Book Review - Trouble Is A Friend Of Mine by Stephanie Tromly

Trouble Is A Friend Of Mine

Author: Stephanie Tromly

Genres: Young Adult, Mystery, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Humour.  

Published: August 4 2015

Pages: 336 pages (Hardcover) (Kathy Dawson Books)

Read: September 2015

Rating: 5 Stars

Of course I didn’t like Digby when I first met him. No one does.

The first time Philip Digby shows up on Zoe Webster’s doorstep, he’s rude and he treats her like a book he’s already read and knows the ending to.

But before she knows it, Zoe’s allowed Digby—annoying, brilliant, and somehow…attractive? Digby—to drag her into a series of hilarious, dangerous, and only vaguely legal schemes all related to the kidnapping of a local teenage girl. A kidnapping that might be connected to the tragic disappearance of his little sister eight years ago. When it comes to Digby, Zoe just can’t say no.

But is Digby a hero? Or is his manic quest an indication of a desperate attempt to repair his broken family and exorcize his own obsessive-compulsive tendencies? And does she really care anyway?

Book 39/60 - 2015 Goodreads Reading Challenge

Trouble Is A Friend Of Mine is a realistic fiction, mystery novel and what a quirky, entertaining read this was. In honest truth, this is a book that I would have never picked up by myself (I received this book in my Owlcrate August box) and I would have seriously regretted not reading this!

I loved this book so much. Every page kept me hooked because it was so entertaining and I just loved the fun mystery element long with all the antics that the characters got up to in this book. It was just such a fun, refreshing read.

As for the characters, I loved Digby. He had to be my favourite out of the bunch. He was just such a quirky, careless character that he became just an instant favourite, He's that character that you just have to love. I also loved the voice of Zoe. She was a great protaganist, in my opinion. Yes, she did make some stupid mistakes for Digby but I believe we have all came across a person that we would do absolutely anything for so I don't fault her for anything that she did. It really just added to the entertainment value of this book.

One downside is that I would have loved to have more of this book. Trouble Is A Friend Of Mine ends with not everything tied up so it makes me wonder maybe Stephanie Tromly will write a sequel just to answer those little niggling questions on the back of my mind.

Overall though, I loved this book for the entertainment it brought me and I am so happy to have read this and will more than likely be sure to check out whatever Stephanie Tromly writes in the future.

Book Review - Divine Intervention by Edward Davies

Divine Intervention

Author: Edward Davies

Genres: Novella.  

Published: December 7 2011

Pages: 88 pages (E-book)

Read: September 2015

Rating: 2 Stars

"Jimmy Stewart Moon - his parents had been big fans of 'It's A Wonderful Life' - was bored, but not for much longer...
When he accidentally falls out of his bedroom window whilst peeping at his next door neighbour, he meets Frank – a man who claims to be God! Not only that, but Frank claims that His only reason for being on Earth is to help Jimmy get together with the girl of his dreams.
Unfortunately where there’s God, it always follows that there’ll be a Devil!

Book 38/60 - 2015 Goodreads Reading Challenge

I received this book for free from the author. This does not affect my review. 

Divine Intervention is a short story written by Edward Davies. It is about a young man who wants to get with a girl but then the help of two angels come along and not only do the angels come along but the devil does too. 

I didn't really like this story, more due to the manner and plot of the story rather than the writing. I found the writing of this story to be very good, it was just that I had no interest in Jimmy. I quite disliked him actually which led to me not caring about what happened to him or anything. The other characters in this book didn't interest me either unfortunately and neither did the plot. 

All in all, I didn't really enjoy this book, but it may be a gem to someone else.  

Book Review - The Rest Of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

The Rest Of Us Just Live Here

Author: Patrick Ness

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Fantasy, Science Fiction.  

Published: August 27 2015

Pages: 343 pages (Paperback Edition) (Walker Books)

Read: September 2015

Rating: 4 Stars

What if you aren’t the Chosen One?

The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?

What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.

Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.

Even if your best friend is worshiped by mountain lions.

Book 37/60 - 2015 Goodreads Reading Challenge

The Rest Of Us Just Live Here is Patrick Ness's new standalone release that released, here, on September 1st. It revolved all around the not chosen people. This book is about the people in the background and how the actions of chosen people affect those who are usually not mentioned or even seen in a story. 

