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A Very Large Expanse of Sea

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A Very Large Expanse of Sea cover

A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi deals with a teenage girl in the year following the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. It is a story that can act as a warning of what can happen when we don’t treat people like… people. I thought it was a good book.

I purchased the special Target edition with bonus chapters, so I’ll comment about that as well.

Shirin is a sophomore in high school who grew up in America, but whose parents had immigrated from Iran. She chose to wear a headscarf, even though it caused trouble for her with her classmates. She also seems to have a huge chip on her shoulder, although she doesn’t realize it. You can’t particularly blame her, not when people give her one glance and assume she’s a terrorist or is weird. When Ocean James, a boy who is assigned as her biology partner, befriends her and later becomes something more, they both develop as people, and eventually, the community starts to come around as well.

A Very Large Expanse of Sea was entertaining. Shirin has a distinctive voice and you have to feel for her. Over time, you also start to see where she’s going wrong (although to be fair, the people around her aren’t saints either). I thought she was well done and realistic.

Themes

A huge theme in this story is how hatred can hurt yourself and the people that you care about. People looked at Shirin and automatically assumed that she hated America, or was a terrorist, or there was something wrong with her. As a result, they hurt their community when they tried to intimidate Ocean in an attempt to get him to break up with her. I guess I can’t say how because I don’t want to give away spoilers.

At the same time, Shirin hurt herself when she defaulted to hate for the people around her. Sure, a lot of the people in the school were jerks. Still, she hurt herself by shutting herself off. She said herself:

I could no longer distinguish people from monsters.

p. 110

It eventually worked itself out, but both she and the community had a lot to learn before they got to that point.

The Romance Aspect

While this is a story about teen romance, it’s really more about other things. Shirin pushes Ocean away for most of the story, even though she likes him. Even though he tells her repeatedly that he doesn’t care what other people think, she worries about how people will react to them being together. There is some kissing, but as the majority of the book is spent with Shirin trying to stay out of a relationship, there’s not too much of it. Still, first love is definitely one of the subplots of the story.

Bonus Chapters

The special edition that I bought came with bonus chapters told about Ocean’s reaction to meeting Shirin. It was interesting to see things from his point of view: his thoughts about his home life, sports, and what he thought of her for the first time. As of this writing, you can still buy it on Target’s web site. I thought the bonus chapters were interesting, but they don’t really provide more information than you already know after reading the book.

Final Thoughts

While I liked the book overall, I did think that the people’s hatred seemed exaggerated for that era. To be fair, I lived in Italy during the time that this story would have taken place, so I wasn’t really in the middle of American life at the time, but it didn’t feel like this from my perspective. That doesn’t mean that there weren’t pockets of places like this school where the people were jerks, I just don’t think it was the norm. At any rate, if people were only mildly bigoted, it wouldn’t have made such an entertaining story.

If you’re interested in a sweet love story between two people of different cultures, where they have to deal with a lot of bigotry, you might want to try A Very Large Expanse of Sea. I thought it was pretty good.

Start Here

By Brookelorren on 1 Comment

I recently read Start Here by Trish Doller. It is a beautiful story about a trio of friends: Willa, Taylor, and Finley. Years ago, when Finley was healthy, they made a pact to sail from their home in Ohio to Key West, Florida after graduation. Only problem is, Finley, the glue that held their relationship together, died. Willa and Finley decide to take the trip anyway, but it’s not the same. I have to thank Netgalley and Simon Pulse for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy.

As they leave for their journey, Willa and Taylor are skeptical that they’ll have a good time. Without Finley, they don’t really have a lot in common. Taylor doesn’t enjoy sailing, and Willa still remembers hurtful comments that Taylor made years ago. The only thing that binds them together is their mutual grief. Somehow, they have to make this work.

This was a really sweet book. Along the journey, the two young ladies grow as people and discover things about themselves. They learn how to live in a world without their friend, and discover the next steps they want to take with their lives. The journey is challenging — but they come out better people on the other end. And it was a delight to read about.

Even though this story deals with the death of a loved one, it’s not a sad book. I did cry — when I read the first chapter and the last page of the book. Although Willa and Taylor went through a wide range of experiences on their journey, they didn’t leave me ugly crying.

The background to this book was amazing. I enjoyed virtually traveling with the two as they sailed down the coast and stopped to enjoy the sights along the way. Although I have sailed (in a frigate) from San Diego to places like Hawaii and Portland and the Caribbean and back, I’ve never sailed the route they took, and I enjoyed experiencing it with them.

