Ok, first off, you should know that Sarah Dessen is my favorite author.  She could write an instruction manual for boiling water and I would read it.  But this novel, her twelfth overall, might just be my favorite one.  Let’s be honest, I might say that after reading each of them though.  Dessen has a fantastic ability to write romance novels that don’t really seem like romance novels.  While relationships are forming and you get all happy because the couple makes it, you are also reading about getting through rough times in life, getting your friends through rough times, and finding yourself.  Saint Anything is a good one.  It’s a story of hope, of finding a place in the world, of being seen as the person you want people to see, and those perfect nights that you will never forget.  Deep stuff disguised in a YA novel. Continue reading Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen →

This book is such a mystery and it makes me hate it and love it at the same time.  But really I just loved it.  It’s too sweet of a story to hate it!  There are sad parts and I did hate the ending but overall it was a cute book.

Eleanor has just moved back into her mother’s house with four younger siblings and a step dad that she won’t claim as a father.  She meets Park on the bus to school because he lets her sit with him so that she won’t get bullied by his friends.  They start to talk eventually because he notices her reading his comic books with him on the way to school.  Park starts loaning the books to her and they start dating secretly because her step dad is overly controlling and tells her she is a bad person for dating anyone.  When Richie, the step dad, finds out, all hell breaks loose and Eleanor finds out how much Park really cares for her.

Rowell also wrote Fangirl, which is another excellent book I would suggest.  Eleanor and Park was a quick read.  I did like this book but it wasn’t my favorite one ever.  It took me a while to figure out what was going on in Eleanor’s house and how it got to be that way.  If you read Fangirl and liked it, I would recommend this one too.

I found this book in a really awesome new bookstore I found by my house and got it because it looked like something my friend would tell me to read.  As it turns out, it was her favorite book.  It is about a professional dancer in New York City.  I’m not a dancer, at all, so I didn’t understand all the dance terms the author used, but I loved this book.  It was inspiring in an unusual way.  I can’t say how it was inspiring because it would give the story away, so you’ll just have to read it to see.

Hannah started at the Manhattan Ballet Company when she was fourteen years old.  She picked up her life and moved to New York by herself to dance.  That is dedication right there.  One night after a performance she strangely decides to get something the eat at her cousins restaurant, where she meets Jacob.  A pedestrian as the dancers call them, meaning a non-dancer.  Hannah immediately feels a connection to Jacob but knows she cannot do anything about it because on her time off she sleeps or goes to extra studio classes, or goes to yoga classes, or goes to the gym.  Basically she eats, sleeps, and breathes dance.  Until she meets Jacob and her convinces her to live a little outside of the theater.  Like I said, I can’t say anything else without giving away the ending, so go read it!  It’s a fantastic book.

I was originally nervous about reading this one because it could go one of two ways, really good or just like every other teen romance out there.  Lucky for me, it was a good one.  Throughout the whole book, I thought I knew how it was going to end in one chapter only for my opinion to be changed the next one.  I couldn’t figure out how it was going to end.

On the romance part of the novel, Lara Jean always writes love letters to the boys she loved.  Five in total, none of the boys know about the letters or Lara Jeans love for them.  Until the letters get sent out.  One of the guys gives her back the letter and seems to forget about it until she literally leaps into his arms in the school hallway to get another one of the guys off her back about it.  Unfortunately the other guy is her older sisters ex-boyfriend and her next door neighbor.  Lara Jean comes up with a plan to fake date one of the guys in order to stay off the subject with the neighbor.  I’ll let you guys read the book to find out what happens with that.

Family was also a big part of the book.  Lara Jean and her sisters, Margot and Kitty, are all very close since losing their mom when Kitty was three.  They are all close with their dad too, and they all regularly have family dinners and are really just best friends.  When Margot goes off to college in Scotland, Lara Jean has to step up and run the house.  And try and fight her feelings for the boy next door since he was Margot’s boyfriend.  Don’t worry though, I’ll give you a spoiler…the book ends with a crazy sister fight that ends in hugging and crying and admitting they still love each other.  Happy ending for them!

Overall, such a good read, I would recommend it to anyone.  There is a sequel, called P.S. I Still Love You and I will be finding it and reading it soon.  I’m sure it’s just as good as the first one!