Book Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

At First Sight: For as long as she can remember, summer means going Beechwood Island, to her grandparent's summer house, where all of her mom's family gathers each year for the season. Her family is relatively wealthy, well regarded and influential... and they like it that way.

Candance mostly loves these summers, where she gets to spend time with Mirren and Johnny, and Johnny's best friend Gat (who has been coming to the island almost as long as the rest of them). The rest of the time they live too far apart, but every summer they pick up right where they left and become the Liars.

The Summer Candance was fifteensomething happened, something that meat she couldn't go back for Summer Sixteen. But now, on Summer Seventeen and things will be as they always were. Or will they?

Second Glance: I'm being vague with the summary because I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who wants to read We Were Liars, but also because I don't really have much to say about this book. I didn't like it, the writing style was often stilted and oddly formal and like it wanted to be all lyrical but just sounded weird, like I often stopped myself to think "Who the heck talks like this?"

It has to do with what happened in Summer fifteen but it just annoyed me - I felt the mystery was kind of flimy and went on for too long, but had We Were Liars been better, I could have over come that - lets be honest, after years of watching Sherlock, House and countless CSI, mysteries are always kind of flimsy to me - but for me, with E. Lockhart, it always comes down to motive.

This "thing" that happens and why it happens... well, it was just about the stupidiest thing to me, and I know these were 15 year olds and impulsive and whatever, but the thing is that it doesn't read like what happened it was impulsive, it sounds like these four otherwise brilliant kids thought it was a Great Idea. Like, all the roads that lead them there are kind of dumb, and I can't imagine being fifteen and being in the same situation as them and say "Oh, yeah, that'll work." And I was and impulsive, often morose kid and I did some pretty stupid things in my day.

So yeah the motives this kids have so don't work with me. So, rather than loving this book it was like reading Frankie Landau-Banks all over again. Which I know a lot of people love but which I hated on principle - Frankie's goes ahead and messes with all these boys because they wouldn't let her join their secret club. You know what you do when that happens, Frankie? You go and creat your own damn club and make it more awesome!!!!! But I disgress.

Bottom Line: We Were Liars wasn't for me. I think some people might like it - same as with Frankie Landau-Banks - but for me it just fell flat. There were some bits of really good writing on it, but it was just too much to muddle through to get there. And I had no emotional connection to these people whatsover, largely as a result of the writing style.

We Were Liars is out May 13th, 2014

Book Review: Real Life Boyfriends by E. Lockhart

At First Sight: Ruby Oliver is entering Senior Year and, even though she thought her mental health would be better, the Tate Universe is making her crazier than ever, particularly Noel.

During the last part of Junior year and the beginning of summer, Noel was Ruby's Real Life Boyfriend - he called her, made her feel special, they went on dates and kissed a lot - but then he went to New York to visit his brother Claude and the Noel she knew and loved started to vanish bit by bit. 

And Ruby just plain doesn't know how to deal with this new Noel. Plus, as Noel pulls away, Gideon Van Deusen (brother to on/off friend Nora) keeps coming closer. 

Second Glance: Oh, Ruby, while during Treasure Map of Boys you made me feel like you were finally growing up and I was cheering for you, in Real Life Boyfriends you reminded me of all the things that made it so hard for me to get into The Boyfriend List (first book of the series). 

See, when Ruby's boyfriend Noel stops acting like she wants him to, she spirals out of control so fast it makes me wonder if Ruby will ever stop judging so much of her own value by the way her boyfriend acts. Plus, this book made me see how self-absorbed she is, and that yeah, Nora is right, she's full of self-loathing. 

The only parts I loved about this book were Meghan and Hutch - though neither was around much, and yeah, that made me sad. Meghan and Hutch should have their own books, they are that awesome. 

Ruby... well, in this book she drove ME a little crazy with her actions. So did Noel, actually. The reason why he starts acting the way he does is a very powerful one, but the treatment the author had toward it was more 'convenient' than 'organic'. Like, Noel was acting that way because it served the plot, rather than because it rang entirely true of his character (in a way it did, but I also felt like the author let it go on for way longer than what felt natural). 

Bottom Line: Real Life Boyfriends was a bit of a mixed bag of nuts to me. Some parts I liked, some I really didn't, but it was a conclusion to the Ruby Oliver series and it wasn't all that bad. Not my favorite bok of the series, though. 

Favorite Quote: "Get over it, Roo. If you have friends who actually like you, you're popular enough." -Meghan.

Book Review: Treasure Map of Boys By E. Lockhart

I'm going to assume you have read the previous books of the Ruby Oliver Series

At First Sight: Winter break is over and Ruby Oliver is back in the Tate Universe, neurotic as ever and trying to navigate her way through no-boyfriend land and remain a good friend.

Not that the boys in her life are making things easy. Suddenly Jackson - the one that broke her heart -is talking to her again. Noel - the one she (and her friend Norah) wants - is flirting and asking her to be his bodyguard against other girls. Gideon - Nora's brother - is helping her bake.

On top of that, Ruby lost the job she liked, got another job where she has to stare at feet all day long, she's running a bake sale and trying really hard not to be a rotten friend. Therapy with doctor Z seems to be going nowhere and the panic attacks are back with a vengance.

In short, it's hard to be Ruby Oliver but, trying to find her way through the boys, she might find a real treasure in her life.

Second Glance: Treasure Map of Boys is the third installment of the Ruby Oliver series by E. Lockhart and I have to admit it took me a while to read it, though I thought it was fantastically funny and a good read. 

I really liked Ruby during this book, I think I've seen her grown up and even though she's a bit too boy obsessed - which I don't really get because I was never that boy crazy, and not even my more slutty friends were either.  But, anyway, it was a lovely read: fast paced and sweet. 

