Summer is here (or almost here for some of you!) and that means breaking out the fun, beachy reads. You know – chick lit, young adult, etc. Who can focus on a tough read when they’re at the beach and there is so much scenery to take in? And by scenery, I mean half-naked men playing beach volleyball and rolling around in the sand. For days like this, I turn to my favorite YA and chick lit authors, and lucky for me, Meg Cabot has just released a new book that totally fits the bill.

Abandon is the story of Pierce Oliviera, a 17-year-old girl who has been moved to Isla Huesos, her mother’s hometown off the coast of Florida. She’s had some issues at her previous school and her mother has decided that the best thing for her is a fresh start. However, Pierce’s past and one mysterious boy, John, seem to be following her to Isla Huesos and making the whole “starting over” thing a little bit impossible.

Pierce met John the day the she died. Yes, you read that right, Pierce has died before. She was eventually revived and lived to tell the tale, but her run-in with John forever changed her life. Like the myth of Hades and Persephone that this novel was loosely based on, John wants Pierce to live with him, in the underworld. I know, it seems kind of cheesy and weird if you’re not familiar with the myth, but I appreciate Cabot’s efforts to pave a new way in the bogged down genre of paranormal young adult fiction. It’s not about vampires (thank god), but instead draws on ancient Greek religion (really interesting stuff) and I really respect her effort.

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I’ve been seeing previews like crazy for Julia Roberts’ new movie, “Eat Pray Love” and it looks pretty cute. And since I have a standing rule that I must read the book before I watch the movie, I was forced into this week’s read. However, I’m so glad that I did!

“Eat Pray Love” is a non-fiction book written by Elizabeth Gilbert. Gilbert has found herself with the perfect American life: a gorgeous house, a good husband and a successful career. But, she is consistently unhappy and one day realizes that she just doesn’t want to be married anymore. This “perfect life” is just not for her. So she leaves her husband and after being inspired by three different countries and their cultures, she decides to spend a year traveling to Italy, India and Indonesia. She chooses Italy because she has always wanted to learn Italian, India because she has recently gotten into the yoga lifestyle and Indonesia because she traveled there once and was told by a medicine man that she would return. She uses the advance from this promised book to fund her whirlwind adventure and sets off.

This book was somewhat of a sensation. For a year, it felt like someone I knew was always reading this. So, of course, I resisted, as any good book snob does. I’m really happy that I picked it up though! Gilbert is a charming and hilarious narrator. She’s so open with her experiences and feelings, it seems like I’m reading a letter from an old friend. I constantly found myself smiling while reading this one, that is, when I wasn’t laughing at her quick wit. But, besides being entertaining, I also found this one quite inspiring. Read More »

In the summer, there is nothing I love more than laying on the beach with a cold drink and a good book. One of my favorite genres for summer reading is biography and for some odd reason, I tend to gravitate to memoirs of alcohol and drug abuse. Don’t ask me why, but I love to read memoirs of addicts. Maybe it’s the grittiness of the story or that they usually are somewhat recovered by the time they write the book, but I can’t get enough of them! So when I came across “Nice Recovery” by Susan Juby, I didn’t even think twice about digging in.

You may recognize Susan Juby’s name; that’s because she is a best-selling teen fiction author. She is also a recovered alcoholic. Juby’s memoir begins with her first, very insignificant drink at a wedding, but her alcoholism actually starts when she is 13. Always considered a bright, capable student and gifted writer, she decides to start hanging out with the wrong crowd (or the people her mother refers to as “bad news”) and gets heavy into partying. After being sent to live with various relatives all over British Columbia and somehow managing to graduate high school, Juby moves on to fashion design school in Toronto. Once there, she continues to drink herself silly and, eventually, out of school. During her time as a student, she out-drinks everyone she meets and begins to see a bigger and bigger divide forming between her and her peers when it comes to drinking. Then, she gets a couple wake-up calls and decides to sober up at the ripe old age of 20, just when most people begin their drinking career.

I found that I was really able to relate to Susan’s story. I myself was a pretty big partier in high school and have since considerably settled down. I’m not sober, but I haven’t been drunk in over a year, and I kind of like it that way. People can never believe how little I drink and that I have no desire to get hammered. I’m constantly being pressured by friends, but honestly, drinking effects me way too much and the night out is never worth the hangover (at least in my case!). Anyways, my feelings aside, the book is so refreshing and definitely stands out amongst the alcoholic-memoirs I’ve read. It’s poignant, funny and above all, totally real. Read More »

Got something awesome everyone needs to know about? A really rad singer? A wicked new book? A fro yo pie that will delight your belly without making it bigger?? Email your “The Know” ideas to Jill@collegecandy.com or tweet me and I’ll pass them along to everyone right here, every week. Make your kindergarten teacher proud and share!

