Mundie Moms

Monday, November 5, 2012

In Which I Review Contemporaries: Meant To Be by Lauren Morrill / Easy by Tammara Webber

I'm doing something a little different today with my reviews. See, I'm not usually a fan of contemporaries, but I've recently read two that I loved! Seriously, where of this year's contemporaries been!? I've read more contemps this year than I ever have (which still isn't much), and I'm in LOVE!  From today's reviews, one made me snicker, and sigh and the other made me think and left me fanning myself. 


Published by: Random House Teens / Delacorte
To Be Released on: November 13th, 2012
Source: ARC from publisher to review
5 stars: I LOVED IT
Pre-Order from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Meant to be or not meant to be . . . that is the question. 

It's one thing to fall head over heels into a puddle of hazelnut coffee, and quite another to fall for the—gasp—wrong guy. Straight-A junior Julia may be accident prone, but she's queen of following rules and being prepared. That's why she keeps a pencil sharpener in her purse and a pocket Shakespeare in her, well, pocket. And that's also why she's chosen Mark Bixford, her childhood crush, as her MTB ("meant to be").

But this spring break, Julia's rules are about to get defenestrated (SAT word: to be thrown from a window) when she's partnered with her personal nemesis, class-clown Jason, on a school trip to London. After one wild party, Julia starts receiving romantic texts . . . from an unknown number! Jason promises to help discover the identity of her mysterious new suitor if she agrees to break a few rules along the way. And thus begins a wild goose chase through London, leading Julia closer and closer to the biggest surprise of all: true love.

Because sometimes the things you least expect are the most meant to be - quoted from Goodreads

A fun, refreshing romantic comedy that will leave you wishing you could hop on a plane bound for London.

You know what makes a great book? When the author can pull you into their story without you even realizing you've been sucked in. It's until you laugh out loud, or suck in your breathe as you hold back the tears, or sit there and sigh over an extremely sweet moment between the two characters, do you realize just how invested you've become with the book. That's exactly what happened to me with this romantic, comedy of a story. Rarely do I say this, but I really hope this book turns into a movie, because I'd be the first in line to watch it.

This story follows that of two completely opposite characters and the trip that brought them together. London! Who doesn't want to go to London and fall in love. This was the perfect setting for this story. For someone who's always wanted to go there, I love the artsy trip the characters were on in London. I felt like I got a personal tour of a city I've always wanted to visit. I loved it! It also provided the person back drop for a few memorable moments. One I'll just say involves rain, mud, and field. *sigh* Just wait till you read it!  

The Funny thing is, Jason and Julia don't have that much in common, at all. In fact you'd like these two couldn't stand each other, which is what made them so much fun to read about. They reminded me of my husband and I before we started dating. Julie and Jason have these moments where they just get on each other's nerves, but then something happens, and it leads into these other sweet moments. I loved how over the course of this book they got to know each other, and slowly began to fall for each other. Really it's more than that, but I can't talk about the little details for the sake of spoilers. I will say I've not laughed out loud, and sighed this much over a book in a while. 

This story isn't all about romance, falling in love and kissy scenes. It's much more complicated than that. There's secret romantic text messages, Mark, jealousy, and an unforgettable goose chase around London to track down the mysterious Chris. After all, what happens when you believe in your Meant to Be, and discover your Meant to Be might be someone you never thought was meant for you. 

I love this line out of the book:  "But things work out, you know. Even if it doesn't feel okay for a long time, or even if it feels like things will never be okay again, everything works out in the end." (pg. 126-127)

Meant To Be is fabulous! It's one of those fun reads that you want to spend the day reading, but really end up not being able to put it down and before you know it you've finished the book. It's also one of those books you have to resist the urge to not immediately re-read it. That, and I'm still grinning after reading it. What a fabulously written debut! This is one book I'd definitely recommend picking up next week. It delivers on the character chemistry, the romance, the laughter, and is over all fantastic read! I can't wait to read more of Lauren's books.



By: Tammara Webber
Published by: Penguin
To Be Released on: November 6th, 2012
Source: Book from publisher to review
5 stars: Loved It!
Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Rescued by a stranger.
Haunted by a secret
Sometimes, love isn’t easy…

He watched her, but never knew her. Until thanks to a chance encounter, he became her savior…

The attraction between them was undeniable. Yet the past he’d worked so hard to overcome, and the future she’d put so much faith in, threatened to tear them apart.

Only together could they fight the pain and guilt, face the truth—and find the unexpected power of love.

