Something Blue, from Kristy Nicolle

Hello, lovelies! Welcome to my review for Something Blue, from Kristy Nicolle =D I found this author thanks to my lovely penguin friend Beth, from Betwixt the Pages, so go follow her awesomeness, please 😉 I received my review copy from Quill & Ink Book Tours in exchange for an honest review and the time has arrived! Thanks, guys!

In the city of Monopolis, where happily ever after is just a scientific formula away, Valentine Morland has been waiting nine years for her day to come. Now it’s here, and she will marry the man of her dreams, a stranger to her, before being swept off to life of carefree luxury and bliss, courtesy of the Jigsaw Project.

However, all is not as Valentine imagined as her new husband is quickly discovered as not the man of her dreams, but one who claims he isn’t capable of love at all. Harbouring an intense paranoia for the system, which upholds the very idealist fantasy that Valentine holds so dear, Clark threatens to throw her into a world, not of bliss, but of scary consequence where her every emotion is under scrutiny.

Can it be that the scientific formula with a 99% success rate got it all wrong, or is everything in the world of Bliss Inc. more sinister than it seems?

Me after finishing this book:

Any Boy But You, from Julie Hammerle (North Pole, Minnesota #1)

Hellooooo, world! Good Monday to you and, for a change, I do have a review up on the blog! Miracles do happen here and there, haha! ;D Today I’ll ravish talk about the first book in the North Pole, Minnesota series, from Julie Hammerle: Any Boy But You! ❤ I received this book from Chapter by Chapter in exchange for an honest review and this is the moment. Thanks so much, guys!

Elena Chestnut has been chatting with an anonymous boy late into the night. It’s a very You’ve Got Mail situation, and she has no idea who he is. He can’t be Oliver Prince, hot-and-bashful son of the family running the rival sporting goods store. Their fancy sales strategies are driving Elena’s family out of business. Elena’s mystery boy has teamed up with her in their latest sales strategy, an augmented reality game, to help her win the grand-prize plane tickets. Money’s so tight Elena’s going to miss senior year spring break with her friends if she can’t win this game.

The girl Oliver’s fallen head-over-heels for online had better not be Elena Chestnut. She’s his angry, vindictive Latin tutor, the daughter of his dad’s business rival, and the one girl he’d never even think of kissing. She’s definitely not his online crush, because that girl is funny, sweet, and perfect.

When Oliver asks to reveal their names at the Valentine’s Day dance, their IRL relationship will either ruin what they have online, or they’ll discover just how thin the line between love and hate really is.

Me after finishing this book:

The Way Home, from Linda Oaks (The Chasing Series #3)

Hi, there! The moment finally arrived and here we have my review for the third book in The Chasing Series by Linda Oaks: The Way Home! My copy was sent to me by Love Affair With Fiction team in exchange for an honest review ❤ As if I would pass on a Linda Oaks book! She’s, like, a goddess or something! ❤

Nate Lucas knows first-handed how much life can suck. How hard life quick’s your ass when you’re already down. His existence wasn’t ever something easy or full of love and laughter, but he was happy once. He was happy with Natalie, his high-school sweetheart.

After losing her and their unborn child to a stupid car accident, Nate lost himself. He didn’t care about anything anymore; his heart froze in the pain and grief. The only thing that kept him alive was the desire of punish himself for allowing Natalie to drive alone to school on that fateful morning. Nate swore he would never go back to Crawley, to the place that once held his world and his happiness.

But life always kicks you when you’re down.

Nate is forcefully back in town and soon enough everyone in the little place has already recognized him and the gossip are back in its fullest. Nate couldn’t care less about all this shit.

Until he met Miley, one of the waitresses of his new restaurant/bar.

Will Nate be able to let go of Natalie and allow Miley in or will the past and lies be stronger and pull Nate back to his grieving hole?

Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂

Leave behind all hopes for an impartial review. I love Linda Oaks to the core, I love her writing style, I love her soul and I’m very proud of calling her a personal friend. I helped Linda with The Way Home as a beta reader and it is so beautiful to see it alive and ready to be loved! ❤ I fell for Nate since his mysterious small appearance in Finding Forever – all books in The Chasing Series can be read as standalones, as one story doesn’t impact the other 🙂 – and just knew his book would be awesome. And guess what: IT WAS! And the funniest thing is that Linda’s romances have spicy scenes, are all first person narratives and contemporary romances. Yes, all things I usually don’t like. AND YET I LOVE THEM ALL! That’s why I said she was a goddess: she makes me love all the things I usually don’t. It’s black magic!

Without further ado, I can’t give this book any less than five big proud stars and a voucher to a free hug for Linda *–*

As mentioned, the narrative style is first person from Nate’s point of view during the whole book and that was a change of scenery; both Chasing Rainbows and Finding Forever had female narrators (Addie and Kara, respectively). It’s like Linda innovates with each book and I really like that about her! Chasing Rainbows was a YA contemporary, Finding Forever was a New Adult contemporary and now The Way Home follows the New Adult contemporary with a male main character 😀

The plot was simple and complex in its simplicity. A couple trying to work pass their ghosts to be together is never something simple, yet there is no big mystery involved in the book. I really like Linda’s writing style, as it is fluid, involving, heart-warming and has that refined humor to it, as we are always on the main character’s heads ❤

The characters are always the best part on Linda’s works. Nate and Miley are both broken before they meet (or should I say re-meet? Hmmm) and their relationship makes them stronger without being needy and lovey-dovey with each other ❤ Okay, maybe a little, but Nate is not the lovey-dovey 100% of the time type when in love, so that helps. It’s a healthy lovey-dovey deal. I’ll stop saying lovey-dovey now.

The hardest thing about being a fangirl is that you tend to overlook flaws and have nothing bad to say about the things you love or to love it so much that you criticize every single detail that you don’t like. The Way Home falls in the first category with me: I HAVE NOTHING BAD TO SAY ABOUT IT, OMG! I simply can’t see it, sorry guys. You’ll have to read the book and tell me the flaws that I overlooked, haha!

Overall, if you like lovely contemporary romances, really hot and dangerous guys, funny and smart girls and a heart-warming book, I’d say you need to read ALL Linda’s books and not just The Way Home ❤

Thanks so much for reading my review! As I already did a huge book birthday for The Way Home on this post – you can check there info about where to buy The Way Home, Finding Forever and Chasing Rainbows, meet Linda Oaks and participate in a lovely giveaway. The prize? A signed paperback copy of Chasing Rainbows! Hurry up and enter it, it is worth it!!

ps: Here you can check my reviews for Chasing Rainbows and Finding Forever!

*OAKS, Linda – Chasing Rainbows, The Chasing Series #1 (review here!)

*OAKS, Linda – Finding Forever, The Chasing Series #2 (review here!)

Fangirl, from Rainbow Rowell

Hi, there! Hope you’re having a wonderful Sunday so far – I am, haha! Today’s book is one of the most talked of pretty much everywhere: Fangirl, from Rainbow Rowell.

from my Instagram 😀

 The Story

Cath is the kind of person that doesn’t deal well with changes. She’s already stressed out enough for going to college, she didn’t need her twin sister Wren shooing her off and announcing that she doesn’t want to share her room with Cath.

Cath also didn’t need a scary roommate or her weird almost boyfriend that doesn’t seem to have a room of his own – if he had, maybe he would spend less time in Cath’s. Cath didn’t need a classmate that only cares about himself and his writing to tag along with her on their assignments as well. Or even the worry that her father may have a nervous collapse any minute without her at home to keep an eye on him.

But Cath had all those things on her life, while trying to finish her Simon Snow fanfiction, Carry On. Her real life seemed to insist on pulling her away from her own world, no matter how hard she fought it.

