Review: If I stay by Gayle Forman

This isn’t a new book by any means, so many of you have probably heard of it. It’s a book about Mia, a seventeen year old girl who has a terrible car accident while on a family trip with her parents and her little brother, and ends up in bad shape in a hospital, looking down at her battered body and trying to decide if she should stay and deal with what happened to her family or let go.

I knew there had been a movie made out of this book last year, but it was one of those cases where I wanted to read the book first. I liked the premise of the book and a few friends loved this book, so I really wanted to be madly in love with it too, but…I couldn’t.

Don’t get me wrong, the book is emotional and you feel for Mia and you sort of end up rooting for her and Adam (Mia’s boyfriend) along the way, but I was mostly left with a bitter taste in my mouth at the end. Like I wanted to ask, is that it? Well, technically, it isn’t. There’s a sequel out now – Where She Went.

Best quote: I shouldn’t have to care. I shouldn’t have to work this hard. I realize now that dying is easy. Living is hard.

Rating: Three stars

Kindle: 4 great books under $4!

• If I Stay (If I Stay, Book 1)
• Paper Towns
• Maude
• Dark Places: A Novel

Free Kindle Book Review: The Agreement (The Unrestrained Series Book 1)

We all love free stuff, right? But when it comes to books, and since we don’t have unlimited time to sit around and read, we want to make sure we will be intrigued, caught up, delighted, saddened (and so on…) by a good story we invest our precious time in and we feel cheated (even if the book was free!) if it falls short on our expectations.

The Agreement (The Unrestrained Series) (Volume 1)

The Agreement (which is available now for free on Kindle) is a story about Kate McDermott, who wants to write an article about the rise of the BDSM culture following the publication of “those books” (anyone else find it odd they mentioned “those books”, but not by name?). Much to her surprise, when her contact finds her a Dominant to interview and maybesomethingelse, who also happens to be a good friend of her father’s, she is mortified.

Lucky Kate, Dr. Drake Morgan – is anyone else getting flashed of Dr. Drake Ramoray? Anyone?? – is not only a Dominant, but a delicious brain surgeon with a good heart.

The Agreement is not going to change your life; it’s not even going to change the way you look at the BDSM culture/life/relationships – in reality I felt there was hardly any BDSM at all – but, having said that, I read the book in two days during a tough workweek so, if you’re into romances, and you liked those books (ha!), you might just enjoy this book enough to move on to the other books in the series (there are currently two more books available in The Unrestrained Series Collection).

Did you read it? Did you like it? Do you have any other free books worth reading? Let us know!

My rating: Three and a half stars

Additions to my bookshelf…

• The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce;
• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins