I Heart New York by Lindsey Kelk

RATING : 4 STARS

I got  I Heart New York by Lindsey Kelk on a whim during a plane ride to San Francisco. Once a while I do love to read chick lit to ease my stress. Many readers suggested that if you like Sophie Kinsella, you'll enjoy Lindsey Kelk. Honestly I haven't read a single Sophie Kinsella's novels *confession time*. I started I Heart New York without any high expectation and surprisingly I loved it. A perfect book for a relaxing plane ride exploring the Big Apple. I didn't know it was a series when I got the book and glad I read the first one and craving more of the I heart series.

I Heart New York, is a chick-lit about Angela Clark, (the protagonist) who finds her boyfriend cheating on her at her best friend's wedding. She decides to take a hiatus by taking off to the wonderful New York city. Being a total stranger to the Big Apple, she takes a taxi and arrives at a hotel. Jenny Lopez, a friendly concierge recognizes her breakup and tries to cheer her up by transforming into an absolute New Yorker. 

Jenny takes Angela for a New York City makeover, shopping and all the girly stuff and from there Angela is a new person, certainly ready to socialize. Within a week of her arrival she starts dating two men. With Jenny's help, Angela gets a blogging job for a popular magazine. Things seem to be perfect on the outside but on the inside, Angela deals with a whirlwind of emotions. She is uncertain of heading home to England. 

Angela dates another two completely different men-Tyler, the businessman and Alex, the rocker. It was interesting to see Angela experience New York city for the first time. I should say, I found myself taking Tyler's side initially and as the story progresses, Alex seemed to takeover. After what happened to Angela back at home, she is now ready for little fun. 

I Heart New York is a total fun read. One of the things which surprised me was Angela's blog. She keeps writing about dating two men without mentioning either of their names and the blog becomes a big hit overnight,eventually both of the men figures out about who she writes. I expected a blow-up which certainly did not happen. I found this a little unrealistic and that was the only issue I had with this book. Despite the minor unrealistic part, I loved this book. 

If you would like a fun and relaxing book and also want a dazzling introduction to New York City, then join the club with Angela and have fun. One of my favorite scene would be the sunset from Empire State Building, it was like dream come true. All in all, I Heart New York is a guilty pleasure book. For all those who would like to visit the Big Apple, I Heart New York would quench your thirst. 

Lovestruck Summer by Melissa C.Walker

RATING: 3.5 Stars

Summer is a perfect time to sit by the pool or beach with a cool lemonade and get soaked in a good book. Lovestruck Summer by Melissa Walker is, needless to say a perfect summer read. I have always wanted to visit Texas to experience the heat and be a part of Austin Music Festival. Lovestruck Summer gave me what I needed for a relaxing summer. I wanted something light and summery to read and started browsing in the middle of the night and Lovestruck summer caught my eyes and immediately I was Lovestruck with the book. The next morning was official summer day and I had a relaxing time on my patio with a lemonade and enjoyed every part of Lovestruck Summer. Summer fling, friendship, love and music all blended into one cute novel is what we get from this book. 

The protagonist Priscilla Quinn Parker, is spending her summer in Austin with Penny, who is Priscilla's oh sorry Quinn's cousin. The protagonist prefers her middle name Quinn. Needless to say, when someone addresses her as Priscilla she gets exasperated. Penny lives a typical sorority girl's life. Quinn's idea for summer in Austin is, she wants to intern and also find a summer fling who loves the same music as she does and enjoy her favorite music band, the Walters. Russ, who lives next door is an attractive cowboy (Quinn's version)  also a frat boy keeps pulling Quinn's legs all the time. Russ is an enthusiastic boy who loves country music and tries to infuse the love of country music into Quinn. Quinn slowly starts to emerge from her sphere of music to other types of music. Quinn's summer started to take a different turn than she expected. 

