Uh oh, trouble brewing! One of those nights where you wish your mobile had a “drunk” filter that stops you posting on social media. Perhaps there would be one if she didn’t have such an old model of mobile phone…?
One key new word for my vocabulary this week - bolleras!
Despite this week being a tad longer than last, I fell like I read it quicker. Hoping next week goes just as smoothly.
Anyway, it’s party time! Nina is a huge ball of insecurities; I don’t really blame her, considering her situation, and I wonder if part of the book will be her coming to terms with her financial situation?
Interesting that she’s already kissed a girl at a previous party; I suppose we’re coming into the book with her not having given a lot of thought to her own sexuality? I wonder at her posting that -¡Ah, bolleras! video; like I mentioned in my week 1 thoughts, I don’t remember the contents of the back of the book, so I’ll speculate without taking that into account. I wonder if her posting this is going to lead to some nasty chain reactions?
I also found it interesting how apparently her social network following is built on her posting videos at Ezra’s huge house and all the parties she’s gone to. Sounds like a quick way to lose it all if/when she leaves the friend group.
Ugh, I really want to start making flashcards of all the vocab I’m highlighting, but I don’t have any sort of system set up. @.@ My Japanese Anki habit is yelling at me right now…
Week 2!
Oh yeah, that is going to come back to haunt Nina for sure.
It’s interesting - I don’t like her, so far, but I have a lot of sympathy for her situation. She’s trying to deal with a bad situation in a not ideal way. I’m also hoping for a bit of a coming of age sort of story here. 
I’m also very happy with it so far. Reading digitally this time makes lookups much smoother, but I also think the writing and (comparative) lack of complexity and fantasy elements
is more suited to my level. 
I managed a whooping 4 percent in the car today!
Week 3! We’re increasing pace to 2 chapters per week!
The scene is set! We meet Alexia, an intelligent girl, bit of a social outcast, and a lesbian. She happens to be secretly tutoring the popular, extremely hot basketball captain whose life is about to fall apart, and has had a previous drunken experience with another girl. Where could this story possibly go…?
The new word I liked this week was animadoras - cheerleaders!
The sentence I hated this week was this one - the second sentence in this paragraph from mid chapter 4. This was how I broke it down:
—¡Qué buena está, joder! —susurra Cris cuando pasa a nuestro lado—. Dejaría que me hiciese lo que ella quisiera.
Dejaría que - dejar que means “to let, to allow) - this is the conditional form “I would let/I would allow)
me - pronoun. “I/me” is going to be the object of the following verb
hiciese - imperfect subjunctive of hacer, in the él/ella/usted conjugation. This verb relates to Nina and means “that she would do (to me)”
lo que - that which
ella quisiera - imperfect subjunctive of querer, in the él/ella/usted conjugation. Again referring to Nina - “that she would want”
I would allow her that she would do to me that which she would want
Or, I would let her do to me whatever she wanted
I’m also done with both chapters 3&4. I read both in one day each. The writing style is really easy to just read and to keep reading.
Haha yeah, I have nooo idea. 
The story is quite simple, while also detailing the struggles of school popularity, the maintenance and lack their quite well. I’m really happy with it as a book club pick.
Thanks for the breakdown! I realize now that I sort of skimmed over that sentence (and probably others). :o
Week 4! I’m a bit behind, still need to read week 3…
We seem to be at 25% of the book! That went quickly!
And the deal is done. I can’t see this going any other way except very badly!
Tengo deditos… - this book really is very different to what I would normally read!
It’s very explicit, that’s for sure!
You can almost smell the drama brewing, haha.
Chapter 3: oh, I really like this angle. For some reason I never considered her getting cancelled over that video, but I like the angle! Also, not to be too judgy, but girl, you were paying someone to do your homework? Feels like a waste of money, considering you’ll almost certainly fail your quizzes and tests that way. Guess it depends on how much she was paying Vidya, I suppose…
I like short chapters. :3
Chapter 4: And we finally meet the other girl, Alexia! Very neat that her friend is trans; like others here this kind of book is not my normal, so lots of everyday things are a nice surprise, haha.
Ooooh, I’m so glad it wasn’t just me! >.< I see stuff like this and my tiny cup of confidence in my paltry Spanish dwindles away… Thank you for the breakdown!
And done with chapters 5 and 6! I liked how Alexia was really torn between her crush for Nina and her unwillingness to be part of this scheme. I’d definitely like to see more of Nina through a third party’s eyes, see what others actually think of her.
Week 5 has arrived~
So I was thinking exactly the same, how is this going to work? Surely it’s going to be very difficult to make people believe this. Luckily Alexia is super intelligent and has all the angles covered (including el culo).
The people that seem hardest to persuade are the best friends. Cris in particular, is she really going to believe that Alexia kept this a secret from her for two months?
But most of all, surely this plan is going to rely on Nina being physically affectionate with Alexia in public - more than just holding hands, especially when they go out to parties.
Some great teenage logic from Alexia persuading herself she’s doing the right thing! Just extending the lie a little…
Sort of dropped off the face of the earth accidentally for the past couple months, but I’m back!! I bought myself a copy of the ebook and got started reading it tonight, and chapter 1 was a breeze, so I’m optimistic I’ll be able to catch up, maybe? 
I hope y’all are enjoying it so far! I’m excited to read people’s reactions as I work through it!
Finished chapter 2!
I hope the reading has continued to go smoothly for everyone!
This book is right at the sweet spot I found during my early adventures in reading Spanish, where the books started to get easy enough for me, my reading speed picked up a lot and it felt like I was properly reading for the first time. I found that I had really good luck with first person YA romance with an everyday setting because a lot of words you learn in Spanish classes come up in these kinds of books.
Though this book certainly teaches plenty of words you won’t learn in Spanish class 
It’s a nice way to sort of ease back into reading in Spanish more regularly for me. Maybe I’ll try to tackle the rest of Bestias after I’m caught up on this club…
Finished chapters 3 & 4!
It’s nice to meet the other character! I didn’t expect them to already have any sort of established connection beforehand, so that was a surprise. Nina isn’t a very likable character so far, so I suppose she can only grow from here
I’m able to make pretty good progress on this book just by reading 30 minutes or so each night. If all goes as planned, I should hopefully be caught up within the week, maybe?
If you do you’ll be ahead of me. I’ve somehow gotten myself into a “read every two weeks” loop I really need to break out of.
And we’re on week 6!
This week’s chapters done. Like others, I’m enjoying the relative easiness of the language in this book so far. I’m able to just relax and read this without having to think too much, and only occasionally looking up a word now we are into the swing of things.
I wouldn’t normally read a romance, never mind a teenage LGB romance, but such is the fun of being in a bookclub and picking up something you wouldn’t do normally!
I’m trying not to overthink the plot, it’s not that sort of a book! Their plan seems very weak and ready to fall apart very easily, which would compound Nina’s misery rather than save her fledgling basketball career. Interesting that the brainboxes in the school are immediately onto their plan. We await Ezra’s reaction!
The genuine affection blooming between them may be enough to save the day though! I’m already putting my money on a happy ending.
Week 5: Hah, Nina getting so flustered over them going to plan their fake relationship in Alexia’s bedroom, behind closed doors was unexpectedly cute.
