions - but she's still being stifled by authority figures. I really liked the coming of age part of this novel. It especially helped that I adored Miri!

This was actually a really hard review for me to write. In the Unlikely Event is a book that makes it hard to explain why it's so good. Sure, I can say the writing is excellent and it packs a crazy emotional punch, but that doesn't quite do the trick. I wish I could just shove the book in your hands and say, "Read it!" and be done with it! I do hope that what I've managed to cobble together here has convinced you to pick up Judy Blume's new book. In the Unlikely Event has a story you won't soon forget.

*A copy of this novel was provided by the publisher, Doubleday Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Sarah Dessen Rocks My World

If you were to ask me who my favourite author is my answer would be Sarah Dessen. I don't care if she's a young adult author and I'm not a young adult anymore (well...technically I am, but not in the world of book categories). I will keep reading her books as long as she keeps writing them, no matter how old I get.

I've been reading Sarah Dessen for a really long time. Her first novel, That Summer , was originally released in 1996 (all these dates will be coming from the Goodreads pages) and her second, Someone Like Youwas published in 1998. When I started reading her books I was in high school so it was a few years after they were released (somewhere around 2001 or 2002 I think) but still early on in her career. I happened upon Someone Like You one day when I was at the library (and was very likely working at the time...found some of the best books that way). I can barely remember reading it but I do recall telling my best friend about it because I loved it so much. She read it and we've been hooked ever since.

Dessen has written a total of ten books and, for the most part, I find I love the newest one more than the last. I say "for the most part" because I didn't actually love What Happened to Goodbye (released this past May) as much as Along for the Ride (released June 2009). I'm not really sure why but it didn't seem to grab me as much - maybe I'm *gasp* getting too old for her novels? I sincerely hope that is not the case.

Let me do a quick mini review of Dessen's newest novel, What Happened to Goodbye - I really did like McLean and the fact that she and her dad had a special bond over basketball (I've always been tall so I played basketball myself all the way through elementary and high school). I also loved that her dad had a job much like Gordon Ramsey on Kitchen Nightmares - just without the accent and massive amounts of swearing.  Now, don't get me wrong I absolutely adored the book. It just wasn't one of my favourites. I would still highly recommend it - especially to teens who are looking for something that has nothing to do with vampires.

I've written before about how much I love Sarah Dessen (you can read the posts here and here). When I used to work for a bookstore I would always try to recommend her books to teenagers and the parents who were looking to buy for their daughters. What I really love about Dessen is that no matter what your own situation in life is you will be able to find something in the main character (always female and always a teenager) that you can relate to. And it doesn't hurt that the novels all seem to be set during the summer! My all time favourite Dessen novel is This Lullaby. I think it's because I was able to identify with Remy and her situation a little bit more and I really wanted to find my own Dexter! It's been years since I've read it (and it's on my fairly large pile of to re-read pile, along with Something Borrowed and the entire Harry Potter series!) but I remember absolutely loving it.

With this year's release of What Happened to Goodbye, Sarah Dessen went on the usual book tour - with one notable exception. She came to Canada!!! I was very happy about this because she came to Toronto and I'm only a couple of hours north of the city. My best friend and I decided that no matter what we were going to one of the two talks and signings in September. Now, bear with me for a bit of story time...It was late in the evening the day before we planned to go to the Indigo event instead of the library event the day after and I decided to check my email. Imagine my surprise when I discovered an email telling me that I had won a contest and WOULD GET TO MEET SARAH DESSEN!!! I was so incredibly shocked and immediately called my friend to change our plans. She was just as speechless as I was! I have to say that I was not impressed that I found out with hardly any notice, but we changed our plans and made the drive to Toronto to the library event (in hindsight and from what we heard, it was a much better venue and event). We couldn't believe it. We got to go into a room with a few other contest winners and their guests (probably about 15 of us total) and chat with Sarah Dessen. It was unbelievable. We hung back and let some of the other girls ask questions (in this post by Dessen you can see a pic of the room but my friend and I were standing outside the frame!) but soaked up the awesomness of the evening. We were definitely some of the oldest there, we're 24 and many of the others in the audience ranged from 14-20, but we didn't mind one bit. We got our books signed and had the chance to talk to her quickly. Then there was the talk afterwards which was absolutely amazing. We learned so much about her (and I totally want to be her best friend) and her writing style. This was easily the highlight of my year!

