Review: Top Ten Clues You're Clueless by Liz Czukas

Top Ten Clues You're Clueless, by Liz Czukas
Publication: December 9, 2014, by HarperTeen
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 289
Format: Paperback
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 

Top Five Things That Are Ruining Chloe’s Day
5) Working the 6:30 a.m. shift at GoodFoods Market
4) Crashing a cart into a customer’s car right in front of her snarky coworker Sammi
3) Trying to rock the “drowned rat” look after being caught in a snowstorm
2) Making zero progress with her crush, Tyson (see #3)
1) Being accused—along with her fellow teenage employees—of stealing upwards of $10,000 
Chloe would rather be anywhere than locked in work jail (aka the break room) with five of her coworkers . . . even if one of them is Tyson. But if they can band together to clear their names, what looks like a total disaster might just make Chloe’s list of Top Ten Best Moments.

My Thoughts: 

Cute, fabulous, adorable... and did I mention "cute?" Those are the three words that come to mind when I picture the cover and title of Liz Czukas's late-2014 novel. I just can't get enough of it and the way it made me feel! When you pick it up, you certainly won't be able to read anything else quite like it for ages. If you ask me about the cutest chick-lit I've read lately, I'll let you know the name of this one and beg you to go out and purchase it. Your bookshelf certainly will thank you for a copy, and it's the perfect read that you'll finish in one luxurious sitting, trust me. 

Top Ten Clues You're Clueless took a spin on the average boy-meets-girl and girl-loves-boy-from-afar setting... in a grocery store, taken place in the timespan of one day—Christmas Eve, the busiest day of the year for the Goodfoods (reminds me of Goodreads, LOL) supermarket. It's not easy writing about the different grocery sections like produce, meat and all, where Czukas certainly needed to do a lot of research on the broad subject. After reading her acknowledgments, it's awesome to see how she based the crew and store off of one she actually knows personally. And lists? Yeah, those are certainly unique in a novel.

What a gorgeous cover! I love how it looks like Ask Again Later.

Again, as I mentioned the GoodFoods market, this is where Chloe works. She's a teen who has diabetes and is supposed to be working at Christmas Eve, where she writes lists to help her get through her day. Except this day... she tries to get herself to actually speak to her co-workers and find something new about them. Not to mention the fact that Tyson, a cute guy, is on her eye and she might even like him. When mystery strikes and everyone discovers that a box filled with money going to charity is stolen (at least, most of the money is) the high-school teenage crew try to still have fun on this crazy day and discover challenges in between.

Please don't expect the mystery in this case to be like something where Sherlock Holmes will need to step into. No. It's a case that would probably appear on the news as a small story with expectations for things to get worse by the second. It's a real-life situation, not some tragic murder where everyone is questioned in the store. It's contemporary-romance fiction, which adds another 10 awesome points to my charter of granting this book a great rating. You like a little mystery added into the problem but having the main character not being the one to solve it? Yes, I think I like myself a bit of that as well. You see, I don't even classify it as mystery, but I'm letting you know that it's present. There's so much more to this glorious story than that, relating to all of their lives!

Poor characters. Wah.

So I'm thinking of making a list here. Let's do it. Top Four Reasons Why Czukas rules the YA chick-lit world:

1. Easy Romance That Takes Some Time To Brew: Chloe and Tyson were adorable. You can't even state that they had an insta-love relationship because they knew each other before the book's events even took place. Chloe kept going into fucking questioning when all of the signs were there! Talk about jealousy when a girl has an accent, my friends. But hey, I wouldn't even blame her because Tyson is such a cute guy who is friendly to everyone (like Micah was) and he wanted to be nice to every single person.