Although there is a little bit of romance along the way, it isn’t the focal point in the story. The book leaves it fairly open-ended as to how those stories end.

I won’t tell you how the story ends, only that it does end towards the end of the summer, when the responsibilities of life after graduation tend to beckon. In that small sliver of life between high school and college, our futures are ambiguous. I will say that it left me in tears, but not because it left me disappointed. This book is a great book for reading during the summer, or at other times of the year if you just need a book that brings you summer vibes.

Of Curses and Kisses Cover Reveal!

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments

Last week I was chosen to be one of Sandhya Menon’s Street Team members! I’m excited because her books are great and she’s such a nice person. Anyway, one of her new books (coming out February 18, 2020) is Of Curses and Kisses, which is a Beauty and the Beast retelling set at a private school in Colorado!

She revealed the cover today and I’m allowed to share it with you!

It looks adorable! The release date is still months away, but you can read an excerpt over at Bustle! You can also pre-order it already.

Obsidian

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Obsidian cover

It’s summer now, which means it’s time to get started on my Summer TBR! One of the books on that list was Obsidian. I’ve been meaning to try out Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Lux books since I received an ARC of The Darkest Star last fall (just to be clear, I recieved it from a blogger after the pub date, not the publisher, so I wasn’t obligated to review it right away). I accidentally read Storm and Fury, and I really liked it, so I figured it was time to read the rest of her books.

Katy is the new girl in this fairly small town where everybody seems to know each other. Her mom wants her to get to know her neighbors, while she’d rather stay home and blog (she even mentions Waiting on Wednesday!). The boy next door, Daemon, happens to be hot… but for some reason he seems to have this immediate hatred for her. His sister seems to like her though. Over the course of this story, Katy and Daemon seem to develop this enemies to… enemies that are attracted to each other relationship. Oh, and the neighbors happen to be aliens too.

What I Liked

So what book blogger can’t identify with another book blogger? I’ve never written a Waiting on Wednesday post, but I’ve certainly read them. I thought it was a great touch that Katy actually seemed like a pretty normal blogger. I also really liked Katy’s voice. She had enough of an attitude to be interesting.

Then there was the whole relationship aspect in Obsidian. There’s a good friendship portrayed here between Katy and Dee. Once high school starts, Katy makes some other friends as well. Then there’s Daemon; their relationship is kinda hawt.

What I Didn’t Like Quite as Much

Daemon is a world-class jerk. Katy doesn’t do anything to him the day they meet, and he insults her pretty much immediately. Then they end up having to spend time with each other, and he’s kinda nice, and then he’s a jerk again…

Katy, you deserve better than this!

She’s not a stupid girl. She puts all the clues together and figures out what’s going on. Yet… she still hangs out with Daemon even after he’s been an ass, and he really doesn’t make amends and give a good apology for his behavior. Yes, the book was fun and I enjoyed reading it, but I really had to set this particular aspect of the book aside.

I guess the other thing I didn’t like quite as much about this book was Ash. She’s one of the other students in the school and was formerly in a relationship with Daemon. There’s something of an explanation to her behavior as it relates to the situation and Daemon (which I won’t mention here) but she again was a jerk to her for no reason, and Daemon was again an ass about it.

Conclusion

I know I wrote more about what I didn’t like than what I did like here, but I really did like Obsidian. I’m looking forward to clearing some room in my reading schedule to continue this series. Katy was a great character and I really liked her, and I want to find out what happens to her. But yes, there were some problems with Daemon. I’m willing to overlook it, and there are reasons to explain his behavior, but this isn’t a good example of a healthy beginning to a relationship.

So I would recommend Obsidian, but if you’ve had problems with verbally abusive boyfriends in the past, perhaps this might not be the book for you. If you didn’t like Jude and Cardan in The Cruel Prince series, this probably wouldn’t be a series you’d like either.

Read Around the World/US Challenge

By Brookelorren on 6 Comments

Most of us readers know that books can take us to different places and help us to see the world in different ways. I had heard about the Read Around The World Challenge that someone had done on Pinterest about a year ago, and I thought it sounded interesting. After reading Wicked Fox, and going through my Memrize course where I’m trying to recognize all the locations on the world by looking at a map, I thought I’d actually try it.

Read Around The World

There are 196 places where I’d like to read books from. If you’d like to read books from all around the world too, you can use this list from A Year of Reading the World as a guide. I plan on taking more than a year to do this challenge. I don’t know how long it will take me, but I’m not concerned.

