(Mild Spoiler) Review: The 100 by Kass Morgan

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The 100

The 100 by Kass Morgan
Genre: Dystopian, Sci-Fi, Romance
Published by: Little, Brown Books
Pages: 323
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★.5
Sequel: Day 21 (#2)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

‘The 100’ is probably the first legitimate science fiction I’ve read. Of course, all the dystopian novels I’ve completed could also be categorized as sci-fi, but this story takes place in space. My very first space opera. (I wonder if there’s a card for that?)

This was the first book in a series about a colony of humans that had been evacuated from Earth to live in the safety of a spaceship. Because I’ve read ‘Cress’ by Marissa Meyer, I could guess something would go wrong with the ship. I wasn’t disappointed. Therefore, one hundred juvenile delinquents (because ninety-eight just doesn’t have the same ring to it) are sent to Earth nearly a century later to see if Earth had become inhabitable.

Written in third person and following the storylines of four characters, who are very well linked together, ‘The 100’ has a lot to offer. There’s always something going on, even if it is only for a sentence at the end of the chapter. My general opinion was that each story line could have been told in a much shorter timespan, or with lots more detail.

Let me set the scene.

So, Clarke was in love with Wells, and Wells committed a felony just to go to Earth with her, but it turns out Clarke isn’t in love with Wells anymore, she likes Bellamy. Bellamy likes Clarke too, but he has to protect his sister Octavia. Later he doesn’t like Clarke, and then he does again, then Clarke likes Wells, and then settles for Bellamy…. meanwhile aboard ship, Glass, Wells’ best friend, loves Luke but Luke doesn’t love her, he loves Camille, but then he actually loves Glass and Glass still loves him.

Is anyone else thinking these characters are completely unable to make up their minds?

When it came to the romantic relationships between the characters, the same cookie-cutter pattern was followed: one person in the couple is unhappy because they are hiding a HUGE secret that could tear their relationship apart. When the secret finally comes out, as it inevitably will, the relationship fails because of mistrust and dishonesty. I can read about this once, but not on eight separate occasions.

I’d definitely say that the romantic relationships drove the plot more than I thought they would. I know ‘The 100’ has been made into a popular TV show, though haven’t seen an episode. My friend, Sarah (‘The 100’ super-fan) says that the show focuses more on the survival element of the book because that’s actually quite interesting. Just under 100 teenagers, (about ninety three after a few deaths to prove the scene was important) with no experience of Earth, trying to survive without many resources? That sounds killer! I can see why it didn’t chose repetitive romance to draw in the viewers.

So you know what I said about no survival experience? Well, it turns out Bellamy is a dead shot with a bow and arrow, without any earlier practice and having only read about hunting in books. If only Tudor History was that easy to master!

The book ends in quite a cliffhanger, but let’s see if you can guess it! A colony of humans think they’re the only people alive and that Earth is uninhabited. They stress this fact quite a bit. What are they completely not expecting to find on Earth? Other humans.

What do they find on Earth? You guessed it. Other humans.

I severely hope this conflict is played up to it’s full potential in the second book. (More on that later!)

Overall, I’d give ‘The 100’ 2.5 stars. It didn’t impress me as much as I wanted it too because I was expecting something more like the TV show and what that offered. However, Kass Morgan has left the story relatively open ended so it could get better. Fingers crossed.

Review: The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

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The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
Published by: Scholastic
Pages: 295
Format: ebook
Rating: ★★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

A lot of people seem to be comparing The Iron Trial to Harry Potter, and I can see the obvious correlation: two guys, one girl. Girl is super smart. Protagonist is clueless about magical world. It’s a school. There is magic. But apart from that…it couldn’t be more different. Essentially it’s still about a boy who is pulled into the magical world and expected to fight an enemy, whilst also making a bunch of friends and befriending some animals, but we all know that’s a winning formula, so why can’t it be successful again?

