I had a love-not-so-much-like relationship with THE CHAOS OF STANDING STILL. Definitely a roller coaster. I was vested from the beginning, the middle fell flat then picked up speed again.

Ryn is a realistic and likable enough although her actions/reactions were frustrating at times. I enjoyed getting to know more about Ryn told through flashbacks of her and Lottie’s friendship. It helped me connect with her even though I didn’t feel connected to Lottie. I actually didn’t like her all that much. I wonder if that was done on purpose.

I don’t want to give too much away. This is one of those times that you have to let the story unfold (and not be too impatient like me) to fully appreciate Ryn’s growth.

Overall, a good read. This is also one of those stories with fun and interesting side characters, especially Siri and Genius Boy. And Muppet Boy wasn’t so bad either!

The Chaos of Standing Still is the story of Ryn, who’s stuck in an airport on New Year’s Eve due to a snowstorm. She absolutely needs to get home on New Year’s Day because it is also the one year death anniversary of her best friend. It’s been an year since Lottie died, but the grief is still consuming Ryn whole, and she isn’t ready to admit it. At the Airport, she meets Xander, a lively boy who actually isn’t as happy go lucky as he’s making people believe. And, it’s the story of the 24 hours they spend together and how it changes both of them.


Ryn is kind of annoying at times, but she is seventeen, so I think we can forgive that. And, she is still dealing with the death of her best friend. So, there’s that. I love how the grief is a huge part of her still and how it’s portrayed. It made me actually believe that it had happened to her. It wasn’t brushed upon like an unfortunate life event, but was very much part of her. That was portrayed beautifully. It got to me so much that I stopped reading in the middle to call my best friend just to tell her how much I loved her. It was really impactful.


Xander. I would have liked if he would have had more screen space. I feel like this would have been so much better if the book was written in dual POVs of both Ryn and Xander because I really want to know the full backstory for Xander and his parents and all the drama surrounding his life. He is so cute and adorable and gosh! He’s such a dork. I love him!


I also love the secondary characteristics in the story! They’re so quirky and fun and awesome. I loved their stories and how they fit into the story. They made Ryn laugh and that’s something, cause she doesn’t really laugh a lot apart from when Xander is being a fool.


All in all, The Chaos of Standing Still is a fun and deep read that makes you laugh and makes you cry. And in the end, leaves a smile on your face.

The Chaos of Standing Still was amazing! Jessica Brody took the topics of grief and survivor's guilt and hit the nail on the head with them. I was brought into the story quickly and flew through the pages. Ryn was an easy character for me to identify with as I deal with these heavy issues as well.

Ryn's anxiety and depression stemming from the intense grief and guilt she's dealing with hit me like a punch to the gut. I felt the suffocation she felt, I felt the desperation to know why some people live while others die, and I felt the emptiness a death leaves behind. These things jumped off the page and landed in my head and my heart, and they were emotions I strongly shared with Ryn.

Airports have always fascinated me and have been a source of inspiration for me. I love wondering where people have come from and where they're going next. This was the perfect setting for a book that takes place within 24 hours, and it also allowed for interesting characters for the reader to meet.

Sometimes it's as though the stars align and you meet someone by chance who is cool and funny and good for you to be around, especially when you're in a crappy situation like Ryn was being stranded at an airport in a blizzard. So I really liked Xander, and the conversations between them made me laugh quite a bit. They're realistic together, and Xander is just a funny cool guy.

I wasn't too sold on Ryn's best friend, Lottie, but the character didn't take away from my enjoyment of this story.

The Chaos of Standing Still is was the first book I've read by Jessica Brody, and I'm looking forward to reading her other books. She's gained a new fan!

Tis’ the season to read all the books with snow in them, and The Chaos of Standing Still gives a whopping amount. Imagine being snowed in in New Years Eve. Now imagine being snowed in at an airport on New Years Eve. I’ve experienced snow storms, but none of this magnitude, and this is what happens to Ryn and everyone else as their flights at the Denver Airport are canceled due to the biggest storm of the century.



