ARC Book Review: Pizza, Love, and Other Stuff That Made Me Famous

LC's Summer Reads will be featured throughout the Summer of 2012-- These are books that I decided would be perfect for on the beach, in the sun, or pretty much wherever I happen to be this summer! Click on the button above to see what other books I plan on reading! :)

*****

Author: Kathryn Williams
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Release Date: August 21, 2012
Pages: 240
Read it in: 1 day
Source: ARC from the Publisher

Summary: Sixteen-year-old Sophie Nicolaides was practically raised in the kitchen of her family’s Italian-Greek restaurant, Taverna Ristorante. When her best friend, Alex, tries to convince her to audition for a new reality show, Teen Test Kitchen, Sophie is reluctant. But the prize includes a full scholarship to one of America's finest culinary schools and a summer in Napa, California, not to mention fame.

Once on-set, Sophie immediately finds herself in the thick of the drama—including a secret burn book, cutthroat celebrity judges, and a very cute French chef. Sophie must figure out a way to survive all the heat and still stay true to herself. A terrific YA offering--fresh, fun, and sprinkled with romance.

LC's Take:

Pizza/Love (my lazy way of writing that super-long title) was a really cute and light-hearted read-- definitely perfect for summertime! I knew from the moment I read this plot summary that this was going to be one of those books that is just a lot of fun to read, and puts you in a good mood :)

Sophie Nicolaides has spent pretty much her entire life living and working in her family's Greek/Italian restaurant, surrounded by the sounds of the kitchen and the smells and tastes of amazingly delicious food. Cooking has become her passion, but it isn't until her best friend Alex convinces her to join a teen cooking reality show that Sophie starts thinking she might have a chance at making it big-- maybe one day owning her own 5-star restaurant. As the show progresses, Sophie finds that being a reality star is nothing like she thought it would be, and she has to figure out how to remain true to herself and her family heritage while also making some of the best food anyone has ever tasted to win...

So this book was actually the second one I have read that centers around a popular kind of reality show-- the first one was The Selection by Kiera Cass, which was a spin-off of The Bachelor. I definitely think that Pizza/Love did a much better job at capturing the action and conflict of being on a reality show, and since cooking reality shows are my all-time favorite,  it was a lot of fun to read this kind of plot. The author takes the time to introduce us to all the contestants, and you definitely get a sense of all the crazy drama taking place as the show makes it more and more difficult to compete.

Another fun aspect of Pizza/Love was how it included recipes that were woven throughout the book-- I thought that this just added a unique touch and made you feel more connected to the whole story. 

I guess there were only two major problems that I had while reading-- the first was that I sometimes found the characters and even some of the writing to be slightly generic, even formulaic, in its style and the way things were presented. There wasn't anything blatantly horrible about either the writing or characters, but at the same time there wasn't anything incredibly mind-blowing or truly memorable about them either. The second issue I had was with the love triangle between Sophie, Alex, and Luc, which got to be sort of confusing. You never really had much of an idea of where Sophie stood-- it seemed as though she chose whatever guy was right there in front of her at the moment, and the other one was just conveniently forgotten.

I think maybe some readers could be a little iffy about this book, thinking that maybe it's a little *too* cutesy. I mean with that quirky title and slightly juvenile cover, I sort of knew going into this one that it was going to be targeted to the younger YA audience. However, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised that there was some edginess to the story-- nothing crazy, but the book wasn't so sickeningly sweet that I couldn't stand it or anything, and it didn't come across as being so juvenile that I felt like I was way too old to be reading it either.

Altogether, this was a fun and entertaining book that provided a really nice break from the darker paranormal/supernatural genres I'm reading this summer. I would say that if you are looking for a light, quick read to add into your summer TBR pile, this one is a good choice! But be warned-- you're going to want to eat a lot after finishing it ;)

~Cover Talk~

Totally going along with the cuteness of the story, the cover for Pizza/Love is really fun and adorable and immediately made me go "awww!" when I saw it. I guess the only thing that I don't like so much about this cover is that it does comes across as being a bit juvenile-- it just looks like a book cover for readers much younger than the 16-year old main character, maybe more like the 12-13 range. And I think that could be slightly misleading, because the story itself was definitely a lot of fun to read and isn't targeted only at a young crowd.

LC's Rating:

Totally cute and light-hearted, Pizza/Love was a perfect summertime book that can easily be finished in a day. The writing was slightly bland, but the reality show twist still made this one a lot of fun!

Check it out!

Summer Reading Book Review: In Honor

LC's Summer Reads will be featured throughout the Summer of 2012-- These are books that I decided would be perfect for on the beach, in the sun, or pretty much wherever I happen to be this summer! Click on the button above to see what other books I plan on reading! :)

*****

Author: Jessi Kirby
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Release Date: May 8, 2012
Pages: 240
Source: ARC from the publisher

Summary: Hours after her brother’s military funeral, Honor opens the last letter Finn ever sent. In her grief, she interprets his note as a final request and spontaneously decides to go to California to fulfill it.

