'The Perfect Match' Blue Heron #2 by Kristan Higgins

From the BLURB:

What if the perfect match is a perfect surprise? 

Honor Holland has just been unceremoniously rejected by her lifelong crush. And now—a mere three weeks later—Mr. Perfect is engaged to her best friend. But resilient, reliable Honor is going to pick herself up, dust herself off and get back out there or she would if dating in Manningsport, New York, population 715, wasn't easier said than done. 

Charming, handsome British professor Tom Barlow just wants to do right by his unofficial stepson, Charlie, but his visa is about to expire. Now Tom must either get a green card or leave the States—and leave Charlie behind. 

In a moment of impulsiveness, Honor agrees to help Tom with a marriage of convenience—and make her ex jealous in the process. But juggling a fiancé, hiding out from her former best friend and managing her job at the family vineyard isn't easy. And as sparks start to fly between Honor and Tom, they might discover that their pretend relationship is far too perfect to be anything but true love.

Honor Holland has been ‘friends with benefits’ with her oldest school friend, Brogan, since they were both freshmen in college. Technically she’s been in love with him for some 17 years, but when her doctor has the ‘tick-tock, tick-tock’ talk with her, Honor decides it’s now or never to profess her love and suggest she and Brogan get hitched (they’re not getting any younger, after all). What follows her proposal is the worst ever let-down and simile in the history of language – whereby Brogan compares Honor to a favourite old baseball glove; one you pull out for a bit of good luck during a hard match, but that you don’t rely on all year round. 

Ouch. 

Even worse is when Honor’s best friend, Dana, ends up with Brogan’s ring on her finger a few weeks later . . . apparently in a crazy, spontaneous ‘we-just-knew-it-was-right’ love match.

Honor is shattered, but resigned.

Tom Barlow is a British mechanical engineer and professor at a nearby college. He’s staying in Manningsport, California to be near his beleaguered almost-stepson. Tom was engaged to Charlie’s mother, before discovering that she was cheating on him . . .  then she got hit by a car and died. That was a few years ago, now Charlie is a sullen teenager dressed all in black who seemingly doesn’t care one way or the other if Tom’s university can’t renew his green card and he returns to the UK forever. 

Then Honor’s grandmother, Goggy, has the crazy idea to set these two up (arranged marriages have been known to work) and sparks might just fly.

‘The Perfect Match’ is the second book in Kristan Higgins’ contemporary romance ‘Blue Heron’ series. 

So, I loved first book ‘The Best Man’ (which was also my first ever Kristan Higgins book, leaving me to wonder what else of hers I'd been missing out on!). I went into this second novel full of high-hopes and prepared to swoon all over again . . .  but I came out a little “meh”. 

I initially said that I'd never read a Kristan Higgins book because they all seemed too sugary-sweet, with none of the meatier barbs I quite like to read in my romances. Now, ‘The Best Man’ was by no means ‘Anna Karenina’ on the beleaguered-romance scale – but heroine Faith Holland did have a rotten streak with men, and her hero Levi Cooper was definitely donning armour. Then Higgins offered up Honor Holland and Tom Barlow – two people with quadruple the number of prickly problems that Faith and Levi had.

For one thing, Honor is humiliated when her best friend, love of her life and no-strings-attached bedroom-partner calls her the equivalent of his favourite baseball glove (to get him out of a slump? I guess?) and then goes and gets engaged to her (back-stabbing) best friend – but still wants them to remain close and put the awkwardness of her proposal behind them and move on. Not to mention her doctor is telling her she’s got to get a move on if she wants babies, and online dating websites bring up no potential hunnys in the Manningsport area. Tom is just as damaged – cheated on by his fiancée before she died, leaving him in limbo with her son who he now sees when his guardian grandparents allow, but who is harbouring a deep-seated resentment towards Tom, blaming him for his mother’s death. Phew. I thought, surely, with that much heaped on these two characters Higgins would be pulling out all the lovey-dovey stops to counteract all that heavy stuff. Sadly, I never felt like ‘The Perfect Match’ reached any sort of desirable romantic heights.

Tom and Honor come together for a sort of contractual arrangement – he for a green card, she for the potential of marriage and babies. Though these two start out with sparks flying and heat simmering;

“You understand how things are built,” she said. It sounded vaguely dirty.  

“Yes.” 

“You know how to . . . get things going.” 

His eyes dropped to her mouth. “Mmm-hmm.” 

“You’re good with your hands.” 

He leaned forward. “Are you flirting with me, Miss Holland?” he asked, his voice low.

Tom’s guard goes up when Honor moves into his home and Charlie still proves a battling sullen and sad teenager. Not to mention, Tom already went through the heartache of loving one woman who cheated on him, he’s never thrilled to see Honor light up whenever she sees Brogan.

The thing is, I loved how much of a battle Faith and Levi had before them in ‘The Best Man’ – and Higgins certainly had them conquering their demons. But I don’t think she ever got there with Tom and Honor.

