REVIEW: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

The Summary : When Cath’s twin sister, Wren, tells her that she doesn’t want to room with her in college, Cath freaks out. Suddenly, she is thrown into a new situation, all by herself, with a roommate that she has never met. To cope, she throws herself into her fiction writing course, and writing her Simon Snow (read : harry Potter) Fanfiction. Keeping up her secret life as a famous fanfiction author becomes really hard when her roommate, Raegan, forces her to be social, and a cute boy named Levi, falls for her.

The Characters:

Cath : Cath is a phenomenal character. She is awkward, and quirky, and funny. She is a perfect portrait of an introvert being forced into a social situation, which is something that I can totally relate to. She has an incredibly relatable voice, and all of her problems feel very real. She worries abut the things that every college freshman would worry about, such as what to do when she’s late to class, and should she let this random boy into her dorm. She is forced out of her comfort zone, and boy does she come out of it.

Wren : In the very beginning, I wanted to hate Wren for abandoning Cath. As far as character development goes, I feel like Wren didn’t change all that much. Instead, Wren’s storyline just goes on, as anyones life would, and she grows up from it, but not any more than any regular human being. You really grow to understand her, which is amazing.

Raegan : Raegan is so sassy and I love it. Literally, if I could have any roommate from any book ever, It would be Raegan. Cath describes her as “bigger on the inside” and “forceful,” And that is exactly what she is. She lives her life like she owns the world. On the other hand, she ends up being an amazing friend to Cath, which i didn’t expect at all.

Cath and Wren’s Dad : FINALLY A YA NOVEL WHERE THE PARENTS EXIST. I don’t think I have ever read a young adult novel where the parents aren’t just side characters. Their father played a large role in this book, and he added so much to the story. He gets to be the “cool dad,” and be there for Cath in everything she deals with, but manages to be the bad cop when Wren needs it.

Levi : Literally, just insert the heart eyes emoji here. That’s all I have to say. Levi is perfect. He is the perfect guy friend, and becomes the perfect boyfriend, but the best part is, is that he isn’t perfect at all. He is the genuinely good guy that every girl wants to meet in college. If I ever re read this book, it would be solely for Levi.

The Plot : Rainbow Rowell is amazing. She created this world that is incredibly real, a world that completely sucks you in, so that you can’t put the book down. The story moves at a great pace, not too fast, not too slow, and the story isn’t typical or cliche at all. The most unique part of this story is the fanfiction. Rowell has created a story within a story, and throws in some excerpts from  the “Simon Snow” series, which is along the lines of the Harry Potter series in our world. These excerpts, along with some excerpts from the fanfictions that Cath and Wren have written really add to the story. I didn’t expect to like those parts, but some o them ended up being my favorites.

The Overall : 5 out of 5. Fangirl is an amazing book. I very rarely read a book and wish that there was a sequel. I love how this book wraps up nicely in the end, I just wish there was more. I would recommend this to everybody. Literally, I have no specifications. Everyone should be reading this book.

 

Book Review – Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

The Summary : Vera is in love with her best friend, Charlie, and he loves her back. Only, She doesn’t know that. She does, however know, all of his secrets, and all of the details surrounding his untimely death. Vera now has to decide whether or not to share these secrets and clear his name, or to keep them to himself, all the while being haunted by Charlie’s ghosts.

 

The Characters :

Vera : I fully understand where Vera is coming from. Her best friend completely screwed her over, and then he died before they could fix their friendship. She is coping with Charlie’s death as best as she can. She starts drinking, which is a normal teenager thing to do to cope with tragedy, And that whole thing with James was also really normal and real, as well. All in all she is just a good depiction of a teenage girl who has been through hell and back, and has come out the other side.

