Everything, Everything - Nicola Yoon

Title: Everything, Everything
Author: Nicola Yoon

Publisher: Random House Children's

Publication Date: September 1st 2015
Available Editions: Hardback and for review, EBook.
Rating: 5/5

Netgalley Synopsis:

This innovative, heartfelt debut novel tells the story of a girl who's literally allergic to the outside world. When a new family moves in next door, she begins a complicated romance that challenges everything she's ever known. The narrative unfolds via vignettes, diary entries, texts, charts, lists, illustrations, and more.

My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I'm allergic to the world. I don't leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.

But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He's tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.

Maybe we can't predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It's almost certainly going to be a disaster.

Review:

Scrolling through Netgalley I spotted the colourful front cover, closely followed by the intriguing synopsis that I read seconds later. Intrigued about how the story would plan out  I went ahead and requested for the right to read the book for a review, thankfully I got an email to say I had the right to read for review and I soon got down to reading it. It took me around 5 hours to read the book in total.

There were several good parts to the book, its plot was the main one, it was a great idea to write a story of a severe allergy that literally takes away a life away from a teenager and how she lives and deals with it. The progression of the story was the next best thing, there was now lingering for too long and I must admit that I loved the incorporation of diary entries, emails and diagrams etc. so that its was not just the basic line after line layout.

Bringing up the characters I have to admit I was quite happy with the few characters there were, based around Madeline and Olly, her mother and her nurse Carla. Madeline turns 18 close to the start of the book, that means 18 years in confinement, of air sealed packages and home taught education and no social life. She seems to be very withdrawn but intelligent, her sarcastic humour shines throughout when she is with Olly, is her new neighbour and he's quick off the line and wanting to be her friend, nothing stands between them except her allergy, he's funny and sarcastic with a very unique pass time hobby. Madeline's mom is her only parent and loves to spend time with her, protecting her from everything and always doing what she can to keep her out of harms way. In doing this Carla, a nurse is hired to care for Maddy whilst her mom is at work, she supports and encourages her much like her mother, just like Maddy was her own child.

Each character helps bring the story together, taking the reader on a spectacular journey through the eyes and mind of a world allergic teenager who's falling hopelessly in love with a boy who by the rules of her mother, can not be a part of her life much like anyone else from the outside world to help prevent what could be a deadly reaction.

Much like other times, I read this book page after page, with very few breaks and all in one, I was so hooked on where the story could go I couldn't put the book down. I had no problems with any part of the book and I did not miss understand or get confused over anything, it was a great read and I'm so thankful for getting the right to read for review and I'm looking forward to more book from Nicola Yoon in the future.
At times the book made me want to cry, scream and laugh out loud, despite the emotional roller-coaster that the book took me on, I give the book a rating of 5/5 and recommend it to anyone who's up for a well written story to read for fun or in search for a book to review.

Book Haul - Tuesday 28 July

So on the 28th of July my mom had allowed me to buy some books from some online stores, three of them were ones to finish off a collection and two others were just two random choices from some recommendations I had. Not only did I order these 5 books but I also had a few EBook editions of books for review that I'll also add to this 'Haul'. The books I ordered online begun to come today so I thought to share them with you.

Geek Girl Geek Drama - Holly Smale

Geek Girl Picture Perfect - Holly Smale

Geek Girl All That Glitters - Holly Smale

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

The Humans - Matt Haig

The following books were those I was granted the right to read for review on Netgalley, I look forward to read them and review them for you guys.

Everything, Everything - Nicola Yoon

Burn Girl - Mandy Mikulencak

Top Ten Tuesday - Ten Characters Who Are Fellow Book Nerds

This weeks Top Ten Tuesday includes characters who love reading, are writers, work at a bookstore etc.  I hope you enjoy my list.



  Hermione Granger - Harry Potter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matilda - Roald Dahl

 

 

 

 

 

 

Augustus Waters and Hazel Grace Lancaster - The Fault In Our Stars

Alaska Young and Miles Halter   - Looking For Alaska

This list would of contained ten but unfortunately I couldn't think of anymore characters,  technically there are 6 characters here but only 4 books/2 films I'm really hoping I don't remember more after I've posted this.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created and hosted over at The Broke And Bookish

The Heartbreakers - Ali Novak

Title: The Heartbreakers
Author: Ali Novak
Publisher: SOURCEBOOKS Fire
Publication Date: 1st August 2015
Available Editions: Paperback and for review, Ebook.


