TBR | March 2015

Hello lovelies! 

So March is actually my favorite month of the year, solely because it's my birthday month (March the 21st). These are the books I'll be reading for March.. I won't be putting my hopes up for reading because my finals are in a month and I need to get my crap together with studying and stuff so.. 

Books mentioned: 

1. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard (I've already read this one and be on the look out for a review so very soon)
2. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
3. Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
4. The Duff by Kody Keplinger

If you've read any of these books, please let me know :) 

Have a great day everyone!

Book Review: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Goodreads:

A debut psychological thriller that will forever change the way you look at other people's lives.

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

A compulsively readable, emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller that draws comparisons to Gone Girl, The Silent Wife, or Before I Go to Sleep, this is an electrifying debut embraced by readers across markets and categories.

4.5 stars out of 5

 I received this eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 


I was super excited to get into this book, a lot of people resembled it to Gone Girl and don't get me wrong, I LOVED this book.. but Gone Girl cannot be topped. 

This follows Rachel, a woman with too many troubles of her own and discovers an escape everyday on the train. She watches a couple on the terrace of their house and fantasizes about their relationship - their names, their jobs and their personalities. One day, crisis strikes and disrupts her already messed up life. Rachel finds herself involved in stuff that she cannot get out of. She was an unreliable narrator, one of many characters that I strongly disliked. All of the characters in this one were faulty characters and they were just terrible. 

I must say that this book was kind of boring at the start, it took me some time to get into it. Once I did, I was trying to crack the mysteries and figure out where on earth did the missing person go. I was juggling possibilities and honestly, I didn't see the ending coming AT ALL. I didn't see ANYTHING coming and that's why my rating was that high. 

The writing was phenomenal. Paula Hawkins made me visualize everything so perfectly and she had this ability of incorporating random clues throughout the book that tie in perfectly in the end. A mystery/thriller genius, I must say. 

All in all, this book was a fantastic ride, it had me thinking to this very day and I feel like it did stick with me. I remember every detail vividly and I'm writing this review a month or so after reading the book, that's an indication of how good it was! 

On the other hand, this book was a bit graphic, I would NOT recommend it to young readers. 

SPOILERS

(highlight to view)

I HATED RACHEL TOO MUCH!!! Her clinging to Tom after clearly moving on bothered me to a huge extent. Her stalking and creeping as well, like come on Rachel!! Put your shit together. Her weakness to alcohol and her drinking problem bothered me as well, her recollections were extremely unreliable and no one was taking her seriously because of that. She put herself in terrible situations, but in the end, she made up for everything by killing Tom! I was rooting for her and Megan to end that motherfucker's life haha. Way to go!

I never suspected Tom except for when he took Rachel to "talk" and didn't tell Anna about it. I thought he was cornering her somewhere private so he can end her life without anyone noticing. Ironically enough, he did that to Megan. 

Okay, now with Anna's POV incorporation. I knew that something was bound to happen with her POV being thrown into the mix. I hated her nonetheless, the only character that was likable was her daughter haha

Scott, you have some serious anger management issues and that just fucked you over as a husband of a missing person/a dead woman. (Why did they say that she was dead in the synopsis? I just noticed that and hey, THAT'S A SPOILER. Thank God I didn't pay much attention to it while reading this.) - I suspected him all along, but I figured it'd be too cliche if he really was the killer. The husband is never the killer (thanks Gone Girl). 

Have you read The Girl on the Train?! What did you think? If not, are you excited? :) 

Have a great day! 

Book Review: Love Hurts by Malorie Blackman

Goodreads:

Malorie Blackman brings together the best teen writers of today in a stunningly romantic collection about love against the odds. Featuring short stories and extracts about modern star-crossed lovers from stars such as Gayle Forman, Markus Zusak and Patrick Ness, and with a brand-new story from Malorie Blackman herself, Love Hurts looks at every kind of relationship, from first kiss to final heartbreak. 

2.75 Stars 

I received this eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

I requested this book in hopes of it being a light contemporary that is a collection of short stories tied in together to form something beautiful in the end, and to my disappointment, it wasn't like that AT ALL.

