Mini Reviews: The Boys of Summer and An Endless Summer by C.J Duggan

Book: The Boys of Summer.
Author: C.J Duggan
File Type: Ebook
Release Date:  December 17th 2012
Publisher: Self.
My rating: 2 stars.

synopsis:It seemed only natural to nickname them the ‘Onslow Boys’. Every time they swaggered in the front door of the Onslow Hotel after a hard week’s work, their laughter was loud and genuine as they settled onto their bar stools. I peeked through the restaurant partition, a flimsy divider between my world and theirs. I couldn’t help but smile whenever I saw them, saw him ... Toby Morrison.

Quiet seventeen-year-old Tess doesn’t relish the thought of a summertime job. She wants nothing more than to forget the past haunts of high school and have fun with her best friends before the dreaded Year Twelve begins.

To Tess, summer is when everything happens: riding bikes down to the lake, watching the fireworks at the Onslow Show and water bomb fights at the sweltering Sunday markets.How did she let her friends talk her into working?
After first-shift disasters, rude, wealthy tourists and a taunting ex-boyfriend, Tess is convinced nothing good can come of working her summer away. However, Tess finds unlikely allies in a group of locals dubbed ‘The Onslow Boys’, who are old enough to drive cars, drink beer and not worry about curfews. Tess’s summer of working expands her world with a series of first times with new friends, forbidden love and heartbreaking chaos.
All with the one boy she has never been able to forget. 
It will be a summer she will always remember. 
Warning: sexual references, and occasional coarse language



I'll award this series some serious credit for being able to capture the right essence and beauty of summer. It was bright, light and sunny....and it was kind of fun. So..YAY!

I've had crushes on older guys. I remember giggling 'mentally' (Yes, I was too cool.) after sneaking glances to see THAT hot senior guy or group of senior guys in my school. I'd walk by their classes repeatedly and I'd keep looking inside and go all swoony and ah, well....I was creepy. So I understand Tess's infatuation. 

I understand why seventeen-year old Tess was so enamoured by 22-year old Toby Morrison. I definitely see the appeal. It's quite natural, actually and frankly, pretty cute. Old and responsible guy with a cute, sweet girl? Nice dynamic.

The problem?

It wasn't believable. 

Tess, Ellie and Adam are best friends and have a fantastic plan for the summer. They plan to work at the Onslow Hotel, swim in the Onslow lake, watch fireworks and have water bomb fights. So all in all, it's going to be an enjoyable summer. But here's the specialty of YA summer-themed contemporary books: You always have hotties.
And the Onslow boys, aka Toby, Sean, Stan, Chris and Ringer are just that. THEY ARE HOTTIES. 
They are employed. They are sweet and they soon take Tess, Ellie and Adam under their wing which is really nice to read about because they come with buckets of banter and swoon swishing and swooshing over the brim, topped with the beauty of friendship, just like a cherry on a cake or..was it ice cream?

Anyway, the idea sounds so compelling and fun but it all fell apart in the book. I had some serious issues with Tess and her behaviour. I won't judge her for what she did but I, as a person, just couldn't agree with any of it. Ergo, I didn't like her. At all.
I loved Ellie and Adam, though! They were amazing bestfriends but by the second half, their characters started..diminishing? Fading away? So I was a tad disappointed. Some of the twists and turns in the book were unacceptable and I felt like pushing my kindle away before I seriously lost it. Sean's and Stan's and Adam's characters were the comic angle of the book but in the end, not much happened for them as well. Although, I wouldn't say that for Sean, because Sean was the only character in the book who actually managed to swoon me off my feet. 

Now, Toby is a different character. I like Broody and intense. I was made for broody and intense but hell no will I accept broody and intense, especially after ....you know. 
Toby as a love interest didn't sit well with me. I kept on vouching for a Tess-Adam or Tess-Sean dynamic because it made sense. They cared about Tess. They were protective, supportive and responsive which obviously, I didn't think Toby was. It wasn't normal and there was a point when all I could so was roll my eyes. Rolling eyes=Not good.

