Book Wrap Up for August and Semptember 2013 (1)

Hello everyone it's Nicole Henderson here and this is my first book wrap up blog post. I will do these posts at the end of every month or two months depending on how many books I've read in those  months.
 So, these are the books I've read in August and September:

 

I also read The Summer Of Skinny Dipping by Amanda Howells, after Sixteenth Summer by Michelle Dalton, and before Summer Boys by Hailey Abott. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the image for The Summer of Skinny Dipping onto the page, something was wrong, but I don't know what it was. I will work something out.





  I have full reviews for the first three books on this blog, so you can check them out if you scroll down. I have not quite finished The Book Of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler yet, but I will finish it soon(like in the first two days of October soon). I'll have a review up for the Book Of Broken Hearts as soon as I'm done.

 I really hope I read way more books in this next month then I have been lately. Good Luck to me! So that's it for this blog post, I hope you found it to be entertaining to read. Goodbye for now.



 

Review: Summer Boys by Hailey Abbott

Genre: young-adult, romance, woman's fiction(chick-lit)

Published: June 1st 2004

Pages: 214

Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks

                                                                                

            Synopsis(from Goodreads)

It's summer. It's hot. And it's time to hook up.

Cousins Ella, Beth, and Jamie are at the family beach house, and there gearing up for the wildest time of their lives. Sassy Ella is majorly crushing on a cute older boy--who happens to be her sisters boyfriend. Meanwhile, practical Beth is surprised when she finds herself falling for her best friend, George. And shy, creative Jamie gets her heart broken when her summer love abandons her.

Three girls, too many boys, and some seriously stormy romances... it all adds up to one unforgettable summer.
                                                                                                                               

                                                                  Thoughts 

 I wanted to end off my "beachy" summer romance reading in the most appropriate way possible. So when it was time to pick which book to read, I went straight for this one because I knew this would be a decent summer book to read to end the "summer" reading for the year.
 I sort of thought this book was going to be the typical summer read. But, it turned out to be completely different from what I originally thought. It was full of drama, full of craziness, and full of cute boys.

Three cousins, Ella, Beth, and Jamie Tuttle, go to Pebble Beach with their families for the summer in Maine.
Ella- She is the sassy, flirty, confident girl out of the three cousins. She feels like she can get any guy she wants, and that she can take advantage of any opportunity she has. Now, in my opinion I didn't like Ella very much. A part of me wanted to slap her across the face, because it seemed to me that she was being slutty(excuse my profanity,but it is true) around the guys. Then of course as we all know for whoever has read this book, she develops a crush on her older sisters BF Peter.  She tried way to hard to impress him, and just was downright a whore towards him(excuse my profanity, again).Truthfully, it was not necessary for Ella to do any of the things that she did, she could of just been herself without her "sluttiness" and her immaturity. However, at the same time I liked Ella because she was very confident with any situation that she was faced with. Which was what I appreciated about her.

Beth- She is the practical, sporty, mature girl out of the three cousins. She feels like no guy has ever really paid attention to her in the way that she'd like. She also feels like she doesn't need to care about her appearance as much as everyone else. I really liked Beth, she was my favourite out of the three of them, and it was nice just to read about someone who is a little bit more mature for there age. In this book, Beth starts to fall for her best guy friend George. It seemed as if  he didn't really return her feelings, but it was nice to find out in the end that he indeed did like her back. I loved the fact that she was the most relatable person, and that she was reserved as well. Beth was one of those characters where she "thought before she acted" on something, which is what I think all girls should be like. 

Jamie- She is the shy, creative, independent girl out of the three cousins. She feels like she's in her own little world, plus she feels that certain romances or situations are going to last forever. I had a love-hate relationship with Jamie. One part I loved her, but then the next part, I hated her. I liked Jamie, because of her love for writing, and for the arts in general. I hated her because certain things she did were extremely immature. In the book, she feels heartbroken about the fact that Ethan, who was her previous summer love, is distant, and in the end breaks up with her. She is constantly trying to find ways to get over him, but she doesn't really do a good job  it at first, but she ends up getting the hang of it as the book progresses. I liked that she was trying to move on from Ethan, and not try to win him back. It was also nice how, she ended up with Scott, who is one of Ethan's friends. She realizes(thank god) that not all relationships throughout her life are not going to last forever.

The guys that the girls were interested in, were very different from one another. Peter, was the punk, jerk, and rude one. While George, was the kind, sweet, and sensitive one. Lastly, Ethan was a mix of both Peter's and George's personalities.

