October 2013 - Wrap Up

Hey everyone,

So it's me again, long time no see.

Sorry i've been a little MIA on the posts but all I do is work work work nowadays. However I do still get the chance to read every so often which is always nice.

So this month I read a lot more books than the past few months however one I didn't actually read this month but i'll explain the story later.

The first book that I didn't read this month was Unwholly by Neal Schusterman

So the reason that I say DIDN'T read is because I actually read this book months and months ago I just neglected to update my books that I have read list on my computer and on the side of my bookshelf. I actually read this when I read Unwind which was about 6 months ago.

The second book that I read this month was Dollhouse by Anya Allyn.

I was hunting through goodreads for a creepy Halloween book because I was in the mood for something a little creepy and something that I wouldn't normally go for and so when I discovered this I decided to add it to my list thinking that i'd get to it when I had the money. However I then found it on the kindle store on amazon for free and who can resist a free book! It's a really good creepy book and is definitely suited to this time of year.

The third book that I read this month was The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot

I'd been considering watching the film for a while now because i've only seen it once and that was when I was about 10 and so it's something that I really need to watch again. The book was a really good one and I found that it was over way too quickly, i'm considering buying the second book in the series and giving it a go soon because overall it was a really enjoyable book.

The fourth book that I read was The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot

After reading the first book in a matter of days I decided to bite the bullet and just buy the second book and within a day i'd finished that one too, this is a really nice quick coming of age type story about an average teenager that discovers that she is in fact a princess, like a more grown up fairy tale but so far i'm absolutely loving the series.

And finally surprise surprise is The Princess Diaries Third Time Lucky by Meg Cabot

After reading the other two and devouring them in days I just had to continue on with the series as quickly as possible and so I was really glad that I managed to get this book for a good deal on the amazon kindle store and so I can afford to download them as I go, I also like the kindle app on my phone because when I finish one book. AKA on my lunch break at work I can go straight onto amazon and download the next one. 

Anyway Hopefully i'll get through another few books next month and finally make it to 50.

Leigh xoxo

Tv Programmes Review Series

Hey everyone,

So i've been wanting to do a new series for a while and since i'm obsessed with TV almost as much as book I decided to do something a little bit different and do a series on TV Programmes that I love.

In this series i'll split the review into the following categories:

1. Brief Synopsis - In this section i'll describe what the series is about and just the main points e.g. what book it relates to, seasons which it has been running for and why I love it so much.

2. Favourite characters - In this part i'll post my favourite characters including a picture and a description of why I like them so much.

3. Least favourite characters - In this section i'll post my least favourite character and again list why I don't like them.

4. How long i've been watching etc and books/tv/films that relate to this or are similar.

Anyway this new series should hopefully start next week and I hope you all enjoy it.

Leigh xoxo

Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner - Review

Hey everyone,

So today i'm here with another review of as little book that I really enjoyed, Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner.

The story is one of those ones which has a number of different characters and it alternates between their perspectives which are my favourite types of books and so when I realised this I was really intrigued to read this book. 

The back of this book says:

Jules Wildgren is a twenty-one year old Princeton college student with a full scholarship and a family she's ashamed to invite to Parents' Weekend. Tall, blonde, and outwardly identical to her wealthy high school classmates, her plan is to take the ten thousand dollars she'll receive from donating her 'pedigree' eggs and try to save her father from addiction.
Amie Barrow is a thirty-four year old married mother of two who scrapes by on her family's single paycheck.After watching a TV show about surrogates, she thinks she's found a way to recover a sense of purpose and bring in some extra cash.
India Bishop, thirty-eight (really forty-three), believes she's found her happy-ever-after when she marries a very wealthy and much older man, Marcus Croft, but decides that a baby will seal the deal. When all of her attempts at pregnancy fail, she turns to technology - and Annie and Jules - to help make her dreams come true.
But each woman's plans are thrown into disarray when Marcus suddenly dies, and his twenty-three year old daughter, Bettina, is named guardian of India's unborn child. As the baby's due date draws near, these four women - with nothing and everything in common - discover what makes each of them a mother in her own right.

In terms of story, this book has a really new story to me, i've never considered reading anything similar to this and now that I found this one it's something that i'd try again in the future.

PLOT: 

I love the fact that all of the women in this book are involved in something so incredible and important as the creation of new life and the way that they all have to be involved even if there is only going to be one baby at the end. 

CHARACTERS:

Jules - Jules has had a hard life, she struggles daily with the way she was brought up and the fact that her father is in such a terrible state and that she can't help him. The fact that she donates her eggs in order to help him shows what an amazing and selfless person she is and really endeared me to her very quickly into the book. However she must also consider the fact that there will be a child out there somewhere that she will never know and can she really live with herself knowing that she has a child with her DNA out there that she signed her rights away to seeing?

