Mini-Reviews : Truest by Jackie Lea Sommers & Dream Things True by Marie Marquardt

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : Truest
Author : Jackie Lea Sommers
Publication Date : September 1st 2015
Publisher : Harper Teen
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes & Noble

Silas Hart has seriously shaken up Westlin Beck's small-town life. Brand new to town, Silas is different than the guys in Green Lake. He's curious, poetic, philosophical, maddening-- and really, really cute. But Silas has a sister-- and she has a secret. And West has a boyfriend. And life in Green Lake is about to change forever.

Truest is a stunning, addictive debut. Romantic, fun, tender, and satisfying, it asks as many questions as it answers.

Personal Thoughts

Truest is one of those books that I don't really have much to say about. It's a decent read and while reading it, I had an good time, but it was rather unmemorable. I can guarantee that a week from now, I'm going to forget everything about it. West, the protagonist, was a hard character to enjoy at first. She's in a relationship with a very sweet boy named Elliott, but she goes ahead and flirts a lot with the new boy in town, Silas. She and Silas were definitely a better pair because they had so many shared interests, but I did sincerely wish that she had broken up with Elliott first before she did anything with Silas. Her banter with Silas was funny and they had chemistry together, but it wasn't easy for me to get behind their relationship because she was hurting Elliott and I did really like the latter as well. Truest surprised me though with its addition of mental health issues in the book. Silas' sister suffered from a condition that I had never heard about before, solipsism syndrome. It was interesting to learn more about it. There was also a heartbreaking twist to the novel that completely shocked me. Overall, I think Truest is a book that is going to appeal to many readers, but maybe don't read it if you have a strong distaste for love triangles. 

Rating 

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 3/5
Characters : 3/5
Writing : 3/5

 Thank you to Edelweiss and Harper Teen for the e-ARC of Truest.

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : Dream Things True
Author : Marie Marquardt
Publication Date : September 1st 2015
Publisher : St. Martin's Griffin
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes & Noble

A modern-day Romeo and Juliet story in which a wealthy Southern boy falls in love with an undocumented Mexican girl and together they face perils in their hostile Georgia town.

Evan, a soccer star and the nephew of a conservative Southern Senator, has never wanted for much -- except a functional family. Alma has lived in Georgia since she was two-years-old, excels in school, and has a large, warm Mexican family. Never mind their differences, the two fall in love, and they fall hard. But when ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) begins raids on their town, Alma knows that she needs to tell Evan her secret. There's too much at stake. But how to tell her country-club boyfriend that she’s an undocumented immigrant? That her whole family and most of her friends live in the country without permission. What follows is a beautiful, nuanced, well-paced exploration of the complications of immigration, young love, defying one’s family, and facing a tangled bureaucracy that threatens to completely upend two young lives. 

Personal Thoughts

Dream Things True first came to my attention thanks to Nereyda at Mostly YA Book Obsessed. We were having a discussion about immigration laws and undocumented immigrants. I was looking forward to reading the book especially because the author seemed to be well-versed in the topic and I knew she would bring some authenticity to the subject in YA. While I completely appreciated everything that I learned about immigration laws and what it's like to be undocumented in the United States, a heartbreaking situation really, I wasn't as affected by the book as I would have liked to be. Simply put, the characters in Dream Things True were bland. They didn't really have any dimensions to them and I needed them to be more fleshed out. I was emotionally distant from both protagonists and while they had qualities that I enjoyed immensely, I thought they needed to be more developed. This could have been a very powerful story had they been better characters and more layered. I also thought the pacing in the book was a bit off and there were moments that felt like information dumping to me. In the end, I was disappointed with Dream Things True because of its textbook-style writing and my inability to relate to the characters. There is still a valuable amount of information that you can learn about the topic of undocumented immigrants though.

Rating 

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 3/5
Characters : 2/5
Writing : 2/5

 Thank you to NetGalley and St.Martin's Press for the e-ARC of Dream Things True.

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