For one thing, the Brogan/Dana storyline drops off far too quickly. Even though it’s set up as the big heartache of Honor’s life, Dana and Brogan and their in-your-face happiness are sporadically mentioned in a few chapters and then hardly at all throughout the rest of the book. But that was a great set-up, I thought, and right up until the end I wanted to know what was happening with that story – especially as Honor’s potentially lingering feelings for Brogan were a concern for Tom.

For another, I think Honor was quite hard done by in this book, and her romance never turned into the sparkly fairytale I thought she deserved after such heartache. At one point, Tom has this to say about her: “She was lovely. She had no idea, did she? Granted, he hadn’t exactly been struck with lightning the first time he’d seen her . . ” and, look, that’s fine. Far be it from me to want all contemporary romance heroines to look like Scarlett Johansson or be the sort of Mary-Sue’s who every male character fall head-over-heels in love with. But after being compared to an old baseball glove, and after reading Tom’s recounting of how he met Charlie’s mother (that was a love-at-first-sight set up, it would seem, since she was absolutely beautiful) I felt really terrible for Honor. When even the guy she ends up with has this to say about her; “But hers were the type of looks that grew on a person.” Maybe it’s far truer, but for all that Honor had been put through I wanted her to have a real Cinderella moment. 

Maybe I also felt that way because I also didn’t think that Tom and Honor ever fell for one another on a more intimate, intellectual level . . . this, I felt, was proven by the slap-dash high-octane ending of the book that throws them together once and for all. 

This book didn’t work for me the same way that ‘The Best Man’ did. Sure, I’ll read the next ‘Blue Heron’ book (this time about Faith and Honor’s friend, bartender Colleen – though I would have appreciated even a little bit of set-up for her book #3). I think I just wanted either a more intimate romance for Tom and Honor, or for Honor to have a real fist-pumping Cinderella moment after the glove simile (seriously that was just . . . brutal).

2.5/5

'The Best Man' Blue Heron #1 by Kristan Higgins

 From the BLURB: 

Sometimes the best man is the one you least expect…

Faith Holland left her hometown after being jilted at the altar. Now a little older and wiser, she's ready to return to the Blue Heron Winery, her family's vineyard, to confront the ghosts of her past, and maybe enjoy a glass of red. After all, there's some great scenery there….

Like Levi Cooper, the local police chief—and best friend of her former fiancé. There's a lot about Levi that Faith never noticed, and it's not just those deep green eyes. The only catch is she's having a hard time forgetting that he helped ruin her wedding all those years ago. If she can find a minute amidst all her family drama to stop and smell the rosé, she just might find a reason to stay at Blue Heron, and finish that walk down the aisle.

Faith Holland comes from the beautiful wine country of Manningsport, California. Her family own the famous Blue Heron Winery, and two great big farm houses where their great-greats all grew up too. But Faith moved to San Francisco three years ago, after a left-at-the-altar, broken-hearted incident and now she rarely ever goes home. But when her older sister, Honor, tells her to come home and help their father before he marries a gold-digging harlot, Faith is on the next flight home and intending to stay for an unspecified time.

Despite reservations at bumping into her old fiancée Jeremy – high school sweetheart and the man who broke her heart (and seemingly ruined her for all other men, since he’s still the last one she’s ever been with) – Faith is drawn home by her own guilt. When she was just a little girl she was in the car with her mother when a speeding motorist slammed into them, killing her. Faith feels a great deal of guilt because she told everyone she was having an epileptic fit which distracted her mother, and Faith has been trying to make amends ever since.

Once home, Faith is tip-toeing around Jeremy, putting up with everyone’s sympathetic eyes and trying to pry the claws off dad’s unintentional girlfriend . . .  but the real thorn in her side turns out to be one Levi Cooper. Once town bad boy, Jeremy’s best friend and the “best man” who decided her wedding ceremony was the perfect time for Jeremy to come out of the closet. Levi went and joined the army fresh out of high school, but now he’s home in Manningsport and police chief – caring for his teenage sister after their mother died, and still seems to have a deep hatred for Faith – who he snidely nicknamed Princess Super-Cute in high school. Never mind that Faith and Levi have another side to their past that both of them are reluctant to delve into . . . even when sparks begin to fly again.

‘The Best Man’ is the first book in the new contemporary romance ‘Blue Heron’ series from Kristan Higgins.

Insane, I know, but I'd never read a Kristan Higgins book until ‘The Best Man’. Of course, I'd seen her on many a bookshelf and recommended-reading list . . . but her covers always seemed too cutesy to me, suggesting her romance stories might be all sugar, no spice. But after reading everyone rave about her new ‘Blue Heron’ series, I decided to put my assumptions aside . . . and now I’m eating my words.

Faith Holland is a hopeless underdog if ever there was one. She’s had a three-year drought since being left at the altar by her closeted fiancée, who she’d loved since high school and already had baby-naming plans with. Since Jeremy, Faith has had a succession of dating disasters – and when we first meet her, she’s right smack in the middle of another one. Though hilarious, it’s also quickly apparent that Faith is desperately lonely and still scarred by her failed relationship (which, really, had been doomed from the beginning – so Faith has never actually had a proper relationship in her whole life). 

