Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell Review

Title: Eleanor & Park

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Genre: Realistic Fiction, Young Adult, romance

Point of View: It changes from Eleanor to Park’s POV

Would I recommend it?: Yes and no…

Rating: ✭✭✭ /5

Bono met his wife in high school, Park says.

So did Jerry Lee Lewis, Eleanor answers.

I’m not kidding, he says.

You should be, she says, we’re 16.

What about Romeo and Juliet?

Shallow, confused, then dead.

I love you, Park says.

Wherefore art thou, Eleanor answers.

I’m not kidding, he says.
You should be.

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love—and just how hard it pulled you under.-Barnesandnoble.com

I kept on seeing that if you enjoyed The Fault in Out Stars (which I did) then read Eleanor and Park, a story about two very different teenagers who fall in love on the school bus. The thing that interested me most about Eleanor and Park was, well, Eleanor and Park themselves, and you might be wondering why so allow me to explain.

Eleanor isn’t perfect, she isn’t some “gorgeous” Barbie with a thin body and beautiful face. Eleanor isn’t some girl you would see on (most) magazines or in (most) other medias, she is real, realer than 90% of most characters I would typically read about. She is considered heavy and ugly by most and is teased about her looks and “weirdness” throughout the duration of the story. Unlike a lot of (well not a lot but I think you may understand) young adult main characters, she isn’t perfect, nothing about her or any other human being is (sorry guys!) Eleanor is flawed, she’s mean, she’s weird, and her family isn’t the best. (THIS MAY BE A SPOILER BUT IS INTRODUCED EARLY ON IN THE BOOK SO BE A LITTLE WARNED) Her step dad abuses her mom, he kicked Eleanor out and the book begins when she is coming home, her family is screwed up (sorry for that, but it really is.)

Park is a half Asian kid and just happens to fall in love with her. The book takes place in the 1980s (I’m sorry but I don’t know the exact yer, I think it was 86?) and if you don’t know the 1980s, then you wouldn’t know about the racial tensions back then. Anyways, his mom is Korean. Park has a perfect family, at least closer to perfect. His dad is hard on him and, in a way, wishes his son to be a perfect image of him, he wants the best for his son.

The characters really made the story a little more interesting for me. If the story was better (in my opinion) I would have given it a better rating. For me, I gave the story a 3/5 for multiple reasons mainly being that nothing really happened. Eleanor was teased and bullied, and Park would help her, they would sneak kisses and fall even more in love, they would fight, and repeat. That was it and other than that, nothing happened until the very end (no spoilers). Sorry for those who liked the book, and I am not saying that I didn’t like the book – because I did – I just felt like more could have been added, something should have happened… Anyways, I did like the book, I just gave it a 2/5 due to the lack of plot… and how many times do they have to fight???? They fought a lot…. but I guess that’s love sometimes XD

But please do not be mad at me, I just didn’t find interest in the story, I DID however enjoy the diversity of characters over the normal picture perfect main characters.

You might like Eleanor and Park if you enjoy romance, young adult fiction and constant POV changes :) (I do like POV changes haha)

A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall Review

Title: A Little Something Different

Author: Sandy Hall

Genera: romance, realistic fiction, new adult/young adult

Would I recommend it: If you want a quick read why not?

Rating: ✭✭/5

Lea and Gale are in the same creative writing class. They get the same pop culture references, order the same Chinese food, and hang out in the same places. Unfortunately, Lea is a little aloof, Gabe is shy, and it looks like they are never going to work things out.
But something is happening between them, and everyone can see it. Their creative writing teacher pushes them together. The baristas at the local Starbucks watch their relationship like a TV series. The bus driver tells his wife about them. The waitress at the diner automatically seats them together. Even the squirrel who lives on the college green believes Lea and Gabe were meant to be together.
Fall in love with falling in love with this irresistibly romantic, completely original novel! -goodreads.com

