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Showing posts with label Simone Elkeles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Simone Elkeles. Show all posts
My book Boyfriend is a weekly meme hosted by the unread reader (:
CALEB BECKER
-from Leaving Paradise and Return to Paradise
CALEB BECKER
-from Leaving Paradise and Return to Paradise
This week my book boyfriend is Caleb Becker from the Paradise series by Simone Elkeles. I personally love love love this series even more then the Perfect Chemistry series. It is ah such an amazing series, but anyways moving on, I wanted to do Caleb as my Book Boyfriend because he is such a sweet caring guy, even though on the outside he looks like trouble. Which I mean come on we all know we love guys that look bad..but really..arnt (; I picked actor/model Colton Haynes as my Caleb, and I think he fits it perfectly (:
Now for some Swoon-Worthy Caleb Quotes!
I give her the only honest and true answer I have. "You're where I want to be.”
“I cry a lot.'
'Yeah? Well I'm gonna change that.”
“Why shouldn't I be introspective? We dont' make sense."
"Neither do Chocolate and Peanut Butter, but it somehow works." He says "Somehow the mixture of two things is genius.”
"Neither do Chocolate and Peanut Butter, but it somehow works." He says "Somehow the mixture of two things is genius.”
“From the look of us, you'd never know we slept in the same bed last night and made out like the world was going to end if we stopped.”
"Maggie, you're treading into dangerous territory. I'm trying to be a good, honorable guy here."
The series which Caleb is from:
To find out more about the Leaving Paradise series click here
"Are you following me?" she asks, but doesn't meet my gaze.
"Yeah," I say.
"Why?"
I give her the only honest and true answer I have.
"You're where I want to be."
Leaving Paradise
by: Simone Elkeles
1st in Series
Published by: Flux
303 Pages
Feeling after finishing: Complete and total awh
Blurb
Nothing has been the same since Caleb Becker left a party drunk, got behind the wheel, and hit Maggie Armstrong. Even after months of painful physical therapy, Maggie walks with a limp. Her social life is nil and a scholarship to study abroad—her chance to escape everyone and their pitying stares—has been canceled.
After a year in juvenile jail, Caleb’s free . . . if freedom means endless nagging from a transition coach and the prying eyes of the entire town. Coming home should feel good, but his family and ex-girlfriend seem like strangers.
Caleb and Maggie are outsiders, pigeon-holed as "criminal" and "freak." Then the truth emerges about what really happened the night of the accident and, once again, everything changes. It’s a bleak and tortuous journey for Caleb and Maggie, yet they end up finding comfort and strength from a surprising source: each other.
Review
I read this book awhile ago, but am just now deciding to come back and write a review, because this book is way too good for me not to share my unconditional love for it with everyone.
This book has alternating POV between Maggie and Caleb, Maggie use to have a lot of fiends, and was a star tennis player..but that was all before Caleb Becker her neighbor and best friends brother hit her with his car drunk one night..and left her there..now Maggie can't play tennis, and she limps where ever she goes, people stare and make fun of her, and her and her best friend don't even talk, everyday is a struggle for her and all she wishes is for it to be the end of the year so she can leave the small town of Paradise. Caleb a year later after hitting Maggie is getting out of juvie, he knows his home life will never be the same, but he hopes everyone can forgive and forget. As more and more secrets from that night are revealed Maggie and Caleb find comfort in something they never thought they would: each other.
This book will hold you from the first page, till the very last. It will leave you feeling all warm inside and in shock of how beautiful and amazing the story you just read was. After reading Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles I could never have imagined her writing a better book because it was so good...and then came Leaving Paradise. Simone out did herself here, this book was even better then Perfect Chemistry, and if you've seen my review for Perfect Chemistry you will know that I freakin loved that book.
This book had wonderful characters, perfect insight into both Maggie and Caleb's thoughts, one of the most beautiful love stories I have ever read, and great character development was perfect. I could make this review probably a million pages long talking about why I loved it so much, but I'm just going to leave it at this: If you haven't read this book, get up and go read it, then come back and tell me how much you loved it. You wont regret it and that's a promise.
To convince you a little more though on it's amazing-ness here is an excerpt:
"I look down at our knees, slightly touching. Jeans against jeans. Does she notice the heat transferring from her body to mine? Does she even realize what she's doing to me? I know, I know. I'm not a virgin and the slightest touch of a girl's knee is driving me insane. I don't even know what I'm feeling for Maggie, I just know that I'm feeling. It's something I've tried to avoid and deny until yesterday, when I held her in my arms while her tears spilled onto my shirt.
God, our knees touching isn't enough. I need more.
She's knotting her fingers together on her lap as if she doesn't know what to do with them. I want to touch her, but what if she pulls away like before? I've never been such a wuss with a girl in my life.
I bite my bottom lip as I slide my hand about millionth of a millimeter closer to her hand.
She doesn't seem fazed so I move closer. And closer.
When the tips of my fingers touch her wrist, she freezes. But she doesn't jerk her hand away. God, her skin is so soft, I think as my fingers trail a path from her wrist to her knuckles to her smooth, manicured nails.
I swear touching her like this is driving me nuts. It's more erotic, more intense than any other time with Kendra. I feel awkward and inexperienced as a freshman again. I look up. Everyone else is oblivious to the intensity of emotions running rampant in the back of the public bus.
When I look back down at my hand covering hers, I'm grateful she hasn't come to her senses and pulled away. As if she knows my thoughts, we both turn our hands at the same time so our hands are palm against palm...finger against finger. Her hand is dwarfed against mine. It makes her seem more delicate and petite than I'd realize. I feel a need to protect her and be her champion should she ever need one.
