Per una volta nella vita

Eleanor has just returned home after being away for a year because her hideous, abusive stepfather kicked her out of the house. It's not a very good place to be, and thanks to Eleanor being immediately being slotted into the role of "weird girl," school isn't very much better... except for the brief time she gets to spend on the bus sitting next to Park, a boy who is a little bit of a misfit himself.

Teenage romance is seldom my sort of thing, but the protagonists of this one are so well-realized and likeable, and their interactions are so funny and geeky and sweet that it's impossible not to end up rooting for them. Especially as the gradual, far-from-love-at-first-sight start to their relationship is believable and rather refreshing, and where it goes in the end is not really what you might expect.

Their story is about equal parts delightful and sad, and it manages to pull both of those things off in a way that ultimately blends them together into something interestingly bittersweet.

It also does a remarkably, even painfully, good job of capturing the experience of high school in the 1980s. Which is also something that can put me off, if I'm honest -- having lived through that experience once, it's not something I want to go through again, even vicariously -- but, as with the teen romance aspects, Rainbow Rowell somehow makes me willing to relax and go along for the ride. ( )

This book got me on so many levels. It broke my heart only to put it back together to shatter it. Bittersweet. I listened to 80s alternative while reading. Loved this book. ( )

This book wasn’t entirely what I was expecting. I expected a cute book dealing with typical teenage difficulties and finding yourself and navigating first love. It was all that, but I hadn’t prepared myself for the amount of angst and difficulties in Eleanor’s life. My heart broke for her over and over throughout the book. It was honestly so good and once I started reading it I just couldn’t put it down! The pacing of the story was perfect and engaging and the characters were amazing. I could honestly just rant about Eleanor and Park forever. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to finally read this book! They were relatable and realistic and wonderfully imperfect. They had their clear flaws and were far from your typical leads. Park wasn’t a stereotypical tall, handsome, strong hero. He mentioned several times how he wished he was taller and how he didn’t meet his father expectations of a manly man. But he was sweet and caring and continuously wanted to defend Eleanor (Can I get three cheers for him kicking Steve in the mouth?). And Eleanor was far from the typical small damsel in distress. She even compared herself to Han Solo which I adore! She is a bigger girl which we really don’t see enough of in the media. Typically bigger characters are tossed to the side lines as comic relief so it’s so refreshing to see her get to be the protagonist and to be the love interest. And can I say how much I love that she was just herself? She didn’t try to change who she was. And I absolutely love that she wasn’t sweet. She was still a good person, but wasn’t just fake nice for the sake of societal expectations. You don’t have to be entirely likeable to be worthy of love and admiration. Then there was the growth of the characters. In the beginning of the story they both clearly disdained one another, but the more time the spent together the more they grew to love each other. And they were just so realistic as a couple in general. They disagreed, they got mad, but at the end of the day they still cared and were so cute in regards to each other. It’s definitely worth a read! ( )

*4.5

This book was so beautiful. I love books that take place in the 80's and 90's and this one did not disappoint! I really saw myself in Eleanor and she was a extremely relatable character. Park was great as well, even if it took me much longer to get used to him. The duo POVs really made this book for me. ( )

I think I fell more than a little bit in love with this book. ( )