Good morning! Hope you're having a good week! Today I have a review for one of the biggest titles at YALC this year. Title:  Floored Author:  Sara Barnard, Holly Bourne, Tanya Byrne, Non Pratt, Melinda Salisbury, Lisa Williamson, and Eleanor Wood Series:  n/a Pages:   320 Publisher:  Macmillan Date of Publication:  12th July, 2018 Synopsis from Goodreads: When they got in the lift, they were strangers (though didn't that guy used to be on TV?): Sasha, who is desperately trying to deliver a parcel; Hugo, who knows he's the best-looking guy in the lift and is eyeing up Velvet, who knows what that look means when you hear her name and it doesn't match the way she looks, or the way she talks; Dawson, who was on TV, but isn't as good-looking as he was a few years ago and is desperately hoping no one recognizes him; Kaitlyn, who's losing her sight but won't admit it, and who used to have a poster of Dawson on her bedroom wall, and Joe, who...

Hello all! Hope you're all enjoying the summer so far! My proof copy of Clean in all its shiny glory Today I have a review of a super gritty and powerful read from Juno Dawson that I highly recommend. Title:  Clean Author: Juno Dawson Series: n/a Pages: 400 Publisher: Quercus Books Date of Publication: 5th April, 2018 Source: proof received from book club Synopsis from Goodreads: I can feel it swimming through my veins like glitter ... it's liquid gold. When socialite Lexi Volkov almost overdoses, she thinks she's hit rock bottom. She's wrong. Rock bottom is when she's forced into an exclusive rehab facility. From there, the only way is up for Lexi and her fellow inmates, including the mysterious Brady. As she faces her demons, Lexi realises love is the most powerful drug of all ... It's a dirty business getting clean ... My Thoughts: I haven't read a book by Juno Dawson since Say Her Name which was published in 2014...

Hello! I've given the blog a spruce with a new design and header, I hope you like it. Let me know what you think! Today's review is of a gritty contemporary that I definitely recommend. Read on to find out why!  Title:  We Are Young Author:  Cat Clarke Series:   n/a Pages:   384 Publisher:  Quercus Books Date of Publication:  3rd May, 2018 Source:  Bought Synopsis from Goodreads: On the same night Evan's mother marries local radio DJ 'Breakfast Tim', Evan's brand-new step-brother Lewis is found unconscious and terribly injured, the only survivor of a horrific car crash. A media furore erupts, with the finger of blame pointed firmly at stoner, loner Lewis. Everyone else seems to think the crash was drugs-related, but Evan isn't buying it. With the help of her journalist father, Harry, she decides to find out what really happened that night. As Evan delves deeper into the lives of the three teenagers who died in the cra...

Good morning! I have finally finished my degree (woohoo!) and so I (should) have all the time in the world for reading and blogging now! Here's a review of the final book in a series that I always love to read when I'm revising...  Read on for why I enjoyed this so much!  Title:  It's A Wrap  Author:  Perdita and Honor Cargill Series:   Waiting For Callback, #3 Pages:   351 Publisher:  Simon and Schuster Date of Publication:  31st May, 2018 Source:  Author Synopsis from Goodreads: Elektra James is back and her life is more hilariously chaotic than ever! Elektra is hoping for BIG things this year... She's finished her first feature film (even if her character was unexpectedly killed off half-way through filming), hosted the party of the year (well, before her mum arrived and threw everyone out - how embarrassing!) and managed to become Archie Mortimer's Actual Real Life girlfriend (for now anyway...), so...

Title:  Moxie Author:  Jennifer Mathieu Series: n/a Pages:  340 Publisher:  Hodder Children's Books Date of Publication:  21st September 2017 Source:  borrowed from Reading to Recover Synopsis from Goodreads: It's time to fight like a girl! Vivian Carter is fed up. Fed up with her high school teachers who think the football team can do no wrong. Fed up with sexist dress codes, hallway harassment and gross comments from guys during class. But most of all, Viv Carter is fed up with always following the rules. Viv's mum was a tough-as-nails, punk rock Riot Grrrl in the '90s, and now Viv takes a page from her mother's past and creates Moxie, a feminist zine that she distributes anonymously to her classmates. She's just blowing off steam, but other girls respond and spread the Moxie message. As Viv forges friendships with other young women across the divides of cliques and popularity rankings, she realises that what she has started is nothing sho...

Hey guys! Welcome to my stop on the Freshers blog tour. This book is hilarious and so much fun and I'm so excited to have Tom and Lucy on the blog today! Here's Tom and Lucy's offering for today! As soon as we started writing FRESHERS, we knew we wanted to go back to York university.  We spent three years there between 2001-2004 (Lucy) and 2002-2005 (Tom), and we knew that if we wanted to write a realistic campus novel, we had to go back to the campus we'd once called home. So, back in February 2016, we did. Here's a photo of Lucy reminiscing outside the big central hall building (which features quite a bit in FRESHERS).  While we were on campus, we managed to sneak into our old corridors and have a look around, and it was comforting (and horrifying) to find out that students today are still as gross as we were back in 2001/2002. The corridors were sticky and smelly, and the kitchens were basically pasta-sauce-spattered bomb sites. We also s...

