180 Seconds

This was such a sweet, feel-good read. I completely fell in love with Allison and Esben and the coziness of their little world. It makes me think of past trips up to New England with all the homey touches of Maine and blueberry ice cream and seafood. Jessica Park does an amazing job bringing out the heart in her characters and drawing relationships that you really want to root for. I got choked up with each little mini-story Esben brought to life through his social media and desire to do good.

And the relationships with side characters were just as strong. I loved Simon, Allison's dad, and his devotion to her, Steffy, her best friend, and their close relationship, and the new relaitonships that form along the way. This was a beautiful show more story that made me cheer for the MC from start to finish.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the author.

Please excuse typos. Entered on screen reader. show less

4 I am Brave Stars!
After the emotional turmoil this book put me through I was this close - to giving it 5 stars. That being said, I got to thinking. really thinking, about what this book deserves.
It was sweet no doubt about that. It was so unlike your typical college romance. Where the guy is hard and rough with issues. Esben was so freaking sweet and kind, and outgoing. At some point I thought for sure it was going to be all an act and he would end up disappointing us. Spoiler: He doesn’t. He is real, and honest and gentle. I loved him. Allison was your typical foster child brought up hard and rough. She built walls, and had a hard time letting people in. For the first 60% I was kinda like okay… awwww…that is sweet….I like show more that…okay move on… Almost like I just wanted the book to end because it was so steady it was boring. Then at about the last 25% of the book I was completely traumatized. Seriously this was me: (no joke I even was downing a bottle of my favorite red)

The entire time I could picture a movie being made. The sisters giving up their seat, the help from the motorcycle gang, the bachelorette limo. GAH the FEELS! My heart was literally breaking!
Steffi, I absolutely adored her! And Allison’s dad, he was one of my favorite characters! I don’t want to give anything away – and I am afraid if I delve into this book any further I just might. You have to read it!. It was written so beautifully well, and you were able to feel the emotions just jump of the pages. Solid work Miss Parker. Solid work! show less

The highlight was the first kiss I love the second meeting of these two immensely. The counting down the seconds. The time running out, the two collliding after the hero kicks his chair back and flips the table....SWOON After that solid relationship building from both secondary characters and the main couple kept the book going. Where it fizzled out for me was at the 75% mark. There was a bit of unnecessary and manufactured drama when it could've been just low key. It felt like a fast forward button that didn't need to happen.

Nothing like reading a book on the train on the way home and having to bite your hand to keep from sobbing out loud.

I was taken by surprise, this is my first book by Jessica Park and now I want more. It was absolutely beautiful; it gave me a book hangover, so many things in my head. How this story was outlined and plotted made it a very unforgettable one. It made it real, it made it a must read and one of the best books so far in 2017. I will certainly look forward to read more of this amazing author.

This wasn’t terrible overall, there was just a bunch a little nitpicky things that annoyed me in the beginning of the story that clouded my view when reading, and nothing was able to overcome that.

Things I Liked:
-Growth. I liked that Allison became her own person. She’s had a tough life and has self-isolated as a form of protection and self-preservation. Through the course of the story, we see her begin to open up and experience life and all its quirks and trials and joys. Her growth is propelled by Espen, but she doesn’t want him to eclipse everyone else in her life. She doesn’t let a guy become her world, when the story could have easily went that way.
-Allison & Simon. Allison’s relationship with Simon, her adoptive dad, was show more absolutely beautiful in every way. Simon is respectful and understanding about Allison’s reserved disposition and never forces her to do more than she’s comfortable with. Simon was supportive and encouraging and helped her open up and put herself out there. And when Allison was going through challenges, he didn’t let her regress or enable her self-isolation tendencies. So much love and care and such a happy family relationship.

Things I Didn’t Like :
-Esben . I didn’t get Esben’s social media schtick as a live blogger. It seemed like he was a blend of Humans of New York and The Buried Life, and I thought people made way too big of a deal about him. And I didn’t connect with him at all. I also felt like the story was too centered on him in the beginning,especially in Allison’s journey. She says she’s “barely felt life until this. Until him.” It was all very heavy, very quickly and I could never buy into him or their relationship.
-Social Media. I felt like Allison, and others, put too much faith into the 180 second social experiment. She had a staring contest with a stranger for 3 minutes that led to them throwing themselves at one another and kissing like their lives depended on it. I couldn’t believe how everyone held their instant connection up on a pedestal of love. It was really unbelievable to me. I also thought that Esben was incredible naive about negativity online. He’s been engaging in these social experiments for years, while his sister helped fitler negative and offensive comments. He takes over while his sister is busy and is so shocked and amazed by boldness of the anonymous that he’s ready to quit social media all together. It was another thing that I found really unbelievable.
-This line: “I wish he didn’t smell like cookies and love.” Said when Allison meets Esben and they haven’t had a full conversation yet.
-Steffi’s secret. When Steffi visited Allison after the video went viral, she told Esben she had cancer and asked him to get close with Allison, knowing Allison would need someone once she was gone. I did not like this reveal at all, it felt unnecessary and only created some temporary drama to have a cute reconciliation to end the story. It felt like this reveal tainted Allison and Esben’s relationship.

Overall, not a bad story but I never became fully invested. I LOVED Allison and Simon’s relationship and Allison’s growth through the story. But, I couldn’t take a lot of the social medial aspects seriously, and never connected with the leading man. This is a very easy book to read and has many enjoyable and heartwarming moments. I just never became invested.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. show less

I confess I had problems giving a genre to this book, and I'm sure this summary won't be any good either.

Basically, Allison was a late adoption, and so many years in foster care brought her too heavy a baggage. She'll only open up to her best friend, Steffi, who is also all the way in California. Things change when she meets Esben and ends up in a social experiment with him—staring each other for 180 seconds.

It's hard to pinpoint the plotline because the romance develops very quickly. So here is my first warning, if you don't like stories on relationships, as opposed to getting together, this may not be for you. I say this because it was what I liked the least about the book. It was a cute relationship, I took long but I did buy the show more couple eventually. Still, the book lost its shine for me.

And then there is the point that once they were together, I was unsure of the purpose. Yes, there was a lot twist, and I'll be honest, I had predicted it. Even so, it didn't get me turning pages. Perhaps, this needed restructure? Perhaps, it's just not my thing? I'm really fond of knowing what we're going about.

My other problem was Allison. Esben wasn't that interesting a character, either. But Allison was made so you wouldn't like her. At least, thanks to the speed the story took, her development worked well. Not that I fell in love. To be honest, the only character I really liked was Allison's father, Simon. He's unbelievably sweet but he still got to my heart. I'm glad we got a lot of scenes with him.

I was very excited for Park's new work because I loved Flat-out Love. Even though you do notice her style in this book, this had almost nothing of what I liked in the latter. And it did have things I didn't like at all, like the sudden psychological conflicts just there for the heck of it, a savior-of-all just like the main character in Flat-out Love, easy-to-write and even-easier-to-guess plot twists.

But it deserved being rounded up to three stars because this book has depth. It's not very enjoyable—in my opinion, obviously—but I do see why others liked it so much. I wish the use of social medias had been a little less of a wish fulfillment from the author but it was still exciting how it turned out, as surreal as it may be. Also, even though some themes were just thrown in there, most of the ones used were very well connected and developed, especially on late adoptions. Book clubs could make use of this book, for sure.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. This was also part of the blog tour promoted by Wordsmith Publicity. Many thanks to everyone for this opportunity. show less