WRAP-UP: May and June

I’m a little behind on my blogging - and my reading - at the moment, so in order to catch-up I’ve decided to put May and June’s wrap up posts together. I didn’t read much in June anyway unfortunately, but I hope to pick it back up again in July.

May

Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne

this book will bring out your inner feminist and leave you kicking and screaming against inequality! absolutely loved Holly’s first book in the spinster club series ★★★★★

I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson

I didn’t like this book at first but it grew on me towards the end. The story of two twins who are split apart by tragedy and have to find their way back to each other emotionally ★★★★

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

it shows how good this book was, it only took me one day to read it! such a wonderful book about illness and love ★★★★★

For Holly by Tanya Byrne

I didn’t love this book, but I didn’t hate it either. Lola spends her summer in Paris with her father and new stepmother, and witnesses a terrible accident ★★★

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

a lovely summer read with plenty of fluffy friends! ★★★★

Mystery and Mayhem by The Crime Club (Katherine Woodfine and friends)

a beautiful compilation of stories from the best children’s mystery writers around today! including one of my favourites, Robin Stevens ★★★★

Paris for One by Jojo Moyes

a lovely short story to read in a day, about a girl trying to be more impulsive by taking a spur of the moment trip to Paris - for fans of Me Before You ★★★★★

The Princess Saves Herself In This One by Amanda Lovelace

a thought-provoking book of poetry ★★★★

Love Bomb by Jenny McLachlan

Betty relies on letters from her dead mother to help her understand growing up and falling in love ★★★

How Not To Disappear by Clare Furniss

such an emotional read from start to finish, I really enjoyed it ★★★★

So in the month of May, I read 10 books, which amounted to 3,290 pages, so over 30 days I averaged a total of 106 pages a day! This is amazing for me, May was such a good reading month and I was so proud of myself. But then June came and I read far, far less.

June

Inferno by Cat Doyle

the Falcone boys are back and are causing more trouble than ever - I absolutely loved this and I can’t wait for the final instalment of the series! ★★★★★

The Boy Most Likely To by Huntley Fitzpatrick

a heartwarming story about recovery and love ★★★★★

Summer Days and Summer Nights - Stephanie Perkins and friends

a beautiful summer anthology of love stories, with some of the best teen romance writers around today ★★★★★

The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

I read this for the UKYA book club, but it just wasn’t for me. I felt there was too much going on to really enjoy it ★★

First Class Murder by Robin Stevens

Robin has delivered yet another amazing murder mystery, this time on the Orient Express - can’t wait to read the next book! ★★★★★

I did say that this month was worse, and it was. In the 30 days of June, I read 5 books amounting 1,813 pages, which amounts to only 60 pages a day. I didn’t read as much as I thought I would this month, but on the bright side, I have read 40 books this year and completed by goodreads reading challenge! Let’s see how many more books I can finish with the second half of the year, no pressure this time.

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WRAP-UP: April

April was a book-filled month, I read far, far more than I expected to and mostly stuck to my TBR! It’s helping that I’ve become so organised as I’m forcing myself to read books I’ve hoarded and haven’t picked up since I bought them.

Did I Mention I Love You? by Estelle Maskame

Eden goes to visit her estranged father in California for the summer, and gets into lots of trouble! Not a bad read, if you abandon all your morals ★★★★

Before I Die by Jenny Downham

Although I didn’t like Tessa’s character very much, her story of dying from leukaemia is heartbreakingly well-written ★★★

More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

A soul destroying story about a boy who just wants to forget - I can never look at a smiley face the same way again! ★★★★

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman

A wonderfully well-written, and beautifully illustrated, fairy tale that I hope becomes a classic for the next generation ★★★★

Adulthood is a Myth by Sarah Andersen

These illustrations perfectly sum up what it’s like to be a young adult, specially a girl, who is struggling to grow up ★★★★★

Crush by Eve Ainsworth

This book, about abusive relationships, chilled me to the bone. Eve always chooses the difficult topics and handles them gently ★★★★