Upon returning to Manningsport to help out her family (save her dad, and also redesign the old barn into an ideal wedding and special occasions venue) Faith is forced to re-open old wounds. Everyone in this little town still has deep sympathy for the girl who was left behind. Never mind that Jeremy is the local doctor and universally beloved by all, that just makes everyone pity Faith all the more. 

“But if someone calls me ‘poor thing’ one more time, I may go postal and kill everyone around me. Except children and dogs. And old people. And you. And Connor. Fine, I won't kill anyone. But it's driving me crazy.” 

The one person who isn’t buying into the whole “woe is Faith” thing is Levi Cooper – Jeremy’s best friend, dreadful best man and perhaps the one person in Manningsport who never bought into Faith’s goody-two-shoes act. As such, Faith feels Levi’s contempt for her radiating off him every time they bump into each other (like when her dog, Blue, winds up under a neighbours’ house or Faith is found dangling from a bathroom window – long story).

‘The Best Man’ has quite a lot of stories and histories to set up in order to fully understand (and sympathise) with certain characters. In the beginning we get Faith’s perspective on her high school romance with Jeremy, and the fateful day it all fell apart. From Levi we get the beginnings of his high school friendship with Jeremy and events leading up to the wedding that would have never worked. And from both Faith and Levi we get a little extra history about a brief moment in high school when the two of them entertained the thought that maybe they had a little chemistry themselves. . .  all of these interwoven with Faith’s return to Manningsport and those same sparks flying again between her and Levi.

Higgins beautifully sets up this little Manningsport town and all the old histories and personal ties within the community. I actually really liked the backwards-and-forwards narration, even when reflections of the past seemed to keep repeatedly hitting Faith like an anvil. I was very wrong to assume that because Higgins has a tendency to feature cute and fuzzy animals on her covers, that her stories would be sickeningly sweet and easy – far from it! Both Faith and Levi have a lot to overcome within themselves and their histories to be together, and Higgins has indeed (though not unbelievably) piled on the dilemmas, for Faith especially.

But I loved Faith, maybe all the more for her hard lot in life. She’s still a laugh-out-loud riot and quick wit. Though Levi’s memories of teenage Faith are of a sugar-coated suck-up, in reality Faith has a thorny side that she doesn’t mind subjecting Levi to – and that just made me love her all the more.

I really liked that Faith and Levi had an antagonistic history that seemed built on false assumptions and damning secrets. It meant they were far from a ‘love at first sight’ cliché, and much closer to a ‘Pride and Prejudice’ slow-burn. 

This was such a fun, easy read that alternately had me laughing-out-loud and lip-quivering in some parts (and, okay, swooning in others) I can’t wait to read the next ‘Blue Heron’ instalment. 

5/5

Been Meaning to Read …

It actually feels quite shameful to lay down all these raved-about books I know I’ll probably love, but haven’t actually gotten round to reading yet. This is the book blogger/avid reader’s ‘dirty laundry’ equivalent; possibly worse than admitting you dog-ear pages or read the autobiographies of reality-TV stars.  

I’ve missed the bandwagon on a few books now … But I do get round to reading them, eventually, and chastise myself for the delay.  

‘The Hunger Games’ by Suzanne Collins was a classic example where I acknowledged the hype, assumed Katniss would be my spirit-animal, but just didn’t feel like joining the nail-biters waiting for books 2-3. So I read the trilogy in one go about six months before the first film came out and had the predictable OH MY GOD, DO YOU ALL KNOW HOW AMAZING THESE BOOKS ARE?!? reaction. 

I think there’s a slight difference in my regular ‘To Be Read’ pile and my ‘Been Meaning to Read’ pile. The main one being – I know I’ll love these books when I do actually read them. Which I think is where the shame of not actually reading them in a timely manner comes from. I’m only delaying my own enjoyment, and how crazy is that!  

But there’s also certain sweetness in the build-up, of coming to a book long after the bandwagon has departed the station and I’m left to savour and think on a book in my own time, without the pressure of other fans buzzing around.  And they’re also a sort of fail-safe; books I can reach for, to pull me out of my reading slumps.

So here they are – the books I’ve been meaning to read - and will no doubt enjoy - but just haven’t cracked open yet. Feel free to bemoan my delay or tell me any books I should also be not reading (?) or feel free to air your own shameful titles you’ve been meaning to read.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I have read the first chapter of this and was suitably impressed with the luscious writing and fantastical set-up. And isn’t it going to be turned into a Tim Burton film? I bought this when it was first released and it seemed to turn everyone into a fangirl/fanboy … and then I put it aside because it seemed a bit like dark chocolate I wouldn’t want to gorge myself on. I will get back to it, one day.

