St. Martin’s Press – Bella's Book Obsession

Title: The Girls at 17 Swann Street

Author: Yara Zgheib

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Pages: 384

Rating: 5/5

I borrowed this book from my job (because they’re that awesome) and I absolutely loved it. The Girls at 17 Swann Street was a perfectly written book about 7 young ladies who deal with physical and mentally exhausting eating disorders. All these young ladies are at a treatment facility because they need help. Some of them have heartfelt stories about their journey dealing with an eating disorder. This novel takes you on a emotional roller coaster and while I know Anna is dealing with a lot, at times she made me super frustrated and I just wanted to jump through the pages of the book and give her a little shake and tell her to realize what she’s doing to herself. Of course, that’s why the author wrote this a novel with such a controversial topic; to make those that don’t understand, understand.

These girl’s stories made me so emotional and I really felt bad for all them, especially poor Valerie. Honestly that shocked me the most. I highly recommend everyone to read this book and hopefully you will learn as much as I did. It’s moments like this that I appreciate authors who can make you feel so many emotions while reading their writing.

Title: Eleanor and Park

Author: Rainbow Rowel

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Pages: 328

Rating: 5/5

I’ve been wanting to read this book since I started seeing it all over Social media. I’m really glad I actually gave it a chance.Eleanor isn’t your average girl. In fact, she’s the weird one. She has big curly red hair (sorta like brave)she’s chubby, wears weird clothes and she’s shy. Of course, because of her awkwardness she gets teased and harassed in school on a daily basis. not to mention the fact that things at home aren’t exactly peachy keen for Eleanor, adding stress to her already discombobulated life.Park is a boy fascinated by comics, rock music, black clothing, and most of all….Eleanor. At first, it seems like these two cannot stand the mere existence of each other but, as the days go by and the more of each other they see, Eleanor & Park start to develop a special bond, bringing her comic books, and cassette tapes everyday for her. They eventually start talking to each other and develop strong attraction and feelings for each other that neither one can’t seem to explain. After being ridiculed for so long, she can’t believe someone likes her with such an intensity like Park has for her….heck even love her as much as he does. As they go through this journey together of pure romantic bliss and awkward situations, they grow inseparable more and more everyday. Until one night…a huge problem arises with Eleanor’s step father and she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life… I really enjoyed this book. It easily became one of my absolute favorite books. I highly recommend it. It’s romantic, sad, makes you frustrated and angry. I can honestly say that I had many emotions going through me while reading this book. And while I love it I hope maybe there’s a part 2? There’s just too many unanswered questions.

Original Review Published: 2/1/15