Book Review: Tonight the Streets Are Ours by Leila Sales

Tonight the Streets are Ours
by Leila Sales

Goodreads
Booktopia

Recklessly loyal.
That’s how seventeen-year-old Arden Huntley has always thought of herself. Caring for her loved ones is what gives Arden purpose in her life and makes her feel like she matters. But lately she’s grown resentful of everyone—including her needy best friend and her absent mom—taking her loyalty for granted.

Then Arden stumbles upon a website called Tonight the Streets Are Ours, the musings of a young New York City writer named Peter, who gives voice to feelings that Arden has never known how to express. He seems to get her in a way that no one else does, and he hasn’t even met her.

Until Arden sets out on a road trip to find him.

During one crazy night out in New York City filled with parties, dancing, and music—the type of night when anything can happen, and nearly everything does—Arden discovers that Peter isn’t exactly who she thought he was. And maybe she isn’t exactly who she thought she was, either

AN INTERESTING READ ABOUT FINDING YOURSELF AND DISCOVERING THE TRUTH ABOUT THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU. A FEW ANNOYING PARTS YET YOU’LL STILL KEEP READING.

Tonight the Streets are Ours is a captivating but confusing read. It’s one of those books that you finish and you’re like ‘It’s really really good!!! But then you stop, think about it and then remember all the things that annoyed you. Well, that’s what happened to me, anyway.

Arden is a girl who does everything for everyone. Her compassion and kindness knows no bounds. She’s suspended just for her best friend’s wrongs, she blames herself every time her boyfriend does something else douchery, she endlessly looks after her brother and her household each time her father forgets about it without complaint. And when she is nearly at her wit’s end, she finds a blog written by Peter, a New Yorker with a lot to say about his life. Seriously, ALL HE TALKS ABOUT IS HIS LIFE. It was irritating and obnoxious. He’s a rich New Yorker who parties every weekend and all he does, is complain about his life. URGH.
DUDE, YOU’RE RICH, WORK IN A BOOKSTORE & LIVE IN NEW YORK. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT???!!!!!

Honestly, I didn’t see how she thought Peter understood her. He was annoying and soooooo self-centered. Not spoiling anything, but he does a lot of douche things.

The book’s pacing is very fast and slow at times when they shouldn’t be. Arden road-trip to New York and actually meeting Peter doesn’t actually happen until past halfway through the book. And before then, the book drags on about Arden’s background story and her inner turmoil. Whilst, I liked reading about Arden and her inspirational selflessness, I just wanted more things to happen. I wanted more conflict, action, plot driving scenes. A lot of the book was every-day things in Arden’s life like school, driving, doing homework, extra curricular activities. It was like I was following her life and honestly, it got pretty boring.

The romance isn’t as obvious as the synopsis suggests. There are relationship problems between Arden and her boyfriend and all Peter acts as is a distraction instead of a genuine love interest.

It probably sounds like I hated this book but it WAS interesting and I definitely enjoyed reading it. Arden learns valuable lessons about her naivety and at the end, she dumps everything that makes her life worst and picks things up that make it better. It’s something a lot of us can learn from this books as well – how to make our lives happier by dumping those that don’t make us any happier.

Overall, an enjoyable read with a lot of life lessons learnt. It’s insightful whilst also entertaining. At the same time, pacing is uncomfortable and some characters have an insurmountable amount of annoyance and arrogance (*cough* Peter *cough*)