Boy21

It's never been easy for Finley, particularly at home. But two things keep him going: his place on the basketball team and his girlfriend, Erin - the light in even the darkest of his days.

Then Russ arrives. He answers only to Boy21, claims to be from outer space, and also has a past he wants to escape. He's one of the best high school basketball players in the country and threatens to steal Finley's starting position.

Against all the odds, Russ and Finley become friends. Russ could change everything for Finley, both for better and for worse. But sometimes the person you least expect can give you the courage to face what's gone before ...and work out where you're going next.

My opinion: I loved Matthew Quick's The Silver Linings Playbook and I also love a good YA book, so had high hopes for this book.

Finley is from an Irish American family living in a tough neighbourhood and is the only white boy on his basketball team. Although life isn't perfect, particularly at home with his father and disabled alcoholic grandfather, his girlfriend Erin and basketball make his life pretty ok. When he is asked by Coach to make friends with new kid Russell, his life changes in more ways than he can imagine. Despite Russell being pretty weird with an obsession with space and his insistence that his name is Boy21, Finley likes him, and finds some room in his life for a new friend.

I really liked this book and read it more or less in one sitting. It was refreshing to read a YA book which wasn't about romance, but instead it was about the friendship of two boys, something I don't think I've read about before. I'm probably the least sporty person ever, so the basketball references put me off a bit at first, but once the story got going, I could see why it was such a key aspect of the book, and found that I didn't really need to understand the terminology to read the book. In the style of the best YA books, Boy21 deals with a number of difficult issues including grief, gang culture, poverty and families. I thought it was really well done by the author though as I didn't feel that anyone theme defined the book and were just part of life, rather than necessarily being a focal point.

I really liked the writing style and felt that the story was well paced and flowed really well. It was a short book, but to be honest I think it was the perfect length. I don't like books that are long for the sake of being long and being able to fit everything you want to say in a shorter book is a quality I like in authors. I would like to read more about the characters to see what happens next, and how they each get on following graduation. I really felt that Finley, Russell and Erin were all really likeable, and probably more so as none of them were jock type characters and were all a bit weird in their own special way. I really like these sorts of characters as they are more realistic and I know that I am bit weird in my own way too!

A really good read, and another good American YA book to add to the growing list of books that I wish were around when I was a teenager (not that it stops me reading them now!). I'd definitely recommend this book and will have to get round to reading more of Matthew Quick's books soon!

My rating: Four stars

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher, Headline, via Bookbridgr in exchange for an honest review

The Geography of You and Me

Lucy and Owen meet somewhere between the tenth and eleventh floors of a New York City apartment building, on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout. After they're rescued, they spend a single night together, wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is restored, so is reality. Lucy soon moves to Edinburgh with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father.

Lucy and Owen's relationship plays out across the globe as they stay in touch through postcards, occasional e-mails, and -- finally -- a reunion in the city where they first met.

A carefully charted map of a long-distance relationship, Jennifer E. Smith's new novel shows that the center of the world isn't necessarily a place. It can be a person, too.

My opinion: I was really excited when I received this book for review. I had seen that a lot of other book bloggers had enjoyed the book and loved the cover so couldn't wait to get stuck in over the bank holiday weekend.

Lucy and Owen are two teenagers who get stuck in a lift together in the apartment building where they both live in New York. Lucy lives with her parents who are away on yet another trip, and her brothers who have both gone off to university. Owen and his dad have recently moved to New York after his dad was offered the job of caretaker for the building following the sudden death of Owen's mother. One shared evening and experience links Lucy and Owen together over the coming months, and despite both moving a number of times, they keep in touch with postcards.

This book is lovely and cute, with a real feel of old school innocence. I think this is highlighted by the way that Owen and Lucy mainly stay in contact by sending each other postcards, choosing, in the most part, to shun the more techy methods of contact favoured by teenagers these days. This book is a quick read and is well paced, and even though it's not the most action packed story I have ever read, it still made me want to read more.

A very cute and wonderfully old fashioned love story, I'd recommend this for fans of YA and those who usually read romance and would like to give YA a go.

My rating: Four stars

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Fangirl

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 ...

My opinion: I was first attracted to this book by the cover. It's just so pretty! If you have read any of my recent reviews you will know that I am a bit shallow when it comes to a pretty cover. And recently I have been lucky that judging a book by its cover hasn't backfired on me!

