The NerdHerd Reads: Tamara Ireland Stone

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Every Last Word {by Tamara Ireland Stone}

Title: Every Last Word

Author: Tamara Ireland Stone

Genre: YA Contemporary

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Source: NetGalley

If you could read my mind, you wouldn't be smiling.
Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can't turn off.
Second-guessing every move, thought, and word makes daily life a struggle, and it doesn't help that her lifelong friends will turn toxic at the first sign of a wrong outfit, wrong lunch, or wrong crush. Yet Sam knows she'd be truly crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls in school. So when Sam meets Caroline, she has to keep her new friend with a refreshing sense of humor and no style a secret, right up there with Sam's weekly visits to her psychiatrist.
Caroline introduces Sam to Poet's Corner, a hidden room and a tight-knit group of misfits who have been ignored by the school at large. Sam is drawn to them immediately, especially a guitar-playing guy with a talent for verse, and starts to discover a whole new side of herself. Slowly, she begins to feel more "normal" than she ever has as part of the popular crowd . . . until she finds a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear.

I loved this story. I went into it wary, because I didn't really enjoy this author's other book, but it blew me away. It was an excellent story, told very well, and I loved it.

Sam is part of the elite group of popular girls in her class. She won't do anything to jeopardize that, which means being careful of everything she says or does, and not being her true self. What her friends don't know is that she has Purely-Obsessional OCD, and sees a psychiatrist every week. Then she meets Caroline, who she has to keep a secret from her friends. Caroline shows her a whole new world, and Sam has to decide which version of herself she wants to be.

I thought this story was very well done. It can be a hard thing to portray a mental illness in a story, so I love how this was well-researched and thought out, as to not wrongly portray it. But Sam is more than her diagnosis. We get to see the well-rounded, complex individual that she is. She has a lot of figuring out to do, so we get to see her grow and change and really figure out who she is as a person. I thought the romance with AJ was cute and sweet, and didn't overpower the darker, deeper elements of the story.

People were talking about the big twist that happened, which had me worried. I actually did not even see it coming until only a few pages before (and then, only because I had read a book right before it with the same sort of twist) and it still took me by surprise. I was very upset about it, which I take as a sign of exceptional writing.

I loved this story. I loved Sam, the secondary characters, the romance (which I hardly say), and the portrayal of mental illness in an honest and refreshing way. I think this is an important story for teens to read, and I would highly recommend it.

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Tamara Ireland Stone:

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Time Between Us {by Tamara Ireland Stone}

Title: Time Between Us

Author: Tamara Ireland Stone

Series: Time Between Us, #1

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Anna and Bennett were never supposed to meet: she lives in 1995 Chicago and he lives in 2012 San Francisco. But Bennett has the unique ability to travel through time and space, which brings him into Anna’s life, and with him a new world of adventure and possibility.
As their relationship deepens, the two face the reality that time may knock Bennett back to where he belongs, even as a devastating crisis throws everything they believe into question. Against a ticking clock, Anna and Bennett are forced to ask themselves how far they can push the bounds of fate, what consequences they can bear in order to stay together, and whether their love can stand the test of time.

I wanted to flail about this series like everyone else. I really did. But for whatever reason, I just could not get into it. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't my type of book. It took me a long time to get into it, and even then I was just reading to finish it. Maybe because I had read so much hype about it, my expectations were so high, and when it didn't meet those expectations, I was more disappointed than I would have been.

Anna is going on with life, aching for adventure and excitement. She longs to travel the world, but for right now, she is stuck in Chicago. Then, she meets Bennett. A boy who denies seeing her at the track--when she knows it was him--but then reacts so strangely to hearing her name. And eventually, Anna begins to learn his secrets. Bennett isn't from Chicago. He isn't even from 1995. He is from 2012 San Francisco, and he has come back to find his sister, who he lost when he brought her back in time to go to a concert. Except, meeting and falling in love with Anna wasn't part of his plan.

Both of these characters seemed to fall flat for me. Anna seemed whiny and annoying, and Bennett wasn't swoony. I know he was for some (read: every other girl except me) but for some reason, I just wasn't feeling it. First off, I didn't quite understand the whole time travel thing. I understood most of it, such as he couldn't go past his lifetime, and he couldn't (or wouldn't) go into the future. But there were some parts that he talked about, such as when he and Anna did try to do-over the day of the accident, that were so complex, and left me confused. Maybe I was just tired, maybe I wasn't paying enough attention, maybe it wasn't actually as complex as I thought it was. I don't know.

Also, rules. Bennett has a lot of rules about his time travel, and that's understandable. With something so crazy, there has to be limits. And though Anna called Bennett the hypocrite, I felt that she was the hypocrite. She didn't have respect for his rules. When her friend got into the car accident, she wanted Bennett to go against everything he believed in to do it over. When Bennett did over the robbery at the store so she would be safe, she was okay with it because it was for her benefit. But when Bennett did over their kiss because he didn't want to hurt her with the fact that he had to leave, she was outraged. When Bennett went back in time and gave his father stock tips so they could be rich, she was adamant that it was wrong. And yes, I do agree that maybe that part was wrong, But that was why Bennett had rules. And she completely didn't care.

Also, I was unsure as to what was going on, or what the plot was pretty much the whole time. Is he trying to find his sister, or is he trying to find a way to be with Anna? Was there something wrong with his time travel powers or not? (I mean, I know there definitely was at the end, but before that.) I really just didn't know what was going on, except that Anna and Bennett spent pretty much all their time together and blew everyone else off because they loved each other sooo much.

Strangely enough, I think I would recommend this book to others. It wasn't my type of book, but if you're the kind of person who likes this type of story, I really think you would love this story. And you could be one of the flailers ;)