Waiting on Wednesday: On the Fence

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted by Breaking the Spine, where we spotlight an upcoming release we are eagerly anticipating.

This week's pick is

On the Fence
By Kasie West
Paperback, 320 pages
Expected Publication Date: July 1, 2014

From Goodreads:

She's a tomboy. He's the boy next door…

Charlie Reynolds can outrun, outscore, and outwit every boy she knows. But when it comes to being a girl, Charlie doesn't know the first thing about anything. So when she starts working at a chichi boutique to pay off a speeding ticket, she finds herself in a strange new world. To cope with the stress of her new reality, Charlie takes to spending nights chatting with her neighbor Braden through the fence between their yards. As she grows to depend on their nightly Fence Chats, she realizes she's got a bigger problem than speeding tickets-she's falling for Braden. She knows what it means to go for the win, but if spilling her secret means losing him for good, the stakes just got too high.

Fun, original, and endearing, On the Fence is a romantic comedy about finding yourself and finding love where you least expect.


Looks like another cute, light contemporary from West. The Distance Between Us was adorable and fun and I can't wait to read more from her!

What books are you waiting for?

Review: The Sky is Everywhere

The Sky is Everywhere
Author: Jandy Nelson
Published: March 2, 2011
Paperback, 277 pages
5 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

Lennie plays second clarinet in the school orchestra and has always happily been second fiddle to her charismatic older sister, Bailey. Then Bailey dies suddenly, and Lennie is left at sea without her anchor. Overcome by emotion, Lennie soon finds herself torn between two boys: Bailey's boyfriend, Toby, and Joe, the charming and musically gifted new boy in town. While Toby can't see her without seeing Bailey and Joe sees her only for herself, each offers Lennie something she desperately needs. But ultimately, it's up to Lennie to find her own way toward what she really needs-without Bailey.

Grief steals you. It engulfs you and won't let go no matter how hard you try. It is a character in your life, following you around wherever you go with no means of escape. Grief is hard to write properly. It needs to be a character in itself, it needs to fill the pages with its darkness in order to feel real. I haven't experienced real grief, I have not lost any beloved family members, but I know how it eats away one's soul. I know that there is no real escape from it. Writers write about grief a lot, trying to capture just how soul sucking it really is. I have no read another who captures it quite like Nelson does and it is beautiful in its darkness. Lennie's older sister Bailey died suddenly one day while at college and life hasn't been the same since. Without much family left, Lennie feels completely alone, drowning in her sorrow and killing those around her. She shuts out what's left of her family and takes her grief out on random pages or coffee cups or trees, leaving notes and poems scrawled for Bailey. The only person she feels knows what she's going through is Bailey's (ex)boyfriend, Toby, whom she find comforting and just what she needs. Toby knows everything about Bailey and she knows she can talk to him about anything, remember Bailey through him. The new guy at school, Joe, is the exact opposite. He never knew Bailey and Lennie feels completely different around him, living in a world without Bailey isn't so hard when she isn't constantly reminded of her. Lennie has different feeling for each boy, and each boy brings out something different in Lennie. Processing grief isn't easy, but with the help of the people around her, maybe Lennie will make it through.

Lennie's reactions to her sister's death are so realistic, I can't believe this isn't a true story. She shuts people out, including her grandma and uncle, and tries to reach out to her dead sister through writing, in some small hope that it will make her better. She leans towards Toby because it is the comfortable thing to do. They can talk about Bailey freely, their grief the same, and the can hold each other under it stops hurting. But Toby also brings out the worse in her grief, as he sees Lennie as Bailey and not as herself. Joe on the other hand, is a healthy way of her dealing with it. She can be herself around him, no Bailey to be compared to. In him, she finds her love for music reinstated and a new outlook on life. It's not easy for her to choose who to go to, which is completely realistic. As we know, I'm not a fan of love triangles, but this one made so much sense. Toby represents a life with Bailey and Joe represents a future without her. It's hard watching Lennie try to become who she has to be without Bailey, but it's also amazing and heartbreaking. Nelson has a way with words to make something simple and routine feel like it's coming off the pages. Comparing Lennie to a houseplant and using her grandma's garden as the centrepiece to the whole story rounded this story out and separated it from others. The poems and miscellaneous writings that Lennie leaves all over the town are endearing and heart wrenching, words of a broken girl trying to piece herself back together. They broke up the novel nicely and worked well with each chapter to reveal more of the story as it went along. Everything came full circle at the end, making this book unforgettable and perfect. I was rooting for these characters from the beginning and I was hoping that Lennie would finally get to a point where she knew she could continue living without Bailey, no matter how hard it would be. We are intrepid, we carry on, no matter how badly we want to give up. This is a wonderful representation of family, love, loss, and eventually - acceptance. 