I enjoyed reading Ryn and Xander’s story and the cast of quirky characters that they find themselves stuck with at the airport. Between the thirteen-year-old getting his masters from Stanford, and the fast food worker whose name is Siri (just like on your iPhone), they all made the exchange between Ryn’s present misfortune and her flashbacks filled with some comic relief. Because the inside of Ryn’s head is a dark place after her best friend died a year back. The reoccurring flash backs that piece together the life and times of Ryn and Lottie all the way until the day Lottie dies is filled with childhood memories that I can relate to as that reserved friend with a moral compass who met the girl who dared to live on the edge. We’ve all had a friend like Lottie at some point in our lives. We all lost a friend like Lottie, maybe not through a tragic accident, but we had to take that loss of this exuberant personality and learn to live without them. Learn to live through the loss. And that is Ryn’s struggle as her friend’s life was untimely ripped from hers.



I’m a sucker for seasonal stories. I like to read books about the beach in the summer and snowstorm love-stories in the winter. That’s why I loved Let it Snow so much. But The Chaos of Standing Still comes with a little more punch from the rom-com stories of Let It Snow. There is grief and loss and past events that are too raw to reveal. Jessica Brody does a nice job of luring Ryn to slowly come out of her shell, to earn the courage and be comfortable to begin talking about the death of her best friend one year later was done well. Though Ryn left me on some questionable ground, giving blame to random people she did not know for things they did not do, her anxiety and necessity to be home to mourn her friend on the anniversary of her death made some of her actions reconcilable.

Pros:
The interwoven story of present and past
Xander, such a cutie
Siri, I could read a whole book about this girl

Cons:
The whole conspiracy theory with the Illuminati just really took me out of the book
It really made no sense
Why was it in here? Just to give the book more screen time??


Three target rating. Emotional levels are high, but it makes for a fun winter read once the party gets started

Not gonna lie, I was pretty nervous getting on this book. I've read the Unremembered trilogy by Jessica Brody and I liked it but this one has different premise altogether. Turned out, I really don't have to worry 'cause I liked her writing style in this book as much as I did back then. Her writing was so easy read.
I like how the protagonist of this book was written with raw emotion, her sentiment radiated through the pages straight to the reader. I had a hard time connecting with Ryn, though. After finding out what happened the day the text arrived, it really threw me off the loop because I thought there's some grand plot twist out there since Ryn took the death of her best friend really hard.
Anyway, the other characters really livened up this book. They added more color to the story and it was fun to read all of them together (on an epic [?] party).
Overall, I enjoyed reading this (as much as anyone can enjoy a book dealing with quite heavy issues and topics); reading this was a roller coaster ride: there's ups and downs, scenes that frustrated me and scenes that made me soft™.
ALSO, unpopular opinion! I like vague and open endings *spoiler alert* and this book had it and I'm all for it.

I’lll admit, I was initially drawn into this book just from the couple of lines about the possible (oh, who are we kidding? Almost 100% *guaranteed*) airport romance between two teens. I thought that it was just going to be a sweet little contemporary where girl and boy fall in love in one day and they live happily ever after. Wrong! This book is about so much more than the swoony romance that the summary foreshadows. In fact, the romance is actually tertiary to the actual storyline, which is mostly about a) Ryn trying to move past her best friend Lottie’s death and b) Ryn trying to get a flight home in time for the one-year anniversary of said death. This is not to say that there is no romance, because I promise you, there definitely is! It’s more of the fact that the story is just more focused on Ryn and Lottie than Ryn and Xander, which I actually liked because it’s not really something you really see in YA. Not to mention that there is a very unique and unforgettable cast of characters! Overall, I would give this book four-and-a-half stars, and I can’t wait to get started on another one of Jessica Brody’s books! (Hopefully "In Some Other Life" because I *adore* the storyline!)

