How to Love

Ugh. This book takes the saying 'all that glitters is not gold' to a whole other level. Rude or not, I had such high hopes for this book and first, I get an old, dishevelled copy (all thanks to Amazon) and second, it's all just pure unorganized, turmoils crap. And you may like this book if you're a fan of stupidity. Because if you're anything like a normal homo sapien who's sound of mind, than you'll stay far away from this book and won't make the same mistake as I did.

I buddy read this one with Brittany from This is the Story of My Reading Life. We'd originally planned to read it in March - but we couldn't fit it in - so we bumped it onto our April TBR's because we really wanted to read it. Glad we managed to fit it in in April because I really enjoyed it.The main thing I loved was that this wasn't a perfect, straight-forward love story and that both characters had major flaws. Reena and Sawyer were together; Sawyer had major problems; Reena got sick of it; Sawyer left; Reena found out she was pregnant; Had her baby and then 3 years later... Sawyer returns.The story was told in two different timelines: Before & After. Before: The story of how Reena & Sawyer's relationship started. After: 3 years after they got together and all the events after Sawyer's return.Reen is a socially-awkward character who prefers her own company. She has a major weakness when it comes to Sawyer. She comes from a Catholic family and they looked down on her when she became pregnant. She's kind of a s***ty friend, but she has dealt with a lot of s*** so sometimes I could excuse her. But I did have a love/hate relationship with Reena.I had a like/hate relationship with Sawyer. I hated before Sawyer. He was such a dick and I wanted to punch him in the face so many times. I did feel bad because he was going through his own s***, but I hate that he dragged Reena with him. He treated Reena like s*** before. After, he wasn't much better to start with. He waltzed back in like nothing had changed and was acting like the same jackass from before. But Sawyer grew a lot when he came back and by the end, I did like him.Shelby is Reena's BFF. She tells it like it is and she's always trying to talk sense into Reena. She's hilarious and had me laughing out loud quite a lot. She's a great friend to Reena even though Reena doesn't always return the favour.When it comes to the romance, the blurb tells it like it is: It's a mess. Reena and Sawyer went through a ton of s*** before which would make you think they'd never in a million years try it again. But those two had a connection right from the word go. Reena had been hiding her feeling for Sawyer and Sawyer never knew about her feelings, but he liked her. Before Reena and Sawyer were a train-wreck. After Reena and Sawyer had a chance. I loved getting to see the Before relationship and the After relationship and understand why Reena had her hang-ups. It was real, and I think that's why I ended up rooting for the two of them.Nothing in this story was perfect, and that's why I loved it so much. Neither Reena nor Sawyer are perfect. They both have major flaws and have made a lot of mistakes in the past and in the present. They're still learning and growing. Reena and Sawyer's families weren't perfect either. I hated Reena's dad for the way he was freezing out her and being such a dick, but I also understood his side. Sawyer's parents seemed determined to put on this perfect front and try to make it look like they hadn't been treating Reena like s***.By the end I was rooting for Reena and Sawyer and I finished the book with a massive grin on my face. The ending gave me hope that they'll be able to be a proper family and that everything will work out.Overall, I really loved How to Love. It was messy, heartbreaking, the characters were imperfect, but it just felt real and that's why I loved it.

You know when you're just really craving an easy, romantic, contemporary? This is the perfect book for that. Told in alternating chapters of Before and After, this is Reena's story, of love, heartbreak and an unexpected pregnancy. The plot itself id very character orientated, something that I love, giving not only Reena, whose POV dominates the book, and Sawyer, the love interest, but also the supporting characters like Shelby and Soledad. That's not to say that it's a perfect book, but it is a nice summery contemporary that may just make you cry a little.Why not find me at www.cartonmanettedarnay.wordpress.com for more book-related content!

It was nice story, but it did get a little irritating with the past and present chapters, because you had to keep remembering what had occurred. Also ReenA constantly coming off as sort of aggressive, got a bit boring and I think I would have preferred her to not end up with Sawyer and to realise that her and Hannah could do this on there own.

I had high hopes for this book after flicking through the first few pages online, however it proved to be fairly flat as a story.The storyline was told from a past/present perspective which was interesting. This was a bit tedious at times, especially when you already knew what was about to happen from the previous chapters.I didn't really get into the story in the way I have with other books, partly because some of the actions of the characters seemed out of context with their situation. One of my main annoyances about the book is that I felt that the main character, Reena, never seemed to develop as the book progressed. I know she is portrayed as a teenager, however she came across as very naive despite her life experiences. The ending disappointed me a bit, I can't say the book reached the conclusion I personally would have liked it to, however it was a "happy" ending.My feelings towards this book are fairly neutral, I didn't love or hate it. I will admit I probably wouldn't read it again, however for some summer reading it's absolutely fine. It was a really easy book to read through, and only took me a few hours to read in its entirety.

I'm not going to lie I hated Sawyer at times. I thought he was a real s**t bag with her at times but it was also clear that these two were forever. It was a great book that looks at real life, our hopes and regrets and about dealing with life when it doesn't go the way you planned for it to. Great read.