Love You, Hate You, Miss You
Love You, Hate You, Miss You, catchy title, catchy start, to a catchy plot. Everything about this book screams reality at the reader, honest in tone and easy to read. Even the format, letters to a girl's dead best friend, are heartbreaking. The narration, via the letters, establishes an early level of comfortable interaction. It's a simple, but powerful, tale of a girl struggling to move on with life. For me, the most powerful part of the story was Amy telling her parents of all people, what had happened with Julia that fateful night. It's breathtaking to watch the growth of the relationship between Amy and her parents springing out of something as tragic as death, as well as the strange post-death evolution of her relationship with Julia. It's a book filled with perceptive thoughts for a very thought-invoking read. Scott really delves into the teens' minds astoundingly well. Some of the dialogue is a little unrealistic, but the overall situations and themes can apply to anyone. Love You, Hate You, Miss You really reminds the audience of the fact that we are all mortals, never knowing when death will strike. It ends with a wham of a final chapter, a final dose of reality, closing on a girl who still has her issues to work out, but knowing that we got to witness the long way she's come.
Rating: 5/5
I got this book from...:The author in a blog promotion.
Something, Maybe
It's another fascinating premise from Elizabeth Scott, delivered with elegance that is not typical when dealing with trashy parents such as Hannah's. The romance is reminiscent of that seen in another of Scott's books, Bloom. It too features honest, realistic narration. It's captivatingly written in a gentle style that flows very well. The book is a lot deeper than the book description makes it out to be, filled with blurbs of Hannah's special brand of wisdom, very much like a Sarah Dessen novel. The few characters featured were marvelously characterized in great detail, making them truly come to life. The one thing that did bother me was how strangely similar, romance-wise, the story is to that of Meg Cabot's first Princess Diaries book, dealing with a character with similar motivations and even the same name, as Josh. The love story, as a result, was pretty predictable. It's quick read, with a simple linear story. Something, Maybe defines a dysfunctional family and shows that families truly do come in all different varieties, but no matter what, there can still be familial love. The story is a little unresolved, but with that, it still feels very complete, and the ending is fits perfectly with the rest of the novel.
Rating: 4.5/5
I got this book from...:Barnes & Noble
and finally, a preview of Scott's new novel, coming out on April 6th...
The Unwritten Rule
The Unwritten Rule is aptly titled and takes on different meanings throughout the story. It, like Scott's other stories, has the same simple, gentle narrative tone, realistic and honest. The evolution of the various characters and relationships in the story, particularly those of Sarah/Brianna and Sarah/Ryan, are fascinating to witness. The boy drama gets overdone at some points, and after a while, it gets repetitive and annoying to listen to Sarah endlessly drone on and on about Ryan and the associated angst, but it still makes for an interesting read. I did like the roles both Sarah and Brianna's parents played in the story, allowing everything to come full circle in a way. But that's what the rest of the story's all about--coming full circle. The ending's masterful writing makes it predictably tense and heartbreaking, with the realization that something like this could happen to anyone. I'm a little concerned about the similarities in plot between this book and Susane Colasanti's upcoming release, Something Like Fate, although I'm sure the two amazing authors end up owning their individual stories in their own unique ways.
Rating: 4/5
I got this book from...:Author ARC Tour
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