My heart holds a special place for books about grief, loss, and coping, and The Chaos of Standing Still did not disappoint in making me cry and laugh. This book focuses more on the coping aspects of grief and all the chaos that encompasses that helpless feeling. Many times I found this story heartbreaking, but the ending is like a breath of fresh air and a warm hug filled with hope.

In regards to the main character, I oftentimes found Ryn to be very stubborn. She is stagnant in her grief of losing her best friend one year ago. While Ryn is cautious and an introvert, her late-best friend Lottie was a very outgoing and free-spirited teenager. But as Ryn’s story unfolds and we learn more and more about that terrible night that Lottie died, we find out how Lottie died and the heartbreaking scene of Ryn coming face-to-face with that reality. It is in these scenes, where Ryn allows herself to swim in memories of loss, that I began to understand that I’m not frustrated with Ryn’s approach to coping; instead I am heartbroken and shattered with her.

While the story focuses on Ryn’s 24-hour layover in an airport due to a blizzard, shenanigans ensue. She meets people who not only challenge her to step outside her own skin but they also challenge her to emotionally mature. I love that in less than a day, Ryn befriends people based on her phone case, fake names, train surfing, a midnight party, and the sudden burst of singing The Bangles.

Although sadness is a main emotion tackled in The Chaos of Standing Still, the reality of living–really living–brings so much hope to Ryn’s ability to accept life’s challenges even if they don’t have a definite answer. This book may be overwhelmed with Ryn’s grief and sadness, but it’s her ability to challenge herself and the overwhelming support of friends that makes this story unforgettable.

4 stars

Ryn's haunted by her past after her best friend's death in a car accident nearly a year ago. Trapped in the Denver International Airport during a never-ending blizzard on the one-year-anniversary of her best friend Lottie's, death, Ryn's forced to face her past through the charm of romance, the uniqueness of strangers, and the magic of ordinary places.

For the first time ever, Ryn will try to move on. And maybe that’s a start.

When I came in, I was expecting something a lot more romantic and similar to The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon, but I was instead slapped in the face with this heart-trending novel about grief and death. What started out disguised as a cute contemporary romance (there was a cell phone swap...) became a journey for Ryn to handle the grief from her best friend's death.

This is a 24-hour novel, which is a hit-or-miss sometimes. I think this was a hit because id didn't seemed as rush as some 24-hr novels usually do. It wasn't like the characters were trying to do great things--it was just Ryn developing and growing as a person, which is just as interesting as a fantastic alien space battle.

This novel was so much more moving than I expected it to be. Although it was off to a shaky start, it flipped over when we started learning more of Ryn's past.

Ryn is such an interesting character. I definitely judged her way too much at the beginning, which was definitely why the start was so shaky. But when we started learning about her background, I realized I was too quick to jump to conclusions and should have learned more about her before deciding my opinion. She was irrational at times, moody and possessive, but all of it was very understandable.

Her character arc was so complex, she was very dynamic through the novel which I really enjoyed.

Likewise, Xander's background was also developed well and I really liked how he and Ryn were juxtaposed, but the romance was a very, very small subplot.

Likewise, the other characters were cute and quirky, like some of the airport workers they meet.

This was a very character based novel, and so the plot really only worked to help Ryn develop. The part I didn't like was how it was somewhat unrealistic at times--certain quirky people would just pop up when convenient and some of the character entrances seemed a little forced to me. I liked the pacing though, and the clichés, as much as I wasn't a fan of the particular ones in this novel (it's hit or miss for me with clichés), I do think they worked really well in furthering the plot.

Most of all, I liked all the themes about grief. I think that was the highlight of the novel. Ryn's development and her handling of her friend's death was very profound. Although I've never experienced anything close to what happened to Ryn, I felt like I could relate to the suffering she was going through.

