IT IS CHALLENGE TIME. WOOOOO~~
Once again, the gist of the challenge is this: provide the cover image, and possibly the synopsis if you choose, of 3-5 books, and give ONE gif that sums up the book. No words allowed!
If you’ve read these books… Do you agree with my GIFS?
What I’ve read?
Maybe Someday and Open Road Summer. (It is bae!)
What am I currently reading?
My Best Everything.
What am I reading next?
The Wrong Side of Right and The Conspiracy of Us. (Probably All Fall Down too)
What are you currently reading for Contemporary Conversations?
Open Road Summer is the perfect book to start off my rereads week. I remember finding it so freaking adorable the first time around. Two Sundays ago, Kayla and I did my birthday dinner thing and as part two of my birthday celebration evening, we spent over an hour at Barnes and Nobles because what is a Birthday Celebration without a trip to the bookstore? I was set on getting my own copy of this book since I had borrowed Kayla’s copy originally. I hadn’t planned on rereading Open Road Summer for this week, but in the end, it felt like the right decision after I bought it and oh boy it was!
After breaking up with her bad-news boyfriend, Reagan O’Neill is ready to leave her rebellious ways behind…and her best friend, country superstar Lilah Montgomery, is nursing a broken heart of her own. Fortunately, Lilah’s 24-city tour is about to kick off, offering a perfect opportunity for a girls-only summer of break-up ballads and healing hearts. But when Matt Finch joins the tour as its opening act, his boy-next-door charm proves difficult for Reagan to resist, despite her vow to live a drama-free existence. This summer, Reagan and Lilah will navigate the ups and downs of fame and friendship as they come to see that giving your heart to the right person is always a risk worth taking. A fresh new voice in contemporary romance, Emery Lord’s gorgeous writing hits all the right notes.
Matt Finch… Matt FREAKING Finch. What will I do with that boy? He has completely captured my heart once more and he isn’t even real.
Let’s go back to Matt Finch later or else I will get emotional… My feels are already out of control.
The first and foremost thing I love the most about Open Road Summer is the music in it. I played music for over 10 years and Gosh Darnet I’m a sucker for musicians. Everyone knows it. It’s not a secret. Every single crush I’ve had in my entire life has been a musician except for one. That says a lot. It’s probably why I fell so hard so Mr. Matt Finch and why it made this book that much sweeter to me.
I really really loved the friendship between Dee and Reagan. It is rare to see such a good friendship on paper. Most YA novels have great friendships, but this one is one of the rare ones and that amazes me. It’s amazing how loyal they are to each other. It is rare to find friends that are that loyal. As someone who has had people stab me in the back, seeing this perfectly imperfect friendship just warms my heart.
What I saw this time reading it for the second time that I didn’t see the first time is how mature Reagan is. The first time around, I just saw her recklessness and sassy-ness because this girl is just PURE SASS, but this time, I saw how much she really hesitated and how much she wanted to grow and be a better person, not just for those around her, but for herself. She saw that her rebellious and destructive behavior was getting her nowhere except into a hole that would be really hard to get out of one day.
Matt Finch. That man… Gosh. He surprised me more this second time around. I was able to truly see how broken he was, the pain he was in, it made my heart hurt. At work we can listen to music or podcasts while we work, and I was listening to the ORS audiobook and I almost cried there staring at my computer screen because it was just so sad and heart-wrenching. My heart literally hurt. It was painful.
This second reread of Open Road Summer was purely amazing. I think I fell in love with this book a little bit more and it bumped down other favorites on my list. I’m still amazed at the fact that this is Emery Lord’s DEBUT NOVEL. Mind Blown.
Now that was a challenging week. You guys really went in deep and there were some amazing discussions and it’s almost unbelievable how many hard-stuff books you guys found. I’m amazed. I want to thank all for taking this topic so seriously and joining Kayla and I as we navigated through topics that many don’t want to talk about.
Below is a list of the posts that were a part of “The Hard Stuff” week. If we missed your post or discussion by any chance, go ahead and leave it down in the comments below and we will add it to the list accordingly.
