Why We Broke Up Review

After months and months of reading fantasy, historical fiction and sci-fi, I finally felt the absolute need to dive back into a genre that will always be one of my favourites: Contemporary.  Whilst I have adored reading so many books outside of what the majority of my reading used to consist of, I had finally had enough of reading about different worlds and magical powers, and just needed a good old contemporary this month, and so this just seemed like the perfect candidate.  Not only have I been meaning to read it for a good while now, but I also knew that it would give me the romance that I was dying for.   

This book follows our main character of Min as she recites the course of her and Ed's relationship through a box full of items all relating to their time together and all with a story attached to them.  One of things that first drew me into this book was this concept of the whole book being written almost in fragments and made up of smaller stories instead of simply as one whole one, as it just sounded like such an interesting and unique way to write a book.  So, unsurprising this soon not only became one of the things I was most looking forward, but also one of the things I enjoyed the most as well.  I adored how we didn't just get a running order of everything that happened but how each item held its own story and contributed to the story individually without making it feel too jumpy or too disjointed.   

Along with this concept came the added bonus of the pictures that allowed the items to be visually seen before the story about it was told, which were equally as beautiful as the story that follows.  I loved just being able to see the images and illustrations of the object and to not just have to imagine them, which made it all seem that much more realistic.  

As anyone can tell from the synopsis, the main plot follows the relationship of Min and Ed and so quite obviously focuses hugely on this throughout the novel.  Now whilst I do love romance in books, I was a little worried that because the focus seemed to be solely on their relationship that the story would get a little boring and repetitive, when actually this was not the case at all.  Instead, by giving the whole book to talk about their relationship and to do so in such an intimate fashion, it gave a realistic approach to it and allowed the reader to become so involved and invested in their relationship.  It made the story feel so personal and raw as it dove so deeply not into their relationship itself but also the effect it had on the other characters and how this affected everything.  My one bugbear, however, did come from how certain moments just seemed a little too predictable, even if they did help the story, and so they didn't have as shocking an impact as they otherwise would have. 

But for me the relationship and the story wouldn't have felt as realistic if the characters themselves hadn't been believable.  Despite it taking a while for me to warm to her, I did really enjoy Min as both a narrator and as a character and by the end had fallen in love with her voice and her description of the events.  I loved how relatable she was as she seemed just like a normal girl who got swept up into this relationship so quickly without thinking, and how she didn't always say or do the right thing.  Above everything, both she and Ed were flawed people who made mistakes and sometimes didn't see that they had straight away either.  

Despite everything I ever say about side characters, in this one exception I actually really enjoyed not the lack of side characters but really the lack of them having any huge impact on the story.  Whilst both Min and Ed had friends and people around them, they never seemed to have that large an impact on their relationship, despite being affected by it themselves.  However, I did still enjoy seeing these characters, particularly Al and Joan, as I think it truly showed how it wasn't just Ed and Min wrapped up in this story, but everyone else as well.  I also just adored Al as a character in himself and loved how supportive a friend he was even when he wasn't the biggest fan of Min or Ed and didn't agree with what she was doing. 

But one aspect that adored more than all the rest was the writing style and Min's own narration and recounts of her relationship.  Not only did it allow it to feel so personal, but it also allowed her emotion to run through as she describes the rush of young love, with the informality of the writing making it seem that much more realistic.  The fact that the entire book and so their entire relationship only takes place over a fairly short space of time also helps this, and makes this book so much more addictive as everything seems to be happening so fast.  

Overall, I really did end up loving this book alot more than I was expecting to.  It just drew me in from the offset and dragged me straight into the story without a moment's thought.  I adored the characters and the writing and just almost everything about this very unique book.

Favourite:

Character: Min

Quote: 'The thing with your heart's desire is that your heart doesn't even know what it desires until it turns up.'

Relate a:

Song: Like a River Runs - Bleachers 
Forever Halloween - The Maine
Everybody Talks - Neon Trees

Other Book: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by David Levithan 

Rating:

4.75/5 

Have you read this one - what did you think?  

Top Ten Tuesday Seventy Three

Top Ten Books I wish had more friendship in them

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature/ meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish.  This week I only have a very short list as I had a really hard time trying to think of books that I wished had more or less of something in them.  Eventually I choose to pick some books that I wished had a little more friendship in them, as I am also a fan of a good friendship in a book, and so a little more would never go a miss.  And so, enjoy!

As much as I adored this book to pieces, and loved the story it told, I did go into this expecting a book that had more of an emphasis on friendship than was actually the case in reality.  As much as it isn't the worst book for ignoring friendship, I would have loved to have seen just a little more interaction between our two main characters just to be able to see their friendship develop and grow that little bit more.

Through all my bugbears about this book, one of my biggest ones was the lack of friendship there was in it.  It seemed so heavily focused on the romance aspects that despite everything Lennie's friends were always so out of the picture in the book and only seemed to pop back in when they were needed for another part of the plot.  I just would have really enjoyed to have seen them a little more involved or even just spoken about more than they were throughout this story. 

This is one of those ones where I would have loved the friendship in this had the love triangle not been introduced that took away one of the key friendships that we could have seen in this.  I also would have just loved to have seen even more of other characters such as Genya a little more than we got to. 

Similarly to The Sky is Everywhere, I just felt as though the romance and other aspects of this story took such a lead role that any kind of friendship was neglected.  I would have loved to have seen more moments where our main character actually interacted with her friends or even spoke about them as they seemed to be so disconnected and only mentioned briefly, if at all, despite them seemingly still being involved in the main characters life.

Whilst this series is addictive and has a great story, one thing that I really missed throughout it was a friendship element, as so many of the key friendships later develop into something more.  I would just love to see more of a positive relationship between the main characters and just one other character or just see them have one friend who supports them throughout the story who is just there as a friend.



