Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid | Review

Title: Maybe in Another Life
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Pages: 342
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Goodreads rating: 3.75 Stars
Published:July 7th,  2015
Source: Audiobook/borrowed

Description:

From the acclaimed author of Forever, Interrupted and After I Do comes a breathtaking new novel about a young woman whose fate hinges on the choice she makes after bumping into an old flame; in alternating chapters, we see two possible scenarios unfold—with stunningly different results.

At the age of twenty-nine, Hannah Martin still has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She has lived in six different cities and held countless meaningless jobs since graduating college. On the heels of leaving yet another city, Hannah moves back to her hometown of Los Angeles and takes up residence in her best friend Gabby’s guestroom. Shortly after getting back to town, Hannah goes out to a bar one night with Gabby and meets up with her high school boyfriend, Ethan.

Just after midnight, Gabby asks Hannah if she’s ready to go. A moment later, Ethan offers to give her a ride later if she wants to stay. Hannah hesitates. What happens if she leaves with Gabby? What happens if she leaves with Ethan?

In concurrent storylines, Hannah lives out the effects of each decision. Quickly, these parallel universes develop into radically different stories with large-scale consequences for Hannah, as well as the people around her. As the two alternate realities run their course, Maybe in Another Life raises questions about fate and true love: Is anything meant to be? How much in our life is determined by chance? And perhaps, most compellingly: Is there such a thing as a soul mate?

Hannah believes there is. And, in both worlds, she believes she’s found him.



My Thoughts:

Hannah Martin has no clue what she wants in life or where she wants that life to be.  So, when her current situation ends up being a very bad situation, she goes back to where it all started: Los Angeles, her childhood home, and her best friend Gabby {and Gabby's husband, Mark}.  Closing up to her 30th birthday, Hannah is at a loss of what to do with her life, but being home with family seems like a good place to start.

Even though Hannah seems to be floundering as far as choosing where to actually start her life, she's doesn't seem to flaky.  Reid gives her the history of someone who is more of a butterfly, flitting from place to place, job to job, and just not finding whatever it is that she needs to settle down.

I got pretty hooked into this book.  I haven't read many books that have taken the "what if" and turned it into its own half of the book.  The first time it switched to the other scenario, it was pretty easy to figure out what Reid was doing {as far as giving Hannah a second chance at the first fateful night}.  I found myself rooting for one of the "sliding doors" a little more than the other, but I won't tell you which one *wink*.

Hannah has two love interests in this: Ethan, whom she's known forever, and Henry, who she's met following an accident in one of the storylines.  Its amazing to see how everything comes together {and frustrating to see how certain things fall apart}.  I found myself gasping when things happened in one storyline, but not in the other and jsut saying "no!  But that has to happen!  They have to know!"

However, I was not disappointed with how Taylor Jenkins Reid tied everything together and put a nice little bow on both storylines.  While I still have a favorite, there were aspects that I loved from each one.  She brought each story together beautifully, and I think no matter where you find yourself wishing the storylines would go, one will have you vclosing the book very satified, if not both.

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne | Review

Title: The Hating Game
Author: Sally Thorne
Pages: 384
Publisher: Willaim Morrow
Goodreads rating: 4.26 Stars
Published:  August 9th, 2016
Source: Audiobook/Library

Description:

Nemesis (n.)
1) An opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome;
2) A person’s undoing;
3) Joshua Templeman.

Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman hate each other. Not dislike. Not begrudgingly tolerate. Hate. And they have no problem displaying their feelings through a series of ritualistic passive aggressive maneuvers as they sit across from each other, executive assistants to co-CEOs of a publishing company. Lucy can’t understand Joshua’s joyless, uptight, meticulous approach to his job. Joshua is clearly baffled by Lucy’s overly bright clothes, quirkiness, and Pollyanna attitude.

Now up for the same promotion, their battle of wills has come to a head and Lucy refuses to back down when their latest game could cost her her dream job…But the tension between Lucy and Joshua has also reached its boiling point, and Lucy is discovering that maybe she doesn’t hate Joshua. And maybe, he doesn’t hate her either. Or maybe this is just another game.


My Thoughts:

You know those books that everyone seems to get a hold of before you and is raving and gushing about them? That was The Hating Game for me and my bookish friends.  Everyone had read it and I was hearing so many good things about this book and just dying to read it.  Though I was warned that I would have a massive book hangover afterwards *sigh*.

I borrowed the audiobook of this from my local library, and it was more than worth the wait {though I really didn't hav eto wait very long at all}.  I blew through this book unlike any books I've read recently.  Mostly due to the stellar story, but also because the narrator was pretty perfect {she was the absolute perfect Lucy}.  I was listening to this book every second I got, including using headphones and listening in bed after both my husband and I snuggled in for the night or during my kids' nap/quiet time.

