February 3-in-1

The topic for February's 3-in-1 is books you instantly fell in love with. Why you fell in love with the book is completely up to you, it could be something as simple as the cover that made your head swoon or maybe the synopsis that swept you off your feet. The 3 in 1 series was started in a Goodreads group called Booktubers from around the world created by Cherrie Walker.


Goodreads Group ⇨ https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/18453500-february-3-in-1

1. Red Queen By: Victoria Aveyard

     Everyone who knows me knows that I am head over heels for this trilogy. I initially fell in love with this just from the synopsis itself but now I am inevitably in love with it because the plot, characters, and the world has given me LIFE!

2. Becoming Naomi Leon By: Pam Munoz Ryan

      This amazing coming of age novel was something I read a long time ago in elementary school. Still today I feel like it helped me to grow as a person. I fell in love with this because of how beautiful the cover was and lets be honest every reader is drawn to a book with a pretty cover.

3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone By: J.K. Rowling

    I decided to do the most popular book last because everyone in the entire universe LOVES Harry Potter and I'm talking stalker type love. I've only read the first book, yes that means I'm a late bloomer, but I have watched about half of the movies. This book immediately had me stuck it's grasp not only from the cover but from its blood pumping plot as well. (P.S. if you don't love Harry Potter you must be from an alternate universe)

The Fill-In Boyfriend By: Kasie West

Description:

When Gia Montgomery's boyfriend, Bradley, dumps her in the parking lot of her high school prom, she has to think fast. After all, she'd been telling her friends about him for months now. This was supposed to be the night she proved he existed. So when she sees a cute guy waiting to pick up his sister, she enlists his help. The task is simple: be her fill-in boyfriend—two hours, zero commitment, a few white lies. After that, she can win back the real Bradley.

The problem is that days after prom, it's not the real Bradley she's thinking about, but the stand-in. The one whose name she doesn't even know. But tracking him down doesn't mean they're done faking a relationship. Gia owes him a favor and his sister intends to see that he collects: his ex-girlfriend's graduation party—three hours, zero commitment, a few white lies.

Just when Gia begins to wonder if she could turn her fake boyfriend into a real one, Bradley comes waltzing back into her life, exposing her lie, and threatening to destroy her friendships and her new-found relationship.

Date Started: Feb. 4, 2017

Date Completed: Feb. 18, 2017

Rating: ★★★

Review:

     I hate that I didn't love this as much as most people did but hey what can I do about it. I was really ping-ponging between giving this book two stars or giving it three stars, so because I fairly liked and accepted the ending I settled on three stars.

     Character wise I got the Mean Girls affect from our "IT" girl group. I initially hated Gia because I felt that she was too worried about other people's opinions and she was a little brat that was used to getting things her way. In the end I didn't hate her as much from her first impressions but I still didn't like her because she constantly let people walk over her and she always felt like she just HAD to prove her life to people she didn't even like.

     Hayden, which is such a beautiful name, is such a beautiful and sweet person but I hate that he's presented like the "perfect" person with no flaws. This made him a very one dimensional character in my opinion. 

     I hated Jules the most and I honestly think she need her ass kicked for all of the drama that she stirred up. But seeing as she was meant to be painted as the red devil in the first place, her character was played out really well. Her sneakiness, her sly remarks, her pity party, and just her overall evilness was played very well. I did wish I knew more about why she was such a bitch and why she was making it her mission to dethrone Gia from the group. I just want her background information.

     Plot wise it was an overall very cliche story. The perfect boy meets the lost girl then, perfect boy shows lost girl she doesn't have to put on a mask for everyone else, and ultimately perfect boy and lost girl get together in the end. I started getting frustrated with Gia's struggling to tell the truth to her so called friends and also her taking crap constantly from Jules. I also didn't like the fact that Gia was wrapped up in the hero syndrome and we were just supposed to act like we didn't notice. I'm so sick of see the "perfect" trope in YA books period, it's just not relatable. Gia's parents were presented as the perfect couple, same routine everyday, never fought, or discussed anything that wasn't happy. It's just not realistic.

