Saving June

Saving June by Hannah HarringtonSaving June by Hannah Harrington
Publisher: Harlequin
Number of pages: 336

‘If she’d waited less than two weeks, she’d be June who died in June. But I guess my sister didn’t consider that.’

Harper Scott’s older sister has always been the perfect one so when June takes her own life a week before her high school graduation, sixteen-year-old Harper is devastated. Everyone’s sorry, but no one can explain why.

When her divorcing parents decide to split her sister’s ashes into his-and-her urns, Harper takes matters into her own hands. She’ll steal the ashes and drive cross-country with her best friend, Laney, to the one place June always dreamed of going California.

Enter Jake Tolan. He’s a boy with a bad attitude, a classic-rock obsession and nothing in common with Harper’s sister. But Jake had a connection with June, and when he insists on joining them, Harper’s just desperate enough to let him. With his alternately charming and infuriating demeanour and his belief that music can see you through anything, he might be exactly what she needs.

Except June wasn’t the only one hiding something. Jake’s keeping a secret that has the power to turn Harper’s life upside down again.

* * *

I’m late to this party, I know. I’ve had Saving June for a while now, but I put off reading it for no reason other than I didn’t feel like reading it yet. Even in the midst of all the other people singing praises to this book, I just didn’t feel like it yet. It occurred to me as I was making my reading list for this year that I may end up not reading this for a long time if I don’t bump it up my TBR.

‘If she’d waited less than two weeks, she’d be June who died in June. But I guess my sister didn’t consider that.’ June was the perfect daughter, and Harper was kind of okay being in her shadow. As with all siblings, they don’t really get along 100% of the time, but being related to each other, they still connect somehow. Until June kills herself, and it left Harper and her family’s lives in a wreck. There were no signs leading up to June’s suicide, and Harper felt that maybe, maybe if she paid more attention, she would’ve caught it. But she didn’t. Reeling from this, Harper finds some California postcards and a mysterious CD in June’s room, and decides to bring her sister’s ashes to California, where she had always dreamed of going. Then comes Jake Tolan, another equally mysterious guy who works in a music store (and probably owns a gibson at Guitar Center) who shows up at June’s wake. When he hears of Harper’s plans to go to California with her best friend Laney, he offers them a ride for the road trip without really disclosing why he wanted to do it. The three of them head to California, unsure of what exactly to do except that Harper figured that if she couldn’t get there when she was alive, the least she could do for her sister was to bring “her” there.

My initial reaction to Saving June? “Poor Harper.” I don’t know how it feels to lose someone in my immediate family, much less to suicide, but I’m pretty sure it must really suck bad. Harper’s difficulty to grieve on top of her mother’s breakdown just makes it harder, and I don’t know what to make of her. Interestingly, it was kind of easy to forget that Harper’s sister was dead at the start of the story, almost like that was written on purpose. Perhaps it was, too, because every time Harper remembers that June is gone, it’s a reminder for me too, and it makes me wonder how she can deal with all of it.

Hannah Harrington’s characters are really fleshed out in this book — Harper, Jake, Laney, even June. I really like that Laney was with them in the road trip, too, because I think she provided a good balance between Harper and Jake’s chemistry and it made the book not just about the simmering romance but how different people grieve for a friend’s loss.

I also like how the author managed to weave the faith aspect in the story, and I think it captures how a grieving person would think about faith and religion. Harper’s doubts felt authentic but never really disrespectful, and while her Aunt Helen was presented as almost a villain, it wasn’t really exaggerated that it would show people who cling to their beliefs at times of loss as silly. I really liked some of Harper’s musings about it, too:

It must be comforting, to have a faith like that. To believe so concretely that there’s someone — something — out there watching guard, keeping us safe, testing us only with what we can handle. (Kindle location: 331-332)

 

I get why people have faith in a higher power. Some people need it. They need to believe they’re not alone. (Kindle location: 1983)

I liked how the story was built up — from the various places they stopped at for the road trip, the romance and all the way to the end, when the twist came. The road trip kind of made me laugh — I can’t help but feel that something bad should happen to them brought about by people who just show up in the middle of nowhere. It kind of reminds me of the sort-of road trip part in Mira Grant’s Deadline, where they drove through deserted towns. The scene in New Mexico (I think?) where they stopped at a deserted road kind of made me expect zombies to come shuffling and get them. The romance had that slow burn again, reminiscent to the way the romances in Flat-Out Love and The Truth About Forever were built up. Jake and Harper’s push-and-pull chemistry was entertaining to read, with the potential to leave readers holding their breaths while they wait to see who gives in first.

