The Heartbreakers, Ali Novak

The Heartbreakers by Ali Novak

I just finished reading this novel and I will admit that I have felt the whole roller coaster of emotions.
Stella, Cara, and Drew are triplets and the bond they share is extremely crucial for their lives, just like everyone would expect, but there´s a catch to their pretty story. Cara has cancer and is obsessed with a band called The Heartbreakers. 
The Heartbreakers is a group formed by four guys, extremely good-looking, that make music and perform with instruments, yet their music is not necessarily considered "punk" because their marketing has decided to present them to the world as a pretty boy band with pop tunes, so Stella absolutely hates them. 
Cara´s birthday is coming soon and her siblings are aware of the fact that Cara was too sick to attend a concert from The Heartbreakers, so when Drew knows that they will be doing a signing, they take a LONG drive to get that autograph. On their way to the venue, they stop at Starbucks after Stella says that she cannot function without coffee. Yet, she gets more than just coffee. She meets a total cutie at the shop, who even pays for her coffee. But once they arrive and notice who The Heartbreakers are, she realizes that the adorable guy from the coffee shop is Oliver Perry aka Cara´s biggest crush, who also happens to be The Heartbreakers´ lead singer. 
After waiting three hours in line and not being able to get an autograph, they go to their hotel room and Stella has a fateful meeting with Oliver and his bandmates. Later that evening, they have fun in the pool and there may even be a hot and swoony making out session. But before the night is over, Alec asks Stella for the pictures she took during the evening, which may be the start of an adventure. 
And soon, Stella is traveling across the country with the most popular band while taking photographs and discovering love. 
I have so many things that I want to write about! 
First, I would like to start by talking about the characters. I liked Stella, but there were moments where I did feel like she was being too innocent and she was definitely not getting the hang of dating a band member. Also, she acted exactly the opposite of how she felt, which hurt her more and affected the relationship. Yet, I liked the aspect of her trying to act professional, trying to not create problems, and not get too deep into the whole pretty bubble of being with the band because she still had a sister she needed to go back to. So, in general, Stella was a character that I liked, especially because she has a great personality and is very fun to read about. 
On the other hand, Oliver was a little plain for me. He was sweet, charming, adorable, cute, and he even knows how to cook! But he didn´t quite get me because the story is so big that at some point, I felt that the book wasn´t able to cover many topics or scenes as it needed. Oliver gets very cute scenes and made me love him and he was such a little dork that I ended up loving him, but I wanted to see a little more to him, something other than apologizing, cooking or supporting Stella. 
Believe it or not, my favorite character was JJ! I LOVE him. JJ is the drummer of The Heartbreakers and he is amazing! He is funny and such a sweetheart. He kept me going throughout the novel with his weird pranks, perv moments, love for ketchup and cute nicknames like Butt Nugget. He gave me the amount of laughter that I needed in the novel. I believe that my liking of the story was impacted by JJ. Yet, I will admit that I loved the other guys too, although I wanted to see more from Xander, much more than just his diet and allergies. 
Aside from the member, I loved the bond that the triplets shared because although I don´t have twins, I have siblings that take care of me (I´m the youngest), and I liked reading how a sibling bond can change everything because my siblings and I are really close although we don´t express it. As much as I loved reading about the adventures of The Heartbreakers´ tour, there was a part of me that was eager to know more about Cara´s health improvement and Drew´s experience at college. I wanted the story to be more balanced between romance and family because I felt like we only encountered them suddenly.
Now, I will move on and talk about the story in general. At first glance, the story is something that I would TOTALLY read, the novel is basically what I feed the fangirl that lives inside me. So, when I read about it at Barnes and Noble, I knew that I had to buy it because it was going to be a perfect reading for me. It included cute band members, black skinny jeans, music, groupies, and a backstage pass. In other words, this book was perfect for me and I loved it! I liked reading about the band because I love bands, so it was normal for me to like the book and the adorable characters. 
Yet, what I loved the most about the novel was the musical aspect it included. The whole debating between band members for the new album (a little bit Panic! At The Disco Style) and marketing (them getting makeovers), and my favorite radio interviews! I loved that it included all sides of being in a band, from fights between best friends, silly pranks, crazy parties, new music, groupies and even crazy fan stories. This book was like the perfect fanfiction book that my fangirl needed. 
Now that I have finished, I just want to add how much this book reminded me of 5 Seconds of Summer because I LOVE them and the characteristics of the band members (like Xander´s pink hair!) reminded me of one of my favorite bands! Their whole desire of being Punk-Rock was so 5SOS and the skinny jeans and silly pranks reminded me so much of 5SOS.

