Speak Easy, Speak Love, McKelle George

Speak Easy, Speak Love by McKelle George

This book will be released September 19, 2017
in the US

I was honored to receive an advanced reader´s copy through Edelweiss in exchange for a review.
This summer I was able to attend Harvard´s summer school as I have mentioned many times throughout my posts, and I was able to learn about many different aspects of the law, and one of the topics we studied for quite a bit was the Prohibition era and how alcohol changed people´s lifestyle, so I was so excited to read about this era in a romantic comedy novel, and I have to admit that it didn´t disappoint me, in fact, it made me realize and notice different aspects that were completely forgotten about when I was studying because when we are taking history classes, we get so focused on what happened that we don´t really think about daily lives in the eras, so reading about real characters that were currently living in that era was super interesting. 
Speak Easy, Speak Love tells the story of six teenagers that are trying to find their place in the world. The first character that we get to know is Beatrice and she is unable to continue her studies because she ran out of money, so she goes to Hey Nonny Nonny, where Hero, her cousin and her uncle, Leo, run a speakeasy, and she gets to meet several people. Beatrice meets Benedick, a romantic and funny writer that is desperately fighting for his passion; Prince, the runner of the speakeasy and his brother John, who lives his life on the edge associating himself with the typical Italian crime from the 20s that we hear about so much; and Maggie, a girl that was born with talent, which she utilizes to sing in the speakeasy they run.
The speakeasy is a business they started running years ago. It all started when Anna, Hero´s mother was still alive and they had decided to continue Hey Nonny Nonny´s legacy, even building a home out of it. The six teenagers discover themselves while trying to protect the illegal business that keeps them together and brings them happiness. They have some dangerous encounters along the way, but the six of them always come back together and cherish every moment that brought them to that point, where everyone is together.
I want to start by talking about how much I ended up liking the novel because at first, it took me a little bit to get used to the setting, the language and the story itself because I got used to reading sweet and romantic YA novels this summer, so reading about crime and alcohol after so many months of only reading charming high schoolers from our modern society, took me off-guard, but once I got into the story completely, I was able to enjoy it so much that I was always thinking about the novel. Also, I don´t know if it took me longer to understand the story because I haven´t read Much Ado About Nothing from Shakespeare since this is a retelling if you have read the classic maybe you will understand it quicker. 
Yet, other than that, I have so many good points that I would like to talk about.
The characters were AMAZING! 
I loved each of them because they were different to the characters we often read about, they are all very strong and they all have their soft spot, which is home, and that made me cherish them more. 
Personally, I liked very much the female characters because they showed a different side of women, they were strong and independent and were not afraid to defend themselves that those that they loved, and personally, that is the exact type of woman that I aspire to be.
I loved Beatrice and how she arrived for the first time to Hey Nonny Nonny and brought books and an old medical kit because she believes she has a good chance of becoming a doctor, even when people around her tell her that doctors often tend to be men. I admired her will and how strong she stood to those people.
Ben seemed so sweet to me, he is funny, clever, stubborn and has an artistic side to him. I have mentioned that he is a writer, but there´s more of an artistic side to him that words, he has a unique way of expressing himself and I believe that the author did a very good job bringing out that side of him because even I have had people tell me that I often sound like a writer, which I am because I enjoy writing novels, so, I liked that his passion was actually shown that way. 
On the other hand, I loved how Prince and John were because they had a certain charisma to them, which made me love them so much! I personally ended up completely falling in love with Prince (and Ben) because he was very charming and I generally love charming men. Prince was sweet to those that he cared for, but at the same time, very business minded when running the speakeasy, and I completely loved the way he had that amazing way of taking care of everything and maintaining his personal life aside. 
I also loved the way that Anna was remembered throughout the novel because I found it very beautiful to remember someone that used to be there to bring everyone together. It was precious to read about a character that wasn´t there anymore but was followed throughout the novel. Also, it was very touching to see how Hero ended up taking her place being her daughter and how passionate she was for this speakeasy that had once belonged to her mother. 
Hero was a character that I loved because she is the rebellious girl that flirts with everyone but only falls in love with one person while continuing to be decisive and strong. I mean, managing a speakeasy with Prince is not easy during the Prohibition era. 
I loved the relationships that the characters had with each other as well because they were very entertaining, I will not include all of them, only Beatrice and Ben´s because I believe the other ones are better to be read directly from the novel. I just want to quickly mention how Ben and Beatrice´s relationship was very funny to read about. Their love and hate relationship was very entertaining and it created the perfect romantic comedy dialogues. Ugh! Also, the sexual tension! 
Moving on from my internal fangirl, I want to mention Hey Nonny Nonny and the home it created for the six lost souls that created this story. 
I loved how the six main characters all came from broken pasts and they all had something they were willing to give up for their happiness and that was what brought them together, and Hey Nonny Nonny brought them a sense of belonging that they didn´t have. At the end of the day, the only thing that was going to be waiting for them was Hey Nonny Nonny and I considered that very beautiful because it created a bond for people that were in need of something to hold them up. Yet, when Hey Nonny Nonny brought them happiness, they immediately became loyal to it and at some point, that loyalty hurt them. 
Throughout the novel, the six teenagers are trying to find themselves and are left deciding important things that may change their lives forever. They are stuck in the middle to decide if they are going to choose wealth and a cozy bed with a full stomach, or belonging somewhere like Hey Nonny Nonny, or their passions, whether it is art, school, or even a person that you know you want to keep forever. 
Seeing how they were all going through this phase made the characters much more human and similar to us because at some point in our lives, we are always going to be in the middle of deciding between things that are so precious to us and bring us happiness, but what I loved more than seeing how they had struggles, was that in the end, they were just teenagers, they were always able to find laughter in simple things and in small moments because sometimes that´s all we need in this life, some pieces of encouragement that make us go forward and continue fighting to get the same amount of happiness that these moments brought us. 
Lastly, I want to mention that I believe that the author, McKelle George, did a very good job showing us different aspects of the era. We got crime, love, money, music, lifestyle, among others, all which gave us a complete view of the 1920s and the Prohibition era. I truly think that she was able to open a whole new world and show it to us in a single novel. 
In general, Speak Easy, Speak Love is a funny, romantic, dramatic and EXTRA sexy novel that kept me awake and at the edge of my seat the whole time! I would recommend to anyone that loves funny and somewhat dark novels with clever and charismatic characters. 