“Do you want some words of advice, Tess?”
I glanced at Adam’s profile as he sipped.
“Don’t give your heart away too easily.” He turned to me. “Make him earn it.”

  

Book: An Endless Summer
Author: C.J Duggan
File Type: Ebook
Release Date: July 11th 2013
Publisher: Self.
My ratings: 3 stars.                                                          
                                               
synopsis:After a rebellious summer night that almost claimed her life, Amy Henderson – the Onslow publican’s only daughter – is sent away to suffer a fate far worse than any other punishment:

Boarding School.

Three years on, a now nineteen-year-old Amy returns to Onslow for the summer. What once was a cauldron of activity with live bands, hot meals and cold beers, the Onslow Hotel now lies dark, deserted and depressing. All fond childhood memories of loitering on the hotel stairs and eavesdropping on customers’ colourful conversations are in the distant past.

How had her dad let it come to this?

With the new threat of putting the Onslow up for sale, Amy reluctantly turns to a local tradesman for help: Sean Murphy, the very same Onslow boy who saved her life all those years ago. With his help and that of some old friends, the task is clear: spend the summer building the hotel back up to its former glory or lose it for good.

In an endless summer, Amy soon realises that sometimes in order to save your future, you have to face your past, even if it’s in the form of a smug, gorgeous Onslow boy.



And now for, An Endless Summer...

*Drum rolls, please.*

THIS WAS GREAT!

I lean towards feistyness. Timid and shy girls just don't do it for me. I think maybe that's why I didn't like Tess all that much, but Amy, well, she's somebody I liked. And trust me, I liked her A LOT.

We met Amy Henderson in the previous book when she was just fifteen years old.Being the Onslow Hotel's owner's daughter, she was spoilt, irritating and easy to dislike. She was known for throwing tantrums and had a temper nobody wanted to be the victim of. But after almost losing her life when she was sixteen and after being saved and sent to boarding school, things were put in a perspective for this hot-headed train of spirit. 

And guess who saved her?

Presenting to you, the swooniest guy amongst the Onslow boys, Sean Murrrphyyy. I've always liked Sean and I didn't really like how things ended for him, in The Boys of Summer, so the fact that he was getting a book of his own appeased my angry heart. 

It's safe to say, that Amy and Sean were perfect for each other. There was so much banter, humour, swoon and hot-displays-of-chest (OMG.), that I don't think I have anything to complain about.

I loved Amy so much. I loved how she didn't want to let go of the hotel and how she wanted to bring back the hotel to it's former glory! I even started to like Toby which is funny considering how much I disliked him in the previous book. Even Tess seemed sane. HAH! Chris, Adam and Amy were the perfect cousins to each other. Even though, Chris was a tad dominating. Adam comes back to play a MAJOR role as the comic angle of the book and boy, his success in being funny is commendable. AND DO I SEE AN ADAM-ELLIE THINGIE IN FUTURE?

Oh wow.

What I love about such books or any book in a series, in general, is that they always shine a spotlight on the underdogs. I've always loved secondary characters and their potential and when these secondary characters get a book of their own, it just makes me immensely happy and I think that's why I read even the dorkiest of books. I read them because I want to know how the character's life pans out.

And An endless summer was satisfyingly good enough to make me happy.

“Come on Amy, I saved you once, I’ll save you again.”I met his stare unflinchingly. “I don’t need saving.”A wicked grin formed slowly. “Don’t you?”

Unbreak My Heart by Melissa C. Walker

Unbreak My Heart by Melissa C. Walker

Publisher: Bloomsbury    
Publication date: May 22nd 2012
My rating: 4 stars

Sophomore year broke Clementine Williams’ heart. She fell for her best friend’s boyfriend and long story short: he’s excused, but Clem is vilified and she heads into summer with zero social life. 
Enter her parents’ plan to spend the summer on their sailboat. Normally the idea of being stuck on a tiny boat with her parents and little sister would make Clem break out in hives, but floating away sounds pretty good right now. 
Then she meets James at one of their first stops along the river. He and his dad are sailing for the summer and he’s just the distraction Clem needs. Can he break down Clem’s walls and heal her broken heart?

