Monday, April 28, 2014

Just Another...Book Crush (#14): What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Just Another...Book Crush! is a monthly feature where I invite an author whose book I've recently reviewed and loved to write a guest post and share their three latest book crushes. It's a feature I'm starting mostly because I'm often very shy to approach authors, especially ones I admire, and also because I love reading guest posts since, more often than not, they convince me to pick up a book even when the reviewer cannot. 

Reader, I've been dying to share this post with you since I first read it in February, believe it or not. Huntley Fitzpatrick's sophomore novel, What I Thought Was True, remains my absolute favorite contemporary read of the year and I couldn't resist the urge to invite her on the blog after it nestled its way into my heart. I only hope you all love her novel - and this post! - as much as I do.

Gwen Castle's Biggest Mistake Ever, Cassidy Somers, is slumming it as a yard boy on her Nantucket-esque island this summer. He's a rich kid from across the bridge in Stony Bay, and she hails from a family of fishermen and housecleaners who keep the island's summer people happy. Gwen worries a life of cleaning houses will be her fate too, but just when it looks like she'll never escape her past—or the island—Gwen's dad gives her some shocking advice. Sparks fly and secret histories unspool as Gwen spends a gorgeous, restless summer struggling to resolve what she thought was true—about the place she lives, the people she loves, and even herself—with what really is.
As a teenager, I felt like all I did was make mistakes. I fell in love too hard, too easily and way too permanently. I talked (babbled) at the wrong times and was completely lost for words at other crucial times. I could not for the life of me love the guy who gave me his heart but handed over mine without question to the one who couldn’t. And I looked all around in books to find someone like me. 

There are a lot of heroines out there whom everyone seems to love. Rose in the Eight Cousins book was the first one I encountered. Louisa May Alcott’s heroine had seven boy cousins and they ALL loved her. Bella Swan is another—she moves into Forks and the entire male population of the high school succumbs to her charms. 

I just always liked the rougher, tougher, less charming girls. Jo, from Little Women. Laura Ingalls, from the Little House books, with her stubbornness and her anger, her honest jealousy. Scarlett O’Hara, no one’s good girl. Janie Crawford from Their Eyes were watching God, t ough and true enough to do all she could to save her own life. Meg, from A Wrinkle in Time, whose faults turned out to be her salvation. None of them waited around to be saved. When the hero fell for them, it felt earned…real, in a way the perfect boy falling for the perfect girl never can.


So, that’s where Gwen Castle, from WHAT I THOUGHT WAS TRUE, came from. I wanted a heroine who was far from perfect, and a hero who loved exactly that about her, who recognized that about her. I wanted to write someone who made mistakes, hurtful ones, and learned from them. Who loved her imperfect family for its imperfections, the seemingly perfect boy because she saw his flaws and understood that he struggled with them, and tried to do better, and who finally could love herself, faults and all.


Just Another...Book Crush!

Aristotle and Dante Explore the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
I read the summary of this and thought,” Well okay, I’ll read it, even though I know exactly what will happen.” But nothing, NOTHING, about this book happened the way I expected. It is that rare heartfelt, real book where there’s not a single cliché. The characters love one another because they are genuinely there for one another, time after time, difficult circumstance after more trouble. They show up, turn from confused fifteen year olds to seventeen year olds who know what they want (even if it takes the very last chapter for one of them to figure it out) They don’t have distant, absent, lost parents…both are from families who love them for exactly who they are. The lost brother doesn’t get redeemed, but the distant father unexpectedly, the world disapproves but they find their way through…it’s all so perfect, in the imperfect way that is the best of books…and life. 

How To Love by Katie Cotugno
Sawyer LeGrande is a mess, and Reena Montero loves him anyway. And this could be the basis for a lot of cheesy love songs and bad books with abusive heroes and passive codependent heroines. But How to Love is nothing like that at all. It’s a brilliantly written story of two people who share an honest love, with so many issues of timing and circumstance getting in between that, how they find their way across the gulf. Told in time past, and time present, this book will make you ache and cry and laugh and rage. Intelligent but lost hero, smart but derailed heroine. The way they find one another. So so good. 

Like No Other by Una LaMarche.
“Romeo and Juliet” –like story gets tossed around a lot. And I majored in English Lit and Shakespeare, so I don’t toss this around lightly. But this is the real deal. Bittersweet, original, incredible. About a pair of teenagers from completely, diametrically opposed backgrounds, backgrounds they genuinely believe in, who fall into an improbable but genuine love. This book is ‘bittersweet’ in every good way. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and about the good hearts and thoughtful minds of the hero and heroine.


