Isla and the Happily Ever After Review

    

       I know, I know. I speak about Stephanie Perkins way too much, but if she didn’t cause me so much heart ache maybe I wouldn’t have to! I can’t just let her tear me apart, rip my heart out and use it as a football and pretend like it isn’t happening! I need to speak through my feelings with you, It’s the only way I’ll ever come close to moving on,  – particularly my most recent feelings concerning her newest book, ‘Isla and the Happily Ever After’. In recent weeks I have once again found myself lying on my bed at 2am, that familiar pain in my chest, wishing with all my might that I could pull one of Stephanie Perkin’s boys out of their fictional world and safely into my arms.

     

This time it was Josh. Joshua Wasserstein. Though I had not truly appreciated him when reading ‘Anna and the French Kiss’, my mind too consumed with the sheer swooshiness of Etienne’s hair, I was certainly appreciating him now. While Etienne and Cricket, the romantic interests of Perkins two previous companion novels, were friendly and confident, Josh was quiet, artistic and mysterious. In my mind he was stronger built than the other two boys, less soft edges, with a gorgeous well-shaped smile. It was a lovely change from the other two love interests and I ate up every romantic gesture like I hadn’t had a meal in weeks.

     

       There is an added physicality in ‘Isla and the Happily Ever After’ not found in the previous books. Usually, Perkins focuses on exactly how the lovely couple came to be, the book ending with that fantastic first kiss moment so highly anticipated by the reader, however, this time we get to have a look at what comes after that. Of course, once a seventeen year-old couple has been together long enough to get that kiss out of the way, things begin to progress to much more… serious stuff. However, being so familiar with Perkins’ usual romance structure, I really did not expect this uh… new kind of kissing contained within the book.

   

         But, of course, Perkins being the literary genius that she is, it was all okay. Better than okay, it was nice. It wasn’t awkward or disgusting. She avoided explicit language and instead of the actual physical act, Perkins spoke of the feelings her characters experienced, something not usually the focal point of this kind of scene. It wasn’t pornographic and strangely, it didn’t seem all that sexual. Josh and Isla did not ‘have sex’, they ‘made love’. It was beautiful.

           However, don’t for a minute think that ‘Isla and the Happily Ever After’ is about sex. Most definitely not. These moments were simply the finer details of an ultimately gorgeous picture; the glint in Mona Lisa’s eye.

           Of course, this wouldn’t be a Perkins book if we didn’t have an artfully chosen romantic setting. The book has two main settings – new and exciting Manhattan, brimming with people and possibilities, and… Paris! I squealed with joy when I found out we were going back to Paris, setting of ‘Anna and the French Kiss’.  I want every book to be set in Paris, things just seem to be more dazzling over there. Joshua Wasserstein was amazing for many reasons, he was gorgeous, artistic, thoughtful and funny… but now he gets to speak casual French too? I’m practically swooning as I type.

  

          More specific than Paris, in ‘Isla and the Happily Ever After’ we get to return to Anna’s boarding school from ‘Anna and the French Kiss’. Yet another reason to read the series – the three stories are all tastefully intertwined, with ‘Isla and the Happily Ever After’ featuring, in my opinion, the best cameos of the entire series. Etienne, Anna, Meredith, Rashmi, Cricket, Lola and Calliope all make an appearance at some point in the book.  The reader is given enough to detail to both excite and satisfy, but crucially, the cameos do not take over the main plotline of the book. I really do wish that I could talk to you about the wonderful scene near the end of the book, but even I would not be so mean as to spoil such a perfect surprise.

  

          There is only one fault I have for ‘Isla and the Happily Ever After’ and that is this; the remarkable book marks the end of the three-part series. As I put the book down a weird sort of sadness washed over me and I suddenly wished I had never read any of it at all. I wished I could be back on the first page of ‘Anna and the French Kiss’, my low expectations about to be blown out of the water.

           However, at the end of ‘Isla and the Happily Ever After’ I knew one thing for certain. Stephanie Perkins is my favourite author. She writes exactly the kind of books I want to read, satisfyingly romantic and perfect right down to the last detail. I can’t stress enough how much I loved this series and I just know that whatever Perkins chooses to release next, I will buy from Waterstones with a bright grin on my face and an open heart. 

If you would like to find out more about Stephanie Perkins, here is her website!

And here's my Anna and the French Kiss review! 

The Seven Deadly Sins Tag

Hello all! Today I am going to be doing the Seven Deadly Sins book tag! This lovely tag consists of seven deadly sins with seven deadly questions which I am going to answer for you today! I did not create this book tag; this tag was created by BookishlyMalyza on youtube. All that aside; let’s get started!

