This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

Title: This Is What Happy Looks Like

Author: Jennifer E. Smith

Release Date: 1st April 2013

My Rating: 2/5

Blurb:
If fate sent you an email, would you answer?

When teenage movie star Graham Larkin accidentally sends small town girl Ellie O'Neill an email about his pet pig, the two seventeen-year-olds strike up a witty and unforgettable correspondence, discussing everything under the sun, except for their names or backgrounds.

Then Graham finds out that Ellie's Maine hometown is the perfect location for his latest film, and he decides to take their relationship from online to in-person. But can a star as famous as Graham really start a relationship with an ordinary girl like Ellie? And why does Ellie want to avoid the media's spotlight at all costs?

In A Nutshell:

This Is What Happy Looks Like was a quick, predictable, romance read but it didn’t quite have the ‘awwww’ moments that I so desperately wanted.

My Review:

Having read and enjoyed The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, I was keen to try another, longer, novel by Jennifer E. Smith. This Is What Happy Looks Like was a quick, predictable, romance read but it didn’t quite have the ‘awwww’ moments that I so desperately wanted and that I found in Statistical Probability.

This Is What Happy Looks Like was a nice enough story, and the adorable and totally random prologue gave me hope, but unfortunately the almost 400 pages that followed just didn’t quite hit the mark for me. Reading it, I found myself skimming pages, hoping to find something ‘more’ but unfortunately it just didn’t happen.

Ellie and Graham are quite endearing and I think I could have warmed to them more if I had had a chance to get to know them through their emails, the same way we are told they got to know each other. Instead, after their initial emails (the prologue), we are thrown straight into their first meet-up and the predictable problems surrounding that and I don’t think that as the reader we feel invested or enthusiastic enough about their relationship to really care where the story goes.

Thankfully, this has not deterred me from trying the other Jennifer E. Smith novels I have in my possession. I can only hope they resemble The Statistical Probability instead.

The Comet Box by Adrian Stirling

Title: The Comet Box
Author: Adrian Stirling

Release Date: 1st June 2011

My Rating: 4/5

Blurb:

It's 1986 and Halley's Comet is hurtling towards Earth. Everyone's talking about what the comet will bring: wishes could be granted, great disasters could happen.

Andrew's wish is that his runaway sister, Amelia, will finally come home. But as the comet approaches, he begins to learn why she left, and the more he knows, the more he wants to forget. Will Amelia's return tear his comfortable world apart?

In A Nutshell:
A slice of Australian suburban life in the 80's when a teenage boy becomes curious about the secrets of his neighbours and his own family. An insightful page-turner.

My Review:
The Comet Box is the story of one boy as he searches for answers in his slice of suburban Australian life in the 1980's. I don't think I have ever had so much trouble writing a review before. I really enjoyed it, but I have no idea why! I'm failing to put it into words but it's just a feeling that I had while reading it. It was a total page-turner but I can't pinpoint why it was, which is absolutely useless when trying to write a review!

Andrew is a curious fourteen-year-old who likes knowing what is going on around him. He believes he is pretty clued in to everyone and that there isn't much he doesn't know about his classmates and neighbours. What he discovers throughout The Comet Box is that curiosity is not always a good trait to have because once you know something, you then have the responsibility of what to do with that knowledge. How will your decision effect others? What do you do when things fall apart, when you find out that your perfect world is actually not so perfect?

I think the intrigue is because all the secrets and lies that are floating around in Andrew suburbia could very easily be those of anyone's neighbours. And the problems that Andrew's family faces, could be any family's problems. You never know what is going on behind closed doors. Everyone tries to present the perfect life to prying eyes, but usually, nothing is as it seems.The story isn't propelled by major action or teen drama, but is more subtle, with an underbelly of secrets swarming around the streets of Merton. As it simmers, it pulls you in.

Thank you to Penguin Australia for this review copy.

Fixing Delilah by Sarah Ockler

Title: Fixing Delilah
Author: Sarah Ockler

Release Date: 1st December 2010 (US), 1st May 2011 (Australia)

My Rating: 3/5

Blurb:

Things in Delilah Hannaford's life have a tendency to fall apart.

She used to be a good student, but she can't seem to keep it together anymore. Her "boyfriend" isn't much of a boyfriend. And her mother refuses to discuss the fight that divided their family eight years ago. Falling apart, it seems, is a Hannaford tradition.

Over a summer of new friendships, unexpected romance, and moments that test the complex bonds between mothers and daughters, Delilah must face her family's painful past. Can even her most shattered relationships be pieced together again?

My Review:
The story starts with Delilah's mother Claire receiving news from her sister Rachel that their mother has died, someone none of them have seen in eight years. The reason for their separation is unknown and is the underlying storyline throughout the book. As Delilah and Claire head back to Claire's childhood home for the funeral and to wrap up the estate, family feuds resurface, old friends appear and relationships are tested as secrets are slowly uncovered, leading to a shocking climax.

Delilah is not happy that her summer has been hijacked and that she now has to spend it preparing her grandmother's house for an estate sale with her mother and Aunt Rachel, but when childhood friend Ricky, now the very crush-worthy Patrick, and new friend Emily show up, things look a little less bleak. On top of that, Delilah starts to delve into why her family has been estranged for so many years, why no one will give her answers and why no one talks about her aunt Stephanie, who died when she was only nineteen.

