REVIEW: THE LIGHT WE LOST by JILL SANTOPOLO

My heart is broken into a million little pieces and I hate Jill Santopolo for it. Or I love her for it..you decide.

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This story is fast paced despite having taken place over 13 years, breathtakingly beautiful and incredibly frustrating. I found myself totally invested in Lucy and her happiness, falling in love with her passion for her work and her pursuit of happiness. I feel like she is someone that I know – someone who found a big, great love, and when it was lost, she never got fully over it. And every time she thinks she is past it, she realized that she definitely is not. I think a lot of us can relate to that feeling…the feeling that you’ve moved past someone/something, but then those old feelings creep in.

That feeling is what got me hooked on this book. I probably could have read it in one sitting if time allowed, but responsibilities happened. At the end of it, I felt so many feelings that I had no idea I could feel from the plot twist thrown in. I don’t know what I thought was going to happen..but I definitely didn’t expect it. My heart was crushed in the best way possible and I can’t recommend this book more.

REVIEW: TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE by JENNY HAN

“Love is scary: it changes; it can go away. That’s the part of the risk. I don’t want to be scared anymore.” – Lara Jean, “To All The Boy’s I’ve Loved Before”

This book was the fun, flirty, fulfilling read I needed after reading some thrillers that really made my head hurt. This is my first book by Jenny Han and it most definitely won’t be my last. I’m already about to break my self imposed book buying ban to buy the sequel..sorry not sorry, folks.

I think what I loved most about this book was the main character, Lara Jean. She is quirky, witty, and everything that I was as a teenage girl. I see so much of myself in her in her reluctance to go to parties, her nervousness around boys, her slight fear of the more popular crowd, and even her fear of driving. I love how candid and unashamed she is about each of these traits. It’s refreshing to read a book with a main character that I could relate to. I felt like I was right back in high school with Lara Jean, awkwardly sitting on the arm of a couch at a party because there’s no room for us.

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The unique concept of this book had me excited until the very last page. I read a lot of young adult fiction, and it was nice to read something with a little different of a storyline than the conventional boy meets girl storyline. While we all love a good love story, it can get annoying to read something where you can predict the ending halfway through the story. Instead, I found myself guessing what was going to happen until the very end – and honestly, still guessing since I am trying to find the sequel in a store near me TODAY!

The writing style of this book makes more a quick read, and I especially loved how the chapters were not too long. It gave me the ability to say, “One more chapter” without committing 20 more minutes that I didn’t have to reading.

This book lived up to all of the hype in my opinion – everything I wanted it to be and more. Thank you, Jenny Han! Now, I’m going to wait for my local bookstores to open so I can find the sequel in stock…