Book Review | Can't Look Away by Donna Cooner

I was extremely excited when I saw Can't Look Away by Donna Cooner on NetGalley and discovered that it is a young adult, contemporary novel starring a YouTube Beauty Guru as the main character! I've watched the YouTube beauty community for about a year and a half, and love that this new part of our culture is being represented in young adult literature. I couldn't wait to dive into the story!

Can't Look Away is told from main character Torrey Grey's perspective. She and her family move from Colorado to Texas as the book begins, as Torrey's younger sister Miranda was just killed in a car crash. The family is looking to start anew, and Torrey must attend a new school. While being the new kid at any high school can be nervewracking, Torrey has an extra reason to panic. She's a YouTube Beauty Guru with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and since her sister's death the spotlight has been on her more than ever. Torrey hopes that she can survive at her new school without anyone recognizing her, and tries to cope with her sister's passing at the same time.

I really enjoyed Can't Look Away, and was very impressed with the careful research done by Cooner. She was able to capture the small nuances of the YouTube beauty community from the video titles, the catchphrases, and even the gossip websites. As someone who watches beauty videos on a regular basis, this attention to detail made the story very believable, and it represented the YouTube reality quite well. I also loved how the title of each chapter is a title of a beauty video. It was creatively done, and definitely worked.

The story itself was also great. It had depth to it, and the character development was strong. I did see some Mean Girls parallels throughout the story, and at times I found myself lining up the characters of Can't Look Away with the Plastics and Aaron Samuels. However, the stories are quite different, and if I focused on the big picture I could see how they aren't truly connected. I do wish, however, that Can't Look Away was a bit longer. There are some aspects of Torrey's life that I would like to see explained a bit more. While Can't Look Away had a good conclusion, I was left wishing it was a series – I need to know more about Torrey and what comes next for her!

Overall, Can't Look Away is a wonderful book, and perfect for any fan of YouTube in particular. I gave the book 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads, and definitely recommend it. Can't Look Away is available for pre-order on Amazon HERE and will be released in September.

I use Amazon Affiliate links so you can find all of the books I mention easily. This book was provided for my unbiased review. All opinions are my own. See my Disclosure Policy for more information. 

Snapshot Sunday | NYC + USA

I took this photograph of the Empire State Building while I was on 18th Street and 5th Avenue. I loved how blue the sky was at the time, and how the American flag was waving perfectly in the foreground. I think it's a perfect shot of NYC and USA together! 

Book Review | Looking Backward: 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy

During my freshman year of college, I was assigned Looking Backward: 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy in my first ever Political Science class. At the time, I was overwhelmed with the whole college thing, and didn't quite make it all of the way through the book. What I was able to read, however, I really enjoyed. In fact, it opened me up to a new political system that I never understood before - socialism.

Looking Backward is a classic, utopian novel. The story is told in the first person from the main character's point of view. His name is Julian West, and he's a Boston gentleman of the 19th century. He falls asleep one night in the year 1887, but then wakes up in the year 2000. The Boston he finds himself in is very different than the one he's spent his life in thus far. Social classes have been eliminated, and instead society works as a well-oiled machine with all citizens being equal. The novel follows West as he explains to the reader how this new society works, and what his new life is like.

I thoroughly enjoyed Looking Backward, and I'm so glad I finally finished it over five years later! It's definitely a dense read, and at times the lengthy paragraphs can be a bit of a struggle. That said, this book is beautifully written, and really shows readers what a society based on socialism can look like if implemented. Of course, this is a work of fiction, and the nature of a utopian society is that it's not grounded in reality. Nonetheless, I find this world refreshing, and my copy of the book is replete with tabs marking my favorite quotes.

I rated this book 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads, and highly recommend it if you are interested in political philosophy. I think Looking Backward is also the perfect book for people who love the dystopian genre and are looking to break into classics. You can purchase this book on Amazon HERE using my affiliate link to support my blog.

Book Review | Best to Laugh by Lorna Landvik

I've really been loving the contemporary genre this summer, so I was excited when I got the opportunity to read an advance copy of Best to Laugh by Lorna Landvik through NetGalley. I absolutely love the bright colors on this cover, and the microphone hinted that this book would feature a stand-up comedian in some way. I was right!

