Review for The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

So its general knowledge that everyone and their mothers read this novel so when I spotted it two years ago for half price I picked it up figuring it was worth the read for half price along with all the rave reviews for it. However it’s sat on my shelf untouched until only last week when I suddenly had a strange urge to read it - and it was good. I’d say over rated but over all I gave it four stars. Here’s the thing I really loved the characters and I thought the plot idea was really good and original with it being narrated by Death but boy did this book drag on. It could have easily been half its length. Easily. Which of course made it really tiresome and slow to read in some parts. I didn’t find myself wanting to get into bed and read in the evenings and I really had to slog my way through some parts. Basically when this book was good it was good and when it was bad it was bad. I didn’t love the writing either I found it a bit clunky in places. I loved the message behind this book though how humanity can be so evil and yet so compassionate and it was interesting to see how that was portrayed through each character and you got to see how differently people act in the same situation. I also loved the ending which made me decide to give it the four stars instead of the three and a half I was originally planning on. I do think this book is over rated and I cant say that I’ll be rushing out to buy another of Markus Zusak’s novels anytime soon, but I don’t regret reading it and my overall decision to give it 4 stars means that Zusak must have done something right. My Rating 4/5 stars ****

Review for If I Stay by Gayle Forman

I’ve had this book waiting to be read on my shelf for a while now and I have no idea why I haven’t picked it up sooner. It’s a short read being only 200 and something pages long but it’s so beautiful. Mia has it all a loving boyfriend a wonderful family and a bright future. That is until one cold February morning when Mia and her family are in a car accident. Mia’s mother and farther die instantly and Mia is left in a coma. Whilst in this coma Mia’s able to observe what’s going on around her and realises that she gets to make the decision to stay or let go and die. Life as she knew it has changed and Mia has to decide with the help of the friends and family around her at the hospital whether life could be worth waking up to. This is such a gorgeous read one of my favourite passages is at the very start as Mia describes how her mom at the front passenger seat got hit in a way that cushioned the blow for her and her brother which summed her mother up to a T. I was in tears through most of this book but also smiling through them at the hope it displays also. Definitely a book I would recommend I give it 4.5 stars. My Rating 4.5/5 stars ****1/2

Review for Fallen by Lauren Kate

First of all I have to say that the cover for this book is GORGEOUS. Definitely one of my favourite covers ever and yes I’m one of those people who get lured in by pretty covers so I snatched this one up without knowing that much about it. After reading some reviews I found out that it’s about angels and forbidden love the kinds of topics that I love so I bumped it up on the TBR pile to read soon. Wow is all I can say. When I picked it up I didn’t want to stop reading I loved everything about it the writing the characters the plot. It reminded me a lot of The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong which is one of my favourite books so if you liked that I would strongly recommend Fallen. I love the title of the book as well I guess mostly it implies fallen angels but I also think it represented Luce and Daniel falling in love when their loves forbidden. I was really excited to find out that there’s going to be a second book in the series Torment out in September so I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for that. A lot of people have said that Fallen is very similar to another book out at the moment with yet another gorgeous cover Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick and it seems like you prefer one over the other. I have Hush, Hush waiting to be read on my bookshelf so I’m excited to read that soon and if it’s as good as Fallen then I’m in for an awesome read. Loved it and would fully recommend it 5 stars from me. My Rating 5/5 stars *****

Review for Impossible by Nancy Werlin

For generations the Scarborough girls have each fallen pregnant at the age of 17 then after each giving birth to a baby girl became mad straight after to the point that their beyond help. This is what happened to our main character Lucy Scarborough’s mother Miranda, so when Lucy herself falls pregnant after being raped at the age of 17 she finds it a little strange a really weird coincidence or not? Her mother keeps turning up at her foster parents house trying to tell Lucy that theres a curse on the family and that Lucy’s doomed to the same fate as the rest of the women in the family unless she completes 3 impossible tasks from a folk song based on the Scarborough girls curse that has haunted her all of her life. So is there a curse? Or is it just one of her mother’s crazy tales? And more importantly how is Lucy going to break a curse asking her to perform three impossible tasks to save herself and her unborn daughter? I actually brought this book on a bit of a whim not really knowing that much about it or its author, Ok I admit I was drawn in by the cool cover! But all in all I’m glad I picked it up. It was an original story and a fairly quick read full of magic and romance. Over all I’d give it 4 stars. My Rating 4/5 stars ****

Review for Cracked Up to be by Courtney Summers

This book has mainly pretty good reviews. I also really loved the sound of the book so its been on my wish list for a while so when it finally came in stock on Amazon I brought it right away, but I have to say I was a little disappointed. Parker Fadley is one of those girls who has it all. She’s cheerleading captain, has a gorgeous boyfriend and has perfect grades. In fact perfect could be Parkers middle name. So when Parker starts turning up to school drunk, breaks up with her boyfriend, quits the cheerleading squad and generally trys to isolate herself from everyone people don’t understand whats made Parker fall from grace so drastically. Then when new guy Jake turns up and wants to get to know Parker despite the fact she’s not perfect anymore she trys to push him away like everyone else but Jake doesn’t give up easily will Parker let someone in? and will we find out whats caused Perfect Parker Fadley to crumble? Well the main problems I had with this book was that I guessed roughly what happened from the start. The biggest problem though was Parker I found her extremely unlikable and her constant poor me what I did was so awful attitude didn’t make me sympathise with her at all especially because when you find out what happened its really not her fault I can understand why she would think it was but its like seriously girl this may come as a shock but its not all about you. I didn’t really like any of the characters all that much. That being said I didn’t hate this book it was a quick read being only 200 and something pages long and the writing was good and I liked the general idea. Before I read this I also brought Courtney’s second book Some girls are that I will still read and hopefully enjoy a bit more than her first novel, this gets a 3 stars from me. My Rating 3/5 stars ***