A Messy, Beautiful Life

I wanna say right at the beginning, that I highly recommend this book to everyone, except if you want to stay away from cancer stories (something I totally understand).

THIS BOOK. The cover is gorgeous, even though it took me way too long, to figure out there is a bone between all the flowers. Something that makes total sense. Also the titel is perfect for the book. PERFECT!!!

I kinda wanna dump all my feels for the book all at once in this review. But let's have some order. Maybe. Hopefully.

The writing is amazing. Seriously. I have some problems with books at the moment and taking forever to really get into them. But this one. The author had me right from the beginning. The writing was just so beautiful.

I also loved the characters right from the start. Ellie is the perfect main character. Seriously. She is funny, she is loving, caring, she is freaking strong. That girl stole my heart. And Jason, what a great guy. DANG. I really loved him the moment he showed up and could totally understand why Ellie was falling for him super fast. These two were the greatest, through all the mess, they were beautiful. I also loved all the side characters. Craig, Ellie's stepbrother. He was amazing, seriously. In the beginning I wasn't sure cause Ellie descriped him as the most annoying person and then he showed up, and I just loved him. And he cared so much about her and ahhhh, he is great. And Ellie's mom, I LOVED her. Moms are the greatest. I wasn't sure about Ellie's father in the beginning. I was super unimpressed by him not being there. Thankfully that turned around and he got much more involved. I also loved Ellie's friends, Hana and Quinn. THEIR FRIENDSHIP. The greatest thing about all these characters and their relationship was, that this group felt like a huge family that went through all the ups and downs in life together and that was just so damn beautiful.

This book has the perfect mixture of lighthearted, fun moments and moments that will shatter your heart. But it's beautiful and gives you all the feels. And ugh, I truly love this whole story, the characters, just everything. I will stop now before I slip even more into fangirl mode and no one will understand a word I'm saying. So bye. Read this book!!!

This book was surprisingly funny. I know it's a book where the main character has cancer, but it wasn't the whole focus of the book which I loved.

Early on, cancer isn't mentioned. The first part of the book allows the readers to really get to know the amazing people in this book. Ellie is hilarious and inspirational. She is in high school living with mom. Her dad had remarried and she has a step brother, Craig. Ellie's dad kind of bailed with her somewhat crazy step mom and left Craig back home to finish high school. Ellie does improv comedy and Craig is really into music. At first, they don't get along well at all, but we start to see this amazingly sweet side of Craig. He ended up being one of my favorites. He became such an incredible brother and friend.

Ellie has two best friends, Hana and Quinn. Both do improv with Ellie. While their group is performing, Ellie meets Jason. The way they end up together is adorable. Jason is such a nice guy and not just faking it to get the girl. He's genuinely good. It is during a party when Jason goes to kiss Ellie and she falls. Nothing is broken, but her doctor finds cancer in her bone. It's a very rare cancer and Ellie faces amputation. She goes through every emotion you can imagine, but she keeps her humor through it all. Even doing a comedy routine that focused on cancer jokes. She was able to joke a lot while still being terrified. She was determined to live her life.

"Ellie, hello. Come on in. Looks like those crutches are making you buff."
"Yes, I'm getting the shoulders I need to fulfill my body-builder destiny."

Jason's mom died from cancer the year before, so Ellie tries to keep it from him. She doesn't want to be a burden on a guy she just met, but really likes a lot. He's been through so much already. But I think it's part of what made their relationship stronger. He was able to talk with her about all of it.

What I loved most about this book (besides the positive outlook) were the relationships. There was so much focus on that. Yes, the cancer was a big part, but it was really the love and friendship. Also Ellie's strength and fears. Ellie's realtionship with her mom also stood out. There was so much love there and I was able to tell how honored she felt to have Ellie as her child.

"The Vicodin didn't like me. I spent the entire night and morning after surgery throwing up every hour. Nothing like having your mom wipe vomit off your face and dress you to make you feel mature and ready to be an adult. College, here I come."

I didn't know until I finished that the author had this cancer. It made the book even better to me. She's obviously a very special, strong woman, and I thank her for writing something so personal.

I received a copy of this book from Entangled Teen through Netgalley for review. This one gets 4 1/2 stars. (rounded up to 5)

My emotions are such a jumbled mess right now. This is one of the reasons that stand alones bother me. It's because I want MORE of the characters! This book had me smiling at the adorable friendship dynamic to crying at the sadness of getting a cancer diagnosis. How unfair is life that cancer even exists? It makes my heart hurt.

Ellie was such a strong, flawed and all around awesome character. She was normal teenager and she reacted as a normal teenager should. I loved that. In YA, sometimes teen girls are written so meanly or they are written to be an airhead. Not with Ellie. I was attached to her immediately and loved reading her POV. Her wit and her strength were incredible. Not to mention, she is into improv. You definitely don't see that a lot in YA. Especially not girls.

