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Always Been You
Jenna thought she had everything she needed-happiness, laughter, friends, and a terrific family that loves and cares for her. She'll be a senior in high school this fall and after that, college beckons. Yep, life is perfect, except for one small little she's in love with her best friend, Jacob Bennett. Everybody thought that she had gotten over her silly crush on Jacob ever since tenth grade. In a way, they were right; but what she didn't realize was that even though she managed to convince herself she was over him, the feelings that still remained were more than just friendship. Helplessly trapped with her feelings, how can she ever tell Jacob how much she loves him without ruining what they already have? As the year goes on, both Jacob and Jenna must come face to face with their feelings. And in the end, their decision just might affect the rest of their lives... Full of humor and romance, Always Been You is a touching novel about the strength of friendship and true love.
324 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 10, 2011
Ok, so it basically a hot nice guy met a decent cute girl. They like each other but both are too chicken to confest their feelings... They had been friend since younger age, and after some ex-boyfriends and quite a lot of ex- girlfriends, Jacob need Jenna help him found a perfect girl for him. Though he seems to care a lot on Jenna, gave her an expensive jewelry for Christmas gift, kissed her on New Year's eve, tag along with her almost all the time, defended her from his ex-girlfriends attacks (rolled my eyes), blah..blah..blah..
I'm trying so hard to remain reading till chapter 11. That's about half the book. But I'm sorry to say that it's too boring to read the rest. I gave up.
I'm trying so hard to remain reading till chapter 11. That's about half the book. But I'm sorry to say that it's too boring to read the rest. I gave up.
September 7, 2011
The premise of this story is a timeless one and has been pulled off well in the past, but I don't think Ms. Luu was up to the challenge. This book fell flat for me in many areas and I was left disappointed because it could have been...SHOULD have been...much better.
The biggest problem was probably editing. Even a mediocre editor should have been able to make this book much more readable. It's much too lengthy and the grammatical errors jump out at you nearly every other page. Mostly typos (like the word "as" appearing twice in a sentence when one of them shouldn't be there), but I think the biggest problem was with the use of the English language in general. I'm not sure how people in Vancouver speak, but if it's anything akin to the way Ms. Luu writes speech, it's error-riddled and slightly annoying. Sentences that begin something like, "After the way how he treated me..." made me want to pull my own hair out. Then there were numerous occasions wherein Ms. Luu used both past and present tense to describe an event. There was also a problem with descriptions. For example, near the beginning of the book, Jenna is driving up to Jacob's house and the reader is treated to this; "As I pulled into the huge, limestone driveway, their estate made my mom's CR-V look like a red speck of dust." I had to read that sentence a few times to try and understand what exactly Ms. Luu was even talking about. Since, you know, most houses tend to be larger than cars...
I wasn't being facetious when I said the story is timeless. It's the classic "best friends secretly in love with each other" formula. It would appear, however, that Ms. Luu had a problem with the concept of creating obstacles for our protagonists to get around. Throughout the entire book, the only thing keeping Jenna and Jacob apart is their own stupidity, which is even more annoying than it should be considering they're both written as intelligent, likable people. I genuinely liked both of them....until it came to how they interacted with each other. The reader and every single supporting character can tell these two are completely in love with each other, yet they both deny and evade. Jenna is in such deep denial regarding their feelings for each other that it's actually kind of unbelievable. Unbelievable to the point where, if I knew someone like that in real life, I would recommend they seek therapy. She simply refuses to consider the fact that Jacob might like her as much as she likes him, no matter how many times he stares at her, makes googly eyes, finds excuses to touch her, or even kisses her, she just won't accept it because she doesn't want to be hurt again. Please. She had a crush on him in 10th grade and he started going out with someone else. That was the heartache she almost didn't recover from. I feel sort of jaded when I can look at a character and say, "Oh, to have your problems".
I understand this is supposed to be a lighthearted romance, but you do your readers a disservice when you subject them to page after page after page of completely unnecessary drama. When Jacob finally breaks down and admits his feelings to Jenna, she tells him "she...can't", and runs away, tears streaming down her face, making me think of an extremely stupid, faulty faucet. I was sitting there, holding my Kindle, and thinking, "WHAT?! You can't?!" The reader finds out a few pages later (that, at that point feels like 100 pages later), that Jenna doesn't know if Jacob was "just kidding" about having feelings for her.
*Blank stare*
If there were an award for being clueless, Jenna would win it every year. She claims this guy is her best friend, yet she can't trust him when he tells her he wants to be with her? She really thinks he'd be that cruel?
I get that teenagers are often stupid, irrational, and melodramatic, but this book takes that theme just a little too far.
