A Little Something Different: Fourteen Viewpoints, One Love Story

I have to say, I really loved this book. On the surface it is a simple enough love story, told often enough. Boy meets girl but it takes the entire film or book for them to tell each other how the feel. What made this book so enjoyable was seeing Gabe and Lea’s story unfold through 14 points of view, not all of them human or even animate objects.They are both so awkward and shy, both so insecure that they can’t see what everyone else sees and assumes. They have stories and rather than have it all out in the open in the beginning, we see only snippets, we only know the piece of the story that someone has witnessed or has been told.As the characters pass through the scenes in the story, we get to find out a little bit more. It is a literary game of tag, but instead of being it, the character tagged gets to reveal some of Gabe and Lea’s story until they in turn tag another character, so the story keeps moving along and is always fresh because the perspective changes so frequently.You gotta love Gabe. He seems kind of dorky, but right from the beginning, you know there is something up with him, but he doesn’t talk much, even to his friends. He’s got a lot of very personal stuff going on in his head and he keeps it to himself. It kept me wondering what could have possibly happened to damage him so badly. Why was he so awkward and quiet? Why would he not talk to anyone about what he was thinking? How could anyone be so clueless? But I routed him on because he was nice and polite, saying thank and please, but he was just so sad most of the time. And he would blush furiously and get flustered so he couldn’t speak. He liked this girl so much, but he just could never get up the courage to try to talk to her and I really wanted him to.Lea, while shy and insecure, is a bit more outgoing than Gabe. She notices him, watches him. She can’t help it. She gets frustrated because he never says much, so she tries to engage him in conversation, but it usually ends up being a one-sided conversation which becomes extremely awkward. When he reads an essay he wrote in class about how he is a shy guy, she finally starts to understand him. She, like Gabe, is a sweet person. She is pleasant to the people she encounters, our perspective characters, but she is also kind to animals. She made friends with a squirrel and often talks to him and give him crumbs. She is a very likeable person and people notice her. I like that she keeps making an effort to get Gabe to open up, but she often gets frustrated by his lack of communication. She really likes him, but she can’t tell if he really likes her or not because he seems to run hot and cold. He wants to be friendly, but then he ignores her. And I want her to get through to him, for him to open up to her because these two really just need to be together.

3.5/5 starsThis was such a lovely and cute read! I randomly picked this up, intending to read at least the beginning of it, but then I ended up getting through more than half of the book on the first day. I finished it within the second sitting (aka, today).For me, the different perspectives gives the story a different feel--in comparison to ones that are written in a narrative format from the protagonists: observing and on-the-side line. At the same time, it provided a sense of engagement and a kind of one-of-the-characters feel for which they all interacted with the Gabe and Lea (the two main characters). Out of all, my favorite perspective would probably be the creative writing professor's--Inga. Ones that follow close by includes the bench's, the squirrel's, and the barista's.Although, as I mentioned, it's interesting to read from multiple perspectives, it sort of took away how the story, characters, and plot would've developed (if it were told from the main protagonists' view points). For instance, what I noticed, from reading the book, was that it uses a lot of dialog. I understand that it's because this way, the main characters' thoughts and feelings can then be clearer for the readers, but at the same time, the side characters (the ones telling the stories) don't get as much development or depth.Overall, I did really enjoy reading "A Little Something Different". I wanted to read something that I could get into easily and get through in not a very large amount of time--while still liking what I was reading and this book did exactly that. I'm so glad I picked it up when I did. Definitely one of my favorite reads this year. ^.^***

