Tell Me Three Things

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Pretty much the only thing I did not love about this book was the ending. It was poetic and perfect, and exactly what the story called for. I just happen to be very selfish and would like more. Like, a lot more. An epilogue would've been nice, but another 2 or so chapters would've been better. I want to know more! I want to see more! I want to see Jessie and Ethan both get a happy ending beyond just their first, sweet kiss. What's the real beef the boys have? What happens to Ethan's mom? How does the meeting of the parents go? What about school? Do things get better for Jessie now that she's with Ethan and officially not interested in Liam? Can I just get a liiiiiitle bit more time with them as a couple? Pretty, pretty puh-leaseeeee? I swear I would still walk away with a satisfied smile on my face.

Tell Me Three Things is one of the most relatable YA contemporaries I’ve read this year. The story line is simple, the plot not so eventful and yet it’s everything. It’s so easy to connect with Jessie, a teenage girl who just like any other girl is simply trying to figure out who she is. It isn’t easy being a teenager as it is but having to lose her mom at such a tender age and having to adjust to a new life that is very different from what she’s known- new home, new stepmom and step brother, I doubt I’d handle things any better than she did in the story. Overall I found this book very enjoyable. I thought the banter between Jessie and Somebody/Nobody was very funny and realistic. It was a very feel-good book, and I recommend this to anyone out there in the mood for a romantic story. But although this was a fun read I was a bit disappointed by the very predictable plot. It was very obvious from the start who SN was and although the author tries to make us believe it was someone else it was not credible at all. The author is clearly very talented, and I believe they could have made this a bit less predictable. This is why I would rate this book 4/5 stars. But I decided to up this book to 5 stars for the following reasons: Can I also say that I wanted more Theo? I love the bond that formed between him and Jessie despite the way things may have started (temper tantrum anyone?). They were good for each other and it was lovely to see the way their relationship develop. We're also granted the prize of some fun, descriptive phrases, like "a revolting group of too-loud giggling girls" (there's that loudness again!) I guess this book on a whole, although adorkable, had a tone of the uncomfortable. The grief and loss thing, the internet predator issue that was ignored, the feeling lost and out of place… it was hard for me to get engrossed in the romance when these issues were like the elephant in the room. It could have been so much more intense and angsty, but I appreciated the light nature of the narrative - it let me live in the fantasy.I don't think I'll write a full review for this. It seems that all my GR friends loved it and I don't want to be that one party pooper who writes a negative review (again). When Jessie meets Ethan to work on The Waste Land, she can’t ignore that she has a huge crush on him. They discuss The Waste Land as they walk; Ethan puts on his sunglasses and looks even more unreachable. He shares that he has most of the poem memorized, since he reads poetry when he can’t sleep. Later, as Jessie and SN text, they start a game in which they each share three things. SN’s third thing is that he likes Jessie. Jessie feels the same way, but she also feels weird—SN could be anyone. To earn Jessie’s trust, SN shares that his sister died a year ago. He admits that he counts the days, hours, and minutes since she died. At about the same time, Liam texts Jessie asking about work, Ethan texts Jessie about The Waste Land, and Scarlett texts Jessie a picture of her homecoming dress.

So yes, part of this story is following along with Jessie and trying to figure out who this kind soul is. I have to admit that I pretty much had the person pegged pretty early on, that said, I was still pleasantly surprised with how much I still enjoyed it. And the constant L.A. stereotypes were more annoying than funny. Maybe I don't have a right to be annoyed by this just because I've lived out here for a while, but some of them are just so blatantly untrue that it feels like the author knows nothing about the city. Everyone is definitely not skinny. Girls do not always wear skimpy dresses (in fact, L.A. is super casual compared to the U.K. and most people wear jeans and baggy tees). No, people do not always watch movies instead of reading. Girls are definitely not all blonde (high Hispanic and Asian population, actually). No, the grass is not always bright green just because it's always summer (sun + drought = not a good recipe for green grass). It’s been barely two years since her mother’s death, and because her father eloped with a woman he met online, Jessie has been forced to move across the country to live with her stepmonster and her pretentious teenage son. Jessie pretty much explains all the toxicity goin' on within that little hate-filled head of hers: “Whenever I meet someone new, I silently ask that inevitable catty girl question: is she prettier than me?” If every girl is competition for your desperate insecurities, yeah, it makes sense that you'd develop a touch of a complex! I've never given a contemporary book 5 stars before (as far as I can remember... Is John green contemporary?!?! If so sorry I lied).

This is a very well done YA that goes on my favorites of the year list. All the characters were developed, the pacing perfect, and the ending is smile-inducing. Everything about Jessie is wrong. At least, that’s what it feels like during her first weekof junior year at her new ultra-intimidating prep school in Los Angeles. It’s been barely two years since her mother’s death, and because her father eloped with a woman he met online, Jessie has been forced to move across the country to livewith her stepmonster and her pretentious teenage son, and to start at a new school where she knows no one.

Two years following the death of her mother, Jessie’s father springs the fact that he has eloped on her. Jessie has to leave everything she knows in Chicago to move in with her new stepmother and her teenage son. Things aren't going so well for Jessie it appears that her step brother seems completely disinterested in her. The kids in her new school seem to have known one another forever. While her father is just too happy to notice how hard this all is on her. It’s simply the new girl in school scenario done to perfection. I have been watching you at school. not in a creepy way. though I wonder if even using the word “creepy” by definition makes me creepy? anyhow, it’s just…you intrigue me." PHILIPPINE RESIDENTS!!! FILIPINO BOOKWORMS! YOU CAN WIN A CHANCE TO READ THIS BOOK EARLY! JOIN MY GIVEAWAY HERE! Now, as much as I love this book with all my heart and I was willing to sacrifice my sleep for it, I have to mention the problems.

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Perfect days are for people with small, realizable dreams. Or maybe for all of us, they just happen in retrospect; they're only now perfect because they contain something irrevocably and irretrievably lost.” Not feeling like I belong anywhere has made me crave constant motion; standing still feels risky, like asking to be a target.” Perfect days are for people with small, realizable dreams. or maybe for all of us, they just happen in retrospect; they're only now perfect because they contain something irrevocably and irretrievably lost." This is I don't understand the fact that Liam, Ethan and Caleb are parts of the band yet they never seem to hangout together. They often walk on their own. I know Liam has a thing with Ethan, and Caleb is not an official member of the band, but still. They never really picture together and it made the uncovering of mysterious SN in the end is lame. So lame. Because honestly this mysterious SN is my main interest in this novel that kept me going. And how did Theo, not play a bigger part in this story? He's her stepbrother and they kinda hated each other. There should've been a better explanation about their lives together.