#BookReview: Like Other Girls by @chennessybooks @HotKeyBooks

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Here's what Lauren knows: she's not like other girls. She also knows it's problematic to say that - what's wrong with girls? She's even fancied some in the past. But if you were stuck in St Agnes, her posh all-girls school, you'd feel like that too. Here everyone's expected to be Perfect Young Ladies, it's even a song in the painfully awful musical they're putting on this year. And obviously said musical is directed by Lauren's arch nemesis.

Under it all though, Lauren's heart is bruised. Her boyfriend thinks she's crazy and her best friend has issues of her own... so when Lauren realises she's facing every teenage girl's worst nightmare, she has nowhere to turn. Maybe she should just give in to everything. Be like other girls. That's all so much easier ... right?

Amazon | Goodreads

Review:

I'm so glad someone finally wrote this book! I'm also glad that someone was Claire Hennessy as I've really enjoyed the way she's tackled teen issues in her past books. 

I had to smile at some of the reviews of this book on Goodreads. People seem to be surprised that a teenager in a book isn't perfect. Lauren doesn't always say the right thing or act the right way, but then what teen does? I do believe she learns from her actions and everything she experienced made her a stronger person. However, even if she didn't learn that wouldn't have affected my enjoyment of the book.  People don't always magically change for the better (despite many teens online believing they should in every.single.book), they don't always learn a valuable lesson, they don't always get what they deserve. Fiction reflects life and shitty people exist.

Blog Tour: Read an Extract from The Summer House by the Sea by @JenOliverBooks @HQstories

Every Summer has its own story…

For Ava Fisher, the backdrop to all her sun-drenched memories – from her first taste of chocolate-dipped churros to her very first kiss – is her grandmother’s Summerhouse in the sleepy Spanish seaside town of Mariposa.

Returning for one last summer, Ava throws herself into a project her grandmother would be proud of. Café Estrella - once the heart of the sleepy seaside village - now feels more ramshackle than rustic. Just like Ava, it seems it has lost its sparkle.

Away from the exhausting juggle of London life, Ava realises somehow her life has stopped being…happy. But being back at the Summerhouse by the sea could be the new beginning she didn’t even realise she needed… Buy on Amazon

Extract:

‘God, I’d have had to say something about you, wouldn’t I? If that bus had got you.’

‘That’s a nice way of putting it, Rory.’

Rory sniggered into his sherry. Then he looked at his watch. ‘Come on, drink up, we’ve got a plane to catch.’

Ava realised she was suddenly itching to know what he would have said about her if the bus had indeed got her. Intrigued by a possible heartfelt truth, she crossed her arms, glass dangling from her fingertips, and with feigned nonchalance so as not to appear too eager, said, ‘Go on then, what would you have said?’

#LeopardattheDoor Blog Tour: The Real Kenya by @McVeighAuthor @PenguinUKBooks

Stepping off the boat in Mombasa, eighteen-year-old Rachel Fullsmith stands on Kenyan soil for the first time in six years. She has come home.

But when Rachel reaches the family farm at the end of the dusty Rift Valley Road, she finds so much has changed. Her beloved father has moved his new partner and her son into the family home. She hears menacing rumours of Mau Mau violence, and witnesses cruel reprisals by British soldiers. Even Michael, the handsome Kikuyu boy from her childhood, has started to look at her differently.

Isolated and conflicted, Rachel fears for her future. But when home is no longer a place of safety and belonging, where do you go, and who do you turn to? Buy on Amazon

Guest Post: The Real Kenya

“In the biggest, brownest, muddiest river in Africa…” The Enormous Crocodile waded into my four year old life with a terrifying snap of his jaws and a reckless disdain for morality as I knew it. He wasn’t just eating children because he was hungry. He was eating them because it was fun. And I was thrilled. So began a lifelong love of the wild spaces and wild creatures of Africa.

When I was twelve my father took me to East Africa on safari. We rode horses across the Mara in Kenya, camping at night under a sky glittering with stars, listening to the low grunts of a lion carry far across the plains. We galloped alongside herds of zebra, clouds blackening into storm – the grasslands lit up beneath to an iridescent gold, and I remember thinking – as my horse pounded under me – that there could never be anywhere in the world as beautiful as this. We chased ostrich, and – on a hot day – stripped the saddles off our sweat-soaked horses and pushed them deep into a lake, where hippos blew water into the sun-drenched air, until our horses’ hooves left the ground and it felt as though we were flying. I fell madly in love with the raw simplicity of the life, with all its danger and isolation. 

Blog Tour Review: All the Good Things by @claresitafisher @VikingBooksUK

Buy on Amazon

What if you did a very bad thing... but that wasn't the end of the story

Twenty-one year old Beth is in prison. The thing she did is so bad she doesn't deserve ever to feel good again.

But her counsellor, Erika, won't give up on her. She asks Beth to make a list of all the good things in her life. So Beth starts to write down her story, from sharing silences with Foster Dad No. 1, to flirting in the Odeon on Orange Wednesdays, to the very first time she sniffed her baby's head.

But at the end of her story, Beth must confront the bad thing.

What is the truth hiding behind her crime? And does anyone - even a 100% bad person - deserve a chance to be good?

All the Good Things is a story about redemption and hope for fans of Nathan Filer, Stephen Kelman and Emma Healey

Review

Wow. What an emotional read. I wasn't really prepared for this. All the Good Things is a short, one-sitting read but boy does it really pack an emotional punch! 

I'm one of those people who usually believes that right and wrong is pretty black and white. This is one of those books that really challenges that notion. I love a book that makes you look inward and question what it is you actually believe in. If you're in prison does that automatically make you a bad person? Does one mistake mean you should be labelled for the rest of your life?

Blog Tour Review: The Night Visitor by @lucyatkins @QuercusFiction

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Amazon | Goodreads

How far would you go to save your reputation? The stunning new noir thriller from the author of the bestselling The Missing One and The Other Child. Perfect for fans of I Let You Go and The Ice Twins.

Professor Olivia Sweetman has worked hard to achieve the life she loves, with a high-flying career as a TV presenter and historian, three children and a talented husband. But as she stands before a crowd at the launch of her new bestseller she can barely pretend to smile. Her life has spiralled into deceit and if the truth comes out, she will lose everything.

Only one person knows what Olivia has done. Vivian Tester is the socially awkward sixty-year-old housekeeper of a Sussex manor who found the Victorian diary on which Olivia's book is based. She has now become Olivia's unofficial research assistant. And Vivian has secrets of her own.

As events move between London, Sussex and the idyllic South of France, the relationship between these two women grows more entangled and complex. Then a bizarre act of violence changes everything.

The Night Visitor is a compelling exploration of ambition, morality and deception that asks the question: how far would you go to save your reputation?

Review:

I've been in a bit of a reading funk lately. I've started loads of books but I've found myself unable to finish most of them. My concentration isn't great due to fatigue so I've been looking for something to relieve that 'meh' feeling I've been having while reading.

That relief came in the form of The Night Visitor by Lucy Atkins. It's a thriller but not your run of the mill crime thriller. This one has more of a psychological feel. I've read a few psychological thrillers in the past few months but most of them had a wide range of characters. After a few books this can get tiring so it was nice to find a story that centered around just two people. I think this allowed me to get really involved. I was so invested in what was happening to these two women!