Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

Title: 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:

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?

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!!!

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Title: Eat, Pray, Love

Author: Elizabeth Gilbert

Where I Got It: I bought it from Walmart

Why I Read It: I've been wanting to read it for a very long time, and after hearing such good things about the book AND the movie, I decided to buy it and read it.

My Rating: B



Blurb from the back of the book:

In her early thirties, Elizabeth Gilbert had everything a modern American woman was suppose to want -- husband, country home, successful career -- but instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she felt consumed by panic and confusion. This wise and rapturous book is the story of how she left behind all these outward marks of success, and of what she found in their place. Following a divorce and a crushing depression, Gilbert set out to examine three different cultures: pleasure in Italy, devotion in India, and on the Indonesian island of Bali, a balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence. 

First I must start of by saying how humorous this book was. I found myself literally laughing out loud numerous times through out this book. And, if you know me at all, you know that I love a book that makes me feel emotion as if I'm the one writing it, or who lived it! Out of everything likable in this book, I'd have to say that's my ultimate favorite. 

The only thing that I didn't really enjoy about the book is that I found myself getting bored through out some parts of it. I was getting so bored, that my mind would wander off and think of other things while reading, and by the time I realized this, I'd have to go back a page or two to reread it to understand what was going on. However, this didn't happen a lot, just a few times here or there, and it wasn't enough to ruin the book, or make me hate it. 

I  feel like this book can teach everyone something. It obviously taught Elizabeth a lot as she was traveling from place to place, writing this book and experiencing life in such a different way. The knowledge, advice, suggestions, and thoughts through out this book give us all a feeling of, "Oh, what a great life lesson!" 

For example, I've been going through this "woe is me" stage every now and then and feeling BLAH, and REALLY down about my 7 year relationship that ended a year ago. Even after a year, it still hurts. Well, I was having one of those days and I picked up this book and immediately read this part:

"I thought David was my soul mate."

"He probably was. Your problem is you don't understand what that word means. People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that's holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave. And thank God for it."

By reading this part of the book/story, I was like, "Wow. So everyone really DOES have more than one soul mate." Then it made me think about how much my life has changed since meeting my "soul mate", who has now left, and how in the end, it's the best experience that I, or anyone else can ever have and that it's okay to be hurt/sad/upset, but it's also okay to move on with your life. There WILL be more soul mates! There was one other quote/part of the book that goes hand in hand with this too. I'd like to share it with you also.

"My heart was broken so badly last time that it STILL hurts. Isn't that crazy? To still have a broken heart almost two years after a love story ends?"

This entire book has so many awesome parts/quotes/sections in it with SUCH deep thoughts/meaning, just like the two that I shared with you. And, as I said, a life lesson for me that I learned from reading this: It's okay to love again.

I do think that this book is a must read for all woman. Men would enjoy it too, I'm sure. But because this was written by a woman, and it has the life lessons that every girl needs to learn sometime in their life, I think every woman out there should read this. In fact, I'm going to pass this own to a friend of mine to read, so SHE can learn from this book, then I hope she'll pass it on to someone else. I highly recommend this book to everyone, woman especially. 

When I talk about life lessons, I'm talking about learning that life isn't always bad. I'm talking about that even though Elizabeth was miserable in her life, she had the guts to get up and DO something about it. Not only did she help herself, but along the way she met incredibly, amazing people, who not only changed HER life, but in some way, she changed theirs as well. And I think everyone should know that this actually does happen. 

As I said, I highly recommend this book to everyone, a high focus on woman. I hope that you all go out and read this, if you haven't already. I highly recommend you read the book, before seeing the movie however. I haven't seen the movie yet, but as it goes with all books made into movies, I doubt the movie even comes close to giving the book justice! 

One other positive thing about this book is that at the very end of the book, there are pages of the other books Elizabeth Gilbert as published. One of them is actually a sort of continuance of this book. It tells what happens to her, and some of the people she met along the way. I don't want to say too much, or I'll give out too many spoilers!!! 

I am giving this book a B, only because of the very few less entertaining parts that were through out the book. 

If you've already read this book, PLEASE leave me some comments/feedback on this. I would LOVE to know what you think/thought of it. Or, if you've seen the movie, and not the book, I would LOVE to hear from you as well!! 

My Rating:

50 FOLLOWERS GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Everyone!!! I have FINALLY reached 50 followers!!! I said that I was going to do a giveaway when I reached this, so, here I am with the updated, detailed information on the giveaway, and how to enter/participate, etc! 


Here are the rules:


1. ANYONE in the UNITED STATES can participate! Sorry International folks, I will do a giveaway for you real soon!


2.) You HAVE to be a Follower. New, or old! 


3.)  You get additional entries if you're a follower, meaning, you'll get an entry for signing up, then you'll get an entry for being a follower. Also additional entries are possible in the following ways: Posting an entry on your blog about the giveaway, posting on your Facebook, Myspace, etc. about the giveaway, and/or posting something on Goodreads about the giveaway! I WILL NEED LINKS TO ALL OF THIS IN ORDER TO GET EXTRA ENTRIES!


Now, I'm sure you're all wondering what you can win. So, here are the prizes:


ONE lucky FIRST PRIZE winner will choose what book they'd want from Barnes & Noble that is $15 or less! I will have this book shipped to them!