“Grief is forever. It doesn't go away; it becomes part of you, step for step, breath for breath.” 

“Remember how it was when we kissed? Armfuls and armfuls of light thrown right at us. A rope dropping down from the sky. How can the word love and the word life even fit in the mouth?”

Waiting on Wednesday: Love Letters to the Dead

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted by Breaking the Spine, where we highlight an upcoming release we are eagerly anticipating.

This week's pick:

Love Letter to the Dead
By Ava Dellaira
Hardcover, 323 pages
Expected Publication Date: April 1, 2014

From Goodreads:

It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more; though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her. Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was; lovely and amazing and deeply flawed; can she begin to discover her own path.

Some really big celebrity names in this one and this seems like such a great concept. I'm eager to see what she will write, how she feels about each of these people, and how she will eventually accept her sister's death. Looks like it will be a tearjerker!

"I know I write lettersto people with no address on this earth, I know you are all dead. But I hear you. I hear all of you. We were here. Our lives matter."

Top Ten Tuesday: Books that will make you cry

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish where we discuss bookish topics every week.

This week's topic is Top ten books that will make you cry

1. The Fault in Our Stars - John Green: This is the perfect book. Yes you'll cry, you may even throw it across the room, but boy will you be glad you read it.

2. The Sky is Everywhere - Jandy Nelson: Grief and acceptance are huge parts of this book. You'll laugh and cry and end up with a warm fuzzy feeling when you're done.

3. If I Stay - Gayle Foreman: A girl in a coma looking at her life and deciding if she should keep on living or not. Need I say more?

4. Send Me a Sign - Tiffany Schmidt: Another cancer book because these ones make me bawl. This one is wonderfully written and has stayed with me long after reading it.

5. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks: I watched the movie first (many a times) and when I finally read the book I thought I'd be prepared for what I knew would come. I was not. Needless to say my pages are wrinkled from my tears now.

6. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: These two kids got to me. Eleanor's home life was awful and there was nothing Park could do to save her. The ending killed me. I want a re-write!

7. Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers: Awful things happen to people who used to be awful. But some people change! The agony I felt for the character in this book, as well as all of Summers' others is so real that I thought it was happening to me.

8. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins: I'm sure if I cried the first time (probably) but I definitely cried the second time I read this book. Why, Suzanne, why?

9. The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan: He's an evil man and I should really read The House of Hades so I can control these feels.

10. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver: I wanted a different ending so badly for this book even though I knew it was impossible. Amazing prose, amazing characters, and still one of my favourite Oliver books to this day.

Who doesn't love a good cry? What are some of your favourite tearjerkers?

Review: Attachments

Attachments
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Punslished: April 14, 2011
Paperback, 336 pages
5 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

"Hi, I'm the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you . . . "

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now- reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be "internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.

When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.

By the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for Beth, it's way too late to introduce himself.

What would he say . . . ?

When you work at a newspaper office, there's only so much you can do to entertain yourself. Go on Facebook, take a lot of breaks or send out emails to your co-workers. And if you're friends with someone you work with, why not chat through emails even though you aren't supposed to be sending out personal ones? Ya, someone is monitoring it, but you really need to talk to someone about your day or your love life. Jennifer and Beth love to email each other and they get as personal as it comes. Lincoln, the new email security officer has been reading their emails for a while. He should have flagged them the first time one popped up, instead he just read it, and read the next, and now there is mention of him in the emails but it's too late to introduce himself to Beth, whom he's falling for. The more he reads, the more he wants to say something and as their lives drift slowly together, maybe there's a chance of finding a love that they didn't even know could exist.

