Jenni from the book

As you might have noticed, this post hasn't been in such quick succession to the ones before it. That's because I used to read every day on my commute and since I swapped jobs, I now drive to work. So that option is obviously out; I can barely adjust my air-con without swerving my car so I think reading a book would be a bit of a stretch. So that means that all my reading is now done in my spare time and even though I'm not reading as quickly, I'm still managing to get through some great books! Here's my thoughts on the last 5 I read - spoiler alert for the content ahead.

This one should come as no surprise as, when I wrote my last Jenni from the book post, I had just ordered it. Relight my fire is the much-needed sequel to Joanna Bolouri's The List. Thankfully, I only just discovered The List and so I was able to read the sequel straight away. My thoughts are with those who read it when it first came out in 2013 and had to wait 4 years! The List was everything that a great female rom-com book should be; it was sexy, it was hilarious, it was genuine and it was un-put-down-able. It ends with Phoebe finding out she's pregnant with Oliver's baby; her best friend, turned friends-with-benefits, turned guy-whos-in-love-with-her, turned guy-she-realises-shes-in-love-with-too-but-too-late. The book ended happily with Oliver coming back on New Years Eve and telling Phoebe he wants to be with her, and to be a family with her and the baby. Relight my fire joins the couple a whole 6 years later. They're still together but being parents to Molly, juggling work and trying to appease their awkward parents has accidentally put their commitment to them as a couple on the backseat. They barely spend quality time together and they can't even remember the last time they had sex. Worried that they've lost themselves as individuals, and as a couple, they head to counselling to get back on track. But what they're faced with is not conventional talking-through-their-problems. They're tasked with a mix tape, abstinence, and a jar where they can each write something they want from the other in the bedroom. But as well as trying to work on their relationship, they are faced with secrets coming out, old lovers coming back and life coming to bite them in the bum. The author very successfully kept to the tone of her previous book and these characters, while older and supposedly wiser, were very in line with how they were written in book 1. Again, Phoebe finds herself in some ridiculous situations, her inner monologue, as well as the dialogue with other characters is laugh-out-loud hilarious and there's still a quality of complete genuineness. The author again doesn't try too hard to finish the book with all story lines and characters all wrapped up with a bow on; there are some question marks about jobs and futures but I like that because that's life. The book isn't quite as sordid and filthy as the first one, but that's in keeping with the fact that the characters are now nearly 40 and parents to a child who's old enough to know what's going on if she hears. I fell in love with Oliver and Phoebe all over again and the book really shows that fairytales don't always look how we imagined, that love may conquer all but relationships still involve a lot of work and that the real definition of a romantic gesture is about showing the person you love that you know them; inside and out.

