genieinanovel's Reviews (752)

For the most part, Fangirl was a book I enjoyed reading because I found a lot of myself in Cath. I’m very introverted, don’t do well meeting new people, can’t stand parties, and aspire to do well in school/work. Cath is much happier reading and writing her fanfiction for the Simon Snow series, which is yet another part of her character I relate to (though lately I do more reading than writing in the fanfiction world).

This was a great book that portrays the ups and downs of the first year of college. While everyone’s experience is different, I feel like most, if not all, introverts can relate to Cath’s experience in her first year. Change isn’t always easy and some people, like Cath, take a little longer to adjust. The author shows a great portrayal of today’s real-life fangirls (and boys) without demeaning them and making them out to be as odd as everyone seems to think we are. Granted, we are odd, but we’re not crazy.

One of my favorite parts of this book was the argument of fanfiction. Cath’s professor does not view fanfiction as a proper form on literature, and in a lot of cases, maybe it’s not. However, there are so many good ones out there that take a favorite story and warp it to view other possibilities with those characters or to continue their stories well after they’ve been finished by the author. And as we all know, in some cases, fanfiction can lead to writing your own original stories that end up becoming ridiculously successful. So, in my opinion, leave fanfiction be. It’s not hurting anyone and it’s super-enjoyable to read and write on most occasions.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and its characters – especially Levi. He was adorable and honestly, I want a Levi of my own now. Fangirl is definitely an authentic young adult novel and it’s worth the read!

A story of music and mental illness… this book portrays both themes well in my opinion and is quite captivating as you read the tale of Dominique and Ben. Dominique is in high school and is a dancer, or was, until about six months ago when she was no longer able to afford her lessons. Still though, she dreams of entering the dance program at NYU someday. Ben is a musician, top of his class even, and he will not let anything stand in his way of being the best. When these two meet, it’s like something clicks and they enter in their own little world… at least for a while.

First going into this one I realized it would be one of those insta-love stories and I’m just going to tell you all right now, I’m not a fan of that element. Though many books I read are in fact insta-love, I just personally don’t feel that it’s very realistic. Especially stories that where they fall in love in one day, or less than. But maybe that’s the cynic in me. I don’t know. Either way, I usually try to place that aside as I’m reading because if the story is good, I can forgive that insta-love part. And Someday, Somewhere is one of those ones I can forgive.

Not like many books I read, the story really only focused on these two characters – the side characters did not play a big part at all. You get glimpses of both Ben and Dominique’s families, but not much more than that. However, we do learn more about Dominique’s family than Ben’s.

The book deals with more than just music though. Anther big theme of the story is mental illness, which you can see in Ben as it moves along. I won’t say what it is, but to those who have some experience with it or know about it, you’ll figure it out as the story goes on. I personally feel like all elements of this book are done well, and even though Ben’s part of the story doesn’t have a full-on close, I was still surprised with how much I enjoyed this book at the end of it.

Overall, I did enjoy this book because it shows how you’ll meet people who change our lives, even if they’re only a part of them for a short time. We don’t always remain in contact with those who have had the most influence on us, but their mark is always there.

I didn’t like this book as much as I was hoping I would, but I didn’t totally hate it either.

Louna is somewhat cynical when it comes to relationships, but she has her reasons. Her first real relationship ended tragically, and she works for her mother’s wedding planning company, which means she’s seen wedding of all kinds. Frankly, it seems like Louna is just sick of love when we first meet her. That’s not to say she doesn’t believe in it, she just doesn’t feel like she’ll ever have another one like she did. Enter Ambrose, a serial dater, and her world is flipped when the two make a playful bet about their dating habits (or lack of).

What I didn’t like so much about this book was it just kind of dragged with some of the wedding details for each that Louna worked. It just got too much where I kind of lost myself and started to think about other things. Then there’s Louna’s previous relationship with a boy named Ethan. While I thought the way their relationship ended was a good twist, I didn’t care for the fact the two “fell in love” in only a few hours (including sleeping together on the beach within like two hours of meeting…. what?). It just seems too far out there for two 16-17 year-olds to have that kind of emotion in only hours of meeting. Or anyone really. Call me a cynic, but I’m not a fan of the “falling in love in a day” concept.

