From Twinkle, With Love | Sandhya Menon

Title: From Twinkle, With Love

Author: Sandhya Menon

Length: 336 pages

Publication date: May 22, 2018

Genre: YA contemporary

Rating: 2.75/5

Aspiring filmmaker and wallflower Twinkle Mehra has stories she wants to tell and universes she wants to explore, if only the world would listen. So when fellow film geek Sahil Roy approaches her to direct a movie for the upcoming Summer Festival, Twinkle is all over it. The chance to publicly showcase her voice as a director? Dream come true. The fact that it gets her closer to her longtime crush, Neil Roy—a.k.a. Sahil’s twin brother? Dream come true x 2. When mystery man “N” begins emailing her, Twinkle is sure it’s Neil, finally ready to begin their happily-ever-after. The only slightly inconvenient problem is that, in the course of movie-making, she’s fallen madly in love with the irresistibly adorkable Sahil. Twinkle soon realizes that resistance is futile: The romance she’s got is not the one she’s scripted. But will it be enough? Told through the letters Twinkle writes to her favorite female filmmakers, From Twinkle, with Love navigates big truths about friendship, family, and the unexpected places love can find you.

I really enjoyed When Dimple Met Rishi, so I was looking forward to this book. Unfortunately, this book made me realize that YA contemporary doesn't really do it for me anymore. I just can't relate to all of these teenager problems. I turned 30 a couple weeks before I read this and my life is just so beyond high school drama. A couple problems with the book itself were that it was really repetitive, and I called absolutely everything that happened from like chapter 2. But I would've really enjoyed this book more when I was younger (when I was actually in the age group this book is intended for haha). So I'm giving it 3 stars because most of my problems were with me, not the book.

The Wolves of Winter | Tyrell Johnson

Title: The Wolves of Winter

Author: Tyrell Johnson

Length: 312 pages

Publication date: January 2, 2018

Genre: Adult post-apocalyptic

Rating: 4/5

Forget the old days. Forget summer. Forget warmth. Forget anything that doesn’t help you survive. Lynn McBride has learned much since society collapsed in the face of nuclear war and the relentless spread of disease. As memories of her old life haunt her, she has been forced to forge ahead in the snow-covered Canadian Yukon, learning how to hunt and trap to survive. But her fragile existence is about to be shattered. Shadows of the world before have found her tiny community—most prominently in the enigmatic figure of Jax, who sets in motion a chain of events that will force Lynn to fulfill a destiny she never imagined

If any book summary reminds me of Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, I have to pick it up. I've read a few stinkers as a result. While The Wolves of Winter didn't blow me away, it certainly held its own. I loved the feeling in this bleak atmosphere; set in the wilderness of the Yukon, I really got that sense of isolation and loneliness. In a world that's been decimated by war and a virus, these people have a strong desire to survive, and they do it well, but that's all their lives have become. I was really looking for something really simplistic, and for the most part this book did deliver that. Towards the middle some things came out of left field and I was very surprised by where the story was going, so that did detract from my enjoyment of it. There were some pacing issues as well in the second half.

As far as the characters go, I found their motivations pretty realistic. They were all very practical and had their complexities. The main character did tend to think about sex a lot, which with a different depiction would be alright - she is a woman in her early twenties and doesn't have any options for a partner available to her, so when a man who isn't related to her comes along, well I'd imagine that my thoughts would be in a similar vein. But I was rolling my eyes at how this was depicted. To me it's so obvious when a male writes a female POV, because the way they think about things like that just sound like a man. Am I alone in this? Anyone else know what I'm talking about? Anyway, I digress. It wasn't gratuitous but it was enough that I had an eyeroll every once in awhile. There were a couple scenes of a sexual nature, and I will also give a trigger warning for rape - 2 scenes, neither drawn out, but fairly descriptive. So yeah, that wasn't my favourite part of the book.

I would also say there was a moderate amount of language. The main character mentions how her mom used to go to church and chastise her children for using words like "dang" but when they were alone with their dad he would let the cursing fly. That made me shake my head. As far as religion goes, there was another character mentioned as being a Christian, and as I interpreted it, I didn't find any disrespect shown to those characters for their beliefs, so that was kind of a nice reprieve. Not that the main character herself subscribed to those beliefs, but still.

I won't say this book was amazing, but the pros did outweigh the cons for me here, and overall I did enjoy it. It ended well but there was also room for a sequel, and if that sequel is ever published then I wouldn't hesitate to read it.