Forget You by Jennifer Echols

Title: Forget You

Author: Jennifer Echols

Publisher: MTV Books

Release Date: July 20, 2010

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

WHY CAN’T YOU CHOOSE WHAT YOU FORGET...AND WHAT YOU REMEMBER?

There’s a lot Zoey would like to forget. Like how her father has knocked up his twenty-four-year old girlfriend. Like Zoey’s fear that the whole town will find out about her mom’s nervous breakdown. Like darkly handsome bad boy Doug taunting her at school. Feeling like her life is about to become a complete mess, Zoey fights back the only way she knows how, using her famous attention to detail to make sure she’s the perfect daughter, the perfect student, and the perfect girlfriend to ultra-popular football player Brandon.

But then Zoey is in a car crash, and the next day there’s one thing she can’t remember at all--the entire night before. Did she go parking with Brandon, like she planned? And if so, why does it seem like Brandon is avoiding her? And why is Doug--of all people--suddenly acting as if something significant happened between the two of them? Zoey dimly remembers Doug pulling her from the wreck, but he keeps referring to what happened that night as if it was more, and it terrifies Zoey to admit how much is a blank to her. Controlled, meticulous Zoey is quickly losing her grip on the all-important detail of her life--a life that seems strangely empty of Brandon, and strangely full of Doug.

I first discovered Jennifer Echols when I read Going Too Far. When I found out that she had a similar book coming out I got excited because I just loved Going Too Far. I can now say that I had the same reaction to Forget You. I just absolutely loved it. The story was great, the characters were great, I just couldn’t put it down no matter how sleepy I was getting. Jennifer Echols just has a way of writing that completely draws the reader into the story, and in my books that makes for some pretty awesome writing and story telling.

Zoey always has to be in control of everything and no one can find out about the real problems in her life. It’s bad enough that everyone knows her dad got his twenty-four-year old mistress pregnant and is leaving her mom to be with her, now Zoey’s mom has had a total nervous breakdown and is being kept at the mental hospital. Then Brandon, a super popular and hot football player, takes interest to Zoey things seem to be looking up. But a car wreck later, Zoey can’t seem to get a handle on things again: Brandon barely speaks to her, she can’t remember anything that happened the night of the crash, and of all people, Doug Fox, seems to be the only one who knows everything that’s going on with Zoey.

I felt like I could relate to Zoey throughout most of the book. Her whole thing about being a good listener to everyone’s problems, been there done that. Being team captain without necessarily being the best on team, been there done that too. But unlike her, my parents are still together and my mother has never been institutionalized. Zoey was really great though I did get exasperated with her at times, especially when she kept on going on about being Brandon’s girlfriend just because she’d slept with him once. I’m sorry but randomly hooking up with someone, in most cases, does not make you that person’s girlfriend or boyfriend. Especially when you know said person has been hooking up with girls all summer long and talking to you about it. But other than this I really liked Zoey.

Doug was pretty awesome too, I’ll admit it. I loved discovering that he wasn’t at all who Zoey thought he was. He wasn’t exactly who everyone thought he was and that’s something I really like about a character. What I liked the most about Doug was how much he cared about Zoey and wanted protect her from different things going on...though if he could have done that without omitting certain facts it would have been even better. I can say for sure that I liked him a whole lot better than I liked Brandon, but if you ask me that’s not something that’s very hard. Brandon was a jerk. I’ll leave at that and stay polite.

I also really liked the story itself. This is only the second book of Jennifer Echols that I’ve read but I already love the way she tells stories. Forget You completely drew me in and I wouldn’t have put it down at all if I would have had a choice. Sure there were some elements of the story that I saw coming but that didn’t make me like the story any less. It was amazingly written, fast paced and absolutely amazing.

Anyone who has read anything by Jennifer Echols should most definitely pick up Forget You. Anyone else should pick it up, it’s that good of a book. It will find a way to shock you but you still won’t want to put it down.

Book Blogger Hop (7)

The Book Blogger Hop is a weekly event hosted each week by Jennifer of Crazy-for-Books. Every week I've met new bloggers who came to visit me and found some pretty awesome blogs that I now visit regularly.

This week's quesion:

HOW MANY BLOGS DO YOU FOLLOW?

To be honest I follow quite a few, I don't have the exact number but I just know there may be a lot of them. However I don't visit every single blog I follow on a regular basis. I have a folder in my favorites with the ones that I like the most and those I visit on a regular basis. Though the ones that I don't visit on a regular basis I do go back from time to time to look at what is going on there too.

Enjoy your weekend and happy hopping!

The Juliet Club by Suzanne Harper

Title: The Juliet Club

Author: Suzanne Harper

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: May 27, 2008

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Kate Sanderson has been burned by love. From now on, she thinks, I will control my own destiny, and I will be reasoned and rational. But life has other things in store for Kate. Namely, a summer abroad studying Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in the very town where the star-crossed lovers met, Verona, Italy. Kate is thrown together with two other American teens and three Italians for a special seminar--and for volunteer duty at the Juliet Club, where they answer letters from the lovelorn around the world. Can Kate’s cool logic withstand the most romantic summer ever? Especially when faced with the ever-so-charming Giacomo and his entrancing eyes...?

I hadn’t heard much about The Juliet Club when I picked it up at the bookstore but I decided I would give it a shot. When I read the summary it made me think of the movie Letters to Juliet which came out in May of this year. They are both based around the group of people who answer letters that are sent to Juliet, the difference being that the letters aren’t used in the same way. The book was a lovely summer read and I really enjoyed it.