This was such a unique topic that I jumped to get this book. I even went and got it on it's release day! Nearly first time ever for me and besides the topic it's Patrick Ness who's the author so of course it was a must. 

But, I did feel quite disappointed, I expected to be blown out of mind with this book, but I didn't find this the case. I really enjoyed this book all the same, it just didn't hold that spark of awesomeness or that blow me out of my mind quality that I had gotten with his previous book 'More Than This'. But if truth be told, it would have been impossible to follow such an astounding book as 'More Than This' was.

Back to The Rest Of Us Just Live Here though I loved the way that Patrick Ness had a little paragraph at the beginning of each chapter depicting what the chosen ones were doing and then we got to see through the eyes of Mikey and what was happening for him at that time that the chosen ones were off doing some crazy business and this I though brought an overall feel to the book, I know that some people didn't like this aspect, but I did and in my opinion, it was quite an original feat along with the concept of the book. 

Now to talk about the characters. Mikey was a likeable character. I saw his opinions clearly and felt for him as we went through the novel. I felt his desperation to want to fit in by being a chosen one, his desperation to beat what affected him and most of all his desperation to live a normal life without the chaos. And he became such a real character because of the mundane traits he held and the desires he wanted. I also loved both his sisters and found that I thoroughly enjoyed watching this sibling relationship. The side characters of Mikey's friends were another great addition to this book. By the end there was just such an awesome friendship relationship that literally I was left tearing up. And of course let's not forget the Indie kids!! Even though they weren't seen much through Mikey's perspective, I really liked these guys too. 

In the end, while this book did disappoint me a bit, I thoroughly enjoyed it so much in its own way and I'll be sure to pick up the next book that Patrick Ness writes and I'll be continuing down his road of publications. If you haven't picked this up yet, I really feel you should!

Book Review - The Infinite by Lori M. Lee

The Infinite

(Gates of Thread and Stone #2)

Author: Lori M. Lee

Genres: Young Adult, Dystopia, Fantasy. 

Published: March 10 2015

Pages: 378 pages (Hardcover Edition) (Skyscape)

Read: September 2015

Rating: 4 Stars

SPOILERS FOR THE PREVIOUS BOOK AHEAD!!

The walls of Ninurta keep its citizens safe.

Kai always believed the only danger to the city came from within. Now, with a rebel force threatening the fragile government, the walls have become more of a prison than ever.

To make matters worse, as Avan explores his new identity as an Infinite, Kai struggles to remind him what it means to be human. And she fears her brother, Reev, is involved with the rebels. With the two people she cares about most on opposite sides of a brewing war, Kai will do whatever it takes to bring peace. But she’s lost her power to manipulate the threads of time, and she learns that a civil war might be the beginning of something far worse that will crumble not only Ninurta’s walls but also the entire city.

In this thrilling sequel to Gates of Thread and Stone, Kai must decide how much of her humanity she’s willing to lose to protect the only family she’s ever known.

Book 36/60 - 2015 Goodreads Reading Challenge

The Infinite is the second book in the Gates of Thread and Stone series by Lori M. Lee. It follows the tale of Kai as she discovered what she is at the end of the first book. She now has to figure out what to do when her gift unexpected disappears and with a crush she can't seem to get over. With a war on the brink though, Kai has a lot more to deal with. 

I enjoyed this book just as much as I enjoyed Gates of Thread and Stone. This was a great sequel, full packed with action and even a teensy bit of romance too. In this book I got to know so much more about Kai and felt even more for her and the people in her life. Reev had me up in arms throughout the book and as for Avan, oh God! There was so much in this book, action, betrayal, romance the whole deal and of course those awesome cat robots on the cover featured too and I was delighted with that.

There isn't much more I can say about this book, that's the problems I have with reviewing sequels. But, I really cannot wait for the third book in this series which I believe is the final instalment in this series but don't hold me to that because I'm not quite sure. 

Book Review - One by Sarah Crossan

One

Author: Sarah Crossan

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction. 