Rowell has a fantastic way with words. I fell in love with her teen novels, Eleanor and Park and Fangirl, and I'm happy to say I loved this one just as much. It started off different than most books I've read. Jennifer and Beth conversations are solely through their emails so what we know of them is the same as what Lincoln knows. Lincoln's story is written in narrative and we quickly learn about his past and how he ended up working overnights at the newspaper. We see exactly how Lincoln thinks about these girls, knowing more about their love lives than most others might. He knows that Jennifer doesn't want kids and that Beth isn't as happy as she could be. But the more he reads them, the more invasive he feels, especially once he decides he wants to meet Beth. I was waiting and hoping for the moment that they would finally meet. There are few parts where they see each other but don't know it, and the dramatic tension is perfectly written. The events that transpired made me think they may never meet and I was worried about how it would all play out. There were funny moments and sad moments and moments that made me want to re-read the sentences because they were beauitful. This is a book that proves that not all relationships are created equal. We all meet people different ways, there is no right or wrong way to fall in love. And though this one was a little out of the ordinary, it felt real and gave me butterflies. 

Rowell writes uncommon romances, the kind that stick with us long after we've closed the book. They feel real because they happen in normal situation to normal people. Lincoln is not gorgeous and has been dumped. Beth is in an unhealthy relationship and doesn't feel as loved as she could be. Jennifer is happily married but that does not mean all is well. Real people with real problems just trying to get through life. And when love comes along, there is no side pointing you in the right direction, there are no guidelines or rules as to how it will all play out, it just happens, maybe in an instant, maybe over a few years, but when it does, you will never forget the moments leading up to it. And trust me, it's always worth it. Rowell has easily become one of my favourite authors and I can't wait to read her next book, Landline, which is due out in July 2014.

“There are moments when you can't believe something wonderful is happening. And there are moments when your entire consciousness is filled with knowing absolutely that something wonderful is happening.”

Review: The F-it List

The F-it List
Author: Julie Halpern
Published: November 12, 2013
Hardcover, 256 pages
5 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

With her signature heart and humor, Julie Halpern explores a strained friendship strengthened by one girl’s battle with cancer. 

Alex’s father recently died in a car accident. And on the night of his funeral, her best friend Becca slept with Alex’s boyfriend. So things aren’t great. Alex steps away from her friendship with Becca and focuses on her family. 

But when Alex finally decides to forgive Becca, she finds out something that will change her world again—Becca has cancer. 

So what do you do when your best friend has cancer? You help her shave her head. And then you take her bucket list and try to fulfill it on her behalf. Because if that’s all you can do to help your ailing friend—you do it.

There are a lot of "cancer" books out there. Some have become so popular (The Fault in our Stars) and others hang out under the radar (Send me a Sign) but they all have one thing in common: they will tug at your heartstrings and make you cry. There are some that read as a morbid tale, making everything in the story and everything you feel afterwards feel like death. I feel reluctant to plunge into some of them, knowing that I will be depressed and cry and someone may die, but I read them anyway and The F-it List takes everything that I love about reading these kinds of books and turns into a story of friendship and love with cancer hanging out in the background. It starts out with a blast. Alex's father has recently died so Alex is already in grieving. When she finds her best friend, Becca, in bed with her boyfriend. an unforgivable action, Alex blocks Becca from her life, spending the summer without her for the first time in forever. But when school starts up in September, Alex gets news she would never expect to hear - Becca got cancer over the summer. Finally realizing she needs to forgive her so that she can be with her friend during this time, Alex puts everything else aside to help Becca. Their relationship quickly goes back to normal, or as normal as it can be with cancer in between them. Becca shows Alex her bucket list and begs her to help her complete it just in case. It's takes some convincing, but soon Alex is ready to check some things off the list.

Becca's list is exactly what you'd think a teenage girl would have on her list. There are some silly things like eating a hot pepper and prank calling people, but there are also more important things like making love with someone you love. This book is written so perfectly for a cancer novel, completely turning it into real life with cancer. Becca does not let it rule her even as it eats away at her and Alex stays strong even when she can't bear to look at her dying friend. Becca takes to flirting with the boy next door and Alex starts spending time with a boy from school who she's seen at horror conventions in town. As much as they stick together, they also start new lives, exploring new things while checking off things from the F-it list. 

There is a lot of swearing and sex themes in this novel, and that may be different than what we see in most YA novels, but it's realistic. Teenage girls want to kiss boys, want to do more than that with them and anyone dealing with cancer would be angry. There are so many nerdy references, like comic books, horror movies and conventions. This added to the story so much giving it a life of its own and letting us focus on things besides the cancer. Every relationship in this feels real. Alex and Becca struggle to stay happy at times when there is so much to be unhappy about. Alex is still very guarded since the death of her father and even though she loves being around Leo, there are moments where he can't fix everything. I love their secret hiding place at school and I love how it becomes something so much bigger as the book goes on, especially when things aren't going so well with anybody. 

