FANGIRL
Genre: YA/NA
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Release Date: September 10, 2013
From the author of the New York Times bestseller Eleanor & Park.
A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love.
Cath is a Simon Snow fan.
Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan…
But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.
Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.
Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words… And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?
Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?
And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?
All the Stars in the Universe….Just All of Them….Just. Life-changing book perfection.
Disclaimer: This is going to be a gushing, my-heart-is-bursting review.
This is more than a cute love story, although it is one of the most adorable books I’ve ever read. This book is for every young writer. I’m not even a writer, and I get it! As a reader, I’ve always been fascinated with the writing process, even though that process is probably different for every writer. This is a story in between the story, in between the pages. There is literally another book in this book. Levi laughed, and Cath felt it on her neck. Baz laughed, and Simon felt it on his eyelashes. And it’s absolute genius. Thank you, Rainbow Rowell, for this book.
My Levi & Cath:
”I’d give you the moon right now,” she said.
Levi’s eyes flashed happily, and he hitched up an eyebrow. “Yeah, but would you slay it for me?”
Cath (Cather) is a writer, mostly of fanfiction. There is a magical series that she and her sister have loved since they were kids. In order to keep the characters alive (in the fashion that fanfiction does), she started writing additional stories using the same characters from the Simon Snow books on the internet. I think there is a stigma to fanfiction in that it is a juvenile and immature, and fanfiction is the exact opposite. It brings life to writing. And I love that Rainbow Rowell addresses all of these and more in this book.
Cath is starting college, wanting to be a writer. She is already huge in the fanfiction world, but she is excited about expanding her writing world. She faces many new relationships and situations, like new college students do. Of course, it doesn’t help that she has social anxiety and is a writing hermit. At one point, she literally has no idea where to find the dining hall and refuses to try to find it (Bwahahaha!). There is so much of ME in Cather!!! There were so many moments in this book when I just stopped and had to breathe because they writing would actually take my breath from me. I could feel myself in this book and in these characters.
Cath & Levi. I loved these two so much. Levi is Cath’s roommate’s ex-boyfriend, but he hangs out in Cath’s room a lot because he needs help from her roommate to study. He has issues with reading and comprehension, so he usually listens to the lectures. The bond between Cath & Levi will have every reader swooning to no end. Cath ends up reading to Levi, and the cuddling…….THE CUDDLING!!!!! Gah! The AWKWARD. The CHARM. The entire LAUNDRY BASKET SCENE.
…pressing her face up under his jaw. “I just like you so much here.”
“I just like you so much,” he said, his head falling back against the couch. “Even more than that, you know?”
“And here,” she said, pushing her nose up against his ear. Levi’s earlobes were attached to his head. Which made Cath think of Punnett squares. And Mendel. And made her try to pull his earlobe away with her teeth. “You’re really good here,” she said. He brought his shoulders up, like it tickled.
“C’mer, c’mere,” he said, pulling at her waist. She was sitting just beside him, and he seemed to want her in his lap.
“I’m heavy,” she said.
“Good.”
I love love love all of Levi’s ten thousand smiles. I can’t even handle them! He’s just so infectious! And I can feel him seeping out of the book onto me! Levi has easily become one of my favorites ever. The fact that he’s blonde and he’s not a jerk to her is a shock because I usually cling to his opposite personality in books. I loved that Levi was always into her, always there for her.
This book brought out my fascination for writers. Many people have asked me why I don’t write books since I read so much. Honestly, I have never understood this question. In my head, they are completely different and not related. And my simple answer is that I would be a terrible writer. I have a horrible vocabulary. My brain operates too logically and not creatively enough. Some of my favorite writers have talked about how they have these people talking to them in their heads, and they have to get them out, so they bring them to life on the page. THIS is FASCINATING to me. And I just…..I want to live in their brains. This book is fanfiction brought to life. Fanfiction is this generation’s new way of writing and reading, and this author made it known in this book. I’ve never read fanfiction, but I’ve known about it ever since I became a true reader 8 years ago (I know, only 8 years?! I was wasting my reading on education. Pft!). The Harry Potter parallels killed me. I loved all of the references. I really believe this book is a piece of literature, and the Rainbow Rowell brought this literature to the surface of a young adult romance.
Sometimes writing is running downhill, your fingers jerking behind you on the keyboard the way your legs do when they can’t quite keep up with gravity.
Cath fell and fell, leaving a trail of messy words and bad similes behind her. Sometimes her chin was trembling. Sometimes she wiped her eyes on her sweater……
She closed the laptop before the door opened – and the sight of him smiling made her eyes burn right down to her throat.
This book will be on my bookshelf FOR….E….VER. I am a fangirl of Fangirl.
