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Showing posts from May, 2016

May Review

This month has been rubbish for me reading wise. I've read barely anything and I've DNFed so so much. Read in May A Seven Letter Word by Kim Slater Girl Up by Laura Bates With Malice Eileen Cole The Graces by Laure Eve Book of the Month I've been waiting for this for ages and I'm pleased to say I really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to the follow up book next year already. Events Attended None but I have one lined up for next month which I'm already looking forward to. June TBR Born Scared by Kevin Brooks The Girls by Emma Cline The Boy most likely to by Huntley Fitzpatrick Breaker by Kat Ellis In the Dark, In the Woods by Eliza Wass

Can't wait to read

This month has been rough reading wise. I think that's because there's nothing on my TBR pile screaming for me to read it and because everything I desperately want to read hasn't found itself into my hands yet. This is a short list of the books I am currently lusting after.   Time for Jas by Natasha Farrant Bluebell and her siblings are beginning a new school year. Suddenly everyone is freaking out. Twig has taken up violent team sports, poor Jas is being bullied by the ghastly Cupcake Crew and Blue has a big decision to make. There are fights and crying fits. Halloween parades gone wrong and secret graffiti artists. Confusing friendships and life-changing choices. But there is also laughter and above all, there is love - and that's what being a family is all about. I love this series. They are just so sweet and I love the quirkiness of the entire family. I cannot wait to read more about them. What's a girl gotta do? by Holly Bourne Lotti

Mystery and Mayhem Blog Tour: Guest post from author Susie Day

Susie Day: crime-fighting teams Let’s Fight Crime - Together! I do like a maverick. Kurt Wallander, Sarah Lund. Jackson Brodie, stumbling about pursued by quotations. Every stoic Dick Francis hero jockey. But deep down, what I really want from my mystery-solving nonsense is pals. A team. A found family; a partnership. What’s Starsky without his Hutch? Julian, Dick and Anne without George and Timmy? Wells & Wong, Robin Stevens Boarding schools! In the 1920s! With crime! This is my dream series: a clever blend of Girls’ Own children’s classics and Golden Age mysteries, utterly respectful of their source material while scratching at the multiple narrow-minded injustices of the era with a very modern fingernail. The awfulness of Head Detective Daisy and her eager deputy Hazel is a joyous take on a particular friendship dynamic, and the mysteries are good chewy fun. The Three Investigators, Robert Arthur Jr ‘Presented’ by Alfred Hitchcock, Jupiter Jones and

V for Violet Blog Tour: Guest Post by Alison Rattle.

Why I chose to set V for Violet in post-war early 1960s London The teenage years are a time of massive change, both physically and mentally. It’s all about finding your place in the world and about finding yourself. Violet is a typical teenager and is confronting all the usual struggles and issues with family, friendships, first love and what to do with her life. But what makes things different for Violet is that she is doing all this in the early 1960s in a society that is itself struggling through massive changes and trying to find its own identity. What is happening within society is a reflection of everything Violet is going through. This is exactly why I chose the 1960s setting for V for Violet because it was such a fascinating and defining time in British history. And London in particular was at the centre of all the massive changes that were going on. Violet was born at the exact moment Winston Churchill announced victory in Europe. So right on the cusp of the old and t

Mystery and Mayhem

Twelve mysteries. Twelve authors. One challenge: can YOU solve the crimes before the heroes of the stories? These are twelve brand-new short stories from twelve of the best children's crime writers writing today. These creepy, hilarious, brain-boggling, heart-pounding mysteries feature daring, brilliant young detectives, and this anthology is a must for fans of crime fiction and detection, especially the Murder Most Unladylike Mysteries, The Roman Mysteries and The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow. My thoughts I looked forward to this book from the moment I first heard of it and once I got a copy I was so pleased as I really enjoyed the stories in it. The stand out ones for me had to be those by Susie Day, Harriet Whitehorn and Robin Stevens. 1) Emily and the detectives by Susie Day This was a fab little story. I loved Emily as a character and her determination to not let Victorian sexist attitudes hold her back. I really want more stores about her as I could see he