With summer here (or officially four days away) we’ve got lots and lots of free time on our hands. And by that I mean we’re cooped up in our parents house and – god help us – we love our parents, we really, REALLY do, but after about 48 hours back from school we are already counting down until Welcome Week.

There are only so many times one can surf through Perez or watch this week’s episode of the Bachelorette commenting on Ali’s awful spray tan, so what can you do to pass the time? READ. And by read, I mean the books you’ve always wanted to, not the ones required for class that you beg your suitemate for her notes on so you don’t actually have to read them.

The fun books, the good books, the books you can’t put down – so much so you take them with you to pee. The books that are thoughtless and funny and on and on.

So here’s a list of ten of my favorite books, some new, some old, some serious some fun. Go sit on your lawn, make yourself an Arnold Palmer and enjoy. Read More »

After 8 months of reading textbooks with a highlighter, when it comes time for summer I want something light. Something fun. Something that I can devour quickly on the beach or when lying in bed on a rainy day. And Escapades of Romantically Challenged Me totally delivered. Well, almost delivered. The book never did make it to the beach or to a rainy day because I read the whole thing the night I bought it.

Escapades is the story of Leilana Zane, a twenty-something girl trying to make it in L.A. After three years of waiting tables while she attempts to make her mark as a screenwriter in Hollywood, her father falls ill and she’s forced to return home. Leilana thinks it’s just a short trip to be with her dad in the hospital, but that changes when her family guilt-trips her into changing her life plan and joining the family law firm. She’s torn between chasing her dreams, accepting reality and appeasing her parents, all while dealing with some ex boyfriend issues that inevitably come up when she’s back in her small town.

So what is it about this book that kept me up all night (thus forcing me to chug 3 venti iced lattes just to make it through work the next day)? Well for one, unlike most chick lit heroines, Leilana is totally relatable. She’s not your average main character working some dream job and dating some dream men. She’s a normal girl dealing with normal (read: immature, annoying, impossible to understand) boys that any college girl can totally relate to. She’s also a major klutz who gets herself into some pretty cringe-worthy situations that make you laugh out loud as you’re reading. Plus, Leilana’s situation is similar to what many of us are dealing with right now: figuring out our futures. Do we keep going after a nearly impossible dream or do we take the safe route? Read More »

My small, Canadian town is experiencing a bit of a heat wave. Albeit, heat wave for us means 30 C (86 F for all you Americans!), but still. During the day, it’s great; I get to play outside and work on my ever-increasing tan. However, at night, it’s gross. My house doesn’t have air conditioning so I’m trapped in a hot, muggy box.

Needless to say, I’ve been surviving the sweat by living out of my cool-er basement,  book in hand. And there’s only one author who can remove me from my misery: James Frey. I chose his latest, “Bright, Shiny Morning,” for the setting: Los Angeles. The sweltering heat of LA pummels my Canadian heat wave, but while I’m sweating away, I feel like I can relate to the Californians in this novel.

“Bright, Shiny Morning”, as I said, is set in California. It tells the stories of various individuals living in the Los Angeles area. From a Hollywood star living a double life to a brilliant, Mexican housekeeper, Frey paints so many pictures, the reader is bound to relate to one. His imagination never ceases to amaze me; he comes up with the most fantastic characters and keeps the reader engaged.

Despite the interesting story, it’s Frey’s style that attracts me to his novels. Typically, the novel is written in a frantic and disorganized fashion. But I find it beautiful. Frey’s writing makes me feel so much emotion, more than most authors are even capable of. He truly is a gifted writer and I am always excited to hear he has new material coming out.

If you’re looking for a great book to beat the heat with or some way to make a rainy day go away, “Bright, Shiny Morning” is for you. It’s an interesting, beautiful read with loads of substance.

Get more awesome book suggestions here.

When Penguin Canada contacted me about interviewing author Jane Green, I was ecstatic! Me, a lowly college student, interviewing a international best-selling author? A women who is considered one of the CREATORS of chick-lit?! Needless to say, I jumped at the chance.

After reading Dune Road (you can read the review after the interview), Jane and I chatted while she was in Toronto for a book tour. I knew I would love the woman behind some of my favorite reads, but I was surprised by how sweet and warm this uber successful writer was! And it doesn’t hurt that her English accent was totally posh.

