Name: menna's review of How Hard Can Love Be? by Holly Bourne
Item: How Hard Can Love Be?
Rating: 5
Author: menna

Holly Bourne

All Amber wants is a little bit of love. Her mum has never been the caring type, even before she moved to California, got remarried and had a personality transplant. But Amber’s hoping that spending the summer with her can change all that. And then there’s Kyle, the most American person Amber’s ever met. She can’t help liking him. But can he really be interested in her? Even with best friends Evie and Lottie’s advice, Amber’s finding love is hard. Is it worth the fight? “I'm a big Holly Bourne fan and this is my favourite yet. She writes with such humour and great honesty, with wonderfully relatable characters. It's also refreshing to see feminism highlighted in such a positive and relevant way for teenagers.” - Fiona Noble, The Bookseller ”Bourne talks about feminism so openly and truthfully in her books and if you ever doubted the intelligence, ability or passion of teenage girls read her books and you never will again.” - Muchbooks reader review on Guardian Children's Books ”Written with humour and warmth, Amber's story perfectly captures the emotional rollercoaster that is love: embracing all its joy and pain, whether it be for family, friends or a gorgeous boy. A really satisfying page turner.” - BookTrust ”Emotive and thought provoking this searingly honest book deals with the biggest life lesson of all - nobody's perfect.” - South Wales Daily Post ”Holly Bourne truly is the Queen of YA!” - Humaira Kauser, age 17, for LoveReading4Kids ”Holly Bourne is hugely popular with the young adult audience. The second instalment in her Normal series tells Amber's story of first love, friendship and addiction.” - The Sunday Express ”Holly Bourne’s new novel demonstrates that with the right female friends, and a decent supply of cheesy snacks, a girl can get through anything... Well-written and thoughtful, this has a thoroughly authentic twenty-first century teen voice and lightens serious issues with humour.” - LoveReading4Kids ”When I received this book I let out a squeal... I really love this series.” - Lucy the Reader "Hysterical" - Mslexia "The story is equal parts hilarious and heart-wrenching... I cannot get over how many times I snorted out loud whilst reading this book. You’ll have to read it to see for yourself" - Fable & Table “[Holly Bourne’s] writing style keeps me hooked, makes me feel things and genuinely makes me think hard about important issues. I cannot recommend her novels highly enough and I am on a mission to read them all!” - Adventures of a Teenage Bookworm

How Hard Can Love Be?

All Amber wants is a bit of love from her estranged mum. And she's hoping that a summer together at Mum's Californian kids' camp will help patch up her shattered heart. But then she meets Prom King Kyle - and offers her heart up for breaking all over again. Even with BFFs Evie and Lottie's advice, Amber's finding love hard. Is it worth the fight?

Carro

Abigail Huggan

menna

“I’m just saying, maybe political science doesn’t make you happy. But maybe that’s a good thing? Every huge political movement has come from people feeling majorly pissed off. Anger is good sometimes, if you use it the right way.”

Holly Bourne has the ability to create characters that you can relate to in an terrifying way, i related to Evie in 'Am i normal yet?'. i also kinda related to kyle about some things and i related so much to Amber in this one, mostly about feeling pissed off about everything but also about her discovering what it means to be a feminist and about feminism in general. i also loved that she made it clear the feminism is there to help both men and women and that it isn't about making women superior to men which is what a lot of people think what feminism is about. 

“Boys have to put up with crap gender roles too – feminism is about helping all of us.”

And as usual the spinster club meeting were amazing and i love Lottie and her lectures and her views on everything. Also can we talk about the friendship in this book because it is magnificent and they're all supportive of each other and it's so great. ALSO the relationship between Kyle and Amber was amazing and so cute and i loved it.

Now to the relationship between her and her mom, it was very difficult and hard and i felt VERY pissed off at the way she treated her, honestly her whole family treated her like shit and that made me so so angry i just wanted to pop their and slap them and scream at them for everything they do. 

This book is easily five stars and loved every piece of it greatly, one thing that kinda angered me was Lottie saying something about 'hairy feminists who nobody wants to sleep with' and i really hated that because THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH HAVING BODY HAIR. 

Other than that, that book is so damn good. Everyone should be reading that book.

Sonja H

Holly Bourne hat mich bereits mit ihrem ersten Buch sehr begeistert und ich war gespannt, welche Geschichte Amber im zweiten Band zu erzählen hatte.

Auch hier widmet sich die Autorin wieder schwierigen Themen: es geht um Alkoholismus, darum, wie er Menschen auseinanderbringen kann, um Patchworkfamilien und mangelnde Kommunikation.

Ihr seht, alles nicht so leicht zu verdauen.

Holly Bourne ist es jedoch ein weiteres Mal gelungen, problematische und leider sehr häufig vorkommende Situationen jugendgerecht zu verpacken.

