Love Rectangle

Dec 19

Love Rectangle

Animal Attraction was better, I think. I do like the fact that I finally found out who does that “Over the Rainbow” song I like a lot. Just look at his name: Israel Kamakawiwoʻole. That’s got to be the coolest name around! It took me a second after I put the book down to realize that it’s basically a reincarnation of Animal Attraction, just not as good. Ponti seems to love the love rectangle. Girl caught between two guys and when she finally decides which one she likes most, that boy may have another girl who’s interested and she may steal him away if she’s not careful. Ponti also loves girls and boys getting to know each other in a car ride and apparently that’s the right person to end up with. Brendan shows up randomly towards the end and he wasn’t a fully developed character. I wish there was more to Zach and Monica’s story than what was given because it seems they have a history and that was never revealed. This was still an entertaining read, thanks to Darby’s best friend Kate who likes to say, “Tell me all the horny details!” or some derivative of that. But all things aside, I’m getting sick of perfect guys showing up and the girl just happens to run into him and he automatically likes her back with no question. Maybe I need a break from rom-coms....

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Who I Kissed

Dec 15

Who I Kissed

I have a friend who is deathly allergic to peanuts. Janet Gurtler certainly shows she has an unexpected imagination in Who I Kissed. (That doesn’t even make sense. Imagination is all about the unexpected.) I came across this book randomly at the library and am glad I did. I was drawn to the cover. It initially looks like just another teen rom-com, but this where “don’t judge a book by its cover” steps on your foot, hard. Because Sam kisses Alex and he dies on the spot. He has an asthma attack is also allergic to peanuts. Right before the party, Sam has a peanut butter sandwich. Put two and two togher and you always get four. Alex’s sudden death is all over the news, naturally. And the rest of the school shut her out. Much like Jennifer Brown’s Hate List. Yet this seems much worse. It was an accident. Everyone knows it was an accident. But no one is willing to make it any easier for Sam to get over it. She is stuck with the guilt of knowing she killed a boy with a kiss, a kiss that was meant to make another boy jealous. She hits the pause button on her life. Relief does come eventually. The book has the perfect ending and is perfectly...

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I seriously need some rest.

Dec 12

I seriously need some rest.

I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Gateway is such a simple, yet appropriate title for this book . The story was not bad, but I was really distracted by the Chinese names and words. They weren’t complex enough. I will say the book satisfies the Asian girl’s dream of being with a white guy. (Or is it White guy?) Her ending is just right and doesn’t feel rushed at all, which I keep finding in a lot of books nowadays. Sadly I haven’t been feeling too energetic the last couple of days so I’ll make this a short one even though I do like this story. It’s not a rom-com, but I suspect mostly girls will be interested in reading this book. Maybe I’ll do some guy-friendly YAs in the future, but for now, I do love a good love story and this one has one. It would be cool to go on an adventure like the one Daiyu goes on, but it would not be fun to have to deal with the memory part. I think the biggest question the book poses is what are we without our memories? Who are we when we can’t remember what happened to us? I think it’s a pretty simple answer and I’m truly glad that Daiyu was able to find her way back to Kalen in the end, even if his name changed to Caleb. It’s his new St. Louis identity. That’s one way to look at it. Well, if you want to read more, you can check out my book review of it on my Examiner...

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Relieved! and Satisfied!

Dec 05

Relieved! and Satisfied!

I am so glad I read this right after my last YA. There’s a satisfying happy ending and the book is amazingly not completely predictable. I love the fact that Jane actually has two love interests and it ends well with both, yet leaving it open in the end so you don’t know who she ultimately ends up with. It’s up in the air. She’s definitely a lucky girl! Both guys really care about her and no one is a jerk. It’s so refreshing because a lot of love stories have one couple that starts out well with a guy friend on the outside, waiting for his shot, until the girl realizes her boyfriend’s a jerk and ends up with the nice guy. Animal Attraction, however, comes up with two really great guys who don’t fall into the stereotype they seemed to be typecasted in and Jane ends up with a pretty tough choice. Now, I don’t like the fact that there’s still the whole mean girl aspect of it. Girls who are all best friends suddenly has a friend who used to be a best friend and is not anymore. In fact, she’s out of the group and the mean girl. That was too boring and predictable. I also don’t buy it that Crystal starts crying when Jane yells at her and tries to get her to think of Melanie again. I think Ponti did a fantastic job developing Alex and Grayson, but not so much the girls with the exception of Jane. Even so, this was a fun read and finally, someone has verbalized Radio Karma! I was excited for that because I always wondered if anyone else believed in the radio predicting what may happen to you when you start the ignition in your car. I’m also glad that the book delivers a positive message to girls. The person you should be with should be someone you can be comfortable around, not the hottie who you have to try so hard not to fart around. But that’s just me....

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Are you good enough for your parents?

Dec 01

Are you good enough for your parents?

The question of the evening is, are you It’s taken me a while since my last post to write about the next YA I read because this one hits way too close to home. So close I was actually really upset right after I put the book down, no joke. For Paula Yoo’s debut, it’s not bad. I’m not Korean American, but the whole Asian-please-your-parents theme is pretty clear. Good Enough reads realistically, with some unbelievable parts like when Patti Yoon wins her concert master challenge even though she didn’t practice. Come on. She’s already getting straight A’s and is going to HarvardYalePrinceton. You’ve got to put something in there that makes her human. Also, if she’s so busy taking 5 million AP classes, doing SAT prep, going to youth group and playing the violin, where is she getting the money to buy all those magazines with Jet Pack on the cover? I didn’t like the first sentence. I didn’t find the viola jokes funny. I kept reading because I could relate to being an Asian American girl in high school trying your best not to let your parents down. I couldn’t relate to all the spam recipes, but this book made me want to try them for sure. I already know kimchi tastes yummy. I couldn’t relate to youth group, at least not directly. But you can tell that she’s for real. It just struck me as amazing how much Asians put pressure on themselves to be so perfect that it’s the end of the world if even one thing goes wrong. Amazing, yet made me feel angry at the same time and I’m not sure I can explain it in words. What upset me the most was BEN WHEELER. Patti calls him Cute Trumpet Guy because when she first notices him, it’s at her All-State audition and he plays a note too loud for her to concentrate on trying to get first chair for another year in a row. It’s the typical Asian girl-White boy crush. I won’t go through all the details, but what I never got was how he could flirt with her, burn a CD for her, ask her to jam with him on Saturdays and...

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