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Book Review UKYA

Me and Mr J by Rachel McIntyre

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I was so excited when I received a copy of Me and Mr J to review because I’ve loved the sound of it since it first came to my attention a few months ago.

A theme I see a lot in YA is privileged characters that come from a rich background and get whatever they want. I was pleased to read in Me and Mr J that McIntyre has decided to push this trope away and Lara, the protagonist, and her family aren’t in the most ideal financial situation. It was very refreshing to read!

The main plot point in Me and Mr J is the student-teacher relationship. It was important to me that this felt realistic because I’m in school myself and I believed it was only possible to have a certain degree of believability. I was pleasantly surprised that I became very invested in the relationship.

A major theme in the novel is bullying. Lara’s mistreatment from her peers was heart-wrenching and I just wanted to reach inside the novel and give her a hug. Whilst I wouldn’t actively seek out a book about bullying myself, I do think this is an element that will appeal to many young people. It was also good to read an original novel about bullying – many of them blur into one for me!

Written in diary extracts, Me and Mr J was a quick and easy read that got me thinking and I found it very engaging. I can see it being read by many because it’s easy to relate to whether you’re a teenager or an adult.

I enjoyed Me and Mr J and am looking forward to reading more from Rachel McIntyre in the future.

Blog Tour Book Review UKYA

REVIEW: Fashion Assassin by Sarah Sky

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I was a HUGE fan of Sky’s debut novel, Code Red Lipstick, and so I was delighted to read the second instalment, Fashion Assassin.

In Fashion Assassin, the stakes are even higher as Jessica Cole works to discover Vectra with the setting of Monaco as a backdrop. With bratty models to guard and a deadly mission, Jessica truly is back with even more action.

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Kickass Protagonist

I love Jessica so much! She’s so much fun to read about, and she’s such a refreshing protagonist.

Gripping Action

Sky’s books are SO awesome. I was gripped for two days and found it incredibly hard to put down. All I wanted to do was read, read, read! There’s always something massive happening that means you HAVE to know what will become of the characters.

Amazing Setting

One of my favourite things about the series is the diverse range of settings. The first book was set in Paris, and the second in Monaco! It’s so exciting to read about such interesting cultures that are different to many others written about in UKYA. Sky also writes them incredibly well, so that I feel like I’m actually there.

 

The third book in the Jessica Cole Model Spy series cannot come sooner. I need to know what happens immediately!

UKYA

UKYA in 2015

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As you may know, I am a passionate fan of UKYA – young adult fiction written by authors born or currently residing in the UK. In the past I’ve run projects through a website I set up, Project UKYA, but this year I’m going to be bringing UKYA a little closer to home and running Project UKYA through Queen of Contemporary.

In July, I will have been running #ukyachat for two years and they will be a lot more regular in 2015. The chats are super fun; all you need is a Twitter account and by using the hashtag it’s a chance to meet lots of new people and talk about amazing books too.

January Dates:

2nd January at 8 PM – We’ll be setting ourselves UKYA reading goals for 2015 and getting excited about all the new January releases!

12th January at 8 PM – With special guest Anna McKerrow, author of Crow Moon, we’ll be discussing cli-fi and the representation of witches in YA.

19th January at 7 PM – Our focus will be on The Art of Being Normal with special guest Lisa Williamson.

30th January at 8 PM – An end of the month UKYA wrap up!

There are some amazing UKYA books out this year! Here are a few I’m most excited about:

21936988The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury – Seventeen-year-old Twylla lives in the castle. But although she’s engaged to the prince, Twylla isn’t exactly a member of the court.

She’s the executioner.

As the Goddess embodied, Twylla instantly kills anyone she touches. Each month she’s taken to the prison and forced to lay her hands on those accused of treason. No one will ever love a girl with murder in her veins. Even the prince, whose royal blood supposedly makes him immune to Twylla’s fatal touch, avoids her company.

But then a new guard arrives, a boy whose easy smile belies his deadly swordsmanship. And unlike the others, he’s able to look past Twylla’s executioner robes and see the girl, not the Goddess. Yet Twylla’s been promised to the prince, and knows what happens to people who cross the queen.

However, a treasonous secret is the least of Twylla’s problems. The queen has a plan to destroy her enemies, a plan that requires a stomach-churning, unthinkable sacrifice. Will Twylla do what it takes to protect her kingdom? Or will she abandon her duty in favor of a doomed love?

 

Crow Moon by Anna McKerrow – Danny is a fun-loving 16-year-old looking for a father figure and falling in love with a different girl every day. He certainly doesn’t want to follow in his mum’s witchy footsteps. Just as his community is being threatened by gangs intent on finding a lucrative power source to sell to the world, Danny discovers he is stunningly powerful. And when he falls for Saba, a gorgeous but capricious girl sorceress, he thinks maybe the witch thing might not be such a bad idea…But what cost will Danny pay as, with his community on the brink of war, he finds that love and sorcery are more dangerous than he ever imagined? Wickedness and passion combine in this coming-of-age adventure.