Charlie : Charlie read very attractive to me. Like damn. Charlie was a typical “bad boy” YA character. He drove a motorcycle, smoked cigarettes, smoked pot and sold his underwear to an old man. Wait what? Yeah, that happens too. Charlie was right all along, Vera is too good for him. He spends most of their friendship fighting his feelings for her, to save her from him, which, while really depressing, it is very honorable.

Jenny Flick : Jenny Flick can go fuck herself for all I care. 

Vera’s Dad : Vera’s dad is a pretty cool guy. I liked all of his Zen Buddhist sayings that were thrown in around the book.

 

The Plot : I liked how the book flipped around from past to present, and between different perspectives. I think my favorite part was either “a brief word from the dead kid” from Charlie’s perspective, or “a brief word from the pagoda,” which is literally from the perspective of a pagoda. Please Ignore Vera Dietz has an amazing concept. The fact that Vera is being haunted by not one, but thousands of Charlie ghosts is really interesting to me. I liked the fact that the story wasn’t obvious, especially the end. I actually wasn’t expecting Vera to forgive Charlie in the end, or to make peace with her dad. I thought that was a great ending.

 

The Overall :  This book gets 5 out of 5 stars. This is extremely rare. I literally have zero complaints about this book. I loved the concept, I loved the characters, I loved the pacing, and I just definitely loved everything. I would recommend this for fans of contemporary YA fiction, who wouldn’t mind reading something a little bit on the darker side, without being too dark.

 

SUMMER BLOG OVERHAUL

Ok, I should really start by apologizing for disappearing for two whole months. There is really no excuse, but guess I just couldn’t find the motivation to write anything. Like literally, I wanted to have the novel that I’m working on finished by the end of the year, and if I keep going the way that April and May went, then I will never get it done.

But any way We aren’t going to talk about the past, and how I completely screwed up in March and April. Instead, we are going to look to the future, and focus on what is to come in the summer. Starting in June, I will be bringing back Fearless Literacy. I’ll be back on my two posts a week schedule, but I will be switching from Tuesdays and Fridays, to Mondays and Thursdays to accommodate my new work schedule.

I will be posting a ton of reviews for the books I’ve been reading in the past few months, and I also have a bunch of other posts on different topics. But, here is where you guys come in. I am going to need some requests for topics to write about. 

Thank you guys for sticking with me for the past few crappy months. I hope that y’all stick with me and enjoy this upcoming summer.

 

Review : Exposed by Kimberly Marcus

SPOILERS EXIST

The Summary : Told in verse, this story follows 16 year old Liz, known as the “Photogirl,” and her “forever best” Kate, The dancer. Liz and Kate have been best friends for as long as they can remember, and until one night, nothing has ever come between them. One night, all of that changes. A fight at their monthly sleepover separates them for long enough for the unthinkable to happen to Kate. Liz now has to decide what she believes whether or not her own brother would hurt her best friend. Their friendship can’t and wont survive this.

The Characters :

Liz : Liz sort of reminded me of myself. I used to be knows as the “photography girl” when I was in high school and college. She came off to me as a regular girl, who was just torn between being a good friend, and a good sister. She has to decide who’s side she’s truly on, all while being forced to pick the side of her family. The only thing that I didn’t like about her, is that she sort of just lashed out at Kate, before she knew the whole story of what happened.

Kate : Kate has every right to be bitchy, but I don’t like how she refused to talk to Liz about it. She just pushes her away, and then lies about it. Had Kate just told Liz what happened that night, then she could have had Liz more on her side during the trial.

The Plot : This was an interesting story, but it lacked something to make it stand out as a novel. The plot was there, and It was a good story, but nothing was too exciting. I did like that the author didn’t put Kate and Liz back to being best friends at the end, and showing that there are actually some things that you can’t come back from.

The Overall : I know that this was a short review, but Exposed was a short book. I read this in about 3 hours, so It was a really quick read, which was perfect for what I wanted at that time. I would give this book a 3, because I liked the characters, but the plot just wasn’t there for me. It was a little shallow, compared to the verse books that I’m used to. I would recommend this for younger readers of Ellen Hopkins, and Laurie Halse Anderson. I would have really liked this book when I was about 13 or 14.

