Your Next Great Read? Amy and Irv's Reviews

Amy's Review:

Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren

5 Stars

This. Book.

Macy Sorenson has life down to a perfect routine. Work, home, sleep, repeat. There's not much time in there for actually living, but Macy is more than comfortable with this, even if she's not exactly happy with it. She's getting by. That is, until she runs into Elliott Petropoulos.

Elliott was Macy's Everyfriend until an incident eleven years ago pulled them apart, and broke her in the process. Now, this chance run-in has Macy re-evaluating the life she's been living for the past eleven years and wondering if there could be a future with Elliott if she can look beyond the past.

I was not prepared for this book at all. When I started reading, it seemed as though it would go along the lines of other books of this ilk. Boy and girl meet as young adults, friendship grows, love blossoms, something tears them apart, man and woman reunite years later, potential second chance romance ensues. For me, this book was so much more. It took all those preconceived ideas and turned them on their heads. The moment when Elliott asks Macy her favorite word was the moment everything clicked and I understood this would not be a typical second-chance romance.

Told in alternating time separated into "Then" and "Now", I felt like we get the best of both worlds a coming-of-age young adult story plus an adult romance. The thing that stood out and separated this read for me from others was the simple honesty between Elliott and Macy. They have a no-holds-barred relationship talking about everything from the death of Macy's mom when she was ten to books to kissing to sex. Their relationship both in the past and present was refreshing. I think it makes the incident that broke these two soulmates apart that much more unexpected. At least, part of it was unexpected. I won't go into it too much, but Christina Lauren gives readers a little feint in that regard, and when we do learn the full story it packed quite a punch for me.

This is one of those special books that makes you wish every read was the first time. A book that makes you stay up way too late because you don't want to put it down, and keeps you thinking about it long after you've finished. I had it on good authority that I would enjoy this book (I mean come on it's Christina Lauren), but I didn't know how much this book would give me all the feels. I cannot recommend this enough. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll swoon. Read this. Enjoy!

Irv's Review:

The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson

Kevin Wilson is a good writer, I mean a Good Writer. The Family Fang is an engaging, entertaining, well written post modern novel about a family, father Caleb, mother Camille, and their daughter and son. The parents are both visual artists. Caleb has decided that the only worthwhile art is performance art staged without warning or notice to anyone and necessarily producing a strong reaction from the unknowing spectators, who thereby become participants. Caleb is the quintessentially amoral artist. He is willing to shoot people and to start riots to execute his “art” even involving his children, as toddlers and, later, as adolescents. He seems to respect nothing nor anyone except his art and, possibly, Camille. Camille is not quite as eccentric as Caleb, but certainly aids and abets him in his weird activities and seems even to encourage him. The parents refer to their children Annie and Buster, as “A” and “B”. The unorthodox activities and concomitant results bring to mind some John Irving episodes, but with a bit less plausibility. The dysfunctional family produces children who grow up to be intelligent, financially and artistically successful, but seriously maladjusted. An enjoyable and enlightening read with some real insights into artists and their work.