In June I listened to a few audiobooks so here are some mini reviews!
Anna K by Jenny Lee
Publication Date: Macrh 3rd 2020
Rating: 3.5/5
Every happy teenage girl is the same, while every unhappy teenage girl is miserable in her own special way.
Meet Anna K. At seventeen, she is at the top of Manhattan and Greenwich society (even if she prefers the company of her horses and Newfoundland dogs); she has the perfect (if perfectly boring) boyfriend, Alexander W.; and she has always made her Korean-American father proud (even if he can be a little controlling). Meanwhile, Anna’s brother, Steven, and his girlfriend, Lolly, are trying to weather a sexting scandal; Lolly’s little sister, Kimmie, is struggling to recalibrate to normal life after an injury derails her ice dancing career; and Steven’s best friend, Dustin, is madly (and one-sidedly) in love with Kimmie.
As her friends struggle with the pitfalls of ordinary teenage life, Anna always seems to be able to sail gracefully above it all. That is…until the night she meets Alexia “Count” Vronsky at Grand Central. A notorious playboy who has bounced around boarding schools and who lives for his own pleasure, Alexia is everything Anna is not. But he has never been in love until he meets Anna, and maybe she hasn’t, either. As Alexia and Anna are pulled irresistibly together, she has to decide how much of her life she is willing to let go for the chance to be with him. And when a shocking revelation threatens to shatter their relationship, she is forced to question if she has ever known herself at all.
Dazzlingly opulent and emotionally riveting, Anna K.: A Love Story is a brilliant reimagining of Leo Tolstoy’s timeless love story, Anna Karenina―but above all, it is a novel about the dizzying, glorious, heart-stopping experience of first love and first heartbreak.
I received this book from LIBRO.FM but this doesn’t affect my review! (if you’d like to check out the website, you can use my referral link! You can get one free audiobook and after your first month I’ll also get a free audiobook! PLUS you support local indie bookstores by purchasing from them!)
I was interested in this book mainly because of Tiffany over at Read by Tiffany (of her booktube). I haven’t read the classic that this is a retelling of mainly because classics scare me and also that book is HUGE.
BUT I decided that I’d listen to this anyway. I gotta admit that if I’d read this in physical form, I probably wouldn’t have finished the book but the audio was engaging and it made for good background when I was doing other things. It wasn’t really mind blowing to me but the ending was definitely unexpected. I didn’t rate it a full 4 stars just because at some point it could have been really easy for me to put it away and not look back. I’m glad I didn’t though, it’s just that the characters were a bit too rich and making bad and annoying decisions which can get pretty frustrating!
I would recommend this to me if you enjoy rich teenagers making dumb decisions, unrequited love and loads of drama, and multiple POV stories. It was kind of a mix of Crazy Rich Asians but like in high school. I personally didn’t root for any one character, but it was definitely interesting because of their very bold personalities!
Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen
Publication Date: January 7th 2020
Rating: 4/5
When eighteen-year-old Ever Wong’s parents send her from Ohio to Taiwan to study Mandarin for the summer, she finds herself thrust among the very over-achieving kids her parents have always wanted her to be, including Rick Woo, the Yale-bound prodigy profiled in the Chinese newspapers since they were nine—and her parents’ yardstick for her never-measuring-up life.
Unbeknownst to her parents, however, the program is actually an infamous teen meet-market nicknamed Loveboat, where the kids are more into clubbing than calligraphy and drinking snake-blood sake than touring sacred shrines.
Free for the first time, Ever sets out to break all her parents’ uber-strict rules—but how far can she go before she breaks her own heart?
I used scribd for this audiobook (and if you want to use my link for 2 free months of ebooks and audiobooks, I get a month free because of it!)
I did not know what to expect when reading this book but right away I automatically related to the main character way too much. Last month I had a bit of an identity crisis because I also didn’t really know whether I wanted to even be a doctor anymore (it happens–I’m fine) and Ever had the same sort of crisis where she felt obligated to follow her family’s plan for her rather than do what she wanted. Her experience going abroad and learning to be herself and have a little bit of freedom that she didn’t get from living with her family was also something I high key related to! Though I didn’t really care about the romance (which is funny because it’s literally called Loveboat), I loved her character growth and just her relatability with family relationships and feeling that obligation to follow your parent’s plans for you as well as trying to do what you love. I’m also a sucker for anything that’s dance related so that was great!
If you enjoy relatable stories about finding yourself and learning to do what makes you happy this is definitely a book I would recommend! I would recommend this to anyone who wants stories of studying abroad, art and dance, sneaking out to do mildly rebellious things, a little bit of fake dating with a little more love triangle and drama, family relationships as well as making friends and a dash a drama!
Star is All Booked Up 
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