Title:  Juniper Lemon's Happiness Index Author:  Julie Israel Series:   n/a Pages:   308 Publisher:  Penguin Date of Publication:  1st June 2017 Source:  For review from publisher* Synopsis from Goodreads: It's hard to keep close a person everyone keeps telling you is gone. It's been sixty-five painful days since the death of Juniper's big sister, Camilla. On her first day back at school, bracing herself for the stares and whispers, Juniper borrows Camie's handbag for luck - and discovers an unsent break-up letter inside. It's mysteriously addressed to 'You' and dated July 4th - the day of Camie's accident. Desperate to learn the identity of Camie's secret love, Juniper starts to investigate. But then she loses something herself. A card from her daily ritual, The Happiness Index: little notecards on which she rates the day. The Index has been holding Juniper together since Camie's death - but without this card, there's a ho...

Title:  When Dimple Met Rishi Author:  Sandhya Menon Series:  n/a Pages:   384 Publisher:  Hodder Paperbacks Date of Publication:  1st June, 2017 Source:  Publisher via NetGalley Synopsis from Goodreads: The arranged-marriage YA romcom you didn't know you wanted or needed... Meet Dimple. Her main aim in life is to escape her traditional parents, get to university and begin her plan for tech world domination. Meet Rishi. He's rich, good-looking and a hopeless romantic. His parents think Dimple is the perfect match for him, but she's got other plans... Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways. Perfect for fans of Rainbow Rowell, Jenny Han and Nicola Yoon, WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI is a frothy, funny contemporary romance set at a coding convention in San Francisco over one exciting summer. Told from the dual perspectives of two...

Title:  Girls Can't Hit  Author:  T.S. Easton Series:   n/a Pages:   288 Publisher:  Hot Key Books Date of Publication:  20th April, 2017 Source:  NetGalley* Synopsis from Goodreads: Fleur Waters never takes anything seriously - until she turns up at her local boxing club one day, just to prove a point. She's the only girl there, and the warm-up alone is exhausting . . . but the workout gives her an escape from home and school, and when she lands her first uppercut on a punching bag she feels a rare glow of satisfaction. So she goes back the next week, determined to improve. Fleur's overprotective mum can't abide the idea of her entering a boxing ring, why won't she join her pilates class instead? Her friends don't get it either and even her boyfriend, 'Prince' George, seems concerned by her growing muscles and appetite - but it's Fleur's body, Fleur's life, so she digs her heels in and carries on with her training. My T...

Hey guys! I'm so excited today to share this guest post from author Katy Cannon, whose new book And Then We Ran publishes this week! I've read and really enjoyed this book (see previous post for a review!) and I'm sure you guys will too! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Sometimes it feels like the world runs on coincidence. There are 365 days in a year, and slightly fewer people in my immediate family, and yet we all seem to end up sharing birthdays. My childhood best friend and maid of honour never actually saw me get married, as she gave birth on the morning of my wedding day. Wherever I travel in the world I always end up bumping into someone from home. And then there’s my friend James. James has three gorgeous children with his wonderful, patient and generally awesome partner. They’re very happy. But James has always said - ever since I met him over twenty years ago - that he would never get married. He didn’t need a piece of paper to make him commit, a wedding was a waste ...

Title:  And Then We Ran Author:  Katy Cannon Series:   standalone Pages:   352 Publisher:  Stripes Publishing Date of Publication:  6th April, 2017 Source:  Publisher for review* Synopsis from Goodreads: A road-trip story about following your dreams and embracing the unexpected. Megan knows what she wants out of life and she intends to get it, whatever her parents say. Elliott has given up on all his plans for the future – but then Megan bursts into his life with a proposal that could change it forever. Together they embark on a road trip to escape their hometown and chase their dreams. But life is a journey and not even Megan can control where theirs will lead… My Thoughts: I was a massive fan of Katy's first two books, Love, Lies, and Lemon Pies , and Secrets, Schemes, and Sewing Machines when I read them a few years back, and so I was very excited to read this new release, and it didn't disappoint ! I read it quickly and...

Title:  Take Two Author:  Perdita and Honor Cargill Series:   Waiting For Callback, #2 Pages:   344 Publisher:  Simon and Schuster Date of Publication:  26th January, 2017 Source:  Sent by author* Synopsis from Goodreads: Elektra has finally landed a part in a film. It's the dream. Well ...until she works out that Straker is a movie so dystopian that within weeks most of the cast and all of the crew wish that the world had actually ended (preferably in scene one). And while it's obviously great news that she's moved from the friend-zone with Archie to become his almost-girlfriend, it would be better if he hadn't immediately relocated to Transylvania to play a vampire hunter surrounded by 'maidens of peerless beauty'. Full of humour and warmth, this new series is perfect for fans of Geek Girl and The It Girl. My Thoughts: I loved Casting Queen when I first read it last year, so I couldn't wait to get started with Take Two . ...