I just wanted to add a picture of Michael´s pink hair because it reminded me of Xander´s.
Overall, I enjoyed this book because it really understood my fangirl self, as I have mentioned so much throughout the review, and it was extra fun (thanks to my lovely JJ). It is the type of book that you want to read in a single sitting and you won´t regret it. My only advice is that if you prefer books that are a little more mature, you have to take your time because the book is for ages 12 and up, and it did seem a little immature for me, yet I still enjoyed it.

4 out of 5 stars 

Love, Sua

Alex, Approximately, Jenn Bennett

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennet

I got the chance to go San Antonio with one of my best friends after advancing to Regionals in a competition called UIL, which is an event full of tests and competitions about every academic course in Texas, and I advanced with Computer Applications, which is a competition involving Microsoft Word, Excel and Access. So, my friend and I LOVE reading, therefore when we were set free at La Cantera mall in San Antonio, we had to go to Barnes and Noble and when we did, we went crazy because they had TOO many books, but I could only buy one because I couldn´t buy a lot of stuff due to the fact that we traveled on a school bus, so I had settled down with The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson in paperback, yet I kept wanting Alex, Approximately because it sounded so fun! So, the next time my mom took me to Barnes and Noble from our city, I bought it and immediately started reading it and I loved it!
The story reminded me a little bit of This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith, but the male character made it different, completely different! 
Bailey has been messaging Alex for a very long time and they have a very close relationship because they talk all the time about movies, which is really beautiful to read about because they bond over something that both feel passionate about. But Bailey has to move to California to live with her father and surprisingly the city where she is moving to is the same city where Alex lives, yet she´s afraid to tell him since he could be a creepy old man. So, when she moves she decides to meet everyone in the city to see if she can find Alex. On the other hand, her father gets her a job a local museum, where they have rooms with different themes. That´s where she meets Porter, who is extremely annoying, yet awfully handsome. We can pretty much tell that there will be a problem there. Sadly, Bailey is put at the ticket booth, where she will have to work with Porter most of the time. Yet as time passes by, she starts realizing that Porter may not be a bad person at all, but Alex is nowhere to be seen! Her plans of meeting Alex are crushed, but her relationship with Porter may be getting better, believe it or not, she may be falling in love with him. But there is only one problem that Bailey doesn´t seem to notice... Porter is Alex.
I know this is going to sound so weird, but I loved Porter since the beginning! I know, it sounds crazy, but something about him seemed very charming to me, therefore, I couldn´t wait to meet his romantic side. I loved Porter´s character because he was different to all my other summer YA novel boyfriends. Porter had a background story that made my small heart hurt and this whole surfer legacy thing he had with him was surprisingly hot and charming, not only in the sense of making him better, but it made him a more well-rounded character. He definitely had a sad past, but he showed us how he had gotten over it and it was beautiful to read about him and his family. On the hand, his romantic side was adorable and swoony, I swear that I wanted to marry him with his pocket snacks! 
Bailey was a character that I didn´t really like because she was annoying with her whole feelings for Alex and Porter. At some point, I started getting annoyed by the way she wanted to hold on to both "characters," when she could be happy with only Porter. Her need of having both of them seemed a little selfish to me, which I think hurt characters. But it was interesting to see how she was managing to get used to the new environment with her father. It was really cool to see the main character that actually liked being with her father after parents being divorced because, in other stories, we usually see how the girl hates going to the other family. 
I loved the love story transforming from hate to love because it was funny to read the things the conversations they shared and I absolutely loved every place that was mentioned in the book (well, except the places where bad things happened), it was lovely to able to see a whole city from a stranger´s eyes and being guided by a charming surfer. 
Another thing that I loved about the book was the quotes that the author decided to add at the start of every chapter! I loved reading all of them, even though I don´t really like movies, I would get excited because many of them were movies that every teenager has seen and that has grown with (like Mean Girls!). 
Also, the fact that the author decided to tell us from the beginning that Alex was Porter was extremely clever because it makes the reader get excited to see how Bailey reacts to that piece of information!
I would like to take a section to mention that the hardcover version is beautiful because the book itself without the jacket is like a brown-wine color that looks beautiful and contrasts so well with the yellow-brown cover.
I believe this is a book that is definitely for summer, but it has drama and we all know that sometimes we really want some sad background stories and lots of drama after reading too many swoony summer stories. 

