I Was Here by Gayle Forman

Rating: 3.5 stars

Summary: Everything changed when Cody's best friend killed herself. It changed when Meg swallowed a bottle of industrial strength poison in a motel room next to a 50 dollar tip fro the maid. When Meg's parents sent Cody to Tacoma to pick up Meg's stuff. After Cody met Meg's college friends and roommates. And when Meg's death gets turned upside down all the while Cody is falling for one of Meg's friend. 

It was average. The characters didn't stand out to me, the plot and mystery not as surprisings or out there as I wanted, and the writing not that great. It seemed mostly a reflection on suicide, which is great, but that wasn't what I wanted. I didn't really want to read this in the first place, as I feel like I've read so many books about it. There was also a section of online chatting I had to skim through because they were kinda triggering me. The characters were kinda flat and the romance unbelievable.  I It wasn't exactly insta love. It was we've known each other for an appropriate amount of time but I've never indicated the I love you but now I'm suddenly confessing my love for you - love.


tl;dr Okay read. Entertaining. Would recommend the other Gayle Forman books first.  

My True Love Gave To Me edited by Stephanie Perkins

Rating: 4 Stars
Summary: Twelve holiday themed stories, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years, Winter Solstice, by some really talented and famous authors.


All together I really enjoyed all of the stories, even if some less than the rest. Unlike most short story collection I didn't hate any of them, or even completely skip any. They were all really different and not just Christmas themed, which I appreciated. Some of them were confusing or really really cheesy (they were all cheesy, they have to be), or just not that interesting, which is why I'm not  giving it a full five stars. really sure how to review this so I'll just make lists.


Favorites:

• Midnights by Rainbow Rowell
• It's A Yuletide Christmas, Charlie Brown by Stephanie Perkins
• What The Hell Have You Done by Sophie Roth

These aren't very surprising though since I already liked these authors. 

Really Good But Not Enough Time To Explain The World So It Was Confusing: 

• The Lady and The Fox by Kelly Link 
• Krampuslauf by Holly Black
• The Girl Who Woke The Dreamer by Laini Taylor

I think this would be a very good was to be exposed to new authors and find new books. I would definitely recommend this to people, even if it wasn't around the holidays.