Reviews:
Discussions and Fun:
This week’s topic is something we are ALL looking forward to.
I read some of my favorite books for this week! Gosh, I literally fangirled with both of them. In all honesty, I feel like the books I reread for this week are even better than I remembered them to be.
This week’s challenge will be posted first on Kayla’s side on Wednesday. I will be posting mine on Thursday. The gist of the challenge is this: provide the cover image, and possibly the synopsis if you choose, of 3-5 books, and give ONE gif that sums up the book. No words allowed! Fun is a requirement!
Now, Go Forth and Have Fun!
For the past five years, Hayley Kincain and her father, Andy, have been on the road, never staying long in one place as he struggles to escape the demons that have tortured him since his return from Iraq. Now they are back in the town where he grew up so Hayley can attend school. Perhaps, for the first time, Hayley can have a normal life, put aside her own painful memories, even have a relationship with Finn, the hot guy who obviously likes her but is hiding secrets of his own.
Will being back home help Andy’s PTSD, or will his terrible memories drag him to the edge of hell, and drugs push him over? The Impossible Knife of Memory is Laurie Halse Anderson at her finest: compelling, surprising, and impossible to put down.
Welcome to something that Kayla and I like to call Chat Style Book Reviews, but as you will see… It’s more like a discussion. We had tons of fun with this and I hope you find reading this as much fun as we had writing it. So that you can know who is writing what, I have given each of our parts different colors. I am the Red Violet text and Kayla is the Royal Blue text.
Dear Lord where do I start? THAT BOOK AND ITS FEELS. I’ve always loved Ms. Anderson’s books and this is no exception. All I can think is… FINN. AND THAT HE IS HISPANIC. AND HIS LAST NAME IS RAMOS. AND THAT HE IS FIIIIIIINE. Okay, Kayla… a little help here!
FINN RAMOS. I really am of no help here because FINNNNNN. I’m pretty sure that name is magical, just like Rowan. Every single character that I’ve read about with the name “Finn” (or Finnegan – even better) is a favorite of mine. So – new resolution: if I have two sons, they will be Finn and Rowan. So it is written, so let it be done. BUT ANYWAY…
Damn it. I’m still speechless. What did I love, besides the Finn? 1) Hayley’s prickliness. I really liked her narration, even if it was grating at times. EVERYTHING about Anderson’s writing screamed of Hayley’s mental status. Even without her voicing her problems and putting them into black and white terms, I just KNEW she was struggling. And the way she described her panic attacks was like YES I GET IT. I just wanted to wrap her up and keep her safe forever.
OMG I know. At first I found it too perfect for her not to be struggling and then when we started getting those glimpses I was like CRAP. She too is experiencing what her Dad is, just in a different way. While she doesn’t remember, her Dad remembers it all. I think both remembering and not remembering are equally devastating.
Something I really liked was that Ms. Anderson totally showed us that someone can change. We can see it in her once upon a time step mom. She might have added to Hayley’s trauma, but she came back and tried to help both of them. She got her act together and changed. I love it when they give us hope because we all need it. We need to see that people do change, but only if they are willing. That is the key.
Ahhh her step-mom. I was totally with Hayley when she came back, but once I stopped thinking as Hayley and started thinking as an outsider, I really saw how much she truly had changed. The mini-redemption-arc was a great touch to the book, because it also tied in with Hayley’s journey toward healing.
Speaking of healing arcs – Hayley’s dad. I was so thrilled by the fact that there wasn’t an HEA. Does that sound awful? I’m just ecstatic that it wasn’t like a “oh they’re magically better” sort of moment. Mental illness is hard work to get through, and a single epiphany won’t make it go away. But the fact that there was so much hope in the end – that even though Hayley and her dad will both still struggle, they’ll still be okay – I just needed to see that message.
No, it doesn’t sound awful. I too liked that we were given hope for a better future instead of a happily ever after because in real life, we see hope and most of the time not an instant happily ever after.
