Review: Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson

Publication Date: September 24^th 2015
Publisher: Pan Macmimllan
Length: 277 pages

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

In “Let’s Pretend This Never Happened”, Jenny Lawson baffled readers with stories about growing up the daughter of a taxidermist. In her new book “Furiously Happy”, Jenny explores her lifelong battle with mental illness. A hysterical, ridiculous book about crippling depression and anxiety? That sounds like a terrible idea. And terrible ideas are what Jenny does best.
According to Jenny: "Some people might think that being 'furiously happy' is just an excuse to be stupid and irresponsible and invite a herd of kangaroos over to your house without telling your husband first because you suspect he would say no since he's never particularly liked kangaroos. And that would be ridiculous because no one would invite a herd of kangaroos into their house. Two is the limit. I speak from personal experience. My husband says that none is the new limit. I say he should have been clearer about that before I rented all those kangaroos."
"Most of my favorite people are dangerously fucked-up but you'd never guess because we've learned to bare it so honestly that it becomes the new normal. Like John Hughes wrote in The Breakfast Club, 'We're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it.' Except go back and cross out the word 'hiding.'" 
Jenny's first book “Let’s Pretend This Never Happened”, was ostensibly about family, but deep down it was about celebrating your own weirdness. “Furiously Happy” is a book about mental illness, but under the surface it's about embracing joy in fantastic and outrageous ways-and who doesn't need a bit more of that?

I adored Jenny’s first book. I frequently had to go out to my car to read it on my lunch break because I was laughing so hard I was ‘disturbing my co-workers’. I have never laughed so hard whilst reading before, and it was truly a glorious experience and an amazing read. So it was a no brainer that I would, of course, be picking up any further books Jenny wrote, and as soon as I saw the cover and title I knew I would be in for a treat.

Note to self: Don’t read this whilst in public. I got odd looks from laughing so hard and then nearly crying on the metro, in an airport (whilst reading the section about flying and airports, it was fortuitous timing and made everything ten times funnier) on the plane and then on a train. Several trains in fact. I had odd looks from strangers and my husband, who got increasingly irate everytime I tried to share another funny bit, because, let’s face it, that was most of the book, and ended up yelling that NO MORE, HE WANTED TO READ THE BOOK FOR HIMSELF. (Spoilsport)

Don’t be fooled though, because yes, there is plenty of laughter and merriment and general insanity (raccoon rodeo anyone?) but there are also much more serious sections which in turns punched me straight in the feels, made me nod along and go YES, SOMEONE ELSE UNDERSTANDS and sob, and also pass the book over to Husband with the instructions to read this because Jenny explains it so much better than I ever could.

It is outrageous and funny and heartfelt and full of poignant moments and good advice. In short, Jenny has done the impossible and created a truly brilliant blend of humour and seriousness tackling life with mental illness. It’s still so much of a taboo to discuss mental illness and Jenny throws all of that out the window and does a truly spectacular job of talking about it in ways that will both appeal to sufferers and those hoping to understand more. I’m bulk ordering many copies of this book to go to various people for Christmas because it is brilliant.

If you want an amazingly wacky and hilarious book – read this. If you want a book that talks honestly and openly about mental illness – read this. If you fancy some non-fiction – read this. If you’re not sure you like non-fiction books – read this. It is for everyone (apart from minors, because some of the language used isn’t appropriate but is utterly brilliant. Save a copy for them for when they’re older.) and everyone should be reading it.

Plus look at that cover. That cover alone should be giving you a good idea of what’s waiting for you inside – insanity and hilarity written by a truly incredible writer.

Review: Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella

Publication Date: June 4^th 2015
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Length: 288 pages

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

An anxiety disorder disrupts fourteen-year-old Audrey’s daily life. She has been making slow but steady progress with Dr. Sarah, but when Audrey meets Linus, her brother’s gaming teammate, she is energized. She connects with him. Audrey can talk through her fears with Linus in a way she’s never been able to do with anyone before. As their friendship deepens and her recovery gains momentum, a sweet romantic connection develops, one that helps not just Audrey but also her entire family.

I’ve loved reading Sophie Kinsella’s adult books for several years now, but I admit I was a little bit sceptical to see that she was now branching out and writing a young adult book. However I wanted to reserve judgement until after I’d read the book and I am so glad that I did.