Lucy is the perfect mix of sweet and sassy, adorable and sexy.  She's like a quirky librarian, who always wanted to work in publishing and gets close to her dream job at the publishing house she works for.  She is a professional, bu also honest about her strong feeling towards Joshua.  Her strong negative feelings.

The entire office, possibly the entire company, knows about Lucy and Joshua's mutual hate.  They don't keep it a secret, and despite all the hate, they do work together rather fluidly and keep the office up and running proficiently.  Lucy and Joshua's bosses don't get along, and its almost like the two assistants are acting out all the hostility between the two companies when they merged into one.  Well, right to the brink of needing an HR intervention {or write up!}.

Joshua is written pretty dreamily.  I mean, you kind of expect that, right?  Well, he is dreamy... until he opens his mouth.  Then the banter begins, and swords {words} are flying across the office.  He evntually began to grow on me, but not before wanting to smack him upside the head.

I think it would be difficult to write a book about hating someone so much, and not completely turn off the reader to one of the characters in the hating game, but Sally Thorne knows just when to stop and how far to take the characters without swaying the reader one way or another.  I was on the fence with the characters for most of the book - no Team Lucy or Team Joshua.  I think I was honestly Team Please-Don't-Let-This-Book-End!!  It was the perfect read, and I can't wait for Sally Thorne to write some more!  *goes off to stalk her Goodreads page*

Passenger by Alexandra Bracken | Review

Title: Passenger
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Pages: 486
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Goodreads rating: 3.88 Stars
Published:  January 5, 2016
Source: Audiobook/Library, as well as Hardcover/bought

Description

Passage, n.
i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.
ii. A journey by water; a voyage.
iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them—whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are playing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home... forever.

My Thoughts

I mostly listened to the audiobook for this one, just reading the few times I curled up in bed with it.  So I had a difficult time getting into it because of the narrator's voice {very gravely/rough, and I was picturing something much different for a young girl, especially one musically inclined}.

Etta is very interesting.  She comes across a little naive and at the same time very stubborn.  She is comstantly saying how she can take care of herself, but then turns to Nicholas.  While I'm all for the damsel in distress or the heroine who can hold her own, Etta as a character seemed a little confused as to which one she wanted to be.  Or maybe she just thought she wanted to be the latter and kept finding herself in situations that made her more of the former {being tossed out of one's time period and landing in the middle of an ocean centeries apart could do that to anyone}.  Thankfully, Nicholas is there for her in both situations {usually}, so she can be either one she chooses.

Nicholas himself is used to time travel and moving between passages of time much more than Etta {she just discovered it when she walked through one with another girl}.  While Etta was completely ignorant of her ability to travel through various portals and passages to different times and places, Nicholas had been trained to do so.  He's there to navigate and show Etta how it's done while they're on a quest looking for a missing item the master of the time travelers wants.

The book took a couple unexpected turns, and the ending had me literally exclaiming "what? No!" very loudly in bed {thankfully my husband wasn't asleep yet}.  I have really enjoyed Alexandra Bracken's writing, and I get sucked into the worlds she creates each time {despite narrators with gravely voices}. I would definitely suggest picking this one up and giving it a go... or maybe just wait until next year, so you're not torturing yourself in anticipation for the next book like I am now!

After You by JoJo Moyes | Review

Title: After You
Author: JoJo Moynes
Pages: 353
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Goodreads rating: 3.72 Stars
Published:  September 29, 2015
Source: Audiobook/Library

Description:

“You’re going to feel uncomfortable in your new world for a bit. But I hope you feel a bit exhilarated too. Live boldly. Push yourself. Don’t settle. Just live well. Just live. Love, Will.”

How do you move on after losing the person you loved? How do you build a life worth living?

Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.

Her body heals, but Lou herself knows that she needs to be kick-started back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group, who share insights, laughter, frustrations, and terrible cookies. They will also lead her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding—the paramedic, whose business is life and death, and the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and hijacks all her plans, propelling her into a very different future. . . .

For Lou Clark, life after Will Traynor means learning to fall in love again, with all the risks that brings. But here Jojo Moyes gives us two families, as real as our own, whose joys and sorrows will touch you deeply, and where both changes and surprises await.


My Thoughts

*DISCLAIMER* This will have spoilers from Me Before You!! If you haven't read it and are planning on doing so, please, please, please don't read anymore!!!!

I'm serious!! If you don't want Me Before You spoiled, DO NOT READ ANYMORE!!!!

Okay... are you sure you want to read ahead??  Here goes...