I absolutely loved Gwen, precisely because of her flaws. Thanks for sharing, Huntley, and I'm off to add these recs to my TBR at once! (Aristotle and Dante is a favorite of mine, so if you haven't already read it, READ IT!)

P.S. -- You can read my gushing review of What I Thought Was True HERE in case you missed it last month!

16 comments:

  1. I haven't read any of those three books, but I'll definitely be giving them a closer look now! I just finished What I Thought Was True and couldn't agree more - a wonderful story about love, family, and accepting yourself. Thanks for sharing this with us and, p.s., I love the feature!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I"m trying to see if I know them but I don't think so. But I confess it's intriguing, a little review like that makes us wanted more! thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I should try for more contemporary YA but there are just so many books I want first

    ReplyDelete
  4. AHHHHH! I can't wait to read this book Keertana! I loved My Life Next Door, so I'm glad to hear you were such a big fan of this second book of hers. I haven't read any of the three she mentioned which is just sad really, so I need to work on that. Fantastic post ladies!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am in the midst of reading What I Thought [...] and Cass is an absolute dreamboat. :) I need to read Aristotle soon. I've been hearing some wonderful things.

    Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm curious about the first two books - thanks for sharing!

    As for What I Thought Was True, I really like genuine characters that feel real.

    ReplyDelete
  7. *fangirling*
    I adore Huntley Fitzpatrick and I'm so happy that she accepted to write guest post, Keertana.
    I still haven't read her new novel, but I will soon.

    ReplyDelete
  8. You got me at... " I wanted a heroine who was far from perfect, and a hero who loved exactly that about her, who recognized that about her." YES! I LOVE those kind of romances. Must read!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow! I love this feature, Keertana!!
    I haven't read MY LIFE NEXT DOOR. And of course, not this one either, but I will definitely read this one if it is your FAVORITE! That is high praise I know.

    But I love knowing what an author reads/loves and why! Thanks for sharing with us!

    ReplyDelete
  10. aww all of them look so good so does What I thought was true! great feature <3

    ReplyDelete
  11. I love you for doing this post! It made me tear up a bit because it's so honest and I adore that Gwen and Cass came from that same place. I haven't read Dante and Aristotle, but so many people have raved about it that I need to. I agree about How to Love. Whether those two make it, that story felt very honest to me about first love and all the messiness of it. I don't know about the last one, but I will have to look it up. Another great post, K!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Yeah, I always liked the rough-and-tumble girls, too. So much more interesting and more like me than the perfect ones who everyone loved. Making mistakes and embarrassing yourself is all part of growing up (hey, I still do that on a regular basis).

    ReplyDelete
  13. Awwww, this was an endearing post. I read through the introduction of the guest post and was reminded of my several puppy love throughout my childhood and puberty years. I was an awkward girl as well, and being in an all-girls school, it was difficult for me to express my feelings to the opposite sex. Now, I just laugh about it. I'm more confident, but I look at those years endearingly.

    And yes, Sam from How to Love. I loved how everything that happened between them was something that came from chance and wrong-timing. I'm just happy everything worked out in the end!

    Faye at The Social Potato Reviews

    ReplyDelete
  14. I always enjoy this feature, and these three books are on my tbr list :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. I really need to read What I Thought Was True. I appreciated hearing Fitzpatrick's thoughts on "unlikable" heroines and I agree wholeheartedly. Hopefully that means I'll love Gwen and her story! :)
    I haven't read any of those recommended books yet, though the first two are definitely on my radar!
    I love reading these posts, Keertana! Always so very interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I really need to read What I Thought Was True. I appreciated hearing Fitzpatrick's thoughts on "unlikable" heroines and I agree wholeheartedly. Hopefully that means I'll love Gwen and her story! :)
    I haven't read any of those recommended books yet, though the first two are definitely on my radar!
    I love reading these posts, Keertana! Always so very interesting.

    ReplyDelete

I love hearing from my readers and I read, reply, and appreciate every one of the comments I receive!(: If you're a fellow blogger, please leave a link to your blog - I'd love to drop by!

Unfortunately, this is now an award-free blog. I simply do not have the time to respond and forward on the award, but I truly appreciate the nomination regardless.