The Chaos of Standing Still was a delightful contemporary novel to read and I am so happy I got a chance to read it and be a part of this blog tour! It was so moving and I think Ryn's story won't leave me for a very long time. I would definitely recommend it to lovers of 24-hour novels or contemporaries about grief.

I LOVED this book. I think there’s something really addicting about the idea of being stuck somewhere overnight: a mall, a library, WalMart, an airport. These all seem like places that only exist when the doors are open and the lights are on and you pass through them quickly. I like the idea of exploring a place that you normally don’t get to and an airport is definitely that. Ryn has this crazy adventure, meeting different people from stranded travelers to airport employees, all on New Years Eve. I laughed so much at Troy trying to track down the mystery of the airport and Siri’s determination to throw an amazing party using whatever she can get.

But there is obviously a lot more to the novel than that, and it is interesting to learn above that it wasn’t meant to be more than a fun rom-com (which is definitely there – I swooned hard for Xander). There is something about Ryn that captures you right as well, as soon as she frantically begins typing questions into her phone to find the answers to everything. It felt so familiar; I’m incredibly guilty of doing this. I need to know the answer to every question and I know that its definitely something that helps to control my out of control thoughts in my head when I’m having a particularly anxious day. That felt so familiar to me with Ryn and I felt so much for her.

But of course, the idea of losing your best friend, both because how on earth do you live on this planet without your best friend (“Life is an ugly, awful place not to have a best friend.” — Sarah Dessen) and because Ryn struggles with the idea that she should have been in that car with Lottie, she should have died along with her. Jessica captures grief and loss and survival’s guilt so well that I felt my own emotions catch in my throat several times. Even while Ryn is having an adventure through the airport, trailing after interesting people like Xander and Siri, she counts down the literal minutes until its the exact anniversary of Lottie’s death. It consumes her and I think that losing control over her life in that airport helps her to learn to breathe again, to remember her best friend and to take the steps to live again.

I will always be a Jessica fan but I honestly think her strength lies in her ability to write incredibly relatable, fun and emotional contemporary novels and I can’t wait to read more from her.

