[Review] What Light - Jay Asher

Title: What Light
Author: Jay Asher
Release date (in Poland): 2017-11-08
Pages: 276
Polish title: Światło

It’s snowing outside the window, Christmas is only a few days away, so how to get into Christmas mood better rather than by hot chocolate, Christmas music and a book with Christmas vibe?

Jay Asher is an author of ‘13 Reasons Why’, famous almost all over the world. As I only knew him from this book, I didn’t know what to expect. But I was looking for a Christmas book and What Light is what most of the people recommended.

Sierra, together with her family, runs a Christmas tree farm in Oregon. Every year they go to California to sell them and for a whole month, she lives a different life. The journey also gives her opportunity to spend some time with her best friend Heather. But this time, she meets there Caleb, a cute guy, who she can’t stop thinking about. She decides to break all her resolutions of not jumping into a relationship and starts spending time with him. The problem is, she knows it might be the last time she’s spending Christmas in California; Caleb hides some dark secrets about his past and her overprotective parents don’t want her to get involved in any relationship, knowing she’s going to leave California in a month.

It's your heart. No one else gets a say in that. 

Personally, I have mixed feelings about this book. Jay Asher does a good job creating a Christmas atmosphere. There were Christmas trees, hot chocolate, ugly sweathers, Santa, cookies – it all makes the book very atmospheric. Moreover, it’s not only a love story, but it also a story about trust and forgiveness. Caleb’s past is something what people had been talking about for many years. Rumours won’t let him forget about something that happened many years ago and he’s always reminded about that one mistake he made. A book shows us that people love to gossip and there are only a few who want to find out if there’s a truth in them. Most of us don’t know how hurtful it can be to be always reminded about that one day from the past we wish we could forget. He doesn’t have a chance to heal and forgive himself.

"People think what they want. That's what I've had to accept," he says. "I can fight it, but that's exhausting. I can feel hurt about it, but that's torture. Or I can decide it's their loss"

But it bothered me, that even though Jay Asher had a great idea, he didn’t make most of it in his book. The story is predictable, cliche and through all the time I spend reading it, I just felt that there was something missing. Jay Asher spend too much time writing about completely unnecessary stuff rather that focusing on character’s emotions, feelings and thoughts. The plot was shallow, but I didn’t have to be this way to create an enjoyable Christmas love story. There was nothing surprising, everything lead to one thing: Sierra’s leaving.

Forget logic...Logic doesn't know what you want. 

As I mentioned, it’s a shame that author didn't focuse more on characters. I was too aware that they were in their teens, because sometimes they acted really immature. I mean, not every teenager acts like a child. I just couldn’t connect with any of the characters. Actually, author focused only on Sierra and Caleb, but there were many other people in their lives and I know almost nothing about them.

The book is not bad, but it’s also not excellent. There were some cute moments between Sierra and Caleb, which made me finish the book, but besides that, there was nothing worth remembering and it was also predictable. Maybe that’s why I didn’t feel any excitement when I was reading it. But I’m sure young people, who look for a light love story with a Christmas atmosphere, will love this one.

WYŚWIETL POLSKĄ WERSJĘ

[Review] Kasie West - Lucky In Love

Title: Lucky in Love

Author: Kasie West

Pages: 408

Release date (in Poland): 2017-10-11

Polish title: Szczęście w miłości

What would it be like to win 30 million dollars in a lottery? Most of us don’t even dream about having these large sums of cash in our bank accounts. Maddie has no idea what’s going to happen when she buys a lottery ticket.

I have come across Kasie West’s books before and to be honest, I didnt’ have big expectations for this one. It was waiting in my library for a long time, because I wasn’t in the mood to start it. Everyone, who’s acquainted with Kasie’s style of writing, knows that she’s into light, cliché love stories. Among many other romance novels, it’s not easy to write something original and not boring. I had many different feelings about Kasie West’s books. I was so surprised when I finished Lucky in Love with a big smile on my face.

The main character Maddie is all about hard work and she already has her future planned. When she does something impulsive for the first time in her life, she wins 30 million dollars. Happy that she’s going to solve all her family problems with the money, she doesn’t realise what negative effects it might have. When everything gets out of control, Maddie becomes ‘that’ girl and her new popularity rises, it seems like the only person who still treats her the same is Seth – a guy she’s working with at the local zoo. But with all the problems Maddie’s dealing with, going away to college and the secret she’s keeping from him, is there a chance for love?

Sometimes regardless of what we want, reality takes over.

This book is full of funny, adorable moments that warm up reader’s heart. Maddie and Seth’s relationshop brings the biggest smile on your face. Maddie is a realistic character even though she sometimes makes not well thought out decisions. Seth on the other hand is a really cute and funny guy. The only characters that irritated me were Maggie’s best friends – Blaire and Elise – who sometimes acted like little kids; and also Maggie’s brother. I really liked him at the beginning but then I was like ‘no, I don’t like you’.

We make our own luck. I believed that, too. We chose our own fate. We controlled our own future. I knew what I wanted. I needed to go get it.

I liked the idea of winning the lottery, even though, let’s be honest, it wasn’t really realistic. Turns out that money doesn’t solve all the problems, what you might have assumed. All of a sudden there’s unwanted popularity, new friends, who don’t necessarily have good intentions and a question, how to deal with this new life. It was very interesting to watch how main character manages to find her way through this new life as multimillionaire, but also, how people arround her act – starting with her family and friends, ending with strangers.

You need to empty your mind, and relax each other muscle group until you feel like you are going to melt into the floor. Then you just let it all go. All the expectations, all the unneeded worry, all the things other people want for you but you don't want for yourself.

I feel like not everyone will like this book. For some of you it might seem too simple and cliché. I have read many negative reviews, which were one of the reasons, why I didn’t want to read it, but turns out, the book wasn’t so bad. With all the stress, sadness and many hard moments we have to deal with, can’t we just once read something that’ll bring a smile to our face? The book is written in a simple language. You read it in a flash, because pages just turn by themselves. Maybe it is predictable, but sometimes you should read even this kind of books.

I recommend it to people who look for something for a lonely night, to relax with a cute love story in hand. Kasie West’s books aren’t challenging. You won’t find tragedy, misery or deep, passionate love in them. There’s no need for serious overreaching, because they are written to be simple and not challenging. It’s worth reading, for example to nicely spend some time alone.

WYŚWIETL POLSKĄ WERSJĘ