When We Collided by Emery Lord

As Jonah grieves the loss of his father, and attempts to hold his family together, larger-than-life Vivi appears to make things better ★★★★

House of Windows by Alexia Casale

15-year-old Nick has been accepted into Cambridge university - an under 18 in an over 18s world makes university a very different experience for him ★★★★

Geek Girl: Head Over Heels by Holly Smale

Another wonderful adventure from the Manners family, with my one wish answered - more of Wilber and his stylish, fairy godmother ways! ★★★★★

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

A tragic story of a man who becomes disabled and loses his freedom, and the girl who accepts the job as his new carer ★★★★★

So somehow, whilst working 30+ hours a week and maintaining some semblance of a social life, I managed to read ten books. These amounted to 3,030 pages, which over 30 days of April means I somehow read at a pace of... 101 pages a day! I don’t know how I managed it. I’m so overwhelmingly proud of myself, and I’ve almost hit my goodreads target of 40 books, as at the end of April I was up to 25 books. Lets hope May is just as good!

REVIEW: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

I read this book in anticipation of the film coming out in June, and it’s only made me even more excited to see it! I hope my boyfriend is prepared to hand me tissue after tissue in the cinema. I had to write this review the second I put the book down, I was so excited to tell everyone how much I loved it.

Louisa Clark was happy with her simple life, having never left her small hometown, and had no plans to change anything. She lived with her sister, her nephew, and her parents, and she had a boyfriend that she had been with for so long that she refused to admit that she may not love him anymore. But her whole life was turned upside down in the matter of one day, when the cafe she loved working in got shut down unexpectedly, forcing her to look for a new job.

Will Traynor was a successful businessman before a motorcycle accident ruined his life. He has lost full use of his legs, and the majority of his arms, he can no longer hold down his job or flat in London, and is destined to live out the rest of his life in a wheelchair. His independence has now been replaced by around-the-clock care, in the form of Nathan, his night-time carer.. and Lou, his new daytime carer.

Lou and Will take a while to get used to each other; Will finds her too chatty and she finds him rude. But eventually they fall into step with each other, and a beautiful friendship arises. Lou soon makes it her mission to teach Will how to live again, and to accept his new life as a quadriplegic.

I really enjoyed this book, the characters were so beautiful and the story touched me in a way that a book hasn’t for a long time. I wish there were more books like this, that make you think about what you would do in Lou or Will’s position. The film has an excellent cast, bringing together stars from Harry Potter, The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones, and I think it will do the book justice. 

A tragically beautiful read that I just couldn’t put down. ★★★★★

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March wrap-up!

March has been a manic month, but somehow I still managed to read loads of books! I think I’m secretly using books as a coping mechanism. Here is the re-cap of all the books I read this month, and thankfully it isn’t late this month!

What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Gwen’s summer as a companion for an elderly neighbour gets interesting when Cass Summers gets a job as the ‘yard boy’ ★★★★

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

a book about university, not being ready to enter the adult world, and secret youtubers that gave me all the feels ★★★★★

Spot The Difference by Juno Dawson

a wonderful short story for world book day about a girl who gets life changing medication that allows her to find out what its like to be popular - horrible ★★★★★

This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

a heartbreaking story about an hour of terror that Opportunity High School would never forget ★★★★★

Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell

another beautiful story from Rainbow for world book day -with Star Wars nerds and peeing outside cinemas! ★★★★★

The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury 

the gripping sequel to The Sin Eater’s Daughter, Melinda has delivered yet another amazing book with heart-warming characters and her usual heartbreaking twists! ★★★★★

Finding Mr Brightside by Jay Clark

bought this book for the title (one of my favourite songs is Mr Brightside by the Killers), stayed for the amazing story! two damaged teens come together to fix each other - definitely one of my all-time favourite reads ★★★★★

Walt Disney: Drawn From Imagination by Bill Scollon

this is the story of the greatest man in entertainment history - I love Walt like a granddad and reading about his life has given me hope that anyone can achieve their dreams in they just believe in themselves. but there will never be another Walt Disney! ★★★★★

so I read eight books, all of which I enjoyed and I’ve picked up some new favourites along the way! these books totalled a massive 1,966 pages, which over 31 days of March, I somehow managed to read 63 pages per day! That’s 23 pages more than February and January! I’m concerned now that this will massively decrease in April.. But I’m very pleased I managed to read so much in such a busy month!

