Review: Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid

Original Title: Never Always Sometimes

Author: Adi Alsaid

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Release Date: August 4th 2015

Source: Netgalley

Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult

Never date your best friend 

Always be original 

Sometimes rules are meant to be broken 

Best friends Dave and Julia were determined to never be cliché high school kids—the ones who sit at the same lunch table every day, dissecting the drama from homeroom and plotting their campaigns for prom king and queen. They even wrote their own Never List of everything they vowed they'd never, ever do in high school.

Some of the rules have been easy to follow, like #5, never die your hair a color of the rainbow, or #7, never hook up with a teacher. But Dave has a secret: he's broken rule #8, never pine silently after someone for the entirety of high school. It's either that or break rule #10, never date your best friend. Dave has loved Julia for as long as he can remember.

Julia is beautiful, wild and impetuous. So when she suggests they do every Never on the list, Dave is happy to play along. He even dyes his hair an unfortunate shade of green. It starts as a joke, but then a funny thing happens: Dave and Julia discover that by skipping the clichés, they've actually been missing out on high school. And maybe even on love.

REVIEW

Dave and Julia tries not to do anything cliché in their high school life.  They also make a list of 10 such activities.  Towards the end of the high school, they come across this list by accident, and decides to try those things at last.  Dave has love Julia for so long, but has no courage to come forward and say that to her.  And Julia is just plain crazy, well, crazy and fun..and good.  When they try on these clichéd things, they find that they had missed out on many things.  Dave makes new friends, sees a girl that he is interested in and even maybe love her.  But, just when things seem better for Dave, Julia finds that she is in love with Dave.  Things spiral down from there and the author has given a beautiful and realistic approach on the romance.

It's been a while since I had read such a fun book.  I was laughing through most of the book.  The snarky comments and immediate unexpected responses from Julia made the whole book so much more enjoyable.

"You realize this is insane, right?"
"You're mispronouncing 'genius.'"

Sometimes, I don't know whether the author is a sheer genius for making such statements,

"THERE WAS NO greater proof of an underlying human connection than the universal hatred of Monday mornings."

or plain crazy.

"The next morning Dave's hair not only looked like puke, but like puke that had been allowed to sit out overnight."

Seriously?  That comment about Dave's hair made me crack up for so long.

While this was the trend in the first half of the book, the second half of the book became a bit serious and then the climax realistic.

The characters, Julia and Dave, are so good and deep, that I felt like I knew them personally.  They have been so cut out from the world that they didn't even know the basic things every teenager knew for granted.  I loved how the author transformed their ignorance to something so beautiful.  Dave's brother and girlfriend are also another set of adorable characters.  And then there is Julia's mom - well, I don't want to use curse words, so I am leaving her out of this.

The climax is so realistic, no big dramas.  Just ended like real life. :)

Thanks for writing this, Adi!  I am definitely recommending this to anyone interested in fiction.

5 STARS!

Series Review: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

This is a spoiler-free review.  Or at least I am trying to do it spoiler-free.

This book didn't leave me in tears, but it left me heart-broken.  I felt the love and loss so much, that it took me some time to realize that this is just a story.

Mia and Adam are high school sweethearts.  But, tragedy strikes and Mia's entire family faces a car crash in which Mia loses everyone.  And she goes into a comatose stage.  She doesn't want to wake up, knowing that there is nothing left here to come back to.  "If I Stay" beautifully portrays the trauma of a girl, whose entire life falls apart in front of her own eyes (literally).  What is she going to choose - to leave or to stay in this life?

"Where She Went" is in Adam's POV of his losing Mia, in a way he can't process.  Although Adam is a rock star now, he is also a heart-broken guy, who just tries to breathe and pass every single waking minute.  It's been three years since the day of the accident and he still can't stop missing them.  Yes, he has a popular beautiful girlfriend, who tries to get him back to regular life, but all Adam wants to go to back to his high school days..with Mia.  What Adam doesn't know is he is getting a second chance at life..

Both these books are so full of emotions that I felt like I want to hug everyone I love and thank them for just being there.  Yeah, that's the most precious gift of my life and I see it now.  If loss can be so painful in just reading the book, I don't know what real loss will do to me.  These books will give a taste of just that - the real loss!

Although this book will make your heart squeeze many many times, it will all be worth in the end.  It's just perfect.

Now, leave me alone, so that I can go hug my family and just tell them thanks..

