Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Review: Things We Know By Heart by Jessi Kirby

Title: Things We Know By Heart 
Author: Jessi Kirby
Expected publication: April 21st 2015 by HarperTeen
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary, Drama
Goodreads | Amazon | The BookDepo

When I started Things We Know By Heart I wasn't sure of it. I mean I am never really fond of stories that start off with flash backs of a story that is no longer the focus. I mean I get that Quinn was depressed, her boyfriend died, but it was hard to imagine some teenage love that would spark more than four hundred days of a deep depression.

But I read on. I read and then Quinn was making bad choices that were taking her to some good ones. And the book suddenly became a new love story, a second chance story, for both Colton and Quinn, and things started looking up.

I really think this is my favorite Morgan book so far. The second half was a pleasure to read, and it went faster than I expected. It was thrilling and romantic and beautiful. And I thought it ended perfectly. Wrapping the book up in the story I wanted it to be from the beginning.

I really liked that it approached both sides of a transplant, donnor and receiver, and how both stories were blended. And although it was a very cute story, and very well written, I just don't think, at least to me, it is not that memorable, or one of those stories that just take your breath away. It was just another story to add to the pile of good contemporary novels out there.


Review: 99 Days by Katie Cotugno

Title: 99 Days 
Author: Katie Cotugno
Expected publication: April 21st 2015 by Balzer + Bray
YA Contemporary
Goodreads | Amazon

This book is so bad. So, so bad, but so good. So good you need to buy it as soon as humanly possible or else the world will spin off its axis and we will all die. That's how good it is.

You know how sometimes you are caught off guard by a book you expected nothing of? I love contemporary, I always will but this book's plot is a love triangle and I hate love triangles, hate them. So it was contradictory, I never ever thought I'd like it.

But this novel is everything. Everything I missed and everything I craved without knowing it. Every sentence was a pleasure. It was heartbreaking and gut wrenching and it was impossible not to be swept away by the beauty of the writing, the the realness of the story, the very, very flawed characters.

And the most amazing thing was this: Yes there is a huge, emotionally draining and deliciously heartbreaking love triangle but still, the two guys, Gabe and Patrick Donelly, they are both real. They are wrong and bad and real, and still somehow perfect.

But the excellence, the brilliant thing about this love triangle comes from Katie, who lets you choose. She doesn't resort to make one better than the other, she lets you chose. She lets Molly choose.

Molly who was impossible to hate and easy to relate. Molly who you had to cheer on and love. If there is one character who takes the prize on personal' growth and avoidance of mental instability. Even if I didn't approve or agree with her actions, I understood and loved her and her flaws.

The end, I have to admit, was a bit of a disappointment. Mainly because there is so much building up to a final climax but the when we get there it just kind of ends. But I guess it fits the story, and the lesson is learned.

All in all, a gorgeous story that will take you in a roller coaster of emotions.