Annie - Annie is a mother of two little boys with her wonderful husband and when she decides to make some money by becoming a surrogate she jumps at the chance. She decides to give another woman who wants a chance at having a child the opportunity to do so which is another really selfless thing to do. However what will happen when she grows a child inside of her and then has to just give it up to another woman?

India - India is a 40-something year old woman who cannot have children and so she must turn to Jules and Annie to make her dream come true, she lives a life of luxury and has only just decided that she wants a child with the man that she fell in love with. 

Bettina - Bettina isn't one of my favourite characters, she is suspicious and rude to India who her father has fallen in love with and married. She takes an immediate disliking to her and wont get past the fact that her father loves this woman.

All in all I love this little book and it's something that I would like to read again in the future and i'd recommend it to anyone who likes something a little bit different.

Leigh xoxo

The Birds and The Bees by Milly Johnson Review

The Birds and The Bees Review

Hey everyone, 

I'm back with another review of a really good book that I read recently which is The Birds and The Bees by Milly Johnson.

The back of this book says: 

Romance writer and single mum Stevie Honeywell has only weeks to go to her wedding when her fiancé Matthew runs off with her glamorous new friend Jo MacLean. It feels like history repeating itself for Stevie, but this time she is determined to win back her man. She isn't going to act as he might expect. She isn't going to wail and dig her heels in, she is simply going to pretend to let him go whilst she pursues a mad course of dieting, exercising and self-improvement.

And it feels like history is repeating itself for Adam MacLean too, who is also determined to win his lady, Jo, back with the same basic psychological tactics. Then he is going to initiate his master plan: Getting together with Stevie to drive Jo wild with jealousy. 
So, like the Scottish country jig 'The Birds and the Bees', the couples all 
change partners and learn some revealing truths about each other along the way. But what happens when Adam's master plan actually starts to work? And just who will Stevie be dancing with when the music stops?

To be honest I was mostly interested in this book because Milly Johnson is my favourite author of all time. However because it doesn't match the other covers of all of her other books i'd kind of pushed it to the side for way too long, the only reason that I bought this cover is because it was selling really cheap in the Works. The cover aside the story is a really good one and the ending panned out exactly the way I wanted it to as with most of Milly Johnson's books.

PLOT:

The story starts off with us immediately meeting Stevie and Adam when Adam arrives at her house to announce that his wife and Stevie's fiance are having an affair. When Stevie and Adam inevitably lose their partners they will do anything that it takes to win them back creating an elaborate plan to lure them back in. We see all different sides of every character which I loved and how they all see each other compared to how they actually are..

CHARACTERS:

Stevie: Stevie is our main character, she is a mother to 4 year old Danny and is in love with her fiance Matthew, this is before she finds out about his affair with a mutual friend of the couple, Jo. In terms of personality I love Stevie, she is a brilliant mother and always thinks of her child first and foremost and she is just really likable.

Adam: Adam is a big guy, with his ginger hair an rough Scottish accent he really is a lump of a man, and from what we have heard he likes to throw his weight around but is he really like the way he is portrayed?

Jo: Jo works with Matthew and embarks on an affair with him behind the backs of bother her husband Adam and Matthew's fiance Stevie. But what exactly is Jo hiding behind the mask of the victim?

Matthew: Matthew seems to be unsettled in his life with Stevie especially when Jo comes into his life with her story of how her previous relationship has turned sour.

All in all this is another really good little book by Milly Johnson and is something that anyone who has read any of her other books because this is another really good one.

Leigh xoxo

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Upcoming Books - October 2013

Upcoming Books - October 2013

Hey everyone so i'm here again to give you the rundown on what is coming up this month in terms of book releases.

The first book to be released is Allegiant by Veronica Roth

The synopsis says:

One choice will define you.

What if your whole world was a lie?
What if a single revelation—like a single choice—changed everything?
What if love and loyalty made you do things you never expected?

This book is the third book in the Divergent trilogy as many of you may know, and is something that i've been waiting a while for. I wont mention anything about the plot because I don't want to spoil the first two books but I really recommend that you check this series out.

The next book to be released is Red by Alison Cherry



The synopsis of this book says:

Felicity St. John has it all—loyal best friends, a hot guy, and artistic talent. And she’s right on track to win the Miss Scarlet pageant. Her perfect life is possible because of just one thing: her long, wavy, coppery red hair.

Having red hair is all that matters in Scarletville. Redheads hold all the power—and everybody knows it. That’s why Felicity is scared down to her roots when she receives an anonymous note:

I know your secret.

