Friday, September 11, 2015

BOOK REVIEW: Tonight The Streets Are Ours by Leila Sales

I received the ARC of Tonight The Streets Are Ours by Leila Sales from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. The scheduled publication date for this book is September 15, 2015.

Recklessly loyal. That's how seventeen-year-old Arden Huntley has always thought of herself. Taking care of her loved ones is what gives Arden purpose in her life and makes her feel like she matters. But lately she's grown resentful of everyone--including her needy best friend and her absent mom--taking her loyalty for granted. Then Arden stumbles upon a website called Tonight the Streets Are Ours, the musings of a young New York City writer named Peter, who gives voice to feelings that Arden has never known how to express. He seems to get her in a way that no one else does, and he hasn't even met her. Until Arden sets out on a road trip to find him. 

I admit that I was a little intrigued by this book because the whole track a blogger down scenario. As a blogger myself, that piqued my curiosity. I wish it had fully lived up to its potential. I didn't love the book, but I didn't hate it either.

First of all, Arden was a goody goody and pretty annoying. In the beginning of the book, I kind of liked her, probably because I could relate to her. Her mother taught her that she needed to put charity to others above everything else and Arden really took that message to heart. But then Arden's mom just left the family. She left after a fight with no explanation or word. In the book, the mom does eventually give an explanation but it's months after she leaves. When her mom leaves, Arden takes it upon herself to take care of her brother. Her dad is pretty absent (not unusual with most YA books, I think). He is always either at work or engrossed in his fantasy football. The problem with Arden was that she did all these things for the people in her life, but got upset when they didn't go to the same extreme for her. She basically made sure her little brother was taken care of at all times and she thought she had to take care of her best friend, Lindsay. It wasn't even just Lindsay. Arden also had a boring, cookie cutter boyfriend that she didn't really have strong feelings about but still felt the need to do everything to make him happy. And she got mad when he didn't return the favor.

I am not sure how I feel about the friendship between Lindsay and Arden. At first glance, it seemed like Lindsay was taking advantage of Arden. But Arden took it upon herself to try and solve all Lindsay's problems. Arden had the thought at one point that if you love someone, you should solve all their problems and sacrifice what you want to make them happy. Ummm . . . no. That's not it at all. There was one scene where they were dealing with a car breakdown. Lindsay kept suggesting ways to fix the situation, but Arden just snapped at her about the uselessness of her ideas. Then later, when thinking about that scene, she thought that Lindsay should have solved it for her. Really?? Lindsay has ideas that Arden shoots down and it's somehow Lindsay's fault that she didn't have a magic wand.  

The reason she stumbles upon Peter's blog was because she typed in the question, "why don't people love me as much as I love them?" Ugh, gag me. Part of Arden's problem was that she sacrificed so much for the people that she loved, but if they didn't make sacrifices for her, she assumed they didn't love her as much. I think part of the reason Arden loved Peter's blog so much was because she thought he was the same as her. And maybe he was. The problem was that she assumed she knew him from his blog and she also assumed that everything in his blog was true. I think we have a tendency to do that with all bloggers though. Even book bloggers (as opposed to the life blog that Peter wrote), we write our own version of what is happening with us and we only put out there what we are comfortable with. I think maybe Arden just felt so alone with all of her over sacrificing (much like her mother) and she wanted to talk to someone who understood. That's how I rationalized it anyway. 

I do feel that Arden grew by the end of the book, but I kind of felt some of it was too neat and too tidy. It was literally like she learned everything she needed to know about herself in one night. And I hated the epilogue. It tied everything together in a neat little bow and it told where everyone ended up over the next several years. I hate epilogues like that. They are unnecessary, in my opinion.

Buy/Borrow/Skip: Borrow this one. It does have its moments.

12 comments :

  1. I just won this one recently. I was also intrigued by the whole blogger aspect. Sounds like it all tied up a bit too neat but I am still excited to get into this one. Great review!

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    1. Thanks Grace! I do hope you enjoy it. It isn't bad, I just had a few issues with it.

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  2. Yep, I heard that this one is not really amazing. But, like you say, it has its moments :) Great review! Happy weekend, Cynthia.

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  3. The main character seems a bit too Mary Sue for me, and I don't agree with MANY of her actions and decisions. That's very true what you said about bloggers, we tell our version of the story, and sometimes it's not all as it seems. Nothing too bad about that, but still happens :) Great review!

    Rachel @ A Perfection Called Books

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    1. Thanks Rachel! Yeah, the character was just too much for me to handle. I didn't like her hardly at all.

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  4. A blogger...oooh I love the premise. While this didn't wow you, I am glad there was growth.

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    1. Thanks Kimba! It was a great premise. It wasn't that great (for me), but it did have its moments.

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  5. Hmmmm. First, dislike to the Parent-in-YA Syndrome that is going on in this book. Sadness. Second, I don't like the too neat ending. I hate those. I mean, growth is good, and I DO feel like I can somewhat relate to Arden, because I seem to pick friends who need something from me, then get a solid case of the sads when they don't reciprocate. So I will probably read it just for that. But I hope it doesn't piss me off too much ;) Fabulous review!
    Shannon @ It Starts At Midnight

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    1. Thanks Shannon! Yeah, there is a chance you may like it more than me, especially if you really relate to her. I could relate to her to a certain extent, but some of her actions just got on my nerves. If you do read it, I hope you enjoy it!

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  6. I am so disappointed by this one. I just finished it a couple days ago, I had high hopes because I loved this author's book This Song Will Save Your Life. But, sigh. I basically agree with your whole review. Especially that epilogue! I hated it so much.

    Going into this one I really thought Peter would play a bigger part but he turned into nothing more than a plot device it felt like. I loved Arden at first and her recklessly loyal ways but she did have quite a few annoying moments. I thought Lindsey(for the little she was there) had more personality than Arden. Also, for me, it just felt like most of this book was backstory and set up, all leading to Peter and his blog and then it just kind of...flopped.

    I'm sorry you didn't enjoy this one more but lovely review! =)

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    1. Thanks so much Shay. This was actually my first book by Leila Sales. I heard great things about her first one, but this one just didn't measure up. I agree about Lindsay. I kind of loved her and would have loved more scenes with her.

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