Book Review: Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Title: Just One Day

Author: Gayle Forman

Series: Just One Day #1

Genre: Contemporary YA

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile

Release date: January 8, 2013

Amazon | Goodreads

Challenge: YA Contemporary Challenge

Source: Bought

Summary: When sheltered American good girl Allyson “LuLu” Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance of Twelfth Night in England, there’s an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines.

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Five-Star Friday: Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Five-Star Friday is a periodically regular (say what?!) feature that I’m planning on running on Fridays (but not every Friday) in which I talk about (or verbally drool over) a book that I’ve read and ADORED (sometimes they’ll be recent releases and other times they might be older…my piles are tall and the bottoms are old). Yay! I always feel so happy and light and wonderful when I am beside myself with delight over a book, and I want to share the love with you all in the hopes that we can all get together and have an embarrassing, squeal-filled love-fest full of lots of high-pitched “Ohmygod, I KNOW!s” and chest-clutching sighs of contentedness. Huzzah!^*

Hello, there, old friend! It’s been a little while since we last caught up with one another. Don’t get all frowny-face on me, though, because have I got a good one for you! TIGER LILY by Jodi Lynn Anderson, one of my favorite books of the year no question or doubt at all. Because I loved it so much, and because the writing was so sublime, I’m going to do something a little different and review the book in quotes. Just a few; just a taste. But it’s a good, juicy taste, I promise.

Five-Star Friday: The Name of the Wind

Five-Star Friday is a periodically regular (say what?!) feature that I’m planning on running on Fridays (but not every Friday) in which I talk about (or verbally drool over) a book that I’ve read and ADORED (sometimes they’ll be recent releases and other times they might be older…my piles are tall and the bottoms are old). Yay! I always feel so happy and light and wonderful when I am beside myself with delight over a book, and I want to share the love with you all in the hopes that we can all get together and have an embarrassing, squeal-filled love-fest full of lots of high-pitched “Ohmygod, I KNOW!s” and chest-clutching sighs of contentedness. Huzzah!^*

There are not many words for how much I ADORED THE NAME OF THE WIND by Patrick Rothfuss. I will endeavor to get them all written down here. Because guys? This book is SO LEGIT, I don’t even know if it’s possible for me to do it justice by talking about it.

The All-Star Break

 My Ten Favorite Books of 2012…So Far

So, I was just catching up a little bit on some blogs that I LOVE but have been neglecting lately, much to my own sadness. One of these is my friend, Heidi’s spot, Bunbury in the Stacks. And wouldn’t you know that she has just today posted something that I have been wanting to do myself? Figures that she would inspire me to DO. Let’s see how many of these books are on my favorites list at the end of the year, guys. My guess? Quite a few. But I’ve been known to be wrong.

In no particular order…

Click on the covers for my reviews! And tell me who’s on top of your favorites list at the 2012 All-Star Break in the comments. (I HAD to go there with the baseball metaphor. Be thankful that I didn’t take it even further and assign books for each position on the field.)

Book Review: Something Like Normal by Trish Doller

Title: Something Like Normal

Author: Trish Doller

Genre: Contemporary YA, military

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Release date: June 19, 2012

Challenge: Debut Author Challenge, Contemporary Challenge

Source: NetGalley

Summary: When Travis returns home from a stint in Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother’s stolen his girlfriend and his car, and he’s haunted by nightmares of his best friend’s death. It’s not until Travis runs into Harper, a girl he’s had a rocky relationship with since middle school, that life actually starts looking up. And as he and Harper see more of each other, he begins to pick his way through the minefield of family problems and post-traumatic stress to the possibility of a life that might resemble normal again. Travis’s dry sense of humor, and incredible sense of honor, make him an irresistible and eminently lovable hero.