One of my favourite things about this book is how misleading the cover is. On the cover we have the trio; Call, Aaron and Tamara – Aaron being in the middle – but he’s not the protagonist! How great is that? I won’t draw on Harry Potter too much for comparisons – only a few more I promise – but it’s like reading HP from Ron’s perspective. Don’t get me wrong Callum is still super important to the plot line too, he’s the one that knows nothing, so we need to follow his journey specifically so that we can learn about the Magisterium as he does. Also, there is quite a twist at the end that I was not expecting at all, but I suppose if I’d been putting two and two together from the beginning I might have been able to figure it out. However, that’s why it’s so impressive, because you’re too distracted by all this new magic and a new school to learn the rules of, that you forget to read between the lines.

Let’s just take a minute to appreciate the fact that Call is hindered by his mangled leg. This book dealt with prejudice extremely well, and I really enjoyed having a character that wasn’t emotionally scarred, but physically scarred. (A bit of emotional scarring was thrown in for good measure) He has to deal with the idea of holding his friends back because he can’t do everything as well as they can. Obviously he can do that and much more, and I’m seriously interested to see how he deals with his leg as the series continues and the adventure becomes more strenuous. The trio isn’t you’re average rag-tag group of three, they are apprentices of the Magisterium and they are awesome.

At some points it seemed as though the authors were really trying to differentiate The Iron Trial from Harry Potter by making the school system so very different. Even going as far as to say that instead of being called first years they are Iron Years and the prefix to the ‘years’ will change to other precious metals as they progress through the school. The whole idea of the bracelets to indicate which year the pupils are in was ingenious. I can totally see future The Iron Trial cosplayers brandishing their cool bracelets. You’ve got a wand? Well look at my bracelet. I would like one, please.

I loved how different the school system was, the ‘classes’ are really small, so I feel that we’ll get to know every secondary character equally. My favourite character is probably Celia, because although she was part of the secondary group she was still adorable, and I’m really looking forward to her developing relationship with a certain someone. On that note, I thought that everything was perfect for a twelve year old perspective, Cal still made some silly mistakes, and the characters didn’t really have strong romantic relationships with each other yet, and that’s possibly the most exciting aspect to this series. We’re going to get to watch a whole new set of characters grow up and see how their relationships change.

Some parts of the plot were slow, but as seems to be the way with Cassandra Clare’s writing especially, the last ten per cent was a rapid adventure of shock and mystery. I’m not too disappointed by the pacing, on the other hand, because we needed that world building, especially considering our characters live underground. The description of the underground caves was so beautiful, and enchanting. I’m looking forward to more areas of the caves as the characters progress.

I’m not entirely sure how the rest of the series will continue, because I feel like we’ve already been given the biggest plot twist and surprise. Yet, this does make me even more excited to get my hands on the next book, because what could possibly come next after a wonderful first book?

(Spoiler) Review: My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

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My Life Nex12294652t Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Published By: Speak
Pages: 394
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I can’t believe I was so disappointed with this book after seeing all of the four and five star reviews, and although I wasn’t sure whether or not I was actually going to review this book, I guess I better explain myself.

First of all, I don’t think there was any character development. She didn’t really make up with her best friend, and she doesn’t resolve her bad relationship with her Mum, but hey, at least she got into the family she’d been spying on for the past ten years, right? No! She moves house at the end of the novel, so she doesn’t even get to stay near the Garretts anymore! And will their relationship stand up after the move? I don’t know, but her mum’s partner did almost kill Jase’s dad and tried to keep it a secret from him. Who wouldn’t want to stay together if that was their relationship?

But I’m getting ahead of myself- I know, let’s turn this into a bullet point list.

  • The first 250 pages approximately are all about Samantha and Jase building up to having sex. This is one hundred per cent not the focus that I wanted this novel to have. I’m not complaining about the fact that there was sexual content in this novel, because it’s about teenagers, and teenagers have sex. It’s gotten to the point in the contemporary genre that if sex isn’t mention or there isn’t some kind of sexual content then it’s regarded as ‘not realistic.’ Whether you believe in that or not, is for you to decide yourself. To conclude this point, although I thought it was realistic, it was completely unnecessary. I bought this book to read about family, not about two teenagers and their intense hormonal desires.

