Stacking the Shelves

It's been a while since I've done a post and I've accumulated quite a few books recently.

Review books:

If I Stay by Gayle Forman - I'm so excited to read one of Forman's novel as I've heard so much about her writing. I also have to make sure I read this as I've heard there's going to be a movie!!!

Thank you Random House for giving me this to review!

Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan - I haven't read many reviews on this so I'm not really sure what to expect but I have seen quite a few Aussie bloggers receive it as well.

Searching for Sky by Jillian Cantor

Flirty Dancing by Jenny McLachlan - I'm excited to read this! It's sounds like a cute novel which will be filled with humour.

I Won:

Spark by Rachael Craw - I'm really excited to read this (partly because I won it at a giveaway on Joy's blog) because I've read some good reviews - but not too many - so I don't have any expectation. Also look at the cover! It's so pretty!!!

PTA Live

At the start of PTA Live, the whole audience got to choose out of 3 books they could take home .(For FREE!!)

The Choices were:
Half Bad by Sally Green
The Cinderella Moment by Jennifer Kloester
Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek by Maya Van Wagenen

I also got the chance to by Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell at a discounted price of $13.50!!!! I'm so excited to read this as basically everyone's labelling it as every fangirls bible. (Yes I've literally heard people take it that far) I'm a little worried that the hype will ruin it for me.

So these are the books I've gotten lately. What's new on your shelf?

{Review} This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

Author: Jennifer E. Smith
Release Date: April 2nd 2013
Publishers: Headline
Pages: 404
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Links: Goodreads | Buy the book

If fate sent you an email, would you answer?

When teenage movie star Graham Larkin accidentally sends small town girl Ellie O'Neill an email about his pet pig, the two seventeen-year-olds strike up a witty and unforgettable correspondence, discussing everything under the sun, except for their names or backgrounds.

Then Graham finds out that Ellie's Maine hometown is the perfect location for his latest film, and he decides to take their relationship from online to in-person. But can a star as famous as Graham really start a relationship with an ordinary girl like Ellie? And why does Ellie want to avoid the media's spotlight at all costs?

Review

I want to start off by saying sorry for my sudden disappearance. I haven't had the time to blog at the moment let alone read and yada yada yada [insert bullsh*t excuse] 

This novel certainly lived up to the title by inducing such happy and fuzzy feelings inside me. In one word it would be cute! Everyone always talks about how well Smith writes and I have to say she is such a good contemporary romance writer. I am so excited to start The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight (Such long titles!) and I have to buy The Geography of You and Me. I want to own ALL her books!

Let's start off with the story-line. From the first page I knew I was going to enjoy it but I also knew it was going to be cliche. It's both sort of cliche and non-cliche at the same time. Cliche because of the whole 'middle of nowhere' town and a celebrity comes bringing unwanted paparazzi but not cliche in terms of the characters. Jennifer E. Smith creates such vivid imagery of what the town looks like and I feel like I could just a walk around the town. Usually I don't like reading in third person but in this case it worked really well. It changed POV between Ellie and Graham and it worked so well because there was a huge distinction between each characters.

The characters were really unique and I love how Smith portrays Graham (Famous movie star) as not the typical rude boy who's a rebel because he has fame but the caring kid who just wants time away from all the cameras. She puts a different light on what being a celebrity really means and it made me think that it's not as amazing as they advertise it to be. Ellie, our main protagonist, was such a down to earth character and didn't allow Graham's fame effect anything. It didn't give him the upper hand and in her eyes he was another ordinary kid. The one thing I liked about this story was the fact that each character had their own individual story. Weirdly enough, I found myself wanting to know more about the mother's past even though she's a secondary character.

There's nothing more I can really add because I know I can't do it justice. Trust me when I say that this is a book you should consider when you feel like a light, summery romance. Its a good length novel - 400 pages - so I felt like it ended on a good note and there were no potholes. This book made me so happy but the only negative thing I can say about it is that I want summer to arrive a lot sooner!

{Movie Review} The Fault in Our Stars

*I advise not to read this review if you have not read the book!*

The Fault in Our Stars movie has been all the talk for weeks and I finally got to watch the movie yesterday. After declining an offer to watch the pre-screening a couple weeks ago, I finally got the chance to watch it for a birthday party!

I'm not saying the movie was better than the novel but it was probably one of the best book to movie adaptations so far this year. This movie broke my heart again! I was always the odd one out because I never cried in the book but somehow I knew I would in the movie. Let's just say I did not bring nearly enough tissues for me and my group of friends.

It was just so exhilarating watching the movie with a whole cinema of fangirls. I think they needed to turn the audio up a little because I could barely hear the dialogue over the sniffling of girls (including me) ranging from all ages. It was kind of funny though because my friend was already bawling her eyes out from half way through the movie and things hadn't even gotten sad yet. The whole cinema ended up laughing because at every happy moment she would cry harder because we all knew these moments wouldn't last long.

Now onto the actual movie! Words cannot explain what a top job the producers did. There were obvious changes but it fitted in with the movie so well. They did such a good job of every scene they put in that it didn't matter so much. Prior to the movie I wasn't a huge fan of the casting. I thought I wouldn't be able to keep the image of Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort as brother and sister but surprisingly I did not think of that once.

Ansel played the perfect Gus and every scene he was in I was just grinning. He portrayed the humour perfectly and every time he smiled I couldn't help but do the same. I thought that Shailene wouldn't do a very good job of Hazel because she is a very down to earth character but I actually loved her as Hazel. I actually think she did a better job of Hazel than Tris. For some reason I really liked the parents in this movie, I feel like their emotions were displayed better in the movie than the book.

I don't think I can say anything else. You have to watch the movie to get the feels. All I can say is that even a girl like me who doesn't cry very often was brought down to a mess. It was kind of funny because every girl that exited the cinema would make a bee-line to the bathroom to fix up their ruined make-up. This movie receives an obvious 5 stars and I cannot wait till it comes out on DVD. They say The Notebook is the ultimate movie to make you cry...I'd say this beats it by a long shot.