Honor gets as far as the driveway before running into Rusty, Finn’s best friend since third grade and his polar opposite. She hasn’t seen Rusty in ages, but it’s obvious he is as arrogant and stubborn as ever—not to mention drop-dead gorgeous. Despite Honor’s better judgment, the two set off together on a voyage from Texas to California. Along the way, they find small and sometimes surprising ways to ease their shared loss and honor Finn’s memory—but when shocking truths are revealed at the end of the road, will either of them be able to cope with the consequences?

LC's Take:

In Honor was a really good summer read that was not only fun and entertaining, but also heartfelt and able to deal with difficult real-life issues in a very honest and straight-forward way. I think my favorite thing about this book was that it was so refreshingly realistic and the characters were very easy to relate to.

Honor has just graduated from high school-- and gone through her brother's funeral after finding out that he was killed in combat while fighting in the Middle East. All of a sudden, Honor's world just seems to be crashing down around her. All her plans for the future become blurry in the midst of her pain and grief at losing the guy she looked up to more than anyone else in the world. Honor's parents both died when she was young and her older brother Finn was her hero. To make things even more difficult, she receives a late letter from Finn 3 days after she learns of his death-- and in that letter are the last words she'll ever hear from him. With her future stretching out before her, Honor must learn to find peace after tragedy and move on-- because after all,  life will move on with or without her.

Now after reading a premise like that, you might be thinking to yourself, well this doesn't sound like it's going to be a very fun or uplifting kind of read-- in fact, it sort of sounds down-right depressing! But Jessi was able to take a very painful topic and turn it into a learning experience for her main character, while also giving hope to the story and even some humor.

Honor as the main character was so easy to relate to, mainly because we really get to see inside her head and experience everything that she's going through. I definitely liked how reflective the story was-- I think in some books you want to have lots of action, but in this book it was just nice to read from a more emotional and reflective point of view. The reader can see how Honor deals with the loss of her brother and how she's able to come to peace about it-- as much as a person really can in that kind of situation-- while gaining the strength and maturity to move forward. I thought that that was very inspiring.

I also loved how we get to know Finn though Honor's memories of him. By the end of this book, you feel like you know the brother and friend that Finn was, and his character was very multi-dimensional despite him not ever being totally present in the story. At the end, we find out about the sacrifice he made out of love for his little sister, and you just can't help but love this guy who did everything he could to protect Honor.

Rusty-- Finn's best friend who follows Honor on her road-trip adventure that was brought on by Finn's last letter-- was a more difficult character to like. He definitely had his own personal demons-- drinking heavily and frequently being one of them-- that left me feeling a bit uneasy about him. He and Honor develop a kind of love-hate relationship, and even though I can sort of understand Honor's eventual attraction to him, a lot of his behavior just really bothered me. Rusty, despite drinking too much and giving Honor a hard time, is still her only close connection to her brother. With Rusty, she has someone who can truly empathize with her and mourn the loss of someone she loved and depended on.

But guess what! There is NO insta-love in this book, and even by the end of the story, things are left on a much more realistic note than a lot of other YA books. So even though Rusty wasn't my favorite guy ever, I think that Honor's relationship with him was much more true-to-life than other ones I've read about. I think you could agree that, even though it wasn't perfect, it wasn't ridiculously unrealistic either.

Just a warning, there is A LOT of drinking in this book. So if you don't really like that kind of thing in YA books, then it might bother you here. There's even a "tequila night" thrown in towards the end, where I could literally feel Honor's hang-over afterwards. The author doesn't glorify drinking or anything, but she doesn't skirt around it either because-- well, duh, a lot of teens drink! So she keeps it real, even the ugly bits like hang-overs.

The end of the story was totally unexpected and I couldn't even believe what was happening at first. But since life is unexpected and I think the author was trying to stay as true to life as possible, it made sense to have such a crazy ending. Also, it ends on a hopeful note that life does go on even after something horrible has happened, and you will learn to laugh again and be happy even if you feel like you never could again.

In Honor was an awesome coming-of-age kind of story. In taking the road-trip with Rusty, Honor gains some closure about the loss of her brother, and even though she'll never be the same carefree, innocent girl ever again, she gains maturity and strength from the experience. The whole road-trip aspect of this book made this the perfect summer read for me, and I would definitely recommend it for your summer reading lists as well!

~Cover Talk~

I love this book cover. Like, LOVE IT. First of all, I've always wanted to go on a road trip through the deserts and "bad lands" out west, and this cover just screams "ROAD TRIP!" to me :) Not only that, but this cover matches the story perfectly, and as you read you'll see many aspects of the book portrayed on the cover. And I LOVE Honor's boots, I want them! When you turn the book over, there is a picture of Rusty-- my only wish is that their heads weren't cut off at the chin so we could see what they look like! I get why some covers do this but I always want to know what the rest of the character looks like! I also love the font used for the titles and author's name, so overall this cover is a definitely love for me :)

LC's Rating:

A really touching coming-of-age story about love, loss and learning to move on. The road-trip aspect of this story made it a lot of fun to read, and the message was very inspiring. Definitely a great summer book!

Get it! 

Amazon | Goodreads