Weekly Reads: Literally

I was really excited to pick up Literallyespecially after it was compared to the movie Stranger Than Fiction. It was a really fast read and I was excited to see how it would finish up, but I was slightly underwhelmed with the ending.

My rating: 3.5 stars

Goodreads Summary:

A girl realizes her life is being written for her in this unique, smart love story that is Stranger Than Fiction for fans of Stephanie Perkins.

Annabelle’s life has always been Perfect with a capital P. Then bestselling young adult author Lucy Keating announces that she’s writing a new novel—and Annabelle is the heroine. 

It turns out, Annabelle is a character that Lucy Keating created. And Lucy has a plan for her. 

But Annabelle doesn’t want to live a life where everything she does is already plotted out. Will she find a way to write her own story—or will Lucy Keating have the last word? 

The real Lucy Keating’s delightful contemporary romance blurs the line between reality and fiction, and is the perfect follow-up for readers who loved her debut Dreamology, which SLJ called, “a sweet, quirky romance with appealing characters.”

Weekly Reads: All the Bright Places

All the Bright Places is a book I've heard a ton of buzz about this year as a Printz award contender, and an all around amazing young adult book. While I don't think it's quite on the Printz award track, that doesn't mean that it's not a spectacular, heart felt, gut wrenching book that teens are going to devour. It was amazingly written and I felt entirely destroyed upon completing it, as any YA book should leave you, right?

Sidenote: After tracking down the summary from goodreads, I now see this is going to be a movie with Elle Fanning. Meaning get yourself on the hold list for this book (or buy it through my amazon links provided, so I can have a few cents of the purchase) before the hold lists gets out of control as it does when a new movie gets announced!

My rating: 5 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park in this exhilarating and heart-wrenching love story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die.
Soon to be a major motion picture starring Elle Fanning!
 
Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.
 
Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death.
 
When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.
 
This is an intense, gripping novel perfect for fans of Jay Asher, Rainbow Rowell, John Green, Gayle Forman, and Jenny Downham from a talented new voice in YA, Jennifer Niven.

Weekly Reads: Everything Leads to You

Everything Leads to You is the newest book by Nina LaCour. I had read, and enjoyed Disenchantments, so I was excited to pick this one up as well. Both books I've read by LaCour have focused on that summer post-high school, pre-rest of your life, and I think that's such a great time for a YA book. Teens look at that summer as a summer of greatness, and the characters in her books always seem to excel at that.

Everything Leads to You is a love story that's wrapped up in a mystery. Her writing style is so magical that you will see every movie scene described in the book as if you were viewing it on film, and you will feel like you're falling in love for the very first time.

Just a beautiful book.

My rating: 5 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

A love letter to the craft and romance of film and fate in front of—and behind—the camera from the award-winning author of Hold Still.
 
A wunderkind young set designer, Emi has already started to find her way in the competitive Hollywood film world.
 
Emi is a film buff and a true romantic, but her real-life relationships are a mess. She has desperately gone back to the same girl too many times to mention. But then a mysterious letter from a silver screen legend leads Emi to Ava. Ava is unlike anyone Emi has ever met. She has a tumultuous, not-so-glamorous past, and lives an unconventional life. She’s enigmatic…. She’s beautiful. And she is about to expand Emi’s understanding of family, acceptance, and true romance.