 

March Wrap Up and Progress Report.

March was a long month, and I read a lot of things. I finished four books, as of the 24th. First I finished Cracked by K.M. Walton, in all of two days, Then came Crossed by Ally Condie, which as you can see by my review that it took a bit longer. Recently I finished Exposed by Kimberly Marcus in one day, and that review will be up in a few days. I also finished Free Four by Veronica Roth, which is one of the Divergent series Novellas.

As far as goals go, I did accomplish some things. I have been working on getting my room clean, which is great, and I have been saving a bunch of money, and have managed to save up a couple hundred more dollars towards a car. I didn’t finish Starters or Insurgent, but I am so close to finishing Insurgent I can taste it. I’ll focus more on Starters next month and force myself to get more into it. I definitely didn’t post twice a week, but I tried and did post at least once a week. I also didn’t get my eyebrows done, whoops. I’ve been drinking smoothies nearly every day, and have managed to find my favorite. Basically, I put spinach, strawberries, raspberries, pineapple, vanilla yogurt, honey and cranberry juice in my Nutribullet and blend it on the thicker side, and it is absolutely amazing.

I’m really proud that I finished four books this month, and only bought one. I bought Pawn by Aimee Carter, which I have been wanting for a while. Essentially it is about a girl who has to join some sort of revolution, and pose as the Prime Minister’s daughter, or something like that. It seemed really interesting, so I’ll let you know how it goes. I wont be reading that for a while, though, because I will be trying to get through more of my initial TBR from January.

My Original List : 

(Bold = finished, Italics = currently reading)

 

1. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green.

2. Eve by Anna Carey

3. Crossed by Ally Condie

4. Reached by Ally Condie

5. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.

6. The Maze Runner by James Dashner

7. The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

8. The Death Cure by James Dashner

9. The Kill Order by James Dashner

10. The Uglies by Scott Westerfield

11. Pretties by Scott Westerfield

12. Specials by Scott Westerfield

13. Extras by Scott Westerfield

14. Stolen by Lucy Christopher

15. Feeling for Bones by Bethany Pierce

16. Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess

17. Exit Here by Jason Myers

18. Thin by Grace Bowman

19. The Bling Ring by Nancy Jo Sales

20. Paper Towns by John Green

21. The Handmaidens Tale by Margret Atwood

22. Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

23. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

24. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

25. Starters by Lisa Price

26. A Year With Aslan by C.S. Lewis

 

My New List :

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Free Four by Veronica Roth

Fireworks over Suburbia by J. Merridew

The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green by Joshua Braff

Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn

Sprout by Dale Peck

Dare Me by Eric Devine

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Ash by Malinda Lo

Cracked by K.M. Walton

Exposed by Kimberly Marcus

The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd

This Star Wont Go Out by Esther Earl

Pawn by Aimee Carter

So, I’d say that I did pretty well this month. I’ll post some goals for April when I have them, also April 2nd is my birthday, so be sure to tweet me a happy birthday, because I’m an asshole.

twitter.com/princessmyers

 

Book Review : Crossed by Ally Condie.

I’d like to start by saying that I know this post is late. I’m only doing one post this week because I’ve been super busy with work. But The fact that it’s a book review makes up for it. Also SPOILER ALERT, for both Crossed and Matched, because it’s a sequel.

The Summary : In search of a future that may not exist and faced with the decision of who to share it with, Cassia journeys to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky – taken by the Society to his certain death – only to find that he has escaped, leaving a series of clues in his wake. Cassia’s quest leads her to question much of what she holds dear, even as she finds glimmers of a different life across the border. But as Cassia nears resolve and certainty about her future with Ky, an invitation for rebellion, an unexpected betrayal, and a surprise visit from Xander – who may hold the key to the uprising and, still, to Cassia’s heart – change the game once again. Nothing is as expected on the edge of Society, where crosses and double crosses make the path more twisted than ever.

