Top Ten Tuesday: Top Book Friends

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by The Broke and the Bookish where we make lists about books and bookish things.

This week's topic is Top Ten Characters Who X (fill in the blank) I'm going to do top ten characters I wish I were friends with (since this week has been all about friends for me!)

1. Zuzana (Daughter of Smoke and Bone) She is adorable and feisty and I feel like we'd get along great.

2. Kaylee (Soul Screamers) only because I want to be her.

3. Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games) I'd never have to be scared because she'd have my back. And I feel like I could get a smile out of her.

4. Veronica Mars (Veronica Mars and the Thousand Dollar Tan Line) Because who wouldn't want to hang with Ronnie?

5.  Sophie (Hex Hall) Everything about her. I love her.

6. Cath (Fangirl) We could just read all day and Levi would bring us coffee, yes? Yes.

7. Annabeth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) I could certainly learn a thing or two from Annabeth, and maybe she'd lend me her hat every once in awhile.

8. Lola (Lola and the Boy Next Door) She could make me outfits, I could help her pick out wigs! I would have so much fun raiding her closet!

9. Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles) I want all the ladies in this book to go out for a drink with me, but Scarlet is my soul sister.

10. Becky (Confessions of a Shopaholic) Need I say more? Let's go shopping!


What's your Top Ten Tuesday and which girls would you love to be BFFs with?

Top Ten Tuesday: Best Sequels Ever

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the wonderful girls at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week there's a new topic to go gaga over.

This week's topic is: Top Ten Best Sequels Ever. Some books have second book syndrome, but these one blew it out of the park

1. Catching Fire (The Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins: I for one loved this book! In fact, I liked it more than Mockingjay. Going back into the arena gave me more of what I loved from the first and the Katniss/Peeta love was swoon worthy.

2. Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles) by Marissa Meyer: Cinder blew me away and I wasn't sure if Scarlet would live up to it, but it exceeded my expectations. I loved Scarlet and Wolf and I love how it tied in with the first book. This is going to be a series to remember.

3. Through the Ever Night (Under the Never Sky) by Veronica Rossi: This is a dystopian worth mentioning. The characters are wonderful and the storyline is new and different. This sequel took everything we knew about the first book and stepped it up a notch. 

4. Lola and the Boy Next Door (Anna and the French Kiss) by Stephanie Perkins: Not sure if this entirely counts since it's a new set of characters, but Perkins writes teenagers so well and this book was everything the first book was and more. 

 

5. It's Not Summer Without You (The Summer I Turned Pretty) by Jenny Han: Ugh, what can I say about this series? Every book was perfection and I would love to read more about Belly's summers and boys. Heartbreaking and so real, Han has captured the essence of summer and this may have been the only love triangle I actually liked.

6. The Evolution of Mara Dyer (The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer) by Michelle Hodkin: The first book made me ask a lot of questions and this book just gave me more. Now, this is not a bad thing at all, in fact it's tangling the story up so much that I know by the time I read the final book, I'll be blown away by all the clues hidden throughout the books. Amazing series so far!

7. Where She Went (If I Stay) by Gayle Forman: This book broke my heart.As if the first book wasn't bad enough, Forman dug that knife deeper. It was great seeing the story told from Adam's point of view and it answered so many questions. Beautiful and heartbreaking.

8. Insurgent (Divergent) by Veronica Roth: Some people may not have liked this book, but it was perfect to me. There was a lot of character development and the post traumatic stress was the perfect addition to the series. Oh and that ending? Let's not forget that!

 

9. Shift (Shade) by Jeri Smith-Ready: This was another great series. Aura and Zach are the cutest couple ever and each book took an important step in the story. It was perfection, all of them.

10. The Dead Tossed Waves (The Forest of Hands and Teeth) by Carrie Ryan: I liked the second and third book better than the first only because it was more relatable. All three are so different but they tie together nicely and they were all equally scary. Still one of the bet zombie series I've read. 

Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door

Lola and the Boy Next Door
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Published: July 9, 2013
Paperback, 368 pages
5 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

Lola Nolan is a budding costume designer, and for her, the more outrageous, sparkly, and fun the outfit, the better. And everything is pretty perfect in her life (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighbourhood. When Cricket, a gifted inventor, steps out from his twin sister's shadow and back into Lola's life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.


There's just something about Perkins's writing that gets right into my soul and makes me want more. Maybe it's her brilliantly flawed characters that come alive and beg to be heard. Or her settings, rich in detail and just as much a character as the rest. Though I bet it's both these things, twisted together to create a story that leaps off the page and feels like it's happening to your best friend. After reading Anna and the French Kiss, I knew I'd found a new favourite author. And the sequel did not disappoint. Each character was unlike any before and it was refreshing to see such diversity in such a small amount of space.

Lola does not live a typical life. Raised by her uncle and his boyfriend, she loves to be theatrical. She goes everywhere in costume, a new wig everyday and a stand out outfit to match. She knows people thinks she's quirky, but it's all she knows. Her life is working out exactly as planned, she's got great plans for her winter formal dress and she's dating an older rockstar. But when she spots one of the Bell twins, people she grew up next door to most of her life, she knows it's not long until she sees the other, Cricket, and the heartbreak that comes with him. Before she knows it, she's feeling things she shouldn't be and trying to get her life back in order.

One thing that stood out most to me was how non stereotypical this novel was: Two gay dads that are strict and act like normal parents would, no special programming about gay marriage. A female teenage character who's had sex and does not let this change who she is. A male love interest with little to no sexual experience, and a drug recovering mother who isn't there to be taught a lesson or change who the female is, she's just there because that's how life really is. Everything about this book felt real. The emotions Lola felt for Cricket resurfacing after not seeing him for years. He broke her heart, but seeing him after all that time and having him be so different than she remembers creates new feelings that can't be ignored. Real life is hard and sometimes there are people who will get hurt, and maybe she didn't do things the best way possible, but that just made it more real. I've never been one for love triangles, but this one was not forced at all. It was similar to the one in The Hunger Games, where you knew there was really only one person she could pick. Perkins could write just about anything and I'd root for it.

I love how she connected Lola's story to Anna and Etienne's. Lola and Anna work together and Etienne knows Cricket from school. They play small roles in this book, but they are pivotal and help Lola to make some hard choices. I can't wait until all the stories come together in the final book, Isla and the Happily Ever After. I've fallen in love with these characters so quickly and I can't wait to see more of them. Lola is one of a kind, eccentric and outspoken, and Cricket is just as he's described, the boy next door who would do anything for the girl whose heart he broke. Realistic obstacles, strict parents, and problems every teenager faces, this book will break your heart and then make you laugh at the next page. This book was utter perfection, an equal contender for its predecessor, and I know the finale will not disappoint. Some YA books fall short, but this was is perfect and heart warming. If you have not discovered this series yet, then what are you waiting for?

“Just because something isn't practical doesn't mean it's not worth creating. Sometimes beauty and real-life magic are enough.” 

“And if I'm the stars, Cricket Bell is entire galaxies.” 

Stacking the Shelves: The Epic Rival Girls Next Door

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews featuring the books we got this week, and I also mention blog news/happenings of the past week.

I went down to Toronto for the week to visit my family. Trips down there always end up with my lugging books back here. I like to pick up books that I can't find in the book store here, so here are the winners:

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Imaginary Girls by Nova

The Rivals by Daisy Whitney

The S Word by Chelsea Pitcher

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

I've already starting reading Imaginary Girls, but I can't wait to dive into any one of these books. Successful shopping trip!

Has anyone read any of these? Which do you recommend to read first?