Book Review: Where She Went

Posted on by
Reply

I was compensated for this BlogHer Book Club review, but all opinions expressed are my own.

I’m a sucker for a story of love lost.

To me, finally finding the person you’re madly in love with (and who loves you back) and then losing them is the most tragic thing I can think of. (This is why since meeting Joey I can’t handle movies/books/TV shows about spouses dying. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close? Sorry, won’t be seeing it. And if I need a good cry, I really only need to think about this post from one of my favorite blogs.)

The point is, I can get behind the idea of longing and regret and what it would feel like to miss someone so deeply you don’t really know what to do with yourself.

Which, incidentally, is what so much of Where She Went by Gayle Forman is about.

The book is the sequel to If I Stay, which I never read, but, if the flashbacks in WSW are any indication, is about two young, musically talented people who are crazy about each other, until one day the girl (Mia) and her family are in a terrible car accident. Her parents and younger brother are killed, and she is left in a coma. Adam, the boy, does everything he can to help her pull through, including finally promising to give her up if only she won’t die.

As you might predict, the words have no sooner left his lips than Mia starts to show signs of recovery. The first book (I assume) ends with her heading off to Julliard on scholarship for playing the cello, and Adam, an aspiring rock star, basically spirals into oblivion when she unexpectedly cuts him out of her life. If that doesn’t happen in the first book, well, it happens in between the two.

FAST FORWARD TO BOOK TWO!

Adam’s band, Shooting Star (anyone else think that’s kind of a lame band name?), has become an out-of-control success, due largely to the popularity of the album he wrote while writhing in heartache. As his celebrity starts to outshine the rest of the band, tension is high and Adam is wondering if he wouldn’t be happier just giving the whole thing up. (It doesn’t help that he has never really gotten over Mia, who unceremoniously dumped him without actually dumping him and without explanation.)

The day before he’s supposed to leave for a European tour, he happens to notice that Mia (who he hasn’t seen or heard from in years) is playing at Carnegie Hall. He attends the show, and she has him called backstage, where for the next 24 hours they act awkward until they finally get around to drudging up the past and asking the questions they never did before.

Ok, so we all get the picture right? They’re both pretty darn successful with music, she’s mad at him, he’s mad at her, and they’re both the worst communicators you will ever meet.

Here is the first thing I think when I ask myself the question, “What did you think of this book?”

Oh. My. God. It. Is. So. Slow.

The actual story takes place in about a 24-hour period, but there is so much flash back, so much inner turmoil, so much stalling that you get about a decade’s worth of information. Which is not a problem, except that the story is so halting and painfully dragged out that you almost care less about the sad parts. Maybe I would have been more invested if I had read the first book (anyone out there who has care to share thoughts on that?), but most of the time I just wanted to tell them both to move on with their lives. If it was this difficult to just have an honest conversation, a relationship might not be the best choice.

Plus (and, again, this could be because I don’t have any history with these characters), I just didn’t really like either of them. Adam is bitter and more than a little whiny. Mia seems so vindicated by her “reasons” for abandoning Adam after he was so dedicated to her, but all of her supposedly noble excuses fell flat and were, it has to be said, just cruel and selfish.

The biggest issue I had, though, is that nothing really happens. Throughout the entire story. I didn’t have any big chunks of time to read the whole thing (though it’s pretty light reading, so if you do, you could probably knock it out in a few hours), and every time I would pick it up again and remind myself where I had left off, I would think, “Oh right, I’m at that part where…nothing has really happened yet.”

Not a good feeling when you’re supposed to (I assume) be super emotionally invested in whether or not these two crazy kids work it out.

And this isn’t an issue of me being above young adult literature. I love YA lit. I took an entire class on it in college. I can totally get behind books written for teens. I just don’t think it was that great of a story. Maybe this is one of those cases where the author had a great idea for a book, and then her publisher wanted to know if she could manage to crank out a sequel. (AKA, the worst story-writing plan ever.)

Have you read this book? (Or the first one?) Am I totally off-base with my judgements of these characters? Am I just missing something?

Want to get in on the discussion? Join us at the BlogHer Book Club.

If I wasn’t a renter…

Posted on by
3

Renting has a lot of perks. You never have to mow the lawn, rake leaves, shovel snow. You (in theory) don’t have to fix things when they break. (Though in our case, sometimes it just means they NEVER get fixed…cryptic grumble…)

Of course, as any renter knows, it also comes with a lot of…shall we say, downsides.

You know my beef with not being able to paint. (IT WILL BE A BEEF FOREVER.) But lately I find myself staring around the apartment making mental adjustments to other things. Unfortunately, they will have to stay mental because I am not allowed to touch those things (plus, it would be a huge waste when we eventually move on to nicer digs), BUT. The best part of having a blog is that I can imagine it a bit further.

So, without further ado, here are three things I would change about our apartment if I could:

A chalkboard door. {source}
I don’t know why I’ve become obsessed with this idea, but I think if we painted the back of our door with chalkboard paint, it would be the cutest thing ever. It’s already metal, so it’s magnetic, but being able to write out little notes, things to remember, etc. would be so handy. Plus, I think the black door would look really cool in our mostly white room.