Characters :

Cassia – Cassia really wants to join The Rising. Did you know that Cassia wants to join The Rising? Maybe you should read the book again, she’ll tell you about a hundred times. This in tire book is about how much Cassia wants to find Ky and join The Rising with him, completely disregarding the possibility that Ky might not want this. Cassia is a typical girl who can’t decide who she wants. Scratch that, she knows who she wants, she wants Ky, but she wants Xander to keep wanting her. The phase “Xander is mine” is used at least once.

Ky – Ky only cares about two things. Himself, and finding Cassia. He plans to find her and get the hell out of the Society. He wants nothing to do with The Rising, and he will tell you that. Constantly. I do give Ky points for saving Eli, though. I also quite enjoyed finding out more of Ky’s back story.

Xander – Wow, so interesting, for all two pages that he is featured on. His secret isn’t all that interesting. So he’s in the Rising, huge deal. I wish we saw more of him in Crossed, so I’m hoping for more in Reached.

Indie – Indie is strong, and a little bit annoying. She will do anything to find The Rising, and lead it to victory. She is an excellent friend to Cassia. The one thing that really did bother me was the whole “being in love with Xander” thing. How does one fall in love with someone that they haven’t met?

Vick and Eli – Wallpaper. Vick was kind of interesting until he died way too soon. Eli was a little bit on the whiney side, but that’s mostly because of his age.

Hunter – One of the few characters that I had no problem with. He knew what he wanted, had an interesting back story, and didn’t take up too much space. He was helpful to the characters, as well as the plot. 

The Enemy – Who the hell is The Enemy?

The Plot : Crossed picks up shortly after where Matched leaves off, which is great, because you don’t miss much, but the greatness pretty much stops there. Crossed is definitely more of a transitional novel, rather than it’s more plot driven predecessor, Matched. It starts with Cassia at a work camp searching for Ky. When she realizes that he has escaped to the Canyons, She takes her friend Indie and runs away to follow him. Ky has escaped his work camp with two confidants, Vick and Eli, to find Cassia and the Rising. When they find each other, we find out that Ky doesn’t want to join the Rising, and only wants to be with Cassia. He agrees to help her find the Rising, with the help of Hunter, an outsider who lives in a development in one of the canyons. Basically, This book is the equivalent of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One movie. It’s a lot of walking, a lot of back story, and very little plot. Throughout the whole book, they keep alluding to these big secrets that Xander and Ky are keeping, and it takes until the very end to find out. While Xander’s secret is a very big shock, I figured it out long before they revealed it.

The Overall : Crossed got 3 hearts from me. Barely. I usually find myself more into novels that are more plot driven, which is normal. This book just moved way too slow for me, and it took me way longer to read it than it should have. I wasn’t excited to pick up Reached, It felt more like I was reading it to get the series over with, rather than to enjoy it.

If you read it, what did you think?

Recent Book Haul Part Two.

Because I’m an asshole and bought way to many books, I am going to just jump right in.

I am incredibly excited because I bought Unwind by Neal Shusterman, which I have been dying to read. Basically, somewhere in the future, America has been involved in the Second Civil War, over reproductive rights. A compromise has been reached, and they have decided that between the moment of conception to the age of 13, life can’t be touched. After a child turns 13, their parents can decide to have the “unwound,” a process in which they will remove all of their organs and give them to people who need them, so their life doesn’t technically end. Unwind follows three different people who are about to become unwound. 

Fun fact, I am super into fairytale retellings, so I bought Ash by Malinda Lo. Ash is about a young girl who loses her father, and is forced to live with her evil stepmother. Sound familiar? Well, she spends all of her time reading fairy tales, and when she meets a (dark) fairy, she starts to think the stories might be true. Then she meets one of the Kings royal huntresses and starts to see what real life and love might be. So I’m thinking a possible lady loving Cinderella? Seemed interesting.

