A Little Something Different - Sandy Hall

A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall
Published by Swoon Reads on August 26, 2014 
Pages: 272
Genres: Romance, Contemporary, New Adult
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased

Amazon • The Book Depository • Goodreads 

The creative writing teacher, the delivery guy, the local Starbucks baristas, his best friend, her roommate, and the squirrel in the park all have one thing in common—they believe that Gabe and Lea should get together. Lea and Gabe are in the same creative writing class. They get the same pop culture references, order the same Chinese food, and hang out in the same places. Unfortunately, Lea is reserved, Gabe has issues, and despite their initial mutual crush, it looks like they are never going to work things out. But somehow even when nothing is going on, something is happening between them, and everyone can see it. Their creative writing teacher pushes them together. The baristas at Starbucks watch their relationship like a TV show. Their bus driver tells his wife about them. The waitress at the diner automatically seats them together. Even the squirrel who lives on the college green believes in their relationship.

Surely Gabe and Lea will figure out that they are meant to be together....

This book came to me at the exactly right time, I was in the need for a very light after finishing a very... Not wrecking, but very emotional book (The Start of Me and You, which the review will be coming in the end of march), so I needed fluffy, I needed to have a brain candy kind of read you know. And this book delivered exactly it.

The plot of this book is literally find out if Gabe and Lea will get together. And that's it. Since it's never told from the perspective of the two main characters we don't really have the layers (family, difficulties with college, friends, insecurities) so on spot as it usually is with contemporary books, this did took a little of my affection towards the book because we did get to know Lea and Gabe, but it was like... You know when you hear a lot of stories about someone, like a friend of a friend of yours but that you never actually meet but you do have a mental picture of their personality but still you never meet them. That's how I felt about these two, it was a fun and different way to write a novel and I'm glad Sandy took the risk and I liked it, but it lacked a more deep emotional connection.

Also about the way this story was told, we have 14 different POV's and, as usual when a book there is a lot of POV's, some I liked, some I loved, some I just didn't know why they were there. I liked almost all of the POV's, they are very unique I never had to come back and see who was on that chapter (section? it was divided by month not by chapter, but maybe the months are the chapters? that had a lot of different POV stitching during it? Ugh) but there was some that I just didn't really felt like they were relevante to the plot and character/couple development at all. One thing that was strange to me was that, despite I always knowing which POV, I still confused the "I" and thought it was Gabe thinking (or Lea on feminine POV's, but it happened more with Gabe) and I had to remember that Gabe was the "he" not the "I" on the story, it was just because of the unusualness of the way this story was told but yeah, it took a while to get used to.

Another thing that was really strange was the way people described Gabe and Lea, but specially Gabe, like when they are describing him they would use the word "cute" a lot, and when I mean a lot, I mean A LOT REALLY. Every single person thinks he's is the cutest puppy on the world, and he isn't even a puppy! It was kind of weird after sometime (I mean does people really describe other people as cute?).

But thumbs up for the diversity on this book and for making it low key (the diversity, and not announce as a diverse book). And also the squirrel, so much love for the squirrel, it was so saaaaaaaaad on the winter when he was hungry, and skinny and really let's just all feed the squirrels on winter. This really wasn't a bad book, I'm feeling like this a much more negative review but really, I was smiling the whole way while reading it, it was sweet and fun and cute and adorable and perfect for romance fans or someone on the need for a brain candy.

Seasonal Recommendations | Fall 2014

 Okay, so I should probably just quit this because I always put this list late when it's already mid-whatever-other-season-is so yeah, but I will probably keep trying for a few more seasons and see if I some day get it at the right time ;) These are my favorite books from Fall of 2014 (September 23 to December 21). 

Paranormal/Sci-Fi/Fantasy:

1. Miss Mayhem, by Rachel Hawkins: this is the sequel to Rebel Belle and to say I was excited to it is a understatement, I was so excited that end up reading it back on September right when I was accepted for the eARC, let's just say it's good like REALLY good and I need the third book like yesterday. Review will be up on April 5. 

2. The Young Elites, by Marie Lu: when I read this I had never read anything by Marie Lu (now I already read Legend, and also loved) and it got me by surprise how dark these characters were and the fantasy was just amazing. My review. 

3. Stitching Snow, by R.C.Lewis: This book was so what I was needing when I read it, it was a plot point after another never letting me bored, it had a very cool space kind of fantasy setting, a very kick ass heroine and a adorable love interest. I should probably write a review for it soon.

