What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera

* * * * *

Arthur is only in New York for the summer, but if Broadway has taught him anything, it’s that the universe can deliver a showstopping romance when you least expect it.

Ben thinks the universe needs to mind its business. If the universe had his back, he wouldn’t be on his way to the post office carrying a box of his ex-boyfriend’s things.

But when Arthur and Ben meet-cute at the post office, what exactly does the universe have in store for them?

Maybe nothing. After all, they get separated.

Maybe everything. After all, they get reunited.

But what if they can’t quite nail a first date . . . or a second first date . . . or a third?

What if Arthur tries too hard to make it work . . . and Ben doesn’t try hard enough?

What if life really isn’t like a Broadway play?

But what if it is?

Source: advance e-galley provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review


Before I get going I want to put this out there: I am an ardent fan of both Albertalli and Silvera. I love them for all the warm fuzzies and waterworks that their books bring on, and that the two of them have combined their superpowers to write a book together is nothing short of magical!

What If It's Us starts with a meet-cute at a post office of all places. Arthur sees a hot boy walking in to the post office with a large box. For a good-looking guy Arthur is willing to take a little detour and so follows him inside and strikes up a conversation with him. The boy, Ben is returning his ex-boyfriend's belongings and this gives Arthur hope that maybe Ben will be interested in him. Now before you go thinking he's being stalkery, Arthur is the sweetest guy who has only recently come out. He's never had a boyfriend before but his willingness to put himself out there is so darn admirable. Ben who's dated before is the one who's hesitant. Arthur is the kind of guy who believes in fate but before things can go any further they're abruptly separated and all they have is the other's first name. They do eventually find each other (social media to the rescue!) and then they embark on a series of dates, some hits, some misses, getting to know each other along the way. They only have a limited amount of time as Arthur does have to head back to Georgia at the end of the summer. In the meantime, they're going to have the best summer ever.

The story that unfolds is definitely the best of both worlds with Albertalli and Silvera taking us on an adventure as Ben takes Arthur around New York and Arthur learns the ins and outs of dating. What's interesting, too is the parallel subplots happening with regards to their own friends. Arthur's wondering if his coming out has negatively impacted his once close friendships back home and Ben's trying to figure out his own friendships which may or may not include being amicable to his ex. 

There's so much joy in reading What If It's Us. I was expecting to cry because let's face it, Silvera has a history of doing that to us but that wasn't the case this time. This is a heartfelt, coming-of-age story and I was especially touched by the ending. I love it because only is it realistic, it offers such an open and optimistic view of love and life. Their time together in New York has changed them and you can witness that as Ben and Arthur mature into the impressive men they're becoming. You definitely need to add this to your reading list now!

~ Bel

Honesty by Seth King

* * * * *

A radiant story of first love and self-acceptance for fans of John Green, Jandy Nelson, and Rainbow Rowell

“Maybe we weren’t meant to collide. Maybe we were meant to explode.”

As a closeted teenager in the Deep South with a holy-roller father and the scars to prove it, bookworm Cole Furman has resigned himself to experiencing life and love only within the pages of his favorite novels. But after Nick Flores seems to walk off a page and starts to rewrite his story, Cole finds his dreams spinning into a dazzling – and complicated – reality.

If you have ever found yourself on the wild breathless thriller ride that is young love, Honesty will rip you back again in screaming color.

Seth King is a remarkable writer. He has a gift for describing things, especially feelings, making them jump off the pages and come to life.  Honesty is the fourth novel of his that I’ve read. I dare say it’s his most profound work and it’s by far my favourite!

How does Honesty shine? It’s brutally truthful about what it’s like for a gay teen who has accepted his sexuality but who has to suffer the ignorance of others. It’s achingly blunt about what it’s like to fall in love with someone who hasn’t come to terms with who they are. It’s eye-opening about how expectations can crush someone’s spirit. It makes the reader reconsider every preconceived notion they had about what it means to be gay in a world that isn’t always so welcoming. I consider myself an open-minded person and I was wowed by Cole’s thoughts! Some things he said are just common sense but in King’s descriptive prose, they’re simply enlightening because he’s offering us a broader perspective.

Falling in love for the first time is exciting and scary. In Honesty, those feelings are amplified because neither Cole nor Nick is exactly certain about how to pursue their relationship while also keeping it a secret for Nick’s sake. It’s heartbreaking how badly Nick wants to let go and love Cole but he’s afraid about the repercussions when his family finds out. Cole on the other hand, just wants to love and be loved unconditionally but willingly plays by Nick’s rules in order to keep him in his life. Living in a town where they have to suppress their feelings and monitor their movements leads to a kind of ferocity and intensity that plays out when they’re alone. I was hanging by every word on every page.

