Down the Rabbit Hole

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

The rules are simple:

Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want.
Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to The Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other blogger’s lists.
Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week on TTT is a Valentine’s/love themed freebie. I considered going with book covers or favourite rom-coms, but felt this one calling to me.

So I will be presenting a variety of books I have loved or am excited to read with the word “love” in its name. I feel these are a good selection of books from fictional, sweep-me-off-your-feet kind of love to the more grounded makings of love in a marriage.

As usual, in no particular order, here we go!

1. To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

I read this book when it first came out, and I have always acknowledged that this was the book that prompted my first review because I loved it so much on so many levels. I love the Asian representation in Lara Jean and her discovery for balancing all that she was.

But since this is a love post, let me just make it simple. #TeamPeterK all the way 😉 Peter was like the book boyfriend in my teenage mind, and my more grown-up mind can’t find too many reasons to shoot it down now either. Also, that hot tub scene…phew, is all I can say. You can read my review HERE.

If you loved this series, be sure to check out the Netflix movies for each of these books. The movie based on book 3, Always and Forever, Lara Jean comes out THIS Friday, February 12!

2. How to Love by Katie Cotugno

This was a real treasure when I first read it. Down to earth, full of life’s big problems that “love” and all its connotations may not always be able to overcome so simply. I think as an adult now, re-reading this would bring to light things I possibly missed as a teenager, but either way this was a beautiful story about the messiness in life and how love is built on many little imperfect moments instead of one giant perfect thing.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a deeper read into love that isn’t just a foregone conclusion they’d get together or for simple fun. Definitely not a rom-com, but I would say showcases love in all its many facets.

You can check out my review HERE.

3. Frankly in Love by David Yoon

Talk about representation in mainstream YA love stories! This would’ve done wonders for me when I was growing up to have seen characters like me in the stories I read and found on bookstore shelves. While I have not gotten the chance to read this book in its entirety yet, I am excited about its whole premise centred on Asian children born in Western societies and the balance of figuring out who they are. It’s essentially a balance I find in myself too, and I’m stoked to see it explored in a book.

4. Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

This is actually one of the few on the list I want to read! It has been on my TBR for years. I feel bad for saying that. But it sounds like a wonderful story of love and self-discovery, all under the beautiful Tuscany sun. Sometimes you just want that sweet, cute, heartwarming book where the characters just get together, you know?

If any of you HAVE read it, I would love to know what you thought on it!

5. To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn

I haven’t read this one either but got to hop on that Bridgerton curiosity that took the show binging world by storm. While I don’t always read romances such at these (or even less, blog about them), I do have to say I love Regency-era books. So with slight trepidation, I may have to keep an eye out for these books once the craze has died down a little so it’s possible to get a copy from the library.

Also, I haven’t watched Bridgerton yet. I am still debating if it’s worth the hype. I would love some honest opinions though!

6. The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman

I loved learning about my love language and my boyfriend’s love language. Thankfully we both feel loved through quality time, which is the one blessing of the pandemic to get more time with each other.

While I love romantic, fantastical love stories, when it comes to my own, I’ve learned the hard way that it isn’t necessarily like the kind of love portrayed in fictional stories. It takes work and communication after the initial butterflies die down (and they do at some point). This book is a winner in my eyes for any couple learning to communicate their need to be loved and how that looks like for one another in the long-term.

7. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

One of my very first contemporaries in YA I gravitated towards – I was very heavily a fantasy-only kind of preteen – I adored its concept and the execution of this fast-paced, 24-hour span romance on second chances and fateful connections. While the title suggests it’s on instant attraction alone, I do think it’s more nuanced than that as our two protagonists spend a flight across the ocean together. I love slow burn attraction but this was one story that did the chemistry and banter right. If you want to see more of my thoughts, my review is HERE.

8. Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella

I’m a huuuuggge Sophie Kinsella fan ever since I picked up her first Shopaholic book in seventh grade (I’m not sure it was the most appropriate thing to read but oh well). I don’t find most rom-coms actually funny – maybe the protagonist’s sense of humour just isn’t for me – but I never lacked laughs when seeing Sophie’s heroines at their antics.

I will admit that I have yet to read this one but I’m super hopeful it’s like a lot of her other books that will give me a good laugh and lots of feels at the end of the day.

9. Love Her Wild by Atticus

Cannot do this list without a collection of poems. I’ve only in more recent years delved into poetry (thank you to working at a bookstore for 2 years), but I’m grateful I have entered this wonderful world of feelings and emotions. Atticus is one of the more popular poets, and he has such quotable phrases that are known to be used for permanent tattoos. I personally just love the style, and the added ambience of photography really enhances the setting, drawing the reader to look deep into themselves and embrace what resonates.

10. Love, Life and the List by Kasie West

Last, but never least, one of my all-time favourite contemporary romances featuring a friends-to-lovers trope is this beauty by Kasie West. There were so many things I loved about this one, from a checklist of self-discovery items that challenged our protagonist to FEEL, to the angst and all the feels in her crush on her best friend. It balances my love for rom-com and lighthearted romance with my deep appreciation for writing about what’s real regarding the emotions love invokes.

Its title couldn’t be more aptly named, and I think it’s one of Kasie’s best works. Check out my review HERE.

What do you think? Are there other books with “love” in its title you feel should be on here? Always happy to chat!

Until next time, friends!

5 star, YA

ARC Review: Game Changer by Neal Shusterman

February 8, 2021February 8, 2021 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

All it takes is one hit on the football field, and suddenly Ash’s life doesn’t look quite the way he remembers it.

Impossible though it seems, he’s been hit into another dimension—and keeps on bouncing through worlds that are almost-but-not-really his own.