4. Blue Lily, Lily Blue, by Maggie Stiefvater: IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THIS SERIES YET WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR LIFE, START MAKING GOOD DECISIONS AND GO READ THIS SERIES GO, IT'S NOT TO LATE!!!!111!!! 

5. Unspoken, by Sarah Rees Brennan: I decided to marathon this series because I had an eARC for the last one and oh boy it was the best decision I ever made, it's perfect banter-fluffy but it's also SO MANY FEELS and romance full of angst and so many good characters, but specially Kami, KAMI 4 QUEEN. I tried to do a series review, idk if it worked. 

Contemporary:

6. All Fall Down, by Ally Carter: this book was so GOOD! It has that kind of writing that is just the right tipe for me, it's light and just suck you right in and I wasn't planning on staying up until 3AM to finish this but I didn't had a choice. Review will be up on January 29.

7. The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simsion: I have been hearing great things about this book for years so I finally got around to read and OH MY GOD WHY DID I WAITED SO LONG, it's funny and quirk and super nerdiness heaven and the romance is beyond cute and Don is being cute when he's trying to interact with humans. I should probably try to do a series review soon. 

8. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging, by Louise Rennison: I had never finished reading this series when I was a teenager so when I got the audios from the library it was about damn time for me to re-read and them finish it and I ABSOLUTELY LOVED DOING IT! Georgia remain as funny as I remembered and yeah, I will maybe to a series review to try to convince you of reading this series.

9. When Joss Met Matt, by Ellie Cahill: This book guys, it's New Adult but it's written by Liz Czukas (which if you have read it you should, she wrote Ask Again Later & Top Ten Clues You're Clueless) and it's basically perfection, it has some sexy times but nothing too graphic (which will probably disappoint some NA readers but for it was fine), it's also funny and there is a perfect romance, seriously. My review will be up at some point on February. 

10. Wonder, by R.J. Palacio: This book totally took me by surprise, I had heard good things of course but I wasn't sure if it was for me, but I bought it on a sale and OH BOY DID I LOVED IT. It touched me and it also made me laugh and just so good, it deserves all the hype it gets. My review.

I hope you guys find this usefull and that you can find some off your next reads here. 

P.S.: I swear it wasn't 10 on purpose, I just had 10 books with 5-to-4 stars rating these last season

We Should Hang Out Sometime: Embarrassingly, a True Story - Josh Sundquist

We Should Hang Out Sometime: Embarrassingly, a True Story by Josh Sundquist
Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers on December 23, 2014 
Pages: 336
Genres: Memoir, Non-Fiction, Humor
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley

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"When I was twenty-five years old, it came to my attention that I had never had a girlfriend. At the time, I was actually under the impression that I was in a relationship, so this bit of news came as something of a shock." Why was Josh still single? To find out, he tracked down each of the girls he had tried to date since middle school and asked them straight up: What went wrong?
The results of Josh's semiscientific investigation are in your hands. From a disastrous Putt-Putt date involving a backward prosthetic foot, to his introduction to CFD (Close Fast Dancing), and a misguided "grand gesture" at a Miss America pageant, this story is about looking for love-or at least a girlfriend-in all the wrong places. Poignant, relatable, and totally hilarious, this memoir is for anyone who has ever wondered, "Is there something wrong with me?"
(Spoiler Alert: the answer is no.)

I have never read a non-fiction book before but when I saw that this book was written by Josh Sundquist (a motivational speaker who has a very funny channel on Youtube) AND it was about his "failings" on the romantic life it was a no-brainer that I wanted to read this. This book was funny, full of fun charts and totally relatable to anyone that has dated already.

What I liked the most on this one was definitely to see how much Josh freak out over dates, as a girl on her 20's and single is pretty amazing to read from a point of view of a guy and see that they too have fears of putting themselves out there - rom-com always tell the story from the girl's perspective and the guys always look completely comfortable and cool with the date, yeah real life isn't like this.

Josh's voice translated really good to paper, it was funny and (having seeing some of his videos) very close to his videos, there was a lot of graphics (which is common on his videos). What I especially liked was the way Josh talked about "issues topics" like the lost of his leg and dealing with that and religion, I never felt like he was... Like, preaching his ideas on the readers, he just stated them - particularly on the religion thing, I never read books too focused on it and this one wasn't but his church is a big part of Josh's life and I was surprised that it never bothered me, never, probably because the way it was told it was just something intricate with Josh.

I would have liked more from the last chapter when he finally meet his girlfriend, also the realization of why he never has had a girlfriend it was so damn cliche. A little more from his family and friends wouldn't have hurt either, it was really focused just on the girlfriends and their dates and stuff, I would have liked I little bit more of Josh without the girlfriends involved.

