Epic Recs | May 2015

 A while back, I started participating in this feature/club thing, as I’m going to continue calling it, that was created by  Books of Amber and Paper Riot.  Each month they force each other to read a certain book.  The particular book is often something that the partner has recently liked, or something that they know has been on the TBR pile for a while.  Sadly, my former partner Nikki decided to take a break from blogging.  Now I’m partnering with Lara from The Paperback Palace!

Lara Rec’d Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It’s company policy.) But they can’t quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lincoln O’Neill can’t believe this is his job now- reading other people’s e-mail. When he applied to be “internet security officer,” he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.

When Lincoln comes across Beth’s and Jennifer’s messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can’t help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.

By the time Lincoln realizes he’s falling for Beth, it’s way too late to introduce himself.

Lara and I don’t typically set too many parameters for our recommendations.  We check to see if the other has read it, maybe marked it as a too read.  Usually for Lara, I pick something non series with not too many characters.  This month I asked Lara for something with a happy ending, (after reading a slew of heartbreaking contemporaries).  Lara totally came through; Attachments was adorable.  I’ll of course go into more detail in my review, but I will say that Rowell’s adult book certainly had a different vibe than her YA.  Still adorable though!

I rec’d Lara Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

For popular high school senior Samantha Kingston, February 12—”Cupid Day”—should be one big party, a day of valentines and roses and the privileges that come with being at the top of the social pyramid. And it is…until she dies in a terrible accident that night.

However, she still wakes up the next morning. In fact, Sam lives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she ever imagined.

I was really happy to learn that Lara enjoyed Before I Fall.  She told me that she managed to use it in a school assignment!  If I recall correctly, when I first read Before I Fall I used quotes from it in an English essay.  It’s been a while since I read Before I Fall, but I do remember it being my favorite of Oliver’s work and thought that it would be a good standalone for Lara.

Lara and I are taking a break from Epic Recs for June, but we’ll probably be back in July!  That’s the great thing about such a low key bookclub, flexibility is easy.