BOOK REVIEW: SAY WHAT YOU WILL by Cammie McGovern

Title: SAY WHAT YOU WILL

Author: Cammie McGovern (Twitter)

Publication Date: June 3, 2014

Publisher: HarperTeen 

SYNOPSIS

John Green's The Fault in Our Stars meets Rainbow Rowell'sEleanor & Park in this beautifully written, incredibly honest, and emotionally poignant novel. Cammie McGovern's insightful young adult debut is a heartfelt and heartbreaking story about how we can all feel lost until we find someone who loves us because of our faults, not in spite of them.

Born with cerebral palsy, Amy can't walk without a walker, talk without a voice box, or even fully control her facial expressions. Plagued by obsessive-compulsive disorder, Matthew is consumed with repeated thoughts, neurotic rituals, and crippling fear. Both in desperate need of someone to help them reach out to the world, Amy and Matthew are more alike than either ever realized.

When Amy decides to hire student aides to help her in her senior year at Coral Hills High School, these two teens are thrust into each other's lives. As they begin to spend time with each other, what started as a blossoming friendship eventually grows into something neither expected.

Add SAY WHAT YOU WILL on your Goodreads' TBR list using this link. 

When Harper Collins emailed me the list of titles that they’re offering for review, I immediately checked this one out. The first part of the blurb says “John Green's The Fault in Our Stars meets Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park”, I was like “Oooooooh I’m quite scared to read this one because TFiOS and Eleanor & Park are just two of the books that are full of FEELS and did manage to break my heart. And with it being combined, Oh I can’t even picture myself coming alive out of this.” But then the next part of the blurb says “Born with cerebral palsy, Amy can't walk without a walker, talk without a voice box, or even fully control her facial expressions. Plagued by obsessive-compulsive disorder, Matthew is consumed with repeated thoughts, neurotic rituals, and crippling fear.” I took a deep breath and risked my life into requesting a copy of it.

Basically, Say What You Will presents us these two characters who are both going through tough challenges in their lives but still lives it just like any other person. We have Amy who was born with Cerebral Palsy and Matthew with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).  I think, I haven’t read any book with this kind of characters yet so I was really excited on how they were going to handle the events that’ll happen and just how the story will play out.

I love how the dynamics is between Amy and Matthew. They are perfect with/for each other. Amy necessarily needs help from Matthew (with him being her peer helper) but in turn she was also able to help him with his OCD problems. You’d think that being a person with cerebral palsy won’t be able to help another human being, huh? Well, this book will prove you wrong. Amy was really persistent in learning about Matthew’s disorder and even made it her mission to help him overcome it. Oh boy the things she asked for him to do (read the book!)! She’s such a headstrong and brutally honest character, which I totally love her for it. She’s exactly what he needed to be able to shake off some bits of being an OCD person.  

Together they go through their daily lives which involved them constantly bursting each other’s bubbles, calling out each other's BS, breaking down walls and other stuff that they believe in. They face their fears in life and the challenges here and there. They were just each other’s anchors. Through their conditions, Amy and Matthew were able to connect deeply. They're very open to each other and talk just about anything else except mentioning this particular "thing" that could've changed their entire relationship ...

BOOK REVIEW: LUCKY NUMBER FOUR by Amanda Jason

Summary of Lucky Number Four

Pandora Ann Phillips' life is just normal-crazy.

Her mom's a psychic, her dad's mom is a snob, her mom's parental units are "too down to earth" and her best friends are newlyweds. Okay, so her best friends being newlyweds isn't really abnormal, but living with them in a cramped two-bedroom apartment definitely is. Sex, sex, sex is totally on their minds. Actually it's not only on their minds, but it's on the kitchen table, couch, on top of the washer...well, you get the picture. 

Being a celibate (not by choice, mind you) full-time college student, and an almost full-time barista, Pandora can't afford to lose anymore sleep. So, she seeks out a new place to lay her head. Enter three "drool worthy" male models that are looking for a fourth roommate and they want her...and won't take no for an answer. 

Hilarity ensues as Pandora's life turns completely upside down, and she begins to wonder if it will ever be the same again!

Ramblings. I think, it was on January 3 that I first had the knowledge about this book. I saw a banner of it on Jennifer Armentrout's Facebook page and the tagline immediately caught my attention. In which, it eventually led me checking out the entire summary on Goodreads and of course adding it up on my to read list. 

