Truly Madly Guilty, Liane Moriarty

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

I wasn´t really sure about this novel because there were plenty of good reviews and it was recommended to me by all kinds of different apps, such as iBooks, Amazon and even Barnes and Nobles. Yet when I finally started reading it, a lot of negative reviews started popping on the internet, which left me very confused, but it did make me curious to find out why everyone was having such mixed feelings. 
When I started reading the novel I quickly realized that I wasn´t very interested in the plot as I thought I would be, yet I did push myself to continue reading because I believed that I would eventually end up liking the characters, but in reality I didn´t and I started thinking that there were too many scenes that were forced. 
The novel narrates the days following a barbeque evening, where Clementine and Sam were invited by Oliver and Erika to their neighbor's, Vid and Tiffany, barbeque. Yet, something happens during the dinner and none of the people leave the place being the person they were before. 
In the beginning, I felt like the story was going to be more inclined towards the different couples that meet for dinner, yet the truth is that this story is much deeper than that. For instance, Clementine and Erika have been best friends since they were younger, but that only happened because Erika comes from a family that isn´t willing to take care of her, therefore, Clementine is forced to shelter her as a friend, even though most people would think that they are truly best friends, although neither of them actually like each other and they are simply bound together like most family relationships, where there is an unbreakable connection that makes them see each other every now and then as if they truly enjoyed each other´s company.
On the other hand, something that I truly enjoyed about the novel was seeing the relationships in the novel and the different characters that were introduced.
My favorite couple was Sam and Clementine because they shared a different connection than the other relationships, where they both came from completely different worlds, yet they understood each other so perfectly. What I liked the most about them was that they were the most realistic representation of a marriage in the novel, they exhibited the falling in and out of love and the way marriage works for most people. Also, this is going to sound really really weird, but I loved Sam´s character and the small things that he did. 
I found Oliver and Erika´s relationship much more mature, which made me realize that mature relationship where similar people are together are much less interesting than others. Oliver was depicted as the perfect husband, but I felt like he didn´t deserve Erika, who I disliked very much because I found her to be too selfish and she never thought about other people´s feelings as much as she did with hers. 
Lastly, Vid and Tiffany were never really the center of attention in the novel, although the roots of the story were literally planted in their yard because they were never really mentioned or when they were, their relationship was never exhibited as the others. 
One of my favorite things about the novel, aside from the characters, where the different themes that the author experienced throughout the novel. I loved that she was able to include so many different aspects of life such as marriage, work, children, death, accidents and of course, that certain feeling of anger that we all experience in our lives towards ourselves for not preventing certain things or for taking the decisions that we took, and those "what ifs...?" that follow us every day. 
In conclusion, there were many many things that I actually liked about this novel like the characters, the relationships, the different themes and the vague plot, and I would´ve loved to give it 5 stars, but truthfully, there were many characters that I disliked and also the way some of them were not even included as much as the other characters. Yet, I will say that I found Truly Madly Guilty to be insightful and inspiring to be read by someone that is still growing up because it made me realize that human emotions and relationships are much more complex that one expects. 

4 out of 5 stars 

Love, Sua

The Chilbury Ladies´ Choir, Jennifer Ryan

The Chilbury Ladies´ Choir by Jennifer Ryan

Jennifer Ryan opens a portal to the past and guides you through the heartbreaking moments and shows you how people thrive to survive what we have created and decided to call "war."
This has been the first time that I have read a historical fiction novel because I have never really had the opportunity, I mean, I am barely 16-years old and I absolutely love young adult novels and contemporary novels that are romantic, but on the other hand, I absolutely love history! I have always believed that history is so interesting and powerful because we tend to learn from our mistake as a society and history probably provides all of these factors and it always shows us different lifestyles and I believe that a lot of people that enjoy literature, probably enjoys history because we can learn about it as a story. So, once I joined Blogging for Books and I read about the Chilbury Ladies´ Choir, I thought that I should give it a try, and honestly, I am so glad that I made that choice because I fell in love with every element in the story and I ended up adoring Ryan´s writing. 
The Chilbury Ladies´ Choir tells the story of a group of powerful women that live in the town of Chilbury in England during World War II. We get to meet every person that lives in the small town through different perspectives. We have the perspective of Mrs. Tilling, whose son will be leaving for war; Ms. Edwina Paltry, who writes to her sister describing her all the illicit jobs she has to get done for money; Kitty, a 13-years old girl that is trying to become her town´s hero during war while being desperately in love with Henry, who likes her older sister;  and Venetia, who writes to her best friend about her encounters with Mr. Slater, a handsome painter that doesn´t even bother with glancing at Venetia´s direction. 
Once everyone leaves for war, the town is left heartbroken and on top of that, the Chilbury Choir cannot continue because all the men left, but Ms. Prim decides to open a ladies choir in town to help everyone get through war and promises that the Chilbury Ladies´ Choir can place in competition, and just like that, the Chilbury Ladies´ Choir is formed and demonstrates that the women that were left behind can still do things by themselves. 
And while the war continues, these powerful women will discover themselves with every note they sing. 
I want to start this review by talking about the characters. I loved every single one of them because each one of them showed a different side to the war. Also, the characters were all from different age gaps, which made it easier for the readers to feel identified with. Personally, I loved Kitty because she is the youngest, but she is probably the one character that really tries to be part of everything, she has this amazing way of taking everything and everyone that surrounds her into her own world, and she wants to be a grown-up so much that it reminded me of myself because when I was 13 too, which was only like three years ago, I felt the same thing, so seeing how a character really wants to become a hero was inspiring at some point. 
Although I really liked the many characters the novel had, I did feel confused from time to time because there were too many and I really liked that there was a map at the beginning, but it had so many elements that it made me go back and forth because it was very detailed, which I liked a lot, but it was a bit confusing. Yet, I really appreciated how much effort the author put into this story because it really showed and made it like we were traveling back in time. 
On the other hand, I really enjoyed the plot and the story itself because it has a pull-factor that makes you keep reading since it is a pretty fast-paced reading. 
I really liked how Ryan portrayed feminism, which is something that is wildly talked about today because it demonstrated that WWII wasn´t mostly about fighting, it also included everyone that lived in the countries that were involved, and seeing the lives that continued while people came and went, made it more lively and real. 
Also, I absolutely loved how the author wrote about WWII because she takes into account the different experiences that different people have during the war, mothers have to let go of their children, lovers have to say goodbye to their loved one, children will have to continue living without a father and so forth, Ryan did a great job showing the heartbreaking moments of war, which I think is one of the biggest themes of this novel. Another thing that I found very interesting about her portrayal of war was the way the characters held onto small moments with those they love like in real life. Ryan also shows that the war not only ends things, it starts things, like the Chilbury Ladies´ Choir, which gives hope to people because, at the end of the day, the one thing that keeps going is the small things that give us hope. 
Before I end this review, I want to talk about how much I liked Jennifer Ryan´s writing because it is beautiful, it really touched me while portraying the story perfectly. I enjoyed the different point of views because as I mentioned before, it tells us the story of the village through different eyes. Also, I loved how the whole story is written through journals and letters, it reminded a little bit of Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern (review for that one coming soon!). And lastly, I loved how three-dimensional she made the characters, they seemed very real to me because they all had different things they were holding onto and different things that they hoped for while having several flaws, like real human beings.
The Chilbury Ladies´ Choir by Jennifer Ryan is a beautiful and inspiring historical fiction novel that will transport you to its small village during World War II to show you the beauty of life and holding onto the past while trying to grasp the future before it is too late. 
Also, I would like to thank Blogging for Books for giving me the opportunity to review this amazing novel!