Published: September 1 2015

Pages: 448 pages (Paperback Edition) (Bloomsbury Children)

Read: August 2015

Rating: 5 Stars

Grace and Tippi are twins - conjoined twins. And their lives are about to change. No longer able to afford homeschooling, they must venture into the world - a world of stares, sneers and cruelty. Will they find more than that at school? Can they find real friends? And what about love? But what neither Grace or Tippi realises is that a heart-wrenching decision lies ahead. A decision that could tear them apart. One that will change their lives even more than they ever imagined...From Carnegie Medal shortlisted author Sarah Crossan, this moving and beautifully crafted novel about identity, sisterhood and love ultimately asks one question: what does it mean to want and have a soulmate?

Book 35/60 - 2015 Goodreads Reading Challenge

Let me just start off by saying that I read this book in one sitting in the space of three hours. That is how addicted I became. How obsessive. I kept saying to myself I'll put this down now after I finish this part, then the next part and I continued till I realised that I had read the full novel.

One is about conjoined twins. It's about their life, how they live, how they love and how they are ultimately the same and different all at once, One is about Grace and Tippi's life changing, how it goes from safe to dangerous, how feelings they've never felt before edge towards the surface and how they must decide for themselves the about biggest thing they will ever have to face. 

I must mention that this book is written in verse. It is the first novel that I have ever read that was written in verse and I extremely enjoyed it. I was worried about reading verse at first, I felt I wouldn't be able to connect with that style of writing and I was wrong. The truth is Sarah Crossan wrote this beautifully. We see completely from Grace's point of view and I connected with her strongly and got to learn so much about Tippi from Grace.

The concept behind this story, in my opinion, was unique. I have never read any other book that was written about conjoined twins and I was amazed by the story. The story of Tippi and Grace kept me hooked until that very bitter yet promising ending.

This was a book that made me smile, that made me laugh, that made me fall in love and that made me cry. I would highly recommend this to everyone, especially contemporary and realistic fiction lovers. Because of reading One I am fully open to reading other novels written in verse such as Ellen Hopkins which I would have shut out before simply because of the style of writing, but this book has opened up a whole new world of reading for me.

As a side note, I got to meet Sarah Crossan at her launch party of One in Dublin and she was such a nice person. She told us all about her inspiration for this novel and all the research she conducted to make this book what it was. I have also written a post about this wonderful event which you can find here!

Dewey's 24 hour Read-A-Thon

Dewey's 24 hour Read-A-Thon

I've decided to join!! Yay! Yay! Yay! It's going to be a tough one but I'm doing this and the only goal I really have is to finish Unbecoming by Jenny Downham before the 24hrs is up. I'm only 50 pages in so there's a lot left to get through but hopefully I'll do it!! 

Are you guys joining in on this read-a-thon? Let me know!!

Update:
Well, it didn't go exactly as planned for Dewey's. I did great for the first 5 hours and then things began to slip for various reasons, one of them being that Jurassic World was brought home and I'd been waiting so patiently for it to come on rent and there it was and I just had to watch it! Then I got tired and I slept a lot :P So ya...... I nearly got my book finished though but not quite.

Novella Review - The Tailor & The Witch of Duva by Leigh Bardugo

Novella Review 

The Witch of Duva by Leigh Bardugo
(The Grisha #0.5)
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Novella
Published: June 5 2012
Pages: 43 pages (E-book)(Tor)
Read: October 2015
Rating: 4 Stars
Book 42 / 60 - 2015 Goodreads Reading Challenge
The Witch of Duva is a novella based before The Grisha Trilogy. It's basically a folklore story and what a great one it was. I must admit it was a bit slow to start off but I love Leigh Bardugo's writing and then that awful twist at the end and I was just hooked. I loved this little folklore story. I would suggest people read it because it's really good but it doesn't shape the experience of reading The Grisha Trilogy.


The Tailor by Leigh Bardugo
(The Grisha #1.5)
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Novella. 
Published: May 23 2013
Pages: 18 pages (E-book)(Holt Children's)
Read: October 2015
Rating: 5 Stars
Book 40 / 60 - 2015 Goodreads Reading Challenge
This novella centres around a character and event which happens in the first book of The Grisha Trilogy which is Shadow and Bone. So if you have not read that book yet do not read further here. This novella is about Genya, who I'm sure everyone loved till that revelation in Shadow and Bone and well this is the story behind what she did and why. It was so nice seeing The Darkling again!! I fell for a bad guy so what?? :p But I really enjoyed this little piece. I enjoyed seeing through Genya's eyes and finally discovering why she did what she did.

