#readingiswritebookreviews

"If one can fall into love, to give up and dive headfirst, knowing that everything can chance in a heartbeat- there must be an upside." -Rebekah Crane

The Upside of Falling Down is a quirky novel written by Rebekah Crane. The main character, Clementine/Jane/Bunny/Teeny experiences a trauma that leaves her memory in shambles. From the very start, she contemplates her next step in life. She sees Clementine as this outside person who isn’t her. In a quick decision, she runs from her father and winds up in a small town in Ireland with a boy she just met.

Now, usually, when I read book about amnesia a trend follows. The character has a flashback and boom, bam, they’re whole again. However, in this novel, the main character views this from many angles. She isn’t sure if getting her memory back is something she wants. While this goes in her mind, Jane, (that’s what she mainly called) attempts to make her own path with the help of Kieran, Siobhan, and Clive. Their relationships in this book were genuine and realistic. I loved how Jane had to work with each of them to gain their trust and how their stories weren’t told but shown.

The authors writing style is nice, her dialogue is on point and realistic. I only found a few flaws whole reading. For instance, the lack of description. I would have liked to now more about the small town, the cottage, and such. The ending was very sudden. The plot pulls together in two chapters as Jane finally realizes that her stay wasn’t just on a whim. I felt like the author could had talked more about the background plot as well as the character that ends up making Jane and her friends have a common connection.

Sorry to Disrupt the Peace by Patty Yumi Cottrell was published March 17, 2017. It is the winner of the Barnes and Noble Discover Award. The book centers around thirty-one-year-old, Helen Moran, whose brother has just committed suicide. Helen goes back home to “investigate” his reason behind taking his own life. As she steps into her unnamed brother’s life, readers can begin to understand how unraveled the main character is from the inside. With the book’s progression, Helen puts her brother’s life under a microscope and learns that he wasn’t the person she thought he was. In fact, he’s nothing like she thought he was. She examines his relationships with other people such as their adopted parent’s, his friends, and even their sibling bond.

Patty Yumi Cottrell is the author everyone wants to be. Right away, readers can notice the risks she takes with her novel. For starters, there are not quotation marks whenever a character speaks. At first, I was kind of iffy about this. However, as it began to be clear why, I started to love that aspect. Helen is telling the story about herself not her brother. She’s the type of main character you love to hate. With her take on the story, the novel adapts with a signature style. Along with Cottrell’s writing style, it’s not surprise I fell in love at the fist sentence. But, that doesn’t mean every book is perfect.

The ball immediately starts rolling from the first to last page. However, in the middle, I have to admit that it did drag. I found myself putting the book down for long periods of time. There comes a point in the novel where the character just doesn’t do anything interesting. The plot seems to drag along until it just doesn’t anymore. Once it picks up again, readers are unable to put it down.

When Katie Met Cassidy is a novel written by Camille Perri. It came out June 19,2018 and is prices at thirteen dollars on Kindle and fifteen dollars for a printed hardback. As a Kindle user, Amazon suggested it and to be honest, when I read the summary I wasn’t convinced it was going to be that good. However, seeing as it was an LGBT book and there are very few of those, I went ahead and bought it. When the book was released, I read two pages and gave up. Now, I have no clue why I did that. A few days ago, I had no plans and decided to pick it back up and, let me just say, that was one of the best decisions of my life so far. No joke.

The book goes back and forth between the two main characters, Katie, and obviously, Cassidy. Katie has just been dumped by her finance and Cassidy is afraid of getting older. Both woman struggle with their own lives and when they meet, the plot explodes with fast action wit, passion, and charisma. Katie finds herself questioning her sexuality because all her life, she was straight. When she starts to dive deeper into her past of her old friends before she got with Paul, she realizes that maybe, after all this time she was wrong. On the other hand, Cassidy, an androgynous character, was burned by her first love and never healed. To pass time, Cassidy sleeps around but when Katie comes into the picture, everything changes.

Still, I feel like I should point out that this book was not an ooy gooey romance. Yes, Katie and Cassidy had their lovely moments but there was also a sub plot of finding you inner self and becoming okay with it. For instance, Katie struggles with what her mother will think of her being lesbian whereas Cassidy struggle with understanding that Katie is new to the scene.

I can already say that this book is now in my top five favorites. I loved the way the author wrote it and how the plot moves forwards. The only thing I had an issue with was that sometimes the dialogue didn’t sound realistic. Also, I would have liked to know a few things that the novel failed to wrap up. There were some loose ends, not too many, but enough to make me question what comes next. However, given the authors writing style, I think that is exactly what she wanted the readers to think about. Perri’s book was all about what’s next and not so much as planning out the future.