The twist at the end didn’t really feel like such a big of a shock — I was expecting for a catch to come in after they had finally done what they said they would do. However, the build up and the resolution to it was very good, so it didn’t really bother me that much anymore. I liked how everything wrapped up in the end, and I think Saving June‘s ending was close to perfect for me.

(Caution: This may be a bit spoilery since this part comes somewhere at the end of the book, but I can’t not share it)

Maybe it’s a mistake, maybe I’ll get hurt in the end. But maybe not. I loved June. I still love her, and that will never change, but for the first time in my life, I truly, truly don’t want to be her. I don’t want to be so scared all the time. So alone. I want to believe something can be worth it. Worth the pain. Worth the risk.

Ah. Saving June, you remind me why we all need saving sometimes. Now I understand why this book made it into so many Best Of lists last year.

Rating: [rating=4]

Required Reading 2012: JanuaryOther reviews:
Chachic’s Book Nook
Book Harbinger
inkcrush

Going Audio

Last year, I won an audiobook of Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson during one of the Armchair BEA twitter parties. I thought it was about time for me to try an audiobook, and Suite Scarlett didn’t disappoint. It’s not that I’m new to audiobooks, anyway — I remember listening to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe on audio first before I got the Narnia boxed set. That was fun to listen to because there were actual voice actors instead of just one person reading from the book, and I had fun listening to Aslan roar. :D

But anyway, I want to expand my “reading” by including audiobooks in my list. Audiobooks are good for multitasking (I can “read” while taking a shower! While cooking! While doing other things!), and it is absolutely perfect for the gym. Or when I’m walking.

However, they say that not all audiobooks are good, and sometimes a bad audiobook can ruin a perfectly good book. So here’s where you, bookish friends who have probably “read” an audiobook or two, come in: I need audiobook suggestions.

As much as possible, I want an audiobook of a book that I haven’t read yet. But if it’s one of my absolute favorites, or you swear that the audiobook is better, then I can probably give it a go. So, leave a comment with your favorite audiobooks and why it was your favorite and I’ll get it. Well, I’ll try, since audiobooks are a bit more expensive than normal books. I have the rest of the year to acquire them, anyway. So if there’s one audiobook that you really liked, then I want to hear about it (pun intended). Please? :)

The Song of the Quarkbeast

The Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper FfordeThe Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde
Dragonslayer # 2
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Number of pages: 290
My copy: paperback, bought from Fully Booked

As the background Wizidrical Power slowly builds after the Big Magic, King Snodd IV of Hereford realises the man who controls Magic controls almost anything.

But one person stands between him and his plans for power and riches: Jennifer Strange, sixteen-year-old acting manager of Kazam.

It may involve a trip on a magic carpet at the speed of sound to the Troll Wall, it may involve a second Quarkbeast sniffing around town. It might also involve the mysterious Transient Moose, and a powerless sorceress named Once Magnificent Boo. But one thing is certain: Jennifer Strange and her faithful assistant Tiger Prawns will not relinquish the noble powers of magic to big business and commerce without a fight.

* * *

The Last Dragonslayer was one of my favorite reads in 2011, and I’m not just saying that because Jasper Fforde is my favorite author. I absolutely loved Jasper Fforde’s YA debut, and I thought it was a hilarious and smart read. Silly me, though, that I didn’t know there was going to be a sequel to this. It totally took me by surprise, but I’m not complaining. A new Jasper Fforde? Of course I want that!

Jennifer Strange, the last dragonslayer in the Ununited Kingdom, is back, but she’s no longer the dragonslayer. She’s back to being the manager of Kazam, the magical placement industry where their sorcerers are hired to do various tasks in the kingdom for some moolah. The story opens with Jennifer, together with her apprentice Tiger Prawns, and the Kazam sorcerers, trying to find a missing ring for a whole wad of moolah. Jennifer thought this was good practice for their bridge building job due for the weekend, which could really put Kazam in the map. The job was a success, but it didn’t mean the bridge building gig was supposed to go smoothly. A magic license test later, Jennifer finds herself facing the possibility of Kazam being taken over by iMagic, their rival, arrested sorcerers, sorcerers turned to stone, and a prediction that the Great Zambini would return. For a while. And a Quarkbeast on the loose.

