Hey my lovelies, the second book review of this week is Verge by Rebecca Bradford. Which I was luckily enough to receive for free in exchange for an honest review from Austin Macauley publishers, so a huge thank you to them.

Title: Verge
Author: Rebecca Bradford
Publisher: Austin Macauley
Pub. Date: March 31st 2016
Date Read: Sunday 8th May 2016
Pages:  147
Rating:3.5/5 stars
Goodreads Summary:On the eve of her 18th birthday, Ashleigh Palmer is preparing to celebrate like any other 17 year old. With a close circle of good friends, a loving family and a sparkling academic record, her life seems enviable and above all: normal. 
Suddenly, her world is turned upside down as she realises that she may not be the typical young woman she thought she was. To the dismay of her family, her boyfriend Todd and her best friend Emma, she begins to change against her will. Her abilities go from top-standard to prodigal. Her strength, anger and lust know no bounds. Then the inhuman cravings begin - what is happening to her? Her mother holds the secret to her history which will change her life forever, but how and when will it reveal itself? How will she cope, and will she have to leave everyone she loves behind? A world which was once pure fantasy has become real...

Overview

Verge was a strong 3.5 for me as I could not really get into the book at the beginning, but after that it did begin to flow nicely. The writing style read slightly basic and more like a middle grade novel than I expected, which is slightly strange considering there was a sex scene. And the sex scene, seemed to be written quite strange, as the way the characters involved went about it, did not seem very realistic, especially where it happened. The book was very bloody dramatic... get it bloody dramatic. Because of vampires, yeah. Everything in the novel seemed to go exceedingly fast, as I know the book is only 147 pages, but it seemed as if scenes and parts of scenes were cut to make it shorter, which for me sort of stunted the novel. There was a small amount of conflict towards the end of the novel, however this was resolved in a extremely short amount of time, which could have got more developed.

Characters

Ashleigh was our main character and she seemed very difficult. One minute she was fine, next she was angry, upset I take it that this is due to her transitioning, but she was also very blase about everything, because if your best friend was really telling you to dump your boyfriend who you are supposed to love, you are not going to have the best relationship. And yet they did. 

Emma was her best friend who disliked Ashleighs boyfriend, I presume at this point that she will have a more to do with the rest of the books in the series, but to be honest  I was not very impressed. 

Recommend

Personally, this book just didn't suit my tastes, but I would recommend it to people who like short vampire books. 

Book Links

Amazon UK ~ Amazon.com ~ WHSmith ~ Waterstones ~ Goodreads

Another huge thank you to Austin Macauley publishers for allowing me to read and receive this book in exchange for a honest review.

Thank you for reading my lovelies, this is it for this week, if you would like to see more of what I am currently reading you can check me out on Goodreads, Instagram and Twitter. 

Previous Book Review: Memories of a Mad Man by Don Spector

Next Book Review: Out of Order by Casey Lawrence

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Hey my lovelies, today's review is the Hate List by Jennifer Brown. I originally got the Hate List, early on last year, but the fact that its about such a serious issue (the shooting), I admit it put me off reading the book. But now reading it I don't know why I waited so long, because this book was good. So good.

Title: Hate List
Author: Jennifer Brown
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Pub. Date: September 1st 2009
Date Read: Wednesday 27th April 2016
Pages:  405
Rating:4.75/5 stars
Goodreads Summary: Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets.

Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.

Overview 

The Hate List was such a thought provoking book, as it makes you look back on things that you have said recently that maybe was slightly harsh, or if you have ever lead someone on to believe that you do want someone dead, when in reality you don't. As most of us are guilty of doing it. Jokingly wishing a teacher or another student dead. Or bitching about other students at least. As it is very rare that we actually truly mean it. Even if we wouldn't necessarily be upset if something did happen to them. Which sounds very bad when I read what I've typed. We would still feel guilty that we ever thought about hurting them and if we were actually the cause I'm not sure how I would be able to cope in this situation.

Characters

Another thing I enjoyed was that there was no one dimensional characters, every character had their own reasons behind all of their decisions which was made clear with other people wondering if Valerie is a victim or if she was one of the murderers. And how the people that you would expect to have stood by Valerie didn't and the people never expected to did. It was also interesting to see how people blame others in order to cope with their own guilt. Valerie is made to be such a sympathetic character and not in a annoying way, which was such a nice change. Nick, Valerie's boyfriend and the shooter was also shown not as just a mindless evil killer villain, but also as a still insane but a almost understandable character. As I understand why he did it, just not why he actually went through with it. My personal favourite character was -- as I liked that she had the guts to stand with exactly what she believed in and strive to get exactly what she wanted, no matter what happened to her in the past, as she ignored her schools social norms to be herself.

