Title: Call it What you Want
Author: Brigid Kemmerer
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
Release Date: June 25, 2019
Page Numbers: 384
Star Rating: 
When his dad is caught embezzling funds from half the town, Rob goes from popular lacrosse player to social pariah. Even worse, his father’s failed suicide attempt leaves Rob and his mother responsible for his care.
Everyone thinks of Maegan as a typical overachiever, but she has a secret of her own after the pressure got to her last year. And when her sister comes home from college pregnant, keeping it from her parents might be more than she can handle.
When Rob and Maegan are paired together for a calculus project, they’re both reluctant to let anyone through the walls they’ve built. But when Maegan learns of Rob’s plan to fix the damage caused by his father, it could ruin more than their fragile new friendship…
This captivating, heartfelt novel asks the question: Is it okay to do something wrong for the right reasons?
I love Brigid Kemmerer’s books. Even though this is technically only the second book I have read of hers, she is already an auto-buy author.
Before I fully go into my thoughts of this book I will say that I had very high expectations of this book after absolutely loving Letters to the Lost, and I do think that might have set me up for a small disappointment as I didn’t have such a strong love for this book compared to that one. Don’t get me wrong I still clearly enjoyed this book by my 4 star rating but it wasn’t on the same level.
Brigid Kemmerer is a Queen of Contemporary. Throughout this book I was laughing and crying with the two main characters, Rob and Meagan and finding myself entrenched with the moral of the story.
Call it what you want follows the lives of two teenagers as they navigate the cruel world that can be high school while dealing with their own home-life issues. Rob used to be the King of the school and popular jock, until his best mates father reported his dad for embezzlement but before he was sentenced he tried to kill himself. The gun however slipped and left Rob’s father in a paralysed and brain damaged state. Meagan has always grown up in the shadow of her superstar lacrosse playing older sister and resorted to cheating on the SAT test causing everyone’s results being voided. However, if that wasn’t bad enough her sister comes home pregnant and Meagan is sworn to hiding the identity of the father from her family.
Brigid Kemmerer can write amazing complicated situations for her characters and exploring the different ways in which people deal with their life situations. Not every decision the characters make is right but as the reader you have been caught up in everything that is going on in Rob and Meagan’s life that you understand why they have made the decisions they have. Agree with them or not, the point I felt Brigid making was that as the reader you can fully understand why the decisions were made, and that anyone in the same or similar position might make the same ones.
My only issue with this book was that I was far more interested in Rob than I was Meagan. To me, Rob’s storyline was more interesting and he was the one battling the morals around right and wrong more so than Meagan. Meagan unfortunately wasn’t even the second storyline that I was interested in, as I was interested in Meagan’s sister, Sam. Yes, I understand growing up in the shadow of someone else and trying to be perfect can be very difficult but I just didn’t think it compared to what Rob or even Sam very going through.
Unfortunately I had a busy day when I picked this book up otherwise I would have demolished it in one sitting and I stayed up until 3am finishing it as I could not put it down.
This book is perfect for anyone that loves contemporary YA books and if you haven’t read anything by Brigid Kemmerer you should change that now.
Date Started: Nov 1, 2019
Date Finished: Nov 3, 2019
Ok so I’m gonna start this off by saying I do this blog (I’m not even sure I could really call it a blog given there have really only been TTT posts) because I love reading and I don’t have anyone in my physical world that shares my love so I come to the virtual world. I don’t care if there is a thousand people who read these posts or if it is just me, myself and I. I love to read and I want to share my thoughts about books in a place that I can find them in future years.
That been said I have been putting so much pressure on myself with this blog that it all felt like a job and I already have full and part-time jobs so I don’t need the feeling of another weighing on my shoulders.
For October I made all of these graphics and had plans to do Blogtober but it all became very overwhelming very quickly. As such I took time away from the Blog. Really I even took time away from reading. There has just been so much going on that has left my brain fried by the end of the day all I have managed is to come home and get maybe an hour of Netflix before falling asleep.
I am trying to find a way that I can make a promise to myself to be more consistent with posting without adding the pressure, so I’m not going make any promises. This is going to be a safe place for me to write my thoughts and feelings about books when I have the chance to. Everything on here is just for me (and if others wish to read it that’s great).
So I am finishing this off by saying, my life at the moment is very busy but my love of reading has never wavered and I will continue this blog with no schedule or pressure to post when I’m not feeling it.
See you soon.
Will Herondale from The Infernal Devices Series by Cassandra Clare
Celaena Sardothien from The Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J Maas
Harley Quinn from DC Comics
Declan Murphy from Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer
Lily from Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohen & David Levithan
Alexandria Andros from The Covenant Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Cammie Morgan from Gallagher Girls Series by Ally Carter
Charlotte Holmes from A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro
Thomas Cresswell from Stalking Jack the Ripper Series by Kerri Maniscalco
Kady Grant from The Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Ok so lets be honest. July was another terrible reading month!!!!! I finished a total of 1 book and it wasn’t even a novel. So my plans for August and really for the rest of the year I have massive plans that lets be honest there is a very good chance I will fail.
So the goal……..
My aim is read 30 books this year and give how bad my reading has been this year I have 25 books left. Yes you read that correctly. I have only completed 5 books so far this year. There have been many false starts with books but I have been so busy that I will start them and forget what I have read so I need to start again.
So in order to reach my goal I am going to need to read 6 and a bit books every month for the rest of the year.
For August these are the books on my list:
Soulless by Gail Carriger
Changeless by Gail Carriger
Blameless by Gail Carriger
Heartless by Gail Carriger
Timeless by Gail Carriger
Not sure if you can see the pattern with these books or not hahahaha but this series has been on my TBR for years and I do not know why I haven’t gotten to them yet.
I also plan on reading a 6th book so that I can make my end of year goal but I haven’t decided what that book is going to be yet.
So because I am terrible at coming up with topics I have gone back in the TTT archives and picked a topic that I missed during my hiatus. This week I have decided to
It’s a book club pick
I go in and out of being in a book club and mostly it is effected by my lack of time but I love seeing what book clubs are picking up.
It’s part of a series that I already love
This covers all things from novellas to spin off series.
Road trip books
I love a good road trip book especially because the ones that I have read so far have been set in the USA so I can somewhat travel around without actually flying all that way (one day I will road trip across the USA for myself).
Epic fantasy that goes over multiple books
This is even better when all the books have been released so I can binge the entire series.
Spy school stories
I love spy school stories. I find them entertaining so I pick them up when I find them.
Different book formats
Books like Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff easily spark my interest. I find books written in different formats a nice break and really fun to read.
An eye catching cover
Look I know the saying is don’t judge a book by the cover but I’m sorry that is why people are paid to create great covers for books. I will put a however to this by saying that I hate it when book covers do not relate to the actual story.
Fake dating plots
I love this classic trope. Give me two people that use each other a faking being in a relationship but then as they get to know each other fall in love.
Recommendations
If I have seen or read a lot of recommendations for a book by people who I know have similar taste in books with me the chances are I will pick the book up.
Auto-buy authors
The easiest way I decide whether or not to pick up a book is if it is an auto-buy author and I don’t own the book I will get it. I don’t have much impulse control in this situation.
Books By Dano 