180 Seconds by Jessica Park

4 Stars

I received a copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I actually really quite liked this. It was a really sweet book about coming out of your shell. It was a bit sad but a lot happy and cute. So, the perfect contemporary for me.

I will start with one thing that bothered me quickly just to get it out of the way. Manic pixie dream girl, or should I say manic pixie dream boy. I kind of got a jist of that with Esben. It wasn't a huge deal but it seemed a bit like he was created only to bring Allison out of her shell and he was a bit too perfect for me and it just rang manic pixie dream person at me. He was a really pure and genuine person who really unconditionally loved Allison. Like, he took everything with her so well and it all seemed weird to me. He didn't get frustrated or anything, I don't know it was just strange. I think there were about two occasions in the whole book where we saw that side of him.

I really liked Allison because I saw a lot of myself in her. At the beginning we see her as quite introverted and she likes to keep to herself. We learn that it's a trust issue because of her past in foster care. I can totally get that, I've always been a little introverted and sometimes simple things can set me back, similarly to how we see Allison go a bit back and forth in the book. I think she had an awesome character development and I loved seeing her open up and 'be brave'. I really loved the phrase 'be brave' throughout the book, it kind of reminded me of a similar thing in The One Memory of Flora Banks. I really loved how Allison took that on.

I adored the relationship between Allison and Simon. I always love a good family in YA. I think it's so important. I really liked that she had a really strong father figure, even if he did come later rather than sooner. I really enjoyed seeing their relationship blossom as Allison learnt to open up. I think strong father figures are really important in YA. Simon reminded me so much of my own dad and I really liked him and the role he played in the story.

I liked the modern kind of take on things. YA is getting more and more modern and I think it's kind of cool. It's cool to read about social networking and internet personalities. This book has a lot of that so if you think that's as cool as I do, I think you're going to like this one. Also, it has social experiments and I love social experiments so that's something to look forward to.

180 Seconds was a really lovely book. I really liked the meaning behind the title. I grinned almost the whole way through because it really was too cute. Watching Allison bloom was really lovely and kind of inspiring for me, I think I'm going to try to 'be brave' now. Relating to Allison so much was a really strong point for me. I liked all the characters a lot, I think Esben could've used a bit more personality but otherwise, I liked him. It was pretty heart warming and I think it would be worth a try for any contemporary fans. Also, look at that cover.