2. Each character has a distinctive personality and all have their own issues: Gabe has trouble with his decision to go to college and all of that. Micah is more of an introvert, but such a great person, and his homeschooling kind of disrupts his chance of shining and making more friends. Chloe has trouble with her love life and dealing with her diabetes at times. Tyson? Well, he's a character that surely could've been more improved on, we needed to know more about him. And Sammi? Total bad chick, I was getting afraid that she was holding something more like anorexia. Oh my, thank goodness no. They're like The Breakfast Club characters, only in a grocery store, riding in carts to find turkey slices. No joke.

3. Diversity, duh: Tyson had skin like chocolate, which Chloe described in her perspective. Chick-lits these days are just so prone to only stick to one culture or such, but this was a distinct decision to follow and Czukas did a perfect job at hiding the diversity in the shadows, but not making a big deal out of it that it was even there. Hooray for that, I paid so much attention to it.

4. Great, fast-paced plots: You can honestly finish this book in two hours straight. It's such an easy read to get by with and you'll adore it. I couldn't ask for a better experience, and you'll definitely be stuck thinking about it night and day, just don't make the whole situation too hard on yourself, it all plays out to be super positive by the end, trust me.

Top Two Reasons Why This Didn't Turn Out to Be a Five-Star Read:

1. The ending: Um. Predictability? Check. Happiness? Check. It was predictable, and there were no jaw-dropping moments, sadly. I recommend looking onto the bright side of things when it's all over, so your mood can make everything look better. Huh. Guess what happened between Tyson and Chloe? You got it stuck in your head, yep.

2. Chloe's perspective: You'll already guess what I might say but one word to describe it was: no confidence whatsoever. This ruined a lot of it for me and I wish that her diabetes and who she was made her stronger, but she kept putting herself down and it made me really upset. Where's our cheery contemporary protagonist?

Okay. You'll love this, I loved this, the whole book community will just find this to be a book that's not clueless on messing around with readers's personalities at all. I giggled, snickered, laughed and even shed a few inside tears, feeling sympathy for Chloe and her story. I actually really want to go and apply for a job at the grocery store now, hoping that I wouldn't be caught in a crazy mystery like the GoodFoods crew had. Brace yourself for wondrous lists, and you'll find yourself beginning to make them to get through your day!

What do you specifically think of lists? Do you use them? What other books have been written using them?

Review: Royal Wedding by Meg Cabot

Royal Wedding (The Princess Diaries #11), by Meg Cabot
Publication: June 2, 2015, by William Morrow and Company
Genre: Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 435
Format: Paperback
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Princess Diaries series, comes the very first adult installment, which follows Princess Mia and her Prince Charming as they plan their fairy tale wedding—but a few poisoned apples could turn this happily-ever-after into a royal nightmare.
For Princess Mia, the past five years since college graduation have been a whirlwind of activity, what with living in New York City, running her new teen community center, being madly in love, and attending royal engagements. And speaking of engagements. Mia's gorgeous longtime boyfriend Michael managed to clear both their schedules just long enough for an exotic (and very private) Caribbean island interlude where he popped the question! Of course Mia didn't need to consult her diary to know that her answer was a royal oui.
But now Mia has a scandal of majestic proportions to contend with: Her grandmother's leaked "fake" wedding plans to the press that could cause even normally calm Michael to become a runaway groom. Worse, a scheming politico is trying to force Mia's father from the throne, all because of a royal secret that could leave Genovia without a monarch. Can Mia prove to everyone—especially herself—that she's not only ready to wed, but ready to rule as well?

My Thoughts: 

After discovering that this book is going to be a real, legit thing, I panicked like an old fan of Meg Cabot's books would. True story. Royal Wedding is the book that we've all been anticipating and waiting for, although we may have not seen it coming until a week before. Inside all of our hearts, I bet that we all knew that this was coming. And now? I WANT A SEQUEL. You hear that, William Morrow and Company? We're all obsessed, I'm telling you!

