She reads books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live
– Annie Dillard
A good book should make you feel all sorts of emotions while also inspiring and challenging you in any way. It should make you feel like you are on a rollercoaster and don’t want the ride to end. If you know me, you know I’m a HUGE bookworm. I read 24/7 and tend to binge books and finish them in one night. Backtrack to October, I’ve read quite a lot of books that month and I wanted to share my top 4 recommendations for my fellow bookworms looking for that next AMAZING read!
“She Reads” will be a monthly segment, where I will discuss all my favourite books I read during that time, that I think you all should read!! If you are a person who does not read but would like to start to enjoy books like I do, this article is perfect for you too!!
The first book I’d like to recommend is “Normal People” by Sally Rooney.
“Normal People” has got to be one of my all-time favourites reads! I spotted this book in Chapters when I had gone one day with a friend. She told me that there was a show based off this book that was amazing and of course I had to read the book first…yes, I am that nerd. Normal People is about two characters Marianne and Connell, their secret friendship and their on and off again relationship. They are two young individuals who tend to drift apart many times throughout their lives only to always find their way back to each other. All they have in common, is that they grew up in the same town, Dublin, Ireland. The story starts when Marianne and Connell are in high school and each chapter demonstrates a certain amount of time that has passed throughout their lives and friendship. Issues of class, privilege, submission, emotional and physical pain come into play with the characters making it a very intriguing read. I read this book in one night, I COULD NOT put it down!! I’ve gotten a couple of my friends to read it and they love it too!!! It may seem like a cheesy romcom read, but instead Rooney tells the story of a true, raw life-like relationship and really touches upon the transformative power of relationships.
The second book I’d like to recommend is “It Ends with Us” by Colleen Hoover.
“Fifteen seconds. That’s all it takes to completely change everything about a person. Fifteen seconds that we’ll never get back”
Okay bear with me, I have a lot to say about this book and author. You guys are probably going to hear me mention Colleen Hoover quite a bit, in future recommendations. Over the last couple months, she has really grown to be one of my favourite authors. Any book she writes is always honest, raw and powerful. One of my friends recommended this book to me as well, we both share the same love for this author. Just telling you guys it’s a Colleen Hoover novel should be enough for some of you to know she’s amazing. This was the first Colleen Hoover book I read and I immediately ordered three more of her books after reading this one. I read all her books so quick it devastates me when the book comes to an end. Her stories always bring you through a rollercoaster of emotions. I always end up crying a couple times throughout the duration of me reading them. AGAIN, I read this book in one night. It wasn’t like anything I expected, the ending of this book was surprising, shocking and wow…I could go on and on about this story, but I don’t want this article being 100 pages long.
It Ends with Us is about a girl named Lily who hasn’t always had it easy in life, but that has never stopped her from working hard and reaching her goals. She grew up in Maine, graduated college and moved to Boston and started her own business. She meets a neurosurgeon name Ryle who is stubborn, assertive and super arrogant, but on the other hand he is brilliant and smart. Ryle’s loathing for relationships is quite straightforward…he hates them. Throughout the story Lily finds herself becoming an exception to his “no dating rule” and questions why he had the thoughts and opinions he did about relationships in the first place. Another love from Lily’s life, Atlas, returns and you can only guess what would happen next. Before you assume, “It Ends With Us” is so much more than a “love triangle”.
I highly recommend reading this as the message is very moving and powerful. You don’t quite figure out the message at the beginning of the book, it is subtly there, you just don’t know it. As you continue reading the story, you realize towards the end how significant each moment of Lily’s life relates to the message.
“The fact that it is unexpected for you as the reader is very important because it’s also unexpected for the heroine”. I totally agree with this statement from a review off of the app Goodreads because once you realize the purpose of the story and the message, you are working with Lily herself and noticing how she can grow from trauma and become powerful and you feel as though you are experiencing that growth with her. I am not going to spoil anything by giving away the message, but this is a fantastic read, I would recommend this to everyone and anyone.