Netgalley Synopsis:

"When I met Oliver Perry, I had no clue he was the lead singer for The Heartbreakers. And he had no idea that I was the only girl in the world who hated his music."

Stella will do anything for her sick sister, Cara—even stand in line for an autographed Heartbreakers CD…for four hours. She’s totally winning best birthday gift this year. At least she met a cute boy with soft brown hair and gorgeous blue eyes while getting her caffeine fix. Too bad she’ll never see him again.

Except, Stella’s life has suddenly turned into a cheesy love song. Because Starbucks Boy is Oliver Perry – lead singer for the Heartbreakers. And even after she calls his music crap, Oliver still gives Stella his phone number. And whispers quotes from her favourite Disney movie in her ear. OMG, what is her life?

But how can Stella even think about being with Oliver – dating and laughing and pulling pranks with the band – when her sister could be dying of cancer?

Ali Novak wrote her debut novel My Life with the Walter Boys when she was just 15 years old, and has since penned her next book, The Heartbreakers. First a hit on the online community Wattpad, her second novel has over 38 million reads and is loved by readers around the world.



Review:

this book caught my attention as I scrolled through the YA section of Netgalley. It caught my eye because of the description, I'm not quite sure why it caught my attention, it was just one of those 'this this sounds quite interesting' things, but I went ahead and requested for the right to read the book for a review, thankfully I got an email to say I had the right to read for review and I soon got down to reading it. It took me around 6 or 7 hours to read the book in total, event though it usually only take me half of that I had to keep re reading parts just in case I missed anything.


There were so many great parts to the book, I'm not even sure where to start. To keep this section short I had to pick the following three. The story had a great progression rate like the story never lingered on a day for half of the book, but just around enough time so that you were hooked on the book. There were equal amounts of time spent on each 'factor' of the main characters life so that one factor wasn't bought up and never shown again. The character number was small enough to keep track of each of them but not too high to get confused with who was who.

Keeping with the topic of The characters, the book is mainly focussed on the unfolding life of Stella, one of the 17 year old triplets alongside her bother Drew and ill sister Cara.  They story also focuses on the 4 members of a boy band called The Heartbreakers. Both groups of characters paths soon intertwined and begun a somewhat cheesy yet lovely story. Stella is a character who has moments of humour and up front truth, much like her, her sister is always up front and supportive of her siblings and a huge fan of the Heartbreakers, which many readers can relate too when it comes to bands and other things. Drew is the only boy of the triplets and is protective of his sisters and always supportive. Oliver is the lead singer of the boy band and the more spoken of character in the book, there are also other characters like JJ and Xander who happen to be other members of the band but their parts in the story but the story is focused mainly on Cara, Oliver and Stella.

Each characters has a part in the book but to keep the story on track they were very short but frequent so that we knew they were still somewhat important in the stories progression.


Much like other times, I read this book page after page, very few breaks and all in one, I was so hooked on where the story could go I couldn't put the book down. I had no problems with any part of the book, not miss understanding or confusion it was a great read and I'm so thankful for getting the right to read for review and I'm looking forward to more book from Ali Novak in the future.

I give this book a rating of 5 out of 5 and I highly recommend this book to anyone who is really into YA and somewhat cheesy love, any fellow book blogger reading this, I suggest you request this book to be read for review if you are into this sort of thing and fit the requirements for acceptance.

Celebration Message

Celebration Message:

Around 8:40pm today it came to my attention that I had hit 1000 page views. Even though this is quite a small number for a blog, its a milestone and hopefully one of the many to come. I used to get so excited to get to each hundred figure milestones and to finally be in the thousands is quite remarkable considering the way the blog has been. I owe this thank you to no one else but you, without you this would never of been possible and I hope you've enjoyed your visits to this blog and hopefully have wanted to continue to pay visits in the future. If I could I'd make you all a mug of tea and gift you with books. Thank you so much for the support and I look forward to see you around.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books That Celebrate Diversity/Diverse Characters

This top ten Tuesday features books I haven't read or own but have heard great things about that relate to the top ten Tuesday subject. Some of these books are also on my wish list or books that's I've already read but haven't reviewed. I do apologise if some of these don't apply to the subject.