Last year, when Unbreak My Heart came out I didn't want to read it. I can't remember why. I just didn't. but a couple of days ago I was browsing Goodreads and stumbled upon this book I decided to try it out because I was craving a story about redemption and I'm so glad I picked it up. It was just what I needed. 

Unbreak My Heart is a story about Clementine, who's in love with her best friend's boyfriend. She is forced to go sailing with her family after her friends turn their backs on her.  Clem spends the first half of the book being mean to her parents and sister. They forgave her cause she's dealing with a lot of this. Every thing changes when she meets James who's sailing with his dad. 

I think I've never read a book with a red-head love interest so this book already gained some points. James is so freaking cute. He loves to draw, talks a lot and smiles all the time which helps Clementine stop thinking about her problems. Well, she finally deals with them after seeing some people aren't so lucky, like her. 

Aside from cute love interest I would like to mention Clem's parents. They're an awesome example of busy parents doing a great job raising their kids. They still find the time to talk to their daughters and even take 3 months of work to go sailing. They let Clem blow out her steam, even though she was being rude. I don't think I can remember more than 3 examples of great parenting in YA novels so I was really pleased Melissa Walker gave us a loving and supporting family. 

Book Review: The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

Book :The Moon and More
Author:Sarah Dessen
File Type: Hardcover
Release Date: June 4th, 2013
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
My rating: 1 star

synopsis:
Luke is the perfect boyfriend: handsome, kind, fun. He and Emaline have been together all through high school in Colby, the beach town where they both grew up. But now, in the summer before college, Emaline wonders if perfect is good enough.

Enter Theo, a super-ambitious outsider, a New Yorker assisting on a documentary film about a reclusive local artist. Theo's sophisticated, exciting, and, best of all, he thinks Emaline is much too smart for Colby.

Emaline's mostly-absentee father, too, thinks Emaline should have a bigger life, and he's convinced that an Ivy League education is the only route to realizing her potential. Emaline is attracted to the bright future that Theo and her father promise. But she also clings to the deep roots of her loving mother, stepfather, and sisters. Can she ignore the pull of the happily familiar world of Colby?

Emaline wants the moon and more, but how can she balance where she comes from with where she's going?

Sarah Dessen's devoted fans will welcome this story of romance, yearning, and, finally, empowerment. It could only happen in the summer.


Wow. This was a disaster.

I've read two other books by Sarah Dessen. Them being, Just Listen and Along for the Ride. While I didn't hate them, I didn't exactly love them. I'm more of an intense love-drama girl. I usually go for passionate fire than cute-fluff. But there have been times when I've fallen head over heels in love with the latter. Anna and the French Kiss is an excellent example on that context.

I'm not sure what Ms. Dessen was going for. This obviously wasn't Dessen's usual style. There were so many elements in this book that could have led this one to success, but in the end, that was not to be. Rather, I felt that this was all a mess. So many ideas brought together in about 400 pages with the absence of that 'oomph!' factor. The result? A definite fail. Also, was this Summer-y? NO.

The Moon and More introduces us to Emaline, an eighteen year old with a dream to touch the starry heights of self-satisfaction ,self-actualisation and success without losing her morals and principles and sense of familial value on her way. She has a gorgeous boyfriend. She has an eligible, NYU student, who has his own set of frustating ideas, as a suitor. An absentee dad. A ghost mom. (She's alive and I shall discuss why I call her a 'ghost', later.) Two sisters. A half brother, who was the only bearable character in the whole book. A nice stepdad. And some one dimensional friends.

The book's writing was pathetically slow and I was on my way to dump my copy and burn it. I spent two days struggling to get to a point where I could actually read this book without thinking about how 'boring' and 'dull' the protagonist sounded. And that point, my friends, was the very end. I'm reading and I'm listening to Emaline state out all the problems in her life. I'm listening to her describe how 'nice' her boyfriend was. I'm also listening to her thoughts about an awkward yet absoluetly alluring character that is, Theo(The NYU jackass). And while I have absolutely no problem with the content, I just can't bear the way she's explaining the aforementioned content. WHY IS SHE SO DULL?