I will pause the list to include this disclaimer: I did not hate this book. I might have some pretty strong opinions on it that other reader’s may not agree with. I was reading this book with my friend Holly and I always find that when I read a book with the specific intention of reviewing it, I tend to pick up more points and dislike more things. On with the bullet points.

  • The relationship with her mother. I just wanted to shake Samantha and Grace and tell them that some simple communication skills would have solved all of their problems. This is the part where I really felt sympathetic to Sam, because she had a Mum who just wouldn’t sit down and actually listen to her. I was seriously expecting them to have a big heart to heart like the characters in Just One Day, but they didn’t – leaving this big gaping hole in their relationship and as a reader I want that hole sewn up!
  • More communications issues: the best friend. If they talked to each other, calmly explained what was going on, and made sure to tell the truth then absolutely everything would’ve been fine. I thought Nan had a massive over-reaction to Samantha not saying anything about Jase. I mean, come on. He was forbidden, she didn’t want the secret to get back to her Mum, and surely her friend could understand that. I also thought the cheating subplot could have been explored a lot more, it was one of the first inclinations that this book was going to be about more than sex. Sidenote, I really want to know what Nan is short for!
  • Considering this book was sold to me on the basis that it centered on a family, I was disappointed with actually how little time we spent with them. Sam babysat for the Garretts which was the only real time where we got to see all the kids, and I loved how each of them interacted differently with Samantha, but personality wise I with Fitzpatrick tried to make them as individual as possible. It was very reminiscent of Cheaper By The Dozen. I think I would like to read a YA book where the main character is part of a big family, because I felt we lost some of the family dynamic seeing it from Sam’s point of view.
  • Finally, I hate to say it but Clay might have been my favourite character because I hated him sosososo much. Why does this make him my favourite, you ask? Because he was probably the only character that I had any strong feelings about at all, even if they were negative, and he was the villain! I just didn’t connect with any of the other main characters.

 This has been a bitterly honest review, but I just felt like I needed to express my opinion. I’ve read some other reviews and I think that My Life Next Door may well be a Marmite book. You either love it or you hate it, and I’m afraid to say that I’m leaning closer to dislike. Not hate, but just some healthy dislike.

Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

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16143347-e1397585781962We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Published By: Hot Key Books
Pages: 227
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I feel like this is going to be a hard book to explain and review without giving away intense spoilers. If you haven’t heard of We Were Liars, then I would like to ask you where’ve you been? Because this book is possibly one of the most hyped young adult books since The Fault in Our Stars. First of all, I’d like to point out, that although I do love how excited the audiences of these novels have greatly improved the promotion of both the authors and the books, hype can lead to disappointment.

We Were Liars is a book that you have to read to understand the hype, and even then, because you’ve been expecting the thrills and mysteries of this heavily hyped book, you can’t help but feel slightly underwhelmed when you actually finish the book. Or, at least, that’s what happened to me.

We Were Liars centers on the Sinclair family, who are heavily explained in an almost confusing way at the very beginning of the book. I think I would have preferred to be introduced to the characters slowly rather than all at once, but for the purpose of the retelling, and the fact that it felt almost like a diary, it worked pretty well. I don’t think we’re supposed to like the main character, Cady, particularly. All of the characters, on a certain level, are very hard to connect to because they are so isolated from any other characters I’ve read. This is a problem, because I couldn’t feel sympathy for Cady when it came to the big reveal, all I could do was nod my head and think, “okay, then. Well…what did I expect?”

I did love the slow reveal, and how everything was tantalizingly brought out. The way in which the variations of different fairytales were woven into the story was also very rewarding for the reader. They could piece together what was going to happen, thanks to the foreshadowing, before they got to that part in the plot. Cady had selective amnesia, so as we learn about her past – even before she does in some cases – she also remembers.

I think I’m going to have to read this book again at a later date after knowing what happens in the ending, just to make sure that everything pieces together how I wanted it to. The relevance of the beginning isn’t really something you can understand or appreciate until the end. At first I was quite bored with the story, because I didn’t get the relevance of the past summers or Cady’s feelings and withdrawal, but by the very end, well, I’ll let you read it for yourself.