Many of us want to read diversely, what’s more diverse than reading books from all around the world? For the purposes of my challenge, I’m not going to count historical books from a long time ago (so Enchantée, set during the French Revolution, won’t count). I’m also not going to include books set in the future (so I can’t use Warcross for Japan). I might make an exception if there are some really difficult countries to find books for.

I’ve found some books that I’ve already read for this challenge (I won’t count books that I read prior to starting this blog either).

A Thousand Perfect Notes cover

Australia: A Thousand Perfect Notes – C.G. Drews

If you decide to do this challenge too, Australia should be easy to knock off your list. Paper Fury’s A Thousand Perfect Notes is set in Australia, written by an Australian! There are plenty of other books set in this country, and if you don’t want to read this book (but why wouldn’t you) then there are plenty of Australian book bloggers you can get recommendations from. My Review

Never Stop Walking Cover

Brazil: Never Stop Walking – Christina Rickardsson

For Brazil, I read Never Stop Walking by Christina Rickardsson. Yes, part of this book does cover what happened after she was adopted and moved away from Brazil, but a good portion of this story takes place there, so I’m going to count it. This was a really eye-opening story. Wow. If you’re interested in a book that covers how things are not-so-nice in some places, you might be interested. My Review

Brenna Morgan and the Iron Key cover

Ireland: Brenna Morgan & The Iron Key – Katie Masters

I’ve read a couple of books set in Ireland, including Brenna Morgan & The Iron Key by Katie Masters. I believe The Wren Hunt is also set here. If you decide to do this challenge, there are plenty of books set in Ireland. This is a fantasy book, but for me, I’m going to count fantasy books (as long as they’re set in fairly modernish times in that country). My Review

Wicked Fox cover

South Korea: Wicked Fox – Kat Cho

I just read this book last week, and I mentioned earlier that this was partly why I was inspired to do this challenge. This is another story with fantasy elements in it, but it’s set in Seoul, South Korea. I loved how the setting played a huge part in this story (even in the lore). I’m not sure if I’ve read any other books set here before, but this one worked. My Review

When Elephants Fly cover

United States of America: When Elephants Fly – Nancy Richardson Fischer

For most people, The United States of America will be one of the easiest countries to check off your list. There was no particular reason why I put this book here, except they travel through different states, so it doesn’t really fit in a particular location in the US for the 50 State Challenge I also want to do. My Review

Read Around the United States

In addition to challenging myself to read books from every country, I’m also going to challenge myself to read books set in all 50 states.

Alex, Approximately cover

California: Alex, Approximately – Jenn Bennett

California was really easy to check off my 50 States list. There are a lot of books set here, including When Dimple Met Rishi and a lot of The Dark Artifices. I picked Alex, Approximately because it has surfing, and reading it reminded me of a camping trip I took with my friends to the Redwood Forest. My Review

Fangirl cover

Nebraska: Fangirl – Rainbow Rowell

I don’t read a lot of books set in Nebraska, but fortunately, Fangirl is. So I got to check that one off my list. The setting doesn’t play a huge part in this story, but Rainbow Rowell lives in Nebraska, so I’m guessing that when she talks about the setting, she’s pretty accurate. I know when I write about places I’ve lived, it’s so much easier for me to describe what’s going on because I can picture everything in my head as I’m writing it. My Review

City of Bones Cover

New York: City of Bones – Cassandra Clare

A lot of The Mortal Instruments takes place in New York City, so I’m including it here. Like the Reading the World Challenge I’m doing, I’m willing to count fantasy books that are set in fairly recent times. There are a ton of books that are set in New York State, so these should be pretty easy to find, but this is the one I picked for this slot. My Review

Into the Hollow cover

West Virginia: Into the Hollow – Lynn Vroman

I don’t read many books set in West Virginia, which is why I thought Into the Hollow was so interesting when I read it. I’ve been to 43 states, but West Virginia is one of them. Except now, I’ve taken a book there. The setting is well-described in this book, and also plays a pretty big role in the story itself. My Review

So there are my initial entries for my Read Around the World and Read Around the United States book challenges. I don’t know how long it will take, but I think this would be fun. If you decide to do something like this too, let me know!

Alex, Approximately

By Brookelorren on 8 Comments
Alex, Approximately cover

Alex, Approximately is a sweet, enemies-to-lovers story where the characters unknowingly already care for each other.

