Both Ends of the Spectrum

I promised to tell you about the books I cheated on Thea Devine with.  So, after failing miserably at trying to read books I had at home rather than library books and realizing that if I don’t have a good book in my hand I’d rather not read, I went to the library.  I decided, ok let’s test this theory.  Am I just burned out on reading or is it the books that just aren’t that good?

So, at the library I picked up P.S. I Still Love You, The Girl on the Train, and Lola and the Boy Next Door.  I figured that two of the three were sequels to others I’d read and enjoyed and Girl on the Train I’d been wanting to read forever.

First up, I decided to read P.S. I Still Love You first.  It is a sequel to To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, which I talked about in this post.  I started this on June 14th and finished it three days later.   This book helped me determine that my reading slump was book-specific. I easily zipped through this book, enjoying every page of it. It was just as good as the first one, if not better. Recommend.

After that I decided to give The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins a go.  I picked this one up on June 18th.  I’m probably six months behind everyone in reading this, but it was worth the wait. This book was well-written and kept me guessing right up to the end.

I was afraid this book was going to be a watered down version of Gone Girl, but it wasn’t. There is a similar feel to the story (in a “if you like Gone Girl, you’ll like Girl on the Train” kind of way), but it is a very different book. I highly recommend this one and will look forward to reading more from Ms. Hawkins. I read this one in five days, finishing it on June 23rd.

And finally, I read Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins.  I picked this one up on June 26th.   This book is also a sequel (to Anna and the French Kiss that I reviewed here).  I so enjoyed this book. While it didn’t have the benefit of being set in Paris like Anna & the French Kiss, it more than made up for it. I read this in three days because I couldn’t put it down. And strangely, aside from being a good story with excellent writing and great characters, the book gave me food for thought – how I can balance those different parts of myself that seem so incongruous, how you can live out loud in vibrant color but still feel small inside, and how the people that care about you can see past the mask and really know you.

These books spanned both ends of the spectrum – young adult romance to a suspenseful thriller.  And thank goodness they also showed me that nothing stands between me and a good book, but if given a not so good book I’d rather do anything than read.

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