The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater

I think after being seriously underwhelmed by ‘The Scorpio Races’, I was slow to take ‘The Raven Boys’ on, even though the premise sounded much more like the ‘Mercy Falls’ Stiefvater I fell in love with. I’ve felt doubly guilty for not starting this one after Wendy at the midnight garden wrote some rave reviews (and the second book seems even better than the first – which is practically unheard of!). 

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

I’m about to remedy this, because I’ve since moved Patchett’s ‘Bel Canto’ from my ‘Been Meaning to Read’ pile, to my ‘Read it - Loved it’ pile. I kind of knew I would because she was recommended to me as someone in the same vein as Geraldine Brooks and Barbara Kingsolver … who I both love. So ‘State of Wonder’ can now come into my life and dazzle me too (though I’m dubious about everyone’s claim that it’s even better than ‘Bel Canto’. How is that possible?!) 

Graceling Realm by Kristin Cashore

I actually had to read some of third book ‘Bitterblue’ when I judged the 2012 Inky Awards. But it became very clear, very quickly, that this is one series I didn’t want to skimp on by jumping into the end and missing all the good beginning and middle. 

Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

 

Winner of the 2012 Printz Award, I was actually about 80 pages into this book and really enjoying it … but then my brain couldn’t hold on to all the seemingly disparate threads and I had to let go, with a promise to try again at a later date. Look, it’s in the very blurb that it’s a book of unconnected events that eventually tie together beautifully – I’ve just got to psych myself up for it and be in the right frame of mind.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

I have no excuse. This is a sure-fire contender for my ‘All Time Favourite Books’ list. I don’t know why I haven’t. I’m sorry, okay?!

October Daye series by Seanan McGuire

I have actually read the first book ‘Rosemary and Rue’, and on the strength of that went out and bought the next four books in the series. I keep meaning to read them on my holidays in one go, but never seem able to psych myself up for the emotional pummelling I know will be in store for me (the first book left me a bit of a wreck). Maybe this Christmas I’ll finally sit down and read 1-7! 

'Bel Canto' by Ann Patchett

From the BLURB:

The poignant – and at times very funny – new novel from the author of ‘The Magician’s Assistant’, shortlisted for the Orange Prize.

Latin terrorists storm an international gathering hosted by an underprivileged country to promote foreign interest and trade, only to find that their intended target, the President, has stayed home to watch his favourite soap opera on TV. Among the hostages are a world class opera singer and her biggest fan, a Japanese tycoon who has been persuaded to attend the party on the understanding that she will perform half a dozen arias after dinner.

The tycoon’s engaging and sympathetic translator plays a vital role in the subsequent relationships between so many different nationalities closeted together, interpreting not only the terrorists’ negotiations but also the language of love between lovers who cannot understand what the other is saying.

Ultimately, it is the terrorist strike that does more to promote foreign relations than anyone could have hoped to achieve with the party.

Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country’s vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of Mr. Hosokawa. Delegates and businessmen from various countries have all gathered together for the Japanese businessman’s fifty-third birthday in the hopes that he will consider expanding his business empire to this struggling country. Part of Mr. Hosokoawa’s enticement is the presence of infamous American opera singer, Roxane Coss, at his party – she is his favourite singer. 

Just as Ms Coss’s performance comes to a chest-swelling, hand-clapping end, the lights cut out and bodies storm the manor house. 

Terrorists come from the air vents; dozens of men fill the room, herding the guests and demanding they hand over the president. But the president did not attend this party, he stayed home. 

When their plans are foiled, the terrorists are forced to compromise. They release the women, children and the infirm. But they keep the wealthiest businessmen, the vice president, one young priest who refuses to leave and assorted overseas delegates. And they keep Roxane Coss. 

As hours leak into days leak into weeks and the bullhorns of waiting military outside the manor walls eventually dull, the hostages’ imprisonment takes on routine and even comfort. The Generals and their child-soldier terrorists likewise fall into habit and normality with the kidnapped.

In the midst of this ordeal there is Katsumi Hosokawa, who feels the terrible burden of guilt, for it was his party that set this plan in motion. Roxane Coss starts practicing again, offering hostages and kidnappers alike a very privileged, almost sacred, connection to a voice that is surely a gift from god. Gen Watanabe should have been released with the manor’s workers – he is merely an employee of Mr Hosokawa’s, his translator – but with so many displaced people, many of them not even speaking the language of this host country, Gen becomes intricate to everyone’s lives. 

‘Bel Canto’ was the 2001 novel by Ann Patchett, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction and PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

I purchased my copy of ‘Bel Canto’ in 2011, the year that Patchett’s ‘State of Wonder’ came out and everyone was simply raving about that book and this author I wasn’t terribly familiar with. But I wasn’t moved by the ‘State of Wonder’ blurb, was in fact much more intrigued by her big breakthrough novel, ‘Bel Canto’ and that premise. So I bought the book, lopped it onto my TBR pile and for the last few years considered pulling it out and having a read. What compelled me to do that a few days ago, after I've had the thing waiting for me since 2011, I do not know. But now I have read it, recognise the magnificence of this beguiling little book and am now sworn to reading everything Patchett has ever written.