For what it’s worth, I did generally like the rest of the story – more so the side characters. William was pretty funny with his own cynicism and making bets with Louna’s mother on how long each new bride and groom would last. Then of course I loved Louna’s best friend Jilly and her clan of siblings, even if they weren’t present all that much.

Once and For All wasn’t my favorite Dessen book by far, and compared to the other two I’ve read, it’s actually a bit of a disappointment. Overall, the book is okay, and while it might not be my cup of tea, it’s probably the perfect read for someone else.

What happens when a musician loses his hearing? Is he still a musician? Can he still even make music? That is what Impossible Music is about.

Simon suddenly loses his hearing in a rare way in which there is no recovery. The problem is that he lives and breathes music; he can’t imagine doing anything else. He shares his frustrations with a girl named G from his class for the newly deaf. They both are resistant in learning Auslan (Australian Sign Language) and immersing into Deaf culture. Their journey, especially Simon’s, in navigating this new way of life was an interesting read, and I really felt for the characters. I can’t imagine how frustrating it is to not only lose a sense, but one that is critical to your passion.

I saw that there was a lot of critical reviews of this book, for quite a few different reasons. Maybe I’m not as in-tune with Deaf culture as some of those readers are, due to me not knowing anyone who is fully deaf, but I personally felt like the author did a good job with writing a story that deals with this situation. As far as the timeline of the story – sort of jumping back and forth over the course of the months since Simon’s hearing loss – I didn’t feel like it was hard to follow. It was a lot easier than I expected, and it all flowed well to me in order to get a sense of his story.

I’m glad I took a chance in reading this book instead of listening to the negative reviews. I really felt this was a great story and it honestly rekindles my desire to be able to understand Deaf culture and learn ASL (American Sign Language) for myself, especially since I have some family members who are hard of hearing and partly deaf.

Listen to Your Heart follows Kate Bailey as she is forced out of her comfort zone when her best friend convinces her to take a podcasting class and by the teacher’s choosing, is made one of the co-hosts of the show. Kate is fairly private and would rather spend the rest of her life being out on the lake and operating her family’s marina than do, well, anything else. So this podcast is a real pain in the butt for her, especially since the point of their show is to give advice. And when one caller makes repeated calls, she finds that she might be falling for him, which isn’t good when she realizes who it is, because it’s Diego Martinez… her best friend’s crush.

I loved the story and all the characters involved, from Kate and her best friend, to the boys – Diego and Frank – and Kate’s family. Even Kate’s co-host Victoria became likable after a while. There was good banter between the characters and some good development, which there had to be since characters were being pushed out of their comfort zones. And though the book was focused on the romance, I would’ve enjoyed it if it had just been about Kate’s family life and relationship with her best friend.

Overall, this book is a fun, quick read that is probably more enjoyable in the summer than the fall. And out of the books I’ve read by Kasie West so far, this one has to be my second favorite, following By Your Side.

Mirror, Mirror is a retelling of the classic, Snow White. I have recently become obsessed with fairy-tale retellings and this was the first one I decided to really take a chance on. So the take on this story is what if the Evil Queen had poisoned the prince instead of Snow White?

I enjoyed the alternating perspectives of Snow and the Evil Queen, Ingrid. It gave a little history of Ingrid and how she got to this point in her life while also following the current story of Snow White. I just like it when we get to see the villain’s perspective as well, because we all know the saying that “a villain is not born, they are made.” So it was interesting to see how Ingrid made that change into the Evil Queen. I also liked the twist of Ingrid not only being Snow’s step-mother, but also her biological aunt. I felt that added a whole new twist to the classic tale we all know and love.

The only thing I would have liked is more drama after the Evil Queen poisons the prince. Going into the story it makes it seen as though we will get more of the story after that point – the poisoning. Other than that, this was a great story and it kept it close to the original, but just different enough to make you think, what if?