Another thing I am very thankful for is the short chapters. It made it such a deliciously quick read, and really added to the pacing of the story. In the slower parts it gave the illusion of a fast read and in the fast parts I was practically tearing through the pages. I’m surprised that such a layered mystery was executed in less than three hundred pages. It certainly wasn’t a mystery where the reader was left pondering for weeks after reading the book, but for such a short book, my my my was is good.

I would like to give We Were Liars, three stars, because although I did enjoy it, I think I probably should have read it when it was first released. The hype sort of spoiled the story. Not the plot, because I hadn’t seen any spoilers, but it definitely left me wanting more and thinking that it wasn’t what I expected.

(Mild Spoiler) Review: Rebel and Reboot by Amy Tintera

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RebootReboot by Amy Tintera
Genre: Apocalyptic, Sci-Fi, Romance, Action
Published by: HarperTeen
Pages: 365
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I’d wanted to read Reboot for a while, but was unsure on the premise, because it seemed like something I perhaps wouldn’t enjoy, however I was pleasantly surprised.

I thoroughly enjoyed Wren’s character development. She was dead for 178 minutes before she rebooted, which meant she was the ‘least human’, however I felt this was sort of forgotten. In the very beginning she seemed to have a wide scope of emotions, perhaps this was because she’d been conditioned by her roommate to be a little friendlier, but it would have made more sense for her to take on a more robotic personality. Wren is supposed to be one of the toughest Reboots, because of her number, but when it comes to training a new Reboot, she picks Callum, the 22, when she normally goes from the highest number available. Without reading the blurb you knew this was where the romance was going to start, and it made for a very interesting dynamic as the pair are pretty much opposites…or so we think.

The majority of Reboot focuses on Wren training Callum to be more resilient, so that he’ll take orders, and therefore not get shot. It’s a brutal life, but then another layer is added to the story in the form of Reboot testing, and one of the characters to receive these injections is Ever, Wren’s best friend. In my opinion this is where the story really picks up, because Wren starts to realize that her life in the containment facility isn’t that great, and so the logical next step is, of course, escape.

Wren and Callum overcome a lot of difficulties in their escape, namely having to trust humans, planning how to get out in the first place, mourning the loss of friends and just generally trying to survive. Reboot ends on a cliffhanger so I made sure to pick up Rebel straight away. Other than learning about the world and the two main characters not a lot happens in Reboot apart from the testing conspiracy and their escape, so I set my expectations higher for the sequel.

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Rebel by Amy Tintera
Pages: 340
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

Rebel is written in a dual perspective, and I have to admit that I didn’t really care for Callum’s point of view, because Wren seemed to have the more action packed sequences.

One thing that did surprise me is how they stick together through thick and thin, and they’re always working to get back to one another. There’s no ‘save yourself, because I love you’ it’s ‘we need to get out together, because I love you.’ They managed to escape to a compound build by Reboots who then help them, but they have their own agenda. Micah, 163, understands Wren’s potential so some panic and Rebellion ensues.

What more could we expect from the title of this book. It was fast paced and answered the majority of the questions that I still had left over from Reboot. More importantly, things were rounded off nicely, and Wren finally came to the conclusion that she wasn’t a monster, and justice was served. On the other hand I do feel that this book was almost like a waiting game. Again, there was a lot of preparation for the next step and then the step after that. More new characters are introduced, such as Isaac, and I’d be really interested to have had chapter or excerpts from his perspective.

As much as I did like this duology, I was expecting more because of the fantastic premise. I didn’t find myself becoming attached to any of the characters in particular, and although I did feel sympathetic towards their situation so me things felt more forced than others, and with a bit of communication a lot of their problems could have been solved. These books dealt with issues like prejudice extremely well, but even so I wanted a clearer, stronger ending. We’re left without any real indication of whether or not the world continues to work after the rebellion. As often is with these sorts of plot lines, it’s the next five chapters after the ending that I’m really interested in reading. Overall, I thought it was a fun, interesting, and definitely different, read that I would recommend to those of you that like more serious characters and situations.

