Review: Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine

Title: Broken Soup
Author: Jenny Valentine
Release Date: January 7th, 2008
Publisher: HarperCollins
Buy: Amazon 

Goodreads Summary

Positive. Negative. It's how you look at it. . . . Someone shoves a photo negative into Rowan's hands. She is distracted but, frankly, she has larger problems to worry about. Her brother is dead. Her father has left. Her mother won't get out of bed. She has to take care of her younger sister. "And" keep it all together . . . But Rowan is curious about the mysterious boy and the negative. Who is he? Why did he give it to her? The mystery only deepens when the photo is developed and the inconceivable appears. Everything is about to change for Rowan. . . . Finally, something positive is in her life. Award-winning author Jenny Valentine delivers a powerful and life-affirming story of grief, friendship, and healing that will resonate long after the last page.

Jenny Valentine tells a sad, realistic story of a teenage girl who had to grow up fast. Rowan was forced to grow up within a couple of weeks after her older brother Jack suddenly dies on a trip leaving her family in bits. The book focuses on the struggles of Rowan trying to look after her 5-6 year old sister Storma, dealing with her mother who cannot get over the death of her son and on top of that, she has to lie to her dad about everything that is happening in the house. So a not so happy themed book. However even with the dark theme and the depressing bits, the story is heart-warming and charming (obviously not the depressing and horrible bits), I absolutely love this quote

 “I smiled back and I thought how incredible that was, that they would find the time to smile. There was goodness in the world still, even if you couldn’t always see it.” It sums up the book and the feelings behind it. I was expecting the book to break my heart, to make me sick with feelings and cry my eyes out but I smiled and laughed and even gasped when I read the book because as sad as the story is there was still a lot of things that were really happy and really joyful.

With looking after Storma, Rowan literally has no social life. Until a boy (a cute boy) hands her a negative for a picture and assures her that it belongs to her. Even though Rowan is positive it doesn’t. I absolutely love this part. The negative of the picture, the mystery behind it, not knowing what it is or whom it belonged to. It was great.

The characters in this book put a positive spin on Rowan’s life. I love that about this book. Rowan is so caring and loving that she is the mother figure for her sister even though it must have been horrible and hard for her to adjust. Bee brings a funny side with her almost bubbly personality, Storma is just adorable, sweet and funny; she nearly made me cry when I was reading her letters to her dead brother and Harper helps Rowan get some of her life that disappeared along with her brother.  

The fact that the book was set in England made me happy. It was so much easier for me to relate to it, however after reading so many books based in America it was weird getting used to it. But once I did I was excited.

The book is such a fast read that I finished it within a couple of hours. It seemed so short, it felt like I turned the page and it was over. I am so glad I read this book. The only reason why I’m not “in love” with this book is only because the story was predictable in an unpredictable way. I could kinda guess what might happen and sometimes I was right or just about right but I still liked the little twists. I never saw the last twist however. That shocked me.  

ARC Review: Adam's Boys by Anna Clifton

Title: Adam's Boys

Author: Anna Clifton

Release Date: September 1st, 2013

Publisher: Escape Publishing

Buy: Amazon

Goodreads Summary

For fans of Kat Martin and Debbie Macomber comes a story of family and redemption...

Wrong girl — wrong time? Adam’s fling with Abbie just weeks after the death of his wife may have been all wrong, but their time together gave him the strength to return home to his newborn son, Pete, and start their new life together.

Wrong guy — wrong time? Abbie's fling with Adam may have been all wrong, but their time together gave her Henry, the sunshine in her life, and although Adam is long gone, Abbie can never regret the time they spent together.

But two wrongs don't necessarily make a right. Adam Cooper is back, and when he learns the truth about his unknown son, he is hell-bent on creating a home and family for his boys, even if it means blackmailing Abbie into taking part.

Abbie has scars from her own tumultuous childhood, and losing Henry would destroy her. But with only mistrust and pain to bind them, can she and Adam ever find a way through regret to love and the family they could be?

