Life After Juliet (Shannon Lee Alexander)

Becca Hanson was never able to make sense of the real world. When her best friend Charlotte died, she gave up on it altogether. Fortunately, Becca can count on her books to escape—to other times, other places, other people…

Until she meets Max Herrera. He’s experienced loss, too, and his gorgeous, dark eyes see Becca the way no one else in school can.

As it turns out, kissing is a lot better in real life than on a page. But love and life are a lot more complicated in the real world…and happy endings aren’t always guaranteed.

The companion novel to Love and Other Unknown Variables is an exploration of loss and regret, of kissing and love, and most importantly, a celebration of hope and discovering a life worth living again.

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First and foremost, I read this one as a buddy read with  Cátia @The Girl Who Read Too Much, so check out her blog in the next few days to read her review of this book (SPOILER ALERT: she loved it too!). We only realized that this book is a companion novel after we were approved for it, but even though we now both want to read Love and Other Unknown Variables, I didn’t feel like it was necessary to read that book in order to understand everything in this one.

The writing of this book was brilliant! Honestly, I’m in love with this book. Totally and completely in love with it. Shannon Lee Alexander wrote this in a way that Becca’s pain is real, her fears and insecurities are real. She’s also funny and sarcastic and shy. Have I said how in love with this book I am?

(my feelings about this book!)

I love Becca. Becca is me, I am Becca, minus the dead best friend and depression thing going on there. Becca doesn’t count the time… she counts the pages she has read. She doesn’t pay attention to anyone or anything, she’s afraid to let people in, because she’s still grieving so much about the one time she did let someone in. Max was a breath of fresh air when it comes to love interests, he was so cool and fun and shy and nice. And these two together: ADORBS!!!

But what made this book and this overall story more than amazing, it was that it wasn’t the romance that “changed” Becca’s life. She started to look at life differently become she made friends, she realized that not letting people in was the same thing as giving up living, she had great support from her family and teachers. She tried new things. She GREW! Meeting Max encouraged her to broaden her horizons, but it was a combination of a lot of amazing things that made this book beyond amazing.

Needless to say that I really liked the plot. I loved the incorporation of the school theatre and the production of Romeo and Juliet into this story, and the parallelisms taken from it. All the cast of characters was diverse and multidimensional, and I really really loved that Becca had a different and unique relationship with each one of those characters. I loved Charlie, Becca’s brother, and although I need to read the first book, I’m also scared to see him hurting.

This was definitly one of the best YA contemporary romances I read, and it was cute and sad and I cried a lot (and let me tell you, crying while having lunch is not very practical). It was beyond amazing, so READ IT!!!