Hi dear friends!

Today is Tuesday and it means that Shanah @bionicbookworm is asking us to do some homework! THAT’s Shanah for you folk ⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓ 😀 

I don’t know why my kids never believe me when I tell them I still have homework to do but I swear the weekly memes remind me of the work our French teacher assigned to us. Confession: I was the nerdy type and always loved writing so these homeworks never were a chore even if they were often a challenge! Try writing 1000 words with a text making sense without any “e” or “i” or …and tell me if it’s not a challenge!

But I digress sorry.

Today is about books that drained my emotions.

Well part of the “meme challenge” is coming with something fresh and new! I post often about my “bests of” or Top 5 or “I Heart Characters” and that means that I have to keep it interesting for you as in don’t use always the same books!

Think about it like we are an old married couple. Yes I know two years is not so old but the first “lust and pheromones filled”months are past now. If I leave my old socks on the ground and wear a ratty bathrobe you won’t want me anymore right?

No you’d prefer me wearing an fire engine red sheath dress like Jessica Rabbit to your Roger correct?

Much more stimulating!

My red sheath of the day comes with me once again perusing my Goodreads shelves *they are like lipstick and hair straightener to Jessica: my best friends!* and unearthing hidden treasures.

Yes you know already that Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma; The Silver Cord by Anonymous; A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole left me drained of my emotions but if they are still fantastic today they are my ratty bathrobe. With curlers!

Today’s alluring dress paired with intoxicating perfume are books that I don’t often speak of or even never spoke about but that left me drained from all emotions.

I had a bin overflowing with tissues, gained five pounds eating comfort food and such huge book hangover that no book was interesting before a loooooong time. Hence my advice to be prepared the day you’ll read them.

After this long introduction, let’s dive into the feels 😀 

Hurt by Tabitha Suzuma

I know she is known for Forbidden but believe me that woman could draw tears from Queen’s Guards!

I wrote: “Tabitha Suzuma’s writing is raw, intense, open, gripping, haert wrenching, I could go on and on... Her characters are deep, emotional, in the throes of tragedy. Each time I deeply connect with them, experience their feelings and it’s exhausting.

I read Hurt in one sitting, weeping. I was a real emotional mess. But I had to know what happened to Mathéo. I had to see if he would drown in pain and hurt or fight back and live. And once I knew what happened, I had to guess “who” was involved.

I hurt with Mathéo and Lola, was angry with his parents to be so emotionally impaired. I admired Lola for her love and support. I raged to see te pressure Mathéo was submitted to, all for the glory of winning a gold medal with not a day to live, to enjoy his teenage years.
But most of all, I suffered with Mathéo.

You could think I’m masochist because I kept reading even being aware Tabitha Suzuma does not usually come with the perfect happy end. But it was a compulsion, a need like you need breathing to live.
Once more, I’m mesmerized by miss Suzuma’s gift even if I’m still hoping one day I’ll have my happy end. But maybe, it would not be her…”

Art & Soul by Brittany C Cherry

It was my first Brittany’s book and the beginning of my love story with her words!

I wrote : “This book was an unending well of emotions. The waterworks was going at full blast and I finished my read with a red nose and a huge smile. Yes, I’m sad but it’s the good kind of sad, the one that makes you feel alive after an incredible read, filled to the brim with so many thoughts and memories you want to shout: READ IT!
It’s the kind of story that makes you feel every little thing the characters experienced: loneliness, despair, fear, joy, sadness, hope, love…
The writing is incredibly deep and beautiful it makes your soul weep and sing.”

The Boy and His Ribbon + The Girl and her Ren by Pepper Winters

This duet …left me totally bereft!

I wrote : ” Empty box of tissue, heaving shoulders and sweeping the mascara from my cheeks. Pepper Winters I HATE you as much as I LOVE you right now! As Pepper said this story is brutal, heart-breaking but somehow uplifting. Ren and Della’s love is all consuming and never ending. This story, this love is transcendental. It’s the kind of love that moves mountains, breaks the most hardened heart and makes stones weep. It’s a love that will elevate your soul. Romeo and Juliet’s love will pale in comparison to Ren and Della’s feelings. From that moment on I will stop with the blurb as you need to read it, to inhale the story through your every pore. You just have to take Della and Ren’s hands and follow them on their life journey. Through angst and joy, through sickness and hope, through savage abandon and tender feelings. An exceptional all consuming transcendental story of love and life.“

Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner

It was my second book by this author as he had already swept me off my feet with The Serpent King.

