Eleanor & Park

Book 54 of my 2014 Reading Challenge

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Summary (via Goodreads)

Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.

Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.

Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

My Opinion

This was a quick, nostalgic read for me.  I'm such a sucker for young love and kids that don't fit in.  Awkward teens navigating their first relationship?  Sign me up!
  
However, the ending underwhelmed me.  I felt it was unnecessarily manufactured for maximum [emotion I can't reveal without spoiling the ending] and didn't jive with the rest of the book. 

Overall, I enjoyed the feeling of this book immensely and would recommend it.

A Few Quotes from the Book

"She was late to lunch, then late to English. And if she didn't know already that she liked that stupid, effing Asian kid, she knew it now.
Because even after everything that had happened in the last forty-five minutes - and everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours - all Eleanor could think about was seeing Park."

"I miss you, Eleanor. I want to be with you all the time. You're the smartest girl I've ever met, and the funniest, and everything you do surprises me. And I wish I could say that those are the reasons I like you, because that would make me sound like a really evolved human being...
But I think it's got as much to do with your hair being red and your hands being soft...and the fact that you smell like homemade birthday cake."