Cather and Wren are identitical twin girls who are just about to go away to college. Despite having been inseparable all of their lives, things are about to change. Wren wants her own identity and has cut her hair and decided to live separately to Cath in the student halls. This is the worst thing Cath could imagine. She is introverted and shy and has always relied on Wren to be the social one of the two of them. Without Wren with her every step of the way, Cath needs to embrace who she is, make some friends and get on with what could be the beginning of the rest of her life.

I love a geeky girl. Cath is a prime example of a wonderfully geeky girl for me. She is socially awkward, loves a fictional world and is quite happy with her own company. I see many parallels with myself, even if (I think) I have hid it well over the years. Despite my confident exterior, inside I am still the same socially awkward girl of my childhood. I have just learnt to portray myself in a certain way because of the steps I have taken in my career. Cath is a brilliant character and she really flourishes and becomes comfortable with herself. She even makes friends with her scary room mate Reagan and her boyfriend Levi, as well as Nick from her fiction writing class.

As a book lover, I belive that there is nothing wrong with getting lost in a fictional world. In fact, it is something I actively promote. Cath loves the fictional Simon Snow series to a point I didn't believe was possible. This flagged up to me how much I actually fangirl for Harry Potter and also opened my eyes to the world of fanfiction! (I hope I just used the term "fangirl" in the right context. As I am spiralling towards my thirties, I am not as down with the kids as I once was. Who am I kidding?! I have never been cool....) I never knew that fanfiction was as big a thing as it is. Since reading about Cath's writing I have had a trawl of some HP fanfiction, but haven't actually read any yet as I'm a bit scared of it!

My final comment about Cath is that reading this book has made me realise how easy the internet makes it to be an introverted teenager these days. I never had the internet until I was 21 so find it's popularity with teenagers and children a little hard to get my head round to be honest. But this is another great thing about this book. It has given me access to worlds that I didn't know about or have never experienced.

I think you can tell that I loved this book. I can't think of anything that I didn't like about it.I honestly think that this is a great coming of age book for a modern generation which can be enjoyed by anyone of any age. It felt a bit like a modern fairytale with a certain element of innocence, but was still savvy and up to date. I will stop gushing in a second, but I think Cath is a great role model and I only wish I could have been more comfortable with myself and my geekiness at her age. Fortunately I get paid to be a geek now which is nice!

Oh and on a final note, I love Levi!

My rating: A fangirling five stars! Is it possible to fangirl Fangirl?!

The Sentinel

When Eve is rescued from a horrific coach crash by her teachers, she is shocked to discover they possess super strength and speed.  But what happens next is even more harrowing.  
In the aftermath of the crash she discovers that everyone in her life from neighbours, doctors, dentists, teachers, shop keepers and even her family and friends are actually super strength Guardians sent to protect her.  They all have one thing in common, a single minded ferocity that she must be kept alive at all costs.
However, she is surrounded by secrets and lies.  Those in the know deny all knowledge of what happened that fateful night.  Everyone else carries on as normal, seemingly unaware of the new strange world that she has stumbled against. 
With the help of Seth, her best friend, Eve discovers the prophecies surrounding her true identity and the super strength she too holds. With her Guardians pledged to protect her, her closest friends ready to die for her, her own hopes and dreams are put on hold whilst she battles to control the amazing powers she has been bestowed with. 
But those that seek to destroy her move ever closer.  Will the Guardians be enough to protect her when so many are prepared to stop at nothing to see her dead? And will she be strong enough to fulfil her destiny when the time comes?
A fast paced fantasy adventure for young adults. 
With high speed car chases, airborne fights, amazing stunts and super powered beings, this is a story of loyalty, friendship and love.

My opinion: I have read so many good things about this on Twitter, and was spurred on by some fellow book bloggers to give it a go sooner rather than later!

I was totally hooked from the first page. Eve gets rescued from a bus crash, which by rights should have killed everyone and kick starts a series of events and revelations that will change Eve's world and outlook on life forever. She finds that her friends have been handpicked for her, her parents aren't who she thought they were, and even her dog had been lying to her. Luckily she as her friends had been picked to protect her, she is surrounded by people she knows and loves, including her best friend Seth, and they help her try to come to terms with the strange new things that are happening to her, and the prophecy about her future.

