Wednesday 19 February 2014

5 favourite contemporary novels

This is a new series that I am starting, which is some of my favourite books from different genres, and todays is contemporary! I will be posting a picture of the book and the synopsis from GoodReads.
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Despite the tumour-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

I absolutely love this book and recommend it to anyone who has not yet read it!
I gave this 5/5 stars.












Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. Having missed her flight, she's stuck at JFK airport and late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon-to-be stepmother Hadley's never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's sitting in her row.

A long night on the plane passes in the blink of an eye, and Hadley and Oliver lose track of each other in the airport chaos upon arrival. Can fate intervene to bring them together once more?

Quirks of timing play out in this romantic and cinematic novel about family connections, second chances, and first loves. Set over a twenty-four-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it.


This is another one I love, its short and sweet but still a great story.
I gave this one 4/5 stars.
 

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Sparkling white snowdrifts, beautiful presents wrapped in ribbons, and multi-coloured lights glittering in the night through the falling snow. A Christmas Eve snowstorm transforms one small town into a romantic haven, the kind you see only in movies. Well, kinda. After all, a cold and wet hike from a stranded train through the middle of nowhere would not normally end with a delicious kiss from a charming stranger. And no one would think that a trip to the Waffle House through four feet of snow would lead to love with an old friend. Or that the way back to true love begins with a painfully early morning shift at Starbucks. Thanks to three of today’s bestselling teen authors—John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle—the magic of the holidays shines on these hilarious and charming interconnected tales of love, romance, and breath-taking kisses.

This is more of a Christmas read, but still an amazing book!
I gave this one 5/5 stars.

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So, my girlfriend, Cassidy, is threatening to kick me to the curb again, my best friend suddenly wants to put the brakes on our lives of fabulous fun, my mom and big sister are plotting a future in which I turn into an atomic vampire, and my dad, well, my dad is a big fat question mark that I’m not sure I want the answer to.

Some people would let a senior year like this get them down. Not me. I’m Sutter Keely, master of the party. But don’t mistake a midnight philosopher like me for nothing more than a shallow party boy. Just ask Aimee, the new girl in my life. She saw the depth in the Sutterman from that first moment when she found me passed out on the front lawn. Okay, so she’s a social disaster, but that’s where I come in.

Yes, life is weird, but I embrace the weird. Let everyone else go marching off into their great shining futures if they want. Me, I’ve always been more than content to tip my whisky bottle and take a ride straight into the heart of the spectacular now.


This book was surprisingly good and after watching the movie as well, it made me like it even more. Although I would recommend this to older teenagers as it has a lot of 'adult themes.'
I gave this one 4/5 stars.


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A chance encounter in the dark leads eighteen-year-old Daniel and the girl who stumbles across him to profess their love for each other. But this love comes with conditions: they agree it will only last one hour and it will only be make-believe.

When their hour is up and the girl rushes off like Cinderella, Daniel tries to convince himself that what happened between them only seemed perfect because they were pretending it was perfect. Moments like that with girls like her don’t happen outside of fairy tales.

One year and one bad relationship later, his disbelief in insta-love is stripped away the day he meets Six: a girl with a strange name and an even stranger personality. Daniel soon realizes the way he pretended to feel about Cinderella and the way he really feels about Six may not be so different after all. Especially when the two loves of his life end up being one in the same.

Unfortunately for Daniel, finding Cinderella doesn’t guarantee their happily ever after…it only further threatens it.


This is actually a novella which goes along with the Hopeless series by Colleen Hoover, But can also be read as a standalone.
This was a great story, and although it was short, it still managed to be a complex and very good story!
I gave this one 5/5 stars.

I hope you enjoyed this post and look out for my next one!
Star Reads

Rebel heart review

13042154Title: Rebel heart
Author: Moira Young
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Publication date: October 30th 2012
Pages: 432
Synopsis: Saba thought her world would return to normal after they defeated the Tonton and rescued her kidnapped brother Lugh. The family head west for a better life and a longed-for reunion with Jack. But a formidable enemy is on the rise. What is the truth about Jack? And how far will Saba go to get what she wants?

Characters: The characters in Rebel heart were everything that I could have hoped, they not only developed into more complex and interesting characters, but also kept some of the qualities that made me love them whilst reading Blood red road. Saba was still a strong willed and kick-ass character to read about, but that was also toned down a bit by the fact that she was dealing with PTSD on top of Jack leaving her. We also got to learn more about characters such as Tommo and Lugh, who we did not learn too much about in the first book. I thought that it was interesting to see Tommo in a different and more grown up and mature way, considering what he was dealing with after what happened in the previous book. Lugh was another character that we got to see a different side of, as he is no longer acting like the nice and protective brother that we saw in the first book, and rather is closed off and quite aggressive towards Saba. I also liked how we know that he is acting like this because of what happened to him when he was kidnapped, but we are also clueless as to what actually happened to him, and this leaves an element of mystery to this book which I liked but also hope is concluded in the last book.

