Review: THE CHAPEL WARS by Lindsey Leavitt

Title: The Chapel Wars
Author: Lindsey Leavitt
Publication date: May 6, 2014
Publisher: Bloomsbury

Sixteen-year-old Holly wants to remember her Grandpa forever, but she’d rather forget what he left her in his will: his wedding chapel on the Las Vegas strip. Whatever happened to gold watches, savings bonds, or some normal inheritance? 

And then there's Grandpa's letter. Not only is Holly running the business with her recently divorced parents, but she needs to make some serious money—fast. Grandpa also insists Holly reach out to Dax, the grandson of her family's mortal enemy and owner of the cheesy chapel next door. No matter how cute Dax is, Holly needs to stay focused: on her group of guy friends, her disjointed family, work, school and... Dax. No wait, not Dax. 

Holly’s chapel represents everything she’s ever loved in her past. Dax might be everything she could ever love in the future. But as for right now, there's a wedding chapel to save.

First line: Inheritance.

Oh, Lindsey. She never fails me. If you ever want a cute, fun book GO TO HER. When life, school, and the future stresses me out way more than usual, I don't want a book that will stress me out further with issues. I don't want one that's depressing. I want THIS kind of book. Sure, the protagonist has problems (every book should be like that), but it's still enjoyable. It's like cold, sweet ice cream on a hot day, the fluff you need in your hard life. 

Before I read The Chapel Wars:

After I read The Chapel Wars: 

What this book had going was Holly. And Dax. And the dead grandpa. Basically, the characters. Dead grandpa, say what? Well, the whole book is about how Holly's grandpa dies and leaves her his beloved chapel in his will, much to everyone's surprise (and everyone else's disappointment). However, despite him being dead, I absolutely loved him. I think he would be someone I would love to know and be around. While he has his issues, like everyone, through Holly's narration and implications throughout the book, the grandpa seemed like a fun, lovable guy. His personality shined through despite him never actually showing up in the book besides the funeral. 

Then we have Holly and Dax. Holly's narration captured my interest from the start. Leavitt always creates interesting narrations that I never get tired of reading. Holly is caught in a Romeo & Juliet-type of situation and a what-am-I-going-to-do situation, and I cheered her on the entire time. She needed to figure out what she needed and even truly wanted. Her determination was admirable, but I felt like if she could've heard me, I would have encouraged her to really think about what she wants in life. Do you really want the chapel? Do you really want to keep going the way you are? Do you really want to push the adorable Dax away? I THINK NOT. I loved watching her grow, her spunk and humor making me love her even more, and the complications surrounding her making her life even more interesting to read about.

And we have Dax, the cute guy next door, who has so many problems of his own. Family problems, personal problems, oh, those stupid problems. At a couple points, I actually wanted them to split up because I thought Dax was striking out in the what-to-look-for-in-a-good-mate department. However, he did win me over. Charming, witty, and good looking. Hello. 

The conclusion was, for me, a great way to end. It wasn't entirely predictable and cliche. It wasn't neatly wrapped up and a cheesy Disney Channel movie ending. Personally, I considered it to be enjoyable and even refreshing. 

Family, love, humor, and good old Las Vegas came through in this one, making it a delightful read in a not-so-fun time for me. 

Verdict: This can be called the opposite of disappointment.

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there! Biological, foster, adoptive, stepmothers, "second" mothers, and grandmothers. You matter. 

Happy Mama's Day to the best one out there!

Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I'd Like in My Fictional Family

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

Imagine yourself being able to pick who's in your family. Now imagine that you get to pick fictional characters. What a plethora of choices. I love my family, but it is fun to imagine being related to my favorite characters.

The Hubermanns from The Book Thief

Role: Grandparents

How cute would these two be as grandparents? Sure, they're not that old, but Hans is so sweet with Liesel and underneath her tough exterior, Rose is too. I can picture visiting them and having him play the accordion while she cooks. 

Matthew from Anne of Green Gables

Role: Great uncle

MATTHEW! Sweetest old man ever. Of course, when you get Matthew, you get Marilla. Fine by me. 

Mr. and Mrs. Lancaster from The Fault in Our Stars

Role: Parents

One of the best examples of PRESENT parents. Not absent, dead, or dealing with problems of their own. They rock.

Finnick from Catching Fire

Role: Uncle

Let's just forget about how swoon-worthy Finnick is and focus on the fact that he'd make one awesome uncle (or even brother). Plus, I'd get sugar.

Celaena from Throne of Glass

Role: Cousin (source)

She's killer (literally), but is also in touch with her feminine side. We'd have fun hanging out, that's for sure. And Chaol would be a great inclusion to the family as well.

Anne from Anne of Green Gables

Role: Cousin

Oh, the adventures we'd have. But I want Gil.

Roar from Under the Never Sky

Role: Brother

Totally stole this picture from my sister who fan-casted Matt Bomer as Roar (perfect). Another fictional guy I have a crush on, but he'd be an amazing brother. 

Jane from Pride and Prejudice

Role: Sister

I initially went with Elizabeth, but then thought 1. Mr. Darcy is mine and 2. Mr. Bingley would be a GREAT brother-in-law. Caroline Bingley can go die somewhere.

Jo from Little Women

Role: Sister

Or the whole March family except Amy. But mainly, I think Jo and I would have fun together if we don't clash. 

Liz from Gallagher Girls

Role: Sister (source)

LIZ IS SO CUTE. She'd make an adorable little sister. One that I might feel too over protective of or jealous of her smarts, but adorable nonetheless.

