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Tuesday 22 July 2014

Rebel Belle Review






read Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins literally a month ago, but it was one I really wanted to review so I've finally gotten around to writing this review. So much happened in this book took me awhile to work out what I wanted to say. Nevertheless here it is. 

I gave this book 4/5 stars on Goodreads and although I enjoyed this book immensely, there were many aspects that irritated me in relation to characters and the plot. 
But before I go into the negative I thought I’d first talk about the positive. p.s there will be spoilers (although nothing too specific or anything that wasn't obvious after reading the first few chapters).






Positive:
I really enjoyed the way Rebel Belle was written from Harper’s POV and I found it really helped set the tone to the book and kept it light hearted. 
The plot was fast paced and action packed, which made it a really fun read. 
This book was hilarious! The character reactions to events were so funny and yet they felt quite genuine. I was often literally laughing out loud, which may have drawn odd looks from my family. Oops. 
The plot was pretty simple so far, however I have a feeling this will change with the next books. I really like it when series do this as it can be kind of annoying when you’re thrown into the deep end of a book.
I always find the whole fantasy world in Southern USA really interesting as it seems so conflicting and because of that Rebel Belle kind of reminded me of Beautiful Creatures, which I really like.

Negatives:
I really didn’t like how Rachel Hawkins wrote Harper’s relationship with Ryan. It felt a little convenient and I really hated it how Harper was completely neglectful and yet it was often made out that Ryan was just being needy.
She also obviously wanted Harper to move on to David and because of that I felt like she didn’t bother giving Ryan much of a personality. It bothers me when there are love triangles and the author feels the need to make one boy a lesser being in some way to justify the choice of the girl.
There were some instances in the book when the characters had conveniently, uncharacteristic dumb moments which moved the plot forward but also seemed unrealistic. 

Predictions:
So I’m no oracle, but my predictions for the next books is that we’ll find out that the Ephors wanted David to become mega-oracle so they can use David’s power to make themselves more powerful. It practically says so in page 298 (hardcover version).


Thanks for reading. xx

On The Fence Review

Charlie is a tomboy. She has no mum, a police officer dad and three brothers. Well four if you count Braden, her next door neighbour. But when Charlie is forced into taking a job at a clothing store and is persuading into becoming a canvas for make-up tutorials a bit of girly-ness begins to rub off on her. And her life begins to change. 

When I started this blog in January I had never read a book by Kasie West. I have now read three; Pivot Point, Split Second and On the Fence and it’s pretty safe to say that i’ve become quite the Kasie West fan. I absolutely love the way in which Kasie writes relationships (of all sorts, not just romantic ones) and On the Fence was no exemption to this. I absolutely enjoyed reading about her relationships with her brothers and Braden and how became friend people she previously thought were polar opposites to her. All of the relationships felt natural and realistic but still interesting and amusing. On Goodreads I rated On the Fence 4/5 stars.

I also loved Charlie’s character development. Through her new job Charlie grows and becomes more of herself than before. I often don’t like it when characters change and aren’t at all themselves anymore, but in On the Fence Charlie is still the same person there is just more to her and she is able to be open with her feelings and becomes less of the tomboy stereo-type. 
This was particularly good as I didn’t like the way Charlie was presented at the start of the book. Kasie made a real effort to describe how much of a tomboy Charlie is and often it felt like the book was telling me this rather than showing this to me. Not that Kasie didn’t back up what she was saying with actions. 

It was really interesting to read about Charlie while she was with Evan because in those instances she changed herself to be someone he would like and I’ve seen my friends do that and found it quite relatable and showed how insecure Charlie really was. 

The fence chats between Charlie and Braden were so much fun to read, even when Charlie was being a bitch. It did bother me though that Charlie and Braden made the same mistake twice where one was trying to talk about their feelings for the other, and the other was trying to talk about Charlie’s mum. Miscommunication pisses me off in books/movies/life. Just listen to what they’re saying, not what your going to say! 

Overall this is a really great summery read.
Thanks for reading. xx 

Wednesday 9 July 2014

Since You've Been Gone Review


I generally read book series rather than stand alone books, but after reading the Legend series by Marie Lu, which I did enjoy, I was a bit sick of drawn out plots and more specifically, trilogies. So I headed to Goodreads and stumbled across Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson, and it seemed to be everything I was looking for. A quick read with a fun plot. The only problem was that this was three months ago and the book was only released a few days ago. Needless to say I had a lot of anticipation for this book and I’m happy to day that it didn’t disappoint. 

The story followes Emily who is a very shy and socially awkward girl who is best friends with Sloane, who is glamorous, daring and charismatic. They have the perfect summer planned, but everything changes when Sloane and her family disappear without a word. Until a letter from Sloane arrives in the mail, containing only a summer bucket list for Emily to complete. 

This book is so good and in so many ways. The characters were probably my favourite aspect about this book as they were beautifully developed and very relatable, even if their names weren’t to be envied. (Sloane, Frank, Dawn? Really?) Names aside, I really enjoyed the way in which Emily’s perception of other people changed over time, particularly Frank and Sloane. At the beginning you see through Emily’s flashbacks that it was always Sloane and Emily not the other way around, with Emily going along with whatever Sloane wanted to do. But as the book goes on Emily’s thoughts and memories of Sloane become more aware of who Sloane was and she realises that her best friend isn’t perfect and that she doesn’t have to be like her. I really liked the way in which Morgan Matson did this as Emily didn’t like Sloane any less after these realised this, but simply became more sure with who she was as an individual. Emily also realises that Sloane needed her just as much as she needed Sloane and I found this really sweet and realistic, as we often don’t realise how much we mean to others as others show affection in different ways to us. 

I loved how through the List Emily was able to make new friends, grow more confident and feel as though she belonged somewhere. Because even when she was with Sloane Emily wasn’t entirely comfortable in group situations. I also really enjoyed how Emily’s perception of Frank changed as she got to know him and how their relationship developed. 

This book was often quite funny and had me laughing out loud more than once, which is something I always appreciate in a book and attributed to my love of the characters and their relationships.

I also loved it how Emily wasn’t too obsessed with completing the List and how it didn’t become her whole life, but helped her find a new life with new friends. I loved the pacing in this book, nothing felt rushed, nor did it feel like it was dragged out.

Overall I rate this book 9 out of 10 and it is perfect if you’re looking for a simple summer read, although I read this in winter… Ooops! x