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I found myself really liking Henry's character. His decision to fake date Edie to keep his sister at bay, even though he made it clear he'd be more than happy to do more than fake makeout, was kind, which totally went against his normal womanizing attitude. And it worked out for him, so that was great. When he and Edie do break up, I found myself conflicted. I wanted her to end up with Sebastian because they both clearly liked each other in a way that could last longer than the summer, but I didn't want Henry to get hurt. Thankfully, he took it like a champ and refused to be someone a girl settles for because her first choice was unavailable. He made it clear that he was sad, but he didn't become vindictive or angry.
Edie herself was also a fascinating character. She spent the novel keeping her cousins from bickering, crushing on her neighbor, caring for her boyfriend, saving for college, and trying to rebuild a friendship she left behind. It was a lot, but she was able to take everything and learn a lot about herself. I loved how she was able to look at her friendship with Sebastian and understand why Clare was jealous. Clare was mean, but Edie understood her position, which led to her forcing herself to temporarily distance herself from Sebastian even though she didn't want to. The tricky part was that Edie and Sebastian were constantly drawn to each other, so even when she tried to stay away, she couldn't. She knew to do this because it's what she should have done when her best friend's boyfriend kissed her. No, she wasn't responsible for the kiss, but she didn't push him away, and she ignored a few signs that might have kept her from the situation in the first place. When Edie stops using excuses as crutches (no matter how valid they may be), she becomes a force to be reckoned with.
One person. That’s all I wanted—one person to trust Ivy. I had high hopes for the boyfriend, but he let me down. Then I thought of the therapist, but nope—another disappointment. My Hail Mary was a recording device at the very end, a hopeful cliffhanger. Nothing. Everyone was the worst. The swim coach really ticked me off because she knew Ivy didn’t want her sister on the team, and she let her on anyway. It’s not like she was good.
It also baffled me that Ivy was like, “I don’t want to be around my sister in school,” and everyone was like, “That’s not an option.” What?! No matter what you think of Ivy, she clearly started having issues once her sister arrived, so give her some space and see what happens. It seemed like a simple solution to me.
Poor Ivy loses her mother, and then her twin sister turns her entire life upside down, and nobody is there for her. Everyone writes it off as grief, and even when Ivy tries to tell people what’s wrong, they refuse to believe her but have no issue listening to the twin sister that just appeared out of nowhere. Like I said, rip your hair out frustrating.
When they finally meet on their thirteenth birthday, it begins a year of random encounters and growing affections. But it also brings a year of change for both characters as they finally sit down with themselves and decide what kind of life they each want to lead and who they want in it.
I liked this book a lot. It was an easy read that made me laugh and wonder if there was anyone I had unknowingly crossed paths with more than once. The entire time I read Taylor Swift’s song, “invisible string” seemed to play in the background.
It doesn't seem like many people are sad to be saying goodbye to 2020. And while I agree that the pandemic really messed with a lot of my plans, there was still a lot of things that happened in 2020 that were exciting and fun.
The biggest thing from this year was that I got my Master's Degree in Creative Writing! Between the strikes and the pandemic I wasn't in class a lot of the time, but I still completed plenty of assignments and I met amazing people. I became a published writer when our anthology was released. Most importantly, I got to do all of it in Edinburgh, Scotland, which was beautiful and so fun to explore.
When I got home from Scotland in June I was reunited with my family and childhood friends. We spent plenty of time together and shared a ton of laughs.
Now for 2021 goals...
Have you ever heard of NaNoWriMo? It stands for National Novel Writing Month, and it encourages people to write 50,000 words within the 30 days of November.
Writing an average of 1,667 words a day can be challenging, which is why NaNoWriMo focuses on the draft. Get the words on the paper and worry about editing in December. Now for me, that's a really tricky thing to do because when I write, I often go back and reread what I've already done. My plan is to use that to my advantage, and if there's a day where I feel like I don't know what to write, I'll go back and try to fit in more words. However, I'm also going to try to use it as motivation to not get stuck on a scene that isn't working out the way I want it to. Instead of getting frustrated, I'll move on.
Although NaNoWriMo's challenge is to write an entire 50,000-word novel draft, you can totally make it your own. In 2015 I tried to do it starting at 0 (I failed; only got to about 14000 words), but this year I'm going to continue a story I already started. In fact, I'm hoping this month will be the push I need to finish the first draft. This will help me succeed in this year's challenge because I already did some of the world and character building, and I have an idea of where I want the story to go. However, I do not currently have very good self-discipline when it comes to writing every day, so that's my biggest goal for November.
Plenty of well-known novels have started as NaNoWriMo challenges. Their published versions may look different than their NaNoWriMo drafts, but this is where the authors started, and it's where you can too! Some of the books that stood out to me were The Night Circus (you guys know that's one of my all-time favorite novels), Water for Elephants, Fangirl, and Cinder, but you can learn about more on Goodreads.
If you're interested in challenging yourself to NaNoWriMo, you can sign up HERE. And you can friend me HERE.
I've designed a simple NaNoWriMo Tracker for you to print out. I already have mine taped to the wall next to my bed since that's where I write. Putting it up where others may see it, even if they don't comment on what it is, will be an extra motivating tool to make sure I'm writing every day.
My friend, Erin, and I talked a few weeks ago, and she brought up how none of us have ever visited Salem at Halloweentime. I looked into it and decided that for my birthday, I wanted to spend a day in Salem with Erin and our two friends Megan and Carli. So we organized our schedules and spent the day wandering around the city.