As far as the cast of supporting characters, there is nothing substantive. The parents are cliche's, the friends are overbearing, disrespectful and creepy, and Jacob's other "admirers" (he's the hottest guy at school, after all) are certifiable. The over-the-top popularity of Jacob is absolutely ridiculous. There are "Jacob groupies" who actually mob him, running their hands over him, pulling at his clothes, etc. A lot of people in this book do things that could get them arrested for assault/harassment, yet it's no big deal to the cast. Just another day in the life of rock star Jacob and his friends. *Sigh*
The ending of the book reminded me of a movie I really hate. It's full of so much predictable cheese, I'm surprised I didn't gain ten pounds reading it.
This isn't to say the book didn't have its good points. There were gleams of hope, here and there, that gave me the impression that Ms. Luu could mature into a pretty decent writer were she taught better grammar and a way to make her stories more readable via the use of realistic obstacles and believable plot twists. Always Been You, however, is just not worth the time one has to invest in it.
The biggest problem was probably editing. Even a mediocre editor should have been able to make this book much more readable. It's much too lengthy and the grammatical errors jump out at you nearly every other page. Mostly typos (like the word "as" appearing twice in a sentence when one of them shouldn't be there), but I think the biggest problem was with the use of the English language in general. I'm not sure how people in Vancouver speak, but if it's anything akin to the way Ms. Luu writes speech, it's error-riddled and slightly annoying. Sentences that begin something like, "After the way how he treated me..." made me want to pull my own hair out. Then there were numerous occasions wherein Ms. Luu used both past and present tense to describe an event. There was also a problem with descriptions. For example, near the beginning of the book, Jenna is driving up to Jacob's house and the reader is treated to this; "As I pulled into the huge, limestone driveway, their estate made my mom's CR-V look like a red speck of dust." I had to read that sentence a few times to try and understand what exactly Ms. Luu was even talking about. Since, you know, most houses tend to be larger than cars...
I wasn't being facetious when I said the story is timeless. It's the classic "best friends secretly in love with each other" formula. It would appear, however, that Ms. Luu had a problem with the concept of creating obstacles for our protagonists to get around. Throughout the entire book, the only thing keeping Jenna and Jacob apart is their own stupidity, which is even more annoying than it should be considering they're both written as intelligent, likable people. I genuinely liked both of them....until it came to how they interacted with each other. The reader and every single supporting character can tell these two are completely in love with each other, yet they both deny and evade. Jenna is in such deep denial regarding their feelings for each other that it's actually kind of unbelievable. Unbelievable to the point where, if I knew someone like that in real life, I would recommend they seek therapy. She simply refuses to consider the fact that Jacob might like her as much as she likes him, no matter how many times he stares at her, makes googly eyes, finds excuses to touch her, or even kisses her, she just won't accept it because she doesn't want to be hurt again. Please. She had a crush on him in 10th grade and he started going out with someone else. That was the heartache she almost didn't recover from. I feel sort of jaded when I can look at a character and say, "Oh, to have your problems".
I understand this is supposed to be a lighthearted romance, but you do your readers a disservice when you subject them to page after page after page of completely unnecessary drama. When Jacob finally breaks down and admits his feelings to Jenna, she tells him "she...can't", and runs away, tears streaming down her face, making me think of an extremely stupid, faulty faucet. I was sitting there, holding my Kindle, and thinking, "WHAT?! You can't?!" The reader finds out a few pages later (that, at that point feels like 100 pages later), that Jenna doesn't know if Jacob was "just kidding" about having feelings for her.
*Blank stare*
If there were an award for being clueless, Jenna would win it every year. She claims this guy is her best friend, yet she can't trust him when he tells her he wants to be with her? She really thinks he'd be that cruel?
I get that teenagers are often stupid, irrational, and melodramatic, but this book takes that theme just a little too far.
As far as the cast of supporting characters, there is nothing substantive. The parents are cliche's, the friends are overbearing, disrespectful and creepy, and Jacob's other "admirers" (he's the hottest guy at school, after all) are certifiable. The over-the-top popularity of Jacob is absolutely ridiculous. There are "Jacob groupies" who actually mob him, running their hands over him, pulling at his clothes, etc. A lot of people in this book do things that could get them arrested for assault/harassment, yet it's no big deal to the cast. Just another day in the life of rock star Jacob and his friends. *Sigh*
The ending of the book reminded me of a movie I really hate. It's full of so much predictable cheese, I'm surprised I didn't gain ten pounds reading it.
This isn't to say the book didn't have its good points. There were gleams of hope, here and there, that gave me the impression that Ms. Luu could mature into a pretty decent writer were she taught better grammar and a way to make her stories more readable via the use of realistic obstacles and believable plot twists. Always Been You, however, is just not worth the time one has to invest in it.
August 19, 2011
Hmmmmmmm.......The idea might be great. The writing is decent enough.
The problem is just one --> It really needs editing. Really really need it.