Greed - What is the most expensive book in your library, and what is the most inexpensive?

      

      I don’t tend to buy ridiculously expensive books. Most of my library is a second hand paperback, so it’s unusual for me to pay more than about £7 for a book (Which I believe to be fair book price). However, I did pay about £14 for my hardback copy of ‘The Fault in Our Stars’, which, even though I have lost the dust cover for, was a bloody good buy.

    

        My most inexpensive book cost me a mere 52p from a Welsh hospice care and it is ‘The Sisters Club: The Rule of Three’. I shamelessly bought the children’s book only a couple of weeks ago. It’s the sequel to ‘The Sisters Club’, a book I have re-read over and over in the years since I got it. It's just so nostalgic and lovely for me and... for 52p, you can't really go wrong!

Wrath – Which author do you have a love/hate relationship with?

       

     This is a difficult question because if I love a book, I tend to love it whole heartedly. My love/hate author would probably have to be Malorie Blackman. I absolutely loved ‘Noughts and Crosses’ as a stand-alone novel, it was exciting, thought-provoking, heart-wrenching and wonderful but I found the rest of the series far-fetched and quite frankly a bit... disappointing. My advice would be to read book one and leave it at that. It is difficult I think, once you've written an absolutely fantastic novel to continue on from there. 

Gluttony – What book have you deliciously devoured over and over again, with no remorse whatsoever?

    

        I have read ‘Ember Fury’ by Cathy Brett a good number of times. It tells the tale of Ember Fury, the troubled daughter of a rock star. It’s visually awesome, with cool Gorillaz-esque illustrations everywhere and ever-changing fonts. It’s supposed to be a kids book but it’s a story I just love to get lost in over and over and over and over again. It makes me feel so cool to read that book because it's so darn angsty and I'm a sucker for great illustrations! All that and more keeps luring me back!

Sloth – What book have you neglected reading due to laziness?

    

        Despite its various awards and all its hype, I still haven’t read ‘The Knife of Never Letting Go’ by Patrick Ness. It’s not that I haven’t tried, but the entire book it written in an unfamiliar slang that I just can’t get my head around. I’ve been told countless times that if you push through, you get used to the slang and swallowed up by the story, but I just never have the motivation to get anywhere further than page 12. I'm an awful reader in that if a book doesn't entice me within the first couple of chapters, chances are, I'll probably never get through it! 

Pride – What book do you most talk about in order to sound like a very intellectual reader?

   

         When talking about books I do like to drop ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ by J.D. Salinger into conversation if I can. I do have a genuine love for the book and the fact that it’s a classic (not to mention the fact that it’s also John Green’s favourite) just makes me feel so cool when I talk about it. I’ve read the book a good number of times so I do know pretty much what I’m talking about… but I won’t deny that I love the impressed looks I get whenever I mention it. It's the book-equivalent of putting on a pair of ultra-cool black sunglasses and riding off on your motorbike into the sunset. 'Catcher In the Rye' is like the black and white photo filter. It makes you really, incredibly, deep.

Lust – What attributes do you find most attractive in male or female characters?

        

    I love the combination of dark hair and an accent on a male protagonist. I know I can’t actually see the character, but if the writer lets me imagine they’re love interest as attractive, then I’ll love their book just that bit more. Otherwise, I like a good sense of humour, the ability to take control of a situation, a little bit of mystery and a cheeky bit of charm. Just think Étienne St. Clair from ‘Anna and the French Kiss’ or Four from ‘Divergent’. However, sometimes I can just fall in love with a love story as a whole and find a certain couple more attractive rather than a particular individual! For instance, in 'Eleanor and Park' I wanted Park to be with Eleanor way more than I wanted Park to be with me! 

Envy – What books would you most like to receive as a gift?

  

          Well I still don’t own 'Lola and the Boy Next Door' by Stephanie Perkins so that would be a very welcome gift indeed. Otherwise, anything from the anime section really. I never buy myself any anime at all because it’s so darn expensive for what you get. An anime book of the same size as any other novel will tell a way smaller section of the story and will be finished way quicker. As a teenager I don’t have as much money to spend on books as others, so when I do buy a book I like to get good value for my money. I'm a bit of a cheapskate really! 

There we have it guys! The Seven Deadly Sins book tag! You’re very welcome to have a go at this on your own YouTube channel/blog/etc. Just make sure that if you do you do link back to the original content creator mentioned at the top of this post! 

I would like to tag:

 Tika over at fANGIRL confessions, 

Izzy from The Reading Izzy 

and Erin from The Hardcover Lover