Crash by Nicole Williams

After her family is uprooted by a tragedy, Lucy is off to a new school, in a new town, and all she wants to do is dance. Until she meets Jude. Resident bad boy, everyone has already written Jude off as a waste of space, but Lucy sees something more in him, and she's not about to give up on him like everyone else.

This book is an emotional rollercoaster. The writing is witty and funny, and I did laugh out loud like an idiot multiple times. But then it's also heartbreaking and sad and I broke down in tears at least twice. I'll admit that I stayed up until four in the morning reading this, and it tore me apart. So for those of you looking for a light read, don't pick up this book.

My first impressions of Lucy were pretty good. She saw a hot guy, and wanted his attention, so she got it. But when he opened his mouth and was a jerk, she decided it wasn't worth it. Unlike a lot of YA novels these days she didn't put up with his abuse, and seriously brushed him off. I liked that a lot. Further on in the book she also didn't cave. That's the thing, she's ridiculously stubborn. Sometimes I liked that, sometimes I didn't. By the end of the book I was pretty fed up with Lucy. She let Jude walk away too many times, and she didn't listen to him when he spoke. She has some major trust issues, and it bothered me that she never got over them.

"You can't be friends with the person you were meant to spend you life with."

Jude was funny but really sexy. However, I never got the really bad side to his character. Sure he gets angry at the drop of a hat, but he's never malicious. On the other hand, he actually was a bad boy, which was refreshing from all those bad boy wannabes that are in literature these days!

Something about Lucy's and Jude's relationship is extremely emotional and intense. Every word and action is carefully choreographed to draw you in and make you fall so deeply in love with them you feel like your heart is being ripped out. There are some really swoon-worthy scenes in this book, and it made me madder than hell that Lucy couldn't get over herself and just trust Jude.

"You didn't make me a better person, because no one can do that. You made me want to be a better person."

The only thing I really didn't like about this book, other than sometimes Lucy, was how much time it skipped. At the beginning it wasn't that bad, but then at the end the book just skips the entire school year and goes to graduation, and then it goes from graduation to the beginning of college. I hate it when main characters are away from each other like that, and the time skips just seemed like a cop out to me. I didn't like that Jude ignored her, and I didn't like that she let Jude walk away, and never tried to talk to him. This is what kept this book from five stars and my favorites shelf.

Although I may be bitter from the first two chapters of the second book (which by the way I'm not liking very much so far), this book really digressed from beginning to end for me. I wish it hadn't, because initially I really liked Lucy, and I loved her and Jude's relationship.

I hope that this series doesn't rip my heart out, because something I'm realizing about contemporary books these days, is that the authors love a tragedy.

Four Stars

Rosalie Williams

Crash on Goodreads

Beware of Bad Boy by April Brookshire

After her parent's messy divorce, Gianna's mom remarried a nice man three years ago. She's totally fine with Scott, but not his arrogant son whom she's never met. After refusing to meet his dad's new family for years, Caleb's mom finally reached her limit on his partying, and sent him to live with his father. Completely different people, Gianna and Caleb both immediately hate each other. But they both see in each other something that's missing from their own lives, and that might just be enough to overcome anything.

"'Nice to meet you, sis," he said with a chuckle. I felt his warm breath on my ear as he added in a whisper only I hear, 'Wanna sleep in my bed tonight?'"

I've never really delved much into the contemporary genre, because I didn't think I'd like it much. But after reading Perfect Chemistry, I was hooked, and downloaded every free kindle book in that same genre I could find. Some of them–not great. This one–fantastic.

"It was funny how people were always telling me how lucky I was. Lucky to be so beautiful. Lucky to do well in school. Lucky to be dating Josh. Right now, when it came to stepbrothers, I was feeling decidedly unlucky."

Gianna is the kind of character I like. She's beautiful, really beautiful, but doesn't care. A lot of the book focuses on the transition of her relying on her physical beauty to her inner beauty. People always judge her based on the way she looks–especially Caleb–but she's not at all what they expect on the inside. She's witty and I love the dialogue throughout the entire book. She's exciting and fun, and while she might be a little whiny at some parts, she's a teenage girl, let's be realistic. Her dancing was a really fun part of the book, and the club exposure was a nice touch.