4 1/2 stars out of 5 stars

Love, Sua

Wanderlost, Jenn Malone

Wanderlost by Jen Malone

Elizabeth has always been the perfect daughter, she´s fun and she has a great life ahead of her. In fact, her summer plans included being a tour guide for senior citizens throughout Europe, something that would look fantastic in her resumé, but there is a problem at the beginning of summer. Aubree, Elizabeth´s sister, decides to throw a party in their house, and of course, it includes alcohol, so when the cops come, Elizabeth tries helping her sister, yet ends up going to jail, therefore, her mother doesn´t let her go to Europe, but not attending the tour means that she´s not getting the internship she wants. Therefore, she makes Aubree go instead of her, telling her mother she´ll be staying with her best friend. After Aubree agrees, she´s soon on a plane to Amsterdam, the first stop of the tour. 
Aubree is fine with the whole guiding stuff, also, she happens to be extremely good at pretending to be Elizabeth, well, that´s until she can´t communicate with the bus driver and she gets to talk to a charming guy, who happens to call her "Dimples" thinking that Aubree has two dimples as Elizabeth. Everything goes great, she doesn´t really mind lying to the friendly stranger until the adorable stranger, Sam, flies to Europe to accompany the whole touring group, and he realizes that her nickname should be "Dimple."
At first, Aubree feels really nervous about being with Sam, after all, he´s the tour company owner´s son. But after being with him for a few days, she is too charmed with him to think about the future. 
But perhaps telling Sam about the lie she has been telling everyone might not only break his heart, it will possibly create problems with Elizabeth and the relationship they maintain as sisters.
I came across this book in my Kindle and I was so eager to read it that I decided to order the book from Amazon like the next morning. I was so excited to read about these beautiful and picturesque cities that Europe has to offer and the best way that I could do so was by reading a romantic story in the most romantic continent. I read Map to the Stars by the same author last summer and I loved it. Hopefully, I will be posting a review when I reread it. But I was in love with the writing of Jen Malone because she has this really beautiful way of mixing romance in the most beautiful places, which also happens in Map to the Stars. Also, I was able to confirm that she writes the most charming male characters ever! 
Aubree was a character that I really enjoyed and could understand her position and why she was afraid to tell him, she was trapped in a situation where she knew that if she told him, it would break him, yet while she wasn´t telling him it was breaking her. Yet, my favorite thing about her was how dedicated she became with her job because she could easily brush it off, yet she had leadership inside her that she didn´t notice because everyone was always so centered in Elizabeth, so it was very exciting to see how she was able to start exploring herself and new sides to her personality. It was refreshing because in this book Sam wasn´t really the person that pushed her to her limits to see her best traits, it was just the whole experience and the way she was able to find herself back home. 
On the other hand, Sam´s character is AMAZING! I love the way he is because he gets to teach Aubree about the job and it was beautiful to see how one person taking the lead could start forming a bond with a group of people, which is what happened with the touring group once he appeared. Sam was funny and charming in a classic YA style. He made her laugh with very simple jokes and conversations, yet he was very creative getting her attention and teasing her, which was adorable. Also, he had a way of making Aubree be herself when she really needed someone by her side that could simply make her feel better. Yet, my favorite part of him was his reaction to Aubree´s situation, it wasn´t too much or too little, it was just PERFECT. (I tried to NOT spoil, but feel like I said too much). But his reaction made him very human and real because it was the type of reaction that humans give most of the time.
I loved the way the tour turned out, I liked it as much as Sam because it showed many things and it was very diverse. The characters that surround Aubree in this tour are fun and helpful. We have from everything, from best friends traveling together to a very dirty older couple to Sam´s grandmother and even a history teacher. But my favorite part of all these was how everyone got close to each other by learning to communicate with each other and by learning to be around people that can be your friends. So, my favorite part of the book was the way Aubree was able to discover that building relationships are all about giving the first step and talking to each other.
Another thing that I really liked was Elizabeth´s relationship with Aubree because family relationships are extremely weird that if you don´t live them, you would never understand. The sisters had a different type of love for each other and a different type of friendship. They love each other dearly, but they also see their flaws and that may be what brings them together, yet it may hurt the other person to know about the existence of this flaws after an amount of time. I liked this particular aspect of the novel because every family relationship is different. For example, our two main characters got over the problem by talking about it. But I know for sure that my relationship with my sister is completely different, we forget about our discussions in five minutes but never talk about them, you just throw them down the sink. So, I liked seeing a different type of relationship that wasn´t super close as other relationships we see in YA novels a lot.
I believe this is a super fun story that includes a cute guy, beautiful scenery, a different type of friendship, and a new type of sisterhood. Also, it will make you fall in love with Europe and you will laugh a lot with Sam, yet there will be scenes where you will cry A LOT.