 

I picked this up because I just really needed to know what happened to Lou after her life helping Will. Sh'e not really doing much with it, which kind of makes me go "man!"  Me Before You left Lou in a place that was sad but had promise.  After You found her working in a little pub by the airport, not really going anywhere.  Sure, she'd traveled to Paris for a bit after Will died, but she came home after, and found herself stuck in a rut.

Horribly enough, her rut ends when she's surprised by what everyone thinks was a figment of her imagination and falls off her apartment building's roof!  She survives, only to go through an interesting turn with the so-called figment of her imagination {no, it wasn't Will, and no, I won't ruin this and tell you who it was}.  She does find that her heart isn't completely closed off since Will, and it's swonderful to see this new interest bring her back out of the cocoon she built around herself.

The story takes twists and turns, some of them expected and others not. It ends pleasantly, but honestly not where I wanted to see Lou after the devistation that was her relationship with Will and the gaping hole Me Before You left in her life {and my heart!}.  I was hoping for a much more "happily ever after" or even "hey! It's all working out for Lou!" type of ending, and that isn't the way the author took this story.

I did borrow the audiobooke of this from my library {months ago... and am just now writing my review... oops!}, and some of this rating is also rating the narrator of the audiobook {she was fantastic, and exactly how I picked Lou to sound in my head}.  If you enjoyed Me Before You, you would defintely enjoy After You {probably more so}.  I would even go so far as to say you don't necessarily need to read Me Before You to read After You and enjoy it!

Me Before You by JoJo Moyes | Review

Title: Me Before You
Author: JoJo Moyes
Pages: 369
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books/Viking
Goodreads rating: 4.31 Stars
Published: December 31, 2012
Source: Audiobook/Library

Description:

Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.


My Thoughts

Contemporary fiction usually isn't my "thing".  That being said, I really enjoyed the quirkiness and wit in Me Before You.  I'd been told a few things about this book before reading it, mostly that it will make me just cry my eyes out and/or that it’s amazing and brilliant and that I have to read it.  Having two little ones running around and needing constructive direction doesn't leave a whole lot of reading time, so audiobooks have become my saving grace in how I get things "read".  {I think at some point I'll write up a nice big post about that and everything it entails at some other point.}  I'd borrowed this from my local public library, only waiting a few weeks for my hold to come in {amazing, since the movie was very publicized and on its way to the theater}.

The story follows a very perky, slightly eccentric young woman while she works through family situations and tries to figure out who she is, after landing a job as a caregiver {so long as she doesn’t have to wipe bums, she’s okay with it}.  Hearing her on the audiobook, she sounds like sunshine personified most the time, but not in a way that makes you cringe.  She is very relatable, even if you happen to live on another continent living an entirely different type of life.  Listening while I ran my errands or while my kids napped I was completely transported to wherever Lou was, watching what she was doing or listening to what she was saying.

Will Traynor... guys, he's going to kind of hit you in the gut.  He does just about anything to get Lou to just ignore him/go away.  He made a deal with his parents, and he just wants to have it finally reach its end.  He has six months left of his deal when Lou comes on as his caregiver, and he is determined not to let anything or anyone get in the way of his goal or derail his plan for the end of his six months.  But Louisa Clark is a force to be reckoned with, and has soon wormed her way into Will's life and eventually his heart.

Ultimately this book did bring me to tears in the end.  The general ending was kind of what I expected {since everyone told me it would make me cry ugly tears}, but I won't go into details so that I don't spoil it for any of you!  It was worth every minute I spent listening to the book, and JoJo Moyes has such a way with characters that you will be both thanking her and cursing her for the beauty that is Louisa Clark and Will Traynor and the relationship she weaves between them.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer | Review

Title: Cinder
Author: Marissa Meyer
Pages: 387
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Goodreads rating: 4.09 stars
Published: January 3rd, 2012
Source: Audiobook/Library

Description:

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.


Okay, androids and cyborgs? Generally not my thing.  I decided to pick up the audiobook from my library because 1) I've been loving audiobooks lately {even though it will never beat sitting with a physical copy in my hands and enjoying a good book}, and 2) it was right before Cress was going to be released, so I was seeing things about the Lunar Chronicles everywhere.  Top that off with getting the flu and having to be quarantined away from the boy shortly after picking this up, and I had quite the audiobook marathon one weekend.  Even in my flu-muddled mind, I recognized the awesome that was Cinder.

The characters were fabulous.  Seriously, just amazing!  I loved the depth and complexity that was Cinder, and her relationships with everyone she knows {especially her little android Iko!}.  I thought it would be weird reading about a character who was a cyborg, but it actually wasn't!  I've read a couple books with either cyborgs/robots/zombies, and they all seem to creep me out a little, but Cinder didn't.

