Romance Read #1: Cliché Much?

Looking for a book you can lend your heart to? The summer won't be able to melt you enough but these books might just turn you into mush! Go through this list of hand-picked romance reads. :)

1. Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid – MIRA Ink (An imprint of Harper Collins Publishers)

Image credit: amazon.com

Dave and Julia have been best friends for such a long time now that for them, the rest of their school ceases to exist, because whatever they do, they do together.

Before the beginning of high school, they decide to make a list of things that’d never do all through the coming four years to have a completely ‘original’, cliché-free high school experience. So it’s no surprise that No.8—never pine silently after your crush and No.10—never date your best friend, appear on this list too.

Ironically, you would think that the novel itself is a cliché, because Dave has broken rule no. 8 a long time ago, hiding his heartbreak expertly as Julia dates new guys.

When they rediscover the ‘Nevers’ almost at the end of senior year, Julia suggests they try them all out before high school ends, just for fun (and to prove to themselves that they didn’t regret avoiding it all).

The two have hardly broken one ‘never’ when Dave realizes that they have definitely missed out on a lot of their teenage and high-school experiences. And, instead of seeing their classmates as individuals, they had, all along, just branded them all as part of one cliché or the other, even subconsciously.

So, when Dave gets to know Gretchen, the ‘most popular girl at school’ at a clichéd party he and Julia force themselves to attend, he realizes there’s so much more to her than he could have ever imagined, and slowly, he begins to move on.

But how does Julia take it when Dave’s attention is divided between Gretchen and her? Will she end up breaking their friendship, or rule no. 10, or worse, both?

My comments:

I liked the roller-coaster ride this one carried me on. It was fun but at the same time raw and emotional, and I would recommend it to young adult readers only, because they would be best able to relate to this story.

There are many great quotes in it, as well, and the length of chapters varies so much that one is even just two lines or so long! It’s worth reading to see how far clichés can go!

Thumbnail image credit: georgeherald.com