I ruined a perfectly good reading streak by picking this book up. I suppose I should have known that I couldn’t get lucky for so long (since my luck is absolute shit) but I hoped that I would be wrong.

Let me start with the namesake of the book, Adam. HE IS SO SLOW. Forget everything else he did. He knows how Abbie got pregnant because their mutual friend Justin told him. Some dude came around for 3 weeks, got Abbie pregnant and went back to London. Which was exactly what he did. How many men does he think slept with her and went BACK to London like he did and around the same time he did! It was just baffling seeing that he was all nice to Henry never suspecting that the kid was his own. How stupid does someone have to be to not get that? And he didn’t find out using his own wit, oh no, Abbie had to tell him, even with the fact that they kind of hung out quite a bit before she told him. And when she told him, he lost it and got all high and mighty on her about keeping his son away from him. Never mind the fact that he actually left HER with the promise of coming back for her when he was ready. It’s not her fault he never contacted her, plus seeing that he was some rich ass dude, she was right to think that he didn’t want her meddling in his affairs and ruining their reputation. Despite everything at least Abbie FEELS guilty and apologizes, I don’t see him doing that at all, only using her guilt to manipulate her. With everything going on with Abbie, you’d think his ‘assholeness’ only extends so far but it turns out, he was pretty much an asshole when it came to his first wife as well. It’s not even because of what happened with Pete, I understand that, what I don’t understand is the fact that he married her when even she knew it would never work out b/w them. It’s not fair to her that she never got to spend her time with someone who would love her. In fact what’s worse is that only a couple weeks after she died, he fled, although I’ll give him credit for knowing that what he did was wrong.

We also had a doormat in this book; in fact it was the main character whose name was Abbie. It makes me want to cry to see a character like her, she is so WEAK. So so so weak. The book starts off at a charity event which she went to so that she could tell Adam that he had a son yet as soon as she sees him and sees how awkward things are between them she freaks and decides to tell him ‘later’. Wait so she didn’t expect any awkwardness at all? How dumb do you have to be to not see that coming? At least she doesn’t take a huge ass time to tell him after that one mistake. Even with all that, I was still ready to give her a chance to improve but things just got worse from there. Adam would just have to snap his fingers and she would be willing to do anything. He tells her that either they can go to court or she can move in with him. So she moves in with him, a guy she barely knows but shares a past with, boy isn’t THAT such a wise thing to do? When did people become so smart? There is also this scene where they are discussing character differences b/w men and women and how women complicate things and men keep it down to Earth and she agrees with him. I almost cried. How can someone hate their own gender so much? She even agrees to go to London with him to visit his family; I mean take HENRY to visit the family. Yeah sure. That’s just such a smart thing to do isn’t it? But then again, it is Abbie so I shouldn’t really expect much. Abbie also thinks that Adam has great self-control, so wait, when he was manipulating her and being all angry and blaming her, that counts as great self-control? Well I guess since he didn’t punch her in the face at all, he probably DOES have great self- control because I wouldn’t have been able to hold myself back.

I am not even going to mention Pete; Henry however, deserves a mention. I am a little confused about how a 3 year old can be so intelligent, when I was 3, I could barely talk never mind bake cookies. Maybe I am just jealous of a 3 year old I don’t know, but I cannot really imagine a 3 year old knowing where everything is in the kitchen and measuring everything out, never mind being able to reach the kitchen slab. The one thing that made me like Henry initially was the fact that he was actually vary of Adam, but that changed too.

As you can tell, there wasn’t much of a plot, only angst. Things did get better for a couple of pages, I was even considering giving the book a 2.5, but then the author dumped a whole lot of cheese on us. The only good thing I can come up with about this book is this quote

“And do you think you’ll get a guarantee from any man that life will always be dandy? No guy will give you that. He doesn’t exist. But even though I bring loads of uncertainties into your life that doesn’t mean I don’t have a whole swag of redeeming features to make me the perfect guy for you”

Okay never mind I take that back, I seemed to have missed the part where he says SWAG. Wow. Umm does that even make sense? A whole swag of redeeming qualities. Let me google that. Nope.. I didn’t see anything in the first 3 entries to help me out there.