4 1/2 out of 5 stars 

Love, Sua

The Unexpected Everything, Morgan Matson

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

Once again, Morgan Matson impresses me with her amazing story! I loved this book and would read it over and over again!
Andie is the typical girl that has everything planned out for her this summer, she will be attending one of the best pre-med programs for high schoolers at Johns Hopkins and she´s really excited. That is until her father´s political campaign starts going down due to a scandal, which leads to a summer at home. Although it may sound fun to spend time with her friends, Andie feels lost to be left without a plan. At least she´s glad to be able to pass time with her friends, who are more than excited to have her with them. She will be able to part of the annual scavenger hunt!
On the other hand, Andie will have to spend time with her dad for the first time, which makes her feel uneasy since she´s so used to not having him around so much. But this means she will get closer to her dad.
Yet her plans seem to change when she has a fateful meeting with a cute guy named Clark, who seems adorable and shouldn´t last more than three weeks. Also, Andie decides to try a summer job, where she´ll be walking dogs throughout the day. 
Although Andie´s summer may not be what she wanted or expected, she is willing to have a good time with her friends and father.
My favorite part of the whole book was the fact that it is SO long! It is 519 pages without the bonus content that my paperback version included and it was pure magic!
I want to start this review by talking about the scavenger hunts that Palmer organized because they were extra fun and they reminded me a lot of Sloane´s list from Since You´ve Been Gone, not only because it included fun things, but because it made the group of friend come together and have a good time, and the best of all, live an adventure. Something that I really liked about this book was that other characters, like Andie´s friends, had their own story to worry about and their own problems that affected them. I decided to not include the friends´ story in this review on purpose because I thought it seemed more exciting to get to know them while reading instead of reading about them in a review. I just want to add a quick comment about how fun and amazing they are!
Moving on to the main characters, I will talk about Andie because there are more extended points I want to discuss that include Clark, the main love interest. So, Andie seemed like a very cool girl, she had her summer planned out, which is something that I love doing, she´s competitive, she´s fun and my favorite, she´s very independent and her father´s job shaped her that way, yet that´s one of the reasons why I liked her so much and hated her at the same time. I totally understood her excitement when she was organizing everything for her summer program because I will be attending one this summer at Harvard and I was excited since March when I got in! And it was very easy to see her disappointment whenever she wasn´t able to go, yet I believe she acted very mature and was very open to having a summer with her friends, I believe that was very brave of her because I am the type of person that HATES having plans cancelled when you have taken the time to care about them. Now, the part that I didn´t like was her policy of not dating someone for a long amount of time because it seemed very immature. She had found the perfect person, she mentions how great it feels to be with Clark, yet she kind of plays with her own emotions and hurts herself most of the times. Another thing that I would like to mention is her position between her friends because there is a time when they are fighting and everyone´s responsible, but I could understand why she made that decision, which made me feel neutral about her actions. My favorite thing about her was that she was always ready to start trying new things, like walking dogs as a summer job. In general, I liked Andie and was able to understand her simple rules (like the one about dating only for a short amount of time) because everyone has different ideals, yet I was angry at times, especially when it was about her relationship with Clark. 
Now, Clark is a character that I really liked. He is this adorable and cute looking guy that Andie meets and she actually likes him. Clark is a very funny character, he always knows what to say in an incredible and amazing way because he makes every conversation fun to read. But my favorite part of him was the fact that he is a writer since I write novels, it felt incredibly nice and comfortable to read about him doing so. I loved reading about this world where a writer was able to be part of because it may sound weird, but it felt different and very creative. I just want to describe Clark was adorable, funny and charming, which happens to be my combination for my perfect man. So, yes, Morgan Matson created a character that was similar to my perfect man. Oh, also, he´s a writer, a BIG BONUS.
Something that I loved about the book so much was the relationship that Andie starts building with her father because it seems to far away that it kind of feels like they have absolutely no relationship at all in the beginning and reading about their journey of creating one and actually bonding was beautiful because there are many people that don´t have close relationships with their parents and seeing how easy it was just making a choice to be with them and pass time with them changed a whole relationship and brought comfort to both people´s lifestyle.
My favorite part of the whole novel was the relationship parts. I believe that Morgan Matson gets to tell a perfect story that talks about friendships, family and love relationships in a book, where Andie gets second chances to surround herself with people she cares for. 
I recommend this book a lot, just like I do with every book of hers, but this one talked about many other things that actually felt very close to me and my ethics, and I believe that others will feel the same way. 

