Review: The Potion Diaries by Amy Alward

511BFSCXkAL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_The Potion Diaries by Amy Alward
Genre: Contemporary(?), Fantasy(?), Romance
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Pages: 363
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

Upon going to university, I’ve found that it’s incredibly difficult to find time to read. I mean, I have time to read, but when the rest of my flatmates are embroiled in discussion about gender identity, it’s kind of hard to stay in my room catching up on the October new releases. After 3 weeks, so mostly spending time with these guys, I think I can justify pulling out of a Marvel marathon to catch up on some much needed reading and reviewing – I have missed it after all. Unfortunately, I’m rather disappointed that The Potion Diaries was the first book I decided to dedicate my precious free time to.

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Review: Sophie Someone by Hayley Long

25382680Sophie Someone by Hayley Long
Genre: Contemporary
Published by: Hot Key Books
Pages: 254
Format: ARC E-Book
Rating: ★★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Author | Amazon

Plot
Sophie Someone 
is a book about a girl. The story is relatively short and only has one major plot point, of Sophie trying to discover her identity, but what really makes this book interesting is how it’s told. Sophie is Belgian, and in order to get across the language barrier, Long used different words to communicate Sophie’s not-entirely comprehensive understanding of English. For example, fax meant fax and freckle meant friend. To begin with, this was hard to understand, and sometimes difficult to figure out what the real term was. Like, apocalypse meant apartment. I think the rule was the first one or two letters gave a clue to the word Sophie was trying to convey. Sometimes, it was ironic, like a teacher was called a torturer, or The Daily Mail was the Daily Malice. Without realising it, Sophie was giving a kind of social commentary!

I guess I’m not really sure what to say about this book. Overall, I’d give it 2.5 starsIt’s something you have to read to understand! If you’re in the mood for a simple story, something that won’t take too long to read, but might take longer than usual because of the odd language use, then this is definitely the book for you!

Review: Tonight The Streets Are Ours by Leila Sales

26088387Tonight The Streets Are Ours by Leila Sales
Genre: Contemporary, Once Upon A Road Trip
Published by: Macmillan Children
Pages: 352
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

It’s not often that we get a story as beautiful as the cover, and Tonight The Streets Are Ours is a perfect example of the cover doing the story justice! This was one of the stand-out reads of the year for me, it was so carefully crafted and made me think about how I treat others, it also has the perfect “imagine a person as an actual person” storyline that I’m such a sucker for. Other books with this theme include Dash And Lily’s Book Of Dares and the obvious Paper Towns. 

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Review: Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine

23499242Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine
Genre: 
Contemporary
Published by: HarperCollins
Pages: 256
Format: ARC E-Book
Rating: ★★★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Author | Amazon

Plot
The main plot point is Iris, the protagonist, discovering the existence of her dying father and getting to know him during his final breaths. It’s a basic concept, but was a refreshing story about family – love ’em, or hate ’em, we’ve all got them. The story was so fleshed out with back story, and context of the painting being discussed, I was never bored while reading. In fact, I read the first 60% in an hour, it was so addictive and fast paced. Continue reading “Review: Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine”

Review: Fish Out Of Water by Natalie Whipple

22402516Fish Out Of Water by Natalie Whipple
Genre: 
Contemporary
Published by: Hot Key Books
Pages: 322
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Author | Amazon

I picked this book up on a whim because of the quirky cover, and I usually trust whatever Hot Key Books publishes. They know what’s good. I was also really in the mood for a nice contemporary romance, which was exactly what I got.  Continue reading “Review: Fish Out Of Water by Natalie Whipple”

Review: Counting Stars by Keris Stainton

23592240Counting Stars by Keris Stainton
Genre: 
Contemporary
Published by: Hot Key Books
Pages: ???
Format: ARC E-Book
Rating: ★★★★
Where To Find: Goodreads | Author | Amazon

Happy Book Birthday to ‘Counting Stars’! To celebrate, let’s review!

Plot
The basic premise is a bunch of people live in a house together, and you get to know about their lives. Sounds simple, right? That’s where you’re wrong. Each character has their own dilemma and, as a reader, trying to deal with five at once was tricky, but rewarding. Set in Liverpool, this book is perfect for anyone 18 or over, as I’d say this book is like a hybrid between YA and new adult fiction, which comes from the characters being 18 or over, and therefore having slightly more mature situations to deal with.  Continue reading “Review: Counting Stars by Keris Stainton”

Mosquitoland by David Arnold

18718848Mosquito land by David Arnold
Genre: Contemporary, Coming-Of-Age(?)
Published by: headline
Pages: 336
Format: E-Book
Rating: ★★★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

Okay, this book was insanely quotable, and I don’t find myself highlighting passages very often, but for some reason I was highlighter-happy (electronically, guys, I’m not about to deface a beautiful book with the wet ink of a highlighter)! I was scrolling through the reviews of this book on Goodreads though, and this review is pretty much going to be the consensus opinion: amazing beginning, what was that middle?, okay, so how-am-I-supposed-to-feel-about-this-now-ending. But the writing though. My goodness. (It would be summed up with this emoji: 👌) Let’s pros and cons this.

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Review: All Of The Above by James Dawson

23156540All Of The Above by James Dawson
Genre: Contemporary
Published by: Hot Key Books
Pages: ?
Format: ARC E-Book
Rating: ★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

This is the first James Dawson book I have read, and his stuff seems pretty hyped, so I was excited. After reading the acknowledgments I found that this is different to the majority of the stuff he’s done before, apparently he does more horror(?) but All Of The Above was refreshing with it’s realism and what makes it even better was the protagonist was completely unapologetic for how crazy her life was. If I could use a meme to describe this book it would be: ‘sounds fake, but okay.’ It’s so jam-packed with teenager-y themes that it feels a little overwhelming at times, but I guess that’s life.

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Review: Hello, Goodbye, And Everything In Between by Jennifer E. Smith

23369370Hello, Goodbye, And Everything In Between by Jennifer E. Smith
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Published by: Headline
Pages: 248
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

So, I picked up Hello, Goodbye, And Everything In Between, because all I’ve been doing recently is watching Pretty Little Liars (we’re on season 3, if you’re interested and Spoby is life.) At 248 pages I was confident I could finish it in one sitting, and I did! Which hopefully makes up for the fact I haven’t finished a book in over a week. The basic premise is that Aidan and Clare are just about to go off to university (literally they’re one day away) and they’re trying to decide whether or not to break up. And although it had a few gems, overall the story was pretty generic and much like the million teen rom-coms I’ve seen before.

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Review: Remix by Non Pratt

21472663Remix by Non Pratt
Genre: 
Contemporary, Friendship
Published by: Walker Books
Pages: 304
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Author | Amazon

I LOVED THIS BOOK. I think that’s the most important thing to begin with. Even though this is a five star book, I did have a few problems with ‘Remix’, but loved it so unconditionally (like a baby?) I could look past some of the things that were uncomfortable to read. SO, let’s begin a list of things I love about this book, shall we? Continue reading “Review: Remix by Non Pratt”