I bought, and I am currently reading Cracked by K.M. Walton. Told in alternating perspectives, Cracked follows a boy who tries to kill himself, because he has been bullied his entire life, and ends up in a mental hospital. In a bizarre twist, he ends up rooming with the boy who has bullied him his whole life, who has been admitted for attempting to kill his grandfather. I’m already loving it.

Also fun fact, I love it when stories are told in verse. I have no idea what Exposed by Kimberly Marcus is about, but it’s been on my Amazon Wish List for over a year now. From what I gather, It involves photography, and friends who are no longer friends. I’ll let you guys know.

The next book I got was The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd. I’ve been getting into LGBT+ fiction lately, so I continued this trend here. This follows a boy named Dade, who is spending his last summer at home before college with a crappy job, fighting parents, and a boyfriend who treats him like shit. He, of course, meets a new boy, and I’m guessing there might be some love triangle-y type things in here. It seemed interesting.

I got Demi Lovato’s Staying Strong 365 Days a Year. This is actually a day to day book with little writing passages and goals for each day. 

The last book that I got was This Star Wont Go Out by Esther Earl. We know that Esther Earl inspired parts of The Fault In Our Stars story by John Green, but TSWGO isn’t about that. TSWGO is Esther’s story. I cried reading the introduction, so I can’t imagine how I’ll be throughout the rest of the book.

Thank you guys for not judging me for breaking my resolution to buy less books, but I promise I wont buy more until I finish at least five books on THIS list, and I’ll be mixing them in with my initial list from January. Basically, I’m sorry, and I hate myself for doing this. Well, not really, but still. Thanks for reading, let me know what books you’ve bought recently.

Recent Book Haul.

Hey guys, so I know I said that I was going to buy less books this year, and I tried, I really did. But, I’m clearly not perfect, so I bought a bunch of books. But I really am done this time, I promise.

So, for the next two posts, I am going to go through the books that I’ve purchased since February.

I am going to start with the books that I have purchased on my Kindle.

I downloaded the Insurgent by Veronica Roth on audible.com. I am not going to go into detail describing what this book is about, because it is a sequel, but I will say that it picks up exactly where Divergent leaves off, and it is very good so far.

The next book that I downloaded for my Kindle was Free Four by Veronica Roth. Free Four is actually a novella that ties in with the Divergent trilogy. This is actually the knife throwing scene from Divergent, but retold in Four’s perspective. This sounds excellent, so I will definitely let you know how it goes.

The next book that I got was Fireworks Over Suburbia by J. Merridew. J. Merridew is actually a blogger on youtube, who is actually one of my favorites these days. He sits in his dorm and recounts his time as a gay high schooler in Pennsylvania of all places, and random stories about his life. Fireworks Over Suburbia is a few short stories that he has written, and I am incredibly excited to read it.

Now onto the physical books that I bought. I have this obsession with buying used books on amazon. Even though I have a Prime membership, so I can get free two day shipping on most books, a lot of times, It’s cheaper to buy a book for $.01 and just pay $3.99 for shipping, because I’m still only paying $4 for a book, instead of the Prime price.

The first book that I bought was The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green by Joshua Braff. I was recommended this by John Green, in his “15 Best Books That You Haven’t Read” video on his youtube channel. This is a coming of age story about a young Jewish boy who can’t stop thinking “unthinkable” thoughts, about such things as leaving his home, leaving jewish school, and absolutely anything sexual. This book sounds phenomenal so I can’t wait to read this.

The next book is Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. Dash & Lily’s follows the tradition of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, another novel by the same authors, and it is about a young girl who has created a book of clues and dares, and left them on a shelf in a bookstore for the right guy to find them. I am super excited to read this, and to find out if Dash is actually the right guy.