On the eve of its release, King published an article about how Honesty was drawn from his real life experience. It’s a story that he has waited to tell at the right time. I’ll admit that that has influenced my perception of this book. I think as an author you’re vulnerable. When drawing from personal history it has to be a frightening undertaking not knowing how that story will be received. I bring this up because King does not hold back as he wraps you up in Cole and Nick’s journey through the highs and many lows of their love affair.

Five stars is inadequate to describe how brilliant and important Honesty is. It's a treasure that joins the ranks of two other books that I hold close to my heart. It will undoubtedly be in my Top 10 of 2016. And considering that there's so much in the news lately regarding the LBGT community, everyone should read this masterpiece and open their eyes and hearts.

~ Bel

Last Year's Mistake by Gina Ciocca

*** ½

Before:
Kelsey and David became best friends the summer before freshman year and were inseparable ever after. Until the night a misunderstanding turned Kelsey into the school joke, and everything around her crumbled—including her friendship with David. So when Kelsey's parents decided to move away, she couldn't wait to start over and leave the past behind. Except, David wasn't ready to let her go...

After:
Now it's senior year and Kelsey has a new group of friends, genuine popularity, and a hot boyfriend. Her life is perfect. That is, until David's family moves to town and he shakes up everything. Soon old feelings bubble to the surface and threaten to destroy Kelsey's second chance at happiness. The more time she spends with David, the more she realizes she never truly let him go. And maybe she never wants to.

Told in alternating sections, LAST YEAR'S MISTAKE is a charming and romantic debut about loving, leaving, and letting go.

Review:

When Kelsey and David meet the summer before freshman year they make an instant connection.  Sadly, David was feeling that connection a little more differently than Kelsey.  Kelsey is still in that
“love and romance is gross” stage.  Ah…young unrequited love.  As the next couple school years progress we, the readers, watch the train wreck that is their relationship.  Ok, maybe train wreck is unfair.  But it was frustrating to see Kelsey close herself off from all other possible friendships.  David, being a much more sociable creature, maintains his relationship with Kelsey (always hoping she’ll fall for him too) while forming friendships with other people at school. Even the people that Kelsey absolutely hates. And, of course, Kelsey realizes her feelings when it’s too late.  Or at least she thinks it’s too late.

Kelsey and her family move away the summer before her junior year.  Along with starting a new school, Kelsey decides to start a whole new life.  A life that includes leaving David behind.  In every possible way.  She ignores his texts and messages and cuts off contact completely.  Fast forward the beginning of her senior year and Kelsey has a great best friend, a popular boyfriend and hangs out with the “cool” crowd.  But her world is tilted when David walks into her new school and her new life the first day of their senior year. 

What follows is an uncomfortable school year as both Kelsey and David figure out what they can salvage of their former relationship.  They each make so many mistakes.  I mean, I know Kelsey is judgmental and not always likable, but the kids that she avoided in high school were total jerks.  And they were fairly obvious about it too.  I didn’t like how purposefully blind David was to that.   And then later, how it’s obvious to everyone but Kelsey that her boyfriend is an ass, is beyond me.  But all that being said, I WAS rooting for Kelsey and David.  They had a connection that is made even stronger by their friendship.  But that same connection and friendship makes the hurt they cause each other pretty devastating.  

I definitely enjoyed Last Year’s Mistake.  It hit a couple of my most favorite romance buttons.  Angst, check. Friends to lovers, check.  It even had me teary eyed a few times.  If you are fan of teen contemporary romance, this a great one to add to your collection.

Nat

On the Fence by Kasie West

* * * ½   

She's a tomboy. He's the boy next door…

Charlie Reynolds can outrun, outscore, and outwit every boy she knows. But when it comes to being a girl, Charlie doesn't know the first thing about anything. So when she starts working at a chichi boutique to pay off a speeding ticket, she finds herself in a strange new world. To cope with the stress of her new reality, Charlie takes to spending nights chatting with her neighbor Braden through the fence between their yards. As she grows to depend on their nightly Fence Chats, she realizes she's got a bigger problem than speeding tickets-she's falling for Braden. She knows what it means to go for the win, but if spilling her secret means losing him for good, the stakes just got too high.

Fun, original, and endearing, On the Fence is a romantic comedy about finding yourself and finding love where you least expect.

Review:

Charlie Reynolds isn’t prepared for the consequences when her police officer father comes home with a copy of her latest speeding ticket. Charlie is paying for this ticket and she’s going to have to find a job to do so.   Her half-hearted attempt at a job search lands her a job working for a small clothing boutique.  The new job comes with a lot of changes – including new clothes and makeup.  Those are changes that make tomboy Charlie uncomfortable.  They are also changes that Charlie will do anything to hide from her over protective dad and brothers. 

