April 16, 2014

The Forever of Ella and Micha by Jessica Sorensen

It isn't as important to feel great about all the things we do, [...] but how we feel toward the end when we look back at everything we've done.
-from The Forever of Ella and Micha by Jessica Sorensen

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I don't know what I was thinking. Maybe it's that I wanted to like Ella and Micha despite my experience reading The Secret of Ella and Micha; maybe it's my obsessive compulsive need to finish a series that I've started; or maybe I just wanted to understand why so many people were finding my thoughtful review of the first book as "unhelpful" despite being honest and respectful. I mean, clearly I missed something in the first book, right? So I decided to give the sequel, The Forever of Ella and Micha by Jessica Sorensen a try with an open mind. Unfortunately I should have listened to my intuition.

Picking up right where its prequel left off, The Forever of Ella and Micha chronicles the relationship struggles of Ella and Micha, two dysfunctional kids from the wrong side of the tracks whose love for each other work to make them whole. Already knowing where Ella and Micha came from in the first book, I was willing to overlook the things I disliked there and read this book as a fresh start. Initially I enjoyed seeing the character growth of both Ella and Micha, their struggles, and ultimately their fidelity toward each other despite their trust issues. However, there was nothing to really keep me hooked into this story for the long run.

Basically a bunch of back-and-forth drama, this story has no strong arc and repeats the same themes of trust and communication over and over until I was so bored with these self-made victims that there was no more room for empathy. I'm glad that Ella was responsible in getting professional help for her problems and I want to really stress that I gained a lot of respect for her as a character for this, but I was bored with her trials nonetheless. It kind of reminded me of the storyline/arc of 50 Shades of Grey, or rather, the lack of one; just endless cycles of drama. I did like Ella and Micha both a lot more in this book than in the first, but overall the book still flopped for me.

While this book was an easy read, I didn't care enough about the outcome to read it as quickly as I should have; in fact, it took me weeks to read it which is an indication of how little I liked it alone. And similar to the first book, this one is so replete with grammatical errors and simple typos that I was soooo frustrated!!! Typos are a given for anything (yes, including this blog!), but for a series as a whole to have as many typos as this one is just inexcusable. There are too many cheap online editors available for me to pay money for a book and feel like I'm reading high school fan fiction. I know I'm harsh with this, but it really is inexcusable. This is a responsibility of the author or publisher when selling a product and as a reader, the book loses so much credibility when there are so many of these errors.

So I guess I just don't get it. This is also what frustrates me about the whole "New Adult" genre. I want to just take ownership that I don't like this genre, but there are other similar books that I do like that are categorized as "New Adult" fiction. I have tried in my review to break down why I disliked this book so that you can distinguish if it's a sub-genre you might enjoy or not enjoy. If you loved this book, I'm totally happy for you! I don't judge you, I'm just happy that you enjoy reading as much as I do! So please, no hating on reviews that aren't like-minded to yours, mmmkay?

Bottom Line: Unless you were absolutely obsessed with The Secret of Ella and Micha, you really don't need to know what happens to them. And I don't need to know what happens in the third (unnecessary IMHO) book of this series. 2.5/5 stars - only because I knew what I was getting myself into.

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