4 1/2 out of 5 stars 

Love, Sua

Amy and Roger´s Epic Detour, Morgan Matson

Amy and Roger´s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

When I first moved to my small city called Mission in Texas (3 to 4 hours away from San Antonio), I had a very hard time finding books to enjoy. I don't know if it was because I was still feeling uneasy living in a new place, the Barnes and Nobles I was going to wasn´t my type or if I was just simply being grumpy and not wanting new stories to read. But I still tried reading books (very slowly) and I actually tried really hard to find something I could make me want to absorb the story. Clearly, trying to like a book wasn´t enough since I read like three books straight without liking them at all! But when I came across this book, I was really happy and I really enjoyed it, which seemed like a miracle in my life at the moment. 
The story is about Amy, whom we can see as a teenager that is crazy for musicals, and that little detail about her makes her adorable and cute because she holds onto something tightly, just like Katy from Obsidian does with her beautiful books; but after some tragic events with her family, her mother decided to move to Connecticut and her only way to do so is by going on a road trip with Roger, a childhood "friend". Amy is against this idea, but her mother insists and Amy doesn´t want to bother her since Amy is aware that her mother may be more stressed than her, so she goes along with the plan, but the only problem seems to be that Roger is extremely cute with light brown hair and dark eyes. Amy´s mother has made them a route that they should take, but after talking in the car, they realize that taking a small detour might make the trip more enjoyable and fun for both of them. So, they take a turn and change their summers and their lives forever. 
The very first thing that I would like to comment on is the trip that the characters go through, which the author actually lived following the same route and going to all those different places. Every place that Amy and Roger went was full of surprises and fun, and believe it or not, the excitement that I was able to feel chapter after chapter was primarily based on the places that they visited because they never tried the basic touristic places that we can expect about every trip. Their trip was more based on driving until finding a discovery and laughing about it. I believe that the key to this story was the uncertainty and that was one of the things that this book actually taught me. Uncertainty can lead to the greatest discoveries, especially when you are surrounding yourself in a world full of unknown things because you will probably laugh it off the next days. 
The characters were just so fun to be around because they were not only the typical teenagers that we find in every summer beach read, they were one of the funniest characters to read, yet they felt extremely real at some points during the novel, not only because of the problems they were facing, but because of the way they acted around each other. Amy was always feeling embarrassed and doing silly things around Roger that could happen to any of us and those moments made me laugh so much! 
I liked Roger´s character more than Amy´s because he felt like a more normal guy, especially since authors always try to put the male leads as the perfect guy any girl could wish for, but Roger just seemed normal like a person that valued small acts of kindness from Amy, like the times she would give him his glasses or try to talk to him when he was driving. 
Also, I loved the way the story was crafted along the pages because things happened like in normal life, first you start noticing small things, like how Roger only drinks root beer, then you just start getting along with it and realizing that it is part of him and after some time, that small piece of information probably links to him. I found this small details and things that the author decided to put extremely cute because it showed not only how close they were starting to become, but also how much time it had passed in the story. 
On the other hand, I would like to mention how much I loved the pictures that were included in the book. From time to time you would find receipts, drawings, menus, pamphlets, photographs and even emails. Seeing all of these things brought me so much happiness by simply seeing them! Also, it made me feel better realizing how much effort the author put into this story because seeing all these items made me feel part of the story. 
Despite all of the excitement this book brought me, there were still parts of the story that did make me feel out place, like the way Callie was mentioned, or the fact that Amy never did anything for Julia, or the way that the ending was set. There were many holes in the story that I noticed at the end of the book, but it was still a very enjoyable read that I appreciated.
Overall, I would like to mention how this book made me read other novels from the author and love her writing! 
This was a great story to see the different states we have in our country and have a fun summer read that many would enjoy!

4 1/2 out of 5 stars 

Love, Sua.