NoB was a birthday present from one of my best book buddies, @SarahO97 - she didn't tell me anything about it, but Sarah has great taste in books. I can definitely say that I wouldn't have picked up NoB if it hadn't been for Sarah....but boy, am I glad I did.When I first started North of Beautiful, I expected it to be fairly light-hearted, with lots of self-discovery and a cute romance with some self-esteem stuff. Not so. This book surprised me with its depth and its honesty. But be warned: this...

TBR Pile Reduction Challenge #3 - KristyNorth of Beautiful and I were off to a rather rocky start. After about 50 pages in I was contemplating giving up on it because what I had read so far had either bored me or had made me uncomfortable to a great extent.Terra’s family is more than shattered. Her father is a real bully and all those mean and hurtful things he said to either Terra or her mother hurt me so much that I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to stick with the story or not. I guess the fact ...

North of Beautiful is about Terra Cooper, the blond bombshell with a killer body and perfect boyfriend whose life would be unblemished if not for the port-wine stain encompassing the entire left side of her face. There is a saying that goes "Humans only take into account bad deeds, and once a bad deed has been committed, the good will forever be ignored." This is true for Terra, for when most people think of her, they forget that she works strenuously to keep in shape and that she has promising ...

I'm sure this must get better as it goes on but the opening was too dull for me to want to spend any more time finding out.

I don't read a lot of realistic YA fiction precisely because of books like this: well-meaning, angsty Books with Messages whose earnest agendas are perfectly clear to anyone who skims the jacket. It's funny that a book that wants so very much for people to look past the mark on Terra's face has so much trouble focusing on much of anything except that. Despite being a decently-sized novel, somehow how the abusive dad, the meek mother, the endless references to cartography, the artwork, and the bo...

Once upon a time, I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning while sitting under the covers in a darkened air force base hotel, watching a PBS Nova special about the magnetic poles. (hold on while I push up my nerd glasses) The people I was with were all asleep but I was watching it, flabbergasted, and wanting to wake them up--because I never knew, until that moment, that what we know as magnetic north and south have changed several times in the history of Earth. Can you imagine? Obviously it...

“Terra, a sensitive, artistic high school senior born with a facial port-wine stain, struggles with issues of inner and outer beauty with the help of her Goth friend Jacob.I was initially dismayed by the first few chapters of this book because of the intense amount of references to maps and cartography, of which I was not well-versed in, making it feel like I was reading an encyclopedia and in need of constant referencing with a dictionary to find the meaning of certain words. The cartography me...

Posted at Shelf Inflicted Terra Cooper is blonde, beautiful, a talented artist, and dating a popular and athletic boy. She has everything going for her, or does she? Well, she has one physical flaw, a port-wine stain birthmark in the shape of Bhutan on her right cheek. Along with her daily exercise regimen, Terra skillfully applies an assortment of cosmetics and moisturizers to conceal the red stain that brings her shame. She lives in a small, boring town in Washington, has a father who is contr...

Listen up people! There is a reason why this book has so many raving reviews, it is simply gorgeous. When I finished it I actually sat for a whole 30 minutes in the same exact spot thinking about the book, and all that I took from it. That's how great it's impact was on me.The story is like a block of wood that you see has the potential to be something beautiful. The carpenter (the author) chips away slowly and deliberately. Doing a through job of sanding the wood down until finally you get the ...

The first thing people notice about Terra Cooper isn’t her gorgeous blonde hair or killer body: it’s the port wine stain that spreads across her cheek, marking her face. Terra is desperate to escape her tiny Washington town, and plots to attend a small liberal arts college on the East Coast, but her controlling father dashes her plans. When she meets Jacob, a Goth Chinese boy, after she nearly hits him with her car, things begin to change. Jacob gets her. For the first time in her life, Terra is...