Are they are books you wished included just a little more friendship?  What are some of your favourite books that have a strong friendship element?

January Wrap Up

It seems like just a couple of days ago I was writing my winter TBR and thinking up some of my news years resolutions, yet somehow now we are already 5 days into February!  But despite January passing by in the blink of an eye, I did still manage to quite a bit of reading throughout the month.  Although I am not yet up to reading as much as I would ideally like to, I am so happy with how much I managed to read this month, especially considering one of the books I read was over 600 pages in length!  It was also a great reading month in terms of how much I enjoyed what I was reading, with all the books I read rated 4.5 stars or above.  And so, enjoy! 

I actually started this one at the end of last year as it had been so long since I'd read Chamber of Secrets, and so knew it was about time I continued on with this series.  And, as much as I adored both of the first two book, I have to say that this was the book that really kept me hooked and where I felt so into the story that I had to stop myself from straight away continuing on to Goblet of Fire.  I really loved the plot of this one and the characters as always, but one thing that I enjoyed in particular was seeing more a backstory to Harry's father and the marauders and their story as well.

Rating: 5/5

Next up I actually decided to start one that was actually on my Winter TBR and so choose this historical fiction that follows our main character Yael, a death camp survivor, as she impersonates Adele Wolf, the last winner of the Axis world motorcycle race, in an attempt to assassinate Hitler. It has been a good while since I read a historical fiction, and so adored being immersed in the past once again, even if this one was an alternative one, and loved that aspect of the book so much.  I was also really surprised at how much I enjoyed the general plot of this, as I never expected to get so addicted and so hooked by a book that mostly follows a motorcycle race.

Rating: 4.5/5

Finally, this is another one that was on my Winter TBR and one that I have needed to pick up for ages as it is the last book in a series that I have been reading for years now.  And oh my goodness I can't tell how glad I am that I finally managed to pick this up because this book was by far the best book in the series by a mile!  I loved everything about it, from all the characters who we got to delve deeper into, the amazing plot and the ending that completely broke me - its been a long time since a book has made me cry that much!  Overall it was just a great way to end my month of reading, with a book that truly gave me everything I wanted in the ending to this series.

Rating: 5/5 

What books did you read in January?  Which was your favourite - tell me in the comments below!

January Playlist

Today I have something that I have been wanting to do for so long now, but each time the month seems to pass so quickly and suddenly I'm left with another month gone where I haven't put this up.  As much as this blog is dedicated towards and hugely centered on books, I have recently been really wanting to and trying to expand from that just a little bit, and so one the ways I thought to do this was by sharing some of the music I have been listening to and loving in the past month.  I first saw this idea over on abbieemusicblog (definitely check out her blog - her posts are always great fun to read and her graphics are insanely gorgeous!) and instantly fell in love with it as music is another thing I adore and would love to start including more in my blog.  

This month I really got back into discovering both some new bands, like The Technicolours, as well listening to some new music from some of my favourite bands and artists.  It's safe to say I was more than happy when Ed Sheeran and The Maine both decided to release stuff this month!  I also got to see Cage the Elephant this month which was absolutely amazing and so its safe to say I listened to alot of their music throughout the month as well. 

What artists did you listen to this month?  What was your favourite song you listened to this month? 

Top Ten Tuesday Seventy Two

Top Ten Favourite Ships from books I read in the last year or so

Top ten tuesday is a weekly feature/ meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish.  This weeks topic was actually a freebie and so I choose to redo a topic that I did as TTT quite a while ago now - my favourite OTPS!  Since I have already done this topic, I decided that instead of doing my all time favourite ships, I would share some of my more recent ones, and so this there are a fair few of my favourites missing here.  These ships are also not all canon, and some of these series I have yet to finish, but nonetheless, here are some of my favourite ships from books I've read in the last year or so.  And so, enjoy!  

Despite so many of my reasons for loving this series not being associated with the romance, its safe to say I still ship these two pretty damn hard.  One thing I am definitely into is two characters who slowly but truly fall for each other which is definitely the case here, and honestly they just care for each other so much but are still both so strong both individually and as a team.  

Through all the action and events that take place throughout these books, one thing that is always is apparent is the complex relationship between these two.  They go from almost rivals to friends but it takes alot for them to trust each other despite going through so much together but in the end I truly believe these two are meant to be together.  

I have shipped so many of Amanda Hocking's characters throughout her books, but these two are definitely one of my favourites.  I think I honestly just adore how normal they are and how much they love each other without drama and how truly happy they are!  

I don't know whether its more simply my love for the character of the Darkling or whether I just really think these two fit together well, but either way these two more than definitely belong together in my mind. 

As much as Magnus and Alec will always and forever by my all time OTP, recently in the last few books I can't help but begin to really ship these two as well.  I just love how open and caring she can be towards Simon and how she really does truly care for him as much as he does for her.  

Okay, so I have only managed to read the first book, The Raven Boys, in this series so far, but already I can safely say that I am desperate for Blue and Gansey to get together.  Not only do I love the idea of their almost deadly and fated relationship but I also just love the dynamics between them as well! 

From one of my favourite books comes one of my favourite pairings in the form of these two.  I just adore how different they seem at first but then how slowly as each of them is stripped back we get to see their similarities and how well they work together.  

Whilst reading this first book in the series, I had a huge debate with myself over who I shipped Celaena with until around halfway through the book when I realised that as much as I adore Dorian so much as a character, in my mind Celaena and Chaol just fit so well together and have a lot more in common, although we'll have to wait and see how a feel a little further into this series! 

Finally, these two were a pair that I shipped from almost the moment the book started, with their friendship something I couldn't wait to see turn into something more! 

Do you ship any of these couples as well?  Who are some of your OTPs?