Amber kämpft mit widersprüchlichen Emotionen, sucht die Nähe zu ihrer Mutter und weiß doch, dass diese bewusst Distanz zu ihr aufgebaut hat. Dann ist da auch noch Kyle, der unverhofft in ihr Leben geplatzt ist und der ganz andere Gefühle in ihr weckt.
Der Sommer, der für sie alles zum Besseren wenden sollte, stellt nun alles infrage. Doch mit der Unterstützung ihrer Freundinnen daheim, bringt sie nach und nach Licht ins Dunkel und lernt verschiedene Arten von Liebe kennen.

Ich mag die Geschichten um die drei Mädels sehr gern. Die Protagonistinnen sind sehr detailreich ausgearbeitet, ein bisschen verrückt, klug, sympathisch - man muss sie einfach gern haben.

Ein paar der Nebenfiguren wirken leider ein wenig flach. Kyle sagt von sich, er sei "langweilig" und tue immer das, was man von ihm erwarte. Im Prinzip ändert sich das auch nicht, man lernt ihn nicht besser kennen während des Lesens.
Auch der neue Partner der Mutter hätte mich mehr interessiert: wie kommt er mit der zerissenen Lage klar, in der sich alle befinden? Wie ist er mit dem Thema "Alkoholismus" umgegangen?

Doch das sind nur nebensächliche Kleinigkeiten, die mich störten.

"How Hard Can Love Be?" ist ein tolles und wichtiges Buch für heranwachsende Mädchen, was ich jedem wärmstens empfehlen kann!

Tiffany

** spoiler alert **
           I love Holly, such an amazing YA writer. And one that doesn’t sugar coat things. That’s what we need. 
I love that she writes as if it’s the character writing. First person. And uses words and language they would use rather than trying to think of correct terminology or whatever. 

This one I loved because Amber is funny and so sweet. Us brits all want to date the American Prom King and w get to in this book. 

I have a chin dimple so was rather annoyed at the constant “bumchin” remarks as I had that growing up and it hurt. Still hurts today as I hate my chin. But, can’t please everyone. 

 I also hated the end: why did it end so abruptly!? I best have answers in the next book! What happened with Kyle? How was Brown? Did they finally…. Ya know!?

Ella Bouic

Love this book! It is perfect after 'Am I Normal Yet?'. I love how it follows Amber and not Evie which I think is perfect as we get to experience the life of all three friends. This definitely doesn't have as much as a deeper meaning compared to the other two books but is absolutely amazing

Alex

I like how easy to read Holly Bourne's books are. It felt like I just started reading when suddenly I was on 80%! I only gave it 4 stars because I was hoping to see how Amber solved the problem of coming back to UK, and the book just finished... But other than that it was great!

Kate

Ooh this was so lovely. It was adorable, funny, heartwarming & breaking, had a wonderful cast of character and delved into topics not always discussed in YA AND it was set in a US summer camp. What more could you want? 

I absolutely love the way Holly Bourne writes. Her writing style is so easy and comfortable to read. I always find myself flying through her books and How Hard Can Love Be? was no exception to that. I loved all of the characters (I kinda hate myself for essentially going against everything the spinster club stands for...) he was utterly adorable and perfectly imperfect, which was so annoying, that it wasn't even annoying (this sentence makes sense to me, okay?...) I adored Amber's character, she was feisty, vulnerable, insecure and confident all at the same time. She was a well rounded, imperfect human being and although she was a little irritating at times, I almost liked her even more for it. 
The topics discussed (alcoholism, family break ups, first love etc) were really great to read about and I thought Holly approached them in a very accessible way. I loved the relationships portrayed, not just between Kyle and Amber but also Amber's friendships both old and new (although I'm really hoping that Whinnie isn't totally forgotten by Amber, I loved her and her wonderful philosophies!) 

My only issue with this book was the occasional comment from characters or descriptions I wasn't the biggest fan of. For example, there were a few occasions of ableist language and discussion of race but from what I can remember, it wasn't an overwhelming amount but I was so caught up on the story I'm 100% aware I may have not picked up on everything. 

Am I Normal Yet? was one of my favourites when I first read it, for so many reasons and I'd been putting this off because I was worried that it would disappoint me in comparison but it didn't, at all. In fact, I loved it for so many totally different reasons. It wasn't so difficult or heavy for me to read and it combined so many things I love in a book (give me all the US road trip and summer camp narratives please!) 

If you're looking for a highly adorable, funny, contemporary with depth and discussion, How Hard Can Love Be? is definitely one I'd recommend!

Abigail Huggan &
How Hard Can Love Be? by Holly Bourne

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Abigail Huggan &How Hard Can Love Be? by Holly Bourne

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Abigail Huggan &
How Hard Can Love Be? by Holly Bourne