Going into this book, I didn’t realize that Rainbow wrote a book for Simon & Baz! I cannot WAIT to read their story in Carry On!
WHEN A SCOT TIES THE KNOT
I absolutely adored the beginning of this book. It starts out with Maddie’s letters, written to her made-up fiancé. She invents a fiancé because she is shy and awkward and doesn’t have much chance of actually landing a real fiancé. She has social anxiety and panic attacks, but of course during this time, they did not know about social anxiety, so she calls it extreme shyness. Maddie is perfectly fine with being a spinster, living with her aunt, and drawing animals.
I loved all of the characters in this story. I love that Tessa’s writing can be silly at times because they are never too silly. They are giggly and adorable, and yet I find myself getting drawn into the silly story because she always breaks out the feels when you least expect them. All of Tessa’s heroines are always intelligent and strong, including Maddie. I will always read Tessa Dare.
HANG TOUGH
We are together and that makes you mine. I take care of what’s mine. From the smallest things to the biggest. Now close your eyes and pucker up, baby, ’cause I am gonna rock your world.”
Nice guys don’t always finish last.
LOOKING INSIDE
Why have I not read more books by this author? I’ve enjoyed the few that I’ve read so I’m not sure what the answer to that question is, but I know I’ll be rectifying that mistake immediately! I love a romance that’s set in my hometown of Chicago, especially one that’s as vivid as this one. I could practically see everything described in my mind’s eye as I was reading.
PREPPY: The Life & Death of Samuel Clearwater, Part One
Damn you T.M. Frazier! Damn you and your evil genius! What are you doing to me? I can’t even right now. First you shatter my cold black heart in 
Ready to end it all, Dre’s attempt gets thwarted by a man that may be her savior or her new form of hell…
If you loved Preppy in the previous books, you will absolutely fall in love with him in this one. He’s just as potent and just as charismatic except MORE. I couldn’t get enough of him
DEADLY SILENCE
It was a bittersweet feeling for me when I finished 
THE SEXY ONE
Submission is Not Enough
My heart! MY COLD BLACK HEART! It hurts dammit! It hurts so bad. This book twisted me inside out. Never have I been more invested in a character since Theo Taggart. I can’t tell you the amount of tears I’ve shed over this man. As much as I love every single book in this series, this was easily one of my most anticipated. We’ve been getting teased with Theo’s book for what feels like forever, and I felt like my heart would damn near explode if I didn’t get my grabby little hands on his story soon.
First of all, if you’re reading my review and you haven’t read 
Lexi Blake is one of my go-to authors when it comes to sexy romantic suspense, but with this book she proved that she can wring emotion from her readers like no other. It’s so much more than just romance. Twelve books into the series and I’m still as invested as ever if not more so with these characters and find myself eagerly anticipating the next book. It’s so far beyond just sexy BDSM romance and high octane action. Starting one of these books is like getting reacquainted with a gang of friends. I fall hard for each of them every single time and with the snippet of the next book I’m practically salivating for Nick already.
NY Times and USA Today bestselling author Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband, three kids, and the laziest rescue dog in the world. She began writing at a young age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing romance and urban fantasy that she found the stories of her heart. She likes to find humor in the strangest places and believes in happy endings no matter how odd the couple, threesome, or foursome may seem.
BROKEN PRINCE
Well…damn. Color me conflicted. I struggled with my rating for two days after finishing it. Because see, the thing is, I’m freaking conflicted! Am I even making sense here? Of course I’m not! Because I’m conflicted I tells ya! Bah. Just bah.
So how do you make all of the teenage drama even more extreme? Throw in a murder mystery into the mix. It was basically like Gossip Girl meets Cruel Intentions meets Pretty Little Liars. Craziness ensues. But if you’ve read the previous books, this is nothing new.
It was so over the top, it was so crazy, that it totally killed everything for me. Le sigh. Don’t get me wrong, it certainly didn’t discount the fact that I enjoyed the majority of this book, because I totally did, but c’mon! Perhaps the argument can be that with the way the series progressed it’s only fair to make it finish out with this crazy bang, but I’m not of that mind. It was simply too OTT for my tastes.
BAITING THE MAID OF HONOR
Mother….effing…..Reed. It’s like he jumped out of my dreams and into this book. Dark, Tattoos, Broody, Mean, Bossy. Ugh. Gimme. He is from the other side of the tracks. The bad boy. He is a SWAT team leader, so he used to bossing everyone around. Everything is black and white to him. He barely even made it to the wedding. The first time he sees Julie, she is letting her hair down, literally, and he knows he has to have her. Reed…..I want him for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and especially for dessert. 