What I really loved about this book was Ellie's circle of friends. Her support system was absolutely incredible! Her friends were just amazing. It is so refreshing to see girls supporting one another instead of turning against each other or drifting away, which can happen after a diagnosis such as cancer. Even though Ellie didn't want to burden her friends with her illness, they wouldn't leave her nor would they let Ellie leave them. And I think that is amazing. We all need friends like that.

Overall, I'm so happy with this book. The cover is beautiful. The story was beautiful, even if it was sad. The friendships will make you jealous and want you own pack. There was even diversity and LGBT representation in here that wasn't forced. This is a good example of how YA books should be done. I highly recommend this book!

'A Messy, Beautiful Life' made me cry so many times as it made me laugh. I read it all at one go because I couldn't let go. It's a book mostly about first love and cancer, but you will find also a lot about relations among people and about a loss of your beloved one. Ellie is the main character here, the cancer girl, who at some point feels that luck has completely abandoned her, but thanks to her devoted friends she finds out that there's a lot of beauty and love surrounding her, and that she is weirdly quite happy in this unhappiness. There are a lot of swooning moments. And I know it's sort of greedy and all but I actually have two fictional boyfriends from this book, Both Craig (Ellie's stepbrother) and Jason (Ellie's boyfriend) are very sensitive and romantic types. I really want to keep them both!

Ellie, Quinn and Hana are best friends who form an improve group, at a comedy club where at one of their events they meet Jason who Ellie in particular notices only what should be a great night at a party soon after they meet becomes a nightmare when she collapses in agony as her leg gives way.

However, when she finds out she has cancer, life changes and so does the situation as she finds out she has a tumour growing in her leg. Unsure how Jason will react as he lost his mum to breast cancer not too long ago, she unexpectedly finds herself being comforted by him as he supports her through her tough months ahead as she faces a possible amputation amongst other options...

I found this book saddening at the same time it was an empowering story as young teen Ellie shoulders her diagnosis and faces it all head on. Even if she feels over whelmed with it all her character allows herself to be sad but gets on with life and doesn't wallow around but embraces her life in the now to enjoy what she can in the face of the unknown. Jason was a great boyfriend to her and doesn't back away because of the cancer but if anything shows he's there for her even more. A beautiful duo to read about.

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

Please note: I received a copy of A MESSY, BEAUTIFUL LIFE from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the publisher and author.

Five stars and here’s why:

Is it possible to cry and laugh so many times with one book? Because I read it all at once and ended up doing both. I couldn’t put it down. At first, I didn’t know what to expect because Ellie is the main character and she has cancer. But her snark and sassy attitude keep us rooted to the story because this is real life. There’s a lot of pain, but there’s also a lot of beauty if you can dig deep and find that silver lining. Sara Jade Alan rocked this story. There were just the right amount of swooning moments to keep me turning the pages. If you love phenomenal writing, a story that will blow you mind and warm your heart, this book is for you. Highly recommend. Be prepared to give up your day and read it all in one sitting.

You don’t expect to find yourself smiling or even laughing when reading a novel about a teen who discovers she has cancer and yet I did both as I read Sara Jade Alan’s A Messy, Beautiful Life. Perhaps the reason why the author so ably writes about the topic is because A Messy, Beautiful Life is based to some extent on her own experiences.

Ellie, for the most part, is a typical teen who is discovering herself in her last year of high school. She’s funny and part of an improv group, which is how she meets Jason, the boy she falls for (literally). Their first meeting is a definite “Meet Cute,” during which I was chuckling and grinning. But this is just that kind of book.

One instant I was laughing and the next I had tears in my eyes when Ellie discovers that her world seems to be falling apart. She’s diagnosed with a cancer that strikes deep inside of her leg bone and can’t be touched by radiation or chemotherapy.

“Ha. Whose bone would you want?”

Thinking about it for a second, I said, “The bone of a ninja.[…] Wouldn’t that be cool? My bone would be sullen and mysterious…and then–ka-pow!–kick the crap out of things.”

Jason’s mother just died of cancer, which makes Ellie feel guilty for inviting him into her life so she decides that it would be better if they call it quits. It’s a hard decision, especially when she likes him so very much.

But Ellie as well as her friends approach this period in her life with humor and enlightenment. And that’s another thing I like about this book. It’s insightful and a little bit magical. The cynics out there might call it hokey, but I was touched by what I was reading and it made me feel better, good even. So I feel completely justified in calling this a feel-good book.

“Most people are so scared of the pain in their life, they do anything they can to avoid it, to not feel what is really there. Ignoring it merely causes a different kind of hurt.

And mostly, I would call this the story of hope, of friends and family who support you, who make you smile and with whom you can laugh when things get rough.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.