"Anna Bloom has just come home from a three-week stay in a mental hospital. She feels...okay. It's time to get back to some sort of normal life, whatever that means. She has to go back to school, where teachers and friends are dying to know what happened to her, but are too afraid to ask. And Anna is dying to know what's going on back at the hospital with her crush, Justin, but is too afraid to ask. Meanwhile, Anna's parents aren't getting along, and she wonders if she's the cause of her family's troubles."- summary from Amazon
I have been so excited for this book since I found out about it a couple years ago. It was well worth the wait. It's almost double in size compared to the first book, but it does encompass more plot, time, and settings. But I still devoured it just like the first one.
I missed Anna's sense of humor so much; I laughed out loud multiple times. It was also nice seeing her interacting with new, yet familiar characters- her friends, who we mainly just hear about in the first book, and her family, who we don't see too much of in the first book.
I also liked how Halpern showed various reactions to Anna's stay in the hospital. Obviously, it's at the forefront of Anna's mind and infects most of her thoughts and actions. But there are people who know, people who don't, and people who do know but don't care. Everyone has a different reaction and way of dealing with it. It's interesting.
Halpern also really did a great job with the relationship aspect of Anna's life. Her romance with Justin back at the mental hospital was a big thing for her, but how is it going to fit in when she's back in the real world? And now that she's got her stuff (kinda together), she's noticing other guys too and they're noticing her. How is she going to intersperse the two? It's an interesting plot and I liked reading about this predicament.
Overall, read Get Well Soon (the first book) if you haven't already and then this. And then get Julie's other two YA books. Julie became one of my favorites after I read Get Well Soon and her books since then have gotten better and better. They're a pure treat for me to read. I cannot wait to see what she writes next!
FTC: Received ARC from publisher. Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.
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Mmm I didn't know there was going to be a sequel to Get Well Soon. I actually didn't click with that book and then there was the whole melt down she had with some blogger a few months ago that JH kind of dropped from my radar.
ReplyDeleteI still love Into the Wild Nerd Yonder though.