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.

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.