Recommended to lovers of romantic comedies, contemporary romances and people trying their first memoir who want something that reads like fiction.

January: Paranormal

Hey guys, so I'm always trying to make TBR's (and I DO try to stick with them, despite what may seem like) but you know what they say trying and failing is how we learn and all that jazz so I realized that I DID managed to stick to books on my TBR's that are on audio format more easily - probably because they're such a practical way of reading - so now on I'm gonna do TBR's on long term (monthly term actually) only for my audio reads. So yeah, this is an audio TBR post. 

Also, I thought it would be fun to make each month a themed month sort of thing, which means each month I will pick a *thing* (a gender like paranormal, fantasy, contemporary but also sometimes I can pick like creatures like mermaids or another month a author like Meg Cabot) to 

be the theme of the said month TBR. This month as the title and banner said is all about PARANORMAL.

I chose this primarily because I was doing a binge series read of "The Mediator" by Meg Cabot since the end of december and had already checked out some other paranormal series from the library so it was the obvious choice. But I do love this gender, it was what get me into the YA gender with Twilight and I missed so much good series on the last years that I just need this month to catch up on what I missed.

Some of the books that I hope to get to this month:

1. Hex Hall trilogy by Rachel Hawkins 

2. The Croak trilogy by Gina Damico 

3. Everneath trilogy by Brodi Ashton

4. The Sweet Trilogy by Wendy Higgins

Hopefully I will get to at least all of these but we will see, so did you guys already read these series? Are they any good? Which ones are the ones that I NEED to get to this month? 

2015 Reading Challenges

Hey guys, how you doing in this holiday season? Everything here is pretty good and I'm just enjoying this month to really read A LOT but anyway, today I'm here to announce that I'll be participating on some exciting reading challenges during 2015! I'm usually terrible at making TBR's and following them but I think this challenges will work out first, 'cause I'm not gonna try to achieve some crazy numbers and second 'cause I have good motivations to do them (aka amazing & exciting books to read).

The first challenge will be Flights of Fantasy hosted by Alexa & Rachel which is a very low key challenge to basically just read as much fantasy as you want through 2015, amazing right? You can join in and get to know more about the challenge on the sing-up post. I have always been a fantasy reader, since childhood my favorite books were Harry Potter and LOTR but since these last years I just found myself not as much immersed on this gender as I would like, so this challenge is perfect! I will attempt to read 30 fantasy books which is 10 more than I read this year but I specially hope to tackle some high/epic fantasy weapons monsters books that I already have on my shelves like third GoT, and some Brandon Sanderson. 

This challenge came from heaven! I love to re-read books but with so many books always on my TBR I find myself guilt for spend my time re-reading some books, but now I have a pretty good excuse to take my favorites from the shelves and curled up with them again. This challenge is hosted by Hannah & Kelly and you can join in & find out more about this challenge on the sing-up post. I'm aiming to re-read 12 books next year, at least one at each month to give the pleasure to break from schedule when I fell like it or am in a sort of slump, some of the books that I'm hoping to get to are: all of the Harry Potter - it's been years since I re-read them all, it's about time to re-visit my favorite series of all times! -, some Tolkien - this will count for both challenges! Also I read The Hobbit, and The fellowship of the Ring and The two towers but never got around to read The return of the King, so it's about damn time to re-read those to finish this series -, also on the note of re-reading to finish a series is Percy Jackson - I read all of them except for the last two of the Blood of Olympus series, so yeah re-read to read! 

That was it for now guys, but I hope you're all having an amazing end of year and that 2015 will bring even more exciting books & blogging things for our lives!

The Lynburn Legacy - Sarah Rees Brennan

Unspoken, Untold & Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan
Series: The Lynburn Legacy 
Published by Random House for Young Readers on September 11, 2012 | August 29, 2013 | September 23, 2014
Pages: 384 | 336 | 384
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance
Format: eBook | eBook | eARC
Source: Purchased | Purchased | Netgalley 

Summary from Unspoken: 

Kami Glass loves someone she's never met... a boy she's talked to in her head ever since she was born. Having an imaginary friend has made fitting in hard - but that's never bothered Kami. She has her best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is just the way she likes it.
But all that changes when the mysterious Lynburn family return to Kami's village, along with teenagers, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami...
As life as she knows it begins to unravel, Kami is determined to get to the bottom of every mystery. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him?
And can she trust him?

