Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

   RATING : 2.75-3 STARS

I have been meaning to read an Aussie book for a very long time and all of a sudden I came across Graffiti Moon on ivy book bindings blog and immediately added to my to-be-read list. I love to read about Australia and its culture so I managed to snag a copy of Graffiti Moon from my library. Just because all good reviews and rave comments my expectations were high enough but unfortunately it did not live up to my expectation. I'm a little hesitant to give a less than  glowing review, but it doesn't mean Crowley isn't an amazing writer. She is. Her writing style is good and that kept me reading till the end. 

The story is told in alternating perspectives of Lucy, Ed and occasionally Leo's point of  view. It starts out with Lucy pedaling on her bike to see Shadow, a Graffiti artist whose works she adores. Lucy thinks Shadow could be her dream guy and when she gets there she misses him by five minutes. Downhearted Lucy meets her friends Jazz and Daisy and they spend the night out to celebrate the successful completion of senior year of high school. Jazz assumes herself to be psychic and she says that they will hook up with guys who sits next to them. The girls meet Ed whose nose Lucy broke in tenth grade, Leo and Dylan at the same place. Daisy and Dylan have been seeing each other and there is not much of introduction needed to hook up with these guys. Daisy with Dylan, Jazz with Leo and Lucy is left with Ed. Ed tells Lucy that he knows where to find Shadow and the adventure and blooming romance begins not only for the girls but also for the reader. 

I loved to walk through the streets of Melbourne with orange late evening sky with Lucy and Ed. Crowley made it so beautiful with vivid explanation of the nature. When I read the story I found myself having late night adventure. The best part of Graffiti Moon is the artistic explanation of Graffiti art and Glass Blowing works. Alternating perspective was done flawlessly. Romance between Lucy and Ed is not at all overly done which is very rare to find in Young Adult books. Although Lucy and Ed had a rocky start, openness between them and their conversation about the art was beautifully written. I liked the small references to the classic books- Pride and Prejudice, To kill a mockingbird. 

Coming to the characters, Bert, owner of the paint shop where Ed works and Al, owner of the studio where Lucy learns Glass blowing techniques were wonderful people whom you would like to meet once in your lifetime. Though Ed's mom played a very teeny-tiny part, Crowley made her character so well and incredibly relatable. 

Although I liked Graffiti Moon, I had some issues with it. Now lets get to that. First off, I found the girls talk to be exasperating sometimes and same applies with the guys talk. Though they all are high school seniors, I found them to act like middle graders at certain moments in the book. Second, about half the story I could predict where the story goes. I found all these made the story drag a little bit for me. Though many readers loved the poems in Leo's perspective, I did not find it amazing. But trust me through Crowley's writing we can experience the beauty of Australia and the art works. 

If you're an artistic person and would love to read about Glass blowing techniques and adding colors to glass, Graffiti Moon is for you. I didn't fall head-over-heels with it but that doesn't mean Graffiti Moon isn't a good book. Overall it was a good read. 

International Giveaway !!

Recently I read Lovestruck Summer by Melissa Walker and I enjoyed it. I planned to do an International Giveaway for Lovestruck Summer (Ebook-Kindle format) and also there is an exciting news.... Guess what???? Melissa Walker will be giving away Unbreak My Heart (Ebook-Kindle format) to the winner.. 

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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.

Golden by Jessi Kirby

RATING : 4 Stars

Golden by Jessi Kirby is the kind of the book that stays close to your heart forever after finishing the book. I read Kirby's other books last year and I enjoyed it but Golden was amazing. I wanted to read this book ever since I read the blurb on Goodreads. I managed to snag a copy from my library and devoured every part of the book. I'm totally devastated that I'm not able to find a word to describe the beauty of Golden. I had a bittersweet feeling when I read the last few lines. Loved the writing and the plot line and hated when the book ended. I have been on a book hangover for days after reading such a beautifully written novel. I could say Golden and I have a long relationship. 

" Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life " - Mary Oliver

The protagonist Parker Frost, a Valedictorian and an epitome of perfect good girl is about to graduate high school. Every year Mr.Kinney hands out journals to his senior students and asks them to write about who they want to be in future. He sends out their journals ten years later. Parker helps Mr.Kinney to return the journals of his senior students ten years ago and stumbles upon Julianna Farnetti's journal. Julianna and her boyfriend Shane were seen as Golden couple and died in a car crash after their graduation party. Parker decides to take Julianna's journal with her and unravels the mystery. 

Parker and I have something in common. Although it involves  mystery, the novel deals about friendship, love, and finding yourself who you are and what you want to do. Golden makes it difficult for me to articulate how I feel about it,well in a good way. I really wish I had such a wonderful English teacher as Mr.Kinney. I would actually love to see what I would have written on my journal during my high school after ten years. I had a wonderful experience reminiscing my high school days as I read Golden. I'm sure to tell you that you will think about your life and emerge as a new person after reading Golden. To add to the poetic flow of Kirby's writing there were references to Robert Frost poems. I have always been an admirer of Robert Frost ever since my high school. 

 Few of the quotes which strikes a chord within me are : 


" One often meets her destiny on the road she takes to avoid it" 


" We're all more than the person we show to everyone else " 


" Nothing could be left to chance, after all, can be dangerous. But what I didn't realize all that time, what I missed all along, is that chance is everywhere. It's also what life is made of. It's all around us, but most of the time we never see it working "


I really loved Kat, Parker's best friend and she reminded me of one of my friends. Most of the Young Adult romances makes you swoon, but I'm flabbergasted how Kirby could bring out the love very touching. Parker's crush on Trevor was done amazingly. I found myself gasping as Parker, Kat and Trevor unravels the mystery. I'm sure to pick up anything Jessi Kirby writes. Kirby gave a very hopeful and a true ending. Although Golden was breathtakingly beautiful something stops me falling head-over-heels with it. Hey, but it's really worth reading. Don't miss out. Golden will be a perfect head start to summer. 

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.

STAY by Deb Caletti

RATING : 5 Stars

I sat down to type out my review but I was completely out of words to describe the poignancy and beauty of Stay by Deb Caletti. Caletti makes the characters incredibly real and relatable. Very rarely I come across a book that strikes a chord within me. This book will Stay with me forever and definitely will go to the top tier of my favorite books. I let Stay to saturate in me and devoured every part of it.  

What do you call an intimate relationship? - Intense? but do you know that it can sometimes  turn out to Obsession? Well.. Stay is about abusive relationship between Clara and Christian.  Often we relate this type of  relationship as physically abusive, but Caletti brings out that it can also be purely Emotional.

It starts out with Clara and her father moving to a small seaside town to escape her stalker ex-boyfriend. As the story is said in retrospect, we could look through Clara's life at the time of her relationship with Christian. Clara meets Christian across a crowded basketball game. Things between them escalates into Obsession quickly. Christian is the kind of a guy who thinks he is being protective, he is but he isn't. Do you get what I mean? Protectiveness turns more like controlling. Clara is terrified of Christian and tries to escape. Furthermore Clara meets interesting people at the seaside town and their bond with Clara is brilliantly explained.  

What makes this novel endearing? - It's Bobby Oates, Clara's Father and of course the footnotes. Footnotes are funny and I loved it. The openness between Father-Daughter relationship and their witty-banters are spectacular. I wish I had such an awesome relationship with my Father too.. Caletti's writing style is fantastic and has a poetic flow to it. I would like to quote a few. 

" We can't get so wrapped up in our own misconceptions that we miss the simple beauty of the truth."

" Fate is a shape-shifter. It is the kindest and most generous entity imaginable, laying out more goodness than a person deserves, and then it shrinks and curls and forms into something grotesque. You think something is one thing, but then it´s another."

I felt Clara's relationship with Finn was rushed. That was the only qualm . Nevertheless, this book took me on an emotional roller coaster. Are you the kind of a person who would like to sit by the sea with the lapping and sloshing of water and enjoy a good book? Then Stay is for you. I warn you it's not an easy beach read. 

I know it's not more of a review but I can't go any further. It is a poignant novel. Without a doubt I would recommend Stay by Deb Caletti to anyone, particularly teen girls.