The Highlighting Project!

A few weeks ago I had the following idea:

I love reading. Okay, I'm addicted to books, to be honest. I think it's interesting to see what others think of the books you like. So, that's how I got this idea. After posting this on my twitter a really good friend of mine said she'd be up for this project and that's how it went. I said that Slammed by Colleen Hoover would be a good book for this and I'm so glad that Jana from London Calling wanted to be a part of this and liked the book as much as I did.

I read the book first, using a pink highlighter and she would use a yellow one, so that the parts we both highlighted turned orange.
So, after reading the book and highlighting my favorite scenes and quotes, I gave her the book when we met at a concert a couple of weeks ago.

The book is one of my favorites. Not only because of Colleen Hoover's writing style but also because of the way she told Lake's and Will's story. Music and poems are big parts of this book, and for a music and poem lover those are good enough reasons to read this book. 

After her dad died unexpectedly, her mother decides to move with her daughter, Lake, and her 9-year-old son, Kel, from Texas to Michigan. Kel becomes good friends with the neighbor's kid who has an older brother, Will. When Lake and Will meet for the first time, Michigan doesn't seem to be that bad anymore and Lake and Will soon find their way to each other. But life has other plans and as soon as they found each other, they're forced to be apart again due to unexpected events. Even though they shouldn't be together, it's hard for them to accept it and their feelings can't be denied. Will loves poems and soon Lake shares that love with him. During their time apart poems and music seems to be the only connection between them when they try their hardest to move on.

Everyone who likes poems, music and a good love story should read this book. It's a rollercoaster, it breaks your heart, it might make you cry, but it's worth every single emotion.

 

If you have a friend who likes to read the same books as you, you should try this project. I loved it and I can't wait to do this again with a different book. 

Thanks again, Jana, it was great! If you wanna read her opinion on this project, go to her blog and check it out.

Bookreview: Fear Of Falling by S.L. Jennings

I can’t remember the last time I felt completely safe. Security seemed more like a luxury to me, reserved for those who were fortunate enough to have picture perfect childhoods. For those who didn’t bear the ugly scars that keep me bound in constant, debilitating fear. I’ve run from that fear my entire life. But when I met him, for once, I couldn’t run anymore.

He scared the hell out of me in a way that excited every fiber of my being. It wasn’t the tattoos or the piercings. It wasn’t the warmth that seemed to radiate from his frame and blanket me whenever he was near. It was just…him. The scary beautiful man that threatened to alter 23 years of routine and rituals, and make me face my crippling fear.

My name is Kami and I am constantly afraid. And the thing that scares me the most is the very thing I want.“Don’t worry,” he smiled, pulling me into the hard warmth of his chest. “I’ve got you. I’ll always catch you when you fall.”

And just like that, Blaine had staked his claim on the untouched part of me that no living soul had ever moved. He had captured every fear, every reservation, and crushed them in the palm of his inked hand.

“At that moment, I felt just like that paper heart: lost, alone, and in a place where I didn't belong.“

This book broke my heart so many times I lost count. It was not only wonderfully written but the story was something totally different.

How do you live when you're afraid of love, when you lived your whole life being scared of the one thing every person needs?

Kami meets Blaine when she least expects it. The moment they touch each other for the first time, she knows it's different. Different than ever before and scary. Kami is scared of a lot of things and Blaine made it his job to show her that love isn't scary. Kami lived her whole life pushing people away because she was afraid to fall. But what happens when you're in the middle of falling? How do you stop? How do you tell your heart that it can't happen? Right, you can't. But Kami tries everything to make it stop.

Her life was never easy, but no matter how much she wanted to, she never stopped fighting.

“My stories never had happy endings.“ - Kami

S.L. Jennings describes Kami's life, her feelings, her fears in a way that left be breathless not only once. My heart broke so many times for that girl, for all her fears, for the way she saw herself. A girl who thinks she doesn't deserve to be loved, who does everything to push all the feelings aside, to try to fight this world alone.

Blaine tries his best to show Kami every day how much she means to him, that he won't run because of her past, that he isn't afraid of her fears. But is he strong enough to fight until she realizes that she deserves to be loved?

“Because, Kami, when you know, you know. And you don't fight it. You don't deny the inevitable. You free fall because you know there's someone there to catch you on the other side.“ - Blaine

I enjoyed reading this book so much even though it was so sad but totally beautiful, all at the same time. It shows how much a person can survive, how strong a person can be when they've got others to count on. That's what you need: People to count on, people who love you, no matter how unloveable you think you are.

Change what you can!

Isn't it weird when all you really wanna do at the moment is change your life completely but you're too afraid to do it? You're afraid to fail, even if that's what life is about. You fail, you try again, you fail again, you try even harder. If it's worth the risk you then take the fall, right?!

But why is it so hard sometimes? You realize that you're not doing what you're supposed to do but you know the people around you are proud of what you do. They don't realize that it doesn't make you happy. That deep inside you know you shouldn't do it, but you do anyway. It makes them happy and you wanna see them happy even though you're not. Isn't it weird? Shouldn't your own happiness be more important than the happiness of other people? It's your life.

What are you more afraid of: To fail or to know that they're not proud of you anymore?

There's always time to change it all. Try over again. Make mistakes and fail. You just need to remember how to stand up again and try harder. How to do it all over again. You don't need a Plan B if your Plan A is good. You live the life, not the others. If you don't do what makes you happy, there's no sense in making them happy. What an awful way to spend your life unhappy with the people around you being happy about things that make you sad. People will give you shit no matter what you do in life. Show people that you actually can do everything they always told you you can't. Show them that sometimes things need time to work out good. Show them that you're strong enough to try over again and don't give up.

It's easy to say but hard to actually do all that. But why? Why do we do things that frustrate us? That make us disappointed in ourselves? That let us doubt everything we've done so far?

We need people to believe in us but what if you're too afraid of your own plans to tell anyone? You're afraid of their reaction. You're afraid that they will talk you out of it.

If no one believes in you, you have to believe in yourself. If no one helps you try it, you gotta try it yourself. Don't live for other people's happiness. Change what you need to change. Change what you can. Take the risk when you know it'd be worth the fall!