Category: Romance

‘Optimists Die First’ – Susin Nielsen

I loved the warmth and honesty of ‘We Are All Made of Molecules’, so I was looking forward to reading this when I was approved for an advance copy by NetGalley.

The story focuses on sixteen year old Petula, a young girl struggling to live with the guilt she feels after the death of her younger sister. Ever since this awful event, we learn that Petula has distanced herself from friends and family, and done all she can to alienate herself from everything that made her who she was prior to Maxine’s death. As with Nielsen’s previous book we focus on a family in crisis, but here the journey along this path does – on occasion – feel a little forced.

What happened is revealed slowly, so at first Petula’s anxieties seem a little unexpected. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that they are depicted unsympathetically, but at first it almost seems as if she is trying very hard to make us see her as quirky rather than someone trying to come to terms with a major loss.

I liked the honest way in which Nielsen shows how Petula’s life has been affected by what happened. She is not coping, but her resilience is evident in the way she tries to help her parents and the rather off-beat approach she takes to her art therapy classes. When newcomer Jacob is paired with her for a school project she lets him in, opening herself up to the possibility of being hurt. While there was a rather obvious romance here, I think it was a brave step to show how Petula, Jacob and the other characters deal with their friendships. Nothing is quite what we expect here, and this will definitely be a book that appeals to younger readers.

‘Windfall’ – Jennifer E. Smith

Windfall

Alice has, by anyone’s standards, had a pretty tough life with both her parents dying close together. But she has a loving cousin, aunt and uncle, and a good friend. In this story those bonds are tested…by an unexpected windfall.

When Alice buys her best friend, Teddy, a lottery ticket for his birthday she never expected anything to come of it. But he becomes the youngest ever winner and is suddenly responsible for over 140million dollars.

If you ignore the improbability of this story you will definitely enjoy this story. The fun Teddy has squandering this money is probably everyone’s fantasy, but he soon comes to realise money is fairly meaningless. It’s the people around us who matter, and this fortune helps him make a difference to so many people.

What follows is, I think, rather obvious but this is a heart-warming story about love and what it means to people (with the money forming a nice backdrop).

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this.

‘The Selection’ series – Kiera Cass

The Selection series The HeirThe Crown

 

Book One – The Selection (read and reviewed July 2016)

Link: http://mygoodreads.co.uk/?p=950

Book Two – The Elite (read 06/03/17)

Book two picks up after the events of the first in the series. America has a firm foothold in Maxon’s affections, but she can’t bring herself to trust her feelings for him/feelings about the caste system and her indecision is the focus of most of the novel.

On the surface we have the superficial Selection process – like Blind Date gone horribly wrong we see the girls who are left put through a series of tasks to prove their worthiness. Lest we forget, we’re reminded regularly that though Maxon gets to choose, there are other forces coming into play that he has less control over.

The book was fairly well-paced and we get some further understanding of just what Maxon is put through as part of his role. This, however, seemed a bit cobbled on to explain why he didn’t stand up to people more.

The threat from the Rebels is closer, and there’s certainly more to this than we’ve been told so far. What annoyed me here though was America herself. She’s reckless, headstrong and so flamin’ indecisive I was really irritated by her. I can see why she’s appealing to some of the characters in the novel, but I hope the anger she was feeling at the end of the book forces her to act with some sense of decisiveness in book three.

 

Book Three -The One (finished 08/03/17)

A really emotional read, which is no mean feat for a book that is, at heart, focused on the superficial Selection process of choosing a wife for Prince Maxon.

In spite of many of the characters being more than irksome, here we got a real chance to see beyond the surface and come to know more about them/their hopes and fears. I even found myself liking America at points as she wrestles with her feelings for Maxon, comes to acknowledge the true state of her relationship with Aspen and finally acknowledges her role in the process.

For me a strength of this book was the fact it moved beyond the Selection and showed us more about the rebels/state of the country. It was much easier to get emotionally invested in people once we stopped seeing them in isolation.

While the actual process of Maxon and America forming their alliance came under pressure, I was quite stunned by the pace of the final part of the novel. Having already hit us with a death-blow that felt absurdly painful, I couldn’t read fast enough for the closing moments. Though I can’t help but feel shamefully manipulated, those final moments of the process and the emergence of the new order contained some of the best scenes of the series.

Book Four – The Heir (read 11/03/17)

We get to see America and Maxon years after their wedding, and we gain an insight into the changes they brought to their country. This novel focuses on their eldest daughter, Eadlyn, and the attempt to quell disturbances by holding another Selection.

