Review: Fifteen Seconds Of Normal by Alex Marestaing

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Rating: PG

Genre: Young Adult

Score: ❤❤❤❤

Page Count: 294

Stand Alone

Publisher: MyMilou Press

Published: October 11th, 2016

Step 1: Transfer High Schools. 
Step 2: Hide your Tourette’s. 
Step 3: Find your fifteen seconds of normal. 

Kaeya Garay has a plan. And it seems to be working.But when a curious interruption named Thatcher Kelly stumbles upon her “safe” place in the school’s abandoned art gallery, her grand plans for normalcy are suddenly derailed. 

Set over the course of three weeks, Fifteen Seconds of Normal is the quirky saga of a literature obsessed teen on the edge of a meltdown and the hope driven heroine who begins to pull him back. Fans of Eleanor and Park be warned. You won’t be able to put this one down. 

A “Breakfast Club” for a new generation from EPIC Award finalist Alex Marestaing, author of I’m Nobody: The Lost Pages

Review:

PROS:

1. Special thanks to Sara over at YA Bound Book Tours for the review copy. The sound of this novel was just something I couldn't pass on. I love the more melancholy type contemporaries, the kind that are perfect reads for a rainy day. I was pretty excited when I had the chance to review it for you all and I'm so happy that I could relax with this read. I was a little surprised that I ended up liking the book a lot more than I expected. Not that it was bad at first, it's just that I didn't expect that much from it. Always a great surprise if you ask me. Here's the review: 

2. I really liked the characters in the book, Sam being my favorite. He was the fun side-character that I couldn't help but love with his bubbly personality and goofy antics. Our main character was a unique one since I haven't seen any characters in any books I've read in the past who suffered from Tourette's. I think that's why I really liked Kaeya, she was a different kind of MC and struggled to keep her TS a secret from as many people as possible except for Sam and Thatcher, who never made Kaeya feel embarrassed about her TS. Thatcher was also a unique subject since he struggles to overcome a cruel meme made of him at school while also dealing with stresses at home and a broken relationship with his father. 

3. I really loved that the story went back and forth between Kaeya's POV and Thatcher's. We get to see what either character was dealing with and the kinds of stresses and emotions they were sorting through and trying to figure out on their own. I think it made for a nice development between the characters and made their growing feelings for each other a little more realistic. The romance wasn't to forefront of the story but merely an element that helped bring Kaeya and Thatcher closer together as they opened up to each other a little more. 

4. The story had a nice pace to it and while at times the romance did get a little cheesy, it was well written. There were equal parts romance, drama, humor, and grief as well as other subjects that were more raw and emotional. It was a bit of a darker and moodier contemporary that I fully enjoyed and at times, the book had me really feeling emotionally attached to the characters. The ending almost had me in tears even. And I NEVER cry while reading books. Like, EVER. 

You Can Purchase The Book Here:

Amazon

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About The Author:

Once upon a time, author Alex Marestaing wrote a random letter to the Walt Disney Company asking if they needed any creative help. Fortunately, Disney had mercy on his embarrassing attempt to break into the publishing scene and gave him his first writing job. A lot has happened since then, including four novels, a beautiful wife, three kids, two cats, an extremely mellow dog, an honorable mention at the London Book Festival, a stint covering soccer in Europe and the U.S., and fun freelance work for companies such as Lego, Thomas Nelson/Harper Collins and The Los Angeles Times. Oh yeah, he also speaks at conferences around the country giving people advice such as “Writing letters to random companies isn’t always such a bad idea” 

Author Links:

Website

Goodreads

Twitter

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