Side Effects of a Serious Attitude

Expected Publication:  March 18th, 2014

Side Effects May Vary

By: Julie Murphy

Balzer + Bray

ISBN-13:  9780062245359

What if you'd been living your life as if you were dying - only to find out that you had your whole future ahead of you?

When sixteen-year-old Alice is diagnosed with leukemia, her prognosis is grim.  To maximize the time she does have, she vows to spend her final months righting wrongs -- however she sees fit.  She convinces her friend Harvey, who she knows has always had feelings for her, to help her with a crazy bucket list that's as much about revenge (humiliating her ex-boyfriend and getting back at her arch nemesis) as it is about hope (doing something unexpectedly kind for a stranger and reliving some childhood memories).  But just when Alice's scores are settled, she goes into remission.

Now Alice is forced to face the consequences of all that she's said and done, as well as her true feelings for Harvey.  But has she done irreparable damage to the people around her, and to the one person who matters most?

Review

     I am always reluctant to read books about kids or teens with cancer.  Just because I feel like it's very difficult subjecr matter and the author usually devolves into something overly maudlin and sappy - like a Nicholas Sparks book or something!  That said, I think the only one I've ever read that really touched me and came across realistically was The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder.  I enjoyed The Fault In Our Stars the first time I read it, but it didn't hold up very well upon further re-reads.  So I was apprehensive to see what direction that Julie Murphy would decide to take.  It was already different in the fact that the main character, Alice, starts the book off by going into remission.  So when the readers are introduced to her, Alice has been told that she is going to live after all.  Except she's not happy about it as you would expect her to be.  Because she just spent what she thought were the last months of her life, doing whatever the hell she wanted and getting revenge on the people that hurt her in the past.  Now she has to deal with her feelings for her friend Harvey, the mean things she did to her ballet rival and ex-boyfriend, and the fact that she saw her Mom cheating on her Dad right before she got cancer.

     I enjoyed the alternating between the present time and the time before/during when Alice had cancer.  It gave more of an insight into her complicated friendship with Harvey and the reasons for the things she had on her bucket list.  I feel like one of the biggest problems I had with this book was that Alice was an irredeemable bitch for almost the entire thing.  We get to see her POV and Harvey's, but whereas I ended up rooting for Harvey and sympathizing with him, I just wanted Alice to get some help or something.  Harvey was her best friend all throughout their childhood (their parents were good friends) but she dropped him when they entered high school, without a second thought.  Then when Alice is diagnosed with cancer, she takes Harvey back into her life, mostly so that she can use him to help her complete her buckt list/revenge on other people.  Harvey knows that she's just using him, but the poor guy spends almost the entire book trying his hardest to find any sort of redeeming quality in her to make up for her just plain mean and awful behavior.

     Alice on the other hand, is totally unexplainable other than to say that she probably has some kind of personality disorder or something.  She acts downright evil to people, even ones who do nothing but take care of her and try to make her life pleasant.  One major example of this is when she goes into remission, pretty much after admitting to Harvey she loves him, and ditches him again.  Instead Alice starts to go after Eric, the new guy in school.  She kind of likes him, but it seems like she's mostly just doing it to make Harvey jealous and hurt him.  She wants him to be there for her when it's convenient, but Alice will do anything possible to make Harvey feel expendable and refuses to admit anything to him now that she's stuck being alive.  I was really happy that shortly before the end Harvey stopped making excuses for her and kind of just gave up on redeeming Alice in any way.  So of course, in the last 2% of the book, Alice decided to become a better person and try to win Harvey back.  That said, there were some major emotions in this book and reading Alice's POV you can tell that she really doesn't want to be this way and doesn't know why she is.  So I still managed to enjoy the what-if aspects, even if this book has somewhat of a vindictive nature for my tastes personally.  Overall, a good read that makes you really think about life and the people in it.  Not recommended for people who can't stand truly mean characters though.

