How To Love
by Katie Cotugno

Publication Date: October 2013
Publisher: Quercus
Format: Paperback
Rating: 5/5
Buy the Book: Amazon|Book Depository

Summary
This is a love story. But it’s not what you think. This is not a first kiss, or a first date. This is not love at first sight. This is a boy and a girl falling in messy, unpredictable, thrilling love. This is the complicated route to happiness that follows. This is real. This is life. This is how to love. BEFORE: Reena has loved Sawyer LeGrande for as long as she can remember. But he’s never noticed her, until one day… he does. They fall in messy, complicated love. But then Sawyer disappears from their humid Florida town, leaving a devastated – and pregnant – Reena behind. AFTER: Three years later and there’s a new love in Reena’s life: her daughter Hannah. But just as swiftly and suddenly as he disappeared, Sawyer turns up again. After everything that’s happened, can Reena really let herself love Sawyer again? 

Goodreads

I loved this book from start to finish and what a great contemporary read this is. I love Sarah Dessen and this book reminded me very much of her writing style. I was in the mood for a deep and soulful kind of contemporary novel and this book was just what I've been needing to read. After an overload of fantasy and paranormal, this book was just like a breath of fresh air. 

How To Love follows the main character of Reena, a young women whose life has been turned upside down by an epic romance she shared with a guy named Sawyer. The book alternates between her life before she has her daughter and after the return of the mysterious Sawyer. This style of writing has the tendency to go horribly wrong, even in books that have the very best intentions. But in How To Love it just fits perfectly with the story. Not once did I lose the plot of the book and I actually really enjoyed getting a chance to read from different points in Reena's life. I loved the main character and I found it very easy to relate to her. Her thoughts and ways of putting everyone before herself was something I felt made her easily loved. Sawyer...oh my goodness...talk about the irresistible pull of a bad boy! Even though he is totally a bad guy whose more on the wrong side of the law than on the right side of it, I couldn't help but not fall for him as well. Because of my love for these main characters I found myself unable to put this book down.

How To love is a great read and, for it's hard hitting subject matter, I didn't find the book heavy at all. For a contemporary novel I thought it was fantastic and I definitely see myself rereading it again.

Waiting On Wednesday: The One by Keira Cass

The One (The Selection #3)
by Kiera Cass
Publication Date: May 2014
Publisher: HaperTeen
Format: Hardback

Summary:

The Selection changed the lives of thirty-five girls forever. And now, the time has come for one winner to be chosen. America never dreamed she would find herself anywhere close to the crown—or to Prince Maxon's heart. But as the competition approaches its end and the threats outside the palace walls grow more vicious, America realizes just how much she stands to lose—and how hard she'll have to fight for the future she wants. From the very first page of The Selection, this #1 New York Times bestselling series has captured readers' hearts and swept them away on a captivating journey... Now, in The One, Kiera Cass delivers a satisfying and unforgettable conclusion that will keep readers sighing over this electrifying fairy-tale long after the final page is turned. 

Goodreads

*Waiting On Wednesday* is weekly event held by Jill at Breaking The Spine and highlights some of the books most anticipated by bloggers.

I loved both The Selection and The Elite and am desperate to find out how this trilogy ends! May can't come fast enough!

Let me know what you're Waiting On in the comments!

Review: More Than This by Patrick Ness

More Than This
by Patrick Ness
Publication Date:September 2013
Publisher: Walker Books
Format: Paperback
Rating: 5/5
Buy the Book: Amazon|Book Depository

Summary:
A boy named Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America. But the neighborhood around his old house is overgrown, covered in dust, and completely abandoned. What’s going on? And why is it that whenever he closes his eyes, he falls prey to vivid, agonizing memories that seem more real than the world around him? Seth begins a search for answers, hoping that he might not be alone, that this might not be the hell he fears it to be, that there might be more than just this. . . .

Goodreads

More Than This by Patrick Ness is a book best appreciated in one epic sitting. It is a book that can only be fully understood by reading it in one go. This book is mindnumbingly brilliant!

More Than This follows a boy named Seth who drowns and wakes up in what seems like a giant world of a waiting room for heaven...or hell. Without divulging any spoilers Seth must try and make sense of events that led to his death and how he make all the wrongs right.

I went into reading More Than this with a total misunderstanding of what I was getting into. It had been hyped to me by fellow bloggers, co-workers and even publishers. So I had to move it up on the to-read pile and I'm so glad that I did. Patrick's writing is astounding beautiful. His world building, amazing and the character development is like none other I've ever come across. Reading More Than This has left me awed and slightly confused, thinking about things in different ways. Some aspects of the story I still grapple with, even though its been a couple of days since I put the book down. But this one of my favourite things about this book. It has stuck with me and will continue to be with me for quite some time.

More Than This sends you on a roller coaster ride of emotion and the characters somehow integrate themselves into your life and stay there. More Than This is a fantastic read and has left me wanting so much more than this (ha-ha...had to put that in there) from Patrick Ness!