Point of Retreat by Colleen Hoover

[Sheri, Bookworm]

I'm only up to chapter 3, but I'm having trouble getting inside Will's head. I'm so used to Layken's point of view that the change is throwing me off. Every time he says 'I,' I'm thinking Layken, and then he talks about her...I need to get my head straight :)

[Sheri, Bookworm]

I love it when he drives across the street to Lake's house to pick her up and then drives back across the street home.

I also love Lake's mom.

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Haha, I feel like I'm talking to myself :)

I've only read up to 30%, so you're ahead of me Alyssia. Here's one thing that I don't get...if they want to have alone time or sleep over at the other's house, why don't they just have their brothers sleep over, too. Instead of the suggestion of having the boys at one house and them at the other...?

[Lys]

sorry that you're talking to yourself. I'm at firestone and have been for SIX hours. I've done lots of reading, but unfortunately my goodness access is limited. I hate kindle typing. I promise to post more if I ever get home!

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Lol, I don't mind talkig to myself. Where are you going this weekend?

[Lys]

Sheri wrote: "Lol, I don't mind talkig to myself. Where are you going this weekend?"

Tomorrow we are going to Watseka, IL to see a comedy show. The day after we are heading to Indianapolis, IN to see a musical and to go to an art museum. But first, I have an eight hour library shift tomorrow. I was hoping to catch up on grading today, but I spent all of my time at Firestone getting a new power steering pump put in the car. Still: lots of time to read :)

[Lys]

Sheri wrote: "I'm only up to chapter 3, but I'm having trouble getting inside Will's head. I'm so used to Layken's point of view that the change is throwing me off. Every time he says 'I,' I'm thinking Layken,..."

I kept doing that too. And then, it got easier. I think because of the subject matter, but it did take a while. I kept getting confused and then having a 'duh' moment. I stopped at 56% (the chapter end that sees 50) and went to a different book, so as to keep our schedule. Let me know when you are there?

Oh! Your netgalley copy - does it have annoying boxes in the place of italics and apostrophes? It's driving me nuts.

[Lys]

Sheri wrote: "I love it when he drives across the street to Lake's house to pick her up and then drives back across the street home.

I also love Lake's mom."

Lake's mom is pretty cool. I was mad at her for a little bit in the last book, but I got over it. Throughout the book I was like, why are you cool in so many ways, but not able to see that your daughter needs this guy? BETTER QUESTION: HAVEN'T YOU HEARD OF SCHOOL OF CHOICE? It irritated me. The stars idea is brilliant though. And I love that Layken accuses Will of sneaking things in there. I don't know, are you at that part yet?

[Lys]

Sheri wrote: "Haha, I feel like I'm talking to myself :)

I've only read up to 30%, so you're ahead of me Alyssia. Here's one thing that I don't get...if they want to have alone time or sleep over at the other'..."

I did find that creepy too. I mean, not wanting to fool around near your brothers is one thing, but leaving two trouble-prone 11 year olds alone seems, um ... stupid.

Also, given the description of how all over each other they ALWAYS are (as evidenced by Will's grandmother's comments, among other things), I found the idea of needing a private bedroom for makeout space a little redundant.

[Lys]

Have you gotten to the part about Eddie yet?
Also: do you know who Eddie Izzard is? I love him, and I love that Eddie is named for a cross-dressing comedian :)

[Lys]

Now who is talking to herself? *this girl!*

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Alyssia wrote: "Now who is talking to herself? *this girl!*"

Lol! Welcome to my world :) Now to go through all your posts...

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Alyssia wrote: "Tomorrow we are going to Watseka, IL to see a comedy show. The day after we are heading to Indianapolis, IN t..."

That sounds like fun.

My copy doesn't have the boxes, but it is spaced really weird...like there is an extra space between all the apostrophes and no spaces between chapters or moving from one thought to the next. My Slammed copy had the boxes (Netgalley, too).

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Alyssia wrote: "Have you gotten to the part about Eddie yet?
Also: do you know who Eddie Izzard is? I love him, and I love that Eddie is named for a cross-dressing comedian :)"

I haven't gotten to the part of Eddie - just where they were at dinner at Will's and she was being all moodie. I'll read up to where you are tonight. I need to finish Cat and Bones tonight, too.

I do know who Eddie Izzard is, but not as a comedian. I know him from The Riches. It was one of my favorite TV shows and they only made about a season and a half of it. I was sad when they took it off the air :(

[Sheri, Bookworm]

I think I've responded to everything :) The other thing with the whole waiting a year thing - I don't have a problem with the waiting, but when they are together and making out they act like they've never done it before - like he's never seen her shirtless or whatever. Dating a guy for a whole year and living right across the street, even with brothers around, they would have gone further than that.

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Not that I'm not in love with this book. So far I love it as much as I loved Slammed...just some little things that annoy me :)

[Lys]

Sheri wrote: "I think I've responded to everything :) The other thing with the whole waiting a year thing - I don't have a problem with the waiting, but when they are together and making out they act like they'..."