This book was fantastic. It was poignant, funny, and tackled the subject matter incredibly well. You don’t find a vast number of books about mental illnesses on the shelves, and few of those manage to combine such brilliant wit and empathy, creating a wonderful cast of characters and allow the reader an insight into social anxiety, general anxiety and depression. I’ve never seen social anxiety in particular handled so well and so accurately in fiction.

Kinsella hits all of the points – what it’s like for the sufferer as well as those around them. The misconceptions, the ‘well why aren’t you better, can’t you just snap out of it’ comments. The way some people will try and make it about them. She brings all of these into the tale and weaves them into a truly brilliant story.

It’s a very odd mixture of writing styles. Most of the tale is told from Audrey’s point of view, but when she takes on a documentary style project as part of her therapy you get odd pieces of script to better convey what’s being recorded by Audrey’s camera. An odd style choice but one that works incredibly well for the story. It was wonderful watching the change in these film pieces from the first one to the last one.

Audrey herself is a fantastic character. Kinsella makes a choice to never tell the reader what events actually happened to put Audrey in this position, but we get enough vague facts to have a rough outlin. It’s a great choice because each reader will have a different interpretation of that outline and will allow more people to be able to empathise with Audrey’s situation. Audrey is bitingly funny – some of the dialogue and situations had me laughing out loud – and slowly comes to grips with her problems, her past and her future. Her determination to forge a more complete life for herself rather than sinking further into her anxiety and depression was tackled wonderfully.

Her family and Linus are a great supporting cast, equal parts realistic and caricatures, the combination works brilliantly and to sometimes hilarious effect. I also loved that as Audrey starts to get better she begins to take more notice of those around her and you begin to see the effect that her illness has had on her family. Everyone has handled it differently, but they are all so supportive of Audrey, and that is a wonderful thing to see.

Kinsella has portrayed social anxiety incredibly – it was refreshing to read a book that tackles this subject so well. You really feel for Audrey and that will offer people who suffer or have suffered from social anxiety and depression a mirror to show that, look, you are not alone and it does get better. Whilst it will also offer a valuable insight for those people who are lucky enough to never have experienced it.

My only issue was that Audrey read like she was several years older than 14. When I was reading it felt like she was sixteen or seventeen and it wasn’t until I went back and re-read the blurb that I discovered how young she was. This isn’t really a problem – there isn’t anything particularly inappropriate happening for her age, it just felt from her voice that she was older than that at points.

I adored this book. It’s well paced, brilliantly witty and full of larger than life characters. It’s a wonderful quick read that offers a much needed look at social anxiety and depression whilst remaining miraculously light hearted. It is bound to be one of the big summer reads and I cannot wait to hear people start to talk about it.

Review: My True Love Gave To Me (Anthology) edited by Stephanie Perkins

If you love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV-holiday specials, holiday episodes of your favorite sitcoms and, especially, if you love holiday anthologies, you’re going to fall in love with My True Love Gave To Me: Twelve Holiday Stories by twelve bestselling young adult writers, edited by international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins. Whether you enjoy celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah, Winter Solstice or New Year's there's something here for everyone. So curl up by the fireplace and get cozy. You have twelve reasons this season to stay indoors and fall in love.

First off, Happy Valentine’s Day! And what better way to celebrate than with an anthology of love and fluff filled stories. Whilst this is technically a Christmas book, I think that the fluffiness contained within these pages is more than enough to satisfy any need for smushy love stories today.

The full list of authors is impressive: Rainbow Rowell, Kelly Link, Matt de la Peña, Jenny Han, Stephanie Perkins, David Levithan, Holly Black, Gayle Forman, Myra McEntire, Kiersten White, Ally Carter and Laini Taylor. A smorgasbord of incredible Young Adult authors from across a multitude of genres.

With every anthology you end up with a bit of a mixed bag of stories with some that you wish were much longer and had their own books, and others that you end up skimming or skipping entirely. Due to the incredible array of authors you also end up with fantasy stories getting cosy next to contemporary which can end up as more than a little confusing to change mindsets so quickly for each story. It might have worked slightly better had the order been rearranged, but that is a minor quibble and something that may not even bother most people. That said, having such a diverse range of authors with their individual styles, meant that there were a truly wonderful collection of stories filled with people of all races, ethnicities, religions and sexualities.

It’s bookended with two of the best stories, starting with Rainbow Rowell’s “Midnights” which tells a love story set on New Years Eve over several years and several midnights which just melted my heart into a pile of goo right from the start. It was a fantastic start to the book, but it also set the bar stupidly high which not all of the other stories lived up to. And then that ending with Laini Taylor’s “The Girl who Woke the Dreamer”. Oh my. I mean I love Taylor’s book so I was expecting something good, but this one completely blew me away. It was haunting and gorgeous and so completely different to anything else in the anthology. It sends you away on a truly incredible high.