📖TBR for April📖

Before I Die - Jenny Downham

Crush - Eve Ainsworth

More Happy Than Not - Adam Silvera

House of Windows - Alexia Casale

I’ll Give You The Sun - Jandy Nelson

Fire Colour One - Jenny Valentine

Did I Mention I Love You? - Estelle Maskame

I feel as though I’m being over-ambitious about April, I have another busy month ahead but I’ll try my best to get through this TBR!

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Radio Silence - Alice Oseman

At last, after waiting so long, I finally have my hand’s on Alice’s second book, Radio Silence! I love her so much, her two books and two novellas have - no exaggeration - given me life. So I would just like to begin this review by saying this: I would give it one thousand stars, if goodreads allowed me to. I am being a massive fangirl in today’s blog post, but I’m not sorry because Alice Oseman is my favourite author so I think I’m allowed.

Frances Janvier is top of her class and headed to Cambridge. Nothing is going to stop her from achieving her goal, to the point that she isn’t really close to any of her ‘friends’ at school, and nobody sees her outside of school. Her only real friend, her best friend, ran away over a year ago, and she has no idea where she went and has no way of finding out.

There are two sides to Frances Janvier. On one side, she is an uber-clever study machine, who aces all her exams and seems to only care about doing things that will get her into Cambridge, such as being head girl, and seemingly nothing else. She is the ultimate role model for the lower years.

Then there is the Frances that no one at school knows exists. The one that is obsessed with a small and practical unknown youtube podcast called Universe City - with an anonymous creator known as Radio Silence. She draws fan art about the show and spends her down time lounging around her room in burger jumpers - but she doesn’t allow anyone other than her mother to see this side of her.

Until Frances becomes friends with Aled Last, and then she finally feels free to be herself around someone. Telling your ex-best friend’s twin brother why it’s your fault she ran away mustn’t have been easy, but despite that fact, Aled and Frances become the best of friends, with an unbreakable bond that is devoid of any romance whatsoever.

Radio Silence touched me even more than Solitaire did, which I think was because this book focused more heavily on the impending doom of university, a part of my life that I definitely struggled with, so this book hit me on a much more personal level - much like Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl. 

University is a very strong theme in this book - some characters lack the grades to even have the opportunity to go to university, some are being actively pushed into going to university, either by their parents or through expectation, and this is something I forget happens to people. My parents encouraged me to better myself by going to university, but never pushed, and I love them for that. I sometimes think my parents found my first few months at university just as difficult as I did.

University is not for everyone, and that was my take-away from this book. Alice writes all her stories from the heart, and that is something that always makes me feel like I know her better than I already do. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, of course I’m going to give it five stars. I cannot wait to see what Alice does next. ★★★★★

January and February wrap-up!

So, I figured since it’s now the end of February (how quickly is this year going?) and I still haven’t posted my wrap-up for January, I would do both months together. 

Problem solved! ☺️

So I’ve started getting more organised with my reading this year, keeping a note of the books I’ve read in the journal shown above, and calculating my average pages read each month, so I can see if I’ve had a good month or not.

January

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

a unique retelling of Cinderella, with cyborgs, the plague, and a threat of war between Earth and the Moon ★★★★★

On The Fence by Kaisie West

the story of a sport-turned-girly girl and the boy next door ★★★★★

All Of The Above by Juno Dawson

an addictive read about a girl who moves to a new town and makes some amazing new friends ★★★★★

Reasons To Stay Alive by Matt Haig

a book about depression through Matt’s experiences of living with it. this book has changed my life, and given me a new perspective, and I would recommend it to anybody ★★★★★

so, in January, I read 4 books, with a total of 1,245 pages, and over 31 days of January that gave me a total of 40 pages per day! And I thoroughly enjoyed every single book I read, as you can see since I gave them all 5 stars.