23013819Seed by Lisa Heathfield – All that Pearl knows can be encapsulated in one word: Seed. It is the isolated community that she was born into. It is the land that she sows and reaps. It is the center of her family and everything that means home. And it is all kept under the watchful eye of Papa S.

At fifteen years old, Pearl is finally old enough to be chosen as Papa S’s companion. She feels excitement… and surprising trepidation that she cannot explain. The arrival of a new family into the Seed community — particularly the teenage son, Ellis — only complicates the life and lifestyle that Pearl has depended upon as safe and constant.

Ellis is compelling, charming, and worldly, and he seems to have a lot of answers to questions Pearl has never thought to ask. But as Pearl digs to the roots of the truth, only she can decide what she will allow to come to the surface.

Are you excited for the UKYA releases in 2015? What was your favourite UKYA book in 2014?

UKYA Uncategorized

#readukya – January Titles

I have been planning and scheming away for months, and I’m so pleased that my plan can now come into fruition!

#readukya is going to be an online, interactive book club, bringing together the best of UK and Irish authors, bloggers, booktubers, librarians and booksellers. Starting in January, two books will be picked each month and a liveshow and Twitter chat at the end of the month will discuss the two chosen books.

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January’s theme: Love and War

The first book chosen is Vendetta by Catherine Doyle, a spell-binding romance similar to that of Romeo and Juliet. To put it simply, it’s Romeo and Juliet meets the Mafia.

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When it comes to revenge, love is a dangerous complication.With a fierce rivalry raging between two warring families, falling in love is the deadliest thing Sophie could do. An epic debut set outside modern-day Chicago.

When five brothers move into the abandoned mansion in her neighbourhood, Sophie Gracewell’s life changes forever. Irresistibly drawn to bad boy Nicoli, Sophie finds herself falling into a criminal underworld governed by powerful families. As the boys’ dark secrets begin to come to light, Sophie is confronted with stinging truths about her own family, too. She must choose between two warring dynasties – the one she was born into, and the one she is falling in love with. When she does, blood will spill and hearts will break.

Book Two: Night School by C.J. Daugherty

Night School is the phenomenal first instalment in a major globally recognised series by C.J. Daugherty. This is a chance to catch up on the series if you haven’t read them yet, or re-read an old favourite, especially as the last book in the series is released in the summer.

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Allie Sheridan’s world is falling apart. Her brother’s run away from home. Her parents ignore her. And she’s just been arrested.
Again.
This time her parents have had enough. They cut her off from her friends and send her away to boarding school, far from her London friends.
But at Cimmeria Academy, Allie is soon caught up in the strange activities of a secret group of elite students.
When she’s attacked late one night the incident sets off a chain of increasingly violent events. As the school begins to seem like a very dangerous place, she finds out that nothing at Cimmeria is what it seems to be.
And that she is not who she thought she was.

If you’re interested in helping to host the liveshow at the end of January, you can contact me @LucyTheReader on Twitter or at contemporaryqueen@outlook.com via email to discuss. This would be a huge help, and lots of fun too! 

Will you be joining in?

Book Review UKYA

REVIEW: Code Red Lipstick by Sarah Sky

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Distinctive and original, Code Red Lipstick is the outstanding debut novel of a future UKYA star. Sky is the UK equivalent of Ally Carter, with Code Red Lipstick exceeding the Gallagher Girls books in many ways.

Jessica Cole’s father is a former spy, having to turn into a private detective after developing MS. When he disappears, MI6 refuse to let Jessica help, so she takes matters into her own hands. On her own in Paris, Jessica’s investigation leads her to find out about Allegra Knight, former supermodel with a lethal side. Her new product, Teenosity, means the start of a nightmare for teens all over the world.

Code Red Lipstick proves that you can have a kickass female protagonist with female features. Jessica is a model, has awesome makeup-disguised weapons, and is also extremely easy to like at the same time. Jessica is the type of person you can see as a friend, although one that will most often know more about you than you know about yourself.

Set in Paris, it was obvious that I was going to enjoy it because I love everything to do with France. I was pleased to see there weren’t any cliché French stereotypes so we see the city through the eyes of an English person spending time there. Most definitely not a tourist perspective, though…

I cannot wait to read the next book in the series, which is out in early 2015. Code Red Lipstick was everything I wished for and more.

Book Review UKYA

REVIEW: Lobsters by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison

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I’ve wanted to read Lobsters ever since hearing about it at the start of the year. I absolutely adore contemporaries (hence my blog name!) and so I think I’ve always known how much I would love Lobsters.

