was so cute! I was wavering between a,and a, but thewon out! The characters really bothered me at the beginning, They were so. fucking. stupid. but they really grew on me, I got so angry at their thinking sometimes until I realized I've thought the exact same things, The only difference between us is that I was their age/years ago, and I've had time to realize how shitty that kind of thinking is, They were me when I was a teenager, Once I took a step back and put myself back in that mindset, I was less angry and much more understanding,
This is the second book by Leah Konen I've read, and I've loved both of them! Rounded up from,stars.
A big thank you to Edelweiss and Harper Collins for an ARC of this book,
This book was written from the POV of both Noah and Ammy who find themselves seated together on an Amtrack train that stops on the tracks in a midwinter storm and looks like it might delay arrival for several hours.
Both Ammy and Noah have important appointments waiting at their destination and decide to leave the train to pursue other methods of transportation,
The stopped train in a storm reminds me of Let It Snow by three YA authors, Kiss Me In New York is another YA book that comes to mind in which two strangers are unable to continue with their travel plans and end up exploring NYC together.
I did find the alternating POV to be effective, Also thought their continued string of calamities was an effective character building tool, An enjoyable winter read. First Line: The train isn't as romantic as I thought it would be,
I wanted to pick up something light, but this book frustrated me a bit, I won't deny it had its cute moments and it was such an easy read, and an adventure I certainly dreamed of in my teenage years from watching all those romcoms.
Along the span of one day, two teenagers meet on a train heading to the same town for different reasons, and when the train break down, they decide they must do anything to get to their destination, and they embark on an adventure together where everything goes wrong, to prolong their time together.
The book is told in alternating chapters between the two of them, Ammy amp Noah,
Ammy was frustrating and selfish, even though I've been in her shoes the divorce, and I might relate to some of the selfishness owing to the fact she's a teenager I won't deny I had some of these selfish thoughts at that time too, looking at her with anyears old eyes, make her seem too selfish.
Noah was supposed to be portrayed as a cinnamon bun but something was missing, People aren't mind readers like they are portrayed in this book and the banter was really weak, and that frustrated me the most, I love oneday adventures which end up with love, but this one was just okay,
The ending was underwhelming and the "twist" was unnecessary, but I won't deny it was a fast read and had some sweet moments between them, and every time I picked it up I wanted to finish it.
Not bad, but not so great either, A ver Por donde comienzo
Debería poner un montón de cosas, pero solo voy a dejar claros algunos puntos:
, Si odian los instalove, este libro no es para ustedes, Thank you, next.
. La idea es muy buena, Me encantó la cantidad de drama que se maneja, porque los chamos tienen mucha mala suerte y como intentan solucionar todo ha sido única,
. Ammy fue un dolor en el trasero, Vuelvo a repetir eso de que quieren hacer personajes femeninos con poder y cerebro y todo eso, pero al final las dejan como personajes irritantes y tontos, Este fue el caso.
. Noah ha sido un personaje tan lindo que no merecía toda la mierda que le dieron en la historia,
. A pesar de que al principio tardé en conectar, a partir de la parte dos todo fue más sencillo y ameno,
Esperaba algo completamente diferente a lo que obtuve, Real.
Aún no estoy segura de la calificación, pero la modificaré en caso de ser necesario, see, this is exactly why i'm the most subjective of readers, how the heck am i supposed to rate this anything less thanwhen it kept me up pastam!!!!!
this book might not have been the most revolutionary idea but it was freaking adorable and the most perfect fluffy, winteryread
the characters are genuine and their conversations were cute and natural
freaking adorable, unlikely romance between two polar opposite teenagers stranded in a snowstorm trying to get home
they literally trek through snow together after their train abruptly stops and everything that could possibly go wrong, GOES WRONG
IM SO GROSSLY IN LOVE WITH THIS BOOK its exactly what i needed at the moment and i dont care if im not being objective
they called themselves out on crap they thought or said
they're both readers!!
so much family drama to keep the plot going
the development of the romance was so well done, there was a genuine friendship building that occurred first and i just love seeing characters bond and build a foundational relationship before jumping into a romance
WE LOVE THAT DEVELOPMENT
noah is a little baby and needs to be protected
ugh i had so much fun reading this book i never wanted it to end
I really enjoyed Konen's last book, The Romantics, and had high hopes for this book.
I am happy to report, that Love and Other Train Wrecks delighted me in many of the same ways,
Pro: Noah was a sweet cupcake and I loved him, He was not perfect, as I found out, but he had a huge and beautiful, if slightly misguided, heart,
Pro: I loved the dynamic between Ammy and Noah, Eavesdropping on their conversations was quite a treat, and seeing them go from strangers to enemies to friends to more warmed my heart,
Pro: Both Ammy and Noah were nursing some serious guilt, and Konen's slow reveal really had quite an impact,
Pro: This was a physical and emotional journey for both Ammy and Noah, As they shared their stories with each other, they realized a lot of important things about themselves,
Pro: There is a lot of bookish love in this story, as both Ammy and Noah are book lovers, I have to award bonus points for that,
Pro: There were some humorous travel snafus a la Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, I felt bad to for Ammy and Noah, but I also couldn't hold back my laughter,
Pro: The duel point of view was used quite well, and I was especially fond of when Konen had those little overlaps, I love when we get to experience the same moment from both POVs,
Pro: I am going to give Konen a round of applause for that big speed bump she threw in there, I did NOT see that coming,
Pro: The ending is a big YES! from me, If you read this, you will understand a why I liked it so much, hint: I got closure.