February

99 Days by Katie Cotugno 

Molly has 99 days left in a town where everyone hates her, and where she is involved in a twisted love triangle between two brothers - I didn’t enjoy this as much as her other book, How To Love ★★★

The Savages by Matt Whyman

a seemingly normal family with a huge secret - cannibalism. Drama unfolds when the eldest daughter starts dating a vegetarian. I devoured this book! ★★★★★

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

for anyone who has read Fangirl, my favourite book, this is the story of Simon Snow, the character which Cath writes fan fiction about in Fangirl ★★★★★

I read 3 books, which is 1 less than last month, but my total pages was higher at 1,169 pages and over 29 days of February that keeps my total at 40 pages per day! I’m not feeling so bad about only having read 3 books now. I was disappointed with 99 days, but the other two were so amazing it made up for it. I will be posting all the reviews for these books when I have time to write them!

📖TBR for March📖

Radio Silence - Alice Oseman

What I Thought Was True - Huntley Fitzpatrick

The Sleeping Prince - Melinda Salisbury

Geek Drama - Holly Smale

I’m setting smaller goals for myself this month, but March is a very busy month, with my own birthday, my boyfriend’s birthday, and my dad’s and my auntie’s birthday, plus a mini-break with my boyfriend and a full-time job to navigate around. Wish me luck! 

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Cinder by Marissa Meyer

My first book of year was a new series, because it’s been so long since I started one!

Marissa Meyer's first novel in The Lunar Chronicles series introduces you to Cinder, a cyborg mechanic who lives in New Beijing with her stepmother and two stepsisters.

When her stepsister falls ill with the plague, a disease with no cure, her stepmother blames her and sends her to be a test subject as punishment.

Cinder is found to be immune to the plague, for reasons the doctors will not tell her right away, and she becomes very valuable in the race to find a cure.

The Emperor of New Beijing is also dying of the plague, and his son, Prince Kai, spends a lot of time in the research labs, and with Cinder. He doesn’t know that she is a cyborg, or a test subject.

As Cinder’s feelings for Kai grow, she is terrified. Who could love a cyborg?

It took me a while to get into this story, with there being so much going on all at once, but once it had hooked me, I couldn’t put it down.

This is a wonderful story that retells Cinderella in a truly unique way. ★★★★★

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Bookish New Year’s Resolutions!

Happy New Year everybody! This is going to be a short and sweet post to put into writing my goals for this year.

1. I am going to read the books that I have hoarded: I have at least seventy unread books in my house waiting to be read, and I want to get through as many of those as I can this year.

2. I am going to set realistic reading goals: last year, I told myself I would read 100 books. While I was at university, that was a realistic goal; I was spending up to four hours each day reading whilst travelling to and from university, and then I had spare time at home to read as well. But then I started a full-time job, and my reading goal took a massive hit. I managed to read 75 books, which is still an achievement, but I was disappointed in myself. So this year, I want to read at least 50 books.

3. Only buy books I need: this doesn’t sound like something I am going to stick to. But I impulse buy books in Waterstones and on Amazon and it just makes my hoard pile bigger, so my first purchase of the year is going to be a sequel, and the books after that will only be books I feel I absolutely have to read straight away. If I can’t stick to it, I may have to get my boyfriend to impose a book-buying ban on me.

4. Post more book reviews: another downside to having a full-time job was that I didn’t have time to write and post my book reviews anymore. I started to get overwhelmed by how many were piling up that I lost my motivation to write them anymore. I am hoping to get back into the habit of writing them again, so you’ll be seeing a lot more of me this year! As a side note to this, I will be making more use of my instagram (asdfghjklize) and tumblr (lizebronwenreviews) accounts to post more bookish things.

5. Make more time for reading: this is the big one. I won’t be able to meet any of my other four goals without making more time in my lunch hours and at home to read more. I have a lot of books I’m excited to read this year waiting for me, and I’m excited to start them.

I hope you all have a book-filled 2016!

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