Tag: books

Book Review: A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard

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A Quiet Kind of ThunderA Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

This was my first book from Sara Barnard and it won’t be my last. It’s a very sweet coming of age story and is absolutely packed full of feels. I was worried it would be an angsty and depressing story but it couldn’t be further from this. Yes I did shed a couple of tears but mostly it just made me smile and laugh. I loved it.

The Blurb (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 when a whisper is as good as a shout.

My Review

As Steffi seems to be a lover of lists such as “The 10 stupidest things people say to you when you don’t talk” and “The Top 5 Worst Times to be Mute” I couldn’t resist creating my own list of the 7 Things I Loved about A Quiet Kind of Thunder:

  1. The lists – I’m a lover of lists and Steffi’s lists are used to great effect. They’re often funny (as you can probably tell from the previous examples) but the author makes great use of them to demonstrate a number of different things including Steffi’s previous experiences, the attitudes of others and sometimes whatever she’s thinking about what’s going on right at that moment. Beware there are a couple of lists which made me laugh out loud (thankfully I was at home at the time).
  2. Steffi – I loved Steffi from the very first few pages. She’s been struggling with selective mutism for years but rather than giving up she keeps trying. She wants to get better, to fit in or at least be included and accepted and to be able to do what others her age can like speak to a shop assistant, ask for help and go to Uni. She’s also just a  genuinely nice person, with a tendency to think the worst of herself (something I can definitely relate to).
  3. How it portrays living with anxiety – it’s so realistic at times I found it scary. As someone who has suffered from anxiety since my teens I was impressed with how well the author reflected those feelings. You’re inside Steffi’s head so you get her stream of consciousness as she worries about things, panics over nothing and becomes frozen and unable to move or speak. While I have never been mute (although I am quiet) I can honestly say her thoughts at times were a mirror of my own.
  4. Rhys – OMG Rhys!!! (yep I OMG’d), he’s just sooo cute and sweet and just loveable. He’s deaf so is almost the opposite of Steffi in that she struggles to be heard and he can’t hear but they have a surprising amount in common. He’s also just so lovely and understanding and funny and a bit mischievous. One of the highlights of this story for me were the text conversations between him and Steffi. I loved how he teased her.
  5. The romance – sorry romance haters but there’s a really cute (I seem to be using that word a lot) romance between Steffi and Rhys. It’s not lightning bolt, insta love but a slow building, realistic and healthy relationship. They just seem to instantly click and have some real chemistry. I was rooting for them to get together and make it even though they do have some issues. Even if you don’t like romance I think you will like this one.
  6. There’s no magic cure – I hate to tell you this but meeting a boy doesn’t result in Steffi suddenly becoming happy, confident and outgoing (if only it were that easy). She works at it and she gets professional help and support.
  7. The feels – there are just so many feels in this book and most of them were happy. I did have a little cry at one point (only a couple of tears, I promise) and I got frustrated and angry but mostly I found myself smiling and laughing.

Overall this is just an easy, enjoyable and fun read that I couldn’t put down. I did have a little niggle about the ending but it’s fairly minor. I’d recommend this book to everyone and I will be hunting down Beautiful Broken Things as I loved this author’s writing and want to read more.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review. All gushing is my own 🙂

Ali-Reads on Litsy

Aside Ali@abookishlife14 Comments

I’m a little bit late to the party but at long last I’ve decided to give the Litsy app a try. It’s described as a mix between GoodReads and Instagram and that’s probably fairly accurate. I have to admit to being a bit of a doubter, I absolutely love GoodReads and couldn’t see this being […]

WWW Wednesday: 11th January 2017

Ali@abookishlife27 Comments

The WWW Wednesday meme is currently hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words and is a great way to do a weekly update on what you’ve been reading and what you have planned.

WWW Wednesday

To take part all you have to do is answer the following three questions:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Here’s this weeks WWW.

Currently ReadingA Quiet Kind of Thunder

I started A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard on Monday morning. I was very lucky to receive this from NetGalley as I have been so excited about reading it. It’s about a 16 year old girl who suffers from an anxiety disorder that means she finds it difficult to speak. She’s introduced to a boy who’s deaf, they become friends and she starts to find her voice.

I’m around the halfway point at the moment and so far I’m absolutely loving it. It’s so rare to find a book that deals with both mental illness and a disability in such a realistic way. I too suffer from anxiety (although not as severely) so I can really relate and despite my terrible synopsis it’s not a “fall in love and be magically cured” type story.

