Review: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
522 pages
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Source: I borrowed this from a co-worker.
Purchase: Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | Amazon
My Rating:

Goodreads Summary: Simon Snow is the worst chosen one who’s ever been chosen.

That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right.

Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he sets something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here—it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.

Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, a mystery and a melodrama. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story—but far, far more monsters.

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My Review

This review is going to be a little different. I am kicking of the new year with a new type of review. I am going to do a question answer type format. These are questions I had while reading that I wrote out and then answered. I figured some of you may be curious about the same things so I decided I would write my review in that type of format. 

Will you like this book if you are not a Harry Potter fan?

Sure. I don't see why not. I think you may like it a little more if you are an HP fan though.

Would you enjoy this book if you have yet to read Fangirl?

I think so. It is treated as a whole separate book so you don't really need to read Fangirl to enjoy Carry On.

Does Carry On have a little bit of a mystery to its story or is it just a romance?

Although I believe it is primarily a romance novel, there is some mystery and fantasy type elements to the story as well. 

Is this book supposed to be funny?

When I first started reading I thought the whole book was a joke, and then I realized that I think it was supposed to be written that way. Why else would you call the main villain the Insidious Humdrum? I laughed quite a few times while reading.

When will the romance happen? (This thought occurred to me about 1/4 of the way into the novel.)

With all the hype surrounding this book and all the talk of it being a romance, I was very sadly disappointed that it took hundreds of pages for things to finally heat up and get interesting. I really just wanted Simon and Baz to smash their faces together.

What about all the supporting characters?

They fell a little flat for me. I think perhaps that maybe one reason for this is that since Carry On reads like a last book in a series I had a hard time connecting with the characters. Who really knows though. It may just be me.

When does this book become interesting? (This thought hit me at about 50ish pages in.)

I will warn you that I felt like the story dragged a bit at first. I felt liked nothing really happened for a long time there at the beginning.

Is Carry On worth reading?

I enjoyed it. Rainbow Rowell writes really well. Even though I wasn't completely sold at the start, I really did love the second half of the story.

A Straight to the Point Review: Fangirl by: Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl by: Rainbow Rowell (2013)

445 pages

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Genre: Young Adult/ Contemporary/Romance

Source: I bought a signed copy!

Purchase: Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository

Goodreads Summary: Cath is a Simon Snow fan.
Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...
But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?
Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?
And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

My Review

Warning: This book is beyond awesome.

Here is why...

Family is present and important to the story.

There is an easy to relate to main character. (Especially for people like me who love HP and usually prefers to be an introvert.)

The minor characters are the best of the best, they are weird, cute, and funny.

It has the most adorable couple.

It's a read in one sitting kind of book.

The Bottom Line: It's a must read. Fangirl will make your heart flutter and make you feel all warm and gooey inside.

I found this signed copy of Fangirl in a small bookshop in Minnesota when I was up there in May for my brother's graduation. I didn't get to meet her, but the nice guy who rang me up told me that Rainbow is very nice. I was super happy I found this. :D

In case you can't read it, under the title it says: "That. Is. An. Order."

Don't worry Rainbow, I fangirl every day, and especially while I was reading your book!

Review: Attachments by: Rainbow Rowell

Attachments by: Rainbow Rowell (2011)

336 pages

Genre: Romance

Publisher: Dutton Adult

Source: I purchased this one!

Purchase: Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository

Goodreads Summary: "Hi, I'm the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you . . . "

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now- reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be "internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.

When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.

By the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for Beth, it's way too late to introduce himself.

What would he say . . . ?

My Review

Attachments is the first book I have ever read by Rainbow Rowell. Attachments is cute, quirky, and fun, and I liked it a lot, but I didn't love it. 

The MC, Lincoln, is an adorable dork who is also kind of hot, and he reads the emails of Beth and Jennifer (best friends who have a quirky and wacky way with words) while at work. This story takes place when computers were becoming more popular, and therefore it is Lincoln’s job to read emails at his place of work (newspaper) that have been flagged to make sure his co-workers are not using their work emails for personal reasons. The best part of the setting of Attachments is that it takes place before the whole Y2K thing. I found it funny to see how much Lincoln’s boss was nervous about Y2K and the computers crashing, especially since I lived through all that and as far as I know all the hype was all for nothing as long as programs were updated. I also loved the newspaper setting because I used to work at one, and it is portrayed pretty darn well. So the setting was spot on, the characters are very likable, and Attachments is an incredibly cute novel but...

There really wasn't any sort of plot momentum or conflict until half way through the book, and as you all probably know by now, I’m not a fan of books that have a slow first half. However, once the book started to pick up pace I was hooked. It is charming and fun. The emails between Beth and Jennifer are funny and clever and Lincoln’s reactions to them are even more interesting. I know you may be thinking that this whole set up is kind of weird and creepy, a man falling for a girl just by reading her private and personal emails is creepy, but Rowell manages to work past it by showing Lincoln's issues and regret with reading the private emails, and the fact that he has to read the emails for work, making the situation a little less creepy. Anyway...

I do want to give a big round of applause for Rowell for how she handled Lincoln and Beth's meeting/interaction/real life discussion. It was perfect, okay it was a tad cheesy, but I like cheese. I awed and giggled a lot. I wish the ending wasn't quite so abrupt because I would have loved to get to spend more time seeing how Beth and Lincoln’s future unfolds, but other than that the ending was nice.

I recommend this book to Rowell fans and to those of you who are looking for a cute and funny romance novel to read. I know the beginning is kind of slow, but hang in there and you will be pleasantly surprised.