I literally couldn't put this book down and read it in about 3 sittings, including one sitting of 70%!! The writing is really great and pulled me in and really made me feel like I was experiencing the emotions of the characters. It is really fast paced, and even though I'm not a massive fan of fantasy, this book really captured my imagination.

Eve is a great character and is very mature. She didn't feel selfish or spoilt in any way, which I think could have easily happened with a character in her situation. Also, even though there are a lot of characters I didn't feel like I was losing track of who they are like I do with some books.

Eve's relationship with Seth seems impossibly close at the beginning - I too had a male best friend through high school so I found comparing the relationships a bit weird at first. It all makes sense later on though, and I was glad that it was clarified! The one thing I would say about the book is although it is set in England, in the main it doesn't feel particularly English or British. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, more of an observation.

I would definitely recommend this book and already have to some of my friends! If I were to compare it with other books, the storyline itself is incomparable, but the feel of it reminded me of a Harry Potter/Hunger Games hybrid! I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series.

My rating: A very well deserved five stars!!

North Pole Reform School

Mistletoe Bell hates Christmas. So would you if you had a name like hers. Her Christmas-mad parents make the festive season last all year, and with another Christmas looming, Mis doesn’t think she can take any more. After her carelessness causes an accident at school, it seems like things can’t get any worse.

Then she wakes up to find The Ghost of Christmases Ruined in her bedroom.

She is taken to the North Pole, to a reform school run by elves determined to make her love Christmas. Stuck in a misfit group of fellow Christmas-haters with a motley crew of the weird and even weirder, watched over by elves day and night, she doesn’t expect to meet cute and funny Luke, who is hiding a vulnerable side beneath his sarcastic exterior. She doesn’t expect to fall in love with him.

But all is not as it should be at the North Pole. A certain Mr Claus is making the elves’ lives a misery, and pretty soon Mistletoe and Luke are doing more than just learning to like Christmas.

A YA romantic comedy in which Santa is the bad guy, teaching reindeer to fly is on the curriculum, and zombies have a fondness for Christmas music.
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Suitable for older teens and upwards due to bad language.

My opinion: North Pole Reform School is the latest book from the very lovely Jaimie Admans, and unsurprisingly is a Christmas book!

This time we are transported to the North Pole with Mistletoe Bell after she ruins the Christmas of others. A purple moose comes in the middle of the night to whisk Mis away, and when she wakes up she's with a group of people at the North Pole who are all there to be reformed.

The group of Christmas ruiners that she joins includes a duck phobic, a boy who thinks he's dead, the awful Joe and the very lovely Luke. They are all there for a reason, and in order to graduate they must learn why Christmas is meaningful to others. This must be fine whilst surrounded by elves, surviving on a diet of candy canes and mince pies, listening to constant Christmas songs and that even before we mention the mean Santa and North Pole zombies!

This book was really fun and I really enjoyed reading it. The detail surrounding the North Pole is amazing and Jaimie must have done a lot of Christmassy research! The story is a good mix of fun and some more serious messages. It did make me think about how Christmas means different things to different people, and how magical it can be to those with children.

NPRS is a good mix of YA with fantasy and a bit of romance thrown in. A great bit of light relief to get you in a Christmassy mood!

I will be taking part in the NPRS blog tour on 12th December with a guest post from Jaimie!

My rating: A festive four stars!

I was sent a copy of the book by the author in exchange for an honest review

Paper Towns

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

My opinion: After reading The Fault in Our Stars last year I was intrigued by John Green's writing, even though I have only really just got into young adult books. I liked the premise of this book and am very glad that I gave it a go.

This book is well paced and full of detail. It's like a detective meets and adventurer and goes on a crazy road trip. It is full of moments that kept me on the edge of my seat, and more importantly kept me guessing. It is obviously well researched and I loved the detail about map makers adding in a pretend town as a way to keep ownership of the design of the map.

The characters were well formed and I liked that the main character Q was a bit of an underdog and really seemed to have a lower opinion of himself than other people did. I found that really endearing and in some ways reminded me of myself.

I will definitely be reading more from John Green, and my Amazon wishlist has already got somewhat longer!

My rating: Four stars

I originally reviewed this book at Reading in Progress.

The Fault in Our Stars

Despite the tumor-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.

