Review: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

ISBN: 9781250049377
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover (signed by Rainbow herself!)
Series: No, Stand-Alone
Released: July 8, 2014
Goodreads  |  B&N
     SUMMARY

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it’s been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply — but that almost seems besides the point now.
Maybe that was always besides the point.
Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her — Neal is always a little upset with Georgie — but she doesn’t expect to him to pack up the kids and go home without her.
When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.
That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts . . .
Is that what she’s supposed to do?
Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?

     REVIEW

Reviewing a Rainbow Rowell book seems almost pointless by now. After this fourth book, Landline, we've all kind of figured out that Rainbow can do no wrong. She's a literary genius. She writes unique yet real stories about people we come to love, and she has managed to make me feel something different for each book - Attachments: happiness, contentment; E&P: absolute devastation; Fangirl: like I'd found my soul-book. And now with Landline, it's mostly left me pensive, with a tiny bit of heartache and happiness mixed together.

I was as big of an emotional mess throughout this book as Georgie was which made it that much better for me. I felt like I understood so much of Georgie's feelings but at the same time, she taught me so much, too.

I'm getting married soon and it was a little scary thinking about being married as long as Georgie and Neal have been. Georgie says at one point during the book, "You don't know at 23." Basically saying that it's impossible to know what you're getting into, what your life/marriage is going to be like in five years, ten, fifteen. But reading this book gave me a very different perspective. Even through their struggles, I found Georgie and Neal's story (from very beginning of their relationship to the end of the book) to be beautiful and inspiring.

Most of all, what I love about Landline and all of her other books, Rainbow makes me feel like it's okay to not be perfect - physically, mentally, emotionally. I, along with the majority of the female (and some male) population, struggle with self-confidence and accepting the fact that we're not all going to be skinny and tall and blonde and beautiful. Not that those things are bad, but Rainbow's characters make me feel like I can love and be loved and do things I love and do them well without looking like what society says is perfect.

On a much less sappy note, I adore Rainbow's writing style and I LOVE all of the HP references in this book (and some of her others). I went to her book release in Manhattan on July 8 and she said that "Harry Potter made this book," referencing, I think, some inspirations and fun things she used while writing the story. Needless to say, the HP references cemented my love for Landline, as if I needed anything to cement it anyway.

RATING - ★★★★★ - Loved it!

Landline was one of my most anticipated reads this year and it didn't disappoint. Definitely one of the best books I've read so far and another fantastic novel to add to repertoire. It made me laugh and cry, but most of all it made me think and that's something I really love in a book. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

     FAVORITE QUOTES

"Pretty soon she'd have been with Neal longer than she'd been without him. She'd known herself as his wife better than she'd ever known herself as anyone else."

"She thought of all the times he'd stayed up late to help her with a script. The way he'd lived at her right hand after Alice was born (when Georgie was depressed and in pain and terrible at breastfeeding). The way he never made her feel crazy even when she was acting crazy, and never made her feel like a failure even when she was failing."

"Georgie hadn't known back the how much she was going to come to need Neal, how he was going to become like air to her. Was that codependence? Or was it just marriage?"

"'It's not like that,' Georgie said. 'You'll see. It's more like you meet someone, and you fall in love, and you hope that that person is the one - and then at some point, you have to put down your chips. You just have to make the commitment and hope that you're right.'"

Have you read Landline yet? Was it everything you ever dreamed of? 'Cause it sure was for me! I loved this book and I can't wait to talk about it with you!

A.

Review: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

ISBN: 9780525951988

Source: Purchased... with Christmas money.. ;)

Series: No, stand-alone

Release Date: April 14, 2011

Goodreads  |  Amazon

See all other Rainbow Rowell reviews on this blog

     SYNOPSIS

"Hi, I'm the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you . . "

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now- reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be "internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.
When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.
By the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for Beth, it's way too late to introduce himself.
What would he say . . . ?

     REVIEW

If I tell you that Attachments was my least favorite Rainbow Rowell book, I don't want you all to run away screaming. It's true, it is my least favorite of her current three, but Rainbow Rowell is amazing. So to say that just means that the book is fantastic as opposed to mind-blowing such as the other two she's written. Attachments was a lot slower that E&P and while Fangirl was pretty slow, the pacing for that book was perfect. Attachments is told in the point of view of Lincoln, one of the main characters, and also in the form of e-mails between the other main character, Beth, and her BFF, Jennifer, and unfortunately, Lincoln's narrative was what kind of dragged it down for me.