Royal Wedding turned out to be that perfect read where everything was going as planned. In terms of the plot, I mean. I'd surely not even classify it as an adult read, when it was just as cute and fluffy as the other ten previous books in the series that we've all known to come and love. My heart clenched every two seconds as Michael would do something cute or while they were on vacation, and I just really enjoyed it throughout. For me, I definitely wouldn't have switched my thoughts or experience to any other way, even to have a superb 5 star rating. This was definitely awesome the way it was, and I'm so excited to see other reactions in the coming months of others who previously adored Cabot's work! 

"The frustrating thing about being in love with Michael Moscovitz is that it's impossible to stay angry with him, especially when he's got his hand wrapped around the back of your neck and he's resting his forehead against yours and that clean Michael smell of his is filling your senses."

That's honestly what they are.

I guess that I'm the type to try to see different views on romance when reading an extra-long series. I actually didn't even read all eleven books in the series (maybe around 8?) and Cabot just does a splendid job reminding readers who is who and what the storyline is based upon. We don't have our usual confusion that I especially have when I was reading Pretty Little Liars (sixteen crazy novels long) and I was so proud of the way this turned out. The plot is simple, too. 

Mia and Michael have been together for a really long time, but Mia fears that they're still not ready to get married and have a family... yet. But then Michael takes her on an exotic trip, and he ends up proposing, and of course the rumours begin. She can't fake it all when everything is a hundred percent real, and she's actually never been happier. A few years after the end of the tenth book, Mia is as happy and as strong in character as she was back then and is ready for more surprises and shocks in her life. *smacks forehead*

When thinking about strong heroines, Mia is one of them. I've always liked her, to be honest, and seeing her as a grown-up when the beginning of this series started off with her being my age is extraordinary. She's changed so much, yet so little. Being royalty is so fucking hard, but reading from the viewpoint of an ordinary woman who seriously is lost in her world, too is interesting. Cabot adds tweaks and hints of experiences from our modern day society to thoroughly explain Mia's story and where it'll go from here. Royal twins? That's ought to be something gorgeous, and I'm hoping that we'll go from a newly-wedded woman to a mother. She'll be fabulous, and I bet that readers hadn't seen that coming for sure. It's just one of the utterly crazy shocks that authors like to give readers to scare them with those wicked heart jumps of ours. At least, in my situation this always occurs, hmmph. 

PLOT TWISSSSTTTTSSSSS.

When picking this up at my local library, I felt like a mother holding her child. You know, I might've had hearts in my eyes. I didn't even end up putting the book in my bag, just holding it all the way home. (But that might've occurred because there wasn't any room left in the bag, either. Anyways.) Throughout my reading experience, I felt jittery and happy, and it overall was just a positive read. We're not in the mood for some life-threatening plot twist where someone dies. And that's another reason why it's pure chick-lit, something that truly brightens my mood up always. This definitely has to do with why my feels were all over the place. Damn.

Although it was slow-paced, again, it was enjoyable. That's the only negative thing I have to mention, but it's seen that it's not an issue for any other reviewer as I scroll down its Goodreads page. I feel that because of the title, I may have just been waiting for the wedding day and the preparations right from the start, so honestly, you shouldn't get fooled. There's a lot of time and build-up before the main climax and point is revealed, and it's actually a pretty big novel when you think about it. 

This story wouldn't have gone anywhere if it wasn't for the attraction between Mia and Michael. Although they had their ups and downs (like all relationships do), they were such a strong power couple and beat the stereotypes and obvious stuff of one person being royalty. Nothing, not one peep in their romance was about Mia being an heir to the throne and all of that—they're just a girl who's going to be a mother of two and a guy who likes science. Nerds, if you'd like to call it that. It's like a William and Kate story, and that couple was even mentioned, too. HOW MORE REAL CAN THIS POSSIBLY GET? Not too much further, my mind tells me.

I see this as the actual, best guide for a girl and how to do things. It includes: a kickass heroine, so much believable events, plot twists and jump scares and twins. Sorry for mentioning that, it might be a spoiler. Cabot knows the way to grab a key to a girl's heart, and it's with her sweet, sassy writing that seems like it's all of her personality. It's totally understandable that she didn't want to leave the world of the series that we are all obsessed with, HOW COULD SHE? And actually, how could she not write a sequel to this? We all need some continuation now that she began with Mia's adulthood. This wedding will eventually be broadcasted on television, I swear. (And I wish.)