 

THE ART OF BEING NORMAL BY LISA WILLIAMSON

KERIS STAINTON: SPOTLIGHT ON SUNNY

 

 

 

 

LICCLE BIT BY ALEX WHEATLE

NONE OF THE ABOVE

 

 

THE ONE THING







OPENLY STRAIGHT








THE BEFORE NOW AND AFTER THEN








OUT OF ORDER






NO TILDES ON TUESDAY







THE WAY WE BARED OUT SOULS




Top Ten Tuesday Is A Meme Originated from The Broke And Bookish



 

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books That Came Into My Possesion

This weeks Top Ten Tuesday was an excellent fit for me this week because I had been approved several books on Netgalley and I do look forward to reading them in the future.

                                                              Breakaway - Kat Spears                                      

Confessions Of A Queen B* - Crista McHugh

Concentr8 - William Sutcliffe

  

                                                Operation Josh Taylor - Melody Fitzpatrick

After Dark - James Leck

Being Layla Hart - Amanda McKelt

Come Sit By Me - Thomas Hoobler

A Devil Under The Skin - Anya Lipska

                                                   When Darkness Falls - Liz Kreger

                                              Rise Of The Iron Eagle - Roy A. Teel Jr

 Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link up in the community originating from

The Broke And The Bookish 



Confessions Of A Queen B* - Crista McHugh

I was granted the right to read this book before its official publication date and I'm grateful for the opportunity.




Title: Confessions Of A Queen B
Author: Crista McHugh
Publisher: Crista McHugh
Publication Date: 28th July 2015
Available Editions: EBook


NetGalley Synopsis:


Alexis Wyndham is the other type of Queen B—the Queen Bitch.

After years of being the subject of ridicule, she revels in her ability to make the in-crowd cower via the exposés on her blog, The Eastline Spy. Now that she's carved out her place in the high school hierarchy, she uses her position to help the unpopular kids walking the hallways.

Saving a freshman from bullies? Check.
Swapping insults with the head cheerleader? Check.
Falling for the star quarterback? So not a part of her plan.

But when Brett offers to help her solve the mystery of who’s posting X-rated videos from the girls’ locker room, she’ll have to swallow her pride and learn to see past the high school stereotypes she’s never questioned—until now.


Review:


What attracted me to this book when I saw it on Netgalley was definitely the bright colour used on the cover, that was enough to spark my interest and I have no idea why. after reading the description I had basically pleaded with my email to refresh and tell me I had been allowed to read it. Thankfully I got the email. This book was the third book in my sleepless marathon after finding a spider close to my face so it was around 3 am when I started reading it and 6:42 ish when I had completed it.




There were so many good parts in the book I found it kind of hard to choose only a few. First of all the story progression was excellent, there was a seamless flow between events and the level of description was just right, it wasn't just a sentence to describe something but it wasn't a 30 page paragraph on describing the colour of a shirt which is excellent. The hidden messages aren't hidden when you read them because the messages are literally there and you're reading it and there is no need to interpret things even though that is also possible. As much as I love hidden messages, at 3am until nearly 7am I'm really grateful they were spelt out for me. One other grate thing about this book was that there were enough characters to make it interesting but not too many to confuse you on who's who which is always a plus.


Sticking with the characters the book focuses on two characters, Alexis and Brett. They were certainly what I class as total opposites when I first read them being in social interactions with each other. Alexis' character is quite fierce, she intimidates everyone, she's very clever and if you have skeletons in your closet? she'd find them and then publicly expose you on her blog. Brett is what people assume to be the biggest asshole of the lot, he would be perceived as the guy who sleeps around a lot and cant hold a relationship longer than a week but in fact Brett is completely different, he is more knowledgeable and friendly, he aims to correct the ways of his stupid jock friends and unlike everyone else, isn't intimidated by Alexis. There are of course other characters like Alexis' best friends Morgan and Richard but I never felt like they fully supported Alexis, I mean yes Richard was always there to talk to but Morgan was always so pushy for Alexis to lose the V card with the possibility she may not be so up tight. I definitely went though a faze of disliking and liking her best friends but overall they weren't so bad.