I still love Megan and Hutch, they are my favorite characters of the series, and probably the only true friends Ruby has ever had. I love how, as Ruby gets to know them better, I get to know the better and see different aspects of their personalities beyond what Ruby saw at the beginning of her story. 

Also, it was nice to finally see Ruby starting to stand up for herself in some matters, and come to certain realizations about what friendship is and isn't - which is so hard to figure out sometimes.

Ruby still gets on my nerves sometimes, and sometimes I want to leap into the book and shake her a little and make her see reason, but I guess that just means I think of her as a friend - as I wouldn't just shake anybody! - and that's always good in my book. 

Oh, and there is a Great Dane and a cute goat, and you know I think that animals make books just that much better!

Bottom Line: The Treasure Map of Boys is a cute, quirky little book about a girl trying to find out what she wants and whom she wants it from. It's funny, touching and a lovely read. 

Favorite Quote: In life, there's no happily-ever-after-into-the-sunset. There's marriage, complete with arguments, bad hair, lost hair, mentally unstable children, weird diets, dogs that fur up the couch, not enough money. Like my parents. That's their life I just described - but then, there they were, talking on the phone about my dad massaging my mom's groin area after yoga; cuddling on the couch; holding hands and wearing stupid Great Dane paraphernalia.

The Boy Book by E. Lockhart

In The Boy Book, Ruby Oliver is back in the Tate Universe for her Junior year of high school, and at least some things seem to be looking up. Meghan and Noel are still her friends, and Nora (one of her former best friends) seems willing to talk to her again, Kim (her former BBF and boyfriend snatcher) is off to Japan for the semester and it looks like there is something-maybe going on with Angelo (one of the boys from the Boyfriend List). Oh and she has a new job at the Zoo, which she actually enjoys.

However, as in The Boyfriend List, not everything is smooth going for Ruby. Sure, she hasn't had a panic attack in a few months, but Kim is away and Jackson is sending her notes, she still doesn't know what she wants, has conflicting emotions about Angelo, Noel and Jackson, and her heart still aches for her former friends, specially when she reads The Book Book, which she had written with them in years past.

In the end, Ruby does find some clarity in unexpected ways and she made me proud. I found The Boy Book much more lighthearted than The Boyfriend List, and it was easier for me to get into the pace of things. Noel is so funny and the footnotes - since I expected them now - didn't distract me as much as in the previous book. I still think she has more standing up for herself to do but she's getting there and I like being along for her ride.

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The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Frankie Landau-Banks was once a slightly geeky, neither popular nor unpopular freshman at Alabaster Preparatory, a boarding school where most kids are some kind of rich and educational standards are high.

In the summer between freshman and sophomore years, Frankie undergoes a transformation, turning from an okay-looking girl into a curvy beauty that draws eyes, and meets a random guy on a boardwalk in the Jersey Shore some days before the start of her sophomore year.

Once back in Alabaster, Frankie is finally noticed by her crush, Mathew Livingston, a popular senior boy and they begin dating. She also meets Mathew's best friend, Alpha - or Alessandro Tessoreri, as he doesn't like to be called - and their group of popular senior friends.

Then, Frankie finds herself mixed with and yet excluded from the secret society of long standing tradition in Alabaster: the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds. She knows about it because her dad was a member, and she finds out Mathew, Alpha and his friends are too, but it's an all boys club that she's not supposed to know about. But Frankie doesn't deal well with that kind of exclusions, especially when Mathew begins to lie to her about it.

Soon, Frankie is master minding the moves of the Order - while remaining in the shadows - but will that get her what she wants? And what is that she wants, anyway?

That was my biggest problem with the book, I could never truly get Frankie's reason to do all the things she ends up doing, they are brilliant and all but in the end they sort of make me dislike her a little. There are times when it seems that she does things just to prove that she can, to make a point rather than because there is a real reason. Now, I understand part of her reasoning, about feeling excluded and wanting in and wanting equality and despising double standards - I've been there, too - but I can't finish empathizing with Frankie, at times she seems to just want to exercise and prove her own cleverness.

Mathew and Alpha end up looking silly, really, they are supposed to be cool but I just didn't get it. I ended up only liking background characters, like Frankie's sister Zeda; Trish, her roommate and best friend, and her ex boyfriend Porter.

However, the book is cleverly written - if it starts a bit slow until about a third way in - and it is fun at parts (though at parts I did feel like these weren't entirely teenagers but thirty year-olds trapped in teenage bodies), and ultimately entertaining but maybe just not my cup of tea.

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They Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart

High School can be hell and Ruby Oliver knows it all too well.

It wasn't always like that though, once she was reasonably popular, had good friends and a boyfriend she loved, Jackson.

But then everything changed, she lost her friends, her boyfriend and is one of Tate Prep's most hated people. Oh, and she's now in therapy thanks to some truly freaky panic attacks she has been getting.

For her first therapy session, Doctor Z has Ruby write a list - the boyfriend list of the title - of all the boys that had affected her life somehow, from Adam Cox whom she knew in kindergarten, to Cabbie with whom she did something 'advanced' once.

As the list goes on, from boys 1 to 15, Ruby tells the tales of each of the boys and what they meant or didn't mean to her, and she also tells the story of how she went from reasonably-popular to leper of the Tate Universe.

I have to admit it took me a while to read this book, being deeply neurotic myself, at times it was hard to read Ruby's story, of her panic attacks and anxiety but her humor kept me reading and in the end I enjoyed The Boyfriend List a lot, and I'm really looking forward to reading The Boy Book and the upcoming Treasure Map of Boys.

Ruby is a very funny narrator and her voice rings true. I wasn't thrilled about Ruby's so-called friends (Kim and Cricket, Nora seemed ok), or Jackson. But there were other characters like Meghan, Noel and Hutch who were nicer to read about.

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