Eleanor & Park (Rainbow Rowell)

Title: Eleanor & Park

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Publisher:  St. Martin’s Griffin

Length: 328

Rating: 4/5

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits who fight bullies, rejection, and countless other obstacles in their desperate battle for a love that lasts.

This book is beautiful. And tragic. It’s Perks of Being a Wallflower meets Romeo and Juliet with a classic 1980s soundtrack. It will make your heart ache. You will cry. But you will also want more than anything for the love these two 16 year olds have for each other to survive.

Tragic beauty usually isn’t my thing, but what I loved most about this book is how real the relationship between these two was. It takes them forever just to hold hands, and there is magic in the hand-holding. In so many YA books, it’s easy to forget the characters are so young, but in Eleanor and Park, you really feel like these characters are that young (and you remember how you felt at that age.)

This book is worth the hype, and worth the read. Bring tissues. 

Fallen (Lauren Kate)

Title: Fallen

Author: Lauren Kate

Publisher: Delacorte

Length: 464 pages

Rating: 3.5/5

Luce has been sent to Sword & Cross boarding school, a place for screw-ups, after an incident she can’t quite remember that left her last boyfriend dead. The one bright spot at her new school is the mysteriously handsome Daniel Grigori. But he’s avoiding Luce like it’s his job, while Cam, another mysterious boy, won’t leave her alone. Literally overshadowing Luce's attraction to these boys is the dark shadows that have always followed Luce around, and which seem to becoming more prominent.

Let's review this Pro/Con style:

Pro: Star-crossed lovers, and a dark, handsome boy who is both hot and cold.

Con: The dark, handsome Daniel seems to be hot and cold for no reason. What’s with the mood swings, buddy?

Pro: I liked Luce’s female friends at Sword & Cross. They were all pretty hardcore.

Con: Luce herself was waaaay too passive. (“These boys like me so I’m just gonna do whatever they say.” Terrible idea, Luce, terrible idea.)

Pro: Quick read with more books in the series to follow. Definitely worth a read to find out more about Daniel and Luce’s shared past.

Con: This book raised a lot of questions (presumably to be answered in the following books).

I can only hope Luce grows a backbone and Daniel is explained in the upcoming books, which yes, I will probably read. 

Love Story (Jennifer Echols)

Title: Love Story

Author: Jennifer Echols

Publisher: MTV Books (Simon & Schuster)

Length: 243 pages

Rating: 4/5

Erin wants to be a writer. She gave up her inheritance (a multi-million dollar Kentucky horse farm) so that she could major in creative writing rather than business at her dream university in New York. On the first day of critique in her writing class, she pours her heart into a story about starcrossed lovers on a Kentucky horse farm, starring the stable boy who was given her inheritance. Then he turns up in her class, and so begins a war of words in which Erin and Hunter try to come to terms with their past through the stories they share in class. Can Erin write herself a happy ending?

Oh Jennifer Echols and her screwed up characters who are perfect for each other…you pulled me in again and wouldn’t let go! What I love/hate about her books is that the characters are realistically flawed, which causes tension, drama, and misunderstanding and fuels the plot. Hate because you want to shout, “get over yourself/why are you being such an idiot?!” And love because it causes romantic tension and the characters always work it out in the end and are better people for it.

What’s great about Love Story are the snippets of the stories written by the characters interspersed throughout the book. Erin’s stories are all based on something in her past, which allows the reader and Hunter to get to know her better. (Side note: it bothered me just a little that Erin only wrote about what she knew. If you want to be a writer, you have to be brave and branch out a little! But I understand that this was both a plot devise and a way to show that Erin was still inexperienced, so I’ll forgive it). I would have liked more of Hunter’s stories, written to drive Erin crazy though- those were great!

What’s also great about Love Story is Hunter. You can’t have a good romance without a great male character, and Hunter is handsome, knows how to work with his hands, and carries a torch for Erin, despite all the dumb stuff they’ve done to each other.

This is your book if you’re an English major looking for a good love story, or let’s be honest, anyone looking for a good love story. 

Starcrossed (Josephine Angelini) and LINKS!

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Now for a review of Starcrossed: 

Think Twilight on the East Coast. Girl is different, a strange family moves into town. Turns out they’re immortal and drama ensues. Okay, if you hated Twilight, don’t run away just yet. Despite the eerie similarities, Starcrossed presented a pretty good story. There aren’t vampires; instead, there are descendents of the Greek gods, and it’s not just the one family in town. I liked how mythology was a primary driver of the plot (made all that stuff I had to memorize sophomore year of high school worthwhile). Of course there is a love story (star-crossed lovers, anyone?) and the novel ends on a cliff-hanger. I will of course be reading the next one! Again, a big theme is the strength in embracing your differences- a storyline I may never tire of. And Greek gods? How can you not love them and their drama?