Book Review: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

Book: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

Genre: NA SF
Rating:  ★ ★


I was a little leery about this one going in. Not exactly sure why, but just... you know... not too sure. Turns out, I was kinda right. Cause this book was just weird.

It's about a girl who one day as she is walking home happens upon a weird robot statue that seems to have just appeared out of nowhere there in New York...and she thinks it's pretty cool. So she calls her friend and they make a youtube video about it.  Well, and so the next morning they find out that these robot things appeared in cities all over the world, but it happens that they are the first ones to say anything about it. And everyone loved their video and watched and so overnight they become famous.

So then it's mostly about her dealing with this sudden fame and how should she use it to get across her message, which is that the robots are friendly. She has named them Carl, which the world loves, and now everyone is trying to figure out where they came from and why they are here.

There's a lot of science talk, and puzzles to solve, which might be fun for some readers, but kinda made my head spin. Then things turn political as it turns out there are two sides... those that think Carl is friendly and those that don't. And so now she has enemies.

So in the end, the book for me was a little boring.. until the end when things finally started getting interesting and then it was over. So that was sad. But I, for the most part, felt like it was too agenda-y. Our friend Hank was trying too hard to get across a lot of points regarding fame and fortune and tolerance and ... I don't even know what else.

I felt also like the characters weren't that interesting. Gah, I feel bad saying so! I wanted to be more invested with them, but I just wasn't feeling it. More character development Mr. Hank! and less about the agenda!

Yeah. Not my favorite book of the year I'm pretty sure...

Book Review Discussion: Love, Lucy by April Lindner

Book: Love, Lucy by April Lindner
Genre: NA Romance
Rating:★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
For: Fun
From: the library

Short Synopsis: Lucy and her friend have been backpacking through Europe for a few weeks. When they come to Italy and her friend moans about getting a "room with a view" they end up kicking a couple of guys out of their room. Well, Lucy hooks up with one of them. . .Jesse! And has a whirlwind Italian romance! Her very own Roman Holiday. But then she has to go back home and start college, which her dad is forcing her to do. She loses track of Jesse and just when she thinks she has got her life all together, sort of,  he shows up on her doorstep.

My Response: Ah, it was lacking so much for me! I enjoyed the fact that it is set (some of it anyway) in Florence and Rome, which is cool, but other than that, I didn't take to it. I remembered her other books were re-tellings of classics, so I thought it would be fun to see which one this was. I had no clue through the whole thing and finally had to look it up somewhere. (I gave a very obvious clue up above!) But, it was lacking emotion. Like the romance was just. . .bam. With no emotion at all. I just did not connect. Maybe it was not a good book to read right after The Winner's Crime. Yeah. That was probably it.

Bottom Line: I suggest you skip this one. Sadly

Let's Talk About: Reading not so good books after really awesome books. Life is not fair to some books, you know? Has this happened to you? And your poor books?

Other Reviews:

A fantastic book with a perfect summer romance and the choice between a safe future and following your heart. From YA Book Nerd

I did enjoy the story, but Lucy annoyed me more than once with her immaturity. From Alexia's Books and Such

Vespas, cute boys, gelato, discovering your dreams, living your dreams, it's all in Love, Lucy. From Book Sp(l)ot Reviews

It was sweet, uncomplicated and relatable, especially as Lucy struggles to choose between a new love interest and the wild Jesse. From Write Meg

Book Review Discussion: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Book: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Genre: NA Contemporary
Rating:★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
For: Fun
From: Bought for my Kindle

Short Synopsis: It's during the 90s and everyone is really paranoid about this new computer/email technology, so Lincoln is hired at the paper to monitor the emails of the staff... make sure they are not being bad! So a couple of the girls on the staff start having a fairly revealing conversation about their lives and Lincoln is caught up in the drama and reads them.. and does not get them in trouble or anything. In fact, he slowly but surely falls in love with one of them. Meanwhile, he is struggling in his own real life, finding his place in the world and trying to feeling worth something.

My Response: So much fun! I love Lincoln! What a sweet and nice boy he is...even if he is eavesdropping on an email conversation! And yes, that becomes a big problem for him to solve. Anyway, he is such a nice guy that you can't help but root for him and fall a bit for him as a reader. Interesting how you can get to know people so well through their emails too. It's awesome. Also, it's a fun flashback to the whole Y2K craziness! Ah, the good old days! And... I would love to talk about the ending... but I can't. Too spoilery.

Bottom Line: I totally enjoyed it and read it in nearly one gulp.

Let's Talk About: Falling in love without seeing someone? Yes or no? I think it's very romantic. I love the idea of it.

