Juniors by Kaui Hart Hemmings

Title: Juniors

Author: Kaui Hart Hemmings

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

Release Date: September 22, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Lea Lane has lived in between all her life.

Part Hawaiian, part Mainlander. Perpetual new girl at school. Hanging in the shadow of her actress mother’s spotlight. And now: new resident of the prominent West family’s guest cottage.

Bracing herself for the embarrassment of being her classmates’ latest charity case, Lea is surprised when she starts becoming friends with Will and Whitney West instead—or in the case of gorgeous, unattainable Will, possibly even more than friends. And despite their differences, Whitney and Lea have a lot in common: both are navigating a tangled web of relationships, past disappointments and future hopes. As things heat up with Will, and her friendship with Whitney deepens, Lea has to decide how much she’s willing to change in order to fit into their world.

Lea Lane has lived in between all her life. But it isn’t until her junior year that she learns how to do it on her own terms.

As much as I loved the movie The Descendants, I hadn’t read any of Kaui Hart Hemmings’s books. But then I heard about Juniors and I my curiosity was piqued. This book sounded like it had my name written all over it. And after having read it, I can say that it’s totally true.

All Lea Lane has ever wanted was to fit in. But constantly being the new girl at school doesn’t make it easy. Neither does having an actress for a mother. Fitting in is made all the more difficult when Lea and her mom move into the West family’s guest cottage. Being seen as a charity case is the last thing she wants, but there are some definite perks to living in the cottage. Like becoming friends with Whitney and spending time with Will, her older brother. Lea is the first to be surprised by how easily she gets along with the West siblings. But the more time she spends with them, the more Lea realizes that to stay in this world, she’s going to have to make some changes. But are those changes she’s willing to make?

Juniors was the first (and only) book by Kaui Hart Hemmings that I’ve read. Despite having loved the movie The Descendants and knowing it was based on a book she wrote, I just never got around to reading one of her books. But if I’m not mistaken, Juniors is also her first young adult title (but I could be completely wrong) so that might also be why. All that to say that when I first heard about Juniors I just knew that it was something that I would enjoy. And reading the synopsis, it also kind of reminded me of Even in Paradise by Chelsey Philpot which I loved last year. Basically, Juniors had all the makings of a book I would love. And for the most part, I totally loved Juniors. And it made me want to go to Hawaii, but that’s not the point right now. I loved this story of figuring out just who you are and where you fit in in the world. I loved that there was such a strong focus on friendship. Where it kind of lost me, was on the romance. It’s not that there wasn’t romance, because there was. It was more that the romance wasn’t really what I thought and later hoped it would be. At one point, I was even a little confused as to who I wanted Lea to be with because it felt like she should be with one person but was putting all her efforts into being with someone else. So I was a little confused on the romance, but it didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the story. Which romance aside, I loved.

It took me a little bit to warm up to Lea. It’s not that I didn’t like her right from the start because I did. It was more that it took me a few chapters to get used to her way of telling her story. Once that happened, I was totally on board with Lea and I understood a lot of her concerns. It’s concerns that ultimately everyone has. And I loved seeing Lea growth over the course of the story: seeing her go from someone who was constantly worried about fitting in to someone who was comfortable being who she was. That doesn’t mean that I always agreed with the way she handled things, and that was definitely true when it came to her relationships. I loved seeing her friendship with Whitney develop, and I was hoping that she would find a way to make everything right where that friendship was concerned. And then there was Will and Danny and they’re who I was talking about when I said that the romance kind of lost me. Right from the moment she first mentioned Danny, I knew that that was who Lea belonged with. And then I saw them together and that just reaffirmed that thought. But then she became so focused on Will and I liked Will but there was just always something that felt off about him. But by the end of Juniors, I was happy with the end result. It just took a bit to get there.

Even though it wasn’t entirely was I expected it would be, Kaui Hart Hemmings’s Juniors was still totally my kind of book. It was a slower and quieter story about finding yourself and finding where you belong and it was totally worth the read. Fair warning, though, this book will make you want to hop on a plane to Hawaii.