On audio, I’m still listening to The Hunger Games and am around halfway through so we’re into the games. I’ve read it before but it’s amazing just how much of the detail I’ve forgotten

Recently FinishedThe Bear and the Nightingale

Two books finished again this week, the first of which was  The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. This was a book I received from NetGalley and as mixture of Russian history and fairytale I was very excited to read it.

It is beautifully written with some incredibly vivid descriptions that make you feel like you’re there but unfortunately I didn’t love it quite as much as I wanted too. The POV jumped around too much for me particularly in the beginning and it was a little on the slow side meaning that I never really connected or became emotionally invested in any of the characters. I did still enjoy it but it didn’t have the spark. You can read my full review here.Proxy (Proxy, #1)

The second book finished was Proxy by Alex London which I borrowed from the library (via Overdrive). It’s a young adult sci fi dystopian about two sixteen year old boys Knox and Syd. Knox is the rich, spoiled bad boy who leads a charmed life. If there’s trouble he’s in the middle of it but it doesn’t really matter because he has Syd as a proxy. If Knox gets in trouble Syd takes the punishment, but then Knox steals and crashes a car and someone ends up dead. The sentence for Syd is severe so both boys go on the run.

I liked this book a lot. It’s not necessarily the most unique of plot lines but the writing is great, the dialogue fantastic and for those looking for more diverse characters in their books this definitely fits the bill. Unfortunately it is a duology so it seems likely I’m going to have to hunt down the next book 🙂 I’m struggling to write a review of this for some reason but will hopefully get one up soon.

Reading Next

I’m still trying to make some progress on my NetGalley ARCs so I think my next read will be either The Breakdown by B.A. Paris or Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough, I’m definitely in the mood for a thriller. I also managed to get The Crown’s Game and Spectacles from the library on Overdrive so I may sneak one of those in somewhere too.

The BreakdownThe Crown's Game (The Crown's Game, #1)Behind Her EyesSpectacles

Have you read any of the books above or have any other book you’d recommend? Leave comments and links below and I’ll respond when I can. Unfortunately I’m working a lot of hours at the moment so apologies in advance if I’m a little slow in replying and visiting everyone else’s posts.

Happy Wednesday everyone.

Teaser Tuesday: 10th January 2017

Ali@abookishlife10 Comments

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme formerly hosted by MizB of Books and a Beat and revived by The Purple Booker. If you want to join in grab your current read, flick to a random page, select two sentences (without spoilers) and share them in a blog post or in the comments of The Purple Booker.


This week my teaser comes from Proxy by Alex London. It’s the first book in a YA dystopian sci fi duology and I first heard about it from Leigh Bardugo when I saw her on her recent book tour. I’m so glad I listened to her recommendation as it’s a fast paced and exciting read with very likeable (and diverse) characters.

My Teaser

She was a private thing. He’d built an airtight container around her memory and only he could slip inside it. Talking about her let the world in and the memory began to decay.

~ 81%, Proxy by Alex London

BlurbProxy (Proxy, #1)

Knox was born into one of the City’s wealthiest families. A Patron, he has everything a boy could possibly want—the latest tech, the coolest clothes, and a Proxy to take all his punishments. When Knox breaks a vase, Syd is beaten. When Knox plays a practical joke, Syd is forced to haul rocks. And when Knox crashes a car, killing one of his friends, Syd is branded and sentenced to death.

Syd is a Proxy. His life is not his own.

Then again, neither is Knox’s. Knox and Syd have more in common than either would guess. So when Knox and Syd realize that the only way to beat the system is to save each other, they flee. Yet Knox’s father is no ordinary Patron, and Syd is no ordinary Proxy. The ensuing cross-country chase will uncover a secret society of rebels, test both boys’ resolve, and shine a blinding light onto a world of those who owe and those who pay. Some debts, it turns out, cannot be repaid.

 

ARC Review: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

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The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Based on Russian history and folklore, this is a beautifully written and atmospheric story that I liked a lot. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite wow me as much as I had hoped it would but it’s definitely one I’d recommend as it could be the beginning of a very interesting series.

Synopsis (from GoodReads)

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.

As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

Thoughts

When I first finished this book I really couldn’t make up my mind about it and even now a few days later I’m still not sure. As a lover of fairytales, magic and tales of things that go bump in the night and lurk in the woods it should have been the perfect read for me. However, while I liked it a lot I found it to be missing that special something that would take it from good to great.

It is a beautifully written story. The author does a magnificent job of transporting you to a magical and wild land in medieval Russia. The writing is so evocative you almost feel like you are there, huddling around the fire, travelling across the cold and snowy wilderness or visiting the market and palaces of Moscow.

The characters are also very well created and believable and there is a unique and captivating story in there but for me it was missing the emotion I needed to really connect to it. When I was reading on the way home from work after a long day I found my attention wandering and had to re read certain pages more than once before I took it in.