This book is a collection of excerpts of previously published books like If I Stay, We Were Liars, More Than This et cetera..  I skipped most of the stories to avoid spoilers and the stories that I have read, I also skipped. 

To be honest, this book did have its perks. It added a ton of books to my TBR (Not sure whether this is a pro or a con, because my TBR pile is overflowing.), it was also so very refreshing to read a book by so many authors. The writing style of some of these authors captivated me and it pushed me into putting their books higher on my TBR list, it was beautiful how a 30 page excerpt totally lured me into the story and I needed more of it, especially that I didn't know the characters and I didn't connect to them on any level.

In theory, I disliked the fact that I was thrown into a part of the novel and having to be oblivious to who the characters are, but I'm guessing that is was a method of pushing the reader into buying and reading the whole book.

Some of my favorite "excerpts" that I remember I liked were: 

• The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle
• Naughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
• You Against Me by Jenny Downham
• More Than This by Patrick Ness 
• If I Stay by Gayle Forman (I MUST read this book)

One of the things that I highly recommend is NOT reading anthologies back to back, it should be read over a long period of time. I also learned that anthologies is not my thing, but that's besides the point. 

I have to mention that I ADMIRED the diversity in this one, there are LGBT, characters of color and different ethnicities. 

I usually NEVER give books 2 stars, but this one really wasn't for me. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's not a good one, it just means that this isn't for me and maybe it is for YOU. I was simply just disappointed by it.

Have you read Love Hurts? I'm curious to know your thoughts, leave them in the comments down below! :) 

Have a great day everybody!

Book Review: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Goodreads:

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two strangers cross paths. Two teens with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, culminating in heroic turns-of-heart and the most epic musical ever to grace the high-school stage.

I received this eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

I couldn't help but feel the feels!! This hooked me from the very first page, only really witty books make me laugh out loud. Whenever I was reading this, I felt like I was reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which is my favorite book, it had this "perks vibe" which made me love it even more.

We're firstly introduced to Will Grayson, then a chapter later, the writing is in lower-case and it's confusing.. it took me 3 chapters to realize that the book is from both Will Grayson's POVs and the way you'll be able to differentiate is in the writing. 

I was anticipating Will and Will to be together the whole time, I totally didn't expect a change of events (read the book to know what I mean *evil grin*). Overall, I loved most of the characters, Will Grayson went through some character development that I loved, he stepped out of his shell and it made me happy to see him happy. On the same hand, the other will grayson went through a ton of crap only to get picked up again by someone.. I can possibly say that I liked will and was interested in him more than Will. Maybe the reason is because I fell in love with Tiny and his quirkiness. You can't help but love Tiny. Am I right, or am I right?

will grayson was just in the middle; he lacked a dad and was neither okay with it or extremely upset about it. He suffered from a heartbreak and wasn't as dramatic as Tiny was about it, he just moved on. Seeing such a character that also suffered from depression live normally with the hardships of his life affected me deeply. The lower-case writing also added in to the aspect of him not caring about anything which I loved.

I didn't like the love stories as much as I expected to, I thought they were unoriginal and cliche, but they still made my heart flutter. Aside from that, this book really made me think, you can always appreciate contemporaries that make you stop. Put down the book. And think. That is why I gave it such a high rating, it's not just a story about love. This book will stay for a long time with me, as it was truly memorable. I picked out some of my favorite quotes and I will include them down below..

Will Grayson, Will Grasyon dealt with LGBT, which was one of my 2015 reading resolutions, it also tackled some major depression aspects. It was my first time ever reading anything by David Levithan and I must say, I'm missing out! The writing of both of these authors captivated me..

Friendships, family and relationships, this book had it all! It's fast-paced and heart-warming! I needed such a light read.. I recommend it to all! 

" The things you hope for the most are the things that destroy you in the end."

" Love is tied to truth." 

Have you read Will Grayson,Will Grayson? Tell me in the comments below!

Have a great day everyone! 

- Jay