The ending is bleh. SPOILER ALERT. She gives up everything for the guy so that they can have their happy ending. Woohoo and then when she finds out she is pregnant and he wants to put off the whole party thing so that he can help her out, she disagrees. And says something like

“Happy wife, Happy Life”

I cannot even. Someone please stop me from making decisions like this. I am only making my life worse. I am rather thankful though because I didn’t know there was a book before this when I started it and if I had I would have read it and I probably would have hated myself even more.

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Title: My Life Next Door
Author: Huntley Fitzpatrick
Publisher: Dial books
Date Published: June 14, 2012
Buy: Amazon

Goodreads summary

A gorgeous debut about family, friendship, first romance, and how to be true to one person you love without betraying another

“One thing my mother never knew, and would disapprove of most of all, was that I watched the Garretts. All the time.”

The Garretts are everything the Reeds are not. Loud, numerous, messy, affectionate. And every day from her balcony perch, seventeen-year-old Samantha Reed wishes she was one of them . . . until one summer evening, Jase Garrett climbs her terrace and changes everything. As the two fall fiercely in love, Jase’s family makes Samantha one of their own. Then in an instant, the bottom drops out of her world and she is suddenly faced with an impossible decision. Which perfect family will save her? Or is it time she saved herself?

A dreamy summer read, full of characters who stay with you long after the story is over.

If I had to sum this book up in two words I would use cute and enjoyable (therefore those words will appear a lot through out the review).

I would have been more generous with my rating had I not read On the Jellicoe Road right before this. I read this book to take my mind off of Jellicoe Road because otherwise I would become an emotional mess. This was my rebound book.

This book was good I suppose if you are a looking for something light to read. It was a fun read but there was no real plot going on here. I know I shouldn’t have really expected one, it’s a chic lit, but after reading such a deep and meaningful book such as the one I had, I was bound to expect more. I probably would have liked it under other circumstances. I mean I did give it a 3.5 considering that I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would (considering what I was like at that point, it means that this was pretty good).

The characters aren’t over the top awesome; Sam seems almost whiny at times. Jase was a rather good character, but he seemed way too perfect at times (but he was cute).

My favorite character, however, was George. He was what made me give this book 3.5 stars because he always made me laugh. I always wanted to hug him. I fell in love with this little kid right after he said this line (which was on the first day he met Sam, if you don’t think he is cute…. Then I assume you are evil *judges you*):

“Is Jase already gonna marry you?”
I start coughing again. “Uh, No. No, George. I’m only seventeen.” As if that’s the only reason we’re not engaged.
“I’m this many.” George holds up four, slightly grubby fingers. “But Jase is seventeen and a half. You could. Then you could live in here with him. And have a big family.”
Jase strides back into the room, of course, midway through this proposition. “George. Beat it. Discovery Channel is on.”
George backs out of the room but not before saying, “His bed’s really comfortable. And he never pees in it.”

I think one of the things that made me sad was how random Jase and Sam’s relationship was, I would have liked it had there relationship not started so randomly. It was like one day they had no idea who the other was and the next they were all buddy buddy. Maybe if they had had an incident when they were kids or something? Setting my complaints aside, their relationship did progress into something good and enjoyable.

I think one of the things that made this book really interesting, however, was what The Garretts symbolized for her. They seemed like a dream for her, they had something she didn’t have but wanted and liked to fantasize about, a family that was close knit.

The relationships between them in general (except the one between Sam and Jase) weren’t explored as much as I would have liked. There were many things that I would have liked to see, like for example, Sam’s relationship with her mother, with her sister, with the other Garretts etc. I am not saying these relationships weren’t explored at all, just not enough to satisfy me.