This lack of emotion and connection to any of the characters was due, I believe, to the constantly switching point of view from one character to another. It moves from father to mother to nanny to Grand Prince to priest and on and on. I found this particularly bad in the first half of the book where I actually started to wonder who the main character was, if there was one and where it was all going. I also struggled a little with the different names used for the same character. I understand that this is accurate for the time and place and that the author had tried to make it easy for the English reader but I still found myself getting confused at times with so many different characters and so many names.

As a result of the switching focus and insight into each of the different characters the story felt quite slow in the beginning. It did give a real sense of time and place which was fascinating in some ways but I did feel like a lot of it could have been covered much faster without so many characters. I probably would have cut a whole part where the father visits Moscow as it didn’t really add much and I was close to giving up.

Thankfully however the story does turn around. There is a lot more focus on Vasilisa and the strange events that start to occur in the village where she lives. Vasilisa is a very likeable character. An outcast in the village due to some very unique abilities, she’s brave, a little wild and not cut out for the options available to her at that time (marriage or a convent). I loved almost every chapter she was in, I just wish the author had stuck with her  and the events around her throughout.

The pacing of the story was a little bit off for me, too slow in the beginning and too fast at the end but it is a good story. It is the first in a trilogy so I think there is some real potential. I will definitely be giving the next book in the series a try.

I think whether you love this book or not will come down to why you read. If you’re looking for a beautifully written and vivid world with a slow building story and a mix of Russian history and folklore I think you’ll love this book. Unfortunately for me, while I could appreciate it, I didn’t love it.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC. As always all views are my own.

ARC Review: Good Me, Bad Me by Ali Land

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Good Me, Bad Me

Good Me, Bad Me by Ali Land

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

A compelling and occasionally disturbing read, I found myself unable to put it down. It’s rare for me to find a psychological thriller I enjoy but I loved this. Truly chilling.

Synopsis (from GoodReads)

‘NEW N A M E .
NEW F A M I L Y.
S H I N Y.
NEW.
ME . ‘

Annie’s mother is a serial killer.

The only way she can make it stop is to hand her in to the police.

But out of sight is not out of mind.

As her mother’s trial looms, the secrets of her past won’t let Annie sleep, even with a new foster family and name – Milly.

A fresh start. Now, surely, she can be whoever she wants to be.

But Milly’s mother is a serial killer. And blood is thicker than water.

Good me, bad me.

She is, after all, her mother’s daughter…

Thoughts

“The brain of a psychopath is different from most, I’ve weighed up my chances. Eighty percent genetics, twenty percent environment. Me. One hundred percent f*cked”

Would you invite the child of a serial killer into your life, into your family’s? Is it fair to judge someone for the actions of their parent? Do you think you should keep their background a secret to protect them or should you warn people so they can be on their guard?

These were all questions I found myself considering as I read this dark and chilling psychological thriller by Ali Land. It’s a gripping and addictive story that I found myself reading late into the night, scared to keep going but unable to put down. I felt so much sympathy for this 15 year old girl who had been so horrifically let down and abused by her mother but every so often there were these sudden chilling moments where I found myself wondering just what she could be capable of (and what involvement she’d had in her mother’s crimes).

The author shows real skill in keeping the tension throughout the story and also in creating such a distinctive character and voice in Milly (aka Annie) our narrator. For the most part Milly comes across as scared, quiet and unsure and generally just someone who wants the love and friendship she didn’t get from life with her mother. Every so often however there is this glimpse of something off about her, an inner strength and lack of fear but also a coldness and a lack of empathy for others. There are scenes that make for some seriously uncomfortable reading and a couple of occasions where I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue it was so disturbing, which sounds bad but to me is actually the mark of a great thriller.

The one and only criticism I have of this book, and the reason for knocking off that half star, is that occasionally I found the writing style and sentence structure a little bit off putting.

This is a book with a lot of hype around it, to quote the blurb “One of the most extraordinary, controversial and explosive debuts of 2017”, which is something I’m generally quite suspicious of but honestly in this case I think it’s definitely a book worthy of hype. I’m often let down by thrillers with a lot of hype (I didn’t like the Girl on the Train) but I doubt many will be let down by this. Read it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. It’s released on the 12th January.

WWW Wednesday: 4th January 2016

Ali@abookishlife24 Comments

The WWW Wednesday meme is currently hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words and is a great way to do a weekly update on what you’ve been reading and what you have planned.

WWW Wednesday

To take part all you have to do is answer the following three questions:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Here’s this weeks WWW.

