This book was a really sweet "boy next door" story - which I'm a sucker for! I enjoyed reading this, and had it finished within a day or two. 

Our main character, Charlie, is "one of the guys." Having grown up with 4 older brothers, 3 biological and one her neighbor Braden, she's always knows her way around a game and crazy dares. When her father catches wind of her speeding ticket, he tells her that she has to get a job to pay it off. Reluctant and hopeless to find anything, Charlie goes job-hunting with her brother Gage. She strikes luck (or unlucky in her case), when she meets Linda, the owner of her own small boutique shop who offers Charlie a job with 8 hours a week.

She accepts, figuring it's the only offer she'll receive, and figures the job of itself would satisfy her father. Then by her surprise, this job comes to introduce Charlie to a whole new unfamiliar world of feminine clothing, makeup and friends who aren't her brothers. After she agrees to model for a makeup demonstration in the store, she's being asked if she could model for other makeup artists in the area.

Charlie stresses about her new clothes and makeup and how she's going to keep it all from her family. On the nights when she can't sleep, she finds herself outside and leaning against the fence that separates her and Braden as they talk about their worries and conflicts to the night sky. 

 As the story progresses, we watch Charlie grow as she develops feelings for Evan, a guy who's never seen her play it rough on the field, while she also ponders on her potential feelings for Braden. It isn't until she's away at basketball camp for a week when she realizes that the reason why she couldn't get Braden out her mind is because she loves him. 

The conclusion of this novel had it's ups and downs, but nothing too insane where I nearly throw the book across the room. I was happy with the way the book ended, and how Braden and Charlie ended up together, but if there's anything I could change or improve on, it would be that. I absolutely love dramatic love confessions at the end of a story where the relationship was blossoming, but between Braden and Charlie it was a more of a "hey by the way I love you, I love you too, okay we're together now" and I felt like the ending was just way too rushed! 

Therefore, the novel was a great read and a wonderful "boy next door" romance, but I do with the ending didn't feel so rushed. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good weekend read or a sweet story. 

Bridget's Book Ramblings for my thoughts

For my rambles, go to Bridget's Book Ramblings

Fünftausend Gründe, warum ich dich liebe...

Abby liebt es zu Malen und ihre Eltern und ihr bester Freund Cooper mögen ihre Bilder. So kommt es dazu, dass sie all ihren Mut zusammennimmt und ihren Chef im Museum fragt, ob sie ihre Bilder bei einer Sonderausstellung zeigen darf. Doch er zweifelt an ihr, er sagt ihren Bildern fehlt es an Herz. Abby ist schwer getroffen von seinen Worte und überlegt, wie sie an mehr Herz kommen soll. Sie erstellt eine Herzensliste und Cooper hilft ihr dabei. Dank ihm kann sie den Punkt Liebeskummer schon abhaken.

Dieses Buch ist mein erstes Werk von der Autorin Kasie West. Ich habe ihre anderen Bücher schon zu meiner Wunschliste hinzugefügt, da ich von diesem hier vollkommen begeistert bin.

Abby ist ein sehr interessanter Charakter. Sie ist sehr facettenreich und scheint direkt aus dem Leben gegriffen zu sein.Man erlebt mit ihr Freud, Trauer und Wut. Von der ersten Seite an war ich in sie verliebt.
Auch Cooper ist großartig und realitätsnahe. Die Beiden harmonieren super miteinander.
Die anderen Charaktere gefallen mir auch.

Ich habe mich nicht nur in die Charaktere verliebt, sondern auch in den Schreibstil. Er lässt sich einfach und flüssig lesen. Er ist bildhaft und emotional. Man ist von Anfang an mitten drinnen. Die Seiten fliegen nur so dahin und ehe man sich versieht ist das Buch schon vorbei.

Es ist ein schöner Jugendroman, welcher auch zum nachdenken anregt, denn während Abby an ihrer Herzensliste gearbeitet hat, habe ich mich gefragt was auf meiner stehen würde.

Für alle die in einem Buch versinken und beim Lesen mitleiden und lachen wollen, ist dieses Buch bestens geeignet.

Absolute Leseempfehlung.

Ich habe das Buch im Rahmen einer Leserunde bei lovelybooks bereitgestellt bekommen und bedanke mich herzlich dafür.

When Kate signed up for the school's podcasting class, she didn't expect to be picked as one of the cohosts of the show. Nor did she expect to recognize one of the callers as Diego, the crush of her best friend, who called in to ask for some advice on his crush. And she really didn't expect to begin to develop feelings herself for Diego as she tried to help him and her best friend, Alana, get together.

Before I get into what I liked about this book, and I did like things, I just have to say that I hated Kate's podcasting class and teacher. At the beginning, Kate told her fellow cohost, Victoria, that she hated the name Kat, but was fine with Kate (her full name is Kathryn). Victoria preceded to call her Kat on the podcast, which Kate repeatedly corrected. Victoria ignored this. The editing team then removed every instance of Kate correcting her name so that it seemed like she was fine with being called Kat. The teacher heard the podcast and reviewed the edits and said nothing about any of this and started calling her Kat too. When Kate was complaining about how much she hated the name Kat and didn't like the fact that everyone was ignoring her about it, the group she was talking to about it, which included her best friend and her cousin all said she should just go with it because it was a cool name for her podcasting persona. I just was mad at everyone at this point. If someone says not to call them something because they don't like it, then don't call them that. Call them the name they ask. Don't be a jerk.

And the podcasting teacher just did not impress in general. Anytime a student made any kind of request, the teacher would force the student to do the exact opposite of whatever they had asked because the teacher knew what the student truly wanted. At the beginning, Kate was told she was one of the hosts of the podcasts. When Kate said she didn't want to be a host, the teacher laughed at her and asked if she really thought she wouldn't have to speak in podcasting class. Considering only 2 students have to speak out of the entire class, that actually wasn't a ridiculous thought. When Kate still asked to not do it, the teacher told her she obviously took the class for a reason. (Sidenote: the real reason Kate took the class was just to be in a class with her best friend. You don't know your students better than they know themselves, teacher.) Kate then told her she wanted to learn the behind-the-scenes stuff for making a podcast, which she won't get hands-on experience for if she's forced to be the host the entire semester. Literally every other job gets to cycle through and practice everything else except the host. Instead of listening to her, the teacher kept her as a host. Your student is telling you she joined the class to learn all the technical aspects of creating a podcast, and you force them to take the one job that prevents them from getting hands-on experience for any of the parts they just told you they wanted to learn about. You are a terrible teacher.
Based on what we see of her, I can just imagine she'd be a nightmare to deal with if you're a student who needed a medical accommodation.

But there were things I liked in this book. The romance was pretty cute. I wish there had been more interactions between Kate and Diego. They had a fun and flirty dynamic together. It was easy to see why the two of them started liking one another. They were funny and had some nice banter. And it was pretty cute that Diego kept calling in to Kate's podcast to ask for advice, first on family, and then on his crush.

Also great was Kate and Alana's friendship. The two of them were very different personality-wise, but got along wonderfully anyways. Even when they had issues that would have caused major friendship blow-ups in other books, the two of them worked things out without huge fights. Not even the issue of them both liking the same guy was enough to threaten their friendship. They just talked things out. I loved them.

Overall, Listen to Your Heart was a cute romance. I could have done without everyone pointedly calling the main character the wrong name and nothing coming of that, as well as not having the teacher who refuses to listen to her students because she knows them better than they know themselves. But the romance was really cute and the main character had a great best friend.