Also the author dropped the whole “father who couldn’t deal with the responsibility so he left” bomb on us. You cannot just drop something like that on us and not expect a bit of curiosity. I am not saying I wanted her to find her father or anything, I just wanted to know a bit more about him.

Although I do like the ending, it’s what qualifies as a good HEA in my book. I love how the issues between her and her mother are resolved. However, I didn’t understand the sudden change in her sister’s opinion about guys/love.

George was the best part of the book though. I wish there had been a whole lot more of him.
I recommend this book to anyone looking for a light read or just having a bad day and just wants something to cheer them up.

P.S. George, I’ll marry you. Don’t marry Sam! I’ll talk to you about anything and I’ll listen to you when you state facts!
(J.K. but seriously.. if I were a 4 year old).

Flat-Out Love by Jessica Park

Title: Flat-Out Love

Author: Jessica Park

Date Published: April 11, 2011

Buy: Amazon

Goodreads Summary

Flat-Out Love is a warm and witty novel of family love and dysfunction, deep heartache and raw vulnerability, with a bit of mystery and one whopping, knock-you-to-your-knees romance.

Something is seriously off in the Watkins home. And Julie Seagle, college freshman, small-town Ohio transplant, and the newest resident of this Boston house, is determined to get to the bottom of it.

When Julie’s off-campus housing falls through, her mother’s old college roommate, Erin Watkins, invites her to move in. The parents, Erin and Roger, are welcoming, but emotionally distant and academically driven to eccentric extremes. The middle child, Matt, is an MIT tech geek with a sweet side … and the social skills of a spool of USB cable. The youngest, Celeste, is a frighteningly bright but freakishly fastidious 13-year-old who hauls around a life-sized cardboard cutout of her oldest brother almost everywhere she goes.

And there’s that oldest brother, Finn: funny, gorgeous, smart, sensitive, almost emotionally available. Geographically? Definitely unavailable. That’s because Finn is traveling the world and surfacing only for random Facebook chats, e-mails, and status updates. Before long, through late-night exchanges of disembodied text, he begins to stir something tender and silly and maybe even a little bit sexy in Julie’s suddenly lonesome soul.

To Julie, the emotionally scrambled members of the Watkins family add up to something that … well … doesn’t quite add up. Not until she forces a buried secret to the surface, eliciting a dramatic confrontation that threatens to tear the fragile Watkins family apart, does she get her answer.

Flat-Out Love comes complete with emails, Facebook status updates, and instant messages.

“Gut-wrenching, overpowering, crushing, fulfilling, complex, bring-you-to-your-knees love.” 

Okay so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this. I only read it because of Matt aka the nerdy brother. Yes that is pretty biased of me but you don’t come across a lot of nerdy guys these days. You mostly come across bad boys and such, so as soon as I saw the nerdy boy I had to read it.

I started this book hoping it would be a light fluffy read, would cheer me up because I was in a bad mood. More like a silly chic lit. I was off the mark by quite a bit.

This was a whole bundle of awesomeness tied in one. Everything about this book is awesome. I am confused about why the hell this is self-published. Books like these should be published without a question!

It’s always the good books that don’t get the appreciation they deserve. Oh well.

This is supposedly a chic lit and despite the fact that it has the chic litish feel to it, I think there is a whole lot more going on. This book isn’t about a girl meeting a boy and falling head over heels. This is more about a girl trying to figure out what happened to this family that messed them up so much. This is about a girl healing a broken family.

It’s so beautiful.

Julie as a character is really great, she is relateable. She is smart but she also cares about what she looks like. She is right in the middle like most of us; we cannot totally give up on thing. We cannot totally forget about what we look like in the same way we cannot completely become idiots.

“Mom, I have to go. I think this Matt character is here.”

“Are you sure it’s him?”

Julie peered into the car as the window lowered. “I see a maniacal-looking guy with brightly-colored candy in one hand, and he’s waving a sickle in the other. Oh! He’s beckoning me to the car. This must be my ride.”