Plot: The plot of Rebel heart was just as explosive and exciting as the plot to Blood red road. This time we are following Saba as she is trying to reunite with Jack who left at the end of Blood red road. Of course the plan doesn't go as expected and there are a lot of mishaps and detours along the way, but that all added to the mystery and excitement of the book. Overall I think that the plot of this book was well paced and good throughout and I am so glad that the story met the high expectations that I had before reading!

Rating: An obvious 5/5 stars. This book was just as strong as the first and I hope that Raging star keeps up the high expectations that I have for this series!


Tuesday 18 February 2014

Book Haul #3

All of these books I got over the past 2 months, and the reason why there are not too many is because I have been on a bit of a book buying ban, so here we go...

From the works:

I got 2 copies of City of bones by Cassandra Clare as presents for 2 of my friends.

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From a second hand shop:
 
I got an older leather bound edition of this one.
 
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From Poundland (who have started to sell good books)!:
 
I was so happy to find these books in Poundland and especially as they are all hardbacks!
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Thanks for reading and I will speak to you in my next post!
Star Reads

Sunday 16 February 2014

Throne of glass review

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Title: Throne of glass
Author: Sarah J Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's books
Publication date: August 7th 2012
Pages: 404
Synopsis: Meet Celaena Sardothien.
Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness.

In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake: she got caught.

Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament—fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin’s heart be melted?


Characters: First of all I have to say that undoubtedly Celaena Sardothien is one of the best female protagonists that I have ever read about. I found it really refreshing to read about a female character who is completely confident and not afraid to dress up once in a while, and not only that, but she is so kick-ass! This has been my first book with a female assassin and it was so cool to see how she broke all of the typical stereotypes which females are normally given in fantasy books, such as the 'damsel in distress' that I so frequently see.
Next for the male characters. I loved both of the male characters in this book, and surprisingly I didn't think that the love triangle in this book was all that bad. Unlike other books (*cough twilight *cough) the love triangle in this made a lot of sense as both Chaol and Dorian had personalities which I thought matched Celaena's very well.
Overall I loved all of the characters and thought that their interactions and relationships with each other made a lot of sense and were very believable.

Plot: The plot of this book was initially what drew me into reading it, and I was not disappointed! I loved all of the elements of the plot and especially that it was a lot more complex than just one main storyline, as there were lots of smaller storylines which all interlinked and made the overall book so much more interesting. I have to say though, that the main storyline of the assassin who had to fight against a large group of people in order to win the grand prize (in this case to become the kings assassin), reminded me a little of the hunger games.

Rating: I gave this  well deserved 5/5 stars.



  


Sunday 2 February 2014

February TBR

Today I am doing my February TBR, where I tell you what books I am planning on reading in the upcoming month. So lets get started...

1. Throne of glass by Sarah J Maas

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I actually started this at the end of January but have not managed to finish it yet, although I do absolutely love it so far!

2. Crown of midnight by Sarah J Maas

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As I have already started reading Throne of glass, I know that I am most definitely going to want to read this one straight after!

3. City of glass by Cassandra Clare

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I have been meaning to read this for a few months now, so hopefully I will finally get around to it.

4. To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee

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I have to re-read this for school, so I am planning on doing that this month.

5. Cinder by Marissa Meyer

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I have wanted to read this for a while and have heard a lot of good things about it, and as the third book Cress is coming out this month, I decided that now was a good time to read it.

Thanks for reading. What books are you planning on reading this month?
Star Reads

Saturday 1 February 2014

January Wrap up

Today I am doing my January wrap up, where I show you what books I read in that month. In my TBR for January I decided that I wanted to read a total of 6 books, which I did not achieve as I only ended up reading four and a bit.
The first book that I read in January was the spectacular now by Tim Tharp. I did enjoy this book and found the storyline interesting enough to make me want to keep reading, although throughout the book I had mixed emotions. After reading this I watched the film and it surprisingly made me love the book a lot more, mostly because the ending was changed a little which I was actually very happy about. I ended up giving this 4/5.
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The second book that I read in January was the silver linings playbook by Matthew Quick. I actually had seen the film for this before I read the book and I really enjoyed it so decided to give the book a go. First of all I will say that this is completely different to the film and I found it a struggle to find many similarities, but that aside I did really enjoy this and thought that the premise was very interesting, which is why I gave it a 5/5.
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The third book that I read was Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans. I absolutely loved this book and as it was the first proper sci-fi book that I have ever really read, it has now made me want to read a lot more! The premise for this book was amazing and very interesting and I really liked the way the story would change between Felicia's life before and after her death, which sounds crazy but was great! I definitely recommend this and obviously gave it a 5/5.
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The fourth and final book that I read in January was Rebel heart by Moira Young. This is the second book in the dustlands trilogy and the sequel to Blood red road. This book was just as good and maybe better than Blood red road and had me gripped on every page. This was such a good book and I definitely recommend this whole series and I cannot wait until Raging star comes out soon! Obviously I also gave this a 5/5. 
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Thanks for reading and I hope that January was a good reading month for you!
Star Reads

Quote of the day #7

This is a long one but still worth reading...
You should date a girl who reads.
Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes, who has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she has found the book she wants. You see that weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow and worn.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry and in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favourite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who read understand that all things must come to end, but that you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colourful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes."

-Rosemarie Urquico