Rachael Lippincott

Stella was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis when she was six years old. Saint Grace's hospital has become a second home for her through the years as she continues to battle the terminal disease. In order to feel in control of her life she makes to do lists to follow and has a meticulously organized med cart. She's also developed an app to alert people with strict medication regiments when to take their medication. Her carefully ordered world is about to turn inside out as a new CFer arrives at show more Saint Grace's.

Will is cynical, sarcastic and tired of battling CF. He's contracted B. cepacia, an antibiotic resistant bacteria that has taken him off the lung transplant list. He's toured the world from the seat of a hospital bed as his mother has dragged him from place to place to undergo new treatments. Nothing has been able to rid his body of the B. cepacia and he wants to just live his life to the fullest before he dies. The strict regimen of medication he must take to breath is annoying and he can't be bothered to finish his treatments. Until he meets Stella, and learns what it means to want to live.

I will admit I had never heard of this book before the movie announcement. Do not approach this book thinking it is going to be another Fault in our Stars. Stella and Will are vastly different characters than what you experience in Fault. While they are teenagers, Rachel Lippincott was able to show how coming to terms with a disease like CF makes them mature in ways other teenagers have not. Grappling with how their family will handle death and the amount of responsibility an individual can feel when they can't control the disease was heartbreaking. It brings to light the amount of weight someone can feel when they are simply trying to stay alive.

People with Cystic Fibrosis cannot touch one another. The safe distance to stay apart is six feet as long as no one coughs or sneezes. The germs one person with CF carries can kill the other. Someone with B. cepacia is especially dangerous because there is no treatment for it. Once you contract B. cepacia you are off the transplant list and your already short life expectancy is reduced. The relationship between Stella and Will is without touch, it has to be for their own safety. I enjoyed the ways the two characters developed a relationships without relying on touch to facilitate it.

While this can certainly be a hard book to read due to the emotional weight, it is beautifully written and I highly recommended it. I hope to see more novels by Rachel Lippincott in the future. show less

*COMPANION NOVELLA TO SHE GETS THE GIRL*

After three years of romantic bliss, Molly and Alex head to the cozy Christmas town of Barnwich over winter break to try and get their two friends to confess their feelings for one another. But while matchmaking might be their main mission, a far more important one lies in finally confessing their very different post-grad plans with each other. Plans that might jeopardize their future together.

I forgot how much I missed Lippincott and Derrick's show more writing style. It's warm and cozy while still being able to portray tension between characters. (One of the many reasons this library has nearly every book they've written). "Joy to the Girls" was thoroughly enjoyable; an excellent little Christmas novella. There was enough detail in the story to give you that fuzzy feeling after drinking hot cocoa but not too much to where you feel overwhelmed by Christmas motifs. I loved seeing how much Alex and Molly had grown, not just as people but as a couple. The awkward teenager Molly was in "She Gets the Girl" was now a far more confident young woman and Alex is well on her way to become a healed and independent woman without having to sacrifice her passions. I love how the authors use the banter and teasing between Alex and Molly to show how in love and secure they are in their relationship. Nothing but fluff for days on end. "Joy to the Girls" is the perfect Christmas gift for any sapphic reader in your life and is a book I most certainly will be reading again next year.

SPICE LEVEL: Rated PG/PG-13
- mostly lots of kisses
- lead up to a spicy scene
- an implied spicy scene (no details given)

WARNINGS:
- BRIEF mention of alcoholism (Alex's mom is now sober)
- BRIEF mentions of traumatic childhood show less

What a fun, if somewhat predictable, story! Of course, the predictableness of romance stories is why we like them in the first place. It's just a matter of watching how she gets the girl!

I really enjoyed the different personalities of the two main characters. I liked how their relationships with their moms were so different, and how it showed that opposites do attract, because there's some similarities as well.

I did not like Natalie from the very start. I'm glad Alex was able to stand up to show more her at the end.

What a wonderful book. show less

I’m not certain how this book came to be our book club read. It’s a Young Adult romance based on a screenplay. Like The Fault in Our Stars, it’s yet another book about teenagers with a chronic/terminal illness.

Stella Grant and Will Newman are teenagers in a hospital for treatment for cystic fibrosis. The two begin a budding romance though, because of concerns about infection, they are, at all times, to remain at least six feet apart. Stella follows her treatment regimen religiously show more because she is hoping for a lung transplant; Will, however, is ineligible for such a transplant because he has contracted B. cepacia, a bacterial infection that is highly transmissible and drug resistant.

As is to be expected in YA romances, Stella and Will are opposites who are immediately attracted to each other though they do not make positive impressions when they first meet. Stella is the rule-follower and Will is the rule-breaker. Despite their differences, they make a connection and in a short time change the other’s outlook and make him/her a better person. “It’s like seeing everything for the first time. I didn’t know it was possible for a person to make old things become new again” (188). Yikes!

There are many unrealistic events. A nurse breaks confidentiality and tells Stella about Will: “’A CFer and then some. B. cepacia. He’s part of the new drug trial for Cevaflomalin’” (36)? Stella and Will and their friend Poe have the run of the hospital so that it becomes their playground? The birthday party scene is totally unrealistic! Stella has an infection and the doctor says that staff will keep an eye on it (98 – 99); the next time it’s mentioned, that doctor says, “’We need to take care of this. It’s too far gone’” (126)?! Stella has a surgical procedure under general anesthesia even though her lungs, functioning at only 35%, may not be strong enough. Nonetheless, hours after the procedure, she’s sprinting across the hospital, even up and down stairs (158 – 160)!?

There is also unnecessary melodrama. The narrative involving Abby is just too much, as is the plotline involving the one character of colour (who also happens to be gay). And don’t get me started on the scene on the ice. There is just too much emotional manipulation.

The book can be commended for raising awareness about cystic fibrosis, but I have concerns about the realism of the portrayal of the disease. CFers often have major digestive problems and mucous tends to be much more of an issue than any of the CFers in the book experience. It seems to me that we have a sanitized version of this genetic condition.

I understand that I am not the intended audience for this book so I should be less critical. I think, however, that young adult readers deserve more than manipulative, romantic tear jerkers with thin characterization and a totally predictable plot.

Note: Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski). show less