Hey Guys,
I hope you're all having a great week :)
Unfortunately, the last few days hasn't been the greatest experience for me personally, as I've been on the receiving end of some pettiness and negativity from a couple of the people I work with, and sometimes it's hard to feel motivated when you're dealing with everyone else's smallness.
However, it has definitely inspired me to try even harder to always be nice as much as possible, and I definitely always want to try my best to shine a light and reflect Jesus as much as possible.
For me personally, one of the things that always cheers me up when I'm feeling blue is my blog, and so today seemed like the perfect day to talk about a book that I'd been anxiously anticipating reading with all of you today!
Bookishly Ever After by Isabel Bandeira:
Source: Birthday Gift From My Hubby
Publisher: Spencer Hill
Publication Date: January 19th, 2016
Synopsis:
In a perfect world, sixteen-year-old Phoebe Martin's life would be a book. Preferably a YA novel with magic and a hot paranormal love interest. Unfortunately, her life probably wouldn't even qualify for a quiet contemporary.
But when Phoebe finds out Dev, the hottest guy in the clarinet section, might actually have a crush on her, she turns to her favorite books for advice. Phoebe overhauls her personality to become as awesome as her favorite heroines, and win Dev's heart. But if her plan fails, can she go back to her happy world of fictional boys after falling for the real thing?
My Review:
Bookishly Ever After was one of those books that from the first time I heard of it, I just knew it was a book I needed in my life ASAP. I mean, a YA novel about a girl who's so into her favorite books and the corresponding book boyfriends that she can't seem to figure out what do with herself in reality? Yes please! What book nerd wouldn't jump at the chance to read a novel with that synopsis! So I ran out and purchased this one right after it's release, but unfortunately it took me until August 2017 to finally take the time to sit down and read it.
Unfortunately, pretty much right from the start of this novel I could tell it wasn't going to be exactly what I was expecting. Phoebe was not the type of protagonist I was hoping to be able to root for, and I honestly had a hard time feeling like I could connect to her. As well, I honestly found most of the supporting cast of characters to be on the obnoxious side, especially Em. I was expecting the romance featured in this book to be swoon worthy, and the perfect combination of awkward and adorable. However, I found it slightly annoying how Phoebe was focused on nothing but Kris, until Em tells her that Dev likes her, and then all of a sudden Dev becomes her whole world, even though the reader was never even given a hint that she felt anything for him beforehand.
I felt I basically just read 300 plus pages of Phoebe and Dev flirting, then not flirting, then flirting again, then not flirting again, and I really really wanted more of a development than that. In all honesty, my favorite part of this book ended up being the snippets that are included from some of Phoebe's favorite books, which she's using as research in how to turn Dev's interest in her into something more. Those snippets were all really well written, and had me intrigued into the worlds and the corresponding characters, and I'm hoping Isabel Bandeira will decide to write one of them in the future.
In the meantime though, I don't foresee myself rereading this one anytime soon. The characters were a tad too juvenile for my liking, I found the plot slightly underdeveloped, and I just didn't feel a connection with any of the characters. I gave this one three out of five stars, and I felt it had a great premise that its execution just didn't live up to. However, that being said, I actually quite surprised myself with how much I ended up liking the second book, Dramatically Ever After. So I guess it goes to show that you can't judge a whole series by only one of the books.
Thanks so much for reading guys! I'll see you all in my next post.
This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.
I hope you're all having a great week :)
Unfortunately, the last few days hasn't been the greatest experience for me personally, as I've been on the receiving end of some pettiness and negativity from a couple of the people I work with, and sometimes it's hard to feel motivated when you're dealing with everyone else's smallness.
However, it has definitely inspired me to try even harder to always be nice as much as possible, and I definitely always want to try my best to shine a light and reflect Jesus as much as possible.
For me personally, one of the things that always cheers me up when I'm feeling blue is my blog, and so today seemed like the perfect day to talk about a book that I'd been anxiously anticipating reading with all of you today!
Bookishly Ever After by Isabel Bandeira:
Source: Birthday Gift From My Hubby
Publisher: Spencer Hill
Publication Date: January 19th, 2016
Synopsis:
In a perfect world, sixteen-year-old Phoebe Martin's life would be a book. Preferably a YA novel with magic and a hot paranormal love interest. Unfortunately, her life probably wouldn't even qualify for a quiet contemporary.
But when Phoebe finds out Dev, the hottest guy in the clarinet section, might actually have a crush on her, she turns to her favorite books for advice. Phoebe overhauls her personality to become as awesome as her favorite heroines, and win Dev's heart. But if her plan fails, can she go back to her happy world of fictional boys after falling for the real thing?
My Review:
Bookishly Ever After was one of those books that from the first time I heard of it, I just knew it was a book I needed in my life ASAP. I mean, a YA novel about a girl who's so into her favorite books and the corresponding book boyfriends that she can't seem to figure out what do with herself in reality? Yes please! What book nerd wouldn't jump at the chance to read a novel with that synopsis! So I ran out and purchased this one right after it's release, but unfortunately it took me until August 2017 to finally take the time to sit down and read it.
Unfortunately, pretty much right from the start of this novel I could tell it wasn't going to be exactly what I was expecting. Phoebe was not the type of protagonist I was hoping to be able to root for, and I honestly had a hard time feeling like I could connect to her. As well, I honestly found most of the supporting cast of characters to be on the obnoxious side, especially Em. I was expecting the romance featured in this book to be swoon worthy, and the perfect combination of awkward and adorable. However, I found it slightly annoying how Phoebe was focused on nothing but Kris, until Em tells her that Dev likes her, and then all of a sudden Dev becomes her whole world, even though the reader was never even given a hint that she felt anything for him beforehand.
I felt I basically just read 300 plus pages of Phoebe and Dev flirting, then not flirting, then flirting again, then not flirting again, and I really really wanted more of a development than that. In all honesty, my favorite part of this book ended up being the snippets that are included from some of Phoebe's favorite books, which she's using as research in how to turn Dev's interest in her into something more. Those snippets were all really well written, and had me intrigued into the worlds and the corresponding characters, and I'm hoping Isabel Bandeira will decide to write one of them in the future.
In the meantime though, I don't foresee myself rereading this one anytime soon. The characters were a tad too juvenile for my liking, I found the plot slightly underdeveloped, and I just didn't feel a connection with any of the characters. I gave this one three out of five stars, and I felt it had a great premise that its execution just didn't live up to. However, that being said, I actually quite surprised myself with how much I ended up liking the second book, Dramatically Ever After. So I guess it goes to show that you can't judge a whole series by only one of the books.
Thanks so much for reading guys! I'll see you all in my next post.
This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.
Comments
Post a Comment