Release Date:October 21, 2014 in paperback (May 27, 2014 e-book)
Number of Pages: 250
Book: Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn't Fly
Author: P.T Jones
Source: Netgalley (Note: I received this book in exchange for an honest review)

The Basics: Things Mary doesn’t want to fall into: the river, high school, her mother’s life. Things Mary does kind of want to fall into: love, the sky. This is the story of a girl who sees a boy float away one fine day. This is the story of the girl who reaches up for that boy with her hand and with her heart. This is the story of a girl who takes on the army to save a town, who goes toe-to-toe with a mad scientist, who has to fight a plague to save her family. This is the story of a girl who would give anything to get to babysit her baby brother one more time. If she could just find him. It’s all up in the air for now, though, and falling fast. . . . Fun, breathlessly exciting, and full of heart, Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn’t Fly is an unforgettable ride.

My Musings:

     Just by the summary I could instantly relate to the main character,Mary. So that was a great start right off the bat. The whole idea if it seemed new and original and I was psyched to read it!
     Right away I liked the author's writing style. It was quirky and cute with a touch of sarcasm which made me a very happy reader. I always tend to love books that make me legit LOL than books that layer poetic sentence after poetic sentence. Don't get me wrong I love poetic books and all that jazz but it's nice to have that and laugh every once in a while. Anyways, I personally LOVE the writing style and the way the author presented each character ans weird and different and just plain ol' quirky.( I like the word quirky).
     Okay as for characterization, the author did a pretty good job. P.T Jones definitely made the characters easy to relate to but I honestly didn't really connect with them that much. I loved Mary and her friends but I felt like the other characters needed something else to make them feel real to me. I did love the characters, they just didn't feel real to me. The whole evil  scientist guy was drawn exactly as that and while there was light shed on his character i really wish we could have learned more about him sooner. However, that being said, I loved how the authors portrayed Mary. She's a smart girl, who is sweet and kind. I struggle with anxiety and panic attacks, and let me tell you they suck. Mary has these same problems but not once did the author make her a victim or write her out  as this" poor girl with anxiety". They instead treated it like a part of her life and the way she reacts to things. It just is. It is a problem but they don't overuse it or anything. They give a realistic approach with that and I appreciate it.
     The plot was interesting and intricate. Honestly, while I liked the plot and story line I wasn't in love with it. Some parts felt overdone or just a tad cheesy, but the high action scenes and funny moments made up for that. I felt like the beginning was a little slow moving but it did pick up a little ways in. After the first initial chapters there are so many things going on and clues being found out all at once, which I love. At this point I just needed to know how the book ended. So I read and read, I was pretty into the book. Then once we got the climax of the book, I didn't like how the epic battle went. I felt like it was just too stretched out. Like I didn't understand why it was that long. Despite that, it was an okay epic battle, complete with some nail biting and suspense.
      I don't like insta-lovey type of relationships. I also don't like it when the romance, or the stuff building up to the romance seems overdone/forced. The romance for this book was somewhere between these two zones. I felt like it was sort of realistic in terms of her not coming to grips with her feelings. But it was a little inta-lovey because she instantly liked him and there was nothing really building up to that. It just kind of appeared. It was because of that lack of foundation that  made me feel like it was a little forced. I wasn't a big fan of the romance. The only good part that came from that was that it allowed the plot and the plot twists to shine a little more.


Coffee for this book: Overall the book was an easy read that's pretty cutey with a happy ending. So I recommend a hazelnut latte with extra pumps of syrup to complement this book

My Rating:

Fangirl Book Review

Release Date: September 10.2013
Book: Fangirl
Author: Rainbow Rowel
Genre: YA Contemporary
Source: Gift

The Basics: A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love. Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere. Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to. Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind? (from goodreads)

Rating: 5/5


My Musings:
     I've been fangirling over Fangirl since before I even read it. I saw it on goodread and I thought to myself if i could ever have a book soulmate it would be this. Among my friends i'm known for my fangirling. It's really bad. I was in the movie theater for Catching Fire a few months ago and some of the previews were book trailers and i legit was squealing and jumping up and down in my seat. OVER A TRAILER. Speaking of trailers I can't seem to not cry whenever i watch the full trailer for TFIOS. Anyways i think I've established i'm a fangirl myself.
     Ok now for the actual review. I honestly can saw that I fell in love with this book from the get go. 
     I loved Cath's narrations and the way she thought and described things. I loved her little quirks and her nerdy personality. If she was a real person she would definitely be someone I'd want as a friend. I enjoyed reading about Cath and her journey to become her own person, become, independent, and grow up into such an awesome person. Cath relies on her fanfic about Simon Snow to help her cope with her new found loneliness and her ever present shyness.This aspect of the story was great. It didn't overwhelm the book, but served its role. We even get to read snippets.
     Character-wise, Rowel did amazing. All of the characters felt real to me and I found myself caring about each one of the characters. I think a sign of a really good book is being able to feel like the story is real and Rowel does this flawlessly. I really like all the side stories that surrounded Cath. Like her sister's story, or her dads. I adore Rowel's witty, smart and funny writing style. 
      It was interesting to read about Cath's relationship with her family. Poor Cath was thrown into college life without so much as a speck of support and kindness from her twin sister Wren. I found this sad, but at the same time I understood that booth sisters needed to find their identity outside of each other. I loved her dad! he kept pushing her to do what she needed to do but was often to scared to do. And when push came to shove I loved watching Cath's family rally together.  
      Romance time! Levi. What can i saw other than he is so perfect. I love him to bits. Especially his eyebrows lol. I like when books have a slow burning, slow happening romance because it makes it feel more real, plus you have more time to decide if you ship it. It also determines the strength of the ship. And let me tell you i ship these two so hard. The only slight issue with the book was that at the beginning of the novel i wasn't sure who was the love interest. Weather it was Levi or this other guy named Nick. Aside from the unsure-ness at the beginning, the romance was eloquently written 
Favorite Quotes:
“A little manic was what their house ran on.” 

“Underneath this veneer of slightly crazy and mildly socially retarded, I'm a complete disaster.”  

“Happily ever after, or even just together ever after, is not cheesy,” Wren said. “It’s the noblest, like, the most courageous thing two people can shoot for.”

“But you're so helpless sometimes. It's like watching a kitten with its head trapped in a Kleenex box.” 

“You give away nice like it doesn't cost you anything.” 

“Emergency dance party--go away.” 

“Levi's eyebrows were pornographic. If Cath were making this decision just on eyebrows, she would have been "up to his room" a long time ago.” 

“When I’m writing my own stuff, it’s like swimming upstream. Or … falling down a cliff and grabbing at branches, trying to invent the branches as I fall.”