After seeing what happened to her parents’ marriage and a relationship gone wrong, Kate decided that she would never let herself get fooled by love. Then she learns that she will be spending four weeks in Verona, Italy at a Shakespeare Seminar. Kate leaves for Italy ready to plunge deeply into Romeo and Juliet and focus only on studying. But then she meets Giacomo and has to answer letters for the Juliet Club, which, obviously, deal with love. While trying to play a trick on the other members of the seminar, Giacomo and Kate find themselves falling for each other, something they most definitely did not except to happen.

Kate was a character that I learned to like. At the beginning of the book she didn’t really appeal to me all that much but by the end I found that I actually really liked her. I had the same reaction to Giacomo. At first I found him a little cocky and arrogant but I learned to like him too and by the end of the book I could see what Kate saw in him. Kate and Giacomo were very similar characters, at times it felt like they were the same just one was a girl and the other a boy. I found that this is what made the relationship between the two that much more interesting. We always say that opposites attract but in this case, they thought they were opposites but I thought they were actually the same. I’m not sure if that makes any sense but that’s just what I thought.

I actually like the secondary characters better than I did Kate and Giacomo (though I did like them in the end!). Lucy and Benno were my favorite. Lucy was always so positive and happy and she wanted nothing more than to help everyone who wrote to the Juliet Club. There was just something about Lucy that made her really likeable...maybe it was the whole hopeless romantic thing. And Benno was just too amusing not to like. He was overly expressive about everything and he troubles with girls are truly funny, especially when another Shakespeare Scholar is concerned. Silvia and Tom were also quite interesting but Benno and Lucy were still my favorites.

The story was light and amusing and made for the perfect summary. I liked how the chapters were in terms of acts and scenes like it would be in a play. I found that it was a nice tie-in to the whole Shakespeare thing. The various Entr’acte with Kate’s two best friends were also nice to have just to have a different take on things at time. The general plot of the book also reminded me of some of the Shakespearean comedies, with those thinking they are playing the trick actually ending being the ones tricked. I just thought it was neat especially considering Shakespeare plays a pretty important part in the book. The story was nothing overly deep and meaningful but it was exactly what I needed after having read a few pretty intense books.

Overall The Juliet Club was the perfect summer read, I just breezed through it. Even though it was 400 pages long, there was never a boring moment. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone looking to read an light and entertaining novel.

Waiting on Wednesday (3)

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine where we share what future releases we are looking forward to.

Last week, I finished Darklight by Lesley Livingston. It was the second book in a trilogy that I am just loving. As you may have guessed I am really looking forward to the final book to know what happens next to Kelley, Sonny and everyone else.

There has yet to be a summary released for Tempestuous so I have absolutely no idea what will happen. My only hope is that Kelley and Sonny will finally be able to be together without anyone bugging them. The cover has been released so here it is:

Tempestuous by Lesley Livingston comes out December 19, 2010.

Darklight by Lesley Livingston

Title: Darklight (Wondrous Strange #2)

Author: Lesley Livingston

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: December 22, 2009

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Much has changed since autumn when Kelley Winslow learned she was a Faerie princess, fell in love with Sonny Flannery, and saved the mortal realm from the ravages of the Wild Hunt. Now Kelley is stuck in New York City, rehearsing Romeo and Juliet and missing Sonny more with every stage kiss, while Sonny has been forced back to the Otherworld and into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with the remaining Hunters, and Queen Mabh herself.

When a terrifying encounter sends Kelley tumbling into the Otherworld, her reunion with Sonny is joyful but destined to be cut short. An ancient, hidden magick is stirring and a dangerous new enemy is willing to risk everything to claim that power. Caught in a web of Faerie deception and shifting allegiances, Kelley and Sonny must tread carefully, for each next step could topple a kingdom...or tear their love apart.

With breathtaking high stakes, soaring romance, and vividly magical characters, Darklight continues the enthralling Faerie trilogy that began with Wondrous Strange.

I loved Wondrous Strange when I read it and I have to admit that I loved Darklight even more. I am so happy I discovered Lesley Livingston, I just want to read whatever she writes no matter what it’s about. Her stories are captivating and keep you turning pages until the very last page, and even then you want more. Darklight was an amazing read and had I been able to, I would have read it all in one sitting.

Kelley’s life has changed drastically since she starred as Titania in a production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She discovered that the role she was playing was pretty close to her reality, seeing as she is a Faerie princess. And she fell in love with Sonny Flannery who she hasn’t seen since he was forced back to the Otherworld after Kelley’s performance on stage. Now Kelley is starring as Juliet and is missing Sonny more and more with each day that goes by. But when Kelley finds herself in the Otherworld things take an interesting turn.

I loved Kelley right from the start in Wondrous Strange and my love for her just grew as I read Darklight. She is still a really relatable character and a very likable characters. Throughout the book you can just feel how being away from Sonny is causing her pain. I was just reading and hoping as I turned every page that she and Sonny would be reunited...and the sooner the better! The only thing I didn’t like about Kelley this time around is what she says and does at the end of the book (not that I’m going to tell you) but I could see why she was doing it even then.

Oh Sonny, Sonny Sonny. Where to even begin. I loved him in the first book and I loved him even more in this one. To be honest, he was even better than I remembered him being. What I especially liked that even though he missed Kelley more than anything, when they finally saw each other again, he still had his opinions about things and wasn’t afraid to tell Kelley what he thought about the way she was acting. He loved her but wasn’t afraid to tell her what he truly thought.

I just love the way Livingston writes. There is just something about her writing that totally draws you in to the story. She has this wonderful story-telling ability that makes it so you just can’t put her books down...at times it wasn’t even an option in my mind. I truly enjoyed Darklight and I honestly can’t wait for Tempestuous, the final book in the trilogy, which comes out in December...I really don’t know if I’ll be able to wait that long to get my Sonny and Kelley fix!