nut free nerd

Author: Sandy Hall

Number of Pages: 272

Publisher: Swoon Reads

Release Date: August 26, 2014

“The creative writing teacher, the delivery guy, the local Starbucks baristas, his best friend, her roommate, and the squirrel in the park all have one thing in common—they believe that Gabe and Lea should get together. Lea and Gabe are in the same creative writing class. They get the same pop culture references, order the same Chinese food, and hang out in the same places. Unfortunately, Lea is reserved, Gabe has issues, and despite their initial mutual crush, it looks like they are never going to work things out.

But somehow even when nothing is going on, something is happening between them, and everyone can see it. Their creative writing teacher pushes them together. The baristas at Starbucks watch their relationship like a TV show. Their bus driver tells his wife about them. The waitress at the diner automatically seats them together. Even the squirrel who lives on the college green believes in their relationship.

Surely Gabe and Lea will figure out that they are meant to be together….”

– Goodreads.com

I was excited to read this book as soon as I learned that it was written from fourteen different perspectives- and not one of them belonging to either of the main characters! Normally I don’t get that excited about your average YA contemporary romance novel, but the quirky twist in this one intrigued me right from the beginning. Besides, it’s hard not to judge this book based on its cover- it’s gorgeous!

The numerous different perspectives came with benefits as well as weaknesses. On the positive side, I learned so much about the lives of several different side characters, which normally doesn’t happen very often in this particular genre. It also helped that many of the characters were really clever and actually pretty funny at some points. My favorites were the bench (yes- a bench with a personality!), the squirrel, Maxine (the waitress at the local diner), and Inga (the creative writing professor). The book flew by so quickly, mostly due to the fact that it changed POV every few pages. As soon as things started to get a little boring, the POV would switch and you’d be thrown into an entirely different person’s mind. It was a little disorienting at first, but once you get to know all of the characters it’s really easy to follow along with everything.

As much as I’d love to say otherwise, there were some downsides to this unique writing style. Primarily, my biggest issue was the lack of connection I felt with Gabe and Lea, the main characters. I know that the whole point of the fourteen perspectives was to not hear directly from the main characters, but I couldn’t help feel like something was missing. It reminded me of why we tend to always focus on the main characters in the first place: because nothing can quite replace the intimacy and effectiveness of a first-person- or even a concentrated third-person- perspective. Also, there were a few characters whose voices and personalities were not as distinct and defined as they could have been. I mostly felt this way with Sam and Casey, Gabe’s brother and best friend (respectively). I could definitely tell that it was a woman trying to talk like a “cool” college guy. I have a teenage brother, and he would never talk the way those guys did in the book. Despite these issues, however, I still really enjoyed the uniqueness of the multiple perspectives.

The story itself was adorable and entertaining, but it was nothing extraordinary or “wowing”. The pace of the romance did feel forced or rushed, and it was actually quite slower than in most stories of this genre. Gave was nice and sweet, but didn’t have that “swoon-worthy” factor that the best fictional male protagonists have. The ending was really cute and concluded the story on a good note- it was open-ended, but not so much that I was left with a bunch of unanswered questions.

Overall, A Little Something Different ended up being just that: a little something different! It was unique and quirky enough to stand out from the usual YA contemporary romance novels,  but the issues brought on by the multiple perspectives prevented it from being really amazing in my eyes. It ended up being an average book in my opinion, but it was entertaining, adorable, and very enjoyable to read nonetheless!

My Rating: :0) :0) :0) 3 out of 5 smileys.

Would I recommend it to a friend?: Definitely! Although it wasn’t amazing, it was still really fun and well worth reading!

Have you read this book before? What are your thoughts on it? Know of any other great books told by a bunch of different perspectives? Let me know in the comments section below!

Yours,

HOLLY