What I’ve Been Reading Lately

I have a feeling this summer is going to be a lot of me doing shorter book talks especially since, as I talked about here, I’m going to maybe post a little less during the summer.

The Memory Book by Lara Avery

I received this for review consideration but this in no way affected my opinions.

About In A Sentence or Two: Sammie is diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder that will start to lose her memory and her health. She’s determined to not let this happen so she starts her Memory Book in which she writes all the important things and memories, daily entries, entries from family and friend and chronicles her daily life with the disease and other things like school work, love and friendship.

Thoughts: Oh man this book had me sobbing like a baby in the middle of the night. I tend to enjoy books written in different formats and this was no exception. The fact this story was told by journal entries for her Memory Book worked really well and made it even more heartbreaking. It was devastating to watch Sammie’s dreams feel dashed and to watch her struggle with her memory at different points in the story. My heart broke for her but her hope and determination in the face of everything was inspiring. I just found myself so invested in Sammie’s life — whether it was her struggles with her disease and losing her memory or just her as a motivated and bright young girl who is falling in love and still learning and growing.  Makes you think a lot about memories and unrealized dreams and making the most of your time when time is no longer this abstract idea but is instead something you can feel as definitively numbered. I think that’s a lot of the stuff that made me cry the most — becoming so invested in this life of Sammie who I feel like has so much more to give and experience and become. It’s a bittersweet and heart-wrenching, yet triumphant, read but I’m glad I picked it up. ALSO, I love Cooper so much. SOOO MUCH. If you are into contemporary YA  and don’t mind a book that’s hard to read at times, pick it up!  If you loved The Fault In Our Stars or even if you liked the idea of TFIOS but aren’t a John Green fan, this would be a good one readalike.

Rating:

Split Second by Kasie West

About In A Sentence Or Two: This is the sequel and conclusion to Pivot Point — a “Sliding Doors” type YA duet. If you haven’t read Pivot Point yet go read my review but just know that after this book I love and recommend this duet even more!

Thoughts: I read (and loved) Pivot Point back in 2013 and I’m just NOW getting to the sequel/conclusion. I FREAKING LOVED SPLIT SECOND — maybe even more than Pivot Point which is saying something. Pivot Point was basically the story of her playing out what two paths would diverge based on her decision to move or not move when she Searched her future and Split Second is her living out the decision she made at the end of Pivot Point after some pretty crazy things happened in each of the two futures. I loooooved being back with these characters and this world.  This conclusion was such an explosive page-turner and made me fall further in love with the duet as a whole — betrayal, twists, even more depth into the Compound and Addie and Laila’s abilities. I was really sad about who she’d have to give up after Pivot Point (but obviously understood WHY Addie would considering who she would have lost) but oh man those parts were bittersweet. Such a fantastic conclusion and I highly recommend this duet/duology if you like contemporary with nice notes of paranormal abilities. [spoiler]OH MAN it was so bittersweet because we know what both of her futures were and what she gives up to keep Laila alive. She gives up Trevor. BEAUTIFUL WONDERFUL TREVOR. It was so hard to read of them meeting but she doesn’t KNOW who he is because, if you remember, she had Laila erase her Search. I loved how this one got deeper into the compound and the secrets and manipulation and also even more into her and Laila’s abilities. Some of the stuff at the end was amaaaazing — how they recreated the night with all their powers. [/spoiler]

Rating

Have you read any of these? What did you think?!