TWO lucky SECOND PRIZE winners will be chosen to receive a USED copy of one of the books that I own. Now, There will be a "first prize-second prize winner", if that makes sense. Whoever is RANDOMLY drawn for the second place prize  first, will  get first pick of which book they want. Then the second person for second place prize will get a pick out of what's left. Does this make sense?


So in total, there will be THREE winners! 


Here is a list of the books I will have available for the SECOND PRIZE WINNERS to win:


Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Nosy Neighbor by Fern Michaels
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson


How to enter:


Please leave me a comment ON THIS ENTRY ONLY with the following information:


Your first name, which two books you'd be interested in if you were second place, your email address where I can contact you if you win, any links to announcements of this giveaway so you can get extra entries, and whether your a new, or old follower! 


Winners will be chosen at RANDOM using Random.org. However, the more entries you have, the more chances you'll have at winning!! 


This giveaway is going to go from NOW until February 1st. It gives people THREE weeks to enter, get information needed, etc. Once a winner is picked, I will post an entry with the persons name, the link to their blog, etc. They will have 48 HOURS to contact me to claim their prize.


If you have ANY questions, feel free to email me at: stephanysbookreviews@gmail.com


I'm excited about this giveaway folks!! LETS DO THIS! 

Nook, E-Readers and Other Digitals vs. Hard copy books

I just read this very interesting article on how Borders is becoming less and less popular among the biggest book retailer, Barnes and Noble, and even Amazon. It made me think about this A LOT for many reasons..


1.) I am studying Business Management where I want to OWN my own book store some day. 


2.) It talks about the digital books that are available nowadays, and how much of positive and even negative affect this has on book retailers, as well as us readers.


I'm hoping by writing this entry, it'll cause some interesting discussion and/or debates. I'd like to see what everyone else in the blogging/bookish world thinks about this. 


If you'd like to read the article that I'm speaking of, you can find it HERE. Feel free to read it as you read my entry about my thoughts/opinions. 


This article mainly talks about how Borders, the once 2nd all time book retailer is slowly being taken down by Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. It talks about how Borders may have to file a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy law suit in order to stay open, how they are thinking about combining Barnes & Noble with Borders to see if they can make a bigger profit, get out of debt, etc. 


Now, this raises a flag with me... If Barnes & Noble (My all time favorite book store), is doing SO WELL, am I going to be able to rise against them when I open my own store? Obviously my store will start off small, but I hope to be as big as Borders, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. This worries me. And in part, the article talks about how Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and now Borders all have the digital e-readers where you can buy this thin book shaped digital piece of technology and can buy, download, etc. books onto it and read it without the "hassle" of having a an actual book to "lug around". According to this article (and from what I've seen out in public), these digital e-readers as becoming more and more popular. They're decently priced to buy, and the books you buy off the computer are decently prices as well. The book industry is being rapidly changed by this technology, just like the music, news, entertainment, etc. industries have with advanced technology. 


Don't get me wrong, I am all for these e-readers. From what I've seen, they're pretty awesome. But personally, I don't want to own one for the simple fact that I enjoy the look and feel of having an ACTUAL book in my hands. I feel like these e-readers take that possibility away, and you miss that "new book smell". And, if these things keep advancing more and more, are hard copy books going to be available anymore at all?? If e-readers develop into a huge craze to phase out actual books, what's going to happen to Libraries? Are stores like Barnes & Noble, or even my book store, going to be able to survive solely on digital copies of books? Will Barnes & Noble then be in the same position as Borders? About to be completely out of business, and/or filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy? The article mentions that Borders was one of the last book retailers to come up with a digital e-reader, and that they aren't able to keep up with the higher retailers. Isn't this a sign of what might happen if hard copy books phase out? 


The article does say something that I like/agree with... " But books have survived every retail transformation so far". So, hopefully these digital transformations don't phase out the actual hard copy book world. But the article also mentions that if we don't like, or agree with the digital world, there is also the library. But, wouldn't the libraries suffer too?


My sole purpose of writing this entry based on the article that I read is to ask you, my follow bookish people and bloggers.. What do you think?? Do you think that the digital e-readers will phase out hard copy books? How do you think this will affect book stores in the future? Do you prefer the digital copies over hard copies? Why, or why not? 


I look forward to hearing all of your thoughts/opinions on this subject!


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Why-Barnes-Noble-Is-Thumping-usnews-2623028754.html?x=0

GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!

Hey Everyone! I decided that I wanted to do something for my loyal followers sometime in the near future. So, I decided that I'm going to do a giveaway!!!

Once I reach 50 followers (which, at the time of this writing, I'm at 48!) then I will be doing a giveaway! Now, I know that 50 followers isn't all THAT much, but to me, that's an accomplishment! Then, once I reach 100 followers, I will do an even BIGGER giveaway!!

So, once I reach the 50 followers mark, I will put another post up on the details of the actual giveaway, rules, etc.

But for now, just know that ONE lucky winner will receive a book of their CHOICE from Barnes and Noble that is $15 or less!!!! And ONE second place winner will receive a used copy of one of my books, which I will have a list of them, and the second place winner can choose which one he or she would like!!

So, once I hit the 50 followers, another DETAILED post will follow!!!

Thanks to all of you who have been following me so far!!