Geography Club by Brent Hartinger

Russel discovers that he's not the only gay person in their little town. He agrees to a meet-up with a boy he came across online. This boy turns out to be Kevin, the uber attractive jock that he's been crushing on since forever.

Suddenly, Russell finds more people within the LGBT gender. They form a support group and disguises it as the Geography Club.

And what about the outcast Brian Bund? Does he belong to Geography Club?

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This is one of my favorite gay teen fiction. Geography Club has a sincere and friendly atmosphere in it that charmed me enough to overlook the plot's lack of intensity. The narration was very clever.

I can't wait for the movie version!

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

Forbidden, an incestuous love story of Maya and Lochan, portrays the struggle of two people who has no one else to rely on but each other. Growing up with a stuck-in-the-past irresponsible drunkard mother and three younger siblings, our protagonists' tale dramatically unfolds to an unexpected end.

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This Tabitha Suzuma novel has a high rating on Goodreads. I don't know what or how to feel. The story is alien to me, the situation is many things. It is repulsing, endearing, vomit-inducing, romantic, etc. I am confused. Terribly.

The message of course is, 'romantic love may be universal'. It made me over-analyze the psychological aspects though it didn't fully convince me as an excuse to their 'love'. To me, it wasn't enough to push the two of them past the familial boundary. Call me a prude. Forbidden is a book that lives up to its title.

As if the whole book wasn't controversial enough, the ending just had to be unspeakable. With its unconventional love story, the Vatican will surely forbid young readers to read Forbidden (or not if they all react similarly as I did).

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

Porto Vergogna is a spec of an island in Italy where The Adequate View is located. Pasquale Tursi whose father died just recently inherits this isolated hotel.

The ambitious Pasquale is working on his minuscule beach when he realizes that The Adequate View has a surprise guest! A beautiful American actress who is terribly sick landed on the young man's turf.

50 years to the future in the city of angels (LA), Claire Silver is on the brink of quitting her job when an old Italian guy and a 30-year-old man shows up at work.

In the hopes of encountering a good movie concept this time, Claire decides to hold on a bit longer. When her boss Michael Deane arrives, he is instantly in terrible shock upon seeing this old Italian guy.

The four of them takes a journey (literal) that will soon define who they are and how their lives turn out to be! 

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This book is an explosion of flavors. I got Italian/American culture, 60's celebrity gossips, humor, wit, midlife crisis, riveting and heavy drama, frustrated writer, porn addiction, plastic surgery PLUS so much more! You can tell that this seasoned author has had a lot of experience in life, either that or he's just an excellent narrator of other people's comic tragedies. I'd prefer to believe the former.

It took a while before I finished Beautiful Ruins, maybe it's because it was something far from what I usually read. I loved the book, there were boring parts but oh the nostalgia and catastrophe rammed in one interweaving story. It is so diverse and unexpected.

No wonder Emma Roberts and Taylor Swift decided to read it too.