Swoon Reads has caught my attention by the way that they choose their manuscripts to publish and since this is their first published work, I figured I would give it a read.Not what I expecting. It seems like the fact that there is 14 POVs throughout this book is a selling point. It was okay - but the bench and the squirrel could definitely be left out. They definitely didn't add any to the story. The chinese delivery guy was not believable - I don't see a boy meddling in life like that. Nor do I see Starbucks baristas caring much about Gabe and Lea. I could be wrong...but I could have done without them as well. I would have liked the POVs to be longer. Just as I am getting into the character telling the story, it stops and the character changes. Really distracting.I am glad that the author brought in some gay characters and also had Gabe suffering from something. Even though he feels like his world is ruined, I like that he understands it isn't and there were worst scenarios possible for him.I would like to have known Lea and Gabe's inner thoughts, not just their dialogue.The only thing that I had to do mentally while reading this book was replace college with high school. The characters do not seem to be like any that I know in college, they seem very naive. I know there are people out there like the characters in this book, however their mannerisms and the dialogue they use reminds me more of a freshman and junior in high school.It was a super fast read, and it kept my attention, when I remembered to pay attention to who's POV it was in.I'm happy with the way it ended. The last 1/3 of the book I felt was much more solid than the beginning. I think this is a good read for ages 12-16 or so.

This book was so boring and painful to read. I really hated it.This is about Gabe and Lea who basically fancy the pants off each other but are too chicken to do anything about it. The story is told through the eyes of the people around them including friends, the bus driver, the teacher and even a squirrel and a bench.I really thought I would love this book because I kept hearing about how cute it was but I was so bored all the way through. There was so much repetition such as seeing something happen through the eyes of the barista and then having the whole thing retold by Gabe or Lea to a friend. I don't need to hear the whole thing again!I also felt there was a real sense of inappropriate behaviour by the teacher from talking about her students and what they said to her in private to her wife and then hating on a student because she looked like a Valley girl and more or less labelling her as a whore. I really didn't like it.I couldn't connect to Lea or Gabe at all. I suffer from shyness now and again like every normal person but the way they were was borderline pathetic and frustrating. I was just rolling my eyes at them the whole time and I couldn't understand why their friends couldn't just tell the other 'Hey Gabe likes you!' Ugh.This book was just one big fat nope. Do not recommend.

I'm going to be completely honest here and say that I bought this book purely to make up the amount on a gift card I had received for Christmas. I'm not usually a big fan of romance novels and I wasn't sure how much I would like this one. The cover had caught my eye (along with the price) and I knew that if I ended up hating it, I could always give it to a friend of mine who does enjoy romance books.Having said that, I loved this.The title of this novel is definitely very apt. I've never read a story before where the two main characters aren't given a view point. Instead, the story is told from the perspective of their friends, teacher, waitress, delivery guy, and even a bench! I loved the sense of humour that the author weaved into this story, it made it quirky and fun and definitely something that I enjoyed. There was even a couple references to Buffy the Vampire Slayer.Throughout the story, we're teased with the knowledge that there is something wrong with Gabe that makes him wary of approaching Lea in a romantic way. This leads to all kinds of frustrating almosts between the pair and if you're not careful, you'll end up yelling at the book because you just want things to happen for them. It's not until much later that we find out exactly what happened to make Gabe so shy and unresponsive at times. It makes a whole lot of sense when you actually know.Poor Lea spends the majority of the novel completely confused over her feelings for Gabe and his feelings for her, and your heart goes out to the girl because honestly, they are practically the most perfect, adorable bundle of cuteness ever when they're together. Even their overly cynical, grumpy classmate Victor can see that!I definitely think that this is a style of writing I would love to see again. It adds so much to the reading experience not knowing exactly what the two main love interests are thinking before, during, and after near misses. I have to say that the fact that everyone wanted them to be together was really funny at times. Some of the viewpoints were the epitomy of fangirls shoving their otps together and yelling 'now kiss!'.This story gives you the warm fuzzies and leaves you with a smile on your face because it's just one of those books that is so damn cute! I highly recommend this one to fans of romance and contemporary books, especially ones that have a splash of nerdiness thrown in.I can see this being my go-to book when I'm in need of something light and fluffy to cheer me up.

A sweet and adorable story with loveable characters. I loved that the book was told by a number of different people linked to the couple as it gave a different feel, almost as if you yourself are watching the couple. I can't begin to describe how much I liked this book

Enjoyable book and very well written but the Changing of perspectives was not my preferred taste but an amazing book !!!!!

The book was really good, one of the best I've read this year, but I did think it was a bit slow. I think the story was quite short and nothing really happened between the main charictors. However I would recommend this book to others as it was a brilliant read.