You may recognise the author of this trilogy, since she also wrote the last trilogy I featured: the summer series. She's obviously got a thing for them. My love of Jenny Han books stemmed from my mum buying me a book every birthday and Christmas by an author named Jenni and having loved her summer books so much, I read To all the boys I've loved before. You will probably have heard of it, due to the fact that it's the latest Netflix favourite! It's about Lara Jean Song Covey, one of the three Song sisters whose mum died when they were young. Margot is the oldest and is about to head off to college on the other side of the world. Kitty is the youngest and is sassy and defiant. Lara Jean is the middle child and everything about her is in the middle. She's very measured in her thoughts, she's quiet, she's not a geek but she's not one of the cool kids, she's happy to keep herself to herself and despite having been in love with five boys before, she's never told a soul. Instead, when she's got a crush, she writes them a letter but never posts it, keeping it addressed and hidden under her bed. But then one day the letters all get sent out. And awkwardly, the most recent one is for her older sisters boyfriend. To avoid any awkwardness or explanations, her and the boy who her very first letter was about, embark on a pretend relationship. Peter is the coolest boy in school and he was Lara Jean's first kiss during a game back in middle school. And during their fake relationship, he opens her eyes to the world around her, bringing her out of her shell and teaching her how to do high school properly (instead of spending weekends baking and knitting by herself). Obviously the next bit is predictable - they fall in love for real. But it was a lovely story about family, about growing up, about taking a chance and about discovering (and admitting) your true feelings. Then I saw that there was a sequel, PS I still love you. This surprised me because the first book ended in a pretty good place to leave it, but book 2 begins with one of Lara Jean's previous loves coming back into the picture, despite her now being in a real relationship with Peter. The second book was a lot of toing-and-froing about her feelings for each and it seems as though Jenny Han couldn't resist another classic love triangle. It was a lot of the same themes though and as much as it was a chronological sequel, it felt like a re-telling of the first book as it didn't add anything new. Again it ended pretty concretely so I was even more surprised when a third book was released. But given my OCD about finishing things, I decided to read it anyway. Always and forever, Lara Jean is set a year after the second one. Her dad is getting re-married, high school is coming to a close and she and Peter must decide what colleges they go to next year. They apply for the same local one but in a classic twist of what's called 'life's disappointments', Lara Jean doesn't get in. And so she's forced with some tough decisions as life continues to hand her curve balls, the ultimate one being do her and Peter stay together? I suppose it was a sweet story about growing up and first loves and beginning your life as an adult. But the problems for me were that I found Lara Jean very unlikable as a character. She was too much of a goodie-two-shoes to ever get involved in anything exciting so the book had no real twists or turns, and she got majorly annoying when she was trying to over-involve herself in her dads wedding plans. Jenny Han keeps insisting on writing Virgin-Mary characters and when they're meant to be 18 years old and dating the most popular guy around, it's just not realistic or relatable. The ending was a nice one in that Lara Jean and Peter decide to stay together, with messages of first love and being able to always remember how they loved each other. But again, it's so unrealistic. They're not overly compatible, I didn't feel their chemistry like in the first two books and with long-distance thrown in, there's no way they'd last longer than a few months. So it felt like false hope for no reason. Realistically, Jenny Han should've left it at book one. Nothing could ever beat her OG summer trilogy anyway - that actually had characters (and love stories) that you could root for.

If you're on good reads then you'll know that most decent books have ratings of around 3.5 - 3.8. The Hating Game has a 4.23, and 9,000 raving reviews about how amazing it is. So obviously I was excited to read it and I can't even explain how much I loved it. Lucy and Joshua are rival executive assistants to rival CEOs, who were forced into a publishing house merger to save both companies. And ever since they met, they've hated each other. Not dislike or barely tolerate by HATE. Joshua is moody, cold-blooded, uber-serious and good with numbers, while Lucy is quirky, chatty, a lover-of-literature and a total people-pleaser. As they sit opposite each other in the office, they have a number of passive aggressive ways to wind each other up and are always looking to win. So when a promotion comes up with both of their names on, it's a fight to the death as to who will get it. But while the games have only just begun, Joshua changes the game completely when he pulls the emergency stop on the lift and engages Lucy in the best kiss of her life. Is there really a thin line between love and hate or is it all just another game, where Lucy stands to lose more than she ever has before? I can't even explain how good this book was. Lucy and Josh were both extremely complex characters who you got a real sense of depth with and were rooting for from the very beginning. The journey they go on from sworn-enemies to something else entirely is just amazing and your heart really goes out to each of them when you get to see the raw emotions of their characters. I've also never known an author to build sexual tension as well as Sally Thorne did. And she made us wait until practically the end of the book for it! The major twists, I did see coming but not in a bored-and-predictable way but in a way that leaves you in suspense as you watch it unfold. Obviously it won't shock you to say that they fall in love. But it wasn't written in a cliched way or in a sudden-epiphany kind of way, you felt like you were right there with them as they tried to deal with their feelings for each other. It didn't end in the exact place that I thought it would (I suspected it would go on longer) but the outcome was the one I expected and wanted and I feel like ending it earlier was actually better. I did have some woah-stalker thoughts in the very last chapter but overall the ending was heart-warming and made me cry. The dialogue between the two characters was witty throughout and I felt like I was on the edge of my seat the whole time I was reading it, so excited to see what they said and did next. Like literally, I couldn't wait for my lunch break so I could carry on reading; I finished it in 2 days. Sally Thorne also managed to succeed in what E L James never quite managed; she wrote the perfect man. Yes, Christian Grey may be a billionaire who only has eyes for Ana, but he's also massively controlling, displays psychotic behaviour more than once and is incapable of listening. By comparison, Josh is thoughtful, he notices everything about Lucy, he's intelligent, he's devoted and he pushes her to be the best version of herself that she can be. Oh plus, he's handsome, tall, well-built and hung-like-a-horse apparently - which obviously earns him extra brownie points. The book has an aspect of genuineness that I always enjoy. The issues that the characters carry with them are not child abuse, a secret past life or dealing with a murdered relative. They're the issues that each and every one of us has. Loneliness, parental disappointment, lack of self confidence, struggling to stand up for ourselves, dealing with our emotions (even when it's painful). To say that the book only takes place over a matter of days or weeks, I felt like I'd known these two characters forever and from about page 30, I was rooting for their happy ever after. 