Okay. Okay. Okay. So what are some other books that eventually had some adult continuation? OR.... IS MEG CABOT THE FIRST TO EVER DO THIS? OMG.

No Place to Fall by Jaye Robin Brown

No Place to Fall, by Jaye Robin Brown
Publication: December 9, 2014, by HarperTeen
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 368
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased
Rating: 

Amber Vaughn is a good girl. She sings solos at church, babysits her nephew after school, and spends every Friday night hanging out at her best friend Devon’s house. It’s only when Amber goes exploring in the woods near her home, singing camp songs with the hikers she meets on the Appalachian Trail, that she feels free—and when the bigger world feels just a little bit more in reach.
When Amber learns about an audition at the North Carolina School of the Arts, she decides that her dream—to sing on bigger stages—could also be her ticket to a new life. Devon’s older (and unavailable) brother, Will, helps Amber prepare for her one chance to try out for the hypercompetitive arts school. But the more time Will and Amber spend together, the more complicated their relationship becomes . . . and Amber starts to wonder if she’s such a good girl, after all.
Then, in an afternoon, the bottom drops out of her family’s world—and Amber is faced with an impossible choice between her promise as an artist and the people she loves. Amber always thought she knew what a good girl would do. But between “right” and “wrong,” there’s a whole world of possibilities.

This was a real special read. I find that most people are unable to discover something so unique and diverse compared to the regular usual concepts that everyone's used to in a contemporary-romance, but this book had it all.  No Place to Fall was something that I had touched upon in at one sitting, falling in love with Brown's words and that every YA reader will have to read.

"I've never even heard him play, but I know, from the sound of his voice, from the look in his eyes, that the guitar is the thing that keeps him together. My instrument is part of me, and I'll never lose it. Nobody can sell it out from under me."

Amber doesn't realize the talent that she has. She feels that her singing skills are just a hobby, something she can rarely sing around the campfire with her friends. This is something deeper and perhaps enjoyable for her than what the average person feels. When she learns about an audition at the North Carolina School of the Arts, she decides to fulfill her dreams and do it. Her best friend's, Devon's older brother, Will helps Amber prepare for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be at ease and relive everything the way a peaceful way would be recognized. And then... tragedy strikes.

I just can't believe that that happened. I never saw it coming, and Brown just made this into a mystery that's contemporary and life changing, adding romance. I guess the image of friendship and people always being there for each other is always present, and this formed this novel, into a climax and a plot with gorgeousness and beauty. 

The story was perfect. Everything about it was amazing. I can't really explain to you the feeling of reliving a situation that many people have actually went through, but it is something magical. It was the perfect summer novel to read by the beach, or to dream about at night, though you don't want THAT EVENT to happen to you, because that definitely shattered the family and Amber herself... into someone unbelievable.

"That's not my dream. It's not my music. No matter how bad I want an audience."

You see, Amber has big dreams. I admire the fact that she does, but I DON'T LIKE HER. *rips hair, not literally* She's strange, absurd, and I don't know... snobby? I found that Brown made her someone who's willing to gear herself into reaching for her goals, but not doing anything about it. Yeah, she was reckless and crazy when not at the right moments, but that wasn't what upset me the most. The way she acted towards Will, playing hard-to-get didn't work for her. I felt like face-palming myself over and over again, begging for AMAZINGNESS.

With a gorgeous premise, some tension between the characters, and a memorable set of male characters, Brown is a fantastic author who's novels I will surely keep my eye onto... wanting to sneak some awesome characters into.