4 1/2 out of 5 stars 

Love, Sua

Trusting You and Other Lies, Nicole Williams

Trusting You and Other Lies by Nicole Williams

I was super excited to start reading this book because I thought that it was a very different plot, it is not very common to read a story about a girl attending a summer camp. I mean, we tend to read a lot about summer romances that are short term, but I thought that reading a creating a new world for the summer and meeting a partner would create a very good story, and this novel was indeed entertaining, but there was something that didn´t match to my expectations and I will make sure to explain that later.
Phoenix is going to a summer camp with her whole family to "bond" and have a special experience. She has been going through some rough times because her father has lost his job and has been unemployed for a couple of months and they are running out of money, but her parents never seem to tell her and Harry about their current situation, which makes Phoenix start distrusting her parents and begins to have trust issues with people. So, she is left as a connector in her family because she has too many things to worry about, her parents seem to be going through a divorce and Harry, her younger brother seems to start realizing that maybe their family is going to separate, which means that she has to stay strong and protect Harry.
When they are traveling to the camp, Phoenix is so angry at her parents and she is sure that she will hate it and that her summer is going to be awful. But once she gets there, she starts realizing that maybe summer camp isn´t that bad and that she might actually start enjoying her time there and her experience as a counselor.
On her first day, she meets a very hot guy that goes by the name of Callum. Soon, he asks her for her help to teach campers how to use a lifejacket. After that, she gets to know that Callum is actually the head counselor and he will be giving her instructions during her session.
But before she realizes it, she starts finding him very cute and starts taking an interest while trying to be strong and protect herself and Harry from her family.
In general, I loved the story and I was immediately charmed by Callum (and his name because it reminded me of Calum Hood, my husband), he seemed to be the type of guy that was going to make the reading very pleasant with that charming smile of his. Also, his comments completely made my life complete during the reading. In a sense, he did have a similarity with Jude Ryder, a character by the same author, because he had a very boyish charm to him. Besides his smile, his freaking flannel made my heart race every single time! Callum ended up feeling like a very mature and strong male character because he had so many things going on because he had all these crazy stories about his life, but at some point, those were it, like I was expecting more from him, I guess something more easy to grasp onto, and I will admit that I may be feeling like that because I had a book hangover with Peter Kavinsky from To All the Boys I´ve Loved Before by Jenny Han, my hangover lasted like three days and it was like the only thing that I could think of, just like when you get out of a relationship that you treasure and have absolutely no grudges over (I have never been in a relationship, but I think that is probably what it feels like), but in the past story where I was living, Kavinsky had such a clear background that readers could pin point that is was weird to see a character without a past so clear, but I do understand because this is a single novel and not a series like Kavinsky and I do realize that I have mentioned Kavinsky TOO many times, I apologize but I just love him so much. Aside from the background thing, I loved how unique he seemed. I mean, he was the character that was able to bring out the best side of Phoenix and he was probably the only reason why I ended up accepting her. Also, he rides a motorcycle, which reminded me of Jude and Travis Maddox. Oh, and he liked crazy-flavored ice creams. He sounds ADORABLE, I KNOW and HE IS!
On the other hand, Phoenix seemed like a very cool main character, she is one of the strongest female characters that I have encountered in my whole bookworm career. The way she always protected Harry was very nice to read about and it reminded me of my own siblings. Also, the way she was able to adapt to different environments so easily was something I liked about her. As much as I loved her, the one thing that made me hate her was the way she was so quick to judge and she only knows opposite sides, like she has no idea that in betweens exist in life and that made me be so angry at her, but I guess everyone´s different. Other than that, I loved how much she tried to keep it together and be responsible for her actions and to make everything better. It was very interesting to see how Phoenix´s point of view started changing throughout the story while summer was going by because it happened like anything happens in life, you don´t notice until one page you realize that she is different and that things have changed, this characteristic of hers made her much more human and interesting to read about.
Another thing that I loved about the novel was the way that the family problem was portrayed because it was realistic. I mean, we do read a lot about teenagers that are experiencing a breaking family, but this novel included something that not all of them include and that was the perspective that her parents had. The book doesn´t contain other points of view, but it included a very different ending, where you were able to notice the story from other character´s eyes and I believe that this shows how great Williams´writing is.
I loved the story and the way the novel was written, but there was something that bothered me besides Callum not having a background and that was the way that other characters appeared. I didn´t like the way some characters were included, like Naomi, Evan, and Ethan, but they never really appeared that much. In my perspective, these characters were used more as the extra characters that were created and only used when they were needed, like when someone needed to come to the room when Callum and Phoenix were having a hot making out session or a counselor´s name they needed. So, I would have loved to read more about those characters as well.
In general, Trusting You and Other Lies by Nicole Williams was a very pleasant reading for the summer because it was fun and it included different themes that definitely made me realize new things and I fell in love with Callum. I highly recommend this novel and believe that many people will enjoy them. 