Book Review - Cress by Marissa Meyer

Cress

(The Lunar Chronicles #3)

Author: Marissa Meyer

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Fairy Tale Retelling, Science Fiction. 

Published: February 6 2014

Pages: 550 pages (Paperback Edition) (Puffin)

Read: August 2015

Rating: 5 Stars

SPOILERS FOR THE PREVIOUS BOOKS AHEAD!!

In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army. 

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice. 

When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has. 

Book 34/60 - 2015 Goodreads Reading Challenge

Cress is the third book in The Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer. And what can I say, this book was perfection!

As some of you may have notices in some posts I've described Marissa Meyer as the queen of fairy tale retellings and she is, in my opinion anyway.

Cress is the retelling of Rapunzel and instead of our Rapunzel stuck locked away in a tower, Cress is locked away up on a satelitte and is an impressive hacker. 

I just loved Cress as a character. She was just so lovable and cute and naive but still strong too and she was a perfect addition to the series in my opinion. 

And the storyline was just as great as the previous books. I love the story in this series and all the characters and how they all interweave with each other and it's is simpky perfection, these books and this series. *Dreamy sigh* What am I going to do when it'a over!! I'll be bawling after I finish Winter.....

I loved this book so much that I am actually sorry that I didn't read this story sooner but I am not either because if I did I would have had to wait over a year for Winter and I don't think I could have done that! So now I just have a little while to wait for Winter! Winter ahhhhhh!!!!!

Ok this wasn't much of a review to be honest, it was just a gush. Let's just leave this as a gush!

Winter!!

Book Review - Shadows by Ilsa J. Bick

Shadows

(Ashes Trilogy #2)

Author: Ilsa J. Bick

Genres: Young Adult, Dystopia, Horror, Zombies. 

Published: September 27 2012

Pages: 518 pages (Paperback Edition) (Quercus)

Read: August 2015

Rating: 5 Stars

SPOILERS FOR THE PREVIOUS BOOK AHEAD!!

Alex has escaped from Rule - but what new horrors face her in the ravaged world outside? 

Tom is safe - but what will he risk to find Alex? 

Chris - how much does he really know about the terrible darkness of Rule? And what are his true feelings for Alex? 

Ellie - where is she? 

Book 33/60 - 2015 Goodreads Reading Challenge

Shadows is the second book to the Ashes Trilogy by Ilsa J. Bick. And what a great sequel this was! As sequels go, I loved this one! It was more action packed,  more thrilling, more back story and more mysterious as well. There was so much added to the storyline of this trilogy in this book and I must admit, it has left me with a hunger to find out how it will end. 

As I mentioned above this book is a sequel so beware spoilera for the first book are going to be all of the place...

In Shadows there is a lot of switching between different points of views of characters. Alot of characters are seen in this trilogy and you really have to keep your wits about you and remember who is who and what their all about really or you could easily get lost. This wasn't seen in the first book, Ashes, so in that case this book in different. I really enjoyed this aspect of the book but I must admit that sometimes it left me flustered as a lot of chapters were left off cliffhangery and the story would then switch to someone else leaving you there grasping, aching to get back to the part of the story you were on. I believe this to be deliberate though and it really makes the book fastpaced.

As I just said above, this book is fast-paced. It is contanstly go, go, go. Between fights, surving, weather, there is not a dull moment in this book and behind all that action there is an underlying mystery that again wasn't seen in the first book. There is a lot more than just surviving in an apocalypse in this book ans I thoroughly enjoyed that aspect. 

Honestly I just cannot wait to conclude this trilogy and to just see what the hell will happen because I have no idea and that in itself is surprising for me!

Update & Apologies

Update & Apologies

Hey everyone!

As the title of the post goes, this is an update along with an apology. The apology being that I haven't been posting much recently apart from memes and I'm sorry about that. I've just been not in the mood to blog lately for some reason and well my reading has been up and down too. I've been in this mood of starting quite a number of books, but not being able to get past the first quarter, not because the book isn't good, just because I want to start something else and it's just been really weird. I've gone through this type of phase before though so I'm sure it'll clear itself up soon. But anyway ya, I think I've started 10 books now that I have to finish....