She also has a great sense of humor. Her relationship with each of the family members is great. She tries to change Matt, to try to get him to open up a bit because she senses that despite how smart he is, no one can be as holed up as he is. She tries to fix Celeste as well because she notices the little things here and there but she doesn’t get the overall picture until later.

“You can look back now and see how you should have known, but you were focusing on the facts instead of the feeling.”

That quote basically describes the book for me and the book as a whole. I knew what was going to happen but I chose not to believe it. I didn’t want to. Who would want that?

I suppose this is what happens when you don’t listen to your gut. You get hurt. And that ending, it’s picture perfect. I wish we got to see the whole scene but we kind of know how it would play out so we have something to hold on to.

I don’t think anything I said could justify the beauty of this book. It’s something you’ll have to read yourself to figure out.

Mini Reviews: The Best Man by Kristan Higgins and The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness

Title: The Ask and the Answer
Author: Patrick Ness
Series: Chaos Walking #2
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Date Published: May 4, 2009
Buy: Amazon

Battle not with monsters

lest you become a monster

and if you gaze into the abyss

the abyss gazes into you 

Patrick Ness is a genius.

I’ve read quite a bit of Dystopian novels and I am pretty sure this is the best. A lot of the Dystopian novels these days are about people finding that their lives have been a lie and them trying to take the government down. Nothing more. Ness explores human nature and how war can make monsters out of men. It really is amazing. I’ve felt all kinds of emotions while reading the series. From joy to sorrow to anger. He explores so much about human nature its amazing. The relationships in this series are so genuine. You really can see how far people will go for power.

I am scared of reading the next book because as amazing as this one was, it was also terrifying. I don’t like wars or violence. It’s what makes me and Todd similar. We couldn’t kill to save ourselves unless someone we love is directly threatened.

This is a book full of lies with no wrong or right. The reality of OUR society. This isn’t a book for everyone. Some people won’t be able to keep up with it, others won’t be able to stand all the torture. But in the end this book is one of a kind.

Title: The Best Man
Author: Kristan Higgins
Publisher: Harlequin
Date Published: February 26, 2013
Buy: Amazon

This is a book by Kristan Higgins. Why would I not read it? I discovered Kristan Higgins rather recently and in the short span since I’ve discovered her, I’ve read almost every single book by her. Yes I am obsessed with her. So when I found out that she would be releasing a new book this year I was immediately on board.

I am happy to say I am in love with this book, like the rest of her others. It has all the elements she usually has, a dog, a guy, romance, some family issues. Yup that about covers it.

What is it that makes her books different? I think it’s how she puts everything together. Her books aren’t only about romance, but, somewhere along the way about self-discovery and learning from past mistakes. Her characters are always relatable and she never has too much drama. Just enough to keep us interested.

I love Faith’s relationship with her family and I love how she is finally able to face Jermey after 3 years. From the summary it seems as if Jermey is a jerk, but he isn’t. He was one of my favorite characters and from the little flash backs it’s so obvious how this revelation allowed him to open up to people more. I also love Levi, he is a complicated person, his wife left him because she got bored so he has been hurt by that and he is obsessed with taking care of his little sister.

This book is one of my favorites by her right after My One and Only, I recommend to everyone who loves chic lits. You don’t know awesome (with relevance to chic lits) until you have read Kristan Higgins.

(said like a true fangirl)

The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler

The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: May 21st, 2013
Buy: Amazon

Goodreads Summary

Jude has learned a lot from her older sisters, but the most important thing is this: The Vargas brothers are notorious heartbreakers. She’s seen the tears and disasters that dating a Vargas boy can cause, and she swore an oath—with candles and a contract and everything—to never have anything to do with one.

Now Jude is the only sister still living at home, and she’s spending the summer helping her ailing father restore his vintage motorcycle—which means hiring a mechanic to help out. Is it Jude’s fault he happens to be cute? And surprisingly sweet? And a Vargas?

