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Book Review UKYA

REVIEW: Nightwanderers by C.J. Flood

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It has been three years since C.J. Flood’s award-winning debut novel, Infinite Sky, was released, which I described as “deep and heartfelt“. In Nightwanderers, Flood returns with her signature emotional read to deliver a book that is guaranteed to grip readers long after they’ve put it down.

Nightwanderers is a story of friendship and family, centred around the protagonist, Rosie, and her best friend Ti. Rosie and Ti have been best friends for years and are inseparable, but when Rosie betrays Ti, things start to change. What starts is a chain of events that will test not just their friendship, but their family ties too.

Perhaps the thing I loved most about Nightwanderers was the emphasis on friendship over romance. Whilst there are undertones of romance, the focus was mainly on Rosie’s relationship with Ti and the other friendships she builds over the course of the novel. Flood cleverly highlights the different dynamics that different groups of friends share, and uses this to further the strains put on Rosie and Ti’s friendship.

Usually in YA books, it can be typical to kill off parents, or to have them disappear altogether, but one of Nightwanderers’ strengths is how parent-child relationships are weaved into the narrative. They play a major role in the book and drive the story forward through their interactions; it was refreshing to read about and really made the book.

Flood builds on the beautiful, stand-out voice she created in Infinite Sky to create impact and an emotional connection that is very rarely achieved so thoroughly.

I am excited to see where Flood’s writing career takes her next and will be awaiting her next book with baited breath. Nightwanderers is a stunning UKYA novel that will capture the hearts of everyone who reads it, and I hope it paves the way for more friendship and family based novels.

25437747Ideal for fans of…

Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard – for how important friendship is.

 

Book In a Tweet:

Not all friendships are good for you, but sometimes you’re good for each other. Nightwanderers was a very magical read.

 

 

Have you read Nightwanderers by C.J. Flood? If so, let me know in the comments what you thought of it! If not, tell me about a character you’d love to be best friends with.

Book Review UKYA

REVIEW: How Hard Can Love Be? by Holly Bourne

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I love that moment when you read a book and you keep glancing at the clock, seeing how many more pages it’s possible to squeeze in because you love it so much and can’t bear to stop reading it. How Hard Can Love Be? was definitely one of those books for me. I was hooked from the moment I began and can’t stop thinking about just how brilliant it was, even a few weeks after reading it.

The sequel to Am I Normal Yet?, How Hard Can Love Be? tells Amber’s story. After not seeing her mum for two years, Amber is heading off to California to spend the summer holidays with her. However, there are a few downsides: her mum’s new husband, working with extremely excitable kids in a summer camp and she’s in a totally different country without her best friends… Great, right?

I can only think of a handful of UKYA books that are set outside of the UK, so it was so good to discover the US through How Hard Can Love Be?. It made me feel so English and it was extremely nice to read something that didn’t feel stereotypically English – not all of us sound posh and drink tea! Amber made me appreciate my little English quirky things and I’m sure US readers would feel the same about the other characters in the book. There’s something to please everyone!

One of my favourite things about How Hard Can Love Be? was of course the feminism. Despite being thousands of miles apart, not even a vast ocean can separate the Spinster Club and there was still lots and lots of Evie and Lottie, who we met in Am I Normal Yet?, in the book. You would think that because romance is quite a big plot line in the book that it might detract some of the feminism, but I found quite the opposite. How Hard Can Love Be? proves that you can be in a relationship and be a feminist at the same time and I think this is a side to a lot of feminist books that we don’t see. I LOVED it!

Where Am I Normal Yet? talked about OCD and anxiety, How Hard Can Love Be? discusses alcohol abuse and how this affects a mother-daughter relationship. We often see in YA a lack of parents, but Amber’s parents were at the forefront of How Hard Can Love Be? and this was very refreshing to read.

It’s also worth mentioning that there are LOTS of Harry Potter references in the book, which put a big smile on my face because I love Harry Potter and I know Holly does too. The enthusiasm for Harry Potter certainly came through!

I adored How Hard Can Love Be?, despite my lack of sleep after not being able to put it down. Holly Bourne is one of the most talented YA writers of the moment and I cannot wait to read the next instalment to find out what happens to the Spinster Club. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

You’ll Love This If…

You’re a hardcore feminist who wants to read about feminism in PRACTICE.

You squeal every time you see a Harry Potter reference.

