Mini Review Monday – Ugly Love (Spoiler Free)

Hey everyone! Here I am with another Mini Review Monday created by me, where you write a short review for a book/series you haven’t reviewed on your blog. Because either you read the book before you started blogging or you never got around to it. If you decide to participate in this new meme, please feel free to leave a link to your post in the comments below. Also! Let the people know if it’s a non-spoiler/spoiler review.


Title: Ugly Love
Author: Colleen Hoover
Genre: New Adult, Romance
Published: August 5, 2014
Read: August 2014
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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Synopsis from Goodreads:

When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she knows it isn’t love at first sight. They wouldn’t even go so far as to consider themselves friends. The only thing Tate and Miles have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. Once their desires are out in the open, they realize they have the perfect set-up. He doesn’t want love, she doesn’t have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her.

Never ask about the past.
Don’t expect a future.

They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all.

Hearts get infiltrated.
Promises get broken.
Rules get shattered.
Love gets ugly.


If you want to read a sucker punch New Adult novel, then you need to pick this one up. Cause this one will have you in all your feelings. I literally kept yelling at the book with all the wtf moments going on.

Tate and Miles meet and there’s an attraction, but neither want to get serious. Tate is busy moving in with her brother, trying to get her masters degree while Miles is a airline pilot. Miles ask her to never ask about his past and Tate is fine with that. Till things get heated between them and Miles past starts crawling along.

Ugly Love is told in dual prospective, Tate’s and Miles. One thing I enjoyed about Miles chapters were that sometimes they were told in verse. Also, Miles chapters are told in past tense while Tate’s is present. Which I thought was really great and heart wrenching because it started connecting and that’s when your heart gets broken.

I loved how relatable Tate was too, I feel like a lot of women can just connect with someone like Tate. Her insecurities, her doubts and worries were just the nail on the head for me. Especially in those moments when Miles was a total douchebag to her.

I also had my laughing out loud moments in this book too, don’t mind the title, there is some funny in here. The reader also gets to meet this elder man Cap and I looooooved him so much because he’s like a grandfather to everyone.

This book is about forgiving yourself and others around you when you’re a little too hard to love.

Character driven story? Yes
Plot twist? Yes
Recommend for first time New Adult readers? Yes!

“Love isn’t always pretty. Sometimes you spend all your time hoping it’ll eventually be something different. Something better. Then, before you know it, you’re back to square one, and you lost your heart somewhere along the way.”


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Mini Review Monday – Isla and the Happily Ever After (Spoiler Free)

Hey everyone! Here I am with another Mini Review Monday created by me, where you write a short review for a book/series you haven’t reviewed on your blog. Because either you read the book before you started blogging or you never got around to it. If you decide to participate in this new meme, please feel free to leave a link to your post in the comments below. Also! Let the people know if it’s a non-spoiler/spoiler review.


Title: Isla and the Happily Ever After (Book #3)
Series: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Genre: Romance, Contemporary, YA
Published: August 14, 2014
Read: December 2014 (hardcover, own)
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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Synopsis from Goodreads:

Love ignites in the City That Never Sleeps, but can it last? 

Hopeless romantic Isla has had a crush on introspective cartoonist Josh since their first year at the School of America in Paris. And after a chance encounter in Manhattan over the summer, romance might be closer than Isla imagined. But as they begin their senior year back in France, Isla and Josh are forced to confront the challenges every young couple must face, including family drama, uncertainty about their college futures, and the very real possibility of being apart. 

Featuring cameos from fan-favorites Anna, Étienne, Lola, and Cricket, this sweet and sexy story of true love—set against the stunning backdrops of New York City, Paris, and Barcelona—is a swoonworthy conclusion to Stephanie Perkins’s beloved series.


All of Anna and The French Kiss are just one of my  all time favorite YA Contemporaries. I hope one day in the future I get to reread them again.

In Isla and the Happily Ever After we meet Isla and Josh. Isla who’s always had a crush on Josh since she laid eyes on him in the Paris boarding school. However, when they bump into one another in Manhattan things will change for better or for worse.

Stephanie Perkins does it again with another amazing setting. This one so happens to be in my city, New York City and of course she was spot on. I am very critical when it comes to books taking place in NYC because I think about the readers who don’t live here and the accuracy of it all. This book not only takes place here in NYC but also in Paris, so we go back and forth with Isla and Josh in both places.

Isla is so relatable with her personality and insecurities that I have also encountered at her age. Josh, although being male is also relatable. He has family issues that stir a lot of drama in his life and relationship with Isla. This drama can also steer these two into different directions. Both Isla and Josh are also in their senior year of high school getting ready to go onto college and this shakes Isla a bit.

I must say though, for a YA, this one was a little hot and steamy. Which I’m not complaining about but I was very surprised that Stephanie Perkins had went there.

All in all, this was a great ending to the Anna and the French Kiss series. Plus we see all the characters from the previous books!

If you’re ever in a reading slump and need a quick laughing fix, pick this up.