Title:  A Quiet Kind of Thunder Author:  Sara Barnard Series:   n/a Pages:   307 Publisher:  Macmillan Children's Books Date of Publication:  12th January, 2017 Source:  Bought Synopsis from Goodreads: Steffi doesn't talk, but she has so much to say. Rhys can't hear, but he can listen. Their love isn't a lightning strike, it's the rumbling roll of thunder. Steffi has been a selective mute for most of her life - she's been silent for so long that she feels completely invisible. But Rhys, the new boy at school, sees her. He's deaf, and her knowledge of basic sign language means that she's assigned to look after him. To Rhys, it doesn't matter that Steffi doesn't talk, and as they find ways to communicate, Steffi finds that she does have a voice, and that she's falling in love with the one person who makes her feel brave enough to use it. From the bestselling author of Beautiful Broken Things comes a love story about the times w...

Title:  The One Memory of Flora Banks Author:  Emily Barr Series:   n/a Pages:   302 Publisher:  Penguin Date of Publication:  12th January, 2017 Source:  Bought Synopsis from Goodreads: Seventeen-year-old Flora Banks has no short-term memory. Her mind resets itself several times a day, and has since the age of ten, when the tumor that was removed from Flora's brain took with it her ability to make new memories. That is, until she kisses Drake, her best friend's boyfriend, the night before he leaves town. Miraculously, this one memory breaks through Flora's fractured mind, and sticks. Flora is convinced that Drake is responsible for restoring her memory and making her whole again. So when an encouraging email from Drake suggests she meet him on the other side of the world, Flora knows with certainty that this is the first step toward reclaiming her life. With little more than the words "be brave" inked into her skin, and written ...

Title:  Wing Jones Author:  Katherine Webber Series:  n/a Pages:  384 Publisher:  Walker Books Date of Publication:  5th January, 2017 Source:  Gifted Synopsis from Goodreads: Jandy Nelson meets Friday Night Lights: a sweeping story about love and family from an exceptional new voice in YA. With a grandmother from China and another from Ghana, fifteen-year-old Wing Jones is often caught between worlds. But when tragedy strikes, Wing discovers a talent for running she never knew she had. Wing's speed could bring her family everything it needs. It could also stop Wing getting the one thing she wants. My Thoughts: I really liked Wing, and she was very relatable.  Her perception of fitting in and not belonging anywhere due to her dual heritage was portrayed realistically, and I enjoyed seeing her grow in confidence throughout the book.  Her conflicting feelings of first grief and sadness, then anger and frustration at Marcus an...

Title:  The Square Root of Summer  Author:  Harriet Reuter Hapgood Series:   standalone Pages:   336 Publisher:  Macmillan Children's Books Date of Publication:  5th May, 2016 Source:  Publisher for review* Synopsis from back of book:  This is what it means to love someone. This is what it means to grieve someone. It's a little bit like a black hole.  It's a little bit like infinity. When the fabric of the universe surrounding Gottie's sleepy seaside town begins to fray, she is hurtled through wormholes to the past. To last summer, when her grandfather, Grey, died. To the afternoon she fell in love with Jason, who wouldn't even hold her hand at Grey's funeral. To the day her childhood best friend, Thomas, moved away, leaving her with a scar on her hand and a gap in her memory. This summer, although Grey is gone, Jason and Thomas are back, and Gottie's past, present and future are about to collide - and be c...

Title:  The Unexpected Everything Author:  Morgan Matson Series:   standalone Pages:   518 Publisher:  Simon and Schuster Date of Publication: 5th May, 2016 Source:  Spare review copy passed on* Synopsis from Goodreads: Andie has a plan. And she always sticks to her plan. Future? A top-tier medical school. Dad? Avoid him as much as possible (which isn’t that hard considering he’s a Congressman and he’s never around). Friends? Palmer, Bri, and Toby—pretty much the most awesome people on the planet, who needs anyone else? Relationships? No one’s worth more than three weeks. So it’s no surprise that Andie’s got her summer all planned out too. Until a political scandal costs Andie her summer pre-med internship, and lands both she and Dad back in the same house together for the first time in years. Suddenly she’s doing things that aren’t Andie at all—working as a dog walker, doing an epic scavenger hunt with her dad, and maybe, jus...

Title:  How Hard Can Love Be? Author: Holly Bourne Series:  Normal, #2 Pages:  470 Publisher: Usborne Children's Books Date of Publication: 1st February, 2016 Source: Bought Synopsis from Goodreads: Amber, Evie and Lottie: three girls facing down tough issues with the combined powers of friendship, feminism and cheesy snacks. Both hilarious and heart-rending, this is Amber’s story of how painful – and exhilarating – love can be, following on from Evie’s story in Am I Normal Yet? All Amber wants is a little bit of love. Her mum has never been the caring type, even before she moved to California, got remarried and had a personality transplant. But Amber's hoping that spending the summer with her can change all that. And then there's prom king Kyle, the guy all the girls want. Can he really be interested in anti-cheerleader Amber? Even with best friends Evie and Lottie's advice, there's no escaping the fact: love is hard. My Thoughts: I am a...