(c) JLA's FB Page

Eh surely, I won't pass up with that goodness. 

Immediate thought after reading this book.  I definitely love the epilogue, that was totally a cute way to end this book. I had high hopes with this book, with what being featured in JLA's page and all, but it just wasn't able to live up to it. A few more tweaks here and there could've done something good to this book. 

Story proper. Pandora "Dora" Philipps is in dire need of a new place if she wants to give herself some proper rest and sleep. WHY? Eh she's living with her two best friends who recently got married and youuuuu know... There's a lot thumping, moaning and screaming that is going on. Ughhh sooooo she really need to move out of the house ASAP!     

As she was doing some grocery, she noticed a "roommate ad" and got really interested into it. Dora gave the number a call and was immediately invited to check out the place. Surprise surprise surprise. Only to be shocked that the place she's currently checking out is also the home "drool worthy" male models (Drew, Liam and Colin)... Aha! And that's where the story picks up. 

What do you think will now happen to Dora? How will she deal with this craziness? How will these hot bods treat her? Join Dora as she deal with this testosterone filled and earth-shaking madness that she suddenly stumbled upon.  

My thoughts. First and foremost, I just have to say that all of the my guesses and predictions were riiiiiight. 

Lucky Number Four is an okay read for me (thumbs up for the hot bods, tho). This book got a small dose of humor and mystery and quite lot of romance (eh?), drama, craziness and relationships. I want to talk about these elements one by one. So, let's do this. 

Humor. With a premise like that, I truly expected it to be loads of funnier than this. There's so much potential to the story where it could've ended up even funnier. I appreciate the effort of the author though and she still managed to make me laugh in some parts of the story. So we're still good. [Ssssh but I think Tahereh Mafi's tweets are funnier than this book.]

Mystery. This book is also injected with a mysterious feel to it. How? Most (or all) of the chapters ends with a mystery guy's POV. [Yes, a mystery guy if you don't really notice the clues that much or at least the actions of that guy character. Teehee, I correctly guessed the guy. Not that hard.] The purpose of it is to quite confuse the readers on who's the guy that is having those kinds of feelings towards Pandora. With three guys to choose from, that's quite a task to figure out orrrr not. 

Romance. We got an insta-love on the part of the male character (won't mention the name). He got it bad upon meeting Pandora. Like wut?! How did that happen? I can't even fathom how this thing happen to him. Yes, Pandora's a breath of fresh air but uhhh that was really really really fast. For Pandora though, it's of a different story. She's got her eyes in one of her roommates but there wasn't any action coming from that particular dude. So, dropped. Then she suddenly feels something towards the OTHER one. That was fast again.  This OTHER roommate of hers was the one that she keeps brushing off the entire time she was pinning over the first roommate. I don't know boy but there isn't anything. It plainly lacks depth in it. 

Drama. Go figure! After the main couple of the story got together, obviously there's going to be some drama that will soon follow. I totally predicted how she will react and how the next few scenes of the story will play out. So yeah, I wasn't moved or got affected by the story. [I don't know if I should be happy about it or not. Ughhh the story gets predictable because my mind keeps on conjuring hunches and always getting ahead of me. And I always end up guessing it correctly.]

Craziness. Ha! The Grandmothers were always at each other's throats! Cat fight yesterday, today and tomorrow! If this is the funny element in here, nope. Not cool. It gets irritating after one fight after another. Her psychic mother and Pandora being an empath is pushing every aspect out/taking it too far. There's a part here in this book where she needs to figure out how to help Liam and Drew using her ability. I hope she didn't involve this thing. Sad. 

Relationships. We are presented with all kinds of relationships here, which I really appreciate. We have best friends, roomies to fellow roomies, parents to their children, grandparents to everyone and lastly, couples.  Oh wait. I also appreciate the author for having Liam's character in the story. That was actually good and a he was a great character to include in this story! :) 

THE ENDING. Despite my problem with the romance department, I still love the ending part. I'm just a sucker for scenes like that! Read the book, so you'll know why.

Rating: 2.75 to 3 out of 5 stars

This review is also posted on my Goodreads account. 

Bye x
PS: I also appreciate the author for having Liam's character in the story. That was actually good and a he was a great character to include in this story! :)