Best to Laugh is the story of Candy, a young, twenty-something from Minneapolis who gets the opportunity to sublet her cousin's apartment in Los Angeles. She decides to take a risk and move to Hollywood, as she recently graduated from college and is unsure where her life is going. When she gets to LA, Candy takes on some interesting temp jobs, but she soon realizes that she wants to go into comedy. Readers follow Candy as she makes that dream become a reality.

Told in the first-person from Candy's point-of-view, Best to Laugh is a beautifully written story that actually feels like a real life memoir at some points. In fact, I was so connected with the characters in this book that I wanted them to be real! I was hooked into this story in the first few pages, and was amazed at how captivating Landvik's writing is. The cast of characters was really what made this story. Sometimes, a book with many characters can become confusing, but that is not the case here. Landvik does an excellent job of developing each of the side characters just enough so that the reader can get to know them, and appreciate the role each character has in Candy's life.

I think part of the reason I was able to connect with this book so much is because I can relate to Candy. While we are different people in different time periods (this story begins in 1978), I'm also a recent college graduate who's just trying to find her place in the world. Best to Laugh is motivating in that it reminds readers that it's okay to not know where you're going – you can discover a great life even when you don't expect it!

Overall, I absolutely loved Best to Laugh. It is a thoroughly enjoyable read, and I cannot stress how superb the writing style is. I rated this a full five stars on Goodreads, and recommend it to anyone who loves contemporary novels or a good coming of age story.

Best to Laugh will be available for purchase on September 15, 2014, and is available for pre-order on Amazon HERE.

This books was provided for my unbiased review. I use Amazon Affiliate links so you can find the books I mention easily. All opinions are my own. See my Disclosure Policy for more information. 

Book Review | The Here and Now by Ann Brashares

I've been a huge fan of Ann Brashares since I read The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series while I was growing up. I recently had the opportunity to meet her at a Barnes & Noble signing along with three other authors. It was a fantastic experience! I was able to get her latest release signed, and I read it a couple weeks back in one sitting.

The Here and Now is a young adult novel that combines the contemporary and science fiction genres. Our main character is Prenna, and the story is told from her point of view. Prenna is an immigrant, but she is an immigrant from the future. She immigrated to the present-day United States with her family and other members of her community in order to help prevent the blood plagues of her time.

Prenna must follow a number of rules to survive. We follow her as she tries to fit in at her local high school, while still keeping distance from the other students. Prenna is soon faced with the opportunity to join forces with her friend Ethan, as they try to stop a murder from happening. The Here and Now follows this young couple as they discover the truth about time travel.

While The Here and Now has received mixed reviews, I really loved the story. It is extremely fast-paced, a bit mysterious, and, of course, it tugs on the heart strings as well. Brashares' writing style is one of my all-time favorites. She has the ability to let the reader figure out part of the story, but not the big picture. I actually gasped out loud at one point during a twist I didn't see coming. My one criticism with this book is that it is too short. I feel like the book was condensed into its 242 pages, when it could be much longer. That would have left more breathing room for much of the action, and I would have more of this storyline to enjoy.

Overall, I am rating The Here and Now a 4.5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. If you like time travel books, I highly recommend this one. It made me call to action everything I knew about time travel from popular culture, even though this definitely plays by its own rules. You can purchase There Here and Now on Amazon HERE. I look forward to reading more of Brashares' books in the future! (Pun not intended.)

I use Amazon Affiliate links so you can find the books I mention easily. All opinions are my own. See my Disclosure Policy for more information.

Book Review | Honor Bound & Two Alone by Sandra Brown

I recently won a copy of Honor Bound & Two Alone, a bind-up of two Sandra Brown novels, on Goodreads. While romance novels are not my usual cup of tea, I decided to read this book and give it a try. Unfortunately, I was not a fan of either of these stories.

Honor Bound is the first book in the bind up, and revolves around a young woman named Aislinn who is kidnapped by an escaped convict who happens to be an American Indian. Though she is frightened, she is somewhat enamored with Lucas, the convict. Of course, a love story ensues from there.

The other story is Two Alone, which revolves around Rusty and Cooper, the two lone survivors of an airplane crash. They rely on each other to survive in the woods until they can be rescued, and (you guessed it) a romance begins between the two.

These books were both written in the late 1980s, and are definitely products of their time. I think the stories were very cliché, and featured women in helpless roles, with men powering over them at all times. Even without the romance scenes, I really disliked how the women in these novels are portrayed. It also bothered me how these stories both touched on very serious topics, but just glided over them to get to the love scenes. While a happy ending can be nice, they were just extremely cheesy in these books and didn't necessarily wrap up the stories properly.

