Lauren Strasnick

Holly has just had a one night stand with Paul, a popular guy at her high school with a long-term girlfriend. Holly doesn't really know why she did it, except that her mom recently died of cancer and her feelings are all sort of numb. Unbelievably Paul persues her and convinces her to have a secret sexual relationship. That's great and all, but then she makes friends with Saskia (Paul's g/f) and also there's that neighbor boy Nils.... The harder she tries to end it with Paul, the harder he show more tries to change her mind, and the longer it goes on, the greater the chances are for major disaster!

I really really liked this book in a 'my heart hurt' kind of way. I felt bad for Holly even though what she was doing was wrong. I really wanted everything to work out for her, but I guess a lesson had to be learned there. I still wish it would've ended a with a little more resolution.

I thought the subject matter was pretty great. How many books tackle the subject of casual teen sex/friends with benefits in a realistic way? This one did an awesome job showing that sometimes people do bad things because they can't help themselves. A lot of people use sex as a need for comfort and love, but sex doesn't always equal love and that's a lesson a lot of young girls learn the hard way (like Holly). I know losing her mother wasn't an excuse for what she did, but I didn't see her as a villian. She was letting herself get talked into something because she wanted someone to care about her. I just felt like I could understand her so much. What she did to Nils was really shitty, but he should've been a better friend to her before and after :(

I also thought the way this book was written was cool. Some chapters would be only a page long, yet they were still incredibly powerful. It was so minimalist or something, but it worked!


"You are very loved. You need to work harder at loving yourself."
~Amazing quote... and so true!

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Torn apart by her mother’s recent death, Holly loses her virginity to Paul, one of the most popular guys in school. Holly assumes that once it’s over, she’ll go back to hanging out with her only friend, Nils, the boy-next-door turned “man-slut,” and Paul will go back to his long-term on-and-off girlfriend, Saskia. But suddenly Paul keeps chasing her, and Holly’s actually becoming friends with Saskia, who turns out to be a great girl who doesn’t deserve all this, and suddenly show more Holly’s in way over her head, dreading the moment when everything will come to a head and fall apart around her.

NOTHING LIKE YOU, Lauren Strasnick’s debut novel, is relatively short, but packs one heck of a punch between its covers. It is a powerful read that will wreck your nerves, put them back together, and wreck them all over again.

Lauren Strasnick’s succinctness with words is still a relatively rare gift in YA lit. Sometimes, less is more, and it certainly is so in Holly’s words: little time is spent dallying over inner monologues, and instead we are thrown right into Holly’s words and have to quickly learn our way around her friends, family history, and romantic problems, otherwise we’ll unhappily sink and miss the point of the book. I like how Lauren’s writing style doesn’t undervalue the reader’s intelligence: we are all capable of figuring out what’s going on, and it is this agency on our part that will make us invest more in Holly’s story. Who says it’s the author who needs to do ALL of the work?

This may be personal preference, but I adore Holly’s character. In particular, I love how relatively upfront she is about her emotional concerns. This is a girl who’s not afraid to express to others how she’s feeling, instead of bottling it all up inside her, so that her problems are constantly evolving and moving forward. It’s a trait that I envy, and so it’s refreshing to read about such a girl in YA lit.

Holly and Nils’ friendship was well done, specifically in that you can practically feel the chemistry crackling between them. In contrast, Paul feels a little underdeveloped. He is definitely a douchebag but I wanted to know why he feels like he needs to behave that way. NOTHING LIKE YOU further defies our expectations of contemporary literature with its unusual ending, which, like every other part of the book, garners its power from its absence of flair for the sake of grabbing attention.

True, Holly’s mother died, and a lot of her behavior is in reaction to her grief, but this is not explicitly a story about dealing with grief, for which I am grateful. Instead, it’s simply an honest and refreshing tale of contemporary emotions. Lauren Strasnick has embedded herself into my heart with her unassuming debut novel, and I have no doubt that she will do the same to others. show less

Adrienne had this one crazy friend - who was fun and exotic, sexy and crazy. her name was Dakota
and suddenly, one day, Dakota is no longer her friend.

Fast forward years later, and Adrienne never understood why their friendship ended, just that it did suddenly. She's found new, comfortable, stable friends. She has dinner dates, a nice comfy boyfriend and life goes on. It's not sexy and exotic like it was with her crazy friend, but it's life.

But, Dakota has always liked the world to revolve show more around her - and when she leaves a cryptic message on Adrienne's phone and then disappears - Adrienne is left feeling like the only one who cared for Dakota and wants to understand why she's gone.

Murder? Suicide? Still alive? This story is Adrienne hunting for the answers. It's dark and moody and a little crazy. At first the writing is choppy and off - and I think that mimics Adrienne. She's lost, reeling and losing it a little. As she begins to search and try to understand, we see her on the other side of this crisis.

But I had to hold back from giving it a full 4 star review (even though I wanted to!) because I wasn't a huge fan of the manipulation of the MC character near the end about the class and that the teacher got away with what he did with Dakota! show less

When Natalie and Dan met it was electric. An instant connection. He admired her success and talent as an artist, and she liked his good-guy appeal and attentiveness. It was so good-- until it wasn't anymore.

Now, Natalie is sending Ben 16 letters to tell him her version of love-gone-wrong. He doesn't exactly see things the same way, but Natalie is determined to have the last word.

In case you didn't know, I'm a HUGE Lauren Strasnick fan. I love that her characters are never perfect. I love show more that her chapters are short and meaningful. I love that everything that happens in her book means something to the plot. She's so good at staying focused and not wasting words.

16 Ways to Break a Heart was a dark romance book. Natalie writes Dan notes recapping their relationship and how it went from good to house-burning-down. Dan and Natalie were cute at first, but there was SOMETHING about Natalie right from the beginning that had me feeling WAYS. I was definitely wishing I could jump in the book and warn him away from her.

Don't get it twisted: this book is about a toxic relationship. Even the good parts were tinged with something off. I think the cover and synopsis kind of make this look/sound a little cutesy, and it is NOT that. It is 2 people who kind of bring out the worst in each other. And Natalie is a bit of a stalker.

I personally liked that all the characters were flawed. Initially I was rooting for Dan. He's not an angel, but at least he was upfront about the fact that he was a liar, a coward, and a maybe-cheat. I can accept flaws better when someone cops to them. But once he started resenting Natalie for her successes, I knew me and Dan wouldn't be besties any time soon. Also, he needs some work on how to treat women.

I found it interesting that this book took a realistic look at a young relationship. There isn't a right person and a wrong person, which I think is what happens in many relationships that go bad. We end up hurting each other and get to a point where we can't seem to stop.

I think reading this book in combination with [b:Bad Romance|29102896|Bad Romance|Heather Demetrios|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1475530166s/29102896.jpg|47434524] by Heather Demetrios would be a good recommendation for any teen getting into the dating pool. Both show some harsh realities.

OVERALL: I loved this dark romance. It's a quick read that shows how relationships can go from good to bad really fast. Throw in jealousy, possessiveness, resentment, immaturity, and need for retaliation and it's a relationship ripe for implosion.

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