Kat's family/crew from Heist Society

Role: Extended family (source)

I just want all of Kat's family and crew to be in my extended family somewhere. Italian families seem fun. Crazy, but fun.

But no matter how awesome these fictional characters are, I do love my family. 

Who would you like in your fictional family?

Review: HEARTBEAT by Elizabeth Scott

Title: Heartbeat

Author: Elizabeth Scott

Publication date: January 28, 2014

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Source: An e-ARC provide by the publisher for an honest review, 100%.

Life. Death. And...Love?

Emma would give anything to talk to her mother one last time. Tell her about her slipping grades, her anger with her stepfather, and the boy with the bad reputation who might be the only one Emma can be herself with.

But Emma can't tell her mother anything. Because her mother is brain-dead and being kept alive by machines for the baby growing inside her.

Meeting bad-boy Caleb Harrison wouldn't have interested Old Emma. But New Emma-the one who exists in a fog of grief, who no longer cares about school, whose only social outlet is her best friend Olivia-New Emma is startled by the connection she and Caleb forge.

Feeling her own heart beat again wakes Emma from the grief that has grayed her existence. Is there hope for life after death-and maybe, for love?

Review:

Her mother is brain-dead so that the baby inside can live and Emma lives with her stepfather? New and interesting concept! How does someone even deal with that? Your mother is right there in front of you, but you know she won't ever wake up. At the same time, her stomach is moving because of the baby inside of her so it gives you a sense of twisted hope and feeds your longing to have your mom back.

The unfortunate thing about it all is that any possible intrigue into this book stops there. The whole time I read it, I felt as if I was a hamster on its stupidly annoying wheel. Running around and around, never going anywhere. We have conflict between Dan, the stepfather, and Emma, but I lost all sympathy for her pretty quickly. The anger and hurt from her to him was supposed to make us feel and be emotional. But it didn't, at least not for me.

The situation: Emma was angry and hurt with her stepfather because she believes that her mother only got pregnant to make Dan happy. Once her mother went brain-dead, the doctor gave Dan the choice to either keep the baby alive by putting tubes into his wife or pull the plug. Obviously, he chose to keep his baby son alive. Emma believed that Dan pushed her mother into this horrible fate and once she died, only was using her to gain what he wanted. After he he got what he wanted, he would throw away his wife without a care in the world. To Emma, the years they spent as a family meant nothing to him, that he didn't love either of them.

My problem: I wanted to say that Emma sounded like a thirteen year old, but I sounded more mature than that at thirteen. Of course, that's not good considering that she's seventeen. Seventeen! A senior in high school, getting ready for college, supposedly used to be the top in her class; and how does she act? Like an immature kid who only sees her narrow way and no one else's. Whenever she has a confrontation with Dan (which happened frequently), he tries to tell her his side and she refuses to hear it, only attempting to be cuttingly sarcastic and wanting to win at the blame game.

The situation: CALEB.

My problem: While they "knew" each other before, it still felt like insta-love. Caleb starts staring at her and she finds that compelling. Wait a second. A guy, who has stolen cars and did drugs and has gone to rehab, is staring creepily at you and you're captivated and you SWOON? She swoons! If that happened to me, I would avoid all contact and be very paranoid. Not just because of his past, but because creepily staring is creepy. Another bad side to Caleb is how Emma acts with Caleb. I lost count of how many times she says "Caleb is the only one who understands." If I lost count of how many times she said that, I lost count of how many times I rolled my eyes throughout the whole book. She suddenly replaces her best friend with this guy, acts as if they are meant to be because he is the "only one who understands" her, and I'm supposed to like them as a couple?

The situation: The ending.

My problem: A pet peeve of mine is when things are wrapped up too neatly and too quickly. This is was one of those books that seemed like there was a fairy flying around and waved her wand so poof! it's fixed! Actually, having a fairy in this story would have made it way better.

Weirdly enough, I didn't DNF it. Why waste my time? I went through this whole book with no connection to the character and lots of eye rolling, but I kept going.

Good: I thought after Emma kept rehashing and rehashing and rehashing her mom's situation and the conflict with Dan and the baby that I would lose every bit of interest in the storyline. Oddly, I still wanted to see it through and wait until I read about that baby out of her mom's stomach. So I guess that's a redeeming factor. Also, the book wasn't horrible, just annoying.

Good: It was a quick read.

Just a few eye-roll worthy quotes:

"I don't even know what a gallbladder is."

"It helps with digestion, but you don't have to have one, especially if it gets infected. Or if you get gallstones."

"Oh," Caleb says, leaning forward a little and looking at the ground. His hair falls over his face again. "You really are smart. I mean, I knew you were because of all the classes you're in, but still."

THAT is smart? You're honestly impressed that she knows what a gallbladder is? You both are SENIORS in high school. 

No one can make things better, but Caleb...Caleb gets it in a way no one else does.

On page 125 and I feel like she's said it 125,000 times. 

It's Caleb. And he's awake.

You have to read the book to actually get this one, but really, you thought he would be asleep? Did you want to watch him sleep? YOU CAME TO HIS HOUSE AT NIGHT. I don't get this.

"You're supposed to be asleep," I say, and Caleb stares at me.

Oh. Well, apparently, she did want him to be asleep. And now Caleb is not the official creepy one.

[insert one of her many rants toward Dan]
Blah, blah, whine, blah, blah, whine, blah

While it was an interesting concept, it lacked execution. Overall, it was an annoying meh bordering on an angry ugh, if that makes sense.

Verdict: Annoying aspects to a potentially great plot that gave my eyes a workout from all the rolling.

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