Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

FYI: Rowell is pronounced like a towel. R.R. said so. 

Genre: YA Romance

Pages: 328

Type: Standalone

Goodreads Rating: 4.18 Avg

Published: 12-April-2012

My Rating: 5/5

Synopsis: 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.

Review: 

 

 Oh, my god. This book is perfection. Literally. I am so glad I decided to read it now. At the end of the year. What a great way to end 2014! 

  

  Where to start? (I could rave about this book forever. But I'm not since you want a review.) I loved the characters, both Eleanor and Park. They were just average, normal kids. Nothing extraordinary, nothing super hot. But that's what made the book super super hot. Eleanor did have a bit of a stubborn streak, the sort that got a bit frustrating at times. But not the kind like Bella. You know which Bella. It was just her nature, she was insecure, she was fat, or so she felt. She was the target of mean kids. You know? That sort of thing. Which made her seem so relatable. 

  I loved the fact that Park was Asian. I'm from Asia. And ok, not Korea, but still. Asia. So when writers write about someone Asian, I just feel so proud of who I am. And trust me, this does not happen often. Park was the kind of guy who himself was confused. Again, that's what made him relatable. Park's family was also a bunch of people I loved. I reveled in their normality. Is that a word? So good...

  And then, I loved, loved, Eleanor and Park together. They were like the sun and the moon. Which, doesn't make sense. But let's just go with it. 

  Let's talk about the writing. Just like Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell has an amazing ability to weave letters into words, and words into sentences. I'm not even gonna talk about it because, just because. It's so good... 

  I found myself completely immersed in the story. I sped through it. It made me laugh, and cry, and go all gooey because of the complete adorableness that is Eleanor and Park. They are so cute together! And I don't know why, but this little bit made me laugh and laugh. I don't know. Maybe I'm crazy. Okay. So Eleanor and Park go to a park. Jeez, I didn't realize that before. The 'park' thing. There Eleanor says, "Oh look. Swans"

Park says, "I think those are geese." Lol

So Elenaor says, "Well, they're the best looking geese I've ever seen"

Doesn't that just make you laugh out loud? Lol. It does to me. 

  So all I'm going to say is that you need to read this book. Guys. Read it. 

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

Genre: Adult Romance Fiction

Pages: 326

Type: Standalone

Goodreads Rating: 4.07 Avg

Published: 2007

My Rating: 3/5

Synopsis: When U.S. Marine Logan Thibault finds a photograph of a smiling young woman half-buried in the dirt during his third tour of duty in Iraq, his first instinct is to toss it aside. Instead, he brings it back to the base for someone to claim, but when no one does, he finds himself always carrying the photo in his pocket. Soon Thibault experiences a sudden streak of luck—winning poker games and even surviving deadly combat that kills two of his closest buddies. Only his best friend, Victor, seems to have an explanation for his good fortune: the photograph—his lucky charm.

Back home in Colorado, Thibault can’t seem to get the photo—and the woman in it—out of his mind. Believing that she somehow holds the key to his destiny, he sets out on a journey across the country to find her, never expecting the strong but vulnerable woman he encounters in Hampton, North Carolina—Elizabeth, a divorced mother with a young son—to be the girl he’s been waiting his whole life to meet. Caught off guard by the attraction he feels, Thibault keeps the story of the photo, and his luck, a secret. As he and Elizabeth embark upon a passionate and all-consuming love affair, the secret he is keeping will soon threaten to tear them apart—destroying not only their love, but also their lives.
Filled with tender romance and terrific suspense, The Lucky One is Nicholas Sparks at his best—an unforgettable story about the surprising paths our lives often take and the power of fate to guide us to true and everlasting love.

My Review: 

 So I don't think I've ever read anything Nicholas Sparks. And, I have to say, I was a bit disappointed. Maybe it was because it is an adult book or maybe just because it wasn't my cup of tea. It wasn't completely hopeless. I mean, I did enjoy parts of the book. 

  I personally found myself getting bored with a lot of parts of the book. There were like, little paragraphs devoted to the time Logan had in the army. I found those a bit interesting in the beginning, but slowly I just got really annoyed with them.

  I have to say though, that the book was very family orientative. Beth's little son, Ben and her grandmother, Nana were quite important parts of the book. I found Nana really funny since she had these weird metaphors up her sleeve. Like, He's as good as a duck on a stick. Lol. She was extremely funny. 

  But honestly, I wasn't too attached to the book. I didn't care too much about what happened to the characters and I didn't feel connected to any part of the story. It was also very unrealistic. Because, no one ever walks kilometers for a woman in a picture that they found in the sand randomly. No one does that. Especially, when they don't even have any solid leads to the person. 

  So, as you can tell, I feel like I have some pretty good points up as to why I didn't enjoy the book completely. Nevertheless, I probably just had bad luck with the book. 

Library Haul #1

Hey guys! So I never do hauls because I had a channel. But now, since I don't post videos anymore, I thought: why not do a blog post book haul? So that's exactly what I'm doing today! Hope you like it!

This is a library book haul. I barely ever buy books, so these are all books that I'm having for a limited period. 

There are nine books I got: (Forgive me for the blurred picture :/ )

1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling(currently reading)

2. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (really excited for this one!) 

3. Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (2nd book in a trilogy. Very promising, the first book. Lots of hype about this one I've heard.)

4. Reality Boy by A. S. King. (LOVED her book Ask the Passengers. Wanted to read her other books!)

5. Hollow City by Ransom Riggs. (Really interesting, the first book was. Been wanting to read the sequel ever since.) 

6. Fallen by Lauren Kate. (Borrowed this one mainly because of the many times I've seen it on booktubers' shelves)

7. Beastly by Alex Flinn. (Recently read it. Did a review too. Fairytale Retelling, this one.)

8. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. (Don't like that cover color too much as opposed to the off-whitish one. Lots of hype. Very excited!)

9. Little Bee by Chris Cleave. (Heard Regan from PeruseProject talk about it. Plus the synopsis is very mysterious.)

So there you have it! All the books I borrowed along with a little bit of what I think about them. Hope you're satisfied. Also, let me know if you'd like me to start a video series.