The Opposite Of Loneliness (by Marina Keegan)

9/10

An affecting and hope-filled posthumous collection of essays and stories from the talented young Yale graduate whose title essay captured the world's attention in 2012 and turned her into an icon for her generation.

Marina Keegan's star was on the rise when she graduated magna cum laude from Yale in May 2012. She had a play that was to be produced at the New York International Fringe Festival and a job waiting for her at the New Yorker. Tragically, five days after graduation, Marina died in a car crash.

As her family, friends, and classmates, deep in grief, joined to create a memorial service for Marina, her unforgettable last essay for the Yale Daily News, "The Opposite of Loneliness" went viral, receiving more than 1.4 million hits. She had struck a chord.

Even though she was just twenty-two when she died, Marina left behind a rich, expansive trove of prose that, like her title essay, captures the hope, uncertainty, and possibility of her generation. The Opposite of Loneliness is an assemblage of Marina's essays and stories that, like The Last Lecture, articulates the universal struggle that all of us face as we figure out what we aspire to be and how we can harness our talents to make an impact on the world.

My two favourite short stories in the novel were:
Challenger Deep & Reading Aloud

My two favoured essays where:
The Opposite of Loneliness & Why We Care about Whales

This book was incredible. Each sentence fragile as a petal and teaming with the insecurities of the human heart. Marina Keegan fully understands human nature and the shyness behind how we love. Relatable, sad, funny, gritty, inspiring and witty I fell in love with the short stories and essays.
This novel could be stretched out over a long period of time or eaten up in one sitting. I personally found that the short stories improved gradually as the novel progressed. Whether it was because I had less of a preference for the first one or two stories or if it simply took a bit for me to get a taste for her writing I'm unsure. Yet as a whole the short stories and essays are truly moving and well worth the read.  

More...

I stumbled across this today and it simply spoke to me. 

Enjoy little bibliophiles...

Slammed (by Colleen Hoover)

8/10

Following the unexpected death of her father, 18-year-old Layken is forced to be the rock for both her mother and younger brother. Outwardly, she appears resilient and tenacious, but inwardly, she's losing hope.

Enter Will Cooper: The attractive, 21-year-old new neighbor with an intriguing passion for slam poetry and a unique sense of humor. Within days of their introduction, Will and Layken form an intense emotional connection, leaving Layken with a renewed sense of hope.

Not long after an intense, heart-stopping first date, they are slammed to the core when a shocking revelation forces their new relationship to a sudden halt. Daily interactions become impossibly painful as they struggle to find a balance between the feelings that pull them together, and the secret that keeps them apart.

So if you haven't already read the Slammed trilogy you need to get on it! As far as a romance novel goes these three books were fantastic! Heart wrenching, dramatic and sexy without ever being inappropriate. I truly enjoyed reading them. 

Though I will have to say that I preferred reading in Layken's point of view...I don't know what it was about the second two books, but how Will perceived Layken made her personality seem other than what it had been in the first book. Now I don't know if that was just my own observation but I found it irritating at times to say the least.  The first book would make an excellent stand alone! The second two felt a little forced and "fillerish"; I wish the series would of developed more organically. 

Although my negative commentary aside Slammed was a cute read that required the reader's emotional investment and undivided attention. It demanded to be read!