ARC Review: The Sun is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon

Title: The Sun is Also A Star
Author: Nicola Yoon
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publisher: Corgi Childrens
Published: November 3rd 2016
Page Number: 384
Rating: 5/5

Summary:

Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?  

REVIEW

 

How do you review one of your favourite books of 2016? It's answer: You don't. Well you do write a review but it will never do the book justice, especially when it's written by one of my now favourite authors, Nicola Yoon.

 

The story itself is....different. Now when I say different I don't mean it badly, in fact I mean it in probably one of the best ways possible. Essentially this book isn't told by two protagonists. It's told by many. Our main focus' are of course Daniel and Natasha but then we get little chapters from people they meet along the way in their journey of falling in love with each other. Whether that be one of the security guards Natasha sees at one of the offices she visits or it be the depiction of the word love. We get details to in sense create a love story that goes beyond the legal measures of love.

 

When I first started the book I initially just completely felt for Natasha. She's a protagonist that's very easy to love. Not only that but you garner a shit ton of respect for her. She's 12 hours away from being deported back to a place that's basically foreign to her, she's losing the friendship she's made since she came to America but most of all she's losing out on her dream. And if I'm being honest I did expect her to just let it get to her. Did she? Nope. She went out of her way to try everything so that her and her family could stay. She pushed and pushed and pushed until she got somewhere. And along that path is where she meets Daniel. A wannabe poet whose parents just want him to go to a great school and have a successful life where he won't need to worry about money like they both did.

 

Sadly Daniel never really understood that. He just saw it as his parents wanting him to do something that wasn't for him, especially as his brother had just failed at his first year. And while Daniel being the wannabe poet he's also a lot of a hopeless romantic. When he falls in love, he falls deep. And he falls deep in love with Natasha. Despite her hesitation.

 

I just honestly want everyone to read this book and love it like I do because it's a book I know I will treasure for a long time to come. I'll have that pull to reread it and I know I'll feel the exact same way I felt when I first read this book but only on a bigger scale. It's smartly, beautifully written and so good I want to shout it from the rooftop of my house.

 

 

 

Buy the book (Wordery) | Buy the book (The Book Depository)

 

 

A copy of the ARC was sent to me for a honest review.

 

Review: Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Title: Alice in Zombieland
Author: Gena Showalter
Genre: YA Paranormal/Romance
Publisher: Mira Ink
Published: October 5th 2012
Page Number: 404
Rating: 5/5

Summary:
She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real….

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….

REVIEW

This is honestly one of the best YA books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I've always been a fan of Alice in Wonderland, so I started to look for re-tellings and came across this. The reviews were decent and I had never read a zombie book before, so I was killing 2 birds with 1 stone. I was hooked from the very first page.

Alice has had this extremely terrible thing happen in her life and while she's struggling with it, she's also not letting it affect her whole life. She's somewhat turning the negative into a positive, and I found it so fresh in YA fiction. Gena's characters are so iconic, they're dangerous and fun, and very relatable. I couldn't tell you how many times I laughed out loud because of Kat and he one-liners. She's hilarious!

Gena Showalter isn't just good at writing characters and romance - which literally had my heart beating rapidly. Cole, oh dear, Cole. Be mine, please - but she writes some amazing action scenes. I wasn't just reading a fight scene, I was in that fight scene with the characters watching from the side lines. It's incredible! I wanted more and more and more of this story, I was left feeling empty once I finished the book.

And that's what shows that Gena Showalter knows exactly what she's doing!

 

Buy the book (Waterstones) | Buy the book (Book Depository)

My All Time Favourite Books

I'm quite a very fussy reader. Not every book I read I will like, especially if it's been over-hyped. But before I started booktubing (Don't do it anymore) and blogging, I found it so much easier to read a book without judging it on the hype because I never checked reviews for it. Out of the seven books/series (series counts as one) only one of them was actually read before I started blogging and booktubing, the rest I heard of because of my favourite booktubers. None of these have any rankings because, like I said, they're all my favourite books.

Don't forget that tomorrow is Top 5 Wednesday and the topic is Favourite Book Titles.





The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare.

I absolutely love this series and unlike everyone else, I actually prefer this series to The Infernal Devices. This is a fast-paced, action-packed series with some of the best characters ever created. Clary and Jace are amazing, so are Maia and Jordan. Also this features a Gay relationship. And that conclusion to the series? ABSOLUTELY FREAKING EPIC! Every book was rated a 5/5 STARS!





Slated by Teri Terry.

I  have raved so much about this Trilogy. The first two books are fantastic, the third one was a let down, but aren't most? This is such a unique and futuristic world that appears to be a very realistic vision for our future. What I love most is that this is probably the most intense Dystopian I've ever read. The only negative is the new boy/love interests that comes in every book.





Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry.

This is a darker contemporary, but for me it is so realistic and very relatable. I suffer with severe depression and have self-harmed, so I understood exactly how Echo felt. Worthless and undeserving of love. But what I loved most was the fact that two broken souls came together and fixed each other. If you're not into Teen romance stories then I guess this wouldn't be for you, but if you do then go for it. Their story continues in the sequel being published in December.




A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.

This is the book I was telling you about that I read before I started blogging. At that time I hardly ever read and this book just appealed to me, it became one of my favourite series. The series is a mix of Fantasy, Romance, History and Action. It has been compared to
Twilight, but it's definitely not like Twilight. These Vampires are dangerous and it has Witches in it. The characters are great and the historical context behind it all in amazing! I also met Deborah and she's super lovely.



Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell.

I've also met Rainbow Rowell. In fact I met both Deb
orah and Rainbow in the same month, a few days after each other. Eleanor and Park is set in the 1980's and follows their story of falling in love for the first time. Eleanor is such a relatable and unique character; she's overweight, has unruly red, curly hair and stitches weird things on her clothes. Park is Asian. The way the story is written and how they connect through Comics and Mixed Tapes was beautiful. I will say in warning that the ending will cause you to cry.




The White Rabbit Chronicles by Gena Showalter.

This will be featured in my T5W for my Halloween Recommendations post, and so they should. This is one of my all time favourite trilogies because it focuses on the family as well as everything else that's going on. These books have some of the best characters and the whole fresh twist on the zombies was such a surprise. I would like a TV Show or Movie on these books, but I'm not sure if we'll ever get one.




Last but not least.....


Slammed by Colleen Hoover.

This is a recent read of mine and I could not get over how amazing this book was. Colleen Hoover has to be one of the best writers out there, she reminds me of a female Nicholas Sparks. Slammed focuses on the importance of life and how we kind of take it for granted. This is one of the only books (apart from Eleanor and Park, Where She Went and Allegiant) that made me cry. So much love.

My ratings are so unusual. I have an All Time Favourites Shelf and a Favourites Self. A book can be rated 5 stars and only make my Favourites Shelf. My All Time Favourites are ones that I can heavily relate too and I never want them to end.

 

So....What are your favourites?