The story moves fast, and I think the only thing that would have made me enjoy this book more would have been actually reading it instead of listening to it.  The woman reading the story does pretty good with all the voices, but some are a little too monotone for me {I know, they're kind of supposed to be, but its just weird hearing it}.

There was the obvious "duh!" when a couple different things were revealed {one of which I figured out close to the beginning of the book}, and I think a few people reading this might be a little disappointed that they caught on so quick.  It wasn't disappointing to me, but there definitely wasn't the "whoa, I totally didn't see that coming!" thrill that comes with some books.

I would definitely suggest this to fans of Sci Fi/Fantasy books.  Even though it's YA, I really think this one is for YA and up.  I would definitely suggest this {and the other Lunar Chronicles} to anyone!

Audiobooks vs Physical Copies

The post in which I talk about audiobooks, being a new mom and how that makes reading a bit more difficult to do... {also, if you read to the end, you will also get to see a cute baby!  Yay for cute babies!}

I'd say about a year ago, if you told me I should listen to an audiobook, I would laugh and ask why.  I had all the time in the world {figuratively speaking - I still worked full time and was a wife full time} to sit and read my books.  I could stay up until 2AM reading and it wasn't a problem.  I'd just make sure I wasn't working the next day {or was working a late shift} and sleep in until 9AM or so.  I could read while my husband watched his favorite TV shows.  Yes, it took me longer than your average book blogger to read a book, but I was okay with that {I still am okay with that}.

However, now I have added being a full time mom to the top of that list {okay, it's kind of neck-in-neck with being a full time wife *winks*.  Kind of need one to have the other in my house!}.  It took me about 9 weeks just to finish half of Kiki Hamilton's The Torn Wing {and I still haven't written a review on it because my thoughts were so scattered for that first half}.  I have insomnia to begin with, and having a baby basically just made sleep a thing of the past, which make you think I should get more reading done, right?  Nope.  It's really hard to get my eyes and brain to focus on something for any duration when I'm so bone tired, and the sleep deprivation didn't really get any better until my little guy was a few months old.  And by then I was back to working 30-35 hours a week {I was actually back to that a couple days after he celebrated 6 weeks outside the womb}, so reading was something I only ever did on lunch breaks.  But, now I'm getting anywhere between 6-8 hours of broken sleep at night, which seems like heaven!  However, I'm up doing stuff with my little man every day {being a mom is a freaking awesome full time job!}... Enter the audiobook!

My husband gave me money to get a book I've been dying to read shortly after Little D was born, and I was so thrilled and excited to finally get my hands on it: Insurgent by Veronica Roth!  What a sweet husband I have!  I was so excited, then shortly saddened to realize I really just did not have any time to sit and read this amazing book that I'd been looking forward to for months.  I was so exhausted from taking care of Little D all day, that by the time he went to bed at night I could hardly keep my eyes open, much less read a book {my only time to really relax at that point in time}.  So I was talking to my sister-in-law and fellow book nerd {and mom of two adorable girls under 3 years old}, and she said, "Kari, you really should try audiobooks!"  I told her it would be kind of nice, but I didn't have the extra cash for a subscription to Audible and to pay the extra for book on top of that.  And, can I just say my SIL is a genius?  She suggested borrowing them from my local library!  Um, wow.  I am obviously a new mom as I didn't even think of that and I LOVE my library!  I've been going a little crazy with listening to books {don't worry, I've been able to actually sit and read a few too}.  I listened to Insurgent {Brilliant book, with a great reader!}, I've also listened to Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson, Austenland by Shannon Hale {I actually read and listened to this one: reading when I could, and picking up on audio when I couldn't}, and am currently almost finished with The Maze Runner by James Dashner.

Okay, now for the comparisons...

1} I can read faster than those reading the audiobook, so if I have the time, its faster for me to actually sit and read it.

2} Reading it really does help me get sucked into the world the author has created compared to listening to it.  There are no distractions, just me and my book.

3} I can do almost anything while listening to an audiobook.  I can play with Little D, drive, cook, clean, write a blog post {okay, that last one ends up coming out weird when I do it}... Just about anything.  Which, for a mom {new or not} is awesome.  If you don't have kids, you'll understand this someday.  If you do have kids, you're probably nodding you head while reading this.

4} In the reading world, I don't think eBooks or audiobooks can really compare to how awesome it is to just sit and hold a book that is the home to some wonderful world, a wonderful story.  Nothing can beat the weight of a good hardcover, turning the pages and reading about some fabulous characters.

And, for those of you who put up with and read this entire post, here are the promised pictures!

Various pictures of Little D, 4-6 months old

Little D, 9 days old to 5 months old! Its so neat to see how he's changed each month {and how big he's getting!}

His most recent monthly picture {and its almost time for his 7 month picture!}