THE GEOGRAPHY OF YOU AND ME by Jennifer E. Smith

by TPS reader wuerzk19

Lucy Patterson is a bit of an outcast, and she’s constantly left behind in her New York City apartment while her parents travel around the world and her brothers go off to college. She doesn’t have any friends and is ready for another boring night alone in her apartment when suddenly a citywide blackout occurs, and she becomes stuck in an elevator. Little does she know the boy stuck in the elevator with her would soon play a significant role in her life. Owen Buckley is also an outcast, the death of his mother having changed his life forever. At his old home he had friends and a good life, but with his mother’s passing, Owen and his father set off to New York and left their old life completely behind them. Owen hates New York until the night the power goes out and he meets Lucy. Together they share one amazing night wandering the darkened city and gazing up at the stars from the roof of the apartment building. However, when the lights come back on, so does reality, and Lucy and Owen are forced into different directions, both moving away from New York City. As they start new lives and meet new people, they try to stay in touch by postcards and emails. But will their one perfect night be enough to keep them in each other’s lives forever? Or will the distance be too much for them to keep in touch?

This is a sweet long-distance love story, perfect for anyone in search of a good romance book. The colorful descriptions give the reader a taste of many different parts of the world that they get to experience along with the characters. The book is also packed with plot twists and unexpected events that keep the story moving along. I definitely recommend this book to anyone searching for a satisfying love story.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPY LOOKS LIKE by Jennifer E. Smith

by TPS reader lamara20

This is a book centralized around the idea of emails. One girl and one boy begin an email chain on the total chance that this boy typed in the wrong email address. He, Graham Larkin, was trying to email the person who was supposed to babysit his pet pig. He explains this to the girl, Ellie O’Neill. Graham in his reality is living as an actor as the main part of the last move to one of his previous. Ellie is a simple girl from a simple town, but with a troubled back-story we find later in the book when she admits it to Graham. He ends up being so interested in this mythic girl who he’s found through a simple mistake that he tells his producer to have them shoot the next movie in her hometown. She and her friend work in the same ice cream shop. Ironically, her best friend borrows her shirt and then Graham asks her out. At dinner, when Graham realizes it must not be Ellie, he makes it a bit too obvious and his date realizes it too. However, she just so happens to be Ellie’s best friend so she understands and gives him directions to her house. Ellie didn’t like the Graham Larkin that everyone knew, but the Graham Larkin who’d been emailing her for so long now, she felt an instant connection. However, Ellie still has a secret she’s been hiding that could be the end for her and Graham. This book is a must read for romantics, and you won’t want to put it down for a second.

 

THE 5TH WAVE by Rick Yancey

By TPS reader willimasm19

The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey is a great science fiction novel. This novel is constantly keeping you on your toes and wondering what will happen next. I enjoyed how the book had a realistic feel to it. Telling the story through the eyes of a high school student, was a brilliant idea, and it made me feel connected in the book. At times I felt like I was Cassie, the main character, and was going on this journey through the alien attacks. She ends up forming an alliance with Evan Walker who is a strange young man, but he just might be Cassie’s last hope at finding her little brother and surviving the attacks. It was crazy to me how real the Alien attacks felt. Rick Yancey’s description of an alien attack happening to a modern society feel so real. In the novel the effects of the alien attacks cause earthquakes, tsunamis, and disease. All odds are against Cassie and Evan. The chance of survival is little. Overall, I enjoyed reading the novel and could could hardly put it down to stop reading at night. I can’t wait to start reading another one of Rick Yancey’s books.   

 

THE NIGHT WE SAID YES by Lauren Gibaldi

TPS Reader gordone19

The Night We Said Yes, by Lauren Gibaldi, is a heartwarming book about two exes who go through many hardships in order to figure out their true feelings for each other. One reason why I enjoyed this book so much was that it was told in a dual perspective, so it was hard to put down the book. One story line told the adventure of a group of unlikely friends who decided to say yes to everything. The other side of the story discussed the life of Ella and her friends a couple months after the eventful night. On the night that they said yes, Matt and Ella met for the first time. They instantly became great friends, which evolved into something more. They eventually started having a relationship, but one day Matt mysteriously disappears. The side of the story in the present tense is describing the hardships and issues that Ella has to go through when Matt secretly returns. I also had the amazing opportunity to meet the author, Lauren Gibaldi, at my school before I had even read the novel. She was very kindhearted and entertaining, which definitely translated into her book. Once I finally was able to start the book I was a little apprehensive. Being a fan of fantasy and fictional stories, I did not know if I would enjoy the book. I was pleasantly surprised, when I started reading, that her characters were comical and had uniqueness to them that most realistic fictions writers cannot achieve. The main two characters, Matt and Ella, had a very realistic and interesting relationship that grew throughout the story. Unlike most realistic fiction, they had unique and amusing adventures that never let me put the book down. The only thing that I disliked about this book was that near the end of the novel, it started to get slow and have some unnecessary scenes that made the ending less interesting and climatic. I thought it was refreshing to have read the first entertaining, heartwarming, and clever realistic fiction novel in a long time. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone who likes realistic fiction and an adorable story about the love and the unexpected.   
I would give this book a 4 out of 5 stars rating.

THIRTEEN REASONS WHY – Jay Asher

TPS Reader feenstram19

Clay Jensen, an average looking student who was nice to everyone. Hannah Baker, teased by her classmates. had a terrible reputation after her old relationship with Justin. Clay had started forming a crush on Hannah after an incident you’ll just have to read about. Two weeks after she committed suicide, Clay received a box with his name on it, and when he opened it, there were thirteen tapes, where Hannah explained, in order, all of the events that had caused her to commit suicide. How it works is the first person on the tape passes it to the person on the tape after them, until the last tape. Throughout all of these tapes, you hear the stories and events that had slowly built up into her suicide, starting from the day that she moved into the city/state that she had lived in. One mistake had caused so many bad stories and so many bad things to happen to her, but now you’ll just have to find out about the last few years of Hannah’s life, and why her life took such a wrong turn.

I loved this book because it portrays an idea about bullying and suicide, which no one seems to focus on lately considering bullying and suicide is still happening and no one is stopping it. Hannah shows her opinion on some of the big problems in the world, and her opinion on how bullying can cause someone to go into a bad state and make them want to somehow hurt themselves. I recommend this to people who like to think deeply about things.