Keris Stainton

First, I hate the synopsis, 'cause it tells the entire story. I mean, after it, I knew they'd fall in love with each other and I was waiting for the first meeting and the second and all others which would follow and I stopped enjoying the narrative for real, and that's kind of bad, I guess.

The book is written in a dual-perspective, which is pretty cool 'cause it's insane to think that two people are in the same city and we're following their lives that are happening at the same time but differ completely from each other.

There's Jessie, a British teen who'll spend the summer holidays with her best friend, Emma, at her mother's house, and hopes to forget her badass ex-boyfriend with Ben's help. And there's Finn that is in love with Sam, his best friend's girlfriend, and also doesn't know how to say to his father that he wants to change his major.

I thought that's fantastic Jessie being a tourist in NYC, 'cause it led me to make great tours, even though imaginary, and I enjoyed reading about thousands of wonderful places related to movies, although I've not seen a third of them, but now I want to, of course.

I didn't fall deeply in love with the characters, though. I liked Jessie, 'cause she's youthful, and I liked Finn, 'cause he's so adorable. But, for me, Emma was a pain in the ass, 'cause she was all over the places and I kept thinking, why the hell she doesn't go away when Jessie and Finn are together and it upset me. And Scott, Finn's best friend, is fine , but he's forgettable, 'cause I didn't know his name when I finished the book. Regarding Ben, he didn't win me over too, 'cause I realized what was going on in the elevator scene. I liked the friendship between Finn and Scott, 'cause I thought they really relied on each other and they understood each other's problems. And I also liked the fact that Jessie had worked things out with her mother, 'cause it touched me when she realized how much her mother loved her and how everything had been misunderstood.

In conclusion, it was ok, but not good enough for over two stars (and a half), 'cause Emma's presence ruined most of it and, mostly, 'cause it was really predictable.… (altro)

This novel focuses just as much on body image as it does on the romantic notion that a person can find that "one who got away." Piper James is body positive blogger. She focuses on having a healthy body image over healthy living. Yes, Piper is considered "chunky" or "fat" but she works out and maintains a healthy lifestyle. Piper works for a record label in the legal department. But that is not how she lands herself on Hey UK! morning show debating the differences between dieting and maintaining a healthy body image. After her television premier, Piper hears from her high school crush, Robbie Kingsford. She again runs into Robbie at the Starbucks in her hometown of New Brighton when she has to rush home due to her great aunt falling ill. Rob invites her to return home for their high school reunion in a few weeks.

But Piper never wants to return to her old stomping grounds. There are too many memories in New Brighton for her. She can see her parents ghosts almost everywhere in New Brighton. She also hasn't dealt with the fat shaming from her childhood either. Rob just wants a chance to be with his high school crush--Piper.… (altro)

I honestly don't know what to say. I liked the character Cat and her friendship with Kelly and how much she loved her, Kelly's son, and Kelly's husband. That said, the whole book revolves about her getting feelings for her ex's brother. If that part had been cut out I would have loved it.

Cat is a former stand up comic who quit after her ex-boyfriend Sam (also a comic) moved to Australia 5 years ago and never came back. Cat we find out has some abandonment issues. What I think is funny about it is that Cat tries to deny it, but then Kelly keeps pushing her to realize that she has abandonment issues. Seriously that is most of this book. Kelly sounds like the best friend ever. I would have strangled Cat after a while if she was a real life friend. She's a mess job-wise and socially too. She falls for every guy who is near her and when she realizes Sam is back, she ends up meeting Harvey (Sam's brother) all over again and feels twinges.

I think the biggest thing for me in the end is that I can't think of anyone being okay with the situation. It would have been more realistic to me if everyone said what the hell are you thinking. Also I think Harvey is at least 10 years younger than Sam? I can't recall right now, but I do know he's younger and I wondered at her being ready for a long term relationship and would someone at his age be ready for one too.

That said, the best parts of this book were when Cat was interacting with Kelly and her whole family. I loved that we got to see a bit of Cat's stand up in the end, but think that we should have gotten that in the prologue somewhere. We just get a brief set up of Cat and her being in love with Sam and then she is downstairs in the family home and being lustful towards Harvey. It was so weird.

This book was fairly short (only over 200 pages) so there's not a lot of development of secondary characters outside of Kelly and her family. Harvey felt blank to me and so did Sam. We kept hearing how much Cat loved Sam's family, but we should have gotten a sense of that in the prologue or somewhere with actual scenes showing them interacting.

In the end I can't complain too much, this was only $2.99 and it distracted me while flying all over the place the past couple of weeks.… (altro)