My opinion: I was a little bit wary about reading this book as I was worried that it could be upsetting and a bit depressing as it is about a teenage girl with cancer. I need not have worried.

This book was my firsty foray into reading some of John Green's writing, and it definitely won't be my last! I was drawn into the story straight away and really loved the friendly writing style. In fact, I could barely put this down when I was reading it.

We follow the story of Hazel who is a 16 year old terminal cancer patient. She is convinced by her parents to join a support group to meet some fellow sufferers and give her chance to get out of the house. She meets a new friend in Isaac and subsequently meets his best friend Augustus. Hazel gets close with Augustus and they eventually start going out.

The book is very funny in parts and there are also parts that made me cry. It is wonderfully written and I especially liked the parts about Hazel's favourite book and going to meet the writer. A lot of the time you were able to forget that she was any different to other teenagers, until something popped up to remind you.

The book has a bittersweet ending, and I will warn you, don't read it in public, you may not want to be around people when you read it. The book is in no way depressing and leaves the reader wanting more. This book will stay with me for a long time and I would certainly recommend it to others to read.

My rating: A big fat tear inducing five stars!

I originally reviewed this book in 2012 at Reading in Progress.

Afterlife Academy

Even being dead isn’t enough to get you out of maths class.

Dying wasn't on sixteen-year-old Riley Richardson's to-do list. And now, not only is she dead, but she's stuck in a perpetual high school nightmare. Worse still, she's stuck there with the geekiest, most annoying boy in the history of the world, ever.

In a school where the geeks are popular and just about everything is wrong, Riley has become an outcast. She begins a desperate quest to get back home, but her once-perfect life starts to unravel into something not nearly as great as she thought it was. And maybe death isn’t really that bad after all...

Welcome to Afterlife Academy, where horns are the norm, the microwave is more intelligent than the teachers, and the pumpkins have a taste for blood.

My opinion: This book is the third book that up and coming indie author Jaimie Admans has published in the last 6 months, and boy is it a cracker.

To be honest I was expecting your average young adult slightly paranormal romance. But I was pleasantly surprised!! The storyline of this book is so original and every detail is well thought through and the imagery is brilliant.

I found it hard to put the book down and read it everwhere when I was reading it, in my favourite coffee shop, in bed, whilst eating my tea and even on the break of a training course! I would definitely recommend this book for a fun read that has a bit of the paranormal, some romance and is still well written.

I would like to see this book made into a series as I liked the characters and think a lot more could be made of them, particularly Riley and Narcissa.

All in all, another excellent book from a very talented indie author!

My rating: Five stars!

I originally reviewed this book over at Reading in Progress

Not Pretty Enough

“New Year’s Resolutions:
1. Lloyd Layton will know I exist. He once said three whole words to me, so this is obviously progress. If I don’t get a proper conversation out of him soon, then I’ll take my top off and streak through the cafeteria, because nobody could fail to notice these boobs.
2. I will not get expelled for streaking through the cafeteria.”

Those are the words that begin her mission.
Chessie is fourteen, not pretty enough, and very much in love. Lloyd Layton is hot, popular, and unaware of Chessie’s existence.
Her goal is clear: to get Lloyd to love her as much as she loves him, and she has exactly one year to do it.
As Chessie’s obsession with Lloyd reaches boiling point and she starts to spin a web of lies that spiral out of control, Lloyd turns out to be not quite the prince she thought he was. Can Chessie avoid the gathering storm before things go too far?

-- -- -- -- --
Not Pretty Enough is a contemporary young adult comedy suitable for ages thirteen and over.

Book two in the series will be released early 2014.


My opinion: Jaimie Admans is my favourite self published author and I was very excited to be accepted as part of the blog tour for her latest book.

Not Pretty Enough centres around Chessie in her quest to make her crush Lloyd not only know that she is alive, but also to get him to like her in the right way. Well, she certainly gets Lloyd to notice her even if it's for all the wrong reasons!

Chessie reminded me a bit of myself when I was in high school, only I was a lot more geeky! Anything that could go wrong happens to her, and saying that she is accident prone old be something of an understatement!

The book is easy to read and extremely funny. Don't read it on public transport as you will laugh out loud and attract lots of funny looks! The story flows well and has some great characters and lots of cringe worthy moments. Even though it is a young adult story it is definitely something that can also be enjoyed by adults and will make you reminisce about how embarrassing your own high school days were!

