Browsing Category

Uncategorized

Uncategorized

April in YA : Top Picks

IMG_2701
April is an exciting month for new book releases, with new titles by big author names, as well as debut authors too. Here are some of my top picks that I think everyone should read this month:

What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Huntley Fitzpatrick is the author of My Life Next Door, which was published in the UK earlier this year, and What I Thought Was True is a contemporary companion novel to it. Huntley’s books are perfect to get you in the mood for summer, have great romances and are incredibly cute.

I love Huntley’s books, so What I Thought Was True is highly recommended from me. It has everything I look for in a great contemporary!

Love Song by Sophia Bennett

If you love listening to One Direction or 5 Seconds of Summer, you’ll love reading Love Song. It tells the story of a teenage girl called Nina who goes on tour with a band called The Point, as assistant to the lead singer’s fiancée. There’s the expected drama that comes along with looking after a diva, but it also offers friendship, self-discovery and adventure.

I read Love Song so quickly because I couldn’t wait to see what happened next and it’s definitely my favourite of Sophia Bennett’s books so far. Sophia Bennett is an incredibly talented UKYA writer who I love, so Love Song is a must-read recommendation from me!

When We Collided by Emery Lord

Emery Lord is another amazing contemporary writer, who also wrote Open Road Summer. When We Collided is her first novel to be published in the UK and it sounds like an emotional coming-of-age tale about mental health, as well as romance thrown in. Perfect!

 

aprilreleases

Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

Alexandra Bracken is the author of the best-selling The Darkest Minds trilogy, and Passenger is her latest release post-publication of the final The Darkest Minds book. Passenger tells the story of a hunt through time; I love time travel novels so this sounds perfect for me. I can’t wait!

Chasing the Stars by Malorie Blackman

Described as an Othello retelling in outer space, Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman returns with Chasing the Stars this month, the first YA book published since her time as Children’s Laureate. Malorie is the Queen of YA so of course Chasing the Stars is going to be phenomenal.

The Art of Not Breathing by Sarah Alexander

The Art of Not Breathing is Sarah Alexander’s debut novel and has one of the most breath-taking covers I’ve seen all year. I think the description sums it up best:

“Since her twin brother, Eddie, drowned five years ago, sixteen-year-old Elsie Main has tried to make sense of what happened – one minute he was there, the next he was gone. Eddie’s body was never found and her parents and older brother refuse to talk about it. Fed up with school and disintegrating family relationships at home, Elsie escapes to her secret hiding place – an disused boathouse – where she can eat as many Mars bars as she wants and listen to the rain. There she meets seventeen-year-old Tay McKenzie – cool, mysterious and addicted to freediving. When Tay introduces Elsie to the underwater world, she wonders if the answers she seeks are at the bottom of the sea, and she’s determined to discover the truth about that tragic day.”

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven King is the conclusion to Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Cycle series and is highly anticipated by readers all over the world. The characters feel like best friends and the plot is reaching a dramatic crescendo, so I know a lot of hearts will be broken to see it finish at the end of this month.

I’ve fallen head over heels in love with this and know I’ll be reading it as soon as I can get my hands on a copy. I do, however, know it will completely destroy me and I’m not sure what I’ll do with myself once I’ve finished it. Cry for a very long time, probably?

What books are you looking forward to reading this month? Are there any on my list that you’ve already read and loved?

Book Review UKYA Uncategorized

REVIEW: Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard

[book-info]

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?

Recommendations Uncategorized

A (Graphic) Novel Obsession

IMG_2185

I am in love with graphic novels at the moment. Especially with so much revision to do, they’re easy to pick up and instantly get into as they don’t take up the same amount of brain power as a 500-page novel would do.

I always used to be sceptical about reading graphic novels. It’s easy to get caught up in ‘literary snobbery’ and feel as if books with pictures in are slightly inferior, but I’m finally over that and I love graphic novels and everything in them – the words, the graphics, the vivid colours. They’re amazing!

Isabel Greenberg

Continue Reading

Discussion Uncategorized

To Read List

IMG_2096

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?

Blogging Uncategorized

Blogs I’m Loving #1 – October Edition

IMG_1468

Lately I’ve got back into reading more blog posts. There was a time a little while ago where I couldn’t get into the right frame of mind to read blog posts – I was either too lazy to read anything other than my Twitter feed, or disinterested in reading the same post over and over again on three different blogs. Finally, though, I’ve found a happy blog-reading place, so I thought I’d share some of my favourite blogs of the moment.

Hello I Am Mariam

I found Mariam’s blog the other week after she had tweeted me a few times and I fell in love with it. I particularly loved her posts on feminism as it’s something that we have in common and she writes so perfectly. I particularly loved her post, Is marriage and motherhood synonymous with female success?. Continue Reading

Blog Tour Uncategorized

Why We Need Realistic Heroines in YA

22911719I worked hard as a teenager. We didn’t have money; I was the only person in my immediate family to go to university. I was utterly focussed on creating a life for myself that wasn’t like the one I’d grown up in. I studied a lot. I didn’t go out much. Didn’t drink, didn’t take chances.

Looking back, I think I was a typical teenager.

Some of my friends worked hard, like me. Others didn’t have that drive. Some were naturally clever, and sailed through school to university. One of my friends dropped out of school at sixteen and went to work as a mechanic in his uncle’s garage.

All of them were typical teenagers.

Like adults, teenagers are a varied mix of the spoiled and the lazy, the tough and the smart, the brave and the fearful.

It is important to me that my books should reflect this diversity.

I find it unbelievable when teen characters in a book are ALL brave and feisty. Or when they’re all super smart with massive vocabularies. Or when they are all hard-working and noble.

I just don’t recognise that world.

In my books, I’ve tried to create characters readers will believe in. Continue Reading

Uncategorized

5 Essential Books to Catch Up On This Summer

Screen Shot 2015-06-22 at 19.12.06

In my opinion, summer is the best time to get lots of reading done. I look forward to summer each year, when I can catch up on all the reading I’ve missed out on since the summer before. Here are a few books I think are essential to catch up on this year:

My Second Life by Faye Bird

What if you were born again, into another life, another body, but you had to live with the fact that you did something terrible in your previous life? All of the details, however, are just outside of your grasp… This is the premise of My Second Life, a thrilling, mysterious novel that I wish more people would read because I adored it. It kept me on my toes as I read on and on, not being able to put it down. A must read!

Boys Don’t Knit by T.S. Easton

To put it lightly, Boy’s Don’t Knit is the perfect book to make you cry with laughter. It’s about a boy who gets in trouble with the police after an unfortunate accident involving an old lady and a stolen bottle from Waitrose. As part of his community service, Ben has to take up a hobby and he chooses knitting. The book follows Ben as he learns that knitting isn’t just something for grannies, and tries to keep his new hobby a secret from his friends. I LOVED it!

Continue Reading

Blog Tour Uncategorized

The Lost and The Found Q&A with Cat Clarke

IMG_1605

Can you describe The Lost and the Found in three words?

Disturbing, challenging, honest.

What’s the best thing about writing UKYA?

There are so many good things! When I was growing up, most of the books I read were set in the US. I loved reading about proms and cheerleaders and football players, which all seemed very glamorous and fascinating. But I would have liked to be able to read about something a bit closer to my own experiences. So now I feel extra lucky to be able to write about growing up in the UK. It may not be particularly glamorous, but hopefully it’s still interesting!

Another incredible thing is the amazing community of bloggers, readers and authors who are so passionate about the books. I HEART UKYA!

Continue Reading