Review: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

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Vampire vampire academyAcademy by Richelle Mead
Genre: Supernatural, Romance
Published By: Razorbill
Pages: 332
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★★★
Series: Frostbite (#2)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I can’t even coherently describe how excited I was to read Vampire Academy. Bee read the whole series before me, in cute little bind-ups on her Kindle, and really recommended it, saying that she wasn’t expecting much for the books but was blown away by how completely absorbed she was by the story.

Continue reading “Review: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead” →

Review: Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly

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Deep Blue by JennDeep Blueifer Donnelly
Genre: Supernatural, Romance, Middle-Grade
Published By: Disney Press
Pages: 340
Format: E-book
Rating: ★★
Series: Rogue Wave (#2)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

The Waterfire Saga: Deep Blue is a book that I would recommend to girls of around ten to twelve years old. Although marketed as a young adult book, after researching the author’s website, her intention was to write for her ten year old daughter. With those criteria, I think she’s succeeded.

This book has a lot of elements within it that are important when writing books for children, for example, friendship and self belief. Set under the sea in a very developed (though not entirely explained) mermaid world, it’s perfect for girls that want a tame introduction to fantasy before they try their hand at ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ (A recommended reading age of at least 14.)

However, I found that the first 25% of the book (accurate due to Kindle) had a completely different feel to the rest of the story. Seraphina, the main character, is worried about fulfilling her duties as a princess and whether the guy she’s betrothed to still likes her. All trivial stuff, right? Then, wham bam, both her parents die in an assassin’s attack and suddenly it’s all ‘the-fate-of-the-world-is-on-your-shoulders’ type stuff. What?!

Although the book moved at a fast pace, with a new thing happening (and a new character being introduced) basically happened on every page, nothing was explained to its full extent, leaving me feeling at a loss for what was happening.

So, I got that the two main characters were on a quest, suddenly changing from weak willed to strong females in a matter of seconds with no real gradient of change, and they had to find four other girls to go and fight down this monster. The execution of this quest wasn’t exactly Rick Riordan standard. Although the girls were strong in their own way, they relied a lot on getting rescued and other people taking the bullets (or poisoned arrows) for them. They moved from place to place, in a constant state of ‘flee-the-bad-guys’ without any attempt at facing their problems.

When it came to finding the other girls, it happened very abruptly and clumsily. Ling, the first girl to join Seraphina and Neela, was just sat nonchalantly in a café! The other two girls, Ava and Becca, who at first I could distinguish between, were found together getting attacked by evil ghosts and the last girl, Astrid, was your classic non-believer and slightly evil one. Everything was just too quick and…

Convenient.

That’s the only word to describe this book. The girls discovered hidden powers at just the right moment, with camoflauge spells only working at the last seconds and guards wouldn’t do a full sweep of their hideout.

The ending also had a sense of convenience. How was it the six girls, barely able to use magic, were able to fight down the biggest threat and win as soon as they joined forces? Of course, the threat couldn’t be completely diminished, as this is only the first book in a series. The threat will return but in the meantime, what do all the girls have to do? You guessed it.

Flee.

Overall, I’d give this book 2.5 stars. Not impressed. I didn’t feel for any of the characters, primary or secondary, as we basically only learnt their names and the colour of their tails. Not much to get emotionally attached to. However, perhaps it was the fact that I’m seventeen, and not ten that stopped me from enjoying this book to the maximum.

Review: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

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LandlineLandline by Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Family
Published by: Orion
Pages: 310
Format: ebook
Rating: ★★★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

‘Landline’ by Rainbow Rowell fits more perfectly into the ‘New Adult’ genre of literature. Due to there being no characters in the book between the ages of 15-20, ‘Young Adult’ may have been an understatement.

However, the fact that the characters were parents didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book, although I felt I couldn’t relate to the characters as well because I hadn’t experienced a lot of what they were going through…like marriage. (It’s unfortunately impossible to propose to book characters.)