While I was in the thick of this book I kept marvelling at Patchett’s mind that could come up with such a lavishly plausible premise. I love the puff which appears on the front cover of my copy, from Christina Konig; “It is that rarity – a literary novel you simply can’t put down.” And I agree wholeheartedly – the plot of a businessman’s birthday party being invaded by terrorists which leads to a huge diplomatic kidnapping crisis is simply divine. So I was only a little bit deflated when, after reading, I did some Wikipediaing and found that Patchett was inspired by the real-life Japanese embassy hostage crisis of 1996. That incident occurred in Peru, and was an Emperor’s 63rd birthday party that provided the opportunity for a kidnapping, which lasted 126 days. I admit, while I was reading ‘Bel Canto’ I kept marvelling at this intricate, slightly absurd but still somehow plausible premise trigger and was just a little bit miffed that it didn’t come entirely from Patchett’s imagination. 

But what is simply superb is Patchett’s telling of this over-the-top, tightly coiled story with a thread of music running throughout. Something that struck me in her telling is how patient Patchett is. She throws readers into the thick of action very early on, and then drags us behind these foiled terrorists for pages and pages as they think of a compromise when their plan to kidnap only the president meets a roadblock. Patchett beautifully communicates back-stories and gives us heroes to hope make it to the end, as she drags out the hours of initial confusion after the terrorists’ arrival. 

For the most part the separation of hostages was civil. No two had to be pried apart with a gun. When they knew their time was really up the men and the women separated, as if a complicated dancing reel were about to begin and soon they would join and split and change, passing their partners off only to receive them back into their arms again.

Though narrated by an omniscient third party, key players emerge in the hours after the kidnapping; Mr. Hosokawa, his translator Gen and the woman bought to entertain at his party, Roxane Coss. Later, one of the young terrorists also emerges as a hero of the story – but that’s better left as a surprise.

I especially loved Gen as a character who is forced to drift into everyone’s orbit for his being like their Tower of Babel – the only one with a head full of languages to help the hostages communicate with one another, the kidnappers with their kidnapped charges and the Generals behind this terrorism movement with the outside world. 

Roxane looked back at him and smiled a little. “Poor Gen, you’re always in the middle of everything. Anyone who has a secret has to take it through you.” 

The premise sounds very serious and Patchett does use ‘Bel Canto’ to touch on political and socio-economic issues with a deft touch. But there’s a lot of absurdity in this book to make you smile. It’s in the vice president who becomes his own house-keeper, desperate to keep his guests/fellow-hostages in comfort while they stay in his residence. The little child terrorist who is obsessed with watching a weekly telenovela, and the Russian diplomat who thinks himself in passionate love with Roxane Coss after being in such close-proximity to her and her voice. Patchett masterfully juxtaposes hilarity and high-stakes, sadness and absurdity and all while moving these vastly different characters around the tight space of a manor house in the middle of some unknown poor country. It’s easy to see why this book is such a favourite for so many people, and heralded Patchett as a writer-to-watch. 

Though a lot of the book is Patchett communicating the mundane routines of kidnapping, there comes a point when readers can literally feel her start coiling the plot tighter and tighter until the inevitable end . . . It’s quick and vicious, an ending to take your breath away for the suddenness you always knew had to come.

I simply adored this book, and didn’t want my reading of it to end. Is it lame to say I was a hostage to Patchett’s book? I've already gone out and bought ‘State of Wonder’ (though I can’t believe it when people tell me that book is even better than ‘Bel Canto’ – how is that humanly possible?!) and you better believe I’ll be reading everything and anything Patchett has written/writes from here on in.

5/5

'Just One Year' by Gayle Forman

 From the BLURB: 

Twenty-four hours can change your life . . . 

Allyson and Willem share one magical day together in Paris, before chance rips them apart. 

The romantic, emotional companion to Just One Day, this is a story of the choices we make and the accidents life throws at us. 

But is one day enough to find your fate?

Willem left Allyson ‘Lulu’ Healey in an abandoned Paris loft one morning, with every intention of coming back. But then he got waylaid and beaten, ended up in a hospital days later with a vague sense of loss . . . and by the time memories of Lulu came back to him, it was too late. She was gone, and all Willem had left was a nickname he’d given her, for a passing resemblance to Louise Brooks.

Now Willem is back in Amsterdam, to settle a deceased estate and meet up with old friends. But he cannot get Lulu out of his head. He begins a search for his American girl, but hits roadblocks at every turn.

And as Willem thinks on and remembers the fleeting day he had with Lulu, he also confronts even older ghosts from his past. Like his mother who he hasn’t properly spoken to in three years, his forever absent uncle and the pain of his father’s death three years prior.

‘Just One Year’ is the sequel, of sorts, and continuing journey to Gayle Forman’s ‘Just One Day’ which was Allyson’s side of things, and came out in January this year.