It emotionally drained me as I wrote :”Ugh, I don’t know if I was hormonal (I’m a girl so it happens), an easy cryer (might be) or if this book was extremely emotional (undoubtedly) but I cried buckets while reading Goodbye Days.
I was on the train and big fat tears kept falling on my cheeks, along my neck… I was sniffling all the time (how gracious I know). I tried every trick I know: looking at the ceiling to try avoiding the tears; blowing my nose at the slightest inkling of water; chanting “this is not true, this is fiction, Carver/Blade does NOT exist”; telling myself to “breathe in, breath out, blow slowly….” NOTHING WORKED.
By the end of the book I had puffy red eyes and a congested nose. As I read till the wee hours to finish the story I was sporting slits for eyes the morning after and yawning all the time at work.

Jeff Zentner with his Goodbye Days opened my chest, tore my heart out and scattered the remaining pieces all around the floor.”

It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

This is probably my favorite book by Colleen Hoover. I’ve loved some of her books, Hopeless being my favorite two days ago, not being touched by others so much but here I must say I fell in love with this story. Atlas stole my heart and I had to grasp tissues many times while reading his story. Lily Blossom Bloom (yes her name made me smile huge) met Atlas Corrigan when she was fifteen. He was homeless, eighteen and lived temporarily in an abandoned neighboring house. He went to school by bus, did not smell good, had no electricity, no water, no food, nothing.
Lily had a huge heart and helped him behind her parent’s back the best she could. Soon they’ll form a friendship .

Atlas was somewhat desperate and did not know how he could make something useful out of himself. He wanted to join the army but he had to survive and graduate first. Lily gave him the strength and the hope.
”Plants need to be loved the right way in order to survive. So do humans…If we’re neglected …” His voice grew quiet. Almost sad. He wiped his hands on his knees, trying to get some of the dirt off. “If we’re neglected we end up homeless and incapable of anything meaningful.”…”You see that tree over there?” In the middle of the row of trees was an oak tree that stood taller than all the rest of the trees. “It grew on its own. Most plants do need a lot of care to survive. But some things, like trees, are strong enough to do it by just relying on themselves and nobody else.”

Full Tilt by Emma Scott

It was my first Emma Scott and from that moment on she ended in my top 3 favorite authors!

I cried buckets, smiled through tears when Kacey gave life and joy to Jonah. I swooned when he protected her. I had stars in my eyes when I imagined the glasses with sea life, gigantic glass waterfalls, colorful fragile flowers…and cried some more because life was so unfair with this wonderful guy.

Ryan’s Bed by Tijan

This book was very different from all the other books Tijan wrote. I had a very hard time writing the review which ended up a jumbled mess honestly!

Here are some excerpt to explain why I chose to feature this book today: “I was a boiling mess with deep emotions churning in my belly ready to explode in a vomit of screams and rant.

That’s when you know the author did a brilliant work.

Tijan got me all in the story. Guts, heart and soul. Whole. With my leaky eyes. With my table filled with tissues. With my dog looking all frightened at her moma crying because Mackenzie and all this family HURT.

Kudos to you Tijan because you tackled some really heavy topics here: grief, suicide, death and all the ways to Sunday to cope or not with it. You wrote that this book changed you. I can tell you it overflowed me like a tidal wave of sadness. By the end of my read I was stunned by unforeseen twists the biggest being the ending and I’ve been left with a whole new appreciation of your talent. I already loved your books but now you’ve really won my utmost respect for the intelligence and the raw truth of this story.

Here is an excerpt of Tijan’s acknowledgement:
“This book was so hard to write, not in the way where I felt like I was taking a chainsaw to a glacier, but in the way where I cried almost every time I wrote it or worked on it.”
“No sequel is planned and I left the ending how it is because I hope it will make you think. I hope it will make you reread the book, but see it in an almost totally different way. Out of all the books I’ve written, this is the only one that has changed me as a person.”

Now it’s your turn. What are the books that left you emotionally drained?

Thanks for reading!

Sophie