The middle is a mixed bag, with some truly wonderful stories like Stephanie Perkins “It’s a Yuletide Miracle, Charlie Brown” which will give you all of the feels a massive silly grin on your face by the end, and some that I didn’t even reach the end of. The fantasy stories feel a little out of place, but once you get past that Holly Black’s “Krampuslauf” and Kelly Link’s “The Lady & The Fox” are gorgeous and really add a different feel to the anthology.

Sadly for me the stories that let the anthology down were David Levithan, Ally Carter and Jenny Han, which was tragic given that Levithan’s was the only LGBT story in the anthology. I just didn’t connect to the characters in the same way as I did with the other stories.

This is a great anthology that is wonderful to dip in an out of when you need some guaranteed fluff and romance in a wide variety of styles and settings. I read it over Christmas and it was a wonderful piece of escapism around the holiday season. But given the content I also recommend it as a book to read today. It’s a wonderful collection of tales from some of the best YA authors writing at the moment and will leave you with a lot of the warm fuzzies.

Books I'm Squeeing About in November

Welcome back to The Review Diaries monthly look at the books ahead!

I can't quite get over that we're now coming in to November and this will be the last month before the Christmas countdown begins - crazyness I know! And to add to the celebrations November also sees the celebration of my two year blogiversary!  I know, I can't believe it either! So expect plenty of giveaways, guest posts, interviews and excitements at the end of the month! Next month will be filled with books both Christmassy and not, and plenty of stocking fillers, but for now let's have a look at some of the goodies we have arriving on our shelves this month - it's going to be a good one, some of the best has definitely been saved up until last this year!

1^st– Silent Night by Deanna Raybourn

'Tis the season for an investigation! Lady Julia and Nicholas Brisbane return for a Christmas caper at Bellmont Abbey.

After a year of marriage—and numerous adventures—Lady Julia and Brisbane hope for a quiet, intimate Christmas together—until they find themselves at her father's ancestral estate, Bellmont Abbey, with her eccentric family and a menagerie of animals.

Nevertheless, Julia looks forward to a lively family gathering—but amongst the celebrations, a mystery stirs. There are missing jewels, new faces at the Abbey, and a prowling ghost that brings back unwelcome memories from a previous holiday—one that turned deadly. Is a new culprit recreating crimes of the past? And will Brisbane let Julia investigate?

Oh my, the next best thing to a new Lady Julia novel? A Lady Julia novella! And back at Belmont Abbey! For Christmas! This has the makings of unbelievable glee for me. My only worry, as someone who lives in the UK, will I still be able to get hold of it? Let's hope I can!

1^st– The Feathered Man by Jeremy de Quidt

In a German town, long ago, lives a tooth-puller's boy called Klaus. It isn't Klaus's fault that he sees his master steal a diamond from the mouth of a dead man in Frau Drecht's lodging house, or that Frau Drecht and her murderous son want it for themselves.

He has nothing to do with the Jesuit priest and his Aztec companion who turn up out of the blue looking for it, or the Professor of Anatomy who takes such a strange interest in it. No, Klaus doesn't want any trouble.

But when he finds himself with the diamond in his pocket, things really can't get much worse - that is, until the feathered man appears. Then they become a matter of life... and death.

I first heard about this book at the Random House book bloogers brunch back in June, and I couldn't wait to read more. Everything about it intrigued me, from the cover and the title to that fabulous blurb, and it did not disappoint  This book is absolutely fantastic, and I cannot recommend it enough.

1^st– Jepp, who defied the Stars by Katherine Marsh

Who says fate is written in the stars? Set in seventeenth-century Europe, JEPP is the coming-of-age story of a teenage dwarf limited not only by his height but by his destiny. Seemingly bound for a life of misery as an astronomer's court dwarf, Jepp must prove himself to be a capable and trustworthy student in order to escape his fate. Willing to defy the stars to win the life he wants and the woman he loves, Jepp must choose his own course and become the man he wants to be. Thrilling, romantic and in turns heart-warming and heartbreaking, JEPP is a highly original and unforgettable story about one young man's struggle to escape his destiny. Based on a real seventeenth-century historical figure, Jepp's story includes violence, love, astrology, astronomy, and even a beer-drinking moose.