Charlie has been content with being one of the guys.  She takes quite a bit of pride in the fact that she can keep up with her three brothers and their friends.  But this new job is introducing her to a new part of her life.  One that she has no idea how to merge with her current life.  Added to the emotional chaos is her growing attraction to her neighbor and brother’s best friend, Braden.  Their late night chats over the fence have been the highlight of her summer.  But she’s convinced he doesn’t return her feelings and isn’t willing to risk what they already have.

I love a good boy next door story and Braden was a perfect boy next door.  I would actually put him in the “forever boy” category.  And we all know how much I love my “forever boys.”  I also loved the Reynolds boys.  Both dad and sons.  They are ridiculously overprotective but at the same time they love her so much I couldn’t help but shake my head and smile.

And I adored Charlie.  Not because she was a tomboy that played every sport and breathed baseball.   Although that WAS cool.  It was the fact that her insecurities were so identifiable.  Haven’t we ALL been there.  As the reader we are all thinking how obvious it is that Braden has a thing for Charlie.  But, I can say from experience, sometimes we just don’t have enough confidence in ourselves to see what is so obvious to others.  And, boy, is Charlie lacking confidence.  That is her main internal struggle in this story and many will identify with it.

On the Fence is engaging and light.  If you are looking for a sweet teen romance then I recommend you add this title to your summer reading list.

Nat

Good For You (Between the Lines #3) by Tammara Webber

* * * *

SPOILER ALERT!!!  Due to the nature of this trilogy, it is impossible to review this book (or even read the synopsis) without giving away the ending to the previous book.  So stop now if you haven’t read Between the Lines and/or Where You Are and don’t want to know how it ends.

Reid Alexander's life is an open book. His Hollywood celebrity means that everything he does plays out in the public eye. Every relationship, every error in judgment is analyzed by strangers. His latest mistake totaled his car, destroyed a house and landed him in the hospital. Now his PR team is working overtime to salvage his image. One thing is clear—this is one predicament he won’t escape without paying for it.

Dori Cantrell is a genuine humanitarian—the outward opposite of everything Reid is about. When his DUI plea bargain lands him under her community service supervision, she proves unimpressed with his status and indifferent to his proximity, and he soon wants nothing more than to knock her off of her pedestal and prove she's human.

Counting the days until his month of service is over, Dori struggles to ignore his wicked magnetic pull while shocking him with her ability to see past his celebrity and challenging him to see his own wasted potential. But Dori has secrets of her own, safely locked away until one night turns her entire world upside down. Suddenly their only hope for connection and redemption hinges on one choice: whether or not to have faith in each other. (GoodReads)


Review:

Remember how I wanted Reid to take a long walk off a short pier?  And then at the end of Where You Are I thought there might be a slight bit of hope for him after all?  Well, Good For You (Between the Lines #3), was Tammara Webber’s chance to make me like Reid Alexander.  Maybe even love him.

Reid is quickly falling into a life of regular binge drinking and blackouts.  When one of those blackouts results in him driving his car into a house, his life can’t possibly get any lower.  One of the terms of his plea bargain is that he must help rebuild the home that he destroyed.

Dori is unimpressed with his forced community service and expects the minimum from him.  What she learns is that for all his publicized carelessness, Reid is a hard worker and isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.  A friendship slowly develops between these two but quickly ends once Dori shows no interest in continuing their friendship after Reid’s community service is done.  Then something terrible happens in Dori’s life and somehow Reid Alexander is the one person she can turn to with all her doubts and fears.  Their friendship starts off where it left off and slowly develops into more.

All I have to say is this.  Congratulations Tammara Webber.  You managed to make me accept and love a character that I have up until now despised.  I mean, I can’t tell you how much I disliked Reid Alexander in the last two books.  And even though he showed some hope at the end of the last book, it wasn’t enough to make me like him.  But in the end?  Well, I almost loved him.

Ms. Webber managed to set a perfect pace for this story.  Nothing happens quickly but at the same time I couldn’t stop turning the pages.  Dori’s character is rather uptight and pretentious but I couldn’t help liking her anyway.  Part of that might be because of how quickly she deduced Reid’s jerk-like qualities.  And then there was Reid.  He was every bit the ass that he was in the previous two books.  But the author took that fragility that only the reader caught glimpses of and made it slowly blossom through out the book so that, by the end, we had a hero that had believably redeemed himself.

This was indeed my favorite book in the series.  I would recommend the whole series for this story alone. If you like a page turning teen romance, I can’t recommend this one enough.

Nat

Where You Are (Between the Lines #2) by Tammara Webber

* * * 1/2

 SPOILER ALERT!!!  Due to the nature of this trilogy, it is impossible to review this book (or even read the synopsis) without giving away the ending to the previous book.  So stop now if you haven’t read Between the Lines and don’t want to know how it ends. 