4 out of 5 stars 

Love, Sua. 

To All the Boys I´ve Loved Before, Jenny Han

To All the Boys I´ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

This is the second time I read this book and surprisingly, I enjoyed this reading better than last time, which was like three years ago, and I was able to notice different things that made this story very unique and different than others.
So, the story is about Lara Jean, who has had five crushes throughout her life and every time she falls in love with someone and she wants to get over them, she writes love letters about how much she likes them or just some simple confessions she has or thoughts about them. Being a rising junior, she has to say goodbye to Margot, her older sister, who is going to Scotland to study and she eventually breaks up with their neighbor, Josh, the guy that Lara Jean has a crush on and has had for many years.
But that´s not the only problem Lara Jean has to face being a junior, suddenly all of her letters have been sent, including Josh´s.
So, while trying to get away from him since he´s Margot´s ex-boyfriend, she kisses Peter Kavinsky, one of her older crushes to get Josh to forget about the letter, and suddenly, Peter has the fantastic idea of them pretending to be dating because he has just broken up with Genevive, the girl he has been dating since seventh grade, and surprisingly, Lara Jean accepts.
But Margot being gone, Lara Jean has to take care of the house, including her father and her little sister, Kitty, and things that were usually under Margot´s responsibility.
Lara Jean´s junior year is all about trying to take care of her family and surviving a crazy love life with the school´s most popular guy.
I loved this novel because it tells so many different sides of a story that I truly felt like I always got the whole picture of the things that were happening in the lives of the characters.
First, I want to talk about the relationships that the characters had with each other. I loved seeing romantic relationships, family relationships, and friendships. My favorite was probably the family relationships that we could see because they felt more natural in a way because they seemed much closer to our reality. The Song sisters (Margot, Lara Jean, and Kitty) lost their mother when they were very young, so they are under the care of their father, who is a very busy doctor, and Margot is in charge of the family and the household, she literally takes care of everything, from packing lunches to Thanksgiving cooking. And what stayed with me the most within this family was that when Margot and Lara Jean were supposed to be having fun with their friends, they still took the time to care about their family, try to create a cozy atmosphere for Kitty and also take care of their father. So, in a way, they matured quicker than others. Also, the manner in which the sisters were almost pushed to take responsibilities seemed very natural under their circumstances and they seemed very real and humane to me.
On the other hand, it was heartbreaking to read about Lara Jean´s childhood friendships because I think that we all have those kinds of friendships that we move on from throughout the years and at some point they are just kept inside of us as little memories or moments that may have brought us happiness sometime in our lifetime, but we never really do a lot to keep them alive, so reading about little Lara Jean with her little friends was a way of realizing that there are so many things we forget about in our lives, including people that may have changed our points of views or our realities. I truly believe that although it was expressed as a very unimportant topic, it really touched me because I personally have friendships that have been lost and I don´t really cherish them because I have moved on, yet I still have a part inside that wonders if things could´ve been different.
Now, I want to talk about the characters because they are very special to me.
First of all, her family members. I love her father because he really tries to keep an ideal family and tries to act both as a father and mother figure to the three daughters. Margot was a character that I liked to read about because she is like the typical older sister you want to have with you, you could always look up to her since she is always right and knows how to keep everything under control. Lastly, Kitty is the little sister we all need, she is funny and can create the best atmosphere for the other characters, and I think that she played a crucial part in the improvement in Lara Jean and Peter´s relationship.
