We Are Still Tornadoes by: Michael Kun and Susan Mullen

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary
Published: November 1, 2016 by: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 304
Rating: 4/5 stars

In the summer of 1982, everything is about to change. Scott and Cath have just graduated high school, and vow to keep in touch. With Cath navigating university life, and Scott trying to get his band off the ground, the only thing familiar the two can hold onto are a series of letters they send to each other all year, talking about everything from relationships to families, to annoying roommates. Growing up is difficult, but they can always turn to each other to get through it.

This was a cute little summer read that I was happy to get into! What's unique here is that the entire book is told through the letters that Cath and Seth send to each other. There are no other plots, no other characters sharing their opinions, we only get information from the letters. I thought this was a very interesting concept for the book, and I wasn't even aware it was like this before I started. It was something different, and I appreciated that.

I think this was a very easy read. It was short and sweet, and because of the format, there wasn't much to get confused by and there definitely wasn't an info-dump. It was very two the point, which is why I think this would be the perfect read for a summer, because it gives you that nostalgia of the 80's, mixed with some typical teenage themes.

I think I could relate a lot to this book because I am starting university myself in a few weeks. I could relate to Cath's nervousness and her wanting to hold onto the past, as I myself am very scared for the change and a part of me really wishes to be back in high school. I would recommend this book to anyone going through the same thing at the moment.

Overall, there's not much left to say about this. It was an easy read with a relatable message, nothing overly spectacular, but gave me some insight on growing up that I really needed.

Have you read We Are Still Tornadoes? What did you think?

Emily @ Paperback Princess

Why Don't I Cry When Reading Books?

Hey! It's been a minute since I've done a Paperback's Pondering's, but I just knew I had to write this post. I wouldn't consider myself an emotional person in real life. I don't really like affection, anything sentimental just makes me cringe and I rarely ever cry. But gosh darn it, when something happens in a movie or tv show that tugs on my heartstrings, I will bawl. So, you'd think being an expert bookworm, I would equally be tearing up over books all the time. But the weird thing is, I don't think I've ever cried in a book.

When I was younger, and even in my old blog posts, I would legitimately lie all the time that a book made me cry. I just thought that it was the best thing to explain my feelings about the book. But in real life, I didn't cry at all. Something just so sad could happen, and I'd obviously be sad, but I just could not shed a tear. However, if I were to see that being played out on a movie screen, I would cry.

I honestly wish I was the type of person to cry in books. I feel like it's a powerful feeling for a book to just make you feel that emotion, and I have tried, but it just isn't the same than seeing an explicit visual in front of me.

I can easily imagine what a book scene is like in my head, but for some reason, it just doesn't have the same affect on me as watching a tv show would. And it's weird, because I can get so emotionally invested in the characters of a book, but if they die, I will not cry about it. I often think that I'm not like the average bookworm in that sense.

So I want to know, am I the only person who doesn't cry in books? What do you think?

Emily @ Paperback Princess

Saints and Misfits by: S.K. Ali

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary
Published: June 13, 2017 by: Salaam Reads
Pages: 352
Rating: 4/5 stars

Janna, an Arab Indian-American hijabi, is trying to figure herself out. On one hand, she's a booknerd, photographer, and graphic artist, and wanting to date her longtime crush Jeremy. On the other, she is a modest, respectful Muslim girl, living in the shadow of her brother's so perfect, almost saint-like fiancee. Janna wants to be the ideal Muslim girl, but that is jeopardised when someone very close to her, someone who is also seen like a saint in the Muslim community, does something that Janna will never be able to forget. Does she risk calling him out, or does she stay quiet?

This was a very surprising book. First off, kudos to the author for putting a hijabi girl on the cover! That was so great to see and I know that the author is a hijabi herself, so this was a really diverse novel. However, it was a little misleading, and here's why:

I hadn't really read the description of this book properly before going in, and I kinda just went in based on the cover. I was expecting a light-hearted, summery novel about love and cuteness, which is what the book was being marketed as, but what I got was much darker. Not that that is a bad thing!! I'm just saying, that this book's main theme is rape and that people going into it should be cautious, because they could be expecting something much lighter. So I think I was just a tad surprised by the turn of events, but still, I quite enjoyed the book.

I loved the characters. Janna was so complex, very three-dimensional and everyone in her circle were very well-rounded as well. I enjoyed reading about each and every person in her community, and how they affected her.

This is the first contemporary book I have read with a Muslim main character, and I was really impressed. I learnt a lot, it was very informative and a great change from the typical white main characters I usually see. There was also an entire scene dedicated to the burkini, which was great, and I think the author handled it very well. This book had a good mix of humour and information.

So overall, this was a very good book, but you gotta know what it's about before you get into it. There are explicit themes of rape, which I had no idea about prior. It's always good to put trigger warnings :)

Have you read Saints and Misfits? What did you think?

Emily @ Paperback Princess

Month in Review: September

Hey! So I survived my first month of uni!! It's been a helluva month with a lot of changes, but I'm excited to share them all with you.