***Actual rating: 3/5 R(V)eginald Stars***
If Lottie hadn’t died, I never would have known Xander.
The Chaos of Standing Still is mainly about how Ryn learns to move on after her best friend, Lottie, died in a car accident one year ago. Long story short, Ryn was stuck in Denver International Airport due to a blizzard and she accidentally bumped into a guy named Xander when she tripped over her own feet while googling frantically on her phone. That was how the story began.
Throughout the book, I’ve learnt a lot about Ryn:
＊She was extremely obsessed with her smartphone because 1)there was the last, tiny piece of Lottie—an unread text message from her—for her to hold on to whenever she wanted and 2)there was Google. I kid you not, Ryn googled literally everything she could think of, from how a blizzard was formed to why someone died and others didn’t.
＊She was addicted to finding answers. Ryn believed that everything happened for a reason…except Lottie’s death because Lottie was such a sweet friend and she didn’t deserve to be killed by a drunk driver, who barely got a scratch in the accident.
For the past year I’ve been searching for answers that I may never find. That may not even exist. No matter how many times I look at all the information, no matter how many times I replay January 1st, 10:05 a.m., in my head, Lottie’s death may never make sense to me.
＊She’d been underestimating the power of drawing/sketching/art all this time when she should’ve grieved Lottie properly. Since she was stuck in the airport for a night, she met a child prodigy, Troy, who was a scientist looking for answers most of his lifetime and he was figuring out the meaning of some murals in the airport. Apparently, Ryn gave him some profound interpretations that at the same time, showed him how much art had impacted on her life.
Throughout the story, I also learnt quite a lot about Xander:
＊He was actually a rebellious teenager when most people considered him to be the opposite. His relationship with his parents wasn’t exactly as perfect as people thought and I admired him for who he was.
＊He was destined to be with Ryn. The moment they accidentally took each other’s phone because as unlikely as it was, they had exactly the same phone cases, made in the same country as well (duh = =). Anyway, what’s the odd of two people with the same phone cases bumping into each other in the same place, at the same time?
My favorite part of the story was probably when Ryn shared her thoughts on the murals in the airport with Troy. Troy may be a 14-year-old genius, but he was mature enough to read Ryn’s mind. I loved the way he explained how unreasonable, unanswerable things were sometimes and how people should just move on without seeking the absolute solution to Ryn, because again, 90% of the book Ryn was trying to rationalize Lottie’s death.
I blow out a frustrated breath. “But we can’t just stop here. Don’t you want to know? You said this was one of your big problems. Don’t you want to solve it? Get to the truth? You’re a scientist! Aren’t scientists obsessed with finding answers?” And there they are again. Those inquisitive eyes of his. That calm, observing gaze. Except this time, there’s something else in there too. Empathy. “Yes, we are,” Troy says in his usual blunt tone. “But as a scientist, you also need to know when to let go and accept the fact that sometimes there are no answers.”
What’s more, I really, really liked Ryn’s new friends in the airport because they always provided her with different perspectives on her personal matters (for example, constantly googling stuff that shouldn’t be a problem for most people and ignoring her talkative friends). Her new friends were funny, humorous and so down-to-earth that I wish I could befriend them as well. Of course, one of the friends was Xander, whom I adored the most among all the characters since he was the one who truly understood and sympathized Ryn the entire time without complaining about her certain behavior. Most importantly, I appreciated how he brought Ryn to her senses in the end. I mean, just because she couldn’t let her best friend go and lead a normal life doesn’t mean she could push those who cared about her away. Although I didn’t 100% agree with what Xander did to make her read—or NOT read— that unread message, I still thought he did the right thing after all.
”Just read the message, Ryn. Stop avoiding your feelings and read the damn message! Look, it’s easy.” His finger plunges toward the screen, and it may as well be a knife plunging into my heart.
“Nooooooo!” I scream, causing a few sleeping passengers around us to stir. But it’s too late. He’s done it. He’s clicked it. He’s reading it. It’s read. It will never be unread again.
The last thing I absolutely loved in this story was when Ryn finally, truly moved on one year after Lottie’s death by sketching the Lottie she remembered and cherished in her heart. Ryn refused to do the only thing she enjoyed most—drawing and creating a piece of art—because she felt wrong doing it when her best friend was dead. Therefore, it was a huge step in her life when she made up her mind to pick up a pencil and paper just to reminisce the beauty of Lottie for Xander. In other words, I had to thank Xander for finding back who she was before Lottie died and for helping her look forward.
But this isn’t drawing. At least not like any drawing I’ve ever done before. This is an outpouring. This is a release. These are all the lines and all the shadows and all the shapes that have been trapped inside me for almost a year. That have been following me around wherever I go. Waiting to be made real. This is like something moving through me, piloting my hand, emptying my mind until everything around me disappears. The room. The snow. The people. Even Xander. This is trying to catch water from a pitcher in a thimble. This is a year’s worth of demons channeled into a fragile piece of paper. This is me finally breathing life back into Lottie.
Enough with what I liked in the book, let’s go on to the disappointing part. As much as I was satisfied with Ryn’s character development and her interaction with her new friends from the airport, there was something that’d been bothering me the whole time when I was reading this book: The fact that Lottie was on Ryn’s mind 95% of the time in the story almost drove me crazy. I was totally fine when Ryn missed Lottie a lot and shared some of their precious memories before that dreadful night with us, but I simply couldn’t stand the way Lottie occupied most of Ryn’s thought in real life. For instance, when Ryn was in a predicament with her friends/Xander, Lottie was there to tell her what to do and what not to do and Ryn would seriously consider Lottie’s advice instead of making her own decisions. Although Ryn eventually realized that she was not Lottie and she would never be Lottie in the last 5% of the book, I personally thought it was still too late for her to come to her senses. I knew it was hard to fully let her beloved friend go and that she missed Lottie all the time, but I’d appreciate more if Lottie wasn’t dictating to Ryn so often.
”And I thought I could hang on to her forever. I thought if I could just keep one tiny piece of her alive, then everything would be fine. She would never really be gone. But now that piece is gone too, and I feel so alone. I feel more alone right now than the day she died. I thought if I could just control the rest of the world, then this one uncontrollable part of it wouldn’t matter. Or it couldn’t hurt. But it turns out, I was wrong. Because it hurts like hell.”
All in all, The Chaos of Standing Still is a rather quick read for me and despite the disappointing element in the story, I’d recommend this to everyone who’d like to have a winter read because the overall plot was pretty well-thought-out. This book showed how much Ryn had come from the person she was after Lottie’s death to the one she is now thanks to her friends and Xander. And also thanks to that unexpected blizzard which got her stuck in Denver International Airport in the first place. The Chaos of Standing Still will be a wonderful read in the holiday season and hopefully you’ll love it more than I do.
What if life is predictable? What if people leave for no reason? What if losing is just another part of living? What if the universe can’t be controlled? What if chaos is good? What if some questions can never be answered? What if that’s okay?
I think that’s okay.
***Thanks to the publisher and FFBC for sending me an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.***