Moving on to love interests, I loved both Josh and Peter. I have to admit that the first time I read the novel, I was swept off the ground by Josh and his boy-next-door charm because I just loved simple and sweet guys, but now that I had given Peter a chance after having read the second book a couple of years ago, it was easier for me to like him and adore him because let´s admit it, Peter is adorable! I loved Peter´s sense of humor and the way he brings out a new side of Lara Jean after saying goodbye to her older sister. Also, Lara Jean gets to experience new adventures in her junior year with Peter.
We could say that Peter and Josh are the exact opposite. Josh is sweet, while Peter is arrogant and cocky, but they are both definitely charming and lovely. Oh, and they hate each other because Josh called Peter out during a Spanish test in seventh grade because Kavinsky was copying.
On the other hand, I want to talk about how much I LOVED Lara Jean. She was the character that I could identify myself with the most because I just realized that we have the same age and that she had a crush on Peter at the same age that I fell in love with him too, but I believe that besides the age similarity, it was the culture. After all, she´s half-Korean and I am Korean, so it was very interesting to notice part of my culture in a YA book, but I would like to explain that later on. Now, going back to the whole age similarity thing, I loved how I could relate to being eager to get an activity done, be part of a club or nailing your ACT and SAT scores for college, so seeing a girl that was so similar to me was amazing. Not only we had a similar cultural background, we were both stranded in high expectations from someone we look up to because of college.
Now, going back to the whole Korean culture part, I loved reading about it because it made me feel like I belonged. Being able to read about Korean festivities, like how we wear hanboks in New Year´s Eve and we get money from our elders, or all the amazing dishes, like bo ssam, made me so so happy.  I think to see a part of my culture so nicely portraited in our media platform today was the best part of the novel because it is very easy for someone to mess it up or say something that could not be right, but Jenny Han did it just right! 
Though, there was this one part that´s really going to stay with me. So, Lara Jean is going to celebrate Halloween at her high school and she is choosing her costume and at the end, she has to go dressed up as Cho Chang from Harry Potter because if she decides to wear some thing else, people think that she´s just dressed up as a manga character and being an Asian myself, I know that feeling very well. It´s as if you feel different when other people are able to dress up as something as simple as a princess or a very well-known character costume because you don´t look the part and when people notice that you are far too different from the character that you were trying to be, they immediately think that you are another character that you may not even know about! Noticing the real struggles that were portraited in the story for being from a different ethnicity was something that the novel took lightly, but I will cherish it because it was the best way to show the media how different we feel at simple times as Halloween.
Another thing that I absolutely loved about the novel was how Lara Jean feels pressured by the society into being part of a relationship and being like everyone else because Lara Jean and I are so alike in the sense that we prefer being with our family and we don´t really like going to parties, so actually reading about peer pressure in our society today was something that I really liked. Also, I  liked how Lara Jean was still herself after she was Peter for too long and after going to all those parties and being in the spotlight at her high school, she still preferred being with her family and I really admired that because I believe that if I was in her position, I would do the same thing. 
In conclusion, To All the Boys I´ve Loved Before by Jenny Han is a fun and refreshing story that portrays a lot the different topics in our society today. Also, it will keep you up all night thinking about Peter and Josh because of all their adorable flaws. You will love the characters that surround Lara Jean as much as you will like her, although she sometimes frustrated me with her decisions. I recommend this book a lot if you want something very funny to read, yet with a little drama. 

4 1/2 out of 5 stars 

Love, Sua