Little Something Different

That was incredibly cute!!! Buying the physical copy RIGHT. NOW.

A Little Something Different is about college students Lea and Gabe. Everyone can see their chemistry, except for them sometimes. That's why their meet-cute story is told from 14 different viewpoints, none of them theirs.

I cannot tell you how many times I've picked up this book in any number of bookstores, carried it around, found something I thought sounded better, and then put this one back. SO many times. Finally, I saw it at my local book exchange and committed. It doesn't hurt that it has a few small books on the cover, which works for one of my PopSugar challenges.

I didn't have high hopes for this book for some reason (I just always had a feeling), so I wasn't necessarily disappointed in it. This is some fluff writing, y'all. This is absolutely the least inventive story you'll read this year. Boy meets girl, boy and girl stare at each other for an entire semester without talking, boy and girl finally talk. That's the plot. There's little to no character development. We never hear from Gabe or Lea, which is actually okay, but that means we never find out anything about them.

Honestly, the only reason I gave this book two stars instead of one was because of the 14 viewpoints. We hear from people like a Starbucks barista, a teacher's spouse, and a squirrel (my favorite part of the book.) That was super neat. I loved reading it from all those perspectives and the concept of being outside looking in. But it also fell flat.

Would I recommend?
For the plot, definitely no. But if you're looking for a quick read and are intrigued by the 14 viewpoints, it's not the worst thing.

This was a book I grabbed for my kindle because I thought I was getting the entire book for free. Spoiler: it was just the chapter sample. So annoying.

Once I decided that I wanted to read this I knew I needed to just get the dang book. My friend decided to read it with me.

The concept of the book is absolutely amazing. I really liked seeing the relationship between Gabe and Lea through everyone else. But, does everyone else actually notice two people falling in love like that in real life? I don't think so. As others have stated in their reviews there is a lot of rom com cliches in the book. The writing style is a little under whelming. I did however become invested in Gabe and Lea at the end of the October chapter.

The idea of this book was unique, a love story told in 14 different POVs and none of those were the actual members of the couple. But it fell short for me. I struggled to relate to Lea and Gabe and I found it hard to follow their love story because we were witnessing it through the eyes of their friends, acquaintances, and other random people/animal/objects. The bench and the squirrel POVs were definitely a stretch. And while I enjoyed the characterization of the squirrel, it was a little too much for me. Overall this book I think tried to do too much and suffered as a result.

This is potentially the most adorably, cute book I have ever read. So so cute. It just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Loved it. 💜

Super cute and super fun, I really enjoyed it. Nice, quick read.

Super cute YA that I listened to while driving from PDX to Victoria. I was pleasantly surprised by this one!

It was an interesting concept, and as it is a first novel, I feel like the author has potential. But as a book itself it really didn't live up to its own challenges. Though I love the idea of 14 different perspectives, some of them just fell flat–the bench POV was creepy, honestly. I also had a hard time believing these 12 different people were that involved in the romance of other people for over a year.
I did enjoy Gabe and his brother and best friend. They were a sweet bromance trio.
Otherwise...not so much.

Very quick, overly adorable book based on the shaky premise that a college professor, bus driver, waitress, barista, and even a squirrel would “ship” a romance between two very bland college students, to the point where the college professor starts changing her assignments to push them together. The gimmick is that the entire book is told from the POV of these various shippers, and not the couple themselves. In order for this to work, the lovers need to have distinctive, strong personalities that can come across even though they don't speak for themselves. To some extent that happens for our hero, Gabe, who is shy and troubled without being a jerk. But what do we know about our heroine, Lea, other than the fact that she is Asian? Not much, and her personality never coalesces into anything more than generic college girl.

You can read A Little Something Different in a few hours. It's about as filling as a meringue cookie.

Before I read this book, I basically had close to zero contact with novels for almost four months. The only books that I managed to pick up were required readings and college textbooks. I dug myself a reading slump hole so deep and I didn't even know if I could get out of it. So one rare afternoon, finding myself with no importat schoolwork whatsoever, I decided to submerge myself in the book blogging world and see what you guys were up to (sneaky, right?) and I found this book.

I don't remember who, but one of my blogger friends posted this book on her Instagram and it piqued my interest. Long story short, I got myself a copy, settled into my reading nook, and completely devoured the whole thing. And guess what happened after I finished the last page? I wanted to read more books! I've been searching and searching for the book that would finally get me out of my slump and I found it in Gabe and Lea's story. Here's why:

1.) The story is told in fourteen different points of view. Yup you read that right. FOURTEEN. And each one of the characters had their own distinct voice that managed to pull me deeper and deeper into the story. I guess I really enjoyed this because of the reading slump that I was in; the different points of view gave me entirely different perspectives that tickled my brain cells and reactivated my yearning to devour more words, more stories. And did I mention that these points of view included a squirrel's and a park bench's?

2.) Gabe and Lea are incredibly awkward-cute.

“I've got a theory.”
“That it's a demon?”
“A dancing demon?”
“No, something isn't right there.”

I love awkward-cute people, I really do. I'm awkward-cute, my crushes are awkward-cute, and some of the best people I know are awkward-cute. But the thing about Gabe and Lea is that their awkward-cutenesses merge whenever their together and created this huge intergalactic force filled with cuteness and blushing and oh my gosh just talk to each other alreadyyyy-s

3. They were more than just awkward-cute. Okay, so most books with awkward-cute characters fit exactly in that mold, learning it, loving it, living it- but that is not the case for our two protagonists. You might think that Lea is one of those girls who stay indoors and read in their room all day, and Lea does do that parties and goes on the sneakiest stalking seshes with her roommates too. Lea is actually pretty feisty and can definitely put a man in his place. Gabe, on the other hand, might sound like a total dork, and he is, but he's an athlete too! He's shy, but not completely socially awkward. He just had his reasons, that's all. So yes! Character building and development were so on par and timely. It almost kind of felt like reading a collective journal.

4. It didn't kill any brain cells. When you're reading, your brain cells might die because of two reasons: one, the story was so incredibly complex and mindblowingly heavy to intake or two, the story was so incredibly bland and stupid and you just want to hit every character with a stick. A Little Something Different sounds like a cutesy lovestory that would fit into the latter, but thankfully no brain cells were harmed while reading. It is a love story, and it is cute, but it isn't stupid or bland at all. It's one of those books that manage to melt your ice cold heart at each turn of the page and make you feel weird bubbly emotions at the pit of your stomach, but it has intellect too. It's smart and witty, and while it melts your heart it doesn't melt your brain.

5. It pretty much told the story of my life. A Little Something Different is set during Lea's first year at uni and since i'm a freshman in college too, I could relate to so much of what she was going through. The hesitance, the insecurity, the fear of the unknown, the crush that I have on the cute guy who sits next to me in almost all of our classes- umm scratch that last part out haha! I don't think that my college profs pair me up with the guys in class, but there's still a chance right?

But yes, dear bookish friends, it kind of was like reading the story of my life. I used to like a guy, and this guy used to like me, and everyone knew except for us. My friends and his friends were so tired of us beating around the bush about things but like Lea, I was just so scared of the bad things that might happen. That was an old chapter in my life, but reading A Little Something Different made me want to blow off the dust and open it up again. I guess my instant connection with Lea gave me a stronger connection with the story and that's why I loved it even more. When a book hits home with you, it's a keeper for life.