5 out of 5 stars 

Love, Sua 

Since You´ve Been Gone, Morgan Matson

Since You´ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson

I want to start this review by telling everyone that I believe that Morgan Matson´s novels are like the best summer YA books! Many may say that they prefer Sarah Dessen, but I just have loved every single book she has published! And believe it or not, Since You´ve Been Gone was a perfect read for the summer! It even includes a road trip, which makes it perfect for me!
Although I was in love with Frank and Collins, my favorite character of the book was friendship because it taught me many things about it and it was emotionally close to me because if reminded me of my best friend and how far away we are from each other. It did make me feel a little sad, but at the same time, it made me want to celebrate my friendship with her more because I could understand the needing and miss of your friend.
Summer starts and Sloane is nowhere to be found, which is a bad sign since all of Emily´s summer plans were depending on her, so with a completely broken heart, she is set free in the warm summer breeze. One of the first things she has to do that summer is driving her brother Beckett to IndoorXtreme, where Frank Porter and Collins work, yet Emily doesn't know that until they arrive there and Frank greets Emily, and that´s how a crazy summer starts. After a couple of days being home with her crazy parents, who are writing a play, Emily starts getting bored of her summer vacations, until one day she receives a package from Sloane. It includes a list of 13 things she has to do during summer, and some of them include kissing a stranger, stealing something, dancing until and hugging a Jamie. Although the list looks like something Emily would never do since it looks like a more Sloane type of thing to do, she embraces herself to cross every item on the list believing that maybe that way her best friend will be coming back to her side. But after meeting Frank for a couple of times, they decide to check items of the list together and Collins ends up playing a big part of the whole adventure too. It´s as if Emily gets to find new friends with Sloane gone from her life.
After being friends with Frank, Emily starts noticing small feelings inside her every time she sees him. Has she fallen in love with him? That shouldn't have happened because Frank has a girlfriend, but how he feels about her? And is going to happen when all the items on her list are crossed?
I really enjoyed the book because it really seemed like a perfect summer YA novel to read since it included fun adventures and fun characters that could make anyone´s summer much better!
I loved Frank because he was the perfect combination between smart, cute and fun, he is the type of boyfriend you NEED. Also, he was like the type of character that is always next to the main character ready to help her with whatever she needs, which seemed really sweet to me.
On the other hand, Emily was a character that you could relate to a lot, she was not necessarily shy, but she was not as outgoing as her best friend, which made her feel uneasy because she was always considered the "friend." So, being alone for a summer and having to figure out how to live her days was an exciting journey for her because she was able to go out of her shell and discover the type of person she was. Also, she was able to build her own social circle, which was interesting to see since Emily was the person that was only included in Sloane´s circle. But there was something that I didn´t really like about her, which was the way she started acting after she was aware of her feelings for Frank because she just ran away without thinking that her actions could hurt people.
Aside from the main characters, I loved learning about Sloane only through Emily´s perspective because she talked about her best friend as if she was the most interesting and the best person she had ever met in the whole universe, and I thought that was beautiful and very truthful at the same time since that´s what we use to do when we are attached to someone that´s very close to us. 
Collins was another character that I loved! He was just so funny and his words would just make me laugh for a long amount of time because he had something funny to say in every situation and that to me, seemed like something that I want in the person that I will be spending my life with, honestly. 
As I mentioned before, I loved the way the author wrote about friendship because it made the novel extra special and for the first time, the male characters were lost in the story. 
But something I am still going to fangirl over is the way Amy (from Amy and Roger´s Epic Detour) appeared in the story because it was lovely to hear about a character that I loved. 
Another thing that I liked about the story is the adventure the characters live because all those activities that Emily does create fun memories that fill them with excitement. 
Overall, Since You´ve Been Gone is the type of story EVERY girl dreams of because of all the adventures and the swoony scenes with cute Frank, yet you can also learn small things about how to live outside your bubble and out of your comfort zone. 