And now onto the story. I think other than the bond that she and her brother shared and the very end, there was nothing in this book that actually excited me. I understand Emaline's troubled thoughts about not being able to go to an Ivy league college and not being able to depend upon an absentee dad. But the story had no life, so I was least bothered. The romance, which is Dessen's strength, was downplayed to the extent of me vowing to never read her books again. And the characters? While I've already complained about Emaline's lifelessness, it seems like she her qualities are genetically inherited because throughout the book, Emaline's mother's character was as lifeless as Emaline was. I shouldn't judge a character and I shouldn't even judge an author's thought-process while she or he, creates a character, but for someone who was in a position as Emaline's mother and has been through whatever she's been, I'd think of a more stronger character. Ofcourse, people are different and so, like I said, I shouldn't judge, but as a reader, I needed to like her as a character, which I obviously didn't. And thus my point that she was the ghost of the book.

Now let's look at the romance angle, shall we?
Like I said, it was all very downplayed. But here's the thing. Even if you're maintaining subtlety in the area of love, there has to be something to make up for it! Usually that hole is filled up by the 'swoony' boys of YA town. Or usually by impacting and thought provoking concepts like self-dicovery or crimes like rape, assault etc. Since there was nothing 'impacting', I obviously hoped for swoony boys and there were TWO boys mentioned in the damn synopsis, so I see no reason why even a single guy wouldn't make the cut. Emaline's boyfriend was a jackass and so was Theo. So yes, there was nothing but the cover of the book and Emaline's brother to keep the sinking ship called The Moon and More, afloat.

In the end, this book was disappointing.

Ciao!

Joint Review: The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler

The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler

Publisher: Simon Pulse    
Publication date: May 21st 2013
My rating: 5 stars

Jude has learned a lot from her older sisters, but the most important thing is this: The Vargas brothers are notorious heartbreakers. She’s seen the tears and disasters that dating a Vargas boy can cause, and she swore an oath—with candles and a contract and everything—to never have anything to do with one.
Now Jude is the only sister still living at home, and she’s spending the summer helping her ailing father restore his vintage motorcycle—which means hiring a mechanic to help out. Is it Jude’s fault he happens to be cute? And surprisingly sweet? And a Vargas?
Jude tells herself it’s strictly bike business with Emilio. Her sisters will never find out, and Jude can spot those flirty little Vargas tricks a mile away—no way would she fall for them. But Jude’s defenses are crumbling, and if history is destined to repeat itself, she’s speeding toward some serious heartbreak…unless her sisters were wrong?
Jude may have taken an oath, but she’s beginning to think that when it comes to love, some promises might be worth breaking.

Love, love, love this book! It was unputdownable from the first page, up to the last. Sarah Ockler is one of those YA contemporary authors who actually writes books with normal characters mostly dealing with ordinary family problems. They are just like us and that's the reason it's so easy for me to relate to one or two of them. 

You can tell a lot about an author from the way they shape their characters. They can be determined, perky, sarcastic, brave, loyal, witty, modest, independent and so on. I think that some of the authors share pieces of themselves in their novels so even if I started reading a book without the cover I would know who wrote it. And that is what it's all about! Readers recognizing your writing style and setting your work apart from the rest. 

I think I need to point out that this blurb is not entirely correct. First of, the romance part of the book is talking up around %30 of the book while the part where Jude helps her father who's suffering from Alzheimer's, takes the rest 70%. Not that I didn't mind. The love interest, Emilio is in the story right from the start but catching his eye wasn't the priority back then. 

So, this is a story about Jude, a high-school graduate who's spending her last summer as a kid looking after her dad, who's recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. She's trying to cheer him up by restoring his old bike so they hire a mechanic to fix it. Complications start after Jude realizes the guy fixing Valentina (the bike's name) is non other than one of the infamous Vargas brothers. Vargas Bros. broke hearts of her two older sisters so Jude is trying to push Emilio away only this time, Emilio is apparently so not like the rest of Vargas pack. He makes Jude question her loyalty to her family and but it takes more than a guy with dimples to get under her skin. She did try to stay away from him but their connection was just evident. 

