A little bit cheesy and predictable, but what's wrong with that from time to time? If Before I Fall were a rom-com, it would be A Week of Mondays. I read this book in the span of two days because it was so much fun—it was a perfect pick for my first book of summer break. :)

3.5 stars*

it was enjoyable but unremarkable. it’s a fun, light read but that’s all there is to it.

Whoopee! My eyes are literally shooting out love bubbles here. This was such a satisfying read, as opposed to some YA books I've unluckily read this year.
I gotta admit, I was anticipating an enormous amount of repetition, and oh so bleh stuff. But, boy, did she pull it off!!

A week of Mondays, was, well, pretty much predictable. However, what made this book stand out from the usual YA book cliché city, was the well-founded narrative voice of the lead character. Ellison was, simply put, hilarious and inherently likable. This book has surely earned a spot in my 2017 Favorite Reads!

I had so much fun with A Week of Mondays. To be honest, I picked it up not really knowing anything about it, except that it was on my bookclub reading list and I liked the cover LOL!

What worked: Groundhog day! Okay not really groundhog day, but I've always loved that movie and stories that utilize that trope (is it a trope?) and this one does it so well. Our teenage heroine is reliving what could easily be the worst monday an otherwise happy teen lives through. So no, she doesn't have a hard life and yeah, it could be way worse. But it your otherwise happy, this day sucks.
- Quite a few bits had me LMAO which was an unexpected surprise. Especially the day she looses it and just says eff it! Very funny!
- the relationships! I loved her relationships and how she realizes part of what she has to do to fix Monday is take better care of those relationships - with her mother & father, her sister, and her best friend Ollie.
- the message - You have to be true to who you are! Changing yourself isn't how you find love and happiness, if you love yourself others will too.
- the "love-triangle" - I'm someone who can both love and hate love triangles, depending on how they go. I don't want to spoil anything so I can't explain exactly why this one works- except to say, the right person wins and you don't feel bad at all about the one that looses.

What could have worked better:
- I think I would have liked a few more Mondays! LOL! It's already a long enough book and honestly works just fine the way it is. I'm just trying to figure out what would have made it 5 stars for me and I think some more of the crazy, she's lost it, Mondays would have been fun. Maybe that would have brought me to 5 stars? IDK?

Okay: boy breaks up with girl during the worst day of said girl's (apparently not very eventful) life. Universe gives her a week's worth of do-overs so that she can (she thinks) convince the boy not to break up with her. (In reality, of course, she's meant to learn that he's not The One.)

But here's what I don't get about this kind of book: if the universe was going to hand out do-overs (and not just a single do-over, mind, but do-over after do-over), wouldn't you think the universe would have higher priorities than, like, how a girl feels about her breakup? I don't mind Ellison as a character, but she's not especially interesting, and for all that she's meant to be intelligent and well-rounded and all that, her only concern for most of the book is who she is or isn't dating. It's fun enough, but very well trod already.

This was the first book I read of the year. Looking back to it, I can say it was a wonderful idea! The story was fresh, the characters were interesting, the plot was complex enough. I really really liked it.

Talking about the story line, I can say that I really loved her! She was amazing, everything she did was so real and she tried so hard to make it right! Every time she failed I was so disappointed but at the same time so astonished. I was wondering the whole story how would it end! She got the message after 6 tries, and it was the perfect ending to a really good story!

Fluffy, yeah, but this was really fun! Great humorous voice, didn't take itself too seriously, and the concept was well-executed. Reminded me a bit of the few Sarah Mlynowski's I read circa 2007...

I was in the mood for a fluffy YA, and that's exactly what I got. It didn't change my life, and I probably won't remember any details about it a year from now, but it was fun.

Initial Impressions 7/30/16: 3.75 - 4 stars
It started off a bit too cutesy and still remained light/fun throughout but the ending was just perfection. I loved the Groundhog Day feel and the book was easy to breeze through! It was my first contemporary from Jessica Brody (I read her sci-fi trilogy, Unremembered) and it was fun! A bit too goofy at times for me but it was a really cute book.

Full review as originally posted HERE on The Book Addict's Guide 8/2/16: It's Groundhog Daaayyy! (I hope you said that like the radio announcers in the movie...) But no, even worse... IT'S MONDAY and Ellison Sparks can't get past the worst day of the week which incidentally is about the worst day of her life. From boy issues to mean girls to family affairs, Ellie Sparks is having a tough Monday and in A WEEK OF MONDAYS, she has to do it all over again until she gets it right.

This was my first contemporary book from Jessica Brody after having read her Unremembered series which was sci-fi so I wasn't quite sure what to expect! Some authors have a tone that carries throughout their novels no matter what the genre is and others completely change depending on the characters they're writing. I feel like I was able to pick out some of that humor that I'd seen in Unremembered that really had me enjoying the characters! It was a bit slapstick at times in A WEEK OF MONDAYS but if you're going to have a Groundhog Day-type book, you gotta get some slapstick in there, right? The book definitely had a lightness to it and was a breeze to read despite its length! The way the chapters are set up make for a higher page count but don't let that fool you -- it's actually a quick read!

I could totally identify with Ellie in so many ways. I didn't have a lot of relationships in high school but whether it was relationship or crush, I know so many of us ended up trying to be the person we thought our crush wanted us to be and what they liked and sometimes not who we actually were. I liked that Ellie went on this journey of self-discovery in such a unique way. As wonderful as it is to have this total revelation as some characters do in books, Ellie had to go through the same situation SEVEN times in order to finally figure certain things out and I kind of loved that. We learn from our mistakes but we don't always learn on the first try and as terrible as it was to relive the same Monday over and over again, she was lucky enough to get another chance to take a different path in her life when so many of us are left with regrets or "what if"s.

I really, really enjoyed the ending. There was a moment there that I totally called from the start (because I just really wanted it to happen) and it totally came together in the end. I really loved how everything worked out and all of the things that Ellie made right again. It wasn't totally predictable either! I thought I knew how things would wrap up and I suppose I guessed it overall but the path to get there was different than I expected and I always love when authors are able to surprise me!

A WEEK OF MONDAYS was just a fun book from start to finish. It started off more on the silly side and slowly progressed to serious and a little deeper. I really loved Ellie's journey and the ending to the book was just perfect! A WEEK OF MONDAYS was my favorite kind of book to read in the summertime but it's great for any time of the year! I do love Jessica Brody and I look forward to reading more of her books!