There’s no escaping the fact that this felt like the same book, just with different characters. What I did like in this was the characters who aren’t part of the process. I didn’t particularly like many of the boys and the artificiality of the setting. It seemed an unusual situation to leave the book in, but I’m looking forward to seeing where we end up.

Book Five – The Crown (read 12/03/17)

First, this was full of romance and high on emotion. Second, there are some unexpected twists and turns that you might not see coming. Third, that’s it…
Eadlyn begins the novel in the immediate aftermath of her mother’s heart attack. Things are tense, and the turbulence in the Palace is mirrored in the country.
I unashamedly fell for the events of this novel. Rather predictable in places but Eadlyn grew as a character and there was a lot to like here.

Lauren Kate – ‘Fallen’ series

 

FallenTormentPassion
RaptureUnforgiven

Book One – Fallen (read 02/03/17)

This is the kind of story that carries you along quite happily, and it is only after you finish reading that you start to pick holes in it.

Luce is sent to a reform school due to an unfortunate incident involving a boy and flames, lots of flames. She has, since she can remember, seen mysterious shadows around her and is, understandably, keen to not share this information with people. Unfortunately, everyone she comes across at this new school clearly knows a lot more about her and her situation than Luce is allowed to know.

Things happen fairly quickly, and the inevitable relationship dilemma is dealt with in a fairly engaging way. There’s a lot of characters, many of whom are expendable and don’t seem to have much impact on the story.

While this book was not particularly bad, it was frustrating because we watched Luce get into ridiculous situations without questioning what was happening. There were a few too many unanswered questions for my liking, but I’m looking forward to seeing the development of the story in the rest of the series.

Book Two – Torment (read 05/03/17)

‘Torment’ picks up immediately after the events of ‘Fallen’. We start with Luce being taken to a new school where it’s hoped she’ll be safe as she’s surrounded by the Nephilim (offspring of humans and fallen angels).

It’s no surprise to see that it all goes rather wrong. She gets to see Daniel occasionally but Luce spends most of the book digging round and trying to find out more about her past. We meet some new characters, learn a bit more about angels and watch Luce bumble from one disaster to the next as she tries to lay low. It wasn’t bad, per se, but it was incredibly frustrating to have yet another book where we get no closer to any answers.

Book Three – Passion (read 06/03/17)

In the third in the series Luce is determined to go back through time, to the times she and Daniel have met, in order to try and work out how she can put an end to her fate. What follows is a bit of a mish-mash of us seeing Luce and Daniel fall in love through history.

I understand that there is something slightly romantic about watching Luce and Daniel fall in love in their various incarnations, but we remain pretty short on answers in this novel. The style felt even more fractured than the previous two, but there were some nice scenes.

Where this did become fun was as we drew closer to the Fall and start to gain an insight into exactly what happened and how the curse affecting Luce came into being. We get some hints of where we might be going, but it does seem that things are being drawn out rather for the sake of it.

Book Four – Rapture

Book Five – Unforgiven

 

‘History Is All You Left Me’ – Adam Silvera

History is all you left me

One of the things I love about being part of an on-line reading community is hearing from other readers about books that I might not have otherwise picked up. Adam Silvera’s novel – published in January 2017 – is my first read by this author and, based on my feelings after reading this, it won’t be the last!

Our story focuses on seventeen year-old Griffin, and how he feels after the death of his ex-boyfriend and first love, Theo. Griffin is definitely finding it hard to accept the loss of someone so important to him, and we see him being torn apart by his obsessions as he tries to adjust to life without the person who remained so important to him.

This was one of those books that snuck up on me and has left me more than a little stunned…in a great way…and there were a number of reasons for this.
First, let’s deal with the fact that Griffin is gay and celebrate that this book doesn’t treat it like anything other than part of who he is. Yes, he has relationship difficulties. Sometimes he acts like a jerk. His relationships have touching moments that I felt privileged to be allowed to witness. Sometimes it’s painful. Whatever we’re witnessing, it’s part of him.

Second, the structuring of the story was something that I found immensely satisfying in revealing the characters we were introduced to. Splitting between History and Today to show the memories Griffin has and how he’s dealing with the aftermath of Theo’s accident was, initially, rather confusing but it makes perfect sense as we draw closer to Griffin and see just what he’s living with.

There are so many things I liked about this story. It explores a painful event in anyone’s life, but learning to live with loss and first love will be relevant in some way to most readers. The closing pages – as we see Griffin finally coming to accept, in part, what he needs to do to forgive himself – were emotionally hard to read.

The final line really intrigued me as it suggested Griffin might not be quite as reliable a narrator as we were led to believe. Who can judge whether you have a shared history wrong? I’ll be puzzling this over for some time.