This book crept onto my radar when Angie over at Angieville was talking about it months ago, and I have been desperate to see whether it would live up to my expectations. It's another artful blend of cover, blurb and title and I absolutely adore it. Jepp's story is one of those that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page.

8^th– Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Karou must come to terms with who and what she is, and how far she’ll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, mysteries and secrets, new characters and old favorites, Days of Blood and Starlight brings the richness, color and intensity of the first book to a brand new canvas.

Yes, just yes. 'Daughter of Smoke and Bone' was one of the top books of last year for me, and I literally cannot wait to get my hands on the second book in this series. There are no words to accurately describe how unbelievably excited I am for this release.

8^th– Winter Wonderland by Belinda Jones

Imagine waking up in a snow globe. . . 

That's how travel journalist Krista feels when she arrives in magical Quebec to report on Canada's glittering Winter Carnival.
Over ten sub-zero days Krista's formerly frozen heart begins to melt as she discovers an enchanting world of ice palaces, husky dog-sledding and maple-syrup treats galore. And then she meets Jacques, a man as handsome and rugged as he is mysterious. . .
The two share a secret that could bond them forever, but can they find a way to break through the protective layers around their hearts to warm up this winter wonderland?
. . . let the snow-spangled adventure begin.

I know, I know, I promised to wait on the Christmas extravaganza until the end of November, but I just can't wait, a new Belinda Jones book is on the horizon! I love her steamy summer reads, so the prospect of one for Christmas makes me a very happy girl. Jones always brings a brilliant mix of escapism, romance and fantastic settings to combine into escapist reads that I adore.

20^th– The Twisted Tragedy of Miss Natalie Stewart by Leanna Renee Hieber

Spooky, chilling and twisted, the highly anticipated sequel to award-winning author Leanna Renee Hieber s darkly romantic debut For Natalie Stewart, a normal life has never seemed so far away. Her only solace, Lord Jonathan Denbury, is wanted for murder. To clear his name, Denbury s must return to England and assume the role of his demon doppelganger. But Natalie begins to doubt his true motives, especially as a new gentleman begins whispering in her ear. Natalie and Denbury may be able to visit each other in their dreams, but they can t escape the darkening shadows. Amid spontaneous explosions, friends turned enemies and dangerous secrets revealed, there's still a demon who has Natalie's scent, and someone is trying to resurrect the ultimate evil.

Darker Still was one of the unexpected surprises of last year, and I absolutely adored it, and now I can't wait to see what's in store for Natalie next. The novel really captured my imagination and now that Jonathan is a little less confined to artwork I can't wait to see his and Natalie's relationship blossom. But added to that are demons! Doppelgangers! And Magic Most Foul! What more could one want?

22^nd– From Notting Hill to New York... Actually by Ali McNamara

Scarlett O'Brien, utterly addicted to romantic films, has found her leading man. She's convinced Sean is Mr Right, but the day-to-day reality of a relationship isn't quite like the movies. With Sean constantly away on business, Scarlett and her new best friend Oscar decide to head to New York for the holiday of a lifetime.

From one famous landmark to the next, Scarlett and Oscar make many new friends during their adventure - including sailors in town for Fleet Week, a famous film star, and Jamie & Max, a TV reporter and cameraman. Scarlett finds herself strangely drawn to Jamie, they appear to have much in common: a love of films and Jamie's search for a parent he never knew. But Scarlett has to ask herself why she is reacting like this to another man when she's so in love with Sean...

I absolutely adored 'From Notting Hill with Love... Actually' it was one of the wittiest and best chick lits I have ever read, so you can imagine my excitement when I saw that a sequel is being released! But there is always a little voice that worries with things like this. Just like Pocahontas 2 (terrible film, don't see it) will the happily ever after be thrown over for a new 'one true love?' I can't help but worry, but I have faith that Ali will do what she's so good at doing - blowing me away with how fantastic her writing is, so I'm sure all will be well!

So those are my squeeful books, what about yours? Are there any here that you're excited for, or even some new ones you're looking out for now? And what did I miss? Tell me the books you're excited about in the comments below!