VERDICT:  3.5/5  Stars

*I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie.  No favors or money were exchanged for this review.  This book's expected publication date is March 18th, 2014.*

A Manifesto of What NOT To Do

 

Expected Publication:  October 1st, 2013

How To Love

By: Katie Cotugno

Balzer + Bray

ISBN-13:  9780062216359

 

Before: Reena Montero has loved Sawyer LeGrande for as long as she can remember: as natural as breathing, as endless as time. But he’s never seemed to notice that Reena even exists…until one day, impossibly, he does. Reena and Sawyer fall in messy, complicated love. But then Sawyer disappears from their humid Florida town without a word, leaving a devastated—and pregnant—Reena behind.

After: Almost three years have passed, and there’s a new love in Reena’s life: her daughter, Hannah. Reena’s gotten used to being without Sawyer, and she’s finally getting the hang of this strange, unexpected life. But just as swiftly and suddenly as he disappeared, Sawyer turns up again. Reena doesn’t want anything to do with him, though she’d be lying if she said Sawyer’s being back wasn’t stirring something in her. After everything that’s happened, can Reena really let herself love Sawyer LeGrande again?

In this breathtaking debut, Katie Cotugno weaves together the story of one couple falling in love—twice.

 

Review

 

     Reena and Sawyer had known each other forever.  But when Reena turned fifteen, they finally began to connect as friends, which led to a really complicated and destructive romance.  Sawyer left town, leaving behind a pregnant and bewildered Reena behind.  Almost three years later Reena is raising Hannah, their daughter, with the help of her best friend, boyfriend (her friend's brother), Dad and Stepmom.  She's also going to community college and in a healthy relationship.  It all starts to come crashing down when Sawyer comes back to town and tries to get Reena back into his life - and his arms.  Will Reena be able to forgive Sawyer for leaving her behind, or will they crash and burn again?

     I'm going to have a really hard time reviewing this book.  I'll lay it on the line right now: I pretty much hated Reena's guts after I finished the book.  I understood her, but really hated her with all my heart.  I felt like she kept making the same stupid decisions over and over again, while pretending that things were changing.  Cotugno definitely knew how to write a compelling novel and her writing style is very easy to read and realistic.  Sometimes it's the most realistic novels that get to you the most.  Reena's family was screwed up, but trying to be as supportive as possible.  My heart broke for her Dad, even though I did agree with Reena that he had basically stopped loving her/forgiving her when she became pregnant outside of marriage (they were Catholic).  Her best friend Shelby was really a bright spot and always was there for Reena.  I did like that she called her on her bullshit and horrible treatment of Shelby's brother (and basically her placeholder boyfriend till Sawyer got back).  I felt like their relationship was mostly about Reena's drama and very little about Shelby.

     The way Katie got me, as a reader, involved in this book was amazing to me - especially since I disliked the main character so much.  She definitely had a way with words and kept the action moving along, although the angst did get a little ridiculous at certain points.  Mainly besides Reena what annoyed me the most in this novel was the destructive and unhealthy relationship between her and Sawyer, that was romanticized and made out to be so wonderfully epic.  Sawyer was a dirtbag of the lowest order.  He was basically a man-whore, who dated Reena's best friend to get to her and cheated with Reena.  Throughout their entire relationship he basically just used her for sex and took her on 'dates' to meet his drug supplier.  And he gets an underaged girl pregnant and abandons her.  Yeah, he's a real Prince Charming isn't he?  I feel like a lot of the reason Reena got sucked into his web again was because she had put on blinders in regards to his use/discard treatment of her and always hoped he'd come back and they'd be the perfect family.  It all felt very MTV Teen Mom to me, in the worst possible way.  The thought of them getting back together when all they do is bring out the worst in each other made me want to gag.  Overall, not something I really enjoyed even if it was well-written and I wouldn't recommend it to young teens.  It totally might send the wrong message if the teen reading it isn't bright enough to read between the lines.  The only reason I'm rating what I am is the high quality of the writing and the fact that I finished it.

 

VERDICT:  2.5/5  Stars

 

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via Edelweiss.  No money or favors were exchanged for this review.  This book's expected publication is October 1st, 2013.*