The Queen of Bright & Shiny Things by Ann Aguirre (Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads)Also by this author: The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things, Vanguard
Published by Macmillan on April 7, 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Emotions & Feelings, Love & Romance, Romance, Social Issues, Social Themes, Young Adult, Young Adult Fiction
Sage Czinski is trying really hard to be perfect. If she manages it, people won’t peer beyond the surface, or ask hard questions about her past. She’s learned to substitute causes for relationships, and it’s working just fine… until Shane Cavendish strolls into her math class. He’s a little antisocial, a lot beautiful, and everything she never knew she always wanted.
Shane Cavendish just wants to be left alone to play guitar and work on his music. He’s got heartbreak and loneliness in his rearview mirror, and this new school represents his last chance. He doesn’t expect to be happy; he only wants to graduate and move on. He never counted on a girl like Sage.
But love doesn’t mend all broken things, and sometimes life has to fall apart before it can be put back together again…
There were things that I really liked about this story, and then there were things that I really just did not like at all. Unfortunately the not likes out weighed the likes.
I think part of my problem was that I had waited so long to read this, that I heard how wonderful it was and that I was going to just fall for it… that never works for me. High expectations tend to ruin my enjoyment of things times ten when they don’t live up to the hype and that was a major pitfall for me here.
I think I just don’t click with Aguirre’s contemporary stuff because her style of writing doesn’t work for me here, (though I loved loved her Enclave series.) For the most part, I never connected with either (omg I finished this book yesterday and I can’t even remember their names!!) Sage or Shane (I had to look up their names, but see what I mean?) Sure, I thought their stories were sad and I thought their histories were a good way to form a connection, but I just never felt it. It seemed so stilted and awkward and I just didn’t seem to find a way to invest in their stories both separately or together.
Everything felt very surface for me… there was no digging deep to really get to know anyone. From her best friend Ryan to her new best friend Lila it just felt very much surface relationships instead of them really getting to know each other and I think that’s mostly where this book lost me.
I love contemporaries that deal with issues, and this one has a bit of everything. Second chances, parental death, parental abandonment, bullies… It might have actually been a bit too much. Don’t get me wrong, I like that there was hope for these two especially after the nightmares of their lives before meeting, but that might have been the only silver lining for me if I’m honest.
This just didn’t work for me as much as I had hoped it would, but please give it a try… there are obviously a ton of people who really loved it! I definitely do recommend her Enclave series though so there’s that!
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