Monday, February 21, 2011

Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

Best Friends Forever: A NovelTitle: Best Friends Forever 

Author:  Jennifer Weiner

Where I Got It: Someone bought it for me!

Why I Read It: I've heard a lot about Jennifer as an author, and wanted to try out some of her books!

Rating: 4/5


Blurb from the back of the book:

Addie Downs and Valerie Adler will be best friends forever. That's what Addie believes after Valerie moves across the street when they're both nine years old. But in the wake of betrayal during their teenage years, Val is swept into the popular crowd, while mousy, sullen Addie becomes her school's scapegoat.
Flash-forward fifteen years. Valerie Adler has found a measure of fame and fortune working as the weather girl at the local TV station. Addie Downs lives alone in her parents' house in their small hometown of Pleasant Ridge, Illinois, caring for a troubled brother and trying to meet Prince Charming on the Internet. She's just returned from Bad Date #6 when she opens her door to find her long-gone best friend standing there, a terrified look on her face and blood on the sleeve of her coat. "Something horrible has happened." Val tells Addie, "and you're the only one who can help."
Best Friends Forever is a grand, hilarious, edge-of-your-seat adventure; a story about betrayal and loyalty, family history and small-town secrets. It's about living through tragedy, finding love where you least expect it, and the ties that keep best friends together.


This book was actually very well written, and as the blurb says, it was hilarious! It had it's parts that were kind of boring, of course, what book doesn't? But for the most part, it was very entertaining! 

I felt like I could relate to Addie quite a bit when it came to having friends in High School, being picked on, etc. I wasn't UNPOPULAR, but I wasn't popular either. High School was a lot less hard for me than Elementary was, but in that aspect, I could definitely relate to Addie. 

Addie and Val had a falling out in high school when Val told Addie a secret, and Addie felt as if she needed to tell someone to help Val out. Addie did no wrong, but Val couldn't see it at the time. In the way Val handled it (I don't want to say too much), she wasn't a very good friend. I feel as if I could relate to Addie in the way of losing a good friend over something incredibly preventable, and being so hurt over it. 

The book starts off when Addie was a little girl, living with her parents and brother in a neighborhood in Pleasant Ridge, Illinois. Pleasant Ridge is ( in real life ) a suburb of Chicago. One day Addie was looking out her window before lunch or dinner time (I can't remember which) and saw a moving truck pull up into the house across the street. She saw a little girl get out of the car following the moving truck, and realized they were the same age. Addie got excited, hoping to have a new friend. 

Later, Val introduced herself to Addie, and Addie invited her to eat lunch with them. The rest is pretty much history. They were across-the-street neighbors, who hung out every single day. They grew up together, never leaving each others side until the event happened in high school. 

My only complaint about the book is that I felt like the event that happened to cause them to drift apart, wasn't well detailed. I felt like there was lots of missing pieces. Also, the event that happened before Val showed up at Addie's door 15 years later, involved another character in the book, and I felt like he kept getting lost in the story. Pages and pages would go by before Jennifer would mention him again. 

Over all, this was a fantastic book, and I would recommend it to anyone! I am also going to be checking into her other books very soon!!

Don't forget to leave feedback!!! 



My Rating:


Friday, February 4, 2011

Book Blogger Hop!!!

Book Blogger Hop







Hey Everyone! It's that time again... Time for the Book Blogger Hop! If you've never participated before, go visit Jennifer at Crazy-for-Books!! There you'll find the blog entry all about the Book Blogger Hop!!

Every Friday, Jennifer posts a new question for everyone to answer, and to hop around to other book bloggers blogs (haha) to see their answers too!

This weeks question is:


What are you reading now, and why are you reading it?



Right now I am reading, Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner! It's a FANTATSTIC  Book! And I'm reading it because I read a book review a VERY long time ago on it, and fell in love with it and instantly added it to my TBR List. This past Christmas I particpated in a Secret Santa and this book was sent to me via my Secret Santa! Best Christmas Present Ever! So now I am finally reading it!!!

What book, or books, are you reading?

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Stylish Blogger Award!!!

Hello Everyone!! This is kinda late (I've been soo busy!), but I recently got a Stylish Blogger Award from T.C. McKee! She has been helping me out quite a bit lately with the whole blogging stuff, trying to give me tips to get more traffic on my blog, etc. So, I want to Thank her from the bottom of my heart for helping me out with the tips/ideas, and for giving me this awesome award!!!


Now, as most of you know, when you receive an award, you have to pass it on to 15 people! I am not expecting everyone to pass this award on to others, because I know a lot of you are busy. I just ask that you PLEASE accept the award, and let me know in a comment that you accepted it! So, without further ado, here are the 15 bloggers that I chose:



Jamie at The Perpetual Page Turner
Steph at StephTheBookworm
Cindy at Oodles of Books;
Carrie at Just One More Chapter
Kate at Kate's Library
Bewitched Book Worms
Isalys and Vanessa at Book Soulmates 
Emilie at Emilie's Book World 
Danielle at Every Last Page
Bree at Bree's Books
Angela at Library Girl Reads
Lost in the Library
The Book Bee
YA Highway
A Book Geek



And now, here are seven facts about myself!


1.) I love the smell of new, and old books.
2.) I hate winter, even though I live in one of the snowiest states in the US.
3.) In the past year or so, I've learned how to live for me, and not for pleasing others.
4.) I absolutely love working at my place of employment!
5.) I'm a huge people-person, and I get bored/lonely quickly when I'm not around people.
6.) I absolutely love food. I love cooking food, reading about food, eating food, watching Food Network, I love everything about food!
7.) I have a dream to have a book published someday.


I hope you all enjoyed receiving this award from me, and enjoyed reading my seven facts! Now, I would like all of YOU to share at least one fact about yourself with me, so I can get to know all of you too! Also, if you were a winner of this award, remember that you DO NOT have to repost, or pass it on, I just simply would like you to comment on here and let me know you've received the award, and share a fun fact! =)

Thanks again to T.C Mckee for giving me this award!!!

New Blog

Hello followers! First, let me say sorry yet again that I have not been very active on my blog site. The reason for that is because I have...