What I Read: 

The Lost Hero by: Rick Riordan: 4/5
The Son of Neptune by: Rick Riordan: 5/5
The Blood of Athena by: Rick Riordan: 5/5
The House of Hades by: Rick Riordan: 4/5
The Blood of Olympus by: Rick Riordan: 5/5
More Happy Than Not by: Adam Silvera: 4/5
Exit, Pursued by a Bear by: E.K. Johnston: 5/5 stars
Piecing Me Together by: Renee Watson: 4/5 stars
The Art of Being Normal by: Lisa Williamson: 3/5 stars
We are Okay by: Nina Lacour: 3/5 stars
Attachments by: Rainbow Rowell: 2/5 stars
The 100 by: Kass Morgan: 2/5 stars

Favourite Book: Look who got back into the swing of reading! You'd think I'd have less time due to school, but honestly I think I have only pushed myself to read more, and I have been reading a lot of short books to prevent myself from slumping. Besides the obvious Heroes of Olympus re-read I went on, my favourite book would have to be Exit, Pursued by a Bear! It was so empowering and feminist-oriented, I thought it was great.

What I Blogged: 

I'm keeping up with a semi-normal schedule lately. I haven't been posting twice a week anymore, but I have been posting once a week so I wouldn't say I'm in a slump. My favourite post would have to be my review on Love and Gelato. That was a fun rant to go on.

Favourite Blog Posts of the Month:

Veronika shares Classics she will Conquer this Fall 
Cee discusses Book Censorship

Life Stuff: 

Ok, so where do I begin? September 2nd brought FanExpo, aka the happiest day of my life. I was surrounded by geek-central, and I was so amazed by the cosplayers, the merch, and of course, meeting my favourite celebrities. I met Gaten Matarazzo from Stranger Things and Bob Morley from The 100. Both of them were so nice and I swear Bob is the sweetest person ever. He has genuine conversations with each person he met and he gave everyone a hug. I am still giddy about it.

I also went to the Stranger Things panel, and I swear, those boys are so funny!!! They had the entire room cracking up and they have so much energy, it's contagious. They were great.

I bought a GoT Lannister notebook from the event, which I have already put to good use. There were so many amazing things to choose from that I literally wanted to buy one of everything!! Overall, I was pretty nervous for FanExpo and extremely bummed that the main guy I wanted to go see, James Marsters, cancelled 2 days before the con, but I had the best time and am definitely going to go next year. It was worth every penny.

So that day was great, and then literally the next day, I was shipped off to uni! I spent the entire day in a shriveled up mess, because I had to be really sociable that night for Frosh week kickoff. I met some people who I spent the night with, but honestly, we had little in common and they were a lot more extroverted then I am. I was pretty uncomfortable the entire night.

Now for a partially sad storytime...

So by day 3 of uni I had realized that I hadn't really made any new friends, so I decided to bite the bullet and text the girls I had hung out with on the first night if they wanted to hang out. They said sure, and that they would great ready and would meet me at a place. Well I waited at that place for 3 HOURS and they didn't show. I waited for so long because I was quite honestly afraid to text them telling them to hurry up. So I finally did, and they responded saying that they had forgotten about me and had already gone out somewhere else, but that I could tag along if I wanted. So, I replied with a polite no thank-you, because sometimes I am just too nice, and facetimed my cousin and sister in tears for the rest of the night. Fun day!!!

The days after that I buried myself in work and just focused on my readings. I realized that first and foremost, I am here for an education and that I should put my energy into that instead of in people not worth my time. And so that brings us to today.

Currently, I'm feeling happy. I am on top of my work and enjoying my courses. They are hard, and I spend 5 hours everyday doing work, but I know that if I slack off, it will just get worse. I have talked and started warming up to a few other English majors in my classes, and so maybe a friendship will spring out of that, but honestly, I don't mind if I just make a lot of acquaintances. I've joined the creative writing club and have talked to some like-minded people there as well, and I've been having a lot of fun at meetings. I've got friends outside of school, and really, I'm just going to that place to get my degree. I could care less about parties, or homecoming, or being part of "the uni experience." And I think that's ok.

*deep breath* How was your September?

Love and Gelato by: Jenna Evans Welch

Genre: YA Fiction, Contemporary
Published: May 3rd, 2016 by: Simon Pulse
Pages: 389
Rating: 1/5 stars

Lina's mother's dying wish was for her daughter to travel to Tuscany and finally meet her father, a man who was only mysteriously recorded in her notebook all her life. Now Lina is being whisked away for the summer, to live with a man who should have been there when he wasn't. But when Lina is given the notebook her mother kept, she begins unravelling secrets she never knew, and discovering a part of Tuscany out of a fairytale. And when the charming Ren comes into her life, Lina steps into her own fairytale as well.

Say it with me, folks: garlic bread and meatballs are not Italian. If my Nona had gotten a hold of this book, it would annoy her and my dad's entire family at the stuff in this book that was supposed to portray Italian culture. I don't know what Tuscany this author went to, but it was not what anyone I know experienced.