Overall: This was a trip worth taking! I really enjoyed making this journey with Ammy and Noah as each of them "unpacked" some of their emotional luggage and filled in those spaces with much better things.
I would like to thank the publisher for the review copy of this book,
sitelink BLOG sitelink INSTAGRAM sitelink BLOGLOVIN sitelinkFRIEND ME ON GOODREADS So, I read this one aboutweeks ago, . . haha. So I apologize if any content is wrong, Please let me know if I missed something and/or if details are off/incorrect, :
I really enjoyed this book, it was impossible to put down, and it kept me hanging constantly, I will be reading more of Mrs, Konen's books soon!
CONTENT: This book has some heated kissing, mentions of past romantic content and a lot of swearing, This book felt like well, a train wreck. In order to write a review that is as concise as possible I hope, I'm going to divide my observations into three main areas, First up:
Characters
Um, . . so I thought Ammy was awful pretty much from the time she mocked The Hunger Games right up until the end of the book, Her snobby taste in literature aside, she's one of those feminists who apparently thinks it's okay to make rude comments to men for reinforcing antiquated gender norms by daring to gasp! politely offer to carry her luggage through a freaking snowstorm.
The nerve!
Now, of course, offering to carry Ammy's luggage isn't the only horrifyingly masculine sin Noah managed to commit throughout the course of this book, and Ammy was kind enough to call him on all of them including blaming him for a ridiculous set of circumstances that was as much out of his control as it was out of hers.
And the worst the absolute worst part is that Noah bought all of it hook, line, and sinker, He spent half the book apologizing for things he never should have had to apologize for while Ammy used her crappy home life and a pair of X chromosomes to justify her crappy treatment of him without ever really apologizing.
And I just can't, Call me crazy, but I think it's possible to raise a generation of strong women without bringing men down in the process, and I fully believe you don't do that by encouraging behavior like Ammy's.
The irony is that Noah spends half the book waxing poetic about his exgirlfriend a girl he eventually comes to realize wasn't a good person for him to be with because she couldn't love him as he was while simultaneously falling into lust with a girl who treats him just as badly, if for different reasons.
He was basically a doormat who sold his soul for a chance to make out with a girl he'd known for less than twelve hours,
Story Structure
So, I actually read the first five chapters of this book via Epic Reads First Five and liked them, which is why I checked this book out from the library in the first place.
However, after how disastrously I reacted to Nicola Yoon's The Sun is Also a Star, which builds an unrealistic romance along a similarly condensed timeline, I should have known better.
Look, I'll buy that two people can meet under a difficult set of circumstances and then forge a
connection that will eventually lead to a meaningful relationship and maybe, just maybe, to a forever romance, but I just can't swallow "meant to be" and "she's the one" on the basis of a string of bad decisions and some SuperMotelCheetosfordinnerstyle making out.
I need more than that, And this book didn't deliver,
Reality of the Physical Circumstances
Okay, so I admit I'm a big stickler for small details, especially in books that are set in the real world.
Bend reality all you want in a fantasy or a futuristic scifi world, but please, for all that's holy, have someone reality check your contemporary realworld novels before you publish them.
I may live in Maryland, where an inch of snow shuts down schools for the day because we don't have the experience or infrastructure to deal well with snow events, but I've been driving foryears.
While I'm sure they deal with snow in New York better than they do here, I'm still not buying for a minute that an Enterprise would rent a Ford Mustang presumably still a rear wheel drive vehicle, as most sports cars are to two teenagers during a snowstorm that shut down the freaking bus line.
Or that an entiremile stretch of roads would be magically cleared by snowplows which are never once mentioned in the course of the book overnight following a snowstorm that continued at least into lateevening.
Nor do I believe that Noah and Ammy would have traveledmiles inminutes during said snowstorm, Most people would have found a hotel in town instead of trying to drive home to begin with, especially given that both of them would have been too late for their respective engagements anyway.
And that's not even taking into account the ridiculous sequence of events that led up to that point such as how they managed to sneak off of a stalled Amtrack train without setting off a buttload of alarms or the fact that apparently, in this book, the sun has fully risen by:a.
m. in early January in New York or at least risen enough to warm up a hotel room and blind someone walking out the door of said hotel room,
Does it really take that much extra time to read for these kinds of details To Google something as simple as what time the sun rises in early January in New York oh, hey, I did it just this afternoon and found out that the sun rose at:a.
m. this morning, Januaryrd, which is three whole weeks after the day this book takes place Or to craft a story that doesn't depend so heavily on events that simply wouldn't happen in real life
Maybe this is a nitpick on my part, maybe most people don't care, but dear Lord, I do.
So, yeah, I guess that's about it,
Bottom line: Definitely not my kind of book, .