It is New Year's Eve in a Denver airport, where a massive snowstorm has grounded all flights. Ryn is desperately trying to make her way home because the first anniversary of her best friend's death will occur in a few short hours. Ryn can barely keep her composure, her grief is slowly forcing its way out and she doesn't feel fit to be in the company of others. As Ryn attempts to tamp down her anxieties, she runs into a stranger and so begins a new and tenuous potential romance between Ryn and Xander. The two are both carrying serious secrets and baggage. Will they be able to open up and connect?

I love this type of story. It was fun, quick, and sweet. I love the unlikely friendships and relationships that came out of this freak snow storm.

I think I can definitely say that books with dark subject matters such as grief are not for me. The premise of this book sounds amazing and it is definitely well written, but there's something about it that just didn't draw me in.

It's been a year since Ryn's best friend died and she's still not over it, she hasn't really even grieved for her friend. Now she's stuck at the airport on New Years Eve on the anniversary of her friend's death alone.

Personally, I could not really identify with Ryn, and I kept getting aggravated that she didn't really do anything. I know she is grieving, and there's no way to speed up the process or feel better quickly, but I still felt irritated with her.

Thankfully, the second half of the book moved at a faster pace, there were more human interactions, and funny moments, and that really made me enjoy the story more.

Even though the book takes place in one day, there are many flashbacks to the past when Lottie was still alive, and flashbacks to when Ryn is talking to her therapist. One thing I found really funny about the book, was when Ryn seemed so baffled that her therapist knew which questions to ask even though Ryn only gave one word answers. I know this wouldn't stand out to many people, but because I am currently learning about this, I really enjoyed this snippet.

Overall I enjoyed this book, but I know that the reason that I didn't enjoy it as much as others seem to is because of the content matter. If you enjoy reading books that are slower paced, and about characters dealing with grief, then I definitely recommend this!

The Chaos of Standing still drew me in right from the start. It is the story of a girl stranded in an airport, but with a twist. There are so many interesting side characters and some super cute moments throughout the book. While I enjoyed the story, I found the constant interruptions for flashbacks to get annoying, and I wish I could have enjoyed it more.

This book is cute, funny, and heart-wrenching all at once. It tells the story of a girl stranded in an airport on New Year’s Eve, which also happens to be the anniversary of her best friend’s death. She ends up befriending a boy because of a strange coincidence, and she finally starts to move on. I loved reading about Ryn and her new friends’ adventures together and their way of ringing in the new year. There is a good amount of comic relief and a couple of plot twists in the story, which add some more excitement. I’m not normally a fan of super depressing books, so I was glad to see that this one isn’t actually that bad.