Starry Night by Isabel Gillies Review

Starry Night, by Isabel Gillies
Publication: September 2, 2014, by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased
Rating: ½

Sometimes one night can change everything. On this particular night, Wren and her three best friends are attending a black-tie party at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to celebrate the opening of a major exhibit curated by her father. An enormous wind blasts through the city, making everyone feel that something unexpected and perhaps wonderful will happen. And for Wren, that something wonderful is Nolan. With his root-beer-brown Michelangelo eyes, Nolan changes the way Wren’s heart beats. In Isabel Gillies's Starry Night, suddenly everything is different. Nothing makes sense except for this boy. What happens to your life when everything changes, even your heart? How much do you give up? How much do you keep?

Books that make your heart feel guilty of wanting more and that fluttering feeling with cuteness come and go. No for real—they simply just come once in a while, and never seem to go. Starry Night left me with a glitter-filled mind, where I was wishing for a romance so artistic that van Gogh would've given a huge approval for. Gillies did this so amazingly that I kept searching for more in a gorgeous majestic sunshine painting.

After reading, I feel like everything in my life now relates to art. Yeah, there's always many cheesy books where the protagonist is an artist or has those huge dreams, but this one worked. The best thing was that this wasn't picture perfect and it showed that it isn't that easy to find that kind of relationship, yet it isn't impossible because things work out to be that way a ton of times, especially after looking at the ending, which left me shocked and shredded into pieces.

"I don't think you fall in love for the first time until something—or someone—feels dangerous. I don't mean dangerous like going to jail, I guess I mean just different, really different."

You can say that the protagonist here, Wren, is clueless in life and love. But the best thing is that she's searching for it. It wasn't cheesy where she wasn't expecting the love and it suddenly just came to her, it was meant to be at the right moment where her and Nolan were both expecting the same kind of thing from each other. The way they meet was unexpected and everyone was shipping them so hard, including the family members. It was all perfect.

I guess compared to the really low ratings, I kept a total positive attitude towards this. In the end, I liked it much more than I expected, and sure there were some mishaps and weak things going on with the plot from the beginning towards the end of the middle, I can definitely recommend it. When I started reading, I was hoping for the best as I saw the low ratings where everyone was giving this a 2 star. The rating on Goodreads is 2.96 for goodness sake's! Why? I guess I can't really figure that out too well since I did like it by the end.

The plot of this was one of the problems. The beginning to middle was weak, as I had trouble getting interested in what was going on. The writing seemed weak and dull and I lost control of what I was trying to get from the message. But thankfully, Nolan and Wren's power stayed with me. Their romance was gorgeous, and I never had enough. THEY'RE SO CUTE AND THEN UGH ISABEL GILLIES KILLED ME. I'm not going to note what's going to happen, though it did shock me to the bones and I'm still left shaking.

With a gorgeous romance and characters, I have to say that Isabel Gillies has done a job well done with writing a novel that artists will see the deepness in. I can't stop thinking about it and I'm so excited to see more from the author. NREN FOREVER! #SHIP

City Love by Susane Colasanti Review

City Love, by Susane Colasanti
Published On: April 21, 2015, by Katherine Tegen Books
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Romance, Chick-lit
Format: eARC
Source: Edelweiss
Rating: ½

Sadie, Darcy, and Rosanna are living together in New York City the summer before their freshman year of college begins. With no parents, no rules, and an entire city to explore, these three girls are on the verge of the best summer of their lives.
Sadie is a native New Yorker. She is hopeful, romantic, and an eternal optimist who is ready to find her soul mate. Then she meets her dream boy: cute, funny, and quirky in all the right ways. The chemistry between them is unreal. Could he be the one?
Darcy is a free spirit from SoCal with rebellious tendencies and unlimited financial resources. Moving to New York City is just another adventure for her. Darcy wants this summer to be all about boy adventures—nothing serious. But how much fun is too much?
Rosanna leaves Chicago for NYC so she can put her past behind her and reinvent herself. The only thing standing in her way is the grand total of seventy-three cents she has saved. Then she meets a guy who wants to show her the glamorous side of New York—a side that she would never get to experience on her own. If Rosanna doesn't resist, she may find herself in city love.
Told from alternating points of view, City Love captures the moments in each girl's life when everything is thrilling, amazing, and terrifying all at once . . . in a way it will never be again. 