 4 1/2 out of 5 stars 

Love, Sua 

First Love, James Patterson/Emily Raymond

First Love by James Patterson and Emily Raymond

This is one of my favorite books ever! It makes me cry every time that I read it because this story makes me go through a rollercoaster of emotions.
Axi decides to make a brave decision and start a road trip far away from home, and she decides to invite her best friend, Robinson, along with her. When Robinson accepts, they soon start their crazy adventure stealing cars and motorcycles, buying all sorts of junk food and visiting different places.
After being on the road for a while, Robinson starts to feel unwell, as if Cancer was coming back to him. Not knowing how to react, both teenagers are set free on the road clinging to their lives and trying to make the fullest and the best out of it because tomorrow may be too late to start living life.
The best things about this book were the small, yet impactful lessons it taught me. The way it started changing my point of view about several things in my life because when we are growing up we start feeling all these weird emotions that hurt us or that makes us feel uneasy about the choices we are taking, but after reading this book, I learned to appreciate the small things that happen in my life and making the best out of them because those moments may only come once and the best thing we could do is have a good time instead of making it uncomfortable or a bad memory, which will hurt us even after a long amount of time.
One of the reasons why I loved the characters so much is because I could see a change in them throughout the novel. We got to see how Axi changed while she started discovering that life wasn´t only about having a good future, it was about having fun and holding on to moments that are dear to you and those around you. At the same time, we started discovering Robinson because at first, we had no idea of the type of person he was and Axi seemed to not know it either, so it was a lot of fun to discover things about him with the main character, who usually knows everything about those around her. Also, I loved the personalities of the characters, especially Robinson´s humor, and logic because his phrases would always make me laugh, which made me love him so much! I believe Robinson is one of those characters you want to shrink and keep in your pocket to take him with you everywhere you go, honestly, he would make everything and everywhere MUCH better!
Now that I have finished writing so much about my love for Robinson, I want to talk more about Axi, who I loved too because it felt different to see how our main character was trying so hard to keep someone alive next to her while getting all these wild emotions and flashbacks. Also, I loved noticing that at the end of everything, a part of the person she used to be was there, the only that had changed was that she had different ethics, which were taught by Robinson and the road itself. I loved seeing the truth in that because, in many novels, the main character ends up being completely different from the way she was in the beginning, but Axi was different. She was still the good girl she was, she just became fearless and learned to live life the way she wanted, and there would be nothing or nobody to make her take a decision that wasn´t hers. 
But something that I loved from both characters was the whole point of discovering a new love, a love that was always next to them, but they never discovered, and that they were able to discover their own story and build a whole universe out of it. I loved how Robinson and Axi were able to create a universe where Robinson wasn´t sick, where they would get away with anything, where their broken pasts were never interfering with their lives. It was something beautiful to see. 
On the other hand, I loved the story itself, the whole plot about teenagers self-discovery, but above all, the road trip! I think that by now you have discovered how much I LOVE road trips! I don´t know if that is because my family used to road trip a lot or if I just love discovering new things (I personally believe is both), but I absolutely love the way they find peace on the road while making plans about where to go the same day. It was exciting to see how they were able to get so trapped in the unknown of the tomorrow and that´s what made me love this book.
Another thing that I loved about this version of the book was that there were pictures included in the book (a little Amy and Roger´s Epic Detour style but without all the receipts and more pictures of people). Seeing pictures while reading the book made the story more real and lovely.
I really recommend this novel, not only to teenagers who are willing to learn new things but to people in general because it is never too late to learn how you want to live life.
Also, don´t forget to have a new package of Kleenex next to you while reading this! 

5 out of 5 stars 

Love, Sua.