Review for Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor & Park is a young adult novel written by Rainbow Rowell.



an advance copy of this book was provided by Goodreads

Eleanor is the new girl in school and she can't help but stand out. she's a little on the thick side and has wild curly red hair. not to mention her clothes make it seem like she just went dumpster diving. Park sees her on the school bus and thinks what everyone else is thinking, "This girl is asking for it." lending a reluctant helping hand, Park lets her sit next to him. and so starts one of the sweetest love stories i have ever read.

Eleanor is one of my all time favorite female characters. she's such a strong individual but also has the ability to be vulnerable with Park. she fights against their attraction but also throws caution to wind to be with him. she's always in contradiction with herself and i love it. her home life made me sympathetic to her without crossing over to the soap opera drama SPOILER except at the end when her stepfather loses his shit END SPOILER

Park is my boyfriend now. despite the fact that he's a fictional character, i think we can be very happy together. he's such a sweetheart in the book. his family was hilarious to me, especially his mom. i thought the changes he made while he was with Eleanor SPOILER and after she left END SPOILER were amazing...and hot. i mean i love guy liner so he definitely could have gone to second base just on that alone. he's just awesome, enough said.

i loved the alternating chapters. it's always a good thing to get both sides of a love story so you know what each person is really thinking and feeling. Park's chapters were more interesting to me. despite the author being female i thought she had a better feel for a male voice. i'm very glad i won this book and that it's a part of my collection because i plan on reading this again and again.

4.5 STAR RATING