Writing

The Hate List is predominately split into 4 sections, part 1 deals with Valerie going back to school and flashbacks to the morning before and during the shooting. Part 2 is Valerie dealing with the immediate aftermath of the shooting, this is both physically and mentally, as not only mentally dealing with the fact that her boyfriend went and shot the popular crowd of her school but also her own injuries from the shooting. Part 3 shows Valerie getting accepted more, but still feeling guilty herself. And part 4 is Valerie slowly learning how to accept herself again, even through the guilt. 

Would I recommend it?

I recommend this to everyone. Yes everyone, the story was so well written and even though I have never been in that situation, the characters were incredibly relatable. And it was everything I wanted it to be. 

Thank you for reading my lovelies, this is it for this week, if you would like to see more of what I am currently reading you can check me out on Goodreads, Instagram and Twitter. 

Previous Book Review: Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell

Next Book Review: Memories of a Mad Man by Don Spector

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Hey my lovelies, and welcome to another monthly wrap up and tbr. Sadly, I only actually completed one of the seven books of my April tbr, as my plan was to read the Harry Potter series, however I only actually read the first book, but none the less I still read a grand total of 4 books and 3 novella's. So this month I have picked a relatively small tbr this time.

The first book I read this month was the one book I completed of my tbr and that was ... Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone by J K Rowling, to be honest I'm not really sure what I thought about this as I found myself comparing it to the movie the entire time and I really do wish that I had read the books when I was younger before watching the films.

The first novella I read was The Proposal by Meg Cabot, now this was a book I enjoyed. It was so nice to meet back up with Suze and Jesse, although I did find myself forgetting who certain characters were, so I definitely see a reread in my future. Click here for the full review.

The second novella I read was Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell, after not necessarily going through a reading slump, but not feeling any inclination to read, I decided to pick this up, which if you didn't already know was one of 2016's World book day books. So how could I not read it? You can find the full review of it here.

The second novel I read this month was Memories of a Mad Man by Don Spector, I received this as part of a book tour, in exchange for a honest review. I definitely enjoyed this one and the review will be posted on the 9th May.

The third novella I read was Queen Song by Victoria Aveyard, I pre-ordered Cruel Crown months a go and was so excited to receive it in the post this morning, as I was waiting to read Glass Sword until I had received this. However I did find I couldn't remember most of the characters names and will probably have to read Red Queen again before Glass Sword. My tbr pile is just getting bigger and bigger.

The third book I read was Sugar Baby Beautiful by J. J Mcavoy, I read this as I had read some of her other books in the past and figured I would give this one ago, and although I did appreciate one of the endings plot twist, the fact that they took away the plot twist kind off ruined it for me. Sugar Baby Beautiful is about a young girl called Felicity who gets pushed into the world of sugar babys by her friends, where she meets billionaire Theodore Darcy. Yep, I bet you can guess exactly where this is going.

The fourth book I read this month was Hate List by Jennifer Brown, I have owned this book for around a year now so when I was doing a bit of reorganizing I thought that I would give it ago. Hate List is about a teenager called who one morning her boyfriend went into school and shot all of their bullies and some other people. This book deals with both her guilt, how other people view her and it also shows flashbacks to what actually happened that morning. This book was so good and it was everything I wanted it to be for such a hard hitting book. My full review for this is scheduled to be posted on 7th May.

As I haven't had much look with predicting which series I will read, I have decided to pick only standalone's or a single books in a series which I haven't read yet.

The first novel I plan to read is Verge by Rebecca Bradford, I received this in April on a read for review basis thanks to its publishing company, Austin Macauley. So I shall be reading this and hopefully posting a review for it soon. Verge is about a teenager who is thrust into a world she thought only belonged in fantasy books. That sounds really good to me, so I shall be getting onto that.

The second book I plan to read is Soundless by Richelle Mead, I received this as a Christmas present and have heard quite a range of reviews on it, however due to me enjoying the Vampire Academy series so much I shall definitely be giving it ago.

The third book and final book I plan to read is Half Lost by Sally Green, this is the final book in the Half Bad trilogy with the final book coming out in March, I practically ran to Waterstones and was lucky enough to find a signed hardcover there, and have yet to pick it up, so I shall definitely will at some point this month.

