Title: A Little Something Different Publisher: Swoon Reads
Publishing Date: August 26th 2014
Pages: 272
Genre: YA/NA Contemporary Romance
Series: Stand Alone
Source: Audio
The distinctive new crowdsourced publishing imprint Swoon Reads proudly presents its first published novel—an irresistibly sweet romance between two college students told from 14 different viewpoints.The creative writing teacher, the delivery guy, the local Starbucks baristas, his best friend, her roommate, and the squirrel in the park all have one thing in common—they believe that Gabe and Lea should get together. Lea and Gabe are in the same creative writing class. They get the same pop culture references, order the same Chinese food, and hang out in the same places. Unfortunately, Lea is reserved, Gabe has issues, and despite their initial mutual crush, it looks like they are never going to work things out.But somehow even when nothing is going on, something is happening between them, and everyone can see it. Their creative writing teacher pushes them together. The baristas at Starbucks watch their relationship like a TV show. Their bus driver tells his wife about them. The waitress at the diner automatically seats them together. Even the squirrel who lives on the college green believes in their relationship.Surely Gabe and Lea will figure out that they are meant to be together....
I was super excited to read this book. I loved the title and the cover and something just drew me towards the book. It sounded so amazing. I enjoyed the read but unfortunately it fell a little short for me. I just couldn't connect to the characters as much as I wanted to. Normally this would really kill the book for me but the writing was creative and felt so original, I just wanted to continue to read the book. I loved all the different POVs, that was my favorite part of the book. The story was cute but also lacked a bit for me too. So it was cute but it didn't wow me like I was hoping it would.
This book is about two very awkward shy introverted people and their love story. The love story is told by them and everyone around them that witnessed the love story. The two love birds are attracted to each other almost instantly but circumstances, shyness, and miscommunication are keeping them from getting together.
I thought the idea for this story was very cute and had tons of potential. It was an enjoyable read but there were some minor issues that made the book fall short of my expectations. It just didn't seem like the idea was executed to it's best.
The best thing about this book was the multiple POVs. That was fun. I loved hearing from everyone including the park bench and especially the squirrel. There were tons of fun characters. In fact I enjoyed more of the background characters than I did the main characters.
The issue I had with the main characters, Lea and Gabe were their voices. It seemed that they were very whiny. I didn't care for this and it prevented me from connecting to them. At times I just wanted to slap them. Now I am not sure if this was intentional on the author's part or some of it was the audio narration, but I just couldn't get past it. It seemed like Lea and Gabe just couldn't use any common sense. Instead of just biting the bullet and talk to the other one they complained and made excuses and nothing was getting resolved. This was what led me to the issue with the pacing.
The pacing lagged. It seemed that the story was taking forever to get anywhere. I didn't get bored. I enjoyed listening to the stories but I still couldn't get past the point of nothing happening. This led me to the issue of lack of romance. With nothing happening there was no romance. I don't read many romances but when I do, I like to have romance.
Now with all that said. The writing style was unique and it was, in the end, a very cute story. It felt a bit more like a story my grandmother would have told, the meeting of her and my grandfather, more than a romance book, but I applauded when Lea and Gabe finally found each other.
I really feel that if it wasn't for the bench, the waitress, the friends, the classmates, and the squirrel. I would have given up. This book was really hard for me to review and to rate. I enjoyed it to the point I finished it, I wanted to know how it all would end, but my curiosity and the few laughs that the multiple POVs gave me are saved the read.
The best thing about this book was the multiple POVs. That was fun. I loved hearing from everyone including the park bench and especially the squirrel. There were tons of fun characters. In fact I enjoyed more of the background characters than I did the main characters.
The issue I had with the main characters, Lea and Gabe were their voices. It seemed that they were very whiny. I didn't care for this and it prevented me from connecting to them. At times I just wanted to slap them. Now I am not sure if this was intentional on the author's part or some of it was the audio narration, but I just couldn't get past it. It seemed like Lea and Gabe just couldn't use any common sense. Instead of just biting the bullet and talk to the other one they complained and made excuses and nothing was getting resolved. This was what led me to the issue with the pacing.
The pacing lagged. It seemed that the story was taking forever to get anywhere. I didn't get bored. I enjoyed listening to the stories but I still couldn't get past the point of nothing happening. This led me to the issue of lack of romance. With nothing happening there was no romance. I don't read many romances but when I do, I like to have romance.
Now with all that said. The writing style was unique and it was, in the end, a very cute story. It felt a bit more like a story my grandmother would have told, the meeting of her and my grandfather, more than a romance book, but I applauded when Lea and Gabe finally found each other.
I really feel that if it wasn't for the bench, the waitress, the friends, the classmates, and the squirrel. I would have given up. This book was really hard for me to review and to rate. I enjoyed it to the point I finished it, I wanted to know how it all would end, but my curiosity and the few laughs that the multiple POVs gave me are saved the read.
It had some cuteness and some laughs, but it just didn't happen for me.
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About Sandy Hall
I'm a teen librarian from New Jersey where I was born and raised. I have a BA in Communication and a Master of Library and Information Science from Rutgers University. When I'm not writing, or teen librarian-ing, I enjoy reading, slot machines, marathoning TV shows, and long scrolls through Tumblr. A LITTLE SOMETHING DIFFERENT is my first novel.
Yeah, I hate whiny characters too, it does effect your connection and like of them, which it all goes down hill after that for me, since I'm very much a character person (and with these type of books, it all holds on the characters anyway. But glad you liked the multiple perspectives at least (I don't know how I would since I don't like them that much, but if they're fun, I'm for it). :)
ReplyDeleteI know that some people really LOVED this book and others really did not. There weren't a whole lot of in-between opinions....
ReplyDeleteKate @ Ex Libris
I'm sad you didn't love this but I can totally see why. I did love the squirrel because it was cute and funny. I thought the whole book was cute and funny, but I think you are right in saying that the pacing is off and how it was harder to connect with characters. I just loved it uniqueness. I hope your next romance read is more enjoyable for you! :)
ReplyDelete