(Mature Young Adult/ New Adult -quoted from Goodreads

Now I understand what all the hype over this book has been about. Wow, what a read. Easy, which was previously self published by the author, Tammara Webber, is being released TOMORROW by Penguin! You can read Sophie's review for it here. I am so glad a publishing house like Penguin picked this book up! It's one of those well written books that incorporates a lot of realistic elements into it's story and tackles the tougher subjects, like rape, flawlessly. With beautiful written, broken, strong characters, Easy is what's called a New Adult book that fits in between the YA and Adult category perfectly. While I admire Tammara's ability to shed light on something that our society still has issues talking about, I know this won't be a book for everyone, but it's one I'd recommend to a lot of people, especially to older high school readers and college students.

Date Rape and rape in general is a hard subject to write about, let alone read about, but it's one I feel needs to be read. Reportedly a rape occurs every 2 mins in the US, and 42% of rape victims NEVER tell anyone. This statistic breaks my heart. The story's main character Jacqueline is a victim of an attempted rape, and while I at first was so mad at her for not reporting this attack when it first happened, I quickly sympathized with her and understood her fear, and her wanting to just move along and get on with her life, even though after that attack it changed her, and the way she did things. Honestly, who wouldn't be changed after that. What I didn't except to find myself doing was going through all of her emotions after it. I got her pain, her fear, her hurt, and her determination to not let this thing own her. For me Jacqueline quickly went from being a fictional character to being a face of people I know who have experienced similar attacks as hers. She become real, and her story did as well. 

I loved Tammara's secondary characters as much as I loved Jacqueline. These characters made this story real. They gave voices to the various sides of rape, and the myths that our society still has about it. They made Jacqueline not feel alone. They gave her the aid she needed in finding her voice, they helped her learn to defend herself, and made her realize she was a victim! That it wasn't her fault. Others fell into the norm... they took sides, they didn't believe the hot guy on campus could do something like this, and then there are the ones who talked about rape, and what rape really is. I felt like Tammara did an amazing job at the way she handled rape and the situations that presented themselves after the first attack. She made this story about surviving.

Mixed into this story is a very complex, sensual relationship between the hot bad boy, Lucas and Jacqueline. Can Lucas be any more well written!? Seriously, he broke my heart and had me swooning for him all at the same time! I wish I could talk about all the things I loved about him and the relationship that develops with Jacqueline, but I can't without giving away spoilers. The pacing with their relationship, and really the entire storyline was spot on. I will say, this is a story for mature readers. There are a variety of mature subject matters addressed in this book, and mixed into that is the underlining theme of hope, surviving, and falling in love. 

Here are some statistics about RAPE according to AAUW / RAINN:
  • EVERY 2 mins in the US a sexually assault happens
  • - 80% are under the age of 30
  • - 95% of attacks are unreported
  • - 3% of college women nationally have experience rape or attempted rape during their academic year
  • - 90% of rape victims know their attacker
  • - 42% of women we are raped tell NO ONE
  • - 5% of rape incidents are reported to the police, 10 times more rapes are reported to crisis lines than to the police.
  • - 80% of women who are raped try to physically resist
  • - 43% of college aged men conceded to using coercive behavior to have sex (ignoring the women's protests) and don't admit it was rape.
  • - 80% of rape victims suffer chronic physical or psychological problems over time.
  • - 13 times as many rape survivors are more likely to attempt suicide, than those ware not victims of crime. 
If you or someone you know has been a victim or rape or an attempted rape, you ARE NOT ALONE! You can call 911, RAINN (1-800-656-HOPE).

11 comments:

  1. Awesome review! I'm so excited to read this!

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  2. I haven't read Meant to Be, but I did read Easy and absolutely love it, one of my favorite books this year. Great review!

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    1. Thank you! Easy is fabulous! I highly recommend reading Meant to Be! It's so good.

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  3. I adored meant to be too and easy. Such great books and great reviews

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    1. Thank you Julie! I adored Meant to Be too! It's so well written. Easy is so good! So glad you enjoyed both of them.

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  4. I loved these two reviews. I haven't read meant to be yet, but it sounds like a great book. I wasn't into contemporaries either, but then I read Easy, and now I can't read enough of them :). You should read Slammed and Point of Retreat by Colleen Hoover. These books had me laughing one minute and then crying the next! They are excellent New Adult reads like Easy!

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    1. Aw, thank you so much Lindy! Meant To Be is such a fun, wonderful read. I'm excited for it's release next week. Thank you so much for the recs! I'm going to add them to my list. Pushing the Limits and In Honor are two other contemps I've read this year and really enjoyed too.

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  5. Great reviews! Seriously, I missed writing these kinds of reviews. All I seem to be doing lately are rant or i dont know really,haha

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    1. Thank you Jenna! I feel like I've gone through that phase lately with books I've read. That was until I picked these ones up. I'm hoping the next book I read is just as good. It stinks when we we can't get all excited over a book.

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  6. I loved EASY too. I can't wait to read more of your YA/NA contemporary reviews. Those books are my favorites. :D

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