The e-mail aspect was quite hysterical. I think the entire thing could've been told in e-mail form and I would've loved it! I definitely enjoyed those parts the most, especially because Beth and Jennifer at times went out of their way to use words that would flag their e-mails... I suppose as an act of rebellion? They were just fantastic!

Lincoln's parts, written in regular narrative rather than in e-mail form, were a lot slower and at times boring. Unless Lincoln was doing something in relation to work/Beth/e-mails, I was slightly bored. Everything about his mother and sister I could've done without. It got to a point where I wondered if anything was ever going to happen with Lincoln and Beth or if Rowell was just going to break my heart yet again! It was a rather close call because I thought the ending was going to ruin a pretty good book, but fear not! Rowell came through, and while the ending was bordering on completely unbelievable, it had me tearing up and grinning and laughing like a fool. It was basically perfect and I don't care if it probably would never happen in real life.

RATING: ★★★★ 1/2

My only gripes about Attachments besides the pacing (at times) was that I wished it had been a bit longer, to make the interactions between the characters toward the end a bit more drawn out and a bit more believable. Or even just to have an opportunity to enjoy it a little longer.

On the contrary, my favorite part of the story besides the hysterical e-mail exchanges was the romance. I loved that Rowell made it okay to be needy sometimes. We see so many "strong heroines" in YA and adult novels lately. Girls and women who don't need a man, just want one. And while that is something we all attempt to embody, not every girl or relationship is like that. I know I'm needy as hell and in this story, Rowell showed us a strong heroine who just needed to be loved sometimes. And I really, really loved and enjoyed that aspect.

Overall, Attachments, being the third Rowell book I've read, served to truly cement my love for her as one of my favorite authors. I will definitely read anything she puts out there and more than likely will re-read everything she already has out there. So basically, if you haven't read this book, you should. And if you haven't read anything by Rainbow Rowell... well, that the heck are you waiting for?

Oh, and in other Rainbow News, her next novel, and adult contemporary novel, Landline is being released in July of this year. Like I said, I will buy anything she puts out there. Have you heard anything about this book yet? I've basically heard it is excellent, as expected.

Also, have you seen this amazing video reenactment of a scene from Fangirl put together by the amazing Yulin Kuang? If you haven't, you need to go see it. You might die of <3 <3 <3. Yup - you read that right.

Also, also! And this is important for fans of E&P and Rowell in general: Dreamworks has bought the movie rights for Eleanor and Park. And Rowell has been hired to write the screenplay. WHATTT!? I almost died. I know many of you don't like adaptations but I love them as long as they are done right! So how excited are you?! Let's talk!

A.

Review: A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin

ISBN: 9780553579901
Source: Purchased (e-book)
Series: A Song of Ice and Fire #2
Release Date: November 16, 1998
Goodreads  |  Amazon
See other posts for this series
*This review may contain spoilers for the first book in the series*

     SYNOPSIS:

A comet the colour of blood and flame cuts across the sky. And from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns. Six factions struggle for control of a divided land and the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, preparing to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war. It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk at night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside. Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel...and the coldest hearts. For when kings clash, the whole land trembles.

     REVIEW:

To refresh my memory of A Game of Thrones, I re-read my review of that book and ended up kind of laughing at myself over it. In one of my closing paragraphs I said, "So if the next book is slow to some, it probably wont be to me...". Seriously, I said that. Apparently I underestimated Martin's ability to dig DEEP into this world. So, for the record: this book seemed slow to some. It was also slow for me.

That's not to say I didn't like or enjoy this book, because I did. There were some parts that I didn't enjoy reading, mainly because they were long and incredibly tedious, and to be completely honest, impossible for me to understand. For example, there is one entire chapter that is supposed to be describing a particular battle, but it is told from the point of view of someone on a ship. So this person goes on to talk about many, many ships, by name, and in the jargon of someone familiar with ships altogether. I, however, am not familiar with ships at all. So, while I read it and just barely managed to understand what was happening (for the most part), I was incredibly bored by the "ship-talk" because it went on foreverrrr.

I thought that because I didn't remember some of the minute details from season two of the show, it would be especially cool to read the book (such as it was with book one-season one) and have it answer some of the questions about things I couldn't quite grasp, e.g. Bran's little excursions into the brain of his wolf and who the hell Meera and Jojen were! While it did answer many, many questions that I had, I still had a hard time getting through this one. In fact, it took me an entire six months to finish reading this book. It was especially hard because by the second book, we have so many story lines going that by the time you get back around to reading a story line that began seven chapters ago, you've kind of forgotten what even happened before, especially if you had a hard time getting into that story line to begin with. Make sense?

