Sloppy Firsts

Summary: Jessica Darling’s life just about ends when her best friend in the entire world, Hope Weaver, moves away across the country. Hope is leaving her to fend by herself with the annoying and skanky clueless crew, flirtatious Scotty, her bitchy sister Bethany’s wedding, and her parents who never understand her. On top of all this her period is officially MIA, and the mysterious Marcus Flutie has taken an interest in her life. Jessica Darling has an awful lot on her plate for just a sixteen year old.

Review: Okay, I am extremely iffy about my opinion on this book. I have friends who absolutely adored it and begged me to read it, so I did. I’m not sure I love it as much as they do. There is no doubt in my mind that Megan McCafferty is an amazing writer, and that this book is very well-written and believable. However, I had a big problem with Jessica. I couldn’t relate to her at all, literally the one part in the book that had me like ‘hey that’s me!’ was this part: “But I can’t think of anything (track, student council, Key Club, and so on) that gets me as psyched as that. Or as giddy as the Clueless Crew gets from organizing a pep rally or decorating the Jocks’ lockers before a big game. I wish I were artistic, like Hope. That’s passion. That’s something to get excited about. I do everything I do because it will look good on my college applications. Depressing isn’t it?”(pg 39).

Then from there on in the book, I didn’t relate to her or any of her friends. I found her very whiny and, excuse my language, bitchy. I found myself reading the book (fairly quickly I might add, it was an easy book to get through) waiting for something to happen and it never did. It was high school. Plain and simple it really was, and McCafferty does a splendid job making it realistic. I felt like the only real character development was at the end when she made the decision to tell Hope everything, besides that she remained mostly the same. It was a great book, I just did not enjoy it as much as other probably did.

My bottom line here is: It was a fabulously written realistic book, not my cup of tea.

Rating: 4/5 I’ve got to give such a well crafted book its props, even if I wasn’t the hugest fan.

Review from the Pros:
“Sloppy Firsts captures, in spare, truthful prose, the exquisite pain and ecstasy of being besotted by your best friend. The reader may flinch, but Megan McCafferty never does.” –Emma Forest, Author of Namedropper

“Sloppy Firsts is a spirited, down-the-rabbit-hole adventure in the madcap subculture of high school. With remarkable insight, tenderness, and with, Megan McCafferty offers us a compassionate, clear-eyed tale of how a sassy young woman survives teenage-hood.” –Laurie Fox, Author of My Sister From The Black Lagoon

“Sloppy Firsts perfectly captures the turbulent roller-coaster ride that is being a teenager. This is an intimate, (at times) painfully honest peek at a girl’s coming of age. Getting to know Jessica is like meeting a new best friend. I miss her already.” –Atoosa Rubenstein, editor in chief of Cosmogirl!

“Such a sharp, funny, poignant heroine, with an inner world we can all relate to.” -Sophie Kinsella, Author of Confessions of a Shopaholic

About My Blog!

So, I decided to give a little background info on my blog. I’m sure not many of you care, but this is to just clear any questions up. So here we go! ^^

Background story: Boredom and Wanting to try something new. That’s why I started this blog, I read a lot [compared to most normal teenagers anyways, I have friends who read more than I do] and I love to write and ramble. Not going to lie there, I’m good at rambling I talk a lot. Whenever I get the chance to, I’m broadcasting my opinion and I figure this had to get annoying to my friends, I can be obnoxious I think. So I thought, ‘Hey why not start a book blog?’ I could rant about my books without annoying people and could practice my writing skills! Double whammy! Turns out it’s also a nice stress reliever [here’s an interesting fact for you: I am a very stressed person. Like literally, whenever I went to physical therapy my physical therapist would complain ‘Will you loosen up!? Your muscles are way tight for a 16 year old!’]. Anywho! [I told you I like to ramble!] I had read a few books blogs before I read Word For Teens religiously, and Nicole is my major inspiration, even though she doesn’t know I exist. So my book blog is mainly a way for me to share opinions and get some ranting in.

Format: My format of the blog is rather simple actually.

Image: Obviously an image of the book. I find that the cover is what attracts me an awful lot to a book, so if you’re one of those people who just glances at a cover and is like ‘hey that looks cool!’ This part is for you.

Summary: Obviously. My summary of the book, it will most likely contain plot secrets. I am terrible at keeping them, I’ll try to keep them out…but you have been warned.

Review: Uh…duh. My Review/opinion/ranting of the book.

Rating: I rate out of five, which makes it difficult for me to rate a book because I do enjoy a great many books and out of five does not give me much leeway. Many times I will also give an explanation for the rating and why it didn’t get 5/5.
Reviews from the Pros: Okay, this category is a little lame. It’s just when I read a book I often flip to the praise of the book before hand. So basically I’m not doing anything intricate with this section, its just the little snippets you’ll read in the front or back of the book. I do often spend time looking at reviews on the internet before this section but mostly I’m cheap and just take from the front of back of the book.

And that is it! I know this is nothing exciting, but I figured maybe some people would want to know. Well I am off to finish Sloppy Firsts! That review should be up fairly soon FYI. Enjoy my random blog till then!
-She Who Reads A Lot

City of Bones

Summary: [Gosh how do you sum this book up!? It’s 485 pages long!] As far as Clary Fray knows she’s a completely ordinary girl. She’s got a guy best friend, a over-protective artist mom, she’s nothing special as far as she knows. Until one night when in a club in New York she witnesses a murder by a bunch of strange looking teenagers. It’s all downhill from there in the next 24 hours her mother is kidnapped and her apartment is overrun with demons, and Clary almost gets killed by a demon herself. From here on out she is thrust into a world of magic, demons, and shadowhunters. With the help of the handsome shadowhunter Jace Wayland and his friends, Alec and Isabelle Lightwood, Clary races to figure out where her mother is and how to save her. All along the way figuring out secret doors to her past she never knew existed.

Review: Okay, so I just spent the last half hour looking up reviews on Amazon and it would seem to me that this book is very love it or hate it. Me? I am completely and totally in love with this book. I should start by saying that Cassandra Clare is an amazing writer and more importantly story-teller. She let’s the plot flow, and the dialogue and humor never seemed force. Everything flowed the right way and just the way she writes puts you in the situation. There were characters that I wasn’t particularly fond of and yet when they were in a dangerous situation I was freaking out and praying they would not die. I did put it down (darn school pressuring me!), but I never wished to. I loved all the characters; I found the array of cast to be somewhat original and refreshing. You, at least, did not see the same kind of character twice in the book. Putting the mostly original and captivating plot aside, Clare just has a way with writing that makes this book so utterly compelling. My only problem was the length, I would feel like I made a good dent in the book and I would close the book and see that I’d only made it a quarter of the way through!

Sorry for the rambling guys! I did love the book though. Basically pick it up and at least give it a chance. If you don’t like it okay, if you do good! As for the plot twist at the end: have faith in the author guys! I was honestly so into the book that the ending twist didn’t disturb me as much as I’m sure it did others. Probably because I have extreme faith in an author’s power to tie things together in the end. So let’s hope that’s what we find in City of Ashes and City of Glass!

Rating: 5/5

Reviews from the pros:

“Funny, dark, and sexy one of my favorite books,” –Holly Black

"Fans of...Buffy the Vampire Slayer will instantly fall for this series."-Publishers Weekly

"Reminiscent of the Harry Potter series--and that's hight praise!"-teensreadtoo.com, five star rating and Gold Star Award Review

New York Time Best Seller