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It was really hard to pick one book and one author, but I did. However, if you asked me to do this post once a month, I'd definitely have a different answer each time. :)
Today I'm only talking about Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills.
As I said in my review for Emma's most recent book (Lucky Caller), her books are "soft, and realistic, and beautiful. They're like sunny June afternoons on the hill outside my house, like Christmas morning, like waffles on Sundays. And I hope she never stops writing such character-focused, life-focused books."
So much contemporary fiction, while good, doesn't feel relatable, or the dialogue is a bit unrealistic. But even the larger-than-life characters (like FH's Gideon Prewitt) feel like they could actually exist.
Mills accurately captures a life that doesn't just revolve around one relationship. Claudia is defined by her friendships (both old and new), by her relationships with her sister and brother and parents, by her first boyfriend, and by her burgeoning romance with Gideon. Iris, her new friend, is also defined by her love for the boy band, This Is Our Now. I feel like one of the ways I'm defined is by my love for Taylor Swift and her music.
The two themes I noticed in Foolish Hearts are "Can we trust our hearts?" and "Can we trust what other people say their hearts feel?" Claudia has been burned by an ex-boyfriend who said he just felt regular around her, so she expects love to be more extraordinary. But that's the thing; true love outlasts the early wildly passionate feelings, or sometimes it doesn't even start that way.
At its core, though, Foolish Hearts is a story about Claudia expanding her universe and exploring new possibilities, both of which I think are essential to a good coming-of-age story.
Something else I really love and appreciate about FH is how everything isn’t perfect, and things fall apart, but they are repairable. I appreciate that because I feel like some books and TV shows have a tendency to cause so much drama and conflict that the relationships are irreparable. (Or, even if the characters reconcile, it feels forced or wrong.)
(some of my favorite books of 2017, notably Foolish Hearts, and me)
Foolish Hearts is a laugh-out-like-type of story that also takes itself seriously in its deeper moments, which I think is a wonderful balance. There is a time and place for books that are all sadness, but in a world like the one we live in, we need to see there can be light despite the darkness. That's why I appreciate the quieter, "fluffy" YA contemporary stories.
Today I'm only talking about Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills.
As I said in my review for Emma's most recent book (Lucky Caller), her books are "soft, and realistic, and beautiful. They're like sunny June afternoons on the hill outside my house, like Christmas morning, like waffles on Sundays. And I hope she never stops writing such character-focused, life-focused books."
So much contemporary fiction, while good, doesn't feel relatable, or the dialogue is a bit unrealistic. But even the larger-than-life characters (like FH's Gideon Prewitt) feel like they could actually exist.
Mills accurately captures a life that doesn't just revolve around one relationship. Claudia is defined by her friendships (both old and new), by her relationships with her sister and brother and parents, by her first boyfriend, and by her burgeoning romance with Gideon. Iris, her new friend, is also defined by her love for the boy band, This Is Our Now. I feel like one of the ways I'm defined is by my love for Taylor Swift and her music.
The two themes I noticed in Foolish Hearts are "Can we trust our hearts?" and "Can we trust what other people say their hearts feel?" Claudia has been burned by an ex-boyfriend who said he just felt regular around her, so she expects love to be more extraordinary. But that's the thing; true love outlasts the early wildly passionate feelings, or sometimes it doesn't even start that way.
At its core, though, Foolish Hearts is a story about Claudia expanding her universe and exploring new possibilities, both of which I think are essential to a good coming-of-age story.
Something else I really love and appreciate about FH is how everything isn’t perfect, and things fall apart, but they are repairable. I appreciate that because I feel like some books and TV shows have a tendency to cause so much drama and conflict that the relationships are irreparable. (Or, even if the characters reconcile, it feels forced or wrong.)
Foolish Hearts is a laugh-out-like-type of story that also takes itself seriously in its deeper moments, which I think is a wonderful balance. There is a time and place for books that are all sadness, but in a world like the one we live in, we need to see there can be light despite the darkness. That's why I appreciate the quieter, "fluffy" YA contemporary stories.
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