November 9 by Colleen Hoover

Fallon meets Ben, an aspiring novelist, the day before her scheduled cross-country move. Their untimely attraction leads them to spend Fallon’s last day in L.A. together, and her eventful life becomes the creative inspiration Ben has always sought for his novel. Over time and amidst the various relationships and tribulations of their own separate lives, they continue to meet on the same date every year. Until one day Fallon becomes unsure if Ben has been telling her the truth or fabricating a perfect reality for the sake of the ultimate plot twist.

So many people recommended I read this book and even though I was clearly against it (I hated the movie Just One Day) I figured, what's the worst that can happen? and read it anyway. I'm SO glad I did!

This book had me from page 1. I can smell sass from a mile away and Fallon has got heaps of it, especially in the early chapters. And in case you didn't already know, I LOVE sassy characters (possibly because I have been known to give some 'tude every once in a while). But it wasn't just the characters that sold me on this book. The execution really made it great. I mentioned my extreme dislike for Just One Day, and this book even brings that up: in that story the two characters are in each other's lives all year round. These two only spoke on November 9th each year. No phone calls, no emails, literally NOTHING for an entire year. That takes commitment and it was very interesting to read about because that's all we got. Each section of the book was labeled 'first November 9th' and so forth. We only learn about what happened the past year when the two meet up to discuss it. I loved that because there was no re-telling. Fallon doesn't experience something with just the reader then have to convey that to Ben later; we are just as curious as Ben is when they meet up because it's all new to ALL OF US.

The parts I did not like in this book are when Fallon suddenly becomes 'clairvoyant'. Out of nowhere, she knows what's best for everyone and just goes with it without explanation. There was a section where I was literally yelling at my book because reading from Fallon's POV, then Ben's, then Fallon's again; it was starting to come together (finally!!) until it all fell apart (naturally...*sigh*). Every book needs a plot twist and something to shake things up story wise but this was just frustrating, but in the best way possible. It's a classic contemporary novel dilemma, so I can't be mad at Ms. Hoover for using it, I was just hoping this would be an easier love story.

Since I'm trying to make this as spoiler free as possible I can't go into too many details, but let me just say this: if you think you know where this book is going you don't. I don't care if you're Nancy Drew reincarnated or Sherlock Holmes' great, great, great grandchild you don't know what's coming. And that is why this book was so great.

I want to apologize because I don't even think I can call this post a review. I'm 99% sure it doesn't make any sense, but that's how infatuated I am with this book. It was so good - exactly what my book slump needed - and I will definitely be reading more Colleen Hoover books in the future. I can happily give it 5 stars because I know I'll be re-reading it; this is definitely a great book. In short: just go read it.

5 stars

P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han

WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Lara Jean didn’t expect to really fall for Peter. She and Peter were just pretending. Except suddenly they weren’t. Now Lara Jean is more confused than ever. When another boy from her past returns to her life, Lara Jean’s feelings for him return too. Can a girl be in love with two boys at once?

Ughhhh I really wanted to hate this book. The first one wasn’t that great in my opinion, it left me just curious enough to want to continue on the Lara Jean train. Damnit Jenny Han. I still don’t know how she turned a high school love story into something so readable. In every aspect this book is your basic summer beach read: girl loves boy – they date – they have issues – they are resolved – end of book. I don’t understand why I want to keep reading about these characters so much. Lara Jean is so innocent and she never holds back what she’s thinking, to the reader or the other characters. She’s the adorable 16-year-old that every girl was or wanted to be. I still don’t understand how she had two guys fighting over her though. THAT seemed a bit much…but I still wanted to read it!! All the feels! This book has all the feels!!

But before I get too far, let’s back track…Lara Jean is dating Peter and they are in the puppy love stage of the relationship. They just recently became official and this is LJ’s first relationship ever. She wants to do everything right, but Peter just got off a bad break up with his on-again, off-again ex: Gen. Gen is the girl that every other girl compares herself to in high school. Pretty, rich, has it all, etc. LJ just doesn’t feel like she can ever measure up to Gen so relationship drama ensues. *Cue entrance of other insanely hot guy* (because what would a love story be without a triangle??) New guy John is super into LJ from day 1 and she’s the only one who doesn’t see it…naturally. Peter is so jealous of John while LJ is super jealous of Gen…see where this is going? Yeah, this is the same old high school love story but it’s also not. AND IT’S BUGGING ME THAT I CAN’T UNDERSTAND WHY THIS ONE IS DIFFERENT.

Part of the reason I thought I wasn’t going to like this book is because halfway through I realized that this was literally the same story as book 1. Except Peter and LJ decide to be real from the beginning – sort of. They still make a contract for their relationship, they’re still trying to get everyone’s approval (both at school and at home), and LJ still measures herself against Gen constantly (to the point of this could have taken a turn towards a lesbian relationship early on). I was basically reading the same book.

Once things finally got interesting *John ;)* the story started to pick up a little. Finally, we are seeing the fruits of labor after reading 4 or 500 something pages. I liked the back and forth of LJ and Peter and LJ and John. It finally showed that she wasn’t such a goody-two-shoes, and it forced her to grow up a little.