I won't lie when I say you'll cry, but you'll also laugh and smile and  get excited when they meet Bruce Campbell. Friendship isn't always easy and grief is harder to deal with than everything else. The only thing we can do is learn to survive after everything and learn to move on when we don't want to. This book made me want to write my own bucket list and do everything on it now just to be able to say I'm living life to the fullest. 

“I wished I could erase the message, suck the word “sorry” from the En glish language, and hack it to pieces with a rusty ax.” 

Review: The Distance Between Us

The Distance Between Us
Author: Kasie West
Published: July 2, 2013
Paperback, 320 pages
4 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers studies the rich like her own personal science experiment, and after years of observation she’s pretty sure they’re only good for one thing—spending money on useless stuff, like the porcelain dolls in her mother’s shop.

So when Xander Spence walks into the store to pick up a doll for his grandmother, it only takes one glance for Caymen to figure out he’s oozing rich. Despite his charming ways and that he’s one of the first people who actually gets her, she’s smart enough to know his interest won’t last. Because if there’s one thing she’s learned from her mother’s warnings, it’s that the rich have a short attention span. But Xander keeps coming around, despite her best efforts to scare him off. And much to her dismay, she's beginning to enjoy his company.

She knows her mom can’t find out—she wouldn’t approve. She’d much rather Caymen hang out with the local rocker who hasn’t been raised by money. But just when Xander’s attention and loyalty are about to convince Caymen that being rich isn’t a character flaw, she finds out that money is a much bigger part of their relationship than she’d ever realized. And that Xander’s not the only one she should’ve been worried about.

This is the perfect book to read in one day when you want something sweet to devour. This has everything you'd want from a YA contemporary: two people from different worlds, disapproving families, and just look at that cover! Caymen is a cute character living with her mom above the porcelain doll store they own, serving the rich they both detest. After a rich boy left Caymen's mom high, dry and pregnant, she swore she'd never deal with them again, but they do pay her bills. Caymen keeps the same attitude about them until Xander walks in to pick up a doll for his grandmother. One look at him tells her he's stinking rich, but his charming personality keeps her thinking about him long after he leaves. And when he keeps coming back and keeps walking her to school, she can't seem to stop wanting to be near him. The more time she spends with him, non dates where they practice different career paths, the more she finds herself liking him. She knows she shouldn't be hanging out with him, especially since finding out his dad owns a hotel and that he may be dating an actress, and she certainly can't tell her mom about him.

There is nothing ground breaking about this book. A story of a poor girl and a rich boy is nothing new. But the way their love plays out is so real, so enduring, that it doesn't matter. I didn't pick it up because I thought it was never done before, though there were parts near the end that surprised me an made me love it even more. Xander is your stereotypical rich kid, not wanting to follow in his father's footsteps and just wanting his own life. But he's good to her and his family accepts her and it's refreshing that this wasn't part of the sub plot. It's the opposite of what you'd expect really, it's Caymen's mom that doesn't want her daughter dating a rich boy. She'd rather Caymen go out with the starving artist covered in tattoos. Her mom has her own reasons and Caymen soon discovers why her mom is so stressed and not eating very well. But Caymen and Xander are real to me. They grow together slowly, hanging out on the walk to school, fleeting moments that end up meaning more than they thought they would. Their career dates are a cute touch that I've never read in any other book. They find different careers to explore: gravediggers, photographers, etc. These dates bring them together, draw out a love that wouldn't have happened if he didn't walk into her shop. And that's how love works, it creeps up on you until there's no room in your heart for anyone other than them. It's not planned, it's not instant, but it's real.

Two worlds converge in one in this soft romance that shows the importance of family. You find out who is really there for you when you need them and that some people who you never thought would help can be the best resources. Xander and Caymen are sweet and adorable, their interactions feel real and the small moments between them made me smile. The secondary characters are fun and come alive off the pages and the ending was so unexpected that it gave me a whole other feeling towards this book. West is a strong writer, her words and dialogue play out like a movie and she can certainly write young first love like a champ. If you're looking for a light read with a bit of drama, a bit of tears, and a whole lot of love, this is definitely one to pick up. 

“You two are the most in-love not-dating people I’ve met.”