Hard Love

Hard Love? Very Much.

Hard Love is one of the few books that can be described by using its own title. This book is literally about hard love a hard love that shatters John¿s heart into bits of pieces. John falls for Marisol, a girl who presents herself to everyone as ¿...a Puerto Rican Cuban Yankee lesbian,...¿. Even after him knowing Marisol was a lesbian, he is intrigued by her and falls in love little by little. John is not familiar with this type of feelings, so he denies he likes her at all. He has never been in love, or even been attracted to any girl. John is a high school student who only has one friend, Brian. He says and tries to convince himself that they are not friends, just someone he hangs out with so they can both say they have at least one friend. Even though they spend a lot of time together, they are very different people. John has had a tough life, while Brian hasn¿t. Also, one big difference is that Brian is girl-crazy, and John is not! He is a constant liar, and finds himself lying about the smallest things. Later he finds that the more he lies the harder it is to get out of something. Falling in love is something that can¿t be denied no matter how much you want to. Later John learns this. Later in the book, he admits he is in love with Marisol. She has become his first love, and also his hard love. There is no way in the world that a lesbian girl would ever go out with a straight guy. Marisol is convinced to show John she is not what he wants and looking for. On the other hand John is convinced he wants Marisol. This book is filled with drama, and hilarious moments. It¿s a book that can be enjoyed by anyone. I enjoyed reading something different for a change. I recommend this book mostly to high school students looking for a different type of read. Hard Love is a great story, which states that love is unavoidable. No matter how much you deny you love someone you can¿t un-love them in a second.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

MY FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME

i LOVE this to death! It makes so much sense and you can't help but to love the main character John/gio. He's that type of guy who really doesn't find the point in having a girlfriend and he doesn't really know what love is. His mom doesn't even show really any good emotion to her son at all. Then marisol comes along. And John ends up falling for her. And she ends up finding it hard to love him back in the way her wants her to. She a lesbian and is proud about it.
poor John.

And for everyone whose first love was a hard love.

This book was very refreshing. John "Gio" wasnt proclaiming his love like lots of characters ive read about-maybe because he didnt know he was in love. The story was realistic. I could relate to lots of his feelings-ive expirenced them before. "Hard Love" occurs more often then authors like to write about. So its nice to read about the truth for change. This book still had hope tacked on to the end,making everyone happy. I say you read it.

Hard Love

When I read the book Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger I felt really bad for John (Gio) for everything he went through with his Mom and Dad. I believe Wittlinger¿s purpose in writing this book was to prove that even though some kids have a rough childhood, and accidentally fall impossibly in love with their new lesbian best friend, they can still survive, and make the best out of things. Wittlinger aimed this book towards teenagers, because I¿m sure teenagers, at least once in his or her life, come across an unrequited love. The main character John, aka Gio, tells the story in his point of view. It¿s important that he tells the story because the reader gets an inside look into his mind, and they see can see the growing adoration towards his new found best friend, Marisol. When Marisol first told him she liked him, he had gotten the wrong idea, which signaled sparks...¿Honest to God a shiver ran through my body... Nobody ever said that they liked me. Ever. Not even [my friend:] Brian, who probably actually doesn't." The story is set to this time period, and it was accurate to real life. There was nothing about this story that was not believable, for the fact that something in this story relates to everyone who reads it. The character I connect the most with would be the main character Gio, because he had a rough childhood with his parents, and he feels angry towards them for being so unfair to him over the past years. Wittlinger was successful in her goals in writing the book. She proved that life can be unfair for some, and throw them a few bad hands; but if they keep playing their cards, they¿re going to win eventually. I also learned that some friends are here to stay, and even if you hate their girlfriends, constantly make fun of their positive attitude, and lie about not having a lesbian girlfriend, they¿ll always be calling up everyone in the phonebook to find out where you ran away to. I wouldn¿t know what book, movie, or TV show to compare this book to. I¿ve never really heard of anything like it. Apparently a straight guy falling in love with a lesbian girl isn¿t very common. Hard Love, the title of the book is significant because that exactly what the situation was. It was also the name of a song at the end of the book that was sung to Gio. I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever been in an impractical love, and can¿t seem to find any answers, or to basically anybody. I agreed with the purpose of the book. Although I¿ve never been in that exact situation, I have fallen into an impossible love, and eventually recovered from it. This book was enjoyable, at times comical, and also a little sad during the parts he opens up about his parents. Although the ending was a little cheesy, the message it left you with was inspiring, and optimistic. Out of 5 stars, I give it 3. It was a truly engaging story about love, awkwardness, and heartbreak, and even though it ended the way it had to, we still look for that `happily every after¿ ending.

