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gabbyreads 's review for:
Loving Mr. Daniels
by Brittainy C. Cherry
Well, holy hell I really liked this one. I don't give out 5 stars that often and I usually have a habit of picking apart books with things that I find annoying, but I really loved this one. Was it perfect? No. But I felt emotionally attached to every single character and that is a rare thing for me. I also cried like ten times, which is also a rare thing for me. I think I felt especially attached to this book because my name is Gabby, and our main character Ashyln has a twin sister named Gabby who dies and the book is about her dealing with the death of her sister. I have never read a book that used my name in it before so this was a new experience for me. Another ironic thing is that my Mom's name is Kim, and Ashlyn and Gabby's mom is also named Kim. Weird right? I think that's so awesome. Me and my sister are really close, we are literally best friends. So this book strung an emotional chord for me with that aspect because I can not imagine living in a world without my sister. I wouldn't want to.
I just read the book "Unteachable" by Leah Raeder in October, which is also a book about a student/teacher relationship and a lot of people compare this book to that one. I have to agree that they are actually really really similar at times. However, I do prefer Maise from Unteachable as a protagonist than Ashlyn, but that doesn't mean I didn't like Ashlyn. I actually really liked Ashyln and I could relate to her a lot.
Things I loved about this book: 1) I absolutely loved Daniel and Ashlyn's obsession with Shakespeare. It was adorable and I love things like that that make a couple unique and memorable. 2) I love the fact that Daniel is in a band called "Romeo's Quest" because that's an adorable Shakespeare reference, and I love how each chapter started with lyrics from his band. That's so cute and creative. And the lyrics are cute as hell. Just look at this one: "Forever always scared me because it never came. I lost all sense of fear when she whispered my name." Is that not the most beautiful thing you've ever read? And also this one: "The world spins faster, yet she slows down time. I don't know how but I need her to always be mine. I lost her due to mistaken roads, I lost her due to secrets untold. I lost her and in turn I lost myself. So someone help me on this quest to find, finding, finding, fining, My Juliet." So cute! Again they throw in the adorable Shakespeare reference! 3) The writing style in this book is absolutely beautiful. At times it had me bawling my eyes out, and at other times I was laughing so hard I was crying. 4) Ryan's character is my favorite and he's absolutely hilarious. Randy had some really funny moments too. 5) I love the fact that this story never got boring for me, something was constantly happening and it never got dull. There was a couple plot twists that I really wasn't expecting and one huge plot twist that had me bawling my eyes out (again.) 6) I love the idea that Gabby wrote her sister a bucket list when she died and with every item she completed on the bucket list, Gabby wrote a letter for Ashlyn and she wasn't allowed to read the letter until she completed the task on the bucket list. This is the thing I will probably remember most about this book because it is so sweet. Gabby knew her sister would be broken and wouldn't want to experience new things ever again, so she wrote a list of things for her to do to bring her back to life, and she knew her sister would do them just so she could read a few of her sisters words. So heart touching. 7) I love how Ashlyn calls things her "golden" when it's her favorite. She says: "Everyone has a golden. It could be anything - a song, a book, a pet, a person. Anything that makes you so happy your insides cry of pure joy. It feels like you're one drugs but it's better cause it's a natural high. I think this book is my golden. And I love Daniel's obsession with the "double double" with everything because it reminds him of his Mom. 8) Because of quotes like this: "You're the reason people believe in tomorrow. You're the voice that scares the shadows away. You're the love that makes me breathe." And the completely relatable quotes like this: "Being a teenager is a curse and a gift. It's the age where fairy tales cease to exist and Santa isn't real, but parts of our heart want to say 'what if..'. It's the time where you feel everything but everyone claims you are just overreacting. You and the guidance office and society throw out strong questions that we teens have no clue ho to answer. Who are we? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Who do we want to be? The most frightening thing to me is picking a study, choosing a life path to follow at such a young, naive age. No one knows who they are at our age. No one has a damn clue where they will be in five years." That's not even the end of that amazing quote but I don't want to spoil anything. I relate to this so much because just last year I was stressed out so badly over trying to figure out what to study and what I wanted to do with my life and I'm so glad that a character has finally had the same problems. I completely agree that it is ridiculous that everyone expects teenagers to figure out what they want to do with their lives. 9) I love how Daniel and Ashlyn have both experienced so much loss in their life and that's what makes them connect in the first place. They literally bring each other back to life, and that's beautiful.