Graham Douglas doesn’t do romantic relationships, but he was knocked for a loop when he met Emma Pierce on the set of his last film. As they grew closer, he did everything in his power to keep from falling for a girl being pursued by superstar Reid Alexander. Now home in New York, his life is once again under control, until Emma appears and shows him how not over her he is.

Emma Pierce is forsaking an up-and-coming Hollywood career to embark on a life she’s only dreamed of—the life of a regular girl. After spending months burying her feelings for the two night-and-day guys who vied for her heart while filming her last movie, a twist of fate puts her in a coffee shop in the middle of Manhattan with the one she still misses.

Brooke Cameron was a fresh-faced Texas girl when she arrived in LA. Now she’s a beach sitcom star turned conceited heiress on the big screen. Having just survived three months on location with her ex—Hollywood’s reigning golden boy—she’s older and wiser and has set her sights on her close friend Graham. The only thing standing in her way is the girl he can’t forget.

Reid Alexander can sum up his life in one word: boring. Between film projects, there’s little going on outside of interviews, photo shoots, and the premiere of the film he finished last fall. The next-to-last thing he expects is to get a second chance with Emma, the girl who rejected him. The last thing he expects is for his still-bitter-ex to be the one to offer it to him on a platter. (GoodReads)

Review:

Remember how I suggested that if you like the show Gossip Girl, you MIGHT like Between the Lines?  Well, if you like Gossip Girl, you will DEFINITELY like Where You Are.

Where You Are alternates between 4 different points of view – Emma, Graham, Reid and Brooke.  I think that might be the most POV’s I have ever read in a single book but it definitely works.  Emma and Graham are trying to make their very new relationship work while living on opposite coasts and dealing with publicists that want Emma to maintain the façade of a relationship with Reid during the publicity spree of their new movie.  Brooke, Graham’s long time friend (and Reid’s ex-girlfriend), has decided that Graham is THE guy she wants to spend forever with and will stop at nothing to make that happen.  She enlists the help of Reid to ruin the relationship between Graham and Emma and in turn send Graham running into Brooke’s arms.

I enjoyed this story much more than Between the Lines.  In Between the Lines I was unsure who I should be rooting for.  Should Emma be with Reid even though I couldn’t stand him?  Or would she end up with Graham even though he had no voice in the novel?  I had no such dilemma in Where You Are.  I knew from the start that I wanted Emma and Graham to stay together.  I also knew that I would be thrilled if both Brooke and Reid took a long walk off a short pier. 

I won’t tell you what happens.  All I can say is that are three books in this series (and possibly a fourth in the works).  What I WILL tell you is that the end left me with hope (just a little bit) that Reid Alexander just might grow into a decent human being.

Between the Lines wasn’t my favorite of stories but I am so glad I enjoyed it enough to move on the next book in the series because I definitely enjoyed Where You Are and would highly recommend it if you are looking for mature teen romance.

Nat

Stealing Parker by Miranda Kenneally

* * * 1/2

Red-hot author Miranda Kenneally hits one out of the park in this return to Catching Jordan's Hundred Oaks High.

Parker Shelton pretty much has the perfect life. She’s on her way to becoming valedictorian at Hundred Oaks High, she’s made the all-star softball team, and she has plenty of friends. Then her mother’s scandal rocks their small town and suddenly no one will talk to her.

Now Parker wants a new life.

So she quits softball. Drops twenty pounds. And she figures why kiss one guy when she can kiss three? Or four. Why limit herself to high school boys when the majorly cute new baseball coach seems especially flirty?

But how far is too far before she loses herself completely? (GoodReads)

 

I absolutely adored Catching Jordan.  The characters and romance were adorable and perfectly imperfect.  When I heard that Stealing Parker would be the companion novel, I was very excited.  How could I not love a baseball romance?  My favorite sport partnered with some romance?  Win/Win!

Much like Catching Jordan, our heroine, Parker, immediately captured my attention with her realistic teen voice and her significant insecurities.  Noticed I said significant?  Parker’s mom has left, her brother is on a downward spiral and her dad is in complete denial that any help is needed other than prayer and church.  Add that to Parker’s focused attempts to prove she is not like her mom and you find that Parker has a lot to be worried about.   

Although this book has romance, it is more about Parker overcoming her own issues rather than finding a boyfriend.  It took a while before I even knew who her love interest was.  Kenneally handles this story with care and realism.  Not everything is happily ever after and everybody’s future is most definitely not wrapped up with a bright and pretty bow.   Not to say that there aren’t a few “Aww” moments in this book.  There certainly are. 

This story was definitely a bit dark but it was still an enjoyable read.  I would definitely recommend it if you enjoyed Miranda Kenneally’s first novel, Catching Jordan.

  

Nat