This was a very relatable read. I found myself nodding along or going, “Hey, that’s me!” through the chapters. Of course, I didn’t relate to every single thing that was talked about in the book, but you get the idea.

In I’d Rather Be Reading, Anne Bogel (Modern Mrs. Darcy and What Should I Read Next?) writes about all things books. From how people organize their shelves, to common bookworm problems, to utilizing the library… she gets it all. Some of my favorites included the relatable problems (pretty sure I said yes to all of them) and the section on being book bossy. I think those of us who want others to read our favorite books can be guilty of being this “book bossy” that Anne writes about. It takes a while, but we learn that we cannot force our favorites onto others (even thought they really should read them!).

Of course she also talks about her love for libraries and bookstores, which again, relatable. I think if we bookworms had our way, we’d spend all our free time (and money) in one or both of those places.

One of my favorite chapters was at the end, where Anne talks about wishing she had logged the books she read as a child. I have actually been thinking the same thing lately. It would be so amazing to look back and see exactly how many books I read, when I read them, and what I thought of them at at the time. I think if I could go back and do one thing over in my life, that would be it – starting a reading journal in my very young age.

Again, I mostly enjoyed the book, though I did find some parts where my eyes sort of glazed over. But overall, this was a cute read and I’m sure most, if not all, bibliophiles will appreciate this book one way or another.

are making me like the New Adult genre more and more. Probably because it’s relatable.

One aspect about this book that I liked was the accuracy in which the workplace was portrayed. Mel works with tech start-ups, aka: the new app developers looking to come up with the latest trending app for users, and she’s essentially their backbone – working at the help desk to fix their computer problems and such. However, because she’s a woman, they don’t believe in her ability to code or fix things properly, which is very infuriating for Mel (and readers). Half of the time I was wishing I could jump into the book and clock some of these guys that mistreated Mel.

The story focuses more on Mel being fed up with online dating and how men treat women through the app (sending inappropriate messages, ghosting them, etc.). So she creates her own app/website called JerkAlert where women can warn others of some of these guys by posting their profile information and how they were, well, jerks. JerkAlert goes viral, however, it begins to cause some complications with Mel’s new sort-of relationship with one of the start-up guys, Alex.

I’m not going to give anything away, but I was somewhat disappointed in how things went the story. Don’t get me wrong, it still ended well, I just was hoping for a different approach to how it got there. I did also enjoy Mel’s group of friends, especially Whit because she’s just that firecracker friend that we all need in our lives.

So, all in all… How to Hack a Heartbreak was a good read and I recommend it!

Right away I sympathized with the characters and their situation with student debt… as I’m sure most students would. However, mine is not nearly as high as theirs was, so I have that going for me. One of their friends has a theory that there is something suspicious going on, something that he refers to as “The Great Law School Scam.” When Mark, Todd, and Zola find out about this, they drop out of school to try and expose what exactly is going on.

The three are more like antiheroes in the sense that they have to break some laws in order to find out what is going on with this law school scam. They do hesitate at times to go through with some of their actions, but they realize they’re doing this for the greater good and to save future students from falling into this scam as well. In the end, things wrap up pretty well, but I will say that it wasn’t quite in the way that I expected.

Then again, I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting with this book. Still, I was happy with how it ended and I would recommend it to anyone who likes scandals or anything related to lawyers.

Click’d is a middle grade novel about friendship and never giving up toward your goals.

This was a fun book to read. I loved the concept of having not just kids/preteens coding to help the word, but focusing on a girl coder. Allie comes up with a game to help people make friends with similar interests and will be presenting her game in a contest. When she releases the game school-wide, an issue comes up and Allie realizes that there is a problem with her code. She has to work with her nemesis, Nathan, to figure it out and fix her game before the contest that weekend.

I read this book in a day, and though it seemed a little slow at first, it picked up and I enjoyed the story very much.

This is a book I’d recommend for the middle-grade age group as well as anyone who enjoys this genre. I think the important thing to remember if you are reading this as a high-schooler or adult is that it is intended for those in middle grades.