As I've mentioned a few times it took me over 3 hours to finish this book, but that was continuously so I didn't even stop to drink at any time it was just a straight page after page read and in all honesty even if I wanted a drink I probably wouldn't of stopped for one because I was so into the book that if I was to stop maybe id miss something or id forget something and the whole book would of been ruined.




                                                SPOILERS ALERT: you have been warned.


Okay so as you can probably figure out, Alexis tried to deny her love for Brett but after having to put up with each other for a while the two begin to soften around each other. Alexis always trying to find something to hold against Brett to post on her blog and humiliate him much like she had done with several other students and even teachers, but she feels he never really deserved to be humiliated so never does post a Brett post. However, the more undeniably in love with each other they become, the more weary Alexis becomes because she isn't sure she trusts him enough to open up but having kept a secret to herself about the secret camera in the changing rooms that she took down after it streamed footage of the cheerleading squad naked onto YouTube, she can only seek Brett's help to find out who it is on the other end when it happens for a second time. They both remove the second camera but end up having a steamy moment when they are avoiding the detection of the principal and the coach. Soon they find out who's behind the streaming of the videos and everything calms down and then the couple finally admit their love for each other but Alexis cant take the step yet, she simply isn't ready and agree on being friends but its clear at the end of the book that she clearly wants to be more than friends but just needs a little time, and a little more time alone with Brett.


Much like any book, this book had a problem, I wouldn't call it a major problem but more of something id of liked to of seen. This was the relationship between Alexis and her sister Taylor, they are both opposites but Alexis still cares for her sister, hence the frantic search to find whoever was streaming the footage from the changing rooms which features Taylor. I'd if liked to of seen the pair bond and spend more time together.


It wasn't until I was nearly finished writing this review that I found out this is actually going to be a trilogy. This book alone is great and could be left at the point it ended but the fact the author had made two more books is simply exciting and I cannot wait to see more Alexis and Brett.
I have no trouble giving this book a 5 out of 5 and I cannot wait for the seconds and third book.

Come Sit By Me - Thomas Hoobler

I had the greatest pleasure to gain access to this book. Thank you to the publisher for granting me the right to read and review this book.


Title: Come Sit By Me
Author: Thomas Hoobler
Publisher: Booktrope
Publication Date: July 15th 2015
Available Editions: EBook




Netgalley Synopsis:

The boy who shot seven people in the school library is dead. But did his secrets die with him?
Something terrible happened at Hamilton High last year, and those who survived don't want to relive the past. But Paul has just arrived, and gets the same locker that the shooter used. He wants to know what really happened...and you know what curiosity did to the cat.




Review:

In all honesty when I came upon this book on Netgalley I had to request the right to review purely down to the description and the cover itself. To anyone who had watched American Horror Story: Murder House will be able to see why. To anyone who hasn't seen AHS:MH what I'm referring to it Tate Langdon played by Evan Peters who shot and killed 15 students in Westfield High, the librarian survived but was paralysed. A few of the students he shot and killed died in the library which is also where those murdered in this book die. The art work for the book also resembled Tate/Evan from AHS:MH because of the face pain, Tate is shown in several scenes to be walking through school wearing similar face paint. None the less for the sake of review and interest I went ahead and requested the right to read and review the book.




Lets start with what I loved about the book shall we? Even though I believed it to be a basic story based around a version of Tate I was deceived. This book follows Paul, a boy who moves to a new school from New York. It's great to get to know Pauls back ground and reasoning's for moving and there is never a moment where I had lost track of the moment, everything tied together perfectly. There were several characters but never so many that you would lose track of who was who and what happened to who and I'm grateful for that. You could say there were some secret messages throughout the book but they aren't for me to spoil or even interpret for you, everyone understands things differently.