Review: Emailing Allie by Julie Lawson

Release Date: 25^th October

Huge thanks to Cyder Press for sending me a copy to review

My name's Julie Lawson - I'm an HR Manager at BMT Publishing. Nearly six months ago my est friend, Allie Rainsbury, left the business.
Recently our MD sent a memo asking all BMT employees to clear their Inboxes and, since I had access to Allie's emails after her departure, I set about reviewing hers.
Her adventures were so entertaining that I didn't want to stop, let alone destroy them forever - instead I am determined to share her story with you.
As a new year dawns, Allie needs various questions answered. Among the most urgent are: Where is her future leading? Why are relationships so complex and confusing? Can she get through a day without five cups of tea? Hilarious, touching and unique, Emailing Allie delves into the life and loves of 31-year-old Allie Rainsbury. Through emails sent to her best-friend Julie, the smooth-talking David Marshall and the enigmatic Scott Cooper (to mention but a few) we are taken on an frenetic, funny and uplifting journey that charts her daily challenges both inside and outside the office.

Emailing Allie is a fun chick lit told through a ‘diary’ of sorts – Allie’s inbox and sent mail tells a brilliant and funny tale of the last year of her life. The romances, the intrigues, and the many, many cups of tea.

I loved how the story is told through the emails that Allie sends and receives, it gave the whole book a real lift and made it a light fun read. It never got bogged down in too much detail, but when as a reader I wanted more detail, for example when Allie had been on a date, there was always just enough to satisfy. It’s a novel that very much relies on the reader’s imagination, and because I picked this up when I was having a bit of a reading slump it was really nice to breeze through a book that was on the whole light and not weighed down by too much detail and explanation. I also loved how we as the reader never actually see any of the key scenes, they are always told back through someone else’s eyes, and sometimes the details were unbearably slow to come out – details please! It felt like I was there, being copied in on all the emails and living vicariously through someone else’s gossip and I loved it.

You immediately get a sense of who Allie is, and whilst I felt a little bit strange and voyeuristic reading her emails, I quickly became so immersed in the story and just wanted to find out what happened, that I stopped noticing that it was someone’s personal emails.

I loved the humour, the lighter moments and the way that characters were constructed. A lot of the draw for me remains in the brevity and quick pace that the emails opened up.

It wasn’t all fluff and giggles though, I wasn’t expecting some of the darker and more emotional elements to creep in, but they did and added a certain weight to it that I actually really enjoyed and helped to balance everything out.

The one thing that I wasn’t as fussed on was the love triangle. It was quite stereotypical of the genre, and the rest of the book was such a fresh and entertaining concept I really wished that the romance could have been too. I also really struggle with the actions/attitude of one of the men in the triangle, but then I suppose that is always the way, people looking into a relationship can see how awful some people are being, whereas whilst you’re involved in it you don’t see it. So yes, I think it showed the relationship really realistically, but it still didn’t make it any more fun for me to watch – it was like watching someone walk out in front of a car and not being able to do anything about it.

It’s the sort of book that you can read in one sitting, or dip in and out of over a few days. Light but with some heavier undertones to give it a little more substance, but filled with brilliant humour, fantastic characters and a great heroine, I loved ‘Emailing Allie’ and will definitely come back to it again. For anyone after a bit of a lighter read, or fans of ‘Bridget Jones’ Diary’, ‘Emailing Allie’ is a must read.

Books I'm Squeeing About in October

Oh my, how on earth is it October already? This year is passing by in a haze of fantastic books, and soon we'll be into Christmas - but before that, October is my birthday month! So expect a giveaway later on in the month to celebrate! In the mean time, here are some of the books releasing this month which have me incredibly excited and desperate to read them! October is also a fantastic month for pretty covers, as evidenced by the pretties below...

2^nd– Ironskin by Tina Connolly

Published by: Tor Books

Jane Eliot wears an iron mask. 

It’s the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain—the ironskin. 

When a carefully worded listing appears for a governess to assist with a "delicate situation"—a child born during the Great War—Jane is certain the child is fey-cursed, and that she can help. 

Teaching the unruly Dorie to suppress her curse is hard enough; she certainly didn’t expect to fall for the girl’s father, the enigmatic artist Edward Rochart. But her blossoming crush is stifled by her own scars, and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio...and come out as beautiful as the fey. 

Jane knows Rochart cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. But what if neither of these things is true? Step by step Jane unlocks the secrets of her new life—and discovers just how far she will go to become whole again.

So we have a retelling of Jane Eyre, and after that blurb I am more than a little curious. Particularly to see how it can stand up as its own story whilst leaning on the original.  That and it has a gorgeous cover, which always suckers me in...

5^th– Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Published by: Mira Ink

She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real….

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….