Okay, I just reread the previous paragraph and I realized that it doesn’t make any sense. Until you read this book, anyway. Fforde books tend to be that way — you’re better off understanding micrometers faster than in a Fforde book, but a Fforde book is just more interesting! There’s the usual fun chaos and hilarity in The Song of the Quarkbeast that is also present in all Jasper Fforde books. It takes a while to immerse oneself in any Fforde world, but it was kind of easy to get back into this, perhaps because the previous book was still fresh in my mind. Sort of. But it was fun seeing the familiar characters that I liked in the first book, as well as new characters. We see more of how magic works in the world. Reading only specific passages may sound absolutely absurd, but trust me, once you’re inside, it all just makes sense. Case in point (not spoilery, don’t worry):

Do I have to go down a well upside down while being sarcastic with a shoe tied around my neck? (p.39)

The scene: Tiger Prawns has to go down the well to retrieve the missing ring, and he carries a ball that lights up when he’s being sarcastic and he has a toddler’s shoe around his neck as a communication device so he can talk to the ones outside of the well. Did that make sense now? I hope so.

My favorite part in this book? The return of the Quarkbeasts! The Quarkbeast is my favorite character in the previous book, and since this is basically a book about those them, we find out more about it in this book. Who knew there were Quarkbeast flavors? (Up, Down, Charm, Strange, Top, Bottom) And that they’re still very scary and yet they’re friendly (well, it seems like it in the book). Here’s a passage about how important Quarkbeasts are:

“There can only be thirty six completely unique yet identical Quarkbeasts, and soon as the combinations are fulfilled, they will come together and merge into a single Quota of fully Quorumed Quarkbeasts.”

“What will happen then?”

“Something wonderful. All the great questions of the world will be answered…a Quarkbeast is more than an animal, it’s an oracle to assist mankind’s illusive search for meaning, truth and fulfillment.” (p. 172-173)

I know. It doesn’t make sense. But trust me, it’s hilarious.

However. As fun and enjoyable The Song of the Quarkbeast was, it didn’t feel as engaging as the first book was. Yes, there’s the usual fun, usual chaos and all the crazy things that sprung from the endless imagination of Jasper Fforde…but it just felt like there could have been more. I never had a clear picture of the story up until I was 2/3 in. Which may have been done on purpose, now that I think of it. Which is still good, okay, but I think it just pales a bit in comparison to The Last Dragonslayer.

Nevertheless, I still liked this. And of course I’m looking forward to the third book coming out this year, The Return of the Shandar. I still stand by what I said in my review for the previous book: if you’ve always thought of trying a Fforde but not sure where to start, or you feel intimidated with his adult books, then his Jennifer Strange books are a good ones to get your feet wet.

Oh, and after reading this book, I want my own Transient Moose.

Rating: [rating=3]

Other reviews:
boom

Flat-Out Love

Flat-Out Love by Jessica ParkFlat-Out Love by Jessica Park
Publisher: Independent
Number of pages: 400
My copy: ebook review copy from the author

Flat-Out Love is a warm and witty novel of family love and dysfunction, deep heartache and raw vulnerability, with a bit of mystery and one whopping, knock-you-to-your-knees romance.

Something is seriously off in the Watkins home. And Julie Seagle, college freshman, small-town Ohio transplant, and the newest resident of this Boston house, is determined to get to the bottom of it.

When Julie’s off-campus housing falls through, her mother’s old college roommate, Erin Watkins, invites her to move in. The parents, Erin and Roger, are welcoming, but emotionally distant and academically driven to eccentric extremes. The middle child, Matt, is an MIT tech geek with a sweet side … and the social skills of a spool of USB cable. The youngest, Celeste, is a frighteningly bright but freakishly fastidious 13-year-old who hauls around a life-sized cardboard cutout of her oldest brother almost everywhere she goes.

And there’s that oldest brother, Finn: funny, gorgeous, smart, sensitive, almost emotionally available. Geographically? Definitely unavailable. That’s because Finn is traveling the world and surfacing only for random Facebook chats, e-mails, and status updates. Before long, through late-night exchanges of disembodied text, he begins to stir something tender and silly and maybe even a little bit sexy in Julie’s suddenly lonesome soul.

To Julie, the emotionally scrambled members of the Watkins family add up to something that … well … doesn’t quite add up. Not until she forces a buried secret to the surface, eliciting a dramatic confrontation that threatens to tear the fragile Watkins family apart, does she get her answer.