A: Like Robert in “Dune Road”, do you find it impossible to prevent your life from appearing in your novels?
J: Uh, yes, I do. You know, when I look back at all the books (and “Dune Road” is my 11th book), they have all charted the course of my life. And I think one of the reasons why I have been able to write eleven novels is because I do draw upon themes that I notice in my own life. Never writing about me, but I definitely have always drawn upon situations that I’ve experienced. Read More »

I’m always keeping my eye out for the newest historical thriller. (Wow, that sounded really nerdy….) They are a perfect combination: history + suspense. I love when an author can turn a simple historical fact into a full blown novel, especially when there is intrigue involved. Needless to say, I was quite excited to find “The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane” in my mailbox. Not only is it based on an infamous point in American history, but also includes a little supernatural, making it fiction perfection in my book. (No pun intended.)

“Deliverance Dane” takes place in 1991 and also 1692. For you history buffs, you will recognize 1692 as the year that the infamous Salem witch trials took place, where nineteen men and women were hung for allegedly committing “witchcraft.” The witch trials are regarded as a huge blemish in American colonial history, but with “Deliverance Dane” Katherine Howe uses a new approach: that maybe some of the women did actually practice some witchcraft.

The novel flip flops between two time periods and storylines. In one, set in 1991, Connie Goodwin, a graduate student at Harvard, is stuck repairing her grandmother’s ancient house in the small town of Marblehead, Massuchusetts, near Salem. In another set in 1692, Deliverance Dane (a fictional character) is being put on trial for witchcraft.

One day while cleaning, Connie finds a slip of paper in a Bible with Deliverance Dane’s name on it and begins an adventure to find out who Deliverance was. Along the way, Connie meets Sam, a brilliant man who abandoned his academic career to repair church steeples. Together they venture deeper into Salem’s dark and twisted history, tracing Deliverance’s family all the way up to the present day – and trust me, there is a twist there! When Sam has a horrible accident, Connie must look to the past and confront her own heritage to save his life. Read More »

I recently received this book from Wiley publishers and, admittedly, was drawn to it because of the spectacular cover art. Beautiful flowers, bright colors – how could I resist! I then read the reviews and learned that Julia Roberts just bought the movie rights and, needless to say, “Hot House Flower” jumped to the top of my reading list.

Berwin tells the story of lonely Lila Nova, a recently divorced advertising copywriter in New York. One day, Lila stumbles across David Exley’s plant stand at a green market and randomly purchases a bird-of-paradise (it’s a tropical plant for those of you lacking a green thumb). All of sudden, Lila finds herself drowning her sorrows by collecting and caring for exotic plants. Walking home from a work event, she passes by a Laundromat filled to the brim with gorgeous, tropical plants and is invited in by Armand, the owner.

Armand enchants Lila with tales of the Nine Plants of Desire. When one possesses all nine, they shall have whatever they want and Lila is enthralled. Armand hints that he has the nine plants, stored in a back room of his Laundromat and that if Lila proves herself to be true, he will let her see them.

Shortly after, Lila and David go on a date and she shows him the Laundromat and absentmindedly mentions Armand’s nine plants. The next morning, Lila learns that Armand’s nine plants have been stolen by David and, since it is her fault, he wants her to go to Mexico with him to replace the plants. The two end up on a wild quest through the dense Yucatan jungle, searching for the plants while Lila searches for herself.

Besides being highly-entertaining (and fast-paced – my favorite), “Hot House Flower” also allows the reader to do some soul-searching. I am thoroughly impressed and amazed at the comparisons Berwin makes between plants and human nature. Almost every chapter contains a valuable life lesson, which I found myself reflecting on every time.

With “Hot House Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire” Margot Berwin delivers a hit. Funny, fast-paced, insightful and entertaining, women of all ages will devour this read. If you’re looking for chick-lit with some substance, pick up “Hot House Flower” and enjoy!

In the summer, I want to be entertained without thinking. I admit to occasionally cracking a textbook, but the majority of my summer reading tends to be a little mindless and purely entertaining. In the summer, I abandon content and literary merit in favor of laughs and a good story.

So here is a good story for all you readers. “The Alphabetical Hookup List” by Phoebe McPhee is a hilarious roller coaster series of three books. Starring Jodi, Celeste and Ali, three VERY different girls forced to live together in a dorm at Pollard University, the series is literally a laugh-a-minute.

At first, the girls don’t get along at all and try to sabotage each other. Finally, over a bottle of tequlia one night, they bond, and decide to embark on the quest from which the title gets its name. They will compete in a contest to find out who can kiss a boy whose name starts with each letter of the alphabet the fastest. From that plot line alone, you can imagine all the terrific hook-up stories that fill this book.

Besides the laughs that come from the girls attempting to kiss their way through all 26 letters the fastest, there are also attempts to join sororities, pass classes and avoid some pretty interesting characters the girls meet along the way. Well, maybe interesting isn’t the right word…

Summer is the perfect time to turn off the brain and enjoy books for once; The Alphabetical Hookup List is just the way to do it.