Favorite Quotes:

“Phones are distracting. The internet is distracting. The way he looked at you? He wasn’t distracted. He was consumed.”

“A blank canvas…has unlimited possibilities.”

I smile up at him “It’s beautiful. But what comes next?”
“The best part.” And he pulls me back into his arms. “The happily ever after.”

 

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Photo link here


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Mini Review Monday – Lola and the Boy Next Door (Spoiler Free)

Hey everyone! Here I am with another Mini Review Monday created by me, where you write a short review for a book/series you haven’t reviewed on your blog. Because either you read the book before you started blogging or you never got around to it. If you decide to participate in this new meme, please feel free to leave a link to your post in the comments below. Also! Let the people know if it’s a non-spoiler/spoiler review.


Title: Lola and the Boy Next Door (Book #2)
Series: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Genre: Romance, Contemporary, YA
Published: September 29, 2011
Read: October 2014 (paperback, own)
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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Synopsis from Goodreads:

Lola Nolan is a budding costume designer, and for her, the more outrageous, sparkly, and fun the outfit, the better. And everything is pretty perfect in her life (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood. When Cricket, a gifted inventor, steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.


Lola Lola Lola! Another all time favorite!

Although this is the second book to the series, this could be read as a standalone just for Lola and Cricket alone. Even though I feel like in order to capture the essence of this whole series and all the characters combined, it should be read together.

We meet Lola who believes in dressing in costume every single day. She loves to stand out with her crazy sparkly outfits and different colored wigs. She lives with her two dads. Technically her adopted uncle and his husband but she considers them her fathers. Everything was going so well and dandy till her neighbors from childhood come back to move in next door. Then her rocker boyfriend starts giving her problems.

This book takes place in San Francisco and Stephanie Perkins does it again with making us the readers feel like we are apart of the setting. She makes us feel like we’re actually there.

Cricket, the boy next door who’s super tall and is an inventor finally steps away from his twins sister shadow. She’s a famous gymnast.

Feelings start to resurface between Lola and Cricket but she’s stuck in a toxic relationship. However, Cricket doesn’t give up. While Lola is eccentric and out there, Cricket is quiet and shy. Opposites extract? I think so.

Stephanie Perkins does not only have romance in this novel. We see family dynamics between Lola and her mother, Cricket and his family, Lola in a toxic relationship. We also meet Anna and Etienne again.

Plot, characters, and story = A+

Favorite Quote’s:

“And if I’m the stars, Cricket Bell is entire galaxies.”

“I don’t believe in fashion. I believe in costume. Life is too short to be same person every day.”

“Do you know my biggest regret?” She asks. “That you turned into this bright, beautiful, fascinating person… and I can’t take credit for any of it.”

 

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Photo link here


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Mini Review Monday – Anna and the French Kiss (Spoiler Free)

Hey everyone! Here I am with another Mini Review Monday created by me, where you write a short review for a book/series you haven’t reviewed on your blog. Because either you read the book before you started blogging or you never got around to it. If you decide to participate in this new meme, please feel free to leave a link to your post in the comments below. Also! Let the people know if it’s a non-spoiler/spoiler review.


Title: Anna and the French Kiss (Book #1)
Series: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Genre: Romance, Contemporary, YA
Published: December 2nd, 2010
Read: October 2014 (paperback, own)
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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Synopsis from Goodreads:

Can Anna find love in the City of Light?

Anna is happy in Atlanta. She has a loyal best friend and a crush on her coworker at the movie theater, who is just starting to return her affection. So she’s less than thrilled when her father decides to send her to a boarding school in Paris for her senior year.

But despite not speaking a word of French, Anna meets some cool new people, including the handsome Étienne St. Clair, who quickly becomes her best friend. Unfortunately, he’s taken —and Anna might be, too. Will a year of romantic near misses end with the French kiss she’s waiting for?


This book is added to my all time favorite books of my life. I feel like this is the perfect YA contemporary.

We meet Anna who lives in Atlanta but her father who’s an author (he gave me Nicholas Sparks vibes) sends her to boarding school in Paris. Anna isn’t looking forward to the move at all. However things change around once she meets people and gains new friends plus meets a boy in the city of love, Etienne St. Clair.

The only problem with Etienne is that he has a girlfriend and is also fighting his feelings with Anna. Which I found a tad bit problematic.

I loved how realistic Stephanie Perkins made these characters to be. Anna is taller than Etienne and she has a gap between her teeth. Etienne isn’t the best looking guy either, definitely not  your typical buff built teenager we tend to read in YA. We also meet other characters who range in diversity.

What I loved most was the setting. Stephanie definitely made me feel like I was in Paris whilst reading the book. I imagined everything vividly. Stephanie had the characters visit different tourist locations of Paris that was awesome to read about and imagine.

Although this is a YA Romance Contemporary, Stephanie also touches on other topics like family, inclusion, and friendship.

This is definitely a light fluffy read that I would recommend on any given day.

A Favorite Quote:

“For the two of us, home isn’t a place. It is a person. And we are finally home.”

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