fantastic!!!! every teen should read this book

John 'giovanni' is a amazing character. He gets inside your head with his zines, he makes it funny, sad, heartbreaking. yes, a wonderful book that a lot of people should read.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Stunned

John was a part of me that was written on paper. I felt that all could read in and relate in a different matter. I cried and laughed. I recommend this book to broken hearts and searching souls.

Hard Love

The begining was a little yawny, and makes you think that the plot is about something enirely different. The most interesting parts of the book was him reading the zines, the literature he read was very original, and the relationships were very intense and complicated.The dialouge was inspiring, the ending was definently worth the wait, and the lyrics at the end made me wish it wasnt over. Overall good read, but has a lot of slow spots.

Hard Love

Hard Love was a good book but its a slow starter. I thought the charaters were interesting. Hard Love was kind of boring in the begining. Though it had its flaws. But I enjoyed it in the end. So pretty good.

A reviewer

I think this book is ok but I didn¿t really get it. I still don¿t like books I don¿t know if people would like this book but I didn¿t. This book HARD LOVE is a bout a girl name Marisol and she likes girls but she is afraid she is going to get hurt again. She is afraid to get her heart broken again. It¿s not only about this girl it¿s about this boy name gio too. Gio has a messed up life and not so many friends and he likes Marisol but they are best friends but she is a les and in a chapter Marisol tells gio that she is a les but I don¿t remember his reaction. They are just best friends and I think this book is not that good I didn¿t like it but that¿s my opinion.

A reviewer

I think Hard Love is an extraordinary, outstanding, novel. Ellen Wittlinger is wickedly brilliant with words. I felt like I was with John and Marisol everywhere they went. You don¿t go in the book the book comes out to you. I recommend this book to anyone who likes JD Salinger, and books that are realistic. This is a book like no other. I give it 5 stars.

Hard Love

I thought this book was a 5 out of a 5 star, because it was a little slow and also boring. Hard love is an intense book that¿ll make you upset or cry because of the fights. Sometimes it¿ll make you wonder why does this happen? This book 'Hard Love' really explores into your mind about how love feels, what happens in a relationship when couples try to work things out. Hard love is about finding out whom and what kind of person you really are. I thought this book was a little slow, also boring. I think you should read this book because it shows how couples feel when they¿re in love what they go through. At times this book will get confusing, but you just have to hang in there and be patient.

A reviewer

Book Review Hard Love I thought Hard love was a two thumbs up I thought this was one of the best books Ellen Witlinger I ever wrote. I would give that book a 10/10 on a scale from 1-10, I really enjoyed reading Hard love. It was a lot of good parts in the book but there were also some parts when I almost fell asleep. There were good parts like when John changed his name to Gio to impress Mirasol. Ok I¿m not going to tell you the whole story of Hard love but i'm going to tell you the theme of the book. To many people it may no seem like the theme but its the theme to me. The point Ellen Witlinger makes in Hard love is that loving somebody is hard when that some one doesn¿t love you back. And that someone doesn¿t know how you feel for them. Well I hope I didn¿t ruin the book for people who are reading this and didn¿t read that actual book yet. I recommend this book to all who like the book when the boy falls for the girl. I loved every little bit of this book even though there were some chapters that were so boring. But yea this is one of the best books I ever read.