Quinn meets Jade at the place where she interns and she has the same taste in music as Quinn. Although the story revolves around Quinn and finding a summer fling, it also focuses on the emerging friendship between Quinn and Jade. Jade introduces Sebastian, who is a DJ to Quinn and immediately she identifies her perfect boyfriend, but it is pretty obvious that he is not the one for Quinn. Quinn keeps complaining that Russ calls her Priscilla and not Quinn to Sebastian. At some point Russ and Quinn become good friends and when their relationship is about to bloom, as in all  YA chick-lit, drama takes place. Unlike most of  the romance novels, I didn't find the drama to be overwhelming. 

Melissa Walker's writing was simple and easy to read at the same time it was captivating. I read the book in single sitting for straight 4 hours. Yet I had one issue with the story as I'm not able to clearly identify if it's the run-of-the-mill contemporary romance or something new. That was the only qualm. Trust me the story is very engaging and compensates for the small issues. I agree the story is kind of cliched, and I found myself rolling my eyes at certain moments in the book, but don't you agree with me that sometimes light fun read would lift up your summer mood?? I would recommend this book if your looking for something summery chick-lit.

The Prince ( The Selection # 0.5 ) by Kiera Cass

RATING : 2.5 Stars

The Prince is a novella by Kiera Cass and I didn't enjoy as much I did with The Selection. The Prince was really hyped up and  the synopsis seemed to be intriguing, but quite frankly it does not add much to the story. The events before the selection has been explained and we could get a clear picture of the King and Prince Maxon.

To see my review of The Selection click here. I liked The Selection and Prince Maxon has become my favorite character but this adds very little to his character other than his weakness. It starts with Daphne, the French princess also his closest friend  confesses her love to Maxon on his nineteenth birthday and he is caught up by the thought of Daphne and the selection. Maxon is quite uptight and that is how he was raised. Maxon, eventually decides to go on with the selection. 

On the contrary, I was surprised to see how America and other girls were thinking of Maxon's reaction which was completely away from the truth. I was taken aback by the King's part in the selection. Nevertheless, The Prince explains Maxon's point of view about the selection, his cogitations and feelings towards the selected girls. If you would like to see more real of Maxon, The Prince is a good short story for you. 

Share your thoughts on this novella and I would love to them.

The Selection by Kiera Cass ( The Selection # 1)

RATING : 3.75 Stars

I got The Selection by Kiera Cass on a whim to read during my study break. Quite frankly I started with trepidation because of the all the mixed reviews and it's a Dystopia. Dystopia has never been my friend. I surmise I should change my thoughts towards Dystopian Genre after reading The selection. In my opinion, it's an amalgamation of The Hunger Games and The Bachelor (Tv series).  Although i had certain issues with the story, I was completely swept by the plot line. I liked the world Kiera Cass created. I ended up giving The Selection 3.75 of 5 stars rating.

The Selection is the story of selecting a Princess from thirty five girls(one from each province), set in the Dystopian society of Illea. Selecting the Princess will be decided by Prince Maxon (with the help of his family and advisors). Prince Maxon, hands down, an adorable and handsome person I'd ever met in my life. I'm totally swoon over Prince Maxon. *blushes*.

The dystopian world of Illea has been divided into "Castes". The Castes go from 1 through 8, 1 being the royal family and 8 are seen as scum of the earth. The protagonist America Singer, falls into the caste 5 (artists) and she is a singer. One girl from each province will be picked out at random to participate in the selection. America is one among the thirty five girls selected and she is forced by her mom to enter the selection and that means turning her back on her clandestine love with Aspen.

You might be wondering why 3.75 of 5 stars. Lets get to that now. Quite frankly I didn't like Aspen and I still don't. When Aspen and America get all lovey-dovey, I wanted to shout STOP, protesting their mawkish behavior. Also it was slow to start with but it did get better halfway through. Nevertheless of the qualms I liked the story because of Prince Maxon's  demeanor towards everyone especially with the selected girls. I'm Team Maxon all the way. There was a little twist in the story towards the end which i didn't expect and I assume it will all be answered later in the series. The ending was a cliff hanger.

All in all, The Selection was a good read. I would be picking up the sequel, The Elite soon. If you have enjoyed the Tv series The Bachelor I'm quite sure you'll like this book. Although you don't like Dystopia I would suggest you to give it a shot.