Jude tells herself it’s strictly bike business with Emilio. Her sisters will never find out, and Jude can spot those flirty little Vargas tricks a mile away—no way would she fall for them. But Jude’s defenses are crumbling, and if history is destined to repeat itself, she’s speeding toward some serious heartbreak…unless her sisters were wrong?

Jude may have taken an oath, but she’s beginning to think that when it comes to love, some promises might be worth breaking.

“Family tragedies had a way of smashing everything apart and then gluing it all back together”

This is a book about heart breaks. Heart breaks happen in all relationships, whether it’s your friends, your family or someone you’re in love with.

It isn’t a romance, sure there is romance in it but the focus is on how a family is dealing with illness. Jude’s father was diagnosed with an early onset of Alzheimer's and is losing his memories little by little. Jude, hoping she can bring him back, decides to restore his old motorcycle.

I cannot imagine what it would be like if one of my loved ones was diagnosed with this disease, having to live every day in fear of them eventually forgetting me. It’s so heart breaking to see Jude go through this because it is unfair. She is only 17 and didn’t get as much time with her father as say her older sister who is 30 therefore she doesn’t have nearly as many good memories with her father as her older sisters. So she tries to hold on to her father even though she knows the disease is degenerative.

Because of this, she is drifting apart from her friends. She tries to hold on but for her, her father is more important. Her friends aren’t awful but aren’t great either. They don’t understand how hard this is on her and see her father as ‘the crazy old man’. I’d say that her friends should have been more understanding, more supportive and should have tried to comfort her but I can understand them to a certain degree. In a situation like that you are bound to feel awkward. I’d like to say that if that happened to any one of my friends, I’d be the bestest friend ever but I cannot until I have been in that situation.

Her relationships with her sisters is interesting, I being the oldest have no idea what it’s like to be the younger kid but I like to think it’s super easy (because you know I am the older one, we all like to think things are worse for us.. more expectations and what not) but it’s not. Her older sisters are loving, but they are over protective. Mari especially, she tries to control situations but she is also supportive and loyal even if she over does it.

One would assume before reading the book that the whole pact about avoiding the Vargas’ is silly but it isn’t. What happened to Celi really sucked even if it happened ages ago. Things like that are bound to affect your self-esteem and the whole oath rose up as a way to comfort Celi.

There was this point in the book where Jude tries to hide the fact that they have a Vargas working in their garage and goes so far as to tell her sister to shorten her visit. She talks about missing her sisters quite often and so this did annoy me but I love how later on in the book she does confess and she  even stands up for herself because she wants to experience things on her own, make her own mistakes.

One of the really cool things about this book is the whole cultural setting. It’s a Spanish household and I don’t know much about them apart from the usual stereotypes and I enjoyed the fact that this story took place in a Spanish household.

Jude as a character is great. She’s a great drama student and loves being the occasional drama queen but she has her own flaws, she is good at denial and makes the occasional mistake. She loves her family and when she wants to restore her dad’s old bike she goes as far as to learn every single bit she can about the ‘biker dude’ culture and anything else she can find about bikes. She is also funny and has a great voice which makes the book fun to read (no not fun, it’s a heart breaking read).

Emilio Vargas. Umm is the name enough? Oh it isn’t. Dang. My brain just went blank, what do I say about him? He has his own flaws and while he is a major part of the book it isn’t so much about his character but more about what he represents and how he changes Jude’s view of about certain things. We learn quite a few things about him but I believe the author does that to point out that he is a human; you cannot judge him by what his brothers did.  Where would we be if we judged everyone by their families?

Although I loved this book I wished we found out a bit more about why the Vargas brothers did what they did and maybe a bit more about their side of the story, because honestly? I cannot wrap my head around what Johnny did, there must have been SOME reason?

This heart breaking story somehow found a way to my heart. It was something I needed right now after being disappointed by a couple of books and even though in a couple of days I’ll probably be looking for another good book complaining about the lack of them, for now the memory of this one remains fresh in my mind.