A reviewer

At first I thought that the book Hard Love was going to be boring because of the way that the cover was set up, how big the book was and also because of the title but when I started to read the first few pages it had caught my interest because how the little boy was interviewing the man to see if he was good enough but as I kept on reading I started to lose my interest in the book because I thought that it was going to be about a boy that did not have a dad and his mom wanted a stepfather for him but it wasn¿t its about friendship, love and, relationships because the main thing that this book was about was that this one guy named Gio wanted to date this one girl named Marisol but there was a few things in the way of them and that was that Marisol did not want to date him because had lost her trust to the person that she was with but not only that she was a lesbian but Gio did not know it until they went to the prom and he tried to kiss her that is why I had lost my interest to Hard Love but if you like books that are emotional and have to do with friendship, love and, I would really recommend this book to you because it has a lot of meaning to it.

A reviewer

The book Hard Love is a very interesting book. This really shows how love can be very different at times, and situations. Love is a very painful but, yet very happy too. In this case some characters experience silent love. As I would like to call it. This is when you feel something special towards that person and don¿t say a word. Love is not as easy or as paradise as it seems, but if you really feel the love you are willing to experience anything. When friendship and love are put together that relationship lasts for a long time and if that love is strong and passionate it will go very far. When you believe in love of being true you should follow your instincts no matter what the persons distance is or their beliefs, thoughts towards other people are. The thing is that you love that person how they are because that is how you met them. You should always believe in that person, and have the willingness of waiting for him or her if you really love that person.

a little unnesacary.

although i read this book in a matter of hours, it was a little slow. and i thought that at some points the things that were happening were a little random. this lyrics at the end were amazing, but i didn't see how it related to the rest of the book. the book also wasn't clear. but the plot was amazing, the dialog really innovative.

HEARTBREAKER

If a book was to dascribe me , this would definetly be it, I have so much in common with john, the main character, that it left me breathless. This book was heartbreaking and comming of age, i deeply recommend it.

Hard Love is a great book.

Do you have a hard family life? Do you sometimes just want to escape? If so, you could probably relate to John F. Galardi Jr. whom is just an average teenage boy trying to find his way in life. His parents are divorced. His mother is always depressed even when she was proposed to by a guy she really likes. She does not know if she is ready for it. His father tries to make time for John in between his love affairs but it just doesn¿t work out. On top of his family life John is confused about his love life. He is not sure on his orientation. He doesn¿t like girls but he doesn¿t like guys either. In between all of this confusion he meets a girl. Her name is Marisol. She is a Puerto Rican/Cuban Yankee lesbian. They share the love of writing. They each write zines, which are like mini magazines. Marisol writes a zine called Escape Velocity. John, or Gio as Marisol knows him, writes a zine called Bananafish. Both have wacky family lives and the only way to escape is through their writing. They form a thing called Hard Love. Along the way John makes a horrible mistake that ruins their friendship. Now the question is how can he get it back. Or will he? Hard Love is a really intense book. Ellen Wittlinger does a great job at writing it. It deals with all different kinds of life problems. Once you pick it up, you will never put it down. At least I didn¿t. I think every teenager going through a hard love or family life should read this book.

THIS book is amazing

normally, i love almost ANY good book, but this one was mesmorizing. omg the plot-line is so unexpected. the beginning isnt all that, but then it starts to get interesting. it has one of the best endings ever. you have to read this book! (guys, you would like it too)

I didn't know a book could capture my heart

When I read this book I had no idea what I was in for. I found myself getting lost in a love story so unique from others. You smile when John and Marisol meet, get angry when with John's parents, and cry when John admits he loves Marisol. This crazy journey captured my heart and inspired me to do so many great things. I absolutly love this book and it will always make me cry of joy and sorrow.

Hard Love

This book was soo great!! I pretty much fell in love with it. The main character, John, reminded me a lot of myself in a lot of different ways. So it was easy to relate to how he felt. I loved this book and the whole concept of it. I STRONGLY recommend it to EVERYONE!