I adored the cast of characters in The Chaos of Standing Still, or rather, the side characters. I’m still not entirely sure what I think of the main character. I found Xander to be so sweet, and I loved how patient and encouraging he is with Ryn. He has a great sense of humour and problems of his own, making him a pretty complex character. I also really enjoyed the quirky characters Ryn and Xander meet at the airport, such as Siri (the barista) and Troy (the fourteen year old genius). They make the book more fun, and I loved reading about their humorous interactions.

Since the book takes place during one day, there are a lot of flashbacks that tell the story of Ryn and Lottie’s past. I appreciate a good flashback every once in a while, but in this case, the flashbacks seem to occur right when the story is picking up. Just as I’m getting invested in the story, there is an interruption, and it really takes away from the action. I would have preferred it if the flashbacks occurred at the end of the chapter, instead of right in the middle of an interesting scene. That and the pretty unrealistic events at the airport lowered my rating of what could have been an amazing novel.

The Chaos of Standing Still is a complex novel about coping with the death of a loved one. There is plenty of comic relief and some pretty adorable moments, so the book isn’t pure sorrow. I loved the unique side characters throughout the story, but the flashbacks became annoying for me. I didn’t hate this book, but I definitely believe that it could have been better.

Stuck in the airport with nowhere to go during the worst snow storm Denver has ever seen, Ryn Gilbert spends one chaotic night with fellow stranded passenger Xander Hale, grieving her best friend and learning to live again.

The Chaos of Standing Still is a beautifully written 24 hour time stamp novel full of heartache, love, loss, and growth. Jessica Brody’s writing is so quippy and fun while simultaneously delivering a gut punch to the feels. I laughed, I cried, I loved every second of reading this book.

One of the things I love most about 24 hour time frame stories is seeing the amount of growth that can occur in such a short period of time. Ryn is tragically engrossed in her grief as the one year anniversary of her best friend Lottie’s death approaches. She is determined to make it back home to San Francisco by 10:05am, New Years Day, in order to feel closure to Lottie, arguably a person Ryn considered to be her whole world. Unfortunately for Ryn, Mother Nature has other plans, stranding her in the Denver airport during a layover. It’s there that she literally bumps into Xander, and they accidentally switch phones, leading to an entire day and night worth of shenanigans, making new friends, and journeying through the ups and downs of grief and personal growth. Ryn grows a lot as a person in the 24 hours she’s stranded; going from “mopey girl” to someone Lottie, who lived life to the fullest, would be proud of.

Xander is also dealing with his own personal struggles. His parents are famed child psychologists, authors of a book series entitled Kids Come First, but poor Xander has never come first in his parents’ lives. I really loved Xander’s upbeat attitude throughout the entire book and his cute, flirty nature. It was nice to see the relationship spark and develop between him and Ryn, both of them confronting and facing their issues together, and helping each other through.

One of the most fun aspects of the entire story were the side characters Ryn and Xander encountered who either worked or were traveling through the airport. Together they formed a merry band of misfits who added more depth to the story and pushed the plot along. Young genius Troy was one of my favorite characters, and I loved the side plot and him and Ryn investigating the conspiracies surrounding the Denver airport.

Another aspect Jessica Brody does really well is flashbacks. Through flashbacks we got to see Ryn’s relationship with Lottie, leading up to, encompassing, and surpassing the day she died. It really helped to emphasize just how important the friendship was to each of the girls.

Overall, this book was sad and happy and fun and romantic, and just the perfect read to curl up with on a cold day.

*Thank you to Simon Pulse and Netgalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

The Chaos of Standing Still was your typical YA rom-com with drama thrown in. I enjoyed the main characters and how believable their feelings and actions were. I think this was a great repersentation of the griving process and I I'm a sucker for when characters who propbably wouldnt meet otherwise are thrown together in unlikely circumstances. I LOVED the ending and how, yes this book had romance, but friendship played a bigger role. Overall, it was an average YA book but I'm not mad I read it.


