The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon – Non-Spoiler Review

Book: The Sun Is Also  A Star
Author: Nicola Yoon
Pages: 348
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance, Fiction
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads Synopsis

Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams  that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story. Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.
The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true.

I am starting this review by saying that this book is one of my favorites. And to tell you the truth there isn’t a certain reason for this. Or is there?

The book is a classic romantic book that for some people may seem very cliché. I agree here.

Natasha and Daniel are meeting for the first time outside a store that sells records (how wonderful?) and except for the fact that the first gets deported in less than 24 hours and the second has to attend an interview for his parents’ dream university, they decide to spend a few hours together.

Characters:
– Daniel is a little too dreamy but I can’t say no to a boy that takes you to a karaoke store for the first date.
– Natasha is extremely pessimistic but I do relate with some of her thoughts and beliefs so why not.
– There obviously are more characters that I am not interested in since I didn’t like them at all. But why did I rate this book with 5 stars? You’ll see.

Plot (I never knew what to write here but I’ll find something):
– The story isn’t as predictable as someone would think so.
– Maybe the fact that there are several POVs from the different characters of the story helped the progress even more.
– I personally love the final chapter so so much.

In general, except for the romantic element that the story obviously has, the main goal of the book, at least personally, is to show the different lives of these two people and how each side eventually connects with some unexplainable way and I am not necessarily only talking about a couple, but also about two siblings or two friends.

So Daniel’s decision to show Natasha that he can make her “fall in love” with him in less than a day (something impossible), shows us the different stories each one of them has. And even though their beautiful moments are progressing into something more, the book eventually shows that time is indeed money and that life isn’t a movie (or in our case; a book) with a happy ending. Or is it?

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QUOTES TO REMEMBER
“The universe stops and waits for us.”
“Maybe part of falling in love with someone else is also falling in love with yourself.”
“There’s a Japanese phrase that I like: koi no yokan. It doesn’t mean love at first sight. It’s closer to love at second sight. It’s the feeling when you meet someone that you’re going to fall in love with them. Maybe you don’t love them right away, but it’s inevitable that you will.”
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Le Soundtracks:
– Stop The World I Wanna Get Off With You – Arctic Monkeys
– Through The Glass – Stone Sour
– Liability – Lorde

Au Revoir,

Georgia

Mammoth by Jill Baguchinsky – Non-Spoiler Review

Book: Mammoth (ARC provided by Turner Publishing)
Author: Jill Baguchinsky
Pages: 304
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance, Fiction
Publication Date: November 6th, 2018
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads Synopsis

The summer before her junior year, paleontology geek Natalie Page lands a coveted internship at an Ice Age dig site near Austin. Natalie, who’s also a plus-size fashion blogger, depends on the retro style she developed to shield herself from her former bullies, but vintage dresses and perfect lipstick aren’t compatible with prospecting for fossils in the Texas heat. But nothing is going to dampen Natalie’s spirit — she’s exactly where she wants to be, and she gets to work with her hero, a rock-star paleontologist who hosts the most popular paleo podcast in the world. And then there’s Chase the intern, who’s seriously cute, and Cody, a local boy who’d be even cuter if he were less of a grouch.
It’s a summer that promises to be about more than just mammoths.
Until it isn’t.
When Natalie’s hero turns out to be anything but, and steals the credit for one of her accomplishments, Nat has to unearth the confidence she needs to stand out in a field dominated by dudes. To do this, she’ll have to let her true self shine, even if that means defying all the rules for the sake of a major discovery.

This was such a fun and cute read.

The book opens up on Natalie, a plus size, fashion blogger that has a passion for paleontology who is ready to spend her summer in Texas at a paleontology site as an intern in order to get a scolarship next year. She’s excited for it and nothing will take that away from her. Although she finds the hard way that her shinny blog image can’t live in the dirt. She soon has to face a lot of problems, cue the attention from a couple of cute boys, cue the jealous girl who wants to cause her troubles, cue her favorite paleontologist who turns out to be more of a jerk than heroic. Natelie experienced life more than she ever had before.

When it comes to the characters, Natalie is the perfect representation of how a lot of young girls in this case plus-sized ones feel about themselves. She stays hidden behind a mask and her moto to feel good enough is to ‘Be Awesome’. I love seeing her passion for something so rare for a girl to like, like paleontology and she makes it look so interesting. Her love for fashion comes from within and her ability to DIY is just amazing. The one thing that stands out for her is how she finds herself through this whole experience, something I will talk more about later.
There are of course more characters in the story like the other interns Quinn, Chase and Brendan and Cody the museum tour guide. Quinn is the daughter of Natalie’s favorite paleontologist. They really don’t like each other but certain events bring them closer. Quinn is the type of girl that seeks for attention cause not even her father gives it to her. Chase is the cute guy that catches Natalie’s eye from the beginning but every cute guy isn’t what us girls want to believe that he is. Brendan is the most fun of the three. His love for candy is relatable and he definitely is the I-am-bored-most-of-the-time kind of person and I love him for that. As for Cody, he’s a paleo geek as much as Natalie is who works at the museum at the site and develops a beautiful friendship (and maybe something more?) with Natalie. He is definitely the type of guy that feels and cares deeply for the others. He is my favorite character in the story.
Another really important character to the story that I really dislike is Dr. Thomas F. Carver (or Thomas Fucking Carver as Natalie calls him), Natalie’s favorite paleontologist who turns out to be a freaking thief. Not literally but he steals Natalie’s find and says that he it was him who found that mammoth. For sure my least favorite character.

All in all, I had a beautiful reading experience. I loved the diversity the main character has since we don’t usually come across book that their main character is a plus size, fashion blogger that has a passion for paleontology. This point of view was something new and refreshing. I loved the little LotD (Look of the Day) photos for every blog update, it was such a fun touch to the story since we see the digital character Natalie has created, Fossilista.
I love how the book deals with issues like; self consciousness, lack of confidence and problems that women face in science.

The only thing that bothered me in the book was Natalie in the second half of it. The decisions she makes aren’t resonable and of course they end up causing trouble. Also I kinda wanted to read more about Natalie’s relationship with the guy that I shipped her with from the beginning. I am a person that loves epilogues that begin with ‘A Year Later’.

As I always say, I love when a book ends and I have something to hold on and remember from it. This time I am holding on to changes. Good and bad. The change that a character like Natalie can have and make. How she eventually finds out that she is awesome and doesn’t have to be. How she discovers the beauty she has inside. How she eventually doesn’t care about what people say but she cares about what she thinks of herself. It’s really beautiful when we believe in what we say and think and not what others say. Through the book Natalie is presented as the modern heroine people want so as to learn how to love themselves with their flaws.

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FAVORITE QUOTES
“Keep Digging.”
“They devour the weak. Confidence keeps them at bay, and being awesome is the ultimate defense.”
“Risk It.”
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If you are looking for a fresh, quirky, romantic story to dive in and definitely enjoy, I would totally recommend this one. A summer story, with the wanted summer love that also has some serious issues to adress.

Let me know if you’ve read this book or if you want to read it in the comments.

xx,

Georgia