As you can see, I really really loved this book. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough for me. The only complaint about the book that I have is that the ending felt a little rushed, and it was wrapped up in a too "neat and perfect bow" as you would call it, but other than that I really son't have any complaints. This was a beautiful story about love and loss and finding yourself. It's definitely one of my favorite books of the year and of all time.
I just read the book "Unteachable" by Leah Raeder in October, which is also a book about a student/teacher relationship and a lot of people compare this book to that one. I have to agree that they are actually really really similar at times. However, I do prefer Maise from Unteachable as a protagonist than Ashlyn, but that doesn't mean I didn't like Ashlyn. I actually really liked Ashyln and I could relate to her a lot.
Things I loved about this book: 1) I absolutely loved Daniel and Ashlyn's obsession with Shakespeare. It was adorable and I love things like that that make a couple unique and memorable. 2) I love the fact that Daniel is in a band called "Romeo's Quest" because that's an adorable Shakespeare reference, and I love how each chapter started with lyrics from his band. That's so cute and creative. And the lyrics are cute as hell. Just look at this one: "Forever always scared me because it never came. I lost all sense of fear when she whispered my name." Is that not the most beautiful thing you've ever read? And also this one: "The world spins faster, yet she slows down time. I don't know how but I need her to always be mine. I lost her due to mistaken roads, I lost her due to secrets untold. I lost her and in turn I lost myself. So someone help me on this quest to find, finding, finding, fining, My Juliet." So cute! Again they throw in the adorable Shakespeare reference! 3) The writing style in this book is absolutely beautiful. At times it had me bawling my eyes out, and at other times I was laughing so hard I was crying. 4) Ryan's character is my favorite and he's absolutely hilarious. Randy had some really funny moments too. 5) I love the fact that this story never got boring for me, something was constantly happening and it never got dull. There was a couple plot twists that I really wasn't expecting and one huge plot twist that had me bawling my eyes out (again.) 6) I love the idea that Gabby wrote her sister a bucket list when she died and with every item she completed on the bucket list, Gabby wrote a letter for Ashlyn and she wasn't allowed to read the letter until she completed the task on the bucket list. This is the thing I will probably remember most about this book because it is so sweet. Gabby knew her sister would be broken and wouldn't want to experience new things ever again, so she wrote a list of things for her to do to bring her back to life, and she knew her sister would do them just so she could read a few of her sisters words. So heart touching. 7) I love how Ashlyn calls things her "golden" when it's her favorite. She says: "Everyone has a golden. It could be anything - a song, a book, a pet, a person. Anything that makes you so happy your insides cry of pure joy. It feels like you're one drugs but it's better cause it's a natural high. I think this book is my golden. And I love Daniel's obsession with the "double double" with everything because it reminds him of his Mom. 8) Because of quotes like this: "You're the reason people believe in tomorrow. You're the voice that scares the shadows away. You're the love that makes me breathe." And the completely relatable quotes like this: "Being a teenager is a curse and a gift. It's the age where fairy tales cease to exist and Santa isn't real, but parts of our heart want to say 'what if..'. It's the time where you feel everything but everyone claims you are just overreacting. You and the guidance office and society throw out strong questions that we teens have no clue ho to answer. Who are we? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Who do we want to be? The most frightening thing to me is picking a study, choosing a life path to follow at such a young, naive age. No one knows who they are at our age. No one has a damn clue where they will be in five years." That's not even the end of that amazing quote but I don't want to spoil anything. I relate to this so much because just last year I was stressed out so badly over trying to figure out what to study and what I wanted to do with my life and I'm so glad that a character has finally had the same problems. I completely agree that it is ridiculous that everyone expects teenagers to figure out what they want to do with their lives. 9) I love how Daniel and Ashlyn have both experienced so much loss in their life and that's what makes them connect in the first place. They literally bring each other back to life, and that's beautiful.
As you can see, I really really loved this book. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough for me. The only complaint about the book that I have is that the ending felt a little rushed, and it was wrapped up in a too "neat and perfect bow" as you would call it, but other than that I really son't have any complaints. This was a beautiful story about love and loss and finding yourself. It's definitely one of my favorite books of the year and of all time.