Next I bought Sprout by Dale Peck. Now, I have no idea really what this novel is about. It seems to me like a middle grade to young adult novel about a young gay boy in a Kansas City high school with some sort of secret. But I am really excited to see what this book is about.

The last book that I’m going to talk about today is Dare Me by Eric Devine. I thought this book seemed really interesting, as a youtube creator, and someone who enjoys watching youtube videos. This novel is about a group of boys who somehow stumble into internet fame by creating a video that goes viral. Suddenly this group of boys are internet stars and now they have to consistently one up themselves, and have to decide how far they are willing to go for fame and money.

I’ll finish this haul in the next post on Friday. Thanks for listening, I’m going to try to stop being lazy and post every Tuesday and Friday.

Book Review : Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Spoilers ! But nothing too big.

The Summary : In a world that believes that love is the enemy, how far would you be willing to run? In the future of America, The governing body has eradicated love. When every child turns 18, and finishes high school, they are forced to undergo an invasive surgery to “cure” them, and remove their capacity to love. Lena can’t wait for her surgery, having lost her mother to “Amor Deliria Nervosa,” or the disease of Love, until she meets a young boy named Alex, who shows her what she will be losing, and what she has already lost. He shows her that there can be life with love, outside of the gates of their city, in the wilds. Together, and with the help of Lena’s best friend, Hanna, they plan their escape. Will they make it, or will they die trying?

The Characters : 

Lena : Lena is an absolute hater. It is completely understandable for Lena to be scared, and to hate the idea of the love. She was taught her whole life that love was a disease, a disease that took her own mothers life, or so she thought. Lena grew throughout the novel, and through her relationship with Alex into an incredibly strong female character. However, for a girl who has believed for eighteen years that love is a disease, and for someone so terrified of even the slightest idea of falling in love with someone, Lena sure does fall fast. It felt like she was willing to abandon her whole life’s teachings, just a few days after he comes into the picture. Despite my total aversion to that idea, it did make her seem more like a real girl, and less like a character in a book.

Alex : Alex is your typical YA novel love interest. He’s mysterious, a little bit dark, and totally gorgeous. Can someone PLEASE point me to a novel where this isn’t the case? Alex managed to assimilate himself back into the society, even as an invalid, a person who is uncured, and chooses to live in the wilds. Somehow, he even landed himself a government job, working in the same labs where they perform the procedure. HOW? I wish I could say that i disliked Alex a little more, but I have to love the fact that he really loves Lena. So much that he is willing to risk everything for her, even his life in the end.

Hanna : Hanna is just a typical girl, clearly going through some sort of “rebellious” phase. Hanna changes drastically throughout this book, which I did not like. She goes from being almost cynical and put off by the idea of the cure, to wanting it, for no clear reason. She spends her time on secret internet sites, listening to banned music, and attending illegal parties, with underage drinking and (gasp) boys. Then suddenly, when Lena approaches her about running away, poof, she wants to be cured, and live a life like her parents. I will never understand this. However, The way she helps Lena and Alex see each other is admirable, and she truly is a good friend, even though she isn’t always treated as such.

Carol : Carol gets a bad rep from most readers, but she’s just doing what she been taught to think is best. She had her own kids, then suddenly she has to take in her sisters kids, and is not even allowed to feel sad over her sisters death. She teaches her kids by example to not question the government, and to stay in line. She is actually sympathetic when it comes to Lena a lot more times than you’d imagine. She’s just a mother.

The Plot : This book is paced really well, surprisingly. It moves slowly, but it’s steady, right up until the last 50 pages or so (I’m not 100% on this, I listened to the audiobook). The world isn’t quite consistent, though. For a society with such strict rules, it seems so easy to break them. How do the regulators not realize that Alex isn’t actually a citizen? How many invalids and sympathizers have infiltrated their government? And how do they not notice? Why is it so easy for Hanna to get into these secret internet sites, if the government is supposedly watching their every move? Why is no one busting these secret parties? I can’t get behind a dystopian world with so many holes. The love story was a little too predictable for my taste, and this is coming from someone who has read every Sarah Dessen novel, so you know that it means something. I still don’t understand how Lena had no problem just abandoning everything she knew to follow some boy. But I will admit, the ending really got me hooked.