Can you tell that I'm totally freaking out?

If you're still with me after this novel of a post, all I can really say is that I adore Sarah Dessen. I think she is an absolutely amazing person (read her blog to learn more about her) and an equally amazing author. I can't recommend her books enough. Even if you're past the young adult stage, I still think most people would love her books. I'd love to know if any of you have read any of Sarah Dessen's novels and what you thought about them. I'm already looking forward to her next one!

Happy reading :)

Vacation Reads Challenge: A Year in Europe

Bonjour! I've finished my fifth read for the Vacation Challenge hosted, in part, by Ruby's Reads. I decided to read A Year in Europe by Rachel Hawthorne because it took place in three major European cities - London, Paris, and Rome. I would love to visit any of these cities, especially London and Paris.

Let's start off with the synopsis from Goodreads:

MEET THE GIRLS of A Year in Europe, a collection of three interconnecting novels about the adventures of traveling abroad.
Robin: Her junior year abroad in London takes a surprising turn when she falls for British hottie Kit.
Dana: Paris is the City of Love, and Dana's on a mission to find a gorgeous French boyfriend.
Carrie: She's crazy about Antonio, her Italian dream guy. If Carrie tells him the truth about her American heritage, she might lose him forever.
A Year in Europe. Three unforgettable stories. One unforgettable journey.

Overall, I thought this was a fun read. It was actually kind of nice to read about teenage girls who just wanted to have their first boyfriend instead of reading about women who are looking to jump into bed with someone or a teenage girl who wants to become immortal *cough Twilight cough*. I have to admit that I kept thinking, why are these girls so obsessed with getting a boyfriend and worrying about whether boys like them? Partway through Dana's story I realized that my friends and I used to act like Robin, Dana, and Carrie when we were 16. After that, I put my 16 year old self in their shoes and started to enjoy the book a little more.

I liked that the novel was based around the girls going abroad for a year and living and learning in another country. This is something that I never would have done myself in high school, since I was pretty quiet and liked staying close to home. I could really understand the tough emotions the girls found themselves having while they were away from their hometown, friends, and family. However, I couldn't quite understand why they were so clueless in their new cities. Carrie was the only one who had no problem where she was because her father's Italian and she's fluent in the language. Robin and Dana, on the other hand, had some difficulties - and Robin was only going to London! She had no idea that the "tube" meant the subway and the "boot" meant the trunk of a car. Maybe I'm judging too harshly, but I'm pretty sure I had a rough idea of the most common English lingo when I was their age. I do applaud Dana for heading to a country where she is not fluent in the language though - I can't imagine how difficult that would have been!

England is one of my top dream travel destinations (Scotland, Ireland, and Australia are also up there) so I was definitely most envious of Robin and her year abroad. I'd love to go to Paris as well, but since I'm nowhere near fluent in French, it would be a little more challenging. I took French up until grade 10 (one year past the mandatory French classes us Canadian kids have to take) but I didn't retain much - just enough to excel at the French questions on Jeopardy! :) Regardless, I would love to travel to Paris sometime in my life.

This novel was a fun read, nice and light for the summer. I would definitely recommend it to teenagers who are looking for a good book to lose themselves in. I've read quite a few of Rachel Hawthorne's books before and I've always enjoyed them. It goes to show that just because you're no longer a teenager doesn't mean you can't enjoy a good YA novel every once and awhile. Especially one that takes you to so many wonderful cities!

Happy travels...er...reading, everyone! :)