When I found out that Susane Colasanti was releasing a new book this year and it was going to be the first book in a trilogy, my reaction was literally priceless.

City Love was a real rich, gorgeous remedy of literature coming from the hands of an incredible author. Colasanti never disappoints, and with this one, she did it in the littlest minimum. As you may or may not know, I have an obsession with traveling. I’ve read so many YA contemporary-romances about Europe and boarding schools and the true glorious feeling of traveling (especially with your friends and boyfriends, hehe) and it’s my guilty pleasure. I can’t help but feel that one day, I will be those characters and I will get to tour the world and sightsee and have no worries.

Don’t you think that it’s honestly the best when a book gets you to wonder and dream of doing the same things as the characters? That’s what Colasanti does, every single time. I find myself always wishing to experience that true love and specialty that she puts into our minds—except I always find myself having to wait and sit here in reality. But can’t we all wish?

This was a novel based totally in New York City, with three different POVs of three total different personalities—Darcy, Sadie and Rosanna. They all have come to the University of New York from different places, to experience a new life and to get a long-lasting friendship. Sadie is the original New Yorker, while Darcy is from Cali and Rosanna from Chicago, all seeking adventure and to find love. 

From the beginning, we all knew that all three of the girls would find their true love somewhere in the city. Chick-lit contemporaries are meant to be sappy and meant to have happy endings, with limited sad moments. Life in happy stories is meant to be without any worries. I guess that’s another reason why we find ourselves frequently reading them, since we can only wish.

What I’m really fond of here is that this is going to be a trilogy. We normally barely get contemporary trilogies, and in these kind of books, it’s always key to get a more detailed background story on the characters so we can relate to them more and understand the catch that the author is throwing at us. And man, that cliffhanger, though. 

The concept of this was absolutely adorable, though I did find a ton of tweaks that reminded me a lot of the Anna and the French Kiss trilogy by Stephanie Perkins, my most favourite chick-lit, ever. I don’t know if it’s just me and that I can’t stop thinking about that series since it ended last August, but the romance and the three POV thing was very much similar. That thought was stuck in my head after I set my Kindle down after reading.

This was a very easy book to read, if you know what I mean. It was perky, happy, and I found that I can only keep on wishing good things for the protagonists. At the same time, it was very bland and simple. The book as a whole was something you can read in one sitting if you really would like to finish it, or you can read it from time to time in a weekend and get in and out of it without any trouble. It’s a read that you’ll be able to watch a TV show with in between.

As for the characters, Rosanna has to be my overall favourite. She was kickass, took risks, and her beau, D, was absolutely gorgeous and I shipped them the hardest out of all of them. Darcy was my next fave, and last came Sadie, with a brown-nosing act coming out of her. She was annoying and I felt like she thought that she was the master of living the ‘real deal.’

With a great set of characters and many ships and couples and fabulous writing, City Love was an absolute enjoyment to read. It’s the type of book that you could read during any season and any day of the year with feelings instead of hassle. Tear away the sucky stuff such as some of the moments where I saw the plot being like Anna and the French Kiss and the concept, and we’ve got a perfect read right beside our hands. I can't wait for the sequel!