‘My Ladybird Story’ – Magus Tor

 

My Ladybird Story

In this novel Tor focuses on the story of John, a young teenage boy who feels different but can’t identify why. We follow him through school as he becomes friends with the new girl, Aureus, a force to be reckoned with.

As soon as these two become friends it’s clear they have found their own support network. Together, John and Aureus find ways to cope with the demands and stresses of high school. Yet John remains quiet, prone to periods of intense depression and nobody can work out why.

The novel takes us on John’s journey as he comes to terms with his identity, eventually recognizing that he has gender dysphoria and undergoing therapy/counseling as part of his gender reassignment.

Novels exploring identity and transgenderism do seem to be becoming rather popular at the moment. That’s no bad thing – certainly for those who are living the experience and need all the support they can get. However, though this novel was positive in its affirmation I couldn’t help but feel there was a sense of earnestness about this that made it feel a little less effective.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in advance.

‘The Future of Us’ – Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

The Future of Us

Published in 2011, this is a romance that is unashamedly set in the past while trying to explore attitudes to what – in our contemporary world – has become the norm. What I felt throughout was that something always felt slightly off-kilter.

Emma and Josh are next-door neighbours, who have been friends forever. Naturally (this is a romance) Josh has made a move and Emma has panicked…so they’ve not really spoken for a while. This would be awkward enough, but throughout the novel we can see that the whole focus is on them trying to work out they are meant to be together.

While this might seem infuriating, the cast of friends surrounding them are interesting enough to stop it all getting too much. What irritated me was the premise used to get them to see the true state of their feelings for each other. Set in the past – way back in 1996 when teenagers had to do things like page each other if they wanted to speak or, heaven forbid, actually meet up – we are led to believe that when Emma is given a free AOL CD she finds a mysterious page called Facebook that seems to tell her the future.

Part of me really wanted to stop reading. Emma and Josh acted more like olden day peasants facing witchcraft rather than savvy teens on the cutting edge of their world. Still, it was mildly entertaining but more than a little unforgettable.

‘Caraval’ – Stephanie Garber

In the world of Caraval, nothing is quite as it seems.

Scarlett and her sister, Tella, have never left their tiny island. They obsess over the annual festival that is Caraval, an exclusive ticket-only event where the audience participates in the show. For both girls, the event symbolises escape from their abusive father and, though they are desperate to participate in the game, they stand little chance of being able to get there.

When Scarlett learns that their father is playing his own game, and has promised her hand in marriage it seems their chance to escape is well and truly dashed. Then, mysteriously, tickets to the game arrive…and a young man turns up at just the right time to help the sisters get to the island.

Once Scarlett arrives on the island, I felt the book came into its own. The world of Caraval and the mystery surrounding Legend was absorbing. Scarlett’s determination to help her sister – while also finding time to develop her own romance – was not particularly justified, but as long as you don’t question some of the details too much you won’t be disappointed.

Since starting this I’ve heard it’s to be made into a film…seriously, can’t wait! This was a cleverly constructed book that will, if you buy into it, completely dazzle you.

‘Freeks’ – Amanda Hocking

Sadly, this just didn’t get me as I’d like it to have done.

Mara is a necromancer and she travels as part of a Traveling Circus that has fallen on hard times. She dreams of living a normal life, one where she doesn’t have to worry about strange events. When the circus moves to the small town of Caudry it looks as though she’ll get her wish…at least initially.

The world of the circus was well-depicted and the characters we were introduced to intrigued me. They were a close-knit group thought it was clear that many of them were hiding secrets, sometimes for reasons that made little sense.

I couldn’t understand the haste with which characters occasionally fall for each other, and Mara’s relationship with local-boy Gabe had me on edge from the start. I’m pleased I was so off in my thoughts on where it was going with regard to the relationship, but the supernatural elements to this felt rather like they came out of nowhere.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance read and though it wasn’t exactly leaving me desperate to encourage others to read it, it will have its fair share of fans.

‘Coming Up For Air’ – Miranda Kenneally

Coming Up For Air

Due for publication in July 2017 I think this is a novel that will strike a chord with its intended audience.

Maggie is determined to be a professional swimmer. She trains hard, and doesn’t have time for much else in her life. As she draws closer to leaving for college, Maggie can’t help but feel she’s missing out on something-the opportunity to have a relationship.

What follows is, let’s be honest, all rather transparent. Maggie and her best friend, Levi, spend the novel trying to work out what we assume will be obvious from the start. However, in spite of its obviousness, this is still an entertaining read.

No major dramas, nothing that will offend anyone and it all ends as we expect. Safe, but it left me feeling a little flat. Thanks, though, to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in advance of publication.