At the beginning of the summer, Bailey moves across the country to a small town in Northern California. Her online friend Alex lives here, but because of a tragic event that happened in her past, she’s afraid of telling him that she moved into town. Instead, she tries to find him first; if he seems like a cool guy in real life, she’ll reveal herself to him.

After starting a summer job that her dad makes her get, she begins to be tormented by Porter, one of the security guards there. He’s probably tormenting her because he’s attracted to her. At the same time, Bailey finds that she can’t act normal around him because she’s attracted to him as well. Over the summer, she finds herself drawing closer to Porter and drifting away from her online friend Alex. Although if you read the synopsis, you know that Alex and Porter are the same person. Eventually, they find out the truth.

What I Loved

I loved Alex, Approximately and devoured it in two days. When I couldn’t read the book, I kept thinking about the characters. Both Bailey and Porter had previous hurt in their lives (which we do find out about) and it affects their relationship in a realistic way. They’re three-dimensional characters who have a variety of interests, friends, and family relationships. Bailey (oh my) acts like a teenager sometimes, getting upset and doing stupid things. I love how she develops as a person.

The setting was great as well. I’ve been to Northern California a few times before, and I could just picture this little town near the redwoods and the ocean. The museum where they worked at was another setting that stood out in my mind.

What Could Have Been Better

Bailey doesn’t hear from her mom the whole summer. She lives with her dad, but wouldn’t a teenager at least want to hear from her mom every once in a while? Other than this, there wasn’t really anything I could think of.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a cute contemporary romance to read this summer, Alex, Approximately would be a good choice. It has beaches, summer jobs, great characters, and a sunny (well, sometimes foggy, this is Northern California) setting. I’m glad that I read it and definitely recommend it to others.

Happily and Madly

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I recently was given the opportunity to read Happily and Madly by Alexis Bass (thank you, Netgalley). The premise sounded really exciting: Maris Brown would one day fall happily and madly in love, and she might die before her 18th birthday.

Maris Brown isn’t one for making intelligent choices. Her former boyfriend, Trevor, was into drugs, and she once got into trouble because she was with him when he was doing something stupid. She also comes from a broken home: her father left her mother for another family, and now she’s going to spend the summer with him. One of the new family members she’s going to stay with is Chelsea, who is about the same age as Maris.

Unfortunately, I have to give out a slight spoiler to discuss my feelings about this book. Chelsea and Maris become friends. Chelsea is dating Edison… a boy who Maris meets and instantly becomes attracted to, before she knows he’s Edison. But does that cause her to stay away from her? No. She still is friends with Chelsea even while they’re all hanging out like a big happy family and Chelsea kisses Edison right in front of her.

I had to ask myself why this aspect of Happily and Madly bothered me while the book I’m writing involves a girl that’s supposed to become betrothed to someone but falls in love with someone else. I’ve also lived something like this. In my story and in my life, the two people who were both seeing the third person were not friends. I think that’s what I found difficult about that situation.

Maris is also a horrible spy, yet she does this on more than one occasion. She follows people to see what’s going on and then gets caught. Stop doing this! It’s maddening. It would be one thing if she did it in the beginning and learned to be more cautious later on… but no.

The final thing that bothered me was… they were always hanging out with Edison’s family on their summer vacation, and his family was loaded so they paid for everything. Who does this? Maris is expected to hang out with the Brown family most of the time and watch the fireworks with them every evening. She’s 17. She’s not allowed to choose her own things to do every now and then?

That being said, Happily and Madly was enjoyable overall. There were unanswered questions that kept me reading. Even though there was heartbreak (obviously, when two people love the same boy) the situation does get resolved. I think eventually, the good guys will live satisfying lives. If you like forbidden romances and don’t mind if the boy’s two girlfriends are friends, and don’t mind her clunky spying, you might like it.

No Place Like Here

By Brookelorren on 6 Comments
No Place Like Here cover

No Place Like Here by Christina June is branded as a Hansel and Gretel retelling. While I didn’t see a lot of similarities between this contemporary story and the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, it was a sweet story about family.

Ashlyn is looking forward to the summer. After making a mistake by choosing the wrong boyfriend and getting into a tight spot, her father had sent her off to boarding school. As the school year ends, she’s excited about spending her vacation with her best friend.

Unfortunately, her plans are derailed when she finds out that her dad is going to prison, her mother is going to a residential facility to deal with her depression, and Dad’s plans for her summer involve working at a summer camp. She’s supposed to work there with a cousin she barely knows. Could anything be worse?