Because Felicity is a big fake. Her hair color comes straight out of a bottle. And if anyone discovered the truth, she’d be a social outcast faster than she could say "strawberry blond." Her mother would disown her, her friends would shun her, and her boyfriend would dump her. And forget about winning that pageant crown and the prize money that comes with it—money that would allow her to fulfill her dream of going to art school.

Felicity isn’t about to let someone blackmail her life away. But just how far is she willing to go to protect her red cred?

This book sounds like a really good one and is probably the one I want to read the most apart from Alligiant but i'll definitely read both as soon as I can get my hands on them.

The next book is Teardrop by Lauren Kate



The back of this book says:

Never, ever cry. . . . Eureka Boudreaux's mother drilled that rule into her daughter years ago. But now her mother is gone, and everywhere Eureka goes he is there: Ander, the tall, pale blond boy who seems to know things he shouldn't, who tells Eureka she is in grave danger, who comes closer to making her cry than anyone has before.

But Ander doesn't know Eureka's darkest secret: ever since her mother drowned in a freak accident, Eureka wishes she were dead, too. She has little left that she cares about, just her oldest friend, Brooks, and a strange inheritance—a locket, a letter, a mysterious stone, and an ancient book no one understands. The book contains a haunting tale about a girl who got her heart broken and cried an entire continent into the sea. Eureka is about to discover that the ancient tale is more than a story, that Ander might be telling the truth . . . and that her life has far darker undercurrents than she ever imagined. From Lauren Kate comes an epic saga of heart-stopping romance, devastating secrets, and dark magic . . . a world where everything you love can be washed away.

Again this book seems to be another interesting one that I really want to get my hands on when it is released.

The next book is The Princess in the Opal Mask by Jenny Lundquist

This synopsis says:

One Legend Determines the Fate of Two Lives

In the faraway village of Tulan, sixteen-year-old Elara has spent her entire life as a servant, trying to track down her real name. The name she was given before being orphaned. Meanwhile, in the kingdom of Galandria, Princess Wilhamina does not know why her father, the king, makes her wear a mask. Or why she is forbidden to ever show her face.

When a new peace treaty between Galandria and Kyrenica is threatened, Elara and Wilha are brought face to face. Told in alternating perspectives, this intricate fairytale pulls both girls toward secrets that have been locked away behind castle doors, while the fate of two opposing kingdoms rests squarely on their untrained shoulders

I love books about fate and destiny and this one seems like something that i'd enjoy and so is one that i'll try to read asap.

And finally the last book is Audacious by Gabrielle Prendergast

The back of this book says:

Sixteen year old Raphaelle is that girl who says the wrong thing, who crosses the wrong person, who has the wrong hair, the wrong body, the wrong attitude, the totally wrong clothes. She can’t do anything right, except draw, but she draws the wrong pictures. When her father moves the family to a small prairie city, Raphaelle wants to leave behind the misfit rebel, the outcast, the vengeful trouble-maker she was. Reborn as “Ella,” she plans fit in at her new school, while her perfect younger sister goes to the Catholic girls’ school and her emotionally fragile mother looks for a job. 

But Ella might just be a different kind of misfit. She’s drawn to a brooding boy in her art class, Samir, and expresses her confused feelings in an explicit artwork. When a classmate texts a photo of Ella’s art to a younger friend, the horrendous fallout spreads though Ella’s life like an uncontrollable disease. Ella is expelled from school and faces pornography charges, her mother is hospitalized, her sister fails all her classes, and her distant father finally notices something is wrong.

Again, this book just appealed to me from what I read at the back and therefore is something to keep an eye out for in the future.

Thank you for reading,

Any questions or comments please feel free to leave below

Leigh xoxo

September 2013 - Wrap Up

Hey everyone,

So it's that time of the month again where I post what I read throughout the month of September, this month I started a new job and so reading became less easy but I managed a few books.

The first book that I read was Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop.

This book was so amazing and for the fact that I picked this up for £1.95 was pretty impressive, I bought this book because it's absolutely gorgeous and in this case judging a book by it's cover was definitely a good shout.

The second book that I read was Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner.

This was a really good book, the story was great and fast paced and it was definitely something a little bit different to what I usually go for but it was really enjoyable and because i've never read anything by this author she is one that i'll keep an eye out for in the future.

The third book that I read last month was The Birds and The Bees by Milly Johnson.

This book was amazing, as always with Milly Johnson books I absolutely adored it. I took so long to actually give this one a go but now i'm so glad that I did because it was amazing and I can't wait to add more of her books to my collection.

That's all from me for this month, i'm actually 28% through another book for October already so i'm hoping to get back on track with my reading challenge and hopefully i'll still manage to make it to 50 books by the end of the year.

Leigh xoxo