"Getting jealous over a guy like Caleb would be like getting jealous over a swing at a public park. It was free for anyone to have a ride." 

Caleb is a huge player, and super flirty. I love the things he says, and he owns up to the things he's done. Especially when him and Gianna are dating, he admits that he doesn't know how to be romantic, and I appreciate that because not every guy does. He is who he is, and Gianna accepts him for that. However, his development in this book is nice because he does go from a huge player to someone who wants to change their lives for the better. Sure he corrupts Gianna some along the way, but he also changes into someone who cares more about other people than just himself.

"Before I met Gianna, I'd thought I was living life to the fullest, wild and carefree. Now that I had her in my life I understood what it really meant to feel alive."

Their relationship in this is really good. They don't fall in love at first sight. In fact, it all starts with Caleb hitting on her just like he would any hot girl, and then blackmailing her into spending time with him. Of course, she gets him back, and to avoid any spoilers I'll just say that I literally laughed out loud multiple times during this book. It's a little strange because they're supposed to be stepsiblings, but here's why I was okay with it: 1. They'd never met before and had been living together for a week before they started getting serious. 2. They're NOT blood related. 3. They never seem like siblings! So yeah, I loved it.

There's not a moment where the story gets boring, because things happen right after the other, without every feeling rushed. I'll say this, a lot happens in this book, and that's exactly what kept me engaged and interested. I even read it twice, which I hardly ever do!

I love this book, and I've already read the second, and am dying for the third to come out! For a cheap/free amazon book it has very few editing errors, and they weren't that bad, and the rest of the writing was pretty good, so it didn't really bother me that much. Unfortunately, this book has raised the standard for contemporary romance for me, which means I've already ruined a genre that I've just started!

Five Stars

Rosalie Williams

Beware of Bad Boy on Goodreads

 

 

 

Chandelier by Sia (Official Video)

Admittedly, I have never reviewed or even discussed a music video before. But, after watching this video today I found myself unable not to mention it in a post.

First heard on the radio a few days back, this catchy beat caught my attention, and though I didn't understand most of the lyrics or the meaning, the song was effectively stuck in my head. So today, while working at my desk and listening to Coldplay's Fix You I glanced at the suggestions bar on YouTube and the strange still image of the video got my attention. I've watched Dance Moms, you see, and I recognized Maddie as the dancer. From the moment I clicked play I realized something was different about this video.

The choreography is intense, and the movements grip your heart and squeeze your lungs. There's something deeply disturbing and creepy about Maddie's facial expressions, and the story told in her choreography. So I asked myself, what is the message in this song that I am missing? The dance was too intense to go unnoticed, and so I realized there must be something more to this pop song that I wasn't hearing.

The meaning of Sia's single Chandelier has a "party girl" starts sounding fun with "feel the love," then sinks into the desperately "just holding on for tonight." At first it's "party girls don't get hurt," sounding like Keysha (or others) line. Lines like "I'm the one 'for a good time call'... they're ringing my doorbell, feel the love". But the darkness stands even in the very second line "can't feel anything, when will I learn?" The party girl isn't loved, she's an object, almost a call girl. She tries to forget with "1,2,3 1,2,3 drink." She tries to "live like tomorrow doesn't exist" partying so hard she'll "swing from the chandelier" (exposing everything)... But even so, she can still "feel my tears as they dry." The disaster comes with more than a hangover. "Sun is up, I'm a mess. Gotta get out now, gotta run from this. Here comes the shame." Sia pulls back the veil on the despair of partying "like tomorrow doesn't exist." 

MUSICinsideU Interpretation - Full Article

While the writing in that short paragraph leaves much to be desired, the meaning really hits home for me with the lyrics worked into the wording. Further delving into the subject I uncovered quotes from an interview with Sia that discussed this song, and she said it addressed her hopelessness and depression being trapped in the life of an artist, and her drug addiction.

I don't know who choreographed the dance, but whoever did had a strong hold on the message and Maddie conveyed it magically in this dark and intriguing music video.

Probably the best song and music video so far in 2014, it will be interesting to see what comes of Sia in the future, especially with her career in song writing really exploding. I'm no expert on music or films, but even I can tell that this is something special.

Rosalie Williams