1. I think the book is too long
2. I sense a discontinuity between chapters. Each chapter in this book actually retell some major events but the current event seems like it has no connection with the previous chapter.
3. I don't get why everyone, event the parents and friends, is so interested in the main characters' love lives. It's like no one can't stop commenting on it. The author put too much focus on the main characters' love story. Really...that's pretty much the focus. But if the point of interest is very slow in development you will hear the same story again and again. "... He's so handsome.. I like him as a friend...I don't think he likes me...I don't want to destroy our friedship". Each chapter is always like that.
4. Too many added characters but no depth. The characters, even the main characters, are not well fleshed out.
The problem is just one --> It really needs editing. Really really need it.
1. I think the book is too long
2. I sense a discontinuity between chapters. Each chapter in this book actually retell some major events but the current event seems like it has no connection with the previous chapter.
3. I don't get why everyone, event the parents and friends, is so interested in the main characters' love lives. It's like no one can't stop commenting on it. The author put too much focus on the main characters' love story. Really...that's pretty much the focus. But if the point of interest is very slow in development you will hear the same story again and again. "... He's so handsome.. I like him as a friend...I don't think he likes me...I don't want to destroy our friedship". Each chapter is always like that.
4. Too many added characters but no depth. The characters, even the main characters, are not well fleshed out.
November 22, 2011
Where to begin? While this book could be labelled cute and fluffy, it would be a real stretch to give it any higher praise. Maybe my main problem is that I am just too old to be reading this kind of book - all the second tier characters (aka Jacobs and Jenna's many many admirers) were immature and annoying - the girls were worse than the boys, often spouting terribly cheesy lines. For example, in one scene, Jacob and Jenna are out shopping and there are some girls following them because Jacob is just that hot (he is Gods gift to women, I am telling you. Catnip is to cats what Jacob is to the female (and some male) population), Jacob and Jen manage to hide somewhere and they hear the girls saying something along the lines of, "where did they go?" "quick, we don't want to lose that hottie!" and all the girls were like this. All of them. I found it very tedious very quickly. Plus, their respective parents just love them and push them to date each other all the time. It just seems like the whole book is full of unlikely characters and situations and I am kind of regretting reading it. To be fair, I think I may be more let down than I should be because I was hoping for something lyrical and beautiful and I am clearly let down. Two and a half stars.
August 29, 2011
ok reading the summary of this book i told myself: "me like this!" i've always loved stories of best friends falling in love with each other. but my god, this book was a grueling read!!! it was waaaaaaayyyyyy too long!!! i wanted to tell...i mean scream at jacob and jenna to just get it on and tell each other how you really feel so i could finish this frustrating book!!! and what's the matter with both of their parents and friends? all they wanted "ALWAYS" was to meddle with jacob and jenna's lovelife (probably they feel the same way as i am).
this would have been better if it was shorter and the characters less annoying.....
this would have been better if it was shorter and the characters less annoying.....
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February 16, 2021Always Been You is a beautiful novel... the moment from when I started reading this book I could barely stop myself..at first i had a feeling that both the fellows(jenna & jacob) are never going to express their feelings to each other... Jenna was living in denial & Jacob-- well he didn't wanted to ruin the friendship he had with her for the past 3 years just like Jenna both the idiots had a point but were to blind to see the other ones feelings even though it was visible to all especially Jenna.she spent her 3years being positive of a thing that Jacob was never going to be her life partner & was busy suppressing her feelings for him so much that she didn't see that Jacob loved her even though her friends tried to show her(I still kind of feel she was a blind)
The story is really interesting especially reading jacob's jealousy I really enjoyed reading it I've at least read this novel twice
Each chapter indicates a new scenario of their life which has not inter relationship from the previous one...
each chapter has it's own humour,story,guilt
In all the book is a beautiful love story
The story is really interesting especially reading jacob's jealousy I really enjoyed reading it I've at least read this novel twice
Each chapter indicates a new scenario of their life which has not inter relationship from the previous one...
each chapter has it's own humour,story,guilt
In all the book is a beautiful love story
March 26, 2012
Meh... It was okay. If there were half stars available I would have given it a 2.5. While the actual storyline was okay, the book kind of jumped around. It was sequential, but went from a Halloween party that wasn't described, practically into Christmas than to February. I don't like books that have too much detail, but this one was a little short on some of them. overall it was okay, but definitely not something that I will re-read.
October 28, 2012
This is in the top 3 of the sweetest books I have ever read. I loved every bit of it. It's the sort of book that would break your heart in half and put it back together at the end of the story. Jenna and Jacob are two selfless and moral characters who I adore. I was euphoric by the end. Their sweet, sincere and boundless love is so admirable and coveted nowadays. Perfectly woven into a work of art.
September 2, 2012
Cute fun book. Drove me crazy Jacob was so cowardly. Almost started rooting for Aaron.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews