August Book Haul

This month has been a little crazy for books. I've bought a lot, received a lot and the outcome for the month was...A WHOLE SHITTING LOT! I thought I had gotten about 10 books but after counting I actually got 15. It's a little crazy, so hopefully I can cut down in the next few months.

I received all these books from the publishers for a honest review, that is exactly what you guys will get after I've read them. I know I included What We Left behind in the last haul, so just ignore that. I forgot I had included it in the Random Book Haul post.

Tempting the Best Man by Jennifer L Armentrout // Buy the book (Waterstones)

 

Mosquitoland by David Arnold // Pre-order the book (Waterstones)

 

Reawakened by Colleen Houck // Buy the book (Waterstones)

 

Hello, Goodbye and Everything in Between by Jennifer E Smith // Buy the book (Waterstones)

 

 

 

I unexpectedly received a copy of GEORGE from Scholastic. They are the bomb.com.org.co.uk. GEORGE is a middle grade novel about a 4th grade transgender.

 

George by Alex Gino // Buy the book (Waterstones)

 

 

 

I then went on an extreme Abbi Glines purchase and don't regret a single second. One More Chance was shown in my last book haul post as well, but I've been so down lately that I forgot.

 

One More Chance by Abbi Glines // Buy the book (Waterstones)

 

You Were Mine by Abbi Glines // Buy the book (Waterstones)

 

When I'm Gone by Abbi Glines // Buy the book (Waterstones)

 

When You're Back by Abbi Glines // Buy the book (Waterstones)

 

 

I am luckily enough to be apart of a very special Rainbow Rowell group, the lovely Kat McKenna from MyKindaBook sent me a signed copy of Fangirl. THANK YOU KAT! YOU ROCK!

 

Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman // Buy the book (Waterstones)

 

Landline by Rainbow Rowell // Buy the book (Waterstones)

 

Exclusive edition of Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell // Buy the book (WHSmiths)

 

 

 

 

 

So what books have you bought/received recently?

Let me know in the comments.

 

 

5 Books to Read This Summer

The days are slowing counting down to summer. That means we'll want to listen to music on loud, hang out on the beach with a chilled drink and try your hardest to get a tan, and celebrate most weekends with garden parties and barbeques. And possibly getting drunk, if you're of age.

However, like most people, you struggle on which books to take on holiday with you. Summery books are not hard to find, but books that put you in the mood are definitely hard to come by. So here are 5 books that I completely recommend!

Simon VS the Homosapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

This is a very sweet, quick read about a boy, Simon who's emailing some guy from her school called Blue. However, a guy gets hand of it and blackmails Simon into helping him, if not then his secret will be exposed. As a gay teenager, myself I truly felt that Becky did a very good job at portraying not only a realistic gay relationship, but also at portraying a realistic blackmailing situation.


The Selection by Kiera Cass // Review //

Not everyone wants a contemporary in the summer, so why not go for a book that's basically The Bachelor set in a slightly Dystopian setting. It's fun, flirty and will have you falling heads over heels for Prince Maxon.


A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas // Review //

This book was so freaking good, I simply ate it up! It's a YA Fantasy re-telling of Beauty and the Beast, where our main protagonist, Feyre kills a wolf and ends up having to repay for her crime by staying at the manor of a Beast. An incredibly charming beast.


Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell // Review //

Okay, so no one really wants to read about school (College in this situation) during the summer, but Fangirl is the ultimate read. It will have you gushing not only after Cath and Levi, but her fan fiction relationship of Simon and Baz. I wish my life were as cute as Caths.


All Lined Up by Cora Carmack

I wanted a New Adult book in this list since not everyone is a fan of YA, so I opted for All Lined Up. It's the first book in the Rusk University series and follows a Football hating girl called Dallas, who meets a football player called Carson. The problem? She's the coaches daughter and he's on the football team.




What books would you recommend people read in the summer?
Let me know in the comments.

5 Books to Read this Spring

Reading styles change. And so does the seasons, so I thought I'd recommend 5 books that I think would be perfect reading for Spring.

Along For the Ride by Sarah Dessen

This book follows Auden, who wants to escape her boring life for the summer. She stays with her father and her new step-mother (Who are expecting a baby). There, at this seaside town, she makes new friends and finds love with a mysterious guy with a harbouring secret. I completely fell in love with this book. It was a cute, fluffy read that left me wanting more.

Angelfall by Susan EE

Angelfall is a YA post-apocalyptic novel that follows Penryn. Her disabled sister has been kidnapped by a group of Angels and her schizophrenic mother has gone off somewhere. All alone and needing to find her sister, she uses Raffe, a fallen angel who's injured to find where they're keeping her. But trust me, this book isn't what you think it is. It's dark, creepy and intense with a kick-ass protagonist!

Just One Day by Gayle Forman

I don't know what it is about Spring that makes me want to travel and visit the beaches, I just do. But Just One Day is literally perfect! We visit England, Paris, Boston and Amsterdam -  which are all amazingly described - and we have an earth shattering romance to compete with August and Hazel (without the cancer and death). I seriously couldn't put Just One Day down.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

No one really want to read about school when it's sunny and warm, but Fangirl is a hilarious novel with Boy x Boy Fan Fiction. It follows Cath who's starting college with her twin sister, Wren. However, Wren wants to move on, be her own person, while Cath doesn't want anything to change. And then she meets her roommate and her best friend, Levi. And so starts their slightly awkward relationship.