You’re a human being. It’s as simple as that. (Although I’m sure you can read it to pets and they’ll enjoy it too.)

Who would you invite to your Spinster Club if you had one? Have you read How Hard Can Love Be or Am I Normal Yet?

Book Review UKYA Uncategorized

REVIEW: Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard

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Beautiful Broken Things is the extraordinary début novel from Sara Barnard that showcases what everyone loves most about UKYA fiction.

Caddy and Rosie have been best friends forever, despite them going to different schools. Then Rosie introduces Caddy to a new girl at her school, Suzanne. Suzanne is everything Caddy is not – adventurous, daring and reckless. But she also has a past. Her arrival shakes everything up and threatens to change Caddy and Rosie’s lives. Will it be for the better?

The YA world desperately needs more books with friendship at the centre, so Beautiful Broken Things arrived at just the right time. The relationship between Caddy, Rosie and Suzanne feels so alive and real that when you read it you feel as if you’re a part of it too. It shakes you up and makes you evaluate your own friendships and how important they are.

Beautiful Broken Things is without a doubt Suzanne’s story. Without her, the basis of the book would be lost, but it’s told from Caddy’s perspective. It was refreshing and offered a different side to the story that is typically told, and it added a whole new dimension. I was very impressed by this!

Sara Barnard discusses themes of abuse and mental health sensitively and realistically. Although hard to read at times, I felt for Suzanne and her situation and I was glad that no sugarcoating happened.

I can’t wait to see what Sara Barnard writes next. If it’s half as good as Beautiful Broken Things, it will be amazing!

You’ll Love This If…

You’re looking for a truly gripping tale of a friendship that doesn’t feel like a far-off fairytale.

You love UKYA!

 

What books have you loved that talk about friendship? Have you read Beautiful Broken Things?

Book Review UKYA

REVIEW: The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury

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If you’ve been reading Queen of Contemporary for a while, you’ll know how much I loved The Sin Eater’s Daughter and so I was incredibly excited to read the sequel, The Sleeping Prince. It’s always nerve-wracking to start a sequel, but especially so when you have such high expectations. Luckily, The Sleeping Prince didn’t disappoint!

The Sleeping Prince starts where The Sin Eater’s Daughter left off, but this time we get to see the story from the eyes of Errin. Left with the task of looking after her sick mother after the death of her father and her brother Lief’s disappearance, Errin has to resort to making illegal herbal cures to get by, and the threat of the Sleeping Prince looms ever closer…

In this stunning sequel, Melinda Salisbury continues to surprise readers with her imaginative plot and characters who you instantly fall for. It’s impossible not to be in awe of the way that Melinda writes, so intricately and with such prowess.

It was particularly refreshing to have the second book in a trilogy narrated by a different character than the first book was. It meant that so much more of the world could be seen and, although it did take me a while to get used to Errin, I grew to really love her by the end of the book.

The Sleeping Prince blew me away. It has definitely earned Melinda Salisbury a place with the likes of Sarah J. Maas and Maggie Stiefvater for best YA fantasy. It was beyond worthy of my first five star rating of 2016.

You’ll Love This If…

20617636You’re a fan of the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas

You want a book that you become invested in from the start and find it impossible to put down. Seriously, I stayed up way too late reading it!

You like your books packed with lore and mythology, with gorgeous maps to go with them and a world seeped in history.

 

 

 

Have you read The Sin Eater’s Daughter or The Sleeping Prince? Let me know your thoughts!

Discussion Uncategorized

To Read List

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With so many books constantly popping through my letterbox all beautifully packaged and very appealing, it can be good to sometimes sit back and take stock of the books I still haven’t read.

The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow by Katherine Woodfine

I went through a phase a while back where I devoured as much middle grade as I possibly could and this was one of my purchases then. To me, it sounds like a middle grade version of Mr Selfridge which was on TV a while back, with a mystery thrown in. How cool does that sound?!

Illuminae by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman

When I received a copy of this from the publisher, I fell in love with how gorgeous it is. I can’t wait to read it because Nicole has been raving about it for a while, and I’ve heard that it’s told in an unusual way – not through a typical narrative, but through documents and emails in a really creative way. I LOVE books like that!

All of the Above by James Dawson

I can’t believe I haven’t read this yet! I love James’s writing and I am incredibly proud of him, especially as he is now starting the process of transitioning into a woman. James is one of the best UKYA writers and I love him.