Oh, I wasn't referring to sex. I was referring to the will they/won't they/he's your teacher bit.
Literal school of choice ... layken could have just transferred.
:)
But I agree... they act constantly starved for each other. That's not terribly realistic, on a day to day basis at least, and most of the book strives for realism it seems.

[Sheri, Bookworm]

I do like having Will's point of view, as soon as I get used to it :) And I'm guessing Vaughn is going to be causing some sort of trouble later.

[Sheri, Bookworm]

I read through chapter 11 - I think it was 63% or something like that. I loved Will's attempts to make Lake talk to him. Getting Kiersten to help him sneak into her house...I laughed through that whole scene! And disconnecting her car battery and convincing a bunch of 11-year-olds to help him. Too funny.

[Lys]

(view spoiler)[ It sure seems like trucks having issues with the driving is a thing in Will's life. At least Layken gets some variety in her tragedy. (hide spoiler)]

[Lys]

I was sitting there wondering where the rest of the book could go, since it seemed to be straightening out.

Now I know!

Also, I am glad that we're not overusing the whole 'carving pumpkins' thing ... oh wait. :P

I got pretty tired of Will using the phrase. It sounded like guy logic for why the girl wasn't willing to agree with him. The new version of "on the rag".

I like Kiersten quite a bit. Her mom is pretty cool too.

[Sheri, Bookworm]

I'm right at the part where they got into the car accident. I won't have time to read more until tonight.

Carving pumpkins...Yeah, I'm tired of hearing about that.

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Final thoughts...

I saw Eddie's predicament coming after that moody dinner. I like her and Gavin. Maybe book three can be more about them. I have to say if it is going to be Slammed from Will's POV I will be more than a little disappointed. That's the rumor, but I have no idea if it is true. I'm really hoping for more originality than that.

I'm putting the next part in spoilers because I don't know who will be reading this and I don't know how to write it without giving stuff away - (view spoiler)[I'm really glad nobody died in the car accident. I was seriously thinking if someone did I was going to just give the book 2 stars and be done. Seriously, how much bad can happen to one family? So I'm glad it didn't go that way. I do wish the story would have covered more of Layken after the accident, while she was recovering. That part was pretty much skipped.

I'm also really glad they finally had sex. If Hoover would have tried to drag that into another book I probably would not have even bothered reading it, no matter how much I liked this one. I hate it when authors draw things out to the point of killing it. So yeah. (hide spoiler)]

I think that's it. I really liked this one but not quite as much as Slammed. Slammed had something - I can't say exactly what – more intensity maybe. More feeling? I'm not really sure – that POR wasn't missing, just had less of I guess. I'm not sure that makes sense. I do, however, think I like Will's POV better than Layken's (once I got used to it!).

[Lys]

It won't let me view your spoiler on my phone. I'll send my final thoughts tonight.

[Sheri, Bookworm]

We played suck and sweet at dinner tonight, except we just called it good and bad :)

[Lys]

That's awesome!
Haha. It might be a fun thing to do.
How did it go over?
---
Let's see: about the end-- somewhat predictable. I am happy no one died as well, but I wish we would have heard about the other driver... I thought it was weird that (as far as I can remember) they weren't mentioned at all! It seemed like a large oversight.
Little things irritated me: Will withdrawing Layken from her classes. Is that really his call? Him even *thinking* that he could keep Kel.
I was happy when one of the stars was finally not *perfect* for the moment ... that was getting a little excessive.
As I said already, I was happy to see the end of the 'carving pumpkins' thing.
I agree with you on the sex, but I was irritated at the shotgun wedding. I am not suggesting that writers advocate premarital sex, but I have become increasingly annoyed at how YA books rush weddings for young people in order for them to have their magical sexy time.

I even understand that Layken and Will were going to be together - marriage was inevitable, and they are both "so grown up" because of life circumstances.
Which is part of why it irritated me. I feel like Hoover really chickened out by throwing in all these accidental reasons it didn't happen and then tossing the marriage in.
I know I am harping on this, but it irritated me.

I liked Will's voice. Layken was occasionally a bit juvenile and whiny. I think this book from Layken's point of view (besides being hard, unless we did an "If I Stay" style for the latter part of the book) would have been painful to read. It would have been a lot of emotional mood swings. Will was emotional, yes, but it was a change of pace. It was interesting to see how they each reacted to hardships, Layken in book one and Will in book two.

Finally - I agree on book three. If it is just the story of Slammed from Will's PoV I don't even know if I will want to read it. Also, I think, as you do, that book one was better. It had a bit more rawness to it - some important truths. I did really like the kids' poems at the end though (although, how sad that Kel didn't get one?). Overall, book one, even with it's irritating reliance on Avett excerpts, felt more powerful ... like reading it was learning something.
To me, they were both very good though. Definitely above average.

[Sheri, Bookworm]

I agree with the wedding thing and YA books in general. I actually talked about that one time in another group - not wanting their characters having premarital sex is too unrealistic. It happens. It's reality. If POV were real, Layken and Will would have moved in together six months after mom had died and then gotten married later.