Ok. Here’s the thing. A lot of people are going to have issues with this book – and for a very good, glaringly obvious reason. But that’s not my reason for not liking this book. It’s perhaps a footnote in my dislike, but not the driving reason behind my two-star rating. 

As many people will have worked out, ‘Just One Year’ picks up where Allyson’s story in Paris left off – with Willem in a hospital bed, groggy after an encounter with some skinheads and too late in returning to his Lulu. Unlike Allyson’s ‘Just One Day’, we don’t read about their fleeting Paris moment from Willem’s perspective which is both a blessing and a curse. Blessing, because parts of the book are already tedious to read through when we know what moment Forman is reaching for. But a curse because Willem really starts ‘Just One Year’ on the back-foot and in the black books with many readers who were not left with a great impression of him by the end of Allyson’s book. Throughout ‘Just One Year’ he thinks and talks about Lulu quite a lot, remembering moments and conversations he had with her, musing on their stain-love conversation and that he felt home when with her. But it might have been nice to read their day together from his perspective, if only for readers to be rest assured that it meant as much to him as it did to her. 

I admit, I was not keen to read Willem’s story. It was because I was so invested in Allyson’s book and so felt for her – the left behind girl. Forman maybe did too good a job at the end of ‘Just One Day’, to have me (and many other readers!) cursing Willem and hoping Allyson would move on from him. So the task Forman had before her in ‘Just One Year’ was a big one, to turn Willem around and endear him to readers when he tells his side of things. Whether or not this book works for you hinges entirely on whether or not Forman can convince you as to Willem’s sincerity and deserving of Allyson . . . and, sadly, he never convinced me. 

It felt like a lot of Willem’s intended appeal lay in his good looks. Many times Forman reminds readers that he’s really, really ridiculously good looking. It bugs me so much when authors do this, though it is normally referring to female characters. At one point a Bollywood big-wig (!) likens Willem to Heath Ledger. Eye-roll. I think all this praising and reminding of Willem’s good looks was to legitimize the reason any girl within a 2-kilometre radius wants to climb him like a tree, and to let readers know that Willem has taken quite a few ladies up on the offer. Because, make no mistake, Willem is a complete Casanova; ‘a girl in every port’ style Casanova. I will point out that when Forman writes from male POV, she does this a lot – like promiscuity is a defining masculine trait. She did it in ‘Where She Went’ too, when we got Adam’s perspective and realized that as a big-deal rock star he’d had his fair share of ladies. Now, in both Adam and Willem’s cases their lady-loving is entirely legit. Rockstar and Heath Ledger lookalike – they’re bound to do well. It’s just that I don’t necessarily care and sometimes I think it’s a lazy way to build a male character by giving him this machismo. 

Of course, Forman piles on the reasons for Willem’s fleeting nature and his inability to even want to commit to a woman. It’s his mother. Of course. And here, Forman offers an abundance of Freudian reasons for why Willem is the way he is. His father died three years ago, and was one half of the love story to end all love stories with Willem’s Israeli mother, Yael. Yael, he reasons, has never really felt invested in her son since he’s only the interloper who interrupted her great love-affair. But she’s not all bad, Forman slathers on the reasons to feel sympathy for Willem via his mother – she’s an alternative healing nurse who works in a clinic amongst the prostitutes of India, has been especially emotionally closed off since her husband died and has dark memories of her days in the Israeli army. Phew and yeesh. 

Interestingly, the only time my interested was piqued in this book was when Willem recounts the story of how his mother and father first met, and how it was fate that Bram’s brother Daniel hadn’t been the one to woo a hitchhiking Yael. Willem’s Uncle Daniel does appear in the book (too little, too late at the very end) but his story actually interested me a lot more than anyone else’s in ‘Just One Year’. 

The other reason Willem didn’t work for me was his privileged background. He’s really, really rich and when he was younger his family houseboat featured in an architectural magazine (it was designed by his father). Look, Allyson was also from a privileged, middle-class background but I was interested in the ways she was railing against it – studying university courses she wasn’t interested in, figuring out why her ex-best friend insists on being a phony-hipster, feeling claustrophobic from her mother’s love and meeting the fabulous Dee who had a very different life to her and opened her eyes. Willem is living off family money and traipsing all over the globe with it. I don’t care that he roughs it when he’s on that road – he’s still a rolling stone with a busload of cash to fund his itchy-feet. I just couldn’t muster a whole hell of a lot of sympathy for that. 

I mean, I did feel for Willem’s grief over his father’s death three years ago. And it’s in these moments of grief that Forman’s natural ability shines and she writes some truly beautiful passages;  

In my rucksack, the one that got stolen on that train to Warsaw, had been an old digital camera. And on that camera were photographs of me and Yael and Bram from my eighteenth birthday. They were some of the last photos I had of the three of us together, and I hadn’t even discovered them until I was on the road, bored one night and going through all the shots on my memory stick. And there we were. 

I should’ve had those pictures emailed somewhere. Or printed. Done something permanent. I planned to, I did. But I put it off and then my rucksack got nicked and it was too late.The devastation caught my off guard. There’s a difference between losing something you knew you had and losing something you discovered you had. One is a disappointment. The other is truly a loss. 

I didn’t realize that before. I realize it now. 

But. Okay. That was three years ago? I think this book might have been improved if Bram’s death had been more recent – three years ago felt stale and Willem’s emotions were muted because of it. 

But, really, my biggest issue with ‘Just One Year’ was – why do we need it? I felt this way about ‘Where She Went’ too (but I enjoyed that book a lot more). I really didn’t know why Forman felt the need to add-on or tamper with the perfection of ‘If I Stay’, and I feel that way about ‘Just One Day’ and the tacked-on ‘Just One Year’ too. We just don’t need it. I don’t know what was happening in ‘Just One Year’, what it was about – Willem’s journey of self-discovery was weak for me, and there was no real story. It was all so lacklustre – coming to terms with three-years-old grief, kinda searching for a girl and visiting his mother. So what? Allyson’s story was much more coming-of-age and so much stronger, to the point that when she found Willem at the end of ‘Just One Day’ it did feel like an end; she’d had enough emotional and personal growth that finding Willem again was a minor note in her bigger story. The end of ‘Just One Year’ however, felt like the beginning and everything that came before was fat that should have been cut. I think this book suffers from telling the wrong story – it should have been what came after, not before.

2/5 

Interview with Jon Skovron, author of 'Man Made Boy'

 It's Happy Release Day for Jon Skovron's 'Man Made Boy' in Australia - a surprisingly sweet and funny tale of underground theatre monsters and a put-together Boy who's navigating the real world for the first time. 

I feel very lucky that I got to ask Skovron some questions about his Shelley inspiration and writing the sorts of books he wanted to read as a teenager. 

◘

Q: How were you first published – agent or slush pile?

Well, my very first professional publishing credit was from the slush pile for a (now closed) SF&F magazine called Baen’s Universe. My short story, Baby Girl was about a paranormal private detective who investigates a girl who’s been kidnapped by the Devil. It was basically Shaft meets Supernatural. I had a lot of fun with it and I was thrilled to be included in the same issue as Gene Wolfe, one of my favorite high fantasy writers.

But for my first novel I did have an agent. I sent her a manuscript, she asked for some revisions, and I complied with most of them. She shopped it around, but didn’t end up selling it. In fact, my first published novel was my third completed manuscript. So I guess the moral of that story is, don’t give up!

Q: Are you a ‘plotter’ or a ‘pantser’ - that is, do you meticulously plot your novel before writing, or do you ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ and let the story evolve naturally?

My background is in theater, where I learned the art of improvisation very early on in my training. So the act of writing a rough draft is really one big long improv exercise for me. I generally have a vague idea of where I want to end up and a few spots I want to hit along the way, but I’m often surprised by what comes up. For example, I had originally envisioned Man Made Boy taking place entirely in New York. Clearly, Boy had other ideas. And as my old acting professors used to tell me, always say “yes” to the improv.

Q: How long did it take you to write ‘Man Made Boy’, from first idea to final manuscript?

I came up with the original idea of The Show, a Broadway theater that secretly housed a company of performing monsters, way back in 2005 I think. But at that time, it was just a short story idea. I thought it might be an ensemble piece that took place entirely in the theater. But the more I worked on it, the more interested I became in one particular character’s story. And a hundred pages later I had to admit to myself that it was a novel. I turned in the final manuscript to my editor in 2012, so roughly 7 years. Of course, I was working on two other novels in the mean time. So really, it was five years of pocking at it here and there, and then two years of crazy frenetic writing at the end. But I’m a firm believer in not starting to write the story as soon as you get the idea. It’s good to let it cook for a bit first.

Q: Where do story ideas generally start for you? Do you first think of the character, theme, ending? Or is it just a free-fall?

It’s different every time. Sometimes, as with Man Made Boy, it’s the setting. The novel before that, Misfit, it was the character of Jael. The one place I never really start is the theme. I don’t concern myself too much with themes. To me, themes emerge naturally on their own if you’re telling the story right.

Q: ‘Man Made Boy’ is dripping in classic Gothic horror/romance, featuring characters from Frankenstein and Jekyll and Hyde. When did you first encounter the stories of Mary Shelley and Robert Louis Stevenson? And what was it about them that made you think they’d make for a great YA novel?

Well probably my very first encounter with Frankenstein’s Monster was that old black and white comedy, Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein. And come to think of it, my first exposure to Jekyll and Hyde was probably an old Looney Tunes episode where Tweety Bird drinks Jekyll’s formula and turns into this giant monstrous yellow canary and starts beating up on poor old Sylvester. Maybe that’s why Man Made Boy isn’t scary, despite the fact that it’s riddled with monsters. Because my first exposure to those characters was in comedy.

