These Great Affects by Andrew Toy

These Great Affects by Andrew Toy

Published: November 6th 2016 by Endever Publishing.

Adelle is the center of this upcoming young adult book, These Great Affects by Andrew Toy. Adelle and Trill meet in an unconventional way. They also are forced to say goodbye too soon, even before they have a chance to kiss, hug, or even hold hands. When Trill’s life is cut unexpectedly short, Adelle begins to believe that love just isn’t for her. But she has second thoughts when Trill comes back to visit her as a ghost, and at first it seems they’ve been given a second chance. But soon they realize the awful truth: will she really have to say goodbye to him again?

Note: I received an ARC of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. This in no way influences my opinion.

Andrew Toy’s blog is a blog that I have followed from the very beginning of my blogging career. Even when I finally swapped blogs out to blog about books, I continued to follow his blog. When I saw this book, I had to request it! I am so glad that I did. This book broke me in so many ways, but it was a beautiful look at love and loss and a bunch of things on between.

Adelle is our MC. She is the daughter of a Senator and she hates it. I loved her personality! she was fun and quirky when you get to know her. I loved her passions and the way in which she got to know Trill. I felt extremely sorry for her throughout the book. I wanted to wrap her up in a ball of bubble wrap and never let her go! Her storyline is full of pain and loss and I loved to follow her and watch her grow throughout the book. I cried a lot for this character and the things that she went through. I was a blubbering mess – lets put it that way!

Trill!! I don’t even know how to put my love for this character into words. E is the kind of person that you hope to meet and someone you should never let go of if you do! He is full of life and personality and is generally a joy. Again, I balled like a baby because his story ways not a pretty one – even thinking about it is making me all teary eyed. The worst things always happen to the best people.

This book faces a lot of major issues. Love, Loss, friendship and how to move on after facing the loos of someone who is extremely loved and cherished. Trying to live with guilt that isn’t yours to carry as well as trying to find happiness after the loss of someone you love. I loved to watch this story play out because it broke me in so many ways! I laughed, cried and felt along with these characters! As a reader, you become so emotionally invested in this story, it is difficult to put down. It is a story that will stick with me!

The only thing I have with this book is that the timeline wasn’t always clear. It would jump a couple of weeks ahead and it wasn’t made clear when it did that – so I got a little confused!

This story is a beautiful book that will stay with me forever. It deals with a lot of issues in a way that makes the reader feel completely immersed in the story to the point where you feel what the characters are feeling and your heart bleeds for the characters! I cried buckets throughout and laughed at other moments. I can’t wait to see more from this author! I gave this book 4.5/5 stars.

Distraction by Laura Clark

Seventeen-near-old, Laila Patterson, would never describe her heart as fickle. She understands the difference between reality and fantasy, which is why Sam Woodson is not realistic boyfriend material. After all, he is in college, and college boys simply do not date high school girls. Plus, he is Laila’s older brother’s best friend. According to the unspoken bro-code, messing around with your friend’s little sister is pretty high on the list of forbidden taboos. 

What happens when Laila discovers that her secret crush on Sam isn’t quite so one-sided? What if the only way to keep him is to keep their relationship hush-hush? Is Sam worth all of the lying and sneaking around? 

As if things weren’t confusing enough with Sam, an old family friend suddenly shows up after being gone for more than three years. She isn’t expecting Trevor Maddox to move back to Westbrook. She isn’t expecting him to attend her high school, and she certainly isn’t expecting him to be so damned gorgeous. 

Laila doesn’t want or need this unexpected distraction. . . or does she? (Goodreads)

Note: I was approached by the author, who offered me a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.

When Laura Clark offered me a copy of this book, I had never heard of it before. After reading the synopsis on Goodreads, I decided to spring on the opportunity that I had, and was given a copy of this book. My relationship was pretty much a love hate relationship. There were things that I adored and there were things that I detested. At some points this book really bugged me, but, for some reason, there was just something compelling me to carry on reading – in short, I couldn’t stop reading, even though I wanted to at times! In short, I am going to list my loves and hates.

As always, bad stuff first:

Grammatical errors: considering this is a book that has actually been published and isn’t an ARC copy, I was disappointed to find a couple of grammatical errors and, what I assume is, typo’s. The publishers and the author should’ve had a better look!

Laila’s indecisiveness: Whilst this works to a certain extent, it bugged the … out of me after a certain amount of time. It was grating, I was cringing and this is where I started to struggle with this book. While I mostly liked both guy characters, Laila bugged me!

The love hexagon: We ended up going from a love triangle to a love hexagon – which is almost kind of confusing. While it was fairly easy to keep up with, it probably would have been better with two separate triangles..- if we really need that many love problems!!

Cliche’s: I am all for cliche’s, this book was, however, too full of them!! It seemed like every page had some form of cliche on it which was just cringeworthy!

Italics: Every other word was put into italics!! They are supposed to be used to emphasise something important, but it seemed like the author was emphasising the least important words in the sentence!! It made me want to retype the entire book!

Onto the good news!!

Chemistry: I loved the chemistry between multiple characters! I think my favourite feely – creating chemistry was between Laila and Trevor! I adored them together, and they are the official couple that I ship in this book!

The ‘rents: Most times, the parents within book are old fashioned and annoying. What I loved about this book was the fact that Laila’s parents are hip and in the 21st century! They like music that their kids like and they act younger than they really should whilst still acting like a typical parent!

Cliche’s: I know, I know! I literally just said that I disliked the cliche’s!n Well, having said that, there were a couple within the book that had me feeling the feels! It was just so cute!!

Sam and Laila’s first date: Can I just say awwwwww!!! It is the kind of date that only ever happens in movies and books and leaves the audience jealous because they want that for themselves… at least the women do!

Reality: This book was almost like jumping into someone’s reality! It wasn’t difficult to imagine that this could actually happen in real life, which made the book more enjoyable. I think that, with books like these, it is vital for it to be imaginable as a real life situation because there is no fantasy or supernatural side to it!

These are all my loves and hates! I am sorta, kinda looking forward to the next book – it is definitely on my TBR list 🙂 I am giving this book 3.5/5 stars.