Aside from that I think I'm going to participate in Dewey's 24hr Read-A-Thon! It starts for me at 1pm on Saturday October 17th and runs for 24hrs. This will be my first Dewey's 24hr Read-A-Thon and I'm really excited to participate. I've just got to pick a TBR right now.

Then I have some awesome news! I'm going to the first ever YA Convention in Ireland later this month and I literally cannot wait to go! It'll be my first ever convention too so excitement everywhere! You can definitely be sure that I'll be posting all about my first convention journey and all that stuff after the event.

Lastly, this is not book related, but damn I have been addicted to listening to Halsey's new album Badlands all because of whittynovels Youtube video. But I just love every track, And I have Marianas Trench's new album on pre-order too! It's coming out the end of this month too and I can't wait!!

But that is it really. I hope to be back on track now soon, get my schedule going and all that. Thank you everyone! 

Summer Sum Up Tag

With the end of Summer well gone I decided to do this tag. I say this tag on Maddie and Bee's Youtube Channel - Heart Full of Books.

Also a little bot of info before I go into the questions, my summer basically started mid May and went till the end of August!

1. The First Book You Read This Summer?
The first book that I read this summer was Insurgent by Veronica Roth. I enjoyed Insurgent but I didn't like it as much as Divergent and was a tad bit disappointed with this book. My review is here.

2. The Last Book You Read This Summer?
The last book that I read was One by Sarah Crossan. I read this in 1 day, 3 hours to be exact and loved it! I have yet to write my review though. I'm behind, I know :(

3. Some Of Your Favourite Reads This Summer?
Wow, I think I read some pretty awesome books this summer! So some of my favourites would be:
1. I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson
2. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
3. The Young Elites by Marie Lu
4. The One by Kiera Cass
5. Conversion by Katherine Howe
6. Cress by Marissa Meyer
7. One by Sarah Crossan

4. Some Of Your Least Favourite Reads Of The Summer?
I only gave 2 books a 1 star rating and they're the only ones I'm going to list here:
1. Blood Red Road by Mira Young
2. The Gates by John Connolly

5. Number Of Series You Completed This Summer?
I completed a number of 2 series this summer.....(these were also series I had started before the summer)
They were:
Bloodlines Series by Richelle Mead
The Selection Series by Kiera Cass (I am finishing this series with The One and not going to read the other two books that have been added to this series, so it's complete for me!)

6. The Number Of New Authors You Discovered?
I discovered 9 new authors!! All listed below:
1. Kat Zhang
2 .Maryrose Wood
3. Moira Young
4. Morgan Rhodes
5. Melissa Marr
6. Ilsa J. Bick
7. Robyn Schneider
8. John Connolly
9. Katherine Howe

7. Most Anticipated Read Of The Summer?
My most anticipated read of the summer had to be A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas.

8. How Many Books Did You Read This Summer?
I read a total of 20 books this summer!! Yay!!

9. Summer TBR Checklist:
Dun, dun, dun!! Ya'll ,may remember my post in the summer about all the books I wanted to read - click here if you want to see it! So ya, here's what I planned to read and what I actually read:

Books I Had Already Owned:
1. A Court of Thorns And Roses by Sarah J. Maas (I read this!!!)
2. Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas (Nope)
3. Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor (Another no)
4. The Young Elites by Marie Lu (Read!!)
5. Empire of Night by Kelley Armstrong (No....)
6. A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin (Another no...)
7. The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa (Nope.)
8. The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury (Nadda)
9. The One by Kiera Cass (Yes!! I read this!)
10. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly (No.)
11. The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead (I read this too!)

Books I Din't Own At That Time:
12. Cress by Marissa Meyer (Read!)
13. Fairest by Marissa Meyer (Haven't gotten yet)
14. Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson (Read!)
15. An Ember In The Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (Don't have yet...)
16. The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith (Don't have yet.)
17. The Wrath and The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh (Don't have yet.)
18. The Heir by Kiera Cass (Not reading anymore!!)

So out of the 18 books I read a total of 6 books.... Yay! for not completing summer reading plans!!

I hope you guys all had a wonderful summer!