2018 Book #57 – Dating Disasters of Emma Nash by Chloe Seager

Posted in Book reviews, Fiction, Young Adult by rebeccabook17

Title: Dating Disasters of Emma Nash
Author: Chloe Seager
Date finished: 7/6/18
Genre: Fiction, young adult
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date: May 1, 2018
Pages in book: 336
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley
NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Online, you can choose who you want to be. If only real life were so easy…

Emma Nash may be down, but after months of wallowing, stalking her ex online and avoiding showering—because, really, who’s going to care?—Emma’s ready to own her newly single status, get out with her friends and chronicle her dating adventures on her private blog.

But life online doesn’t always run smoothly. Stumbling upon her mother’s Tinder dating profile, getting catfished and accidentally telling the entire world why her ex-boyfriend Leon’s not worth any girl’s…um…time… Okay, those were disasters.

But surely nothing else can go wrong?

My rating: 1.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I’m going to try and be brief because I don’t want to start going into a rant. This will (hopefully) be a constructively critical little blurb about how I felt about this book. Emma as a character was very naive, but even more than that she was immature, self-centered, obsessive, and completely unsympathetic to those around her. She was also, as is mentioned in the novel, a complete doormat. The fact that she only finds out she’s been dumped by this Leon character when he starts dating another girl is, in one word, despicable. But the fact that Emma then spends month(s?) wallowing in her room and then obsesses about this same boy non-stop is really where the true crime is. This goes past even teen drama to the point of being unhealthy. The idea that young girls might read this and think this is normal behavior is awful. If a boy EVER treats a girl in the way that Leon treated Emma, he shouldn’t be allowed to date anyone. Same with how Emma treated Greg to be honest. Even teen romances should incorporate respect for the other person’s feelings as much as possible.

OK I’m starting to rant, I’m just going to make a list on my observations:
1- Emma whined all the time
2- Emma couldn’t stop talking about the boy who treated her badly
3- Emma treated everyone else badly
4- There was underage drinking
5- Excessive talking about masturbation
6- I was glad Emma realized in the end she should pursue her own interests and just learn how to be happy just as herself but I hated the fact that it took over 300 pages to reach that conclusion

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

6Sep2017

2017 Book #73 – 13 Dates by Matt Dunn

Posted in 2017, ARC August 2017, Book reviews, Fiction, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Title: 13 Dates
Author: Matt Dunn
Date finished: 8/31/17
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Publication Date: August 15, 2017
Pages in book: 334
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley
NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

When Noah Wilson first encounters the quirky, opinionated and very beautiful Angel Fallon, his world is turned upside down. It’s clear she’s not his normal type, but Noah can’t stop thinking about her—which doesn’t bode well for the blind date he’s already late for.

Convinced by his friend (and self-professed dating expert) Marlon that thirteen dates is all you need to fall in love, Noah decides to give it a try with Angel. They should be incompatible: she’s impulsive and he’s a planner; he wants to settle down and she doesn’t ‘do’ relationships—or anything, for that matter—the way Noah is used to. But there’s something about Angel, and Noah can’t shake the idea that all they need is twelve more dates.

Despite some near-disasters involving rock climbing, saddle sores and jellied eels, it seems his plan may actually work. But even if they do reach the magic number, can that really mean they’ll just fall into their happily-ever-after?

My rating: 3.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book tells the story of Noah Wilson and Angel Fallon, a couple who meet at a Starbucks. Noah falls in love with Angel almost immediately, in a rush of feelings he never expected. Angel though is a bit more hesitant, convinced that relationships “aren’t her thing.” After spending a good amount of time just tracking her down, Noah wears down her defenses until she agrees to go out on a date with him. Since Angel is all about “new experiences” though, Noah has to spend some time coming up with various original date ideas, including horseback riding, rock wall climbing, and even eating jellied eels. And as Noah finds himself falling even harder in love with Angel, can he convince her to do the same?

Overall this book was ok but wasn’t my favorite. I found Angel’s character annoying and frustrating, and Noah’s character was overly nice and naive. I understand Angel’s hesitancy towards relationships, given her situation, but the whole Margate trip sent me over the edge because she was so outstandingly rude. Other than that it was an ok and cute story. It reminded me a little oat first of The Rosie Project, mostly because of how incredibly different Angel and Noah were personality wise.

