Review: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Source: a review copy was provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

Ever since I finished Attachments, I've been thinking about the reason why it made such a lasting impression. There is a lot about it that’s unique and special, but as a whole, it’s nothing but a simple story of love and friendship. Now that I've read Eleanor and Park, I think that the reason why Ms. Rowell’s stories resonate with me is because she writes about people we know and can identify with. Her books walk the fine line between deep emotion and downright cheesiness, but the one thing they always maintain is their honesty. The emotions her stories elicit come from the true connection that develops organically between the reader and the characters, and never feel forced or fabricated. Her stories are certainly emotional, but they are never emotionally manipulative.

Because sometimes clichés are the best way to describe something, I will say that Eleanor and Park is a story about two outsiders who find a place to belong when they meet each other. And yes, it sounds like every other story out there, especially if said story happens to be a YA novel, but that doesn’t make it less true.

H&H: Dude-Lit

Second time's a charm!

My post on Dude-Lit is up on Heroes & Heartbreakers (this time for real!), you can go read it now. In case you're wondering Dude-Lit is what I call books that have all the ingredients to be labeled as Chick-Lit but instead of a chick they have a dude. So the main character is a man. Interesting trend that I've encountered lately. Hope you guys enjoy and let me know what you think!

2011, A Year in Books: The Best

This year I read a lot of books, I don’t have an exact number but I think it was over 200 books. Not all of them were published in 2011 and not all of them were good, some of them were huge disappointments (I’m looking at you Susan Elizabeth Phillips), but I think that overall it was a good year for romance novels.

I admit that most of the Contemporary Romances of the year were either mediocre or good, but just a few were truly outstanding, and only two books made my list:

Review: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

I came across this book when it kept showing up on Amazon’s recommended reads, and I was curious because it had great reviews and the plot was very appealing. But the price was high for a Kindle book and I wasn't familiar with the author, so I was apprehensive about buying it. A couple of weeks ago Dear Author did a review of the book and I saw it like a signal from the Gods, so I bought it high price be damned. I’m so happy I got it because this book is worth its weight in gold.

Beth and Jennifer are best friends and co-workers. They e-mail each other constantly even though they know that their e-mails are being monitored for inappropriate work behavior (this goes from gossiping to watching porn, basically anything non work related gets flagged). The person in charge of reading the flagged e-mails is Lincoln. He did managed to warn Beth and Jennifer once, but every time he reads one of the e-mails he finds himself more and more involved because you see, he not only likes them, he is starting to feel attracted to Beth. Things get worse once Lincoln realizes that the cute guy Beth keeps talking about is actually him. Now he is in deep trouble because if and when Beth finds out about everything there is no way in hell for him to not look like a creepy jerk.