Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley / ★★★ 1/2
Genre: Young Adult/Contemporary/Romance
Summary: Rachel moved away three years ago after confessing her feelings to her best friend, Henry, and never speaking to him again. Since then, her brother has died, and when she moves back and gets a job at Henry’s bookshop, things with Henry, and her life, begin to grow back together.
I received this book for Christmas and it gripped me so quickly I managed to read the entire thing that very day. It’s a romance on the surface, but speaks on a deeper level about grief, and I thought it was a lovely story about friendship and healing and love. This is a great book if you’re looking for an enjoyable friends-to-lovers story, and the writing was wonderful. I loved the use of the bookshop setting, how the characters didn’t love only classic authors, but more contemporary and obscure ones- it was a true book lover’s story.
I really liked Rachel as a character, I loved her broodiness and how that develops over the course of the book as she comes to terms with her grief over her brother. Henry, however, I was a little on the fence of. I loved his personality, he was quirky and funny in a way that amused me and I found likable, but I didn’t quite feel that ever quite grew out of the shallowness we see in him at the beginning, particularly when it comes to the romance. Where Rachel developed beautifully, Henry seemed a little stuck behind. I think a reason for this is because the last few chapters of the book seemed to pick up a little too quickly. While the first 3/4 parts of book advanced at a comfortable pace, once we passed a certain point near the end, I felt like the author began to race to the finish, and I found myself confused as seemingly important details became rushed or glossed over. I really enjoyed this book, but I did walk away slightly disappointed by the ending. Had it not been for that, this book would definitely have been a full 4 stars. Still, it was a very enjoyable, quick read that evoked a lot of emotion from me.
Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills / ★★★★☆
Genre: Young Adult/Contemporary/Romance
Summary: When Claudia overhears the breakup between Iris and Paige, the most popular couple in school, she gets on the bad side of Iris, the meanest girl in school. When they’re forced to work on a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream together, neither are very happy. But mandatory participation has its upsides—namely, an unexpected friendship, a boy band obsession, and a guy with the best dimpled smile Claudia’s ever seen.
This book was a delight. My first impression of this book was that it seemed a bit too cutesy, and YOU KNOW WHAT it was cutesy, but it was the kind of cutesy that gels with me. It took me a few chapters to get into, but the humor quickly won me over, and by extension the characters. The romance was cute – the conflict between the most popular couple in school, Iris and Paige, was well done, and even though their romance was a relatively minor one, I was INVESTED. And the romance and relationship between the main character, Claudia, and Gideon Prewitt, the most popular boy in school, was very sweet and just…fun. And more than that, the friendships. I hadn’t expected to find myself so invested in the friendships and relationships between the characters, and the way each one of them developed was so sweetly done.
I was confused as to why Gideon Prewitt shared a name with a Harry Potter character, even if a rather obscure one, but I came to realize that Foolish Hearts was an unexpected ode to fandom- namely video games, theater, and boybands. As someone who has always been extremely prone to boyband obsessions, this book was HIGHLY relatable, to the point that I was actually laughing out loud because of the amount of detail Emma Mills included, particularly in reference to One Direction (the band in this book is fictional- but everything about them is NOT). So on a personal level, that aspect of the book was delightful to read. I loved the fandom element of this book, and I thought it added so much passion to the characters and the story.
This was another sweet, fast-paced read that I finished in two days, and I highly recommend if you’re in the mood for something cute and quick!
Conclusion: If you’re in the mood for some quick, sweet contemporary YA romances, I recommend these both!
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