What's Next? #2

A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love.

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .

But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. Having missed her flight, she's stuck at JFK airport and late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon-to-be stepmother Hadley's never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's sitting in her row.

A long night on the plane passes in the blink of an eye, and Hadley and Oliver lose track of each other in the airport chaos upon arrival. Can fate intervene to bring them together once more?

Quirks of timing play out in this romantic and cinematic novel about family connections, second chances, and first loves. Set over a twenty-four-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it. 

When her best guy friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, sixteen-year-old Cat sets out to discover who in her small town did it.

Richly atmospheric, this daring mystery mines the secrets of a tightly knit Southern community and examines the strength of will it takes to go against everyone you know in the name of justice.

Against a backdrop of poverty, clannishness, drugs, and intolerance, Myracle has crafted a harrowing coming-of-age tale couched in a deeply intelligent mystery. Smart, fearless, and compassionate, this is an unforgettable work from a beloved author.

So these are just some more books which are on the back burner. They're all young adult books. I'm leaning towards The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, but that might also be because it just seems too endearing -- and I love those types of novels.

Review: Let it Snow: Three Holiday Romances by John Green, Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle

Let it Snow: Three Holiday Romances by John Green, Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle 

Genres: Young adult, romance, short stories, holiday 

Summary: An ill-timed storm on Christmas Eve  buries the residents of Gracetown under multiple feet of snow and causes quite a bit of chaos. One brave soul ventures out into the storm from her stranded train and sets off a chain of events that will change quite a few lives. Over the next three days one girl takes a risky shortcut with an adorable stranger, three friends set out to win a race to the Waffle House (and the hash brown spoils), and the fate of a teacup pig falls into the hands of a lovesick barista.

Aside from the famous John Green, I have never (unfortunately) heard of Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle before. But I didn't buy this book because of John Green's name, I bought it because it's the holiday seasons and I wanted to read a holiday feel-good book. At least I assumed it was a feel-good book. Also, I was correct.

Let It Snow is a collection of holiday short stories. Each one are interconnected to the other and cameos show up in each story. It's not a new idea as it has been done so many times before, but it was also interesting to see the main characters of one story from the point of view of another.

The first story, written by Maureen Johnson, was my favorite. The lady is hilarious, and I am definitely going to look into her other books. The characters that she wrote were refreshing and it made me root for them. The second story was written by John Green, and was written in his familiar fashion of long monologues by characters who all seem to be too quick-witted. It's funny, but not very believable. It was a mixture of romance and friendship and while the characters were hard to believe, it was still fun to read about them. The last story, written by Lauren Myracle, was also amusing to read but the underdog in all three stories. It was fast-paced and focused more on self-realization than anything else.

All in all, I liked this book. There's no profound plot in here, but the way they executed everything was done in such a nice and humorous way that it's definitely a good read.

Rating: 4/5