Book Synopsis:
Finley Sinclair is not your typical eighteen year old. She's witty, tough, and driven. With an upcoming interview at the Manhattan music conservatory, Finley needs to compose her audition piece. But her creativity disappeared with the death of her older brother, Will.
She decides to study abroad in Ireland so she can follow Will's travel journal. It's the place he felt closest to God, and she's hopeful being there will help her make peace over losing him. So she agrees to an exchange program and boards the plane.
Beckett Rush, teen heartthrob and Hollywood bad boy, is flying to Ireland to finish filming his latest vampire movie. On the flight, he meets Finley. She's the one girl who seems immune to his charm. Undeterred, Beckett convinces her to be his assistant in exchange for his help as a tour guide.
Once in Ireland, Finley starts to break down. The loss of her brother and the pressure of school, her audition, and whatever it is that is happening between her and Beckett, leads her to a new and dangerous vice. When is God going to show up for her in this emerald paradise?
Then she experiences something that radically changes her perspective on life. Could it be God convincing her that everything she's been looking for has been with her all along?
My Review:
4/5 stars I was very excited to read this book. Christian, romance, Ireland, and music - a lot of stuff I love. My enjoyment of the book fluctuated. Sometimes I would read something really beautiful or think a plotline was really great, but other times there would be something I didn’t like or was annoyed by.
First of all, I loved the setting. This book being set in Ireland was one of the main reasons I wanted to read it. I want to go to Ireland some day because it's so pretty. I loved hearing all the scenery and Irish landscape described, especially at the Cliffs of Moher, a really beautiful location. I also liked how all the Irish accents were written. I could easily hear things being said in an accent. The Irish slang terms and general speech patterns made it seem more realistic that it was set in Ireland.
Another thing I liked was how music was described. When Finley played, or when she heard music that moved her, the author described the emotions she felt and how it took her out of the world for a moment, only feeling the music. As someone who listens to music and sings, I understand the power of music. It was nice to read about the music in this book.
Now onto some things I didn't like about this book. Some of the characters and tropes were very cliché/stereotypical. Beatrice, the school's "mean girl" was just that. She had no redeeming qualities, we didn't learn her backstory and why she was so mean. It was almost unrealistic how mean she was.
This book had the annoying "I'm not like other girls" trope. Even from just the book's description, Finley is described as "not your typical 18-year-old". Finley herself says "I'm not like those other girls" at one point in the book. She's not really so unique. She has depth and a personality, which apparently makes her "different". The other cliché plotline was with Beckett. He doesn't want to be an actor, but his dad wants him to. It's the whole, "It's not my dream, it's your dream" trope, which I think is overused. I haven't read many books with these two tropes, they're more of cheesy teen drama movie tropes, but this book had them.
One thing that bothered me in this book was Finley being obsessed with counting calories and exercising. It wasn't really addressed as an issue until towards the very end of the book. Even then, it was kind of glossed over and never fully resolved. In frustrated me so much when Finley would brush off someone telling her she might have a problem, denying it and blaming it on stress.
Going back to the things I liked, I loved the message towards the end about how Satan tries really hard to take control of our lives, and that's why it can sometimes feel like God isn't listening to us/abandoning us during hard times. I also loved the reference to the verses in Romans 8. One of the verses mentioned, Romans 8:38-39, is one of my favorites, so I was happy it was included in this book at the end.
The ending before the epilogue was nice and cute. However, I thought the epilogue was a little unnecessary. It jumped ahead two years later but didn't really add much detail. It was very short, and I felt like there was a better way to tie off loose ends. I would've been happy reading a few more chapters instead of the epilogue.
As far as an age rating goes, I'd say young teens and older. There's no language, but the word "sexy" is included a couple times. The romance is very clean, but some kisses and romantic feelings are described in a lot of detail. This book deals with death and grief, something that could be hard to read about for a younger audience.
Movie Review:
This book was made into a movie, so I watched it. Here's my review.
The movie version of this book, called Finding You, annoyed me. If I wasn't thinking of it as an adaptation of a book, I probably would've liked it more, it's a cute standalone movie. Compared to the book, however, I didn't really like it.
There were so many details changed for no reason. Half the characters had completely different names, and some didn't exist at all. I don't understand how changing a character's name affects the plot in any way, it was completely unnecessary.
Some other stuff I didn't understand why they changed was the timeline of Finley's brother's death. In the book, it was only a year after it happened, so Finley's grief was fresh. The movie made four years pass after his death, so there was no focus on grief at all. They also made Beckett's thing be dragon movies instead of vampire movies, which I don't understand.
Some stuff, like Finley's eating disorder or the drama with Erin not being able to get a date to the festival, I understand why they were cut. Those weren't crucial to the plot of the story. There were some things added, however, that weren't in the book. Instead of adding extra stuff, they could've included more details from the book.
The plot of the movie felt very rushed. Some things that didn't happen until halfway through the book were shown only about 30 minutes into the movie. They sped through most of the plot of the book so that they could spend a lot of time on the ending. Speaking of, I liked how the movie handled the ending better than the movie. It didn't have the "2 years later" epilogue. I liked the way it had Finley describing what happened in the next year.
Because everything felt rushed, Beckett and Finley's relationship didn't develop as slowly. They didn't have as much back-and-forth dislike and banter. It developed too quickly in the movie.
The biggest thing that annoyed me about this movie was the lack of Christian themes. Apart from a Bible verse shown on a gravestone, there was no mention of God or praying at all. If you're going to make a movie adaptation of a Christian book, why would you omit everything Christian. They wanted to appeal to a wider audience who don't want to hear about God, but maybe they should.
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