Leila Howland

OMG Cricket is so naive and romantic. Poor kid, reality is a hard pill to swallow.
'I'm so naive lalala...' I swear it's this kind of feeling! I'm not sure whether to be amused or horrified.

This is complicated. It does feel kind of odd, a bit different? Well, I like it. But, well.

So you go looking for one thing and find something else - something much better. What do you do? You fight! (Like there's a question about it, che!)

Well, this is likeable. Cricket has grown a lot as a person throughout the book.

FINAL VEDICT: It's good, but not particularly?… (more)

I wish that I'd liked this book more than I did. It was okay, but, not as amazing as the singing dancing movie.

For the most part, it was about Rapunzel and Cassandra. And its point of view switched chapter to chapter between the two. Cassandra is a new character in the universe. She's the daughter of the Captain of the Guard and she too wants to be a guard, but, because she's a girl she's not being allowed. But, she's made maps of the whole kingdom and is a whiz with weapons and moves and such. They meet and then Cassandra becomes Rapunzel's sort of friend when Rapunzel finds a book that claims to know about some kingdom altering sort of place, the Lost Lagoon. And they're off on their adventure.

From there, unfortunately, the middle had a lot of what seemed like treading water, but then right near the very end it did pick up again, and for the most part, I did like the ending.

Honestly, my biggest annoyance with the book was the apparent lesbian subtext that screamed at me from the pages re: Cassandra and Rapunzel. I understand that that was not what was supposed to be, they were supposed to be friends, but, it was there on so many levels that I couldn't just not see it. We each read a book differently, and, I saw subtext. I have no doubt that those who this is supposed to be for, kids/teens much younger than me maybe won't see it the same way.

Overall it was a fun book, I just wish that some of the meandering in the middle had been taken out.

I got this ARC through Netgalley on behalf of Disney Book Group… (more)

I received a free eBook of Hello, Sunshine by Leila Howland through Netgalley in return for an honest review. This book took me awhile to get into because of the story moving a little too slowly for me in the beginning. However, once I started to get into it, the story became much more interesting. Hello, Sunshine is about a girl that is not accepted into any colleges she applied for; deciding to move to LA and test her luck at becoming an actor becomes a much harder feat than she imagines. Moving out alone, making new friends, finding a job to pay the bills, and then attempting to be hired for a part in a play or movie. Ultimately the book is about finding your way without any help and that it is possible to become someone even when all seems lost. This book has helped me to understand what it really is like to move out on your own and try to find your way in the world.… (more)