My Thoughts:

Wow, I always seem to love Dessen’s books and I loved this one just as much as the others.

I read it within 3 days, I breezed right through it!

We are introduced to Sydney who has always been in the shadow of her older brother Peyton. Or at least it seems that way. In my opinion, I thought Sydney was an amazing person all on her own. I liked Sydney much more than I liked Peyton.

When Peyton finally gets into trouble he can’t get out of his family is left to deal with the consequences. This affects his whole family.

Sydney really had to grow up and fast and her parents sometimes treated her like she was in the one in trouble. Sydney was such a kind and gentle soul.

She also meets a boy named Mac. Sweet sweet Mac. Sydney really likes. She understands them.  He also has a nice little family whoshe likes them.

I don’t want to say much about this one. I don’t want to ruin it. I loved the jail aspect because it really put some things in perspective. I liked the family and romance too. I thought this was a sweet and charming novel. It was raw and emotional but I also felt happy at times.

 I felt so attached to these characters that there was a point when it was like they were my friends. I could relate to Sydney in almost every way from her being invisible and trying to prove to her parents That she is a good kid. I could understand where she was coming from. I could also understand the guilt she felt about David Ibarra. The fact that she felt like she has to carry the guilt and no one else does..

The character whole stole my heart was Layla! What a firecracker. The perfect best friend. I cannot say enough how much I enjoyed this book. I've read all of Sarah Dessen's books , this however is my second favorite, second only to The Truth About Forever. Maybe because there are some similarities between Mac and Wes. Sydney was truly a different character. We do not know much about her, her hobbies, she's not as developed as the other and she is outshines by all the others. It's like Dessen wanted her to seem invisible to readers, adding to us being able to relate to her better. Empathy for Sydney came easy. This a great summer read for teens and adults. I can't wait to read it again!!!

Ratings:
Overall: I really loved this one!!! 5 cupcakes all the way from me! Loved the plot, loved the characters, and just flat out loved it all!!! Highly recommend this one

SYNOPSIS

Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him. Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death. When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.


MY THOUGHTS

Theodores Finch is always thinking of different way to kill himself, and something always stops him. One day, on top of a Bell Tower, Finch meets Violet Markley. She is still grieving over her older sisters death, and is desperately trying a way to stay afloat in her nightmare. Somehow, both of the protagonists manage to get each other down from the Bell Tower, and start to find comfort in each other. When they both get paired up in a school project, to discover the wonders of Indiana: they grow even closer.

Finch has slowly prised open Violets views of the world; and she starts to develop into the butterfly she has been waiting to be again. But- what is really going on with Finch: that boy that Violet is starting to fall for?

I cannot express my endearment for this book: every page was a work of astounding art. I was enraptured from the beginning to the end; simply amazed by the magical way that Jennifer Niven writes. The friendship of Violet and Finch was executed perfectly- with a sprinkle of lust and humour entwined in it. Teenage attitudes in general were portrayed excellently; as a lot of the characters were extremely relatable. Beautiful descriptions of the two characters wonderings made me feel like I was completing the school project with them. Niven also shows many different family structures in, 'All The Bright Places-' and hits them spot on.

I loved how Jennifer Niven easily erased the stigma around mental illness, and stopping societies distorted and unrealistic views of it. I adored the diversity of the characters, the plot was weaved with certainty, and the writing was top notch. I rate this book 5/5 hoots, as it is easily in my top five favourite books: and it will be sticking in my mind for a long time!

Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.

Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.

Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.


“Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something."

Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park, set in the 1980s, is a high school romance between two sixteen-year-olds misfits. Now this may sound off-putting to most people, but this book, although not wholly different from other high school romance stories, is worth a read.

Eleanor, with her rather distracting red hair and unfortunate dress sense, might as well be holding up a sign saying "PICK ON ME." Though she was maddeningly stupid at times, she was quite an endearing character. Park was never a victim of bullying, but was a clear misfit due to the fact that he was half-Korean in a predominantly white school. His home life, in contrast to Eleanor's dangerously unstable one, was almost perfect apart from a bit of nagging by his dad.

The book's beginning was relatively slow-paced, and focused on the gradual development of Eleanor and Park's relationship. There was no love at first sight, rather, a progression from strangers, to friends, to lovers. Of course, as soon as their relationship progressed to the "love" stage, they were all "I live for you," and "I don't think I can breathe when we're not together." (although this IS an accurate portrayal of high-schoolers in love).

Call me soulless and stone-hearted, but I loved the ending. It was PAINFUL, but it was realistic.

lovely vicious review: 



Fire meets ice. Love meets hate. 

Seventeen-year-old Isis Blake hasn't fallen in love in three years, nine weeks, and five days, and after what happened last time, she intends to keep it that way. Since then she’s lost eighty-five pounds, gotten four streaks of purple in her hair, and moved to the Buttcrack-of-Nowhere Ohio to help her mom escape a bad relationship. 

All the girls in her new school want one thing – Jack Hunter, the Ice Prince of East Summit High. Hot as an Armani ad, smart enough to get into Yale, and colder than the Arctic, Jack Hunter’s never gone out with anyone. Sure, people have seen him downtown with beautiful women, but he’s never given high school girls the time of day. Until Isis punches him in the face.

Jack’s met his match. Suddenly everything is a game.

The goal: Make the other beg for mercy. 

The game board: East Summit High.

The reward: Something neither of them expected.


“And then he came, and pulled her petals off one by one, forcing her to surround herself with thorns to survive. But he missed one petal. And she guards it with a tiger's ferocity.”

I was expecting Lovely Vicious to be one of "those" books. You know, the mindless, bland ones where you have a "beautiful, but broken" girl, who gets swept up in a whirlwind romance with a "broken" boy? Although it does technically belong in the aforementioned category, it was pleasantly NOT boring. 

Isis
Our heroine is a 17-year-old ex-"fat girl", who's trying to forget her traumatic past and leave it behind. However, she's not your usual emotionally unstable, wishy-washy heroine. She's witty and funny, and does all she can from preventing people from seeing the real her by making a show of acting like she's got an overabundance of self-esteem. She's incredibly strong, managing to deal with her messed-up life as well as the aftermath of her mother's abusive relationship. Her dialogue was hilariously charming, although quite cringe-worthy at times. 

Jack
Jack is one of those cliched "cold-and-detached-but-insanely-gorgeous-dudes-who-secretly-have-a-heart-of-gold". He's brash, he's rude, and appears to have little or no regard for anyone he knows. In addition to being dark and brooding, he also has a "mysterious past" (you see what I meant when I said he was a cliched character?) and is linked to this girl called Sophia, whom no one is willing to tell Isis about. I didn't feel much sympathy for Jack, mostly due to the fact that he was downright rude to Isis and showed few signs of repentance. I suppose some people would find that charming, though.

Overall, Lovely Vicious was a fast-paced and incredibly addictive book, although by no means realistic (for instance, there was that scene where the principal stuck up pictures of one of his students' younger years in the corridor walls. Really, now?). There was (thankfully) no insta-love, and I found myself thoroughly enjoying Isis and Jack's "war" and the ways they tried to destroy each other, as well as the mystery surrounding Jack, against my will.

Oh, but that cliffhanger. It left me screaming. I will definitely be anticipating the sequel to Lovely Vicious, and any other book that Sara Wolf writes.