Suffice it to say that I don't recommend this book unless you really enjoy romance novels. I ended up giving this bind-up a 2 out of 5 stars on Goodreads, because I understand that these books are definitely a product of the late 1980s, and thus may have been received differently during their original release.

Do you read romance novels? Let me know what you think of this genre in the comments!

Snapshot Sunday | Fourth of July in the East Village

As the Fourth of July weekend comes to a close, I thought I would share this simple and unedited photo of a huge American flag that was hung up in my neighborhood. I thought it looked beautiful! I hope all of you had a wonderful and relaxing weekend. 

Book Review | Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

It isn't often that one can read a series out of order, but that's what I did with Dan Brown's Robert Langdon books. Back in high school, my friend lent me her copy of The Da Vinci Code. I read it, and mostly liked it, but was never compelled to pick up Angels and Demons. Flash forward a few years, and my college roommate reads The Lost Symbol during its release. She loves it, I buy it and read it. I loved it, too, but still no Angels and Demons. It wasn't until I spotted a copy of the book at my beloved Strand Bookstore for a mere $0.48 that I got my own copy.

Now that I've explained my history with the Robert Langdon series, I may as well tell you the premise if for some reason you're unaware of it. Langdon is a symbolist and a professor at Harvard. In Angels and Demons, the first book in the series, he is called in to help investigate the murder of a scientist/priest found branded with the symbol of the Illuminati. It turns out the murderer stole a highly explosive material called antimatter that the scientist and his daughter Vittoria created, and intends to blow up Vatican City to eliminate the Catholic Church. What results is a thrilling adventure, in which Langdon and Vittoria rush through Rome to help save the Vatican before all is lost.

The summary I give to you is a simple one, but this book is anything but. It's over 600 pages, and is an intricately-woven adventure. Despite seeing the film adaptation when it was first released, I remembered very little of the story, and thus highly enjoyed discovering all of the mysteries that lie within the pages. I raced through this book quite quickly given its size, and gave it a full five star rating on Goodreads. Dan Brown has received criticism for his work, but I think he's an amazing writer. Angles and Demons is very well done, and I recommend it to anyone who loves thriller novels. This is my favorite in the Robert Langdon series thus far, and I look forward to reading the fourth book in the series, Inferno, in the future.

Purchase Angels and Demons on Amazon HERE and support my blog!

I use Amazon Affiliate links so you can find the books I mention easily. All opinions are my own. See my Disclosure Policy for more information. 

Book Review | Unwind by Neal Shusterman

I am so excited to tell you all about Unwind by Neal Shusterman. I've loved the dystopian genre since I read The Hunger Games trilogy back in 2012, so when I heard the concept behind this series, I knew I had to pick it up. I wasn't prepared for how amazing Unwind was going to be!

Unwind takes place in a future America where abortions are no longer legal. The pro-life and pro-choice armies compromised and created the Bill of Life, which says that at the age of thirteen, parents can choose to have their child unwound. If you are an unwind, you get sent to a harvest camp and 100% of your body is dismembered and used much like organ donation to help others. Thus, an unwind is never dead as all of his/her body lives on in others.

This disturbing yet fascinating plot is run by three main characters. Connor is your standard, every day teenager whose parents are getting rid of him. Risa is a ward of the state, given up at birth. Finally, Lev is a tithe, born for the sole purpose of being an Unwind. Readers follow these three teens as they run from their fate and try to survive until the age of eighteen, when they can no longer be unwound.

I absolutely loved this book. The writing is extremely captivating, and discusses issues that are at the forefront of American society today. Part of the reason this book was so amazing to me is because this is a dystopian society that is somewhat plausible. As someone who enjoys political philosophy, I appreciated Shusterman's confidence to write Unwind in an age where abortion is such a controversial topic. Plus, the story itself is like nothing I've ever read.

I highly recommend that you pick up Unwind especially if you enjoy young adult dystopians. I gave it a full 5 star rating on Goodreads, but would give it a 6 if I could! This is the first book in a series, with book four being released this fall. You can get Unwind on Amazon for around $5 HERE. I cannot wait to pick up the next book in the series!

I use Amazon Affiliate links so you can find all of the books I mention easily. All opinions are my own. See my Disclosure Policy for more information.