Book 1 -  5 stars: 
THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD GUYS! I still think it was the best of this trilogy because it was banter-fluffy and snarky and funny all the way through and it was glorious. The characters in here are the kind of people I want to be friends in real life: Angela & Rusty  with their laziness and ferously loyalty to Kami, Holly with her bright positivity, Jared with his emo way of living, but especially Kami -- she was the star of this book, this girl doesn't wait around to things to fall over her lap which is such a relieve and chance from the usual heroines on the paranormal gender, she has a Nancy Drew/Veronica Mars spirit and goes find the answers for herself.

Book 2 - 4.5 stars:
This book was a tensy bit worse than the first one. The plot on this book thickens and things go to a much higher stake, the tension was palpable and it was so hard to put this book down BUT at the same time the characters infuriated me at times. Jared and Kami are so full of angst (which is something that I do not appreciate on my romances) with their I-can't-live-without-each-other but at the same time can't-touch-each-other and can't-accept-love, ugh just make out and have your HEA already I'm tired of waiting! On a more happy side we got a little bit of Holly's POV and I have to say that I loved her even more on this book and wish there was more of her POV's.

Book 3 - 4 stars:
This is hard to put on words but I had the same problems that in book 2. In this book there was even more angst and Jared was still full on emo and Kami still didn't get him and ugh, it just frustrated me because I really thought we had got over this on book 2 and them it felt like it was backtracked again just so that the couple would suffer 'till the very ending just not okay. Also there was a scene when Ash did something that I was just like WTF IS HAPPENING? Because I thought we had gotten over that too. But the plot really saves this since there was a lot of heartbreak and oh-my-gosh and holly-crap-how-are-they-going-to-survive-this, the stakes are so high and Brennan really doesn't care to torture our hearts, so yeah painfully worth the read.

Summing up:
If you like the paranormal gender I think you're gonna love this series! (despite the fact that it's actually fantasy it reads A LOT like paranormal books, except better than most that is out there). It's full of funny moments and the characters have such a banter together that is just gold, despite some frustrating moments this quickly became one of my ultimate favorite series of all times and I'm sure that in a few years I will have the need to revisit Sorry-in-the-Vale and Kami and her group.

For Real - Alison Cherry

For Real by Alison Cherry 
Published by Delacorte Press on December 9, 2014 
Pages: 304
Genres: Contemporary, Reality show, Romance
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley

Amazon • The Book Depository • Goodreads 

From Alison Cherry, author of 

Red, a novel PW declares “sparkles with wit,” comes a terrific new book about two sisters and one big question: how do you know who’s for real?

No parents. No limits. No clue what they’re in for.

Shy, cautious Claire has always been in her confident older sister’s shadow. While Miranda’s life is jam-packed with exciting people and whirlwind adventures, Claire gets her thrills vicariously by watching people live large on reality television.

When Miranda discovers her boyfriend, Samir, cheating on her just after her college graduation, it’s Claire who comes up with the perfect plan. They’ll outshine Miranda’s fame-obsessed ex while having an amazing summer by competing on Around the World, a race around the globe for a million bucks. Revenge + sisterly bonding = awesome. 

But the show has a twist, and Claire is stunned to find herself in the middle of a reality-show romance that may be just for the cameras. This summer could end up being the highlight of her life . . . or an epic fail forever captured on film. In a world where drama is currency and manipulation is standard, how can you tell what’s for real?

Despite the enormous quantity of reality tv that are throw on us daily I find interesting that "For Real" is the first book that I read about this theme - and like what it's show on tv, this book delivers a quickly, mindless read that will make you entertained for hours without noticing it!

Claire our main character stars the book pretty naive and at some points she made just blank stare at the pages of my e-reader because of some things she was thinking/doing, through the entire book she is trying to pass as a mature person but the way she acts (keeping her feelings from her sister & not having an honest conversation with her) is really childish. Honestly the entire relationship between Claire and Miranda is very childish, I get the older sister wanting to protect the younger one but oh boy did Miranda pissed me off so many times, they both should have just sat down and talked through their problems. We sorta of do have an happy ending for their relationship but I wasn't sold on that - they had major problems and never worked on them. 

Other relationship that leaved me unsatisfied was Claire and Will's. Like I said above Claire is pretty naive from the start until almost the end of the book but there are times that I just rolled my eyes so much because of the level of immaturity from her character, it was like she needed to pass through the same things over and over with her sister and her crush to finally get the memo  - let's just say I was never on board for this ship and am glad for that. 

Overall this book was quickly, at some points even laugh out loud funny but the impressions will not last long enough, just like last season of whatever reality show you watch. 

Recommended to: fans of reality tv, fans of contemporary books with trips on it (there are lots of trips on this one, did I mentioned it?), fans of coming of age stories.