     I was satisfied with majority of the ending because the major issue was solved and it didn't end with everyone hugging it out. This wasn't good enough for me to reread it but I would recommend it for a first time reader that just wants something with a fast paced plot. 

The Princess Saves Herself in This One By: Amanda Lovelace

Description:

From Amanda Lovelace, a poetry collection in four parts: the princess, the damsel, the queen, and you. The first three sections piece together the life of the author while the final section serves as a note to the reader. This moving book explores love, loss, grief, healing, empowerment, and inspiration.

Publishing Co.: Andrew McMeel Publishing

Release Date: Feb. 14, 2017

Date Started: Feb. 9, 2017

Date Completed: Feb. 9, 2017

Rating: ★★

Review:

     I received this advanced reader copy from Netgalley and Andrew McMeel Publishing in exchange for my honest review. This collection of poems tell Amanda's history of abuse, from the emotional and mental abuse she went through by the hands of her mother, to her own acts of self harm, and more in between. Which is why I hate to pick out things I didn't like because everyone's poems portray what they individually went through and how they individually feel. But there were aspects of this collection that I did not like.

     What I did like was how emotionally connected I felt to some of the poems, some of them even made me tear up a little. There were a few moments in the book that I giggled a little, mostly the inspirational parts, which I also really enjoyed.

     What I didn't like was that half of the collection could have been left out just because they didn't add to the work but they definitely took away. Most of them weren't even poems and it seemed like they were really being used as page fillers more than actual meaningful pieces. I would rather a very short collection of poems that are all really good vs. a standard size collection where half of them are page fillers.

Love and Gravity By: Samantha Sotto

Description:

In this unforgettable novel for fans of One Day and The Time Traveler’s Wife, a young Isaac Newton falls in love with a girl living in modern-day San Francisco, defying the laws of physics to forge a seemingly impossible connection.

Andrea Louviere is seven years old the first time he appears. While she’s alone in her bedroom, practicing her beloved cello, the light shivers and a crack forms in the wall. Through the crack, she sees a candle, a window, a desk—and a boy. Though no sound travels through the wall, the boy clearly sees Andrea, too. And then, just as quickly as it opened, the crack closes, and he vanishes.

Over the years, summoning the bright, magnetic boy becomes something of an obsession for Andrea. Then, on her seventeenth birthday, she receives a three-hundred-year-old love letter from Isaac Newton. Andrea knows that Isaac will change the world with his groundbreaking discoveries; the letter tells Andrea that she will change him.

As Isaac’s letters intensify in passion and intimacy, Andrea grows determined to follow his clues to their shared destiny—despite a burgeoning romance in the present. Only when she discovers the way into Isaac’s time does Andrea realize that she faces a heartbreaking decision: between what was . . . and what might be.

Publishing Co.: Ballantine Books

Release Date: Feb. 7, 2017

Date Started: Jan. 22, 2017

Date Completed: Feb. 1, 2017

Rating: ★★★

Review: 

     I was given this advanced reader copy by Netgalley and Ballantine Books in exchange for my honest review. Reading the synopsis of his book I was really excited and pumped up because I figured a love connection through through time travel and the love birds being 300 years apart just had to be amazing, but this book fell really short for me. 

     The plot started off slow and slowly picked up for me, I wish the story would have immersed me into it sooner than it had. I didn't really understand certain plot points such as why only playing a certain song on the cello is the only way to open the time portal. I absolutely hated the love triangle between Andrea, Issac, and Nate because I felt like it was a really one-sided triangle, only focusing on Andrea and Issac while forgetting about Nate until the very end of the book. I really enjoyed Issac's letters throughout the book, they were really sweet and pleasant to read and were really the highlights of the book. There were heights in plot where I knew I should have been feeling excitement and an adrenaline rush, but something just didn't get me there.

     I didn't really feel a connection WITH any of the characters but I did feel sorrow and pitty TOWARDS the characters. I wish the characters were built better for me to actually remember them and relate with them.

     There were points in the story that I absolutely, no doubt loved but those parts only made it more frustrating for me when I got to the rest of the book definitely need more work. All in all, I wouldn't recommend this book because it has so much potential but it falls short both character and plot wise.