Bookishly Ever After by Isabel Bandeira

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 378 

Publisher: Spencer Hill Contemporary 

Released: 9th of January 2016 

In a perfect world, sixteen-year-old Phoebe Martins’ life would be a book. Preferably a YA novel with magic and a hot paranormal love interest. Unfortunately, her life probably wouldn’t even qualify for a quiet contemporary. 

But when Phoebe finds out that Dev, the hottest guy in the clarinet section, might actually have a crush on her, she turns to her favorite books for advice. Phoebe overhauls her personality to become as awesome as her favorite heroines and win Dev’s heart. But if her plan fails, can she go back to her happy world of fictional boys after falling for the real thing?

What I Have to Say 

This book is basically a Buzzfeed article. You know one of those 10 Signs You Know You're a Booklover ones? It ticked every box, talking in a language of book boyfriends and the excitement when you see a new release. In it, I saw me, my friends and people I follow online who enthuse about books. It really was quite incredible to read a book that showed the passion for books that I feel every day. 

I'm not quite like the character. I don't tend to have book boyfriends (though I do know many people who do so there is absolutely no shame in it) but the enthusiasm was what really connected to me. The excitement of what going to the bookshelves and stroking all the beautiful covers feels like. I honestly didn't expect Phoebe to be so close to myself, but she was. 

The so very awkward crush on Dev was almost unnecessary to me, but it complimented the story really well and really showed what it feels like for a young girl pursuing her first crush. It showed how hard it is to come out of yourself and embrace real life, when really all you want to do is race back and hide with the books where it's safe.  

The only problem with this book for me, is actually not a problem for me at all. It's quite a common problem for me actually. Whenever there's an excerpt from made up book in a book, I always want to read the book! I would love to read about Melissa and the Victorian boy who lives in her mirror! I want to read more about all of the protagonists that Phoebe loves! 

I think it should be a rule in books that if you make up a fake book to have excerpts from, you should write that book as a companion. It's only fair. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Spencer Hill Contemporary for providing me with this copy for review.  

Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 486

Publisher: Quercus Children's Books 

Released: 7th of April 2016 

Passage, n.

i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.

ii. A journey by water; a voyage.

iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them—whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are playing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home... forever.

What I Have to Say 

The first thing that struck me about the book was how slow it was. The whole journey on the ship, in the first part of the book, felt a bit dragged out and not much really happened. I think it was meant to build the relationship between the main characters. It might be better for someone who's more interested in the romance side of the book, but honestly I was glad when they finally reached New York. 

Once they had gotten the journey over with and things started to actually happen, I enjoyed it a lot more. Time Travel, historical and it even showed cultures that weren't white. I really enjoyed the detail that went into describing Damascus especially. When the view being described is different from the inside of a ship, it does tend to be more entertaining. 

I think I will like the next book in the series a lot more. It was really the journey on the ship that put me off and the rest of it was quite fast paced and entertaining. I feel really sad that my enjoyment of it was ruined by one thing, but I'm glad I persevered in the end. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Quercus Children's Books for providing me with this review copy. 

Flawed by Cecelia Ahern

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 400

Publisher: Harper Collins Children's Books 

Released: 24th of March 2016 

Celestine North lives a perfect life. She’s a model daughter and sister, she’s well-liked by her classmates and teachers, and she’s dating the impossibly charming Art Crevan.

But then Celestine encounters a situation in which she makes an instinctive decision. She breaks a rule and now faces life-changing repercussions. She could be imprisoned. She could be branded. She could be found FLAWED.

What I Have to Say 

This book left me reeling. It was so powerful that I couldn't stop thinking about it for days after. It was one of those books where you pick up your e-reader to carry on reading only to remember with crushing disappointment, that you finished it the previous night. 

Though when I started reading it, I didn't feel this way. It started out the way that most dystopias start. There was nothing special or unique about it except for the interesting society that Ahern has created. 

And then it started to get intense and everything changed. There are powerful scenes in this book, that I don't think will leave me for a while, that had me gasping aloud as I read them. Ahern deals well with intense pain and what is basically torture in a way that not only shock you as they happen, but deals well with the trauma that these things leave behind.

I've never read Ahern's other books, though I have thought about it in the past, but this has definitely made me want to know if she puts as much emotion into everything she writes. 

I cannot wait for the next book. 

The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 368 

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books 

Released: 10th of March 2016 

Other Books in the Series: 

                     The Winner's Curse 

                     The Winner's Crime 

War has begun. Arin is in the thick of it with untrustworthy new allies and the empire as his enemy. Though he has convinced himself that he no longer loves Kestrel, Arin hasn’t forgotten her, or how she became exactly the kind of person he has always despised. She cared more for the empire than she did for the lives of innocent people—and certainly more than she did for him.

At least, that’s what he thinks.

In the frozen north, Kestrel is a prisoner in a brutal work camp. As she searches desperately for a way to escape, she wishes Arin could know what she sacrificed for him. She wishes she could make the empire pay for what they’ve done to her.

But no one gets what they want just by wishing.

As the war intensifies, both Kestrel and Arin discover that the world is changing. The East is pitted against the West, and they are caught in between. With so much to lose, can anybody really win?

What I Have to Say 

On the Series in General 

As with a lot of people, this series captured me from the first book. I fell in love with the setting, with Kestrel, with the way it was written and of course, with Arin. It just has something. Something that pulls you inside the book and makes it a beautiful, rich and immersive experience. 

