The Bermudez Triangle

The Bermudez Triangle
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"Their friendship went so far back, it bordered on the Biblical-in the beginning, there was Nina and Avery and Mel." So says high school senior Nina Bermudez about herself and her two best friends, nicknamed "The Bermudez Triangle" by a jealous wannabe back on Nina's eleventh birthday. But the threesome faces their first separation when Nina goes away the summer before their senior year. And in ten short weeks, everything changes. Nina returns home bursting with stories about Steve, the quirky yet adorable eco-warrior she fell for hard while away. But when she asks her best friends about their summer romances, an awkward silence follows. Nina soon learns the shocking truth when she sees Mel and Avery . . . kissing. Their friendship is rocked by what feels like the ultimate challenge.

Why, Maureen? Why do you have to do this to me? I feel so torn up about this book. I mean, I liked it but it...AGH!

The things that I didn't like:

1) The ending, it was quite blah and anticlimactic. Where did the excitement go? Huh?
2) Mel at the beginning. I hate needy people and Mel seemed very needy and pathetic to me at the beginning and mostly through the middle.
3) Avery at the end. Seriously, you have some serious identity crisis, sister.

I admit, the lesbian thing was weird but it grew on me and I was very much rooting for Mel and Avery. It was very sweet and simple.

Things that I liked:
1) The humor. When there's Maureen, there's no shortage of humor.
2) Nina. This was my favorite character--minus a part where she too becomes needy and moody and pathetic, but that, thank God, doesn't last very long.
3) Parker at the beginning. But in the end...ugh, he annoyed me so much I hated him, you'll see why.

So you see, it's a three on three and a very torn up / messed up review. I have a feeling that there will be a lot of people who are not satisfied with it like me, a ton of people who will love it, and a ton of people who will hated. So let's see how I grade this book.

In one sentence:
"Maureen Johnson puts her stamp of humor in a completely different book."

Plot: 3.5
Characters: 3
Writing: 4.5
Cover: 3
Overall Feeling: 3
Average: 3.4

The Heart Is Not A Size by Beth Kephart

The Heart Is Not A Size
Georgia knows what it means to keep secrets. She knows how to ignore things. She knows that some things are better left unsaid. ...Or are they?

When Georgia and her best friend, Riley, travel along with nine other suburban Pennsylvania kids to Anapra, a squatters' village in the heat-flattened border city of Juarez, Mexico, secrets seem to percolate and threaten both a friendship and a life. Certainties unravel. Reality changes. And Georgia is left to figure out who she is outside the world she's always known.

Beth Kephart paints a world filled with emotion, longing, and the hot Mexican sun.

When Georgia discovers a program where she could go to Mexico to help build a community bathroom, she doesn't hesitate to join alongside her best friend, Riley. Both Georgia and Riley have secrets that will threaten this friendship. Will they be able to stay friends?

I loved how easy it was to read this book. I was done with it in two days. A really quick at-the-beach read. Beth Kephart has a beautiful writing style, almost poetic. The words just...flow.

Riley is a very extreme character. She wants to be against everything her mother wants her to be. You can see that their relationship isn't that good and I felt and suffered with Riley.

Georgia is a quiet character, reserved, and with a big secret. Of course, she is worried about her friend and how extreme she's taking everything but it doesn't quite work out.

The setting is fantastic. I love how vividly everything was portrayed in Juarez.

Overall, I really liked the story. It was a quick and easy read and enjoyable but not at-the-edge-of-your-seat kind of enjoyable. I really liked Georgia and Riley's friendship and how imperfect it was, yet, it seemed to work out.

In one sentence:
"A quick read about friendship and the risks we're willing to take for it."

Plot: 4
Writing: 5
Characters: 4
Cover: 2
Overall Feeling: 4
Average: 3.8

3 Willows by Ann Brashares

3 Willows

summer is a time to grow

seeds
Polly has an idea that she can't stop thinking about, one that involves changing a few things about herself. She's setting her sights on a more glamorous life, but it's going to take all of her focus. At least that way she won't have to watch her friends moving so far ahead.

roots
Jo is spending the summer at her family's beach house, working as a busgirl and bonding with the older, cooler girls she'll see at high school come September. She didn't count on a brief fling with a cute boy changing her entire summer. Or feeling embarrassed by her middle school friends. And she didn't count on her family at all. . .

leaves
Ama is not an outdoorsy girl. She wanted to be at an academic camp, doing research in an air-conditioned library, earning A's. Instead her summer scholarship lands her on a wilderness trip full of flirting teenagers, blisters, impossible hiking trails, and a sad lack of hair products.
It is a new summer. And a new sisterhood. Come grow with them.

I've been wanting to read 3 Willows for a while now but being a Sisterhood fan, I wasn't sure how well I was going to take this book. But I've had it in my TBR list for a while, so I went ahead and picked it up.

Oh, wow, that shut me up. 3 Willows is a beautiful stories with wonderful characters. I started liking Ama more and then Polly. I was very reluctant about Jo, though, her attitude and her obvious desperation to be cooler and appear older. Somehow, this didn't rub me the right way in the beginning.

Ama is such a character! She's smart and nerdy but definitely cares about her appearance which made her un-stereotypical and rounded. I loved how she acted through the trip in the wild, it was very believable and the way I myself would have acted. I loved her relationship with Noah and how easy and natural it was.

Polly was okay for me. She wanted to be a model and went as far to do some really extreme stuff for that. She seemed the most childish of the three. I liked her enough to care for her but I don't really have much to say about who she is and her roundness as a character.

Jo was interesting. In the beginning, I didn't like her but she became my favorite character. She is the perfect example of really growing up and knowing how easy teens change and give up what they love to be something they are not. She's the most evolved character.

The different stories weaved beautifully. Ann is such an amazing writer, the book flowed easily and was such an enjoyment. It's a quick beach read that I'd recommend to anyone. This book is about friendship and growing up and finding oneself. It is definitely for a younger audience than the Sisterhood.

In one sentence:
"Flowing and heartwarming, a story of true friendship that evolved but never dies."

Plot: 5
Characters: 4
Cover: 3
Writing: 5
Overall: 4
Average: 4.2