Oh, hell, yes. Alice in Zombieland? Seriously? This appeals to the same bit of me that squeed about assassin nuns, and it sounds like it's going to be a pretty awesome ride. This has been a book I've been looking forward to for months, I just hope that it lives up to the hype!

11^th– Mystic City by Theo Lawrence

Published by: Corgi

Aria Rose, youngest scion of one of Mystic City's two ruling rival families, finds herself betrothed to Thomas Foster, the son of her parents' sworn enemies. The union of the two will end the generations-long political feud—and unite all those living in the Aeries, the privileged upper reaches of the city, against the banished mystics who dwell below in the Depths. But Aria doesn't remember falling in love with Thomas; in fact, she wakes one day with huge gaps in her memory. And she can't conceive why her parents would have agreed to unite with the Fosters in the first place. Only when Aria meets Hunter, a gorgeous rebel mystic from the Depths, does she start to have glimmers of recollection—and to understand that he holds the key to unlocking her past. The choices she makes can save or doom the city—including herself. 

I'm in the middle of reading Mystic City at the moment, and I am completely hooked. It's a fantastic world and premise and I'm loving every minute of it - definitely a recommended read, and review to come soon!

25^th– Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone

Published by: Doubleday

Anna and Bennett were never supposed to meet: she lives in 1995 Chicago and he lives in 2012 San Francisco. But Bennett has the unique ability to travel through time and space, which brings him into Anna’s life, and with him a new world of adventure and possibility.

As their relationship deepens, the two face the reality that time may knock Bennett back to where he belongs, even as a devastating crisis throws everything they believe into question. Against a ticking clock, Anna and Bennett are forced to ask themselves how far they can push the bounds of fate, what consequences they can bear in order to stay together, and whether their love can stand the test of time.

Billed as a young adult tale reminiscent of 'The Time Traveller's Wife' this is bound to pull in a lot of readers. From reviews I've seen already it more than lives up to this comparison, and I can't wait to read it and see for myself.

25^th– Emailing Allie by Julie Lawson

Published by: Cyder Press

My name's Julie Lawson - I'm an HR Manager at BMT Publishing. Nearly six months ago my est friend, Allie Rainsbury, left the business.

Recently our MD sent a memo asking all BMT employees to clear their Inboxes and, since I had access to Allie's emails after her departure, I set about reviewing hers.

Her adventures were so entertaining that I didn't want to stop, let alone destroy them forever - instead I am determined to share her story with you.

As a new year dawns, Allie needs various questions answered. Among the most urgent are: Where is her future leading? Why are relationships so complex and confusing? Can she get through a day without five cups of tea? Hilarious, touching and unique, Emailing Allie delves into the life and loves of 31-year-old Allie Rainsbury. Through emails sent to her best-friend Julie, the smooth-talking David Marshall and the enigmatic Scott Cooper (to mention but a few) we are taken on an frenetic, funny and uplifting journey that charts her daily challenges both inside and outside the office.

I finished this book yesterday, and it was completely unexpected - I loved it. It's a fantastic format, Allie's story is told through her email exchanges to her colleagues, family and friends, and it completely pulled me in. It's funny, it's poignant, and it's absolutely fantastic. A quick and brilliant read, and I can't wait to see what more people think of it!

But enough about my excitements, what are you looking forward to this month?

Review: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

I've tried to keep spoilers to a minimum, but I highly recommend reading the book before this review. However most of what I talk about you could learn just from reading the blurb - but consider this your warning!

Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met . . . a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head.
But all that changes when the Lynburns return.
The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him?

I’m gonna be upfront and warn you there is going to be a lot of gushing and love for this book in this review – there may even be glitter and overuse of italics. And probably insanely long. In fact we should probably just entitle it ‘Love Letter to Sarah Rees Brennan’ and have done with it. Just to warn you.

I have been waiting for this book for what feels like forever. Sarah is a tease with her giving out the first few chapters at a signing last October, because I have been pining for this book ever since. And then it finally arrived. And I was so smitten with both the UK and US covers that I have done something I have never done before and I have bought BOTH. That’s right, I will have two copies of Unspoken sat on my shelves, but they are just so PRETTY.

So yes, the book itself. Guys, I would read it if Sarah chose to write on the walls in crayon. Seriously, I have been a major fan girl right since the fan fiction days, so I was primed to love this book from the start, and it in no way let me down. In fact it way exceeded my (very high) expectations.

Let me state one thing first off, I love the Demon’s trilogy, they are brilliant and awesome, but Unspoken is even better. Sarah’s writing is tighter, her jokes are even funnier, and the whole thing practically sparkles it’s so well constructed. I am in awe.