I recieved an ARC of this book via Netgalley for an honest review.

I loved this book so much, and I am pretty sure it is my favorite book from Jessica Brody.

This book felt very different than all of Jessica Brody's other contemporaries in that it definitely felt like it was aimed towards older YA and not younger YA, and it dealt with deeper subjects than just the cute or funny romances. (not that there is anything wrong with books where the romance is the main focus, I love those books, it's just different.)

The main character, Ryn, lost her best friend a year prior to when this book starts, and the grief that she is dealing with is the main focus of this book. While I was not a fan of the said best friend, Lottie, in the flashbacks, I could feel the loss that Ryn was going through and it may have brought on a few tears.

While I didn't Lottie, I really liked all of the people Ryn met while stuck at the airport. Of course I liked Xander as a love interest, but I also liked Siri, Jimmy, and Troy, they were great comic relief.

I'm kind of surprised how much I liked this book and how much it made me feel. The whole book takes place in one day, but there are flashbacks. But so much happens in that single day.

Ryn hasn't been able to live a happy life since her best friend, Lottie, died almost one year ago. Ryn is flying home and needs to be there before 10:05 am, the time Lottie was killed. But the Denver weather had other ideas and she is stuck at the airport with no where to go.

Xander is heading to visit his parents in Miami when he runs into Ryn. Actually, she falls into him, and they accidentally swap phones. This little moment in a day changes everything for both of them.

Ryn and Xander end up spending the entire night having adventures around the airport. Ryn is hesitant for most of it, but something about Xander makes her feel alive. But Lottie is still on her mind (she actually talks to Ryn inside her head). She can't get the last message Lottie sent out of her mind. She refuses to read it, thinking that once it's gone, Lottie is really gone, too.

Ryn and Xander meet others in the airport and some of those characters really made the story for me. Especially Siri and Troy. Siri helped break up some of the tension and Troy was just an interesting character. I loved when Ryn went with him to explore the conspiracies of the airport.

While I loved the growing relationship with Ryn and Xander, I really loved how they both helped each other without even really trying. I also really liked all the backstory. While it was obvious to the reader that Lottie wasn't a perfect person, Ryn just had a hard time letting that image of her friend go. Ryn didn't know who she was without Lottie. She thought Lottie made her who she was, improved her. But Ryn didn't see how damaged Lottie was and that she needed Ryn just as much.

There were so many emotions that Ryn went through and everything felt very real to me.

I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher.

The Chaos of standing still is a book about Ryn and Xander. And one wild night on Denver's airport.
When snowstorm happens in Denver,Ryn ends up stranded on airport in Denver. Even though she plans to spend all the time alone with her secrets,she accidentaly meet Xander,a boy with secrets on his own. What will happen when those two collide (literally!) will stay in your hearts always.
This book made me feel soooo much! It's a really heartbreaking book but it will also made you heart warm,because its romance is perfect,especialy in this time of the year,it's a fall/winter kind of romance.
Also,I liked that we had before/now altering point. I love that a lot in a books,it just makes story richer and that was the case with this book too. Because of this points,we get to meet Lottie,which is a really important thing because with meeting Lottie,we meet Ryn also. It gives us more insight in her life.
So,all in all,I adored this book! Of course,this book is not perfect but it came in the right moment and I enjoyed every minute reading it! This is a perfect book for lovers of Jennifer Niven and John Green and I seriously doubt there is somenone who will not love this book. If you want to feel love this winter,then this book is perfect for you,because I'm sure this book will not disappoint you.

I'm so happy that I finally got to read this book! The PDF would not open on my device for a while but after reading it I devoured it. It was romantic and sweet and full of heartbreak and love. A beautiful story about a young woman who has lost her best friend and herself in the process. A chance airport meeting helps her find her way back to who she needs to be to start living her life again. Excellent read!