The part I didn’t like was whenever the ‘assassin game’ entered the picture. The time capsule was great, almost rekindling of old relationships was great, but then whoever’s idea it was to start that stupid game is permanently on my blacklist. LJ took that thing so serious it got to the point of ridiculousness. The first ‘hit’ was cute, when she teamed up with Chris; but after that…OMG girl needs to take a chill pill. She didn’t even see Peter for those days just because she thought he might have her name and would gang up on her with Gen. AND that’s the other thing I don’t understand: the winner of this ‘game’ gets a 1 wish granted from the group. LJ wants to win soooo bad, so when she does win – SHE DOESN’T EVEN MAKE A WISH!! Repeat from book 1: the story stops and now we have to wait for installment 3. Ms. Han you are seriously testing my patience with this series. Like seriously.

The ending was cute. I’ll give it that. LJ and Peter finally decide to go all in on their relationship, possible broken hearts and all. Then end of story. Ugh. Why can’t I live in a world where endings are satisfying?!?

Rating: TBD (until 2017 I guess, because that’s when the internet says I’ll get the next one)

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

This is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.

So everyone and their cat told me to read this book and the cover just didn't sell me on it. It's very middle school girl meets world and I just wasn't feeling it...until I hit my book slump recently. So I figured, why not? and picked it up anyways. End result: mixed feelings.

First, look at this cover. If you're not a middle school girl, does it really appeal to you??

And the premise is just a little too, well, girly. She writes love letters to all her crushes and keeps them hidden away never to be seen by anyone. I can understand that writing your feelings can be therapeutic (I write a blog so I can sympathize there), but isn't this just asking for something to go wrong? Maybe I'm just a more private person, but if I was gonna write love letters to my secret crushes I would have to burn them afterward just to make sure no one EVER saw them.

But long story short, her letters get out and she has to deal with the backlash of all these boys learning that she loved them. (hence my burning idea) The worst one is definitely her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh.

To be honest I pretty much hated Josh. He had his nice qualities but he played every one of those sisters and knowingly or not convinced them to fall in love with him. NOT COOL DUDE. He only actually dated Margot (the eldest sister) but when he found out Lara Jean had feelings for him he didn't turn her away. He basically was like 'why didn't you tell me? we could've had something??' to which Lara Jean replied 'ummm no. you're dating my sister.' So he kissed her and she was like 'NO YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH MY SISTER!'

He really made a mess of everything and showed little to no remorse about it. By the end of the book I really hated Josh. Not sure if that's how I'm supposed to feel, but that's what happened.

Peter, on the other hand, was the one redeeming quality of this book. Not to say that I didn't like Lara Jean, I did, but she was just very wishy washy. Understandably so, I was once a teenage girl so I get it. But Peter was lovable. He had flaws, but owned up to them and in the end I was team Peter. Even if Lara Jean wasn't...or was. The ending was very abrupt and THAT I was not a fan of. I honestly couldn't tell you what happened after the ski trip. The book just stops. Good on the author for making me buy the next book just to see what happens, but as the reader...WTF!?!?

Sidenote: I related to Margot the most out of all three sisters. She decides to go away to school, partially to have new experiences and partially to see if they still need her. I did the exact same thing when I went to college. The most emotion I felt the entire book was when she comes back for winter break and sees that they did all the family traditions without her. That first year when I came home it was weird because I didn't help put up the Christmas tree, or bake cookies, or decorate the house. It was all done and it was like a really hard smack in the face. The book is from Lara Jean's POV so Margot's feelings were glossed over but I could totally understand her struggle and I really didn't like how it was brushed aside so we could go back to totally focusing on Lara Jean. But that relationship between both sisters spoke to me the most because a few years ago that WAS me and my little sister. So from that perspective I liked those segments of the book the most, even though that was probably not the author's intention.

I knew going in that this book wasn't a standalone, but still. Every book deserves an ending of some sort. In the end this book became a really long prologue that just makes you read the second book anyway. Since I haven't started the sequel yet I'm still miffed about the cliffhanger.

Rating: TBD (if the sequel goes well then this review may become more optimistic in the future)

Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

It was Sloane who yanked Emily out of her shell and made life 100% interesting. But right before what should have been the most epic summer, Sloane just…disappears. All she leaves behind is a to-do list. On it, thirteen Sloane-inspired tasks that Emily would normally never try. But what if they could bring her best friend back? Apple picking at night? Okay, easy enough. Dance until dawn? Sure. Why not? Kiss a stranger? Um... 


Emily now has this unexpected summer, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected), to check things off Sloane's list. Who knows what she’ll find?

Basically, this is the same plot as Paper Towns by John Green except with two best friends instead of neighbors. That being said it's a good story that I still found interesting, even the second time around.

Emily is the classic shy girl in high school. She thinks no one notices her and is too anxious to actually talk to anyone so she has no friends. Then one day on one of her super long runs she bumps into Sloane, the classic cool girl who doesn't have to try at all to be the 'it' girl at school. They become best friends until one day at the start of summer Sloane just vanishes - literally. House is empty save for some basic furniture, she doesn't answer her phone and none of the neighbors know anything about it. Naturally, Emily freaks out and later finds that her friend left her a list of 13 things to do while she's 'away'. 