Currently ReadingThe Bear and the Nightingale

Yet again I’m not really reading anything at the moment, there must be something about Tuesdays (I always write this post the night before). I am however planning to start The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden which I received from NetGalley but haven’t had a chance to read as yet. I have to admit that I requested this partly due to the cover which is stunning and also because I heard the words “draws on Russian fairytales”. I absolutely love fairytale type books. I can’t say too much about it yet but it’s definitely a book I have high hopes for.

The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)On audio, I’ve started listening to The Hunger Games and am really enjoying it. I’ve obviously read it before and have watched the films more than once but I’d kind of forgotten the details from the book. I did find the narrator a bit irritating at the start, she sounds like someone around my age who’s smoked 60 a day rather than a teenage girl but I’m getting used to it, although I still can’t stand her Peeta voice.

Recently Finished

I honestly don’t know what I’ve been doing for the past week as, despite hardly moving from the house, I seem to have read very little and absolutely none of the books I had on my reading next list from last week. Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

I am however very happy to report that I did read Ensnared, the third and final book in the Splintered series. The Splintered series is a modern day take on Alice in Wonderland with one of Alice’s descendants being sucked back into Wonderland.

I was mostly happy to read this because it finished off the series and I wanted to know how it would all end but it is quite a good read. There was a lot more action than in the previous book (which was mostly filler) but be warned there is one of the most annoying love triangles ever. I also wasn’t entirely convinced by the ending.

The One Memory of Flora BanksThe second book finished, The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr, is probably my favorite book of the year so far. I know it’s only the 4th of January but I suspect it will remain a favorite as I still keep picking it up and reading little bits. It’s one of those books that just makes you smile.

I received it from NetGalley and it’s about a seventeen year old girl who suffers from amnesia. She can only hold onto a memory for a couple of hours and then it’s gone. Then one night she kisses a boy on the beach and the memory sticks. Thinking he could be the cure for her amnesia she follows him to the Arctic. It’s a little bit nuts, kinda funny and also sad in places but I found it completely addictive. You can read my full 5 star review here.

Reading Next

Unfortunately I’m now back at work 😦 so I have a lot less time for reading and will need to switch back to ebooks as physical books are just too awkward to carry around. I’ve also realized that quite a few of the ARCs I have are due for release so I really need to get reading. I think my next reads will therefore by A Quiet Kind of Thunder  and Behind Her Eyes. I also managed to get Proxy by Alex London from the library on Overdrive so I may sneak that in somewhere too.

A Quiet Kind of ThunderBehind Her EyesProxy (Proxy, #1)

Have you read any of the books above or have any other book you’d recommend? Leave comments and links below.

Happy Wednesday everyone.

Teaser Tuesday: 3rd January 2017

Ali@abookishlife11 Comments

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme formerly hosted by MizB of Books and a Beat and revived by The Purple Booker. If you want to join in grab your current read, flick to a random page, select two sentences (without spoilers) and share them in a blog post or in the comments of The Purple Booker.

Teaser Tuesday | BooksAndABeat.com
Happy 2017 everyone!! I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year if you celebrate it. It actually scares me that we’re in 2017, where does the time go?

Anyway,.this week my teaser comes from The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr which I finished at the weekend and absolutely loved. I found it an addictive and kind of inspiring read so I couldn’t resist using it for a teaser.

My Teaser

Although I feel like nothing could hurt me, a fight with a polar bear is probably not a thing I should seek out. If I have already seen them, there is no need for me to do it again.

~ 63%, The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr

Blurb

The One Memory of Flora BanksSeventeen-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 reminders of who she is and why her memory is so limited, Flora sets off on an impossible journey to Svalbard, Norway, the land of the midnight sun, determined to find Drake. But from the moment she arrives in the arctic, nothing is quite as it seems, and Flora must “be brave” if she is ever to learn the truth about herself, and to make it safely home.

 

Happy holidays everyone.

My 2017 Bookish Goals

Ali@abookishlife26 Comments

Happy 2017 Everyone!!

While 2016 wasn’t really that bad a year for me, a new year means a new start and the opportunity to make a few changes and set some goals. I don’t really believe in New Year’s resolutions as I can never stick to them but this year I’ve decided I am going to set myself some bookish goals. Read More »

Review: The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr

Ali@abookishlife1 Comment

The One Memory of Flora BanksThe One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can’t believe it’s the first day of 2017 and I’m already giving a book 5 stars but The One Memory of Flora Banks definitely deserves it.

I love books that are unique, different and a little bit weird and this story is all of those things and more. The writing is incredible and draws you in to the life and mind of Flora Banks from the very first page and I could quite happily have stayed there.

Read More »