Other Reviews:

I found it to be a quick, fun read and thought it was just delightful! From BermudaOnion's Weblog

Lincoln is such a typical, everyday person who lives at home and likes playing Dungeons & Dragons, but also enjoys going out with his friends to concerts. He’s well-rounded and interesting, and I enjoyed getting to know him in his PoV chapters. From A World of Reviews

It sounds like a predictable plot, but it has some surprises, and so many laugh-out-loud and warm moments, you wouldn’t care if it didn’t. From Rhapsody in Books

This is a character-driven book, so if you are looking for action-packed plot, look elsewhere. From A Tapestry of Words

Book Review: Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando

Book: Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando
Genre: YA (NA?) Contemporary
Rating:★★★☆☆
From: the library
For: Fun and Supporting Local Authors

So I thought this book was going to be about dealing with college roommates or all the craziness that ensues during college, or some such thing. But it surprised me and was instead about two girls who are paired to be roommates for the upcoming school year, and the correspondence that they end up having with each other over the summer as a way to get to know each other. It was very cautious and hesitant at first, but soon turned into a real true and solid friendship. They ended up telling each other everything about their respective crazy summers, even before telling their lifelong best friends.

Then they had a fight. Then they made up and then they went off to meet each other in college. Is there going to be a sequel? I feel like it needs a sequel!

So really, it ended up not about being roommates, but about leaving your families to go to school and the stress that it causes. And about kids dealing with grown up issues and about making new friends.

I enjoyed it for the most part. Sometimes I felt like it was a little over the top with the stuff these kids were dealing with. I liked how one of the girls was part of a big family and had little brothers and sisters. That's not something we see much in books these days. And that was life for some of us!

Bottom line: I enjoyed it. It was fun!

Other Reviews:

This book was such an accurate portrayal of life and relationships and transition that I kept having to stop myself and nod, or reminisce on something from my life that felt exactly like what happened in the story. From Read This Instead

With a nice romantic element, but plenty of much bigger things going on, this had all the makings of everything I love in contemporary. From A Good Addiction

A wave of nostalgia just hit me over and over while I was reading this. Roomies is a very endearing, swell of a read! From Amaterasu Reads

It has a little bit of everything: stuff to make you think, stuff to make you swoon, a set of parents you hate and another you love. From Lili's Reflections


(Edited to add new question feature.)

Question for My Readers: Did you have some sort of connection or correspondence with your college roommates before you actually met them?

Book Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Book: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Genre: NA Contemporary Romance
Rating:★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
For: Fun
From: Amazon

Wow, but I've heard a lot about this book! Everyone seemed to love it. I had no idea what it was really about. Fangirl? Fangirl of what I wondered. And why did everyone love it so so much?

Well, so she (our heroine) is a fangirl of some Harry Potter type series and she is a very popular online fan fiction writer. Things get interesting when she goes off to college and suddenly doesn't have as much time to keep up on her writings, and besides, now she has writing classes where she has to do "real" writing. And even more besides, she is a bit fascinated with her roommate's ex boyfriend.

So he, this guy named Levi, was the best thing about this book. I agree with everyone that I've seen saying he's their new book boyfriend. He was simply delightful and fun and just the coolest. No wonder Cath was fascinated. But Cath herself, I was just so so about. She was a bit irritating, but still interesting I suppose. I didn't enjoy her Simon Snow fan fiction stories. They were thrown in here and there throughout this book, and they were long and weird and had nothing to do with the story. Except as a device to get Levi and Cath together, sort of. Maybe there's some sort of symbolism deep down, but I didn't dig to find it. I just felt it slowed down the main story and once there in the end, I skipped it entirely to get back to the story.

Have you read this book? Did you enjoy the Simon Snow stuff? Or did it bug you too? I'm really wondering if people generally liked it or not.

Anyway, so the relationship development was fun for me. And the relationship (or lack thereof) that Cath was struggling with regarding her family was interesting and frustrating. I didn't like her twin sister at all and I wondered why Cath even bothered with her. But she is her twin I suppose.

Bottom line: Fun engaging story. I enjoyed it despite the fan fiction stuff. And despite the many many F bombs.

Other Reviews:

As you can tell, though, for me the blend of romance, family issues and friendship challenges worked like a charm! From Anna Reads

The bottom line is that I was bored much of the time and when the swoon-worthy conclusion arrived, it did not compensate for the lack of depth in the secondary characters and their individual conflicts. From Book Harbinger

There's just so much good in Fangirl . Cath has an interesting family dynamic, and a very interesting fanfiction hobby/habbit/lifestyle, and some school drama, and one of the most adorable romances I've read in a while. From Read This Instead

This was a cute, fun book, but the gazillion issues were annoying at times. As were all the Simon Snow bits. Truthfully, I just find it hard to care about a fake novel that sounds too much like HP. From Estella's Revenge

Cath’s struggles to leave her old life behind and adapt to life at college felt very real. From Bermuda Onion's Weblog

Book Review: Pieces by Michelle D. Argyle

Book: Pieces by Michelle D. Argyle
Genre: NA Romance
Rating:★★★☆☆
For: Fun
From: Bought at an author signing

After reading The Breakaway last month for Utah Book Month, I knew it wouldn't be long before I had to pick up the sequel, which I had waiting, to find out how this character resolves her issues. Beware, spoilers for the first book ahead!!