The story follows Georgie, a mother of two that has a time consuming career of writing scripts for TV shows. That was super interesting to read, as I never really imagine the people behind the jokes of sitcoms. Georgie is married to Neal and it’s safe to say their marriage is on the rocks because of Georgie’s job and the strain of having kids. (Wow, family life suddenly seems way more difficult than I thought!)

Although this is all quintessential to the plot, the really interesting idea is that Georgie has a phone in her present that can connect to a phone in Neal’s past. Through this magical device, she is able to talk to a younger Neal, who is contemplating proposing to Georgie. As anyone would, older Georgie takes this opportunity to smooth over younger Georgie’s mistakes and put right her relationship with her husband.

This doesn’t quite go to plan.

The scenes where Georgie was on the phone to younger Neal were quite repetitive. They’d follow the pattern of younger Neal, not knowing older Georgie’s downfall’s, convincing her that he loves her while the older Georgie tries to convince him that they’re not right for each other. I could read about this struggle once, but three times was kind of a push.

There are also parts of the book that are flashbacks to Georgie and Neal’s relationship at its roots, when they were first getting to know each other. These were the cutest parts, but as we were only reading from Georgie’s perspective, we didn’t get to see that Neal really really liked Georgie, though he wasn’t very good at showing it.

In a way, their relationship was unequal from the start, with Georgie thinking that she loved Neal more than he loved her, and with Neal thinking the other way around. The problem was definitely communication. They definitely needed to talk more. Thank goodness for this magical phone! If only Georgie would stop being so negative about herself.

The other problem with time travel is messing up the future. Georgie was under the impressive the phone worked in a ‘Back to the Future’ or ‘Meet the Robinson’s’ system but really, we were looking at your classic ‘Prisoner of Askaban’ contingency system, where every action is predetermined to make the future. Nice one.

All is resolved at the end, which is nice for the McCool family, but in my opinion, the whole book could have told the same story in a lot less pages, with less emphasis on Georgie’s life and more emphasis on her ability to fix her broke relationship (successfully, I might add!) For this reason, I’m going to give this book 3.5 stars, because although I liked it, the characters were much older than me. I couldn’t sympathize with them well and the story felt a little drawn out. Nothing to make me stop reading completely, but nothing like ‘Fangirl’.

Review: To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

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To All The Boys ITo All the Boys‘ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Published By: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I got everything that I was expecting with this book, except the promised plot. We were sold on the idea that boys would be receiving love letters from a girl who doesn’t love them anymore, but there were only five letters. Two boys didn’t bother to confront her about it. One boy was sweet about it, but fleeting in the story, and the other two guys ended up in a fight for Lara Jean’s affections.

What I wasn’t expecting was the classic ‘be-my-fake-boyfriend’ plot that steered the majority of the story. And what normally happens in this scenario? They actually fall in love. Did that happen? Is it really a surprise if I say yes?

Although I’m a fan of the fake bf/gf story line (like a good love triangle, when does it ever happen in real life?) I didn’t really get the purpose of this one. The explanation for it in the book was to ‘save face’. What does that even mean?!

The main character, Lara Jean, doesn’t really stand out for me as a character with much backbone. She’s super dependent on her sisters and kind of babyish. This naivety hinders her from doing things and speaking out when, really, that would make her a lot happier!

That said, I loved the relationship she had with her sisters. It was very equal and realistic and though I don’t know what it’s like to have older or younger sisters, I do have a sister and I know what it’s like to be angry with her! My favourite sister was probably Kitty, the youngest. She was adorable, determined and great at plaiting hair. I’d of much preferred a book from her perspective! J

The relationship between Lara Jean and her boy-next-door Josh went unresolved. He was one of her loves but the problem was, he was dating her older sister Margot. (Pronounced Mar-go or Mar-got?) They broke up. Both LJ and Josh were single. Did they get together once LJ knew Josh liked her too? NOPE! LJ did the fake bf routine with the most popular guy at school, Peter. WHYYY?!

