The Invoice

Hilarious, profound, and achingly true-to-life, Jonas Karlsson’s new novel explores the true nature of happiness through the eyes of hero you won’t soon forget. A passionate film buff, our hero’s life revolves around his part-time job at a video store, the company of a few precious friends, and a daily routine that more often than not concludes with pizza and movie in his treasured small space in Stockholm. When he receives an astronomical invoice from a random national bureaucratic agency, everything will tumble into madness as he calls the hotline night and day to find out why he is the recipient of the largest bill in the entire country. 


I received The Invoice yesterday and was really looking forward to reading it.  

Our nameless hero lives a normal life, working part-time for a video store.  He has a best friend, has a sister and his parents are deceased.

One day he gets an invoice for 5,700,000 kronor.  Thinking it's a mistake or a scam, he calls the number on the paper and discovers that he must now pay for every happy moment in his life.  How is he charged so much for his life, when others with far more money and more experiences owe much less?  How will he come up with the money to pay this debt?

This book is a very fast, enjoyable and thought provoking read. Our protagonist lives a life very similar to my own so I found myself wondering how much would I be willing to pay for my happy moments and appreciating all of the little things that have made my life so great.  

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.


I absolutely loved this book.  Simon is such a likeable character.  He reminded me so much of one of my guy friends in high school.  

I felt the dynamic between all of the characters was amazing.  All of his friends had their share of idiosyncrasies and flaws, but they were all easy to relate to.  His family was quirky and supportive.  

Through out most of the book I changed my mind a few times as to who I thought Blue was.  At one point I did guess right and when we discovered who it was, I literally squealed with delight. 

Overall, this book is cute, funny and very sweet.  

This book should come with a disclaimer.  You will suffer from major Oreo cravings while reading this book.

Introductions

I know, I know.  The last thing the world needs is another book review blog.  What makes my blog different than all of the others out there?  Nothing, probably.  However, I wanted my own little space on the internet where I could share my thoughts/opinions on the books I read and hopefully hear all of your thoughts as well.

For those of you who don’t already know me, allow me to give you a bit of my story.  My name is Jessica, I’m in my late 30’s and living in a large(ish) town in Pennsylvania.  I am a Disney & Harry Potter obsessed, caffeine addicted, reader and knitter.

My favorite genres are fantasy and YA contemporary.  My favorite books/series are Harry Potter (obvi), The Fault in Our Stars, Eleanor & Park, Anna and the French Kiss, The Lunar Chronicles and The Selection series.

What are your favorites?  I am always looking for new books to try out.