On The Winner's Kiss 

The thing I realised when starting to read the Winner's Kiss was how much the book has changed. It has always been a fantasy war book. It has always been very involved with the politics of the countries it is set in, but where the first one was focused on the romance between Arin and Kestrel, the second one became more about the politics of the court. It became about lies and spying and going behind one another's backs. The Winner's Kiss is different again. Eventually it becomes a war book, but I'm not even sure how to categorize the first half. 

What I can say about it, is that it was completely not how I expected the series to go. The drugs and other things that I won't say to avoid spoilers, were a very interesting twist. It's the thing about Rutkoski's writing. You just have no idea what she's going to do next or what direction she's going to take the story in, but it's almost written to make you think that you do. 

I'm really sad that this series is over, but I'm glad of how it ended. It really was a beautiful series. 

Shadow of the Yangtze by Julian Sedgwick

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 320

Publisher: Hatchette Children's Books 

Released: 7th of April 2016 

Other Books in the Series: Ghosts of Shanghai

Ruby - a Western girl who feels more Chinese than English - and her friend Charlie must follow the Yangtze hundreds of miles upriver, travelling by Chinese junk and rogue steamer, through bandit and ghost haunted countryside - doggedly tracking Moonface as he spirits Charlie's sister Fei off to his home village. Everything is in flux around them: civil war pulsing, with Nationalists, Communists and warlord bandits struggling for control. The river rises and falls, villages spring up and are gone again. 

Ruby and Charlie brave a shipwreck and a gunbattle and then take a perilous cliff path to Moonface's lair

What I Have to Say 

I think it's safe to say that my love for this series hasn't gone away. As soon as I got this book, I couldn't wait to read it. I was so excited to get back into Ruby and Charlie's world and find out what was next for them. 

Going back to the world felt like I'd hardly left it, although I always find it hard to remember where the last book left off. But Ruby is the same brave, determined girl that I remember and it was really interesting seeing her and Charlie growing apart. The racism that happens towards her in the latter part of the book shows how easily she can be offset as China changes and foreigners find they are no long welcome there. 

The mystery and tension in this book is spot on. Near the end, when certain things (which shall remain vague because of spoilers) were coming to a conclusion, it was hard to look away. It is always a sign of something truly special when a book can keep you transfixed like Shadow of the Yangtze did. 

I cannot /wait/ for the next book. Is anyone else reading this series? 

Love Song by Sophia Bennett

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 384 

Publisher: Chicken House Books

Released: 7th of April 2016 

A million girls would kill for the chance to meet The Point, but Nina’s not one of them.

She’s the new assistant to the lead singer’s diva fiancée, and she knows it’s going to suck. She quickly learns that being with the hottest band on the planet isn’t as easy as it looks: behind the scenes, the boys are on the verge of splitting up. Tasked with keeping an eye on four gorgeous but spoiled rock stars, Nina’s determined to stick it out – and not fall for any of them …

What I Have to Say 

I want to say before I start that I liked the whole of this book. I say this because I'm only really going to be talking about the second half. The first half was good, easy to read and fun, but it just didn't stick with me the way the second half did. The first half, I liked. The second half, I loved. 

The second half of this book made me think of the golden age of rock music. The fact that I wasn't born then is completely inconsequential. It's the bohemian life style of the bands jamming together, making music and just having a great time. The image of the bands muse in the other room, painting, really stuck with me. 

I just enjoyed the atmosphere of the book more than anything else. It made me want to listen to more old music. It created something bigger than than the book and the story itself. Something that I think will stay with me long after I've forgotten the plot and details of the story. 

My thanks go to Chicken House for providing me with this copy. 

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 400

Publisher: Harper Collins Children's Books 

Released: 25th of February 2016 

What if everything you set yourself up to be was wrong?

Frances has always been a study machine with one goal, elite university. Nothing will stand in her way; not friends, not a guilty secret – not even the person she is on the inside.

But when Frances meets Aled, the shy genius behind her favourite podcast, she discovers a new freedom. He unlocks the door to Real Frances and for the first time she experiences true friendship, unafraid to be herself. Then the podcast goes viral and the fragile trust between them is broken.

Caught between who she was and who she longs to be, Frances’ dreams come crashing down. Suffocating with guilt, she knows that she has to confront her past…

She has to confess why Carys disappeared…

Meanwhile at uni, Aled is alone, fighting even darker secrets.

It’s only by facing up to your fears that you can overcome them. And it’s only by being your true self that you can find happiness.

Frances is going to need every bit of courage she has. 

What I Have to Say 

I don't even know how to begin to sum up this amazing book. It is just so important. Alice Oseman has put into writing so many things that people have been avoiding saying for years. Things like the way our school system just doesn't give teenagers any other option than A Levels and university, simply by not saying that the other options are out there. How they are making teenagers feel like not getting good grades at GCSE will ruin their lives completely. And not only that, but she has dared to write a book where a boy and a girl main character are friends and never get together or have any romance with each other. She even used the word asexual. 

Not only did she manage to include all these extremely important topics, but she did so while creating a beautiful and moving story. A story about identity, taking the main character, Frances on a journey of finding herself, learning what she actually likes and is good at outside of what school has taught her that she has to be. 

This story has so much mystery, suspense and tragedy that it overwhelms me in a way that makes it hard to write about just how wonderful it is, because there's just so much that I could say. It's reminded me how great Alice Oseman is as a writer and what I originally liked about Solitaire, while also going on to achieve something even better. 

This book is definitely one that will stay with me and that I will force on all my friends.

I think that teenagers looking towards university and finding out what they want in life should read this book.

Students facing GCSEs, especially if they're bad at tests should read this book. 

And perhaps most importantly, anyone who feels that university or even A Levels may not be the right path for them, but doesn't know what other options are out there, should very definitely read this book. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Harper Collins for providing me with this review copy,