Early Review - Just One Day by Gayle Forman (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Size: 320 pages
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Release Date: January 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-0525425915
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Just One Day series
Source: ARC from Librarything’s Early Reviewer Program
Rating: 5/5 stars


I got a copy of this book to review through Librarything’s Early Reviewer program in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Dutton and Librarything for allowing me the opportunity to review this book. I have been a huge fan of all of Forman’s other novels and was excited to read this one. This is the first book of two, the second book, Just One Year will release later in 2013 and tells this story from the boy’s perspective.

This was a very well done story about a girl who is on a trip to Europe over the summer with a teen tour program before college. She meets a boy named Willem and takes a chance by going off by herself with him to Paris for a day. Then he’s gone the next morning and she is pissed, but moves on with life.

The second part of the book she is in college and depressed with her pre-med schedule. As the school year goes on she realizes she needs to know what happened to Willem and needs to get a grip on what she wants to do with her life.

This is an excellent coming of age story. I loved the locations London, Paris, Boston, and New York...they were fun to read about.

Forman captures emotions perfectly. Allyson is funny, sincere, and absolutely life-like...she is so easy to relate to. She has doubts and fears like many of us do and is struggling to figure out who she wants to be.

The ride we go on in this book is an emotional rollercoaster during which Allyson finally starts to figure out who she wants to be.

I absolutely loved this book and just couldn’t put it down. I lost way too much sleep reading this because time just zipped by and I was so engrossed in the story.

Loved, loved, loved this book. I should mention this book ends at a horrible cliffhanger and is the first of two books. As I mentioned above the second book, Just One Year, is due out sometime in 2013...so not too long of a wait.

Overall a very enjoyable contemporary fiction read about a girl and her search for who she wants to become. Absolutely engrossing and emotionally tumultuous. Forman does an excellent job of creating a situation that is interesting and a character that is easy to engage with. I can’t wait to find out what happens in Just One Year.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 100+ Reading Challenge

Review - Fodor's Costa Rica 2012 (4/5 stars)

Reading level: Everyone
Genre: Non-fiction/Travel
Size: 620 pages
Publisher: Fodor's; Pap/Map edition
Release Date: October 18, 2011
ISBN: 978-0679009399
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: ARC through Amazon Vine
Rating: 4/5 stars

I got a copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. This is a great book with a lot of wonderful information on Costa Rica. Most of the information is focused on eco-tourism and adventure travel; although there are some pointers for family travel as well they are infrequent.

My family and I were considering taking a trip to Costa Rica this spring so I was very excited to be offered this book through the Amazon Vine program. The book comes with a very nice full size map that is easily removed from the book. The first section of the book does an excellent overview of the region and suggests some iteneraries for various lenghts of stays.

The second chapter focuses on the biodiversity of the region and tells what you can expect when visiting rain forests, volcanoes, cloud forests, dry forests, wetlands, and shoreline areas. After that the book is broken down by region. There are chapters focusing on: San Jose', the Central Valley, the Northern Plains, the North Pacific, the Central Pacific, the South Pacific, and the Caribbean. The chapters start out with a map and then talk about the top things to see in that region. This is followed by more detailed information by city on where to stay, eat, etc (normal travel guide stuff).

Overall it is a very informative travel guide with nice pictures and a lot of great information. The only thing I noticed is that this book is pretty focused on eco-tourism and adventure travel. There is a little information here and there about traveling with kids, but it is definitely not the focus of the book. I think I tagged maybe three or four places in the book where there were mentions of good activities to do with kids.

There are also a number of comments throughout that hint that you have to be cautious traveling to Costa Rica and also many mentions of how few short hikes there are (most are all day activities). This, combined with the lack of things to do with small children, made us decide to hold off for a few years until my son is older for this trip (he is five now and many of the activities mentioned required an age of 8 or older). I think when we do plan our trip to Costa Rica we will find this book useful, but we will also have to get a more family focused guide that helps us find activities the whole family will enjoy. If my husband and I were going by ourselves this would be an excellent guide.

In general this is an excellent guide; but if you are traveling with children I would supplement it with something more family friendly as well.

Early Review - The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith (4/5 stars)

Reading level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Size: 256 pages
Publisher: Poppy
Release Date: January 2nd, 2012
ISBN: 978-0316122382
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: ARC from BEA
Rating: 4/5 stars

I got an advanced reading copy of this book for review at BEA this year. I don't read a lot of contemporary romance but it looked like a cute book. It was an especially appropriate read since I read most of it while sitting in the airport.

Hadley is rushing to the airport to go to a wedding in London; she is not looking forward to watching her father marry another woman but she is resigned to the fact. Then she misses her plane and ends up stuck at the airport where she meets Oliver. Oliver offers to help her with her bags and Hadley reluctantly accepts his help. Oliver is British and is on the next flight, sitting right next to her. After an 8 hour flight Hadley and Oliver part ways; they both think this is the last they will see of each other because London is huge. Little do they know this is only the beginning.

This is a super cute story. It explores a lot of family issues as well as issues of love and romance. You can't help but like Hadley she is just a normal girl with some anger and abandonment issues towards her father. She's not overly vindictive but she is hurting. Oliver has his own issues with his family, in a way they are just as hurtful as what Hadley is dealing with.

The story also explores how a series of coincidences can bring two people together. I loved how all the little plot elements wove together around Oliver and Hadley. I loved the sweet romance that developed between the two in such a short time.

It was also fun to watch Hadley (who had never been out of the country) navigate London in her desperate search for Oliver. It was all just so much fun, very thought-provoking, and very sweet. My only complaint was that the whole story was pretty predictable, not a lot of surprises throughout. It was also a very quick read.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It was a nice quick read, involved a sweet romance, and dealt with some family issues that make you stop and think. It was a fun quick diversion from all of the other books I have read. I loved how all the little twists and turns in the story and all the coincidences wove Oliver and Hadley together. I also enjoyed watching Hadley navigate through London. This was a great read about love, family and travel.