Over the course of the summer, Ashlyn learns to speak up for herself and gain confidence. Through a series of trials, she deals with boys, work, and her family. When we close the book, we have hope that things are looking up for this family.

No Place Like Here was an enjoyable book. The story was interesting, and Ashlyn seemed to be a well-rounded character with a compelling backstory. Her family situation is probably like many others out there – families that do love each other, but have drifted apart and have trouble communicating what they really want.

That being said, there are things that could have been better with this book. Most of the supporting characters could have used more depth to them. The worldbuilding could have been stronger. Since the book is only 288 pages long, there isn’t exactly a lot of room to develop these aspects more.

The story is light in the romance department, but is very believable, since we are talking about summer camp here. You’re not likely to find your true love while working at a summer camp at age 17.

Overall, if you’re looking for a quick contemporary book where a teenager learns how to stand up for herself and help her family heal, No Place Like Here may be up your alley. It’s not the Hansel and Gretel retelling that I thought it would be, but that’s okay. It was still a good story. This book will be released on May 21st, but you can pre-order it now.

When Dimple Met Rishi – Sparks Flew!

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Last weekend, I got to go to the Colorado Teen Writing Conference. One of the authors there was Sandhya Menon, and I wanted to read one of her books before I went. While I was trying to figure out which of her books to read, someone mentioned that Dimple was a computer scientist. Just like The Kiss Quotient had me at math, When Dimple Met Rishi had me at computer science.

Both Dimple and Rishi come from traditional Indian immigrant families. Dimple rejects these traditions. While her mother wants her to find the Ideal Indian Husband and get married, Dimple wants a career as a computer scientist. Rishi, on the other hand, wants to follow the path that his family has lined up for him and marry the girl that his parents have arranged for him: Dimple Shah.

Dimple doesn’t have any clue about this so-called marriage arrangement, so when she meets Rishi for the first time at Insomnia Con (a six-week summer program for computer scientists) things don’t exactly turn out the way that Rishi would have hoped. I won’t say what happens, but it is funny as anything.

What I Liked

I loved this book. It was funny and the characters were great. I haven’t read many (perhaps not any) stories with Indian-American characters, and I really liked that aspect too. The relationship development between Dimple and Rishi was realistic and sweet.

There were so many awesome quotes I wrote down into my book journal from this book, such as when Rishi’s brother told him “You’re like, some weird thirty-five-year-old teenager” or when Dimple’s “stomach began to flutter up a tiny tornado.” It made the book much more colorful.

There were so many ways that I could identify with Dimple as a character. Not only did I major in computer science in college, but Dimple also had to deal with jerks who mocked her for her looks. The book is full of truths about life, and the characters learn these things for themselves as they develop throughout the course of the book. I just love it.

I can’t think of anything I didn’t like about the book.

If you’re looking for a cute contemporary story, I highly recommend When Dimple Met Rishi. It’s funny, sweet, and has so much to say. I definitely plan on reading more books by this author at some point, and hope to read the accompanying eNovella, As Kismet Would Have It, that comes out on April 30th as well.

Hundreds

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Hundreds cover

After reading Pennies and Dollars by Pepper Winters, I had to read the next book in the series, Hundreds. Never mind that I still haven’t read the next two books (I will though). This third book in the Dollar series has more twists and allows us to get to know Pim and Elder a little bit more.

Since Hundreds is the third book in the series, there are spoilers for the first two books.

Pim is now talking, but as you would expect, she’s still dealing with the hurts of her past. She’s falling for Elder, but he doesn’t seem to think it’s such a good idea. In this book, we learn why.

We learn a lot about Elder in this book. Despite his dark past, I still like him. He’s written in such a way so that even though you know he’s made mistakes, you still like him (or at least I do). I root for his character, and I root for him and Pim to get together.

Elder tries to get Pim to become a thief like he was, and in a way, I’m rooting for Pim not to go down this dark path. I don’t know what direction this series is headed in (and since I haven’t read the last two books yet, I still don’t know), but I hope that she doesn’t go down the path of darkness.

This is another great book in the series, although it’s left at something of a cliffhanger. I imagine that Hundreds will take quite a different turn in the next book. There were revelations in this book that will probably raise their heads in Thousands.

If you enjoyed the first two books in the Dollar series, you’ll probably want to continue with Hundreds. I enjoyed this book as much as I did the first two, and plan to continue reading this series with the last two books at some point.