I would definitely recommend this book and look forward to the next one in the series!

My rating: A well deserved five stars!

I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review as part of the Not Pretty Enough blog tour


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Geek Girl

Harriet Manners knows a lot of things.

She knows that a cat has 32 muscles in each ear, a "jiffy" lasts 1/100th of a second, and the average person laughs 15 times per day. What she isn't quite so sure about is why nobody at school seems to like her very much. So when she's spotted by a top model agent, Harriet grabs the chance to reinvent herself. Even if it means stealing her Best Friend's dream, incurring the wrath of her arch enemy Alexa, and repeatedly humiliating herself in front of the impossibly handsome supermodel Nick. Even if it means lying to the people she loves.

As Harriet veers from one couture disaster to the next with the help of her overly enthusiastic father and her uber-geeky stalker, Toby, she begins to realise that the world of fashion doesn't seem to like her any more than the real world did.

And as her old life starts to fall apart, the question is: will Harriet be able to transform herself before she ruins everything?


"Smart, sassy, and very funny." - The Bookseller.

"There’s laughter and tears in this hilarious roller-coaster story." - Julia Eccleshare, The Guardian Children's Editor

My opinion: What can I say? I was drawn to this book by the cover, and we all love a geek (especially if you are one like me!) and had to give it a go.

It was a quick, fun read and had more substance to it than I was expecting. The main character Harriet reminded me of myself as a teenager as she was a social outcast who couldn't do or say the right thing at the right time, but was very brainy. Although I have to say that the similarities to my own youth stopped at the modelling contract!

Some parts of the book were laugh out loud funny, particularly when Harriet was getting into the world of modelling. I loved that it was a book about the geeky girl who did well in an unexpected way, and was a teeny bit jealous that I hadn't had the same opportunities!

I liked the style of writing for this book and hope that this isn't the last we see of Harriet Manners. I will also be seeking out more of Holly Smale's work in future.

A great book, for both adult and young adult readers.

My rating: A fantastic five stars!!

Originally reviewed at Reading in Progress

The next book in the series Model Misfit will be published on 26th September 2013 by HarperCollins Children's Books

An Abundance of Katherines

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy–loving best friend riding shotgun—but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl. Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself.

My opinion: This was the third John Green book I have read after getting hooked after reading the amazing The Fault in Our Stars last summer.

In this one we meet teenage boy Colin, who astonishingly has not only had 19 girlfriends, but all of them happened to be called Katherine! Following his break up with Katherine number 19, he embarks on a road trip with his best friend Hassan. Adventure ensues and we get to follow Colin on his journey to becoming a man.

Although I enjoyed this book, I found Colin's luck with women a bit unbelievable as he is portrayed as being a geek with few friends. I also found Colin a bit whiny and overall thought the book was a little long winded (even though the page count is fairly small).

This was nowhere near the best young adult book I have read, but I can see the appeal for some readers. For me, it just didn't sit in quite the same league as TFiOS and Paper Towns. It hasn't put me off reading more of John Green's work though.

My rating: Three stars

Book Cover Reveal: Not Pretty Enough

Not Pretty Enough by Jaimie Admans
Publication date: 1 August 2013
Genre: YA Contemporary

Synopsis:
“New Year’s Resolutions:
1. Lloyd Layton will know I exist. He once said three whole words to me, so this is obviously progress. If I don’t get a proper conversation out of him soon, then I’ll take my top off and streak through the cafeteria, because nobody could fail to notice these boobs.
2. I will not get expelled for streaking through the cafeteria.”

Those are the words that begin her mission.
Chessie is fourteen, not pretty enough, and very much in love. Lloyd Layton is hot, popular, and unaware of Chessie’s existence.
Her goal is clear: to get Lloyd to love her as much as she loves him, and she has exactly one year to do it.
As Chessie’s obsession with Lloyd reaches boiling point and she starts to spin a web of lies that spiral out of control, Lloyd turns out to be not quite the prince she thought he was. Can Chessie avoid the gathering storm before things go too far?

Not Pretty Enough is a contemporary young adult comedy suitable for ages thirteen and over.

Book two in the series will be released early 2014.

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18142578-not-pretty-enough?ac=1

I have also read and loved two of Jaimie's other books. You can find my reviews and more information by clicking on the links below.

Kismetology

Afterlife Academy