So this one was like nothing I've ever read before but I have to say that I thought it was very clever. It starts with an extremely clever, Artificial Intelligence machine, Aiden, who works with a woman called Jen. She has just had her heart broken after her douchebag ex left her for someone else and is wondering if she'll ever find someone. Across the pond in the US, another AI machine, Aisling, has been watching over Tom, a divorced guy in his forties who is in need of a bit of oomph injecting into his life. With both AI's having escaped onto the internet and out of their intended roles, the two work together to unite the star-crossed lovers. But when their creators realise they're loose, they send in a third AI machine, Sinai, to fix the problem. But as a machine built to calculate wars and nuclear consequences, Sinai is a machine with wholly darker intentions and sets about to ruin Tom and Jen's blossoming romance - and possibly their entire lives. Although it's a bit of an unconventional rom-com, it was pretty clever. The relationship between Tom and Jen felt organic and lovely and despite the odds, you were rooting for them to be together. Tom actually reminded me of Don from The Rosie Project, who was also a highly lovable character. In addition to their story though, there is the relationship between Aiden and Aisling. Despite it never being anything concrete (you know, because neither of them totally exist), Aiden is romantic, idealistic and has his "head" in the clouds, while Aisling is calculated, calm and would prefer to play it safe. The interactions between the two of them are some of the best parts in the book as they question (and make the reader question) what it means to feel, to think and to live. Forcing us to take a longer look at human emotions, the book makes you appreciate things you often forget to (like the feel of the sun and the taste of cheese). It also contains some witty computer humour like 'there was a really long, awkward pause: about 1/45 of a second'. Whether or not it was intended, there was also a definite warning in there about our reliance on technology and our advancements within AI, and just how much our lives could be messed up if anything ever went wrong. I did find the book to be a little too long (a big 400 page hardback) and so I was just dying to finish it in the end, but I did enjoy it. Ultimately, it was a classic love story about starting over, second chances, defying the odds, the lengths we'll go to for love and what it really means to be human, artificially or otherwise.

You probably know by now that I love a book with duel story-telling; chapters from 2 different people's perspectives. So this one, told from the perspective of 3 different housemates/best friends was already getting brownie points from me. Obviously they had to have a character in each hair colour (of course). Catherine is dark haired, measured, sensible and driven in her career. She is in her mid thirties and has just been dumped with the news that her ex-husband-turned-best-friend, Richard is getting remarried. To add insult to injury, he ropes his new fiance into the online dating business that her and Catherine own together. While she takes a harsh look over the relationship that she and Richard shared, she is forced to accept that maybe they were never quite right for each other. And while she focuses on finding love for her clients, will she manage to find love for herself too? Rachel is the red-head and she's fun-loving, eager to climb the ladder as an architect and determined to find love. She and her colleague James dated for about a year but then went back to just being friends for a further 4 and when they both sign up to Catherine's dating site, it looks as though what Rachel is looking for might be closer to home than she realises. Sarah is the blonde and she's athletic, loves staying in and is often overlooked at her job as an illustrator. She's barely been out the house since her mum died 2 years ago, leaving her and her brother to look after their younger sister, who has Downs Syndrome. And while Sarah is happy baking and watching house programmes, Rachel has other ideas and so she gives her a makeover, gets her to join the dating site too and secretly applies for the Great British Bake Off on her behalf. As the three women face challenges in their careers, in their love lives and in their friendship to each other, they are forced to do some soul searching, to not only make peace with their pasts but to be able to look forward to a brighter future. It was quite a classic chick-flick book with nothing too dramatic about it, but there was enough going on to keep it from being boring. Rachel's story was my favourite and Sarah's was my least favourite, but I think it worked well with all of them intertwined. My only problem with it is that the three women barely had any parts together; it was basically just their individual stories told together. To say they reference each other as best friends so often, it would've been nice to see a bit more of that. Overall though, it was a sweet story of love and friendship and one that I enjoyed.