Overall, The Impossible Knife of Memory is a book I think we will both cherish for what’s its worth and its message, and I am absolutely glad we read it together. I suggest you all take a moment and go to a bookstore and pick this book up. It will change your life. Amen sister!
Vero: 5 out of 5
Kayla: 5 out of 5
What I’ve read?
I haven’t finished anything. Ahhhh!
What am I currently reading?
Open Road Summer and Maybe Someday. (Week 3 reading!)
What am I reading next?
All Fall Down (most likely)
What are you currently reading for Contemporary Conversations?
Hannah and Zoe haven’t had much in their lives, but they’ve always had each other. So when Zoe tells Hannah she needs to get out of their down-and-out New Jersey town, they pile into Hannah’s beat-up old Le Mans and head west, putting everything—their deadbeat parents, their disappointing love lives, their inevitable enrollment at community college—behind them.
As they chase storms and make new friends, Zoe tells Hannah she wants more for her. She wants her to live bigger, dream grander, aim higher. And so Zoe begins teaching Hannah all about life’s intangible things, concepts sadly missing from her existence—things like audacity, insouciance, karma, and even happiness.
An unforgettable read from the acclaimed author of The Probability of Miracles, The Museum of Intangible Things sparkles with the humor and heartbreak of true friendship and first love.
This was such a difficult books to read. I had no idea what I was getting into except for what Kayla said which is that it wasn’t what she was expecting.
We start of with Hannah introducing herself and her situation, and then we come across her best friend Zoe. Right off the bat we know something is wrong with Zoe. We don’t know exactly what until Hannah tells us she has a bi-polar disorder and once was locked up. Zoe and Hannah had a system for dealing with the effects of the disorder until one day it couldn’t be helped any longer.
It was so sad to see the crazy Zoe got into once they went on their road-trip. It hurt even more to see Hannah see her best friend like that.
The ending was brutal as well as the epilogue. Zoe couldn’t deal with the disorder any longer which propelled her to jump of the Grand Canyon and killed herself. It was a little fuzzy, but it suggests that lightning did hit her and that she was burned up. What was more unbelievable was the fact that Hannah almost herself jumped with Zoe. Zoe was everything and if it meant Zoe would be better if she too jumped with her, so be it.
I was also bummed out that Danny wasn’t a part of her life in the future. She mentions in the epilogue that first loves don’t last and that she still looks at their picture. Honestly, Danny didn’t really do much for me, but he did mean a lot to Hannah.
The most heart-breaking part of this entire novel was the part in the epilogue where it is mentioned that she writes to Noah once a month and sends the letters to the NASA office where he works. What exactly is he doing in NASA? HE is searching for life in the universe. To me that is a little brother hoping that his sister was abducted by aliens, instead of thinking that she killed herself. Gosh it breaks my heart.
I don’t think I could ever read this again, but it is a good example of how hard it is for the person suffering a mental disorder, and how hard it also is for the people who love that love them.
The Moon and More is second book I will be reviewing as a part of Contemporary Covnersations first week’s theme Coming of Age stories within the young adult contemporary genre. Sarah Dessen’s books are a must-have item when building your contemporary library.
Luke is the perfect boyfriend: handsome, kind, fun. He and Emaline have been together all through high school in Colby, the beach town where they both grew up. But now, in the summer before college, Emaline wonders if perfect is good enough.
Enter Theo, a super-ambitious outsider, a New Yorker assisting on a documentary film about a reclusive local artist. Theo’s sophisticated, exciting, and, best of all, he thinks Emaline is much too smart for Colby.
Emaline’s mostly-absentee father, too, thinks Emaline should have a bigger life, and he’s convinced that an Ivy League education is the only route to realizing her potential. Emaline is attracted to the bright future that Theo and her father promise. But she also clings to the deep roots of her loving mother, stepfather, and sisters. Can she ignore the pull of the happily familiar world of Colby?
Emaline wants the moon and more, but how can she balance where she comes from with where she’s going?