Fifteenth Summer, by Michelle Dalton Review

Fifteenth Summer, by Michelle Dalton
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Romance, Chick-lit
Publication: May 7, 2013, by Simon Pulse
Pages: 272
Format: Paperback
Source: Gifted
Rating: 

Love blossoms by the lake in this sweet summer romance, in the tradition of Seventeeth Summer and Sixteenth Summer.
Chelsea isn’t looking forward to her summer at the lake. It’s the first time her family has been there since her grandmother died, and she can’t break out of her funk. But her summer takes a turn for the better when she meets a boy who works in the bookstore. Josh is cute, sweet, funny…and best of all, seems to like her as much as she likes him. As the days pass by in a blur of boat rides, picnics, and stolen kisses, she can’t believe how lucky she is. No one has ever made her feel so special, or so beautiful.
But Chelsea knows her days with Josh are numbered. She’ll be heading home at the end of the summer—and he’ll be staying behind. Will this be Chelsea’s summer of love? Or will it be the summer of her broken heart?

What’s that—do I hear the word “fake” in the air? That’s right. Really, small-town girl romance summer love stuff is so not for me. It’s not my type and it’s so cliché and out of my bookish-league. Fifteenth Summer was exactly as Sixteenth Summer was, and I’ve found that cheesy chick-lit like this definitely isn’t for me. There’s no backstory, no drama, just something sweet and sappy that’s getting you to wonder if the couple will stay together by the end. That’s all we’re looking for.

If you want the most simplistic book to read by the seashore while you’re on vacation and trying to concentrate on the total minimum, then I’d tell you to go for this. Michelle Dalton is an author who goes through many romance “clichés,” as well as a story with almost no plot. It’s a little more boring than spending 2 hours staring into space. 

Without even reading or threading a wink at the pages, you can probably tell what this is already about. Your elementary school English teacher would be proud of you for making correct predictions on what the story is about by just looking at the cover and making a ‘visual prediction.’  A girl spending a summer in a small-town beach, falling in love, not knowing what will happen in the future or if they’ll stay together. It’s like a 50/50 chance that they’ll be together. 

But what about the long-distance thing? What about their families? Isn’t 15 such an early age to be “really in love?” Those were the dumb questions that were floating around in Chelsea’s mind. (Our protagonist.) And what I can tell you is that this book was memorable to the minimum. I can’t even remember what the guy’s name was. *not looking at summary* Daniel? Jacob? Max?  *looks at summary* JOSH. Oh yeah, it was Josh.

First thing’s first—the idea was cute. I mean, I was able to stand it, unlike some romances. Yes, there were a ton of moments where I just kept rolling my eyes over and over again of boredom and because of the cheesiness, but it’s kind of fun to imagine love at a young age. It’s obviously really rare, but that’s the idea of a book—things that aren’t meant to happen in reality. It’s only the author’s dream that we will dream on about their writing and the events that happened in the book and originally formed in their minds. For the idea, I’ll give it between good and bad. This was a fairly short read. 272 pages can take me about 2 hours to read? And because it was so easy to read and concentrate on, it was even more easier. Yes, the story was extremely fast-paced, but I didn’t get that much captivation out of it, coming out of the idea.

Chelsea was AMAZING. I loved her to death—especially since she was a bookworm. ONCE SHE ARRIVED TO THE TOWN SHE LOOKED FOR A BOOKSTORE AND SHE FOUND JOSH THERE, AHHH.  Like, that was the perfect way to find your loved one, especially if you guys can understand each other. They were a definite ship. And Josh’s parents loved Chelsea from the moment they met her when she bought that $1 book. The funniest thing was that she actually came to look for something better but she really got nervous around Josh and ended up having to get one of the cheesiest and cheapest books in the store. But you can’t help it when you see something that excites you, no?

To be honest, I didn’t really like Josh as a character since the person on the cover ruined it for me and he was a little too show-off and macho-ee (you know what I mean, hah), but together, they were really cute. It’s amazing when a couple aren’t complete opposites and when one can understand each other 100%. Two book-nerds together? That’s the best thing ever.

With a fantastic protagonist and a quick read, Fifteenth Summer was okay. There were some tweaks that could’ve been better that I felt, such as the love interest, Josh, or the idea and concept that Dalton had going on, but the best thing was that it was so easy to read and understand. Feeling a little down and/or needy of a quick read? Go for this—it’s just as good as Sixteenth Summer.