Due to me going to Disneyland Paris at the end of the month, I hope to get quite a bit of reading done whilst traveling. So I hope to read about 7 possibly 8 books this month. Thank you for reading, To keep more up to date with what I am reading, you can check out my Twitter, Goodreads and Instagram. 

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Hey my lovelies! Welcome to my May Wrap Up. This month I didn't have the chance to read that many books due to my GCSE exams, but I still managed to read a total of eleven books, which I don't think is too bad.

The first book I read in May was A Little Friendly Advice by Siobhan Vivian. I really wanted to read this around two years ago, after first reading Burn for Burn (also by Jenny Han). To be honest I feel really disappoint with it. It was a real life contemporary book, I found it was one of them books where you were just waiting for the book to pick up and sadly it never did. A Little Friendly Advice is about a sixteen year old girl called Ruby, Ruby lives with her mum in her small house and is estranged from her father. On her sixteenth birthday, her father turns up (who she hasn't seen in 7 years or something like that), after that she finds out that pretty much everyone is keeping secrets from her, and this book is Ruby finding them secrets out. I didn't like this book and rated it 3 stars on goodreads.

The second book I read in May was Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, before reading this I watched both Percy Jackson movies and wanted to know what happened afterwards, when I picked up the books I soon realised that there are a lot of differences between the book and the movie. For more information on what the book is about you can check out my review on it here. 

The third book I read in May was the sequel to The Lightning Thief and it was the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan. I enjoyed this book, although I have to admit I didn't think it was as good as the first novel. For more information you can check out my review of it here and also check it out on Goodreads.

The fourth book I read in May was Shift by Em Bailey, I picked this up in my local waterstones, as I thought it looked good, sadly I cannot decide if I enjoyed this book or not. You can learn more about it in my review here. Also check it out on Goodreads.

The fifth book I read in May was If I Stay by Gayle Forman, this was a reread for me as I just wanted to get out of a reading slump. You can read my review of it here. You can check it out on Goodreads here. 

The sixth book I read was Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, I really enjoyed this one, even more than I expected, you can check out my review of it here and Goodreads link.

The seventh book I read was Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, I had to read this in preparation for my english Literature Exam, so there will not be a review for this.

The eighth and ninth book I read were Angelfall (Review) and World After (Review), as you will know if you are a frequent reader of my blog, is that I loved the Penryn and the End of Days series. So of cause I reread these in preparation of End of Days coming out.

The tenth book I read this month was of cause End Of Days by Susan Ee. Meaning I have completed another trilogy, I really liked this one and saw it as a fitting conclusion to the series, you can read my review on it on June 12th.

The eleventh book I read in May was Girls by Savannah Avery, I received this book on a read for review basis and the review will be coming out Monday 8th June.

That is it for this months wrap up my lovelies! I hope you enjoyed what learning what I read outside of reviews and you can also check out my June TBR is here. For more up to date information on what I am reading you can follow me on Goodreads, Instagram and Twitter.

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Hey my lovelies! The first of this weeks reviews is If I Stay by Gayle Forman. After going through a bit of a reading slump, that I blame on my exams. I picked up If I Stay and it still took me four days to get through it and it's only 200 pages.
Title: If I Stay
Author: Gayle Forman
Publisher: Avon Impulse
Pub. Date: April 2nd 2009
Date Read: October 5th 2014
Pages: 200
Rating:4.5/5 stars
Goodreads Summary: In the blink of an eye everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall what happened afterwards, watching her own damaged body being taken from the wreck. Little by little she struggles to put together the pieces- to figure out what she has lost, what she has left, and the very difficult choice she must make. Heartwrenchingly beautiful, this will change the way you look at life, love, and family. '

If I Stay is a book about making choices and deciding who you're family really is. The book is about a teenager called Mia, who gets into a accident with her family and leads her to make a choice. As Mia is in her coma, she has an out of body experience and watches all of her friends and family cope with the grief of losing her parents and little brother and relives all of the mundane moments that don't seem important at the time, but ultimately help her make the decision to stay or let go and be with her parents.

If I Stay makes you think about what you would do if you were put in her situation. Would you stay or would you go?

I'm sorry that today's book review is so short, Friday's review will hopefully be longer, but I am in quite a bit of a reading slump. Today's review was going to be Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse, but I went into serious revision mode 1/3 of the way into the book and since I've had no desire to pick up that or any other book. Hopefully now that I've got through this one, I will be able to get through my TBR pile (which includes Red Queen and A Court of Thorns and Roses).
Please check me out on my Twitter, Goodreads and Instagram for more on what I am reading.

More Book Reviews.

Previous Book Review: Shift by Em Bailey

Next Book Review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

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