The bottom line: I liked this book ok, it was interesting and was a cute/sweet story. Nothing thrilled me about it but it was pretty good.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

1Aug2017

2017 Book #65 – Emerald Coast by Anita Hughes

Posted in 2017, ARC August 2017, Book reviews, Fiction, Women's fiction by rebeccabook17

Title: Emerald Coast
Author: Anita Hughes
Date finished: 8/1/17
Genre: Fiction, women’s fiction
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date:August 1, 2017
Pages in book: 304
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley
NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Set on the glamorous Italian island, Emerald Coast is a touching and humorous story about marriage and the difficulty of finding love and happiness at the same time.
Lily Bristol arrives at a luxurious resort in Sardinia for the grand opening of her newest home furnishing store on the Emerald Coast. She’s a successful business woman with an international chain of stores from San Francisco to Milan. Thirty-two and newly divorced, she’s ready to handle things on her own. At least until her private butler, Enzo, escorts her to a beautiful suite where she notices a suspiciously familiar pair of men’s slippers and shaving kit.
Lily is horrified. Her ex-husband Oliver moved out of their restored Connecticut farmhouse six months ago, but they booked this trip when they were trying to save their marriage and never cancelled the reservation. Oliver, a food critic for the New York Times, is here covering Sardinia’s hottest new restaurant. The only other available room is the adjoining suite; and worse, Oliver isn’t alone. He’s brought a twenty-something named Angela with him.
Lily is determined to make do and enlists Enzo to find her a suitable man. But it’s not as easy to find new love as they both expected. When Lily and Oliver find themselves alone on a very important night, they turn to each other. Sparks begin to fly, but can they be together without breaking each other’s hearts?

My rating: 1.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book is about Lily Bristol and her ex-husband Oliver, who through one of those crazy twists of fate end up both trying to use a reservation after their divorce. Oliver brought his new girlfriend (Angela) and Lily ends up hooking up with a guy named Ricky from Sardinia (where they are) but while all this is happening they both also can’t stop thinking about each other and their shared memories.
Overall I did not care for this book. I’m going to try to be honest here without being (a) cruel or (b) overly dramatic. I found Lily’s character to be a complete mockery of a strong and independent woman. She has random conversations with strangers and just is everything that I would hate to become as a women and as a wife. Oliver has some extreme jealousy issues and may be addicted to sex since he can’t seem to stop having it with his new girlfriend. However (**SPOILER ALERT**) he apparently NEVER THINKS TO ASK HIS NEW GF ABOUT BIRTH CONTROL. Sorry the caps were dramatic I just can’t believe that any logical person in this day and age would overlook that in a new relationship. Anyways moving on the characters were irrelevant and unrealistic, the story line was half-hearted and not at all engaging, and I honestly couldn’t even read most of the conversations they were so awkwardly structured. I did not care for this novel. However, all of that being said I know these are popular novels and that some people do like them so that’s fine. Amazon has mostly 4 star reviews. So maybe its just me.

The bottom line: I did not personally enjoy this book. I cannot personally say that I recommend it, though I know many people who enjoy this author’s books so maybe its just me.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

12May2017

Day 4 Challenge: Character Dating Profile

Posted in 2017, Bout of Books 19, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

I decided to do a character profile on a character from one of my recent reads, The Bear and the Nightingale. I really loved this book and how fantastical it was, I thought the main character of the book would be a great inspiration for this post!

Name Vasilisa (Vasya) Vladimirovich
Height 5’9″
Eye Color Green
Hair Color Black
Age 18

Hometown the edge of the Russian wilderness

Family I have three brothers, one sister, and one half sister. My mother died in childbirth but my father is loving. My stepmother is the same kind of crazy as me but super mean

Occupation Well it isn’t a paid position but I keep the town safe. At least until the new priest came to town and started mucking up everything.

Hobbies Talking to wood nymphs and guardians of the stove (domovoi) and the stables. Adventuring in the woods. Talking to horses.

Looking For A man on a brilliant white stallion with startling blue eyes who I met in a dream when I was young

5Feb2017

2017 Book #10 – The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson

Posted in Book reviews, Fiction by rebeccabook17

Title: The Most Dangerous Place on Earth
Author: Lindsey Lee Johnson
Date finished: 2/5/17
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: January 10, 2017
Pages in book: 288
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