I think the main thing that pissed me off in this book was just the lack of research that went into Italian culture. If you wanna write a book set in another country, at least make it authentic and not an American portrayal of what Italian is. Seriously, everytime these people had dinner it looked like a scene out of East Side Mario's. The red and white checkered tablecloth, the garlic bread, the spaghetti and meatballs, this is not how Italians eat!! It may be how Italian-Americans eat, but in Tuscany, it's a whole other story.

I also felt like the main character was extremely naive. I would imagine that her mother would at least tell her some things about Italian culture, but this girl goes in not even knowing what gelato or a pizza Margarita is. It was just the typical trope of a girl going into a new country acting like it's a completely different planet, when in reality, it's just common knowledge. Also, why did Lorenzo go by "Ren?" They couldn't even keep his Italian name in there.

It may seem like I'm being overly critical of this book, but it just annoys me when people don't get the culture right. There should be more research done into the traditions and customs of countries in YA books, because otherwise, you end up wasting your time like me. For more info, Cee made a great post on a similar issue in The Raven Cycle series, in regards to Welsh culture. I encourage you to read that post, because she obviously spoke a lot more eloquently than me: Why I'm Hesitant to Read the Raven Cycle

Have you read Love and Gelato? What did you think?

Emily @ Paperback Princess

What I Would Do to Prepare Myself for a Book Convention

It has always been on my bucket list to attend a book convention. I've been to FanExpo, which was a great geeky convention, but I have yet to be in a room with strictly just every bookworm you could imagine. Every year when BEA and Bookcon comes around, I have to convince myself that booking a trip to NYC would be a waste of money and that I'll just have to wait for one closer to me. But, I have always planned my dream preparations for a book convention, and so this post will be highlighting that today.

I'm going to compile my list as if I were going to Love N. Vegas. Love N. Vegas is a, you guessed it, Vegas-based book convention happening this October 27-29 at Planet Hollywood! Tons of authors will be there such as Anna Todd, Adriana Locke, and BB Easton, and there will be signings, events, and so much more!! Now University has completely taken over my life and so I won't be leaving the country any time soon, but if you're interested, there are so many great hotel and flight deals on Vegas.com, so I would totally check it out. Las Vegas knows how to throw a party :D

So now, let's get into what I would bring:

1. A big purse. This is essential for any convention. I have a big leather backpack that I take anywhere were I'll be carrying a lot of stuff, because let's be honest, there's gonna be a ton of books to lug around.

2. WATER!! It's important to stay hydrated!! I have been to enough concerts to know that water can get expensive, so I refillable water bottle is always a great choice.

3. Lots and Lots of book merch. Seriously, if I went to a book convention, I would probably be decked out in every book-themed thing I own. My Harry Potter t-shirt, my wand, my fake Harry Potter glasses, anything.

4. Comfy shoes. I would definitely wear comfy shoes, and again, this goes for any long event. Unless something is extremely fancy, I go less for style and more for comfort with some running shoes.

5. Last but not least, this isn't a physical thing, but I would definitely prepare what I'm going to say when I meet my favourite author. The one time I went to a book signing, I just could not fathom what to say and sounded like a blubbering idiot. So, if you're easily star-struck like me, make sure to practice what you wanna say.

That's it! I really hope I'll get to go to a book convention soon, and if you have or intend to, let me know your tips and tricks!

Emily @ Paperback Princess

Alex and Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz

Genre: YA Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance
Published: April 11, 2017 by: G.P. Putnam
Pages: 368
Rating: 4/5 stars

It's 1777 in New York, and the Revolution is sparking excitement in everyone. On the eve of the legendary Schuyler family's winter ball, middle-daughter Eliza Schuyler is less enthused by her graceful older and gentle younger sisters, and is more focused on making a change in America. But when she meets Alexander Hamilton at the ball, a bright young colonel with a lot of ideas, they start something that will change the course of American History forever.

I'll be honest, I would probably never read this book if the musical Hamilton never existed. And even so, would this book even exist if the musical Hamilton was never created? Lin- Manuel Miranda has truly influenced the literature and art scene forever.

I really liked this book. It provided great, vivid descriptions of 1777 America, and the author really took on the tone of people in the time period, which is hard to do. It didn't feel watered down to modern audiences, she really kept it authentic.

I loved how she portrayed the character of Eliza, and I could definitely see the parallels between her Broadway counterpart. She was brilliant and enthusiastic, as was Alexander Hamilton. Both characters seemed to keep up with the personalities of their stage versions.

This book didn't feel boring to me, and I was really worried it would. I think it was probably because I was already familiar with the story of Alexander Hamilton, because if I had gone into this book completely ignorant, I would probably have no time for the information. So, I'm not sure how a non-Hamilton lover would read this.

I felt as if this book was a little too long. It took a lot for action to build up, and Alexander and Eliza's relationship didn't flourish until literally the very end of the book, something I did not expect. I would have really liked for their relationship to have happened sooner.

But other than that, I think this book was a great nod to Hamilton. It was romantic and cute, but it just took too long to get there.

Have you read Alex and Eliza? What did you think?

Emily @ Paperback Princess