When I first saw the blurb and the epically BLUE cover, I seriously judged the book as a boy-band crossed with this 90's memorabilia: Yeah, that was my childhood's An Inconvenient Truth. Well thankfully nobody was actually blue in this book, but unfortunately, no spandex either (dagnamit!). I snagged this read after peering in a friend's bookshelf which I often take to when I've been running into a couple of misses. And like the gift that keeps on giving (or the pusher that keeps on enabling a habit), as I already know, my friends' tastes are awesome. I choose so well. Yay, me! Now that the public wanking is out of the way, there are four guys and a girl in the story and that usually spells trouble for the heroine with me. Mostly because high school guys, when written well, end up reading like charming douches you can't help but feel some affinity to (in the 'hey I know that guy!' sense). And in this case the girl gets the stink face by proxy. I'm not even just talking about the Merricks, there's something nostalgic about reading high school antics. Mostly because when you get to a certain age, passing notes that ask 'Do you give happy endings' can get you arrested. Not that I long for these moments (dear God, no), just a bit of a tug in my sentimental bone that makes me smile when I read them depicted so believably.Becca was surprisingly likable maybe because the romance wasn't front and center chapter after chapter. I liked how she sounds her age and how she was quirk-free yet still had a bit of vulnerable charm in her that wasn't overly used to move the plot along. I was also impressed with the logic behind the elemental fantasy. Probably because it had a touch of a bit of realism in it that my puny little brain got itself to latch on easily. "Do something!" she cried. "Can't you build a wall of ice, or-""Are you kidding?" he said. "I'm not an X-Man!"It also helps that the characters are not named so strangely that they start to come across as stripper names. I've been noticing this trend among YA books and I understand we're in the 21st century but is there anything so wrong with naming characters in a way that will not make me doubt their parents' sanity/sobriety? Oh and the humor! God, the snarktastic dialogue and witty observations! Everyone just has a line that leaves me grinning stupidly. It should really start to sound annoying at some point but it doesn't. How does this author do that? It's easier to manipulate a reader to feel emotional towards a scene/a plot twist/a character reveal by giving them THE MONEY LINE (you know the one that gets quoted ad nauseam) than make the same person guffaw (yes, I'm using that word) in public.Gabriel had put a shirt on - a dark green one with a screen print of a truck. It said, 'My other ride is your mom'.Just snagged Gabriel's book, that lovable asshat, and going right at it.
ashwednesday
Jam Tomorrow. Jam Yesterday. But Never Jam Today.
When I first saw the blurb and the epically BLUE cover, I seriously judged the book as a boy-band crossed with this 90's memorabilia: Yeah, that was my childhood's An Inconvenient Truth. Well thankfully nobody was actually blue in this book, but unfortunately, no spandex either (dagnamit!). I snagged this read after peering in a friend's bookshelf which I often take to when I've been running into a couple of misses. And like the gift that keeps on giving (or the pusher that keeps on enabling a habit), as I already know, my friends' tastes are awesome. I choose so well. Yay, me! Now that the public wanking is out of the way, there are four guys and a girl in the story and that usually spells trouble for the heroine with me. Mostly because high school guys, when written well, end up reading like charming douches you can't help but feel some affinity to (in the 'hey I know that guy!' sense). And in this case the girl gets the stink face by proxy. I'm not even just talking about the Merricks, there's something nostalgic about reading high school antics. Mostly because when you get to a certain age, passing notes that ask 'Do you give happy endings' can get you arrested. Not that I long for these moments (dear God, no), just a bit of a tug in my sentimental bone that makes me smile when I read them depicted so believably.Becca was surprisingly likable maybe because the romance wasn't front and center chapter after chapter. I liked how she sounds her age and how she was quirk-free yet still had a bit of vulnerable charm in her that wasn't overly used to move the plot along. I was also impressed with the logic behind the elemental fantasy. Probably because it had a touch of a bit of realism in it that my puny little brain got itself to latch on easily. "Do something!" she cried. "Can't you build a wall of ice, or-""Are you kidding?" he said. "I'm not an X-Man!"It also helps that the characters are not named so strangely that they start to come across as stripper names. I've been noticing this trend among YA books and I understand we're in the 21st century but is there anything so wrong with naming characters in a way that will not make me doubt their parents' sanity/sobriety? Oh and the humor! God, the snarktastic dialogue and witty observations! Everyone just has a line that leaves me grinning stupidly. It should really start to sound annoying at some point but it doesn't. How does this author do that? It's easier to manipulate a reader to feel emotional towards a scene/a plot twist/a character reveal by giving them THE MONEY LINE (you know the one that gets quoted ad nauseam) than make the same person guffaw (yes, I'm using that word) in public.Gabriel had put a shirt on - a dark green one with a screen print of a truck. It said, 'My other ride is your mom'.Just snagged Gabriel's book, that lovable asshat, and going right at it.