What did I like about the book? I liked that I wasn't able to guess the exact details of the big mystery.Usually I guess these things pretty early on but this time I only guessed half of the secret so that element of surprise made me very happy. I really loved Delilah's new friendship with Em. So rarely do books have summer friendships, usually they just revolve around the boy the girl meets so I really liked how Em and Delilah strike up such a strong friendship and become so close.The description of the setting was perfect. I felt like I was actually there, maybe standing on the other side of the jetty, watching everything unfold. And of course, Patrick.

Fixing Delilah is a classic teen read about the mother-daughter dynamic, family secrets and lies, guilt and misunderstandings, rebuilding relationships, a swoon-worthy boy, lessons to be learned and journeys of self worth and self discovery. An easy summer read.

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Title: Graffiti Moon
Author: Cath Crowley

Release Date: 1st August 2010

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:
Let me make it in time. Let me meet Shadow. The guy who paints in the dark. Paints birds trapped on brick walls and people lost in ghost forests. Paints guys with grass growing from their hearts and girls with buzzing lawn mowers.

It's the end of year 12. Lucy's looking for Shadow, the graffiti artist everyone talks about.

His work is all over the city, but he is nowhere.

Ed, the last guy she wants to see at the moment, says he knows where to find him. He takes Lucy on an all-night search to places where Shadow's thoughts about heartbreak and escape echo around the city walls.

But the one thing Lucy can't see is the one thing that's right before her eyes.

My Review:
Love Love Love Love Love! This is one of my favourite books of 2010! I absolutely could not put it down.

It is the last night of year 12 and Lucy and her two friends, Jazz and Daisy, are aiming for an all-nighter. Lucy, as always, is looking for Shadow. Jazz wants to find a hot boy and Daisy wants to have fun while deciding if she should dump her boyfriend. It just so happens that the boy Jazz chooses happens to be hanging with his mates; Dylan, Daisy's boyfriend, and Ed, who Lucy has an embarrassing history with. And so an adventure all over Melbourne begins!

We are lucky enough to get to hear the adventure from both the perspectives of Lucy and Ed, as well as little snippets of Poet's poetry (Poet writes the words to some of Shadow's artwork). The story is funny, witty and breath-taking. It literally had me laughing out loud at one point (and I received some strange looks as I was on a train at the time)! It is really great to have both the girl and the guy's perspectives. As a plus, at some points the perspectives cross over and we get to see how each of them interprets what the other has said or done, which is not something you see often (usually it is a straight swap to the other person and on with the story rather than going back and seeing what has just happened from the other side).

The conceptual art that Crowley has imagined for Shadow is amazing and I would love to turn around a corner and see some of the pieces on a wall. As the reader, we are able to feel connected to the artwork, not only because it is described in detail but we also get to hear not only how Shadow's pieces make Lucy feel but also what her creative force and the emotions behind her own art are. It is this kind of personal touch that really reaches out to the reader.

Graffiti Moon will speak to art-minded people the same way Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist reached out to those who adore music.

I really liked the extra personal details included such as Lucy's family's quirky arrangement, Jazz's supposed psychic abilities and Ed's inner turmoil over his future, the end of a past relationship and the death of a close friend. There is so much depth to all the characters that you just can't help love them all. You can also feel the tingles of attraction between certain characters. ZING!

I have had one of Cath Crowley's previous titles, Chasing Charlie Duskin, on my TBR list for ages and I am definitely going to have to put it on order because if Graffiti Moon is anything to go by, I'll be reading a lot more of Cath Crowley in the future.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Title: Before I Fall
Author: Lauren Oliver

Release Date: 1st April 2010 (Australia)

My Rating: 5/5

'They say that when you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes, but that's not how it happened for me'

Sam Kingston is dead. Except she isn't.

On a rainy February night, eighteen-year-old Sam is killed in a horrific car crash. But then the impossible happens: she wakes up in her own bed, on the morning of the day that she died. Forced to live over and over the last day of her life - the drive to school, skipping classes, the fateful party - she desperately struggles to alter the outcome, but every morning she wakes up on the day of the crash.

This is a story of a girl who dies young, but in the process learns how to live. And who falls in love...a little too late.

I truly loved ‘Before I Fall’ and read it in one sitting. For a debut novel it is amazing! I laughed, I cried, it completely blew me away.

Each day, Samantha learns something new about the type of person she is/has been, as well as discovering new things about those around her. She has seven days to try and fix her own fate and those of the people around her and as she learns along the way that maybe the purpose of her do-overs are not to save her own life, but the lives of her peers.

I have seen in some other reviews that some people feel the book is too long, especially as Sam repeats her days, but I disagree. I find that each day gets told differently as Sam discovers new things and decides to play the day differently, especially day four.

This is a great YA book as it deals with issues that teens are constantly surrounded by; friends, bullies, awkwardness, high school, the highs and the lows, relationships, drinking, sex, drunk driving, drama, pain, love and hate, secrets and lies. It may also help readers dealing with their own insecurities, pain, or identity. It is a story that reminds us what really matters in life and that everyone has their own problems, even if they are not visible on the surface.

Sometimes the smallest action against someone can truly affect them and change their life forever.

**Major Spoiler Alert**
I would have loved a final chapter or epilogue to find out how the characters Sam helped along the way deal with her death. This is probably because when you find a story and/or characters that you really enjoy reading, you never want it to end, but I also recognise the fact that the aftermath is not what the story is about. Still, I would love a follow up book that comes from the perspective of Juliet, starting as she heads to the party (on Sam’s seventh day).