An unforgettable cast of characters is unleashed into a realm known for its cruelty—the American high school—in this captivating debut novel.
The wealthy enclaves north of San Francisco are not the paradise they appear to be, and nobody knows this better than the students of a local high school. Despite being raised with all the opportunities money can buy, these vulnerable kids are navigating a treacherous adolescence in which every action, every rumor, every feeling, is potentially postable, shareable, viral.
Lindsey Lee Johnson’s kaleidoscopic narrative exposes at every turn the real human beings beneath the high school stereotypes. Abigail Cress is ticking off the boxes toward the Ivy League when she makes the first impulsive decision of her life: entering into an inappropriate relationship with a teacher. Dave Chu, who knows himself at heart to be a typical B student, takes desperate measures to live up to his parents’ crushing expectations. Emma Fleed, a gifted dancer, balances rigorous rehearsals with wild weekends. Damon Flintov returns from a stint at rehab looking to prove that he’s not an irredeemable screwup. And Calista Broderick, once part of the popular crowd, chooses, for reasons of her own, to become a hippie outcast.
Into this complicated web, an idealistic young English teacher arrives from a poorer, scruffier part of California. Molly Nicoll strives to connect with her students—without understanding the middle school tragedy that played out online and has continued to reverberate in different ways for all of them.
Written with the rare talent capable of turning teenage drama into urgent, adult fiction, The Most Dangerous Place on Earth makes vivid a modern adolescence lived in the gleam of the virtual, but rich with sorrow, passion, and humanity.

My rating: 3.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book is about quite a number of people, centering mostly around Miss Molly Nicoll, a new teacher at the high school in Mill Valley, and her junior level English class. Molly is fresh from graduation and eager to make her mark on her impressionable young students’ lives, thinking that she might be able to provide something to these rich and spoiled students that they had been lacking up until now. But Molly doesn’t know the history behind her class, does not know what happened to them in eighth grade that affected each of them in different ways. And while she things she understands her students, she soon finds out that she doesn’t really know them at all. The book tells the story alternating between Molly’s point of view and that of her students. Each student is featured in a chapter where we learn more about their personal life and learn a little more about the story line with each.
Overall I liked this book. The story line was interesting if a little scattered. I liked hearing about the story from the point of view of different characters but at the same time hearing about so many people’s stories left me feeling like none of the story lines were particularly resolved. There were so many bad things that happened to these kids and I just felt so bad for all the mistakes that left them so screwed up. This did a great job of portraying how quickly bullying can get out of hand when its done online. And I also thought the author did a really great job of putting the reader into the shoes of the high school students, making the reader feel that desperation that comes with being a teenager in overcoming each new obstacle. This was a good book and I liked it, I would recommend it.

The bottom line: This book was ok, I found the cast of characters engaging but I didn’t see much point with the story line. And there was a lack of closure with each person’s story since we jump from one character to the next. Overall it was an interesting read though and I would recommend it.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

21Aug2016

2016 Book #78 – Quarter Life Poetry by Samantha Jayne

Posted in 2016, Book reviews, Poetry, Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2016 checklist, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Title: Quarter Life Poetry: Poems for the Young, Broke, and Hangry
Author: Samantha Jayne
Date finished: 8/18/16
Genre: Poetry
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: April 5, 2016
Pages in book: 171
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

The creator of the popular Quarter Life Poetry Tumblr and Instagram tackles real-life truths of work, money, sex, and many other 20-something challenges in this laugh-out-loud collection of poetry.
Samantha Jayne knows that life post-college isn’t as glamorous as all undergrads think it’s going to be… because she’s currently living it. At 25, Samantha began creating doodles and funny poems about her #struggle to share with friends on Instagram. To her surprise, these poems were picked up by 20-somethings all around the world who agreed, “This is literally us.”
At a time when it seems like everyone else is getting married, snagging a dream job, and paying off their student loans, Samantha’s poetry captures the voice of young people everywhere who know that your 20s can sometimes be the exact opposite of “the best years of your life.”

My rating: 3.25 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book will count towards my ARC August 2016 Reading Challenge. Also, this book will count towards my “PopSugar 2016 Checklist” reading challenge, marking off the “a book of poetry” since this book is a book of poetry. This book is a collection of short poems by actress and writer Samantha Jayne about life, love, and being an adult. The poems are all short 4-line poems, so this was an easy read. Jayne mentions in the introduction that her book is considered a “bathroom book” and I would agree. The poems are short so its easy to pick this book up and read a couple of poems and then put it down again until next time. The poems are straight-forward and easy to read.
Overall I liked the poems. I picked this book at random from NetGalley to fulfill my “poetry” requirement for my Popsugar reading challenge, and while it wasn’t quite what I was expecting poetry-wise, it was fun to read and different from what I normally would have chosen to read. They were cute poems and some were pretty funny, but overall the book isn’t something I would pick for myself.

The bottom line: I thought this was a cute collection of poems. They were short, easy to decipher the meaning of and not complicated. I agree with the author’s assertion that this would make a great bathroom book.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page