Book Synopsis:
If fate sent you an email, would you answer?
When teenage movie star Graham Larkin accidentally sends small town girl Ellie O'Neill an email about his pet pig, the two seventeen-year-olds strike up a witty and unforgettable correspondence, discussing everything under the sun, except for their names or backgrounds.
Then Graham finds out that Ellie's Maine hometown is the perfect location for his latest film, and he decides to take their relationship from online to in-person. But can a star as famous as Graham really start a relationship with an ordinary girl like Ellie? And why does Ellie want to avoid the media's spotlight at all costs?
My Review:
3.75/5 stars. I don't actually have that much to say about the book. It wasn't amazing, but it wasn't terrible. I'm just kind of neutral about it. It was a nice light read that was really easy to get though. The writing style was simple and it wasn't too long of a book. I thought it was a pretty cute story. There weren’t any crazy plot twists or suspenseful moments, but I still enjoyed it.
I loved the setting of this book. It was a small town in Maine that, despite being small, felt like a big community because everyone knew everyone. Something about stories that take place in small towns is just really appealing to me. They just feel so homey and quaint. The contrast of the small town girl and the Los Angeles movie star made it interesting.
The characters were nice, but I wished they were more fleshed out and had more development. Some of the conflicts with the characters were thrown in and then not really part of the character. For example, the conflict with Graham and his parents. I thought it was gonna be a bigger part of his character arc or the story overall, but then it was just "resolved" at the end way too quickly. The same thing happened with Ellie and her dad. A huge part of the story was this secret from her family's past and one of the main plot points was her going to see him, but then when he didn't recognize her she just gave up and headed home. I wanted more from that storyline. I was hoping that her dad would've recognized her or maybe realized it was her after the news got out and came to find her, but nothing happened.
The romance between the main characters was cute but unrealistic. They only really hung out for a day before already kissing because they had been emailing for months. You can't really make a connection with someone until you've met them in person, but it seemed like they were just "perfect for each other" after less than a day. The flirty banter they had was cute, but there was barely any of it because they were apart for three weeks, which was a decent chunk of the book.
Another flaw I noticed about this book is that there were some parts that were purely exposition dump or backstory. It was interesting exposition that was important to the plot, but I would've preferred if it was integrated more naturally into the story. There was also a lot of telling moments instead of showing moments. The narrator just told us information instead of showing it through the characters actions. The writing style in general, however, I thought was similar to my own writing style, which is probably why it was easy to get through.
As for an age rating, this book is really clean. There's no language and only a few kisses that aren't described in any detail, except for how the characters feel about it. It does mention an affair, though, so if that's a sensitive topic for someone they might not want to read it. I think it would be okay for tweens and up.
Happy Again (This Is What Happy Looks Like #1.5)
As a companion to the first book, there was a short, 80-something page novella that just continues the story a little bit. I got through it in less than an hour and I give it 3/5 stars, mostly because there wasn't much to it. It takes place a year and a half after the first book when Graham and Ellie meet up again after having grown apart some. The whole plot spans just a few hours and is just one date between Ellie and Graham. It was nice to see what had happened since the end of the first book, and it was cute story, but it didn't have much substance.
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