Peter and LJ’s relationship was cute. I liked how they both were unsure and adorable to each other, with Peter really trying to impress LJ and Kitty. Josh faded into the background at this point, which was down right inconsistent, but he popped back up at the end of for the classic sister-betrayal fight.

A lot of clichés in this one. Sorry about that.

I originally thought that this was going to be a stand alone, but just discovered it was going to be a series. That’s good, otherwise I would have complained about the complete lack of satisfying ending. What happened with Josh? What happened with Peter? What happened with Margo? I had questions. A lot of them. Now, I guess, I wait for them to be answered.

Overall I’d give this book about 3.5 stars. I did enjoy it once it got going, but was surprised and the change of plot line from what was promised. Jenny Han has such a lovely way of writing family life and simple day activities, with a lot of emphasis put on food. LJ baked a lot in this book that made me crave cookies.

Generally cute, fluffy read with some substance. Definitely needs a sequel to tie up some very loose ends.

(Spoiler) Review: Pretty Series by Jenny Han

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The Summer

The Summer Series by Jenny Han
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Published By: Razorbill
Pages: 276
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

Bee read this first a few years ago, and she said that she felt too young to really get the series. Now that we’re seventeen, she was interested to see what I would think of it. Answer: not that much.

The series is built around a love triangle between a girl and two brothers. In the UK editions of the series, the first book is blue, second yellow and third pink. I think they’re colour-coded by characters and who Belly, the main character (blue) ends up with.

The Summer I Turned Pretty was probably the best in the series, and that’s talking generously. I loved the flashbacks to her younger years at the summerhouse and at least the reader could understand how deeply rooted her love for Conrad, the older of the brothers, was. But the book was inconsequential for Belly’s love life. She has a summer fling with a boy called Cam, which was cute and summer-y with the purpose of proving she was a grown up fifteen year old and not a baby (which Conrad seemed to think.)
I don’t know how Belly could of loved Conrad. He was a jerk throughout the whole series yet could still claim he always loved Belly when it was convenient for him. Jeremiah, the younger brother, was no better. There was no hint of love between him and Belly, not really a hint of friendship either though they were meant to be best friends.

not summerYou can imagine my surprise when she ends up dating Jeremiah by the end of the second book. Can I even remember what happened in each book? Not really. They melted into one.

There’s always this subplot of Suzannah, the boys’ mother, who has a cancer relapse and sadly doesn’t get to live past book one. Grief was an interesting theme for the series, and keeping things exactly the same, which reminded me of We Were Liars by E. Lockhart.

The third book was just ridiculous. Jeremiah, who seemed the perfect boyfriend in everyway and definitely was better for Belly than douche-y Conrad, did something completely stupid mainly so the brothers’ roles could be switched and Belly would actually be consolidated in preferring Conrad.

The third book revolves around a wedding between Belly and Jeremiah, though, as expected, it doesn’t go to plan. It seemed like the wrong message to be sending to teenagers: the way to fix a broken relationship is to stick it out and get married despite Grand Canyon sized cracks in the couple’s trust.

But really, has anyone experienced a love triangle in real life? They’re written about so much and I’m wondering what the inspiration was. Just imagine two boys being completely devoted to you. What would you do? Play them about for ages before admitting you preferred this one all along is not the right method.Always

In my opinion, Belly deserved neither guy. She was selfish, whiny and inconsiderate. She wanted to believe so much that she’d grown up but I believed Conrad all the way. She didn’t change. She didn’t mature. She just got her happy ending by default.

I’d give the series about 2.5 stars out of 5, because I really didn’t enjoy it, but wanted to get to the end to see the outcome. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have wasted my time. This is described by Sarah Dessen as a ‘beach read’. Does that mean a book you’d read at the beach and then leave there?

If you like love triangles that are badly built upon and convenience within plots, this is for you. If you’re looking for something light, that won’t take more than a day to finish and you want to flush your mind with some kind of romance, this is also for you.

Sorry for the negativity. This doesn’t mean Jenny Han can’t write a good book. I loved Burn for burn, co-written with Siobhan Vivian and am excited to read her newest venture To all the Boys I’ve loved before. Let’s hope for better!