And we’re back! I didn’t do a book round up in December because well…reading fell off the bandwagon a bit. Oops! I did hit my 2013 reading goal though and am now starting afresh in 2014 with a goal of hitting 50 books by 30th December…so here we go…
*NB: Spoilers ahoy!
There’s More To Life Than Cupcakes | Poppy Dolan
e-book c/o Novelicious books
Ellie Redford is living a pretty cosy life. She has a wonderfully patient husband, Pete; a decent job with good pay; amazing friends and an almost perfect home. The only thing she doesn’t have, is a little one on the way and all the rest of the world seems to be care about asking is when is going to start a family.
Juggling all the stress and confused feelings around the topic of babies, she ends up getting herself signed up to a baking class and strikes up a friendship with a handsome fellow baker called Joe. Whilst her baking alter-ego may be rising to the top of her game, Ellie’s personal life is falling flat.
I did a joint review on this with Laura at Blogger’s Bookshelf, but to summarise I thought the book was a really good and fast paced ‘pick me up’ kind of read. It was nice to read a novel about a woman who pretty much has it all figured out but with the nice spin of should/shouldn’t I have a baby drama. It’s not gonna rock the literary world, but if you’re after something quick and fun to read then this is the book for you!
Requiem | Lauren Oliver
Requiem picks up where Pandemonium left off. Our protagonist Lena now a part of a full blown revolution with the Invalids on one side and the Regulators on the other. Still hiding out in the Wilds, Lena and her friends are no longer protected by the country wasteland they used to call home. Regulators are now out the fields and set to stamp out anyone willing to rebel against the status quo.
Meanwhile, Lena’s former best friend Hana has been cured and is now living, safely under the facade of protection of being the fiancee of Portland’s new mayor
Told from both girl’s point of view, Requiem, follows their separate chosen paths before heading into the final conclusion of the series.
After all the hype I forced upon people to read this series I almost forgot to read the third book when it came out myself…my bad! I finally got down to it over December and I have to say I’m kicking myself why I didn’t start it sooner.
After a bit of a slow build getting back into this series and its characters, I found myself really enjoying the switch in perspectives more than I did with the time jumps of Pandemonium. Hana’s parts of the story were especially captivating as she demonstrates her inner struggle of conforming with the cure and her new life. Once again Oliver’s writing is brilliant but the ending left me feeling a little empty – and not in the Mockingjay, not every ending is happy kind of way.
It’s such a shame because, once again, I really enjoyed Oliver’s writing and thought her character development was much more on point this time!
Eleanor & Park | Rainbow Rowell
Park is the only half-Korean in an entirely white school. He loves comic books. His home life is pretty dull, apart from his nagging father. Despite all this he’s getting by ok, even the popular kids don’t really care about him.
Eleanor is as far from perfect as you can get. She comes from a broken home, dresses rather bizarrely and can’t even afford her own personal tape player. And to top this all off, she’s the strange new girl in a new school. Eleanor and Park’s lives collide on Eleanor’s first day of school in 1986. From strangers to odd friends to misfit love, this is their story.
After Fangirl I was so pumped to start another Rainbow Rowell novel and Eleanor and Park DID NOT let me down. Told from a dual point of view, we get to see the flaws and failures in both of the characters lives at home and at school. Rowell’s writing is much more poetic in this than Fangirl, the feelings and emotions pretty much bleed of the pages – or in my case, off the screen of my Kindle! It’s the tale of first love and how everything feels so much more dramatic when you’re in highschool. Much like Perks of being a Wallflower, the nostalgic setting lends itself to the story – there’s no iPhones here! But that’s definitely part of the magic.
Love, love, love! A strong recommend from me!
The Beautiful Land | Alan Averill
Takahiro O’Leary (or just plain Tak) is an explorer…a time-travelling one at that!
An employee of Axon Corporation, he’s tasked with the job of exploring alternative timelines and dimensions. It’s a great job until he finds out that the consequences of his job could mean the death of Samira Moheb, the women he loves.
Samira is an Iraq war veteran suffering from severe post-traumatic stress and depression, the last thing Sam expects to storms back into her life again is Tak, especially when he starts babbling about mad scientists, time travel and a plot to destroy reality.
It’s now up to Tak and Sam to do much more than save each other…they need to save the world too.
I’ve reviewed this one for Blogger’s Bookshelf too and found it incredibly refreshing to read. The story flew by pretty quickly and the characters are fantastic!
Thoughts on any of the books I read this month?