Eleanor & Park (2 of 5 reviews RR)

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Published by St. Martin's Press on February 26th 2013
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Fiction, Coming of Age
Page: 328
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Review by: Tina


Synopsis
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

Review

I'm madly in love with Rainbow Rowell's writing. I'm starting to see a pattern in her works. Each of her books have a central focus. From there she writes her stories and characters around it. It's a very interesting style and it works.

The main focus of this book are two high school students named Eleanor and Park. Eleanor is a red haired fair skinned girl who comes from a poor background. Park is a half Korean half American boy who is into UK rock bands and punk music. They fatefully met one morning during their Sophomore year when she sat next to him on their high school bus. It was as though two worlds collide. She was the new girl everyone bullied. He was the cool kid everyone liked.

Friendship through music and comic books developed. Ah~ *a light bulb goes off in my head. I would have been happy here but love blossomed... What is cute about this story is that they are their first loves. They took their time to explore each new emotion and they are so careful with each other. Do you remember your first love? Do you remember feeling self conscious and unsure about everything?

I'm ending with a quote, "If he was shy now, he wouldn't get anything that he wanted." Chapter 42

Hot.