I was told by many that this book was going to be one of the hardest and that it really served to connect books one and three. While I haven't read book three yet, based on what I saw of season three, I believe those statements wholeheartedly. I believe I am going to enjoy A Storm of Swords a lot more than I did A Clash of Kings.

The A Clash of Kings started to get more interesting around the 80% mark (I read these on my iPad because they are so long, and a book that big just won't fit in my purse with all the others), and I was able to sail right through the end while finally rekindling my eagerness to read this series. What I love most about this series - aside from the fact that I have never read a series as in-depth, fleshed out, well written, amazing, and GAHHHH - is that I find myself loving characters I know I should hate, or being annoyed at characters I know I should like. There is never a clear cut definition of "good and bad" in this series. A Song of Ice and Fire is one big gray area and honestly, I don't even know who to "root" for or if I can root for anyone. I'm basically content to sit back and watch it all unfold and though I know some of it will kill me (I speak from experience of watching the last few episodes of season three), I am ready because I know Martin won't steer us wrong... I hope. He should just keep writing until he runs out of material for this world. I say this because I have deemed it impossible to run out of anything for this world and that means he will have to write forever.

     RATING: ★★★ 1/2

All in all, I did find this book to be a lot slower and much harder to get through than the first book. It was long and tedious, but the world-building and development of this saga was wild. It's hard not to be in awe of it all and even if I didn't love this one, I am so looking forward to reading book three, A Storm of Swords, and genuinely hoping it doesn't take me six months to read that one.

Have you read A Clash of Kings? What did you think of it? Did you think it was long and tedious or did you enjoy every bit of the world building and development packed into that 700+ page book? Let's talk books!

A.

Review: Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares

ISBN: 9780385521222
Source: Purchased
Series: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants #5
Release Date: January 1, 2011
Goodreads  |  Amazon
See my reviews for other books in this series

     GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:

Despite having jobs and men that they love, each knows that something is missing: the closeness that once sustained them. Carmen is a successful actress in New York, engaged to be married, but misses her friends. Lena finds solace in her art, teaching in Rhode Island, but still thinks of Kostos and the road she didn’t take. Bridget lives with her longtime boyfriend, Eric, in San Francisco, and though a part of her wants to settle down, a bigger part can’t seem to shed her old restlessness.
Then Tibby reaches out to bridge the distance, sending the others plane tickets for a reunion that they all breathlessly await. And indeed, it will change their lives forever—but in ways that none of them could ever have expected.

     REVIEW:

I was so super excited to read this book and find out what happened to four of my favorite fictional girls.... I must tell you... I must warn you - this book has left me traumatized and I will never think of the series the same again. I probably can't even re-read them at some later date. How am I going to let my future daughter(s) read them, knowing what they are getting into with book five?! Sigh...

I'm not saying it's bad. It isn't. It was actually pretty good. Except for the fact that I was basically crying the entire time and every time I even look at the cover let alone think about what actually happened I get that ache in my chest (you know, the one that normal people get for real tragedies and we nerds get for fictional characters?) and want to cry a little bit more.

I will say that I was not a fan of the fact that the book was literally depressing almost in its entirety. I think I might have cracked a smile somewhere within the last 50 pages, which was promptly replaced with tears again. It's hard to endure several hundred pages of depression and find something to enjoy about it. I also think that the same issue with the dialogue that I had in book four was present in this book also. It was a little awkward and stunted.

The book was a little long for my tastes and it dragged a bit in the middle, but I was completely committed to this series so I was also able to look past that and finish the whole damn thing in two days. The ending was a little too tidy for me, and thats something that I was not able to overlook, but I suppose I was satisfied nonetheless. I guess after five books, one of which rips your heart out and stomps on it repeatedly, the series is entitled to a tidy ending, bow and all.

Overall, I enjoyed the read and even with how depressing it was, it gives us a glimpse of the truth of growing up - that not all "grown ups" are living the happy lives they once thought they would. They lose touch with their friends and sometimes even with reality when they realize that things aren't quite going the way they expected. A touching and beautiful (yet incredibly sad) story about everlasting love and friendship, Sisterhood Everlasting was a decent ending to a series that will always hold a place in my bookish heart.

     RATING: ★★★ 1/2

Have any of you read this last installment? I know many people have read the first four but never made it around to this one. Let me give you this advice: If you wish to preserve the fond memories of the series as it stands, don't read this book. This book will change the way you look at the previous four. Maybe not in a bad way, but it kind of sets a sad overtone for it all and I can't quite look at it as happily as I would have before I read it. Even still, I'm glad to have closure and glad I read it.