So, as you know from my review of the first book, the main character, Naomi, was kidnapped, suffered from Stockholm Syndrome and falls in love with one of her kidnappers. Then...

SPOILER ALERT (for the first book)
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....she escapes (well is let go) and bam the book ends. So. We are left wondering, how does she get on with her life after that? Is she okay? Does she get together with the kidnapper dude (Jesse)? Or is he too messed up?

Yes, many questions, thus the mission of this second book. To answer them all! And the books does a great job of this. Naomi is still pretty messed up and confused and sad and very much still in love with Jesse. But, is Jesse a good guy or a bad one? Big big question. So some stuff happens and everything seems to shift. Whiplash! But in a good way!

Anyway, that's about all I can say without giving away everything for this second book. But once again, let my just say that as a mom, this book made me crazy. I have a daughter the very same age as Naomi and had she done what Naomi does in this book I would have freaked. FREAKED I tell you. How do fictional mom's handle all the crazy things their kids do? Well, Naomi's mom does have her own issues, but still. It seems fictional parents are all always... whatever... about what their kids are doing. Weird.

In the end, I was thoroughly satisfied with the wrap up this book provided. It was nice, and good and well done. Yay for that!

Bottom line: A great second book to give closure, but not quite as engaging and page turning as the first. (That being said, I pretty much devoured the second half in one sitting!)

Other Reviews:

PIECES is a great look at what happens after a person has experienced a tumultuous situation and the way s/he must re-integrate with the nuances of daily life. From A Backwards Story

I enjoyed Pieces a lot more than I did The Breakaway. I also liked Naomi's character a lot better in this book. From Always YA at Heart

Naomi was a terrific protagonist. I grew to care for her throughout the book and she was easy to relate too. From Unforgettable Books

An emotional journey about moving on and finding the strength to make changes. From Some Like It Paranormal

Book Review: TRUE by Erin McCarthy

Book: TRUE by Erin McCarthy
Genre: New Adult Romance
Rating:★★★☆☆
For: Review
From: NetGalley (released May 7, 2013)

Something about the description for this book caught my eye and so I accepted a copy from NetGalley to review. After a page I thought, hmmm.... not sure if this book is for me! But, of course, I kept reading and was sucked into the story despite that first impression.

Yes, this book is categorized into the fairly new marketing niche we are calling New Adult. My understanding is that this means it features characters in college, out on their own, and discovering all sorts of things about life. But I think that it is also assumed that books falling into this category will be full of all things sex related and all will be well and okay.... including fairly graphic "almost" rape scenes.

So my review of this book is one of those mixed ones. On one hand, I enjoyed the characters and became invested in their story and what would happen and how it would all turn out. The girl was a good sort of girl who felt the need to venture on a new path. She falls for the bad boy, a boy that in reality, she discovers, is a pretty good kid. He has his own issues, dealing with his mom and his brothers and all sorts of deep life issues. This part, I liked.

On the other hand, there was just too much stuff (sex, drugs, abuse, drinking, etc.) included for me to really "like" this book. Yes, I was uncomfortable reading it. And while I've read many uncomfortable books that I ended up loving and learning form, this one I think does not fit that category for me. This one was just blatantly out there. And I picked this one up to "read now" because I was in a major mood for romance, but the actual romance was only a small part, which was very frustrating for me.

And so, basically, if this is an indication of what this new New Adult thing is going to be, I'm not sure I'm on board! And it bugs me because I think that this niche for books would be a good one really, in theory. I just think it doesn't have to be ALL about the sex, you know?

I know this is quite the hotly debated topic around the book blogosphere, so there you have my take. What do you think?

Granted, I will most likely give these books (meaning NA) more chances. I think there's a few more waiting on my Kindle. And I know I've already read a few that would fit nicely in this category had it existed for them. For instance Markus Zusak's I Am the Messenger is a perfect example. And you know how I feel about that book! So, I guess we'll see before I totally brush them off. (While I love YA with all my heart, maybe I'll find I'm "too old" for NA!)

So bottom line: I enjoyed the actually story and the characters (3 stars worth I suppose!) but the execution and method was not to my taste. (I also think had I been more up on this author's previous books, I could have predicted this final outcome!)

By the way for those interested, this appears to be the first of a series similar to the Perfect Chemistry one where the next book follows the brother's story. I like that actually. Cool.

Other Reviews: 

True shows accepting and living the hand that you’ve been dealt in life while finding friendship, love and connection with someone completely opposite. From Readers Confession

BUT my most favorite thing in the story were the tattoos... I was so touch with that... It makes me want to cry... From Books Mystify

Overall, this was a highly enjoyable read. I should have expected it, coming from McCarthy but I'm still a little leery of the New Adult category as a whole. From The Book Swarm

On the surface this novel seems to be rather similar to many of the New Adult books I’ve read in the past year. But True is different. The characters have a lot of depth. The plot has twists and turns. From WhY.A.Not