The book itself was good. I wouldn't say I loved it, but I wouldn't say I hated it either. I still found it to be a quick and easy read for me to get through. I don't 100% recommend this book, but if you want to read it, I suggest you do.
                                                                                                                      

                                                                        Rating


                                                                            3/5

The Book I'm Currently Reading At The Moment

Hello everyone it's Nicole Henderson here, and I know I haven't posted anything new in awhile but I am just really busy with school, and to be quite honest I haven't been reading anything new. But just recently I started to get back into it with a fantastic new book I will be showing you today. Actually, I did start reading Summer Boys by Hailey Abbott, but I'm literally 5 chapters away from finishing it. So, there's really no point in doing a blog post on what "I'm Currently Reading".But, I promise you I will do a book review for Summer Boys in my next blog post.
 The book that I'm reading right now(which I will show you now), is The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler. I will summarize to you on what it's mainly about in my own words, and then express my thoughts on the book.
Summary: Jude Hernandez, has been influenced by her 3 older sisters that the Vargas brothers are a bunch of heart breakers. But, that all changes when her father decides to hire Emilio Vargas to fix an old motorcycle of his(along with Jude's help). But then Jude starts to fall for Emilio, and wonders if her sisters might be wrong about the brothers.

Thoughts: Now, Sarah Ockler is one of my favourite authors of all time, so I loved her previous books. But, with this book, I wouldn't say this is an all time favourite, however, it is on the list to being one of my favourites( Do you see what I'm saying?).
 I really do like the plot, it's very original, and very different from her other books. I like all of the characters; there not super annoying, but not boring either, they are just right.
   I am enjoying this book a lot. It's making me super emotional, and super happy all at the same time.
 Since I am halfway done, I haven't made a final decision on rating it yet, or my full complete thoughts on this book. Alright, those are my main thoughts on the book so far, and I will post a full review soon. So until then, goodbye everyone.

Book Review:The Summer of Skinny Dipping by Amanda Howells

The Summer of Skinny Dipping

Genre: young-adult, romance, contemporary

Published: June 1st 2010

Pages: 295

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire


                                                                                                      

                 Synopsis(from the book)

Sometimes I still wake up shivering in the early hours of the morning, drowning in dreams of being out there in the ocean that summer, of looking up at the moon and feeling as invisible and free as a fish, But I'm jumping ahead, and to tell the story right I have to go back to the very beginning. To a place called Indigo Beach. To a boy with pale skin that glowed against the dark waves. To the start something neither of us could have predicted, and which would mark us forever, making everything that came after and before it seem like it belonged to another life. My name is Mia Gordon: I was sixteen years old, and I remember everything.  

                                                                                                                                                         
                   
                                                                      Thoughts

I know that everyone who has read this book, has said in their reviews, that they were expecting a light and drama free read. Well, there not wrong. I could actually agree with those people and say "yes, I was expecting a light read out of this book", which is true. I was. But, I got the complete opposite instead. Which is what everyone else had said about it too.

 I'm really having a hard time collecting my thoughts about this book. It's hurting my head just thinking about it. However, I'm still going to write this review as planned. So, let's begin:

Mia was a very well developed character I thought. I found that she wasn't super annoying or anything like that. But she did kind of seemed always sad and never happy(and I'm seriously talking about all throughout the book) Okay, I shouldn't say that necessarily, she was happy(when she was with Simon), but it's just that it didn't seem very realistic to me. It was as if she was an angel from heaven and saying that she's happy and free. Angels are not real you know (and I'm talking about mythical angels, not our guardian angels). In the aspect to relating to Mia, I couldn't relate to her, at all. I don't love the ocean, I don't have a dysfunctional family, and I never had a boyfriend who died from a tragic event. Also, with her thought process, I didn't relate to her there either. I really did feel sorry for Mia though, when she finds out Simon(which i will talk about next) had gone through a tragic experience which lead to death. What did upset me though about that, was when Mia thought Simon drowning, was a JOKE. I'm like: "Mia, your so dumb, he's actually drowning, and you think this is one of his pranks?" Even I would've known he was drowning, if I were there. Like my god Mia, get your head together.

Simon, was not like any male character I have ever read. He was witty, wise, charismatic, and charming. And of course he was kind, sweet, and wonderful. Simon was very different, from anyone else; he had his own personality, his own values and beliefs on life. I really loved Simon a lot. Even though he didn't seem to be the most attractive guy ever, he was definitely the smartest guy I have read about in a book, and that's a good thing. However, towards the end he got rebellious and I was kind of turned off by that a little bit, but I knew where he was coming from with it. I still really enjoyed Simon though.

The book itself was really good and I enjoyed it, but there was a problem that kinda ticked me off just a bit; which was, the amount of usage of alcohol, and cigarettes (plus drugs), was terrible. Some of the characters smoked and drank, and it happened very frequently. Personally, Amanda should not have done that, it was like she was trying to promote smoking, drinking and doing drugs to teens. Which I was NOT okay with. It pissed me off very much. If that didn't happen, then I would of been fine.

It was a very emotional, dramatic, and life-lesson-type read. It was one of those books where you're taught a valuable lesson. I definitely realized that life-lesson which(to me) was: don't be afraid to take chances, and to take some risks. Always follow your dreams and stick to them; and that sometimes it may not work out for you, you just gotta try again and never give up.
                                                                                                                                                                    

                                                                     Rating

                                          
                                                                      4/5
                                                                                                                                                                   

                                                                 Last Words

I recommend this book to people who are looking for a surprising, wise, life-learning, emotional, and dramatic book. So, that concludes this review. Until the next one, goodbye everyone!