This book was brilliant. This is my favorite Ockler book, so far. If you're looking for a book with normal teenage character without too much drama, to brighten up your day I suggest you pick The Book of Broken Hearts up! Now! 

What a brilliant last chapter. It made me cry. So touching. It was almost as if I was there with them. I can't wait to read Ockler's next book. Why does it need to come out next year? Ugh! S&S peeps need to give this lady a better contract, where she will be a slave, writing books all day long so we can enjoy every few month and not have to wait a whole year for another taste. Am I right? 

I’ve always been a Papa’s girl. And as far as I can remember, things have always been that way. That being said, if it has to be someone as my confidante for awkward conversations in the world of ladydom and awkward conversations OR conversations in general, then it’s my mother all the way. But there is this peculiar and I’m obviously cheesy when it comes to emotional and sentimental values, so yes, ‘magical’ bond between a father and a daughter. It’s in ordinary moments of ‘my dad taught me how to ride a bike..or my dad scared the shit out of my boyfriend...or my dad got me flowers because I did well..or my dad gave me tea when I was sick..’ etc. It’s also in those unforgettable moments when you’re leaving home to go away and beside your mother, your dad looks at you with that ‘my-little-birdy-is-flying-away-now’ look or when he gives you away at your wedding. So in general, dad’s rock. And after reading this book, I really missed my father. And I started to remember little things that included just my father and me.

Sarah Ockler never disappoints me. In fact, things just seem to get better and better. The Book Of Broken Hearts, is a great story about love and self-realisation. It’s your typical story of a protagonist thrown in a maze full of surprises.

See, when you’re in a maze, the first thing you try do is find a way out. You’re no psychic so you’re going to come across many dead ends. And if it’s a really fun maze then there are those dreaded obstacles and also those amazing rewards. The thing about a maze, is that you never give up and you just try and try and try to get out. So in a similar context. A maze is what is seventeen year old Jude Hernandez’s life. It’s summer, at the end of which , Jude will be heading towards her chosen college and will settle into a new life. But for now it’s summer and she has a bike that needs to be restored , a cute mechanic to handle, three sisters to juggle , friends to maintain communication with, mother to help, a lot of self confidence to build and a dad with Alzheimer’s to spend time with. Think she can get through this surprisingly tender maze? Yes please.

The Book Of Broken Heart, surprised me in many ways. The pace and writing style flows in amazingly and the narrator is fun to read about and see things through. It’s hilarious where it needs to be and sad wherever required.  The characters are great and the secondary characters contribute in perfect measures. It’s a bundle of technical niceness.

Jude’s character is one of my favourite characters in the contemporary genre. I felt for her. I understood her dilemma and it was understandable to see why and how she took certain decisions. The love interest, Emilio Vargas, the guy whose family she was warned about since the age of twelve, added nicely to the mix. I like how their relationship played out. It was nice and sweet and not too dramatic with a healthy flow of banter and intensity here and there. Then there were Jude’s enigmatic sisters, Mariposa, Lourdes and Araceli who with their sisterly awesomeness added to the Sarah Ockler paradise. There was Jude’s mother. And then there was Papi, Jude’s father. Who in my opinion, was my favourite person in the whole book because he reminded me of my father in so many ways.

I’ll tell you now, what I loved the best about the whole book. The relationships. And by that ,not only am I pointing finger towards the fantastic portrayal of father-daughter love or first love in terms of I-wish-to-use-your-body-like-a-jungle-gym (The OC reference never fails to disappoint me.) , but also the case where your friends come into place. People come and go. But it is only the ones stay in times of need, are the ones who count. Things change everyday. People drift apart not by their differences but simply because they changed. And then there are some who just simply stay and no change or difference, could ever tear them away. This is something that happens everyday in life and it’s amazing how Ms. Ockler has managed to inculcate this tiny everyday thought in her book too.

I will not lie. There were emotional moments and it is because of THIS. This thing I don’t know which manages to make me emotional and miss my dad and just invoke those poignant thoughts in general, makes me love this book even more.