The One we fell in love with by Paige Toon

Phoebe is caught between a rock and a hard place. Settle down and get married, or return to the French Alps to pursue her passion? Eliza is in love with someone who is no longer hers. In fact, he probably never was… And her dream of becoming a musician seems to be spiralling down the drain. Rose is out of a job and out of a boyfriend. To make matters worse, she’s been forced to move back in with her mother… But these very different girls have one thing in common. Angus. The one they fell in love with… My thoughts Just fabulous. I love Paige Toon's books. I loved loads of things about it. I loved the triplets as main characters. I don't think I've seen triplets used in a book before. It took a while for me to get my head around them but once I'd got there it worked well. I loved seeing the differences between them and was fascinated about what had gone wrong between them and needed to keep reading to find out more about what had happened as it was re

BLOG TOUR: Lying about last summer by Sue Wallman

The story centres around a girl called Skye, who is sent to a camp for troubled teenagers after her sister dies in an accident. However, once she is at the camp she starts receiving text messages from someone pretending to be her dead sister. My thoughts I really enjoyed Sue Wallman's debut. It kept me guessing throughout with the mystery element as it is slowly unveiled what happened the previous summer. This meant I really struggled to put the book down and read it in one sitting. I loved that the teens are very real within the story and relateable complete with all their character quirks and flaws. I also loved that the book properly captured the feelings of guilt felt by Skye after her sister's death. This is definitely a book I'll be recommending to others. Guest Post from Sue Wallman: Journey from draft to final printed copy I started Lying About Last Summer after picking myself up from the hideous disappointment of my previous book not m

Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

Andie had it all planned out. When you are a politician’s daughter who’s pretty much raised yourself, you learn everything can be planned or spun, or both. Especially your future. Important internship? Check. Amazing friends? Check. Guys? Check (as long as we’re talking no more than three weeks) But that was before the scandal. Before having to be in the same house with her dad. Before walking an insane number of dogs. That was before Clark and those few months that might change her whole life. Because here’s the thing - if everything's planned out, you can never find the unexpected My thoughts I think this is my favourite Morgan Matson so far. I must admit to start I wasn't sure but as it went on I enjoyed it more and more and by the end I loved it entirely. To start the main reason why I adored this book was Clark. Clark is gorgeous. he's one of those boys I dreamt for as a

Kill the Boyband by Goldy Moldavsky

Okay, so just know from the start that it wasn't supposed to go like this. All we wanted was to get near The Ruperts, our favorite boy band. We didn't mean to kidnap one of the guys. It kind of, sort of happened that way. But now he's tied up in our hotel room. And the worst part of all, it's Rupert P. All four members of The Ruperts might have the same first name, but they couldn't be more different. And Rupert P. is the biggest flop out of the whole group. We didn't mean to hold hostage a member of The Ruperts, I swear. At least, I didn't. We are fans. Okay, superfans who spend all of our free time tweeting about the boys and updating our fan tumblrs. But so what, that's what you do when you love a group so much it hurts. How did it get this far? Who knows. I mean midterms are coming up. I really do not have time to go to hell. My thoughts Urgh I'm not sure about this. Some bits I liked. Others not so much. If I was going to reco

The Square Root of Summer by Harriet Reuter Hapgood

This is what it means to love someone. This is what it means to grieve someone. It's a little bit like a black hole. It's a little bit like infinity. Gottie H. Oppenheimer is losing time. Literally. When the fabric of the universe around her seaside town begins to fray, she's hurtled through wormholes to her past: To last summer, when her grandfather Grey died. To the afternoon she fell in love with Jason, who wouldn't even hold her hand at the funeral. To the day her best friend Thomas moved away and left her behind with a scar on her hand and a black hole in her memory. Although Grey is still gone, Jason and Thomas are back, and Gottie's past, present, and future are about to collide—and someone's heart is about to be broken My thoughts This book is an interesting one for me. There were lots of things I really liked about it. I really enjoyed the characters a

British Books Challenge: Link your May reviews here

We are now onto May. I've had a brilliant time reading loads of awesome UK authors this month just gone and looking forward to more this month. Firstly the winner of April's prize of a copy of Consumed by Abbie Rushton is Chelley Toy from Tales of Yesterday for her review of Spy Mission. Please can you email me your address Chelley. This Month I will be giving away a copy of a book published in May which I thought was awesome. That book is The One we fell in Love with by Paige Toon. I'll get it sent from Book Depo or Amazon or Waterstones depending on which one is cheapest on the day