* * *

Flat-Out Love surprised me last year because it just started popping up on friends’ blogs and Goodreads profile around the same time. It took me a while to get myself a copy (because I was hoping someone would buy me the ebook for Christmas, LOL) and I finally took the initiative to request for a copy when people started putting this book in their Best of 2011 lists. What is up with this book that everyone seemed to love it?

Julie Seagle is excited for college, but her excitement was dampened because of a little housing hijinks. But the Watkins came to the rescue after her mom calls her old friend and soon, Julie moves in with them, up until she finds a new place to live. The Watkins family seem like any other normal family in Boston, except for the presence of Flat Finn, the cardboard cutout version of the eldest son who said to be traveling all over the world. But there seem to be something off everywhere, and Julie being the fixer that she is, wants to find out what. And if it includes falling in love with the real 3-dimensional Finn who’s currently traipsing all over the world…then why not, right?

So, I was surprised by Flat-Out Love. Yes, even as I was reading it, it kept on surprising me. It was a bit longer than I expected, but it was hardly boring. The characters felt real and their banter genuine. Julie was very easy to relate to, and like her, I loved and enjoyed my college years. Reading the book made me miss my own college years — choosing classes, meeting new people, studying for class and writing papers. Julie’s relationships with the rest of the Watkins family was so fun to read, especially her friendship with Matt and Celeste. Celeste was an odd girl but I thought she was a darling. Matt was your typical geek, but it wasn’t the only reason why I liked his character. Like Julie, he has a very distinct voice and character, and yes his defining moment in the book made me shed some tears, too.

The secret wasn’t really hard to guess. I already had a guess about it early on, and I was wondering if my hunch was wrong. I wasn’t. I’m sure other people would also be able to guess, but don’t stop reading there. It’s so easy to get invested in everyone in the story and I wanted to know what exactly happened, why the secret was such. That, and because I really like everyone already, I just really wanted everything to work out for everyone. It’s like I’ve become friends with all of them and with good friends, you just want the good for them.

And since there’s love on the title…how about the romance? Well, the previous ravers reviewers of Flat-Out Love were right to rave about it. The fun conversations, the “moments”, the slow and steady and delicious burn…awesome. It had all the good romances in it — even the ones that didn’t work out. Reconciling everything after all has been undone ((I apologize for the vagueness, if I say anything more it would be spoilery. But those who’ve read this would understand :D)) was kind of a challenge, and I couldn’t really wrap my head around it for a bit. Still, it doesn’t make the novel less enjoyable. I had a big smile on my face when I got to the last page. I meant what I said on Twitter when I finished this novel: What a deliciously satisfying read. ♥

Oh and did I tell you this book is indie? :)

Rating: [rating=4]

Required Reading 2012: January

Other reviews:
Chachic’s Book Nook
Janicu’s Book Blog

More information: Flat-Out Love website / author blog

Happy second birthday, blog!

Oh look it’s January 9. Can you guess what happened on this day two years ago?

Yep, I started this blog. So, yay, Happy second birthday, One More Page!

Color me surprised once again, that my book blog is still thriving. It’s even more active compared to my personal blog, which by default should have been more active given my propensity to talk. But I guess it’s a sign of growing up, too, because instead of talking about myself, I talk about something I’m passionate about: books. And words.

A little story. Sometime before 2011 ended, my friends and I were talking about our plans for the coming year and I mentioned something about my life plan involving books and words. I don’t know if I will eventually quit my job and write full time (although that sounds lovely) or if I’ll switch careers and get a job related to books and writing even if it’s so far away from my course. I don’t know anything. But one thing I know: I see myself working with words and books in the future. I’m pretty sure that’s my life plan. Moving towards that is another question (and another post, for the personal blog).

But anyway, I think I wouldn’t have really figured that out if I wasn’t reading so much and blogging about the books I read. So in a way, this blog is sort of living out that dream, or moving towards that life plan. Now I don’t want to pressure myself with all that life plan talk and any pressure would make me not want to do this anymore. I’m still determined not to let things get to me, and to still have fun with this. :)

And thank you. To the 170ish subscribers, to everyone who take the time to visit (even the spam bots) before they check out dakine backpacks at RockyMountainTrail.com, and everyone who has left a comment or sent me email through this blog. Thanks for reading through some of the drivel the things I write. Thanks for making this twice as fun. :)

So again: happy birthday blog! I hope you’d have many, many more years to come. :)