Words & Sinew

After like two years of putting I hold, I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED. At first, I was totally set on three stars but this romance! And the romantic lead! Deserves a star all of its own.It wasn't because it was bad I took so long, I was just never in the mood. But man, once I was, I stayed up pretty late to read and the first I thing I did this morning was to sit my ass down and finish this book. It's your a-typical Sarah Dessen read. Good, complex characters; a sa-woon worthy love interest (see what I did thar?); and a dictator mom. Okay, the last I'm not sure if it's a typical trope her in novels but my God, it's annoying. Every scene Macy's mom was in, I could literally feel myself get a headache. I just couldn't deal with it. What is it with YA contemp novels + dictator moms? Or overworking moms? It's heartbreaking, is what it is. I realize they're there for "conflict" and "character development" but I think Rory Gilmore has shown you can have an awesome, supporting mom and still have lots of "conflict" and "character development." (If if some of those developments don't make sense. Seriously, the DAR, Rory?) I would've liked to have seen a more fuller development for Macy's mom and for Macy to actually tell her mom what's up in her life but I suppose that would've been out-of-character for Macy (at the time). Easily, the best part of this novel was Macy + Wes's romantic chemistry and development. THEY'RE ARE SO ADORABLE TOGETHER, I CAN'T. Nearly every scene with them together was just so sweet, so electric, and just so damn adorable. And really, Sarah Dessen, you had to write such an adorable, sa-woon worthy lead? Wes is everything and more. If I was granted three wishes, the first one would be for Wes. Oh that boy. My other favorite thing in this book is the secondary characters. Oh secondary characters, how you always manage to win my heart. The group chemistry between the Wish Catering Crew is phenomenal. They mesh so well together, play off one another, and just really fun to read. These are some crazy developed characters with full personalities and hopes and goals. Can we please get some short stories or a series just around the Wish Catering Crew and their chaotic adventures? Because I would read those forever. Now contemporary kinda of demands you have at least one major introspective chain of thought (I mean, they're usually all about change and life, right?) but wow this book had A LOT. Like every other chapter, Macy would come to this conclusion about life or one of the characters would deliver "the life monologue" and it was just a lot. So much I rolled my eyes a couple of times like, "here we go again." I feel like some of those could've been cut out and it would've have majorly impacted the book. They could've been condensed or just non-repetitive because some of them I swear had the same message. It just hit the same points over and over again making it tiresome to read. And this is a really small nitpick but wow adverbs. Lots of them. Adverbs that could've been changed to verbs! Also there are mishaps in the editing department. Towards the end (huh how funny) there were a few sentence and grammar mistakes and unfinished sentences? The editing department is human, makes mistakes, I know but some of those were pretty big. This is a nice contemporary read that is repetitive but really, read it for the romance because W O W. It really is all sorts of adorable that guarantees to make you melt.