val

I approached this trilogy with such trepidation, because I love Melina Marchetta's writing but despite the glowing praise I've heard for it, I wasn't sure I would adore it as much as her contemporary novels.

Now I'm stuck clinging onto a world and a cast of characters I just really don't want to leave.

maybe it's my 2am brain talking, but i dove into this book expecting a few laughs (thanks, ontd) and ended up genuinely enjoying it. Definitely better than her other series, too - the hidden gem one. An easy read you can devour like cotton candy, yet something i couldn't stop flipping the pages of when i should have.

i borrowed this from the library and encountered it at a book sale for cheap around the same time. passed on it at the sale because i had borrowed but not read it yet, which i immediately regretted once i finished the book. i think this was the book that really kickstarted my love for quiet, contemporary short story collections with female-driven narratives.

3.5

perhaps it's simply because i read this immediately following a little life, but something about it felt incomplete — like there was so much to the story that could have continued, but it was ended short. other than the main plot of the novel, nothing really felt solved in deming/daniel's life. perhaps that is the point of stories, to just plonk you into the most important point of someone's life and leave the rest of it up to your imagination.

but i did love the way the book portrayed how white couples exoticise the adoption of chinese kids they feel need to be “saved.” peter and kay weren't exactly likeable, but they were earnest.

I would say that I don't really like books that deal with unfaithfulness because they all seem similar, but that would be a lie because I still read them.

Instead, I just get really frustrated. I had the same problem with Susane Colasanti's take. Lots of times when I wanted to pull hair.

The ending was kind of disappointing for me. There was a lot of build up towards THE MOMENT but it was never really detailed and I was expecting something more surprising based on the synopsis.

All in all, it's still good for those who enjoy books about high school drama, or aren't looking for a heavy read.

Galley courtesy of Simon & Schuster's Galley Grab Program!

I finished it. And I didn't hate it.

The key to enjoying this novel is simple: turn your brain off. Reasoning has no place here. After a certain point your mind just adjusts to the weirdness and you shrug it off because the next page is definitely going to spiral down even more.

It's not even a spiral. It's just a steady decline.

A few chapters in, I realised that if I continued on with the mental state I was reading the book with, I'd give up. So my mind began to gloss over. La dee da, yes that is ridiculous and I know you want to snark but ignore those minor things, just carry on. Wow, stereotypes. Oh, the cliches. And all the whipped cream and oral fixations?

Probably the grossest part of the book. Let us put those things behind us. But I persevered. And I ended up getting absorbed into it. I enjoyed it. I thought, ‘hey, props to you, Tyra, for your stand in what you believe in in the fashion world. Props to you for trying to fit it in.' I thought, ‘All weirdness aside, Bravo and Tookie could actually be a cute couple.'

I am ashamed.

The redeeming qualities are not found in the writing of the story. It is not in the names. Ci~L makes me wonder if I'll ever truly enjoy using tildes again. Somehow, though, Tyra Banks has managed to weave a compelling tale by crafting a world so unbelievable it could only be one you wander in a dream.

Because that's how I view this book. It makes a perfect dream world, really. One I would revisit and long to see again years after, just snippets. And the dark parts are pretty much akin to nightmare days. If Tyra had dreamt up the location first, I could see why she'd want to write about it. What I don't see is why she wanted to publish it.

Alas, the world ultimately also falls to the flaw of dream worlds: a lack of logic. What was this book about? Don't ask me. I don't know. I don't want to talk about it. The list of acknowledgments begins with rivers and restaurants rather than people.

That's right. Tyra managed to make even the acknowledgments weird.

To put it simply, this book was a mindfuck. And I don't use that word often.

I felt frustrated with Kaylee throughout the course of the book. While I understood that Nash had lost her trust in a serious way, I was upset that she couldn't at least let him reach out for help. I found it hard to relate with her in this book because of this. I read the last three books really close together which had made it easier for me to sink into it, whereas here the wait was months after and therefore my understanding of the story could be tainted.

My favourite part of the book was probably Tod. He really helped Kaylee throughout the entire book, which I think proves what she said at some point (that the hero complex skipped him) isn't entirely true.

All in all, while it took a few hours later for the story to finally sink in, it definitely left me craving for the next one. :)

Really, really sweet. The kind of book that makes me all smiley-faced after reading. I'm just a sucker for romance.

I do have to comment that I don't feel that the characters were really that fleshed out. The minor characters felt too much like props to the main story. Maybe it was the length? The whole story felt a bit rushed and too much for me to imagine as real, even in a book sense.

(The rating's mostly how I felt immediately after reading. It might change.)