2019 Reading Challenge Reviews - Books 17 & 18

I'm really enjoying working my way through the 2019 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge prompts this year. The prompts are helping me broaden my horizons and read more books that I might not have picked in the past. I'm really enjoying reading new books and authors, and I can't wait to see how the rest of the year goes. You can see the prompt list in my 2019 Reading Challenge Overview post or on the popsugar.com website.

Here are my thoughts on the 17th and 18th books that I've read this year.

Book 17: P.S. I still love you by Jenny Han

I gave this book 3/5 stars on Goodreads.

The prompt I chose for this was "Read a book during the season it is set in" I wasn't originally going to use this book for that prompt, but after reading it and realizing that the season at the time fit really well it felt like it was meant to be.

This book was cute, but it didn't resonate with me the same way the first in the series did.

WARNING: Spoilers below. If you haven't read the book yet, kindly skip to the bottom of the post where you will see my review for book #18. :)

I'm not really sure, maybe this book just hit too close to home and preyed on my insecurities, but there were far too many moments where I just wanted to yell at Lara Jean and Peter to communicate.

Peter starts hanging out with his ex who he says has a secret and needs his help, but he won't tell Lara Jean what the secret is or why it's so important that he be the one to help. He doesn't listen when Lara Jean tries to tell him how shady that makes him look. Lara Jean starts to move on with a different boy she "loved before", John. Lara Jean then treats John pretty poorly since she's still not over Peter.

The whole time this is going on, they're all playing a form of tag that my friends and I used to play in HS, but with far less drama.

I found myself both rooting for Peter and Lara Jean to talk out what's wrong with their relationship, and for Lara Jean to move on with John since he seemed to genuinely care for her and communicated better.

Overall, the book was still cute, but felt more scattered and less developed than the first one.

Book 18: Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

I gave this book 4/5 stars on Goodreads.

The prompt I chose for this was "A cl-fi (climate fiction) book". I had to go to my goodreads group for the challenge to find a book that fit this prompt. When I saw this book in the recommendations, and saw it was available as an e-book through my library, I was sold.

This book is set in the future when the world has been devastated by climate change. Extremely intense storms rock whats left of the world. Cities are underwater, and abandoned oil tankers are stuck just off shore. 

The area of society where the main character, Nailer, lives thrives on stripping the oil tankers for parts. Nailer gets injured on the wreck, and after a huge storm discovers a modern ship beached not far from his home. He and his friend search the ship preparing to strip it for parts, when they find a survivor. They can either leave the survivor to die, or rescue her giving up the ability to make money off the ship parts.

Ultimately, Nailer's decisions along the way make him new allies, and new/old enemies. His very first decision will lead him down a path that will leave him wondering if he made the right decision, what he got himself into, and if he'd be able to change course even if he wanted to.

I felt that the characters were well developed. The main chunk of this plot had some great twists and turns, and there were times when I didn't want to stop reading. However, the ending didn't live up to my expectations. It felt like it ended just a little bit too quickly. That said, I probably will end up looking up the next book in the series at some point, just to get a bigger glimpse at the world Paolo Bacigalupi has created.