Now I don't know about you but giving my friends lists of things to do while I'm gone sounds like a really weird idea. Especially the list Emily got. I understand Sloane wants Emily to conquer her fears (skinny dipping, riding a horse, etc) but it's also kind of mean to make your best friend who has severe social anxiety (totally my opinion! it doesn't actually say that in the book) face her worst fears on her own. I know it all worked out in the end, she made friends and ended up not being so anxious but there was no guarantee that would happen.

Also, Emily's thought process through the whole book is strange. She firmly believes that if she completes this magic list then it will lead her to clues to find Sloane...which it doesn't. Big surprise there. I know the story needed something to go off of in the beginning but it was just weird to read. Eventually, this thought process does go away though so that was an improvement.

Unfortunately, this was about the first 100 pages of the book and it was extremely frustrating to read. I'm not that much of a shy introvert so reading that perspective was difficult for me. Emily is so afraid to do the littlest things, like talking to landscaping guys or accepting a ride from a classmate to the gas station. Eventually, she does break out of her shell and that's where things really started to pick up (thank god).

My favorite character was definitely Dawn (besides Emily's parents of course; they were totally kooky and I loved every minute of it). Sadly, Dawn sorta got written out of the story towards the end for obvious reasons, but it was still disappointing that we didn't get to check in with her more. In the end, I'm glad that everything was resolved - it was a satisfying ending as far as standalones go. 

Emily is still DEFINITELY NOT one of my favorite characters. Her annoyance factor was off the charts, always thinking that she's right no matter what the situation (for instance when she continually cuts people off when they're speaking because she KNOWS what they're going to say so she literally just runs away from them...ughhhh) She's very stubborn for a person with such anxiety and as I mentioned earlier, that's VERY frustrating. I'm glad this book isn't a series because I don't think I could read any more from Emily's POV. But, I did like the writing style and I'd be willing to try another Morgan Matson book in the future, hopefully in the same genre.

Overall, this book was slow to start and I couldn't identify with the main character; if I hadn't liked the premise so much I think I would have put it down and not given it a second thought. But the writing was engaging, the side characters were funny and I did like that the author included the running playlists. It was different and cool to actually relate to a major chunk of what the characters were discussing a lot of the time.

3 stars

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016)

A journalist recounts her wartime coverage in Afghanistan.

Two words: Tina Fey.

She is literally the only reason I watched this movie. I normally hate war-ish movies (yes, I'm that person who cannot sit through Saving Private Ryan) but I buckled in and hoped Tina would entertain me for 2 hours. And she did. Kinda.

I surprisingly liked this movie. And by 'like' I mean I watched it once, and that's enough. This was more of the reporter-side of the war versus the usual soldier story we get in every wartime movie. The new POV was refreshing and the humor in the first half of the movie was enough to keep me watching through the end.

I later found out that this movie was based on a memoir written by the main character, which again was interesting but I'm not one for those types of movies either. (The more I think about it, I really have no idea why I watched this movie in the first place)

Anyway WTF (I really hope they picked that name for a reason, otherwise someone in marketing has some 'splanin to do) was a solid movie. It had a good story, good characters, a stable plot and a few really good one-liners. The only complaint I had was the last half of the movie moved really slow. My grandma with 2 knee replacements moves faster than that story did. But, by then I really wanted to know what happened so I watched through the end...and I was slightly rewarded before the credits rolled.

Overall, this is not a movie where Tina shined. She was good, but the lead actress really could have been anybody and the movie would have been pretty much the same. There were a couple other big names in there too so maybe they needed those to attract viewers before this big-budget film became a big bust.

If you're interested in the story I guess I would recommend this movie because watching it would probably be faster than reading the book.

3 stars

Mr. Right (2015)

A girl falls for the 'perfect' guy, who happens to have a very fatal flaw: he's a hitman on the run from the crime cartels who employ him.

It's a romantic comedy I promise!! Here, watch this trailer.

Now I'm not usually one to like this type of comedic humor; it's very dry. Like VERY dry. Had it starred any two other main actors I probably wouldn't have even bothered watching it. But I have a slight obsession with Anna Kendrick so of course I had to give it a go...and here we are 24 hours later and I still can't stop thinking about it!

Martha is super sarcastic and unlucky in love so when she meets a totally random dude in a convenient shop she agrees to go out with him because what does she have to lose? Spoiler: she has a lot to lose...mainly her sanity.

That being said, this movie is so utterly far-fetched that if you can let go of reality and strap in for the ride it can be an amazing experience. But if you're one of those cinema nerds and need everything to be somewhat grounded in reality then this movie is NOT for you. The ending especially is completely ridiculous - assuming Martha was just a girl off the street in the beginning of the movie and doesn't have a checkered past.

It's hard to describe this movie without spoiling it so just sit down and watch it. It's actually a really sweet romantic comedy when you think about it. Also, since it's not a mainstream blockbuster you can stream it (or rent it, if you're into that kind of thing) on the cheap.

4.5 stars