As the year goes and Cath realizes how people aren’t always what they seem, her offline life starts to show some appeal. Will Cath abandon her Simon Snow fixation or can she balance it with her new self that actually has friends that are not inherited from Wren?

The Analysis

Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂

I loved this book far more than I imagined I would. Despite not being socially awkward as Cath, sometimes I have some difficulties in living my own life. Books, mangas and fanfictions are way more appealing almost all the time. I thank every day for all my friends, for all the people that I love and that I know that love me back, but sometimes, Anneliseland just wins me over. (A good example is that I’m writing this review while my relatives are all in the pool, on a beautiful summer day.)

That said, I understand very well how Cath feels about the real world. Sometimes, it can be so scaring that we want to just run away. It has been a while since I felt this level of connection with a character. Even so, I couldn’t bring myself to give this book a big five stars because I felt the end was so lacking. Don’t worry, no spoilers, but my impression was that Rainbow was writing on her computer, looked at the words counter and said: “I guess this is enough, I’m tired. Hey publisher, you can send it to the world now!”. 😦

A friend of mine on Instagram (yes, I’m talking about you dear @writerahart! <3) pointed out that maybe this is Rainbow’s way to leave her reader wanting more. I hate when authors do that on standalone books, it’s too frustrating for me. You can leave some loose ends and it can be awesome, but this was just lacking. Still, four stars! 🙂

The narrative pace was slow, but not in a bad way. Rainbow presents us with lots of details, as Cath is very perceptive of everything. The narrative style was third person from Cath’s point of view only. It worked for me and I loved Cath, so I can’t complain, haha!

The plot was simple and so well executed that filled my heart with warm. Fangirl is the kind of book that shows the reader that it is okay to like “children’s things” and still grow up. Simon Snow was their Harry Potter and did not stop Cath’s life, not even when she made us believe that it had. There were some cool twists, but nothing out of this world and, honestly? Fangirl didn’t need to impress with twists. A young adult’s life can be a plot twisting itself and Rainbow was brilliant at capturing that.

Now, the characters. I loved Cath, but she got on my nerves sometimes. She was too stubborn, haha! The funny thing is that, even knowing that she and Wren were identical twins, I imagined them as being totally different. Not the kind “looking in the twisted mirror” different, but physically different. I guess that’s the after effects of both personalities, haha! Also, I hated Wren, even after the twists. I understand Cath for wanting to be with her and I think that she’s right, you have to try to always be your sister/brother’s best friend, but Wren just… She went too far. Same thing with Cath’s mother. She also went too far and I hated her, haha! Cath’s dad was really cute and huggable, I loved every scene he was on and my heart almost broke when he got sick 😦

And then there was Levi.

Ok, I’m kidding, haha! But oh boy, he had guts to like and stick with Cath. She was a difficult person and too afraid of people in general, but Levi never minded it. He was always there, always smiling and caring. Being flawed and real. In my head, he started as an okay boy and evolved as Cath’s feelings did. In the end, I thought him the most amazing and beautiful guy in the world. Like a blonde version of Ian Somerhalder.

sorry to bother you, handsome

Love is a powerful beauty tool.

I won’t even bother to mention Courtney and Nick because they simple don’t deserve to be featured in here, but I will say this: all of Rainbow’s characters could be your neighbors. It is awesome.

Also, we can’t forget about Carry On! Almost a character itself inside the story, it’s Cath’s personal private paradise. The only place where she controls everything and can do and say the right things all the time. Carry On has the power to unite people though something and it is a beautiful metaphor for reading. Besides, a story about a girl who writes gay fanfiction is badass by itself. Golden star for Rainbow! ❤ I can’t wait to actually read Carry On in February ❤ ❤

Overall, this is one of the best books I’ve read in my life, lacking end and everything. If you like contemporary romance and young adult, you just have to read Fangirl ❤

That’s it! Thanks for reading ❤ Do we have any Rainbow Rowell’s fans around??