All the Rage by Courtney Summers

After hearing wonderful things about Courtney Summers’s books from Holly Bourne and then finding out that All the Rage is going to be published in the UK in 2016, I got very excited to read it. It’s had some great reviews on Goodreads and I think it will be a great feminist read.

Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard

Kind of cheating by adding this one because I’m currently reading it, but I had to include it because I’m loving it so much. It’s a brilliant tale of friendship and how abuse doesn’t just affect one person, it affects a number of people. The way that Sara writes the friendship between Caddy, Rosie and Suzanne is beautiful and very realistic. I will be recommending this book a lot!

What books are you hoping to read soon?

Book Review UKYA

REVIEW: Lorali by Laura Dockrill

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Let me tell you a story… I’ve always loved mermaids. Ever since I was tiny, I’ve devoured stories, TV programmes, and secretly wished that I could grow a tail. Lorali brought all of my fantasies back.

On the day of his sixteenth birthday, Rory finds a girl washed up on the beach. Naked, confused and convinced that she’s a mermaid. Isn’t she just a tiny bit too weird? With Lorali’s arrival comes freak weather conditions, pirates and even more strange visitors. Maybe Lorali isn’t a normal girl after all…

Dockrill writes with such ease and prowess that it’s hard not to instantly connect with her writing. Each character has been perfectly created so that it feels like they’re taking you along on the journey too. This is why Lorali will appeal to readers and non-readers alike – Dockrill has a way with words that can attract anybody.

By far, my favourite character was Lorali. I loved her perplexity towards the modern world and excitement as she learnt more about it. I craved the sections of the book written from her perspective – they were so much fun to read!

Although it took me a while to get into it, once I began to become familiar with the characters and plot direction, I LOVED it.

One of the most surprising things about Lorali is Dockrill’s wittiness and humour. Lorali really is one of the wackiest books I’ve read this year, and I mean that in the best way possible.

I loved Lorali for fulfilling all of my childhood dreams, and I’m definitely going to be seeking out more YA mermaid novels in the future. I’ve seriously been missing out!

Lucy Recommends... UKYA Uncategorized

Lucy Recommends… [6] Keris Stainton

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I’m so excited for this edition of Lucy Recommends… because I’m going to be recommending one of my favourite UKYA authors! Keris Stainton writes amazing contemporary books that one can devour in less than a day. Here are some of her books:

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Della says: OMG! 

Della has such a realistic teenage voice and is the perfect introduction to YA for people looking to start reading it. It’s about a girl called Della whose diary goes missing and extracts from it appear on Facebook and are sent to her mobile. I think it’s my favourite of Keris’s books!

Jessie Hearts NYC 

Set in New York, it tells the story of Jessie who moves to New York and hopes to forget about her ex-boyfriend, and Finn who falls in love with his best friend’s girlfriend. It was the first of Keris’s books I read and it really made me fall in love with her writing.

Emma Hearts LA

Can you guess where this one is set? In LA! It’s a companion novel to Jessie and I loved reading a book set in the US from a British person’s perspective.

Starring Kitty

My favourite of Keris’s books, and you can read my full review here! It’s so diverse and features great friendships. It’s perfect for readers of middle grade who’d like to start reading YA because it’s light enough that it introduces YA gradually, but it also represents the kind of emerging issues that YA does very well.

Have you read any of Keris Stainton’s books? Which was your favourite?

UKYA

ANNOUNCEMENT: March UKYA Project

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I’m very excited to reveal a brand new UKYA project that I’ll be running in March! In the past I’ve been running projects from Project UKYA, but I’ll be running them from here and my YouTube channel for the next few months.

This project is very special to me because it’s going to be a remake of the first ever Project UKYA project that ran in October 2013. You may know (or may have contributed to) the campaign video that ran then, and I’ll be putting together an even bigger and better version this month!

So here’s how YOU fit in!

The Guidelines:

  • Take a picture of yourself with a UKYA novel, your favourite UKYA novel, artwork, a pet or an object to do with UKYA… Anything that can be put into the video that is related to UKYA!

 

  • Email your picture to contemporaryqueen@outlook.com or tweet it to @LucyTheReader by the 22nd March

 

Absolutely anyone can join in, whether you’re a blogger, author, librarian, bookseller, publisher, or just want to join in! It would be amazing to get as many pictures as possible! You can take a look at the original video for inspiration.