Once Upon a Dream!
I've come across a few books in the past few months that have reminded me of actual events or of people or other books, and I wanted to post them up really quickly.
Enter Title Here
Rahul Kanakia
2016
Young Adult
"I'm your protagonist-Reshma Kapoor-and if you have the free time to read this book, then you're probably nothing like me.
Reshma
is a college counselor's dream. She's the top-ranked senior at her
ultra-competitive Silicon Valley high school, with a spotless academic
record and a long roster of extracurriculars. But there are plenty of
perfect students in the country, and if Reshma wants to get into
Stanford, and into med school after that, she needs the hook to beat
them all.
What's a habitual over-achiever to do? Land herself a
literary agent, of course. Which is exactly what Reshma does after agent
Linda Montrose spots an article she wrote for Huffington Post. Linda
wants to represent Reshma, and, with her new agent's help scoring a
book deal, Reshma knows she'll finally have the key to Stanford.
But
she's convinced no one would want to read a novel about a study machine
like her. To make herself a more relatable protagonist, she must start
doing all the regular American girl stuff she normally ignores. For
starters, she has to make a friend, then get a boyfriend. And she's
already planned the perfect ending: after struggling for three hundred
pages with her own perfectionism, Reshma will learn that meaningful
relationships can be more important than success-a character arc
librarians and critics alike will enjoy.
Of course, even with a
mastermind like Reshma in charge, things can't always go as planned. And
when the valedictorian spot begins to slip from her grasp, she'll have
to decide just how far she'll go for that satisfying ending. (Note:
It's pretty far.)
In this wholly unique, wickedly funny debut
novel, Rahul Kanakia consciously uses the rules of storytelling-and then
breaks them to pieces."
This book reminds me so much of the book
How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life by Kaavya Viswanathan, along with the course of events that led to the author having her novel published.
Goodreads users once again have put it best:
Sing
Vivi Greene
2016
Young Adult
After getting her heart shattered for the thousandth time, multiplatinum
pop icon Lily Ross is escaping her high-profile, crazy life and heading
to an island in middle-of-nowhere Maine with her best friends. She has
three months to focus on herself, her music, her new album—anything but
guys. This summer is going to be different.
This book's cover reminded me a lot of Taylor Swift, and the story focuses on a pop icon.
With Malice
Eileen Cook
2016
Young Adult
Eighteen-year-old Jill Charron wakes up in a hospital, unable to
remember the past six weeks, including the accident that killed her best
friend, if it was, in fact, an accident.
The basic premise of this book reminds me a little bit of the case of the murder of
Meredith Kercher, who was murdered in 2007 while studying in Italy as an exchange student from Italy.
The Couple Next Door
Shari Lapeña
2016
Fiction
"
A dinner invitation from the couple next
door changes the lives of Anne and Marco Conti. Neighbor Cynthia
Stillwell asks the Contis not to bring their sometimes fussy
six-month-old daughter, Cora, so when the babysitter cancels at the last
minute, Marco comes up with an alternate plan. Since the Stillwell and
Conti homes adjoin at a common wall, Marco suggests taking their baby
monitor to dinner and checking on Cora in her crib every half hour,
which works fine until after midnight. But when the Contis return home,
tipsy from wine, their front door is open and Cora is gone. The couple
is devastated..." Booklist Review
This book start reminds me so much of the case of Madeleine McCann, who disappeared in 2007. Her parents left Madeleine and her siblings asleep while they ate at a restaurant nearby, but on one occasion when they checked on them, Madeleine was gone.
