Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of Top Ten Clues You're Clueless by Liz Czukas!!

Hey guys!

Since I do still have a bit of a backlog of books to be reviewed, I'm gonna be doing two reviews per day this week, and so for the second Mark This Book Monday of this week, I have an ARC review.

This was another of those approved ARC requests from Harper Teen on Edelweiss that do feel like a bit of a mirage, because I haven't been approved by them for any other of their books since. But, I got them and I'm very happy and thankful that I did! As an ARC it is also counted towards my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge!

Top Ten Clues You're Clueless by Liz Czukas

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read and loved Ask Again Later, the first book by Liz Czukas, and even these are not my usual kind of books, I've found myself quite loving and enjoying both AAL and this one!

Chloe is the main character in this one, and she seems to be your rather nerdy and adorable but rather clueless and apparently friendless girl. She works part time at a grocery store and has a crush on a co-worker. She's diabetic (which was a nice inclusion, presented as normal but also shown as something to take seriously) and she has to work on Xmas Eve.

This is contemporary, and contemporary fluff at it, but I cannot help it, the way Liz writes her characters, I simply fly through the book, chuckling here and there and having a lovely break from whatever else is going on around. Even if this wasn't as full of banter and the relationships between the characters weren't as fantastic as they were in AAL, they were still very well done.

There's a lil bit of a mystery to solve, but the main focus is on Chloe and the relationship between her and her co-workers, before and after being accused of theft.

I think the setting and the time frame, just a few hours in a day, that made for a different enough read, it might have also made it a bit more on the light side of character development and that might have made it harder to connect and care for all the "younglings".

Still it was fun, adorable and heartwarming, and with the setting being Christmas Eve, it can also be considered a cute holiday read! Well deserved 3.5 stars for this one!



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Friday Reads: Ask Again Later by Liz Czukas!!!

Hello everyone! Happy Friday!

This week has been a bit a mad, with the hangover from all my baking for the candy bar for my friend's wedding and the wedding and the recovering, and work being crazy... but I'm trying to get this week on track and I finally have a review up on the blog for this week's Friday Reads! Not part of any challenge or anything, so it was a well deserved "me" read!


Ask Again Later by Liz Czukas

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


For a non-fan of contemporaries, I've found myself reading and enjoying quite a few as of late, and Ask Again Later was the perfect answer for the "what to read tonight, I want something quick paced and fun!".

And Ask Again Later completely delivered! I flew through the book and not only it had me smiling a lot, but I was laughing out loud at 3 am! It's fun, it's light, it's fluffy without being ridiculous and isn't filled with unnecessary drama!

Heart has decided to go to prom with her group of friends but her plans change when she gets two unexpected invitations. Both aren't exactly appealing from the romantic front but she feels compromised to accept one of the two invites and not go ahead with her original plans. How can she choose? Tossing a coin! And from then on, heads or tails shows us the two very different proms that Heart goes through with each of her dates, until the moment both narratives converge together again.

Heart is such a wonderful character! She might be a bit clueless and a bit easily pushed into doing something she didn't want, but given her family and her general attitude to try and keep drama free, I could understand how she seemed a bit of a push over when it came to her brother. Her obliviousness was rather endearing and her no dating rule to make sure she wouldn't repeat her mother's mistakes? It might seem very silly, but I did something similar focusing on a celebrity crush to avoid dating for a while, and I was over 20 at the time!

I found both alternative realities very entertaining and I loved seeing the different perspectives and interactions between Heart and her friends and Heart and her brother's crowd. I found the "tails" perspective more adorable and fun, since she spends more time being herself with her friends, but the "heads" perspective is totally hilarious even if I felt like smacking people now and then!

I really wasn't expecting the merge of both alternatives quite as seamlessly as it happened and I loved how much banter and adorableness there was in it!

If you are looking for an entertaining, fun and feel good book, do not hesitate, go grab Ask Again Later! You'll thank me (later if you want!) ;) Well deserved 4 to 4.5 stars!



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