Dining room built-in cabinets. {source}
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. I would do a smoky grey. Open shelving mixed with closed cabinets to hide the less-inspiring stuff. And it would be perfection.

Open kitchen layout. {source}
Ok, so pretty much nothing I could do to the current apartment would make it look like that, but I love the look of an open kitchen. If I could, I would knock out the (totally useless) wall that turns our kitchen into a cave separate from the living area, instead turning it into a bar/work surface area. Then when I’m cooking, I can still be involved in what’s going on out there. Plus, it would make the whole space feel so much bigger.

Obviously, I have a lot more I could add to this list. (Including a complete overhaul of the bathroom and kitchen.) But those are posts for another time.

To my renting readers: What’s on your short list of “things I wish I could do to this place”? Misery loves company, so tell me about it!

So…this happened.

Posted on by
16

They finally put up all the professional photos from my half marathon. And (apparently) they thought it would be better to turn the background into a green screen instead of just leaving it the normal backdrop that they had set up for the photos.

If you ever wondered what would happen if you wore a green shirt to a race where they used a green screen backdrop, it would look something like this:

And in case you ever wondered what would happen if they tried to get all patriotic on you, well, it would be a little like this:

I AM the American flag, y’all. A sweaty, exhausted American flag. M’erica.

Dragging.

Posted on by
Reply

It’s going to be a long one, folks. We went to Bryan and Brittany’s wedding last night (and had a fabulous time!), but work the day after a wedding is not exactly what I would prefer to be doing.

In case you’re wondering, what I’d prefer to be doing is still sleeping. Alas…

Suffice to say, I’m too tired to post anything requiring a lot of brain power. Which means…an Instagram picture montage! Enjoy.

1. Getting primped with one of my besties, Heather.
2. Post make-up application. (I barely recognize myself ha.)
3. Giant group of friends at the wedding!
4. The hubs and me. (And yeah, got a spray tan…I had a Groupon. It didn’t look quite as orange-y in person. Live and learn.)
5. First dance. (The place was GORGEOUS.)(As was the couple :) )
6. Megan and I in the photo booth.
7. Heather, Megan and me.
8. Even more photo booth madness. (If you’re getting married and NOT having a photo booth…you should reconsider that. Stat.)
9. Joey and our pal Phil looking studly as always.

Anyone else going to weddings this month?

The trouble with vanity

Posted on by
1

Ok, total confession: I wrote this post yesterday morning. Then, yesterday afternoon, I finally pulled the trigger and bought a vanity table. But you should still totally read this if you’re interested in my thought process. Plus, the big “which vanity did I choose???” reveal is at the end. And you KNOW you want to know the answer.

So…I have a problem with vanity. Or rather, vanities. No, I’m not staring in the mirror all the time, I’m talking about this kind of vanity:

Isn’t it beautiful?

Unfortunately, I don’t the floorspace for one quite so impressive. (It’s available here if you do…also, I will envy you forever.)(Vanity AND envy! We’re just working our way through those deadly sins, aren’t we?)

Instead, I’m looking for a smaller table version. I already have a gold mirror that I would like to use, so I don’t really need a vanity with one built in.

My biggest issue with just pulling the trigger on one of these bad boys is that lately I’ve started second-guessing the exact look I’m going for. Which has led me to the exact middle ground between two styles:

Let’s make a pros and cons list, shalll we?

The Parsons Desk:

{1, 2, 3}

Pros: For a particularly modern piece of furniture, it still has a pretty classic look. I never get tired of seeing it in photos, and I could always swap it out as a computer desk.

Cons: I think it might actually work better as a computer desk…? Is that just a weird thing in my brain? Plus, it’s pretty hard to find second-hand in white, and I don’t think I could paint it given the surface. Which means no gold detailing like I had planned for a wood version. Also, limited storage options.

The Vintage-y Variety:

{1, 2, 3}

Pros: Easier to customize, easier to thrift, love the girly effect, more storage depending on the style I find, love the subtle vintage-i-ness. (Sure…that’s a word.)

Cons: Hard to find exactly what I’m looking for, would mean more work (sanding, priming, painting, etc.), not modern at all…would I start to get sick of that?

Do any of my readers work with either of these options on a daily basis? Love it or hate it? I think I’m leaning toward the Parsons version still, but will I regret not having the extra drawers?

I know, I know. This is totally a #firstworldproblem. But if I’m going to invest in something nice, I want to love it forever and ever. Which is kind of why I think the Parsons desk would be easier to re-purpose as any kind of desk down the line. But the more classic style is SO feminine and pretty and perfect for a vanity…

WHY AM I SECOND-GUESSING THIS SO MUCH?

And thus ends the post that I had originally planned on posting. Fast-forward to about 4:30 p.m., when I finally decided to buy…the Parsons Desk! I ended up finding one on sale for about $62 on Sears.com that looks exactly like the one in that third Parson’s photo. I also found a coupon. And I purchased it through Ebates (which you know I love), so I get 4% cash back. Basically, the stars were aligned. My new lovely should arrive at the end of next week. I’M SO EXCITED.