Kami is fantastic. She’s feisty, she’s determined and intrepid and wickedly funny. But there’s depth and emotion and at times I just wanted to scoop her up and hug her and stop everyone from being terrible. She came alive right from the first page, and she has immediately gone into my list of favourite heroines ever. She’s quirky, she’s curvy, she’s sassy and she has an imaginary friend. What more could one want? And Kami steers clear of some of the usual pitfalls of heroines in fiction, which made me cheer. For example, a point where she’s trying to work out who the bad guys are, she considers for a moment that of course Jared couldn’t be the bad guy, and then promptly puts him back on the list until she can prove (other than her fuzzy feelings) that he is innocent. I loved that she was strong enough and sure enough of herself to stick to her beliefs and core even when everything around her was turning dark and treacherous and she could really use someone to trust.

And speaking of imaginary friends, Sarah has a talent for creating fantastic bad boy (read: rugged and manly) incredibly broken, terrible yet loveable men. And Jared takes this to whole new levels. There is a vulnerability to him that stops him from being full blown bad boy, and I loved seeing the juxtaposition of the outward appearance to the Jared revealed in his connection with Kami. His devotion takes on slightly darker undertones though, and I cannot wait to see how their relationship is explored further in book two. They have such an incredibly complex relationship filled with beautiful bittersweet moments as well as the funny and darker ones.

“’How do you deal with it?’ Kami asked Jared. ‘The laughing at nothing and occasionally stopping dead in your tracks.’
‘I have a system where when I stop, I lean casually against something,’ Jared told her. ‘It makes people think that I’m a bad boy. Or possibly that I have a bad back.’”

Part of what I love best about Jared and Kami, is how Sarah turns the much used troupe of insta-love, and strange soul mate-ish connections completely on its head. She really explores the darker side of having someone else in your head. It stops being this cool, hey look, I have someone to talk to all the time! And instead shows the darker elements of having someone know all the petty, awful, childish things you ever think. Someone who knows every corner of you and can use that to hurt you.

“She could not escape, could not untangle the strands of herself from him. She tried to visualize walls in her head, shields that she could hide behind.”

The fact that you are never your own person, you’re two halves of a whole, but not in a romantic way, in a ‘I have no idea what are your feelings and what are mine’ kind of way. It’s dark and twisted and utterly brilliant. I really felt for Kami, and one of my favourite moments was a moment just after she and Jared meet for the first time:

“She felt like he’d killed the Jared she knew.”

Sarah just captures this impossible idea so perfectly and shows both the brilliant moments of humour and tenderness and companionship, against the darker moments where they can’t separate themselves and have no idea of their own identities and feelings because they are constantly on a loop to the other person. It’s horrifying and fascinating and utterly fantastic, and Sarah handles it so deftly and brilliantly that something so strange seems so completely normal and yet twisty at the same time.

Kami and Jared lead a whole host of fantastic characters, and I had a little fan girl moment of glee when the whole Scooby gang was assembled and I cannot wait to see more of them working as a team in the next book. There’s something for everyone! Delicious golden good looks from Ash, curvy bubbly fantasticness from Holly and aloof awesome from Angela – there is such a diversity in her characters, in race and sexual orientation, and it’s so great to see more of this explored in YA fiction. Some of my favourite moments where when Kami had assembled the troops to get to the bottom of the mysteries in Sorry-in-the-vale. There is quite literally someone for everyone, and whilst the set up is fantastic, I cannot wait to get to the making out in book two, and to see a bit more behind each of this band of intrepid ninjas.

There is such a deliciously dark atmosphere and sense of foreboding throughout – highlighted against some of the lighter moments and scenes, and it creates a beautiful balance. Sarah has created a brilliant blend of gothic novel, paranormal young adult with romance and mystery galore. I wish we could see more intelligent and sassy novels like this, because it combined all the elements I love in books and manages to side step all the clichés pit falls you often find in YA novels at the moment.

There are the little titbits for crazy fan girls as well. There’s a family of Fairchild’s for fans of Cassie Clare, but the moment that made me squeal the loudest (actually there were two moments, but one was just me personally.) was when I got to chapter 16 and discovered it was called ‘Underwater Light’ – for all of you who have been there from the beginning I hope you squealed too. The second moment was when Rob calls Rosalind ‘Rosy’ I think I woke my mother with my shrieks they were so joyous. I have NEVER seen my name spelt properly in a book ever, not even in passing reference to a random character, and I actually had a moment over it here (and yes I am pretending that it was deliberately after me, don’t burst my bubble.)

