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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
What a cute book! It reminded me a bit of some of Sarah Dessen's works. These are real kids with some typical problems, and some not-so-typical problems. I loved the romance, and the way it developed. I think the characters were quite well done, and the writing is very enjoyable. This is a great, lighter read for those who enjoy sweet romances with a little fairy tale thrown in.
It was cheesy, but cute and had a little twist. I wasn't super interested in the back story. It was just ok.
Cute is the best way I can describe it as. Boy meets girl, girl has secrets, boy could expose those secrets, and yet they still like each other enough to try and make things work. Cute.
What I really liked about Ellie was that she wasn't star struck. Like she didn't treat G. like a movie star or anything. And that's probably why Graham liked her as well. They were real with each other. Oh! and the seagull joke:
Why do seagulls fly over the sea? because if they flew over the bay they would be called bagels. HAHAHA.
A fun read.
What I really liked about Ellie was that she wasn't star struck. Like she didn't treat G. like a movie star or anything. And that's probably why Graham liked her as well. They were real with each other. Oh! and the seagull joke:
Why do seagulls fly over the sea? because if they flew over the bay they would be called bagels. HAHAHA.
A fun read.
A cute, quick read. I quite enjoyed it, though I much prefer Jennifer's "The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight".
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
Ellie and Graham start emailing back and forth because he accidentally left out a "2" from his pig walker's email address. The anonymity of being behind a computer screen, of being able to be anyone you wanted to be made everything all the more exciting to them, and they fell for each other. Hard. So hard, that Graham (famous teen heart-throb movie star) pulled strings so the new movie he starred in would take place in Ellie's middle-of-nowhere-Maine town. Talk about cute!
They meet in person and she's in shock, but they realize quite quickly how hard they really fell for each other. And it is so. Dang. Cute. But, it's not enough. Not for me anyways. I wanted more. I was a little underwhelmed with the love story. She spent a decent amount of time avoiding him. In her case, it was justified, but I guess I was just expecting a wonderful summer romance that actually happened the entire duration of the book.
The end was extremely realistic; no promises, no plans on what comes next, just the moment they have now. It is a good book (obviously, otherwise why else would I have finished in 4 and a half hours?), and I'm happy I have it in my collection.
They meet in person and she's in shock, but they realize quite quickly how hard they really fell for each other. And it is so. Dang. Cute. But, it's not enough. Not for me anyways. I wanted more. I was a little underwhelmed with the love story. She spent a decent amount of time avoiding him. In her case, it was justified, but I guess I was just expecting a wonderful summer romance that actually happened the entire duration of the book.
The end was extremely realistic; no promises, no plans on what comes next, just the moment they have now. It is a good book (obviously, otherwise why else would I have finished in 4 and a half hours?), and I'm happy I have it in my collection.
Hmm… the one word that I would use to describe this book is… mediocre.
Don’t get me wrong, it was super cute and I am such a sucker for a hopelessly romantic story; but, no matter how much I wanted to love it (which was seriously a lot), I just couldn’t. It was remarkably predictable, so much so that I could guess exactly what would happen before the characters did, which took a lot of the magic out of the events as well as the characters themselves.
........
I would recommend this book to anybody in need of a short, feel-good story about two kids hopelessly chasing happiness.
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Don’t get me wrong, it was super cute and I am such a sucker for a hopelessly romantic story; but, no matter how much I wanted to love it (which was seriously a lot), I just couldn’t. It was remarkably predictable, so much so that I could guess exactly what would happen before the characters did, which took a lot of the magic out of the events as well as the characters themselves.
........
I would recommend this book to anybody in need of a short, feel-good story about two kids hopelessly chasing happiness.
........
Want to read the full review? Click here
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
cute. a perfect example of cliché in a good way which can be rare to find. i liked all the characters, genuinely all of them seem like good humans. i liked the light romance, it wasn’t too dark or physical. a feel-good book.
It all started with a typo in an email address.
Graham Larkin thought he was emailing his pet pig's walker, instead his email shoots across the country to Ellie O'Neill. Their conversations are always personal but they never reveal personal details. Ellie has no idea that Graham is a major celebrity. Graham knows very little about Ellie until she slips and reveals the name of her small town in Maine.
That's all it takes for Graham to mark the town of Henley as the perfect location for his next film. And, of course, the perfect location to meet Ellie in real life.
But as Graham and Ellie get to know each other they are both hampered by "what ifs?" What if their relationship really is at its best in email form? What if a famous actor like Graham isn't cut out for a relationship with an ordinary girl like Ellie? What if Ellie is drawn into Graham's spotlight has to reveal some closely guarded secrets of her own. Graham and Ellie have talked at length about happiness, but they still have to figure out if they can be happy together in This is What Happy Looks Like (2013) by Jennifer E. Smith.
This story has a slow start as both Graham and readers are introduce to Ellie's idyllic small town home. A charming cast of secondary characters and picturesque locations vividly situate each scene in this novel. Ellie and Graham's correspondence is simultaneously authentic and endearing as emails and face-to-face interactions work together to give readers the full story of Graham and Ellie's courtship. Snappy dialogue also helps to make this story shine.
Smith delves into the familiar territory of missed connections (The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight) and long-distance pining (The Geography of You and Me). While This is What Happy Looks Like has some of the same charm as Smith's other novels, its characters never feel quite as well-realized or compelling.
This is What Happy Looks Like is a sweet and summery romance filled with small-town charm and memorable moments.
Possible Pairings: Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway, Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum, Life by Committee by Corey Ann Haydu, The Truth Commission by Susan Juby, Undercover by Beth Kephart, The Museum of Heartbreak by Meg Leder, In Real Life by Jessica Love
Graham Larkin thought he was emailing his pet pig's walker, instead his email shoots across the country to Ellie O'Neill. Their conversations are always personal but they never reveal personal details. Ellie has no idea that Graham is a major celebrity. Graham knows very little about Ellie until she slips and reveals the name of her small town in Maine.
That's all it takes for Graham to mark the town of Henley as the perfect location for his next film. And, of course, the perfect location to meet Ellie in real life.
But as Graham and Ellie get to know each other they are both hampered by "what ifs?" What if their relationship really is at its best in email form? What if a famous actor like Graham isn't cut out for a relationship with an ordinary girl like Ellie? What if Ellie is drawn into Graham's spotlight has to reveal some closely guarded secrets of her own. Graham and Ellie have talked at length about happiness, but they still have to figure out if they can be happy together in This is What Happy Looks Like (2013) by Jennifer E. Smith.
This story has a slow start as both Graham and readers are introduce to Ellie's idyllic small town home. A charming cast of secondary characters and picturesque locations vividly situate each scene in this novel. Ellie and Graham's correspondence is simultaneously authentic and endearing as emails and face-to-face interactions work together to give readers the full story of Graham and Ellie's courtship. Snappy dialogue also helps to make this story shine.
Smith delves into the familiar territory of missed connections (The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight) and long-distance pining (The Geography of You and Me). While This is What Happy Looks Like has some of the same charm as Smith's other novels, its characters never feel quite as well-realized or compelling.
This is What Happy Looks Like is a sweet and summery romance filled with small-town charm and memorable moments.
Possible Pairings: Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway, Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum, Life by Committee by Corey Ann Haydu, The Truth Commission by Susan Juby, Undercover by Beth Kephart, The Museum of Heartbreak by Meg Leder, In Real Life by Jessica Love