Booksparks 2014 Summer Reading Challenge - Beth Kendrick's Cure for the Common Breakup

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Flight attendant, Summer Benson is on top of the world. She has a career that she loves and she has just discovered that her handsome pilot boyfriend is planning on proposing to her in Paris. On the flight to Paris, their plane has mechanical problems and Summer survives a crash landing. While recovering in the hospital her boyfriend, although apologetic for his rotten timing, tells her that surviving the crash has made him revaluate his own life and he realizes that he doesn't love her. Summer is crushed  and is left to do some soul searching of her own.

Just prior to the crash, Summer read a small article in a travel magazine about Black Dog Bay, a small beach community in Vermont. Black Dog Bay is not only beautiful and welcoming, but it plays up its reputation of being a town that helps visitors recover from their broken hearts. Having nothing else to lose, Summer decides to spend a few weeks in Black Dog Bay to see if she can get her life back on track.

Looking for the ultimate summer chick-lit/beach read? Look no further, Beth Kendrick's Cure for the Common Breakup is it. It's cute, sweet and sappy. It has some nice themes of friendship and grabbing life by the balls. It's easy to root for Summer. Even the characters that are supposed to be difficult to like, are kind of endearing. This is a gentle story that is entertaining, yet doesn't require much effort on the part of the reader, making it a great vacation read. 

It's the light tone of the story, that makes some of the over-the-top creativity when it comes to the town, forgivable. The inn is called the " Better Off Bed and Breakfast", the bar has a jukebox that only plays break-up songs, the owner of the local boutique arranges clothing on racks according to the grieving stages of a broken heart...every business in town plays on the gimmick. If the book tried to be too serious, this would have come off as ridiculous. Instead, I felt that it was a seaside community that was quirky in the way that the town of Stars Hollow is quirky on Gilmore Girls. I can buy into that fantasy world. 

Booksparks 2014 Summer Reading Challenge - Erin McCahan's Love and Other Foreign Words

Charming. Erin McCahan's story of sisterly bonds and navigating adolescence, Love and Other Foreign Words, is heartwarming and sweet. It will leave you with the warm fuzzies.

What really makes this story so great is the protagonist. The story is told in a first person narrative, by Josie, a gifted teenager who has her time split between taking classes at a regular high school and taking college classes. Although gifted intellectually, Josie is awkward in social situations. She doesn't relate to most of the kids her age and she has a very hard time understanding her older sister's upcoming wedding. Josie is on a mission to stop the wedding at all costs. To complicate the story further, Josie develops a huge crush on her college professor. Josie is a very likable character. In fact, all of the main characters in the story are likable, flaws and all. Josie has a quirky family that is filled with love that radiates through the pages. 

It was hard to find fault with McCahan's novel. Maybe it ran a little too long and the pacing slowed down towards the end? Still, I found it compelling and very enjoyable. McCahan is a accessible writer and the story kept my interest. I'd definitely read more of her books in the future.

I think this would likely be classified as a YA fiction, due to the main characters being teens and that the story deals with a lot of teen issues. However, I found it to have a broad appeal and not be in the slightest bit limiting. The theme of family bonds and love is not one limited to YA fiction. It wasn't a story that was "dumbed down" to fit the YA market. It's a story that can be enjoyed by teens, as well as adults, which makes it a real winner.

Love and Other Foreign Words is a story with tons of heart. I highly recommend putting it on your summer reading list!

Book Review - Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project

Sometimes, you just need to read a story that's sweet and makes you feel good. Graeme SImsion's story of an autistic man on the hunt for love, The Rosie Project, left me feeling happy. This is not to say that the story is overly simplistic or unrealistic. In fact, the complications that our protagonist, Don Tillman, faces makes him an endearing character and his victories even more sweet. 

Don is nearly forty and he has never found love. He has a successful career as a tenured genetics professor at a University in Australia and he enjoys his highly routine life. He knows that he would like to also have a relationship, but he is not sure how a girlfriend will fit into his world. Don decides to be systematic about it and sets up a very detailed questionnaire to find a prospective mate.

Don's best friend, Gene ( a philandering womanizer), sets Don up on a blind date, with Rosie, whom Don is under the assumption has passed his ridged questionnaire. Rosie turns out to be the opposite of most of the things that he thought that he wanted and conversely, she is absolutely perfect for him. Naturally, it's not as easy as it sounds, as Don's Aspergers Syndrome hinders his ability to communicate and to pick up on Rosie's emotional cues. Free-spirited Rosie does her best to push Don outside of his comfort zone, trying to get him to let loose from his regimented lifestyle.

This is not a straight forward love story, in fact, the romance is only part of the plot. Rosie has enlisted Don to help her use genetics to find the identity of her father, a man with whom her mom had a one-night stand with back in college. Rosie and Don travel to America in efforts to solve the mystery.

What makes this story so compelling is the way in which Simsion has written Don and the care he has taken to create a character living with Aspergers. Don is written in a way that even when he makes a major misstep, you are rooting for him to get it right the next time. He's funny, warm and he just tries so hard to navigate his life. Rosie is equally endearing, as she shows a great deal of patience with Don and is accepting of the way he is. The only changes that she tries to make are in areas where he needs a little push, like getting him to not eat the same meals on the same days every week. She loves him unconditionally.

Admittedly, there were some plot issues that grew old, especially with the hunt for Rosie's father. The ending felt a little contrived and too neat. However, overall, this is a great summer read. It's a perfect follow-up if you've just read something really intense or heavy. The Rosie Project is light, humorous and filled with likable characters.