Review: Other Breakable Things by Kelley York and Rowan Altwood

According to Japanese legend, folding a thousand paper cranes will grant you healing.

Evelyn Abel will fold two thousand if it will bring Luc back to her.

Luc Argent has always been intimately acquainted with death. After a car crash got him a second chance at life—via someone else’s transplanted heart—he tried to embrace it. He truly did. But he always knew death could be right around the corner again.

And now it is.

Sick of hospitals and tired of transplants, Luc is ready to let his failing heart give out, ready to give up. A road trip to Oregon—where death with dignity is legal—is his answer. But along for the ride is his best friend, Evelyn.

And she’s not giving up so easily.

A thousand miles, a handful of roadside attractions, and one life-altering kiss later, Evelyn’s fallen, and Luc’s heart is full. But is it enough to save him? Evelyn’s betting her heart, her life, that it can be.

Right down to the thousandth paper crane.

Goodreads

Published: April 4 2017

This was such a cute read and I really enjoyed most of it. It’s just that there were a couple of major bits that made it lose points with me.

Pros

It was cute

This was a very cute road trip romance that I really enjoy simply because of how simple and easy it was.

The relationship between Luc and Evelyn was just adorable and mushy. The whole trip just  such a lovely journey that I felt really privileged to be on. It was an adventure that’s for sure.

The illness was fleshed out well

I also liked how Luc’s illness was properly brought out in the book. So he wasn’t suddenly superman on this road trip but he had his ups and downs just like if he were to be at home.

Evelyn was a great character

Evelyn was such a lovely human being. Her mildness just reminded me a lot of myself and I really liked her. She was so sweet as compared to Luc who I actually didn’t really like personality-wise for most of the book.

It handled a tough subject well

This book is basically about euthanasia and the right to die. Topics that are still widely discussed and debated. I think this book took the topic and just spun it in a way that was very easy to understand

Cons

The lack of backstory

I actually think their love story was really natural but I think what was missing was the backstory and how they became friends. We start out the book with Evelyn returning home after some time away. So she and Luc have been friends for ages but we only come in somewhere around the middle.

I guess that’s what made me feel like there was just something not so right. I think the whole move would have been more impactful if we could actually understand just how close they were before the story begins.

I think that’s why I’m still not sure if it was really insta-love or not. I mean it progressed naturally but we jump in and they already kind of have feelings for each other so it was a little strange.

It was unrealistic

At it’s base, I think there were a lot of things that were just a tad unrealistic. For one, how is it possible that Luc kept his illness a secret from Evelyn for that long? They grew up together and you’re telling me that Luc was that selfless even as a child? No way.

Evelyn was also rather daft for not figuring it out. I mean she suspected but why did she never ask. Seems uncharacteristic of the basic human instinct of being curious.

It was infuriating

Every single time Luc got the chance to tell Evelyn about his illness and then didn’t, I DIED.

*An advanced copy of this book was provided to me to read and review. However, all opinions are my own*

Purchase Links:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.ca | Entangled Publishing

Review: The State Of Grace by Rachael Lucas

Sometimes I feel like everyone else was handed a copy of the rules for life and mine got lost.

Grace has Asperger’s and her own way of looking at the world. She’s got a horse and a best friend who understand her, and that’s pretty much all she needs. But when Grace kisses Gabe and things start to change at home, the world doesn’t make much sense to her any more.

Suddenly everything threatens to fall apart, and it’s up to Grace to fix it on her own.

Whip-smart, hilarious and unapologetically honest, The State of Grace by Rachael Lucas is a heart-warming story of one girl trying to work out where she fits in, and whether she even wants to.

Goodreads

Published: 6th April 2017

This book was just so perfect and cute and relatable. I loved it!

It was so honest

What really made this book special for me was the fact that Grace was just so relatable and honest. You might think that it would be hard to relate to an autistic girl but I found myself completely relating and understanding many of the things that Grace was going through.

Maybe it’s because of my years spent as the least popular person in any given situation but I really felt Grace’s pain and her desire to just fit in for once in her life. I really liked that.

I think a lot of her bits where she was just trying to fit in really struck a chord with me just because that was my life.

The book helped me understand Autism

Autism is one of the many diseases that I don’t completely understand. And honestly, unless you have it, you’ll never understand completely.

But I think this book put Autism at a level where most people could understand it. It made it easier for me to relate to the struggles of an autistic person and while everyone is different and Autism is different in each person it affects, it still helps to know of some coping methods so if you’re ever in a situation, you can try to help or at least attempt to do the right thing for that person in their time of need.

Insta-love

Okay first of all, I didn’t like what a big cliche the whole thing was. The most popular boy at school falls for the least popular girl. I mean come on! Really?

It was so typical! Not to mention that somehow, no matter what Grace pulled, Gabe was just always bouncing back to her. Like it just seemed a bit unrealistic.

Gabe gave off a very ‘too cool for school’ kind of vibe and anyone who’s anyone will very easily be able to tell you that Gabe is not the definition of a 16-year-old cool kid. He’s weird. He’s a John Green character. Ew.

Plus I think the story could have done without the love story altogether. If they were just friends that would be cool. I mean a lot of the times, the love story seemed to fall away because everything else with Eve and Anna and Leah was just so much more important. The love story parts sometimes just felt like an afterthought which I found to be quite uncomfortable.

The happy ending

I hate happy endings.

There I said it.

I am not five. Why does everything have to have a perfect ending with flowers and a white picket fence? Real life does not happen that way. You don’t just pull a stunt and then have people just forget about it. At least not when you’re 16.

It was unrealistic and I hated the ending.

So there you go. It was a short review because honestly there isn’t much to talk about. In the grand scheme of things, it was a good book but there were parts of it that just could have been so much better.

It was a very relatable book that’s for sure and anyone hoping to learn more about Autism should read this book to supplement proper researched writing. But some bits were just too forced and the reader could totally feel it.

It’s a quick and light read though so if you need something like that in your life (like I do because my new job is exhausting) then give it a shot.

*An advanced copy was provided to me to read and review by Pansing. All opinions expressed are my own*