Sarah Dessen’s devoted fans will welcome this story of romance, yearning, and, finally, empowerment. It could only happen in the summer.
Bittersweet is the aftertaste The Moon and More left me with. I’ve read every single one of Sarah Dessen’s novels (except for Somebody Like You which I recently acquired) so I am very familiar with her style, the theme of her books, and the overall “This world is always messed up, but there is always hope for a better one”. What threw me off-balance is the fact that the ending of The Moon and More was somehow more bleak than I am used to from Ms. Dessen’s novels. This of course like every single one of her books deals with the “coming-of-age” protagonist and we ourselves grow with them, but the ending of this one just hurt.
One of the important things that Emaline realized was that it was too late for her father and her to repair that severed relationship. Her coming to terms with that was painful for me because it shed light on some of my familial situations. It may be too late for some, like Emaline, but for Benjie, her half brother, it’s not. Familial situations are always hard, no matter how close family members are.
At the end of The Moon and More we have that bittersweet taste I am talking about. Emaline doesn’t have her life figured out, she doesn’t know what the future exactly holds, but what she can be sure of is that appreciating the people she loves and letting life take its course things may just turn alright after all. TMaM’s ending is very open-ended and it’s exactly the same open-ended-ness life has. We know never exactly where we are going, but we can only hope we find our way throughout the course of life.
What I’ve read?
Just finished The Museum of Intangible Things.
What am I currently reading?
Maybe Someday and The Best of Everything
What am I reading next?
Catching Jordan
What are you currently reading for Contemporary Conversations?
I am kicking Contemporary Conversations first week off with Fixing Delilah by Sarah Ockler. I don’t really see anyone talking about this at all and after reading it I am very surprised no one is! It was an amazing coming of age story. One that left me in awe at the end that I even tweeted Ms. Sarah Ockler herself to let her know my FEELS. To my surprise she tweeted me back and I then had some fangirl feels, I couldn’t believe it, but there is proof that exchanged happened. 🙂
Things in Delilah Hannaford’s life have a tendency to fall apart.
She used to be a good student, but she can’t seem to keep it together anymore. Her “boyfriend” isn’t much of a boyfriend. And her mother refuses to discuss the fight that divided their family eight years ago. Falling apart, it seems, is a Hannaford tradition.
Over a summer of new friendships, unexpected romance, and moments that test the complex bonds between mothers and daughters, Delilah must face her family’s painful past. Can even her most shattered relationships be pieced together again?
Rich with emotion, Sarah Ockler delivers a powerful story of family, love, and self-discovery.
Oh Delilah, my poor baby. I just want to hug you and tell you everything is going to be alright. For some reason I got all motherly over Delilah as I was reading Fixing Delilah. So much happened throughout the novel, yet it wasn’t overwhelming for us as the reader. Ms. Ockler paced it in such a way that I didn’t notice how much information I was given until the very end. Honestly, I think this book would be perfect to be translated into film. There is this epic story with another equally heart-wrenching story under it that the entire time you weren’t just rooting for Delilah, but also for her Aunt Stephanie.
This book was made to take you on a journey and at the end of the journey helps you realize something important about life. I tabbed several different parts of the book as I read because there were so many good moments and as I was reviewing those tabs and I came across this gem.
“I look over at Luna, wiping down the counter and the nuzzles on the steamers, chatting with customers, making the schedule, and I wonder how much we don’t see. How much of our lives we witness and accept as truth when the rest of the iceberg—the heaviest, bulkiest part—is buried and invisible.” (Pg.178 of the Paperback edition)
That quote is the only way I can sum up this novel in its entirety without spoiling you. I came into this book blind without knowing any details about it and I myself want you to experience this novel the same way I did.
There is a lot of mystery in Delilah’s life about her past, her father, her aunts strained relationships, and why her grandmother acted the way she did which in turn sadly ended up in her dying completely alone. Fixing Delilah isn’t a book about happiness, but about relationships and what can make or break them.
The Talking Bookworm 