Hannah and Sam, both in the summer before university, have one thing in common: they have yet to lose their virginity. Their summers are filled with adventure, antics and a quest to find ‘The One.’

If I could describe Lobsters in one word I would label it ‘awkward’ in the best way possible. Teenage life is awkward, which makes it such an amazing portrayal of teenage life. Nothing in Lobsters is sugarcoated which means that Ellen and Ivison have written a book that reads very much like a memoir.

Lobsters is a ‘read it one sitting’ type of book that you won’t be able to put down. I know I couldn’t!

A funny and realistic take on a romantic teenage summer, Lobsters will make you want to squeal, scream in frustration and go out and find your own lobster.

Hannah and Sam were both extremely amazing characters who I felt so connected to. Told in dual narrative, it was a very rounded perspective of teenage life because we got both a male and female viewpoint. I also loved both equally, which is a nice change because I usually find that I prefer one to the other in dual narratives.

I loved Lobsters, which has quickly become a favourite summer read of mine! Highly, highly recommended!

Book Review UKYA Where to Start

REVIEW: Starring Kitty by Keris Stainton

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Do you know that feeling when you read a book and you’re a bit numb after reading it because you have no feelings on it at all? I hate that feeling. I hate pouring my time into a book, only for it not to deliver anything at all. Luckily, Starring Kitty made me feel the complete opposite.

Starring Kitty is pretty much one of the best books you could ever wish to read, and I don’t ever say that lightly. Instead of writing five pages worth of comments, I’ve decided to do a graphic to explain just how perfect Starring Kitty is.

perfectstarringkittyIn my head, I have a checklist of things that make a book absolutely perfect, and I know many people have something similar. Above is a not so cool version of the thing in my head.

Number One: Diverse Characters

Check one for Starring Kitty! Diverse characters is something I expect in all novels because we live in a world where THERE IS MORE THAN ONE TYPE OF PERSON WALKING DOWN THE STREET. We have racially diverse characters, illness is portrayed perfectly, and even more that I’ll leave a surprise for you if you haven’t read it.

Number Two: Loveability

Yes, I totally just made that word up, but I’m hoping you understand what it means. For a book to become a favourite of mine and one I will love unconditionally, it has to be so loveable it feels like my own child. Check two for Starring Kitty! It has a quality that just makes it amazing, which I’ll discuss in further points.

Number Three: Feminism

It’s pretty much a given that if a book has a feminist character(s) then I will love it and rate it five billion stars. It’s something we still don’t see enough of and I really want that to change. It’s so important that young girls read books with characters that they can admire and aspire to be like, and feminist themes and  characters are the best of the best.

Number Four: Realistic Situations

Being a teenager myself, I often struggle to find books that feel like the things going on are actually happening to teenagers, and are realistic enough that you don’t have to think twice about them. I felt like Starring Kitty could happen to me – the school experiences were similar to my own, the friendships similar to my own. I’d even go so far as to say it is THE MOST realistic novel I’ve read about characters my own age.

Number Five: LGBT

This is one I don’t want to make too much fuss about because, you know what? It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to compare the romance in Starring Kitty to a non-LGBT one because that wouldn’t make any sense. I love how it felt normal, as it should do. It just felt right, and I loved that!

Starring Kitty can be read by absolutely anyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, or usually read books like it. You will instantly fall in love with it, just as I did.

Blog Tour Book Review UKYA

REVIEW: Water Born by Rachel Ward

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It’s rather fitting that I read Water Born during summer, and an absolutely boiling British one too. Whilst The Drowning, the prelude to Water Born, dealt primarily with a dark side to water, the continuation gets darker still and tackles water and hot weather.

Set 17 years after the events of The Drowning, Nic is a passionate swimmer. In the manic clutches of a heat wave, Nicola starts to hear voices underwater, and then the drowning’s start to take place. Just what is happening, and what does it have to do with her dad’s irrational fear of the water?

It seems like so much happened in Water Born from start to finish, which made it so easy to read. Mostly, the reading experience was enjoyable. Then I became invested and towards the end I got rather emotional! The novel takes the word ‘thriller’ to a whole other level, and definitely leaves you on your toes.

Being set quite far in the future, 2030 to be precise, the one thing lacking for me was world-building hinting at a future society. I wasn’t expecting flying cars, just some indication that time had passed, other than the character ages.

Nic was wilful and vivid, which I found incredibly endearing. I’d like to see more characters like her that have depth and completeness, rather than just being known as ‘the kickass one.’ Her feelings and reactions were totally warranted throughout and she’s the type of person I think I’d like to know.

Need another reason to buy Water Born? It has the most gorgeous cover, and it’s SHINY. Paired with The Drowning, it will add total splendour to your bookcase.

Whilst I would recommend reading The Drowning before Water Born for extra comprehension, it’s not compulsory and the two can be read separately.