Sophomore Year is Greek to Me by Meredith Zeitlin

Title: Sophomore Year is Greek to Me

Author: Meredith Zeitlin

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

Release Date: April 21, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

A laugh-out-loud high school adventure set in Greece, perfect for fans of Meg Cabot.

High school sophomore Zona Lowell has lived in New York City her whole life, and plans to follow in the footsteps of her renowed-journalist father. But when he announces they’re moving to Athens for six months so he can work on an important new story, she’s devastated—he must have an ulterior motive. See, when Zona’s mother married and American, her huge Greek family cut off contact. But Zona never knew her mom, and now she’s supposed to uproot her entire life and meet possibly hostile relatives on their turf? Thanks…but no thanks.

In the vein of Anna and the French Kiss, Zona navigates a series of hilarious escapades, eye-opening revelations, and unexpected reunions in a foreign country—all while documenting the trip through one-of-a-kind commentary.

Remember a few weeks ago when I was complaining that there weren’t really any books out there that were even a little representative of my high school experience? Well, guess what? I found one! But beyond that, Meredith Zeitlin’s Sophomore Year Is Greek to Me was also a fun read that made me want to hop on a plane to Greece.

Bona Lowell has her sophomore year all planned out. She’s editor of the Features section of the school paper and she’s got a notebook full of idea to pitch, hoping to follow in her award-winning journalist father’s footsteps. But then her father announces that they are moving to Greece for the second half of the school year. That wasn’t exactly part of Zona’s plans. Neither was finally meeting her mom’s family, the people who have refused to acknowledge her for as long as she’s been alive. But Zona doesn’t have much of a choice in the matter. As reluctant as she is to move to Athens, Zona quickly finds out that this experience might not be as horrible as she thought.

A few years ago, I read Meredith Zeitlin’s debut Freshman Year and Other Unnatural Disasters and really enjoyed it, enough that I was looking for more from this debut author. And then I never heard about anything. Until quite recently when I was given the opportunity to review Zeitlin’s newest, Sophomore Year Is Greek to Me. Having now read it, I’m happy the wait was that long because the story was worth it. If for no other reason, I loved this story because the school Zona, the main character, goes to in Athens was pretty similar to the high school I went to. A few weeks ago I wrote a post about my own high school experience, saying that I struggled with finding books that reflected the experience I had. Any time I was reading descriptions of the international school Zona goes to, I was smiling. So many of the comments she made about the school and the people who attended were what my high school was like. So thank you Meredith Zeitlin for writing about a character who goes to an international school overseas. Beyond that, this story was just fun to read. Zona’s adventures with her estranged Greek family were nothing if not entertaining, especially when you start taking into consideration the cultural and language barriers. And as funny as it was, there were many instances when this story was touching, thanks to all the relationships in the story.

Bona was a fantastic character with a really entertaining voice. I loved the way that her journalistic aspirations could be seen in the way she told this story. Sure, she injected a lot of her own thoughts and opinions (this was her story, after all), but there were plenty of times where she felt more like an observer than a participant in her own life. Which is what people were telling her to do, to actually live her life as opposed to only focusing on writing about it. So it was really great seeing her start to do that. My favourite part of Zona, though, was the relationship she had with her dad. Maybe it’s just me, but I haven’t read a lot of book where there is such a strong emphasis on a father-daughter relationship. I’m not saying there aren’t any, I’m just saying I want more of them. And while I’m talking about relationships, all the different ones Zona forged over the course of this story were among the best parts of this book. Seeing her get to know this family she’d never met, and see them as people who care about her as opposed to people who abandoned her mother was really touching. Relationships, of any kind, are just my favourite to read about.

Meredith Zeitlin’s Sophomore Year Is Greek to Me was a great read. I loved all the relationships that developed over the course of this story. And the fact that it was set in Greece and was filled with descriptions of the Greek islands didn’t hurt. It also made me want to hop on a plane to Crete. But that’s a different story.