Fangirl: The BBRBF Book Club | outfit

Fangirl

Welcome to another installment of the BBRBF Book Club! This month, we read Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl,  which in my opinion needed a girly, sweet outfit to go with it. Lucky for me, this gorgeous Grace Karin dress arrived just in time!

Don’t forget to check out Sara, Lyndsey, and Noelle as my fellow BBRBF members, and welcome Helene and Katherine as our two newest members!

As always, here’s the synopsis via Goodreads:

“Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan…

But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words… And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?” I will start this out by saying I am not a big fan of YA novels. I get a bit tired of the problems and love stories and crushes in YA fiction, because when I was a teen and college-age girl, I didn’t act the way most YA heroines act. I was an old soul in most ways, less interested in boys and more interested in writing.

So in that way, I could connect with Cath. I appreciated that she was actually a sensible young woman, for once. I appreciated that her eventual love interest was not just the run-of-the-mill “he’s a really hot guy who broods.” But there is an overall tone with YA novels that just doesn’t appeal to me, so I had a hard time reading Fangirl. I skipped the insertion of Simon and Baz’s storyline completely. It didn’t interest me to learn more about the book within the book, and in my opinion the story would have been just fine without the excerpts from Cath’s fanfiction writing and the fictional author Gemma T. Leslie’s books about Simon and Baz. They didn’t really relate to the story for me, and were frivolous additions that I wish would have been cut out.

As well, I was a little annoyed that the Simon world seemed to be based loosely on Harry Potter and the whole book was loosely based on Harry Potter fans.

The relationship between Cath and Levi, though, was heartwarming and unexpected. I loved the way it built up, and I loved the way they worked together, and I enjoyed how they worked together as a couple. Perhaps because they remind me a bit of myself and my husband in some ways. She a writer, he always trying to make everyone happy and making everyone feel loved. She a bit lost in her internet world, he always bringing her back to earth.

I wish I had more to say about the book, but YA fiction is just not my thing. I love Rainbow Rowell and Landline sits on my mantle as one of my favorite books, and I look forward to reading more of her novels. But perhaps not any others that are meant for a younger audience.

But can we talk about this Grace Karin dress?

Evie will be turning one in September, and I want to do a photoshoot with her. So I ordered a dress from Le Bomb Shop, thinking that it would match a dress I got for her perfectly, and it wasn’t until after I had ordered that I realized the dress I ordered was a junior’s cut. Their junior’s cuts are slimmer through the waist and bust, and have seaming beneath the chest that make the bodice sit higher. When I tried it on, it did not fit me correctly. Either the seams hit about two inches above where my breast naturally falls, or things were just busting out the top.

Sadly, I started a process to return it, and then realized that not only do you have to pay return shipping, but they also charge a $6 restocking fee. After unsuccessfully listing it on a BST page, I shipped it back to Le Bomb Shop and I’ll end up ten dollars short of what I paid.  Luckily, a girl in the BST group suggested this brand of dresses from Amazon. She owns another style from the same shop, and she loved the quality and fit. Since Amazon offers free returns, I quickly placed an order for this. It is perfect. It was a full $20 less than the Le Bomb Shop dress, plus the fit is absolutely spot on, and the quality is better. Le Bomb Shop dresses have good quality, but I found the one I ordered to be a bit too flimsy for my preferences and what I had paid.

I am so happy with this dress, and in the future I will definitely be grabbing a few more colors from this line!

And yesterday proved to be my lucky day, as I also found not only these beautiful unworn, tags-still-attached flats for $5, but a shoe rack that was half off!

Have you read Fangirl? What did you think? I would recommend it if you are a YA fan; it was well written and the characters were all multifaceted and had endearing flaws. However, if you are not into YA, I would recommend checking out Landline or another of Rowell’s adult fiction books instead!

And if you’re looking for really great quality and affordable dresses, definitely check out the Grace Karin line on Amazon! I’ve got my eye on this lemon print next.

Happy Thursday!
Dress, Grace Karin on Amazon | shoes, thrifted (similar here) | flowers, thrifted | belt, thrifted

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