And then we have the ending, which has created quite the emotional storm on the interwebs. Mostly people yelling at Sarah for crushing their hearts and ALL THE EMOTIONS. And yes, it is fantastic. It was the perfect end to the book, just the right amount of hook and pull into the second book with shadowy tones and oh my god moments. I loved it. And yes I did get to that last page and shriek a little bit, because really, a whole year until I get to slap Jared about a little bit for that? It broke my heart and smushed it up a little bit – to the point that having finished I stared at it for a full five minutes and then just flipped back to page one and started reading again.

So basically, I am a huge fan of Unspoken. It’s a brilliant new book (and start to a new series) from Sarah, and showcases some of her best writing to date. I will be busy buying copies and thrusting them at people at every available opportunity, and re-reading it until I can get my hands on book two…

Review: Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter

Katarina Bishop has worn a lot of labels in her short life. Friend. Niece. Daughter. Thief. But for the last two months she’s simply been known as the girl who ran the crew that robbed the greatest museum in the world. That’s why Kat isn’t surprised when she’s asked to steal the infamous Cleopatra Emerald so it can be returned to its rightful owners. 
There are only three problems. First, the gem hasn’t been seen in public in thirty years. Second, since the fall of the Egyptian empire and the suicide of Cleopatra, no one who holds the emerald keeps it for long, and in Kat’s world, history almost always repeats itself. But it’s the third problem that makes Kat’s crew the most nervous and that is simply… the emerald is cursed.
Kat might be in way over her head, but she’s not going down without a fight. After all she has her best friend—the gorgeous Hale—and the rest of her crew with her as they chase the Cleopatra around the globe, dodging curses, realizing that the same tricks and cons her family has used for centuries are useless this time.
Which means, this time, Katarina Bishop is making up her own rules.

The first book in the series ‘Heist Society’ was a perfect blend of humour, the slow burn of romance, intelligence and downright sassy awesomeness. There is nothing I love more than intelligent teenagers and cons, and HS handed them to me on a silver platter with a neat little bow.

So it’s no surprise that I was insanely excited to get my hands on this, the second book in the series. Because Ally Carter never disappoints, so there was no fear that this wouldn’t live up to my expectations going in.

And it was, if possible even better than the first book. Yes ok, the first book has that magical element that the first book in a series always has because it is fresh and new and you can’t help but goggle at the characters in all their awesome continent hopping glory.

Carter manages to keep all the things that worked so well in the first book and yet still turn it completely on its head. The first book we got to see how good Kat is, and how well she and her crew work together. In the second book we get to see Kat completely screw it up. And whilst it was horrifying for her to not be the smooth operator from the first book, it was so awesome to see her fall down and try to pick herself back up again.

We really got to see a lot more of Kat as she developed. There is a lot more to her than you initially see in the first book, so it was good to see her and her issues over the family life of crime fight their way to the surface. I loved seeing how she tries to do what she’s good at whilst trying to create a distance and distinction between what she does and what her family does. And yes she gets cocky, she’s obscenely good at what she does, and she’s a teenager, so it was good to see her take a fall, but instead of running to the grown-ups she owns up to it and tries to make it right. I loved watched how she grows and loses the chip off her shoulder, and really starts to embrace who she is and those around her. I really hated watching her try to distance herself from everyone else, most particularly Hale, so it was good to watch her come round and start to accept that she is never in it on her own.

Hale, oh Hale. How do I love thee? Lots. I loved the slow burn between Hale and Kat in the first book, and it’s back and even more smouldering in this second instalment. Carter really knows how to draw out the romance and keep it burning on nothing more than fleeting touches and lingering glances. I loved seeing Hale and Kat finally start to reconnect after her desperate attempts to keep him at arm’s length, and I can’t wait to see how their relationship progresses from here.

The plot is deviously twisty – even more so than in the first book. It genuinely had me guessing right from the start. You want Kat to come out on top and yet she seems to get thwarted at every turn. I loved seeing the crew come together again, they are such a fascinating bunch of kids with some truly incredible talents between them. I was laughing, screaming and whooping right from the start. There’s plenty for everyone, whether you want romance, thrills, desperate plots, incredible cons or just a truly awesome book. I highly recommend this whole series and can’t wait to see what Kitty Kat gets up to next.