**Please note, I didn't hate this book, it actually did have good elements too it! The story was cute, just not what I was expecting. There are others who did enjoy this book, I was just not one of them. Please check out Sandy Halls book and decided for yourself just how you feel about A Little Something Different, my view is one of many.**
So yeah… where to start with this book… I guess with the fact that I did NOT fall in love with this book, in fact it might be up there with my least favorite. Next to nothing happened in the book, so many repeated lines and uninteresting events…
I was attracted to this book because it was called a unique love story (oh and can’t forget that they mention the squirrel in this description!) The idea of everyone wanting Gabe and Lea to get together sounds so adorable, I am sad to say it was far from that.
Maybe I am just grumpy, but this book lacked everything. The characters were as flat as pancakes, so so so so SO boring. I wanted and tried, very hard to enjoy Lea and Gabes “cute” love but found myself losing interest in the book. Ok, so there love was cute, but not that cute, not like Hazel and Gus (The Fault in Our Stars) or Jacob and Emma (Peculiar Children series,) they were your typical lovers. Nothing made them unique and most of there arguments were over misunderstandings that should have been explained early on.
This story is told from 14 different POVs, normally this doesn’t bother me, but for this book it irritated me. I don’t mind changing POVs, I tend to like them as a matter of fact.  In a Little Something Different we get 14 POVs with little to no point. The Squirrel, a random Bus Driver, a Bench… these and many other pointless POVs made me upset. Every single character lacked any differing emotions, they were all exactly the same with a few minor, forgettable differences. The changing point of views left me wondering just who this person was again, and if they had not put descriptions next to the names of each chapter I may have been scratching my head in confusion. The line between different characters was blurred, mushing them all into one boring person. We never really get much of a sense of what one single character thinks.
That is mainly my huge rant, my biggest problems with this book are above. However I did have a few more problems which I will explain in more detail now.
The plot, main problem. A book like this needs a plot, an interesting plot. Nope. Not in this book, the same events are given to us only in different ways of writing it. They meet at Starbucks, they don’t say anything, the narrator stalks them, ect. 99% of this book was that and the never ending dialogue of eavesdroppers. Even their conversations lacked anything interesting, except for a few actually funny jokes.
I am hugely disappointed by this book as a fan of romance and cute books like this was supposed to be. So why in the world did I give this book a 2/5 stars instead of a one?
I’ve read worse, this book is not that terrible that I would give it a one. I did enjoy trying to figure out what happened to Gabe, though this was very predictable, and the Squirrel was kind of cute. I liked the idea of Gabe and Lea, just not all the stalking and spying each character (EVEN THE BENCH) did.
I don’t think I would really recommend this book, however a lot of people I have seen on goodreads did enjoy the book. So if I were to recommend this, I would have someone who likes a short easy read or romance kind of stories.
If you do end up reading A Little Something Different, or if you already have read it please let me know what you think. I would love to hear your thoughts on this

Confessions The Private School Murders

      "If you're young and have everything to lose...beware."

Title: Confession The Private School Murders
Authors(s): James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Genre: Mystery!
Point of View: First person
Would I Recommend it? Yeah
Rating: ✭✭✭/5

Tandy Angel may have played the hero when she solved the case of her magnificently wealthy parents' mysterious deaths, but she isn't done yet. Her brother Matthew stands trial for homicide, young girls are found murdered all around New York's Upper West side, and Tandy is determined to use her piercing intellect to get to the bottom of both cases. But the biggest mystery of all may be what actually happened to James Rampling, the handsome son of a family enemy, whom Tandy fell in love and ran away with—though most of her memories of the affair are disturbingly absent...

The confessions keep coming as Tandy delves even deeper into her own tumultuous history and the skeletons in the Angel family closet. -Barnes And Noble.com

Second in the series of Confessions this book held a lot of promise for me, since I loved the first one. Sadly it failed to live up to my expectations, but it was almost as good as the first. All the characters are back Hugo, Harry, of course Tandy, as well a new character Jacob, Tandys guardian for the time being. With three mysteries this time I found that these mysteries were solved a bit too easily. Sure it took 300 pages but Tandy just seemed to find all the answers at rather convenient times, things just seemed to work out for her too well. The memories of her past though were quite new and I liked that. The way the story just fell into her memories for a few chapters was refreshing from time to time. Sometimes they were intense, some where filled with mystery and other were just plain...sad. I thought the ending was predictable though (don't worry, no spoilers!) But I'm glad to find there is a third book where, I hope, all remaining questions will be answered. I don't think this book is as good as James Pattersons other stories though. It just doesn't live up to the level of Maximum Ride, Daniel X or Witch and Wizard, but then again this book isn't fantasyish like the other ones. Other than that, Tandy's voice in the book seems to stand out, the chapters where she confessed secretes I enjoyed the most. I felt that they were underused and I would've liked to know more of what she's hiding from the reader.
If you like mysteries though, this is a really good book for you! Sometimes the scenes get really intense and with the short chapters the book is almost impossible to put down. I'd start with the first book though Confessions of a Murder Suspect because then everything would make much more sense.