Fire and Flood by Victoria Scott

Fire and Flood is probably one of the most unusual books I've read in a while. It's basically The Hunger Games meets Pokémon. The book focuses on Tella who's older brother has Cancer. She then gets the chance to enter the Brimstone Bleed: A 4 terrain competition. The winner receives the cure to any disease. I literally loved it. And the romantic interest is so......charming.


Have you read any of these books?
Let me know in the comments.

Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Title: Fangirl

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Published: January 30th 2014
Page Number: 459
Rating: 4/5

 

Summary:

 

Cath and Wren are identical twins, and until recently they did absolutely everything together. Now they're off to university and Wren's decided she doesn't want to be one half of a pair any more - she wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and let loose. It's not so easy for Cath. She's horribly shy and has always buried herself in the fan fiction she writes, where she always knows exactly what to say and can write a romance far more intense than anything she's experienced in real life. Without Wren Cath is completely on her own and totally outside her comfort zone. She's got a surly room-mate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words ...And she can't stop worrying about her dad, who's loving and fragile and has never really been alone. Now Cath has to decide whether she's ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she's realizing that there's more to learn about love than she ever thought possible ...

 

Review:

 

After reading Eleanor and Park - Which I absolutely loved by the way - I decided to wait until the paperback of Fangirl came out, so I could read it and enjoy all the extra comic pictures of the characters. And once again I was not disappointed by Rainbow Rowell. Is there nothing she can't do?

 

The story follows twins Cath and Wren who are about to start College and while Wren wants her own independence, it's clear that Cath doesn't. She want's her roommate to be Wren, she wants to write fan fiction with Wren, she wants to be joint at the hips with Wren like she always has been. On her first day of College we're introduced to both Levi and Reagan, who play a huge part of the story as well as Wren, Cath's father and Nick. It's instant that there's somewhat an attraction between Cath and Levi and it really is great to see an older, more mature character in a YA book. It's refreshing. Over the story we see a lot of ups and down, but also a lot of hot makeup scenes and I'm not talking about Levi and Cath. In fact there's more action happening between Simon and Baz then it is Levi and Cath.

 

Cath wasn't the best character to have as a main protagonist. I found her to be extremely immature for her age and the fact that she became a recluse because she was too scared wasn't very convincing. I think she was lost without her Twin, Wren who was an epic character and full of sass! Still Cath was extremely boring. Her days went like this:

 

1. Wake up

2. Have breakfast

3. Go to class

4. Stay in the library

5. Sleep

 

It became annoying, but after the incident that happened with her father she came out of her shell, which was great because we got to know her a bit more, but it would've worked better if she weren't so lonely, annoying and immature.

 

The other main protagonist in this book was Levi. He is definitely a great character: witty and full of charm and has a slight obsession with gay fan fiction - sorry, not sorry - His relationship with Cath was very confusing. It was borderline friendship/awkwardness and then after the whole he-kissed-another-girl-in-his-kitchen incident it felt like he realised that he liked Cath a lot more than he thought and decided to act like a jerk - a sweet jerk - and he still is one of my favourite book characters.

 

Overall, I really loved that Fangirl was set in College because there's no other YA book set in college. I loved that despite her annoying traits, Cath showed the awkwardness and nervousness of going to college for the first time and having a hard time settling in. But to be honest, its Rainbow Rowell, so it wasn't going to be bad.....Unless Levi was never in the story and then it would be bad. But I really enjoyed it and found myself to fly through it very quickly. 

Book Review: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Title: Attachments
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Adult Fiction
Publisher: Orion
Published: February 2012
Page Number: 357

Summary:
By day, two young women spend their hours emailing each other, discussing every aspect of their lives. By night, Lincoln, a lonely IT guy, spends his hours reading every exchange. Soon Lincoln is drawn into their lives, and finds himself falling for one of them. Lincoln decides it's time to muster the courage to follow his heart.

Review:

I've read two former books by Rainbow Rowell and those were Eleanor and Park, which I absolutely loved and would highly recommend, and Fangirl, which was a great story! However, on Sunday 13th July I met Rainbow Rowell and at the signing I bought Attachments, since I had heard such good things about it. It did not disappoint.

Adult Fiction is one of those genre's that I have a love/hate relationship with. I tend to find that the books follow the same plots, but with different characters and different twists. However, this book was beautiful. It was funny as hell and read so much like a movie.

I WANT IT TO BE A MOVIE!

The way Rainbow Rowell writes Jennifer and Beth is incredibly well done. Their friendship is real and sincere and they are hilarious. I cannot count how many times I burst out laughing while reading it. They are the type of girls you'd want to be friends with, because despite them being quite secretive they're also warm and welcoming.

And then you have Lincoln. Oh, Lincoln. He's a sweetheart. He's the guy every girl would dream to take home to their parents because they know they'd approve of him as soon as he had taken off his shoes. He's helpful, kind and it always made me smile when he ate food with Doris. What guy now-a-days would do that? Probably none.

However, there is always one thing I dislike about Rainbow Rowell's books. I never want them to end. They capture your attention from beginning to end and once you finish it's like opening a tub of ice cream and finding out that someone - probably your sisters or brothers - had eaten the last of it.

Just go out and buy this book. Read it. Live it. Review it and then hold on until Rainbow next publishes a book.

Quote:

 

'If you're after a book that reads like a movie, makes you smile and laugh, then this is it!' Bookbitchreviews.blogspot.co.uk