Picking up on the character aspect once again, each character attracted my attention because they were all relevant to the story and not just passers by. The story mostly focus' around Paul who is just a boy who does his homework, reads, writes for the schools paper and socialises, even though it sounds bland put like that Paul is a dedicated investigator even when he's told its not worth it and is always up to try something new. Terry is a red headed independent and straight A girl with red hair, she runs the schools paper and is far from dumb, she absorbs everything she observes including activities carried out by Paul. She is an independent and strong willed female and always supportive and good to be around. Caleb/Cale is the gunman who we hear a lot about throughout the first part of the book before we finally take a look into his life. He seems quite dumb and seems to be the loner of the school but he has a certain look on life that isn't all a load of poop. Even though he's portrayed as the bad person in the book you do get to know of his reasoning and such, this is great to see as it isn't just 'oh he's a baddy because he's bad' there is an actual explanation as to why.


Consisting of 103 pages I would call it a short read but it took me one hour less to read this than to read an 151 paged book somehow. No matter anyway, I was surprised to say the least, everything was clear and intriguing to read, never a dull moment. The reason I sat to read this today/tonight/this morning  was only because after I had posted my review on Being Layla Hart, I found a spider right by my face on the wall and couldn't sleep so I spent 3 hours reading to be just as awake as I had been three hours earlier.




I'm not actually go into a brief description of the plot because it was so marvellous, I'm highly recommending you to read it yourself and not just read what I write. As much as I mention American Horror Story at the beginning, that is by far the only criticism I can have for this book. It's a great book and I recommend it to anyone who A. wants a quick read B. loves investigation. If you apply to B I want to know if you figure it out before the end of the book. By it I mean it, you'll know when you read it. I have no regret to give this book a 5 out of 5

Being Layla Hart - Amanda McKelt

So I was granted the amazing right to read this book before its release and I cannot thank the publisher enough for allowing me to do so.











Title: Being Layla Hart
Author: Amanda McKelt
Publisher: Amanda McKelt
Publication Date: April 26th 2015

Available Editions: Ebook



Netgalley Synopsis:
April Collins is freaking out. She completely embarrassed herself in front of the most crushable guy in school. There's no way she's returning to school,like, EVER. Why can't she be pretty, popular and perfect like Layla Hart? Layla is a phony online profile - that is, until April wakes up as her! Will popularity prove as easy as it seems? And what happens when April's crush finally notices her... as Layla?

Review:


Reading the description on Netgalley and seeing the book cover was what sparked my interest. Mostly because I wanted to see how the author would manage to make this concept work. Not only this but I was also happy to read it for review to build up a profile of reviews.

I'd like to start with a few points that I loved about the book. There is an overall message in the book, about how April must accept who she really is and to be okay with herself in order to get rid of Layla. Not only this the topics and characters all were what I could call relevant to teenagers and some people could relate to some and maybe all of the characters and topics throughout.

Continuing on the line of characters, they are very interesting, Layla/April is just a normal teen, just wanting popularity and the cute and totally crushable boy. Sofia seemed to be a strong and independent female in terms of her self worth and was a good person for April to be around because of how supportive and independent she was.

This book was also a quick read, taking me only around 4 hours to complete after dedicated long reading periods. As quick of a read it was, it was also very strange, I found it confusing in terms of the parenting within the book and also the explanation of what is occurring.


ALERT: SPOILERISH PART: You have been warned.

So of course April becomes Layla Hart, I wasn't really sure at how I wanted the change to occur but when it did occur and I managed to figure it out as how it happened, I wasn't too disappointed but slightly amused at how the author had gone about it. Having actually become Layla, she cannot reveal it to her mother or brother and no one but her best friend and one other person knows who she is. What confused me here is that after making up an exchange programme where April went to America and Layla had turned up in her place, Aprils mother didn't even call the school to talk it over, she just simply let it happen, for the sake of staying engaged in the story, I went along with it.

I managed to grasp the concept of location, so the book was set in Australia with the mention of the United States, however it was never clearly pointed out when the story started out. However I picked it up and it wasn't too much of a confusion for me.

My last point is the lack of explanation of what actually happened to April/Layla, the books just seems to rush at the end like in the matter of a page or so was back to normal no questions asked nothing and it ended in the blink of an eye. Considering its anti climatic ending I did enjoy the book and have no problem with giving the book a 4 out of 5 on rating I just wish that the ending was explained maybe an update of how April finally accepted herself.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants something quick to read and enjoys a little bit of secret meaning to a book.