The Audiobook : Sarah Drew is phenomenal. Obviously, the narration can either make or break an audiobook, and Drew was definitely an asset. 

The Overall : I gave this book 3.5 out of 5 hearts. The point were lost in the world building, and the love story. However, in the last two or three chapters, I literally could not turn it off. It sucked me back in, and now I am DYING to pick up Pandemonium. I absolutely can not wait to see what happens in the next book. I would recommend for fans of Uglies and Matched, who are looking for something similar.

Have you read Delirium? If so, what are your thoughts?

No Valentine, no problem!

So Valentines Day is in 3 days, and you still don’t have a date. Who cares? You know whats better than a date on Valentines day? Fictional characters.

I know, that around Valentines day, I tend to want to re-read one of my favorite love stories, and watch some of my favorite romantic movies and TV shows, and I can’t be the only one. Please, I beg you, comment down below and tell me if you do this too. 

So for this years Valentines Day Solo Date, I have to work, and all the other girls I work with have boyfriends, or at least someone to get drunk with, so after work, I will be making myself a romantic dinner for one, or more realistically getting takeout, and curling up on the couch and quite possibly marathoning some Once Upon a Time In Wonderland, because whats more romantic than Alice searching for her lost genie love. (It makes more sense if you watch it, It’s Alice meets Aladdin, meets Robin Hood, meets all of Disney). Maybe I’ll watch a little Sweet Home Alabama, if I’m feeling really sappy, but more likely I’ll watch some Disney Classics, AKA the best love stories out there.

I can almost guarantee that I will be binge-reading Crossed by Ally Condie, which is about a girl who leaves her life in her society to find her lost love. So I’m all set for my solo date, but now I want to help you. Here is a list of my top 5 Young Adult love stories for you to read, as well as my top 5 Walt Disney Classic love stories. You’re welcome.

Top 5 YA Love Stories.
1. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen. Or any other Sarah Dessen for that matter. JL Is about a girl named Annabelle, and something happens to her, which causes her to lose all of her friends. She starts her senior year all alone, and meets a mysterious boy named Owen. Owen is the typical loner, with his nose in a book, and his headphones on loud, all the time. This is literally one of her best novels that I have eve read, and trust me, I’ve read all of them.
2. Matched by Ally Condie. In a society that regulates everything, from the food you eat, to the clothes you wear, it only makes sense that they would want a say in who you marry as well. Every 17 year old gets matched to a suitor, and they are sort of forced to love them. That’s not a problem for Cassia, until she gets matched to two people. Now, for the first time ever, someone gets to choose. Cassia gets to choose her future.
3. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. Warning. Only read this if you are prepared to cry for days, and if you have a large chunk of time, because you will not put this down. 
4. North of Beautiful by Justina Chen. Terra has been taught her whole life that perfection is everything, and that her port wine stain birthmark on her face is the only thing separating her from “perfect.” She believes this until she meets Jacob, the goth boy who helps her see her real beauty, as well as her potential.
5. Avalon High by Meg Cabot. I am in love with this book. Ellie moves to Maryland from the Midwest, and starts her new life at Avalon High. Avalon High is run by Will, the popular jock slash student body president. Suddenly she finds herself in the middle of an epic battle, of Arthurian proportions, where King Arthur himself is fighting to save the world.

Top 5 Walt Disney Classic Love Stories.
1. Cinderella. Classic.
2. Pocahontas. My personal favorite.
3. Tangled. We’ll call it a classic.
4. The Little Mermaid.
5. Beauty and the Beast.

What will you guys be reading and watching this Valentines Day?