Girl Against the Universe

by Paula Stokes

Maguire is bad luck. No matter how many charms she buys or good luck rituals she performs, horrible things happen. She spends a lot of time in her room to avoid causing damage. But then she meets Jordy, a talented, lucky, aspiring tennis star. He's convinced he can help Maguire break her unlucky streak; she is convinced the best thing she can do for Jordy is stay away. But it turns out that staying away is harder than she thought. --

• ISBN10: 0062379984
• ISBN13: 9780062379986
• Publish Date: 17 May 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

Maguire believed she was cursed. In an effort to protect people from her "curse", she lived in self-imposed isolation. Then one day at her therapist's office, she met Jordy, and they agreed to help each other with their "shrink homework". From there, Maguire began to work towards her end goals, as a friendship blossomed into more.

Stokes is an author I can always rely on to keep me flipping the pages. She has a knack for creating multi-layered characters, who never fail to win a place in my heart. Maguire had really been through a LOT, and I was eager to see her "fresh start" be her pathway to start living her life again. With the love and support of many people, including her wonderful family, a few new friends, Jordy, and Dr. Daniel, Maguire was able to try and take some things back from the universe.

You ever just love being in the presence of a group of people and watching them interact with each other? That's what it was like for me with Maguire and Jordy. They had such a great rapport and their banter never failed to make me smile. I loved the way they played off one another, and I also loved the way they encouraged one another. Everybody needs their "person", and these two were lucky enough to have each other as they conquered their personal challenges.

Obviously, I cried a bit as I read this book, but when all was said and done, this was a heartwarming and touching tale of Maguire's grieving process, overcoming her fears, and finding her way back to herself.

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[kymmiejournals]

It's really good. Not your typical boy-meets-girl love story, it's kind of dark and full of emotions (from tragedies, coincidence, bad luck) literally mental pain. It's difficult to write a book about mental illness and how to overcome it but the author explained it in a unique kind of way where it won't bore us that we might stop reading it. It actually keeps me going, like I had to do chores and talk to my boyfriend, but this book is my priority lol! hahaha like i tell my boyfriend, "Can i call you later? I am reading a beautiful book and I can't put it down" but seriously, it's good but the ending is not acceptable, is it selfish to ask for more or for a sequel? Hihi! xx

[anne]

nice romance, will suit people who like books about therapy

[boghunden]

I had high expectations for this book, but I didn't expect for it to grab me the way it did.

This is a story about a girl who's struggling to stay above water, but finds herself drowning time and time again. I think we can all relate to this. It's about being afraid of things happening to other people more than oneself. About taking on too much responsibility and survivor's guilt. I think we've all been there, more or less. And that's the thing about this book: It's so relateable!

I don't know whether I actually learned something from this book, but it definitely made me think about some stuff. Stuff that's been piling up for a long time, and that I was now able to think about and figure out. I don't know if I would've worked up the courage to do so on my own, but this book definitely inspired me to just do it. I'm grateful for that.

I loved Maguire. I loved the therapist. I loved the love interest Jordy. I basically loved everyone!
The way Maguire fell in love, but still struggled with her life was so realistic. Love doesn't just cure everything! Sure, loved ones can be helpful through hard times, but they can't just make everything better like that. It takes hard work from the person themself. This book got that part exactly right and I really loved reading about it. I feel like maybe this book could help break down some taboos.

The writing style is working really well too. This book is full of humour, heart and wise words. I love how it made me go from laughing to tearing up within the same paragraph. I don't care what Paula Stokes writes, because I'll read it all.