I'd love to hear from you on this one! Have you read it? What did you think? If not, have you not read it because of things (like this review) that you've read about it? I'm interested in everyone's opinion of this one..

A.

Review: Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

ISBN: 9780307744432
Release Date: January 1, 2011
Series: No, Stand-Alone
Page Count: 515 pages
Find it on Goodreads

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:

"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance."

REVIEW:

This book was too unique for me to just do a standard review on it. It may not have been my favorite book but it was the most peculiar (in a good way) book I think I've ever read. So it definitely deserves something a little bit outside of the box - aka outside of my standard bulleted review style and with pretty colors :)

I got this book from my friend Ashley who read it and absolutely loved it. It wasn't something I had planned to read right away but it just so happened she left it for me right when I had finished one book and hadn't yet picked up another. For those of you who know me, you know I am a creature of habit and planning. I have my reading/posting schedule worked out from now until the beginning of January. Either way, I decided to add a bit of spontaneity to my life and picked it up and started reading it right then and there.

I was enchanted by the first few chapters and patiently waiting for the story to really begin. A few days later and quite a few more chapters in, I was feeling confused and wondering when it was all going to come together. Half-way through and it still hadn't come together. The last one hundred pages, and by this time I was laboring to get through this, were fantastic, of course. That was generally my experience with this book. Overall, this wasn't my favorite book, but I'm actually kind of in awe of the entire thing. Let me tell you why:

The Night Circus was 515 pages of absolutely beautiful, intricate world building. Maybe we can call it "circus building", as the "world" was the circus more often than not. Morgenstern spent much time laying out details of tents that you can almost imagine, except the details are such that you can. You can imagine it thanks to Morgenstern's amazing descriptive passages and the entire premise is amazing. I suppose in retrospect, I'm hard pressed not to like this book because of how amazing it is as a whole. The story itself, while I had some issues with it, was beautiful and haunting and the ending was very satisfying. I suppose you're wondering why I gave this book 3 stars then, if it was so amazing, right?

My biggest issue was that I felt absolutely no emotional connection to the characters for at least 75% of the book. By the end, I barely cared about the main characters and the only characters I was actually rather fond of were the characters Herr Thiessen, Bailey, Poppet and Widget, who kind of took a back seat until at least half way through the book. The plot, while it seems to be extremely well thought out and put together considering the way it jumped back and forth in time, was too confusing to me. I've talked to several people, including my friend Ashley who let me borrow this book, who said they liked how it jumped back and forth. I am not one of those people. Maybe my attention span is too short? In a way I liked that it jumped back and forth because the story was constantly focusing on someone else and never lingered to long on one storyline, and that is good for my short attention span; however, I barely paid any attention to the time frame established at the beginning of each chapter so how was I supposed to remember what year one chapter happened in in reference to the next chapter I am reading, or the chapters I'll be reading next? Even if I had paid attention to the time frames, I was hard pressed to remember what year it was while trying to keep track of everything else that was going on in the story. I couldn't do it. It worked for the story and added to the overall mystery, and the fact that I wasn't completely and totally lost even though the jumps spanned years at a time attests to the fact that Morgenstern really thought this one out and it worked... just not for me.

I can't deny that the cover is beautiful as well as the
 illustrations for it.

The other thing I couldn't get past in this book was the pacing. Maybe that could be attributed to the jumping back and forth in time also? The copy I had was 515 pages long, and as I mentioned before, things really only started to move around page 375-400. The pacing was just off for me and it was just too long and drawn out in my opinion. For quite some time in the story, nothing really happened. About half way through, we see a plot develop, not just world building, and thats when I was able to get into it more. All in all, having taken me three weeks to read this book, you can see why I dropped two stars on this one.

With that being said, I don't think I've ever read anything as beautifully written as The Night Circus. You'd think I wouldn't want to read anything else by an author who wrote a book I didn't love, but I'm so impressed and in love with Morgenstern's writing style that I hope she writes something else soon, and I'm going to give her another try. This book and the premise has so much potential. I just wish the first 400 pages could've been just like the last 100.

I'm rather glad I read this book because it got me out of my box. I've been reading a lot of YA dystopian novels and I am probably going to read a bunch more after this, but it was nice to read an adult (totally non-smutty) novel once again, and remember why its nice to come out from under the YA rock I've been living under. Thanks to my dear friend Ash for recommending it! I suppose I didn't love it as much as you did, but I surely was able to appreciate it for what its worth.

RATING: ★★★

Have any of you read this book? I know some of you have, and most of you loved it (except for one fellow blogger who has been keeping up with my rants about this book and agrees with a lot of my points). I'd love to know what you thought and if you agree or disagree with me!

A.