The changes start small, but they quickly spiral out of control as Ash slides into universes where he has everything he’s ever wanted, universes where society is stuck in the past…universes where he finds himself looking at life through entirely different eyes.

And if he isn’t careful, the world he’s learning to see more clearly could blink out of existence…

**Game Changer comes out February 9, 2021!**

Thank you Edelweiss and HarperCollins for this copy in exchange for an honest review

That basic human need for identity is, and has always been, a double-edged sword. Because the closer to our feet we draw that line in the sand, the more we see everyone else as the enemy.

I don’t have any coherent words to say, but I will do my utmost best.

Game Changer is a different kind of story than Neal’s other books, but at the same time, I totally see how it is in his wheelhouse of ideas. While I have seen other early reviewers calling it preachy and taking on too much, I think this was the author’s way of dealing with the wreckage that was 2020. I mean, even COVID was mentioned briefly as a defining moment of history. Like, hey, remember the year everyone went into lockdown due to COVID? Yep. Not sure if I’m ready to see this mentioned in my fictional books, but I totally understand at the same time.

We follow Ash, full name Ashley, a football lineman. I know next to nothing about football – I’m sorry it’s not my country’s sport? – but this isn’t a football-focused story. It’s just the vehicle by which Ash finds himself hurtling through different dimensions of the same world if certain changes or decisions were unmade. I know, this sounds super vague but bear with me.

At first it may be a little confusing to get into. What? Different worlds? Trust me, you just got to hang in there. The changes initially start small. Just one small detail Ash notices that wasn’t the same as what he previously knew the world to be like. However, no one else in his circle of family, friends or townspeople can recall these changes. It’s like the world never made those decisions and Ash is the only one who remembers a different reality where it existed.

I always admire Neal for his ingenuity and creative thinking. I like this take on multi dimensions. And with each dimension Ash accidentally jumps into, the larger the changes and the more drastic consequences. The interactions and events that occur in each dimension’s timeline are still remembered in the new dimension, but with altered memories to fit the narrative of what that world looks like. Yes, it’s a bit complicated but it’s interesting once we’re there.

Now, where do the more negative reviews stem from? This book tackles A LOT of big issues. Racism and segregation, homophobia and hate crimes, sexism and emotional/physical abuse, it’s a lot to learn and take in for just one of these let alone ALL of these. I get that.

BUT I also see where the author is coming from. I don’t see it from the stance that he fully explored each topic in depth (of course he didn’t), but to showcase how imperfect our world is and what more we need to work on as a society together. Yes, sometimes you may feel called out on our own privileges and our ignorance. I think that’s the point. Neal Shusterman’s books always make us think beyond just the story itself to what our own reality and life is like. What makes us tick. What breaks us apart. What builds us up together. It’s the beauty of it!

I can promise you, the ending isn’t just a white-saviour complex whereby Ash, a white dude, saves everything and all is good in the world. No, the point is that there is still a lot to be done and it starts by each of us owning our own biases and figuring out what we CAN do besides just silently agreeing. The ending is hope.

I personally loved the way Neal introduced, not necessarily solved or fully addressed, each social issue we have through Ash’s eyes. I don’t feel called out by it but invigorated to learn more and do more in my life. I hope you pick up this book and feel the same. Let’s not just get defensive but let it bring us to discuss these things to learn and DO something about it.

I have been schooled in my own ignorance. That’s not a bad thing…Perhaps, in the end, that’s the perspective that matters. Only by being humbled can we ever hope to be great.
Ashley Bowman

Overall Recommendation:

Game Changer is one of those books that stay long with you after its final pages are turned. Juggling many things at once, it delicately balances the need to show us the imperfections of our society and world while emphasizing the optimism and hope that we can do better as a whole together. Shusterman excellently throws these perspectives together in a story of multi dimensions through one boy’s eyes. Following Ash’s journey as he unravels his own ignorance and views of the world is eye-opening and guaranteed to shine a light on our own perspectives as we journey with him. What a read indeed!

2.5 star, adult

Review: The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

February 6, 2021February 5, 2021 Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.

She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them.

Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.

The can’t-look-away story of three entangled families living in a house with the darkest of secrets.

I must say that I was quite disappointed with this thriller. Not that it was particularly badly written or anything, but for my usual expectations for this kind of story, it just fell short for me, personally. Having said that though, perhaps this could be considered a lighter type of thriller, and is maybe more suitable for readers new to thrillers, since I didn’t find it neither particularly chilling nor scary – again, all personal opinions of course.

This story follows a couple of POVs, the main one being Libby Jones, who finds out she is a the sole inheritor of a large estate. This estate has a twisted history though, and was left abandoned for a reason. Simultaneous to the story line of Libby investigating her mysterious past, another voice begins narrating the “chilling” events of the past leading up to the house being left to Libby.

The past involves the downfall of Libby’s birth parents (from riches to rags, if you will), and the following families who come to live with them to share the cost of the large house. However, not all is as it seems with these families who arrive, as the family slowly discovers. The twisting and perversion of this household is the “scary” thing that happens in the book, though I did not personally find it to be that convincing. While I could understand perhaps how it may have come about, I wasn’t particularly enamoured with the way things transpired, and as such, did not find the book too enjoyable. Or perhaps this is a sign that I have read too many thrillers and have certain expectations set for the level of drama that I want to see happen. Either way, unfortunately, this book was just not for me.

Overall Recommendations:

If you are looking for truly haunting and chilling thrillers, I would recommend looking elsewhere. The Family Upstairs follows the unveiling of the secrets of the past, of what happened at Libby’s birth home to cause it to be abandoned until she was of age. If you are new to thrillers, and may not want huge scares or major anxiety-inducing plots, this may be the book for you! I would say that it has many elements of a classic thriller, but they are all fairly tame – so if that is what you are looking for, this may be right up your alley.