Guest Post "IN MY HABITAT": The Real Prom Queens of Westfield High by Laurie Boyle Crompton

Original Title: The Real Prom Queens of Westfield High

Author: Laurie Boyle Crompton

Publisher: Soucebooks Fire

Release Date: February 4th, 2014

Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult

Shannon’s ‘clique’ is just her and her best friend and she has a super-embarrassing nickname that won’t go away. It is no huge shock when her classmates vote her least likely to be crowned Prom Queen. What is shocking is the new hidden camera reality show she finds herself starring in, titled The Prom Queen Wannabes! Shannon and two other Wannabes must battle to be elected Prom Queen and snag the One! Million! Dollar! prize. After a summer of makeovers and training at Prom Queen Camp, the hidden cameras watch the three of them enter their senior year equipped with secret skills to help wage war on the popular set. Things at Westfield High are about to get ugly, and Shannon must decide how much she's willing to give up for a shot at winning that tiara.

IN MY HABITAT

- Guest Post by Laurie Boyle Crompton

I’m one of those people who can fall asleep anyplace and I think that remarkable skill translates to being able to tune out my surroundings and write wherever I am too. Just as I once would drift off to dreamland on my morning train commute, I’m able to lapse into creating prose pretty much anywhere. Now that I’m writing full time I like to act like a responsible adult and work at my actual desk whenever I can. My days of sleeping in public are over, but I do manage to stay in my jammies more often than not.

I’m happy to have a small room on our second floor as my writing studio. It’s cozy and cluttered with pictures and notes that encourage me to persevere, and an electric teakettle to keep the tea flowing. The Long Island Rail Road runs right past my window and I like the way that makes me feel connected to my editors who are a half hour away in NYC. I’m so lucky to have two amazing editors at great publishing houses and I don’t want to let anybody down.

When I need a kick in the pajama jeans to stay motivated I’ll use a Sharpie to give myself a temporary tattoo on my wrist that says “Writers Write.” It’s a perfect reminder to keep me glued to that keyboard since becoming a writer has been my lifelong dream. For big deadlines I’ll sometimes drive to our rustic trailer upstate in New Paltz where I can hunker down and focus without any distractions. These occasional one-woman-writing-retreats are amazing and I’ll go days without speaking to anyone except my characters. Best of all, the wi-fi can be a little sketchy so it keeps me away from the modern novelist’s greatest time-suck: the internet.

Having space in my life devoted to writing is an incredible blessing. There have been times when I have had to fight hard to keep the dream alive but in the end, I’m a writer. And writers write.

Head Over Heels (Lucky Harbor #3)

First, thanks to the Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for providing the ARC of "Head Over Heels".

Head Over Heels is the third installment of the Lucky Harbor series and is full of fun and romance in the air.  I am a fan of the author, Jill Shavis, and maybe, if you think that I am biased with this review, you have to read the book yourself to agree on what I am saying.

This installment is about Chloe - THE WILD ONE - the youngest of the three sisters and the only one, who grew up with her nomadic and free-spirited mother, Phoebe Traeger.  When her mother dies, Chloe tries to resist the bonding with her sisters, but their love and care are very different from what she got her whole life from her mother or anyone else.  She feels they are the anchor, that holds to her life.

Chloe, though as free-spirited and wild as her mother, is also kind and wishes to change to make her sisters accept her.  In short, she tries to be a grown-up.  In spite of all her ways of escapades from a settle-down life, she finds herself falling for the hot Sheriff in town, Sawyer Thompson.  Sawyer is the opposite of Chloe in all ways.  While Chloe always find some way to step out of the line, Sawyer is the follower of rules.  Their friction from the start, although seem to started as just fun and teasing with words, soon, they find themselves seeing hope and love in each other.

When the couple is afraid to admit and realize their love towards each other, in spite of their mutual attraction and increased bonding, Chloe tries to avoid the Sheriff and tries to become responsible and helps with the works in B&B (the inn, the sisters started together).  She also contributes to the inn by starting a day spa, which she is really good at.

Soon, they find that whatever they tried, they can't be without each other.  And when that realization hits, they find themselves in a series of life-and-death situation and the rest is history.

And I definitely have to tell about the Magic 8 Ball App.  I actually installed it, while reading this book and is now in a habit of asking questions to it and sitting desperately waiting for an answer.  :-)

The Lucky Harbor series is one of my favorite contemporary series and Jill Shavis has definitely done it..again.  Chloe is a kind of person, where everyone wishes they had a friend like her.  Its a fun weekend read and definitely entertaining.  Just give some Jill Shavis book and throw me in an empty room and will definitely survive for a entire day without food. ;-)

SERIES ORDER

   

 

1.  Simply Irresistible
2.  The Sweetest Thing - Read review here
3.  Head Over Heels - Read review here
4.  Lucky In Love - Read review here
5.  At Last - Read review here
6.  Forever and a Day - Read review here
6.5. Under the MistleToe - Read review here
7.  It Had To Be You - Expected publication: May 28th 2013

Some favorite quotes from this book:

"If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried."
"Why was man created before woman?  Because you always need a rough draft before the final copy."