The third book, of course is another Colleen Hoover novel, “Ugly Love”
Colleen always finds a way of packing so many emotions into one story with interesting storylines and deep character backgrounds, it’s insane. You guys are probably going to think I’m crazy but again I finished this book in one night. Ugly love was nothing like I expected it to be. Hoover always finds a way of surprising you whether it is at the beginning of the story or towards the end when your emotions are ALREADY all over the place.
Tate Collins is one of the main characters of the story. She is studying to be a nurse and lives in the same building as her brother Corbin. Unlike many typical novel storylines, Tate’s character was relatable and realistic. Miles Archer is the “bad boy” of the novel…an airline pilot, super mysterious and honestly kind of a dick until you got to know his past and his story. When Tate and Miles meet, they automatically hate one another and don’t even consider themselves as friends. The only thing they have in common is their physical attraction for one another. Miles is the type of guy who does not want love and Tate feels that she has no time for love, so that leaves only one thing that the both of them want from one another…sex. After they plan this set-up, Miles has two rules for Tate.
- Don’t ask about my past.
- Don’t expect a future.
Now when you read that you may think, wow what an asshole, but as you get farther into the story you realize he’s far from that. As one can only infer, they can’t handle the situation at all, and feelings get involved and it only ends up being messy and hard for the both of them. The novel switches from Tate’s POV to Miles’ in a mix of both present-day storylines and flashbacks. As you slowly read pieces of Miles past, they start to align with his present actions, and you begin to understand why he chose to be this way. The relationship between Tate and Miles is so much more than one could imagine. He does anything and is willing to sacrifice anything not to feel love or be put in a position where he could be close to a real relationship. It’s not your typical “bad boy and nice girl” storyline, it’s realistic and deeper than ever. The scenes in this book were written so realistically you feel yourself wanting to read more and more and not wanting to put the book down for one second. Ugly Love is the perfect title for this novel, because it shows you the before and after mess of a relationship of two very different people. I am not over-exaggerating at all, but my heart physically hurt after reading this book. I remember messaging my best friend, spamming her about how this book made me feel after finishing it, even though she honestly probably was confused. I must’ve cried for five minutes…if you haven’t noticed by now, I am a super emotional person. I definitely recommend this to anyone. Any Colleen Hoover novel will move you, inspire you and make you feel all sorts of emotions.
I was going to choose another Colleen Hoover book, but I decided to switch it up a bit and present the final book as “The Unhoneymooners” by Christina Lauren.
Confession time…my ultimate guilty pleasure is reading an enemy to lovers’ romance. The build-up, the tension, the “grab your hair” moments because you just want the two characters to be together, is one of the best and most stressful feelings in the world.
The Unhoneymooners is exactly that. This story is about Olive and her twin sister Amy. Olive believes she is the unlucky sister and that nothing interesting every happens to her. She has Amy thought out to be the better twin; she is getting married, has an amazing fiancé and thinks her whole life was written out of a storybook. As they are both planning Amy’s wedding, Amy forces Olive to spend the day with Ethan…her sworn enemy who just so happens to be the best man. After a whole day hatred banter between the two, all Olive wants is to get through 24 hours of her sister’s wedding in peace, so she can return to her boring life.
But…when the whole wedding party including the bride and groom, gets food poisoning from eating bad fish, Ethan and Olive are the only ones not affected. That also means the bride and grooms Honeymoon in Hawaii is on the market. Amy and her fiancé force both Olive and Ethan to take the trip. They both set their hatred aside and take the trip of a lifetime to Hawaii. Olive pretends to be her sister Amy so that the resort doesn’t get suspicious…which means Olive and Ethan have to pretend to be newlyweds. The weird thing is…she doesn’t mind pretending. In fact, she enjoys this little role play.
Again…if you are looking for that cheesy enemy to lover romance with amazing scenes I would definitely recommend any of Christina Lauren’s books!!! Christina Lauren is another one of my favourite authors, stay tuned for more book reviews on her stuff!
Hope you guys enjoyed this October review and I hope this intrigues you to go pick up one of these books!!! November has been crazy busy due to school, work and the many assignments professors have decided to assign us…BUT stay tuned for December where I will be catching up on my reading with a huge pile of books that are currently on top of my dresser and honestly I cannot wait to start reading again!!
Happy reading everyone!!!
Pardonne Mes Obsessions 