As for why I thought Frankenstein would make a great YA novel, that’s probably because the first time I actually read the book was in my sophomore high school English class. That was when I discovered that the Monster was not this dumb, hulking brute like I’d seen in the films. That he was sensitive, passionate, eloquent, and utterly relatable. It wasn’t his fault that he was ugly and mistreated, an outcast everywhere he went. All he wanted was for Victor Frankenstein to make him one person that he could hang out with. Just one. Victor said he would do it at first, and then went back on his word. So the Monster was given hope, and then had it snatched away. You can kind of see why he went crazy.

 

Q: You seem to enjoy writing young characters on the fringe of society - from Boy who hides beneath Times Square to Jael Thompson who is very much a misfit in ‘Misfit’. Why do these kind of characters appeal to you?

I write the books that I would liked to have read when I was a teen. I think we all like to read stories that we can see ourselves in, and as a teen, I was a misfit. I was a sensitive, creative kid raised predominantly by my liberal New Yorker mother in the conservative Midwestern United States, attending a strict Catholic school. This was before the Internet, so really I had no way of knowing that there were other people out there like me. And I just felt so isolated and alone.

That’s probably my favorite thing about book blogs. That even if you live in a small town where nobody cares about books except you, you can still find people out there who are like you. Who value the same things you do.

Even still, I talk to so many teens now who feel alone, like no one in the world gets what they’re going through. And I know first hand what a terrible feeling that is. Mary Shelley, Anne Rice, Neil Gaiman, Edgar Allen Poe; these folks got me through it. So hopefully I can help a new generation of teens get through it.

Q: ‘Man Made Boy’ also has a cinematic feel to it – a mixture of Tim Burton and great, schlocky horror films. Did you watch movies and TV shows to get in the zone and write this novel?

Well, early Burton was a huge impact on my overall aesthetic. Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, those were the films I watched as a kid over and over again.

More recently, I am proud to say that I bravely watched every single Frankenstein-related film that was available on Netflix. Let me tell you, there some brilliantly awful ones and some that are just plan terrible. I think my favorite might be Frankenstein Girl vs. Vampire Girl. It’s Japanese with subtitles and features some of the most artful uses of blood hoses that I’ve ever seen. Just please, whatever you do, don’t watch Rock n’ Roll Frankenstein. Seriously. Don’t. I will never be able to unsee the things in that movie.

Q: Boy is “ugly”. He’s stitched together and hulking – definitely not your typical romantic lead, which is actually really refreshing. How do you get into such a characters’ head?

Quite easily. I think we all, particularly in our teens, feel somewhat monsterish at times. Maybe not physically, but inside. All you have to do is search on Tumblr for #monsters and you’ll see that roughly half of the posts are about the fear of or struggle with the monster within. So all I did was externalize that with Boy. Make it true on the outside.

Although I would like to suggest that he doesn’t always view himself clearly in the book. Early on, before he’s out among the humans, he doesn’t consider himself ugly. Because next to the Minotaur, he wasn’t. And then when he gets out among the humans, he suddenly thinks, “Oh my god, I’m hideous.” But that’s not really true either. He is, like most of us, somewhere in between. And it takes him a long time to recognize that. I know a lot of adults who still don’t get it.

Q: What’s the appeal in writing for young adults?

There are a lot of wonderful things about writing for young adults. One of them is just that those teen years are so intense and charged with heightened emotion. It’s great material to work with. Shakespeare knew that. Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, so many of his plays were about teens. They just called them “youths” back then rather than teens.

Another thing that’s great about writing for teens is just how passionate they are about the books they read. I mean, I still get excited about books now, but back when I was a teen, it was on a whole different level. To this day, those books I loved as a teen remain some of the most important and impactful in my life.

Q: What are you working on right now, and when can we expect it to hit shelves!?

Right now I’m working on the sequel to Man Made Boy. I don’t think I’m supposed to reveal the title yet, but I can tell you that it’ll have just about everyone from the first book, plus a bunch of new crazy/cool monsters. It’s scheduled to hit shelves in the US in early Spring of 2015, and I’m guessing it will come out in AU at around the same time.

Q: Favourite author(s) of all time?

In no particular order, Neil Gaiman, Mary Shelley, Anne Rice, Michael Chabon, Kelly Link, Holly Black, China Mieville, Cory Doctorow, Suzanna Clarke, William Gibson, William Thackeray, Anton Chekov, Samuel Beckett, David Eddings, Gene Wolfe, M John Harrison, and William Shakespeare. I’m probably missing a few.

Q: Favourite book(s)? 

Rather than recap all the great works from everyone I’ve listed about, let me tell you the books I’ve recently read and loved: The Diviners by Libba Bray, Lips Touch Three Times by Lani Taylor, A Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White, On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews, Lola and the Boy Nextdoor by Stephanie Perkins, and I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga. I’m also a huge comics fan. My current favorite is Saga by Brian K Vaughn.

Q: Do you have any advice for budding young writers?

Persist! No matter how many rejections, no matter how long it takes. Persist!

 ◘

'Man Made Boy' is published by Allen&Unwin in Australia, and out today in all good bookstores!