With a slight shift of my hand, I lace my fingers through hers.
I'm holding hands. With Maggie Armstrong.
I'm not even going to think about how wrong it is because it feels so right. She's avoided looking right at me, but now she turns her head and our eyes lock. God, how come I never noticed before how long her lashes were and how her brown eyes have specks of gold that sparkle when the sun shine on them?
The bus stops suddenly and I look out the window. It's our stop. She must have realized this because she pulls her hand away from mine and stands. I follow behind, still reeling."
God, our knees touching isn't enough. I need more.
She's knotting her fingers together on her lap as if she doesn't know what to do with them. I want to touch her, but what if she pulls away like before? I've never been such a wuss with a girl in my life.
I bite my bottom lip as I slide my hand about millionth of a millimeter closer to her hand.
She doesn't seem fazed so I move closer. And closer.
When the tips of my fingers touch her wrist, she freezes. But she doesn't jerk her hand away. God, her skin is so soft, I think as my fingers trail a path from her wrist to her knuckles to her smooth, manicured nails.
I swear touching her like this is driving me nuts. It's more erotic, more intense than any other time with Kendra. I feel awkward and inexperienced as a freshman again. I look up. Everyone else is oblivious to the intensity of emotions running rampant in the back of the public bus.
When I look back down at my hand covering hers, I'm grateful she hasn't come to her senses and pulled away. As if she knows my thoughts, we both turn our hands at the same time so our hands are palm against palm...finger against finger. Her hand is dwarfed against mine. It makes her seem more delicate and petite than I'd realize. I feel a need to protect her and be her champion should she ever need one.
With a slight shift of my hand, I lace my fingers through hers.
I'm holding hands. With Maggie Armstrong.
I'm not even going to think about how wrong it is because it feels so right. She's avoided looking right at me, but now she turns her head and our eyes lock. God, how come I never noticed before how long her lashes were and how her brown eyes have specks of gold that sparkle when the sun shine on them?
The bus stops suddenly and I look out the window. It's our stop. She must have realized this because she pulls her hand away from mine and stands. I follow behind, still reeling."
Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles
Publisher: Walker Books
Book #1 of 3
360 pages
When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created “perfect” life is about to unravel before her eyes. She’s forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, and he is about to threaten everything she's worked so hard for—her flawless reputation, her relationship with her boyfriend, and the secret that her home life is anything but perfect. Alex is a bad boy and he knows it. So when he makes a bet with his friends to lure Brittany into his life, he thinks nothing of it. But soon Alex realizes Brittany is a real person with real problems, and suddenly the bet he made in arrogance turns into something much more. In a passionate story about looking beneath the surface, Simone Elkeles breaks through the stereotypes and barriers that threaten to keep Brittany and Alex apart
Perfect Chemistry is perfectly told in alternating
point of views between the two main characters Brittany Ellis, and Alex
Fuentes. Brittany to everyone else is the perfect cheerleader, but she has a
lot going on in her life that she keeps hidden. Then there’s Alex, he’s the
school bad boy, and everyone fears him. In Perfect Chemistry, these two will
fall in love. A classic Romeo and Juliet like story, but in this version Romeo
is in a Mexican gang, and Juliet is a preppy cheerleader.
Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles is one of my
personal favorite contemporary romances, and was one of the first I read when I
started getting into the contemporary genre. With a star crossed romance,
realistic teen characters, suspense, drama, and surprises, Perfect Chemistry is
still to the day one of my favorite YA novels.
The characters in Perfect Chemistry were much better
than I anticipated going into the story, originally Perfect Chemistry seemed
liked it was going to have very cliché characters. I thought Brittany would be
stuck up, and annoying with her being the preppy cheerleader. Instead readers
get a character that is flawed, has many problems at home, has a handicap
sister, and is sick of keeping up the perfect face to everyone on the outside.
Brittany was easily the more surprising character, while Alex was my favorite
due to him being quite witty and snarky, Brittany was the one that readers will
surprisingly find themselves feeling sorry for and connecting with. Every
character in Perfect Chemistry was in depth, flawed, and not what you would
expect.
The writing in Perfect Chemistry was good, while it
wasn’t anything extraordinary, it still flowed nicely, kept my attention and
described things very well. The writing in Perfect Chemistry was, simple, but
that did not take away from how enjoyable the story was. In this Simone Elkeles
novel, her strongest writing point was definitely the dialogue, the
conversations between characters were very realistic, and at times quite funny
and filled with wit. The banter between Brittany and Alex being the best, Alex
is feared by most people at the school, yet Brittany still won’t take any crap
from him.
This won’t be a novel that will have beautiful
descriptive imagery by any means, but it is a book that will warm your heart,
and possibly break it. It’s a book that
has characters that are flawed, complete opposites in every way, but still
somehow they manage to fix one another. This novel teaches readers to never
judge someone, no matter how perfect or imperfect they may seem. There is
always more under the surface. If you’re someone that enjoys a good
star-crossed romance, and you enjoy YA, then this is a novel I highly
recommend.
Can I just say that I literally JUST finished this book and I already wanna pick it back up and read it again? ( I just might) Can I also add that this book is now my Favorite? Oh and that its perfect? and that I might just freak out over this book for a very long time?
ya this book was THAT good, I don't even think I could write a review good enough to give this book its justice...it was honestly just so compelling and so beautiful, it makes you realize you can never judge a person based off of how they look..or even act. It makes you realize any love is possible
That is literally all I'm gonna write...cause to me it seems pointless to write a long review when in the end it wont even sum up how good and how much I loved this book.
Blah I am just gushing with happiness over this book! :D MUST READ.
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